Moonspear fell into a rabbit hole

he'd not gathered up the courage to wander past the spear's safety quite yet, opting instead to stick to the known familiarly of his home. he knew eventually he'd find his feet out in the expanse of the wilderness again, but...

that girl had scarred him in more ways than one. 

and so he challenged himself with a different objective; to scale the mountain as high as he could. he almost ditched that idea too, out of fear his mother would scold him for pushing himself after so recently being released from the healing ulaq. 

but he wanted to explore, to go where he had not before, and well, this was one of his limited options. so with a puff to psych himself up, acrux began his physical and mental hurdle towards the peak.

she preg an' I don't have internet to avoid a checker atm so have a scaredy-coyjackal

Darkwoman watched. 

Darkwoman waited. 

Shadows were her friend, her only friend, it seemed. Talisman seemed to have left her to her own devices. Sunlight seemed to writhe around her paws like claw claws trying to rake through her pelt. Wolfscent everywhere, wolf - WOLF there was a wolf, oh she was going to - 

Moonspear safe. Moonwolf said so. 

Moonspear safe, the words kept repeating in her head like she relied on them to survive. 

She was safe. Her pups in snow-melt would be safe. 

Her heart calmed, and the black coyjackal slowly stepped a dainty paw into light. 

W-who is... this one?

he trudged towards the peak, eventually crossing the invisible line where his record for climbing the spear had once rest. everything beyond that point was new, unexplored territory to the youth. 

he scrambled to find his footing as the mountain tipped to offer steeper bouts of earth, a poor placement of his paw resulting in a slip and a cut along his front-left ankle. gaze flickered down to catch a glimpse of the small beads of crimson that began to trickle from the scratch. 

he momentarily halted his climb to plop himself on his rear and lift a foreleg to lick at the minuscule injury. by the time he returned home, the bleeding would have long subsided and the injury would be forever forgotten about. 

a voice called out to him resulting in a sudden burst to his feet. his eyes darted around before falling on the figure of an odd looking lady who somewhat reminded him of talis. weird appearances these non-wolves had, so similar and yet so different. 

"hello," he greeted with a sweep of his tail. "i'm acrux, who are you?" he questioned while bringing his leg back up for another lick over his wound.

she honestly hadn't expected the wolf to interact with her, no - even if she did prompt his doing so. 

but golden eyes fell more toward the wound he nursed. wolfs could get hurt? 

Kusuma is Kusuma. she said, quietly, paws tucked neatly under her tail. her heart pounded up her throat and in her ears, making it hard to determine what wolf was saying. 

wolf didn't... seem the type to bite and kill her. was she getting sick? her stomach felt no rest.

her speech was as odd as she appeared. 

he tilted his head at her words, paw coming to rest back on the ground as he wondered if she'd been dropped on her head as a baby and that's why she seemed...off? was that the correct word? 

"kusuma is weird," he let out, though his tone was not one of insult. he did not intended for the words to act as offense as much as it was an outward verbal assessment. he didn't mind the weird. he was weird. and being weird was significantly better than being boring. 

"what ya doing up here?" he wondered as he glance upwards towards the still towering peak of the spear. it would take him days to reach the top. 

he brought his focus back to the odd little lady, a tongue sweeping over chapped lips.

kusuma is sorry! Kusuma is not from... here- and it was... hard for Kusuma to learn common- her head tilted toward the ground, her voice quick and higher-pitched than it had been a moment ago. Kusuma-love often joked, but the sort of coywolf joke coyjackal understood.

a tiny whine.

Kusuma... wanted to look at sky. tell pups stories. but Kusuma does not... know any from here.

an apology rung out, followed by quick words and an explanation. and then a whine. guilt tugged at him, the boy realizing his words were perhaps not the most acceptable to say aloud. "i didn't mean it in a bad way!" he let out as he took a hesitant step forward, ears splayed back in regret. 

he had not intended to hurt her feelings or cause her discomfort. 

he settled as she spoke of the sky and stories, a breath let out that he'd been holding in. 

his chin tipped upwards to glance at the clouds drifting overhead. "you do not need to know stories to tell them," the boy let out as his gaze found that of kusuma's. "the best stories are the one you make up," he revealed with an apologetic smile. 

"the best stories," he started, figure shifting back towards the peak, "are the ones you live through." and then he took a few steps to continue his trip towards the top of the spear. "like how right now there are two brave adventures tasked with climbing the dangerous mountain to find the crystal that will protect their home with ancient magic!" he weaved the tale like a spider spun their webs, eyes glimmering with enchanted wonder. 

he glanced towards kusuma, waiting to see if she would take on the role of a brave adventurer and join him on this grand quest.

the best stories are the ones you live through.

then... Kusuma has... one story.

two brave adventurers? that didn't go with Kusuma at all! the coyjackal wasn't brave, or adventurous - adventure just happened to her, once. 

maybe she could?

a hesitant pawstep forward. 

no, no - she should stay here- 

a step back.

but there were more wolfs there- 

she jumped at that, nearly landing at the wolf's feet and scrambling to get herself under control again. if Kusuma goes, can Kusuma tell story?

the woman did not immediately jump to join him in his grand adventure of narration, and acrux almost instantly let his grin fall to a thin pressed line. he had expected her to react in a similar way that talis had, or alaric, or maggak...or really anyone else in his life. but she was more timid, and the boy simply thought it had to do with her weirdness. 

she sounded as if she'd rather recite a story than live through one, which while the more dull of the two options, was still enjoyable for the youth. so with a shrug of his shoulders he turned to offer her a quick, "sure," before continuing his climb.

Poor Kusuma just wants someone to love her, but she won't let just anyone in

her slender paws held out for climbing, Kusuma found herself decently not terrible at it. She'd only ever raced down the mountain, so going up was new to her. 

[q]Kusuma not from here,[q] she started plainly, matter-of-factly, before erupting in her tale as old as time (to her). Silver Bird, how it was big enough to swallow coyjackal whole, flew over a lake so big it made the biggest wolf look like an ant. How it spit her and Kazakir out when wind stopped blowing through its wings.

How she ran off from it when she found her paws touching land. 

What she didn't say was how lonely she felt now that Kazakir disappeared. How she hoped the litter to be would love her. Maybe then she'd be able to feel warm again in her own nest.