She came down through a shoddy, rocky mountain pass by the time nightfall had come along. And by then, the sky was alight with brilliant flame that she could not describe. The northern lights of the wilderness had erupted delightfully, crossing beneath the backlit canopy like waves not unlike the sea. Across the hillocks and indentations of an area she knew not to have a name yet, Mojave had been forced to come to a stop in order to watch the nighttime sky unabashed. It filled with her missing wonder from her youth, and her stillness was punctuated by a certain gape across her countenance.


The honey-kissed Ostrega could not fathom why the sky was aglow, nor did she have the proper wordage to begin to explain what she saw to anyone else. Mojave hadn't the faintest idea that these were far more common than where she had grown up and frankly, she wasn't entirely certain that she wasn't losing her mind. It had been several days since she had any success at capturing something of substantial sustenance. She hungered and ached once more, but her steps were determined in following the trail that Deacon had left in his wake.


As her thoughts ran over that particular memory, she regretted allowing herself to become sidetracked in their talk of having traveled together. A day or two wasn't so bad, at least she had an idea of where he was headed. A shift in the sky above her distracted her from these thoughts and her new found, beamish friend, this time prompting her to recline to her haunches as she gave the night sky a thorough study. She allowed it to strip away the awareness that she normally kept about her and allowed the band of northern lights to render her to whatever imagination dared to bound forward.

Gent's eyes were likewise fixed to the skies. He was familiar with the light show, having been born much farther north than this. Still, their beauty had never diminished, and tonight they seemed especially dazzling. The man wasn't much for beauty, his mind was far too practically geared. Yet every now and then, his eye could be caught. The lights reminded him of his childhood. The portion that had been spent with his father, the man Gent had modeled so much of himself after, who had taught him what was truly important and how to achieve it. With those memories also filtered into his mind recollection of his estranged half-siblings. He wondered if Eek was still in the area, or if she had shared his pack's mysterious fate. If their obsessive brother had ever found her, or if their second narcissistic sister was still tramping around wherever she had room to swing her hips. A sigh escaped him as he thought of the disappointment and contempt his father would have held if he'd seen what had become of his chosen children. Perhaps he would even be sore with Gent, and his lack of progress. A year he had been in the Lore, and it had started off so promising, but he let the opportunity slip out from under his paws and now he had little to nothing to show for it. He took his eyes off the sky, to the frozen landscape and spied a honeyed glow amongst the blackened ice. Gent pressed forward, questions pooling thickly on his tongue. As he approached, however, they were swallowed back. She appeared to be half his age, and therefore would probably have not a clue as to what he was talking about if he brought up Hollow Heart Keep. By now, however, he was a bit too close to turn away without her noticing. "Hello, miss. Care for some company?"

The sky shifted amain, the colors morphing violently.  It almost startled her to see this shift, this unexplained phenomena.  It was brilliant in all its glory, the gradual change from pink to green and to a resounding crisp blue.  Incredible, that was the word that Mojave wanted to use for it, though it also prompted a fearing response somewhere in the pit of her guts.  In her study, she completely missed the approach of another, though it was also fair to suggest that for as pitch black as an inkwell as he was, she may not have ascertained him from their surroundings until he was upon her.


He was only mere feet away when his presence alerted her to someone being there, and her head snapped away from the night sky as she took him in.  And he was speaking to her, at that.  For a moment, Mojave's ability to speak eluded her as she saw the way his coat was etched in the colors above them, as though their glow had shifted onto them and their immediate location.  "I, uh," she started off stilted and uncertain, pausing for a beat to compose herself.  "Of course, you're welcome to join me.  I'm just watching the sky.  Do you know what it's doing?"



Perhaps he'd have some idea of what was going on, or at least she hoped he would.  Maybe this was common in these parts, she couldn't have said any different.  She had never seen such a show from the side of the mountain, or the shore of the lake.  And from her time in the woods, well, there was no way she probably would have seen it there either.  Even in spite of the bareness of the Lore in swatches, the canopies were dense and closed.


Belatedly, she added with a wave of her tail: "I'm Mojave, by the way."

