Moonspear the cat and the moon

The stars came out that night and Charon had been dozing by the side of the den through most of the afternoon. Soon they'd move to the rendezvous site, but somehow 'soon' kept being postponed, as though he didn't want to break the fragile balance that the family'd only recently refound. Ever since @Galaxy had been saved things'd quieted down and he was content with the way things were for now. He wished he could capture this in a snowglobe and keep it like this forever, but his growing children were proof it wasn't to be and so he had begun inspecting the rendezvous site recently so they could prepare for the move.

He awoke by the side of the den and stretched his front legs and toes, accompanied by a wide yawn. Charon smacked his lips then and looked into the den to see if any of his babies were awake too.

After pulling an all-nighter, Galaxy slept the day away, rising in the evening and stuffing herself with meat before flopping in the grass. Life was good. Already, the memories of her fall and even her long sequestration in the mountains were dimming into the background of her mind. It was entirely possibly Galaxy wouldn't really remember any of it due to her age. It certainly didn't seem to have any lingering effects on her, aside from her slightly too-thin frame. But she was working on that.

When Charon stepped into view, the puppy lifted her head from where it rested on her paws and thumped her tail on the grass. "Hi, daddy!" If anyone had noticed her change in nomenclature since the fall, it hadn't been pointed out to her. And of course Galaxy was oblivious about Scion's prior influence on her. "Do you have any food?" she couldn't help but ask, sniffing the air. So what if she'd just eaten? She was still making up for several lost meals.

"Hey sweetie." Charon couldn't help but laugh when one of the first things his daughter asked for was food. Of course she was asking about food. She was in luck that day, because he'd been hungry and had taken a piece of old deer from the caches that he had eaten partially. Charon yawned again and grabbed the remainders of the deer leg from his other side, presenting it to Galaxy.

Had he not have had anything here he would've offered her regurgitated meat; they still were offered that, but in addition were given pieces of whole meat too. "Here, try this. If you want, you can have some of papa's tummy munches after." Charon wanted Galaxy to at least try to eat the more solid food, but if she preferred he couldn't deny her some regurgitated munches either. He looked up at the stars briefly through the trees above, smiling.

Fortunately for Charon, Galaxy wasn't a picky eater; she would stuff just about anything down her gullet. She happily fell upon his leftovers, quickly and noisily gobbling them. She wasn't technically still hungry when she finished—she'd just eaten twice in a row—but...

"Can I have your tummy munchies too?" she asked with big ole puppy eyes.

Blearily, he was coming to, mainly lured by the wiggle of his nose when the smell of food from outside trickled in. At first, maybe he thought he had imagined it.. but voices out there too got the better of his curiosity. He uncurled from his ball-shape and went slipping out into the starlit night.

"Papa..!" he yawned and stretched, butt up in the air, when he could spot the two familiar pale coats. "Ax!" he chirped after and then sprang forward to her side, tail wiggling and eyes (which were finally subtly streaking with green) wide between the two of them as if to say: hey what's up??

Like Jarilo, the smell of Charon's meal that trickled into the den had woken her that evening. It was as she blinked slowly and turned her attention to her brother's exit from the cave that she realized what was going on. Not wanting to be left out, nor wanting to miss out of a late night snack, Vela uncurled herself and toddled after her sibling. 

Slipping from the foyer of the den the Pi's attention turned quickly to the tail-end exchange between Charon and Galaxy. In her sister's absence, she had grown fond of her alone time with their father. Now that Galaxy had returned, and that she was attempting to steal Charon from her, Vela knew that she had to do something about this. Jealousy was still a relatively new sensation to the Xi and thus far, derailing these exchanges were the only thing that satisfied the beast. 

"Papaaaaaa," Vela called, strutting past Jarilo and towards her father with purpose with a lifted tail. "I want tummy munchies!" She sat at Galaxy's unoccupied side and shot her a hard stare before turning to Charon with a purer expression as if silently begging for his love and affection.

