〔❁〕And toss your dirty shoes

For @Mei!

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  Her sooted paws would eventually take her to the salted shores once again; yet an entirely different picture...one different from the stereotypical scenery that was sun bleached coastlines and brightened, azure seas of blue. Instead...it was a painting that presented itself in black. Inked searock, ebony sands and shrouded skies -- it was like nothing the cranebird had ever seen before -- and with her mouth slightly agape, lavender eyes sought the sky, the ground, and everything else that had peaked her intrest.
  For a woman who always seemed to find herself gripped by the pull of the ocean, Izumi could never get over the overbearing scent of brine and seaweed -- which irritated her nose, made her eyes watery and caused her to smell of sea for days. She wouldn't be lingering here for long as a result...
  -- but for now, Fujiwara wished to explore for a little bit and stick her nose in between various nooks and crannies out of curiosity for her environment...what was it that could make a beach look like this?

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who was mei, if she could resist the pull of the ocean for long? though to a lesser degree, she knew her sisters were the same way. thus, having spotted another island off the coast, she thought it fruitful to investigate for any signs of them. utilizing her innate knowledge of the sea, she waited for low tide before crossing. lo & behold, a tar black land bridge revealed itself. the dark sand was peculiar, leaving mei to wonder what caused it to take on this charcoal shade as opposed to the typical perlite she was accustomed to.

the little island exuded a foreboding energy: dead, still, quiet— save for the ever-present brush of the waves against rock & the distant seabirds' calls. even the sky was determined to cast a shadow over this forbidden place. she doubted she would find any lifeforms here larger than the avians. but that hypothesis was quickly proven wrong, for her eye caught movement of something stark white against the black; someone who looked... just like her! mei's heart skipped a beat. could this be a distant relative? tail set in motion, she let out a sharp bark, excited & welcoming all at once.

trotting over, the other pale wolfess had her head down, investigating something among the rocks. as she neared, mei did not immediately recognize her, but hope still beamed from her chest. “你好,” — hello, she greeted, scarcely masking her excitement.

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  In between the cracks of what Izumi's eyes could allow her to see, it seems the breath of her nostrils had spooked two red, diminutive crabs out of their hiding spot. With one last puff of air to push sand from her nostrils, the bird lifted her head from the crevice of the boulders -- only for her icy lilacs to meet the gaze of marbled seaglass. Walking towards her, excitability....did...did Izumi know the woman?
  Granted the crane would've been excited in her own way out of misunderstanding -- as the woman harbored a dark face and bright eyes that Izu could've mistaken for one of her sisters: Aika. Those weren't Aika's eyes, however.....no seriously, who was this??
  The princess folded her ears back against her pale crown and stared upon the willowy seabird in pure bewilderment -- even more so as she spoke in a tounge Izumi didn't understand at all. Izu even opened her lips slightly to speak out on this confusion, but would they even be able to understand her if she did?
  Fujiwara could only give them the infamous doggy head tilt -- in hopes that body language would speak for her instead....

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the woman's features were so familiar, yet so frustratingly different. if they were related at all, neither one was aware of it. the stake of disappointment was driven further into her heart when the stranger tilted her head as a universal sign of confusion.

she did not even share her mother tongue. no one did, it seemed.

her tail froze as if trapped in time before dropping like a dead fly, sadness creeping onto her face. “ah, my apologies... i could have sworn i knew you,” she spoke dejectedly in that wretched language the rest of the world shared. she saw that very same look of nigh-recognition on the other woman's face. surely she'd thought the same thing upon first glance, but she was more reserved about it. clearly, unlike mei, she was not missing her kin. she felt defeated in that moment, knocked down. but she would pick herself back up again. the search had only just begun, there was still hope! she would not give up.

“i come here, look for my sisters. what bring you here?” she asked, verbiage breaking in a familiar way with no one there to correct her.

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  Izumi knew that look of dejection -- it was the same one she had worn so many times, so long ago when the dame had first been cast out of her clan and torn from the farmiliar sides of her siblings. So much hope that there were others who had seen her missing family, so much hope that there was someone out there who could understand the cranebird in her native touge so she didn't sound like a fool trying to speak English...yet all that hope had been flushed as soon as she realized she'd been set into a world she knew little of as a mere child.
  "No worries. I was simply...suprised is all..." Izumi responded, with her eyes wandering rather...awkwardly back to the stone crevice she'd been observing before. For convince sake the crane wished she could at least pretend to know who this was to make this heavy cloud of discomfort that loomed go away, though she couldn't find it in herself to create such a lie.
  The girl continued to speak -- in broken English, that is. Izumi noticed this and couldn't help but peer at the woman again from over a pallid shoulder. It reminded the crane of the past and how she'd been forced to learn broken English in order to get by in a world of mostly English speaking wolves. The crane fell curious on what tounge they might've spoken before and if it was one she actually understood...
  Izumi was asked what she was up to, and with a tilt of her head off to the side she couldn't really find a straight answer to give them, "I'm afraid my reasoning is more superficial than yours. I was simply drawn in by curiosity of this black coast..."

