Sunbeam Lair so they asked why

All welcome~

In a rare moment of peace, Noctura looked for answers in the stars. Locusts still buzzed around the place, but Noctura's first question was if the worst of the swarm had now passed. There were always answers up there in the sky — not always clear, and perhaps not even visible at first, but he knew it a logical fact that simply by seeking answers one could find them. And the dark Astrologer sought his answers in the deep night's sky. Like the other wolves of Ryūjin, Noctura had spent all day strengthening the pack's herbal caches, ensuring everyone's wellbeing and pinpointing the best food sources so they could survive this stark new wasteland. But now, while most rested, the Gamma found a high position outside, sat tall, and gazed heavenwards.

Unto them a plague had been cast, stealing away with it their greenery and yearning for their deaths.

The events of the days prior had left the girl distraught, her usual demeanor having been shed, replaced by frantic movements and absurd notions. Ideas had struck her, and as of late she'd found herself considering taking the long journey back to whence she'd come. With her she'd wished to bring her tribe, to merge them with her family's in the hopes that they could all thrive and live a life of luxury. Yet, as she'd allowed for more of her time to be wasted upon the thought, it dawned on her just how cowardly doing so would be. They had survived the encounter with their neighbours so long ago, they had survived the journey to the lair, and so she wished to believe that they would survive this, too. Even still, her hopes did not ease her worries, for she knew right away what types of hardships they'd be forced to endure. Without the flora of the land to attract the herds, they would be deprived of the grand meals they'd grown accustomed to having. Without the herds, they would feel the sharp pangs of hunger in their stomachs each night, but she believed they would survive it all. Somehow, someway, they would manage. They would pull through until the land could flourish once more, until their herds returned and they were well enough to hunt. They were dragons, every last one of them, and they would not hang their heads and accept defeat.

While she felt certain, it was still with a heavy mind that she'd departed from the shelter of the lair, ascending along the ridges of its side until the space overhead was reached. She was comfortable moving over the rough terrain, her pads having since grown used to the feeling. Asterr was comforted by the gentle breeze that swept passed her, embracing her briefly before billowing out around her elfin frame. The sounds of the lingering locusts could still be heard if one was silent enough, but she paid little mind to them, wanting for nothing more than to banish them from the earth altogether. Yet, such a power was not one she possessed, nor was it in her nature to go on such a violent rampage. Thus the idea was dropped and her walk continued, her next stop occurring only when she'd spotted a familiar, dark and looming form. To his side she'd gone, giving no verbal indications of her approach, and then beside him she had settled. To the stars his gaze could be traced, and so she'd glanced at them for a moment or two, before directing her optics back to him. Still, she did not speak, admiring his stature in silence as a mass of questions invaded her mind. Finally, though, she'd settled upon one, having plucked it from the crowds and allowed it the time to process correctly. To Noctura the dragoness then spoke, her question few in words, but just as necessary as one of great lengths.

"What do the stars tell you tonight?"

Despite all that had happened below, the stars shone on. It was beautiful up there, glorious, glamorous... it felt almost unjust, as if the night's sky were mocking them, but Noctura knew this was not the case. The heavens operated on a different plane to those below, commenting on them, yes, but never touching them. The grey and brown ground was not mocked by the flawless navy sky, the naked trees were not scorned by the blazing moon, their protruding ribs were not taunted by the fat silver stars.

Asterr was at his side. Noctura had felt like they'd been like this his entire life, though he was older than her and they did not spend every moment together. But when they were together again, side-by-side like they were now, to the skygazer it felt like she'd never left. At her question, the black wolf blinked peacefully down at her. As ever, he was struck anew by how ethereally beautiful she was.

For once, his eyes did not return to the stars, but instead lingered on the girl. They tell me that every moment is a gift. That was what they meant, surely, by blazing their majesty to the world on the ground. They cast in light the stripped trees, the meagre prey, the empty dens scattered around Ryūjin: nothing could be taken for granted.

The midnight wolf moved his head to draw Asterr's small form gently towards him.

It was often that she felt drawn to him, even when he was far from her immediate sight. She'd felt it time and time again, how the dragon within had given the male his approval, and how she felt at peace when next to him. Beneath the stars was their domain, and for every time the bright lights dappled the sky, she wished to settle near and gaze up at them with him. While she held knowledge of the plane they walked, he knew more of the plane overhead than any being she'd ever met before. Together, she felt that both of their minds were complete. The emotional aspect of their encounters was, however, one she was often reluctant to comment on, for still was it new and strange to her. Never before had she felt the same type of pull towards anyone as she did Noctura, his presence being one that she sought for reasons unknown. For all that she'd been taught, never had she been given lessons of the heart, and never could she for such was a wisdom one must almost obtain on their own—or, if they were lucky, with the soul that had captured their affections.