It was good to see his little girl eat so much, especially since she was still so thin. Charon hoped soon she'd be feeling all well again. "Of course, sweetie," he said with a smile when she asked for tummy munches, but that's when Jarilo approached and Vela soon followed after. Jarilo was the only one who didn't want anything from him (yet) and he stayed back a bit.

"There's enough for everyone," he said and nuzzled the top of Vela's head fondly as she came bursting towards him. He was glad things were a lot better than last year when they had pups; the pack was full, food was plenty because they had enough healthy wolves to hunt properly. Charon regurgitated some of the deer leg he'd already eaten not long ago with a hacking cough and put the food down in front of Vela, assuming the other children'd come here if they wanted some too.

Suddenly her brother and sister were there, also begging Charon for food. Although she really wanted all the food for herself, Galaxy wasn't the jealous sort and wouldn't begrudge her siblings their late night snack too. She grinned as their father made his deposit, then leaped to lick up the moistened chunks beside Vela.

Only she genuinely couldn't contain any more food. Feeling as thought she might explode, Galaxy burped richly and slowly waddled away from the pile of pre-chewed meat. She flopped down in the grass with a groan, then rolled onto her side to keep the pressure off her overly full stomach. Her eyes rolled skyward and she peered at the stars as she digested.

Vela came just after him, but placed herself far more forwardly than the steely boy did. He wasn't entirely awake enough to be very annoying right now and he was usually content to let his sisters shine brighter than him anyway--so this wasn't anything abnormal for him. His ears splayed out and he scrunched up his face, then yawned... but the sight of freshly regurgitated food brought his focus to a point and got his rump wiggling with anticipation.

Just as Charon had said, there was enough for everyone. He flattened his ears and crept at the pile of meat to noisily lick-chomp at a section of it designated by him for him--meaning far enough away from Vela and Galaxy both to not need to run into contention with either of them. He munched quickly, mmm-ing as he fed messily.. then inched back a little to work on a small chunk he'd found that needed a bit more tenderizing. Plus, away, he wasn't going to get in Vela's way any and Galaxy seemed done with it all by now, so he chewed awkwardly with the side of his mouth until he needed to reach in for another piece again. 

Though she hadn't been interested in the food, Vela watched with hard eyes as Galaxy greedily went for more food. Unlike the others, Vela was not here to eat, and as such, she took nothing from the pile that Charon had regurgitated. Instead, she observed her sister as she took her fill to a whole new level. 

Once Galaxy had dramatically sauntered off to wallow, Vela's attention turned to Charon, and she smiled. This was her chance to get some needed one on one time with the patriarch of the mountain. "What are you doing up so late, papa?" she asked curiously in an attempt to steal his attention away from her siblings.

Though they'd all seemed so eager, it wasn't like they were very interested now that he'd gotten the food here. Galaxy dug in excitedly, but soon she found out that she had overestimated how hungry she still was and she plopped down to watch the stars while it was clear she was trying to process just how much she'd eaten. He couldn't help but smile at that and he was about to join her when his attention was stolen away by Vela. Jarilo was still eating, he noticed from the corner of his eyes, so he focussed his attention to his girl then.

"The night is the perfect time for hunting," he said with a smile, "And I like to be accompanied by the stars." He glanced up for a moment before looking back to Vela. "And anyway, it's never too late for an adventure or a story or just star-gazing." As a matter of fact, for star-gazing it was easier to be too early than too late.

Her gaze wandered over to her siblings, watching as Jarilo ate and Vela spoke to Charon. It appeared her sister hadn't even touched the food, despite begging for it earlier. But Galaxy didn't think much of it. That meant more food for her—later, of course, when she wasn't so incredibly overstuffed.

Despite sleeping all day, her lids grew heavy as she sprawled there digesting her meal(s). Her ears did flick with interest when Charon mentioned adventures, star-gazing and stories. "I wanna hear a story," she chirped. She thought suddenly of Kala, who'd told her many stories down in the caves. "Daddy, can you sing?" Galaxy wondered, thinking of the mother bear's penchant for crooning her narratives.

