Boredom could get to a kitten quick. Kaimana was growing, growing, growing every day, and she'd decided to grow her skills with her. Swimming was a simple task for a jaguar, she was inclined towards the seas anyways. Fishing was much easier with the bigger paws and claws she was developing. She was even learning how to dive to catch such specimens of fish and seaweed and all kinds of intriguing little things.

She'd learned that bones were a favorite. Sometimes she found them washed up on the shore, sometimes stinky and sometimes less fresh, sometimes complete but most times fragmented by the bullying of the waves and other creatures down there. There were so many stories to be told in these bones, so many events they had gone through behind a pitch black curtain only to flutter out and land at her paws.

The jaguar had made a habit of collecting them.

Kaimana only wished she had somewhere to keep all of these treasures she sometimes went looking for. Somewhere moveable. She'd seen certain crabs that carried their shells; sometimes if you put a little trinket or keepsake on their shell, they'd carry it wish them until it eventually fell off. She wanted something like that, except a little more... secure.

Today she was going to try to somehow get one.

Bones had taught her that flesh essentially boiled down to a bag for meat, given shape and structure by bones. If you removed meat from bones, the meat held no shape. The bones were the structure from the inside, and the flesh the structure from the outside. To keep the meat from doing just... whatever gravity told it to do.

But before we derail back into bones again, the point is that bones aren't very good at holding things in. That's what flesh is for!

So Kaimana would find... flesh!

Aha. She'd. Try to find flesh, that is.

A short dive was the easiest way to find fish, it seemed. Kaimana picked at place and headed in. She saw something down there, but it was just barely too deep for her to get. She tried anyhow, against all the better judgement she had in her brain, and as a result, just about filled her lungs with WATER! The jaguar managed to float back up just in time to avoid drowning entirely, but she would be coughing up water for a while. She already felt weak. How unfortunate.

Well I suppose if the ocean was going to give her misfortune first, then it was either a lesson, or a promise of something... greater.

Now, look, Kaimana had been learning about greed! The waters she slept beside had much to teach. A storm could give as much as it could take, and spin in cycles that were hard to follow and easy to be in. Greed was bad! She knew this! For sure!

But it wasn't going to stop her just yet.

Besides, was desire the same thing as greed? No! Greed happened when you got what you asked for and you still wanted more, even if the other didn't want to give anything more. Even if you had nothing to trade back! But desiring what you didn't have wasn't inherently evil. Honestly, for Kaimana, the line between good desire and bad desire was still... well, let's just say that if it were a line in the sand, it would've been run over by a few... hundred waves at this point. The jaguar only wants what she wants!

And what she wants is a lot!

Kaimana didn't have a lot to fear. Besides, um, nearly drowning.

Only nearly drowning wasn't enough!! Kaimana was going to get herself a darn COLLECTION DEVICE! And then she'd take her treasures (she had a certain one in mind) and she'd travel around for a while! Kaimana had come to grow a sense of wanderlust, brought about by nothing more than... loneliness. Boredom. She knew since birth that there was water elsewhere. The ocean had been kind here, and it would be sad to go.

But just like finding this apparatus she was craving, it couldn't be impossible.

Alas, even Kaimana couldn't kid herself with this one. An unfruitful dive was followed by an unexpectedly strong wave nearly pulled her under too fast while she was trying to get back up. She had to ground herself and crawl back out as fast as possible, still sluggish and sopping wet from the last dive. Seriously?! What did the ocean expect here?!? Did it want to keep her, did it want its stone back, or was this still some kind of promise? Or was it a JOKE!?

Kaimana huffed and turned back to the ocean. This would be it. She was going to do this. Or she was just going to have to find another way.

What other way? She'd think about it dang it!

Placing faith in the ocean and all its many wonders once more, Kaimana submerged herself, and searched.

Tantalizingly close, it taunted her. The fish was nothing special. It didn't have to be. She reached once! She missed. Twice! She missed. THREE TIMES!

Secured in her jaws, she emerged once more. Climbing onto the shore, Kaimana would spend a few minutes coughing the rest of the water out of her system.

ACK! UGH. Okay. She was done. Now to get to what she could hopefully deem the fun part.

Guts and skin, baby.

Her efforts were truly, terribly sloppy. Who could blame her?! She nearly drowned! TWICE!!

The fish's death was inevitable. With less-than-deft claws, it was open, and with ungracious jaws the insides were cleansed. Honestly, Kaimana was hungry too. Maybe... maybe this wasn't going to go as planned. No cycles about it, just an unfortunate attempt. Maybe the ocean wanted her to go.

That was a sad thought.

Kaimana tried to save the skin as best she could, but alas... fish skin is just so TASTY! She was tired, trying to squeeze the remnants of excess fear and adrenaline from her system. She deserved a treat, didn't she?! Perhaps all the ocean wanted for her was a decent meal. Perhaps she should stop considering what the ocean wanted now because it's not like it had given her much.

Well, not today that is. Other days, it had been exceptionally kind. Ah, these cycles could never leave her, could they? They were like chains around her arms and legs, but really, they were more like wheels spinning about her that she could not follow and could not stop. She could only roll with them, if she so desired.

Rolling with the wheels. Flowing with each cycle. Maybe she was done here. For now.

She'd find another way to lug her treasure(s) around. She might have to abandon a few of them-- okay, almost all of them, but that was... perfectly fine.

- exit -