Arrluk would not go far. Though his mother said that this was something a young boy must do to become man. That he must walk with the spirits to guide his path. That he would continue to walk until they spoke to him which he needed to hear.
Arrluk would not leave his family, even if it meant not finding his path somehow. Instead of going far beyond, go the lands of heat and sands, to the place of always snow, Arrluk remained in the forests. He remained near the water always- the rivers, the lakes, the falls and the creeks. They spoke to him far more then the spirits ever had.
The young wolf had visited the bay at the sea and then to the heights of Moonspear. Now he came to a lake, one far greater in size then he had ever seen in his life. The shoreline even sandy in places, which made him think of the long salt, but as he sniffed and tasted the water, knew this to be a lake. It was a beautiful place and as he walked along with the water out to his side at all times, he explored around the pale birch trees, the coves, the giant sycamore, far larger then any other tree he had seen. Wildflowers were still abundant even as the breeze chilled. The sun on his dark back yet plenty of shade to take if chosen.
Arrluk smiles as he looks out over the water, taking note of the island in its center. Dominated by one giant old oak whose roots turned and reached down into the water below. He thought to make a swim for it. Who knows what little treasures he might find.
Now and then Dwin wondered, if being born in a pack, where traditions ran strong and governed one's life each step of the way from the day they were born to the day they died, meant an easier life. Say, if you knew exactly, what you should or should not do, what your role to fulfill were, where your place was etc. - would she be a different person and therefore feel differently as well? Or, would these people, who seemed to have their life in perfect order, reach a point in their lives, when they - just like her - did not know, what to do. Did people, who sincerely believed in spirits and gods faced the same issues in faith as those, who had sworn not to believe anything?
Dwin knew she would not change her upbringing for anything, yet with all the freedom of speech and mind, with all the many ways she had been taught to think critically, with all the encouragement that she could become anything she wanted, she still felt lost. The odd one out in a world, where everyone else seemed to have certainty of sorts. Frolic, for example, did not doubt anything and she envied her little sister, for her ability to live in the moment and act on impulse. Dwin... she had come to cross-roads with many paths leading to all possible directions and she had been standing there unable to choose anything for a long time now.
She was drawn out of her contemplation, when she spotted a young wolf standing on the lake-shore. He was roughly the same age as the Brecheliant rowdy bunch and for one, long moment Dwin feared that this could be yet another Blackthorn kid engaging in dangerous activities. He was not, but out of sense of responsibility to faraway parents of this kid, she neared the fellow and asked: "Planning to swim all the way there?"
When Arrluk had visited Moonspear,
@Alaric had told him of the pack I'm the south where his sister lived. Arrluk had not thought he would ever have a reason to visit, being the sort who did not care to travel. He didn't imagine what wonders were out there in the world, when he had so much to be grateful for right here in the Bear Wilderness. His home Tribe and three others which were lead by his kin and all of those extended from it. Arrluk didn't need to wander off to find interests or something grand, when what he had here he was everything he could ever want or need.
Yet here he was, coming to meet one of those wolves from the pack in the south. As it were, Brecheliant wasn't all that far away. In fact, just about as far off as Saltwoods was in the Stavanger Bay.
The boy's head perks up at the voice of another. A wolf older then he, but young yet still all the same. He looks to her, coated in greys and freckles on her muzzle and her eyes seemed all the more brighter with her greyscale pelt.
I thought I might.
He pondered with honesty as he looked back to the island.
I'm a good swimmer... but I have not swam that far before.
"Proceed with caution then - water nymphs here are known to take interest in kidnapping young, handsome fellows," Dwin warned him jokingly. If he was to jump in and swim - she would not attempt to deter him again.
"You are from Moonspear - Seal's pack, right?" she asked. "My sister Frolic has run off there more times than she has been given a permissoom to do so," she added with a smile. "Name's Dwin. And you are?"
Water nymphs?
Arrluk had never heard of such a thing, yet was curious all the same. He would not dismiss it as some story told to keep children in line. After all, his father spoke of the Goddesses Sea and Moon. His mother spoke of the many spirits in the place of dancing lights. Arrluk had no reason not to believe her. So much so, that he didn't quite catch on that she had called him handsome.
