Stavanger Bay stars fall from my mouth tears my eyes can't carry

Most of their days are quiet between one another and occasionally they’ll separate, only to reunite a little bit later. She doesn’t really know where either of them is going, with no destination in mind and nowhere in particular to be, they’ve moved from one place to the next. They’d gone back toward the ocean and she finds what she thinks is her former home. It seems familiar but enough things have changed, including the season, that she isn’t entirely sure she’s made it at all.

The sun has already started its descent into the ocean but she’s found an old den that looks like the one she’d taken up residence after her parents moved to a different one. It had been the den she had come to know as her own before the puppies were born and where the three of them slept and spent most of their time. It doesn’t smell like her, or her parents, or anything in particular so she droops her shoulders as she slips inside, not expecting more than just an opening big enough for her to turn around and get back out.

With what little of the light is left, she sees the seashell she’d given to Rannoch some time ago. A seashell he abandoned one day. Her ears fall back against her head as she stares at it for a long moment, knowing she abandoned it too. Qilaq reaches forward and picks up the large shell and works her way out of the den again. It isn’t far from where high tide touches the sand, trotting forward until her toes are soaked and sandy, and with one big effort filled lug, she flings the shell out into the water where it lands with a splash.

A flash above her catches her attention as one shooting star, and then another, begins to fill the sky. Her head turns over her shoulder, expecting @Silas to be there, but the beach is empty. Her paws dance back and forth, torn between seeing what the sky has to offer and making sure her friend sees it to, she spins around and takes off after she she’d seen him last.

Although the dark Ostrega had no real destination in mind, somehow, even a homebody like him had begun to find a sort of routine out here roving the Wilds. Things had fallen into place far better than before and morale certainly improved with the addition of a companion to his days. He didn't feel quite so lost, even if he'd definitely never been here before, and when all else failed, she was a familiar face to take a bit of solace with; he wasn't entirely, bitterly alone anymore.

Today was no different than yesterday, in essence. He had splintered off, as usual, to track around and try to hunt. Even when he wasn't as successful as he could be, the act of working his mind and body towards the single goal of food was what he needed to keep going. After all, on his best attempts, it brought a meal. If not that, at least he was doing what he liked--so he kept it up whenever he could and sometime early in the evening, success was his in the shape of a rabbit. Nothing too special, but he knew to take whatever he could get.

With nothing else motivating him on a trail, and a limp carcass in his jaws, he began to track Qilaq instead to see where she had gone to. He made pretty good time, at least until it got closer to the coastline itself. He was not nearly as comfortable as she is on the beach turf, but he tried his best, and pressed onward until he could spot a dark silhouette and a telltale scent to match--thankfully.

Yet here in the relative open with the nearby sea and the skies so vast overhead, he could not decide what to make of the lightshow, and realized she was coming at him too all at once..! His tail whipped and he dropped the rabbit when they were close, so he could yap a nonsensical (but relieved) greeting at her. She didn't look worried about the sky. Quite the opposite really, but he couldn't help himself in the face of so much mystery. His tail kept going, though. "Hey!" he panted, glancing back to the rabbit laying the sand to make sure where it had fallen. "What is..?" Any and all of this, as he looked all around, up and down just to start sorting this out.

Nikai's journeys for Easthollow had taken him far away from home this time; he hadn't found many wolves near his home and so his paws just seemed to keep carrying him further and further away. He'd passed many interesting territories but had spent most his time alone, finding himself disappointed with the lack of results so far.

He remained alone as he scoured the shoreline, taking care to avoid the pack settled along the north. He ended up in a place that had forests in addition to the presence of the ocean and he kept following the shoreline. Nikai's ears perked up when he noted the presence of someone else in the distance, but he was soon distracted by lights up in the sky. His mouth fell ajar as he stared up at the falling stars. He had never seen anything like this before.

Just as he approached the stranger that watched the display too, a second wolf approached. Nikai stopped a distance away, staring at them and feeling oddly nervous. He swallowed thickly while he gathered his guts and remembered his mission, then approached. "Pretty, isn't it?" he shared after a chuff to announce himself and stopped a couple of wolves' distance away in case they would prove hostile or afraid.

The moment she sees Silas across the way, she visibly lightens. The stress from a moment before washes away and she speeds up clumsily after him. The rabbit surprises her and she looks at it in awe for a moment before she closes the distance and rubs her muzzle against his. The greeting is over quickly and she carefully steps back, glancing up at the sky as a series of meteors spin across the sky into nothing. With a half gaped maw, she glances back with the sound of another wolf.
 
