Silvertip Mountain by it's fire

DETAILS — night; clear skies. venus is visible as decided by my tabletop roll!

the ascension to a perhaps precariously cliff had eaten majority of the furies' day and leaves him having reached a safe perching place upon the stone with it's worn walkways, nestled against grass, tress and mosses that grew bravely among the risen earth and stone. there is more of the mountain he wishes to explore but as dusk wanes into night and the sky clears of the wisping clouds that had flittered across the skyline lazily during the day the heavens yawn open for him.

he turns his mahogany red gaze up at the intricate mapping of stars, from the pale moon which hangs bright and ripe in the sky, it's sweet moonbeams casting about the land in its soft glow. it comes to rest upon the bright disc in the sky that looks as if it might be the moon but smaller. it takes a moment but he recognizes it with a start and a flutter of excitement that beats in his chest as if he swallowed a swarm of butterflies.

venus! small and plump and bright as the moon herself though no less stunning; for seeing the secondary planet steals kharybdis' breath all the same.

A break in the heavy snows only meant one thing to Lane—getting her tail off this mountainside before it started snowing again. Clear skies also meant moonlight, which assisted Lane in this goal. She made steady progress. As her path down the mountain snaked along a bare cliffside, and the young woman slowed. A misstep at this point would be… well, Lane hated to even entertain the thought.

Moonlight spilled through the gap in the trees, luring Lane’s attention skyward. She was a down-to-earth girl if there ever was one, but even so, the majesty of the nighttime sky had a way of drawing her in. It appealed to something primal within her, sinking through the layers of her consciousness and lighting up the piece of her that was pure, wild wolf.

Lane was not alone in her admiration, but she had yet to realize that another had already claimed the cliffside she now approached. Lane drew nearer to the edge, the vast emptiness above her expanding with every step.

thank you so much for the kudos!

a creature who's very creation was said to come from the golden threads of mythos — of which he knows cannot hold any sort of weight in reality ( for if it had surely his mother could have manifested him into being a daughter to complete her almost perfect trio ) — he is drawn to the webs stardust and fragments of starshine by nature. he might've been molded to be a spartan warchief but his interests always rooted in the mythical, in the divination of the moon, planets and stars and their impact upon the daily life.

he enjoyed the stories told by the matron from seclusion always, in favor of avoiding the scalding that he would no doubt receive. the males of the spire were meant to be rooted in the earth; not in the skies and fates and faiths.

up here, with the valley stretching out behind him in a maestro's eloquent use of shadows, the world 'round him is silent except for the whisper of the breeze thru the grasses, the soft rasp of the bare branches rubbing together when it kicked up. it is not long before kharybdis becomes aware of approaching footfalls and though instinct tells him he must correct his posture so he is not reclined but standing, that his hackles must bristle ...he ignores them. up here, he is at peace and the weavings of the stargods is to be shared.

his head inclines towards her as she draws nearer, and he lets out a soft chuff but, as taught since the moment he could hear: the woman always speaks first.

Well deserved, your writing is gorgeous. <3

Lane's ears jumped to attention at the stranger's soft greeting. Her gaze trailed along the edge of the cliff, searching. She stiffened when her eyes settled upon the man's pale visage, and she breathed an audible gasp. The moonlight captured the bright spots in his pelt, and the shadows obscured the darker parts, and so to Lane it seemed as if she had just been greeted by a pile of bleach-white bones. 

Of course, it was not a pile of bones-- it was only a man. Lane let the air whoosh out of her lungs, shaking her head at her own jumpiness. Silence stretched out between the pair, for long enough that Lane got the sense that he wasn't going to say anything. 

The young woman let her gaze drift back toward the sky. How long had it been since the stars had even been visible? "

"Huh, two moons tonight," she commented, tilting her head in curiosity. How could that be? Perhaps the moon had.. whelped? Lane had never considered that the moon might have a reproductive process. She wondered how big the second moon would grow before it left to find its own sky, with its own pack of stars to preside over.

kharybdis, comforted by the fact that his companion is female, keeps his body language relaxed; inviting, even. though even if he wasn't in the mood for company he wouldn't have dreamed of rejecting it regardless. such was a grievous offense in the spire and though he was so very far from home — such tempering of his behavior as if it were a sword heated in the forge of his mothers' will — he couldn't change how he was.

a soft laugh rumbles in his chest, and pushes lightly past his lips at her mention of two moons; though the sound was not borne of mocking. venus, brighter than any star other star, could easily be daughter of the moon. or perhaps, he corrects himself, the moon was a daughter of venus; gift to them.

not moon, as she was the first to speak, kharybdis takes it as an invitation to share his knowledge despite that it wasn't asked for. he gestures to venus' smaller disc with his muzzle. is venus. he offers, wanting to peer at his companion to see how she took the shared information but not wanting to be seen as disrespectful. venus ...woman god. he adds softer yet.

