The wind died down hours ago, a mighty storm had broken upon the coast and dissipated. The waves carried a strange wooden boat. It looked empty from a distance. The waves gently rocked it closer and closer to shore, and eventually, the tide left it on the sandy beach, just at the mouth of the dried river. For many moments all was silence, then slowly two fluffy pale ears peeked over the edge from inside of the poorly made craft. They swiveled back and forth trying to catch the new sounds. Then a pair of brass and glass goggles appeared then underneath those; two golden eyes peered over the edge.

"Land???" she exclaimed, suddenly leaping from the soggy misshapen boat and body slamming the earth. Arching her back and rolling in the coastal desert she rubbed the side of her face into the sand and took a few licks. Startled at the taste the golden girl sat up spitting out the sand. It didn't taste right, this wasn't home... "Home??" She mumbled looking back out to the ocean. Finally taking stock of her surroundings, and licking her sandy parched lips again, she took in cacti and scrubland and the dry riverbed. Her home had cacti a lot like these, and maybe a few scrubs.... but these were different. "Oh no...."

She didn't think her new invention would get her so far from home. Surely home was only... a few? Days away? If she wasn't so thirsty she would be celebrating the success of her wonderful invention! Now if only she had put in a way to steer, maybe she wouldn't have to walk all the way home. Better get this above the tideline so she could get back to it after she found something to drink. Spending a week out at sea with nothing but melon jugs and a few fruits to eat made the young girl a little emaciated and weak. She pulled at the craft with a rope she had attached to it before her journey and tried dragging it up away from the tideline. It was heavy.

Cosmas was out wandering, pretty much like the rest of their siblings. Their dad had gone off to talk to the wolves stomping around in their attic and them Cos hadn't really seen him much since. They wanted to get some exploring out of their system before they tried to track the old man down. That said a desert wasn't exactly their idea of a good time. Sand and cacti and very little else. Boring. They'd even wandered over to the old dried river bed hoping for something more interesting. They were disappointed. At least they could hear the sea from here, might as well go stare into it for a while, anything had to be better than sand, sand and more sand! But they had found something interesting. The youth had stopped in their tracks as they spotted a small form dragging something along the sand. What in the hell? With a smirk they approached, a brow raising. "I've seen a lot of things, can't say I've ever quite seen this." They were on an upper part of the bank as they watched, a slight taunt to their voice. "Speech"

Art by Embroi

Ignita was quite oblivious to any approaching sounds. Her bedraggled appearance was fully salt-frayed, her white and golden fur was matted in some places, and her ears were somewhat waterlogged from the earlier storm.

She let out an involuntary Squeak! as soon as she heard the other speak and froze in place. She didn't recognize that voice and she didn't dare let go of her "Floatsie" for fear all her hard won effort of dragging it up the beach be lost.

She started to frantically tug it now as if she believed if she could move it faster to the high ground she could then run away from this stranger and not make a fool of herself! Alas, the child was prone to foolishness still as she frantically pulled and grunted with effort. Inventions above pride in all things.

Cosmas couldn't help it, they probably should have been a little more sensitive when it became clear the poor little wolf was spooked. But instead as a startled sound reached them they couldn't help but smirk. They remained where they were just to watch for a bit, it was amusing. But hey, Cosmas had never claimed to be a good wolf either. Finally they hopped down and approached, circling wide so they were moving more towards whatever this thing the stranger was dragging rather than the wolf herself. "What exactly are you uh... Doing?" They reached out a paw to try and touch the thing, curious more than anything else.   "Speech"

Art by Embroi

"Speech"

The pale girl struggled against her invention and the friction of the sand. Wide-eyed she watched the stranger circle her as she continued to tug it above the tideline. She noted that the other seemed mildly amused and hoped she wouldn't be the brunt of a joke like she was used to.

The stranger then approached within proper view and just as Ignita let go of the rope the other reached out to touch her floatsie!
"No -Don't!" She yipped like a child. She was used to her things getting stolen and broken by others instead of being greeted by curiosity. She paused as the other pale wolf expressed their... hmmm she couldn't tell if it was a mocking curiosity or if it was genuine. She was frozen in place for a moment trying to process but defaulted to perhaps maybe it was genuine.

"Oh... sorry. Umm... I was bringing it up to the dry land. So when the tide comes it won't carry my Floatsie away. I want to keep working on it." She looked at the makeshift boat she created back in her homeland. Though she was pretty confident she was still in her homeland, just a little further south of her initial dock.

"I don't think I can carry it back home though."  She said almost musing to herself looking off north. It looked a little greener than she was expecting.