Silver Creek moon dust in your lungs

Once the pointed query had passed by his lips, the nimbus clicked his teeth together in a gritted hold. It was here – this pivotal moment – that the starchaser believed her ire would unfurl and he would be chastened for his wrongdoings. The wendigo stood with eyes like a doe, wide and fearful against the shape of her earthly form.
 
But, the subastral stranger uttered a phrase he thought never to hear.
 
I do not know these Mal’um.
 
How?
 
Even on the face of the cosmic wraith, there was awe. It was almost as though the uncelestial creature had reached within him and stolen his very spirit. The breathlessness that overcame him was all but palpable. In his sudden onslaught of misery, the starchaser released a sharp exhale that dropped the rigidity in his lean frame. The weight of his shoulders fell inches before he stood, swaying with the touch of the zephyr. It was in this release that the air around them shifted; he was overcome with a weariness that ached in the marrow of his skeletal frame. Another notch had been taken from the years of his life in only that single exchange.
 
The earthly woman inquired to him if the Mal’um followed. The wendigo gritted his fangs together, creating a clench in his jaw. It was arduous for the nimbus to illustrate the intentions of their kind. The Mal’um did not follow; they loomed, waiting for the hand of good fortune to brush against them. It was only ever a matter of time.
 
“They scour in search of stars,” his haggard tone latched against the back of his throat upon exit. “The Mal’um seek only to massacre.”
 
Yet, why should he share such paramount knowledge with a body that did not know what it meant to saunter amongst the galaxies? Once, it had been said that the great stars should discern what it truly meant to fall – to become one with the terra beneath their shoddy paws – and to know from the earthly creatures what it meant to withstand. For all his years on the harsh planet, Orion had only ever known how to endure; he did not believe he could lucubrate from hounds and hunters that had not known his grief. Still, as he searched her cloud-dappled frame for a reason, he met only innermore defeat.
 
“You should be wary, earthly huntress. They will not hesitate to slaughter one of their own kind.”
 
The warning was all that he might offer on the subject of those who hunted him. But, warning was enough.