Moonspear thought i could do this on my own

Upon his return home on the mountain, Charon was left with a great deal of rage that he couldn't let go of anywhere. He had not yet gotten to rip apart the Goober character, a thing he had hoped and thought to accomplish when he first set out exploring to check around for him. Yet somehow he had been able to get information and Eshe had been very willing to help him, which was promising indeed. Night had fallen by the time Charon reached the mountain and although the days were filled with the scent of spring, the nights were still rather chilly on the mountain's colder tips.

The young Alpha looked up at the clear skies while he climbed the mountain, his strides taking him with determination closer and closer towards the top of Moonspear where he intended to watch the stars to cool off after the unsatisfying — though successful — trip.

Normally loathe to leave the borderlands in light of upped security (that had even originally started weeks ago, courtesy so many unknown new neighbors in the area), she was quick to turn her back on them to set herself upon his trail instead. She stalked his path readily beneath the nightscape and courtesy her self-assured motivation, she felt herself gaining steady ground as elevations climbed higher.

By the time she caught glimpse of pale furs, the air was chilled and thin with starlight bright overhead. Her strides were long and greedy to close in the last bit of distance between them, and with that done, she joined up beside him to nudge her shoulder against him. Her arced tail gave its share of content wags, too, for she was glad he was back (although presumably empty-handed in his goal, she wondered). The pathway underfoot did demand its share of attention, so she kept her greeting simple to travel with him until a suitable destination was met.

Charon had stormed off after he had found out about Goober, immediately searching for him, but he assumed someone else had informed Ame about what had happened. While the air grew thicker and colder, Charon continued upwards towards the mountain's very tops, until he heard footfalls approach and felt Ame's nudge to his shoulder. He smiled at her, softening a bit from the frustration and anger he had felt before, forcing it onto the background. "I wanted to see how far up I could go," he said as he looked at her, "Watch the stars up there." He didn't need to ask if she cared to join him — she was already here, and the fact that their mateship had been officiated by the culmination of their given rights as Alphas accounted for his share of the question.

And so he continued to go on, following a narrow path until it eventually ended in a ledge with no further pathways up. Charon looked up at the mountainside as he noted, "I think this is the last stop, for now." Maybe other paths would lead further up, but that would mean going back down first to find those paths. He was content to be here for now and so he set foot on the ledge, where he lay down on the ground to enjoy the calmth that both the stars' presence and his mate offered him.

His purpose here was a noble enough cause, and certainly, she was along for the challenge of scaling the mountain to its upper reaches -- especially now that spring's warming may have opened up new paths that she did not know well before. But this didn't need said, and a quick nod was more than enough. She matched his steps up and up, although adjusted as needed to the path underfoot when it went thin until they reached the ledge.

Like most of her more recent trips upward, this was a new piece of the mountain underfoot. She peered around, from the landscape itself and the view it spread before and above her, then glanced back to him once initial surveying was done. There were many questions on the tip of her tongue, several of which were about the rather negative topics in recent news, and while she hated to sully the moment with that, it felt important to get it out of the way first.

With a soft sigh, she turned her muzzle skyward and squinted at the stars. Before she could become too absorbed in the twinkling lights, she had to ask. "What did you find out there..?" she wondered quietly, knowing he could fill in the blanks as necessary. Above all, she wished to know if he had found a lead on the culprit that had stolen Wildfire's virtue against her will, and if the bastard was one step closer to the death he so deserved. If so, she could rest a little easier knowing the cogs were in motion, at least.. because it had to start somewhere.

Of course, she came right down to business. It was one of the things Charon so liked about her. He smiled at Ame and said, "Eshe, Neverwinter Forest's Alpha, is like some relative of mine, through my birth parents. Anyway — she'd seen Goober and knew where he went, so she's sent a wolf to collect him since he owes her a favour." Charon could only hope that Goober would fall for the ruse so that he and his wolves could be ready to collect him. "She'll take him to Firefly Glen under the pretense of organising a romantic date for her mate, and we'll be collected to lie in wait so we can grab him. We'll just beat the shit out of him though, but won't kill him. I want Dhole to do as she pleases with him. It's her revenge." Some might think revenge a petty thing but Charon was convinced that the only way for Dhole to get closure was for her to be the one to tear Goober apart (or just take his balls and his dick and let him live a shameful life as the pathetic wretch he was).

