Cassiopeia's View BIG SKY COUNTRY

Please forgive me, I'm still getting back into this writing stuff <3

The darkness was thick and absolute, the depth of the bleak nothingness interrupted by exactly not-a-fuckin’-thing in the moonless night.  Why had the loner had chosen the scale the mountains in the middle of the night rather than in the board expanse of daylight?  'Cause would be the likeliest of responses should he have been questioned, though the reality was slightly more tactical than he would have let on.  Knowing the lay of the land in the purest of lights was something that had been drilled into him by his sire and the males of his pack, understanding the subtitles and intricacies of a place in the first blush of light generally lent to a more in-depth knowledge.  The face of a mountain looked significantly different in the early flush of sunrise than it did in the harsh glare of noon or the lazy glance of gloaming… it was beneficial to know a place in all it’s moods, but the dawn, in his estimation, was the most imperative. 

Be that as it may, it did not make the stumbling, groping climb upward to the summit of the View any easier, or any more enjoyable.  Son of a BITCH!  A snarl rented the air as Kinder found yet another concave burrow, the brute sinking up nearly to his elbow this time.  He grumbled lowly to himself as he attempted to wrest his foot from the frozen ground’s maw, his superheated baritone carrying easily over the still mountain ridge.  Great idea, stumbling around like a blind jackass on a mountain in the dark.  SUPER way to get to know the place, dying in the middle of nowhere, getting to admire the damn crags.

Callisto, ETC!ETC! x Brillz

So far from home but Stark didn't find himself caring. There was in him an old itch, it wasn't tempered by the son he'd left at home or the sister he'd left behind, it wasn't tempered by the insolent denmother who behaved as if she was above reproach. Stark did not focus on the thoughts as he took to the wilds, snow frosting through his fur and only making him move faster. He licked his lips and drank in the sight of the world at large. He hadn't bothered to visit the Caldera again, finding Peregrine was dead was enough to burn the only ties he had there. Trick was there, for a bit, but he was so inconsequential that Stark couldn't care about him past the irritation of his betrayal. 

The fact his pack was rooted in the mountains was a great benefit to him. He'd scaled the expanse with far more assured feet than he could hope for given the pitch of the night. Even as high up as they were the dark depths of the sky was as vast and as empty as his thoughts had been. It was unbecoming, to say the least, and it wasn't truly like him. His mind never stopped. There was something kicking around in him. His feet had begun to burn. A shout in the dark made Stark pause, peering through the night as if he could somehow see. It wasn't possible, not past the arbitrary sense of it. 

He changed his course to find the source of the yelling, stumbling upon a male with a coat that made him think of Pepper. She had been gone for so long, but the brilliance of the red made him pause. "Don't fight it, if you can help it - struggling will make it worse." 

Kinder subsided immediately upon hearing the crunch of unknown feet over the rock, snow and ice, his pale eyes straining against the black for a hint of a figure.  There was none - predictably - though the loner attempted to trace every available inch of land that he could.  His ears were pressed tightly against his crown, listening, straining for even the whisper of feet over the loam after that initial alert.  

There was hardly a sigh when a voice sounded, the suddenness of it making male’s whole body jerk and his head snap backwards in surprise. GOD…  He hissed the oath and gave another yank of his leg against the trap, his bright eyes closing for a breath-span as he fought against his racing heart.  …DAMNit, would ya make a sound when you walk?  He released a pent up breath before he shook his head, again trying to make out the wraith in the shadows.  Give a guy a frigging heartattack.

He snorted at the suggestion, though he did immediately subside from the tense pulling of his leg.  Said the guy sneaking around in the dark.  He grumbled this mostly to himself, though with the ringing quiet, it would be difficult for the dark figure to miss it.  Should I ask it to let me go, real nice like?  He gave a subtly mocking look to where he suspected the male was, his biting tone clearly at odds with his predicament… playing nice, no matter the situation, wasn’t likely in the cards.