Moonspear your love will always be rooted deeper than any grave, ii

Hydra, physically, was healing well and healing swiftly. 

But there was a dark shadow within her gaze now that had taken residency there; she felt it stretch and loom within her far greater than the heights of Moonspear had darkened the doorstep of so many others. Who knew how long it would linger? Hydra both hated and embraced the pain; to feel it made her feel as though those who had left her, who had been ripped from her life, were somehow still here. How could she ensure these wolves were never forgotten? 

She would murmur stories to her children nightly, and to any who might listen—Saviguk, perhaps, or Sialuk. The story was one of truth; nature, both a great and terrible thing. The might of the lonesome bear whos wrath had awoken it one fateful Winter, but the greater power of the pack of wolves that had come together to bring it to its knees. Desdemona; Keres; Toad; West; Leta; Conquest; Polaris; Osiris, her son—heroes until the end, dying to protect their own...

All of the sudden, Hydra felt her sisters alongside her. She exhaled a heavy breath. 

Not you. Never you. 

And she closed her eyes, moving forward, thinking—reflecting. So much had been gained in her lifetime, and so much had been lost. Which was more? Which was less? Did it matter in the strange sequence of events that life had orchestrated? A mother should not outlive her children, she breathed wearily to her sisters. But she knew their thoughts; you must outlast all of the rest, and she knew their reason for thinking it, too. 

There was no life without Lyra, without Alya; she opened her eyes and looked left, looked right. Since utero, it had always been the three of them. Until the end, Hydra was aware that it would be this way. Equally aware, too, that she would fight like Hell for all of the rest that remained. That would come. 

She thought then of Dirge. Of time. His patience; her patience; Hydra did not know what she had imagined, but life had exceeded all of that with him. Thanks to him, perhaps. And he too had lost a child; together they had rest in quiet, trying to sleep but unable to for the horrors of what had transpired until even they could not win the battle against it. She loved him fiercely, dearly. 

Her mind rifled through those she loved, those she had lost—even before Osiris. Arcturus, Revui. Death had taken one, and life had stolen the other... but the anger in her heart for it all fizzled. The passing of her son seemed to curb any old resentments toward those that were her blood, at least; they would not know it, neither of them—and be that because she would never speak it or because one was dead and the other would never return, who was to know? Who would ever tell? 

But for those that had died that harbored the full breadth of her love... Hydra would immortalize them. They would breathe in stories, and the thought warmed her. Toward her living children Hydra moved; her nieces, her nephew, her sons and daughters. The thought brought her peace. West, Polaris, Toad, Desdemona, Keres, Tehama, and all the rest would live on this way. A wink of light in the sky, and Hydra looked upward; a colossal object came then, aflame and with such speed now that Hydra knew nothing of fear or anger or even confusion as it collided somewhere near the path of she and her sisters. 

Peace was the last thing the matriarch knew, as Moonspear and the weight of it crumbled into the Valley below—and darkness as the world raged on. 

This was incredibly difficult to write, but Hydra's journey here has finally come to an end. I do not have the time I once did to commit to leadership or writing in general with my new career and also trying to figure out my lifes next steps; after a long discussion with leadership (past & present) FFG/MSP will both be disbanding as per this post. Permission to powerplay PPC's fully granted by their players. Vague mention of others who I have touched base with (buppies) about this. I leave extent of damage up to CM's; I have rendered the opposing face of MSP (toward the Glen) pretty messed up to the point of inability to make sense of the longstanding pack shifting; it is my hope to see some of the beautiful pack ideas flourish and come to life, or else for those who would like to reshape and continue the legacy to do so however they wish. Anyone can be walking with Hydra, though I was given control of the characters mentioned in this post <3 Whether this is cataclysmic or not I leave to the CMs, but I imagine at the very least there might be some damage reaching some of FG in my own head to cause disruption there. Writing Hydra here has been a privilege and a joy. To everyone I have played and written with... thank you SO much. This was the only way I could see her going, and felt like a good temporary end to my own writing, so ending it with a bit of a bang <3 Now Hydra and I can both rest for a while! 

