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The past few months had been an arduous journey. He dared not recount the events that had transpired and chose to set his mind on today and look forward to tomorrow. While Ulrich may not have wanted to linger on the amount of suffering and struggling that he had pushed through during the months prior, he did still, however, acknowledge these events as having happened and for that a good reason to take a pleasant break to clear his mind for a moment - a long moment. The caracal awoke one cool winter morning from a rather warm sleep and pondered, as he lied in bed, how he might free his mind and thought to himself that it had been a while since he'd visited the local national park. A pity: that, being that it was only about an hour's walking distance away from where he lived. 'That settles it,' he thought, the anthro feline nearly leaping out of his bed, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and very nude. The pads under his paws left a steamy outline on the cold hardwood floor as he made his way across his bedroom and into the master bathroom, lifting the toilet seat and relieving himself of his early morning pee, flushing the toilet and lowering the toilet seat and cover once he was done. He lived alone, but Ulrich still preferred to close the toilet seat, lest he learns the hard way that it is quite possible for anything to accidentally fall into something that was wide open when it could have easily been closed. He walked over to the sink and washed his hands, rinsing them under the warm water before squirting a small amount of hand soap onto his paw pads, lathering them up until they were nice, soft, and shiny and the fur moist and smooth. He returned his paws to the warm stream of water as he gave them a final rinse, washing off the soap thoroughly before holding his paws under the water once again, leaning his face in close, and splashing some water onto his face. With another splash of water, he pressed his paws to his face and rubbed it, rinsing away the sleep in his eyes. His eyes still closed and his face still dripping with water, he reached over to the wall beside him and grabbed a medium-sized towel off from a small towel rack he installed some time ago specifically for this towel and pressed it firmly against his face, wiping it vigorously making sure his fur was completely dry before focusing his attention on drying his paws with the towel. Once they were dry, he used the towel to turn off the faucet and he hung it back onto the little towel rack.

Nice and refreshed, he thought not to dawdle, wanting to quickly make his way to the national park hoping to reach it before large groups and families started making their way in. He walked back into the bedroom and looked around the room as if he did not know where his clothes were or if he just had to make sure it was his room first. He didn't know why he did this, but in this instant, he wondered if it were something he did every day as he could remember doing the same thing yesterday - standing either in the doorway from the bathroom to his room or from the hallway into his room, he would just stand and observe the room first before making his next move. In this case, once he acknowledged that the doorway did not, in fact, transport him to some different parallel universe and it was his room, he made his way to his dresser and searched for a certain pair of shorts that he loved wearing, short shorts that hardly went down his thighs, black with light gray splotches on them. Upon finding them, he slipped them on, not bothering to put on any underwear as he didn't find them necessary. He closed the drawer and made his way over to his closet, opening the door and stepping inside, his hind paws warming up slightly as his paw pads lifted off the chilly hardwood flooring of his bedroom and slipped between the fibers of the shag carpeting of his walk-in closet. He always loved how this kind of carpet felt between his toes and against his paw pads and this was justified by the fact that he had started softly purring the moment both of his paws were off of the hardwood and submerged in the soft carpet. Once again standing at the doorway of a room, this time more so to relish in the sensation of the carpet on his paws, he looked around his closest, clothes hanging on either side of the closet and musical instruments piled up neatly at the back. The clothes on the left were dress shirts, polos, sweaters, and pretty much anything that wasn't a t-shirt that Ulrich felt deserved to be hung up while on the right side of the closet were all of his jeans, dress pants, and costumes that he owned. Sliding his paws through the carpet, he made his way to the left and sought out a sweater, nice and thick, that he knew would keep him warm, a gray sweater with two gradients of gray alternating horizontal stripes, offset by a darker gray for the trim. He found it with ease and grabbed the hanger it was on, shuffling his way out from his closet closing the door behind him before his paws returned to the cool hardwood floor. He took the sweater off from the hanger and set the hanger on the bed, slipping it on over himself. Ulrich loves this sweater so much. It fits him in such a way that he admires dearly; the length of the sweater is longer than his torso reaching down over his thighs longer than the shorts he was currently wearing making it seem like he wasn't wearing anything underneath; the sleeves fit his arms just long enough that they aren't annoyingly longer than they need to be but there is enough extra for him to grip when he's nervous or bored; but, most importantly, the sweater's collar was loose and stretchy enough that it hung off his shoulder, only to one side, and naturally at that. If he wanted to stretch the collar over both of his shoulders, it was stretchy enough that it could reach but it would be just slightly too tight and would eventually slip back off to only one shoulder, his right shoulder. This was his favorite sweater.

