Gyrfalcon's Keep like you hate me now

@Marruz, sorry for the long wait!!
Date: 3/02/19

 

The girl moved away from the island pack, tail high and taking in the night. She wanted to stargaze and, taking Jarlio’s advice, (she made a note to visit him soon) and scales the nearest mountain she could. This wasn’t a very impressive mountain by a long stretch but it would do. 

Birds dived for her, their forms passing close to her head in warning. She just kept her head down and trotted on, not knowing that these birds could actually damage her if they wanted. Soon though, after not too much trouble, the girl reached the summit and tilted her head up. The birds had let her be now she was further from the nests, yet their calls still rang persistently. 

First, she located the brightest star: the one Laroche showed her. The thought brought a smile to her face, her tail stirred gently. She so had a crush, not that she’d tell him, of course. 
Next she looked for the stars attached to it. Her Great aunt had showed her these stars, omce when she was very little, yet she remembered this one. The brightest star in the sky formed part of Canis Major. The great dog. Of course, every great astronomer knew of this, right?

Lost in her gazing and memories, sounds blanketed by the persistent bird crys, she didn’t notice a large shadow approaching her.

no worries! it's all good with me :)

Marruz, though still curious about his home, had finally tired of his relentless perusal of the Weald. He found that, while the solemn and towering trees cradled his senses for pleasure, he was in need of new scenery — if only for a few hours. And so, being the solitary boy he was, the darkling found himself striding along the nearest place he could find that could offer such solitude.

The belching caws of the gyrfalcons had first stirred his wandering mind; urging him, despite slight irritation at the thought, to pursue the guffawing creatures. After all, they would soon be quiet in slumber. The tall, willowy youth strode along the edifice that served as their effectual habitat with only one thought on his mind: what a perfect spot for stargazing.

Darkness was crawling across the sky, as though in pursuit of Marruz as he - impervious to the tantrum of nearby beaks - searched for a suitable place to rest and observe the approaching night. He had found a particularly secluded crag when, drawing to a mere lope, he noticed the silheouette of another along the horizon. 

At first, the stripling was true to his character: wary and hesitant. He considered simply retreating along the slope and leaving the girl be. But he had so subjected his mind to the thought of a night upon the Keep that, with a resolute furrow of his brow, Marruz persisted along the incline. Though naturally stealthy, he made sure that as he neared the fae his pawsteps foretold his approach. 

With a somewhat terse grunt, he muttered, "Are you stargazing or do you just like the sound of the chorus over there?"

The girl didn't hear the approach, despite his attempt not to startle her. At his voice her head snapped to him, standing abruptly. The man towered over her, earning him an inquisitive glare.
Not meanness, but she wondered what'd be like to be that tall.
She studied him, noting that he had one black eye -- she would've thought it missing if it were not for the glint there.

Finally, after what, a few moments of silence, the youth's tail wagged in greeting and his question registered,  "I'm stargazing, the birds don't bother me much. I thought they were gulls yet they sound so unlike a normal one," her brow quirked as if expecting some revelation into her curiosity about them. Her head tilted, studying the dark form of the man; the long limbs holding his high above, the slenderness of his body yet he held himself like Cry.
Powerful, and he knew it.

The girl turned back to her stars, "Sit with me, we can share what we know,"  she grinned -- one of her special, first impression grins -- and turned to sit. Of course, the nieve girl didn't know, yet, not to turn her back on strangers. Especially dark characters -- but Phex was not one to judge of first looks.
Was Phex even a character to judge?

Marruz's single indigo orb glinted a cryptic light as he was first addressed by those wide, doe-like orbs. His mind had already conducted the preliminaries — that is, registered said target's abnormally petite stature and, perhaps in compensation for this, her surplus of affability. Such conclusions tangled with the boy's inner tides, which ebbed and flowed with malice and enmity for such cavalier buoyancy.

At first, he only blinked at the girl's words. His broad shoulders and lanky frame almost seemed to shimmer, as though a glitch, in the twilight air. In his mind, he kept repeating, she does not know me, but she trusted me. And he believed that she could only be described as one of two things: a stupid wolf or one who will learn. Today, he figured, he would not be the brutal harbinger of reality. No, for they were stargazers tonight.

And then, on paws as silent and gentle as the drifting snow, he settled a few paces adjacent the tawny she. His only response was the release of a single, small cloud from his lips. The world had grown colder, but there was warmth in this stranger's grin.

It helped when the first star appeared. Marruz instantly took notice of its feeble light, and within seconds he was free to traverse the open expanse once more; free to lose the bonds of gravity and of life. Soon, the sky would be a wholesome black, and when the stars flecked white holes within the void, it would mirror his own inky flank, dotted by fallen snowflakes. It would become like it always was: a rotating collection of stories; an endless library.

