Sea Lion Shores we creatures of the sea

For Akhlut, at the Sea Lion Shores. Prior to HR's pack howl.

She awoke with the scent of salt in her nose, and its taste upon her tongue.

Daylight now filtered down through the canopy of the rainforest, and Lysianassa could no longer feel the presence of Sos... only the warmth and light of the white mother. She still felt an intense loneliness without Atropos at her side, but it no longer seemed inescapable. There was a small spark of hope igniting the heart within her chest. Lysianassa stepped from between the giant sequoia's roots, stretched, and began to search for an opening that would lead her outside of the forest.

As sleep faded and released her mind from the fog of exhaustion, the young Kesuk-Nereides realized that she had not imagined the Sea's presence in her senses. It was there, on the breeze that swept from the north. "Gods be good," she whispered excitedly, and her pace quickened to a run.

Upon exiting the forest, the ocean greeted her at the world's horizon. Lysianassa did not pause, though she could feel her throat tightening and eyes burning as tears of joy overwhelmed her. She ran, muscled legs propelling her tirelessly forward, until she found herself standing upon the half-frozen sand. It was not quite the same as the coast she had been born in, but she was overcome with the feeling of—well, coming home.

Unable to contain herself, Lysianassa danced and leapt about the shoreline, emitting joyous barks and yips as she did.

When Akhlut imagined seeing his younger siblings again, he could not, for some reason, erase the mental image of them as they were when he departed Echo Cove. It was illogical to assume that when next he saw them they would still be miniature-sized bundles of fur toddling around their mothers, with as-yet indistinct personalities and equally-capricious eye colors. And yet, he could not imagine them as adults or even as older pups, for he did not remember his own maturation and had paid too little attention to the growth of his many Echo Cove cousins and more distant relations.

And yet when he saw her, and her scent was carried to him on the sea breeze, he knew her. She was a creature of the Sea in heritage and in appearance, bearing the Kesuk blue eyes and a coat with the variegated hues of shifting sands that was their Nereides mother's. When he called to her from atop the nearest drift, interrupting her chorus of barks and howls, his words were Greek. All the best Nereides tales were told in Greek, and it was the tongue the Sea heard the loudest, and so it was appropriate. "Καλώς ορίσατε, αδελφή."

With that, Akhlut could no longer contain his pleasure nor keep his distance, when one of his own dear sisters was so near, and he rushed through the sand to meet her. A flock of gulls took flight in alarm, but he paid them no mind. Tail flashing through the air, heart swelling with pride as he looked at all of the changes several turns of the moon had wrought upon her, Akhlut's voice was warm with happiness. "Lysianassa," he murmured, a more personal greeting, as he licked her face.

For a brief moment, Lysianassa felt her heart stop. Welcome sister, came a deep voice on the wind, and she felt both elation and confusing. She ceased her private celebration immediately, head cocked to the side to listen. Could it truly be that the Sea she so longed to hear was finally speaking to her, in the way that It spoke to her mother? But from Aktaie's tales, the Sea had always been female if not genderless. Her brows furrowed over mismatched eyes, sea green and ice blue, as she attempted to decipher this turn of events.

But something made her turn and look around, and though she felt the swoop of disappointment, she also felt a greater elation. Unlike Akhlut's perception of her, when Naga looked upon her older brother he seemed the same as always—tall, proud, and filled with Atka's Light. She bore no prejudice against males, and certainly not against her brothers, though she knew the stories of the Nereides. Even Aktaie's hatred had cooled, though old habits still pervaded on occasion; the matriarch, the Siren Queen as Nanuq continued to call her, even found herself passing lessons of the Sea and Moon onto her sons. Naga had only ever known that male or females could teach of the Sea's religion, though males would never be as close to the Sea and Moon Mothers as their daughters.

All at once, Akhlut raced towards her and she, in turn, began to run towards him. Before long, they stood before one another, all smiles and sweeping tails. She fervently return his licks of affection before pressing the top of her head beneath his chin. Although Naga had been a familial nickname, born of ill-pronunciations of "Nassa" by her littermates, and carrying dual meaning amongst her mothers... it had become a kind of armor to protect her true name. To hear her brother speak the name given to her by the Sea felt like coming home.

"Akhlut," she breathed happily. "Thank the Light."