river of time

Amekaze · July 13, 2014, 10:06 PM

set for the eve before the full official moon

The afternoon's heat eventually roused her from her rest, although her gnarled-root bed had been comfortably in the shade of Sunspire's forest groves. She came up from it feeling motivated, though, and with an itch to put some ground underneath her paws.

So she decided to head out about midday. The path she found was, as seemed natural, the riverside. Her nose aimed towards the sea and she gathered speed.

Her guards were up. More packs bordered these areas than when she had been a loner. It had started to become difficult to move undetected back then even. Meandering purposelessly had turned into a risk.

Now, even the scents had changed in a great many ways. She loped steadily on through and reached the coastline near dusk. Or rather, the coastline came to her. The tides were up -- abnormally so, if memory served her correctly. Although it had been a while since she had smelled the sea so plainly.

It swelled to swallow the last tapering tendrils of the freshwater and her steps slowed considerably. Ame waded in brackish waters and peered overhead towards the large moon, somewhat curious. The celestial sights had been one to admire lately, first with the solar eclipse and then this. Ame wondered, fleetingly, what this meant before dunking her whole self beneath the surface as she had once seen the pale-furred shaman do. As she shook the excess water weight from her fur, she welcomed the coolness of the sea.

Ptarmigan · July 15, 2014, 11:05 AM

Something kept calling her back to the huge lake at the edge of the Teekon Wilds. Although it smelled and tasted like salt, and although the sound of it was bothersome, it was sublime. It tugged at a part of her nature that called it unnatural, and every once in a while, she had the urge to lay her eyes upon it once more, twice more, and even more than that.

Today, she hung back at the river's edge, not quite where it began to web out into the ocean proper. The edge of the water seemed to be higher up the beach than what Ptarmigan had previously seen. The concept of a tide was completely lost on her, and the Endore therefore assumed it had flooded. Something was feeding it and causing it to swell, probably from its other unreachable shore, and she tilted her head back to scan the evening sky for signs of a storm. There were none. Only the moon in mega size, which captivated her for a moment before she looked back at the "lake".

There was another black wolf standing in the surf, with her gaze in the same direction. The small Endore took a few hesitant steps forward, but was held at bay by the swollen water and the dazzling supermoon. “Get away from there,” she called, pacing anxiously where she stood, “it's flooding!”

Amekaze · July 17, 2014, 08:40 PM

The sound and scent of the sea took hold of her senses. The sight, too, spread before her towards the horizon. On the other side, Amekaze could not fathom. She only assumed there would be something.. eventually. All water had land edging it at one point but an existence like hers could not begin to understand just how many miles upon miles it actually was, let alone visualize it.

Her ears, having previously settled to a relaxed-back position, sprung forward at a voice. She was just as quick to turn her head, summoning alertness back into her dampened form with which to regard the pacing female. It was a warning voiced for her and while she did not feel the need to heed it, particularly, she took a few wading steps closer. It is fine, so long as you keep your footing, she called back, hoping to ease the wolf's mind some, for she seemed concerned about it. The pull was not so strong this far back so Ame was not particularly worried. The second it started feeling uncertain, she would be out. The sea was far too great a power for her to test it.

But.. flooding? She peered at the waters then, deciding that was a decent enough way to describe it. However, not one she had ever thought to use before. It all definitely looked like flooding but here it was different than a swollen creek or river that had taken on too much rain and neither was it caused by something as that. Not nearby, anyway.

She understood the tides to be linked to the days and passing of time. It was cyclical in its nature, like moon phases. Although, she did not know their greater cause -- as to what it was that gave the sea this motivation. It is just an exceptionally high tide. Although, it does truly seem like flooding from here.. she reasoned as she shook her fur again.

Ptarmigan · July 17, 2014, 10:22 PM

Amekaze didn't seem terribly inclined to leave the water, which only made Ptarmigan all the more anxious. Though she didn't have a personal connection with the mysterious dark wolf, she nevertheless felt the pull of her species urging her to save the other's life. A soft whine built in her throat when the other bitch commented on the flooding, fighting back the urge to sarcastically point out she'd already said that.

“C'mon, it's not funny,” she pleaded, taking another step away from the freakish moon and the Big Water. “It was never that big before. Please, before it gets any higher...” There was a hint of accusation in her voice, of course, as though Ptarmigan blamed Amekaze for the rising of the water. There was no way the Sunspire wolf could have affected the environment in such a grand fashion, but she had to wonder why the other was so calm and collected if she hadn't had something to do with it...

Leading to the natural conclusion that Ame did, in fact, have something to do with it.

Amekaze · (This post was last modified: July 20, 2014, 03:08 AM by Amekaze.)

She still wasn't worried, and had not intended humor in the gesture of not hopping from the water's reach immediately. Her ears remained splayed and was reluctant to heed the words too quickly so not to seem overly compliant. As to why this wolf cared to see her leave the water, she could not quite guess though. I am not worried, she mentioned, although ebbed up to even shallower water just so that her ankles could still be wet.