Almost completely dressed, Ulrich opened the top drawer of his dresser and pulled out some knee-high socks with rainbow pattern stripes and that were open at both ends so his hind paws were poking out from the bottom. He never quite enjoyed wearing shoes, though the companies working to make shoes aimed at digitigrade citizens were working diligently to make them as comfortable as the ones made for the plantigrade people, and while he doesn't mind wearing normal socks, the fabric on them attracts more dirt than walking around bare-paw so he wore these toe-less socks regularly. Slipping them onto his legs, he stands up and faces his dresser, opening a jewelry box and dons rainbow earrings: red, orange, and yellow helix piercings on his right ear; green, blue, and purple helix piercings on his left ear; and a pink stud earring at the top of his ear flaps just below his fur tufts on both ears. With these final accessories, he makes his way for the door and grabs a backpack off from the hook installed on the door, a black backpack with a red dragon logo on the front of it. Sliding the strap around his shoulder, he notices his phone on the nightstand next to his bed and thinks for a moment before deciding upon bringing it with him. He grabbed his phone, disconnecting it from the charger and tapping on the screen seeing that the time was thirty minutes past eight in the morning. He locked the screen and slipped his phone into the side pocket of his backpack. Returning his gaze to the nightstand, he grabbed the wireless earphones that were beside his phone and tossed them around his neck, turning them on as they automatically paired with his phone. He slipped one earphone into his ear and stepped outside of the room, holding the strap of his backpack with one paw as he uses the other to close the bedroom door. Padding down the hallway into the living room, he reached the front door where a corner table stood next to it holding his wallet and a pair of thick, black-rimmed, clear-lens glasses. He grabbed his glasses and put them on, grabbing the wallet, the chain dangling down attached to it, slid the wallet into his back-right pocket in his shorts and attached the other end of the chain to his front rightmost beltloop, and with that, he opened the front door, stepped outside, turned the lock on the door, and shut it.

Nearly nine in the morning; it was still rather chilly outside. Even though it was still technically winter, it was nearing the end of the season and the weather in this city quickly escalated after the pivotal point during winter. Nearly nine in the morning, and though it was still rather chilly outside, Ulrich knew the way he dressed not only looked fashionable to him but was also effective: the sweater would keep him warm, yet the short shorts would allow for cool breezes once it did start warming up later in the afternoon, but until then, should there be gusts of wind that stir up the cold air, well, his fur and the knee-high socks would combat that adequately. Overall, it was the perfect weather for an early-morning walk. Once the latch on the door was secured behind him, he slipped his arm under the second strap of his backpack and held onto them both and began his way down the stoop, sliding the second earbud into his ear and pressing a button on his earphones that started up the music right where he left off. LOUD DUBSTEP MUSIC BEGAN FILLING HIS EARS! After nearly suffering from a heart attack, he not only paused the music with another press of the button, but he also paused at the base of the stoop and sat down, taking off his backpack and opening the pocket that had contained his phone. Ulrich unlocked his phone, the pad on his index finger furiously swiping a pattern that granted access to his phone; he swiped over to the music app that the earphone's play button had defaulted to and he now remembers that, yes, during one of the days when he was feeling rather upset, he opened the Spawtify app and pressed play on some random dubstep radio playlist, blasting away his thoughts at high volume. He might have even fallen asleep listening to it, which would explain why the volume began so high - he usually knows better than to leave it like that. Well, while he does enjoy dubstep and most heavy EDM genres, he was not feeling that today. He switched over to this low-fidelity hip-hop radio playlist with an adorable raccoon as their mascot and tapped the shuffle button. The music instantly began, and the stark contrast of sound made Ulrich realize that since he paused the dubstep music, his ears had been ringing. This chill hip-hop music was quite soothing to his sensitive feline ears. Content with this playlist, he locked his phone again and returned it to the pocket of his backpack - he wouldn't even attempt to put his phone in the pockets of shorts so small, they couldn't even be considered pockets! Tossing the backpack back over his back, both straps around his shoulders, he stood back up and made his way down the sidewalk towards the national park.

