Reef appreciates the breeze rolling in with the waves, the way the wind races up her back and slips between her ears to bead her hair with a fine mist of oceanspray. In this way she carries the water with her wherever she goes: drenched in iodine and spiced with salt, her tail oftentimes still dripping from her last wade. She loves the feel of the seabed under her feet and the way the light plays off the water, startling the fish below. Her gaze is drawn to that underworld in the pause between their speech, her breathing deep and even —almost meditative— as the afternoon lengthens.
One ear quirks toward Jay as he begins, followed by a slow cant of her head to bring him into focus as he searches for words, ducking his head before admitting that encountering her had made his heart race. Reef smiles, small and a little self-conscious, uncertain how to take such a comment, already certain that she's interpreting it incorrectly. The water must be his focus, and so she nods.
"Your purpose?" she repeats, and her smile grows like the sun streaming through clouds. "Why, being alive is enough, isn't it?" she laughs, sloshing forward. She lifts her knees high to jog to the shallow sweep of the tide. "Come," she invites, pivoting to point her nose down the shoreline. "My bones are getting cold. Let's run the length of the beach and see what we can find— maybe see how close we can get to those little birds before they startle," Reef adds, nodding at the sandpipers scurrying in the distance. She prances in place, splashing the saturated sand in heavy, wet clumps as she waits for the curly-eared stallion to join her— or lead the way. |