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apologies for slowness, i'm coming out of a hiatus. lmk if you'd like to spree. ♥

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the air held an awkward somberness to it that made mei wait to squirm. she took the eerily similar woman's cue and ran with it, desperate for a more pleasant turn of conversation.

“i would be lying if i say i wasn't doing the same thing,” she admitted. &... she was desperate, so leaving a single stone unturned was unacceptable. she wouldn't be long anyway, not wanting to leave boa to worry. mei decided against questioning why she felt so strongly tied to the feline over such a short span of time... for now.

“this place... curious, no? all my time spent on the coast, & i never seen black sand before.” mei wondered if this strange sand was a product of this world in particular. but still, if so... why was it black? the dark shade was such a stark contrast to the tan of sand found anywhere else.

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  "I agree," the cranebird responded in a sort of calm chirp, taking note of the akward turn this situation had now taken. Perhaps it was Izumi's own fault for the way she acted when the woman approached, but a reaction like that would've been reasonable for anyone, no? Regardless, Izumi calmed herself eventually and let the breath of her lungs soothe this anxiety.
  Since she'd technically been the one to caused this tension, it was only natural to try taking responsibility for it. Mistakes happen, afterall. Perhaps this sea maiden sought someone in her...
  "Though I was hoping you'd been more farmiliar with this place...apologies for my assumptions on you being a local." Izumi said, turning a lavender gaze their way and placing a paw to her maw to feign embarrassment. Maybe this way, the woman wouldn't feel as akward if the crane made similar mistakes as she?
  "I am Izumi, A traveler..."

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she shook her head with a smile as the stranger brought a paw up to her snout bashfully. “don't worry of it,” mei soothed. it seemed they both had the same idea, both wanting to comfort the other, for she followed with: “you are right that i call sand and sea 'home'.” & it was true! mei took pride in being swathed in the scent & spirit of the coast, even in parts she was unfamiliar with. that strangers knew immediately where her heart & body belonged brought her peace of mind.

the other woman introduced herself as 'izumi'. it was a very pretty name she found very fitting.

“i am mei. nice to meet you,” she returned shyly, tail tip waving in a pleased yet somewhat anxious manner. “if you see anyone who look & smell like me, you will tell them mei is looking for them?” her being nomadic meant a better chance of her running into her family. mei clung fiercely to this hope.

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  Her words; well received. In her new found confidence to continue the conversation, she rolled her shoulders to relax a bit more -- “A lovely home it is.” She agreed with a nod “I've always found myself wishing I grew up by the seaside as well, though it always seemed like a fairytale to me...to be honest, there was even a point in time where I never even know wolves can live by the sea. Only within the wilderness...” Because to survive in a beach would be silly, right? Yet as Izumi traversed with age, she found more than meets the eye and stood corrected in her assumptions.

  The siren before her was named "Mei" -- and she too, thought it was a beautiful name for someone equally as beautiful. 'Bright', is what the name had meant in the crane's mother tounge. Yet seeing as Izumi didn't quite understand her at first, they probably wouldn't understand the crane when she mentioned such a thing.

  So she didn't bring it up.

  “"Have you lost someone dear to you, Mei?"” the siamese inquired curiously. Family -- judging by the way in which she described it; looking and smelling of her. Izumi didn't truly plan on straying the beaches for long...but what were the chances?

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i love them sm, :sobby: i'd love for them to meet again in the future. i think mei'd be interested in the similarities between their languages!

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izumi's awe & desire to live by the sea (past-tense as it was), her similarity in appearance & demeanor to those of her homeland put her in mei's good graces— which wasn't to be taken lightly, for the ocean priestess distrusted everyone at first... unless they had much in common. a habit that came from hardships in a previous life. if she were being honest, her being a woman helped, as well.

“most can not. food seem non-existent, unless you know where to look. & seawater...” she didn't know the english word for it. “salty. makes you thirsty, so it's bad to drink.”

"have you lost someone dear to you, mei?" izumi inquired.

“yes... my family. i wake up here, & they are nowhere to be found.” a somber air overcame her. coping with this was not going to be easy for mei, but she trudged on.

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