[ AW ] soak in the stars

The fiery red head had moved through the lands quickly, her paws carrying her as she searched for the smallest glowing things she could find. Where were the fireflies as of late? Were they sleeping? Had they found all their mates? Were they eating? Many questions pressed the foregrounds of her mind and she could not distract herself from it. She had to know all there was to know about them. Could they even drink water? "Where are you hiding?" she asked aloud, as though they could answer her. On her back was the cover of darkness, only a blanket of stars to light her path and the glow of the moon. Soraya knew she should be careful, not to go too far. Not after her father had been beaten up by soldiers. She knew it was dangerous, but her curious mind would not allow her to stop. She had to constantly go go go. She moved down closer to the shore, walking along as the water tried to grab at her paws. She smiled, and though she could feel its winter chill, it really did not bother her. "Come out, come out wherever you are!" She ran along the coast line, looking for adventure anywhere it would find her. "Dream a little dream of me..." @name

The frost eyed boy walked along the cliffs quietly, following the gentle glow of the moon for time away from the bustle of his kin. He loved them, truly but they could be such a headache at times when energy overtook especially his mother. His gaze would fall down toward the waters, the only sound that decided to torment his peace from truly being silent though he did find it fascinating that the ocean waves were not frozen solid like the waters of Perth were. Still, he knew how dangerous water could be at night, coaxed by the ever-controlling moon to thrash and pull and enhance undertows that could consume even the strongest swimmers. He had read of such plights in his books, though not all words he understood in full when concerning water, the general concept held traction within his mind.

Black tipped ears twitched, catching another sound, one not caused by nature. His lip twitched as he recognized it as a voice toward the waters as if the sirens of the elder’s stories were real all along, though his lack of belief would not allow such fact lacking ideas to form for long. This was likely nothing more than another wolf but where was she? Ears swiveled for a more set direction, but it had gone quiet. Drawing in a breath, he would jump down into the dunes below, careful not to slip on any ice covered stone as he reluctantly pressed his feet into sand soon after.

The grains between his toes were probably the most irritating substance he had ever encountered, the tiniest beads he couldn’t just pluck out. His muzzle nearly mimicked his father’s from earlier, further down the shore. His gaze skimmed back toward where he had last seen them, certain he hadn’t gone too far that he’d lose them, nearly certain he could see his father’s radiant white against the sands.

His head quickly turned back toward the water again, hearing the voice a second time, this time beckoning someone. There he would see the shape of a wolf larger than himself right along the licking waterline. A sneer pulled up at his muzzle, finding the stranger to be an utter idiot. “Trying to die?” he said quietly, though it was only a 50/50 chance she might hear him as he jumped up onto a rock and perched up there away from the sand and away from any chance of the water getting him.

manip + code: clae

The female was desperate to find one of her little glowing friends, but they were nowhere in sight. She was not going to give up. There was a soft sound near her, but she couldn't tell where it had come from. She knew her little friends did not speak to her before, so why would they do it now. She lifted up her head, and searched the area for someone who might have owned the voice. "H-Hello?" she called out. The sound of which was not brave, and really just confused as to where the sound had come from. She supposed it was carried off by the waves. She might have been too far from the other - or maybe they disappeared as well. "I am looking for some friends of mine..." she said, and quickly remembered the words of her parents about strangers. They could be an Imperial soldier looking to bring them harm. Soraya was starting to feel as though there was danger present, her ears alert for anything that would tip her off. From the shadows of night, she heard the swoop and screech of Firefly. Firefly was an owl, gifted to her from her parents as a way to help keep track of her - she supposed. She really didn't know, but Firefly had always been a loyal companion. With the owl's swooping screech, she swooped down towards the boy on the rock, alerting Soraya to the fact that she was not alone. Finally she saw him. A wolf of mostly white - he looked like a ghost. She couldn't tell if he were a male or female at this point, and though she thought about moving closer, she decided to keep her distance. "What are you doing up there?" she asked as the owl perched on her shoulder. "Dream a little dream of me..." @Rafael

He would observe her, and she seemed to grow paranoid of him, calling out in likely hope for a return call back but his voice would never rise over the crashing of waves. It would be a frivolous task to respond, and he wasn’t much for such things. His day had already been ruined enough as it was, falling out of schedule after schedule as his siblings and parents refused to sit to his agenda he had planned out from the moment he woke up to when he would have tucked himself away at the first bit of lacking light, yet here they still were. He wasn’t sure if they would ever go home to Perth but at least there had been things to study better than a book could provide him, though it was merely a view of perception, He could be wrong with everything he thought and that made him uncomfortable. There was also the chance he would discover something entirely new, not yet written about and that pushed him to not just vanish for the night.

This girl alone was an interesting study the way she conducted herself to an unknown guest. He held little belief she lived here, believing no one could sleep when this ocean was roaring nonstop since he got here. That begged the question where she originated from but not enough for him to speak. He was in the open and bright white, if she couldn’t see him, surely, she was blind which fascinated him all the more. He had never met someone blind before, only heard of the phenomena and he found it curious if she was such a thing, why she had eyes at all as they scanned around the beach.

