Moonspear letting the water fall

backdated for 10/22.
huojin has permission to be here, as of this thread. :)
all welcome! attn: @Sialuk

huojin enjoyed his short meal with hydra and her sister, then went to find himself a place to rest. his gangly body ached from days of travel, and though he was loathe to admit, some good rest would probably do him good.

he stayed beside the trunk of a crooked tree for most of the afternoon, then rose at the start of evening to stretch his bones. there was a slight chill to the air; to counteract the cold, huojin began a steady trot so that he might find warmth.

Hope it's ok if this takes place late at night! This is the same night Sialuk fell down the mountain, whoop!

A few hours of rest had been good for Sialuk, and she had slept well, dozing away as Kukutux kept a close eye on her. As time marched forward, Sialuk grew more and more restless. And with the blessings of anaa, she was allowed a short trip outside. No running, no climbing, no jumping, but she could put some weight on her sprained joint now, and she understood that it was good to do so. Gently, she plucked her way out of the ulaq and into the night air, taking in a breath of the crisp smells of the wilderness.

Her mind wandered to the wolves she wished to see again. Hydra, to apologize. Revui, to bring food from the caches. The witch, to continue her initiation into becoming one herself. Toad, to ask how long she'd been a witch. None of these were the wolf who trotted toward her. Instead, it was a boy, approximately her own age, with a brown coat she could barely make out in the darkness. All of her cousins had dark coats (aside from Mintaka, who was bright, like her), so it could not be one of them.

Hello! she called out, seeking to grab his attention.

Aware that someone new was in their midst, Altair had set out to seek him. Not necessarily to say hello—he found himself a little wary after the harrowing events that Mira had gone through—but to simply lay eyes on him. At least that had been the plan until he had seen Sialuk limping along, and he had set to stalking after her and wondering just what had happened to her.

He could have simply gone hunting, but there was a bit more fun in trailing after his siblings and cousins and whatever other combination of relatives he could find; he had fewer to choose from these days with their pack divided between the mountain and the glen. Going out to the glen required bothering someone old enough to take him there, much to his dismay (and potentially theirs) and he had exhausted a running list of the willing.

For the most part, anyway.

Closing in on his cousin, he called to her: “Sia—!”

His voice cut off at the greeting she offered, and just beyond her through the foliage he spied out the boy. His brow furrowed at his pelage, so vibrant and bright in comparison to his own, but not as pristine as his cousin. He hadn’t expected to find him by following Sialuk either, and he could not temper the feeling of keeping his hackles down; they bristled instead, the dark hairs rising along his spine.

“Hey, who are you?” His voice was a bit firm for a boy still growing into himself.

of course :)

there was an eager voice which called out into the twilight, quickly catching huojin’s full attention. he slowed to a stop and turned to see the steady figure, but before he could give a response, another voice came through.

huojin stepped closer to better see both boy and girl. my name is huojin wang, he said plainly, why you look angry? he studied those raised tips with a careful glance, but thought nothing of it; he did have permission to be there, straight from hydra herself!

who are you? huo asked the girl, who up until that point seemed to be the more polite housemate, and you? to the unfamiliar boy.

Altair called out, and Sialuk turned her head to see him approaching with an aggressive-looking posture. The strange boy's voice had a peculiar lilt to it. Sialuk could not place it. He did not sound like her father, but he also did not sound like her mother (both of whom were distinctly different in the way they spoke). Altair demanded to know the strange boy's name, meanwhile the strange boy asked several questions at once. It was all quite a lot for the girl who'd taken a tumble earlier in the day.

It is okay, Altair. I do not think Huojin wishes us harm, she said, hoping to soothe her cousin's concerns. I am Sialuk, and this is Altair. We are both Ostregas, born on this mountain. She smiled then, standing aside her cousin and silently thanking him for being there. She would not have been quite as comfortable on her own, even if she did think Huojin harmless.

“Our mountain,” he said, not entirely convinced about the other. At least until he gave it some thought, his face shifting from concern to thought. Huojin may not have meant any harm, true, but that barely explained why he was there… but there was something familiar about him even if Altair didn’t place it immediately.

And then it hit, and his expression softened.

