King Elk Forest there is a sleeping dog under this dialogue [packtivity]

wanted to get this up! set for jan 31st during the super blue blood moon. this is optional but of course highly encouraged ♥ i'll give everyone who joins a puzzle piece. no rounds, lets have some fun! @Fallyn @Mona @Troy @Nathaniel @Queenie @Gracious @Jomyo (& @Brienne & @Burke ? haha) sorry if i forgot anyone!

something about the sky tonight brings delight back to the day they founded; the mysterious blackness that blinked over them. unlike mato, the current morwinyon is not versed in the happenings of the stars, unaware of the exact nature of things like eclipses. it fills him with a vigor he's been missing the last few days and on a whim he sets into motion the idea he talked about with @Kota not so long ago.

after all, what use is a historian who never shares the history?

he sets off for the clearing where they all first marked their claim, remembering the rush of that joined howl. along the way he runs into @Mato and pulls him along, feeling young and fresh instead of tired and dried up for once. beside a small pool the androgyne takes up residence, and with a shy glance at the prince, he tips back his head and calls for their wolves to join him, a call hinting at something playful, celebratory.

cameo! feel free to not notice her.

she had been keeping to herself, as usual, doing the bare minimum of what was required of her before retreating back to solitude.  her mood had improved greatly, she was no longer snappy and bitter, and while for the most part she was back to her usual self the seasprite still held onto her penchant for isolation,

still, she comes to her friend's summons, uplifted after their previous conversation.  however the sight of them together — her silver prince so close to the young androgyne with stars in her eyes, she chokes.

no more. 

she cannot suffer through this anymore.  he was never hers, truly, but she cannot stand by and watch them be happy together. perhaps mato could move on so easy, but for brienne it would take time.

halting just as they come into sight, she turns directly around back to her den.  and once the festivities had come to an end, she would seek them both out to say her goodbyes.

it was time to move on.

The sound of a howl calling for the wolves to band together brought Gracious from her den. Besides meeting the other wolves, Gracious hasn't done anything too exciting recently. But she bounced up to her feet when the howl rang in her ears. What could possibly be the meaning of rounding the wolves of Tindome together? Whatever it was, she was curious about it.

She jogged her way over to the two wolves, not catching sight of Brienne, before chuffing towards them both as a greeting. The pool that they all sat by was small, but she could see something reflect the water with a bright light. "Hello Delight, hello Mato" she said to them both warmly with a gentle smile and voice.

delight was calling for them. mona shook out her ruff from where she had been bathing in the icemelt near the borders, and came padding with paws wet to attend her leader. with him was a man she had never seen before, and a lady. the other did not go unnoticed by mona, but it was only the turn of her body that the girl glimpsed.
looking after the wolf with a frown, the mayfair soon smoothed her countenance and turned back to the wolves of tindome that had gathered. "hello," she greeted. "i'm mona."

She comes to the call with a quick and bouncy trot, having been already out prowling when the night had proved to be an energetic one. With the moon so big and prey trails warm despite the winter, she felt like she could hardly rest anyway and had no intentions of fighting against that.

Jomyo doesn't make to draw a lot of attention to herself immediately, so enters the scene mildly. Most notably, she tips her snout to Delight and by extension, Mato. To the pair of others also here already, she wags her tail as she glances over them, vaguely familiar and feeling friendly enough to show it a small bit before she picks out a spot among them by the pond.

Queenie wasn't exactly thrilled to join the rest of the pack in whatever it was Delight had planned, especially considering that she barely knew anyone else who would be there, but after a moment of contemplation, she through her own head back with an incredibly unenthusiastic howl of her own; I'm coming! It didn't take long for her to find the group, upon which she came with a grunt of greeting. 

