Totoka River crush the fears of yesterday

gravid moon eased to feeble morning light as sobeille supped her parched thirst at tokota’s junction and then moved on.

she’d lost at least one pursuer earlier, and the other she could not say — a hammering paranoia she had never felt before heightened her senses.

like the great ungulates she’d hunted the last quarter, sobeille put the river to good use. when she first crossed it, she’d run just enough to be out of visibility, and then crossed it again and tamped the ground with her scent. walking along the bank in a false direction, she then crossed once more and this time stayed along moving currents where her scent could not be traced. by doing this she borrowed time not easily afforded.

the river curled west, and when it slowed sobeille paused at the bank and looked around her measuring her safety. rather than rest, she made straight for the ocean and headed south along the sandpack, knowing the rising tide would immediately obscure evidence of her passing.

at some point, she must return home. yet first, sobeille intended to send the two marauders in the direction of murkwood with just enough scant evidence of her passing here.

as the tide rolled out, sobeille followed the swashline. a large float of stranded kelp drew her close with tired steps. she raked at the weeds, crunching bivalves and unfortunate hitchhikers between her teeth while keeping vigilance, ears and eyes scouring the surroundings for any sign of her pursuer.

Salt in the air; the sound of the waves. There was less tension in her shoulders now than there had been, but even so Seelie felt that she had not quite reached her nameless destination. She picked through the sands, tufted ears standing tall and alert, searching among the broken shells and bits of seaglass for — something. Some hint, some clue.

All she found was another wolf. Seelie stilled, ocean eyes flitting over the stranger as her nostrils flared to take in the scent of her. Another sea wolf, she thought; someone born to the water as much as she'd been. The inkpearl chuffed after a moment, inviting the other girl's attention, but her gaze remained wary.

crunching shells between her hungering teeth with a grimace, sobeille nearly jumped out of her skin to see a silhouette on the shoreline.

how had she missed him? she immediately angled away, taking four steps before she realized that this wolf, was foremost, female.

spinning back around, yet still far enough that a feral wariness emanated from her, sobeille measured this wolf’s posture. like her, she was svelte and built for the shore — a sharp glacial blue complimenting the peculiar tufts of her ears.

sobeille scented the wind, mounting suspicion sheathed from her eyes. dere be dangerous wolves here. she cautioned, intently reading the she-wolf’s expression for any hint of culpability. do you be one of dem?

Gilded eyes, a scar cut just beneath that proud obsidian mask. Seelie watched her speak, studied her sharp white teeth, the little gap where one had been broken away. The crystalline salt-crust at her whiskers, the fine dark hair of her muzzle. The scent of blood seemed to follow the darkling, but Seelie didn't mind.

Sometimes, Seelie answered easily, blue eyes meeting the gold. What a pretty voice the stranger had. Not today, I think. Today she was a searcher, nothing more, just a wanderer sifting through the sands looking for something she couldn't name.

And you?

the stranger’s response confused sobeille and it showed across her dark muzzle. she took a moment to reassess this young girl — woman — standing before her. lithe. fur in flyaways that spoke to a rangy life at sea. a stilt-legged build made for trawling sand and sound.

young, like yura — but not so young as to be without peril.

sometimes? you t’ink? ‘ow do you not be knowing? sobeille countered, glancing around them to confirm no other wolves crept closer while she was distracted. in her own mind, she was very aware of what and who she was — perhaps too aware — and so struggled to understand that many wolves did not have so clear a mental picture of their own being. where you be from?