Moonspear making the rounds

She had surprised him with her bump, she realized, watching as he regained his footing. That was soon forgotten as her words reached him, however. Charon's gasp made her snicker, and she was just about to say more when he pounced at her. She gave a squeal and backpedaled wildly, laughing still as she flailed and struggled to get away. The white wolf was too fast for her, though, she stumbled and he was upon her.

She growled playfully, tail waving to declare her intentions, and squirmed under his pin. She might be older than he, but she was still small. Despite her jerking and shoving she could not dislodge him. Yet another reason she would benefit form keeping her nose from the herbs and doing some traveling or strength training.

Ha! Sweet victory when he felt their bodies connect and he managed to stop her in her tracks, causing them both to fall to the ground while he had Pyx pinned down. She laughed and struggled to get free, and Charon shouted, "Yield! Say stars are the coolest thing ever or I'm gonna drool in your face!" Meanwhile he tried to hold himself so that he could use his weight to keep her on the ground, staying close and not giving in to the struggles so far. He wasn't really sure where this sudden bout of childishness had come from, but he did know he was enjoying every moment of it.

Pyx too wasn't exactly sure how they had managed to go from a simple conversation to rolling around like pups, but she didn't mind the change. Though she was awkward at times and rambled on occasion all the time, she was a playful soul. She enjoyed the simple things in life, a game of chase or even wrestling. She'd never been very good at the latter, though, and typically found herself in the losing position, or pinned. Her brothers had always won, so it wasn't a new feeling. She'd found her own joy in it and didn't mind.

Charon loomed over her and began to shout, demanding she declare that stars were the coolest. She squealed, struggling still, defiant at first. "Never!" She cried, aiming swiping paws at his nose. And then he mentioned drooling. The gleam in his eyes told her that he would do it. She flailed at him and wiggling under him violently again, hoping to gain freedom, her eyes warily eyeing his mouth.

If he said he did something, Charon usually did it; at least when it came to these kind of things. He wasn't really one for bluffing, and he wasn't bluffing now; he fully intended to drool all over Pyx' face if she denied. He actually had expected her to just give up, because from when they'd first met he thought she didn't have that much of a spine, really.

But surprisingly enough she didn't give up, instead saying she'd never say the stars were the coolest. And so Charon, hovering over Pyx, let a tendril of drool drip off the edge of his lips while she struggled to get free.

Only at the very last moment, just as the tendril of gooey drool was about to disconnect from his lip, did Pyx manage to push him away by a paw at the right place - a sensitive one - between his ribs and he rolled to the side. Where the tendril of drool landed he didn't see — her face, some other part of her, or if he'd missed altogether.

She continued to struggle, but with wide eyes watched as he leaned over her face and readied himself to drool. She watched the droplet form at his lips, began to attempt to pull out of it's reach. Just as she was reaching a frenzy, his pressure vanished. Somehow, some way, she'd managed to dislodge him in her strugglings. She jerked up with surprise, staring over at him. There was concern on her face, had she hurt him somehow?

It was then she noticed the feeling of wetness on her cheek and her mouth dropped open to release a screech of disgust. "EWWWWWW! You SPIT on ME!" She ducked her head and rubbed at her cheek with a paw. She was playing up her reaction, having fun with it. A laugh escaped her. "Gross, Charon." She was tempted to race at him and tackle him now, but she was fearful she'd somehow hurt him. She was not used to winning in wrestling at all. Not unless she aimed to hurt her brothers, when she purposely did it, she won. So though the smile and laughter remained, her eyes watched him carefully, guiltily.

He rolled across the ground with an 'oomph' and quickly collected himself, jumping to his feet and curiously looking to see if he'd hit home. He didn't have to wait long — soon Pyx cried out about being drooled on, although there was laughter in her tone crashing through the indignation.

"Ha!" Charon said, nearly sounding proud of his accomplishments in the field of drooling on others, "You could've gotten out of it, if you hadn't been so darn proud!" But somehow, he didn't mind this out come. Would've been funny to see Pyx say cool things about the stars, but he'd won either way around.

She turned to face him, her face a mask of mock anger. It slipped away completely as he voiced his pride in his ability to drool on her and she laughed. "OR," She said, looking at him pointedly. "You could have not drooled on me like a normal wolf." It didn't really bother her though, it was fun to goof around with Charon. She'd never goofed off with her previous alpha, nor her mentor who taught her herbs. It was nice, to feel more than an obligation to your leader. To feel like a friend.

"I guess stars are okay." She said, finally, sighing and rolling her eyes. "They're just the herbs of the sky." She winked at him with that, grinning wide at the silliness of the comment.