The mountain queen had faltered, for loss and blood had coated both packs in a sea of despair. The line had been broken. None now remained to carry on the legacy, and the dark empress had lost the strength that the eagle had once recognized. He stayed only because the recovery might prove quick, for the she-creature had always been resilient.

The eagle flew overhead while she remained in thought, casting a vague shadow upon the snow-covered ground. The air was quiet, and still, in a way that he did not trust. Occasionally, he let loose a familiar call down to her, filling the silence around them with strength. The currents washed harshly over his flight feathers as he coasted, but there seemed nothing for them there on that fateful day.

Death is a funny thing.
Life is a funnier thing.
One moment you are here, and the next, a massive rock from space is blinding the earth in a terrible white light. I see a light.

The moment was instantaneous. The fireball smashed into the eagle, which incinerated into oblivion on contact. It found its mark then on the mountain, and the pair were welded together in a flash of horror and destruction.

Elke will be gone from the game as of this thread/post.

The bones had offered the woman no comfort in their readings, not like the northern girl would have hoped for when she had willed @Sialuk to tell her what they had to offer. The young woman's time, if not with Sialuk, she was merely wondering the mountainous territory of her home. She felt hollow after the loss of so much of her family- mother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousins… The death toll was abundant and those simply having just disappeared seemed countless.


Elke played the part, taking to hunting for small game where she could, searching for some medicines that might be useful like certain bark and pines. She had even minded the borders, looking out to the Glen beyond. A shell of her former self. She knew it, as did Sialuk and Hydra, but all the while Elke did her very best to try to push forward, to try and have a life now without so many which she had loved.


But it was not to be. Life here was fleeting and the moment Elke lifted her eyes to see the great star falling from the heavens, she knew the Empire of Moonspear and all which stood in it's path, was done. There was little time for panic, for sorrow, for anger, for all Elke could muster from her lips was a small oh and the sudden knowledge of her defeat. Everyone's defeat, as the meteor crashing into earth.

It was dark, and then it wasn't.

Mira was far from the point of impact, but she saw the flash of light, moving so quick through the sky that she almost wondered if she had hallucinate it once it dissapeared behind the slopes, until it came crashing down and seemed to shake the very ground she was standing on. The serpent fell to her knees, crumbling. Rocks and pebbles tumbled; dust settled around her. She coughed out a shaky breath, and opened her eyes that she realized she had clenched tightly shut. She couldn't fear this- she couldn't. If something had the balls to try and shake Moonspear, she was determined to go tear them off. 

When she got closer to the scene, it got harder to navigate the terrain. Mira realized whatever creature had done this had done far worse than she could have imagined- Moonspear's land was unrecognizable. Clouds of dust still floated in the air here, as if refusing to let her see. But there was little to prevent her once she caught a touch of scent, and followed it, until she crumbled once again at the side of Mother's remains. She wouldn't look anymore- she did not want to see how unrecognizable the Queen might be. But her scent was here, and her still body. Hydra's daughter clenched her eyes shut, and sobbed without shame into her own paws in front of the remains, feeling more alone than she ever had before.

Days were quiet, lately. Typical, made of uneventful patrol and snowy hunts. A pensive sort of silence had come with it all though, the dark Ostrega thought. Maybe because he was hotly anticipating the turn of the springtime, waiting for any true sign from the mountainside that it was really on its way. Jarilo was on a neatly contained edge as the frozen days spanned on, doing his best to help the family carry its new weight--of grief, absence, sorrow, duty. In all of his years, though they were not yet that many, never had it been so much, so very quickly.

But as ever, it taught him to keep close to what he had. He had sprung back from great and awful loss before, after all. Moonspear raised steadfast wolves, and he was very much one of them tried and true, born and bred. For what he did have, and everything that had come before them, he remained strong.. though not without worry as he saw the toll.

