Tuktu Weir Wishing Girl

ooc: naturalist thread, AW <3

She had left the territory for only a little amount of time. Afterall, this would be the first real time she's left her home since she first joined. Kind of exciting for her! But exploring wasn't just something on the misty mountain's bucket list, she had bigger fish to fry. First and foremost, the woman needed to earn herself a trade. She wanted to contribute to her pack, but she also wanted to prove to them that she was useful. 

Sitting at the edge of the frozen over beaver-made lake, Gracious turned her head to the sky. She hadn't even noticed it was growing dark very quickly. She'd need to go find herself a shelter, perhaps she could unsuccessfully squeeze herself into an abandoned beaver burrow for the night, or just dig herself a makeshift den. But she could focus on that in a little, for the moment, something caught her eye. Stars, plenty of them dotted the canvas sky like little white flecks of paint. Some were big, some were small, some were just right in size. With the sound of a light breeze blowing through, Gracious sat in silence and in peace.

Decent weather and a break in the snowfall had inspired the scouting Jomyo to go roaming. After leaving before dawn, she had made a looping pass around the nearest territory just north of the Morwinyon's domain. By now, actually, she had been pointed back towards the forest of the elk. This directive had eventually wandered her into the strange beaver weir she had not yet explored much.. so while there, Jomyo decided to take a look around.

When night set in and nothing was so far worth staying in the cold alone for, she started to focus on her prior goal. She had to work her way towards home.

With that in mind, she jogged until she did scent the pack.. but here. That curiosity itself warranted a subtle course adjustment, but Jomyo knew it was the right thing to do--especially when she did not know so many faces around the pack much at all. "Hey..!" the Eizokusei barked out when she could soon spot the silhouette of another; she approached the large, strange female with a slow trot and hesitant wag of her tail after breaking the silence like that. It had meant to be at least a bit more like an actual question.

She looked up to see if she could label any of the constellations she knew. But before she could even label one, the sound of another calling out to her broke her attention away from the sky. Swiveling her head to the side, the misty woman greeted the other with a loud chuff before actually saying something. "Hello" she returns with a small smile to the other. She didn't sense a feeling of anger in the wolf that was coming closer, so she didn't plan on exactly running away.

"Come to look at the stars too?" She asked in a honeyed voice, chuckling a bit before motioning for the other to come join her. She too smelt of home, therefore Gracious wondered if the wolf in front of her was just another she hadn't met yet.

Indeed, Jomyo's greeting, while a little coarse, meant no harm. She was quick to present herself as neutral as she could be. Finding herself received well enough keeps that edge off the situation, and she stepped forward, closer to the invitation. She accepted, as shown by the small sway of her tail and otherwise lightness of her gait. "Guess so. They're pretty hard to miss," she said, glancing upwards with narrowing eyes. "Actually I was just headed home when I decided to scout out the weir itself first." And why pass up the view? She was here already. "Is that what you're here for?" she asked.

"I'm Jomyo," she offered afterward.

The approaching wolf, female by the sound of her voice, seemed to be interested in Gracious in a normal kind of way. She came closer and Gracious gave her a quick glance over before offering her a sweet smile. Her eyes then left the other before returning to the dark sky that was illuminated by stars. So many were in clumps, others were on their own, yet... none of those stars were alone, in a sense. They had each other, even when some were far away, they could never feel alone because everyone was up there with them. Sometimes, Gracious envied the stars, thinking of them as a big, happy family just huddling together. She almost let herself slip into a thought of her family, though the female's voice, Jomyo she later declares herself as, snaps her out of the thought.

"Hmm? Oh, no, I'm afraid I'm out here just to admire the sky when I can. I live not too far from here." She didn't pick up on the lingering scent of Tindome on Jomyo, perhaps because it wasn't her main focus. This would maybe be the end of Gracious, her lack of paying attention to small details all because the stars and sky interested her more than the actual wolf near her. "I'm Gracious," she offered warmly, "do you know any of the constellations?" she asked Jomyo, taking away her eyes from the stars to look at the other lady.

Jomyo blinked up into the skies, feeling her eyes pulled in many directions at all the different glimmering stars. There was so much to see, and endless options on what to look--or so it felt. Just when she almost had a certain swatch of the sky mentally mapped, she'd only find more in the infinite black of this night sky. "Tindómë, right?" she asked, wiggling her nose in Gracious' direction a little more just to be sure she was smelling correctly. "Me too." She did not know so many of the newer faces around the pack, especially since she sometimes felt a little like one herself after taking so long to really settle in there. But, she would remember her new acquaintance's name, and committed the scent and sight to memory with another long glance over her.

"Barely," she admitted to answer the question about constellations. Jomyo had picked up scraps of information here and there, namely in regards to navigation--and some of it came from practice.  "I'm best at quick ways to find north, honestly. So.. I know the bear one," the scout replied, guessing that Gracious would know what she meant with that. She had heard it referred to the great bear, once, liked that, and stuck with it in her head. 

Hearing the name of the motherland be said made Gracious turn her head to face the other lady's, a surprised expression covered her visage. She hadn't seen Jomyo around before in the forest, perhaps it was just chance they would meet outside like this. "Yes..." she said in an intrigued tone as she continued to let the sky drape over her eyes. 

