The creaks and groans of breaking sea ice both disturbed and reassured Seumas. He stood with his worn paws in the peculiar black sand. As he wiggled his toes, the grains shifted to catch the early spring morning light. The scent of warmer days to come could be caught in the sea air. The scent of the sea finally beginning to melt again, of little creatures waking up from their winter sleeps. If he someone sentimental, Seumas might even say that this spring was beginning to smell like something hopeful.
He had been trudging up and down this beach for a day or two now. The sea ice was no longer capable of supporting his weight comfortably – a hearth-thundering crack from underneath him is what drove him onto this beach in the first place! But now he was here, he was kind of at a loss of what to do next. Realistically he should head south. He had heard that there were a good few packs down that way. Maybe one willing to accept him. How many days had it been since he’d seen another wolf?...
Plonking himself down on freezing sand, Seumas curled his bushy tail over his paws, and looked out over the sea horizon and let the slow shift of the sea ice lull him into thoughts of the future.
