"Where are ya going?" Fish Sticks called after him. He looked at the crow again. "Gulls, am I right? Always believing they can just go and fly away from their troubles!" This he said so quickly that his voice was almost inaudible.
"I'm still here. I just prefer the water over land. I can come back!" Ritz flew back on the deck. "I'm not very social, you know. My family doesn't come here much."
Outcast was about to laugh at his name, before Fish Sticks was suddenly straight in her face, nearly scaring the feathers off her. "I am definitely not his friend." She said matter-of-factually. "And I'm not foreign, I'm from the city, which is a simply a short fly away from here, Gull."
Outcast stared at him blankly. "Uh, yeah." She said awkwardly, squinting at him. "You know you're a gull too, right?"
"Any idea what that gull is saying?" Fish Sticks cawed, squinting after Ritz. "Ah, he's back. What were you sayin'?" Finally he realized that the crow had asked him a question. "Sorry, what was that? I was talking to him-" he waved a wing at Ritz, "-because I couldn't hear a thing he said! But it probably wasn't important. Say, you know something important? This big gull I met-" His voice had been sputtering out as quickly as it could go before he realized no one could understand him. "Sorry. Was rambling again. What was that you said, notgul?"
Outcast stared at him dumbly, wondering how any creature could speak so fast, and so randomly. "I said I'm not his friend, nor am I foreign, I'm from the city which is merely a short fly away from here. And please, enough with the 'notgul'. It's Outcast."
"Oh, hello Outcast, what a pleasant meeting we had today. I am Ritz Crackers," Ritz said.
What... Kind of name is 'Ritz Crackers'? Or 'Fish Sticks', for that matter? Outcast blinked, giving a slight nod. "Interesting to meet you too... Um, Ritz Crackers."
"You think my name is weird, I know. All us gulls are named after what they eat. It's a sign of pride. But I never heard of a crow by the name of 'Outcast' before..." Ritz stood gracefully on one foot.
"Hmm. Yes, good names." Fish Sticks muttered. He cocked his head at Outcast. "The city? I've been there. A nice place." He considered her. "You know, last time I was there I met an odd sort of fellow- a pigeon, actually! Anyway, he said that he knew I wouldn't hurt him because he had seen me in the sky. Strange, isn't it? Well, I asked him what he meant, but then I saw half a corn dog being thrown away- can you believe that? Half a corn dog! So ungrateful, humans are. Corn dogs are vital!" After a moment of silence, he squinted at the water, confused. "Now, what was I saying?"
Fish Sticks, completely forgetting what he had been talking about just a second ago, cocked his head at the smaller gull in surprise. "Well, certainly not all gulls! I know some named such obscure things like 'Solteraz' or 'Copletaan'. Have no idea what those names are supposed to mean, seem like weird choices as somethin' you'd wanna be called.." He fell silent, trying to figure out why you would possibly want to name yourself something like that.
