[FIN]Tides of Change (Wave Walker, Meets-the-Sea)

[Flayre The Pyro Girl]

She's been in the water she loves for hours, paddling about and diving after fish to stride along the sandy bottom of the ocean. Now thoroughly soaked and smelling of brine, Wave Walker exits the waves, each hoof stepping on another breaker that herds her toward the sands. One would almost think the ocean didn't want her in it, given the way it was pushing her toward the land.

Once she feels the hard packed sand beneath her hooves, she shakes vigorously, dislodging a miniature storm of water drops from her sand-colored coat with it's water-colored stripes.  

[hybridic]

Being back at the ocean after a journey was always like coming home. The first thing Meets-the-Sea did, every time, was run to her favorite low cliff and leap into the crashing waves. This was a dangerous move, and rather uncharacteristic of the usually timid doe, but she had spent all of her life with the rush of the salt waters and she knew how to traverse the waves in relative safety.

Diving under the pull of the tide, Meets swam to the nearby shore of her favorite beach, coming up for air only when absolutely necessary. As the water began to shallow, the doe pushed her head up above the waves and let the foaming breakers crash around her face, drowning out every other sound.

In the lull between waves, Meets opens her eyes to see, with a shock, another doe standing on the beach, shaking herself free of the salt water. For a moment, Meets panics, her first instinct to stay hidden in the waves until the stranger leaves. Then, remembering her new resolution for bravery -- she is a mother now, a grown doe! -- she pushes away her fear and makes her way out of the crashing breakers towards the doe.  

[Flayre The Pyro Girl]

Turning to look out over the vast expanse of ocean, Wave gets a chilling surprise: another doe is walking out of the waters where Wave had just been,.

Her eyes wide in surprise, she looks around at the deserted beach. Where did this doe come from? She isn't a Tidewalker, or Wave would know her, and very very few Kimeti dared brave the Ache that ties them to their Motherfather Swamp to venture out here.

In fact, there are tales of a lone, ghostly blue and black doe who wandered the shores, but those are only tales told by mothers to frighten children into staying in sight. And yet here is a blue and black doe rising from the tides right in front of Wave Walker!

"Are you the ghost doe mothers talk about?" she blurts randomly at the approaching figure.  

[hybridic]

Meets-the-Sea can just barely hear the words of the unknown doe over the crash of the breaking waves as she emerges from the ocean, dripping and salty, but they strike her all the same.

"Ghost doe?" she asks, her voice both amused and surprised at the apparent affect her intermittent presence has had on the other Kimeti who dwell in this place. "I have never heard of myself called so...but I suppose I might seem like a ghost to those who dwell here. I am Meets-the-Sea...I journey back and forth from the ocean to the swamp often, and do not speak to many others...especially out here, where it is usually so solitary."  

[Flayre The Pyro Girl]

"Do you often swim alone, especially near dusk? Around here?" Her mother, Waterside, had never warned her about a ghostly doe, but Wave h heard mothers telling their young more recently that there had been one seen. Hopefully it was just a misunderstanding. Not that Wave would ever tell anyone about it. "It's so dangerous to do that! You could get sucked out to sea!" She shakes herself, then gathers her wits back and introduces herself. "I'm Wave Walker, of the Tidewalkers. Um. Welcome?"  

[hybridic]

Meets shrugs noncommittally at the doe's warning. "I've been swimming off these cliffs all of my life. I know how to handle the tides." She smiles, dips her head to the young doe. "I've heard of your tribe, but I'm afraid I've been a bit too much of a loner in the past to ever introduce myself properly. My name is Meets-the-Sea. It's a pleasure to finally meet one of the Tidewalkers."  

[Flayre The Pyro Girl]

"I'm not really the best example of a Tidewalker, really, Bitterleaf and Jasper and mother are...maybe Flint and my other siblings...." Wave tells the doe. "But I do what they need me to do." There's an itch between her shoulder blades, almost demanding that she attempt to recruit this doe who has admittedly been in Tidewalker territory before. But she is awkward with words sometimes, and so she isn't assigned the recruitment patrols, and her attempt now is stumbling and hesitant. "But, um, if you're here so often, you should probably just become a Tidewalker, honestly, it's not half bad! There's a schedule and everything, and everyone has to help, but we all work together for the greater good!" Wave pauses, scrambling for an end to her sadly unpracticed pitch. "And really, what's better than living here with so many others to watch your flanks?"  

[hybridic]

Meets hesitates, feeling the familiar anxiety rise in her chest at the idea of a group of unfamiliar people. She swallows nervously and looks over her shoulder at the crashing waves as she speaks, one ear flicking back and forth in a kind of anxious tic.

