i dreamt about climbing into the night sky

territory — One of the tallest peaks within the chain of mountains stands sentinel to the Bay situated neatly alongside it; so high does it seem to stretch that the clouds reach where the eyes cannot. As broad as it is tall, the territory is home to coniferous forests near its base that slowly dwindle before eventually erupting into strange spires, making the territory appear impassable and inhospitable to start. Indeed, it is a difficult labyrinth to make ones way through and a stranger to it could risk injury if careless upon entry. But it offers much to those who dare to test their luck, one of which includes the best view of the surrounding territories.

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From the flash, his conscience regained. Somewhere, somehow.

It startled him, at first, but all was quiet and still. Frantic fear, and an ancient exhaustion.. they were here too, though he could not say why. Were they his? They must be. He could not seem to get a grip on them, as they slipped out of reach, off and away...

He woke to see these two mighty presences. They stood above him, flanked on either side. His eyes adjusted, as he traced the silhouette of darkness--sharp points that somehow flowed at the same time, rising up like the jagged peaks of a range, interrupted only in deadly green. The light shape, a similar, decisive bearing built in plush snowy whites, more solid, less sharp but dotted with stony gray… and winding rivers of scars, then endlessly blue gemstones. They grinned wickedly down towards him; he couldn’t say where it started on either, but he felt no need to fear. There was no reason to hide. Only another breath, and he finally began to try to lift himself, then reach out to them. Closer, he almost had them, but they moved out of his reach--joined at each others’ side in front of him, still expectantly peering his way. Incredibly vast, each, and he thought they wanted him to come too.

The forests and the seas, the mountains, their skies, all stacking up to the moon...

Awed, and struck true with new motivation, he pulled himself up to stand, wanting to follow. One small step at a time. As his toes spread over cool, firm earth, he felt a strange sense of relief begin up his legs, winding like ivy and moving into his core. The rest of him followed suit, securing to this present better with each breath.

In the next thought he went after them into an entire new vastness, following a path in the dark. While he tried to take in his surroundings, suddenly there were others to distract; others more like him yet vague enough that he could not see all of their features, but still crafted to remind him of the pair--who had gone on ahead; instinctively, his sights were pulled their way again. From the rest, though, they came up beside him, some close enough to touch, of all shadows, light, stone, and earth. They further lifted his spirit, the security in their energy contagious once his confusion faded--helped aside by them, somehow. His tail waved freely, he suddenly felt like another piece of their lot, able to share in their strength somehow. Relishing the sensation, he went cantering after the first pair, joining them in full. The scenery shifted, he felt elevation burn pleasantly at his muscles as horizons grew around him, now expanding the depths of night into the colors of a new dawn.

He paused on his path once to look behind him, urged by a feeling he could not place yet in the haze of his mind--perhaps that he was forgetting something, somehow? That there was something else he needed to look for, or find. Something of his, even? Should he wait? It struck him most notably, there in the new trickles of daylight, that there was silence where he was expecting something more, while he could not say what it was. The shadows took care to urge him on, however. They had a lot of ground to cover, and this was only the beginning--not an end.

With a sharp, sudden gasp for breath, Jarilo woke near the entrance of what looked to be a small cave, curled into dot of dark wolf there in the night. The air bit with wintertime, though crisp for the height. He smelled nearby woods, and heard a faraway owl hoot from within. He blinked away the vestiges of sleep, and though there was the sensation of home coming from somewhere in his heart, he could not place it. His head felt too fogged out to make any other more proper assessments this early, but he started with what he did know--the skies, and the nature here... all much as he knew them, and yet, somehow, not. He would, as ever, look to the moon and its stars for the guidance where he wanted to waver. It shone back bright, near full.

For some time, he simply basked in its cool glow, drinking in the strange, quiet solitude. All until finally, he decided to heft up and get to it--whatever it was meant to be today. His legs were more sore than anticipated, stiff from sleep too, so a long, luxurious stretch was all part of his process. The Ostrega was slow to warm, but gradually, he began to search out the nearest trail--hopefully one that would lead to some semblance of an answer, and better yet if he could shake the fog along the way.
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SOBS LOUDLY

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Up she wound, trying to navigate and discover every nuance of this place. There would be a lot of ground to cover, but it was worth it to suss the place out from any potential lurking threat. The guardian would be hard pressed to not do as she was, and seemed tireless in her efforts. The wind stirred then, and the matriarch found her step uncharacteristically falter as she realized, I know this scent. Wheeling to her left and pressing into a gallop, Hydra's howl shattered daybreaks silence: where are you? 

