"Your eyebrows said plenty."
They set off as the sun crested the tree line, following a path that wound through the interior of the island before cutting east toward the shore. The jungle was different at this hour—cooler, quieter, the usual symphony of birds still warming up for the day.
Lily fell into step beside him, her earlier sleepiness replaced by alert curiosity. "So, sea turtles. What's the deal? Are they endangered? Wait, don't tell me—of course they're endangered. Everything cool is endangered."
"Green sea turtles are listed as endangered, yes. They've been hunted for centuries for their meat, eggs, and shells. Add in habitat destruction, pollution, climate change affecting sand temperatures?—"
"Sand temperatures matter?"
"For determining sex, yes. Warmer sand produces more females. As global temperatures rise, some populations are becoming almost entirely female, which creates its own set of problems for reproduction."
"Huh." Lily ducked under a low-hanging branch he held aside for her. "So hot sand equals all girls, which means eventually no boys to make more turtles. That's actually kind of fascinating in a depressing way."
"Welcome to marine biology. Fascinating and depressing is basically our brand."
She laughed—that genuine, unguarded sound he was beginning to crave. "That should be on a t-shirt. I'd buy it."
They walked in comfortable silence for a while, the terrain growing rockier as they approached the eastern shore. Alex found himself stealing glances at her, noting how she'd learned to navigate the jungle floor without stumbling, how her eyes tracked the wildlife with genuine interest instead of just searching for photo opportunities.
She was trying. That's what got him.
She wasn't just tolerating his world to pass time—she was actually engaging with it.
"Can I ask you something?" Lily said, breaking the silence.
"Depends on what it is."
"Why sea turtles? I mean, specifically. You could study any marine life. Why them?"
Alex considered the question, surprised to find he wanted to answer honestly. "They've been around for over a hundred million years. They survived the extinction that killed the dinosaurs. They navigate thousands of miles across open ocean using the earth's magnetic field, and they return to the exact beach where they were born to lay their own eggs." He shook his head. "Something that ancient, that resilient—it deserves protecting."
When he glanced at Lily, she was watching him with an expression he couldn't quite read.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing. You just... you're different when you talk about your work."
"Different how?"
"Less grumpy. More..." She searched for the word. "Human."
He wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult. With Lily, it was often both.
The trees thinned ahead, and Alex felt the familiar anticipation building in his chest. "We're almost there.Stay quiet when we reach the beach—if there's any activity at the nest, I don't want to disturb it."
"I can be quiet," Lily whispered.
"Since when?"
She mimed zipping her lips, and despite himself, Alex smiled.
The eastern beach never failed to stir something in Alex's chest.
He'd seen it dozens of times since arriving on the island, but the pristine crescent of pale gold sand against the impossible blue of the water still felt like a privilege. No footprints marred the surface except for the tracks leading from the tree line: his boots, her borrowed hiking shoes.
And something else.
"Is that..." Lily pointed at the distinctive pattern in the sand, trailing from the water toward a slight depression near the dunes.
