Midnight Plateau the ecstasy of gold

The beast hauled himself up the mountainside, each paw mechanically placed, one before the other. As fun as it was to laze about the territory, with the occasional token effort given to appease his brother and Phineas, it did start to bore the dimmer Cygni. Fortunately simple minds only needed simple pleasures, and a jaunt outside the territory was a sufficient distraction. There was some reason he had decided to go up the mountain, but it had been long forgotten and he was simply moving to keep moving. Al wasn't paying attention to where he was going, and eventually wound up slipping through a wall of high rocks and onto a plateau.

Albireo paced to the edge of the plateau, peering down over its edge until a keen sense of vertigo caused him to visibly shudder and pull back. Looking across, the sun had already began to creep down behind the mountain at his back, drawing a dark wedge shaped shadow over the gold tinted lands. Really, it was a beautiful sight, but the spectacle was utterly wasted on Albireo.

The winds seemed to have changed, with them bringing an eddy of dust headed straight for Albireo's dull eyes. He winced, though it was too late, the grit having already made itself incredibly intimate with his corneas. Al whined loudly, reaching up with a pale white paw to swipe uselessly at his watering eyes. Loudly making all sorts of horrible groans, he lay down on the ground and pawed at both stinging eyes.

(This post was last modified: Jul 28, 2014, 03:41 AM by Albireo.)

the misty mountains cold... The Raven, born on the winds that brought him back over the mountaintops, had thought to return home when his course of travel had changed. With his ink-black limbs tucked to this belly he soared, soon coming to discover the sight of a pale figure against the cold tones of Midnight Plateau. His eyes squinted in the breeze as he circled back around, finding the turbulence less difficult to navigate in now that he was slowly spiraling down towards the hidden pack site. He landed with an abrupt plop and partial skid against the uneven ground, but what was this? His head tilted uncertainly. His beak parted in shock and in a sort of enthusiastic dance, he hopped around despite the man's pitiful whining. The dust swirled up around him briefly as he approached the canine, his whole sable-feathered being quivering. "ALEXANDER??" he trilled. "Izzat... Is that you? But you're... You're..." He let out a startled cry in the form of a throaty cawww! and as quickly as he had thought to say hello to the previous king of the mountain, he stumbled backwards, scrambling about on both his wings and feet as he tried to put some distance between him and the wolf. This place had once been the strong hold of Alexander Dieudonné, the Leader of the Midnight Plateau pack. That much the bird knew by heart... That and the fact that Honijo, a relative of the Tainn family was its original founder. When Honijo had wandered over the mountain, Alexander had been the one to take it over. But, after the territory battle that split the wolves of Midnight Plateau apart, the Raven had not exactly expected the Dieudonné himself to be here, in the flesh... In a rather comical fashion, the aviator waddled about, eyeing the empty den in the distance before returning his beady-eyed gaze back to the wolf before him. He chirped uncertainly, "S-s-s-sir?"

Albireo was still attempting to scrub the dirt from his eyes when the winged creature glided down to join him on the plateau. It wasn't until the avian began to squawk that Al finally noticed it, turning his watering eyes to glare at the black feathered bird. "Caw, caw caw, caw, croak," was all he heard, not even considering the possibility that it was trying to say something with its raspy voice. Before Albireo could even think to get to his feet, the raven stumbled back away from him.

The Cygni stood, eyeing the corvid as it waddled about in an animated fashion he had never noticed from a raven before, which probably said more about his observational skills rather than this particular specimen. The temptation of catching the bird drifted through his mind, but he immediately discarded the thought. The one time he and @Deneb had managed to catch a crow out of desperation... it hadn't tasted pleasant at all, and Albireo imagined an even bigger crow wouldn't taste much better.

"What's up with you, He slowly murmured, more to himself than anything. Somewhat ironically, Al had always considered birds rather dull, mindless creatures. It was surprising the way this one was just looking right at him. After some more staring, he realized the raven was looking right at a den he hadn't noticed on his way in.

"Better not be a bear in here," Albireo grumbled to the bird as he paced closer to the den, nose working as he tried to detect if the cave was still inhabited. A few tufts of fur, brittle and bleached by the elements clung to the rocky mouth of the den, but any scent it might have once held was now long gone.