‘Hi there! What’s your name? I’m Hemming. I’ve never been out by this water before. Do you live here?’

She was too focused on herself to hear his approach despite the fact that his paws, or rather, his hooves, were displacing the sand just as loudly as hers had. And it was too late, her paw had already swiped at the ground, loosened some of top layer and sent it spraying through the air to her back diagonal… exactly where the stranger was standing, where he had approached from. As for Giaza, she jumped, and a bleat escaped from her maw, terrified. She spun about in the air, and when she landed, instead of being graceful, she went splaylegged, her hooves spreading wide. Giazakisa landed in a heap on the sand, indenting it. After she recovered, she growled, but it ended quite swiftly – in a snort as she cleared out the sand from her nares. It spewed all over the place, a mixture of snots and mucus and sand all clumped together in a mess of a lump. After a few more seconds, she managed to stand and catch her breath, her heart slowing enough for her relax.

Slowly, she stood and then gently shook out her pelt enough to loosen whatever had been caught between the layers, but as she shook she ended up throwing herself off balance, her chest once again landing on the damp silt of the shore. All of the sand that had been expelled from her coat was once again stuck within it, the particles deep within her fur down to her skin where it made her itchy. In a huff, she stood again, this time only shaking out a single limb at a time, so that she would not throw herself off balance again – it had been embarrassing enough the first time, if she made herself look like a fool a second time…

*plunk*

At least this time, she merely fell down on her rump with a bleat, instead of completely going splay legged. A glare crossed across her maw and she snorted but resolved to remain sitting rather than risk embarrassment a third time. Giazakisa huffed and her shoulders slumped down in exasperation but at last she responded. “Well apparently it doesn’t matter that I live by this water, these stupid hooves apparently still do not work well in the sand. Ugh. Well, I’m Hemming… I mean hi Hemming, I’m Giazakisa. My mom just calls me Kisa when I’ve done something wrong though… most everyone else calls me Giaza since my name is a… a bit of a mouth full. And this water is Gen Seid – it’s an ocean not just water. It is salt water, not fresh water… and I don’t think it ever ends. Like… ever. Do you ever wish you had paws? I wish I had paws like a normal wolf. The horns are… okayish I guess since momma Athene has then and she is pretty awesome. But… I wish I had graceful antlers like her crown and not these two awkward sets of horns. They make me… look stupid. Like a devil or something. Like a freak.” Giazakisa slowly stood, and luckily this time she managed to stay standing. “I was going to climb up there and saw try to saw off my horns on that sharp piece of broken rock up there. See it?” She looked up the cliff and gestured to it. “Do you want to saw off yours too?”


WC: 538