Taken aback by the sudden intrusion, she moves to protect the kill Silas has brought back and narrows her eyes. There’s a softness in the stranger’s features she doesn’t normally see in wolves of a similar coat but it is not something she’s just going to trust. With a flash of teeth, she releases a low rumble of a growl in warning.

He can't help but be glad that they had managed to fall into some sort of comfortable routine inspired by a common situation, and a familiarity he was enjoying expanding upon. He missed home far less mainly because it no longer occurred to him to dwell on it. Instead he stayed busy, and when he wasn't, with Qilaq and now with the lights streaking across the deep dark of the night was no different.

But when a third joined them with a chuff, he shot a glance to her and prickled up himself next to Qilaq. Now that she had watch over his meal, he felt a little better.. but still perplexed; at least this didn't look like it would go the way of some of his other encounters as a nomad, but he couldn't help but feel wary anyway. "Y-yeah.. it is.." he answered, though Qilaq's growl made him adopt a harder tone than he had intended at first, despite the waver to his voice too. Did she know something he didn't? With his bright eyes locked on the stranger for the moment, impressive star show ignored, he kept his guards up in the meantime. "Who are you?" Silas asked. And why had he come here too?

One of them replied in somewhat favourable manner, replying to his question though seemingly wary (a thing Nikai understood, knowing what'd happened to his sister out here). Nikai instantly stepped back when one of the strangers growled at him, tail falling low and ears flattening. He lowered his head and looked up from the corners of his eyes in submissive gesture. "I mean no harm," he said, momentarily forgetting all about the display in the skies while he tried to make himself small and unthreatening to her.

An ear falls forward, then back at the question and the youth answered, "I'm Nikai, from Easthollow. I'm a scout, uhm... I'm looking for potential recruits for our pack. It's a well-established pack that could use some more wolves." He was hesitant in his manners and words at first; Nikai wasn't sure that now was the right time to tell them about his cause and maybe ask them to join, but before he knew it the words were out there.

The stranger put space between them and then proceeds to speak as Silas engages. Her attention snaps quickly to her friend, a little surprised but thankful he takes hold of the conversation. Still, she’d much preferred turning and leaving and finding a spot to enjoy the sky. As another several meteors fly overhead, she glances up but she struggles to admire them as she wants with the stranger moves on to explain his purpose. Her fur remains stiff upon her scruff and she doesn’t know where to look or keep her focus.
 
Instead of engaging the stranger, Qilaq slowly steps forward and takes the kill from Silas’ feet (not that he can’t protect it himself) and pulls it closer to her, away from Nikai. She holds it for a moment longer, looking at the green-eyed boy, and eventually tears herself away further down the coast.

He was still learning how it was supposed to be for his present vagabond lifestyle, namely what was enough or too much. Accordingly, the stranger's submissive shift still made him feel pretty anxious about this somehow--although only with a faraway undertone of relief to see that he wasn't threatening either. Silas kept his ears angled back and left the worried look on his face, although he knew he couldn't quite get rid of that if he tried.

His bright eyes shrunk into a bit of a squint. Everyone was recruiting these days it seemed.. but at least this was not quite like the oddly-spoken male in the Hinterlands. And, he did claim it was an established pack.. although Silas erred towards reservation after packlife often associating him with heartbreak in his most recent attempts at it. "I've never heard of Easthollow.. but, I don't know.." He stopped prattling long enough to glance to Qilaq taking the rabbit, and his stance wanted to pull towards her. "Oh.. I'm Silas. I don't know if.. uh--I would be interested right now, anyway.." He couldn't entirely say 'we' since it wasn't really something they had spent much energy on, although her exit from the spot spoke well enough without him as it was. Silas watched her go for a second before returning to the green-eyed male--Nikai, rather.

He tried to straighten his stance and posture together, though it was half of what he had wanted to portray. Basically, he knew he invited bad luck and he definitely did not feel like a good potential recruit right now... which was nothing this fellow could really help. "I left my last pack, and my one before that left me. I have bad luck at it right now. Sorry..." the dark Ostrega admitted with a small sigh. His glance skirted away apologetically afterward and he hoped Qilaq wouldn't make too much haste away from here without him while he stayed to at least try to wrap this up as neatly as he could.

Nikai watched as one of them took the food and departed. He frowned for a moment but didn't want to dwell on negativity too much, so soon turned back to the other wolf, who stayed for now. Silas was his name, though he didn't seem too responsive to joining Easthollow. That was alright, as far as Nikai was concerned; he could use the practise, really.