Now, Queenie didn't care if she was liked or not by most, but she did care if Delight liked her, so she put on a smile and gave a proper greeting to those she hadn't already been acquainted with. I'm Queenie, she said with a flat tone, Pleased to meet you.

tags are for ref!

one by one they pile in, gracious, jomyo, queenie and mona. he spies @Kota as well and gives him a slight nod. nathaniel -- well, he's probably with burke, and troy.. he hasn't really seen troy around in a bit. delight ignores the tiny spark of anxiety that once again their numbers seem to be dwindling despite his best efforts, catching sight of brienne as she turns away. 

he swallows and pulls himself back together. right. "thanks for coming out," the morwinyon says. "so, as you all know, i serve as tindómë's historian. and since none of you were present for our founding, i thought it would be beneficial to share some of that history with you." he pauses, glancing at the swollen moon above. "plus, it just kinda seems like a good night for sharing stories, doesn't it?" 

the androgyne manages a small smile, and sits, his tail coming to rest across white-tipped toes. "so i'll start us off, and then maybe we can take turns." he has no idea if any of them will actually be into it but also, he's morwinyon and they have to indulge him, so, hah. and if nothing else he'll have imparted a little bit of history. he clears his throat.

"as some of you may know, i'm our second morwinyon -- the first, our founder, being mato," he gestures to the prince with what he hopes is a casual and not slightly lovestruck expression, "who brought us all together on the day when the sun turned dark for just a moment. mato - and brienne - had come from a pack known as northstar vale before deciding to found their own home on the principles of knowledge and skill, and how one contributes those things, rather than a traditional hierarchy. 

they discovered me while still traveling toward the forest we would eventually claim for our own, and i readily agreed to join their forming ranks. also among our founding group were nova, mato's sister; and burke, his grandfather, who some of you may have met; burke's mate malice; and trajan and eucalyptus, who would not stay with us long but who, nonetheless, should be remembered for being present at our conception." he pauses, hiding his slight grimace as he recalls the rise and fall of their membership. being abandoned stings the morwinyon more than he'd like to admit, even if it's not personal. it feels personal to the boy who's had to lose so much in his young life.

"we are still in our youth as a pack, but i believe we should lay the foundation in preserving our history as it is happening - both of our individual members and of the pack as a whole. it has been, at times, rocky and uncertain, but we are still here, and i'm glad for that, and for all of you." he pauses. "okay, i'm done being sentimental. have any of you met the king elk yet?"

sorry if i jumped too early to the eclipse part, i can change this if desired!

Gracious sat still and silent, something that was pretty easy for her to do. Others trickled in one by one, some she knew, others seemed foreign to her. Offering smiles and dips of the head, she made sure to greet everyone before lending her full attention to Delight. He goes on to explain the history of the pack, what it means for him to be the historian of the pack that surrounded her. She was intrigued, though she knew she could never become a historian, she'd lack the ability to recount for every little thing that occurs in the pack. Perhaps that is why she is learning other trades.

As Delight draws his words to an end, Gracious tossed her head to look at the others to see if anyone would speak. Though, the peculiar question of meeting the king elk sparked her interest enough to make her part her lips. "He has been scarce for me, I haven't seen him yet," she said aloud to him gently. She waited for others to reply to the question as well. Dull grey eyes become full of life and scintillated at the sight before her as the others quieted themselves down.

The moon, once made of pure white light and stone, was becoming a shade of red. It first looked like red of crabs you'd see on the shoreline, one could even describe the shade as the gentle red that is seen in rainbows. The contrasting color was starting off as small specks, though began to grow larger and darker with color. Wait, hold on, red wasn't the only color beginning to attack the virgin white. Now it was blue, the shade of blue seen in the sky and in the ocean. 2 colors on the same moon? This definitely was something rare to see. Not only that but it was absolutely huge; it seemed so close that a wolf could touch it with their muzzle.

"You really need to see this..." she trailed off, motioning her muzzle to the sky where the red spots on the moon were growing. "This is something some wolves never see in their lifetime, something as rare as a meteor shower -- no, rarer even," she rambled on aloud, probably geeking out a little bit over the moon. She couldn't be more excited, she was going to be with her pack during a lunar eclipse. But it got better! The tints of blue meant a blue moon was upon them as well, and the sheer size of the moon gave her an idea that it was a supermoon. Jeez, talk about the extreme amount of luck the wolves have to see such beautiful events all in one night.

