Nocturne Summit the faces staring back at me look like somebody else

Nephele was often of the opinion that she knew what she was doing. Somewhat.

Her wandering led her back around the mountains she’d been climbing, down to the south, to here. More mountains. So many damn mountains. At least this was flat, the place she found at the moment. Shaded too, as if that mattered when it was raining. Much like the day she’d arrived, her fur was dripping, she was drenched, and she didn’t know jack about what she was doing.

Nephele shook her head. She would know. She would! Give her like. A year and a half and maybe a therapy couch, and she’d get her life together. But, for now, she was walking. She was always walking these days. Going somewhere to stare silently for an hour or two, then walking on. Up until her paws hit water that wasn’t puddles from the sky, and she stared. Okay.

Easy.

She descended into the small lake she’d found, casting a glance at where the summit dropped off, and watching the water rush towards it. So no swimming, Nephele, unless you really wanted to test your luck.

She stayed in the shallows.

bidding @Crowfeather to wait for him near the lake, to practice his hunting, germanicus set back toward the way they had come.

the saints. knowledge of their war-ways drew the tactician back toward stone.

but the entrance evaded germanicus. he soon found himself upon a high place that welled with water. and he was not alone here.

a figure smaller than he, the hues of silver-blades as himself, though her own tones deepened the closer he approached.

ranger stride halted. "hail."

inside himself, germanicus did not know what had caused him to cease his step. he meant to visit the strath again, then rejoin his — mind falling flatly on that again, focus turned completely now to the form who had suffered great injury, yet stood with a smooth bearing.

If Nephele was anyone else, maybe she would have noticed someone coming. She would have been watching.

But she was watching the water instead, hypnotized by the drip of water from her nose to the surface. She lowered her head to touch her nose to the water, only to pull back when that just disturbed the surface even more than the dripping. Boo, gravity you whore.

hail, the rumble was low, and from somewhere on the shore, and Nephele near jumped out of her skin, whipping around with wide eyes, instinct and habit bringing her tail between her legs.

Uh...hi? She licked her lips nervously, ears swiveling like satellite dishes.

Do you uh..live here? If so I’m..very sorry I didn’t smell any borders but it is raining so uh...yeah. She was lucky she couldn’t sweat on anywhere but her pawpads, she’d be sweating buckets right now.

the woman recoiled, not something germanicus might have expected from someone who bore the weals of a long life. he did not retreat, but did not advance, only waited until she had finished speaking. her voice was high-strung now, anxious.

"these are not my lands. i only wander, as you do." there was no pack-scent in her own, and so the guard saw them as evenly met.

he bent and began to drink, tasting the dusty brackishness of the raw mountain in each lap of his tongue. it was refreshing to the eagle, and he only lifted his head after a time. "do you hunt, domina?"

He was a wanderer, just as she.

Nephele loosened her body, breathing out a soft puff. Okay, so no pack was here waiting to tear into her tender flesh as so many had done before. She twisted to face the larger man, nodding to his question.

Yeah. Small things, rabbits and birds and the like. She said, licking her nose to clean it of water.

And you can uh...you can call me Two. The original name, the original slight against her. She was just Two. Second.

"two. i am germanicus." he regarded her for a moment, then turned his head away to search the barren slopes for any sign of prey. "i do not think we will be successful here."

germanicus began to pick his way down the other side of the summit, searching for a trail that might lead back into the hinterlands. the eagle found only a deer-path, steep and narrow. 

his hushflower eyes settled back to the scarred silvered two. "perhaps a lower elevation."

Germanicus. It was a nice name, strong name, a different breed to the names she’d grown up with. The Greek woman pressed her lips together, sloshing out of the water to follow behind the silver toned man, tipping her head to one side in thought.

Solid thinking. I haven’t seen anything up here but birds since I started climbing. She was wrong, there were goats, but she never saw them for more than a second, so to her, they didn’t exist.

We could go back the way we came to get down, maybe?

"lead on," germanicus encouraged, happy enough to follow where she led. he thought of crowfeather, and wondered how the boy got on, away from his mentor.

there were many scents here. the woman's voice remained pitched with worry. germanicus wondered if she feared their lofty perch. all the more reason to descend, then. "the large pack who once lived here has relocated elsewhere. these woods will be silent."

Nephele dipped her head in acknowledgement, striding ahead with a quickness to her step. She didn’t like the heights much, more for the fact it was slippery with rain than the height itself.

She looked over her shoulder at Germanicus when he spoke, a small flare of curiosity lighting in her chest as she walked.

You've been here before, huh? This is my first time up here. She knew next to nothing about this land, despite being here for a month.

...you know anything else about this place? I’m still a newbie to the area.

"i know almost every part of this land," germanicus told two with a somber look. these were memories he did not wish to share. but she had been careful thus far, and he felt she would not overstep his lines. "summer holds many storms. i avoid mountain-tops," he told his counterpart dryly.

would she enjoy the gentle razing? or would she be insulted? the eagle kept their stride paired, anticipation in his veins.

Nephele quirked a little grin, unable to stop a half wheezed giggle from escaping her snout, ducking her head in embarrassment at the sound.

I can believe you there. It’s rained a lot since I got here. The wilds had offered her something she hadn’t had before, but in turn taken away something else. She gained freedom, but lost friends. Jumping from place to place didn’t help matters in the slightest.

Thankfully, we’re going down instead of up, so no falling to our doom today! At least, that was the hope.

she was pleasant. germanicus relaxed in the sound of her laughter, though never formally disarmed. she remained a stranger, albeit one intriguing enough to pique the soldier.

but his eyes kept watch, and his gaze was never still. "forgive my bluntness. where did you receive your name?" he asked. two. the second. of daughters? but she was scarred. second of a battle-field, perhaps.

he filled the silent thereafter with the quickened sound of his steps.

