Moonspear no rest for the parents

She snorted at his comment, another laugh bubbling up from inside her chest. "Please do. I'll bear the title with pride if I only get to stay living to wear it." She followed him, sticking much further from the edge than before. At first her steps were slow and deliberate, still lagging behind Charon even as he set a slowed pace for her. Eventually she found her courage again and was able to increase to a slow trot, slowly catching up to her alpha.

All the time, her eyes darted to the edge as she went, watching to be sure it wouldn't suddenly appear closer before her. When they reached the ledge she swallowed and nodded, releasing a sigh. "Well, that was more eventful than I had it pegged for. But now, the stars, a much safer subject I hope?"

Eventually they reached a place, somewhere in the lower reaches of the mountain, where they could sit safely. There was a ledge from which they could look, but the fall down wasn't too far — should it be needed. Charon glanced back as Pyx came onto the slope and he sat down at the edge.

"Well, yes, unless you try to touch them from here," said Charon with a broad grin. "So, what do you already know about the stars?" he then asked and awaited her response. Truthfully, he didn't even feel like teaching much anymore; he just hoped to spend a quiet night without many more thrills and enjoy spending time with a friend.

Pyx came to sit at the male's side, chuckling at his joke. "Not today, thank you. I've had enough of dangling in the air." He asked what she knew of the stars and she considered the question quietly. Though he hadn't spoken on it, she agreed with his thoughts on teaching today. The excitement had left her feeling a little tired, and more than a little thankful. She was more than happy to just sit and enjoy the evening chatting. But she had asked to come here for a reason.

"Not much, really. I know that there are shapes in them. If you look at them right. Stories about those shapes, and I guess stories about the stars themselves and their names. I don't really know many of those stories though, or the names. Some plants share names with them, I know that." She grinned, laughing a little.

Charon nodded when Pyx explained the basics to him and said, "You've got the gist of it, yeah." It was probably the specifics of the stories and constellations she wanted to know. He laughed when she said some plants shared their names. "Well, I'm not a plant-nerd, so I wouldn't know about that."

Then he looked up at the sky and said, "Uhh, I could show you some easy constellations? Like big dipper, it's like a square with a tail. Do you see it?" Because he wasn't the best teacher.

She was pleased to hear that what she had said was right. Her old pack had allowed the children to learn some of everything in an attempt to help them find their place. They wanted a pack full of useful wolves and if the younger ones decided to leave, they at least had knowledge to take with them. She had listened to the star talk, but it had never struck her deeply. Not like plants.

She grinned as he chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. He knew her now, there was no hiding her obsession with herbology and healing, not that she had ever really tried. "Sure," She replied, focusing her eyes on the sky. As he described one she searched for the square. She couldn't find it at first, found the little dots to be disorienting to star deeply at. "Uh...I see three in a line...and...I think...is that the square? This way?" She gestured with her nose, wondering exactly how she could point out where she was looking. "I think that has a tail."

Pyx was quick to catch on, which made Charon smile, because wolves often didn't find it on the first try before he pointed it out to them all the way. "Yeah," he said when she described the big dipper, "Great job! You're a real natural at finding them."

Then he mused out loud, "I wonder who once made up the constellations, and where they come from. Was it a wolf who connected the dots, or was it dictated from the stars themselves at some point?" He couldn't really imagine the latter, but maybe? At times it was like the stars spoke to him, so what if they had to others before him and whispered the constellations to them?

His approval made her tail wave quietly behind her. She could imagine him instructing his children up here, watching them to see which one, if any, would share his interest. "I think it comes from hunting for herbs with certain designs, honestly, attention to detail is the difference between a healed wolf and...well... a dead one." His question was obviously meant more in general and not at her, and she nodded, making a soft hum in her throat to share his wonder.

"Do you think other places have the same names as us? That would be your answer, I think. If other places call them different things, it had to be a wolf, right? Or...well, unless the stars told them different names, or they understood them differently." She paused, turning to look at him. "Are they difficult to understand? When they talk to you?"

"Herbs herbs herbs," Charon joked after Pyx tried to explain her ability to find certain paterns more easily than most, a teasing grin on his face. Truthfully, he liked that about her — that she talked about herbs all the time. Everyone had their quirks, and where he enjoyed Ame's because she said so very little, he enjoyed Pyx' for talking all the time, at least half of it about herbs.

To be honest Charon hadn't ever heard them literally talk to him, but it was still as if he understood their purpose. So, were they difficult to understand..? "It's often very clear what they want, but at times not so much. Time often tells. Sometimes something seems unclear, but in hindsight it's very clear what wanted, you know?" He looked at her as if he needed confirmation, though he didn't really expect Pyx to know so much as just understand.

She laughed as he mocked her, shooting a grin at him. There wasn't any malice in his teasing and though he'd likely insist she imagined it, she thought there might be a bit of fondness there. Even for her endless talk of herbs, herbs, herbs.

He spoke of the stars and their wants and she smiled as he seemed to contradict himself, but nodded. She understood what he meant, though no she truly didn't know what he meant. "It makes sense," She said with a small laugh. "In a very complicated and confusing way. It's always easier to look back on something and understand it, isn't it? But I guess if it was easy to understand the stars everyone would, and it wouldn't be special anymore. It'd be like knowing it's raining by walking outside." She grinned crookedly at her own joke.

"I guess there isn't a way to know then, because it could have been a wolf thinking they understood and getting it wrong. And that's not something you'd ever really find out, is it? Or it could have been someone who just looked up and saw some shapes. Like when looking for herbs." She emphasized the last, glancing at him sideways.

He nodded at her words, agreeing with most of them. There might be others, fools, who thought they could understand what the stars wanted, but he doubted there were many others that heard them speak like he did. He didn't really even know what they wanted, but he was somehow sure that he was destined for greatness and that he would soon find out what, exactly, it was that they wanted of him.

"Hmm-mm," he agreed, and he couldn't help but chuckle when she mentioned herbs again that last time, clearly mocking this time. "Well, I think that's it for today's lessons," he said with a grin. "If my student is starting to make everything into a herby metaphore, her head's probably full."

She glanced to him and laughed at his joke, but nodded. "It's a lot to take in, but I like it. It's a peaceful hobby." She enjoyed conversing with Charon, too. She hadn't really liked the life-threatening dangle off the cliff, but overall she thought the day had been a good one. The sky was beautiful, and she really hadn't ever stopped to watch the stars much. They seemed so bright and clear up here, as if she could leap up and catch one in her mouth. She made a mental note to make sure to lay outside her den soon, to watch the stars some more.

"Perhaps you can teach me more another day. Lesson two, but with less nearly dying." She paused to snort, but then glanced to him again. "So how'd I do then, teacher?"

"Yeah, it's nice, isn't it?" Charon agreed with a smile. He always felt at peace when he stared up at the starry skies, like he was where he belonged. He'd never admit how much it meant to him, unaware that he was admitting it just by the peaceful look on his face that he displayed when he said 'it's nice'.

When she asked how she had done, he couldn't help but toss in one last herb joke. "Bit much herb metaphores, but otherwise you were nothing but a star pupil." He smirked at his own — corny — joke then. They watched the stars for a bit longer then before eventually going their separate ways again.

fading!