"What is your favorite constellation?" And his voice, though of youthful construction, was monotone; struggling to combat the turmoil that urged him to turn and run - run back to the Weald, and further still, to where his brothers would not be.

She gave the other a sidelong glance, he seemed older yet didn't hold the age. He came with wisdom yet didn't hold the sound of a weighted body. She cracked another soft smile, "The Canis Major. It was the first I learned and...it came more special to me as a friend showed me the star connecting to it. The brightest in the sky."
Her voice showed her captivation with the stars, her love for them. Her desire to learn of them. Her gaze had trailed back to the constellation that had snared her interest first, her gaze flitting to the pattern of stars that made the shape.

"It makes the shape of a wolf, it guides us, makes sure we get to where we need to be in this world. It brought me here, and I found Family."
She turned her gaze to the man, her eyes filled with happiness, undying and undimmed. 
"Do you know of the stars then?" She settled on that, desperate to continue her learning. It might save her one day.

Marruz could attest to the value of the Canis Major constellation. Himself, he held a deep reverence for Sirius. Being the brightest of the stars, it was naturally a compelling point of reference for him when he was ripe and just awakening within the world. 

He could tell that the star held its own significance for the lady adjacent, and he studied in that covert way of his (with his darkest eye being closest to her side, and, thus, difficult to detect) the way she breathed every word. Just as soon as it dawned on him, the boy snapped his gaze upwards once more. So, he wondered in awe, the stars have guided her, too.

Indeed, it was the stars that had shown him how to find the Melonii. Without them, he would never have bested his two brothers in the race. Thus, as his gaze gaped across the Dog Star, it traveled onwards to Lepus, the hare it would never catch, and his thoughts turned to a recent encounter with yet another stranger beneath the stars. He was engulfed in these peculiar revelations when those wide eyes fluttered down from the dark serene; down to a tall, gloomy sapling of a wolf.

"Certainly," he replied in as casual a tone as he could muster. He paused a moment, groping for somewhere to continue his testament. Indigo eye swept the many files within his brain, searching for an artifact suitable enough for the moment. "Well, it may not be as poetic, but my relationship with the stars hasn't only been one-sided."

He gestured to the faint outline of a ring around the moon. "See that? It occured last year during this very season," his voice was filled with a small dash of, if it were possible, pride. "I believe that what we're watching is the interplay of many different patterns... You can use that kind of information to keep track of time. I'm almost certain the Gods want us to know this. I believe it is among the few tools we are given in life." 

She tilted her head to follow the direction of his gesture, studying the ring he'd pointed out. She had a concept of time, over short periods of course. The days were as long as the nights, the length of which changing with the hot and the cold seasons. However, she hadn't counted time over long periods, never needed to. 

"I think I shall study the moon for that, see if I can use it. Perhaps others know about keeping time with it," she tilted her head to him, only to be met with his form that stood out darker than the sky. 
Unnatural.
Something about him sent a shiver down her spine, but she sucked in the frigid air and returned herself to normality. There was no such thing as a monster, they were myths to keep the young running too far.
She'd never met a monster, at least.

"Gods?" She questioned. The hell is that? The youth had never heard of Gods before. It must be some sort of person or his leader. But the Gods? She mused for the brief moments before he replied to her inquiry. Surely there was something rational to that.

The way she looked at him was the same as most did — however, the feeling it created was distinct; something new even to this loner of a boy. He went to great lengths not to let the features overwhelm his cryptic exterior, but there was a great storm bellowing within the chambers of his chest.

Was she afraid of him? Was it true that he held a natural coutenance to that effect? Marruz pushed the thoughts away; lowered his head slightly as though in a thoughtful manner as she spoke yet again. The moon? He had studied it before. It seemed to be only fruitful for matters of daily length, but now that he was especially directed towards the notion, it appeared that the orb itself had changed since he had last paid it proper attention.

His intrigue was heightened by her lack of religious knowledge. "The Gods... Yes..." it was almost difficult to form words at first. Sure, he had met those of varying beliefs, but he had never known an intelligent, secular being. "You know, the ones who created the very earth you walk upon..." 

The girl listened quietly, thoughtfully.
Ah, yes. Gods were those things that some worshipped, invisible and powerful apparently. But for them to make the world?  She couldn't believe that the world was created by something that she herself didn't have proof of.

But that was just her, she supposed. She couldn't laugh at this man for what he believed; her extended family believed in the Gods that controlled the world. Het tail brushed against the ground as she thought of her reply. To offend the man would mean to hurt his feelings, she didn't want that.
The girl's mind didn't even drift over the possibility of him hurting her for it.
She was too nieve for those thoughts.