"Not moon." Huh. The stranger seemed to know more about the phenomenon than Lane did. 

"Is Venus," he continued, providing a name for the night sky's mysterious new addition. Lane was aware that some wolves named the stars, which had always seemed rather ambitious to her. In her opinion, naming a star is the sky was like naming a minnow in the stream. The second you take your eye off it, how do you tell it apart from the dozens of others which appear entirely identical? 

But Venus was special, certainly, if only because it was so large, round, and bright. Lane would not forget this one. 

Her companion offered a few more words, clearly trying to further explain Venus. However, Lane was left unsure of whether Venus was a female god, or whether Venus was the God of Women. Honestly, it hardly mattered. Religious talk had a way of making her eyes glaze over. If it couldn't be tasted, touched, seen, heard, or smelled, Lane wanted little to do with it. 

"Like.. it's named after Venus? Or.. it is Venus?" This was an important distinction. If it was the former, there might still be something to learn from this man. If it was the latter, then he revealed himself to be a religious nut, and he would be dismissed at the first opportunity. Largely as a function of her age, Lane held little respect for those who had--as she saw it-- irrational and foolish beliefs in the spiritual realm.

the stranger requires clarification to his meaning and for a beat or two kharybdis is silent; reflective. unlike some, he had never thought the planet — when it was visible to them — as the goddess herself; and while he might’ve enjoyed the mythos and believed in the divination of the celestial system he couldn’t claim he wholly believed in gods. many of titan spire did, wizened elders and sprightly youths alike. name venus. he offers the clarification after a second longer; painstakingly aware of how inelegant his common is. butchered. ugly.

his gaze cuts to her for a moment, studying her reaction to his clarification before it flickers skyward once more.

The silence between them drew out for long enough that Lane thought their language barrier might be too great. It had been a complex question, semantically speaking. 

Eventually he did answer, and Lane nodded. There was a sparkle of relief and appreciation in her gaze. The man had proved himself to be the reasonable sort-- the sort who understands the difference between actual, real-life phenomena and the stories you tell pups when you put them to bed. 

Lane reclined to her haunches, still watching the sky.

"If it's not a moon, and not a god.. then what is Venus? A big star?" Hmm.. no, a star didn't seem right. Venus didn't seem like the right shape, and it didn't fade and flicker like the other stars. 

She didn't expect the other wolf to really know. If he wanted to simply let the question hang, she would understand.

kharybdis only hopes that the longer he spends in these wilds, the more his common tongue will improve; and truly hope and practice was all he could do. there was no way to get around it and no other way to go about it. having always been more intellectual — though he could and was good at fighting — he considers that he will pick it up soon enough. it would be easier, he thinks, without the lulls in companionship ...but his stipulations for packs was unusual and there was always the chance he would never find one woman-led.

the woman inquires further about venus; and kharybdis' gaze goes skyward once more, studying the arching disk. like ...earth. he offers, apologetic that his explanation was not more elegant. he couldn't phrase it poetically in common the way he could while speaking draconian; and that, perhaps more than anything, grates on his nerves.

Happy to continue if you want, but feel free to fade/archive at any point. <3

"Oh." Lane nodded like she understood, but she was just being polite. She had no idea what he could possibly mean by, "like earth." To her knowledge, "earth" was a synonym for soil. Dirt. Ground. All of the things that were the exact opposite of the air and the sky, where Venus was. Try as she might, she could find no way to connect the two concepts. 

Silence lapsed between them once more, as Lane struggled internally with the cryptic explanation. 

To her credit, she had never before known "Earth" as a name for their world. Additionally, she had never heard the word "planet," or even been introduced to concept. Should Kharybdis or anyone else try to draw a comparison between the bright light in the sky and the world she inhabited, she would think them crazier by far than those who believed in religion.

oh, is all his companion says on the matter and without the ability to communicate what he means beyond that — and who knew if he was actually correct, this was just what the soothsayer(s) of the spire said — they lapse into further silence. usually, silence makes him uncomfortable because it serves as a painful testament of his failings at being able to communicate in common tongue. 

he shifts but feels no need to try to speak further as his gaze remains fixed on the sky where it stays until his companion leaves or he moved on; whichever came first.