She was coming, and she could not be stopped. Relief flooded in her heart to remember this, to know this—to feel the outpouring of love from her heart that felt without end. Jarilo, the brother she had helped rear, who had ever been by her side... how could she feel surprised, to know he had come for her here? Found her here? Of course he would. Hydra would have done the same. 

And so she ran for him, to him;  she would not stop until she saw his familiar gunmetal grey furs, and him altogether and in one piece. Her tail arced behind her as though challenging anyone and anything that might mean to stop her—nothing on this earth could succeed in such an endeavor. Joy, and then more of that—her family, returning to her! She reached for more memories, of others besides Jarilo, but could grasp firmly at nothing. Something is missing... 

Someone. 

Several. But one... 

The wind blew into her face again, providing her with a fresh scent; marginally adjusting her course, her thoughts were thusly consumed by this impending reunion.

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Jarilo measured his breaths, remembered to make them at all, as he began his way. Progress stayed slow, still feeling bleary, and needing to take this in carefully. He skimmed his unfamiliar surroundings, all while trying to blink his way towards the proper focus he knew this warranted, and it refused to come easily to him. He would've loved to find a bare hint as to what had brought him here at all, too--then even more importantly, why he was alone with a head so foggy, feeling like it had been collecting dust while simultaneously being launched through the stars and more, honestly. Confusion this bad did not sit well with him.

When a howl suddenly rose from elsewhere on this slope, he stopped entirely, wide-eyed and startled. A familiar howl, even. After the first gust of surprise, he was immediately grateful for the clarity of the thought that occurred: Hydra. His sister could help him, and if she was here too, very likely so were Lyra and Alya.. which maybe that could answer something for him as well. It was balm for his worried heart to know he was not alone, though. Jarilo choked out a strange whine, then threw back his own howl just to say: here! with some other jumbled nonsense before he got going towards the source, now able to pick up his pace in one direction thanks to her heading. His legs still felt tingly and strange, but getting the blood rushing had to be good.

Once he caught sound of other wolf-sized motion moving towards him, he careened down the last pieces of the path to hone in. Desperately, he wanted to see her, and she did not disappoint. He slowed down his approach only enough to let him really take in sight of her, his tail wagging harder by the second as she didn't disappear. "Hydra..!" he barked, fully intending to body into her with an embrace if she really was tangible enough to have it from him. It was familiar, and more than anything, it was what he needed right now as he danced around her--feeling like he came up for breath for just a second here where something finally made some sense again.
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For all the similarities this place and Moonspear had, she was keenly aware of the nuanced differences between them. The earth rose where it would not have, and dipped where she would have turned. It made getting to Jarilo slow going, and along the way she tried to commit things to memory. The rising pine tree and the narrow riverbeds. The leisurely stream and the meadow of mist. Little things that spanned across the miles and miles between them that she was swift to bring to a close. 

She heard him, and soon was colliding with him; a happy snarl came from her as she hoped to wrap her forelegs around him to playfully wrestle him to the earth to accost him with her own brand of sisterly affection, prepared to be met with the brunt of his brotherly one. Jarilo was here, and the swing of the hammer upon the impact of this meant here was slowly but surely becoming home, nevermind the strangeness. It all could be figured out so long as she had those she needed by her side, he among them. Should she have been successful in their mutual effort of a tackle, she would grant him room to rise again as she circled excitedly around him, too. “Did you wait long?” she asked, wonder plain in her voice. To Desdemona she had asked the same thing. He had presented himself within where she was beginning to decide to set their roots... but how? And was he alone? She looked past him, to see if any might emerge.

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She was real, he made sure of it. Hydra met him in full, wrestling him back--with him trying halfheartedly to snarl playfully in retaliation while they tangled. But he was too relieved, and just grateful for the rush of air in his lungs it gave. She could throttle him like no tomorrow and right now, he'd probably just be thankful because it took a great weight off his spirit to know that yes, he was still very tangible and better yet, so was his sister.

