[Explore] Stroll in the dark

In Ynnis ・ By MoonRazor

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They were strolling about town, Rob in the lead, with Fathom and Leeward trailing dutifully behind him as they paced along the waterfront. Rob and his brother Ollie were both creatures of the sea, having come across the ocean to land on Itona, and both having grown up with their feet planted more often on a swaying deck than on firm, dry ground. It was natural, then, that the ocean spoke to both the Tiller boys.

For Ollie, being on the water came as naturally as breathing, so mundane yet absolutely necessary was it that he rarely gave it a second thought. For Rob, there was something a touch more sacred about the water, and he viewed it with a sense of reverence that didn't exist in his brother. The sea was his office, his home, his classroom all rolled into one, and it calmed him in a way few other things did in this life.

So it was only natural that his walks with Fathom and Leeward often brought them back to this familiar stretch of down. The wash of waves against the city's natural coast brought a rhythm to their footfalls as they strode down the waterfront, and though it was dark and there wasn't a sliver of moon to help light their path, all three of them seemed to know the path by heart.

"Wind's picking up," Rob murmured quietly, and his hounds both twitched their ears back at him to catch his words. The stiff breeze brought on it the salty sting of ocean air, a smell Rob inhaled deeply and happily as they went.

As they left the docks behind, so too did they leave the soothing creaking of boats floating on the waves. The only sound left to them, after a time, was the crash of water against rock in a rhythmic, endless way that consumed their senses.

Suddenly, Fathom tensed. His trot stiffened. The hardening of his stride brought pause to Leeward, who slowed her step, ears perking as a low growl sang forth from deep in her throat.

"What's there?" Rob asked, pausing, eyes shifting from one hound to the other. They all three stood still and stiff in the dark of the night, Rob peering through the murk in search of whatever had triggered his hounds' reaction.

Then he saw it. No sound betrayed the creature, but Rob caught a glimpse of its bright yellow eyes, floating out of the darkness farther down the path. It, too, stood stock still, staring back at them in the night. Perhaps it thought that staying still would help it avoid unwanted attention?

But no... as Rob watched those cold, unblinking eyes, he thought perhaps not. Perhaps it was something else.

Beside him, Fathom relaxed and sat, sensing no threat from the creature ahead and Leeward, taking his cue, let the tension melt from her stiff-legged stance. The creature was like a shadow, darker than the night in which it hid, but Rob knew this must be the hound he had heard so many stories of in the last several days - a stray so elusive that the townsfolk weren't completely convinced it was real.

But here he was, and the fact that he hadn't fled at the sight of them suggested perhaps it wasn't afraid. Perhaps it would enjoy a morsel of food.

Rob reached into his pocket and fished out one of the treats he had slipped into it. It was a festive little thing, snagged from the market in celebration of Lost Souls. It was a hallowed season for men like him, who at once celebrated their good fortune at sea and mourned the ones who had lost their lives to the water's unyielding grasp. Perhaps it was, in a sense, for this stray as well.

Rob slowly held the cookie out and knelt, placing it on the ground. Picking up Fathom and Leeward's lead, he slowly backed them away, letting the stray take stock of the cookie.

"Come," he said quietly to his two hounds, turning and leading them back the way they had come. A relationship with this stray wouldn't be forged instantaneously. He would be a fool to think it might.

"We'll come back tomorrow," he told his two, picking up a nice, calm pace as they left the stray behind. "Maybe we'll get lucky."

They made their way back up the coast, listening to the sound of the wind and the crash of the waves, wondering if their offered treat still lay on the ground.