Moonspear music sounds better with you

It was with anticipation in his step that Nikai had taken the journey up towards Moonspear, where he had previously been so close to and where he had first met Alya and her sisters. They were all three pretty, and he liked all of them a lot, but he thought it seemed weird to have a crush on three girls at once so maybe he should focus on just one of them for now. Nikai smiled to himself, trying to wash away the nervousness, as he made his way up to the borders of Moonspear and stayed at respectable distance. He considered that maybe he should head back to Firefly Glen and call for her there, but she might not hear from further away and anyway, he should be courageous, Nikai thought. He'd only ever visited one other pack before, Northstar Vale, and that had gone really well, so he hoped this encounter would be positive too.

Hopefully when he called it would be only the wolf he called for that'd come, to avoid any awkward engagements with parents or other protective members of the pack that wanted to know his business. He'd rather meet the parents alongside Alya herself if it ever came to that. Nikai lifted his head as he waited by the borders that morning and called for @Alya. He hoped that she'd come alone this time and not alongside her sisters @Hydra and @Lyra; he'd been rather intimidated last time they had met him all together so he hoped to meet just Alya this time. After calling Nikai fidgeted, shuffled his weight along his paws and breathed in and out deeply once to try and calm his nerves.

Alya hopped nimbly to her paws as she heard her voice on the wind. Compact ears swivelled curiously toward the sound, and after a moment, she let out a dreamy sigh - "Nikai..." Before his name had even left her mouth, she was already loping toward the source of the call, shaking out her pelt as she went. She stopped only long enough to smooth out some of the fur on her chest with a few well-placed licks, and as soon as she deemed herself presentable, slipping out of the brush with a feminine grace she'd been practicing quite a lot, lately.

"You came to see me," she said with a self-satisfied grin.

Nikai waited patiently at the borders, hoping that Alya herself would come to greet him and not some of her family first. He fidgetted a little, feeling nervous, but as soon as he noticed someone approach Nikai stilled his nerves, at least on the outside. He couldn't really tell which of the three sisters he was facing, although he guessed it wasn't Lyra, at the very least, for she was more shy as far as he could tell from their first meeting. As she neared he was pretty sure it must be Alya, for she had been the one most interested in him and he had called for her specifically.

His tail wagged a few beats as she approached with celebrity-like grace, his eyes shining with enthusiasm as he watched her. She looked even prettier than he remembered with the way she walked and the smoothness and softness of her fur. Nikai wasn't sure if he should reach out to bump her shoulder or cheek or anywhere as she approached but he decided in the end not to reach out at all; he'd come here, which was sign enough that he liked her well enough. "Hi!" he said, not directly responding to what she had said, a soft smile on his face. "Yeah, uh, I... I thought you might want to hang out sometime, you know... Do something with just the two of us." This wasn't going as well as he had hoped so far, as Nikai felt flustered and he was falling over his words, but he wasn't showing being uncomfortable; probably because he wasn't, because despite falling over his words and possibly his own paws should he be forced to move at this point, he was feeling quite happy.

Alya felt her heart leap at Nikai's words. She hardly noticed how he stumbled over them - the dark girl was practically in another reality, half in her fantasies as she replied: "Of course! We can go right now!" she chirped, though in her mind, she'd never react so brazenly. The girl cleared her throat and attempted to adopt the proper deportment of a princess. "What did you have in mind?" she demured, hoping that something of her mother's mysteriousness had leaked into her voice.

For good measure, Alya batted her lashes at the beautiful boy.

It was clear from the way she reacted that she liked him as much as he liked her, which made him feel a bit more confident and less clumsy about his words. The only thing that was a bit off-putting was that she wanted to go right now, because he had no idea what they were going to do yet. Valette had suggested catching her some food, but he hadn't done that and now he was here, empty-handed. Some options quickly passed in his mind while he tried to think of what to do — climb a mountain, wait 'til dark and watch fireflies, hunt together, go to the ocean — before she asked him what he had in mind with an adorable look on her face.

