Fallen Tree Cove We swam among the northern lights

@Namid
Random Event: The northern lights are particularly brilliant tonight.
Setting: March 16th - late evening - located at the pack den site

Quiet crunching echoed on the stillness of the night as Vespertio's cream colored paws landed on remnants of snow yet to melt under the rays of sunlight. Reluctant to be banished and reduced to mere puddles. To later be absorbed by the thirst of the soil it once cloaked during the freezing months of winter. Now only patches of the colorless powder littered the ground here and there, most of them adorning a tint of tan from members of the pack trotting over them with mud clad pads. The same mud that now caked over the patriarchs own pads as he loped at a leisurely pace through the groupings of pine trees whom stood tall like might guardians throughout his territory, his kingdom. The night was young on the air as golden eyes angled upwards to catch a glimpse of the first strings of faint light dancing and swimming against the navy blue backdrop of the sky. Ribbons of purple, green and blue intertwining in their duets catching his attention and curiosity in their intangible grip. Never had the Vuesain man seen something quite like this before.

"Now what is this phenomenon?" he spoke aloud before he climbed upon one of the fallen trees that lay across the boulders and followed it until he was on top of the den, reaching his throne as he liked to think the spot as. It held the perfect elevation to scan a good portion of his territory and tonight allowed him to get the best unobstructed view of the sky. With his head angled skyward wonder danced across his pools much like the rays of changing spectrum light. It was beautiful. Something that would be perfect to share with a loved one..if he had one. For a moment the points of his ears flattened against his skull. Athena would have enjoyed a sight like this if she was still around. But alas the pale queen was no more and emptiness filled his heart despite the constant company of wolves among the pack. The members were dear to him, yes, but none of them were capable of filling the void he felt except maybe one, but who knew how much longer she would be staying under his care and it gave him collywobbles that the feeling would never go away.

How lovely are the portals of the night

Namid Macieo

when stars come out to watch the daylight die

The Star Dancer was awoken by the scratching of claws against bark and the patter of paw steps above the communal den. Through the air wafted the fresh scent of a male she’d come to enjoy the company of, though they hadn’t much time recently to see much of each other. Vesper was always out scouting the borders for members to join their small pack, hunting for them as much as he could and coming back late in the night then leaving again early in the morning. Truly, she found him admirable. His drive as astonishing, never did he lose hope that they would prevail. The amount of love he felt for his members was evident in his efforts, and her heart ached for the lack of turnout his efforts were providing.

Namid rose to her paws, only an ache could be felt in her right forepaw at the moment. It had been over a week and a half since she’d been rescued by Vespertio and brought to Fallen Tree Cove. She was healing quickly due to the great care being provided, and she’d even gained a decent amount of weight back. Her pale pelt was almost back to normal, its sheen having returned and her pelt plush. It wasn’t until then that she’d realized what state she’d been in, how unhealthy she had been. Because of this she was all the more thankful to the tawny male for his help to her. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to repay him.

Moving out of the den she hopped onto the fallen tree, moving her way up gracefully until she’d reached the top of the den. Her companion came into her sights, bathed in the dying light of the dying day. His intense golden gaze was fixed on the sky, turning her own head to witness the churning colors that swirled amidst it. A small smile curled upon her blackened lips, for every time she’d seen the Aurora Borealis it never failed to take her breath away. Namid had paused at the end of the tree, dipping her head in a bow as she spoke. “Would you care if I joined you?”

Ayelie-stock @DA

It was the sound of nails scratching against dry bark that caught his attention first, the audits atop his head giving a small flick at the sound before the woman approaching spoke. Forcing his head to lower in order to glance in her direction, a soft smile laying across his lips before his body stood and slide over until enough space was made to allow her form to settle next to his. "Id be honored." Vesper spoke lightly as his haunches lowered to settle on the cool stone of the den top, fluff of his tail wrapping around the cream of his paws. "How is your paw feeling?" He inquired while the golden hue of his eyes dropped to study her right forepaw, noticing that the swelling that had once doubled its size all but gone now. Mixed emotions swirled inside him knowing what this would mean. Soon she would be okay for travel and free to leave them. A part of him was glad that she had made a swift and problem free recovery. Another side saddened by the idea of the pale coated woman departing and the chance that the two may never lay eyes on each other again. She had come to be an enjoyable companion to the patriarch and a nice change from the other females, although he did still enjoy them to an extent. Rift who was still but a pup and full of energy he just couldn't quite keep up with nor relate to that much. Then Haine who was a constant ego inflation to his power hungry side, but the woman barely spoke phrases holding more than a couple words. Not much conversation there. With Namid it was easy.