His ears flickered this way and that as he munched, following the volley of question to answer among his family with interest. He was comfy out here in the night with all of them around and for the time, was fine to chew and listen. Having something nice to eat was helping, too.. but overall, content was the word he was looking for to describe this simple, easy moment beneath the stars.

Although, he did perk up even more when Papa mentioned adventure. He worked to scarf down the last of what he was eating because anything called adventure did appeal in concept to him; he was just not brave enough for too many real ones yet, since for him, adventure still meant going to the creek. Galaxy already put in a formal request for story, though, and Jarilo made a face. "Adventure story..?" he posed, voice light as he hoped to sway Charon into something still halfway to where his interests wanted--although he wouldn't mind hearing about the stars any either, since he had mentioned those too and had never failed to disappoint him in the past.

Despite her intrigue in regards to what Charon had said, Galaxy's inquiry had managed to sour her mood. She turned as her sister blabbed on, his expression growing stiff as she judged her younger sibling. "Papa would never sing," she scoffed. "Singing is stupid." A rude remark lingered at the tip of her tongue, but, she withheld it for now. 

Her attention was stolen by Jarilo as he made his recommendation on what kind of story they should hear and she nodded to her sibling. "Yes, Papa!" she agreed, as though taking the credit for both of their ideas in one fell swoop. "I wanna hear an adventure story!" 

Galaxy's question came unexpected and Charon blinked. Why would she want to even hear a song? He might've asked her why if he wasn't too distracted by Vela instantly saying singing was stupid and Jarilo asking for an adventure-story. Feeling he had his paws full on these pups Charon answered each of their questions in turn: "Singing's fine if you're good at it, but papa's not very good at singing so it would be a waste of a good adventure-story." Hopefully this would juggle all their preferences and make them all feel heard and happy and whatever needed to not be whiny.

"Well, I know a story that my..." Short pause as he thought of what to call Thistle. "... mother told me once. It's about the norse gods. Some wolves believe that there are gods in the skies, living on the clouds. Now, if you ask me, that's all nonsense, but it does make for some nice stories as the gods have a lot of adventures." He waited to hear if they were excited or not so he could tell them the story Thistle'd once told him.

Galaxy's eyes went wide at Vela's remark. Her mouth fell open and a confused (and mildly wounded) look came over her face. "What?" she blurted, so totally caught off guard by her sister's tacit disapproval and the nastiness of her tone. "It's—" It's not stupid, she meant to say, though both Charon and Vela spoke over her and little Galaxy lapsed into silence.

Fortunately, their father began weaving a tale, which captured her attention. Although she did cast Vela once last quizzically hurt glance, she pushed the negativity out of her mind and smiled complacently up at Charon from her comfy position, enjoying her view of the night sky as he spoke of gods and clouds.

The rudeness on Vela's words caught him off guard and flattened his ears in one fell swoop. Always looking to fly beneath the immediate radar of trouble when it was between his sisters and himself, he didn't argue or resist that--not that he knew much about singing himself, or Papa's abilities, anyway. Interest in the matter kind of faded away after that when it did seem that his request for adventure story would be honored, so he was quick to be excited about that instead. He perked back up accordingly and decided to get comfortable afterward now that he was done eating.

His father's tale, one passed down from his mother apparently, had him leaning forward curiously already. He was more than ready to hear more about these gods in the skies, or the clouds, or whichever direction this was going to take.

Having had her attention stolen, Vela did not catch the look that had settled across Galaxy's face. Seeing what her words did to her sister would have no swayed her, honestly, and instead, Vela most likely would have just given her sister another snide look. 

With the topic off of Galaxy, Charon explained his singing abilities and how it'd be a waste. Though it wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear, the Xi smiled to herself, knowing it most likely wasn't what Galaxy had wanted to hear. 

The mention of "gods" caused her brows to raise as she attempted to imagine what cloud-dwellers would be like. Like her father, she found them to be far-fetched, but despite her beliefs, she felt that they had compelling stories to be shared. "What's the story right, Papa?" Vela prompted, wanting only to hear the tale that Charon's mom had once shared with him.

