into the sea, you and me
all these years, and no one heard
i love you, let's go

They are washed up shells on the red beaches, ugly and near broken, nothing worth even glancing at, turning over the stones of their hunger until boulders become pebbles in the small, worn palms of their hands. When was the last time that they had leapt without thought, without feeling the weight of damnation, freely into the sea with every bit of comfort filling up the spaces in their body.
There are so many things to do, now that she has changed from simple but struggling and pained healer to hated and distrusted leader. Hunger tightens another knot in their bellies. Instincts screams for them to do what they know from birth, to eat. Hobgoblin’s primal instincts just happens to be the one to break first.
She, like an invisible leash has permanently made her attached to him but not the other way around, plunges without even a second thought.
The water is death cold, calm despite the ruthlessness of the storms that have plagued and declared upon her herdland and her family. Shivers run down her skin as if a thousand bugs decide in unison to flee across her towards the fading surface. She is at peace, even if for a little while.
They reach the other side as if it is a trail they must follow, pushed along by unseen currents and Hobgoblin’s growing anger that can’t be silenced by his gluttony, risen from shallows due to Sikeax’s fretting over whether or not she should patrol the mainland border. Seagrass hangs from her jaws while she lingers, swallowing hard once before gathering up the courage to hit the barrier horn-first as every breath becomes a sledgehammer to her lungs at the exchange. He will not join her for some time.
For now, he is caught in the act of getting the last bits of food in his mouth, baby sea turtles and too slow fish, things that don’t do the job as much as he’d like to them but enough to gentle his needs into submission.
Time melts in the between her short-lived, singular presence on the sand and when Hobgoblin joins her, announcing Volterra and his new recruit as long, black legs send him trotting back to her in the direction she was already heading.
“Skullface bring woman. Have sex with?”
The idea encourages her to vomit regardless of how much she doubts it. So much trust had been placed into him with the creation of a budding friendship, and she cannot imagine him bringing a new woman into the Dragon’s Throat to impregnate when they were already heavily populated by children.
This isn’t to say that the thought doesn’t leave her mind when she comes across the dark pair, annoyed at Hobgoblin’s purring and maybe something else, thrashing tail over hip as coarse strands beat upon him. A lunging bite goes to waste as he slips from her in the aftermath of his motions.
“No dragon?”
Do you want me to ask?
An idiot question, because of course Hobgoblin will want her to ask. She opts out to search with blue eyes catching on any glimmer of vibrant scales and glorious masses, but falls prey to diplomacy at the sight of their recruit. A grumble rolls like thunder inside of her brother.
“Hello Volterra, and I’m guessing our new desert sister?” Her voice is soft, low, trying to get through this against the fact that she has never welcomed anyone into the Dragon's Throat as a lead. Kri had called her sister when she had arrived, so who is she not to welcome with the same thing that she had received so long ago?
“I’m Sikeax, the Sultana here, but Sia works a lot easier if you intend to stay. And” A quick motion in Hobgoblin’s direction brings forth a flurry of transformation, lips curled upwards to expose his best attempt at a smile as his long body lays atop warm, blood sands. “this is my companion, Hobgoblin.” The head bobbing begins here, as if he intends to make her look as humorous as possible. It probably works, because her physical appearance is draped in dampness from the water, no longer shedding droplets but still having the look of having recently thrashed in the sea. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

OOC: HERE HAVE A POST OF GROSSNESS. I'm very rusty rn c':
Hobgoblin is in his serval up until the change is mentioned, where he'll be in his leopard seal form.
Please only tag me when it's my turn to post!