It was the night of the full moon. The first one of autumn. In many tellings, the moon of the harvest.
It rose low in the sky while the sun was still setting, painted bright orange-red shades early in the evening. By then, she had just returned to the Sunspire after and empty-handed search -- one that inspired great frustration in her. As night settled, she hiked further up the mountain with moonglow dappling her dark, wild fur.
She breathed deep. The full moon was a time to let it flow, and to let healing renewal take its place. She decided right now there was the need for a great healing to take place as the weight of Ferdie's absence had bore down on her, but tonight, she was eager to clear her head and face the autumn sun of tomorrow with renewed vigor. After all, the Sunspire deserved no less of her.
She sought to hone her resonance, yet this particular moon dictated a more emotional response. She resisted at first, her barriers well-kept and firm, but bit by bit and by every pawstep she ascended her mountain, crumbles fell, the moon chipping them away purposefully.
She thought of Ferdie first and foremost, and let the anger and sadness and sorrow come in a torrential downpour. She bore down, her lips drawn into a snarl as her paws ached with the force she dug them into the mountain. What was she supposed to do? However.. with the harvest moon, it was time to reap what they have sown. Her harvest was to be the culmination of their efforts, manifested in a full life for herself, her pack mates, her family... While her sadness remained, deep and ingrained on her heart, the mere thought did soften her expression.
She turned, eyes on the mountain, readied now more than ever to see things as they were. Amekaze lifted her voice then to the full-dark skies; it got more use now than it ever before, and she sang of the moon in full.
![[Image: 5ifpFkc.png?1]](http://i.imgur.com/5ifpFkc.png?1)
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」
The full moon was up and the land was gilded with it's ethreal glow. There was no way in the universe that Vienna was going to sleep through such a beautiful sight. Her steps carried her higher and higher up the mountain, the crisp night air not the only reason for the delightful shiver that ran down her spine. The moon's energy had her in it's grasp and she loved every second of it.
Tonight was a night of faeries and magic, a night when anything was possible. Vienna was not a superstitious wolf but she loved a good fairy tail as much as anyone. Perhaps even more. As such, when Amekaze's voice sounded over the mountain, she thought for a moment that the border between reality and fantasy had actually been breached, it was such an otherworldly sound that echoed off the stones. However, soon after she recognized the tone, though the emotion in it was strange coming from the normally stoic warrior.
Hoping she wasn't intruding, but unable to resist the wild urge racing through her veins, she too lifted her head, joining her voice with the new Alpha. Her own lacked the sorry, a fierce and wild joy carrying upon her clear tone, for while she too worried for their former Alpha, the night was young and alive with energy. Worries for her could wait for the morrow when she would once more traverse the lands in search of any sign of their missing former leader. Softly her paws carried her in the direction of the other's call. A night like this was best shared.
On just the back-swing of some absurd shift, she was thankful, in her own way. Not for having seemingly lost track of someone or the upheaval it had caused deep down, of course, but for the autumn moon's company. Even now and despite all strife, it cycled just as all things did given time.
She kept her voice raised, and her ears fluttered curiously when another chorus rose to meet and intertwine with hers -- different in tone, feminine still, and wrought with wild delight that was practically contagious. Amekaze then shifts hers, for this tune sounded much better with company.
It was only now that she realized, had she not been so wrapped up in the changes happening, that it would have been a good night for a more formal rally of their voices. Perhaps even a hunt so that her fellows could feast in the moon's glow as well. However, tonight she was not yet ready for it; she needed a dash more inward reflection first. They could still celebrate the moon over the span of the coming days. So long as it was visible, she decided.
So then she dropped her song, having let it taper towards an end beforehand. Once it was over, and Vienna was well-within sight, she chuffed softly. Amekaze welcomed the one-on-one time with the female, who admittedly she did not know exceptionally well although had grown to appreciate her from where she stood. With a few gliding pawsteps, moved closer to bump her muzzle against her packmate's. Tail waving and with contented rumbles, her greeting was mostly physical. I do not think the moon has been so beautiful in a time,
she breathed. The supermoons of the recent summer month did give it a challenge for the title (it had been a good several months for moonwatchers, after all), but she was feeling especially appreciative of this one. Glad to know I am not alone in enjoying it.
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」
Vienna greeted the new Alphaess gladly, her own muzzle brushing the female's chin. Her tail gave a happy wave and she ducked her head, smiling playfully at the other by way of greeting. "That it has not. Makes stargazing harder, but I can't complain too much about that. She is beautiful tonight." She looked up at the glowing orb appreciatively. "I love to sing most days, but when the moon is full there is just something special about it. I haven't sung with another to the moon in a very long while." She was glad to be able to do so, as a loner she had needed to keep her songs quiet for fear of attracting unwanted attention. Here though their presence was strong. It actually helped their cause to announce it on high. It served as a warning rather than a beacon.
She fell silent after that, an unusual occurrence for Vienna, but she did not feel as though it were appropriate to ask many questions of Amekaze now. She had intruded on the other's song, a welcome intrusion but one nonetheless. She did not wish to ruin her night with introductions and idle chat, for those could come later.
She exhaled slowly, a softly concealed sort of breath as she settled into comfort. While she and Vienna were not close, the agouti female's warmth was difficult to ignore. Amekaze remembered that she had warmed to Jace's company quickly, too.
