Hunter's Woods Writing Prompts

   "So, you're from the ocean, yeah? What's it like?"
   Sophie scrunched up her face. "What, you've never...? Uh, oh, yeah. Right." Virva had made it clear how excited she was to finally get away from the tree on many occasions, after all. Still, it was hard to get used to just how little she knew of the world beyond its branches. "Uh, well, you know how it rains and you get wet? Imagine that, but instead of water falling from the sky, it's just all water. And you can't drink any of it, either."
   Virva swished her tail. "I... can't tell if that's a good thing or not."
   The calico shrugged. "I mean, there's good things about it, I guess. Humans tend to gather around it. Use it to travel, or go fishing... Back when I lived on the docks, I would always trick them into giving me the smallfry they couldn't really sell in their stores!" She laughed. Then her grin faded. "But the water's too salty to drink, and it's got a really distinctive... smell. I mean, it's definitely worse when the humans bring their catches in, but even without it, the air near the ocean's got this really noticeable flavor to it, sort of? And if you get too close, even if you aren't touching the water itself, it splashes and sprays up and gets in your face and your fur... even if you don't get wet wet, you still get covered in the mist and smell like salt. And if you do end up getting wet wet? Ugh, it's bad. Such a pain to get the salt out of your fur, and you have to get it out, or it dries in and you just turn into this, like, matted ball of spikes."
   "Huh. Sounds like more of a pain than it's worth," Virva said. "I don't mind getting wet, really, but the ocean sounds kind of... gross."
   "Hah, yeah. It's not as fun as humans make it out to be, with their beach resorts and stuff," Sophie agreed. "But... I mean, like I said, it's not all bad. You can bum food off of the fishermen when they come in, and even if you aren't a seafood sort of cat, like I said, a lot of the time humans live near the ocean, because it was I guess easier for them to settle there, since they could take their boats to get there? So there's usually plenty of food to eat, whether you're begging the people for snacks or hunting down the critters that follow them around." She grew quiet for a moment, pawing awkwardly at the ground. "Not to mention, well. My whole family lived out on the wharves and all, so it is home, I guess. It's still important to me because of that, even if it's not my favorite place in the world." Her grin returned. "And even if I am kind of sick of fish."
   Virva nodded. "That makes sense." Then her ears drooped. "...I wish I could be nostalgic for my home," she said.
   "Eh, we all have different histories with our homes, right?" Sophie offered her a sympathetic smile. "Not everyone's is good. It is what it is, right? But we can always find a new one!"
   The glow of Virva's eyes shifted to glance around at the other Wayfarers. "Yeah," she agreed, even as she twisted up her mouth at the sight of her sister and the little god. "We can."
   The two cats were quiet for a minute.
   "...I think I'd like to see the ocean for myself at some point," Virva eventually said. "Not that I don't trust your judgement, obviously, but you know. Get to see it firsthand and all. Even if it smells."
   "Pfff, alright. Just watch out for the wharf rats when you get there. I swear, I've seen ones the size of raccoons!" She laughed. "It's messed up."
   "Rats the size of what."