Heron Lake Plateau 76, ocean drive

After relaying her latest findings to the leadership and checking in with @Tegan, Bat sought out another wolf: @Phox. She had never gotten around to asking him the question she'd stashed during their initial meeting. She knew she could howl for him but the youthful scout took pleasure in tracking him down herself. His scent led her toward the far edge of the plateau, near the top of the falls.

She's looking for Phox but no obligation to join! Anyone's welcome. :)

Phox was fairly certain he had never slept better in his entire life. He had even slept well past his usual wake time before the sun rose. Towhee had already been gone when he'd woken up, and he blinked wearily into the light of the morning. Yawning, stretching, and eventually stumbling out of their little enclave, he began to make his way toward the falls. Perhaps he would see if he could track down any small game to fill some of the caches he had noticed were running low. With as good as he felt, he thought it would be an easy task to sort out.

His intestines rumbled when he got there, and he sought out a good place to make a deposit. Once that was out of the way, he scratched the dirt behind him to cover the pile of feces, then looked up to see Rory headed his way. Figuring neither of them wanted to hang out by his smelly dump, he quickly trotted toward her and away from his makeshift toilet. Hey Rory, he greeted, wondering if she had been seeking him out in particular or just happened to be nearby.

A newer, riper odor wafted into her nostrils as Bat spotted Phox and padded nearer. There was so much she could read about his status in that chemical cocktail, yet the youth ignored it as he veered away from his makeshift toilet. Understanding that he meant to lead her elsewhere, she dogged his steps until the stench faded behind them.

"Yo," she rejoined casually, shooting him a smile, "how's things? I wanted to ask you something about the stars, if you're not super busy right now."

How were things really, Phox? He had to admit they were pretty good, all things considered. He seemed to be back in Towhee's good graces, and he was starting to hit his groove again. Having a warm place to rest would certainly improve his mood, and that would filter out into plenty of other aspects of his life. If he was better rested, he would be able to hunt more and get more time with the stars like he always wanted.

Speaking of stars... it seemed Rory had a question about them. Phox pushed his ears forward in a "let's hear it" motion. He could not remember the last time somebody had taken an interest in what some thought were just silly stories about the sky. He felt it was important to keep the knowledge moving on through the years. There were plenty of important stories to be told through those little specks in the night sky.

He didn't say anything but he tilted his ears toward her to indicate that he was listening. So Bat came right out with it: "Do you think I could use them for navigation?" She suspected there might be some patterns up there that she could learn, if someone knowledgeable—like Phox, for instance—could teach her. Maybe she was right, maybe she was wrong. Her mercury eyes fastened to the side of his face, curiously anticipating his response.

Her question was not the one he had expected. He had anticipated her asking him about one (or a few) of the many constellations that dotted the sky. Instead, it appeared she had a much more practical question. Phox would be lying if he said he wasn't a little bit disappointed that he didn't get to talk about the various beasts that lived above them. Navigation by stars wasn't something he had specialized in, but he knew the basics well enough from traveling on his own.

They can, he replied. It was too bad it was daylight now, or he'd be able to explain more easily. There's one very easy trick, which is that the brightest star in the sky always stays in the same spot, no matter what time of night, or even year, it is. Phox was coming up on his second year, so he had a decent feel for which constellations were going to show themselves when. Still, that brightest star in the sky was always an easy target, and it always pointed one way: north. Finding it can be a bit tricky, but it gets easier with practice.

He confirmed that it was possible and Bat grinned, pleased to hear it. Her tail waved as she wondered, "Think you could teach me sometime? How to locate this star and use it to find my way around? I'm pretty good with directions but I figure it'd be a nifty tool. Plus," she added, glancing upward as if she might spot the stars that had disappeared by daybreak, "it'd just be neat to learn more about the skies, especially at night."

Her gaze dropped back to a more terrestrial plane. Specifically, she looked at Phox, figuring he would probably agree, if he was an (aspiring) astronomer and all. "What are stars, anyway?"

She asked him to teach her sometime, and he nodded. Of course. What was he going to say? No? It wasn’t like he could really afford to reject anybody who lived here. Not when Towhee was likely watching over his shoulder and keeping track of his every decision. Besides, it would be good for him to have a little aspiring astronomer under his wing. Maybe he would even learn something along the way... or some old knowledge would come bubbling up from old memories. Speaking of...

Phox had to reach far, far back in his memory bank for that answer. He could not remember the wolf’s name who had taught him what the stars were, but he did remember what he had been taught. A wolf once told me they were the dead watching over us. Even though the stars weren’t out right now, Phox instinctively looked up at the sky. My parents are up there. I suppose my sister is, too. Not Titmouse, though. That son of a bitch was still roaming about, likely to cause more trouble for anybody who came into contact with him.

She didn't know what she'd expected but that—"they're the dead watching over us"—definitely wasn't it. Bat blinked slowly and said nothing as she turned this thought over and over in her head. Her silvery eyes sharpened when he mentioned his parents and sister, all of them apparently late for their next birthday.

"What happened to them?" Bat asked gently, unaware that this was Towhee's brother and that the sister he'd mentioned was Orca, the one whose grave the deaf wolf liked to sleep on sometimes.

As much as he had thought about his parents in his youth, he tended only to think of them now when he was talking about or looking at the stars. It had been a very, very long time since had spoken about them out loud, let alone with anybody outside of his family. He had asked about them frequently as a child, idolizing them in a potentially unhealthy way. When he had run away like a piece of shit coward, he had felt he was letting them down, too. He probably was, if they really were watching him from above.

My father, Peregrine, died before I was born. Natural causes. I guess he was just that old. My mother, Fox, died giving birth to my siblings and me. My sister had an unfortunate accident and fell to her death. He still hadn’t had proper time to process Orca’s death, but he was slowly coming around to accepting it. They had never been terribly close, not the way he had been—and always would be—close with Towhee. Still, she was his litter mate, and he had cared for her like a good brother should... at least until he’d fled.

Not wanting to dwell on the subject of dead relatives, he blinked and took a deep breath. Just give me a call whenever you want to practice locating that star, and I’ll be happy to help. I’m going to check on some of the caches today and fill them up as needed.

When Phox mentioned the names of his parents, Bat could only think, Ohhh... He didn't mention Orca by name but he didn't have to. Figuring out the Redhawks' and Blackthorns' family tree was a bit like scouting, in a way: it required constructing a map in in her mind. She did that now, tracing the branches back to Towhee and others. She was part of that tree too, of course; Peregrine and Fox were her grandparents, making Phox another uncle.

She didn't get to point this out just now, as he pardoned himself to check the caches. Bat sensed that he wanted to be left alone, so she slowed and let him move on ahead, offering a parting, "Catch ya' later, Uncle Phox." Unaware that she'd slipped in the title anyway, Bat watched him go, then decided the mention of caches had stirred her appetite. She went in search of one, eventually pulling out a really dubious-looking rabbit carcass to munch on.