Beneath the Stars

@Izumi

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Silver stars glinted from the heavens, moonlight peeking from in between clouds. The air was thick with cold, but didn't dare bit through Aruna's coat. Nothing could ever pull her from the stars, not even the chill of the night.

The princess sat silent upon the cliff's edge, overviewing the lands; the trees were thin but well forested, surrounding the majority of a sea-green lake.

The night had been quiet, just like she had hoped with nothing more than the rustling of leaves and wind brushing past. It was perfect. She could whisper sweet nothings to her brethren without the fear of being watched, without judgement. Before the wolves of Stormguard, she could be vulnerable.

Her breath was light, eerily so as she tilted her head to the clouds, a faint smile played at her lips. How she longed for the stars, and how they longed for her. It had been two years since she had lived on those mountains, breathed in their air. Now she never would.

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❁

  The vale had darkened into a midnight dance of stars, only to be Illuminated by the moon. She shone a soft glow upon the earth, too dim to see nature at its clearest, but bright enough to show the valley in all its glory -- and the valley was breathtaking at night. Fireflies seemed to set the grasses beneath her darkened paws ablaze, and the sound of crickets chirping and owls cooing in the midst of the forest was music to her ears. The cranebird had always been more active during the evening and early mornings -- and scenes like this were the reason why.
  Izumi breathed in the mountain air, feeling her breastbone strain with expansion only to relax upon release. It was easier to navigate the rockies parts of this place after visiting it a few times, and her main focus was to find a higher spot among the hights to get a better view of the moon.
  The stars.
  The celestials.
  --but it would appear that someone had already beat her to it. Just as she'd though she'd had found the perfect view.
  Izumi hadn't been paying attention to what was infront of her whilst climbing. Which is why she huffed air from her lungs in suprise upon nearly running into the back of.....someone.
  Some woman.
  She didn't know who this was.....
  Her ears cupped forward and her tail grew stiff as she faltered back some. Looking towards the she-wolf owlishly -- in both curiosity and wariness....

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Her eyes trained on the silver clouds, briskly sweeping over the moon and stars. The woman let a chilled breath billow out an inch from her maw, resting her head on her paws.

An unknown presence lingered by the lake, but Aruna wasn't bothered. From these heights, her scent was somewhat masked in the air; not a cause for concern. At least that's what she assumed, unbeknownst to the wolf of unfamiliar ivories and charcoals shifted behind her.

A sharp sting in her tail forced the princess' attention, whipping around. A feathery tail retracted beneath the foreign weight, pulling to the obsidian's side. Tensing her figure, the lady flashed her teeth at the stranger — a simple advisatory. "Do you mind?" There was no hint of sympathy in her voice, unamused and already agitated by this interruption.

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  It looked like one of her fumbling paws was met with the end of the stranger's tail, which she felt slip from her toes in the same second she was met with an icy glare and bared molars. The crane should've paid more attention to her surroundings -- besides, how had she missed the whole scent and presence of a wolf she was walking towards if it weren't for her wandering attention span? Wisterian-hued eyes blinked toward a pair of glacier-colored ones, and her muzzle would lower slightly in a simple, apologetic movement as her lashes fluttered to close softly over her vision. "Apologies, miss. It seems as though my senses fail me, I did not expect another wolf within my path." the crane explained calmly, adjusting her standing to remove her jugular from biting distance.

  "I've merely come to gaze upon the view from these heights. My intentions are not malicious..."

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Despite the abrupt disruption to Aruna's perfect night, the midnight maiden settled her irritation for a situation more worth of her temper. Nearly silver irises blinked slowly, her muzzle pulling closer to her chest. "I should hope so, and that it doesn't happen again." The woman was bitter, but the stranger's accident shouldn't sour the night.

"If you insist, who am I to forbid it? Come sit, the lands are particularly pretty tonight." Aruna invited the ivory foreigner to her side out of mutual respect. "Tell me, גְבֶרֶת, what do you think of the stars?" If she too found as much comfort in the stars as Aruna did, then she was welcome to watch them dance in the skies.

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גְבֶרֶת - madame

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❁

The woman's words still held a bit of venom, Izumi couldn’t help but feel like there was a small threat within her words to not let it happen again. Even so, she wouldn't linger on it to long. The crane felt her irritation was justified -- Izumi had made a simple mistake and had apologized for it as she felt she should've, and seeing that the silver-spun was already willing to move on from it, then so was she. Her attention, next, was towards the heavens. Invited to sit beside them the crane would slink silently, placing her rump beneath the earth and curling a plush tail around her paws. A glance was cast to the side a few times just to see if the two of them had really just moved on from what happened moments ago, but decided not to linger on it and let a breath out. She had come her for one thing, afterall - to admire the stars.

“The are quite the mystery, aren't they?” The cranebird would state as she cast her muzzle upwards to veiw the starry sky, her lilac eyes seeming to glitter with the refection of the stars like a pair of translucent orbs. “Sometimes I feel as though they are individuals such as us, moving and breathing within the sky with their own forms of life and conflict, but we might never even know if we are millions of miles out of reach from them, can we?” It was a silly thought, but a mild curiosity she couldn't help but wonder, all the while. Her eyes side glanced the valkrriye that sat just beside her, wondering if she'd thought similarly.

“What of you?”

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