Sea Lion Shores Heh. That's Cute.

Good for healing, definitely not good for drinking. What she mentioned about becoming sick, vomiting, and the eventual onset of dehydration made sense if he thought about it. There was something about the salty taste of it that had left him thirsty for something fresh the last time he'd tried it... which was hopefully his last. Drinking ocean water was a mistake he only wished to make once. He'd learned from it.

"A terrible, yet beautiful thing indeed," he repeated following her gaze with his own to look out across the water. She was pensive. He fell into an equally quiet state as he listened to the roar of the shore hidden beneath the barking of the sea lions below. He could see why it would be so easy to fall in love with a place like this. Easy... and yet difficult if only because it was not such a natural thing.

But her? She seemed right at home. Comfortable. Her mood seemed to lighten the longer they lingered and while he missed her moment of grief, he caught her following laughter. Kero grinned lightly, ears lifting to swivel towards her voice as she spoke and introduced herself. An alphess? He might not have guessed, but now that she mentioned it he could see it in the way she held herself. "A pleasure. Kerosene," he returned, whispering the fullness of his first name for the first time since he'd entered these wilds. "Recently of the Spine."

She spoke more of herself; of her fondness for the sea. He listened, slightly mesmerized by the soothing nature of her voice as she mused over fond memories. "It suits you," he commented, glancing towards her. "I've always been a creature of the earth. Of forests and mountains. But the sea? There's thrall within its mysteries."

He quieted for a moment, regarding her as it suddenly dawned upon him as to her quiet nature. "You seem tired," he commented. No doubt the weight of leadership was a heavy one. He didn't envy her that role and yet he admired her for it.