Moonspear boo'ya moon

The sky was particularly clear tonight, not a single cloud to obscure the dark heavens salted with stars. Galaxy sprawled on her back, hind legs spread (in a decidedly unladylike fashion) and forelegs curled loosely on her chest. Her pale ribs stood out starkly in the darkness, not that she knew it. She wasn't thinking of her body or her relationship with food right now. For the first time in several days, her mind was blissfully blank.

She suddenly remembered what Korei Julia had taught her about the constellations, including the Big and Little Dippers. She couldn't find them, though Galaxy lifted one of her little paws from its resting place on her breastbone and began tracing other shapes against the night sky. Here was butterfly with crooked wings, there a strangely shaped fish. If she just used her imagination and connected the dots, there were many heavenly bodies hanging out up there.

Things were quiet and safe ever since the move to the rendezvous site, and it was a relief to the Ostrega patriarch. He'd been worried after Galaxy had gotten hurt, too worried to move them and therefore had kept them at the den for too long. Now he realised that he'd done a lot of unnecessary research at the rendezvous site, removing every item that might be harmful in some way. Pups just needed to run, play and learn and he hoped Galaxy wouldn't make the same mistake again. He found his heart worrying every now and then, but overall he was finally beginning to let it go. Galaxy's eating problems hadn't really gone noticed to him yet; whenever she declined food he assumed it was because she'd already eaten just before or someone else had promised to come along to bring her something later. He didn't yet think much of it.

As he made his way to the rendezvous site after a quick patrol of the borders that night Charon noticed his stark white daughter not too far off. He noticed as she lay there that she still looked rather thin, but he supposed it wasn't strange after being lost and without food for so long. It was miraculous she had survived at all, so she just needed to gain some weight, he told himself.

"Hey sweetie, what'cha doing?" asked Charon as he approached, having observed her lifting a paw to the sky and seemingly tracing something with it. He guessed she was practising her astronomy after what Julia'd taught her and felt rather proud that Galaxy was already showing interest in one of his favourite trades.

Heavy footfalls heralded the arrival of her father. Galaxy let her leg sink back down onto her chest as she turned her head sideways. She smiled at Charon, her tail slithering softly through the grass. She wanted to sit up and greet him but didn't have the energy. Besides, she was still enchanted by the stars and all the patterns she was finding among them. She didn't want to move.

"Hi, daddy. I'm looking for consta-whatsits?" Her lips pressed together as she waited for him to provide the correct word (presumably), then enunciated, "Constellations." Galaxy paused, running her tongue over her bottom lip. "What else is up there, daddy?" she found herself wondering, mismatched eyes peering up toward his face, then beyond it, to the empyrean views.

After nuzzling Galaxy's face Charon settled beside her on the grass, gaze upwards, so that he could behold the stars that she had been watching. He chuckled as she butchered the word and corrected "Constellations" after which Galaxy quickly found the right word too. It was heartening to see her interest in the stars, even though it was also to be expected considering her parentage that she would hold such interests.

She asked what else was up there, and he wondered what she meant. What, besides the stars? Charon had never given it much thought, really. "Just lots and lots of stars," he said as he looked at the stars. "And wolves that passed away. They look over us from up there with the stars." It was a warming thought that his parents — biological and adoptive — were watching over. "What else would be there?" He wondered if she had fabricated a story already, knowing that his children were likely as imaginative as he was when he was little. Charon'd mostly grown out of it, but he was looking forward to hear what Galaxy might be considering.

Just lots and lots of stars, making endless shapes... and a bunch of dead wolves? Galaxy blinked loudly at this, head slowly turning to face Charon. He said it so casually that the pup wondered if she'd heard correctly. She gulped quietly and returned her eyes to the dark heavens, feeling a tingle down her spine as she wondered if a bunch of dead eyes were staring back at her.

"Dead people watch us?" she whispered to him after a beat, forgetting he'd asked a question of his own. Galaxy paused thoughtfully, lips pursed, and then added, "Daddy, what's it mean to be dead?" She possessed an instinctual understanding (and fear) of death, yet Galaxy didn't know what it truly meant. Her eyes were curious and a little frightened as they drifted once more to her father's face.

Galaxy reacted in surprise and awe to his mention that dead wolves were up in the skies, which he could imagine. Maybe because she had nearly been dead, or maybe because youths generally had a curiosity for things they didn't yet understand, such as death. "I think they become the stars," said Charon, and he glanced up. He was thinking of what else to say about it when Galaxy asked her question, asking him about death itself.

