Whitefish River I'm leaving now, as I should be

Backdated a bit, hope it's cool I assumed @Fennec was here! Let me know if you'd like that changed!

What the heck was that?!

Alyx blinked rapidly against the abrupt change from twilight to high noon, which just as quickly faded back into darkness as something white and blue streaked across the starry sky, accompanied by a hissing whistle that drowned out the sound of the nearby melting river. She knew Fennec wouldn't see the bright flash, but surely her sister heard it whizzing by, too.

As a Naturalist, Alyx ought to know a little something about meteors. Her stargazing father would probably be disappointed that she hadn't recognized a falling star up close. But truth be told, she was a pretty terrible Naturalist and she didn't have the foggiest idea what just happened. It disappeared into the mountains, and the visible impact of rock-on-rock came several long seconds before the muffled, far-off boom sounded. From this vantage, she had no way of knowing that Moonspear was the point of impact, and assumed it must've hit some no man's land.

Something just flew past, explained Alyx, flattening her ears, and landed in the mountains somewhere, I think. I didn't even know that could happen! Did you?!

perfect!  Thanks for starting!

The sound was horrendous.  Fennec would have been fascinated if it didn't hurt, but instead she gritted her teeth and flattened her ears against the sudden whistle that assaulted her eardrums.  

The fuck?  She spun, and her teeth were bared in preparation.  She didn't know what it was, but it sounded big and she wasn't about to let it get a piece of them without any sort of fight.

Her fur flattened when Alyx explained, but she didn't drop her guard completely.  Like, a bird?  How big was it?  She'd never heard a sound even remotely like that, and whatever it was had to be massive!  Big enough to pick up a wolf, easy.

Uh, said Alyx, faltering. Was it some kind of monstrously huge, flaming bird? That seemed like something out of a fairytale. Decidedly cool, but also terrifying. I think it was like... A fireball? I dunno, it looked kinda small, but that explosion sound was pretty big. That came from like... Waaaaay far away.

She couldn't even begin to guess where the thing came from. It never occurred to her that the stars that sometimes streaked across the night sky were that big and loud up close. She licked her lips and stamped her paws nervously. Would there be more like that? She'd never seen anything like that before and had no idea what to expect.

C'mon, maybe we should keep moving, Alyx suggested, swinging back toward the sound of the water. I don't wanna know if more of those things are on the way.

What the heck was a fireball?  Fennec's confusion was probably evident, but there was likely no way her sister could explain what had happened that would make it make sense.  At least she said it came from far away, and it sounded like it was gone now.

Good idea.  She almost cracked a joke about how maybe Niamh had sent something after them, but realized just before opening her mouth she had no idea how Alyx's leaving went.

I mean, obviously well, because she was here.  Still.  How'd they take the news?  Did dad yell?  The first time Fennec "told" then she was leaving, he'd lit into her pretty good.  It felt like he'd chilled out since then, but she wondered if that was because it was her or if that was a thing in general.  She was kind of making a habit of it at this point!  It was just so much easier than asking (if she wasn't going to listen to them anyway).

She was loathe to admit how much the flaming sky-rock made her nervous. It was a natural reaction to the unknown, but still. It was just a rock, miles away in the sky, and it had done them no harm. Not in a way they recognized. Not yet.
Huh? asked Alyx, perplexed for a beat, and then she realized what Fennec was talking about. Oh, uh, good I guess? Dad just asked when I was leaving and Towma wanted to know if I'd take Q, but she left even before we did. She chewed on her thoughts for a moment before adding, mom was weird about it but she didn't say anything much.
Alyx was still incredibly conflicted on her feelings about Niamh, and the emotional breakdown she had over it was something she wanted to keep private from Fennec. She had no reason to believe Fennec would tease her or judge her for it, but she nevertheless kept it to herself.
So, y'ever been to the sea? I haven't, which, she realized as soon as she said it, duh. Of course Fenn knew she'd never been there.

They really had mellowed out.  Good to know that, if she did decide to leave again, she wouldn't be hit with nearly so much fight about it.  She'd kind of confirmed that with Moonspear but hardly counted it since at that point, like Alyx, she'd considered it moving lite.  Bronco and Meerkat had already been there and it was so close by.