Nephele chewed on the inside of her mouth for a moment, before she was speaking, voice lower, weighed down like a wool jacket in the rain.

If I’m being honest...Two is just the translation of my name. It’s Dýo. I was born second in my litter, so that’s the name I got. Per law, where I was born. Vague enough that she didn’t have to fully explain herself, but not so that she was opening up completely to a stranger.

Most don’t pronounce it right, so I just decided on Two. It was easier, and a bit further from the life I lived. A truth and a lie, she was good at that.

"dýo," germanicus attempted. his grasp of many languages had been honed during his travels. but he was not sure he recognized its origin. two was the bastardized version of that, then. the woman translated herself for those lesser beings.

it was the story of all women before her, as well.

two gave freely and amiably of her background. germanicus began to piece together supposition about her. he bound it with the stitching of what he might physically observe. "is it the sort of life you must now escape?"

were either of them still searching for prey?

Hey, you kinda got it! It wasn’t as much of a lance to the heart as she was expecting, hearing that old title. She’d been so many people after Dýo, that little girl she’d been was long gone now.

Nephele licked her nose, ears wilting back. 

Something like that. It’s..a long story. Physically..there’s nobody left who could take me back.

"so you have been accidentally exiled," germanicus finished. whether or not it was the truth of her tale did not matter. in the ending of it was tragedy. "why have you not returned to begin anew?" was that not the desire of tormented souls: a fresh beginning?

the pacing of rabbits across their path caught his eye. here in the forest, such animals were hard-won. but he was more than willing to attempt it, as in the expression he turned to two now, waiting to see how she might guide them.

guide them both toward quarry and away from her story, if she so chose.

She blew out a short breath, trundling to a stop for a second to think. She caught her lip between her canines, rubbing back and forth across the teeth there.

Theres nothing to return to. There’s a whole wide world I never got to see there, nobody left. She hadn’t been allowed to leave. Unconsciously, she shifted her weight off the scarred back limb that marked the consequences for trying to flee Cloudmirror Manor.

She made an aborted half step for the rabbits, before rethinking. She wouldn’t be able to catch a fleeing rabbit like that. She’d never tried, whispered something in her gut. After another half second’s consideration, she lunged in pursuit.

Failing was easier than talking.

the former centurion chose to leave off their talk, turning all of himself to the hunt. two leapt forward, jaws ready, and germanicus mirrored her. he did not pause between, and his steps carried him hurriedly after the ashen tail of the creature.

but he did not yet pull ahead into speed, waiting for two to recover and follow. it was her hunt, after all; germanicus would not take the coursing away from the woman.

If there was one thing Nephele could reasonably say she was, it was fast. Stamina was another story entirely, one she could feel rapidly reaching its end as she charged with careful attention after the fleeing lapines.

She lunged forward, putting on a burst of speed to rapidly grab for at least one of the rabbits. Her teeth closed around fur and she felt a burst of pride, before it was overshadowed by a maddening burst of pain through her nose. Nephele yelped, but held on even harder despite the rush of tears to her eyes.

Ow, that was just rude, rabbit.

two was swift, her lithe build created for the quick, desperate turns of a hare who has sensed death. germanicus followed closely behind

their target fought fiercely in the dove-grey jaws. the eagle came down terribly upon the rangy beast, clipping its neck and holding it powerless.

two might now deliver the killing blow.

Nephele released the leg she held, licking at the tender flesh of her nose. The rabbit was held down now, caught in Germanicus’s jaws.

It would suffer no more.

With a flash of ivory fangs, she descended.

After the rabbit was in its death throes, she pulled back, watching for a mere moment, before looking to the steely grey man beside her, flashing a bloodstained smile.

That was good teamwork.

"very good." germanicus stood aside, allowing her first bite of their kill. "these hares seem hardier than the ones in the meadow." an observation, and perhaps one that two might find interesting. "have you ever hunted deer?" germanicus went on.

some were suited for smaller beasts. but with her swiftness, perhaps the woman with two names had not quite put her true strength to the test. with crowfeather hunting in the lake-land below, the eagle was assured of his offer. he would hunt again with her. she need only say it so.

Nephele cleaned herself throughly as the taller man spoke, sweeping her tongue across her whiskers and making sure she didn’t look like some blood smeared lunatic, before bright blue fell back on Germanicus, raising her brow.

I have, but it was a good long time ago. And it didn’t turn out so well. One of the Monkshood wolves had been holed up for gods knew how long with a broken leg, and she’d barely managed to escape with a clip to the forehead from powerful back hooves.

I haven’t really tried since. I don’t think I could hunt them on my own.

not a racer of hinds then. not artemis in this field. but germanicus still wondered at the anxiousness of their earlier words. what had changed her to this? and if she had always been this way, where had she gotten her scars? each wolf in possession of personal chapters.

but he could not hope to read them all in a single day.

"it is good to hunt with others again. i would welcome the challenge of it."

Nephele nodded at that, scarred visage crinkling as she flashed a little smile, ears swiveling back for a moment, before going forward again.

Yeah...it does sound nice to hunt with others again. She looked down at the rabbit at her feet.

But I doubt we will find deer up in the peaks. All I know that live in mountains are goats and the occasional cougar. She looked to him again. He knew this land, better than she.

You going down from here? I could come with, see if we could find a deer herd down below. He would be a good travel buddy for a bit, if he accepted.