Awaiting a response to be issued from the woman his head angled back once more to spectate the changing colors in the sky, ears pricking forward in his wonder at the natural event mother nature created when the setting was just right. It was beautiful to watch and had become even better now that he had someone to watch it with, especially the female he had sadly not had enough time to spend with as of late. Pack task had taken up so much of his time lately that he didn't have a chance to stop by and see how she was doing other than the occasional passing. Vespertio was out at the first sign of light and returned just late enough in the night hours to catch a few winks of sleep before having to be up to do it all again. It was a brutal schedule but it had to be done to insure the pack thrived under his rule. He was determined to see them thrive.

How lovely are the portals of the night

Namid Macieo

when stars come out to watch the daylight die

Vespertio complied, rising to scoot over and allow her room to lie alongside him. Trotting over she settled herself, moving over with a start as their pelts brushed. A blush powdered the skin beneath her pale pelt as she cleared her throat and utter and apology, moving so that there was a respectable amount of space between them. She normally didn’t act so strangely at things as simple as an accidental side brush, but the woman had come to realize she’d started her heat. Even then, her bones had begun to burn and her kept her tail fit snuggly to her body to avoid having her scent wash everywhere. Being this close to him was doing strange things to her, and she had yet to realize it until she’d finally come to spend time with him at the moment. Her mind felt foggy, her heart beginning to thunder in her chest and she hoped to whatever power there was that he couldn’t hear it.

At his inquiry to her paw, her own mismatched gaze trailed down to gaze at it. It definitely did look better, and she moved to mention that she was doing quite well. “It...,” she paused, suddenly questioning whether she should admit to the fact that she was perfectly well. In all honesty, if she wanted to she could leave that next morning. The fault in her paw had settled down to an ache, something of which she could definitely deal with. However, inside her mind gave a whine at the prospect. Namid, being herself, grew easily attached to anything and found she had grown attached to this man and the land they were in. She had a duty but…who’s to say that duty couldn’t be fulfilled a bit later. She had already been gone for so long, perhaps a few more weeks wouldn’t hurt anything. Hurriedly she connected her words, “Is doing alright, but it is probably best not to push things like this. I am afraid I might be in your fur for a little while longer,” She finished.

Once again moving her gaze to follow his, she was drawn upon the sky. “Ah, the Northern Lights. Where I am from, you could see them sometimes dancing faintly in the sky. But here, they are just…brilliant. I have never seen the colors move so vibrantly,” She breathed out, staring up at them in awe.

Ayelie-stock @DA

There was no hiding the shiver that ran down his spine that made his pelt bristle in a non-dominant way from the sensation of her fur brushing against his. The tawny man was well aware that the females in the pack, every single last one of them was beginning their heat and in honesty he had done his best to try and avoid the estrogen raging females. He knew that they would want male company to sooth whatever it was that fueled them inside and the patriarch was beginning to feel the effects of their intoxicating scents lingering everywhere. Inside his own hormone levels were rising changing the somewhat docile man into an angry beast that wanted to put every man in the pack in check. Reminding them of his power and position. It was this time of the year he felt the most invincible towards males and the most vulnerable towards females. Thus he busied himself with tasks that would keep him away most hours of the day to avoid unnecessary confrontations.

A half hearted smile came to settle on his ebony lips hearing the woman beside him speak of how well her paw was doing. Time was running short on how much longer she was capable of staying it seemed until she finished her thought with sticking around longer to not push anything. News that left his smile resting pleasantly on his lips as his head remained tilted back up to the sky. "I'm glad you're not going to be one of the crazy ones that tries to do things before they should be done." Momentarily dropping his gaze from the light show in the sky he glanced over her facial features when she glanced up, taking in the beauty before him while she was distracted, ears pricked forward to listen to her sweet voice as it left her inky lips. So these odd lights in the sky were called the Northern Lights. The pale woman had seen them before unlike himself. He wondered what other strange and fascinating things the woman had come to see in her lifetime. That was when he remembered her mentioning beast called humans that day he brought her home. The patriarch wanted to know more about them now. "Tell me more about these humans you spoke of that one day." His voice lofted lightly on the air, golden gaze returning to the dancing ribbons of color above.

A small chuckle left her maw at his words, admitting that he was glad she wasn’t, in shorter words, so foolish as to push herself in case she were to reinjure her paw. In all honesty, if it had been any other time she would have done just that. She wasn’t one to show her bothers to others, she liked to seem the optimistic one on most occasions. She didn’t consider herself strong for it, she simply didn’t like others doting on her all the time. These past few weeks had, honestly, been a bit trying for her. She was very thankful to him for taking care of her when she needed to be, but she had constantly been suppressing the uncomfortable itch to get out and do something with her time instead of sitting and watching the clouds go by. Now that she could, they would expect to find plenty of extra help on their paws.

