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Blue eyes met thistle as she remained squatting to the hybrid's level. The crash of the surf, the salty air, the shifting sand beneath her footpaws -- it was all so new to her. Vaguely she remembered playing on the beach as a child - younger than Zana appeared to be - but it was a hazy memory, clouded with the years that had passed since then. She had difficulty remembering the things that happened before she had learned how to shift.
"Every name means something," Coli said softly, smiling at the small child, "-even if it simply means your mother loved you enough to name you." She liked that explanation, although of course she had been named by her father, who did not seem to love her at all; naming her after his mother and himself, how uncreative and self-absorbed. According to Auntie Mew, she could have had several other last names - Soul, Sadira, or her mother's Jolie - and that would have connected her to the family that spanned these lands, rather than being an outsider yet again. Sighing, she turned her attention back to the task at hand, sifting through seaweed. Did Zana really think her name was pretty? That was... sweet of her.
Coli was surprised when Zana showed her the contents of her little bag. Rather than pretty trinkets and knick-knacks for a young girl to treasure, she instead was hoarding sharp fishes' teeth and a small weapon. She ran her fingers over the blowgun, wondering who would give a small child such a dangerous toy. Truly, things were different in Inferni... "Er, sea-gulls are those white birds, right?" she asked first, wanting to make certain. "Why... why do you have stuff like this, Zana? Are you... in danger?" Her blue eyes were bright with concern for the undersized pup, as her own plight had been long-forgotten. She was starting to piece together that Zana was more lonely than she'd thought, and she found that upsetting. Were there no good parents left in this world?
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