The voice she'd grown to cherish had rung through her ears, filling her mind with the answer and its meaning. For ages could she sit and hypothesis, considering all of the possibilities, but in that moment she neither did nor said anything. The silence was embraced, for within it comfort was found, and to her companion did she look with a tender gaze. To him she'd been motioned, his gesture drawing her forth so that she'd resided then with her form gently touching his own. Gingerly, she'd leaned into him, resting her head against his shoulder as a sigh slipped past her lips. It was the stars that held the dragoness' gaze, but he who relaxed her in their time of great upheaval. And so naught a single word made its way past her lips, as her mind was cleared and her spirit set at ease. With Noctura there beside her, she felt as if all of her troubles could be forgotten, even if only for a moment.

It occurred to him then, as they truly touched for the first time, that he must be in love with her. Asterr was the moonlight of his dark life, and she shone with every step. It wasn't just her profound grace and her ethereal beauty, no — it was her spirit. Asterr had the magnificent spirit of a waking dragon aged with wisdom and rife with a tremendous strength unseen in her subtle, sleek muscles. She had a mind like no other's, and it was all hers. Her heart, too, was as unique as the very particular shine of ice-silver in her large eyes, but was that heart all hers...? Did it beat for him as his did for her?

It was a question that in some ways didn't matter. This magic was irrefutably love, and now it seemed unthinkable that Noctura had denied it all this time, but that magic could not waver if it was unreciprocated. Unspoken, on the other hand, was another matter. As he held her to him, his huge dark body strangely gentle, he opened his eyes to blink up at the stars once more. Their shine was bright. They expressed themselves so completely. And so the stargazer decided to be like his stars.

I wish never to leave your side, he murmured in his cavernous voice, closing his eyes once more and resting his muzzle softly on her brow. Stating his wishes seemed strange to him, but this wasn't just a statement of desire — this was how he felt. This was his confession. This was the stargazer's "I love you".

The cuteness of your post... it... it killed me d e d

Being so near to him, her body pressed close to his, caused for her mind to practically go blank. While she had never been so close to another before—she'd never felt the need, really, for the mind had always overpowered emotions—she could not help but feel as if she were in a position reserved specially for her. That next to Noctura was where she was meant to be, for eternity and beyond, during their current lives and those that would surely follow suit. It was a sense she'd never experienced before, and while it had confused her greatly, she'd refused to question in. What she was feeling did not require answers, it was not some problem that was meant to be solved. What she was feeling was the workings of her heart, as naïve as such words might seem to be, and for that very reason she'd resisted the urge to treat it as anything else. The moment would not be ruined by her thoughts, for naught a single notion of rational standings was permitted entry into her mind. For in the world, beneath the stars, it was only they who currently existed.

To her the male had spoken, resting then with his muzzle lying across her crown. The words, so clear and soothing to her ears had they been, made her heart flutter. The tempo of her heartbeat had increased, and tracing down along her spine she'd felt a shiver creep. Though small had his sentence been, within her it had resonated, leaving the yearling at a loss for how she might respond. Any concoction of words that her brain had been able to formulate were tossed to the side just as quickly as they'd made themselves known, nothing seeming good enough for him. Always was he so kind, so gentle with her and noble in his was, that she felt his statement deserving only of the very best she had to offer. Yet, she'd approached the situation all wrong, calling to the reaches of her mind rather than those of her heart. Though connected they were, there were differences in the two that made one incapable of doing the other's job. Asterr had not realized this at first, but the moment she had, it was to that which hammered against her rib cage that she'd looked, requesting from it both an explanation and a response.

Never had the dragoness' former request been answered, but the latter was granted to her no more than a few moments later. It was to Noctura she'd then looked, tilting her muzzle upward so that she might steal a glance his way, and upon his refined features did she focus. "Never will I leave your side," she'd returned, feeling confident enough in that which bound them together to make such an audacious statement. "I do not understand this, for it is something that cannot be explained with words alone, but to you I am drawn. I wish that never might we ever be separated, for without you this world would be a dull place to live in. I do not want to gaze at the stars unless you are here with me, allowing me to sit just like this with you while above us shines the constellations." A world without him was one she was not fond of imagining, and often found doing so to be a rather difficult task. Without Noctura, Asterr knew not what she might do, and so beside him was where she'd wished to always stay.

Yours also. :3 They are so bootiful.