Namid felt a prickle on the back of her neck, the type of shiver you got when you felt someone looking at you. She realized that he was staring at her and a blush crept onto her cheeks. What had happened to her, to make her blush so easily just by a look? Surly it was the hormones, she considered to herself. Normally she never blushed so easily, as she was never easily embarrassed. Somehow, she was doing it all the time around the agouti king. Cold was felt where his gaze had been as he returned his intense golden sight to the sky above. "Tell me more about these humans you spoke of that one day." He’d asked gently, a genuine curiosity held behind his words. She was surprised he remember her mentioning the creatures she’d lived so long with, though of course in these lands they were something that not many would.

The pale woman thought back on her days with them, picturing their figures in her mind. The memories of the sounds of their voices, their laughs, their mannerisms. A faint ache settled into her chest, but it was something she was used to at this point. She knew that she needed to think of these memories as positive ones, and most of them were to her. But one never really lost the love they felt for others, not really. “Well, they are quite intelligent beings, possibly even smarter than us. They walk up on two feet and wear the skins of other animals as warmth because they have no fur. I always thought it was strange, but we do much the same with our dens sometimes do we not? They have long arms and long toes on their front paws that allow them to pick things up with them. However, the most curious thing I found about them was their ability to control fire,” She explained, emphasizing her last point.

Wonder danced across the globular shape of his rich golden pools as they focused on the array of pink, purple and green beams of light that intertwined one minute and fleeted from each other the next. The rounded points of his audits pinned forward to indicate that the pale woman beside him held his full attention despite the tawny man's gaze being adverted elsewhere. A single word that was to be uttered from her lips would not go unheard as he listened to the tale of the humans from her past. Thus the story began as she spoke of these mysterious creatures. Fascinating things to the larger wolf. These humans walked on two legs instead of four(Vesper finding this to be quite the disadvantage in his opinion) and used the fur of other animals to keep themselves warm from the lack of their own hair. Winter must be one hell of a season to try and get through with no hair of their own to keep in the body heat that was so vital to keep hypothermia and frostbite at bay. But then the most peculiar thing fell from the inky lips of Namid.

According to the silvery woman at his side these humans had the ability to control fire. Blasphemy. No such thing aside from mother nature herself could control such a wild element. In the blink of an eye his head whipped to turn in her direction, the confusion and wonder still evident in the depths of his gaze. "But that's not possible. Nothing can control something like fire! Only a god could do such a thing." The same emotions swimming in his eyes echoed behind his words. That left a million questions to fill up the capacity of his skull. Where do you find such creatures? How do they go about controlling the fiery flames and not end up with a patch of scorched skin or worse? Vespertio had seen wolves damaged by the rage of a burning fire and there was no way something could contain that power. Fire was and is untamable in his mind.

The King of the Lake’s expressions were fun to watch as she spoke, glancing at him from the corners of her vision. Despite his big, strong appearance she was finding that he was quite the curious guy beneath. He behaved in a way she never would expect, and in much the way that she did. In his thirst for knowledge they were much the same way, and she couldn’t help the gentle smile that curled upon her lips. He was growing on her, quickly and in ways she hadn’t expected. A prince charming in disguise.

His reaction to her declaration was something she’d expected, but perhaps not in the excess that he did it. Whipping his head around to stare at her with wide, disbelieving eyes he cried out "But that's not possible. Nothing can control something like fire! Only a god could do such a thing." and this was something that she pondered on. His words weren’t far off from the truth she supposed, nature was nearly impossible to control. It wasn’t something that was meant to be tamed and while it might comply it would never fully submit. Only something other than a worldly being could fully tame the feral blood that ran through the ground at their feet. But humans were nothing other worldly to her, they were something she’d grown up with. It never occurred to her that they could be anything other than family, until they were taken away by those men in the strange black furs. Of course there was a bit of evil in everything, and nothing was for certain. It didn’t make them godly, it made them mortal.