Silas seemed down on his luck, though as far as Nikai could tell it was mostly that he didn't think he'd be good at being a pack wolf than actually not being good at it. The only way to succeed after falling down or being tripped was to just try it again. "Oh, well... That's okay. If you're ever around, feel free to visit, even if you don't want to join. It's in the east, over the mountain ridge, in the valleys beyond there." He wasn't sure he'd ever see Silas there, but it was worth a shot. "My mother's the Alpha there, she's real nice." Just in case he wasn't yet convinced. Nikai wished he could do something to help Silas now beside offering him a home, but he couldn't think of anything fast.

He trusted Qilaq and knew she was probably better off not here, not judging by her growl that had set him on edge about this.. plus, with his catch out of here, and with her, he only had himself to be concerned with. That he could do. Hopefully.. which he started by noting the details given. Over the mountain ridge, valleys.. He nodded slowly and was grateful that Nikai seemed to take this as smoothly as he could hope. "Do you know where Lost Creek Hollow is? Is it by there?" he asked suddenly, though the look on his face betrayed the uncertainty that bloomed right after he asked that. It wasn't something he talked about, but conveniently enough, it was a place he knew over the mountains in the valleys beyond--his birthplace. Although, he was not sure if he could even find it right now if he tried. He had been really young when they'd left. It was more of a memory than anything else.

His decline had nothing to do with Easthollow itself, or Nikai's nice mom who led it, even only knowing a bare minimum about that. "That's nice.." Silas nodded, looking to not feel bad about it, or sour when the next thought was along the lines of how his mom had been a nice alpha once too. 

It took Nikai a bit of thought to remember where the hollow was, but he'd explored it at some point and he was sure someone'd told him that that was the name of the place, too. "Yes! That's real close to our home," he said with a warm smile. "Easthollow's a little bit closer, though. Like, to the west of the hollow." Not by much, especially considering the distance they'd crossed so far over here, but still. A little closer. And it looked like Silas knew where the place was, at least, which was nice.

He didn't seem too enthused about the story of his nice mother Alpha and Nikai wondered instantly if something bad had happened to his parents. Perhaps it was because of his own mother's death that Nikai could relate. He didn't want to ask though, as it seemed too intrusive and they didn't really know each other, so he decided to let it rest.

Some kind of confirmation that Lost Creek Hollow did still, in fact, exist brought a hesitant wiggle of his tail, although he couldn't help but also glance skyward for a second as a particularly vibrant streaked by above. "Okay.. Well, I know where that is.. sort of," the dark Ostrega said with a slow nod. At least he used to.. and while the temptation to feel the place underfoot again lingered consistently in mind, he wasn't sure if it would just disappoint him in the long run.

Anyway, Qilaq wanted to stay near the coast for now and he was okay with that, mainly because he still wanted to stay with her. She was a higher priority than ghostly old memories tied to the place that'd seen his birth. "My parents were alphas of the Hollow, but I was little when we left. We had cougar problems back then there," he detailed, perhaps unnecessarily and perhaps in a small rush. He didn't want to leave Nikai hanging entirely empty-handed, so that was some explanation he felt was due as painlessly (and clunky) as he'd put it. Largely, it was why he was all sorts of mixed feelings over the thought of what was on the other side of the mountain. "I.. uh, don't want her to get too far ahead. Sorry, again.." he muttered, gesturing his muzzle in the direction Qilaq had gone but not leaving just yet, although looked ready to excuse himself given the go. He glanced back to the freckled Easthollow wolf to see if he had much more to say first.

Nikai nodded, hoping that Silas would visit him sometime. He was glad that he had made a friend, well, sort of. Nikai didn't have that many friends yet outside of Easthollow, besides Rannoch anyway. He frowned sympathetically at Silas' mention of his parents being Alphas of the hollow but that they left and had cougar problems now.

Just as Nikai was about to say that Silas' parents would surely be welcomed at Easthollow too he said he should go after his friend. Nikai nodded, understanding, and decided to keep this piece of information for another time. "Good luck. Hopefully we'll meet again some day!" Nikai smiled softly before he turned away and went on his way again under the company of the meteor shower, thinking briefly of Silas and his friend before turning his mind towards the road again and heading home.

It seemed that his maneuver away was going to be as graceful as it could, himself considered. Silas nodded deeply. "Uh, thanks," he murmured, tipping his muzzle towards Nikai before he turned to lift it in Qilaq's direction again after. Unable to say if they might meet again, he'd at least remember this piece of information, and what he knew about Easthollow should he somehow end up on the other side of the mountains. But, he could make no guarantees when--or even if--that might be yet. "Bye.." he said, and began to lead off on a forepaw. He paused long enough for a last glance over his shoulder at Nikai, still with an apologetic splay about his ears, then was on his way to track down his friend.