Lost Creek Hollow i walk in the cemeteries of this city at night

set for early morning, before dawn

the stars called to merrick.
he had come to lean against the bole of a nearby tree, and gazed solemnly up at what glowing specks of light were visible beneath a wintry cloud cover. this was a large place, unfamilar, frightening. those he knew were here, and in that was a comfort, but the boy was largely discomfitted.
he had not strayed far from indra; if she woke in the wee hours, it would not be a hard search for her son. presently, a swathe of stars slowly unveiled themselves, and merrick blinked toward their cold light, his lip trembling in an unseemly show of grief for having left the land of his birth too far behind him.

hope big ole terance is okay <3 assuming indra would have told terance her children's names

it was always nice to stumble upon someone else with their noses pointed to the sky. terance found so many answers to so many questions in them. and though they never truly solved his problems, terance would always feel a little more at peace after stargazing. he was glad he started doing it again, despite the pain it brought him thinking about his children. the pros outweighed the cons, he supposed, and it truthfully was reassuring to think they were looking at the same stars. he hoped his children would continue on with that hobby. 

today he spotted merrick, one of indra's children, and his ears pricked curiously. the boy did not look necessarily at peace in that moment, in fact, he looked quite the opposite. terance wondered why.

he released a quiet boof in the boys direction, cold-air puffing around his muzzle in the form of a white cloud. and then he approached a few steps. "may i join you?" he asked him, ears cupped forwards.

of course! <3

a low sound caught merrick off-guard; he jumped as his dark ears fell back, and then the man called terance was approaching. swallowing, the boy hurriedly dipped his head to wipe the tears from his cheeks with a fore-ankle. this was a leader, and though merrick was used to being the child of leadership, everything was different now. what if terance judged him for his grief? after all, he'd given the valley wolves a home, and that counted for a good deal.
a gentle nod, a sway of his tail, and then the coywolf's eyes lifted back to the tiny lights studding the dark sky. "mama says there are constell ... constellations up there," merrick murmured idly, before falling silent, unsure of what else to say.

"she's right," terance said with a small smile, his tail still waving. he settled beside the boy carefully, nose tilting upwards as he looked into the constellations. "stars are just those little lights you see up there," he told him gently, "but a group of stars that makes a shape is called a constellation." he wondered, briefly, in indra had already told the boy this. so, he asked, "did your mother already show you one?" terance could count a handful on his paw right now to show him, if not.

terance spoke, and as merrick listened, he decided the dark man was trustworthy. to a degree; the boy trusted no one truly, save for indra and laurel. a shake of his head. "no. i found them myself." lifting a paw, merrick gestured toward the bright star rigel. "that is one i know." he glanced to terance. "do they have names?"

terance's ears pricked at the mention of noting a constellation by himself, his lips curving up gently. "the best constellations are the ones we find ourselves," he commented quietly, thinking idly of all the constellations his mother made up. super-fun coconut, for starters. somehow, merrick didn't strike him as the type that would appreciate such a story right now. another time, maybe. 

the man followed his gaze, straight to orion-- particularly; "rigel," he recited, green gaze unwavering as he regarded the belt of the the legend. "that is part of orion's belt," he added, using his own paw to direct the boy to the other three stars, and then to the entire constellation, "which makes up part of the constellation orion." he looked at it for a moment, ears pressed forwards, before he looked back down at the stark boy. "they aren't all so complicated. all the ones i've been taught have names-- but you could call 'em whatever you wanted," he said, finally, in regards to his question.

at another time, perhaps a younger time, merrick might have appreciated the story. but life had turned him cool and wary. therefore he focused only on the stars, carefully filing away the name rigel for future recollection. orion's belt. who was orion? merrick wondered silently, gathering the last of terance's words. 
"what other constellations do you know?" he asked somberly. though he had discovered the bright star alone, he had not known it was part of a larger shape. the man alongside him knew, and that alone made him a new source of information for merrick.

though silent, terance could see it in the boys eyes that he was taking in all the information. he had questions, though he didn't ask too many. the guardian appreciated this, he himself was not a man of many words-- when he was he tended to stumble over them ungracefully. "many others," terance answered at first, beginning to scan the sky for another formation. 

ah. a small smile pressed it's way onto terance's muzzle.

"that," he said, leaning towards merrick to get better within his line of sight, and pointing up to a series of stars, trying to make sure the boy saw where he was talking about, "is the constellation taurus-- the bull."

taurus, the bull. merrick was not sure what a bull was. he knew what a bull moose was, for instance, but this seemed different. however, the young coywolf swiftly determined that the content of a constellation was of less account than its shape, and gazed fixedly at the cluster of stars until he had committed it to memory.
"who taught you about the stars?" came his next inquiry, quiet but direct. perhaps that was indra's mark upon his upbringing — she was not a flowery creature, and so neither was it in her son to be such.

"my mother," said terance with a small smile, looking back down upon merrick with a curious flick of his tail, "she knew more than i could ever hope to know." mother's always did. terance, silently, wondered how osprey was doing. and dante -- and the rest of his siblings. cass, and cori, and sarah. wondered if his parents had had any more children lately. 

he stayed quiet then.

terance mentioned his mother, and merrick thought of indra. it was not the stars she had taught him; it was how to be wary, how to hunt. how to be careful around his own kind, guarded. perhaps the lesson of the lights in the sky were just as important to terance. swiftly, they were becoming intrinsic to merrick's world.
"thank you for telling me about them, terance," the boy murmured after a heartbeat, genuine as he glanced with a sudden shyness toward the sable man.