The pups all seemed more-or-less happy again with the suggestion of the story passed down through generations and Charon was glad to find that tensions had settled. "This story is about the eyes of Thjazzi. Thjazzi was a giant who captured the goddess Iðunn. Loki was then sent to get Iðunn back from the giant. Loki then killed Thjazzi while he rescued Iðunn, which made Thjazzi's daughter Skaði very angry. Skaði was very angry at the gods for what Loki had done and the gods in compensation make her marry one of the gods, but she could choose only by looking at their feet. She married Njord, a god of the ocean-coasts."

Charon looked thoughtful for a moment while he tried to piece the story together, as it was long and had many details, many of which he'd forgotten over time. His face lit up in 'aha' as he remembered another detail. "The gods also had to make Skaði laugh in compensation, which they did by tying a goat to Loki's balls and then sending it running. And there was a last compensation..." Charon paused briefly and looked up at the starry skies above. When he pinpointed two bright stars he pointed up at them. "... Thjazzi's eyes were thrown up into the skies by Odin, the Alpha of the gods, to shine between the stars."

Galaxy enjoyed stories quite a lot, especially around bedtime. But this one was so full of foreign names that the plot details were lost on her as all these crazy monikers floated through her head: Thjazzi, Iðunn, Loki, Skaði, Njord, Odin... She simply couldn't keep track of who was who, and who did what, and so on and so forth.

Despite having slept much of the day away, Galaxy's eyelids began to droop as Charon's rich voice rumbled in her ears. She was having trouble following along, yet she still enjoyed the story time all the same. She was totally unaware as she drifted off to sleep, somewhere around the time a goat made off with Loki's balls.

He nodded viciously when Vela posed her question, and afterward, more story poured forth. A goddess, a giant, someone getting married, looking at feet, a lot of funky-sounding names, and a whole bunch else, Jarilo was too caught up in hearing more to realize that he only had the general gist of the tale. He was, however, picking up on the notion of multiple gods--seemingly that some were associated with certain topics, and this ocean-coasts god tickled his ears specially well now that he had a basal understanding of what the ocean was at all.

The last bit, the part that came after the balls and the goat (and a lot of ???? from Jarilo included), made him crane his head back to peer skyward. His mouth gaped and he attempted to zero in on the stars Charon's story pointed out. "How'd he throw them so far?!" he yapped, having not realized Galaxy had snoozed off somewhere along the way. "How'd they stay there??" he asked too, guessing it might be some Alpha power involved--since they could do just about anything, after all, maybe even throw eyes in the sky and make them stick after so long.

my last post! feel free to reply again or archive as is!

They listened in awe to the story, though before its ending both Vela and Galaxy had drifted off to sleep already. Charon chuckled at that, especially considering Jarilo's interest in the stories, which stood in stark contrast to his sisters at the moment. "Shh," he said to Jarilo and glanced at Vela and Galaxy before continuing in hushed tones, "Well, according to the stories, they're gods, so of course Odin, a god too, can throw as far as the skies reach." However far they go. Charon still didn't think much of the gods but if they did exist then surely they could easily throw so far up.

"And he must've thrown really hard to get them up so high. Come, let me tell you some more stories of the norse gods," he murmured and nosed Jarilo after getting up, leading him away from his snoozing sisters to a place where they could more easily continue their conversation.

He didn't notice now that both of his sisters and checked out right away. His sights were set skyward on the stars and ears all about hearing more. It did seem much quieter around him, but he was wrapped up in everything else he was taking in to make much notice about it. When his father continued on, keeping to the theme of a lower volume himself, Jarilo finally began to catch on.

He tried to fathom it. A god's reach into the skies? He narrowed his eyes and tried to see just as far as he could into the darkness past the stars. In a moment, he was overwhelmed. He felt so close to them sometimes, a feeling gifted to him by always living in these elevations, but he still had so ridiculously far to go.

Jarilo refocused and looked at his speckled sire with a small grin. "Oh. Yeah!" he replied, and popped up onto his paws to try to shake out the stiffness in his neck he felt from looking straight up so long. His tail waved gently and he stepped around his sisters carefully, eager to follow after Charon to hear more.