Sunbeam Lair I'm counting UFOs

@Aurëwen <3
back-dated to 4/20

He climbed to peak to the highest point, eager to view the stars from the best possible place. The moonlight was his only light as he moved, but it was plenty. He climbed higher and higher, enjoying the release of energy that came with the trek. Even though he had hunted earlier, he still felt restless and had been seeking some way to entertain himself as the sun set and gave way to the clear, navy blue of the night sky. The stars called to him, and he had no choice but to answer.

When he found a good spot, he reclined on the ground, belly full with the fish he had caught earlier in one of the mountain's many streams. He drew his tongue across his lips as a large yawn parted his formidable jaws, and then he moved his golden gaze to the sky above. The stars looked much the same here as they had from atop the last mountain on which he had found himself stargazing. He recognized the north star and from that, his eyes followed the stars the made the little dipper. Those were the only stars he knew by name, and that was thanks to Heloise. Again he found himself wondering how she was doing and hoping he would meet her again soon. Tonight though, he was content to study the sky and see what else he could learn about its bright inhabitants.

This scent was one of the few that Aurëwen had all but forgotten. She hadn’t become personal with the carrier, but she’d never not recognize the aroma nor the figure, no matter how fleetingly she’d been acquainted with him. Eastwood, her wearied, vagrant soul breathed, rousing itself from dormancy as it noticed another far-seer.

For the first time in quite awhile, her wide, full-moon, girlish eyes invited in the gathering blink of trillions of extinct stars, and found an aching severance by her soul. They offered not guidance, as she once sought, but beckoned to the errant pieces of her, strewn about in the gloaming in-between. It was a thin, veiling solace only managed when the sky dribbled and blotted black over itself, and she wondered why this formidable gona now studied them as she always had.

Lingered awhiles away, teetering on which tongue to use. As the faint traces of the stars drew shivers down her silver spine, perhaps it was the earlier event with Anthansius, but she made her tender voice jocular, having an entirely doubtless confidence in whatever Blodreina had begun to teach her, “Bida moda, gona.”

He could not place the familiar scent at first, but it was enough to pull him from the ground into a sitting position, gaze searching the area around him until they landed on the familiar form of Aure. He grew uneasy faced with the reminder of what he had deserted, and he got to his feet, preparing to leave until she spoke. The words were in Trigedasleng, and although they were somewhat jumbled, he thought he could make out the gist of what she had intended to say. He froze, a frown forming on his face as he grew confused by her words. Why do you apologize? he asked. He was the one that had left--had abandoned his pack and his duty to go in search of his identity and self-worth. So then why was she sorry? I am the natrona here, he said dejectedly, turning his face from her to hide his pained expression. His treachery often plagued his thoughts in times of quiet when there was a lack of distractions. He knew he wouldn't go back and change his decision, but that didn't keep the stifling guilt from slowly eating away at his heart. Maybe one day, he could learn to accept things and move on but for now, he found it hard, at times, to think of anything else.

Natrona. There it was again, even when she didn’t understand the rest. The singular word that plagued Reina, Verx, and now, it seems, East. She didn’t understand it — yes, it was apart of that cliff-culture, and more, she supposes, but Aurëwen hadn’t immersed herself into Drageda entirely. She hadn’t become onerous enough to feel that she had been at fault for doing exactly what ‘Wood himself had. ...Or maybe, she simply didn’t care to be so pained, so guarded over that which she didn’t understand. Maybe she didn’t care an inkling, at all.

Taking her eyes from the stars and to Eastwood’s stricken façade, her silver brow furrowed, gaze unapologetically resolute. “Perhaps I will always be an outsider, never adapting to ze ways other than my own. But, East... Drageda has gone north.” Let the words waver there, with time to let them nestle into his mind, and then, casting her eyes back to the stars, she quietly told him off all that had happened after he’d gone. She stumbled a bit over Caiaphas’ unprovoked instigation, which had evoked the proposal and decided move to Diaspora, while the rest of the kru had straggled back to Trigeda. ”There is no guilt in me because ze cliffs had become so irregular. Even if I had not been pregnant,” lashes fluttered in several blinks, perhaps the first mention of whelping at all? “I would have done ze same as you. There is no shame in what you have done, Eastwood.”

Aure fell quiet then, and if the gona allowed it, she picked her way closer, slim jaw set in that adamant way. “Opalia and Dacio are somewhere in ze Teekons, last I saw of them. As for here... Blodreina and Verx are with me. If you would ever like to see them,” she proposed, settling down alongside, “I am sure it will bring ze three of you some joy. Some comfort.” For she could offer none, as far as the anguishing over natrona went; but she smiled tentatively up to Eastwood all the same. If he met his new cousins — Isilmë and Dragomir — then perhaps that would bring some comfort, as well?

Whatever the situation seemed to be, time spent with Eastwood was a hesitant mosey; and when she made to depart, she did so warmly. Soon she hastened back to her thicket, eager to return to her babes. Only time would tell whether she saw East again or not — but she hoped dearly that she would.