as the moon ascends ,
the wolves come out to see the end
At last, she's made it out of Denocte and is on to explore even more new sights. Vae can hardly contain her excitement- her coat is shining brilliantly to match her mood. In a way, it's a bit daunting since she's managed to travel so much farther than she did for the island. Surely in the end, it will all be worth it.
Through her travels, she's seen many interesting sights. It had been a bit nerve wracking to travel through the mountains again, but thankfully she didn't run into anyone from her family group. Once she had been able to make it through there, it was beautiful snow peaks and old, weathered tree trunks. She's never seen anything like it back home, so she had taken a moment to stop and admire them.
Now she's headed in the direction of the river she hears roaring ahead. Even from the mountain tops, she can't say she remembers hearing anything so loud. Vae's not disappointed either when she comes up to it and even gasps a little in awe. The currents look to be so strong that she makes sure to be careful along the edge when she looks down. There is a certain smell to the water here and the best way she can describe it is fresh. It's unique and she likes it.
Something catches the light of the sun just right as she's looking down and Vae lights up. Carefully, she takes a stone out of the riverbed and brings it up closer for her to see. It has some sharp edges and a shiny black surface. It's extremely pretty and so she immediately stashes it into her pack for safe keeping. The girl looks around eagerly for more things she might be able to collect before continuing to explore these new lands.
The stick looks something like a sword, long and straight and somewhat flat, one end wide and the other jagged and pointed. She can see where it broke away from the tree, and she brushes the splinters away lovingly when she picks it up and shakes away the frost.
The wood is still somewhat damp, heavy in her grasp as she raises it over her head. It makes a whistling sound as she swings it, around and around, before letting it crash down upon a rotting log. The stump splinters, moss and mushrooms caving in around the hole her attack leaves. Decay and laughter fill the air, and Maret spins away, stabbing her sword at an invisible enemy.
Through the woods she races, feinting and parrying and lunging and dodging. Her wooden weapon is a whirl of movement all around her, slashing and stabbing and knocking aside every bush and vine that dares stand in her way. And in her mind she is untouchable, unstoppable, even as her heart stutters and she trips and skins one knee. Because as soon as she falls she’s back up again, twirling through the trees, running alongside the river -
She skids to a stop, breathless, when she comes across the antlered girl. Her coat is dark, almost as dark as the shadows in the woods, but it’s blue instead of green. Maret watches her as she watches the river, and it’s not until she pockets the stone from the shores that she steps boldly forward.
“Are you stealing that?”
Her voice is lilting, too sweet to be as accusatory as it is. There’s a glimmer in the girl’s half-blue eyes, as she lifts her stick-sword up and points it at the mare. The tip of it hovers in the air, traveling in a miniature circle like it’s tracing the moon that graces the the girl’s brow.
Her lips quirk into an almost-smile.
“Delumine doesn’t take kindly to thieves, you know.” Does she notice the way her voice wavers, like the trembling of the earth before an earthquake? Her heart flutters inside of her chest, skipping one, two, three beats before settling back into rhythm. The girl hardly notices, brandishing her makeshift weapon.
as the moon ascends ,
the wolves come out to see the end
It's not often that Vaeri is caught in the act of collecting, but when she is, it's a hard situation to explain. When she hears another voice, it sounds higher pitched like a child but it doesn't startle her too badly. She can't help but smile at the young guard when she turns around, seeing the makeshift weapon pointing straight at her.
"Not exactly," she replies warmly. "I'm bringing a piece of Delumine home with me." And she is. The rock called to her in such a way that she had to bring it home with her. She wants to remember the sights she's seen here and what better way to do so than bring a small token back? Plus it would've nagged her all day if she hadn't picked it up.
As the girl's voice wavers, it's hard to tell if she's truly afraid of Vae or not. The Star-Shed decides to play along and see if it's just a game. Maybe this girl is a soon-to-be warrior and is practicing her confrontational skills.
"And what will be my fate, young warrior?" Vae says with a challenge lingering in her words. She takes the stone back out of her pack for a moment to twirl it around in the air in between them. Almost as if to say to the girl, 'if you want it, come get it'.
@Maret sorry this literally took me eons and it's short :(
If she notices the way her voice trembles or her heart stutters, it doesn’t show. Even when her heart is leaping into her throat like it can’t bear to be trapped within her ribs any longer she is swallowing it back down, like she doesn’t know what it’s like to be any less fierce than a she-wolf fighting for the right to live.
Her fathers were always telling her to slow down; the doctors had told her she needed to take more breaks than the other children when playing.
But Maret was more stubborn than she allowed them to believe. And she would not slow down, not when all the forest was begging to be explored, not when monsters danced in the shadows and girls from a foreign city found a part of Delumine they thought worth noticing.
"Home," she echoes her, and lets the tip of her stick-sword drop an inch. "And where is home, for you?" There was a glint in her mismatched eyes, and one word alone was enough to distract her yet again.
She was always getting distracted. And maybe that was why her heart shuddered so painfully then, like it was trying to remind her to be something other than lost.
"Hmmm."
She drags the word out slowly, snapping her pretend sword back up until it was angled at the dark skinned throat. Then she begins to circle, slowly, deliberately, around her, a smirk tugging at the corners of her own dark lips. "You don’t seem very sorry for your actions," she deliberated aloud, "nor have you left us any gifts in exchange for the prized rock you’re taking from us." She completes a full circle, and stops again when she’s facing the girl head on. Her grin widens.
"For that, I think there is only one proper punishment: death."
And she says it with all the authority of the forest, as if she wasn’t just a yearling holding up a tree branch that would likely shatter the instant she tried to use it as anything else.
She lets the word hang in the air like an omen, liking the way it sounds echoing back off the shadows and the soil. And she watches the girl's face closely, gauging her, judging her silently, before her smile turns almost-sweet again, like it had never once crossed her mind to be like any other monster. "Unless, of course, you can change my mind?"
as the moon ascends ,
the wolves come out to see the end
Home.
Where is home for her? Is it with the stars? The mountains? The Night markets? Denocte is where she was born and where she grew up, but the whole world calls to her now. She's never felt content in one spot, which is why she had to leave her Shed Star family. The desire to go out and explore was too great, it was like the universe was pulling her away.
And so Vae isn't sure how to answer the girl's question. It would be easy to say she lives in Denocte, but is it really 'home'? "I like to call the stars my home," she starts to explain, looking up at the sky. For now, it's hiding all of the constellations until nightfall. "But I suppose home is Denocte." It's said rather nonchalantly while she still looks up at the invisible stars. Maybe she does prefer Denocte with its wide expanse of open prairie and cliffs with clear views. If she lived here in Delumine, her view of the sky would be blocked by all the trees creeping in.
Her attention is brought back to the girl when she snaps her stick-sword back up at Vae, then begins to circle her. She's eyed closely, but there is a smirk on the child's lips as she speaks. At the end, it's revealed that Vae's punishment would be 'death'. At this, she can't help but laugh.
"You don't strike me as someone who's killed before," she replies, a smirk tugging at her own lips. "Are you sure you want to darken your heart so young?" Although it's clear this is all play, there is determination and fire in the girl's tone. It's like some kind of spunk and Vae loves it.
Perhaps she would be able to change the girl's mind. Vae may be older, but she had been a child not too long ago. Really, at heart, she hasn't changed one bit. So with an exhale, she conjures a small ball of white light and lets it float in between them. It fizzles out as quickly as it appeared, but maybe it would be enough to capture her attention. If only it were nightfall, then Vae could really show her what she's capable of.
