See the line where the sky meets the sea

Add to that the spooky sky and the seemingly endless night, the swarming fireflies and the strange glowing fungus, really, the last thing she should have been doing was standing on the shore, looking out towards the island where she had picked up her ibis companion. Was it worth the swim? The ocean seemed to swirl before her, the waves lit from underneath by some strange magic. Out there, not so far away, she could see large, flat fish roiling beneath the surface, their wide gaping mouths forever open and swallowing the glowing water clouds whole, never closing. Their willow bough tails stirred the sea behind them, leaving more glowing trails in their wake. She had never seen anything quite like it. It was equal parts beautiful, and terrifying.

The water was frigid as it climbed up her legs. She didn’t even know if the things were dangerous, but they varied in size, just like the wolves of the Armada. A tentative step was all it took for her ears to turn back and for her to make a retreat from the waters edge. Her own steps had stirred up more glowing clouds, and she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to test her luck. Her mothers gods forbid it had been something in the water that knocked Hana up. She might be able to get away it, but Sedna certainly wouldn’t. As much as the idea of having her own kids one day was starting to grow on her, now that nobody from her birth pack had coming looking for a while. That had to mean she was safe, right?

A sigh left her lips and the air frosted before her. It was getting colder by the day. The sun hardly seemed to come out anymore, which she supposed was expected for this time of year, except that the last winter for all it’s weirdness, hadn’t quite been this bad. Something was going on and she couldn’t quite place her paw on it. Medicines stopped working like they should, strange glowing mushrooms popped up everywhere bathing the earth in an eerie glow and now even the sea was lighting up with that otherworldly blue light. She shivered, and decided against a swim for tonight. She could see the giants roiling just below the surface, and with a sudden crash, a giant mouth, bigger than any left over human building broke the surface and swallowed something (she could only assume it was larger than her, how could something that big eat less?). Sure it was an awe inspiring sight, but it just gave her more excuses to stay out of the water.

With a shake that sent fur flying to glitter in the sickly moonlight, she turned back towards the mangroves. The traps of the sucking mud should have been enough to send her down the beach, but she had seen giant creatures pull themselves from the water to lay about on the sand, and she didn’t much feel like getting into a fight tonight. The low rumbling growl of giant lizards echoed off in the distance, surely it was too cold for them to move very fast at all? Given the chance, surely they would be more comfortable where the land grew warmer to the west, no? She took note of the location and altered her course away from it, noting for the first time the way the glowing fireflies illuminated red glowing eyes in the water. Maybe it had been a mistake to come this way after all.

She just needed to get back to the Armada. Adjusting her course to take the quickest route, she spread her toes to better combat the sinking, sucking muck. There was a serious expression on her face as she picked up her pace, trying not to stay in one place for too long, for all the good it did her with the bugs swarming around her as they went. It seemed the longer she went on, the more she accumulated, messing with her eyes until she couldn’t see anything further than the pool of light they afforded her. She growled in frustration, ducking and weaving at the last moment, her breathing coming shorter, and sharper the further she travelled without the earth growing any firmer beneath her feet. Some of them had begun to land in her fur, her skin crawling from the contact, until she found herself so distracted she barrelled face first through an elaborately weaved, but very thick and sticky spiderweb. Sedna scrunched her eyes and hoped she hadn’t bought the arachnid with her.

The world seemed to give way under her left forepaw, the squelching of mud sinking up to her chest, the momentum of her movement sending her toppling forward and into the mud. Her chin hit the ground hard, sending shock waves through her skull as it felt like she rolled over, and over again. The momentum was enough to scatter the fireflies, leaving her effectively blind as she tried to get her feet beneath herself again, breath coming in ragged pants. She would need to look at what herbs she had for repelling bugs and maybe take to carrying them with her if this was going to be the outcome.

Colourless eyes blinked in the dark, mud staining the silver wolf to dye her dark chocolate, much like her mother. She sighed and shook, it was too bloody cold for a bath so there would be no covering this one up. After checking herself over, she decided it was just her pride that was hurt and she began to trudge back to the Armada again, snapping her teeth in frustration as the scattered fireflies returned to swarm around her.

"speech".