Pawprints carried the gray-blue she wolf along the coast of the cove, each paw slapping the wet, firm sand with a sharp sound. She'd heard from some wolf who claimed to be a pirate that there could be treasure found washed up on beaches. Elcid doubted it. If there was treasure so easily found, then why weren't there a dozen other wolves and creatures lined up combing the beaches with her? In fact, as Elcid looked up from the tide line to the sands, she didn't see anybody out here. She should have listened to her gut that told her the wolf was lying. The pirate seemed a bit too eager to share the fact with her, after all.
The problem was, Elcid was already out here. She figured even if the pirate wolf had lied to her, she could at least make the most out of the trip. She would search anyways, chasing the tide waters as they retreated back to the ocean and quickly dancing back away from the tides as they returned to grab her and pull the sand from beneath her feet. It was a non-stop game that became un-fun quite quickly for the she-wolf. Elcid was never the strong, hearty type of wolf. The gods made sure of it when they blessed her parents with her creation. No, any sort of hard physical activity left Elcid panting and out of breath which forced her to take long breaks to recover. This game had her sour in attitude, or maybe it was the lying pirate wolf that had her sour. She really wasn't sure, and didn't care to figure it out.
When she stopped to rest for a break, she watched as the tiny white seabirds mimicked her movements (or she theirs?) with the tides as they searched for something in the sands. When one plucked something out of the sands with its beak, she leaned forward to try and get a better view. It was impossible, due both to the size of the tiny object and the several other seabirds suddenly swarming the victorious one. Squawking and flapping ensued and Elcid lost interest in the object. If birds were fighting over it, it couldn't be a treasure valuable to her.
Until the very bird that had grabbed the object flew overtop of her as it fled from the others. One was right behind it and reached out a beak to pull at the lead's tailfeathers. It squawked in response and the object in its beak came falling down, landing prim and proper in the sand at Elcid's front paws, a perfect opalescent sphere nestled inside a perfect divot. Elcid's eyes sparkled and a large smile came to her face as she gasped at the pearl. It was the most beautiful stone she'd ever seen! Elcid carefully picked the stone up with her magic and held it close to her ear. A soft, high pitched hum rang from it - the hum of natural energy. "Oh!" she squealed after carefully tucking the pearl into the small bag she wore on a string around her neck. "She was right!" There really was amazing treasure if you looked hard enough.
This tiny pebble was all Elcid needed to find the motivation inside her to keep searching. She sprung up from her rest and was chasing the tides once more, trotting her way quickly along the beach, around a bend, past the rocks that had hidden the tigress from her before, and right smack into the side of the massive predator. Her eyes had been locked onto the ground beneath her nose, not looking up and at where she was going. "What the heck?" Elcid stepped backwards from the impact and looked up, her gaze moving from ground to orange and black striped mass. It took her a second to realize what she was looking at, and a second longer for her to realize what she was looking at. Elcid did the only thing her mind could come up with - she froze in place like a statue.