She revered the power of the sea and knew it could kill her at any moment it deemed suitable. One wave too many, just enough to topple her balance with a properly timed current and she'd be swept away just like that. However, she didn't fear it. Not entirely and not as she once had moons ago. Reverence suited her relationship with it now more and since she rarely came to see it now, she only wished to enjoy it all she could. Are you uneasy because it is so far up? she asked, looking to pinpoint the worry's reason to see if it went further than just the ocean as a whole. Or is it just the sea itself? It felt bizarre, but strangely alluring still. Yet she doubted the other green-eyed female felt the same way as she did..

Ptarmigan · July 21, 2014, 09:50 AM

Ptarmigan was satisfied enough with Amekaze venturing further from the water, but still concern coursed through her like some sort of thick, sluggish adrenaline. Ame didn't appear to be worried, and even said as much, but she wasn't convincing the Endore that it was safe. She expected the lake to swell at any moment and swallow Amekaze, and that was what she watched for.

Yet it never did happen. Even as Amekaze addressed her once more, Ptarmigan continued staring at the water, with an occasional flick of her gaze to the enormous moon. She listened, though, and only chose to speak when the Sunspire wolf uttered an unfamiliar word. “What is a sea? Is that why the moon is so large?” Her voice was still steeped in nervous energy, yet held a note of wonder as well. It would never occur to her that the sea was something larger and more powerful than any lake, nor would she ever truly fathom its greatness.

Amekaze · July 23, 2014, 02:23 AM

She would not exhaust too much energy in trying to pressure this female into believing it was safe here. If she remained unconvinced, then so be it. Ame would not let her worry rub off onto her any. She had dealt with her fear of it and not been swayed to think otherwise.

Blinking some seasalt from her eyes, she gestured to the vast, swollen waters stretching to the distant horizon. The sea. The whole lot of it. Also called ocean, and probably other names as well, a giant body of saltwater.. She briefed. Now she was coming to understand her nervousness -- likely prompted by the enormity of this unknown here before her.

I think it may be the other way around.. she murmured in response, eyes pulling skyward then towards the oddly vast moon. Although, she could be wrong. It may work either way, truthfully, but since the sun's celestial body dominated so much, she reasoned the moon would have greater power than anything here on earth as well.. even the ocean. If the moon's pull did shift the tides regularly anyway, as she had always been lead to believe, a massive moon ought to make for exceptional tides.

Ptarmigan · (This post was last modified: July 23, 2014, 12:22 PM by Ptarmigan.)

When Amekaze gestured to the Big Water and called it "sea" and "ocean", Ptarmigan began to understand. Sea and Ocean were just names for the incredibly large lake. She still didn't understand what made this lake different from other lakes, aside from its size and taste, but perhaps some wolves thought of it differently based solely on that. The names were nonsensical to the female who had never heard of them before, if only because they didn't appear to describe anything like normal names did.

Amekaze went on to point out that perhaps the water had swelled because of the moon's size. Ptarmigan ducked her head down, rolling her eyes at this odd assumption. It didn't make any sense. How could the moon cause flooding in a lake? It was absurd and she found that the very idea stained Amekaze's reputation. What reputable wolf would claim something so ridiculous?

“I see,” she said, feigning understanding for just a moment. She thought she'd stick around for one or two minutes longer, maybe to get some more amusing science out of this stranger. “What makes you think the moon does it?” she asked, while simultaneously thinking, you're insane.

Amekaze · August 01, 2014, 02:12 AM

It had been wolves more familiar with the place that had introduced her to this knowledge in the first place, although they were apt to be much more thorough than she generally was. However, she did not sense that this wolf wished to hear the whole spiel anyway. The subject may simply not appeal and Amekaze would not be going out of her way to change this.

Few things in nature cycle the way they both do, she answered vaguely. To her this suggested a link of some type. And those more knowledgeable have taught me the sea shifts alongside the moon's phases, at least in part, to their observations as well.. she answered. Perhaps if there had been a time before the moon, the flux of the tides may not have existed at all. Although, this posed the question of which came to being first, the sea or the moon? She could not look this far into it. But there is no way to know for certain, Ame offered. She could not absolutely claim her information as law, just a highly supported theory.

Ptarmigan · August 01, 2014, 09:21 PM

Amekaze had a well supported claim, but Ptarmigan was bull-headed in her insistence in many things, including a disregard for all things celestial. The moon was an enigma she simply couldn't be bothered to ponder. Puzzling out the way things worked wasn't Ptarmigan's cup of tea, and those who spent their lives in the pursuit of knowledge often earned a less than favoured status in the Endore's mind.

Many of her kin had been Stargazers and Lorekeepers—a particularly famous Lorekeeper named Winter had shared her surname—but she was far removed from their ilk.

You're right, said Ptarmigan with a note of finality, there is no way to know. With that, the female, having lost her concern for the other wolf primarily because Amekaze showed no fear and that embarrassed her, turned away. Maybe someday you will find out, she offered as a farewell as she widened the gap between them, but it was said insincerely. Ptarmigan highly doubted anyone would ever find any justification for the claim that this Large Lake and the moon were linked to one another.