It wasn't a long walk. It took about an hour to walk this national park that doubled as a nature preserve. The caracal technically lived in a desert. This national park boasted that it maintained four different biomes that allowed for a vast range of flora and fauna to thrive. "The Wetlands Park", it was called, on account of the park's main focus being the manufactured ponds and lakes amidst the desert environment. These bodies of water allowed for the flora to thrive around them as well as throughout the park as they were connected by various streams that ensured the nature preserve portion of the park could see a thriving amount of greenery. In this nature preserve portion, there were so many different plants and flowers that it looked simply like someone's enormous garden. But arguably more importantly, the feral animals that lived here along with aquatic life and birds, birds that would not only live here but also migratory birds, would use the lush environment and water sources as a pitstop on their migrations introducing a wide array of unique and wonderous sights. But the nature preserve was only a small, small portion of the park. Why it was called "The Wetlands" had mainly to do with the nature preserve, but that would be only two of the four biomes, the aquatic and riparian habitats. Further still, upon the 2,900 acres of land, wherein the nature preserve only amounts to 210 acres of it, are the mesquite woodlands and desert scrub, or the evidence that Ulrich truly lives in a desert - this was where Ulrich was planning on spending the day.

The mesquite woodlands and desert scrub portions of Wetlands Park were so far out there in the national park that people would hardly go there - well, apart from the reptilian citizens of the city who could be seen enjoying the dry heat of those areas, but with such a low temperature at this time, there might not be many out there yet. As Ulrich neared the park lost in the music he was listening to, he began thinking about what he planned on doing when he made it to his destination. His plan was simple: strip naked and enjoy nature. While public nudity wasn't necessarily an issue in this society, the people of this world were civilized enough that everyone wore clothes regularly and nudity was nothing more than naturalists and to be expected of a civilization of anthropomorphic animals living amongst feral ones. The city that Ulrich lived in was such a huge city that a vast majority of its citizens wore clothes, and while he was a flamboyant feline, he still would be too shy being the only one nude in a city with so many eyes on him. At least with some clothes on, as skimpy and adorable as they were, the most he would arouse were passing glances; once he arrived at the park, he would venture to the further parts of the open land and remove his clothes, placing them in his backpack and storing his backpack somewhere while he walked around nude, enjoying nature to its fullest.

An hour later, Ulrich arrived at the main entrance of Wetlands Park in the nature preserve. Surprisingly to him, there already seemed to be a family or two that was visiting. He was tickled to see people other than himself still taking an interest in nature even amidst one of the largest, brightest cities. As he walked further into the nature preserve, he chose one of the trails the park offered, the paved one, and took a slow stroll down it, looking around at how the trees and plants bordered the trail and created walls along that path; it was almost enough to make him want to wander off among the trees and start his plan sooner, but he stuck to the path and followed the trail down. Even though it had been quite some time since Ulrich visited this park, he was still astonishingly able to recall which trail he should take to, not only lead him to where he wanted to go, but also one that had delightful sights on the way. Matter of factly, this trail passes by one of the ponds that was created in this park. The hour walk to the park did leave him a tad parched upon arriving and, in his haste, he'd forgotten to bring a water bottle, so a pitstop at this pond was sure to help satiate his thirst. Rounding a corner, a little side path marked out in dirt led to a clearing with benches made of tree logs. At the other end of the clearing was the pond, surprisingly quite clear and with some aquatic birds listing gently along the pond's surface, some residing somewhere about the middle of the pond but most of them sticking to the sides. Ulrich neared the pond and removed his backpack, setting it a little way behind him away from the water as he lowered onto all fours and reached a hand into the cool water. It was soft to the touch. A weird thing to say about water, I'm sure, though in most cases you would only find such soft water being a result of purified water. Well, while not an extensive purification process, the water that the Wetlands Park housed is purified before it goes through the park where various weirs along the stream, both natural and artificial, ensure that most sediments and rubbish are filtered off before continuing down the stream where it enters the lake that cycles it back to the purification system. Quite the elaborate design, honestly. All the more reason why Ulrich enjoyed this place. And, with this knowledge, this pond was far enough down the system that it was surely safe to drink. His forepaw in the water, he set it onto the dirt to support himself as he stood on all fours, all four paws on the ground, and like the feral creatures that surely drink from this pond the same way, he leaned his face in close, bending his legs and arms, and began lapping at the water, slurping tongue-fulls of water as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the music that continued through his earphones as he quenched his thirst.

