Dragoncrest Cliffs i know what's waitin' for me

a wild naturalist thread appears!

rhaegal waits until the sun has dipped beneath the waves to venture out to the sands. the sand that shifts underfoot as he moves towards the roaring tide is cold and dusted with the light snow that had fallen on and off during the height of the day.

the sky, now, is blissfully clear.

frigid; each breath that passes thru his lips or black leathery nostrils a tendril of writhing steam.

the waning moon is but a silver crescent; offering little in the way of light.

the stars spread out overhead like a celestial map and rhaegal settles upon his haunches, head tipped skyward to allow his golden gaze to trace them.

Perfect!

Normally, she would sleep through the night soundly, as she did not often take time to nap through the day. When she’d seen the stars before, she’d pondered them briefly, but had given them little of her time. Now, with the inundation of stress, Suzu found herself wide awake in the middle of the night, overtired from worry. 

She pattered down to the beach for some fresh air…And maybe something to have as a midnight snack. The air was chilly; she shook and fluffed her pelt out a bit, a tactic that made her look as though she had absolutely no waistline. 

She was surprised to see Rhaegal, alone, peacefully staring at the stars. He had new wounds on his face, but this was nothing new to Suzu who understood that there had a great deal of violence lately. 

In spite of it all, the man watched the stars. She moved to join him, and tilted her head back too.

rhaegal is surprised but not entirely taken off guard — for there are many wolves in sapphique — to see someone settle down beside him in the sand. he does not break his concentration; at least not at first.

after a prolonged moment, he peers down to find suzu. hey, greets the sveijarn.

you come out here tae watch the stars as well? he inquires; conversationally.

Her ears turned back slightly, a show of deference, but also of her shyness. He seemed happy enough to have someone join him, and he seemed to enjoy the thought that someone, like him, had come out to gaze at the stars. Suzu smiled a bit bashfully, and shook her head. 

"No...I could not sleep." She worried about the boys, but she did not want to dwell on those thoughts. So she looked up at the stars. "I do not know anyt'ing about de stars. I study de tides, de trees, de sea...But what even are stars?" She asked.

she couldn't sleep, she tells him.

rhaegal makes a soft noise of acknowledgement in his throat, considering that it was fair given the turmoil that has plagued sapphique as of late.

tae be fair, i dinnae ken either, really. rhaegal admits. the elders of meares island, they used tae say that the stars are souls of the dead. rhaegal tells her, gaze trailing back to the stars. maybe they are suns. though this statement comes out more like a question despite not being one he necessarily wanted an answer to.

he could speculate forever on what they were and be wrong every time.

you can see shapes in them. you can use them tae navigate, and tae make predictions of the weather. he gives pause here, allowing the load of information he gave to process, golden gaze flickering from the stars back to suzu, gauging her reaction to what he's said thus far.

Those were the souls of other wolves? She frowned, to see so many of them up there. She knew none who had passed- but thought perhaps it might be somewhat of a comfort, having her beloved family up there where she could see them, all the time. 

When he spoke of shapes and navigation, he piqued her interest. "What kind of shapes? 'Ow do you use dem for navigation?" She asked. To her, the eyes looked unfamiliar; a speckling of light up in the sky that was beautiful, but random.

all kinds of shapes! rhaegal says, gaze lifting from suzu to find a constellation. it takes a bit but he finally finds a shape, tail wagging softly before him. see those four stars there? he asks, lifting a paw to trace the shape of the constellation. that's leo minor. it's supposed tae be a lion cub. not that he knew what a lion looked like. but he'd heard whispers from elders.

supposedly, one had seen such a beast — among many others that rhaegal had always assumed were myths.

if nothing else, it made for a nice story to tell bairns.

well, first you gotta find polaris, rhaegal tells her, lifting his paw to point to the bright star at the top of the little dipper. also known as the north star. as that name suggests: it always holds it's position north, so if you can find it, you ken north, south, east and west.

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. There weren't shapes, not from a thousand dots up in the sky! But she was eager, too, to learn something new about an aspect of nature she'd never considered and Rhaegal...Well, he certainly seemed to like the topic. When he pointed to four stars, she looked up- and saw four stars. Here, there, over there, further away, close up- and she laughed. "Dere be four stars everywhere!" She cried happily. "An' how be four stars a lion? Where be his flippers, hmm? An' his tail? An' his beady eyes." She said, batting her eyelashes as if to demonstrate. Suzu thought he meant the constellation was of a sealion of course- the only kind of loin she was familiar with. 

The patterns were interesting, but tough for her mind to grasp. She was a logical creature, and could not really see shapes in the stars, even though there was definitely a way to pick them out. But when Rhaegal mentioned the stars having a scientific use, her ears perked. He gestured to a star, and pointed to one she thought she could see. But in context, it was one of an infinite amount of stars. "'Ow do you fin' just dat one?"

a low chuckle leaves rhaegal.

suzu had him there.

stars were numerous and he wonders if he was just one of the lucky few that could discern shapes out of them.

there's the head, rhaegal tries to point out the set of triangular stars that make up leo minor; slower this time. the body, and the tail.

well, the elders always used tae say it's the brightest star in the sky, rhaegal tells her, voice thickening with the nostalgia that grips him as he tries to recall his lessons.

i dinnae ken if that's true, rhaegal admits; sheepish. but if you can find the little dipper, he slowly points out the shape of the little dipper, squinting at the sky with one eye closed as if he were a pirate peering thru a spyglass. polaris is always right there, at the dipper's tail.

A head, a body, a tail. She grimaced, squinting, and looked at him; probably giving him a look that said I think you're maybe kind of a little bit crazy and tried to force a smile, which withered. She couldn't see it. It didn't look like the shape of a sea lion at all to her, and there were so many other stars around that she found it hard not to get distracted. "I do not t'ink I be good at dis," She said. "But dey are in de same place every night, yes?" Maybe if she sat in that spot, on another night, she might be able to pick it out, regardless of whether it looked like a lion or not. 

