of water and wind | 3.

Instructions

3. --------------------------- Lumi picked up another oyster and placed it in the basket. It was a quarter full now; there were always plenty of oysters on the shoal, and they were easy enough to make a meal out of. "Lumi, can you tell me again how you found me?" She turned around to see the pup gazing imploringly at her with wide, gleaming eyes. The once-sickly pup had grown over the year and a half she had cared for her, and blossomed into a beautiful she-pup with a curious face that peered at the world through sparkling, multicolored eyes. Lumi glanced down at the pup. She held up for a moment, then caved. "Alright. Sit down; it's a long story." The pup settled down onto a patch of sparse grass peeking out of the sand. Lumi took a deep breath, set down her basket, then began. "I was gathering oysters one morning, when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a patch of brown and gray standing out against the sand," she said. "Not knowing what it was, I examined it. It was a small wolf pup, very weak, that had been carried across the sea to me." She paused for a moment. The pup stared directly at her, transfixed. Closing her eyes to help her remember, Lumi continued. "I took the lost pup into my home, and laid it down onto the nest I always kept ready for any guests. The pup was terribly sick, and I doubted that she would survive through the night, but I cared for her either way. When the sun began to sink down towards the horizon, I knew that there was nothing I could do but wait until the pup either showed signs of recovery, or... death." "The next morning, I was mildly surprised to find the pup still alive. I decided that the pup needed a name, so I named her Pathfinder; because she found her way across the oceans and onto my shoal." Lumi opened her eyes, looking at the pup in front of her. "That was you. You survived that day, and then the next. Gradually, you got better, and now you're the best daughter I could ask for. And that's the story of how I found you." Pathfinder sat up, bouncing her feathered tail on the ground excitedly. "But that's not the end! I grow up to be a legend, right? Riiiiiiight?" Lumi chuckled, a smile breaking across her face. "Of course you do," she replied. As she stood up to continue filling her basket with oysters, she heard the pup say something behind her. "One more thing." Lumi turned to look at the pup. "Can we eat something other than oysters for breakfast today?" --------------------------- {next: