Dead Empress Backwater rasputin

for @Walleye
Midnight, Partly cloudy 17C/62F
Viorel is going to tell a story

The waning moon was as high as it would get in the night before it began its descent, and it filtered lazily behind the sparse clouds. It was not anywhere near as bright as it normally was with a full moon, but not as dark as a new one. This was the time of night that Viorel preferred, it was quiet and his dark coat allowed him some extra camouflage. Other, more serious wolves would have used this alone time to be productive, but the leader was usually goofing off instead. Most nights with Vanadis, but tonight he had yet to run across her trail and was beginning to think maybe she had gone to sleep with the children.

He had given up on thinking that the white woman was lying in wait to go on an adventure with him. Viorel was heading for the border. He was wide awake, and if he joined one of his litters. But his tossing and turning would only keep them up. Tracing the creek as it wound in and out of their territory, the yellow eyes were trained on its bank. Squinting into the distance he picked up the fragile frame of Walleye and slowed his steps. He was not particularly close with the old man who was a friend of his mother’s, and wasn’t sure that approaching him in the middle of the night would remedy that.

Chuffing a greeting, and ready to move on quickly if Walleye was asleep, Viorel waited for some kind of response.

Walleye wished he was asleep.

As it stood, he was wide awake. Merely positioned on the ground for the sake of his body. Ears occasionally flicked in whatever way when he thought he heard something. Most of the time the sound tended to be a frog or croon of a night bird.

Then it was distinctly neither of those things. It seemed to be the greeting of another like himself. Unexpected at these hours and he half expected to turn to see a naught cubbin' who snuck out.

Instead he was faced with Viorel. A man who was Sita's cubbin' but, Walleye had felt as thought greeting him with such a name would not fly over well. Admittedly he didn't wish to start anything tonight. Not ever, lately, but still.

"Moon Witch got you, too?" His backward way of trying to find out if Viorel suffered from a sleepless night tonight too.

walleye cannot travel through mountains
and will travel normal terrain at 1/2 speed

Viorel was in luck it would seem. His chuff was answered with an actual coherent answer, not even muffled by the groggy sound of someone who had been woken up from a deep sleep. Grinning, he shook his head, coming to lounge casually a couple feet away from the older man. Taking in the frail frame, he made a mental note to ask Clover or Vanadis to check on him, ”Nah, not me. Or, maybe she gets me every night, either way I’m more of a night wolf than a day dweller.” Raising his eyebrows he mused, ”But, I suppose that’s not the case for you?”

Looking upwards towards the waning moon, the “witch” as Walleye had called her, he suddenly grinned widely. ”I’ve never heard of a moon witch before, but where I’m from at the sea we used to talk about an ocean witch.” He hadn’t thought about that particular superstition since they had been dropped here by the two legs, and it brought him a wave of nostalgia. But, it wasn’t the homesickness he had been battling a few weeks ago, this was pretty pleasant, it felt like catching a whiff of salty air, or a sunny day lounging on hot sand and playing in the waves.

Glancing back towards the old man he grinned cheekily, ”Anyone ever tell you about her?” The witch he meant, of course.

"Not these days." He huffed, raised up a bit to sit proper before the cubbin' man. His joints didn't hurt nearly as much as they had when he had first arrived.

Although tickled him surprised to hear about the sea. His own sandy upbringing had not been revealed, mainly because it did not matter. Not to him and he figured to no one else. Sita, maybe, would have cared to hear about it. So...perhaps he was also humored to find it was her son he discussed it with.

"Grew up at the sea myself, never heard o' no ocean witch though. What she do?" The young man had his full attention now.

walleye cannot travel through mountains
and will travel normal terrain at 1/2 speed

Viorel was surprised to hear that his mother’s friend was also from the sea. It was something that she had never mentioned, and it made him wonder if maybe she had no way of knowing. Or maybe, just maybe she hadn’t mentioned it because he had been doing his best to avoid long conversations with her. His stomach twisted guiltily at the thought and the dark wolf, and he was grateful to latch onto the story of the ocean witch as a distraction.

Grinning at the dark man, he chuckled, ”Well, all kinds of things supposedly.” Shrugging, he launched into the tale, ”The way that I was told the story, was that one of the first wolves to walk the earth was called Sephrina, and she looked kinda like you and me, all black and white.” Pausing for a moment to really search his brain for the details, Viorel squinted up at the moon.

”Anyways, Sephrina was in love with the moon and one day she swam out into the ocean to try and catch the moon when it sank into the horizon, but she couldn’t swim that far and started sinking.” The thought of sinking down into the ocean waves was unpleasant, the thought of salt water filling your lungs and nothing you could do about it was haunting. ”The moon felt bad that she was drowning, and saved her, but that put a curse on Sephrina. She became a shapeshifter, and can live forever, but she can never go home to her family with the wolves, so she spends all of eternity swimming with the whales and singing their sad songs. And, she’s been spending all the time planning and enacting revenge on the wolves who are the ancestors of her brothers and sister.”

He listened with intent. Entirely unaware of this story and Sephrina.

As much as Walleye was one to tell make-believe things, especially anything that could be used to spook children, he really didn't get the point of this one. Maybe it was to dissuade cubbin' from swimming too far out. Maybe to scare them off from whales.

"The Moon didn't love 'er back, eh? Casted her to whales." He grunted. Otherwise he figured she wouldn't be some sort of witch. Maybe she'd be off creating all the stars in the sky with the moon by her side. "Unfortunate, but she ain't gotta take it out on us." Teased, mostly.

walleye cannot travel through mountains
and will travel normal terrain at 1/2 speed

Viorel chuckled at Walleye’s comment, ”I suppose the moon did not love her back. Or, maybe he did, and that’s why he saved her. He shrugged, how was anyone supposed to know how the moon felt about anything, let alone a single wolf? Continuing she added, ”Yeah, so now she’s cursed to live forever as any creature she wants, but she can never leave the sea or be with her family again.” Shrugging, the leader tried to think about any more details he had forgotten.

Grinning he continued, ”Apparently Sephrina was the one who taught the whales to sing because she missed howling with her family. But, they’re no replacement, and she misses them and is angry with the moon, and herself, and when she cries the sky fills with rain, and when she’s angry the storms turn to gales. On the night that she almost drowned every year a hurricane begins deep in the sea and spreads until it hits land.” It had been a long time since he had even thought of the tale, or what it meant, or why it was told.

It was probably all made up anyways.

There was a lot to take away from the young man's story. Some of it almost stated as an opinion and others still shrouded in the mystery that tall tales came from.

He supposed he could have been rude, snuffed out the details and chalked it up to stupid puppy love ruined things for everybody. A real Romeo and Juliet, if Walleye had a lick of sense on literature. But the wolf-turned-whale seemed doomed forever and pushed hurricanes on land to spite her death.

He wondered if he'd get the same when the end came for him.

"Y'think she can push a hurricane here? I dunno when I last saw the sea for one to come from."

walleye cannot travel through mountains
and will travel normal terrain at 1/2 speed

Walleye was quiet for a moment or two after Viorel had finished his story, but the young man was comfortable to wait. It was just a silly story back from home, but retelling it made him feel nostalgic. Memories of the salty air distracted him, and he wasn’t brought back to reality until the older man spoke. Shaking his head with a lopsided grin he snorted, ”I think it would take a real big whale to push a storm this far. I think we should be more worried about blizzards than hurricanes.”

Glancing back to the moon, and noticing how much it had moved Viorel sighed. Getting to his paws he gave a quick explanation, ”I had better be off to make sure the children have stayed in bed, keeping me on my toes is their one and only hobby it would seem.” He nodded his head farewell before making his way back in the direction of the den, thoughts of ocean storms fresh on his mind.

He was a kind young man, that much could be decided on as they finished their little interaction.

Walleye felt richer for it, certainly.

"I'll shoo them back off to you if they dare toddle out 'ere." A yellow crooked grin plastered on his face as he made way to drop back into a slumber position. Although he imagined sleep still wouldn't find him for some time.

Perhaps he would keep an eye or two out for any cubbin' who dared sneak out beyond bedtime.

walleye cannot travel through mountains
and will travel normal terrain at 1/2 speed