It was a dark subject and Charon was silent for a moment as he looked back to his daughter. He'd lost a lot of wolves, and many early in life, but he had seen his mother's bloodied body. He didn't remember much of it now but sometime she had flashbacks and sometimes he wasn't too sure if they were actual flashbacks or if it was just how he imagined it must've looked, because he knew that his mother'd been mauled by a bear...

After a few seconds of pause he said, "It means we can't be here anymore. Our bodies are broken and we can't use them anymore, and our spirits go to the stars." It gave him the chills to talk about it so candidly and try to come up with a definition of death, as it reminded him of how very nearly he had lost his little girl.

She found his clarification a bit comforting; stars were a lot less creepy than dead eyes! Galaxy listened closely as Charon tried to describe the concept of death in terms she could understand. She accepted anything her father told her at face value, though she wasn't sure she quite knew what a spirit was exactly.

"What's a spirit? Is that like a ghost?" Kala had told her a ghost story once and it had spooked the pup a bit. The mother bear had realized this and reassured Galaxy that Casper was a friendly ghost. Another thought struck her then and Galaxy's eyes suddenly widened to the size of saucers as she peered at all those stars. "Every single star is someone dead?" she breathed.

At her question, he looked doubtful for a short moment before nodding and confirming, "Yes, spirits are like ghosts in a way. Except ghosts usually stay around here, and the ghosts who are with the stars are far away from us." How far, he didn't know; some day he still wished to reach the stars, find a mountain tall enough to get to them. Then, at her question, "Yep..." As he stared up into the skies, wondering if it were true. There were stories like the eyes of Thjazzi that suggested they weren't all dead wolves, but then, those stories were incredulous and filled with fantasy things such as the gods (yes, maybe they existed, but Charon had more reason to believe they didn't).

She shivered a little at Charon's confirmation, then lapsed into a ponderous silence as she gazed upward, the star-shine reflected in her mismatched eyes. An errant thought flicked through her head: was Kala up there? But she pushed it away. Her father had only mentioned wolves, and she didn't even know if Kala was dead. But she didn't want to contemplate the bear's fate right now. The mere thought made it feel as if someone had socked her right in the chest.

A short stretch of silence passed between father and daughter before a thought occurred to her and she queried, "Can you climb up there and visit with them? The spirit-stars?"

Galaxy asked if they could climb up to visit the stars, and Charon smiled softly, as her question was a confirmation that she was really his. He had often contemplated these sort of things. "I often wonder about that myself, but I haven't found a place tall enough to reach them just yet." Charon wondered if they were this tiny and shiny up close too, or if they were in reality much bigger and he'd find out about that when climbing that huge mountain once he had found it. He hadn't yet reached Moonspear's tips either, so maybe that would be tall enough, but he had gotten close and the stars had so far seemed ever far away. "Maybe you'll stand beside me when I find a mountain tall enough." He smiled softly at Galaxy, hoping it would be so.

She'd been afraid it was a bit of a dumb question, though Charon not only didn't think so, he even told her that he occasionally wondered the same. Galaxy smiled, feeling close to her father just then, and pleased that they shared this. He mentioned finding a high point together one day and the youngster bobbed her head happily at the idea.

"Do you know anyone who's a spirit-star?" she wondered next, eyes going a little wide as she gazed at her father in wondering anticipation. If he did, that meant he knew someone who'd died. That seemed like such a weighty thing to her, even if she didn't fully understand death just yet.

Charon chuckled at the naivety of her question. He was glad that she hadn't grown up with the same death that he had faced as a child, but it made them different in many ways. He nodded at her question and answered, "A lot of my family died when I was little. Both my papa and mama died when I was very little because a bear killed them." He wasn't sure if he should incorporate the bear bit at first, figuring she was frightened enough of bears after what'd happened, but maybe it was good to know. Then she knew for sure never to trust a bear.

"And I lost my brother and sister when I was young. I'm sure they're all watching over. Because I was so little, I was adopted by the Alphas of my parents' pack. My adoptive father died, too, when I was a little older." He paused briefly, and leaned over to nuzzle Galaxy's face. "But don't worry, your mama and I are young and we're not going anywhere." Not like he could promise such things, really, but Charon didn't really care if he broke this one; it wasn't like he'd be around for her to be mad at him if he did.

The pair lay in the grass watching the stars for a while longer, Charon teaching Galaxy a few more constellations or other tidbits about the stars if she so wished.

i'mma wrap this because it's getting old and you's busy :) would love a new one when you've got a bit more time!