Like a roulette wheel in his mind he just said the first thing that came to mind (or rather the last thing he'd thought of when trying to think of good ideas on what to do) — "Have you ever been to the ocean?" He had come across it not long ago himself and was rather impressed. From up on her mountain, Alya could probably see it so it might not be as impressive as it had been for his first time, but he still thought it might be nice to share a moment there with her. He also remembered Valette's invitation to their home, but thought that Alya might not like meeting 'the parent' on their first whatever-this-was.

Try as she might, Alya just couldn't hold onto the lady-like facade. Nikai was just too handsome to look at, and he'd come to see her. The dark girl gave a little wiggle of delight, and then quickly averted her gaze, not sure how she was going to get through this without humiliating the both of them. How was she supposed to act, anyway?

When he mentioned the ocean, all pretenses fell to the wayside. "No!" she exclaimed, spinning in an excited circle. "D'ya mean - are we going to the beach?" she asked, nearly begging. She'd wanted to go to the ocean for some time, but it seemed sort of big and scary. Whenever she'd seen it - always from a distance - it'd just seemed too far to fathom.

"Will you take me?" she asked, giving Nikai her best puppy-dog stare.

Nikai felt oddly nervous in the moments after he had asked his question, somehow afraid she would deny him and say no right away. He felt his heart beat in his chest and fidgetted nervously, but he didn't have to wait long; Alya seemed to grow excited almost instantly and said she hadn't ever been. He was glad to have picked something good and felt the nerves wash away. "Cool! Yeah, we can go to the ocean. It's really big and impressive and it smells nice there!" Nikai felt the urge to ask if she wanted to go right now, but she had already answered that question by her excitement.

While her wildest dreams were practically unattainable, this sudden turn of events was certainly past her current realm of expectations. A trip to the beach was not just romantic, but also exciting - as if romance weren't exciting enough on its own. "Well, let's go then!" she cheered, setting off at a fast trot. Perhaps it would've been more polite to hang back and walk beside him from the start, but Alya had some nervous energy to work off before she could worry about things like that.

"Do you like to scout a lot?" she asked him, eager to know more about this sweet, mysterious, beautiful boy. Maybe they liked all the same things, and all their children would be scouts, too, and they'd claim their own mountain with Hydra and Lyra and all their babies would look exactly the same.

Alya was happy with his suggestion and instantly suggested heading off. Nikai nodded and he followed after Alya, quickly catching up and falling in step beside her. "Hey — we have enough time to get there, don't we?" he said with a laugh as he had caught up, not sure why she was in such a hurry. Perhaps she was just excited to see the ocean, since she hadn't seen it up close yet.

As she asked him if he liked scouting, he nodded. "Yep! I love exploring. I've often thought of just moving somewhere else for a while, y'know, explore the world... But my mother's pregnant so I can't really leave right now. Maybe when the baby sibs are older." 'Baby sibs'? Nikai thought that sounded weird, but he shrugged off the feeling while he returned the question; "What about you?"

Alya shot Nikai a scandalized look. "I wanna be there already!" she cried. "Besides, my legs are all jangled up. I need to run."

But she didn't. Her pace slowed marginally, and she did her best to pay attention to Nikai's response. She was excited to find that he was a wanderer, like her, and equally interested in his mention of younger siblings. She could relate to both of those things! They were soulmates!

"My mom just had three," Alya shared, glad that she had something to add to the conversation. "I like travelling, too. I usually go with my sisters, but lately, I've been going out on my own a lot, too," she bragged. "Hydra is the beta of our pack, so she stays at home and kills intruders. Me and Lyra help with that, but Lyra mostly takes care of people, and I mostly scout around the valley floor."

Despite her arguments she slowed down somewhat and they continued their journey and conversation. She shared that her mother just had three pups too, which seemed perfect. "How old are they now?" he asked with interest, finding it pretty cool that Alya, too, had parents who were just now having their next pups. Perhaps not the same way that he was with Valette, but it was close enough for him.

