Ouroboros Spine eclipticalis

AW; looking for healer or naturalist threads! ^^

Ivev had left the cave early in the morning, where the air pooled in frosty breaths about her lips. It was dark out, with the stars pressing tiny little pinholes into the velvet sky. She would stop occasionally and glance up, peering through the thin conifers. After a brief moment of gawking at the sky, she nodded to herself and returned to the quiet meanderings.

With dawn slowly perching on the western rim of the Spine, Ivev returned to the cave, having collected a small pile of similarly sized pebbles. They were a mix of russet brown and smooth gray, with flat surfaces that could be maneuvered easily with a paw. The night sky had already set and so she would have to wait till the next evening to align the pebbles, but for now Ivev could sit and warm her fur in the weak radiation of the winter sun.

The weather was beginning to heat up, and with it, the painful pressure in her wounded leg was beginning to ease. The wolf already knew that back joint would never straighten out properly, but Ivev expected by summer she would be able to walk with some semblance of normalcy again.

[size=xx-small]I hope you don't mind if I jump in? :3 Please excuse his behavior lol [/size]




The young Cedar was running around in the cool night air, grunting happily. He was finally not alone anymore! This little wolf couldn't stand to be alone. He had always loved to play-fight in the warm meadow with his sister, or listen to his foster mother's stories of The Stars, and The Earth and Sea battles. He knew he could never stay away from someone for as long as a Lone Wolf does. Though he was still scarred for life about leaving his sister behind, and faking a death, he knew that with this new Pack, he would be way much more happier. He bounded around and rolled on the floor, laughing and grunting. He hadn't been able to do this for awhile. To just have a bit of fun. He was always judged for it. Why don't you just grow up? was what his old Packmates would have said. But now he had new ones, and he could finally prove that he could be as noble and strong as a knight.

He had then caught a sent of another Ouroboros wolf nearby. "Well whoever it is I would sure like to meet!", he told himself. He followed the sent to a tiny cave where there was a pretty white wolf fiddling with pebbles. "Knock, knock? Am I interrupting something?" He into the cave and approached her, sniffing the pebbles. "Hm... Never knew pebbles could be so grand!" he said enthusiastically.

it's ok, hello!

The morning had been reasonably quiet, with Ivev sitting alone at the lip of the cave and staring off towards the rim of the mountains. The pebbles at her feet were strewn in no particular pattern, and her eyes were focused on the hazy light of the rising sun. If she watched long enough, perhaps she would catch the single ray of light that struck the cave at a particular angle and mark it with a scuffmark from the rock upon the balcony of the cave. Ivev knew that one of the pebbles could leave a white etching on other stones if she dragged it across its surface.

However, the healer didn't have much time to sit and study when one of her packmates came bounding up the side, out of the shadowy pines. Ivev had never seen him before, but he looked young and quite small, with a fuzzy russet and cream coat and curious amber orbs. She heard him before she saw him, but his words still brought a smile to her face.

It's not the pebbles themselves, but what they represent, she responded in a rather cryptic manner. He looked the type that loved learning, exploring, and discovering, traits she herself had too and admired.

He tilted his head in confusion. "Huh? How can rocks represent something? Are there Spirits inside there?"He pawed at the pebbles like a cat batting at yarn. He was fascinated at how this wolf cared so much of these things. He had always loves slipping and sliding on them as a little pup. But he had never suspected there was something special about them. "Well, my mother did say that everything in the world had a purpose. Well, all accept those weird Others!" As in 'Others' he meant humans (though he didn't know the proper word). "She told me that without the things in the forest, our way of life just wouldn't be the same. But, I can do without those crazy bees!" He laughed and licked his paws for a brisk second, then looked up again, "Oh, my name is Cedar! What's yours?"

The young male introduced himself as Cedar, and was certainly quite the talker. She flicked her ears forward but didn't mention anything when the wolf began nosing around the pebbles. She hadn't done anything to them yet, and would only scoop them up when it was time to get moving again.

Cedar was full of opinions and facts, including some mention of the Others, of which Ivev had never heard about. Instead, she just pointed to the dawn horizon with her nose.

I was waiting to see if I could mark the position of the sun today. There's this little beam of light that keeps coming over the mountain when the sun rises, and I've been trying to track it because it moves each morning, Ivev explained, a little sheepishly. Again, she felt a bit uncomfortable sharing what she did in her free time, in the wake of what might be repercussions of social pariahism.

I'm Ivev. What did you say about the Others? she questioned, turning back to him. I've never heard of that before. The arctic wolf nodded at Cedar.
Please, sit.

