Lost Creek Hollow Bloody Veil

Naturalist thread! During the super-blood moon :D

Bella smiled as she watched the bright, pale full moon. She found peace in knowing that everywhere she went, no matter how bad the situation was, the moon would always be the same, always beautiful, always radiant, always smiling. Watching it every night at it's highest was always peaceful. And this time, with the moon almost twice it's usual size, it was twice as peaceful.

Ever since she was a pup and able to go outside the den she had taken the habit of looking up at the moon, and now she was always one step ahead ot it. She always knew what phase was next, and when it was going to happen. Full, waning, new, waxing, and full again. Bella didn't know this before, but that made her a naturalist.

But then something strange happened before her eyes. At first, she didn't notice it, but the moon had suddenly phased in a matter of minutes. Half an hour later and the moon was almost fully darkened.

Could it be? Was it happening again?

It was a rare sight, but a few times during her life Arabella has witnessed something a beautiful. Her father had called it an Eclipse. SHe had counted the days since the last one. And the one before that. It seemed that there was no consistency on it yet, but Bella was determined to find a pattern.

I tagged Stevie in here because I thought she'd be interested to throw in Harlyn too... >_>;

He had seen many of an eclipse in his time, relatively speaking. Whether the earth they lived upon blotted out the sun or cast a shadow over the moon, it was a wondrous thing that struck him as very perplexing. The moon hung heavy as it had begun its ark, and sunset had scarcely come to set before it too seemed awash in a crimson tide of its own. But as twilight descended across the valley and blanketed the hollow in darkness, the moon became foreboding to him.

Mordecai had abandoned the borders when the first glimpses of that crimson and pitted moon revealed itself from behind the clouds and had worked his way inward to find @Harlyn. For him it was the logical thing to do, knowing that the druid was keen on all sorts of the mysteries in the world that may or may not have been there. While he did not know much of what she knew, he had picked up on it enough to make the distinct connection that perhaps she would lend him an explanation.

Midway through his venture to seek her out, he spied out a figure that he initially mistook for her. He barked sharply from a distance, steadily cutting that same distance down in a lope. But the she-wolf he found was not Harlyn, but Arabella, and the ease that she found in the event piqued his interest as he slowed and neared her.

"Isn't it a sight?" he asked, though the question may as well have been rhetoric. The moon seemed so close tonight, though honestly if not for the reddish appearance of it he would not have assumed it any closer than it had ever been; Mordecai did not often pay attention the night sky.

Sorry for the wait Ku... :(

Slowly, the mysterious darkness swallowed the moon whole, darkening everything beneat it as it did. But when the last ray of pale light was silenced, and there seemed to be nothing more to look at in the sky besides the attenuated stars, a red glow slowly set the moon ablaze again.

The eclipse had started.

Arabella was stupefied by the sight. Like a charm, the bloody glow of the moon had taken the sylph's eyes captive. They glinted with interest and bewilderment, trying to explain how it could be possible. But her concentration was broken for a second when the Alpha male barked as he approached her. The female's tail waved like a friendly flag as a way to tell him she was fine with the company, and then returned to gaze at the eclipsed satelite.

"It is beautiful..." the female replied, "The most curious thing I've seen." her eyes still firmly fixed in the moon.

"My father used to call it Eclipse... I haven't heard another name to it yet..." she commented absentmindedly.

Arabella received him warmly, though he did not anticipate anything other than that. Better yet, she seemed to have clues that spoke of the phenomena above them, this eclipse. He lipped the word to himself, letting it roll along with his tongue as though it were a chewy morsel to digest among everything else.

"I've seen these before, but never so red," he murmured in the same absent-laced tone. He knew other names for it, though perhaps he would have had he paid more attention to any long list of stories from his youth. But like many things to him, they were stored away on some dusty shelf, faded and forgotten.

"I wonder what it means," he voiced, curious of what otherworldly impositions it carried.

