Redhawk Caldera Ain't no man

Howl at the moon w/me.

Ever since @Sassafras had taught him about constellations, Phox had made it a point to look up at the sky every night. It wasn't always clear, of course, but more often than not, he had started to recognize certain patterns in the world above. Not only that, but he could have sworn the days were getting longer and the nights shorter. He had also noticed that the moon wasn't the same every night. The change was gradual, but it got bigger, smaller, and had gotten big all over again. It was fascinating stuff.

Twilight had turned the skies darker and darker until only the moon was shining down on them. (And what a moon it was!) In fact, it was so pretty that without really thinking about why he was doing it, Fidget began to howl at the big white orb in the sky.

-Rave,- Towhee signed as the two of them reached the edge of the rendezvous site after a late patrol. Before she continued, she fought back a yawn. -How come you're not a leader?-

The pack's medic blinked owlishly at the youth. "I'm not cut out to be a leader," she replied eventually.

Towhee made a face that could only mean, "Pssh!" -You'd be a great leader. You're kind and smart and stuff...- She trailed off with a shrug. -But if you say so.-

Her attention quickly shifted to Phox, who appeared to be... screaming at the sky? Someone (she couldn't remember who) had explained this behavior to her once. It meant that the wolf was howling. It meant little to her, what with being deaf, but she stared in fascination at the way her brother's throat rippled. Unthinkingly, she stepped closer and pressed her cool nose to the arch of his neck to feel the powerful vibrato.

His eyes had been closed, and his howl was loud, so the touch of Towhee's nose on his vocal chords wasn't expected in the least. He stopped abruptly, awkwardly holding his chin up for a few moments, then Fidget realized why she had done that. She couldn't hear him, but she could probably feel his voice (in not-so-technical terms). He relaxed, then began to howl again, spurred by instinct and a desire to continue giving Towhee a "feel" for what it was like to hear him howl.

Raven had joined in, too, mostly to amuse the kids, and Phox found that he liked the way her voice sounded along with his own. It was deeper, stronger, and more melodic than his unpracticed voice, but he had a feeling he could sound more like that one day, too—when he grew up big and strong!

He paused for a second, perhaps surprised by her touch, then resumed his howling. Towhee could see Raven out of the corner of her eye and turned to watch as her elder sister mimicked Phox: she threw back her head and opened her mouth toward the moon and stars. Towhee blinked and bit her lip, then ventured over to press her nose to the medic's throat, feeling that same vibration.

Momentarily unaware that she would likely go unheard over the the noise, Towhee asked, "Why're you—howling?" She wasn't even sure that was the right word, though Raven's head dropped and she nodded as if in reply to Towhee's half-articulated question. But the black she-wolf did not deign to answer, smiling over at Phox as if indicating he should explain.

Towhee looked over her shoulder at him, then slowly turned, staring at him with an expectant, owlish expression on her face.

Phox paused yet again when Towhee backed away, the temporary lowering in volume allowing him to hear her question to Raven... which was then given to him. Why was he howling? Phox shrugged, then pointed his muzzle at the moon as if that explained everything. -It's pretty,- he replied, and he felt that was a perfectly adequate response. Surely Towhee would agree.

He looked at the moon again, feeling that same instinct to howl at it, but he refrained, not wanting Towhee to feel left out. She didn't seem terribly "into" the howling thing, and making sure she was comfortable was often his top priority. -Wanna try and pick out constellations with me?- he asked, gesturing to the bright stars above. They were harder to see when the moon was so bright, but he was pretty sure he could still identify some of them.

His answer didn't make a whole lot of sense. Having been born deaf, sound was a strange and ephemeral concept to Towhee, impossible to really grasp. She had never truly minded it before, even now that she knew it was considered a handicap and that some might think she talked funny. But in that moment, those two simple words cut her to the core and she felt a queer sense of desolation and loss that she couldn't make sense of. Here was an experience she could never really understand nor share with Phox, Raven or anyone else.

