in the light

Once more, something had shifted in this strange world. Winter had escalated, then... Jarilo awoke suddenly to signs of spring, feeling stiff and moons older than he should. No explanation, and most immediately around him, the world was much as he had left it. But there was an uneasy sensation prickling at his neck. A well-defined uncertainty. Was this.. alright?

Yet as the warmest sunshine he had felt in months draped his shoulders and he stretched into proper awareness, these dredges slowly slipped away. He could feel himself returning, and he would take his time savoring the sensation--just to be sure.

The creek near his resting place was thankfully the same as it had been, only now alive with springtime's thaw. He dipped his muzzle for a long drink and it was all as it should be, even still as he began to move on. Looking beyond, he saw the forest, and above the elevations climbing, seemingly intact. Below, stretched the valleys--and he realized the horizon was not quite the same. Was the cove missing, too...?

Several blinks, and skimming a perplexed look around, he then started for a path down the elevations. As was his custom, he went following the stream and sniffing for all signs of others he could cross.

the staff team luvs u

backdatting tthis to before she does a dirge hunt!

---

She ran across Empyrean, her bright gaze sharp as she sought the many faces and fresh scents of her family. She would not rest well until she knew they all were alright. Having seen one of her sons and her sister (in love), Hydra moved to where she knew Jarilo might be. Not even Dirge could boast the years and the time Jarilo now could... and what would Jarilo think, to know of Hydra's present thoughts on her lost mate?

It was a dream, to think of speaking with him, her dearest of brothers—but one thing Hydra refused was the idea of him not being here.

And by the stars, there was his scent! Hydra increased her pace, her canter rolling into a gallop that would not stop, even at the sight of him. Jarilo would be used to her rough brand of affection, but now more than ever she needed to feel to remember she was alive, and to know that so too was he! Too much strangeness, was this a dream? She lunged toward him with splayed arms and a happy yip, preparing for impact.

the staff team luvs u

Once the Ostrega went moving along, everything seemed to come back to him easier. Bit by bit. Worry subsided some, soothed away by the mountainside. Almost. If anything, he certainly enjoyed the fresh greens beginning to take true hold, and the sounds of nature all around that did speak of true warming, growing. It felt welcome, peaceful. Very much what he needed to see and Jarilo breathed deep, letting it fall into place.

He lifted his nose for more and barely began to pivot before she was upon him. Leave it to Hydra to affirm tangibility as she came lunging, full force. Jarilo hardly had time to meet her gesture, and aimed to rise onto his hind legs, up enough to tangle his forelegs in hers as they collided--he would try to clack his teeth against hers playfully, or nip and lick at her chin and muzzle and neck if it was whatever he could reach, as her momentum would surely overtake them all eventually. It was what he needed in times of doubt like these, and now he knew he was right where he was supposed to be.

Whenever they could re-center again, even for a fleeting second, he reveled in the intensity, and the realness of it with a barking laugh. It was too good to see his sister, and his tail swayed openly. “I feel like it's been too long,” he lamented, though he was confused as to why and his ears splayed--sure that Hydra would have some commentary on the situation. Something in their world had changed again. Not everything, but enough. “What do you think of our new horizons?” he pried, hard-pressed to leave her side.

the staff team luvs u

They collided, two forces of nature—both movable and pliant, both giving to the weight. The mountain stones bit her back as she toppled, but never to the point of bleeding—love nips from The Nameless Mountain, she felt, it too reminding her she lived even as the breath was stolen from her upon impact. All manner of debris came to her furs, but Hydra adeptly recovered her footing with the momentum provided from the earth. Hydra could have done little in the meantime to avoid his nips and happy tongue-swipes, but she matched it as best she could.

Hydra grinned, breathing heavily. She would surely bruise, but the confirmation was well worth it; they both lived. His sentiment was answered with a barking laugh that spoke to her agreeing entirely, but Hydra was too perplexed by the unexplainable feeling. But his second point caused her eyes to widen, only just.