Charon looked up at the stars after settling on the ledge; it was strange how very contradicting his restless feelings were compared to the calmth the stars brought on.

Charon had taken initiative with this and evidently made his strides forward already. An already established plan revealed itself and so far, it seemed.. sound. Of course the unknowns were at play here, namely her not knowing Eshe at all (and only Scimitar -- a difficult, stoic read no less) but she was still feeling hopeful for the success of it.. which felt good. She nodded, satisfied, with a small sway of her tail at the thought of Wildfire's revenge. It wouldn't erase what had happened.. but, it had to have its value. "Good. May as well let the bastard's final moments go to something worthwhile by letting her end him for what he did," she agreed, because Amekaze did not see any other logical end to it if they got their paws on him. Even crippling him between the legs was being generous, she believed. He'd die.

But, she backtracked to Neverwinter briefly and thoughtfully curled her tail around her paws once she was comfortable with a sit. "Interesting that Eshe is some relative of yours," she mused. Small world, she supposed, and in the next beat realized.. hers too, now in its own obscure in-law sort of way that she struggled with anyway since it was difficult for her to perceive. 

Amekaze seemed to agree with his plan, which pleased Charon. He'd been rather lucky to find that Eshe knew this guy, but then again, maybe not so lucky; he'd been in the area of Moonspear, after all, and therefore also in the area of Neverwinter Forest and Eshe. It made sense they might've run into each other. Charon watched as Amekaze settled by his side and he looked at the calming starry skies.

As she inquired further about Eshe, Charon nodded. "Yeah... Crazy, huh? I mean, I knew my uncle Mordecai lives on the east end of the Teekon, but other than that I've never met any other relatives. We're like, cousins, or something. Too bad her mate Scimitar's such a dick, though." Charon said it without thinking, and he added to explain: "He's the one who took in Jorunn and didn't try to find Stavanger Bay to bring him back. And he's kind of an antisocial asshat other than that, if you ask me, from what I've seen from him so far. It's crazy 'cause like, Eshe is such a bubbly personality." It was still weird to Charon how Eshe and Scimitar had ever ended up together, because they were so different and Eshe deserved so much better. Scimitar just reminded Charon of Dante.

To let Wildfire have her revenge was the very least the fates could offer her in exchange. Most likely, it would be some closure that could help her move past it, but never the magic fix for all things awful she had endured -- nothing ever would erase it fully. Revenge was a sweet distraction, at least, but aside from that, she was pleased progress was made towards it nonetheless.

As she'd suspected, he'd confirmed Eshe's status alongside Scimitar and with it came Charon's unsurprising dislike of him, evidently. Ame couldn't help but smirk knowingly, realizing that the agouti forest leader was exactly the sort of presence he wouldn't like. Afterwards, even more dots connected soon as he was tied into Tevinter's mess. Amekaze figured it was just more heaped onto the ever-complicated tangle of things. "Mhm. He and I were even same pack very briefly. When he took over alphaship of the Creek while I had the Spire, we were kind of reluctantly neutral neighbors a while after having past bad blood -- he wears a scar from Jace, I believe," she smirked, vaguely entertained by that memory. "I still preferred to not have much to do with him, even if him and his mate then were an improvement over the Creek's leadership before them," she shrugged. Personal preference, and she reasoned he probably felt the same about her because of their very limited depths between them. "After the Creek moved, I guess I lost track of him." Mainly because it had never really been necessary to know about it. Even now, she just did because he was in her neighborhood.

She couldn't speak much on Eshe since she'd never met her, but if she was bubbly, she was probably a stark contrast to Scimitar. "I suppose for some, opposites do attract," she snickered, trying to imagine a chipper personality putting up with Scimitar all day long -- she must have some lengthy patience to go with her light attitude, too.