I hope you don't mind me joining! Not too many people have been responding lately and I've been itching to roleplay. (:

"My mother called it the Devil's Moon." Out of the shadows a figure appeared, dark and blending into the night. The black fae had been watching the phenomena not too far away, and scented a small gathering of wolves. She could scent the alpha easily, but hadn't met the other wolf yet and decided to come over. Respecfully, she dipped her head to Mordecai. "I hope you don't mind me joining, I was just watching it myself and hadn't yet introduced myself," she nodded to the tawny (I believe) female. "I am Ilya." Her head dipped again in respect and through greeting, the way the wolf held herself appeared higher up than she. 

Ilya sat not too far from the wolves, but somewhat behind them. "I've only seen it twice before, and they were when I was a pup. It's beautiful. I've found interest to the weather and sky ever since the first one," she explained, hoping not to be too out of her bounds. She fell silent as she gazed up at the sky, the moon appearing to shimmer with it's red glow.

In other circumstances I would have loved to RP with you, but I need to wrap up threads to be able to retire Bella from the game now. I'll pull myself out of this one and let you guys have fun with it <3<3

Lost in the red glow of the moon, Bella's pupils grew small under the light. It was impressive how things seemed to have their own ways to exist, the moon being the most mysterious of all to the young sylph. How it seemed to watch over everything and smile every once in a while...

Bella's thoughts, triggered by Mordecai's absent-minded question took Bella places. Strange places as she tried to formulate a theory on what this strange event meant. But a voice interrupted her racing mind as a female who Bella did not know joined the moon-gazing gathering. For a moment the female's eyes remained locked with the bewitching moon, but out of respect she decided to greet the other female.

But when her eyes met Ilya's her whole world stopped for a moment. Blue, unlike anything she'd ever seen. Except that she had seen those eyes before. So full of hate. Those were the eyes of her step-mother, the one who had exiled her from her father's side. The one that had put a warrant on her head. The one who had burned her world to ashes.

Arabella entered in a state of shock for a moment. This female looked exactly like Sloane, and she did not know how to react to that. Her breathing turned heavy, and after a few seconds of pannic, she decided she could not take it and sprinted away from her packmates in silence to find a calm place to silence her terrified mind.

-Exit Arabella-

That's 100% fine. <3 I completely understand. (: Maybe in the future with a different character when everything has calmed down.

The coal-coated female felt a silence fall upon them. Sensing something was wrong, she remained silent and slowly looked back down to Arabella. The fae stood opposite of her staring in a wide eyed shock, and when Ilya opened her jaws to ask if she was okay, she bolted. Ilya hesitated a moment. Go after the strange female, or stay put? If running away she probably wouldn't like to be followed and she didn't even know this particular one. Perhaps she said something offensive; no matter. If Arabella appeared around the territory Ilya decided she would approach her and apologize. Her blue gaze turned to Mordecai, hoping to hear him speak. He was the alpha, wise and knowledgable of the pack members; perhaps he knew something. 

She decided that staring at Mordecai was probably a little rude, and opted not to do that. She looked back up at the moon, the red reflecting off her icey iris'. She waited the silence out calm and patiently, her tail wagging against the ground in her silence.

Ilya's voice carried out of the darkness to him, though his only acknowledgment for a split-second was the idle turn of his ear to capture her words. He had no qualms about her joining and for a scant and silent few seconds, nothing out of the ordinary turned up. But the spark of unease from Arabella was perceptible to him; it became concrete when the tawny she-wolf suddenly bolted from his side. His hackles pricked in response to her sudden decision to flee, and his gaze was torn away from the blood moon to follow after her disappearing form to the darkness. It did not linger there, instead sweeping to check their surroundings for some sign of danger. There was none.

Wondering what that had all been about, his attention was left to come round on Ilya. By then her attention had gone back to settle on the wonder of the night sky, and he found he was lost on words. With a parting glance to the direction in which Arabella had spirited away to, he slowly reclined to his haunches. The unease he felt still did not make sense, but he found the silence that lingered still was even more unsettling.

"I'm not sure what that was all about," he murmured softly.

