Redhawk Caldera Fly-by-nights from Riverside

Getting back in the groove with old mr. grump! AW.

His body was healing up nicely, but he wouldn't admit that to anyone, lest of all his caretakers. Njal had grown more withdrawn as the days went by, struggling against the limits of his own body. It bothered him that he wasn't recovering as fast as another younger wolf, and often balked at the wolves that came to care for him. At first he shared some banter with them, but that had worn away now. He was sullen and quiet, almost as if he'd resigned himself to the doom of his future. The pain in his hip still plagued him; his leg had healed up almost completely now, but there was still an ache there whenever he tried to stand on it, which was often. He refused to be seen as a cripple - or that was what he wished, to erase the weakness from his body and remind the Redhawks of his abilities. Yet every chance he had, he failed.

Thus far, Njal had made several attempts to reach the borders and aside from that initial blunder wherein he met a foul old wench, he had failed miserably. He couldn't hunt for himself, he couldn't stand for long periods (which made peeing very awkward), and even laying about as a big sack of useless bones took its toll upon him. He grew lethargic. Njal's weight had fluctuated and dropped by a considerable margin since his injury, and the muscle tone in his hindquarters (at least on his injured side) had deteriorated.

He was not the same man that he once was, and that infuriated him.

Tonight, instead of sleeping, he chose to drag his sorry ass away from one of his many resting spots to watch the stars. He didn't know precisely where he was headed - only that he wanted a clear view, and the road to his destination was more difficult the further along he went. It didn't help that Njal was hiking up a slope and forcing his injured leg to take the brunt of his weight; but he wouldn't complain, he wouldn't make a sound, not until he found a good spot and slumped his silver body down against a piece of the mountain which sat exposed and raw.

Wildfire couldn't remember a time when the air hadn't been somewhere between pleasantly warm and searingly hot. As autumn crept up on the wilderness, she got her first taste of cooler weather... and found she loved it, at least so far. From the air around her to the leaves underfoot, everything was crisp. The sights and smells were amazing (and she was told they would get even better as fall really progressed). Although she knew winter was rumored to be the toughest season of all, the youth looked forward to her first snow and, of course, the completion of her first revolution around the sun.

She didn't miss the loud hum of cicadas nor the drifting fireflies much as she plodded around the caldera this evening, enjoying the early darkness and the dip in temperature. Her amber eyes flicked skyward to watch as the cold stars emerged beside the motherly moon. She thought briefly of her friend, Charon, as she wondered if he was looking at the night sky right now too. Wildfire's black tail flicked and she decided to rove higher, to a better vantage point, and see if she couldn't figure out some shapes and patterns.

There was someone in her path. She paused and squinted. "Njal?" Slowly, the juvenile moved nearer to the pack's eldest member. Her black tail began to slowly wag. "What're you up to?" she wondered, gliding to stand beside him, one large ear tilted toward him as she idly swept their dark surroundings.

It was a quiet night, one that he would have otherwise enjoyed. As he peered skyward, Njal could see the drifting of clouds across the stars; they obscured parts of the sky, but not all of it. The smell of autumn was still new and struggling, and while he would have also enjoyed that at any other time, he was only reminded of the oncoming winter. It was many days away and yet Njal's mind wandered to that future. Would he be here? If he was alive, would he be of use? 

His thoughts were cut short when a voice sprang up beside him. It wasn't loud, but in the quiet of the evening, Njal's unsuspecting ears twitched. Sunny eyes turned first, then his square head, and he looked at Wildfire as if she were an alien. After a second he recognized her, and returned to the present.

"Watching," he murmured, adjusted his weight so his shoulders weren't so tense, and turned back to watching the stars. He didn't want company, but he also didn't want to alienate the girl any further than he'd already (probably) alienated the others. In a somber voice Njal quietly asked, "Do you ever look at the stars?"

There was something very closed off about his demeanor and it made Wildfire want to make herself scarce. Yet she reminded herself that she was supposed to be spending some time at home, catching up with her pack mates. He was one of them and there was plenty of room to get to know more about Njal, considering they hardly knew one another at all. Despite her misgivings, she took a seat, firmly planting her rear perhaps three feet from him and directing her own gaze skyward.

"Yeah, I was just looking at them the other night with a friend of mine. He's a Naturalist too," she answered. It was funny how her primary trade had really fallen by the wayside as she strongly pursued her Outrider apprenticeship and even brushed up on her Warrior skills. She hadn't even looked at her garden in ages, though she knew Raven was looking after it nowadays. "There's these things called constellations up there. Even heard of 'em?"

"Constellations." he parroted quietly without moving to look at her again, as if overtaken by the concept. He'd heard many things about the stars, but never that word - or maybe he had heard that word, but it was a long time ago. When was the last time he watched the sky? 'With Tuwawi, probably. Maybe back with the Kindred...' His mouth became a thin line, his jaw tensing, as he thought of this. 'Or with Xi'Nuata?' he remembered the odd woman, the one he had tried to help - and the wolf which might have signified the first wedge between himself and his wife. Njal inhaled sharply, as if waking from a stupor, and returned once more to the conversation.