“Oh, wait,” he said, suddenly clued in to the answers to fill in his blanks, “you have a name like the wolves from Yuèlóng.” Maybe he was from there? He turned to Sialuk then. “My mom knows some wolves from there… we went to meet them in the glen a while back,” and then as he turned back to Huojin, “but you’re not as shy as they were. Why are you here? Is your mom visiting mine?”

ostregas — huojin assumed that all wolves from moonspear shared that name, and therefore decided that it might be worth remembering. he turned to altair and explained, i am wang, they are jiang. same family.

still tired, huo shook his head with a wide-mouthed yawn. no, i come from somewhere else to visit yuèlóng and family; my mom is not here. he was curious what the relationship between their two packs might be, that each seemed to be broadly aware of the other.

glen is where? huojin turned to sialuk, hoping that he might be able to prompt something more from her. altair’s dominant, abrasive energy was somewhat overwhelming.

Sialuk was not on the up and up with the wolves that Altair spoke of, but he seemed to know what he was talking about. Sialuk listened as he explained that Hydra had met with them in the glen, apparently before Osiris had begun to claim it for the Ostregas. These Yuelong wolves had a reputation of being shy, at least according to what Altair said.

It's just northeast of here, Sialuk explained, glancing to Altair to see if he would balk at giving away the location. If you are here to visit Yuelong and family, why are you here, on Moonspear? she asked, tilting her head to one side. Maybe she was missing something, but it felt like it didn't quite add up. Why would Hydra and Dirge let him stay here if he wasn't to be part of Moonspear?

Huojin tossed out some other names and while it should have sounded familiar, Altair didn’t recall either. The memory of such a visit was vague in his memory now, especially with everything else that had been going on. From Mira’s disappearance to his brothers leaving to found the glen, his little microcosm of a world had been flipped upside down a number of times. He had changed and coped with the change as best he could, but there had been his moments of slippage.

This could have been categorized as one—the usually talkative Altair was rendered silent. Sialuk had answered Huojin’s questions for the most part and he thought pretty well, all things considered, and he had nothing more to add. But his gaze was sharp on the foreigner in their group, almost wondering why he was there if he was headed to Yuelong to visit family. And if his parents weren’t there? That was confusing to him, but then again he and Sialuk both had parents who kept a fair rein on their children.

Well, mostly. They were all at the age where being sly and exploring their world was the slice of luxury they wanted… which almost made him wonder if their guest was lying. With the notion of that, he felt questions burning on his tongue, but kept it still; perhaps it would be best to hear the answer first before casting some judgment.

237 words

sialuk’s questions made sense.. or they would have, if huojin were someone else. instead of understanding, he became slightly confused. it’s a long journey, huo explained, it’s ok to sleep safely, right? he’d been welcomed rather than turned away; who was he to deny someone else’s kindness?

then again, he’d been brought up somewhere quite different from moonspear, both at his beginning and more recently. huojin decided that the ostregas simply held different values than his own family did.

Last one from me!

The way he spoke slightly out of tune with the rest of the world reminded Sialuk fondly of her mother's own voice. She understood his meaning with ease, and she nodded. Of course, she said, glancing to Altair. As long as Hydra has approved. Sialuk was optimistic enough to believe that Huojin had permission to be here.

Whatever energy she'd regained since resting from her fall felt like it was being quickly sucked away. Her eyelids felt heavy, and her body felt sluggish. I should return to the ulaq, she said quietly to Altair. It was pleasant to meet you, Huojin. I need some sleep as well. The girl paused then, lingering for any last-minute questions or final goodbyes. She would leave the boys to it, and she would get back to her mother.

Huojin’s rejoinder confused Altair for a moment, though he was distracted by Sialuk suddenly wanting to retire from the conversation. His mouth opened to stop her, still wanting to know what had happened to her, but the weariness that his cousin displayed made him second guess bothering her at all. There would be another time, he decided. Instead he watched her go to make sure she was well enough to go alone, and then turned back to their company.

“Well, I don’t know where your pack is so I guess maybe it is a long journey,” he said then, his brow knitting together thoughtfully. “And I’m guessing my mom did let you stay, so…” he trailed off, not quite apologizing for being brusque in so many words. He thought the meaning would be implied well enough, and he shook out his coat to throw off the tension that had lingered.

“So where did you go that was so far away from your home? What’s it like out there?” His questions went probing then, though the interest was genuine. Altair was not overly versed in what else was out there in the world just yet. He could look for many miles from higher reaches along the mountain if he was sneaky and careful about it, but outside of knowing there were mountains that stretched for miles and his experiences with the glen just outside their claim, his world was quite literally a microcosm.