"Fuck normal wolves," he responded as he stuck out his tongue. He wasn't even sure what that meant, but he knew that he was special, a chosen one of the stars, so he certainly wasn't normal. And if being normal meant he couldn't reprimand anyone for not sharing his love of the stars, then fuck that!

He laughed when she called stars the herbs is the sky, as he imagined all sort of herbs just floating around in the sky. Then he asked, tone a little more serious, "Do the herbs ever speak to you?" He was pretty sure the answer would be no, but he was reminded of this by her comment and felt curious.

She giggled at his response to being normal, rolling her eyes again and returning his gesture of sticking out his tongue. Charon was right, though, in many ways she would not be considered normal. Her love for herbs made her odd, so what good was it to be normal after all? Well, she didn't exactly go around drooling in other's faces but still.

He approved of her silly comment with a laugh, but his tone turned more serious only a moment later. For a moment she was ready to laugh, thinking he was joking. Yet his face and his voice told her that he was truly asking. She too grew more serious, thinking on it a little. "Not...not really. No, they don't talk to me. I feel...I feel like I connect to them somehow, like looking for herbs I'm...right in a way that I normally feel...different. No talking, though." She struggled with her own explanation. Herbs made her feel calm, she felt like she was herself when she looked for herbs. She'd tried to hide her obsession, or dampen it, and with herbs she didn't have to worry about it. They didn't judge, and they didn't change.

"Do the stars talk to you?" She asked with wonder, her face clear of judgment. "What do they say?"

He hadn't really expected herbs to talk in the same way that stars did to him; herbs were herbs, after all, not stars. They were less alive in his view, and also more here rather than up in the skies. Some day he hoped to touch the stars so that he may speak to them on a more personal level.

She asked about his connection to the stars and he nodded. "Sometimes, but it's hard to decipher what they mean a lot of the time." They didn't usually literally speak to him, but everything that'd happened in his life so far had proven to him, had told him in a way, that he was destined for greatness. "But it's become clear to me that they've chosen me, that I am destined for great things as their chosen child." Whether it was the stars or some sort of deity or multiple deities out there that was watching over, he knew that it or they had plans for him.

She watched as he nodded, and was awed. She wondered what kind of messages they would send. When she looked at the sky and saw only the stars, could Charon hear their whispers? It was an odd thought, one she wouldn't have believed Charon to have. He didn't seem the mystical type. She felt she was too young to truly dismiss the other beliefs, the thoughts of magic and star talk. If Charon told her that he heard the stars talk with a straight face, she would believe it, if only because she trusted him to tell her the truth.

Her head tilted slightly as he mentioned that he'd been chosen for something special, something great. "Like Moonspear?" She asked softly. "Like your and Amekaze's packs joining as one? Or something else?" She glanced to the sky, but of course the stars were not out. "What did they say?" She herself was not a wolf of prophecy, not a wolf chosen for anything that she knew of but that suited her just fine. She could live a perfectly normal life and be content, so long as her happiness outweighed her sadness.

She was asking a lot of questions, and it irked him that she wanted such literal answers. The messages of the stars could not be contained so easily; they were a mystery, a myriad of so many things. They steered him, but not by telling him to go in a direction. He pursed his lips in thought before eventually responding: "Yes, like those things." Maybe not literally like those things, but in a way, it was so.

"A lot of the things we do seem to steer us in a direction. I was Alpha by the time I was a year old," he told her as he looked at her, face serious. "That is why I know they chose me. Many terrible things happened to me, but only to bring me back stronger. I don't know what they're telling me to do... Maybe one day I will find out. But I know that I am not destined to be just a regular person." He looked at her, almost scrutinisingly so; as though to determine if any part of her was inwardly mocking him, or, preferred, admiring him for his words.

Her eyes widened slightly as he confirmed her examples. He started to speak on the stars again and she listened carefully. That he'd been alpha at a year old was impressive, although she supposed it could be a sad tale as well, depending on how he got the title. That is, through death or through mindful promotion. All the same, she was impressed. Alphas did not get far without wolves to follow them, and for other's to follow a yearling was something. Her face clearly showed she was impressed.

She nodded, considering his words. "Terrible things?" She question softly, looking at him with open curiosity. "What happened?" He might expect a wolf to mock him, but Pyx was not the type. She'd been mocked for her love for herbs. She would not similarly mock another unless clearly joking, and she was far too interested for jokes. She didn't really understand how the stars spoke, but if serious Charon believed it, she was willing to believe he'd seen something...or heard something.

She thought for a moment, then questioned him again. "So, do the stars whisper things for everyone? Or only a chosen few?" Was it possible she'd missed messages? Messages that would have told about her travel here? Or her success with herbs? "Or are you whispers just especially...full of greatness?" She was serious again, welcoming the knowledge.