His tail still waved but her question made his expression go more pensive than before. Did he wait long? “I don't.. think so, no..” he answered slowly, unsure. “But it feels like I was asleep for too long, or something like it,” he added on for any sense of clarity as he blinked up, past Hydra then to the direction she had come from. Nevermind this lurking sense of still missing something, though. “Did you wait long?” he turned the question back to her. “What about Lyra and Alya?” Naturally, he assumed she would know where her other halves were, even when the world beneath their feet seemed so familiar at first, but eerily.. wasn't.
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Removing herself from him, Hydra withdrew to listen; strangely, he had not been waiting long—which was a relief to her. He had made it all the way here... to these depths... how? Without intervention...? Semantics seemed to not matter in this moment; this was her brother. Did she wait long? “No,” she drawled; she did not think so. Time, and waiting, seemed a strange concept. The reality was she had been waiting quite some time for him—but had not known it, until he arrived, and now that he had it seemed she had waited no time at all. 

Lyra, and then—

Alya. Right atrium; it felt as though her heart failed for a moment as she sucked in a breath. But then, knowingly, Hydra said while recovering: “she is coming, Alya. Lyra is here... somewhere,” that much she knew. Lurking, more likely than not, and uncovering more of the land. Speaking of, “we have much to learn about this place,” and here she looked over his shoulder, seeing a network of roots that led into what appeared to be a cave. The earth had separated above it, and the trees strong roots kept it suspended. “I have never seen this area, yet, in full...” she drawled, her gaze alight with interest, sniffing quietly to ascertain if there were any nearby threats they ought to consider.

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As soon as he asked about her sisters, he caught himself feeling surprised by that certainty once it had come to his lips, that he had the names to match with them and a simple knowing: if Hydra was here, so were Lyra and Alya. Fact of life, more or less. But, when he tried to search out others past that, he still felt terribly clouded out. Jarilo knew there were more, but it was difficult to place them yet. There was that sense to look over his shoulder, behind him. Not beside him. But it was all too strange. He shook his head softly, prompted by nothing in particular.

She had not waited long either, which for some reason, brought him a vague sense of relief. Also, that at least Lyra was somewhere presumably not far. That felt familiar to him. Right. Though he knew she felt the absence far worse than he could fathom. “That's good,” the dark Ostrega breathed, looking around slowly, carefully trying to digest everything. They did have a lot to learn. “Yeah, I.. don't quite get it. Some of it seems familiar almost,” he sighed, a wistful narrow to his eyes. He had always been a homebody. His ventures down off the Moonspear's slopes stayed relatively brief, Jarilo plenty happy to return his merry self home once it was all said and done. Such a finely entwined sense of unfamiliar was not treating him that kindly.. though, somehow, he did feel.. lighter? Like it was easier to breath. He decided to write that one off as altitude. “I think we might be higher..?” he decided, blinking, as the chilly air filled his lungs. Some innate feeling said, and his mother had imbued a careful, earthy sense in him.

“I can't remember how I got there, but I woke up in front of a little cave up a way..” Jarilo started as he jerked his nose in the direction he had come. After that, he peered into the treelines, the recognition settling on him better now that something seemed to click. Almost like a nice gravesite, a worthy mountaineer's last. That didn't set well, a furrow on his expression. The memory closer than he wanted it to be. “It was too dark still so I didn't go in, so wandered until I heard you..” he murmured, giving her the sparse dots he could connect.
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He was right about that much; they did not linger in the lowlands. Aspens, firs, and pines surrounded them—they were not so high to be without any cover at all, but high enough where the inexperienced might experience hypoxia. The two of them, though—as well as a majority of their family—were built for such things. From their moment of wakefulness, that need not be a concern of theirs. The rest, though? Certainly. 

“Yes,” she echoed, “a lot of it seems to be. But it is different,” she drawled. Part of it felt as though her brain had brought this place to life from memory. But then there were strange implementations Hydra had never seen before. Indeed, it was all very strange. “Can you show me the cave?” She asked in her next breath, curious as to what else they might find there.