"I...I don't think I could do that, I'm sorry...though I'm flattered by the offer. I tend to prefer my solitude, and would make a bad sort of companion." The little doe turns her head back to Wave Walker, smiling apologetically. "Besides, I travel back and forth to the swamp and even beyond quite often...you'd miss me more often than not."

A flush colors Meets' pale cheeks as she realizes something else. "Oh no! I've not been trespassing on Tidewalker territory, have I? I'm so sorry, I tend to get lost in my head and not notice markers..." the shy doe is fumbling now, worry visible in the little subconscious movements of her ears, tail, and face. Where she may have seemed cool and collected before, Meets now sounds almost like a frightened filly. "It won't happen again, I'm sorry! I'll pay more attention next time, do forgive me!"  

[Flayre The Pyro Girl]

"Oh, well, at least I can tell Mother I tried to recruit someone," Wave mutters to herself. She sighs in resignation; clearly she is not meant to try and get people to do what she (supposedly) wanted. Meh.

"Well, sort of, but not very close to the main camp. I mean, this is pretty far north, so I doubt many people know it's here. Or, y'know, that it's been claimed as our territory. So don't worry about it? Because, you see, generally I'm the only one who wanders this far, unless Flint's in one of his moods. But I would appreciate if you didn't really mention this place to others, because I'm kind of shirking my duties right now. And I don't want you to get in trouble," she tells Meets, trying to calm the agitated doe.  

[hybridic]

Meets smiles at the young doe's grudging resignation. She likes this girl -- brave enough to be out here on the beach alone, but clearly loyal to her family and her tribe. "I don't want you to get in trouble either," she said, tilting her head. "I'd be happy to come meet your tribe leaders, if you like, and show them that I mean no harm in being on their land. Then you won't be shirking your duties...and I won't be afraid of trespassing on your territory again."  

[Flayre The Pyro Girl]

Wave mumbles to herself for a moment, then nods decisively and tells Meets, "It's fine, really. It's not like we have a really strict no-trespassers thing, because then we'd never get the people who wander in like you. And I'm pretty sure the scouts would have seen you at least a few times, and since there's never been any outcry, I guess it's okay. Besides, I'd really like to bring in at least one recruit eventually. I don't really do much, really, other than guard this part of the beach."

Hopefully this assures the other, and Wave Walker will not have to face failure again. While Waterside and Bitterleaf may not say much, their unspoken disappointment is visible, at least to Wave, who is so sorely conscious of her un-Tidewalker-ness. Having rather depressed herself, Wave looks back at her conversation partner and begs, "What is the swamp like? I've never been, because only the really strong and charismatic get to go on the patrols."  

[hybridic]

Meets' heart is warming quickly to this young doe who seems to remind her so much of herself. "You seem strong enough to me," she replies, smiling benevolently at Wave Walker. "You have to be, I think, to live out here like you do. And to brave the waters for a swim. You needn't doubt yourself so."

In response to Wave's question, Meets tilts her head in thought, looking up at the sky. "The swamp is quite different...although not any more dangerous than your territory. There's certainly more food and fresh water. It's an easier way of life, generally. There are dangers, of course -- though quite different from the kinds to be found hereabouts." Meets turns her head back to Wave Walker and runs her eyes over the doe, taking in her lithe but strong body, thinking. "The journey takes a week...perhaps longer if the weather is bad. I don't know how strict your duties are...but if you could get leave from your tribe, I would be happy to guide you there, if you wished. We could stay in the swamp for a few days and be back in less than a month, if the travel goes quickly."  

[Flayre The Pyro Girl]

"I, well, I would like that very much!" Wave's enthusiastic reply is only dimmed slightly by the thought of being away from her ocean for so long, but the thought of seeing the Swamp, of being in it, well, that erases most of the doubt from her mind.
"I'll go with you! Nothing ever happens up here, until now, so I doubt anyone will mind. I should tell someone that I'm going, though. But it's not a really big deal, honestly." Her mutters explode in a semi-private argument as she wrestles with her desire to go now versus the discipline to request leave and be allowed.

In the end, her personal desire wins out, and she bursts out, "Let's go!"  

[hybridic]

Meets-the-Sea tilts her head curiously at Wave's sudden insistence that they should leave right away -- "You're sure you don't need to tell anyone you're leaving?" -- but her own sense of self-sufficiency helps her understand, and she nods. "Well then, we'll be off! It will be fun to have a traveling companion for a while." Meets smiles at the younger doe with a combination of motherly affection and companion-like friendship. She's never had a chance to get to know her own daughters very well, and definitely not to mother them much.

"I'm still pretty refreshed from my swim...we can grab some food and water on the way, if that's fine with you, Wave." Meets smiles again and turns towards the shore, looking over her shoulder at Wave Walker and flicking her tail eagerly. "For now, let's run!" she exclaims, a plauful glint in her eye, and springs off up the sandy beach and towards the swamp.