Moonspear i love the stars too fondly to fear the night

maybe @Floki because it's been too long since we had a thread with these two?!

The bear problem was something that needed to be dealt with soon and he and Ame were looking into it, observing them to make sure they found a way to deal with it, but today Charon had other matters on his mind. He wanted to look up Flóki, to see how his brother was doing. He also wanted to see how he felt about 'Tevinter's return to the pack. Charon couldn't shake the feeling that he might've made a mistake letting Tevinter into the pack, because his attitude hadn't seemed to have healed much towards him. He belonged here, no doubt about it, but he was still not admitting to being Jorunn, as he should have, and he didn't seem to hold his own brother and leader in as high regard as he should've. Well, Charon would see about the problem when it became one. Maybe Flóki knew more about it.

Charon trotted along a narrow path that winded up the mountainside, trying to find Flóki in some of their usual haunts while the sun was beginning to set, painting the skies pink and orange. He didn't feel like howling, because it wasn't like he had big deal things to discuss with Flóki and had to see him. He just wanted to spend some time together, just chatting.

mistywind walked down the path and looked up at the orange sky. she took at breath and looked in front of her and kept on walking. she spotted a glimpse of white and ran  after it.

Charon turned his head towards the approaching wolf. He did not recognise her, but he had heard of a new recruit, and she had Amekaze's scent over her. Instinctively he raised his tail and head, making sure she understood his position in the pack from his body language alone. "You must be one of the new recruits," he said as he looked at her. "I'm Charon, one of the Alphas." It was clear that she had already met the other — otherwise she would not stand here before him. It was a bit disappointing that it wasn't Flóki that he ran into, but he supposed it was good meeting new wolves, too.

Floki's time as of late had been mostly divided between Wildfire and Tevinter. He and his brother had made a pact to look after their father's grave and it served to bring them closer together. There was still much he didn't know about Tevinter, but he couldn't deny the natural connection between them.

Generally, he avoided the area where the bears had initially been spotted. He had been lucky enough not to come across their tracks since then, though he was always on the alert. It just so happened that Floki was descending the trail that Charon was climbing, so it was only a matter of time until he ran into him. Before he spotted the Alpha, however, he heard his voice and his ears perked.

Coming around a bend in the trail, his gaze fell on Charon and an unfamiliar she-wolf. His tail waved as he approached. "Hey, Charon. I'm Floki," he said, bumping his sibling's shoulder and then turning to the female to introduce himself.

The white female seemed to startle when Flóki came into view, perhaps intimidated by the prospect of facing two new wolves, and she dashed off again. Charon watched her leave before forgetting all about her and turning to Flóki. "Well, good riddance. I heard that one's a little weirdo anyway from Dhole. Did she tell you? Had a giant breakdown with screaming and all in front of her and Jorunn." Charon smiled at Flóki and he bumped his nose into his brother's shoulder in greeting. It was good to see his brother and easily best friend again; it'd been way too long since they had some one on one time together.

Without any preamble, the she-wolf abruptly left Floki and Charon to their own devices. The grey youth looked after her, his brows raised. "That was weird," he said, then pricked his ears towards Charon. His brother explained that she was the subordinate that had acted strangely around Tevinter and Wildfire. Floki nodded knowingly; of course, he had heard all about it from Wildfire, though he hadn't been able to put a face to a name.

"Yeah, Wifi told me. Sounds kind of crazy," he agreed, then shrugged his shoulders. As long as she didn't do anything reckless that could be detrimental to the pack, he didn't really mind if there was something off about her.

"I'll have a stern talk with her later," Charon told his brother, unaware that this would in fact be the last time he'd ever see Mistywind before he could possibly kick her out.

"How've you been? We haven't had any one on one time in too long," Charon said with a fond smile. The pink and oranges in the sky painted Flóki's face, making Charon realise how beautiful the sunset was today and how clear the skies were so they could actually enjoy it. "Anything new?" Maybe Flóki had news, of the outrider sort or the personal sort, to share.