He had noticed, then! Hydra had wondered if perhaps she had hit her head, for her compass to spin as it had—what else would be the reason for it? “That it is impossible,” she drawled, frowning, “ones landscape does not simply change, short of natural disaster,” the matriarch pressed to his side and nosed him. “I have yet to see it all, and am trying to wrap my head around it. What do you think?” she pressed next, ever open to whatever might justify the strangeness that had transpired. There had to be something… right?

the staff team luvs u

Letting his tongue loll and eyes shine, content in the moment between them, he was still catching his breath but the questions never stopped. “It should be impossible,” he agreed on a nod, but there was this looming sense of but maybe about this existence. Did it truly play by real rules? Ever since they had first come to find themselves on this mountain that was different, yet remarkably the same all at once, there had always existed this otherworldly sense--one he had no ability to name, not even as the moons kept coming and going around them.

“This world continues to surprise me...I don't know what to think anymore,” he supposed, in lieu of any proper explanation. “But at least this time, it seems to be the same mountain. Thankfully,” he sighed, and shook his head, then let the motion follow through the rest of his body. Jarilo was mulling on her mention of natural disasters, which.. what if it had been one, somehow? “But it just feels like I overslept until spring came suddenly, somehow.” So hopefully he had not slept through any major disasters, either. Ultimately he was fine with this sudden verdant spring, but he hadn't exactly been planning on it; so it took some getting used to. “Have you seen the others yet?” he asked, hoping that their list of misplaced and ranging sorts would not need to grow, now.

Maybe this brand new spring would bring them all home again.

the staff team luvs u

Should indeed. But Hydra did not linger on that topic. It was hard for the matriarch to think that anything beyond her own scope of acceptable could ever occur. It had always, in all of her years, been an impossibility. There was no explaining it now. And she had no desire to. For one who wanted to know it all, this was one subject she steered clear of... but the thought then occurred to her that perhaps, she might wish to learn more if it meant keeping those they cared for near. So many had been lost, it felt.

Hydra would not admit defeat-by-landscape-shift. She was too stubborn, but also resilient.

“I feel the same. We could do with a hunt,” she was not starving somehow, but knew that in time she would hunger again. “It smells as though the prey has returned. Perhaps it is time for one,” saliva pooled in her mouth at the thought, though she licked her chops. As for his next question, “many are still here, but there are some unaccounted for.” At this she frowned. “I cannot understand the strangeness of this world. Things have never been this way,” and here she looked to him. Hydra could be inflexible, but it was clear she wanted to understand this.

But there was no way of predicting these things. What had been the common denominator, she wondered?

the staff team luvs u

They had managed before, and would do so again. Jarilo's confidence was able to slowly build from here, and though tentative still, he did have to agree that a hunt sounded good. They could rally around a cause like that and he could further begin to get a feel on who still ran among them. “A hunt could be good,” he nodded, for she was right: it was time. The air was thick with spring and he had smelled prey too. “I smelled them too,” he wanted to lick his lips. The greenery had uplifted him already, so the prospect of something fresh was easy to imagine.

At least they still had other hunters to join them after eventual mountainside quarry, but he would wait to see who exactly he saw. He didn't know who all he needed to worry about yet. Their younger generation especially as they forged out off the peak for some of the first times. “It doesn't make sense. It makes me wonder--why this? Why us?” he sighed, rhetorical in place of no better answers, no matter how desperately either of them might want. “It's always something new, but at least we have those who have stayed. And a fruitful mountain, with all of spring ahead of us...” he aimed for a smirk, even if he missed those who were not destined to join them any longer. It was bound to be a heavy weight on his heart. “Which, want to see what we can track down?” he sniffed at the winds, testing for a direction to scope in.

Sure that Hydra would not turn down the invitation, he spun off not long after to pursue whichever way he chose. Beside her, their possibilities were vast. They would make it work.

the staff team luvs u