An upbringing of savage aggression, when left to Noctura, had merged with an adulthood of magic and romanticism. And fortunately, never the twain had met. Sometimes he was this fearsome beast, brazen and bloody, and sometimes he was the stargazer, the wolf with all the night's sky in his eyes. He had never been both, and this suggested to him that he could be one without the other. He would never turn away from the romance, and so perhaps then he could be the romantic and never again stand for bloodlust. Here he had a beautiful girl in his arms, her form small and vulnerable, but there was no part of him that would consider lashing out at her, "claiming" her in the way so many virile men would. For here stood a romantic: not an aggressor.

Asterr pulled back very slightly to gaze up at him, and Noctura looked down at her and oh his heart seemed to fly. He was utterly in love with her, and this feeling had been growing since the day they'd met. The moment, even. Asterr had never existed in his life without him loving her.

Her words struck him dumb, and to reply he gently ran his tongue over her cheek, a kiss to seal his passion. Her light weight against him was something that he could not bear to do without right now: if she moved away, he would feel as if he'd lost a limb. And he wanted her to be closer still, he wanted to envelop her and for them to become one, but he quelled the physical in favour of the emotional, for he'd never felt emotion this earnest before, and he'd never been able to express himself like this. I love you. The English wolf's deep voice was velvet, like another kiss, and those three words were the perfect way to sum up what the dragon-seer had done to his life.

The moment at which they'd met, the two had been linked together in a way that perhaps neither could have ever foreseen. With Asterr, it was something new entirely, for love had existed in her upbringing, but never so strongly. Only had it ever been familial, and so to feel something even greater that that for another being was, without a doubt, the most peculiar of things to have happened in her life thus far. She knew not what to do with the emotions that she felt. She could not figure out in what ways they might be labeled, nor could she decide how she might show them to the world around her. What she did know, however, was that they were feelings not meant to be lost to the universe. They were hers to keep, hers to nurture and witness the growth of, for it had been from something magical that they'd been birthed.

As the softness of his tongue met her cheek, she'd gone rigid, surprised by the gesture at first, before quickly relaxing into his touch. Against his body did hers melt, fitting what felt like perfectly against him, and sharing in his warmth. Never before had she truly wanted anything for herself, as selfish desires were barbaric things never to be welcomed by her conscious. Yet, in the moment, she could feel the desire for something to be hers—for someone to be hers, and she theirs. For the future she did not see, but hoped so desperately that Noctura was there at her side within it. The thought of losing him made her chest ache, almost as if some incurable sickness was inching its way through her system. She could not bear the thought of him ever being pressed so near to someone that was not herself, nor could she fathom the notion that she might be able to move past what she felt for him. Though it remained so new and so strange to her still, she could deny nothing. Further was her desire to voice what she felt resolved when he'd spoken, too, the words said to her that night being ones that she would never forget. It was because the soul that she cherished so strongly had said them to her, as well as because she had done something unbelievable that day. For naught but a moment later, she'd voiced that which brewed deep within her chest, every ounce of emotion felt coming out in a single sentence:

"I love you, too."

We could actually fade here if you fancy. :)

Some would call that a confession, but that was such an odd thing to call it. A confession was something a puppy might give to her mother after eating all the treats, or something an ashamed spy might give to the one they'd betrayed. But what Asterr and Noctura said to each other now was not a confession in the romantic's heart, but rather a truth that before now had felt unsayable. Even now it felt like it was somehow forbidden, for she was too high and too young and too important for a man like Noctura, but times had changed. Death was upon the land, and whether it was temporary or permanent it was still death. So life had to find a way, and here it was right here and now, in the words that had been spoken by magic.

He held his love closer, still exceptionally gentle for such a giant. No questions sprang to mind — not even a question that some might utter in this situation: "what now?" To Noctura, there was no such question. He would ever seek Asterr night after night so they could watch the stars together and speak of their days, and now those nights would be even more beautiful to him. Let's stay here a while, he suggested in a rumbling whisper. For this, to him, was perfect.

A long while.

Such unspeakable words had felt foreign on her tongue, for though the gesture was something she knew of, it was not something so commonly practiced withing her birth tribe. A man could love a woman—or vice versa—for years on end, but never would the quietest of I love you's be exchanged between them. It was not something that was said, simply something that was done, but she'd felt that Noctura was deserving of both. The words and actions alike, they were meant for him and him alone, for he had managed to claim for himself her affections. That night, such emotions had only been made all the more real, and though it felt strange to her, never would she alter their time spent together if the opportunity to do so was offered to her. The stargazer had become close to her, and she wished only to let him inch even closer.

Towards his words, she had not uttered a single thing. Rather, she'd relaxed against him, head leaning to the side until it had made contact with his shoulder. Even if he'd not recommended doing so, she would have stayed there beside him, gazing up into the night sky. Beside him, she was home.