After finishing off his work low on the territory that had run late tonight, Jarilo was moving up towards a well-worn path to the ulaq, trotting lightly, and thinking ahead to what may await him--where he went for comfort, to relax, to bask in the warmth and love of his family and share it all with them, too; but a rare misplaced step stumbled him, effectively stalling progress enough to breath deep, and look up as he righted himself. His expression scrunched up, confused... but he couldn't look away. It was getting brighter, steadily, until it began with a sudden burst, and everything around him flashed, shifted. No--worse than that, somehow, impossibly so.

His next realization was suddenly that he was no longer on his feet as the mountain gave a deep, soul-crushing groan. He heard it from above, but felt it best from below, and as it reverberated into his bones, he became a struggle. Forward, up.. but it only let him see more, as his eyes readjusted to the darkness silhouetting the despair. Jarilo balked in horrified awe, and once he found his feet again, he tore frantically down his original route, hopefully to Kukutux, to Sialuk.. Saviguk; they made a stronger man of him, after all. Yet panic soared him along, desperate to find them, anyone--Hydra, Dirge!--as his entire pantehon o shifted, suffered, around him. He felt it more than he saw it, how could he not? The sound of the earth reacting, recoiling, was all-consuming; he had never heard anything like it before.

The path that had been there for all of his days very suddenly was not, but he couldn't stop dead in his tracks now. Instead he changed his course (like a young boy once playing chase with his sisters here), new fear now accompanying the sheer need that burned him up; snow, rocks, no--the entire earth, they fell recklessly, and gravity drug it down the side of the mountain. But he had run these slopes for so long, too long to give in easily. He would simply go, until he could no longer...

It came to him suddenly. Overwhelmed. Suffocating in this new, sudden nightmare that was far worse than even any worry of his, he desperately tried to find his footing just like last time, to take it in, find out where he needed to go--where his loved ones were, but it was too much to ever make sense of, not in this lifetime, let alone as the Spear's  wounds bled so openly. What was he supposed to do? What would his parents have done, besides fall, too?

Jarilo's head rolled back, looking for the moon, and realizing: oh, he had never seen a sky like this.

(can't look at it too long, very big ;__________________;!)

since i did not get a chance to reply to ongoing conversation before the moonspear forum/channel left the building, and wanting to get another word in for the sake of those who have chosen to write here with us at any given point in time: it is not the 100% picture perfect ideal for everyone, everywhere, i get that. in the spirit and story of moonspear right now, i think the fact that "luckily" members do honor our wishes about this when faced with them speaks for itself, so thank you all so very much for making this what it was, and will be.

assume he is missing in the chaos of it. if anyone from moonspear wants to hear antares hollering desperately for you, he has a thread in firefly glen. there is also bronco rallying others from the outer edge of the glen.

This was different from when Mother Lightning rumbled across the skies and sent beautiful flashes through it. It was beautiful in its own way, despite the damage that it caused. He had never seen anything like this in his life. His brain wasn't quite wired to realise the disaster that this spelled, or the uncertainties it would bring for the future, but he knew that it would bring change, at the very least.

He breathed into the cold winter air. It only then occurred to him that he had been holding his breath all this time.

Even though he knew it was not what he should do, he followed the trail of Mira up towards the mountain. Rocks slid down as he made his way, knowing that it was unwise. But his sister was there, and although he held little affection towards any of his siblings, Mira was the one that he connected the most with. Probably because she left him alone, and because she was a good leader. And he? He was but a follower.

When Mira first came into view he merely stopped and watched her, crumbled beside the body of their mother. He recognised it only vaguely, but it was no longer her, that much he realised. It was so much not her that Caelum did not understand why Mira would attach any emotions to her body anymore. He did not even feel the urge to approach, but he waited as a stalwart guardian. One thing he did realise was that his nurturer and leader was gone.

What did the future hold?