Ears would perk up then pin back when something started screeching like nails to wet rocks, causing his head to tilt up toward where it had come from. An owl? Why ever was that thing fluttering around here? Then he would realize that perhaps this was her familiar much like Useless was his parents. He much preferred that needy feline over this obnoxious beast, though flight could prove useful if one could train it to do mundane tasks he didn’t want to do.

Her question would cause him to tilt his head back down at the girl that seemed likely around his age. His tail twitched a few times before he would attempt to bother answering. “Watching you,” he answered, his voice sounding like he had just spent far too much energy to do something so simple as to breathe for her. Surely, she was smart enough to have basic observation skills. “While not getting eaten by the sea like you are about to,” he would add, watching a tidal wave racing toward the shore. He wondered if she would move or get swept away.

manip + code: clae

Soraya thought this male was rather odd. He was just watching her? Why? What was so special about watching her look for the fireflies? With his words about the water coming close to her, she jerked her head around to see the water was in fact doing as he had stated. Kicking up the sand, she rushed further inland, escaping from the water just as it had crashed against a large rock she had just climbed up. A small part of her wanted to thank the weird boy for saving her, but she also wanted to act as though she already knew it was going to happen. All the while, Firefly had flown from her shoulder and perched on the branch of a nearby tree. She began to preen herself, but still kept an eye on her warm-blooded companion. Soraya approached the male, but not too close. She didn't want to give him a better chance to get her - if he was one of them. Soraya's problem was she was not always quite listening to the words her parents spoke. She saw this wolf, heard the slight memory of her father saying there was danger present, but not what side they fought for. "Are you from here?" she asked as she made sure to keep her back far away from him as possible. Below, she could hear the ravaging waves crashing against the very area she had been before. It seemed the tide was getting restless, and he somehow played a role in saving her from certain death. "Do you know where the fireflies are?" "Dream a little dream of me..." @Rafael

His gaze didn’t break from hers as she stared at him, creeping closer to him little by little but never close enough for him to tell the color of her eyes from here. No sparkle of wonder or flare of light as the moon cast a light along the edges of her form but even with no clear visual or even smell, he would guess this to be a girl by the voice alone. He didn’t have much experience with the opposing gender, just regarding them as bubbly and emotional. Mother was by far more emotional than his father or two brothers, his grandmother was a spitfire at times as well, making him kind of see where his mother got it from. The locals he walked past from time to time he couldn’t identify, forgetting their faces if they failed to hold his curiosity. This little lady was yet to be determined if she would hold any memory even hours later.

White tail would wrap around, shaking away some of the cold from the hairless pads as they pressed against his own fur, bracing for an irrational decision to be made of trying to claim the rock for herself like some others he knew. Much to his surprise, she would take to a different stone just in time for the water to crash below her instead of into her, resulting in his bored frost eyes to widen a touch in shock. Maybe all women were unpredictable, which both intrigued and frustrated him. He didn’t like not being able to plan moves ahead to make sure he was the one that always knew what was going on.

Maybe he was more annoyed because he was cold and had she jumped up here, he could have stolen her warmth for himself if he thought a little harder on the feeling within, he would realize it was disappointment rather than anger.

He cared little for the feathered creature as it flew off, his gaze never leaving her as the smallest scrunch of a brow was present on his face. A voice again, this time clearer than before. “Perth,” he replied dully, seeing no point in hiding where he lived. Where he was from was a whole other story, not even sure himself. He knew his father was treated differently than others here, much colder to him…to them. He remembered when he was shooed from a merchant, and he didn’t fully understand why.

As the topic was changed, his lip raised in annoyance, gaze burning into her. “Is that one of those imaginary fairy creatures?” he clicked his tongue though his voice lacked any emotion still, deadpan as ever. He hadn’t a clue what she was asking about.

manip + code: clae

Balancing on the rock was pretty easy on a normal day, but with the sea water splashed on there, it seemed to cause it to become a slight challenge. Soraya knew that she was tough, and wished to be tougher - also to not show her "visitor" that she was weak or just another lame girl. She was so much more than that. A skilled... something... she just hadn't quite figured out what that something was. "Oh Perth, what a lovely place..." she said as though she had known the area well. Truth be told, her family had kept them all very close and only upon nearing her first full year of life was she able to wander from home. But if father found out where she was, she might've found herself in a hot spot of trouble. She wanted to act as though she were someone who knew many things, while the truth was - she felt she knew very little. When it came to geography, she was not well versed, afraid that if she knew things, she might want to know more things, so her parents did not teach her of her surroundings. "Have you been there long?" she asked as one of her rear paws gave a soft slip, almost making her lose her balance entirely. Behind her back, she could hear the waves crashing, begging to add her body as something to bash against the rocks. The question that came from the boy's mouth next shocked her. No! she wanted to shout out, but his question did change something in her mind. Were fireflies just the fae playing tricks on her? No, that couldn't be. If it were true, father would have told her about that. But what if he didn't know the truth? What if this boy did? She was glad they really could not see each other's facial features as she was arguing with herself silently in her head, but her body was playing a role. No, they were bugs. "Fireflies are bugs!" she said rather loud, as though being louder in your voice made you sound like you knew exactly what you were talking about. "They fly, like flies, but they have little glowing bottoms that glow like brilliant little suns on their butts!" Talking about the fireflies made her tail wag. They were a fun bunch to discover and learn about. She wanted to know as much about them as she could. "Do you think you have seen them?" she called out to him, while straightening herself up. "Dream a little dream of me..." @Rafael

