For reference she is holding a sword by the hilt, and its blade is broken off about halfway down :)

Inoki gently bit down on the shiny piece of material. It did not give away to the pressure of her teeth no matter how hard she clenched her jaw. She pulled back, head tilted to the side, curious as to what it was and what it was made out of. The sniff and lick tests had revealed nothing except for a scent and taste of something not too dissimilar to that of blood. Not of the rich and sharp flavour it had, but of that tang that remained behind. "Hmm, what are you?" She murmured softly, now squinting as she examined the rest of the strange object. It was long but thin, and pointed on one end in a jagged way, but the other end was more flat and protruded outwards a bit. With a shrug of her shoulders, she bent down and grasped the flat end firmly within her jaws behind the protruding section. It felt quite heavy, and she was sure if she swung her head around she would likely pull a muscle in her neck, so instead she simply bobbed her head up and down and side to side a bit, getting a feel for its weight as she waved it around in the air.

It swallowed her whole, the dread seeping up from the ground as if her lord was releasing the sin, the anguish before her and for she stood still. the quiet prayer (who said she prayed?) on chapped and muddied lips, the way her fingers would have crept around the cross at her neck almost tight enough to draw blood across pale, malnourished collarbones. she is lost in that moment, watching as the sun shifts over the ground as if glittering jewels and the flag in the distance, which to her reminded of the ocean and the ways the waves were unpredictable - for that was why she never stood beyond ankle deep. hesitant steps move before she realizes what she is doing, looking to, around, behind her as she approaches the young woman who appeared to be fighting..something in her mouth. it twisted and bobbed as she did, and finally, the beach bleached woman cries out. "do you need help?"

She had not been expecting someone to creep up on her, and was so focused on the new shiny toy she found that at the sound of another voice she spun on her hind legs, brandishing the object in her mouth at the stranger. Her head wobbled a bit with the strange weight in her mouth, and she could feel the muscles in her neck straining to keep it in the air. As the words finally registered, she cocked her head to the side, eyes raking over the larger, but younger, girls' body. Her head shook from side to side, and then she carefully dropped the object onto the ground. "No thank you, I was just testing out this weird thing I found." She placed a front paw upon the thin object, tapping it lightly with her claws. "It's pretty heavy, but you look strong enough to be able to comfortably lift it." While it was not a direct offer to the girl to grab her newfangled toy, she wanted to see if there was intrigue from the stranger in dabbling with it as she had. Perhaps she knew what it was?

Obscure, she watched the girl place the object back into the mud as her pace began to settle. the panic in her lips hushing and her shoulders going back as if out of embarrassment for her wild assumptions and fear. She settled a mere yard away, on the opposite end of the sword as she looked down to the material that was nothing she had never seen. It was bleak and yet glimmering more than the crest of the ocean waves, but unlike tree bark for something so long and cylinder could be made of as such. "what is it, a part of a stone maybe?" she ushered out as if a whisper, admitting defeat into ignorance as her head lowered to sniff but not prod, for she was far too weakly to do that. "perhaps we arent meant to pick it up, if we must have multiple people..like large rocks." she said softly, head raising as she studied the small details of ionkis face but ended her gaze beyond the woman's hip, before arching her neck to see over her very own.

The girl seemed embarrassed, and Inoki could not place why. She had simply asked a question, and a negative response was no reason to feel such a way, but perhaps she was young enough to not have learned that lesson yet. And so she let it go without comment, deciding to focus on the more interesting question she had posed. It was an intriguing thought, yet she was not sure if it was made of stone. It had none of the earthy taste she identified with rocks, yet it did have a mineral-type flavour. Maybe this girl was onto something. "Perhaps, but I've never seen stone in such a formation before." She quirked an eyebrow at the girl, a silent question asking if she had possibly seen such a stone in her life. It was a long shot, but maybe she would be surprised by the answer. Her lips thinned as the girl continued to speak, eyes squinting down at the strange object. Her words made sense, but Inoki wanted to believe there was a greater purpose for the thing she had found, even if that purpose did not lay in her own paws. The thought crossed her mind to take the object somewhere, to someone who may have use of it, but she knew that it was far too heavy for her to carry it for more than a short period of time. She felt a tinge of sadness at the realisation it would have to be left behind when she moved on. "You could be right." She'd leave it somewhere obvious for someone else to find, and just maybe they would have a use for it, so that it did not go to waste, laying there in the dirt. Her gaze lifted up to look at the girl, meeting her yellow gaze with a half-formed smile. "The name's Inoki." She left the air open and silent for the girl to reply, sure enough that her next words would be her own name in turn that she felt no need to directly ask for it.