Neverwinter Forest giant steps are what you take, walking on the moon

stargazing thread with @Dashiell !

In the blank plain of snowy earth, Marruz's inky form was stark in contrast to the blotted landscape. His long legs were apt for the task of pulling him along, so that as he moved there was hardly motion in his sable flanks. Today had been one of those quiet, restful days for the boy. Being the introvert that he was, these were the days he most favored.

The sun had only just disappeared beneath the horizon, though it had long fled Marruz's sight. Much to his pleasure, darkness was slowly pushing across the mellow skies; painting the fluff of what few clouds dare speck its ebbing canvas. Though always cautious when in unknown terrain, the darkling could not help but slip his indigo and black gaze towards the heavens. 

A walking shadow, the boy halted just at the lip of an outcropping grove, where he could still train his eye through a sparsity of limbs to peer at the impending abyss. He wanted to watch the stars whenever he could - watch how they changed with the seasons; how they fluctuated as though by the hand of some unknown creator. There were stories up there: timeless epics within a library that was, to Marruz's eye, limitless.

Dash watched the shadow-wolf traverse the snowy fields, drawing closer and closer to the forest the Coterie wolves called home (for now). He wondered idly what he was supposed to do, in theory, if the Shadow tried to come in? Should he growl and act tough and get his fur all in a ruffle, like the macho-mercenary types were so prone to doing? It had certainly not been his intention to come out here to guard the border of a barely-existent pack. He had just wanted... air. 

Perhaps he'd meet the Shadow out in the fields for a chat, intercepting him before he got to the forest... as in, before Dash had to decide whether he was or wasn't a mercenary (and let's face it, he probably wasn't). The young man strode out from the outskirts of the forest, sinking down further in the snow with every step. Fuck, the snow was deep out here. 

"'Sup buttercup," Dash called out cheerfully, still approaching the Shadow. He noticed the wolf's gaze turned up toward the heavens. The seawolf paused in his approach to follow suit, craning his neck upwards. The first stars of the evening were just starting to wink into existence. "The sky is so big out here..." Dash commented, "Gods, I almost forgot what it looked like, spending so much time those trees."  Now that he was out here, Dash realized just how smothered he had felt within the forest's arboraceous confines.

Marruz first detected the newcomer by dint of faint crunching sounds in the snow. His fur bristled instinctually along his nape, but as he turned he was rather unperturbed by the approaching stranger. From his perch upon the roots, he took a few breaths to decipher whether this would be a very nice encounter at all. Of course, hardly any encounters made Marruz anything more than lukewarm; unless it had something to do with the stars.

As the wolf approached, he was further assured that there was no impending danger - or, at least, not in the immediate sense - so even as the distance lessened between them, he kept his sights upward. It slightly agitated Marruz when he was addressed, having planted a seedling of hope that his presence would be dismissed. Nevertheless, this was only translated through a disdainful sniff. His mind, meanwhile, chided him. You fool, you're as dark as night on a blanket of pure white snow. And the bitter thought somewhat palliated his sullen temperament. 

This man's cheerfulness was taxing on the boy's emotional energies. He already felt his muscles clenching at the jaw; tightening the more the brute spoke. He furrowed his brow hard when the breadth of the sky was mentioned and struggled to bite back his thoughts on the comment. 

Instead, he waited - simmering - for the horrendous words to draw to a close. Then, he shifted a few paces away and gruffly shook tumbles of snow from his Stygian fur. He feared that if he tried to speak, the sheer action of parting his maw would compel him to do far worse than simple chastising to this flea adjacent him.

Oh, look, meanwhile, his brain remained whirring along. There's Mars. 

The Shadow's attempts at nonverbal communication-- his sharp inhale, the knit of his brow, shifting away a few paces-- all of these were subtleties to which Dash was completely and utterly oblivious. If the Shadow forfeited his chance to speak, then Dash would simply take the opportunity to continue doing so.

"What do you think makes some of them so bright, like that one?" Dash gestured up in the direction of Mars, happy-go-lucky smile still plastered across his features. As he spoke, he reclined onto his haunches to relieve some of the pressure in his craned neck.

Marruz was relieved when the topic shifted more towards the stars — particularly his knowledge of them. Indigo eye blinked evenly as he adjusted his frame of mind; pursuing instead the majesty of the galaxies and that pleasing vista. His lips parted but remained, for a moment, wide in anticipation for what words he would summon.

"That one is commonly known as Sirius — the dog star," his boyish voice was tainted by a melancholy undertone, albeit no less orotund. "And right beside it would be its pup."

He paused to ruminate on the question proposed by his companion. It rather surprised him that the newcomer latched onto the subject at all, much less found the motivation to inquire such a compelling query. As for Marruz himself, he had absorbed too much of his time studying the exact locations of the celestial bodies and thus his answer was in no way instantaneous. He didn't care to speed his process either, though it truly did not take long to boil down to a worthy response.

"Well, have you ever seen a forest fire?" he verbally led the seawolf along his line of thought, placing a careful and reverent note upon every word. Should one have looked, this fire could be seen in his heterochromic orbs. "That is the only source I can imagine that emits light when it is dark. I believe that the stars are really just other worlds that the gods set ablaze... Perhaps someday our own will become one." 