As she mentioned Hydra being the Beta of the pack, Nikai looked impressed. He couldn't imagine being Beta, and truthfully was happy to not be burdened with such a task so that he could explore and live his simple life. "Wow! That's pretty impressive." He wanted to add 'for her age' but then didn't, thinking it might come off the wrong way. "Do you get to do cool scout missions a lot?" He had only had a bunch of missions — well, more like one that he'd failed at — and wondered if Alya had more experience.

Alya shrugged at his question, not really sure. "A few months, at least," she said dismissively. There was nothing special about her siblings, except that the were part of the same noble bloodline as Alya herself. She was more interested in talking about Hydra - and, by extension, herself - than about the young furballs with which she had so little to do. When they were older, she would take more of an interest in them.

"Hydra's very strong and brave," she agreed with a happy wag of her tail. "The three of us go on a lot of adventures together, but when I'm on my own... I really just wander nearby, I guess," she admitted. "It's sort of like... Lyra takes care of everyone inside the borders, Hydra confronts everyone that gets too close, and I scout around the outside of the territory, so I can tell Hydra and everyone what's going on out here."

It was not as glorious as Alya liked to pretend, and it was something of a relief to admit this to Nikai. "I haven't been all that far from Moonspear at all. The furthest is that mountain - " she pointed to Silvertip with a flick of her nose - "and I could still see my mountain and everything. And I've never been to the sea," she added, unnecessarily.

Nikai listened attentively while Alya told him about her sisters and the way their roles were divided in the pack. It seemed she didn't go on a lot of adventures for the pack's sake, didn't get missions, but served a protective role much like her sisters'. Nikai didn't mind that she didn't travel far, as it meant that he had more opportunities to show her things. He loved travel and he wanted to discover all of these lands if he could. When his siblings were old enough, he wished to travel more, leave home.

He looked at Silvertip as she gestured at it, and nodded. He chuckled as she mentioned being able to see Moonspear from there. "I think you can go quite far without ever having to not see your mountain." It was quite tall, after all. Not so tall he could see it from Easthollow, but it was a good waypoint to use, along with the Sunspire. "Must be funny to be born on a mountain. I'm not that good on the mountains at all." It was therefore a foreign idea to Nikai to be born somewhere so that mountains were your whole life.

They continued towards the ocean, and because they were talking time was passing swiftly and Nikai was eager to get there so that he could show it all to her. He saw the Sentinels approach swiftly, knowing that meant that the ocean was near, too. Unbeknowst to him he was headed straight to Alya's father's homeplace — Stavanger Bay.

"Yeah," Alya agreed with a wag of her tail, glancing over her shoulder to admire her mother's domain. "One day, my sisters and I want to claim our own mountain. My mother says that all the women in our family were queens of mountains," the girl explained, feeling unusually candid. Although she rarely stopped talking, it was not often that she was willing to share the things she held closest to her heart with anyone other than her sisters, and occassionally her parents.

"I didn't step foot on flat ground until I was almost grown," she revealed, smiling at the memory of that first outing with her father. "I was so disoriented by how... how flat everything was." This teased a giggle out of the dark girl - another oddity. Though she laughed, she rarely stood for laughter directed at herself. There was something very freeing about Nikai's presence. Somehow, she felt she knew he wouldn't judge her too poorly for silly things like that.

Alya told him about how her sisters and she wanted to claim their own mountain. Nikai imagined a life on that mountain, and it felt pleasant; to be surrounded by the three most beautiful wolves in the world and serve them on their own mountain. Of course, for now he needed to be there for Valette and the pups, but some day he'd have his freedom back and maybe then he could finally strike out on his own. Maybe with the three girls — or maybe he'd just settle on their mountain and maybe he'd be happier there. Time would tell.

He laughed when Alya said she was disoriented by the flatness of it all when she got off her mountain. "For me it's the other way around whenever I go on mountains." For most wolves, he imagined, but for the mountain-born Alya it was apparently different. "C'mon, race me!" he called out seemingly abrupt and Nikai burst forward with a swift galop after nipping at Alya's shoulder.

fade here and have a new thread? :D i'll go make a new un.