Blackfeather Woods glow in the dark

The ghost child had been a quiet sort of child so far; the type that might make a parent check if they were alive every now and then. She did not sleep more than average but she observed more than average. Only when her instincts required of her to be honed -- to play with the dark one, or chew on toes or roots or sticks -- she came into action. She loved getting into the thick of the fight with the dark one. Another thing the ghost child particularly enjoyed was being entertained and watching others interact. She could stare and study for hours, sometimes laughing but often her face would be emotionless for the bigger part. Words were not really a thing for her yet, the development slow and unsteady because their mother did not speak; her sounds, if they came, were often garbled and nonsensical still. She had not yet observed they could be useful for communication.

The white pup lay upon the courtyard in front of the den that day, attentively grooming between her paw pads. It seemed on first sight that she was surprisingly focussed for such a young child, but in truth she was ready to be distracted by anything or anyone.

The Night had been out and about since the stars had graced yesterday's evening sky. Sleeping did not come easy for the one born of midnight, but she tried to get better. She had even thought of inviting Aries or Maegi to sleep with her for a night, but it seemed a rather rude question. They were both old enough to have their own little den, after all, so why sleep with her - not that her den was small. Far from it; she had picked a rather large resting place, even though she didn't need most of the space. She had picked it for when Damien would finally accept her advances and become her mate in the conquer for the throne, but he was gone and her father held the highest rank now.

Nyx's mismatched eyes landed upon a small blob of white, cleaning themselves like how she had once observed a squirrel lick its tiny, little paws. But this was not a snack - this was a spawn, but who's was it? She really should spend more time with the wolves of the woods. Greetings. She said softly, ears swiveling around, listening for the approach of a parent.

The ghost child continued grooming her paws until she heard the bushes rustle. She jumped up with all fours at once, landing clumsily on her large paws as she looked 'round. The wolf that stood there was one she did not know, and curiosity marked her face as she approached. It did not take the pale pup long to start scrambling towards her visitor, excited to explore this interaction in lack of others to observe.

The child was given a 'greetings' that didn't mean much to the ghost child and she replied with an excited: "Ha!" followed by a pounce to the toes of the stranger. Dark toes, like the dark one, but bigger, of course. The pale child batted at the stranger's toes with her paws while admiring the star-dusted colouration, as she had not seen such variation before.

Strange, the pup seemed excited to meet her. That was a first. She watched it stumble towards her and felt her frozen heart melt a little. It was rather cute, wasn't it? She had wanted children too, with Damien, but fate had never been on her side. Not as a child and not now as she had grown older.

And who might you be - tiny ghost? She nearly purred as it tried to attack her midnight toes. She looked around, but the mother was no where to be seen. How strange. Oh well, she was fine with babysitting for a while.

A playful and endearing little growl rumbled in the ghost child's throat as she pawed repeatedly at the large toes, but she was soon distracted once more by the stardust wolf's words. She was not very used to being talked to yet, for it was mostly just their lifebringer and caregiver that raised the pups; the pale child was not accustomed to words.

But she took the challenge on head first and after glancing at the stardust wolf with a tilted head as she tried to comprehend what was being said she instead simply tried to mimic. "Owst!" she echoed with a rough tone to her voice, which was normally only used for, well, an assortment of sounds, but not talking, so far.

A soft giggle rumbled in the back of Nyx's throat. Yes, she liked this pup. She had always liked puppies, but for some reason they had never taken a great liking to her. Well, except for Maegi and Aries then, but Maegi and her had a lot in common and she had practically raised Aries after stumbling upon him one day. She guessed she could add the tiny ghost to the children who liked her a bit.

Not much of a talker yet, huh? She cooed, sitting down so she could move her paws for the child to play with. That is okay, ghost. You take your sweet time becoming a big adult. Now if only they stayed so small and innocent. But innocence didn't last in the woods. All she could hope was for the child to be happy with the place it would most likely not leave.

When she was spoken to again the ghost child turned her attention back to the source of the sounds, large ears flopping up to the unknown star-wolf. "Huh," she whispered under her breath, repeating the last word of the question just like before while looking down at her white, dirt-covered paws. Then she looked back at the star-wolf again as more words came forth.

The pale child rolled onto her back besides one of the star-wolf's front paws and oversized puppy paws grabbed into the air above her, catching for seemingly invisible things.

She found the child simply adorable. It was hard for her to dislike something innocent, but this was more than just tolerance for the young pup. Though she wasn't Nyx's, a motherly feeling washed over her as she looked at the small blob of white. It smelled new and in need of her protection, if that were possible. She wondered then if she would ever be allowed to spawn her offspring in the dark woods. She'd have to talk to @Kove about that someday. But even if she was allowed, she'd have no idea who would father the litter.

She lowered her muzzle, blowing warm and gentle breaths on the child's exposed belly, letting its comically large paws play with her face if it wished to do so. Yeah, we big adults are simply stupid. She purred.

"Rawawawr!" the pale child called into the night as paws grabbed the air above her. As warm breath was breathed onto her exposed tummy the ghost child let out a "eeheehee" of pleased giggles that might remind one who'd spent time with Euron of his younger days. Admiring eyes looked up at the star wolf while her paws grabbed at the star wolf's nose, trying to catch it in het grasp.

The fondness seemed mutual between the Ghost and the Night. Yet, if she did not stick around, perhaps the child would forget about their short while together. She liked the girl, far more than any other pup she had encountered, so losing the connection because she was always busy simply wasn't an option. She promised herself then that, whatever may come, this child would be protected. If the mother didn't want her anymore, Nyx would look after her, even though that sounded unlikely to ever happen.

Oh- She let out, surprised. You got me. She smiled. She could hardly say the grab at her nose hurt, but she pretended to be defeated. Her head lowered and her tongue flopped out. She was totally dead now.

Though the words meant nothing to the ghost child, she giggled as they were spoken and held onto the snoot she'd caught for a bit longer before letting it go in grand gesture, spreading her paws out wide. "Abagabagaba!" she squalled cheerfully and the pale pup leaped to her feet abruptly. Ears cupped as she heard sounds in the distance -- it was the dark one and the caretaker! -- and without a second look back to her new friend the pale child started to run towards them, back to the den.

The night wiggled her snoot when it was let go, something she was only slightly happy with. She wondered if the child wanted to play some more, but the ghost's attention had been stolen away by the approaching footfalls. Nyx's eyes grew wide and as soon as the child was out of sight, she vanished - back into the shadows. She didn't want the mother to know she had been spending time with her children after all.