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He found his little bit of relief hearing that Hydra agreed--another familiar feeling, welcomed at that. When his own head felt this cloudy, and understanding seemed like a grand feat, he would take what he could get. “Bizarre,” he murmured quietly, mostly to himself, how it could seem so familiar yet stunningly.. not at the very same time. Jarilo had not yet seen enough of the mountainside to truly make his whole assessment, but so far.. when he closed in, it was almost no different. The horizons were foreign to him though.

“I think so,” he blinked at the thought of his cave, beginning his turn to reroute accordingly before pressing off into a long trot, the path fresh and his memory from there thankfully intact--unless something had changed between here and there, which in his current mindset, he wouldn't even be surprised to find. The day had just begun and it was already so strange. Nevertheless, Jarilo did have to wonder what his sister would make of it. “It shouldn't be far,” he assured, but he had a lot of wondering left to be done. “How did you get here too? Or.. find this? However it went, unless.. you found out more?” he slowed up long enough to waver over this tiered question he couldn't articulate well, but as in many things, he was invested in her side of it, eager for any insight her experience may provide on his struggles. “I just don't remember.. leaving..” he looked on ahead, thinking he recognized a turn, but sounding like he was forgetting the words he needed to say everything.
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Bizarre was an apt word for it; he was not wrong in his assessment. The place was not the same, and yet there were striking similarities now and then that threw the matriarch through a strange loop. “It is beyond here that is the most different,” she informs—but her territoriality of one place in particular still seemed to exist. And so, that must be the same... right? Things innate remained within her—that possessiveness, for instance—even when all else shifted. 

Moving to step alongside him, she worried not for the distance between here and the there they would arrive to. She was a woman more patient than most, and for Jarilo the feeling would know no limit. To his question, though...  “I opened my eyes,” she drawled, “and I woke here. As though here was where I had fallen asleep,” she remembered. But even that was becoming fuzzy now, somehow. “Lyra... Lyra was beneath me,” she knew, “and Dirge and Altair found us.” But he had been there no longer than she and their sister had been, which was strange too. 

Leaving, he had said. No... no, she had not left either. Would not. And yet the thought of leaving here felt strangely as taboo, now. “I... I remember arriving,” she hummed. But... like him, she did not recall leaving... this left her quiet, her expression drawn as she considered what that might mean.

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To consider a wildly different beyond, too, set him into contemplative silence for a moment. When Jarilo looked back, let his perceptions find the whole depths of it... he was wanting to marvel, but felt that it might overwhelm him now, so he eased off. An entire new mountainside was enough to consider at once. He would need to let this much settle better first.

From there, the description of her time here so far gave him a renewed focus while they went towards his destination. It seemed familiar enough, surprisingly, and nothing in it sent him into alarm. Instead it was finally hearing a few more familiar names that did quite the opposite, soothing his frays of worry, and filling some blanks he could sense. Dirge, Altair.. he was happy to hear they had made it too, but he didn't know where this feeling came from exactly. Were they all so equally displaced--yet simultaneously... not? “Hmm,” he considered, dipping his nose in a slow nod then as well. “Well, that doesn't sound too bad at least. Kind of familiar, too..” he added, then lengthened his strides for the closing distance towards where he had come from. “Here,” he chuffed, finally rounding out to a halt.

He stayed a few body lengths away from the small cave itself. Just a modest thing wedged between the stones, he supposed, as he took a longer look at it. Hydra might have more thorough investigations for it; he still felt some lingering mistrust in it having been the site of his initial confusion. “I just woke up right there,” he gestured to the spot at the front, sniffing at his distance. No one else had been here but them. “Alone, and feeling strange about it.. since I didn't remember getting there, and really felt like I was missing something somehow.” Jarilo felt that frown brewing already. He wondered if it was missing a someone, if there were meant to be others at his side. “Plus, I think my dreams were long and weird too,” he started carefully, like he didn't know where he was going with the thought. It was already feeling hazy but he felt urged to try to preserve it suddenly. “Our.. parents were there. So was.. everyone else, but I couldn't always see them..” he trailed off, eyes on the earth he had woken up to, with ears pricked to hear his sister's thoughts on the matter.
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Upon arrival, she noticed her brothers wariness; she adeptly concealed her own reservations and moved toward it, not wanting her brother to feel any more nervous in this place than he already seemed to... and for good reason. As he spoke, she listened—but she also investigated. As he had said, it was only his scent here... and nothing else to go off of. The space was small, albeit large enough to fit him... and stepping away from it, the matriarch licked her chops, looking to him. 