Jomyo's information was small but was sufficient in what she specialized in. Gracious nodded her head, thinking of the bear she spoke of. Ursa Major, no? "Nor do I, I'm trying to learn and become an astronomer. But knowing the Ursa Major helps with traveling," she commented. The sky was always intriguing to her, perhaps because she spent so many nights underneath it whilst she traveled alone.

"If you look to the right of it, just a little," she said thoughtfully, "you can see the Ursa Minor, the little bear cub," she said, a slight smile gracing her features as she looked upon the said constellation. Gracious had never encountered a bear before, but when she thought of the stars, she always assumed how protective the mother would be of her cubs, how diligent she would be with raising them and watching over them. In a lot of ways, she envied the thought.

She said no more on her pack affiliation--on their pack, and simply nodded to her affirmation. Jomyo was truthfully still finding her groove among the relationships of others here. She didn't know yet what kind of place she wanted to occupy in their day to day, so would default to well-meaning packmate for the time being as Gracious detailed her aspirations to be an astronomer. "It really does," she agreed readily. "Mostly why I learned it--I travel a lot.. and, it's a pretty easy one." she bobbed her head in another small nod, then focused on where she guided her sights for the bear cub.

Jomyo stared up into the skies, and hoped she was drawn to the same set of stars Gracious pointed out. Still, with the description of a little bear in mind, she did what she could. "Cool," she said, still looking up with interest. "Never really thought about the big bear having a little bear with it before," she contemplated, thinking about real bears down here on earth, and assuming ones in the stars should have similar situations.. probably.. possibly.. She actually didn't know that much about bears, just that big bears were nothing to mess with, especially if they had little tagalongs cubs. To her, that mostly meant leave this place immediately. "Do you know any other good navigation stars?" she asked.

When Jomyo spoke of traveling, Gracious cast her an intrigued look before returning her gaze up. Quietly, she searched for more, more constellations she knew of to perhaps help swap information with Jomyo. Anything Gracious could learn or teach would help her on her journey to her trade. After all, it was almost all she could care about at the moment, she desperately wanted to prove she was worth something and just wasn't this big wolf being lazy. Blinking, she snapped out of her dreamy state and heard something about the bear. "If you ever encounter one in the spring," she said lightly, "you best pray it doesn't have a cub with it. That makes them even more easily-provoked. Mother bears are no joke." 

Gracious had encountered a bear perhaps once or twice in her life whilst she lived on her own. She could go on and tell you the story of how it all went, but to shorten it up, she ran away with her tail between her legs, absolutely fearful of the vast power that exuded from the bear. The grizzle was a formidable beast, and once children were involved, it was a protective killing machine. She hoped Jomyo would never feel the same fear she felt before. 

As their conversation went on, Gracious was asked about other navigational stars. She thought for a little bit before answering.  "Look to the south," she instructed her before casting her gaze the same way, "if you see the biggest and brightest star there, then you've already found the constellation."

"It's called Canis Major, Greater Wolf." Gracious hadn't heard of the term dog yet nor had she ever met one, so she easily just added in "Wolf" to make things easier for herself. "It helps you navigate to find South; if you look carefully, you can see a straight line of small stars that line up with that bright one. It forms the spine of the Wolf. The big star is its chest." 

She had no desires to find out more about bears, and thanked her speed when it came to getting away from things like that at the first sign of anything suspicious. Bears dotting the skies miles and miles away from her were actually the best they could be, and the older wolf's warnings were noted, further serving to confirm what she did know about them--which she had enough of.

But, as prompted, she immediately looked south and jumped from star to star to suss out the brightest. It didn't take long and with a slow nod, she listened. Given what she was, she tried to picture it as described in her own way. "Neat. A great wolf to the south," she practically parroted back, just to set the notion into her head before she even looked away. It mirrored well enough to the bear in the north, she thought. Maybe there was a deeper symbolism to it if she tried to look for it, but as an eager ranger looking to just go before winter stifled her entirely, she was mostly just in it for the easy to spot constellation--which she had. "Hey, thanks.." she said, tail waving in exchange for having anything useful to offer her right now in return. But, she wasn't overly concerned about it since they were packmates. She'd return the favor in some way. "I'll definitely put it to good use," she affirmed, and then dipped her muzzle again. "So I think I'm gonna get heading back soon," the scout lifted a paw. She could use a good rest. "If you were ready to do that too, I would wait up?--if not, I'll not disturb your stargazing anymore and see you later?" she smirked with the offer, ready to move along one way or another.

hope it's cool i steered this towards a wrap, i need room for fresh stuff with her! ;o;

no worries, thanks for this lovely thread ~

Her offerings of stars seemed to appease the girl, and to that notion, Gracious was happy she could be of service. "Anytime, maybe you could show me some scouting tips later?" she suggested lightly with a small chuckle following it. As for returning home, the gray woman gently shook her head,  "I'll be out a while longer, don't wait up." With that, she sent the girl off with a warm smile before returning her gaze up to the stars. Sometimes she swore she could see some constellations smile at her for looking up with awe at their silent beauty.