Nearly an entire minute passed, Ulrich was finally finished drinking from the pond, opening his eyes to see that some fish had gathered around his tongue curious what might have been happening. He smiled at them for a moment before sitting himself up, sitting down on his butt and dipping his toes in the water, doing so both to feel his hind paws in this smooth, cool water, but also to catch the interest of the fish, and with a lesser but conscious desire to clean his hind paws a bit. Big, vibrant koi fish, they seemed to be. Minding the bottom end of his knee-high socks, Ulrich dipped one toe in after another until they were all submerged under the water on both of his hind paws, arousing the interest of the koi fish as they began to poke at them with their mouths, mistaking his toe pads for some sort of meal and slurping their mouths around them. Ulrich began to purr then giggle as this tickled his toes even more so than the shag carpet in his closet. As he sat there purring, the sensation of the koi fish's sloppy mouths slurping at his toes was seemingly enough to arouse Ulrich, which wasn't quite his intention, so before the problem got any bigger, he pulled his hind paws out from the water to find that a koi was held tight to one of them. 'That's one way to catch a fish,' he thought. This silly fish must like paws as much as Ulrich, for even as he was suffocating on the dirt, he would not let go of Ulrich's toe. Ulrich grabbed the koi fish and gave it a gentle yank removing it from his toe. He brought it eye level to him and gave it a little smirk - it may have been the coloration of the koi fish, but it would almost seem as though it was blushing at him - and with a gentle pet, he slid the koi fish back into the pond. What a peculiar interaction; with his thirst quenched, Ulrich stood up, grabbed his backpack once more and tossed it onto his back, padding once again down the trail.

The rest of the walk along the trail was a simple one. Shortly past the pond was a fork in the trail where to the right it rounded back into the nature preserve, lush with greenery and the sounds of quail calls and scurrying critters can be heard, and to the left led further into the park, where Ulrich was now headed, no longer paved with cement, and instead also marked with a soft dirt trail, where the greenery opened to a sparser amount of foliage trickling down to where there was hardly any. The further he went down this trail, the less he could see of the nature preserve, usually quite perceptible in the distance by the museum portion of the preserve. Counterintuitive, it might seem, to erect a building inside of a nature preserve, but it was also built with preservation in mind: energy-efficient everything to cut down on its impact on the environment, perhaps the most ingenious aspect was its downward-slanted windows that reflected the greenery surrounding the building creating the illusion of ground so passing birds would not mistake the windows and slam into them. As Ulrich continued down this trail, even the foliage marking the nature preserve had disappeared, which meant he was getting close. Along this trail, being that it was still technically a "park," was a small building that housed restrooms and a few lockers for people who would come to the park for their morning jogs. These lockers were modern lockers that had programable passcodes: the locker's default state was "open"; once the locker's door was closed, the keypad was ready to be programmed; entering the passcode twice successfully secured the locker and would only open once that passcode was entered again; finally, once the passcode was entered for the third time and the locker door was open, the keypad would fully reset restarting the processes, making this a rather secure solution to a public locker without having to incorporate personal locks or providing keys on bungee cables. As Ulrich grew closer to this building - not technically a "locker room" because the building only housed the restrooms and a maintenance room, the lockers were at the entrance of the restrooms - his wireless earphones beeped, indicating a low battery. 'That's right,' he recalled; the last time he used them he had fallen asleep listening to them. The music app, Spawtify, has a sleep timer that pauses the music after so many hours; the wireless earphones have their own sleep time where they turn off after so many minutes of silence; this would mean that not only were his earphones on after he had fallen asleep, once the music had halted hours later, they were on for a few minutes longer before turning off, and he didn't even think to charge them when he woke up! Well, nonetheless, once he arrived at the lockers, he had a thought that he would be putting his backpack in the locker with his phone and all his clothes, so he wouldn't need his earphones either as the wireless connection did not reach far.