It was interesting and even somewhat surprising to hear that Ame had been in a pack with Scimitar once upon a time. It sounded like he wasn't part of the Spire per say, which made it even more surprising. In Charon's mind, Amekaze had been a part of the Sunspire forever, and it clearly showed the age fissure between them how his thoughts winded. "Huh," Charon said when she finished speaking. It didn't sound like she and Scimitar were on perfectly good footing either, which, as far as Charon was concerned, was only a good thing. If things'd ever escalate there would be no doubt she would support him, rather than try to patch things up.

"Yeah, I guess," said Charon, and he turned his gaze to the sky and sighed lightly. "They are beautiful tonight. It feels like the closer you get to them, the more you see. I wonder if there is a mountain where you can climb so high that you could touch the stars." He glanced sidelong at Amekaze for a brief moment before turning his gaze back to his friends up in the sky. He wondered what her thoughts on them were; he knew she enjoyed watching them but he did not know what her views were on who or what they were, how they had come to be, and if a wolf could ever reach up so high as to touch them.

As much as she normally might have liked to stew further on the idea of bringing Goober to the end he deserved and to scheme further regarding the neighborhood packs, these matters seemed to set aside more neatly now that her curiosity on them was sated just enough. Now, she felt more keen to relax beneath the subtle starlight and he soon shifted the subject away from current events too. There would be time for that later on, of course. For now, her focus was heavenward.

"Definitely," she agreed with a soft sigh as she glanced from star to star, squinting even to see if she could see past them onto more. Up here, the view was pure and unobstructed -- nothing could match it, or ever dream of surpassing it as far as she was concerned in this moment. "You know.. maybe there is one somewhere. Or.. perhaps there once was one long ago," she mused. The idea of a world center connecting heaven and earth was prevalent enough in various types of mythos that it would not surprise her for it to be rooted in some sort of truth way, way back in the histories of old. She'd heard enough bizarre tales to have an open mind -- this world, its skies, and the nature it inspired, were fantastic and impressive, so who knew? "Besides, mountains are sacred for a reason," she grinned briefly in vague way because maybe that played into it, and maybe it did not. She could entertain the idea, regardless, despite being a creature rooted in logic out of necessity. A little idealism never hurt.

"Maybe we could yet climb higher and find out if this one is it..." Charon glanced over his shoulder, back at the mountain's tops; "Another day." For now he just wanted to be here and watch the stars with Amekaze, really, and take a moment of rest to himself, for he'd been losing himself in his anger for Goober in the past days.

As Amekaze mentioned that mountains were sacred and went along in his fantasy of the mountain that touched the skies and where you could see the stars up close, Charon looked surprised. "They are? I never knew about that. Do you mean the gods blessed the mountains?" He didn't realise that her gods might not be the same as the viking ones he had learned about when he was young.

He suggested maybe this mountain could be something of the sort. There always lurked that certain sort of possibility, and with a name like Moonspear, who knew where exactly that had begun. "Of course," she nodded, definitely interested in the challenge of scoping its highest of heights and uncovering its secrets. But, there was no rush.

"Well, to some.. and depends on the gods and their myths," she answered first.. although what he'd added of the gods was something she was less certain of since she often heard of them only through their stories. She did not often dabble in their depths (with a lot of her knowledge being anecdotal over the years anyway), and it was very likely that what she thought of was not exactly the same gods his visions may have conjured. "Some blessed, some created them, some where they lived or their final resting places, others are revered just to honor the gods.. and what they may represent," she murmured. It was a vague explanation because it was so abstract in her own head, not being concretely devote in any particular way and instead pieces of several. She visualized no concrete, corporeal form to these gods of her tales and mountain worships.

"Mmh," Charon murmured in response to Amekaze's stories about the gods and their mountains. He felt like Amekaze did not follow any gods, or at least did not take them whatever she was taught to be true, if anything. Charon himself was sort of like that; he had learned some about the viking gods but he never honoured them or did anything towards them. Yet it felt as though some force did steer him in the right directions; it had steered him towards Ame, and towards Moonspear, and the Emperor was certain that more was yet in store for him and his fate to greatness.