She was obviously in awe of what was occurring in the heavens above them. The incredulous gape did not immediately dissipate as she gave up the ethereal to gaze upon him, and he found himself cocking his head slightly to the left, patient and thoughtfully awaiting her response. She welcomed him easily, which he had expected. It was easy to tell a wolf's attitude merely by their posture and she was nothing but soft and warm in appearance, even with the thickly-cloaking darkness.  She questioned him about the lights, and he knew then without a doubt that she held no valuable information for him. If this was her first night under an aurora, there was virtually no possible way for her to know of his vanished pack. Still, conversation was always a pleasant respite. "Gent," he responded with a nod, to her odd but strangely musical name. The man reclined and arctic eyes left her to once again drink in the display overhead. "I've heard it called the aurora, as well as the northern lights; farther north you go, the more common they'll be. I couldn't tell you exactly what they are or why they come and go, but they've been a comfort for as long as I can remember."

He returned the introduction and a smile spread evenly across her features. Gent, like a gentleman, proceeded then to explain what the light show was all about. Only he found them a comfort where she found them to be magically bizarre. Fascinating, even, if not enough to prompt a nervous response of the fact that they came and went from time to time.


Furthermore, the fact that he spoke of this mysterious event to be something more associated with northern ventures was... peculiar. Mojave knew she had been on the road for quite a while, knew that the seasons were beginning to work towards a warmer shift; the anthesis of spring would soon come upon them, she believed, but could not have said for certain. But she had not accounted for the distance she had gone to put the past behind her like some runaway princess like Deacon had called her. This gave her a moment of introspection, but she found that her responses came just as prompt as before.


"Guess we must be pretty far north then, huh?" she suggested, pulling her gaze away from him to watch the sky again. "Does this only happen at night?" To think, to think! What if it happened during the day, would the sky simply look as though it were aflame all the time? She couldn't recall the sky ever looking that way, aside from the way the clouds cycled appearances as they moved across the sky. But at least thankfully, she had found someone who could at least explain what was going on.

'Guess we must be pretty far north then, huh?' It was a question, one that amused and interested him. Didn't she know? He looked at her again, sizing her up, approximating her age and trying to decipher just how travel-worn she was or wasn't. He wanted to say that she couldn't have gotten far but recalled his own journey south, the progress he'd made, the speed and endurance determination could give a creature. But what would push her so? Did she share an aspiration, a purpose, such as his? Or was she running from someone, or something? These weren't answers he expected her to easily spill. While some shared every thought and occasion as easily as sharing air most held onto their secrets, kept them far closer to their heart than a stranger could expect to reach. Still, one couldn't blame him if he tested the waters. "That's the only time I've ever witnessed them," he answered her, turning thoughtful once more as the images in his mind reflected those within hers, trying to imagine what the aurora could look like if set afire by the sun. "Sounds like you've come quite a ways," Gent then observed, attempting to shift the topic of conversation onto her. Testing how loose-lipped she might be. He hoped she was willing to share, as good stories would help to dull the boredom of what felt like endless searching.

Gent could have gleaned much from Mojave in a single short study. She was young, she was worn by lengthy travel, and perhaps most of all she hadn't a single clue what she was doing in the world. Beyond that, whatever could have been ascertained of her was perhaps mentally or through some physical test; the former of which would have been interesting and the latter she truthfully would not have had interest in then. No, the sky held her attention so firmly that she found his words felt as though they came from nowhere at all. They almost seemed otherworldly for a moment, until he had commented on the length of travel she must have made. Had she come quite a way?


Mojave brought her gold-eyed gaze back to him, peering curiously at the masked features the darkness lent to his countenance. "Maybe I have, I don't know," she said, shrugging. "It was cold when I started travelling and it's still cold, and I can't say I've actually kept track either." Time was not something she was awful at, but when it came to something that had started out of anger and had been continued for the sheer enjoyment of it, she had been more focused on surviving than anything. With a beat of silence to proceed her commentary, she could not help but ask herself: "Did you come from far away too?" Perhaps they'd have something else in common than the wonder of the night sky.

OOC: Sorry for taking so long. One more round & we can fade with them chatting, if you like? She wasn't what he would describe as chatty, though that wasn't the worst thing. While it made it a little harder for him to gather information without sticking his nose too far in, it was a respected quality to be so succinct in conversation. When she turned the focus back onto him, he returned the favor, though not to please her apparent personality but rather because he thought his past would only be a nuisance should it ever escape into the Lore's air to be told to others. "Yes, I was born far into the north. I came to this region when I was a yearling, joined up with Naira and her pack Hollow Heart Keep." He paused for a moment, blues dropping from the sky back down to Mojave, considering if the question that was on the tip of his tongue was even worth uttering. Gent supposed luck could always, somehow, be in his favor and she might have heard a story or two if not met with one of the disbanded members herself. "You haven't heard either of those names before, have you? Or Chulyin? Sagacity? Mapplethorpe or Karpos?"