Moonglow, actually, but I've just come from Moonspear. My family is in both.
And with a new determination to visit the other moon tribes often, he could easily see why someone might scent otherwise. I know Seal. Know of her, at least, though her sister Orca more so. I am Arrluk. It's nice to meet you, Dwin.
He speaks with a lowering of his head respectfully so. A man named Alaric said his sister, Amalia, lived this way. Are you of the same tribe?
"Exactly. They are the spirits, the souls of water," Dwin explained, looking down at the river and for a moment she thought she really saw a pair of crystalline blue eyes looking back at her. "Without them the water is dead and empty. No plants, no fish, no nothing. Have a nymph or two there and you will see all the difference. They like rivulets and creeks as well - one can hear them laughing there the best," she shared the same fairy-tale all Blackthorn and Redleaf children had heard during childhood. How important the water was and how you had to respect these beings straight out of myth and legend books. Because they were the ones to make sure that the water stayed good.
"My sister - Dee - lives in Moonglow," Dwin recognized the name of the pack. She also vaguely remembered Amalia mentioning her brother living in Moonspear. "I know Amalia. She is a dear packmate of ours," she told him, thinking fondly of dark-pelted woman. "And your brothers and sisters are?" she asked, eager to cure her ignorance about the genealogy of packs beyond caldera's borders.
The whale-boy listened as Dwin began to explain about the water nyphms. They were indeed spirits as his mother had spoke about. Water spirits and explained how they breathed life into the water of all types. She spoke of hearing their laughter, especially in the water ways that snaked through lands.
It made Arrluk think back to how
@Ajei felt she heard the river whisper and speak to her. Arrluk guessed she was right all along but hadn't exactly questioned that she had not been either. Moonglow and the other Moom tribes were all very spiritual places. He had grown up to it. The Brecheliant pack's deep respect for the water was one which Arrluk would definitely adhere to.
Oh- Chickadee, yes.
He nods after taking a moment to think on the little nickname 'Dee'. He guessed 'chickadee' as a whole was a second name of hers, as he also recalled her being referred to as 'Sorcha' as well.
Then, she asked of his own family and he smiles. That would be alot of names!
Of my litter, there is my brothers Massaraq and Kassuq and sister, Galana.
Though, still missing. She had been so young still too, when she went away. He wondered if she had grown just as much as he and his brothers had already.
My older siblings, well, there is Sialuk and Vaire and Stratos, Callyope and Ariadne. Wil, Ink, Lomion and Kivaluk, through marriage... and Huojin from long before but, I've not met him and some others.
Stratos and Callyope or some of Vairë's litter. He was probably missing some, he felt still.
And the rose twins, Kausiut and Sama-
He cuts himself off quick, ears falling back and he murmurs as he looks away- back to the water.
Mom says you shouldn't speak the names of the dead aloud...
Dwin stopped following the list of Arrluk's relatives after Galana, because the names were foreign and there were quite a few of them. She was glad that at least for her she only had to remember the names of two older siblings, two - her age, and three - younger. And with any luck (and sense on her parents' side) she would not have to memorize any more sibling names. In her opinion there was a strict limit of people you could know very well, remember and keep any meaningful connection going on. Add one more over the brim and that carefully built relationship architecture no longer works.
"Why does your mom say that dead should not be mentioned aloud?" she asked, curious about such a statement, when she had been taught exactly the opposite. "My mom told me that we should remember our dearly beloved people, who have passed away. If you speak their name or tell stories about them, they are never truly dead. They stay with you in some capacity. But, if you forget them, then they are truly dead," she explained. "So - if you were in Brecheliant, then I think... I hope your sisters," she had assumed that both Kausiut and Samani had died, "would be happy to know that you think about them still. But - I believe that you come from a different background and your mom may have a good reason to teach you that way."