"No, I don't think I've heard that before." That the stars were ancient, yes. He remembered being told as a child that they were the eyes of the gods, but that was never something the wolf ascribed to; he doubted that Wildfire would believe in such a notion either. "What are they?"

Njal seemed familiar with the term, if not the definition. "They're shapes and patterns," Wildfire explained, "and you make them by connecting the dots. Some of them have names and stories." She paused, her lips pursing. "To be honest, it's sort of kiddie stuff, at least in my opinion. I know you can tell time and other, more important stuff by checking the sun, moon and stars, though. Oh, and you can predict the weather." She stopped there, realizing she was babbling a bit.

Wildfire licked her lips, then noticed something and gestured upward. "See how there's some clouds here and there? Well, look past that. Do you see that sort of whiteness beyond them? Sort of like a cloud but different? That's the Milky Way." She stared at it a moment, then dropped her eyes earthward, seeking Njal's face.

Her explanation made him nod slowly, almost imperceptibly, because it lent some further understanding to other stories he had heard about the stars. Perhaps the constellations were important to his parents? Maybe those were the things they followed, the gods they had often spoken about. It was such a distant thing that he let it go.

"Milky way," his voice rumbled softly, thoughtfully, and he looked up while Wildfire looked to him. He thought that squinting would help him to see better, but it didn't. It only made him look old and silly. "Why is it milky?" His brow creased. There couldn't be milk up there, right? What if the stars were really just giant... Glowing.. Teats... Or something? No, that made no more sense than gods.

"Stupid," he grumbled. "Stars are just stars. Nothing special about them."

He wanted to know why it was called that. Wildfire shot him a look, then snorted lightly. She couldn't help it. "Did you look at it?" she questioned in a teasing voice. She could only assumed it was called Milky Way because, well, it looked like someone had spilled milk up there among the moon and stars, then done a poor job of wiping up the mess.

"They're pretty, though," she said after his comment about the stars not being particularly special. "And see that one? The brightest one, to the north? That's Polaris, also known as the North Star. If you ever get lost, it can help you figure out your directions, at the very least." Her lips twitched. The stars were more aesthetic than utilitarian, in her opinion.

"It looks like we either just had a new moon or we'll have one very soon," Wildfire observed in the next breath. "I'm not very good at telling if it's waxing or waning," she admitted, once more looking at her companion's face, "and I haven't been keeping track lately. Anyway, that's why the stars look particularly clear and bright tonight; there's not much moon to outshine them."

She lapsed into silence after that, just enjoying the view for a few moments. The temperature was really plummeting now that night had fallen and she began to feel a chill sink into her bones after staying still for a while. She stood to get the blood pumping again, shaking out each cold paw one by one.

Even as she did so, she queried, "So what's winter like?" Her parents and other loved ones had told her a bit about it, though Wildfire wanted to hear what the pack's most seasoned member had to say. She remained standing, though she stilled, her bright gaze warm on Njal's face again.

She sure was chatty. He wondered when that had happened, but didn't voice the thought. Remembering when they had initially encountered one another and how bold she had been, even then, it should not have surprised him that Wildfire had become such an adventurer. He was, maybe, a little bitter because of it; his own children would be a little older than her now, and he'd like to think they'd be similar, were they alive. Evidently, everything reminded Njal of all his sorrows, all the time. Maybe his broken body wasn't all that needed fixing.

While she prattled on, Njal watched the sky. He watched the clouds drift, and gradually they gave him a proper view of the milky way; it did look like spilled milk, sort of. It was still a stupid name.

"So, what's winter like?" Wildfire's voice popped in to his head again, and Njal realized she had actually stopped to breathe at some point. 

"Cold. Difficult." His answers were clipped at first, but upon realizing how gruff he was being (and for no good reason beside, 'I feel like crap'), he tried to elucidate. "Most of the trees lose their leaves, if its cold enough the rain turns in to ice instead, and it piles up as snow. It is very dangerous." He flashed her a brief look as he said this, as if to size her up. "It is good that we live in the south though, it shouldn't be too bad. Up north..." everything dies.. "It's a lot harder."

His response lined up with what she already knew. Her brows lifted at the news about the north. She mistook him to mean that the northern Teekon Wilds experienced different weather than its southern regions. Because she was young and inexperienced, Wildfire didn't question this. In time, she would realize her error, either because logic would take hold the more she explored or because she would experience firsthand the similarities in climate while on her travels.

"I take it you don't like snow?" she queried. "It sounded like it might be fun, the way my dad described it. But I'm already a klutz and he said ice is slippery. If it's downright dangerous, then I'm doomed," she mused, an ear turning sideways as she glanced off into the night.

Njal didn't have much to say to that beyond a monosyllabic answer to her question. Eventually, Wildfire took her cue and made an exit, wishing him a good night. She left him to his quiet, solitary contemplation even as she sought even higher ground. Once she found a good spot, she relaxed and breathed deeply of the cool air, her amber eyes rolling skyward again as she sought Calamity and Raven's Arrow, then maybe some new constellations to name.

I edited a conclusion since Njal's been removed.