Dragoncrest Cliffs oh, for the night to come again

The Geminid Meteor Shower is upon us!  Set for last night, 12/15.

He couldn't sleep.  The black-faced wraith had amassed an army just overnight; their howls now reverberated through the cliffs and caused his blood to boil from all the rage his body contained.  He felt like a failure, but he was sure that Ephraim would feel worse — in some way, Tux understood that the sound was to Ephraim what the cliffs were to himself, and the thought of losing them was too painful to shoulder.

He stood, uncurling himself and stretching before something bright streaked through the sky and caught his attention.  The storm from earlier had cleared — at least for now — and allowed a view of the meteor shower that he might have otherwise missed.  His heart beat a little faster, ears pulled to attention as another meteor clawed its way into the atmosphere.  He moved to the highest point of the cliffs, smug that he'd have a better, closer view than any of those fools in the sound beneath his paws, and rested upon the cold rock to enjoy the view.

Mallaidh struggles to find sleep this night too. She hasn’t seen @Artaax since she brought him back to Drageda. She hasn’t gone out of her way to look for him but neither has he and she doesn’t know if it’s a bad thing. Is he avoiding her? Is she? And now, he was going to be going with them when Blixen breaks off. She had a brief hope that she’d be able to put distance between herself and the brute. The first time has been easy enough not to bring up, mostly wanting to forget it, but this time… doesn’t have the same shame built in.

Idly, she meanders through the openness by the lake until something flies over head. Quickly, she snaps to attention to see a second meteor flying through the sky. Her eyes widen, stunned in space and forgetting all her problems all of a sudden. Her throat lodges in her throat, shifting her feet a bit.

“I told you,” she tells @Blixen (who isn’t even there), moving quickly when another one launches across the clear sky. If she can find where it lands, she can prove to her that they do fall out of the sky and it won’t be so silly. Maybe @Ali sees it, too.

Mallaidh comes to a stop when she reaches a high cliff and another, looming body in the distance. At first, she thinks it is Heda, and she freezes, her nose proves it’s someone else and makes it easier to approach. She does not see the anger in Tux’s features, cloaked by darkness, but another meteor flies through the sky and she’s suddenly distracted as she tries to figure out where it’s going.

She’d never been to the sea before, or seen a shower of stars, either. Why not visit them on her first night?

The specter of a Brana had only heard tales of both; and both had come from the tongues of those more seasoned. The looming memories of elders, keeled over younger generations and, at the time, more versed than she’d ever hoped to be.

But she was here, now, leaving the pristine lake behind in favor for beaten crags and cliffs. What was once pup’s play to her, climbing now wore at her weakened self. Nonetheless, she took in the smell of the sea and salt in great heaves of her lungs. As the cosmos flared into an enigmatic life of their own, Aure tucked herself away into a little knoll.

So instilled she was that, for once, she didn’t notice the presence of other members some while away, kept to herself as she was.

The meteors are not always falling, and it's painful to continually look upwards at the sky.  He does not notice Aure, who curls up some distance behind him — after all, he doesn't have eyes in the back of his head — but he does find Mallaidh as she approaches, and then halts some distance away from him.  He turns to stare at her.

Blixen had said she was "brilliant".  He hadn't initially thought so, but maybe if she could tell him a little bit more about thse meteors and how they came to be, he would believe that.  Hey, he calls out to her, It's better over here.

to be quite honest, ali couldn't say she was particularly enjoying the whole pack life so far. it wasn't that anything bad was happening, more just that nothing overly enjoyable had either. there was no beating around the bush, she wasn't the most responsible of characters but obviously it was expected from one residing within another's pack. there's an irritation to her walk that makes it out to be a bit more of a stalk as her tail flicks at her haunches. everyone just seemed to damn serious about everything. a soft huff escapes her jaws as teal eyes lift aimlessly to take in the open night sky. her stomach churns with that familiar ache of just wanting to escape and she finds herself giving into the silly fantasy of letting her paws lift off the frosty grass and just.....what? she didn't know.

except today her paws feel heavier than ever and- what was that?? a flash just out of the corner of her eyes, had she imagined it? she spins in a full circle- head still tilted upwards to take in the star scattered sky. it'd be quite a sight for someone to come across but she's too curious to care. again! this time she catches it, the light shooting across the sky magnificently and definitely real. forgetting her complaintative thoughts from before the girl launches easily into a run- creamy paws hitting the ground lightly and pushing her skinny frame up the cliff in a golden blur. 

the higher she got the higher she felt, inhaling the salty breeze and racing the speeding stars with a grin gracing her features. fuck she'd never seen anything quite like this before but these were the kind of things she really lived for. it seemed she wasn't the only one to notice the spectactular actions of the sky as her sprint slowed to a brisk trot when reaching the land's highest point and spotting a few other forms dotted about. her salmon tongue lolls from her jaws as sides heave with each pant but her teal eyes are bright with wonder.

before she can observe the other's around her she notices mallaidh gazing up at the sky and basically skips over- giddy on the sharp air and atmosphere the lights caused. "mal!" she exclaims, shortening the girls name without a care for wether they were on a nickname basis or not. of course being her she doesn't stop to be considerate of the risk of interrupting anything else she continues on- voice higher with amazement. "aren't they fucking amazing!" her tail wags as she stands by the other, hitting off her side every now and then as her gaze remains captivated by the skies above.

A new scent on the air causes her to stay still, turning a little just as Tux speaks to her. She only gets a brief glimpse of the unknown brana in the background because by then, Ali has approached rather quickly. Her eyes widen and she smiles—it’s like she knew she was thinking about her—and so she turns away from the dragon child and gives her friend the same amount of energy back. Her tail sweeps eagerly behind and she approaches, putting her nose to the girl’s cheek as she settles nearby.

After a beat, she realizes Tux had been there and she glances from the sky to him. She’s met him before a time or two but she doesn’t really know how to interact with children (she still feels like a child herself). She gives Ali a nudge to come closer and she steps up where the kid said the view was best.

“I’ve seen this once before,” she says, head jerking as another star crosses the sky, knee jerk reaction to trail after it but with a wolf on either side of her she manages to stay still instead.

Usually, Aure would’ve preferred to be left alone; but then she heard a cry of joy, and the cream-café eyes of she-wolf she’d caught was distracted by it, too. Peering over, she heard another pale wolf announce her fascination to the other, who’d spoke with Tux.

Since she was here, might as well begin to come to familiar terms with the other members—or, try to.

Rising to stiff paws, and legs that were stiffer still, the porcelain brana have a long, luxurious stretch to quell the shivers of excitement in her. She stepped deftly about the shadowy form of Tux, who she might’ve missed had it not been for the sky stumbling with its armfuls of stars. She gave a gentle click to him in greeting, before picking her way over to where Mallaidh and Ali were.

Hearing the dark-faced’s statement, her ears curled toward the words, her mind suddenly fizzing as her pale eyes brightened all of their own. “You’ve seen this before?”

The other wolf catches her off guard and her ears fall against her head. She glances at Ali, then Tux, and determines she likely isn’t a threat this far in. She’d forgotten the glimpse a moment ago, wrapped up in the company of her friend.

“Yeah,” she says carefully, nodding her head. “When I was a kid. My brother and I followed one that went through the forest and we found a whole field of them. They were so small but they eventually died out,” she explains (poor girl isn’t aware fireflies are a thing) but she smiles, excited to see them painted across the sky. Wherever they go, they’ll land somewhere near the ground before dying out for good.

For a while, the group watches the shower color the sky every so often until there's none left to see.