"Perhaps you could tell me how, if it doesn't take too long?"  She offered, vaguely remembering that some of those with religion liked to tell stories on how and their beliefs. Whether to convert others or not, the girl didn't know. She could only offer to listen. "Then we could talk more about stars."

Marruz shrugged, as though indifferent. "Alright, well... where do I begin?" And he collected his thoughts verbally in the chill of the wintry night. The stars gazed back at him, imploring him to do them justice. 

"There are many gods that one can believe in," as he turned a didactic gaze towards the girl, he realized, to his personal discomfort, the height at which he stood adjacent her. "Growing up, my beliefs were directed towards three in particular. The most important one is Meldresi, the Night Mother. She is the wife of Sithis, the God of the Void. Think of evil and then think of nothing at all — emptiness. That is what Sithis governs."

Marruz paused here to gauge how the slyph was internalizing everything. Was this too much to digest? When he had first been exposed to the notion, he had felt that the world had become a completely different place. Even today, the thought of such divine interaction was difficult to fully comprehend.

As he started to talk, the girl slowly let herself down to lay, wiggling a little to get as comfortable as she could on the rocky ground. She almost wished Laroche was here. 

Her ears cupped to the man, turning her muzzle up to him to show she was listening with the utmost care. Meldreisi, she seemed nice. Like she’d watch over you through your life and guide you. The Night Mother sounded to be hospitable and caring. 
Sithis, however, sent spider-legs down her spine that made her tense up. The youth didn’t know what evil truly was, but it was bad. Yet, evil and nothing? It sounded cold and heartless — truly nothing. She didn’t know if she wanted to know more of him. 
How could one so sweet marry something so cold?

”Does Meldreisi have particular stars? She is the Night Mother after all.” The girl would find it ludicrous for her to not have stars. How could one be Mother of the night when your presence wasn’t there?
When the girl got her answer, she asked her next question, “What of the Third?”

As the girl settled down beside him, the height increased considerably. He was at a loss for how to react — whether to remain standing or shorten himself by some fold of his stilted legs. It was just very unnatural to be within the company of one who reacted so benign and clement. 

Her question saved Marruz, like a life vest tossed amidst the waters. He grappled the proposition and violently poured his energy upon the subject. In truth, he had not ever been notified of a particular star for Meldresi. Indeed, he had simply considered her to encompass the entire night sky. She was the dark canvas that welcomed him every evening and slipped away every morn.

"No," he finally replied, his voice miraculously soft now. "She is the mother, after all. She cares for all of the stars, and everything of the night. And when there is a full moon, that is her eye: opening to watch over us."

As for the third, he added, "The third is Mephala. She is the goddess who supposedly taught us how to survive. Everything simple but fundamental. One might call her a master of subversion — how to manipulate situations and ultimately gain success..." Of all the gods, he especially revered Mephala. She was, after all, something of the kind he could relate to.

Sorry! Kept thinking I'd replied lmao. My bad

The girl nodded slowly, consuming his words. Processing and turning them over as if it were a puzzle. She concluded that it made sense to have the biggest object of the night to represent the Goddess yet her presence wasn't permanent. There were indeed times the girl thought the story of Gods were true time times when she didn't.

Mephala.
Something seemed to twinge in the deepest recesses of her mind yet nothing came forth. Perhaps she'd overheard the name in passing. She sounded like some sort of warrior, the way she was described. "Wild."  The girl murmured. It would give her something to think upon whilst journeying home. "Must be pretty smart to know all of that." The girl didn't clarify whether she meant the man or the Goddess he so clearly adored. Either way, he should take it as a compliment.

"So, where do you come from, uh...what's your name?"  The girl looked up at him. Her head tilted in such a vulnerable way without a care.
Perhaps one day she would.

 

 

it's all good!

Marruz nodded. It was a wild concept, after all. The idea that the stars held such significance could be daunting, if not fascinating, considering their ostensibly pointless role. They were cradled in the sky like pebbles floating in a pool. But one wouldn't consider the pebbles so thoughtfully, now would they?

If he could have blushed, he would have at her next comment. In the inky swamp of night, however, he appeared indifferent to the compliment. His chin only lowered subtley in a mechanical dip. 

He was relieved when the moment was broken by a question he could more easily supply with an answer. His indigo and black gaze shifted along the skyline. He considered how to respond, breathing slowly as he ruminated.

"I was named Marruz," he began, lifting himself once more to his full stature beside the female. "I recently joined the Melonii clan." And he cast his gaze gently back towards the girl. "And yourself?" 

"Phex." She replied like it was as normal name as any other. Yet it wasn't her first name. No.
Her first name was Sacnite. Every member was named after a characteristic, hers meant white flower. Yet as she grew in personality, the renaming rite deemed her Phex: Nice. That's all it meant. All she was.
Just nice.