She tilted her head, looking at him curiously but suppressed the smile that wanted to stretch themselves onto her lips. She’d found that, when he showed this part of himself, he quickly got embarrassed because she suspected he thought it wasn’t proper of him. How she wished he could be completely comfortable around her, and perhaps he could be someday. But for now it was the best option for her to pretend like she didn’t notice. Turning her gaze back to the sky above, watching as the lights twisted and twirled like a ballerinas ribbon she pondered for a few more moments on his words. “Perhaps you could be correct, there are few things that only gods may do. But I believe we all have a bit of god inside of us, how else was I survive that oh-so-graceful plummet down the edge of the mountain that led me here?” She chuckled, remembering the incident. “They are not like us, they can do things that we cannot do. But we can do things they cannot do as well, like scent a moose from a mile away or speak the language that we do. Maybe their ability to control the fire to the extent they do is a part of what their abilities allow,”

The golden hues of his eyes remained fixated on her silvery form even after her bi-colored gaze returned skyward to watch the shimmering spectrum in the sky. Silence fell between them momentarily as Namid no doubt pondered on how to make a comeback for the phrases he sprung upon her. Surely she must know that nothing could completely tame something so wild and reckless as fire. He listened intently as his front limbs moved to bring his heavy frame into a laying position with the bottle brush fluff of his tail coming around to wrap around the left side of his rear haunches. She spoke of parts of gods being in us all. An explanation for the life defying acts one may do in their life times. How she had managed to survive taking a fall off the mountainside and how humans had the ability to control fire to some extent. To him it made some sense, but his brain was still so wrapped around the idea that something had the ability to control fire. Even if just partial control.

"Do you ever miss them?" He suddenly tagged on shortly after her words were finished, a slight angled cock of his head. Sometimes the tawny man thought of his home. There wasn't much for him to miss these days knowing Valfred if not all of them by now wanted him dead. Memories of that fatal day seared into his mind and the final words his brother had left him with after chasing him far from their homelands. But oh how he would love to show them all how he had changed since then. No longer was he this conniving trickster that did anything to bring trouble to others. Hungry for power. He had gained the power he so desperately wanted as a pup and with it came the power of change. The Vuesain man didn't bark orders and push others to do his every bidding like he thought he would those years ago. Today he was a worthy leader who did his best. To insure those who trusted him enough with their lives didn't regret it. He couldn't fail them like he had his family.

This time, she had not sensed his gaze on her form. She was still contemplating, her mind going a mile a minute as it usually did with ideas and thoughts and existential questions fluttering here and there to file themselves into her sub-consciousness to brought out again later. She remembered they had used the fire to burn their meat, which had always made her nose crinkle. How could anyone like burnt meat, she’d wondered. Fresh meat was always the best, straight from the carcass of the animal when it was still juicy and a bit warm. Those were the best meals, especially if you’d caught them yourself. But burning the meat must take all the flavor away, there was no blood to it once it was all done. How tough it must have been to eat it, but they ate it anyways so there must have been some sort of decency in it in the end.

Around the man-made fire had also been where she’d learned many of her stories. Around the fire the other wolves had spun tales of their lives, of their experiences in lands both near and far. This had always captured her attention the most, the tales of the lands far away. Perhaps those had been the ones that had led her to Lore, the promise of something else out there that wouldn’t leave her alone, scared, and just…empty. When her family had been taken, she’d gone straight in the direction she’d felt best. The direction that would take her anywhere, anywhere but there no matter how much her heart told her not to. In the end, it was the stories that had turned her life as it was into a reality. Stories were powerful, as she knew, because they paved the pathway to hope and new beginnings.

Suddenly, the man spoke and snapped her out of her daze. She turned her gaze to find him laying comfortably beside her, leaving her to wonder when he had moved. "Do you ever miss them?" he inquired, and it took barely a second for her to respond. “Of course.” She missed them, a lot. Namid had loved her family with so much of her that, though she hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, she had gone rather numb to the world for several weeks after the incident. She had briefly encased herself in her own cocoon of sorts, leaving her mind to mature and process the happenings that had occurred so quickly in the previous time frame. She had been so young, so foolish and tale-stricken that she had no real clue what the world had been like. Even arriving in Lore, all she’d had to base her life from was the stories that had spun to make her life the way that it was. They were the things that had kept her alive, told her what animals and plants to eat, where she could find shelter if she looked closely for it, what direction she was heading and when.

Without even meaning to, her family had saved her life.

Of course, after those weeks she had let herself slowly unfurl and then really begin to process the world. Her fascination had begun again, and she grew to learn to accept things for what they were and not for what they had been. That had been her saving grace, for if that hadn’t happened she might well not have been where she was that moment. “I choose not to dwell on it, however. Our lives are short and meaningless when we dwell solely on the times ago, if we want to survive we must look in the present and in the future. If our loved ones truly loved us, they would want the same,” She replied, repeating the same thing she’d told herself over and over again to him.