Mhm. I am thinking.. there will be plenty of stargazing opportunities to come, especially as winter darkens and with the mountain's favor,
she replied. Our slopes do make for a good view,
she then added quietly. Possibly one of the best in the Teekon, to her experience, anyway. But autumn is the best time to see the moon, in my opinion.
Something about the season and the way everything aligned. Nothing could quite compare.
The realization of her attachment to this mountain seemed louder in that moment then and she wondered if perhaps, she could summon the pack for time under the stars. Well, she could of course, as was her new-found right to the most freedom and control all at once, but would such even interest a great many of them? It was an idea to keep, at least. Maybe come future moons, we can rally more voices alongside ours,
for she did agree, the moon had a special pull. They may live on the mountain named for the sun yet she saw no reason for them to not howl together more and all the better to involve the full moon; it only made for another way to justify it.
You do have a voice for it. I do not sing often.. well, more.. now, but I agree, how can you not?
she gestured her muzzle skyward towards the moon.
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」
"That would be great!" She loved the idea of coming together as a pack in song, it would not only strengthen the bonds in pack but also declare to the surrounding area that they were a strong, healthy pack. Perhaps any wanderers in the area would hear and desire to join their family. Vienna was always exuberant when it came to new members.
"I wonder what it is about the moon that calls the blood so." She had oftentimes thought on such things, but never come up with a satisfactory answer. Perhaps it was just the sheer beauty, or the ethereal glow that it painted the landscape with. She thought back to the day when the sun had blackened, an event that had happened before she arrived here. The unease that it had inspired had gone bone-deep. It seemed the happenings in the sky had a larger pull on the physical body than she could understand.
It is, we are lucky that we have a plentiful mountain with a good view all in one,
she chuffed softly. Well, it had been plentiful for as long as she had known it. Time would only tell what the winter would offer, but she had a feeling that no amount of seasonal harshness could take away their view of the skies at least.
And, she was pleased to have Vienna's support in this notion of singing to and for the moon. Now that the Sunspire was, for all intents and purposes, hers to shape and guide, she wondered of what kinds of traditions she may put into place during her time here -- if any would last beyond her even. She was learning as she went of course, with Ferdie's foundation clear, her birthpack to utilize as a guide, and her own interests to supplement, the possibilities were certainly plentiful.
I wonder as well. It has such a pull on so many things, and yet, is entirely unseen..
All she saw was the influence, its effect, and felt it deep in her bones despite it not being as obvious as, for example, the sun. I think it is curious how some seem to feel it more than others too, but then again, such is the same with all of nature,
she peered thoughtfully skyward. She had seen many differences among fellow wolves and had been curious if prey-type beasts were the same -- she reasoned they were in their own way.
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」
"True. Have you ever experienced that with anything else?" Vienna liked to learn of such things, not only for the sake of knowledge and drawing possible connections but also because those were the things that friends knew. "I have a couple times, during strong storms and such, though the most similar was the night the lights appeared in the sky. I've no idea why, but it was beautiful." She'd looked for them since, but had not seen them again. It had been in her travels, back when she was still further north than here.
She was thoughtfully silent for a beat as she was considering the question. Yes, with some things, although it is not always easy to explain how it works,
she replied, still looking for the best way to say what she was thinking. Such ideas and feelings did not translate well into words, but her answer was still certain. She felt it deeply.
While I have not been lucky enough to get a good viewing of the auroras before, storms are one for me too. They are one of my favorite weather phenomenons. And I like it when it rains hard -- the.. not quite empty silence, almost white noise of it,
she smirked. Amekaze loved the tempestuous downpours of the springtime the most, and watching the thunderheads roll in from across distant horizons. My mother said we were born during an uncommon storm in the dark of wintertime, so I wonder if that is why.
She rolled her shoulders. Anyway, as I grew, her teachings were to improve one's resonance with nature's aspects.. to draw strength from their beauty and power, in a way, as abstract as it sounds. It is.. mainly a way of thinking, I suppose is one way to put it.
She was not sure if this provided a good enough explanation, thus indicated by the vague splay of her ears.
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」
Family seemed a great factor, for though they did not term it as such , Vienna's parents too had educated her on the beauty of the world around them. Mostly her mother. "Mine as well, in a way. She showed me the uses that signs and gifts left by nature could serve. Though I never had much of a concentration for medicines, I enjoyed her teachings on the weather and the stars." She lifted her eyes to gaze at the sky. "They are good lessons. Your mother must have been a wise woman."
She was content, and knowing of another who could appreciate the rain and the storms was.. satisfying. Ame had once shared the sentiment with her siblings, although got the feeling they were not quite as attached as she was. But, this came easily. It is good to know someone who feels similarly..
she said quietly.
Then, on the topic of mothers, Ame listened keenly to the glance into her history Vienna offered. She had her curiosities about the parents of both Jace and Vienna, and guessed them to be good wolves judging by the offspring they had raised. Now knowing this, that their mother had offered teachings on the weather and medicine, she was only able to concrete this thinking. Ah, she was, and yours sounds like one as well. I wish that I could have learned even more from her,
she said. It was her mother that she had to thank for many things and for her, that Ame wished to be a being she could be proud of.
Then, she lapsed into silence for a time just to enjoy the stars in good company before their paths would part and rest would beckon either of them. Until then, the dark Rikudou was perfectly content to remain until night ran its course.
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」