Herschel can see her lingering gaze on her distant cousin, and it makes him wonder if it might not help to tell her that Constantine is Vladimir’s relation. He feels guilty the instant he thinks it, slowly stepping himself back towards the object of her attention and growing quiet again, flicking quick gazes at her from over his golden brother’s shoulder. Unfortunately for her, Constantine had an eye for Alexander’s sister Ankh and just as she missed the eagerness of Herschel - there was no room in his gold brother’s mind for anyone but her.
When she was at last in the water with them, though, her joke makes Alexander burst with laughter and the compliment she pays is only taken with so much weight before the four of them are well on their way to swimming to the other side. It is easy for them, a year older than she is, to swim across and they make her seem even more floundering than she was for their eptitude.
When they finally come ashore, she is left to make it the rest of the way on her own. They climb the bank, shaking themselves free of water and lowering their heads to cast about, scenting the various animals and former wolves to visit here. “So what was the big deal about this island, Liah?” Alexander asks, confused that they had not found some spectacular reason for having swum all this way.
Constantine laughs, like it was some sort of fun joke, making them swim to the island. Herschel remains still, near to the shoreline, nosing about in the sand where freshwater clams can be rustled up and played with until Vladimir steps in and rolls a shoulder. “A good swim and digging for clams is good enough for me. The other side has so few.” And just like that, Alexander is joining in the snuffling search with a guffaw of victory, Constantine laying on the sand as his black and tan brothers both hunt up a good feast of the things for them to break open.
With a little time, they are laid down with a great deal of them broken and left on the sands. Herschel seeming eager to fuss through the remains before coming to Liah and depositing shining white orbs at her paws. “Our fathers’ people call them children of the moon… I thought you might think they are pretty,” he hazards by way of gifting them to her, Constantine only glad that he hadn’t said some cheesy line in his attempt to re-garner her attention.
THREE YEAR OLD FAR WALKERS OF TAVIORA
the second generation; the grandsons of the first packs
of scotavia | of solevion | of trenus | of ferrine
the freeman king | the executioner | the changeling | the astromancer
|
