Sea Lion Shores Freaks and Geeks

Relentless his paws crossed the lands of the earth, from green grass-side valleys to vibrant tight-knit forests. Despite the amount of mileage his paws covered within his lifespan, he had never seen the coastal view. It did not disappoint. The waves clashed with the sandy shoreline in an everlasting circle, going back and forth, conquering and retreating back again. The only downside of this picture perfect was the cold, wintery wind that sliced through the air like an arctic breath, giving Jormag the chills. And, well, actually that wasn’t the only sight his eyes pleasantly behold.

In front of him flocked sea lions; one, two..twenty..two hundred..and even more than his eyes could count. If felt as if all he could do was blink and see more of those strange creatures circling around his world. Maybe they were like spam or annoying pop-ups in front of his own eyes. Either way, fact remained that Jormag had never seen sea lions before. There was a lot to see, some sea lions swam into the sea, made playful noises or poked each other but most of them – at least the smart one’s – hung around lazily on this afternoon. Either way, Jormag was mesmerized.

Pump did not know, how to count, but it was more than few days already, since she had become a member of a Horizon Ridge - a small pack, where not a single wolf was related to each other - and already had done a bit of exploring. For her lazy self that was quite an achievement, since she preferred not to leave the safe premises, unless the hunger was really, really bad.

But the Sea lion shores were worth getting up and being visited again.

For a very simple reason - where there were a lot of animals, there tended to be corpses too and she had been lucky enough to find one a day or two earlier, eaten herself sick with unfamiliar, fat and rotten meat and suffered bouts of "runny insides". This did not deter Pump from returning - Food never waits - her grandma had said and it sure did not.

But just as she arrived at the exact spot (that's what she thought), where she had left the pieces of her last meal, she was unsatisfied to see that there was someone there already. What's worse - no signs of her meal. This sparked anger - her fur bristled, tail came up and she eyed the stranger in an unfriendly manner. "Oy, you, black beauty!" she barked out loud.

Haha, I loved the unexpected twist and Pump’s introduction. Brilliant! >)

..Even if Jormag might not agree..

He could be swept off his feet while staring at this picture perfect. This came close to perfection. No, it wasn’t the most beautiful sunset, the most romantic place of the world, but the crazy way those sea lions behaved made him feel eerily comfortable and at home. Above him flew some sea gulls but even their loud tweets ‘n twitters and their bullying each other for food was not enough to steal away his eyesight from the sea lions.

As always life had a plan to screw things up, big time. Terribly unannounced and quite unexpected was the introduction of a wolf mixture with the ferocity – it seemed – of a t-rex. Anger, fur bristling like a spitfire she appeared to be. Underneath the loud rumblings was a distinctive word that Jormag could not quite place. He first thought it was a pick-up line if it hadn’t been for that fierce body language. Just maybe – he figured – he quite belonged to this place if this was the greeting ritual. Welcome to coo-coo town, we got a new village idiot!

A little taken back by Pump’s introduction, Jormag was unsure how to react. Instead and a little stupefied he stood there like a statue, silver eyes staring at her for what felt like eternity. In reality only a few seconds had passed as he contemplated a reply that would made sure he wouldn’t screw up. Except then, he rarely not screwed up. Mumbling the only thing that crossed his mind, Jormag coughed up a reply to her brass behavior; ”Hi, my name is Jormag Von Karma. My star sign is Aries. I like rocks. I enjoy long walks on the coast with a sea lion view and frisky women.” A second later he admitted; ”And I didn’t kill anyone.”

Instead of being intimidated by her presence, the black wolf turned to her and began to stare. He was larger than her and more wolf-like, he would have a first-hand in combat, but Pump didn't allow it to scare her. She dug her paws in the ground, straightened her body and looked him angrily in the eye, ready to win the stare contest, if that was to happen.

But it didn't, because instead of moving away he began to speak nonsense. It was wolf-dog's turn to stare and feel dumbfounded. "What the hell? " she asked and took a bold step towards the wolf. "I don't care that you didn't kill anyone. You. Are. Standing. On. My. Spot! MOVE!" she growled the last word out loud and lunged at Jormag.