When he spoke of their parents Hydra's ears fanned toward him, interest apparent. Every day, she missed them—she wondered what they would do, in their own situation. Hydra felt she knew. “I am certain they would want us to make the best of this,” she drawled, though what was best was not so well known as that. As to that, she said sighingly, “and for now, I intend to do so by making this place our own. Perhaps the rest will find us, though we will always look for them, too,” she acknowledged. But still, she wondered: “do you remember your dream? Did they... our parents... say anything?” she asked. While Hydra knew better than to put much stock in dreams, sometimes sentiments realized led to epiphanies that had plenty of merit within them.

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Jarilo kept a keen glance measured out between Hydra, and the scenery. He started to feel a bit more weight in her reaction's favor when he threatened to look deeper into the meaning of his strange dreamscapes. Softly, he hmm'ed, though nodded. “Definitely,” he agreed, that their parents would want them to succeed anywhere, at anytime. 

As for his dream, when she pressed, he licked the backs of his teeth. “Somewhat. No one really said anything, but..” he recollected his chill, eyes narrowed. It wasn't really anything, now that he thought about it. Why was he so hung up on it though? “They were there first... it was weird, sort of foggy place. None of us really looked like.. anything all the time exactly either, and I didn't know how to gather my own body up at first--” This wasn't explaining well his frown suggested, but to Hydra he was very honest and just let it go; maybe hearing it would help him not be bothered, and just get on with this.. new sensation of life. 

“They wanted me to follow, I thought, they were going on with or without me--but shadows helped, and then we all went somewhere when it was very dark.” No moon. Why, exactly this mattered he didn't know. Hopefully Hydra would get some manner of amusement out of his gunky dream all the same. He sighed. “But I kept feeling like I had to look back.. but it made me loose the path underfoot, so I fell but was picked up again. I couldn't search once we all starting going faster to.. I don't know where. It gets even hazier from there, then I was alone again at some point... and I don't think it had a real conclusion but I woke up heart-pounding over it, then being here where I've never been?” he scoffed, then drew a slow, deep breath. “A bit rude of an awakening for my tastes,” he huffed, almost fringing on the memory of somewhere warm, cozy--a bed of skins, pale fur. He couldn't muster it fully.

It was that feeling of missing something, like he didn't know the end of a story he'd been invested in, that lingered worst of all. But, may as well unpack it here, where he already felt off, and glared at the cave a beat.
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Last from me! 

---

 

Interesting, his dream... the whole of it. But what Hydra felt she could reasonably conclude was, “they must wish for us to be here,” her voice filling the silence, though not altogether certain of that. Still, what else could it mean? That they would bring him here to her meant something. They might have lead him anywhere else in his dreams, but suddenly, he was not where they both had been born and raised. 

It did not answer why, though. But the thought, amongst all the confusion, was some small comfort. 

She had to grin at his mention of a rude awakening; she had thought so, too, to start. There was still too many missing pieces, but... by the day, some of said pieces were found. He was one of them, she realized immediately. “Well,” she drawled, “we had better get you acquainted with this place. And I will fill you in on some of the rest of what you have missed,” Hydra hummed with a wave of her tail. Darting ahead to take the lead, she would wait until he came alongside her to continue on.

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In hearing him piece it together, even as fragmented as the memories were, Hydra's conclusion still pricked his ears up tall. “Maybe..” he reasoned with a softer sigh, one feeling slightly less frustrated, and with the beginning of some almost-acceptance. It had him wonder, once more, what their parents would have thought about this. Surely they could have handled it with strength, and grace alike... so maybe he could do the same. “Hopefully that's all it was,” he supposed while deep down, his subconscious was searching for the answers he could not grasp, instinctively trying to fill in the blanks of his experience.

When his sister began to guide towards new ventures, his posture shifted accordingly; very ready to go on and see more (further from this cave, and he needed to sleep on everything properly first--the day was still new, even). “Please,” he chuffed and sprang after her lead, eager to join up beside her and see more of what was their home now.
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