Ulrich did not think to look around for anyone around him. This building had but a small parking lot beside it and he did not see anyone when nearing it. Standing in front of the lockers, he took his backpack off and set it down on the pavement next to him. He opened the largest zipper of the black backpack with the little red dragon logo on it and began to remove his clothes. His sweater, he slipped up and over his head and folded it in mid-air as neat as he could get it and slid it into the backpack; his shorts, only needing to unfasten a strap at the back of them centered along the waistline that made it much simpler to accommodate his tail, he began pulling them down and wiggling himself out of them, also giving that a couple of folds before sliding them into his backpack. He debated, for a moment, if he should keep his socks on before promptly coming to the conclusion that those should come off as well, sliding them off from his legs and giving his legs a soft rub, straightening his fur, and then tossing the rainbow socks into his backpack as well, zipping closed the backpack and sliding it into the locker that was just slightly bigger than the size of the backpack. With his wireless earphones being the last things deciding to keep his glasses on, he removed them from around his neck and slipped them into a smaller pocket at the front of the backpack, zipping it closed, closing the locker, and setting the passcode. As he stood up, the cool air washed over his body, his fur swaying gently in the soft breeze as the wind caressed his now exposed genitalia. His tail swayed behind him contently as he reached his arms up in the air and stretched mightily, soaking in the sunlight and the air. After his stretch, he rounded the corner of the building and saw another person, another anthro feline it seemed, walking nude off in the nearby distance. Ulrich smirked and gave a soft chuckle at the thought that someone else had the same idea as him and on the same day. He didn't want to interfere with their nature walk, so Ulrich set off down a dirt trail that was headed in a different direction still towards the vast expanse of desert scrub that was this portion of the park.

The fine, crisp sand was soft under Ulrich's paws as his paw pads left prints behind him. He sauntered along the trail, keeping a slow pace, looking around at the landscape surrounding him. He had traveled so deep into the park that he could not see the city anymore nor hear the sounds emanating from it; he was surrounded by course, rocky, sand-covered fields with occasionally dry shrubbery dotted about with the sound of a faint, light breeze whistling past these shrubs, and a smell, oddly enough, one could simply describe as "the smell of nature." The natural smell of the desert air that may be an amalgam of animal smells, the faint smell of the foliage, and the subtle scent the sand and dust create all whisked together and carried along by the wind that Ulrich was now allowing to breathe across his fur.

His walk was nothing if not serene. A calm moment of contemplative serenity. As he walked down the sun-bathed dirt trail, he thought not of the events that transpired the months prior, but rather what more he can do in the coming future to back the coming days better. He thought about what it would be like to live out here in the desert, looking at the mountainous horizon, the mountains at a close enough distance that he could faintly make out what seemed to be some caves, and pondered on the likelihood of creating a habitat for himself there. Perhaps on his next walk, he will hike that very mountain and investigate it further. There shouldn't be anything bad in there. The feral animals around Wetlands Park have experienced anthro interaction for long enough that should he encounter any, they would either initially flee and then return to see what he was doing or simply mind their own business with the knowledge that he is there and be wary of his presence, but nothing more. His attention back to the trail, he noticed further along the path a split into some tall grass, and where there is grass there was sure to be water. Ulrich did not know how long his walk would last, but having spaced out looking at the mountain, he turned behind him and noticed he had walked quite a way away from the restroom building; it was nearly out of sight. Another quick stop for water would be nice. He rounded the corner of the grass barrier and found that the path proceeded a bit further down a little hill.

At the bottom of the hill at the end of the small path was the coast of a little stream. Also along the coast of the stream was the other feline he had spotted walking earlier. Ulrich jumped slightly, not expecting to see another large figure but relaxed once he saw that it was another anthro. They were also drinking water from the stream; so as to not bother them, he traveled a little further down the coast before reaching the stream, catching a glimpse of under the bent over feline's tail and noticing that they were likely female. As he neared the stream, he heard what sounded like his presence also startling the other feline; being a feline himself, he tends to be rather silent when he walks, unintentionally, so she had likely only just noticed him in her peripheral vision. Ulrich knelt once more as before to drink water; a few sips in and he heard the other feline's voice.

"Lovely day for a stroll, isn't it?" The feline, having moved slightly closer to Ulrich so that he could hear her but not too close, not wanting to startle him also, began speaking.

Ulrich looked up at her and licked some water dripping from his lips. "Hmm? Oh, yes, quite!" Ulrich was not the smoothest conversationalist, especially when it came to interacting with strangers.