"I'm Ambassador for Shadewood Keep, off to the West." She gave the man an offhand smile,  "I've been traveling up the coast and meeting with the packs along there." She tilted her head back down to again gaze at the sarts along the distant, ocean bedded horizon. Her brows furrowed for a moment, thinking hard about what she'd learned of the other packs.

 Phex. What an odd name. Marruz recieved it was a pensive nod, though he was void of any comment. He couldn't figure out what it meant, but when he cast a sidelong glance at the girl, he thought he spotted emotion somewhere. She just didn't say it like it was meant for her. And for the first time, Marruz believed that some names didn't always quite hit their target.

So, she was an ambassador. Again, he offered a subtle nod; shifted quietly and cleared his throat. "That's an honorable position," his voice spoked with an unintended roughness, as though speaking had become quite difficult for the youth. "You must see quite a lot of stars." 

Honorable?
Well, she represented the pack and had the job of recruitment so...she supposed it was. The praise brought a smile to her face, her tail stirred a little more.
Not many gave her position within a pack credit, had never been in an important enough position. 

She had to admit that in all her travels she had seen a lot of stars, every night she camped under them she looked up to them with happiness.
"Of course. One can't travel far without looking to them, especially a scout." She gave him a charming sidelong grin, "I was taught a little by someone I traveled with. She taught me about some of the points in the sky that could guide you like Auriga. " The girl scanned the sky as she had done many times before, searching for the bright star Capella that signaled the position of the rest of the constellation, then pointed it out to Marruz.
"I never learned how to properly navigate with them but with time, I'm sure I'll learn." 

Marruz could tell that his words affected her, and he was content with this. It made the job easier, of course, when it came to social etiquette, and it certainly helped him feel less tight about the situation. So, the boy allowed himself to relax slightly; something he had not done for quite a while in another's presence.

He listened and this time he was grateful to learn for himself about the stars. His indigo and ebony gaze traced the celestial bodies in reference with ease and a certain ardor. Auriga. He toyed with the word upon his tongue; traced the twinkling blots in the sky in an attempt to decipher just how one might use them for navigation in this way. 

After a moment's silence, he murmured, "They will always be with you." His voice was throaty and full for all of its softness. There was a deep nuance of reverence within every word. "All else will wither and die. But the stars... You can always count on them." 

The girl slowly sat up as his words trailed off into the night air. Her gaze was trained on him, studying his body language, his features. An ebony statue that has feelings.
Everyone has feelings, even if they don't want to show them. 

She stood, walking towards him with a low tail and sleeked back ears. Her eyes, if he could catch the glint int hem, showed her empathy.
If allowed, she'd reach up towards his and softly touch her nose to his cheek; if he warded her off she'd retreat only a step but still ask her question:
"Who hurt you, Marruz?" 

The youth hated to know someone had bad memories; Cry was her main example of that. Soon to be Gwen too but, that was the future. Right now, she wanted to see if she could help this man relieve any pains aching in his chest and fogging his mind.

Marruz sensed the girl's movements before they stirred the air. He immediately tensed, the muscles in his back straining to suppress the sudden rush of adrenaline that ensued. It was imperceptible in the blanket of night, but to the boy it was a transformation. He was no longer a wanderer of the stars. That vagaband was far away now.

She approached and his breath slowed to a deathly still. The indigo in his eye paled and glinted an esoteric light. There was a darkness in the black orb that spoke of coldness; encrypted and irrevocable. His body screamed to move away. Indeed, there was an insistence within his chest that boiled against the heart. Instinct told him it was time to move, yet all he could do was watch as the girl simply closed the gap. 

His lip curled in a sudden snarl. For an instance, the fur along his neck spiked vehemently upon his ebony nape. He stood abruptly, shaking his coat and dragging his gaze down towards his lone grey paw. His growl was cut short; replaced by a single word: "Stop."

"You," And his voice did not so much as waver. It was smooth, crystalline, and perfectly monotone. No, Marruz was, if nothing else, a strong one when others would shrivel. He had to be. "You. You are hurting me."

He turned without looking back. Normally he would never have left himself so vulnerable to a stranger, but he knew she was different. She was the one who had stolen his innocence; she had recieved every inch that he had never so much as realized was missing. So what did that make him? The enemy?

Her eyes looked up at him, wide and sorrowful. She’d cast away fear a long time ago, if he wanted to hurt her she’d already be hurt. 

What she didn’t expect was the pain that cracked in her chest when he said she hurt him. She retreated another step, head lowering and eyes dropping to the ground. 
He left. And the girl stood there for a long time. 

When her legs ached, she turned back to watch the stars. 
The tears rolled silently from her face and down her muzzle. The birds still called as if nothing changed and the sea thrummed distantly. 

She sat there until dawn and the last star was bleached from the sky by thick clouds and winter sun. 
Only then she went home.