"Were you raised to believe in any gods?" Charon asked, out of sheer curiosity. "I heard some things of the viking gods, but I don't know what is out there. Whatever it is, somehow it always feels closer to me when I'm up on the mountain, and at night, close to the stars..." He looked up at the stars again, their lights reflected in his night blue eyes.

"Not very strictly," she replied, almost nonchalant about it. She took a contemplative moment before she answered in full. It probably was not very different from his exposure to viking gods. "The beliefs I was exposed to when I was younger were all very abstract, and up to a lot of personal interpretation that could vary by the day even. I was always a bit more interested in the stories of it, not necessarily.. subscribing to full devotion to them or anything." That had been the beauty in it, though, that she could take what she wanted from it and form her own beliefs around them. "Then over the years I picked up bits about various other gods inspired by other cultures, vikings included.. but they are probably among my least known still.." she admitted.

Backtracking a bit, she noted his mention of the mountain beneath the stars with a fond look. "I know, I have never known what exactly it is or how to describe it besides as some type of.. natural energy, but there is something unseen. Mountains have always just felt.. best to me, because of it." She was naturally a bit wary about delving too much because she usually didn't, but she'd grown up being very sensitive to her surroundings and that was just another byproduct of it all she believed. But it was good to know he felt the same in his own way. Further proof of why he was beside her and not any other.

It seemed just like Ame to pick up bits and pieces of other cultures. It was sometimes a bit as if she was just there to absorb information and culture rather than have her own, like most did. Or maybe she was still searching, afloat, looking for which suited her best. Charon was much the same in that way, having no true religion of his own. He'd been told of the viking gods but had little stock in them. Ragnar had lost his eye if only they would bless him and he had received nothing but death. Charon had never offered them anything and yet he was the chosen child of the gods; proof to him that the viking gods were likely no more than mere stories.

Yet there was something tantalising about the thought of going to valhalla were he to die while fighting, and perhaps that was why he did not completely disregard them, even if he paid them little respects. Thoughts were once more diverted when Ame mentioned the mountains' energy. "Yes, the energy!" he called out, a broad smile on his face. "That is how I feel, too." Content, he looked at the stars further, and he wondered, "Do you know of any stories of the stars or their constellations? I know a few myself, but I'm always looking to find more."

Even in attempting to label something so abstract, she only went with what felt right. Somehow, this was her best way to explain it right now. Maybe later some greater understanding could be achieved but for now this was plenty. He understood it, it seemed, and her tail switched leisurely.

On stars, though, she was a little iffy with constellations and she was mostly familiar with the main ones. She angled back her ears thoughtfully, trying to dredge up something beyond the most typical of tales -- which he would likely know already, anyway. "Well.. know going into this that I am rusty, and constellations are not one of my stronger suits.. but a little star lore that I do not feel is too common is the Milky Way's story known by 'the Silver River of Heaven'," she stole quick pause, glancing to him to see if she'd struck any familiarity. She was also unpracticed when it came to weaving stories like this , or rather, recounting them in a palatable format. Ame shifted her weight again, making sure she was most comfortable.

"As my grandmother told it, on the seventh day of the seventh moon, two stars -- lovers -- may cross the Silver River of Heaven to meet but only if the weather is favorable. If they join, immeasurable fortune is reaped by all in their domain, so it was customary to hope for good weather just after the turn of the seventh moon." As to why this had stuck with her, she suspected it had to do with the appeal of a river of stars that she had recognized even as a youth. "I do remember always fancying polestar myths too for some reason. My favorite was, ah, Myōken, the god of the polestar, essentially," she spoke more delicately around the name, needing to remember the flow of the words.

When Amekaze began her story, Charon's ears cupped towards her attentively, eager to start listening to the tale she was about to spin. He settled in to listen as she mentioned the story of the silver ring of heaven; as she looked at him inquisitively, it was clear from his blank though eager expression that Charon did not yet know of this story. He looked attentively at Amekaze as she began her story. Charon wondered idly to himself when the seventh moon was — he guessed that it was somewhere around summer time, if counted from the turn of the years that some used. He had never much thought of the moons in turns and amounts; he mostly saw the world in seasons. This was an interesting take though and Charon was in a mood for a soppy story, especially after the heavy subjects they had been facing recently.