The past year his life had been pretty good, but as a child it was not always so. He'd lost his parents at an early age and Charon wasn't the type to sit and cry about it; he was the type to take advantage of it. And so he had; perhaps that was the reason that he always needed more attention from those around him. That had lead to other occurences, but recently — for the past year — things'd actually been pretty calm and, well, good. Some things had happened — he had needed to kill Nishu Inte, he had mated with Althaia, but nobody would ever know of either of those things and luckily his childhood of attention deficit had created an excellent liar in Charon — but all in all even those things had been good, in the end, for they'd weeded out traitors and unworthy wolves from Moonspear.

It wasn't hard to come up with examples. He grimaced as he said: "My parents died young, and my brother got taken when I was little. My sister vanished, and so it was just me and my brother Levi, and our adoptive parents. But Levi vanished one day too. When Ragnar died Thistle got really depressed so I pretty much raised Flóki and our siblings. And one day I was attacked and hurt really badly by some asshat that'd made a friend of mine disappear. I thought I'd die, but that lead me to Amekaze, who gave me shelter while I recovered, and we then decided to form Moonspear, so... I guess it wasn't all for nothing." He liked to believe that his hardships had lead him here, and that was also why he was allowed — and maybe even deserved; life owed him quite some favours yet — to do things like playing judge and killing the sick Nishu, who'd already been a nuisance to his pack. Reciting it, Charon realised again how tough his life had been from young age, and he suddenly felt proud for how he'd gotten out of it all.

Pyx frowned and nodded. Many terrible things indeed. "It wasn't all for nothing." She agreed. "Though I am sorry you had to suffer so much, you have such great things now. Amakaze, children on the way. And an entire pack. The stars have certainly had an interesting story to tell." She smiled at him but wondered still if other's could hear their own stories in the sky. Did Charon hear tell of himself because they were the only whispers, or because they were the only ones meant for him.

"You'll have to educate me on the stars sometime. See if there are any whispers to interpret when we do. I'd be interested to be shown their language."

He nodded as she spoke — that was what he thought, too. Many hardships had been faced so that he would be brought here. If not for him getting hurt he might've stayed at Stavanger and seen his family die from hunger through winter; if not for his parents dying he might've led a cushioned life without ambitions that brought him to be the Bay's youngest Beta and Alpha at one year old. Behind each tragedy was a greatness, however sad, and so he deemed them meant to be.

"Yeah, maybe," he said non-committally in reply to her question, though there was a somewhat teasing grin on his face that betrayed that he most likely would. He enjoyed telling of the stars regardless, even though he highly doubted Pyx'd have his divine calling and therefore would hear a thing they said. The biggest connection he guessed she had was that she'd come here to serve him. More than most, but nothing as special as his own connection to the stars.

She arched an eyebrow at his response, then chuckled slightly. "Yeah, maybe? As in, yeah maybe I'll be able to shut you up after you start? Maybe we'll trade places for once and you'll be the rambler." She could tell he was passionate for the stars, and she would enjoy listening to him explain and teach her. She enjoyed hearing another speak on their passion, watching their eyes light up and the way their face seemed to glow. She knew she looked this way with herbs, and to see it on others was a lovely thing.

"It's a plan then. I'll hold you to it. No drooling this time, though." She smiled crookedly.

He grinned at Pyx and said: "Fine, I'll prepare an hours-long presentation for you that'll be sure to make you fall asleep and start drooling yourself. Are you happy now?" He rolled his eyes, though the grin was still on his face to signify that it was just jokes. It wasn't like he'd fallen asleep during her ramblings... Just almost. Lazarus was forgotten moments ago but came reeling back into his mind and he realised that he couldn't stay too long.

"I should head off again," he said, the smile fading from his face and his expression growing more serious. Time to hunt down the bastard that'd attacked Ame — for real this time, he hoped.

She snorted. "Is that a challenge? You'll never see a more awake and non-drooling pupil in your life." Though he was grinning as he spoke, she saw an expression cross his face that was more serious. A thought had struck him, she supposed, some duty he needed to do. She nodded, her own smile fading a little.

"It was nice to talk to you, Charon. Even if you did drool on me." She smiled a little and dipped her head. "Good luck with whatever it is you're off to do. I won't forget about that promise, so don't be surprised when I finally come asking for my lesson."

Charon grinned at Pyx' final leaving words and said, "See you later," with an almost soft smile. Then he turned away from Pyx, leaving her at Moonspear while he turned towards the neutral territories nearby, once more on his way to go looking for Lazarus; hopefully for the last time.