Ocean's Breath Plateau Sweet Moon

On Shadowed wings the night came. The moon a beacon in the sky. Clouds covering the stars like a blanket. No movement from a fire kissed girl who stood at the edge of forest and sand. 

Ajei stood watch, there was a quiet stillness to the air of the Moon village. She took a breath in and let it out. She didn't like the sadness that blanketed them like new snow. No, it was painful to watch her dearest ones mourn and cry and she felt helpless. And she hated it.

She herself mourned quietly for the peachy woman that had been kind to her. Had spoken swoft words.  She mourned for the children who lost a mother, for Rodyn who lost his heart. She didn't fully understand thiss loss, but she did know it was final. And it could be felt in the timeless shifting.

She did her best to support who she could Arrluk, Massaraq, Sun Man, Moonwoman her own mama who had know the girl too since birth, and even the brother Kassuq who she didn't know as well, but she tried so hard. So many mourning and she wanted to help them all.

 She wanted to reach out to the sister Ariadne, but she didn't know what to say. What could you say? This was as deep a pain as it could be.

She took a deep breath of salty air, her cheeks wet. Her vigil still ongoing into the night.

The night felt restless, even the silence whistled with the sea breeze, and somehow even having wandered to the east and west Massaraq still felt a restlessness in his paws. Something hung in the air between the wolves of the pack, and those family that had gathered there. While Massaraq had not known his sister much the loss, her absence he could not help but feel in those around them.

Ajei stood quietly and Massaraq came to stand beside her. Time seemed to pass so quickly and he felt older, not old and worn and tired, but aged. He let out a sigh as a greeting, not quite sure what to say. His anaa said his sister's spirit had moved on and yet there was something of her that remained, the noticeable absence, an empty den, dampened laughter, her body.

Ajei wasn't certain what the night had in store for them. It was shown that the wolves of moontide held great reverance for the former alphess. And that they cared for their alphas grief at least most. There was one a white cloud of a man with scars who held a strange air to himself since they began the cries. But Ajei thought perhaps it was juat his way of grieving.

She leaned over to touch her nosecto hos ruff. A gwntle show of companinship. She didn't know what he was going through. How could she. She could only help where she could.

He was not sure he could have asked his anaa, she was so sure in the rites, she had taught them. And yet Massaraq had called long and hard for his alive sister, or his hopefully alive sister, and had never heard a reply. Somehow death seemed even further away - if anywhere at all. Ajei's silence prompted him to speak, not to fill it, simply because it did not press, and yet he wanted to ask. "Do you think...." He trailed off, unsure, it felt wrong to even ask. As if whatever magic might have been done would disappear with those words.

But he wished to know. "She could hear us?" He looked at the moon, a namesake for this pack and so many others. Moonglow. Moonspear. Moontide. Named for something so far away.

Ajei twitched an ear and turned to look at his face. But she didn't speak. Innatwly lnowing that he needed to get this out somehow. And it wouldn't do well to press at it.

Ajei looked up to the sky and gave a nod. I think so yes. I think they can hear us and they find small ways to show us they can. Did you ever hear the wind whispering sometimes? I like to think it's those who left us letting us know they see us, hear ys, love us. Or the way a certain thing or animal we think of when we think of our loved ones lost. How it just happens to show up when we're thinking of them.

Massaraq listened, not staring quite at Ajei, looking out at the world. Something about it, not having to look into the eyes of another, presence without existence, was easier to bear. The sea breeze ruffled his coat. He spoke into the night. "I hear the wind and the birds and the world whisper, howl, sing, even scream." And he had, walked along the borders of Moonglow and Moontide, and soon he had thought perhaps it would take more time now he wished to visit Moonspear. 

There was an opacity to darkness, laden with promise. The night could be full of anything in the expanse of nothing in the way that the sharp lines of color and light and shadow of the day could not. "Maybe I'm just less sure of what it all means." He breathed in the dark air, let it fill his lungs.

Ajei listened. She had no words really yet. And she didn't wish to stir the shadows that colored the darkness. A tilt of her head and she mived closer. A paw upon his oen. An effort to make him feel better.

Ajei hummed softly and spoke her words slightly halting as she worked to form her thoughts coherently.

I think that's the point really. As we grow we learn new things and new ways to deal with it all, but also we change and grow into it all. Look just in the few short months we've been alive, already we've learned things day to day.

She whispered. but that doesn't mean its easy and we may never know some of our questions answers.

The world gave questions and wolves did their best to give some semblance of answer, and yet Massaraq could not help but feel it only flowed that one way. That when wolves asked questions the answers only gave rise to more. Perhaps he demanded too much, wanted too much. And yet left with the yawning void what else could he do? "Maybe." His voice was a whisper too.

Leaning shoulder to shoulder he let out a sigh, muscle sitting heavy atop bones and bones sitting creaky upon bone. "Thank you." He looked once more at the night. Holding on to the absence was not the same as holding onto the presence of another living body, and yet he was not quite ready to let go.

There were many more unanswered questions than answered. And Ajei felt this was important for it taught you to ask and think, but she could see where it could be frustrating and conauming. It was important to not let it do eother if you could handle it.

You are most welcome. she a
Shifted to offer him more of a solid place to lean. Then she let the silence surround them. Feeling this was more needed than words and empty promises. Just to exist with those you cared for in moments of grief. This was important.

The silence enveloped them, no less heavy than before but slipping more bearably across his shoulders and in the hollows of his throat. This would not last forever. Day would come, the light would shine across the waves, and the tide would pull again once more whatever had been left to shore. And yet this desire to sit still and watch nothing as it all moved before him.

I'm good with wrapping up here if you are :)