Darken the sky and light up the moon
So that somehow you'll be here with me soon
Bring me the night...
That brings me to you
- "Bring Me the Night" - Sam Tsui & Kina Grannis
October 19th; Night, hours after sunset; Partly Cloudy; 45 ° F, 7 ° C
He remembered now that sleep didn't come easy beneath the oaks, that the forest held some sort of life of its own at all hours of the day and the night. In his head he had just finished tucking his five children to bed - the two spoiled yearlings and the just-as-spoiled cubs who had just as much rebellion in them as their older siblings - but it was not enough to settle down for the evening. It would have been a different story, perhaps, if he actually laid down beside Arlette at the entrance of the den after kissing those five foreheads good night.
In the gathering night he wrinkled his nose and forced himself to get up and walk off his restlessness. He had come back home to Oak Tree Bend for a reason and that reason was not to miss the family he had left behind at Atonement Arbor. His large paws dragged in the forest debris that littered the grounds of the Spectral Woods, wondering time and time again every so often if he had traversed this stretch of the Bend a little more than a year ago.
After a while, he stopped in his tracks. Again, his nose wrinkled and his ears perked. Was that... Was that Jessie? He half-lunged towards a stretch of forest floor where his well-missed friend had stepped just hours before he had crossed her trail. Throwing caution to the wind, he lifted his had a little higher and gathered air in his lungs before forcing it out in a beckoning bark. An unsteady step brought him forward and his tail tentatively wagged, wondering if she still lingered in the area just within earshot.
Taekwondo (M, W, F) | Rapid-Response Day (Tu) | WoW Nights (F, Sat, Sun)