Floki nodded, and thoughts of Mistywind vanished from his mind. He turned his gaze to the sky, admiring the sunset as Charon spoke. His brother was right; since Moonspear's conception, they hadn't spent as much time together as they had previously. Obviously, Charon had been busy establishing himself as co-Alpha with Amekaze, and Floki's paws had carried him beyond the borders over and over again as he honed his skills as an outrider. But it was nice, in that moment, to simply relax in the company of his sibling.

"I know, you've been such a busy Alpha lately," he teased with a sidelong glance at Charon. "I haven't been up to much, though. Just hanging out with Wifi and doing some scouting. I took her to visit the bay -- she had never seen the ocean before," he said conversationally.

Flóki said that he hadn't been up to much, though it was probably more than he thought. Charon smiled and said: "The Bay, huh? How's it doing?" He himself had not visited since it had been left, and he wondered how it was healing. Charon missed it sometimes, his homeland, but he also loved Moonspear. It was a much more fitting throne for a King of his stature.

While he thought of Wifi -- Dhole -- Charon was reminded of something. He offhandedly said, "I think Dhole might have a crush on me." Charon looked at Flóki as he spoke, his voice devoid of judgement of any kind. "She keeps making these funny faces and is awkward, like... a lot, if not all the time when she's around me." Charon didn't sound like he minded if it were the case, though neither did he sound like he returned the sentiment. He felt flattered, if anything; completely unaware of his brother's affiliation with the girl in question.

When Charon asked for a status report on Stavanger Bay, Floki launched into an explanation. "The bay itself is good, but I found out that a pack settled in the Sentinels. I think they're called Donnelaith? Wifi knew the leader," he said, though he couldn't remember the grey wolf's name. Perhaps that was a good thing -- the mention of Dante likely would have made Charon's blood boil. Floki himself hadn't made the connection between Donnelaith and Blacktail Deer Plateau; he didn't realize that Dante was the Alpha that Charon had fought with prior to the move to Moonspear.

Charon then mentioned Wildfire, calling her by the nickname that only he seemed to use. His words caused Floki's stomach to drop. He frowned slightly, looking at his brother with confusion. Did Wildfire have a crush on Charon? It didn't seem possible; she spent almost all of her time with Floki, and had never mentioned the older boy in anything other than a friendly capacity. The sandy-legged youth wasn't quite sure what to do with this information, so he shrugged his shoulders and forced a laugh.

"Oh. Really? Maybe," he agreed noncommittally, as if he didn't care or hadn't noticed.

haha i feel so mean for this. Floki is the cutest <3

Charon nodded at the information Floki gave. He didn't know much of this new pack, but the Sentinels were near enough to the Bay -- and Moonspear -- to care for the information. It was unfortunate that Floki didn't remember their leader's name, but at least he knew the location. Maybe Charon would check it out sometime.

Floki responded rather noncommittally to Charon's mention of Dhole's crush. Charon didn't notice anything off about his brother; as he was more often, not the most emotionally adept, not noticing any signals that this was an uncomfortable subject. "Yeah, and she keeps looking at me with those big eyes and batting her eyelashes, and how nervous she gets when she does stuff wrong is a dead giveaway. Well, not that she's my type. I mean... I guess I never thought much about love type stuff yet. " Charon looked thoughtful, as though he was considering if giving dating Dhole a try might help him figure out love type stuff better.

I love it, haha!

Although Floki did his best to appear cool, calm, and collected, on the inside his emotions were ready to boil over. He kept his mouth clamped shut as Charon continued, rattling off reasons why he thought that Wildfire fancied him. Ultimately, however, the older boy concluded that he didn't think he felt the same way about "Dhole" -- and Floki felt some measure of relief.

"So...you don't like her back?" he asked tentatively, hoping that he had understood Charon's sentiments.