"I'm actually surprised to see someone else way out here, and, from the looks of it, going on a naked stroll like me." The female feline continues.

Ulrich replied, blushing lightly at her acknowledgment of his nudity. "Oh, yeah. I was thinking the same thing."

"Do you do this often?"

"Well, I used to visit the park more often in the past couple of years, but I haven't been able to these past months..."

"Right, right," she interjected.

"...but, as for coming out here nude, it's kind of, actually, my first time." Ulrich replied shyly as he looked down at the ground in front of him, not wanting to make it seem like he was trying to look at her body.

"Oh, okay! What made you want to try it?" The female stood up straight and began towards Ulrich.

He licked his lips of any remaining water and stood up as well. "Well, these past few months have been rather rough on me, and my usual methods of relaxation weren't really doing it for me. So, since I haven't been here in a while, I figured now would be a great time to visit the park again, but I just really wanted to..feel..."

"One with nature?" Ulrich wasn't quite sure if his explanation would make sense as he was already shy about being seen naked in public, even if it is by someone else who was naked. In fact, that was probably making him even more nervous. He trailed off at the end of his sentence trying to find the most cohesive way to explain his thought process when she finished his sentence for him. "Yeah, you don't have to explain yourself any further. That's why I'm here, too, actually. Something about being here, especially in this park amidst the city - and if you come here at night, seeing the lights in the distance is a sight the behold - it really makes you thankful that this little respite is here. It only makes sense that if you're here to get away from something, you want to get as far away from it as possible, so far away that you want to return to nature to feel truly at peace. If there is one constant in this life, it is that nature will always be around us, and it always is. We just have to find it. I can't say I haven't been struggling these past few months also - well, even more so than usual - but even under regular circumstances I'll come out here and go on these nude walks because it just makes me feel so free. The wind and the fresh air breezing through my fur makes me feel like I'm floating; like I truly am becoming one with nature; like I am being lifted up by the arms of Mother Nature into a gentle caress and she whispers into my ear 'You're going to be okay' and for that moment my perseverance is revitalized...and I know I can keep going. I just have to push through these times. Because they will pass. As long as I keep going." The feline wiped a few tears from her face. "Heh, sorry for going on like that. I guess I just needed someone to talk to."

Ulrich, too, wiped a few tears off from his cheek as, against all his of his instinct, he goes in for a hug, to which she accepts and hugs him back. "It's okay," Ulrich begins reconciling her. "I enjoy it when people feel comfortable enough with me to talk to me like that. I know how it feels to want to talk to someone about your problems. It feels so much better to let them out."

"It does, it does," she replied as they continued to hug. "I figured that if you were here doing the same thing I was doing and partly for the same reason, you might be going through the same things too. I just wanted you to know that I feel you, and it's going to be okay."

The two of them, again, began tearing up into the hug for a moment before finally, Ulrich could feel this other feline pull away from the hug, and so did he. She turned and faced the stream again, kneeling down and splashing some water onto her face then drinking some as well, to which Ulrich decided to join her, cleaning his face of his salty tears, and finishing his drinking session that had been the initial plan for this stop.

Once the two of them finished drinking, they stood up. "Sorry, again. I didn't think I would get so sentimental on this walk." The female feline spoke with a slightly more cheerful tone than before.

"Oh, no problem! I'm glad you felt comfortable enough with me to open up like that." Ulrich replied, rubbing his hair shyly as he remembered that he is nude in front of some stranger who is also nude.

"You know, if you don't mind, I'd like to continue talking with you. Would you mind if I accompanied you on your walk?"

"Oh? Well, of course not. That sounds lovely, actually!" Ulrich's face began warming up significantly as he blushed at the thought of walking nude with a stranger.

"Thank you so much! My name is Sara, by the way."

"My name is Ulrich; nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Ulrich. Were you going anywhere in particular on this walk?"

"No, not really. Just kind of wanted to walk."

"Perfect."

The two felines retreated up the short path over the hill joining back with the main trail and rounding the corner accented by the tall, dry grass, turning right, and continuing down the trail. Side by side, they walked down the sandy trail, their paws leaving tracks in the soft sand behind them as their fur fluttered in the cool morning breeze, Sara creating conversation and Ulrich listening intently as he has found a new friend.