It is a quaint little gathering and she finds herself getting comfy quite easily, although there is still so much she doesn't know between the faces here, who isn't here, and what has led them all to here at this point beneath the moon. Delight soon sets out to change some of this, however, and while she had half an understanding of what had rooted them to this forest, the fully expanded version was much appreciated. She took it in, thoughtful, and eager to keep that for later--noting, especially, the bit about the sun. She had.. seen that. From elsewhere, of course, and had nothing nearly so meaningful to mark that day herself.

Being part of a relatively new pack was different for her, but she was finding she liked it so far. To have all of the history be recent history made it easier to digest, definitely, and she found few things were fundamentally different from one having spanned the generations like a few of her prior stays--where she was just bound to be a minor blip on their radar no matter much impact she might have been. Delight recited the early members, and she aimed to remember all that she could. As for the elk, she did not see him very much. "Oh yeah, pretty elusive for me too. I saw a glimpse once, though," the scout offered after Gracious spoke. What she didn't say was that it had been from quite a distance, and he had quickly moved out of sight...

When it was mentioned, she set her sights upward curiously to behold the moon in all its glory. If it was so special, then she wasn't going to miss any of it.

mona gathered close to the others to listen to delight, ears cupping to hear each word. though she had indentified him through biology as male, it was nevertheless quite easy to see the tindome leader as a wolfess, spinning the tale of the forest — she caught herself out of her reverie, red ears wilting a little with shame.
but delight went on, and mona sensed more to the bit of story he had given to his wolves. perhaps she was mistaken, but the yearling very much wanted to find out. talk shifted to the woodland around them, and the yearling glanced up toward the treetops, shaking her muzzle as she returned her attention to delight.

skipping queenie w permission!

seems like none of them have gotten to meet the magnificent beast. come to think of it, the elk has been scarce lately -- he'd hoped to use troy to keep tabs on him, but the guy hadn't stuck around. so it goes. maybe it's the weather -- do elk hibernate?

delight doesn't get a chance to fret on it as gracious calls their attention to the sky. the moon has grown swollen in the sky; even he can appreciate the sight, watching the colors shift across it's pale surface until shadow begins to consume it. "what's it doing?" he whispers loudly, transformed for a moment from morwinyon to just another wolf observing a rare astrological phenomenon.

Her pale eyes remained locked onto the moon, admiring the quiet beauty it offered to the wolves. Sometimes Gracious would wonder about living on the moon, what was it like there? Could wolves even life on the moon? She wasn't an astrophysicist or even an astronomer yet, but now she knew where her interests lay. Delight's voice brings the glaze away from her eyes as she turns to face him and speak.

"The moon is bigger than normal, so it's called a supermoon,"  she said first, gesturing to the sheer size of it, "the blue tints on it make it a blue moon, but the crazy thing is," her voice hitched a bit with excitement as she pointed with her snout to the right side of the lunar surface, "there's red right there, making it a blood moon too."  A rare sight for an amazing occasion, what a blessing!

"It would be a super blue blood moon. The very site hasn't probably been seen for a long time considering its rarity," she tore her focus away just for a bit and silently encouraged everyone to lock eyes with perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness something happen that's greater than the planet they live on.

just gonna go ahead and slap an ending on this since it's pretty old <3 thanks everyone for participating!

quietly he listens as gracious explains the phenomenon. a super moon, a blue moon, a blood moon. he doesn't understand exactly but it feels important, right somehow to experience it. "cool," he says, smiling softly, glad he was able to share with his wolves and enjoy this moment. 

he sits and stares at the moon with mato by his side for a little longer after dismissing the rest of the group. the night feels long and endless and filled with possibility, and although soon nathaniel's distressed howl will take him out of it, he feels peace.