Ilya chuckled uneasily, her ears falling a little. "I wish I had an explaination for you," she murmured in response. "I've never spoken to the she-wolf before, I just hope I didn't say anything offensive," she added, a quick swish of her tail around her paws to warm them.

Although a little confusion still hung in the air, the odd tension slowly ebbed away, and Ilya felt obligated to speak of the strange moon again. Her gaze looked back to Mordecai, and she tilted her head. She knew that Mordecai was older than she was, although only by a few years, and she was curious if he'd known anything about it. She, like Arabella, had found no pattern inbetween the two moons she'd seen. "Do you know anything about it?" the black fae asked, glancing for a moment to the moon to remind him, in case he had been too caught up in Arabella's strange leave. 

"I doubt it was anything that you said," he commented once more in regards to Arabella. From there, at least they were together in shared confusion and naturally his attention was left to settle back on the slow changes of the moon. Now there seemed to be something just slightly askew about its appearance, though he could not place what had changed about it. The gradual spin of the earth was lost to him, but then again many things were about how the world worked. He didn't waste time considering it for long — Ilya's voice carried to him again through the open grounds.

"I can't say that I really do," he replied, his brow furrowing. "I've seen this happen before, these eclipses. I've never seen the moon turn red from it." And that word, eclipse, felt so foreign on his tongue. But that had been what his mother had called it and even she had been amiss to explain why it happened. In the here and now, he could not help but feel the prickle of something foreboding, though his hackles had long returned to rest. It was a ghastly thing; Mordecai decided he did not like the moon.

Perhaps it had prompted Arabella to leave, he thought.

"What do you think it means?"

Ilya didn't respond to the comment about Arabella, she simply sat and stared at the moon. It was strange to her, just as it was to Mordecai, but she appeared to be falling in love with it. The red gleamed in her blue eyes when she stared and a small smile was apparent on her face, even when speaking in a confused tone. Ilya felt that she was different. She was born somewhere strange and raised in an odd circumstance. This moon, it was strange, it was different. She felt close with the red, and she enjoyed it's presence. 

"I hope one day to find a wolf who knows about it, I would love to learn," she responded, although her soft voice showed that she seemed to only be thinking out loud. Perhaps it was only to not be rude and respond, or maybe the black wolf was just too lost in her thoughts.

She paused, looking back to Mordecai, then looked forward, her tail swishing beside her. She hadn't expected to be asked anything, much less what she thought. Not for status reasons, but simply because she hadn't expected it. She blinked a few times, and looked down.

"I'm not sure," she responded quietly. "I don't believe in any Gods... But this always made me wonder. Perhaps it's a sign. Maybe a warning," she shrugged a little before looking to him, giving a slightly chuckle and a shake of her head. "Realistically though, it's probably got something to do with the stars. They're bright enough, perhaps their brightness sometimes shines onto the moon."

Do you mind if we wrap this up by chance? It's one of my older threads and I've been slowly trying to wrap those up so I can start some newer ones. :X

When it came to the belief of otherworldly matters and entities, Mordecai was often unsure that he believed in them. He didn't dispute whether or not they may have existed, because for all they knew, perhaps those sort of things were a choosy sort. As it were for a simple creature as himself he had other things to occupy him and to contend with. Ilya's words seemingly confirmed the same, though she brought another interesting bit to the table. His eyes scanned out around the moon to try and discern the stars as he wondered after them.

"Perhaps," he answered. "The night sky is a strange thing after all."

Of course (: Feel free to archive after my post!

Ilya looked back up to the moon for a moment, then looked to her alpha. She couldn't decide if he was struggling to understand the phenomena, or he was just thinking in general, but his features definetly showed some thought. She smiled a little bit, looking to her paws before standing. "I'm going to try to get some rest," she said, leaning forwards and giving a quick stretch to her limbs. "Don't stay out too late," she offered softly. "The night sky is strange, that's for sure, but so is everything else, if you ask me. If no one knows, I tend not to think too deeply about that kind of stuff anymore." 

With that, the black fae gave a dip of her head and headed out through the territory where a cozy den and a good nights sleep awaited her.