He quit fiddling with the pebbles and sat down. He tried to pull back the memory of when his mother told him about the Others. "Hmm.... well they are really... different. They only have patches of fur on their faces and fake fur on their bodies too keep them warm. They're very loud and obnoxious. They can scare prey from a mile away. So they capture animals in little enclosures so they could kill them whenever they please. They also have these loud 'popping sticks' that can kill a bear in a mere second! Its terrible. Then they skin them and hang their heads in their 'dens' so to speak. Sounds awful doesn't it?" It sent a shiver down his spine just thinking about them. His foster mother had said they even kill wolves on a couple of occasions. Luckily, he had never run into an Other before and he never will. But don't worry. I've never seen one even come near the forest! Those cowards. "

Ivev sat, intently listening to Cedar's spiel about the 'others'. She honestly didn't know whether or not to believe the male's stories, because as the further he went on, the more outlandish it seemed. Popping sticks? Her ears flickered. It was an unnerving concept that there was such a creature that could single-handedly kill a bear.

That seems terrifying, Ivev answered in honesty, looking a little weary that she had heard this little horror tale. You'll protect us though, right?
The last statement was meant in a light-hearted mood, but Ivev's eyes were a little widened in shock from Cedar's speech.
Her gaze returned back towards the horizon. Although these 'Others' weren't an impending threat, but it just put a damper on the yellowing morning.

Cedar puffed his chest out proudly and replied, "Yup! Nothings getting past me! No bear, fox, coyote, bird, bee, you name it!" He smiled with pride. He wasn't going to make a bad impression this time. He wanted to be the best wolf out there. The most loyal, brave, noble, and respected one. He didn't want to be looked at from the outside (cause on the outside he looked more like a jackal than a wolf) but looked at by his heart and warrior spirit. He looked over out the cave, and at the sun and sighed. " Ah, Sun is a very pretty indeed. So I she helping with your 'experiment'?" As in Sun, he was referring to the Sun Spirit. There was also Earth, Sky, Water, and the most cherished Moon. His mother had told him stories of all those spirits. He was always fascinated in them. They all seemed so mythical and mysterious, but he had loved Moon the most. It bought memories back. His mother had said 'In our Pack, Moon is always the most respected. He carries the good wolf spirits on his soft fur, and evil wolf spirits at bay behind his cage like teeth. So Cedar, you should never disrespect Moon or any other of the Spirits. And you should always howl to Moon to thank him for keeping your loved ones that passed on safe.'

Her eyebrow lifted when Cedar referenced the fiery star rising above the horizon as a she. It made her grin with a tinge of excitement. Finally, someone who had some legends to tell as she did.

Yes, her rays are being tracked until they reach a certain point- the solstice, Ivev replied with an emphasis on the feminine personal pronoun Cedar used. Why do you say she? In my homeland, he is known as Father Sun. She hoped he didn't mind her pressing for more information, but it intrigued her a great deal and she always wanted to know more.

Ivev glanced down suddenly. The sun had finally risen of the zenith of the mountains and was bearing, in full glint, a sliver of yellow across the mouth of the cave. The white wolf rose to her paws and scooped up a particularly ragged stone. Scooting it over until it sat in the single ray of sunlight, Ivev pressed and dragged down until the rock left an etch in the pliable limestone in front of the cave. It wasn't noticeable until now that there were similar etchings lining up to the left of the mark she had just made. They were spanned in a half-circle, stretching away from the newest impression, with every third line being slightly longer than its neighbors. Ivev had been marking the sun's position ever since she had found the cave a week or so before.

He wagged his tail in pride. He never got to tell people the facts, he always asks. It was nice to be the teacher for awhile. "Well, back where I came from, we had a story of Moon and Sun. A long time ago, they used to be mortals, like us. They both loved the sky and everything in it. They wanted to be up there. So when they died, instead of roaming the forest as a Spirit, they were the only ones that flew. Sun was attracted to sunshine and warmness, so she took form of what is now our sun. And Moon liked to shine light when dark times where among the forest, so he took form of what is now the moon. When we die, our Spirits can go to four different Holy Wolves, Sun or Moon or Earth or Water. Sun keeps her wolf spirits in the clouds, Moon keeps his in the stars, Earth keeps hers in the trees, and Water keeps his in the pebbles or sand grains at the bottom of the lakes. But Earth and Water have separate stories." He smiled as he finished his story. His personal favorite was Moon. When he passed on he hoped he could dance in the stars with his ancestors.

sorry for delay! :C

She loved listening to stories, and Cedar's tale only made her smile more amiable.

Seems our lore has some similarities, Ivev pointed out. I was marking the position of each star with a pebble in relation to each other. There's a being called Rainbow Spider up in the sky that my people believe of. She spins a web between the stars. If I mark each one correctly, perhaps I could etch out the web with this stone. She motioned to the quartz pebble that left a white streak upon the smooth stone when Ivev pressed and scraped down.

I really do like hearing different stories, Cedar. Maybe you'll share some more with me sometime? Ivev offered with a wave of her fluffy white tail. The pack members had respective duties to attend to, but she was glad to have met the young male and hoped they could talk again.