He would release a long, slow breath as this girl kept trying to make small talk with him, not seeing a point in any of it when it didn’t matter at all in his own mind. Where one came from could always be changing just like the direction of the wind or the patterns of each snowflake. She was asking mundane trivia that could always change tomorrow or the next day. He preferred she ask questions that actually mattered, the parts of this life that were fixed and knowledge could hold strong. Yet, much to his agitation, she would continue along that track of personal questions but at least this one was sounder than the last. Still, it was hardly any of her business one way or the other as he his ears twitched, more interested in continuing his observation than he was in humoring her tedious inquiries.

“You’d survive better further from the water…” he said plainly, if not with an edge of arrogance to his tone depending on how he was perceived. He moved slightly to the side, allowing her space if she chose to hop more toward him where the water had yet to reach but soon it would retreat, at least for a moment as the water drifted back into another swell before a wave would fan out over the beach again. A repeat cycle until the wind might shift or the tides might withdraw for a while. Eyes blinks rather slowly, anticipating her next move but certain he hadn’t learned enough about her to do such a thing.

Ears sharply flung back when she became all the more boisterous in her sudden denial, correcting him swiftly on what the subject matter was. Bugs. He understood the fascination of such creatures, they evolved swiftly, far faster than a pup. Adulthood could be reached in days or be fully mature from the egg they hatched from. Their changes for those that metamorphosed were far grander, a pupa nothing like its winged future. A caterpillar is still a wonder in how they became so vastly different once butterflies.

Still, her question seemed rather peculiar to him. “They are dead, probably,” he said with a shrug, focusing on the water shrinking back. “Or buried themselves from the cold… but most flies don’t live long, even if they could handle winter,” the response was factual as he jumped down from his boulder to move his way further from the beach, expecting her to follow if she had any brains but he wouldn't hesitate to leave her there if she chose not to.

-exits if not followed or stopped-

manip + code: clae

Soraya had little experience with others outside of her family, so to her, this boy was odd. The way that he barely spoke, and wanted to tell her what to do. She didn't hate it, but she definitely grew more curious of him. He had moved over on the rock, and she had wanted to not be forced to jump towards him, but once another wave came her way, she leapt right onto the open spot. Now they were very close to one another. It would be hard to keep her back away from him now. He could reach out and touch her back his his nose if he wanted. "They are not flies! F i r e f l i e s..." she said in an exasperated tone. The fact that he claimed they all died in the cold was a very sad thing to hear, and she would not believe it to be true. "Maybe they do like birds and fly south for the winter?" The question was not really posed to him, but more so just blurted from her brain to her lips, no thought process in it. He didn't know. He was just a boy and he didn't know what any of them even were. He called them flies of all things! As he jumped down, she followed suit. "Hey, you can't just say something like that and walk away!" She didn't know what his motives were or why he would do that, but she was more curious of him as they spoke more. "I'm Soraya, who are you?" "Dream a little dream of me..." @Rafael

Talons would linger on the edge of the boulder as she intruded into his personal bubble, though he hardly cared as he looked at the girl, all the more massive up close as he took note: she was larger than himself. There was a gentle touch of his cold nose into the warmth of her shoulder, though he wished it didn’t carry the scent of the brine that encircled them. His eyes would roll once her voice pierced his ears; sure they could be bleeding after her little bout of vocal energy. Where her in his space was fine, he regretted allowing her on his stone if she was just going to yell in his ear, something exponentially quieter when she was distanced away from him. All he would cast her is a subtle glare, the minute furrow of a brow and a twitch of a tail.

“Believe what you want. Many wallow comfortably in misinformation purgatory,” he replied apathetically as she spewed words that made little sense to him. Why would an insect behave like a bird? He supposed it was possible but whatever it was she spoke of he couldn’t imagine would make it that far unless it was a flying beetle of some kind. It wouldn’t be the first thing that was named weird yet wasn’t in the classification of its own name. At the moment, it didn’t really matter to him, but it would surely leave him pondering later. Possibly even research it himself to find an answer even if he never saw her again.

Thinking he was about to get away free from her voice, that bit of hope would be shattered as he noticed her become his shadow. It wasn’t wits that led her to stalk after him but the need to be annoying as far as he was concerned. “You don’t have to make my ears ring, but you do anyway,” he sounded tired but there was the faintest hint of a smile, easily lost by the lack of markings to accent the curve of his lips. Curiosity and driving others crazy were a lovely force to deal with and it made him almost feel a desire to keep her in his company. Downside, he’d be expected to carry conversation and that was such a drag.

Gaze shifted to her as she requested his name, and he was apprehensive to allow it to fall from his lips in distaste for her possibly shortening it. Not giving her one could lead to a horrible nickname and with that he relented in answering. “Rafael.”

manip + code: clae