Weird is better than mad, I guess.  Fennec wasn't sure what that meant but even she had a hard time reading Niamh sometimes.  The regent was a bit of a loose cannon in her responses and she could have been angry, sad, offended, or some mix of all the above as far as Fennec could guess.

The first time I left, that's where Penn and I went first.  He kept talking it up, said we had to chase seagulls or some shit.  They are pretty stupid birds, but the water is way cooler.  She remembered how it felt to have water pull and push at her, almost like it was alive.  The sand kind of sucks to walk on, but if you can get used to that, it's nice.  Even with how loud it was, there was a background noise quality to it that made it soothing.

Well, until Penn and she had gotten bored in the peace and started harassing the flocks into mobbing them.

Yeah, Alyx agreed, though she couldn't help but wonder if it would've been easier if Niamh was angry. She was like her mother in a lot of ways that she refused to acknowledge, so it was no surprise they butted heads. If there was a shouting match, she would have left angry, but feeling righteous about it. Was that better than the queasy sadness that followed her, now, beneath the veneer of excitement and relief?

Inside her was a miasma of guilt for what felt like abandoning her family.

What's the point of chasing birds? Alyx opined. They just, like... Fly away. Granted, she didn't know very much about Penn at all, so maybe he did a lot of pointless things. That seemed like such a boy thing to do. What happened to that guy, anyway? I mean, I never met him, but weren't you guys, like, besties?

She didn't actually know. Fennec, Penn, and Figment had all come back together, and that was the extent of what she knew about their relationship. She wondered if it was a little like how she felt about Val—he was her bestest friend, even if he was kind of her only unrelated friend—but if so, why wasn't Penn around?

Something to do, she answered nonchalantly. She wouldn't argue with the fact that it was kind of pointless, though. She didn't know if Penn had gotten any more enjoyment than she did, but listening to them squawk and flutter off in a panic was mildly amusing.

Right, besties. He's in Brecheliant, though I bet he'll disappear soon as he gets bored there. Like usual. She wasn't bitter about it, not really anymore at least. But she definitely wouldn't consider them best friends like they used to be, not since he'd cut her off. Things were different now.

Feels like everything's more family than friends now anyway, she added. You have friends in this new place, though, yeah?

Huh, said Alyx, as if the very concept of best friends breaking up was inconceivable to her. Of course it was! It wasn't like she really had a true best friend. She considered Val to be that, romantic idealist that she was, but truth be told, she didn't know him very well. It was almost inevitable that he would someday break the vision she had of him in her head, and then where would they be?

Hopefully not where Fennec and Penn stood with one another.

He doesn't sound like a very good friend if he disappears when he's bored, Alyx commented, I can see why you don't hang out anymore. She wondered if Fennec was sad about it, but thought it might be best not to ask.

Bobbing her head, Alyx said, there's Val, he's like my coolest best friend, but there were others. Solar or something like that, I can't really remember, and really, the girl had been a bit on the grumpy side anyway, and there was another girl there who looks a bit like me, but she didn't tell me her name. Alyx likely would have butchered it, anyway, just like Solaire's, because she'd really only had eyes for Valravn at the time. I can't wait to see them again, she giddily added.

Fennec breathed out a laugh at Alyx's frank dismissal of Penn. She usually got annoyed or defensive, but the way her younger sister said it was completely impersonal. She couldn't argue with it.

I was pretty pissed he left without saying anything. But I guess I get leaving. So I let him halfway off the hook. She smirked. Just halfway. She had a little more holding it over his head to do now.

Maybe I'll get to meet them. They sound interesting. Definitely an interesting change from the wolves back home. She'd pump Alyx for more details about them along the way, no doubt.

if you like, we can fade this out here!

Yeah, you definitely should! said Alyx, beaming and picking up the pace. The meteor was already fading from her mind; it was probably nothing to worry about, seeing as they were still alive. In its place came thoughts of Valravn and Rusalka, thoughts of Erzulie and Chacal and Rosalyn, and thoughts of how she might fit in with them. Thoughts, too, of when she would return home to visit her parents and siblings, new and old.

She wondered if, someday, she would ever have a fight with a friend like Fennec. She hoped it never happened, but if she did, then she hoped she could learn to forgive them the way that Fennec had Penn. In fact, in the last few minutes, she had elevated Fennec from sister to role model, and would enter into this new stage of her life with hopes of being more like her sibling, and less like the sulky pup she'd become when they moved to the Caldera.