Flóki asked if Charon liked her back, and he shook his head with a grin. "Nah, of course not. We're just friends." Though it might have been good practise, Charon didn't really want to be that sort of Jarl. Well, not the sort that needed practise, anyway. He didn't mind having various girlfriends if it came down to it and if they were cool with it and all that, but he didn't need to practise on some young filly -- he'd just do it right the first time when he decided to go for it, when he found a girl to his liking.

Floki felt an intense amount of relief at Charon's answer. The situation would have only gotten worse if his brother had admitted he had feelings for Wildfire; he hardly knew how to navigate a romantic relationship in its simplest form, never mind a love triangle. He would still worry from this point on, knowing that feelings could change in an instant, but at least in that moment he knew that he wouldn't be competing with the Alpha for Wildfire's affection.

"Are there any girls you do like?" he then asked, his curiosity growing. There weren't really any females their age in Moonspear, but Charon was a worldly wolf in Floki's eyes -- he had probably met a lot of eligible bachelorettes in the Teekon Wilds.

Flóki's next question came unexpected, even if perhaps it shouldn't have. The surprise was visible on Charon's face, as he had never really given love much of a thought. Well, not a conscious thought, anyway. "Uh, like? I dunno." He looked thoughtful for a moment while he thought of the women in his life. He knew plenty of girls and all, but if he like liked any of them?

"Maybe Ame. I mean, we kinda have to like each other to be Alphas, right?" Charon wasn't sure if it was that sort of liking, really, but it made sense. And anyway, wasn't making puppies what Alpha pairs were sort of supposed to do? He didn't really feel old enough for that yet, but the thought of anyone else carrying the Alpha Female's pups but the Alpha Male made Charon feel jealous and murderous. "Seems to make sense, anyway, that when spring comes we would form a pair." Charon was surprisingly bad at talking about emotions when it came to love. He was a very expressive wolf when it came to most forms of emotion, but he wasn't really sure what love even was, so how was he supposed to recognise it, anyway? Even as he talked about it, it didn't sound like he was talking about someone he actually adored beyond reason (though it was questionable as to whether or not Charon'd ever be capable of such a thing, at least at this young age) — it sounded like he was just making logical calculations instead, or maybe even a little bit as though he was marking property ("this is my cow, so it makes sense I'd drink its milk").

Despite the odd way that he spoke of it, however, it was a giant step that he would admit his thoughts towards pairing with Amekaze at all — Charon had always thought her to be his in some ways, and grew infinitely jealous whenever other males spoke fondly of her, but never had he spoken of it aloud.

My last post! :) Let's have an updated thread with these guys soon!

Floki was a little surprised at first when Charon didn't come up with an answer right away. The young Alpha was so bold and brash that his younger brother had simply assumed that he had set his sights on at least one girl. But when he mentioned Amekaze a few seconds later, Floki tipped his chin up in understanding. Although Ame was older -- and still quite mysterious in Floki's eyes -- she was Charon's partner in leading the pack.

"I like Ame," he confirmed with a nod of his head, as though offering his approval to Charon. He then laughed abruptly. "Not like that, of course. But I think you guys would make a good pair." Ame almost seemed to balance Charon out with her quiet, subtle ways. For a moment, Floki considered telling Charon how he felt about Wildfire, but he held back. Instead, he stifled a yawn. The skies around them had grown dark, and the youth was ready to retire for the night.

"I'm gonna head to bed. I'll see you later," he said, nudging Charon's shoulder before beginning to carefully pick his way back down the mountainside.

Somehow it felt encouraging that Flóki agreed that Charon and Ame would make a good pair. It made sense, and in this coming year Charon knew that it would be the logical thing to do to find a mate and have puppies, anyway. Something about Amekaze always made Charon feel at ease, made him not feel like kicking the world all the time — she was a good influence, and he liked her. The thought of other guys claiming her had bristled Charon in the past, though at the time he could not place just why. He wondered if that was what love felt like.

"See ya," Charon said when Flóki excused himself, and he watched his brother leave. He looked out across the valley below for another while, mulling thoughts of Ame in his head.