Amekaze further mentioned polestar myths, and Charon looked up at the stars as though to find it right then. He was distracted by the name she gave this god of the polestar, though, and laughed. "My—oh—wha"? he asked with a grin, not even able to fully repeat the word she had used to describe this god of the polestar.

"Myōken," she repeated with a nod and smirk a bit steadier that time around. Saying it again helped her, too. She was horrifically rusty at the language as well, as evidenced but if anyone was to be witness to her tiny steps back into it, it may as well be him. "Literally meaning 'heavenly eyes'," she added as if that may make it any easier. "Has even longer, wordier, titles as well." she grinned. They were too much of a mouthful to even be practical (or even worth remembering all of them) but it only came with the subject matter; a polestar was noticed, and inevitably revered, by many outlooks.

"--the central star controlling all other celestial bodies, one believed to have power over the fortunes of the individuals. And, recognized as the deity of safe voyages too," she recited, which to her seemed obvious. Such a noteworthy landmark for traveling would reasonably line up as such. It was another piece of the appeal for her.

She could speak on herself but what she had given served as a good overview into it, unless he wanted to get the nitty-gritty of it all where the myths began to turn more bizarre and even further fetched than the average. Then again, that was always an endearing quality for her in myth. "Anyway, what about a favorite star story of yours?" she returned, curious. Myōken was just one of many for her since he had several favorites of her own and seeing more of what he fancied was certainly welcome.

"Myoken," Charon repeated clumsily, and he wondered, "Why is it such a hard name? I've never heard of a name like this." He did not realise that it was a different language. When she told him that Myoken, 'heavenly eyes', was said to have a grasp on the fortune of individuals, Charon instantly grew excited. He knew that the stars were watching over him, or gods, or whatever was out there — and now every time he would look up at the brightest, biggest star (which he automatically presumed Myoken to be) Charon would know that it was there guiding his every step.

Amekaze returned the question and Charon thought for a little while. Eventually he always came back to this one story that Thistle had told him, because it had been so impactful to hear a story about chopped off balls when he was so little. "Did I ever tell you the story about the eyes of Thjazi?" he asked — maybe he'd already told her before. "Thistle taught it to me. It's a viking story, I think." He wasn't too sure, since she had never specifically mentioned it to be a viking story, but the names did sound rather viking-like anyway.

He handled the name differently, but certainly not far off despite it being just one of the first times ever tackling the word. "It is probably just the language. I feel not many are familiar with it, beyond homelands that know it," she shrugged and eyed the distant horizon with a lingering look. Around Rikudou, many had spoken it and its derivatives. Here, in all her many moons of living in the Teekon, she had only ever run across a small handful who did speak it. "You may just know it by different names," she offered, reasoning that could very well be the case since pieces of so many stories did carry over underneath different titles.

Then, on the viking myth, she shook her head -- no, it was not familiar to her. Most viking stories were only something she vaguely knew of, or only by the very widespread ones. "Talk about a hard name," she said softly, mocking a frown then as she contemplated how to even wrap her tongue around something like Thjazi, which she assumed was a name for something. She didn't humor an attempt just yet, but awaited learning more.

i hope you're okay with a fade - this is getting kind of old and i'd rather have an up-to-date one sometime! ^^

Charon realised that he didn't even know where Ame was from. "Homelands?" he wondered aloud; was she from far away, where everything was referred to in this weird way of speaking that she used? Then he remembered, when she mentioned Thjazi being a hard name, that Ragnar used to talk in tongues sometimes. Another language or something? Maybe it was the same for Ame's homeland. Deciding that they would speak of the homeland of Amekaze some other time, Charon instead went on about the story of the Eyes of Thjazi. He told the story approxiately like it'd been told to him by Thistle Cloud, bar perhaps a couple of details here and there, and after that they continued to look at the stars and talk about what mysteries they beheld together for a good while. And just for a little bit, the ruler was content.