Noctisardor Bypass i praise the earth and the sky and the moon

witch reveled in the freedom that the rendezvous site offered, determined to explore every inch of rivenwood at her own pace. druid often joined her, and the pale child never minded her company. without words, they knew what the other needed; whether silence, a conversation, or something else. her litter mate felt like an extension of her own self.

but there were times when she preferred to be alone with her imagination, and she found tonight to be one of those nights. leaving the comfort of her slumbering family, witch sleepily relieved herself in some nearby brush, but something compelled her to trek to a small clearing to gaze at the open sky.

a tapestry of winking stars surrounded the luminous, waning gibbous moon. against the deep, purple-blue night sky, a swirling masterpiece of clouds told an epic tale. there, a noble wolf defending his pack from a challenging elk-- and there, a hare leaping through a field of wildflowers.

she breathed deeply, ears tuned to the symphony of cicadas and crickets, to the nocturnal creatures in the brush. she wondered at their lives, entire dramas played out in the night while she was sleeping. there was so much to discover about the world, it was overwhelming-- beautiful, but bittersweet that she would likely only ever know a small sliver of it.

thank you, she murmured breathlessly to all of it.