Dragoncrest Cliffs Saturn Nights

Meteor thread! Backdated, concurrent with this event.

It was a cold, clear winter night. Njord’s misty breath curled into the air as the snow squeaked and crunched beneath his feet. He moved alone through the dark, though his path was illuminated by pale moonlight.

Finally, some sense of normalcy had been achieved in Sapphique. It had been a moon or so since the passing of their Rosada. Though the absence of Rosencrantz, Kaertok, and Raleska still hurt, the wound from loss was beginning to scab over. Unfortunately, Regin had not turned up, either, despite their searching. However, Sapphique had the new faces of Haunt and Vex to reinvigorate their numbers… and they were the children of Kaertok, to boot. Family. The pale girl was especially vibrant. The look on her face during their recent hunt… priceless! Njord smiled to himself, happy to hold that fond memory.

Absently, his mind drifted to @Valmúaa. Did she remember him? Had she moved on? Njord sure hadn’t forgotten her. He found himself meandering along Dragoncrest’s southern borders as he thought about the Viking woman. Between the storms and the bear, the red-tail had been bound to Dragoncrest. His pack came first… but a deep longing in his heart for connection tugged at him. The seafarer looked out to the south.

Suddenly, a speck of bright light dotted the sky. The beam flashed as it sailed across the heavens, gaining momentum as it entered the atmosphere. Njord had seen falling stars before, but nothing like this. Beams of light; green, blue, and orange blazed as the great star danced. Njord watched it in the distance, big-eyed and fascinated by the beautiful sight. It touched down past the horizon with a great flare, like sunlight, and a crackling rumble. Njord swore he felt the ground vibrate beneath his paws.

Sveijarn. The soaring star. Half of his namesake.

He thought of the great glacier, Duskfire. His aunt, Maera. His father, Valtyr. Grandfather Njal. And his grandmother Tuwawi; red-backed and fierce… known only from stories. He should have felt big in this moment, but he felt quite small –  dwarfed by the great falling sky star.

Yet… there was potential. Like a small kindling ember, Njord could grow into a great flame. His neptunian eyes narrowed, resolved to become the man he truly felt he was meant to be.

erzulie was not one for much skygazing. the heavens were beautiful, but they came after their reflection in seawater. she bathed now in the shallows beneath the slow wheeling of stars, eyes closed and breath situating her calmly against the icy breath of it.
behind her eyelids a wide flash of light. the harlot reopened them, fixed her stare with curiosity as the great thing of many colors and fire she did not understand raced across the atmosphere.
it struck somewhere beyond them, and harshly. fascination vied with healer's instinct that it would hurt many to land, and then the rush of relief that sapphique had been spared such a judgement.
de loa be watchin' over us, she told herself as she came upon the young seawolf. njord watched the place they had both seen the object collapse; her curiosity burgeoned, but her reverence for this quiet moment was unmatched, and so erzulie did not speak again.
water coursed along her limbs; she had not bothered to shake it away.

He watched, transfixed, as light bloomed and then faded like a small sunset. The sky felt even darker than it had before, by contrast, as the bright stars twinkled in reverence of the great falling meteor. Suddenly, he felt the presence of another wolf, and looked over his shoulder to spy Erzulie in repose.

“Ya see that?” he asked, voice filled with wonder. Njord paused to watch if another star would fall. “Never ‘av I ever– Good grief, Erzulie!” Njord’s train of thought was interrupted by the wet sheen of her golden hair gleaming in the starlight. “You’ll catch cold walkn’ ‘round like that!” He chuckled nervously and inspected her for signs of shivering. She wouldn’t be the first wolf to have succumb to the ocean’s frosty spell. “M’thinks yer a mermaid. A siren of tha sea. Definitely, at least, part fish,” he said, concern shrouded by a lighthearted joke.

a light chuckle followed the young seawolf's words. "je suis une sirène?" the courtesan uttered after it had passed. "perhaps i am." she turned her eyes upon the sea, remembering the great light and the collapse of the starpiece far beyond them.
the wind nipped at her. she opted not to acknowledge it, a personal challenge that had landed erzulie in sickness but more recently with a more hardened self. "what do you t'ink it was?" she inquired, gesturing in the direction it had gone.

Njord resisted the urge to lick away the wetness from her fur, instinctively knowing there were certain intimate social barriers you just didn't cross. Erzulie looked quite content with herself, despite his worry.

The lilt in her voice was like cursive on paper, liquid and flowing, as she uttered words in a language unknown. Sirène sounded familiar, at the very least. She was a truly a woman of the sea and Njord wondered… did she pray to it like his family prayed to Atlan? He had never seen her worship the ocean… at least not in the traditional sense of prayer, pew, and service.

She did bask in it, however. Even now, as a chill claimed the air, she was still and peaceful in her sparkling satin gown of saltwater droplets. The kingpin turned her focus back to the rare event. What do you t'ink it was, she queried. “Not sure,” Njord murmured. “Seems ta me a fallin’ star deigned ta touchdown n’ Teekon.” He chuckled then, mostly to himself. “Tha elder’s back home would’ve said Atlan be tryin’ ta send a message.” His whimsical tone inferred that Njord had never been one to buy into theocracy on Meares Island.

atlan. contextually it sounded the name of a god. but erzulie had found none worth serving; she remembered her ancestors and tried to do right beneath the watch of the loa. "a falling star." she considered it. "until now, i had only heard of dese t'ings." thoughtful. what would a star bring to earth?
she thought again of those who might perish beneath such a great impact. and yet erzulie knew very little about the land where it had fallen, only that once she had been by. and she thought of yuelong, which she knew still reigned proud. what had become of the sisters? what of ying, who she might have liked were it not for the suspicion that they had brought into the midst of rusalka.
stories for a past time, too bittering now to be drawn out.
"do you believe dat perhaps beyond de sky, dere is anot'er world?" she asked, curious. njord did not seem to put stock in this atlan. what curried favour in his spirit?