Another constellation- the dipper- was pointed out. She wasn't sure if a dipper was a bird, but without an explanation, she assumed it was. Three stars formed its tail, so she assumed it was some kind of sea bird that had a long tail. She frowned. "I do not t'ink it be de brightest; it would be so much easier if it was." She sighed. 

Another celestial body caught her eye. It was bigger than the others, and it did not flicker. It was snugged down near the horizon, but even still, in comparison to most of the other stars in the sky, it looked bigger. "What is dis star?" She asked- not knowing that she was pointing not to a star, but to a planet.

aye, for a bit. a pause and sheepish grin is offered. they shift their positions in the sky each month. the basis for which, rhaegal does not know, not knowing about earth's rotation. to him, its simply a known fact from studying them beneath the tutelage of the islands' elders for years.

it simply was.

aye, rhaegal admits with a soft sigh, wishing he knew an easier way to show her what he saw: how he'd learned to pick out polaris among all the others and use the constellations to make the trek from the island to here.

a rise of muzzle and focus of golden gaze to find the star suzu points out. that's venus. rhaegal murmurs, drawing a soft, quiet breath; the sound of which is swallowed by the soft lulling roar of the sea. it's nae a star. it's a planet like earth.

Suzu pursed her lips together, releasing them only when she muttered "Each month..." As she tried to figure out what it all meant. To her, it did not make sense that the stars moved- until now, she had imagined that they were in the same spot, all the time- simply not visible because the sun was too bright when it moved to take its place in the sky. She looked at the sand. 

"So...De sun comes across de eart', every day. An' dere be twelve mont's in a year, an' de stars move each month...An' dey end up in de same place, every year, yes? So where de stars be in dis February, dey will be dere again next February?" She asked. "So say...Dat be so, per'aps dey be movin' in a ring, aroun' us? If dere be patterns in de stars, den dey must be all movin' toget'er....Or..." 

She thought silently for a moment. All those stars? Moving simultaneously, in a perfect ring, for year after year after year? It was more likely that they weren't moving at all. 

"Or are we spinning?" She asked. "An' are dere wolves on Venus? Can dey come here an' tell us if de stars move aroun' us too?"

aye, rhaegal offers with encouragement as suzu works to puzzle it out. on whether the stars spin around them or they spin around the stars ... rhaegal can't say. the starwatchers of the islands had appeared to be locked in an never ending disagreement about that. some said the earth spun, others said the stars. rhaegal himself never had much of an opinion upon it, sticking to the fact that regardless: the stars' positions changed but always ended up in the same spot during their designated month.

i dinnae ken, suzu. he admits. some starwatchers of the islands said the stars spun, others argued the earth. i said as long as i ken where they are each month then that was all i needed tae ken. he gives voice to his inner monologue, hoping it might offer suzu some peace from the unanswerable question.

rhaegal's gaze lifts once more to venus, pondering her question: surely one he's asked himself from time to time when he wasn't studying the constellations in the sky. maybe, he allows. because ... why wouldn't there be wolves on venus? there were wolves on earth, after all! we cannae travel there ... and they cannae travel tae us. ... i like tae think there is wolves on venus ... maybe even wolves on tae moon.

Suzu was not satisfied with simply accepting that the stars had a function without knowing how it was they moved, or if it was the earth that spun. She tried to think of a way to test one theory and the other, but found herself with only one notion. 

As for there being wolves on Venus, they too, it seemed, were unobtainable. Another disappointment. 

”You know, de tide comes in differently when de moon is full.” She said. ”Dey must be connected somehow.” She said.

aye, rhaegal rumbles to suzu's observation. the moon and the tide are connected. a small pause, another glimpse skyward.

i dinnae kin how, he supplies; sheepishly. but the elders of meares islands used tae say the moon was a searock, once and the sea's tide changes because the sea misses it.

rhaegal puts little stock in the story aside from it being a way to sate eager cub's curiosities when they truly didn't know the answer.

Suzu was glad that he agreed with her theory- but she wrinkled her nose a bit when he spoke of lore which made no sense, in her opinion. She tried to smoothe her features; stories were important, she told herself- even if they were not scientifically correct at all.

”Hmm.” She said, with a light nod. Frankly, it seemed like a ridiculous notion to the skeptical girl- but she knew what it was like to miss someone. Her eyes softened. ”It do seem like dey be reachin’ for one anot’er.” That was a compromise she could make. 

”How far away is Meares Island?” She asked.

on the topic of beliefs ... rhaegal had no real opinion. despite that meares island had been steeped in; rooted deeply into it's culture. rhaegal considered himself an outlier in that he was rather agnostic. he shared what he knew, what he'd been told as a young lad by elders much older and wiser than him.

perhaps there was truth to be had in their tales and perhaps there wasn't.

it wasn't up to rhaegal to decide for anyone but himself.

aye. he murmurs; offering nothing deeper.

pretty far, rhaegal guesses. i traveled along tae coast for many days and nights. it took me about three weeks, maybe. the days and the nights began tae bleed intae one another.

"T'ree weeks?!!" She piped, ears flattening and eyes widening in disbelief. She rolled her eyes and wheeled her head in an exasperated circle. "Ugh, I cannot imagine walking for dat long. An' if you wanted to go back an' visit, it would take another t'ree weeks to go, and t'ree weeks to come back!" She exclaimed. She shook her head and sighed. 

With a light chuckle, she shook her head and gave him an earnest look. "I do 'ope you like it here, Rhaegal. An' dat you are not too 'omesick for de Island."