Charmeine was relieved to have both Fell and Khoshekh with her, though uncertainty still tugged at her mind when she glanced back over at the curling ocean waves in the distance. “I don’t know,” she murmured worriedly with a soft, anxious breath, looking nervously at Kho. Parisa shook off her tumble with relative ease, limping with her first few steps before she found her footing again and moved smoothly without any issue. Her reaction to the news that she’d get to see the ocean was immediately opposite of Charmeine’s. “Yay!” Parisa cried out with absolute, unrestrained glee, rocking her weight and giving what might’ve been a buck, except she barely managed to leap a few inches off the sand and therefore hardly kicked. Her little dark brown tail flicked out this way and that, though, and her gleaming eyes peered down the way toward her father, her smile growing wider and a little more lop-sided.
Khoshekh’s grin soothed the anxious ache that was spreading through Charmeine’s chest. The last thing she wanted to be was a buzzkill. She gave a gentle roll of her blue eyes, smiling halfway into it as Kho playfully shoved her. Charmeine reached back, biting near his shoulder though purposefully keeping herself from snagging skin. Her whiskers brushed his warm coat and she felt a shiver rush down her spine but ignored it. She flicked her tail, letting the tips of her long, growing white threads gently smack against his hind.
Or, actually I think Parisa will keep us safe. She’s definitely the toughest of the three of us.
“Yeah!” Parisa chimed in almost immediately, standing a little taller with her impossibly long legs and sticking out her still-bony chest. She lifted her chin and stomped her front right hoof into the sand as though to be intimidating toward the ocean. “I’ll beat the whole ocean up!”
“The whole ocean?” Charmeine asked, barely veiled humor held at the edge of her tone.
“Yup.” Parisa nodded, flicked her stubby tail and started forward again, leaving the others to follow her down the beach.
Charmeine glanced nervously as the water drew closer but forced herself to match Kho’s pace and stay with both him and Parisa. The truth that she didn’t entirely understand was that she didn’t want to disappoint Kho. Though she was still nervous it was easier to be alongside him. Charmeine knew Kho had not only walked the shoreline but had swam through the ocean to an island beyond Tinuvel. It was the sort of thing she thought she was never going to be able to do… but Kho had done it.
Only when they drew close enough for the sand to turn colder and darker by where the water had washed over it before pulling back did Charmeine slow her pace and draw to a halt. Even stepping a few wary steps back, Charmeine planted herself where the ground still looked somewhat dry, or at least out of the reach of any waves that’d crawl up the shoreline. The misty, salty air lifted her pale hair off her neck and snapped it along the wind. Charmeine snorted, watching nervously as Parisa did not come to a stop but crashed down into the shallows where the swirling tide went around her fetlocks and squealed, turning around to dart back out with a surprised - “It’s cold!”
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