Swallowing against this peculiar and unpleasant sentiment, Towhee nodded her head absently at Phox's invitation. -Yeah, sure,- she said, already feeling a little more normal again, especially since he was taking pains to stop the activity that excluded her and start one she could totally take part in. -Which one is your favorite, Phox?- she wondered as she flopped to the ground.

Phox scooted himself so he was hip-to-hip with his sister. This way, he could point her in the right direction more easily. The two were facing mostly south, and he used the tricks Raven had taught him to find his favorite. He found the two bright stars first, then quickly put together the rest of the constellation. All at once, it came to life right before his eyes, and his tail wagged.

Keeping his eyes trained on the constellation Raven had called "Leo," he nudged Towhee with his shoulder. -That one is called Leo. It's a big, mean cougar.- He didn't really remember much of the story beyond that, so he made up the rest as he went along. -I think he feasts on little puppies, so he's mean and scary, but he's so cool.-

She paid close attention, though she couldn't really make out any particular shapes in the night sky. The stars were beautiful to behold, for sure, but they looked totally scattered to Towhee. Even when she screwed up her eyes and tried to drum up her imagination, she couldn't quite see what Phox saw up there.

But she liked the description, though she quirked a brow at her brother's clear favor of Leo the puppy-gobbler. -Why do you like him so much, you weirdo?- she questioned, giving him a playful jab. -If he's so big and mean?-

Phox grinned when Towhee asked why he liked a big meanie like Leo. -He reminds me of you,- came his reply, -You big meanie, you!- His "tone" was sarcastic, of course. He didn't actually think that Towhee was mean (nor did he think she would devour puppies). He shoved Towhee playfully, then hopped a few paces away, ready for the inevitable backlash of his explanation.

He skidded, turned around, then braced himself for impact.

Although she knew Phox well enough to know he was only teasing her, Towhee's eyes narrowed for a moment. Was there any sincerity behind the joke? Did he really think she was a meanie? Before she could dwell on it long, he shoved her and then bounded away. Naturally, she couldn't resist responding to such an instigation.

"Come back here!" she barked, leaping after him. He skidded to a halt and she did the same, punching him in the shoulder before asking, -I thought you were going to show me the stars?-

"Come back here!" was what he heard just before being punched in the shoulder. "Ow!" he feigned, because honestly she hadn't hit him very hard. Since she had asked to see more of the stars, he pointed his muzzle up and to the west. -That one's Gemini. It's actually two constellations. Twins, like you and me!- He grinned at Towhee, and nuzzled her neck. He couldn't have asked for a better sister.

He obliged her, tilting his muzzle toward the sky. It made his lips pretty damn difficult to read but Towhee managed somehow. She did request, "Look at me and say that word again," in reference to "Gemini," so that she could get a feel for its pronunciation. "Gemini?" she repeated when he complied, her speech even slower and clunkier than usual as she tried out the strange word.

She smiled when he called them twins. Was that true? "Are they as close as us? What are their names?" she wondered.

-Castor and Pullox,- he replied, mouthing the words slowly so she would be able to repeat them. -Castor died, and Pullox, who couldn't die, got so sad that he asked his dad to put them both in the sky so they never had to be apart.- That was the gist of it, anyway. Some of the details were obviously lost on his young brain, but he was pretty sure Raven could answer just about any question he had about the star shapes.

He looked back up at the constellation, hoping that he would never have to live without Towhee. Could they ask their guardians to be put up there together whenever one of them died? Phox sure hoped so.

She mouthed the names soundlessly, just trying to arrange the various consonants and vowels against her tongue and teeth. When Phox told her their story, her lips pursed and her brow scrunched. One of the siblings couldn't die? Towhee debated whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. But before she could delve too far into spiritual deliberation, she refocused on the moral of the story: Castor and "Pullox" were never apart.

"Just like us," she observed aloud. She paused, experiencing a brief flashback to that time when she had nearly lost her cool on Finley over the mere thought of Phox ever leaving her. "Don't ever leave me, Phox," Towhee murmured, her expression somehow simultaneously commandeering and pleading. She pressed against him, a foreleg winding to grasp one of his own, determined to hold him prisoner forever.