Either it was a strategy to move on and not let the past drag you down. Or - this was more intriguing - it was a way of running away from something painful. Fear of facing a horrible truth and going through the process of grieving. Which made her wonder further - what had happened in Arrluk's mother's life so bad that she would carry on teaching her own kids to forget about the dead? It was so interesting and so... so... disappointing that she could not ask any of these burning questions to this young lad. First - he would not know the answers anyway. Second (this should have been the first) - it was none of her business.
Arrluk listened quietly as Dwin spoke about the dead. How telling stories of them was how you kept their memory alive. To not and the memory of them faded with time, those who had died became lost on a truly different level.
The young wolf awaited her finish, then shook his head lightly.
It isn't that we cannot talk about them, it's that we are not supposed to say their name allowed, after The Death Songs have been sung.
He spoke, pausing a moment in thought of how to further explain.
Something about after their spirit has gone to the Dancing Lights, if their name is spoken, it can allow vengeful spirits to break through...
Death songs. Dancing lights. Evil spirits. Man he wished his mother was here.
@Kukutux would surely would have the answers.
Huh? Death songs? Dancing lights? All of this was entirely new to Dwin. Her perception of death was pretty straightforward. Old people died (she was young and felt invincible and not applicable to the death's recruiting call yet) and then their spirits went in an afterlife. Or if they chose to, they roamed the world as ghosts. And they usually did not mind being called by name now and then, because those in paradise did not hear it and care for it and those on the ground - well - she had yet to meet one to find out. And you could not scare any Blackthorn in not even attempting to call back one of the dead. Especially, if an evil spirit was involved. Where was one in having a good old sweet natured ghost, if you could have a brawl with a vengeful one.
Instead of drowning this young fellow in her opinions and takes on the subject as she was prone to do, she as a descendant of a long line of storytellers, caught a whiff of a very good story. If she managed to ask the right questions and the man was willing to share. "What are these Death songs you sing for your beloved that have passed away? Do you come up with a new one for each or is there the same one for all?" she asked first and then gave Arrluk plenty of time to reply. "What are the Dancing lights? A world, where the spirits live?"
I um, well...
Arrluk pondered, as Dwen asked further of his culture, of the traditions which was passed down from mother to daughter. Arrluk had never sang the death songs himself. When his sister died, his mother had chosen
@Ariadne to sing with her, to teach her. Arrluk had no other death to remember if the same words were sung and for that now, he was grateful.
I'm not sure if they are different each time. I've not learned them yet, but a different one is sung for nine days, this I know. It is to help guide our loved ones spirit to the spirit world. This place is what mother calls, the place of Dancing Lights.
He explained in the best way that he was able.
Spirit to the spirit world. Dwin chuckled to herself, but listened to the end of Arrluk's story without interruption. She had heard something similar from her mom and knew that the dancing lights were a real thing, but had not seen them herself.
"Do you think that there are different places, where spirits dwell after death? I mean - according to you, your ancestors go to the dancing lights. Mine - wherever they wished. I am very sure of one aunt, who became a tree," she began. "What if - say - one of your folk died among mine, who did not know the right passage rites," she said. "Would they not be able to reach the lights or would they have to choose a different afterlife?"
Sorry for the wait! Was on a somewhat absence in January. I'm going to be wrapping up all Arrluk's old threads and starting fresh!
Dwen's mind kept racing, wondering allowed in deep thought on what the afterlife must really be like. Arrluk contemplated too, the pair going back and forth as they tried to make sense of all what they had heard of from others and what all they had grown to believe from their parents.
A tree?
Arrluk quipped, his head tilting and ears perking.
She had reborn into another being. That sounds neat...
Arrluk mused allowed, thinking hard on this. Could one day, if he decided not to go to the Dancing Lights, he could be reborn the killer whale, which he was named for?
The island adventure he had originally intended was all forgotten.
I think, sometimes, spirits came be lost. Stuck in this world even, yet not able to communicate with others. It sounds horrible... I think I'd rather be a tree then that.
He smiled gently. He didn't have the answer, perhaps he never would. At least, until his own death, which hopefully would not be for quite some time.
After a pause and awkward shifting of his paws,
It's been nice speaking with you, Dwen. I know I should get going though.
He had this path he was supposed to be on. Some purpose to find...