Dancing on a fine line

It had been a week since she was washed up on the shore, sputtering out cold sea water from her nose and mouth with her thick black and dark grey fur plastered to her lean feminine frame. After fading in and out of consciousness for several hours, Nikkal had managed to drag herself up and get her bearings after pacing up and down the shore looking for Achilleus for several more hours before dehydration forced her to travel inland to the large lake several miles from the shore. There, the young Amanta woman cleaned the salt from her pelt, drank her fill and hunted for food then made camp to recuperate and waited for her brother to follow the path she had made from the shore to the small shelter of cattail plants she had beaten down into a sort of nest with longer stems bent over forming a roof.

The sun was nearly gone behind the horizon and Nikkal emerged from her shelter and padded to the lake's edge and lapped at the cold water, quenching her thirst, before her sapphire and emerald eyes scanned her surroundings. Small fireflies danced over the water, the bugs dancing and blinking like distant stars. The bugs seemed to be a constant occurrence here and some might find the view beautiful but Nikkal only glared at the bugs before turning away and walking along the lake's edge looking for fish that strayed a little too close to her. Her long, storm colored legs carried her swiftly and gracefully as she hunted for her dinner and by the time she had returned to her shelter she had two fat fish trapped between her sharp teeth. One was for herself and one was for Achilleus just in case he found her, just as she always did for the past week.

Nikkal lowered herself to her grey belly and laid the large fish over her foreleg and pinned it with a white paw before she tore into the fish's flesh. Normally she would have savored the fatty flavor but without her brother here and her worry for him, it just tasted flat. She scowled at her meal and devoured the rest and tossed the bones back into the water, disturbing the full moon's reflection on the otherwise glass like surface. The ripples caught her attention and her scowl deepened as the water slowly stilled and the full moon reappeared on the water's surface. "That's odd...." she mumbled to herself It was a full moon the first night I arrived here a week ago she thought to herself, her dual colored gaze lifting to the night sky and peered at the still full moon.