Blacktail Deer Plateau sassy fox

Osprey returned to her spot and lied down. She eyed Junior a little curiously to see, what the girl's reaction to the story was. The elder was old enough not to be childish and expect that every tale she told was great and amazing, yet she still yearned just a bit of acknowledgment that she was on the right track and that her audience was merely interested.

The young girl pretended to be indifferent, but the fact that she hadn't interrupted Osprey and gone off by now counted as a good sign. However, before returning to Dar's adventures, she had to revise the whole story to make it a little shorter. She might have been the fan of "the longer, the better", but not all people were like that. It was better not to overflow them with details on the first take. Otherwise some had a tendency to avoid her the next time they met each other.

"So the next night, when he fell asleep, he saw the very same creatures and this time he tried to follow them. The shadows were fleeting little things - they appeared and disappeared again before his eyes, he had hard time finding one to follow, not to mention that every step he took, every branch he climbed came with great difficulties. It was as if a heavy weight was pulling him back down. However, he got to the top branch that night, but when he attempted to make the leap and get on with his way, he fell and woke up with a start.

The following nights he made the same journey over and over again, never getting further than that one step it took to follow the shadows to the starry realm. He didn't understand, why was it so, and in the end he decided that the best way to find it out, was to capture one of the shadows. So he did - after a lot of effort and failed attempts, he had caught one and didn't let it go. No matter, how hard it struggled to break free. At the sunrise the shadow let out a mournful howl and became still.

When the first rays of the sun reached the shadow, it caught flame and burned into ashes before Dar's eyes. He was afraid, yet curious and continued hunting the shadows down and trying to find out, what was going on. Until one evening, when the shadow he had caught grew bigger and stronger and took a form of a wolf with dark red glowing eyes. It growled and asked him, why was he interfering with the way of the spirits. Dar asked questions of his own instead - what was this place, what were the shadows and where they were going.

Rather than telling the answers in words, the shadow-wolf, grabbed him and with one leap jumped right in to the starry sky. What Dar saw there differs from one story-teller to the other, but it is told that he found out the secret of Death and saw the world beyond ours. When he returned he promised not to hunt the spirits, if he was permitted to make the same journey again. The permission was given, yet with strict conditions, which mainly meant, that in turn for, what Dar desired, he had to give up his life and soul eventually," Osprey paused in order to give Junior time to take in all of the facts. Unfortunately she wasn't as good in telling the Nomad's tales as they themselves had been. Her style was just a mere reflection of the glory, colors and senses they had weaved in their story.

Suddenly Osprey's attention was caught by a summoning howl in the distance. It didn't sound that urgent, yet she felt that it was her duty to follow it to the place of the event and see, what was going on. "That was the first chapter, so to say," she said, raising to her feet, stretching and shaking her coat. "Unfortunately - I have to go now, but if you ever happen to be interested, what happens next - you can find me. I don't plan on going anywhere in near future," with that she rushed off.

ooc: I am sorry that it took so long, but I had a true writer's block of what to tell next, atop the other stuff that has taken place in my life. Glad to have this thread finished and maybe we can have another one in near future.