"Huh," Dash answered, considering the rather confident explanation offer by the Shadowman-- or was he a Shadowkid? ...Sirius and his pup, hmm? Where was the mother then? "Oh, then that must be Sirius's mate," Dash offered, gesturing toward Betelgeuse as it winked into existence. See, Dash could make up stories too!

"..She's forever tracking her husband and pup across the sky," he added, "Never able to catch up." It was a sad tale, but Dash had observed enough of the sky to know that while the entire tapestry might shift, the stars themselves would never move closer or further from one another. It was a sad fate indeed for Sirius and his mate. 

Gods, the Shadowkid sure had an imagination! His description of firey worlds was absolutely ridiculous, but Dash was feeling charitable so he wouldn't say as much to the kid. It seemed much more plausible to the seawolf that the stars were like... fireflies that had gotten stuck up there or whatever. Or maybe pieces of the moon that got chipped off at some point. 

"Those are some pissed-off gods of yours," Dash commented instead, apple-green eyes sweeping across the numerous stars that had become visible. Dash hoped earnestly that the gods were never irritated enough by those inhabiting their world to set it all ablaze, but the Shadowkid seemed oddly unperturbed by the prospect.

Marruz liked the stranger's tale of the mother and her family. It garnered the newcomer what few brownie points the grumpy boy awarded. Plus, he had never considered taking such a stance with the stars. The incorporation of Betelguese was yet another point of view he had not yet explored.

When the emerald-orbed fellow spoke once more, it interrupted the darkling's silent rumination. Indigo eye started, having almost forgotten the presence of another. He curtly shook out his coat and tipped his crown in a melancholy nod.

"Gods have a right to be pissed-off," Marruz's voice was almost sympathetic — that is, sympathetic for the gods. "We're just a bunch of lumbering flees in their flanks. It's a wonder we don't die much more often." And for all the dread in its depths, the words slipped from his tongue in a rather buoyant manner.

The Shadowkid continued to talk about vengeful gods and death with an air of levity that seemed odd to Dash. But hey, the seawolf supposed that was a better attitude to assume than always living in fear of death, or letting unfortunate circumstances embitter you. 

"Huh, I always kinda thought that all the shit the gods threw at us was more like.. out of a sense of humor."  It was a dark and twisted sense of humor to be certain, but it seemed to Dash like his life was more amusing than it was punishing. He imagined some god was up there somewhere watching him and laughing his ass off. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Dash saw a light zip across the dark tapestry. It was visible for only the briefest of moments, leaving Dash wondering if it had simply been a figment of his imagination. The seawolf turned to his companion to see if the Shaowkid had also seen the shooting star. How would he explain that? Were the gods were so pissed that not only did they set the world ablaze, they also saw fit to launch it across the sky?

The fellow's response was somewhat amusing to Marruz. Who was he to say it held no viability, no substance? It could very well be true that the gods were a waggish band, if not facetious for all their importance.

He was about to respond when something caught his eye; the words dissolving like sugar upon his lips. A streak flit across the sky, spitting a stunted trail across the tarry palette. Marruz had only seen the phenomenon once before, and it had been just before he left for the Melonii — with his mother beside him.

The memory hurt him. But he was well aware the other wolf would have no recollection or understanding of the matter, so he remained outwardly impervious. Instead, he whispered, "That... That was a shooting star."

And, with mounting fervor, "It is said that the gods exile stars every now and then by trying to send them back to us. Stars can be individual guides, you know. They don't always mean the same things for everyone. For me, this is an omen for new beginnings." 

The kid's dusky complexion was difficult to read, especially shrouded in the nighttime's shadows, but his tone bespoke an acute enthusiasm that even Dash could percieve. The seawolf wagged his tail, eyes sparking with delight as the Shadowkid finally rose to meet his own energy level. Stars-- even shooting stars-- weren't really something that got Dash all wound up, but he was willing to indulge whatever topic floated this kid's boat. 

"I wonder if one of them is guiding me," Dash mused aloud, eyes drifting across the sky for a star that seemed to call out to him more than the others. After a moment, he let out a thoughtful hum. If one of these stars was his guide, it would need to speak a whole lot louder. Dash had a hard enough time listening even when people were speaking to him with actual words. What sort of masochistic star would take on a lost cause like him?

Marruz's gaze remained pasted upon the empyrean canvas. He wasn't exactly keen on how to respond to the restive fellow. The stars held such a unique role in his life that the thought of another attempting to even describe it was hard to comprehend. It was like trying to illustrate the memories of a complete stranger. 

Not many wolves were so inclined as he to pay so much attention to the night sky. In fact, Marruz would bet that the majority of his species had other preoccupations. Likewise, it seemed logical that the stars would not guide them. That is, they simply couldn't — how could you attempt to lead the way to someone who didn't pay attention? 

"It would be hard to decipher by this night alone," he finally responded, absorbed in thought and lacking much inflection. "If you continue to look at the stars, however, there is no doubt in my mind that you will find the way." 

Eep, sorry I let this one sit for so long. Since Marruz is on PPC I'm going to go ahead and close it out.

Dash nodded, unsure of how to respond to the shadowkid's obvious certainty that the stars held all the answers. If his path was written somewhere up there, whoever was doing the writing had really fucked up. 

His companion's words had felt like parting advice, and even the clueless Dash was socially aware enough to realize by now that the shadowkid had come out here for solitude. "Well.. thanks for the chat, I guess. And good luck with your new beginning." With a final nod, he trotted back toward the forest.