Mithras found himself at the bottom of a steep fjord. He had spent the better part of the day carefully working his way down. Each pawstep had been taken carefully, planned in advance, cautiously considered. For such a large creature he was immensely proud of himself for making the trek! He certainly hadn't stumbled and rolled the last twenty yards to the shore below. He absolutely had not been bashed about by the loose scree, and perish any thought of him coming to rest at last in a disheveled heap, groaning and dazed. All of this was completely out of the realm of possibility, of course, and yet he found himself nursing a host of fresh wounds all the same. The taste of rock dust was bitter on his tongue as he desperately tried to smooth out his fur. Fucking gravity, he groused within the depths of his mind, praying that no one had seen his non-existent blunder. "Talk" "You" Think

*Navigation -- Moontouched Cliffs

Oh but there had been someone watching. The young girl lay in the depths of a bush, shivering slightly as she had watched the large male tumble down from the cliff. She was too afraid to come out of hiding, he was massive and she was very, very lost! Finch had been following a pretty butterfly, trying to catch it and bring it back for Starling. But when she had looked down, she noticed that she had no idea where she was. Completely afraid and not familiar with the scents here, she had hidden herself, which is exactly how she saw the starry wolf tumble. It looked like he had come from the sky itself, and Finch wanted to ask him how it was living in the sky. But... he was really big. And scary. And he had ouchies. She whined, bi coloured ears pulling back towards her skull, sky blue eyes wide as she tried to make herself vanish. But it was kind of hard to keep her 33 inch form curled up in a bush that was nearly half her size. Did she care? Nope. At least she was kind of hidden, only her lower half sticking out. "SPEAK"

MITHRAS AERIS Mithras, satisfied at last with the condition of his coat (if not with the battered flesh beneath) stood with a groan. His head was still spinning a bit and he shook it to try and clear out the fog, and in doing so spotted a splash of white. His brows furrowed while he tried to make sense of just what could be laying beneath a nearby bush, and in a wave of horror realized what he was seeing. A young wolf seemed to be resting (cowering?) there and she had almost certainly seen his fall from grace. The air whooshed out of his lungs in a colossal sigh, and he took a half step in her direction. "Uhm, hi," he began awkwardly. "You, uh... You saw that whole thing, huh?" He braced himself for what he knew was going to be a very painful affirmative. "Talk" "You" Think

The giant star walked towards her, and she started to shake slightly. The bush rattled around her, but as the massive creature spoke, she stuck her head out of the plant and stared at him in awe. "Y-you t-t-talk?" She stuttered, her voice scraping painfully in its unused way. "I d-didn't k-k-know t-that s-stars f-fell in w-wolf f-f-form." She said slowly, her top half wiggling out a tad bit as she eyed the wolf in complete and utter awe. He was so pretty, and had such pretty colours! If she could, she wanted to add him to her collections. But he was a fallen star! She didn't think that daddy would be too happy about her taking him home, plus why would a fallen star want to come to Abaven? "D-do y-you s-s-stars f-fall o-often?" she asked softly, her head tilting to the side. She wasn't a very forward girl, but she couldn't help it. She couldn't wait to tell Starling that she met an actual star! "SPEAK"

Normally Mithras might have been a bit exasperated at the whole awe and horror show, but this youngun' seemed a little more out of sorts than most. She was so tiny too, at least in comparison to his own massive build, that he only frowned. Mith decided to lay himself back down (albeit slowly) until he rested at last in a sphinx-like position in the hopes of making himself look at least a bit smaller. "I'm not a star," he said simply. "I'm just a wolf! But where I'm from, wolves just kind of look like this. You look pretty strange to me too," he said with a crooked smile, tail thumping weakly against the ground in an effort to show his good humor. Gods, it was like the little thing thought he was going to attack her! "My name is Mithras! What's yours?" (Hover over speech text for translation) "Talk" "You" Think

As the massive star layed down on the ground, she shied back and hid her face back in her bush, until he was flat down on the earth. She peeked at him again, ears still pressed against her head as her pink and black nose stuck out of the bush. When he said that he wasn't a star, the rest of her face came out as she made her way out of the safety of the bush, sitting low to the ground in front of him. Finch was a more irrational shy wolf, pretty much everything scared her. Her ears pulled upwards as he said that he was a normal wolf, and that everyone from his home looked like that. "B-but t-then w-w-why d-did y-you f-f-fall?" Finch asked softly, her big blue eyes blinking as she tried to understand. When he said that she looked funny, she blinked even faster. "b-but I a-am s-so p-p-plain! H-how d-d-do I l-look f-funny?" The young girl questioned. When the starry wolf introduced himself at Mithras, she smiled softly at him. She was about to introduce herself when a soft thrill came from the sky, making her head rise upwards to look at the tiny owl-looking finch. It was her friend Civetta! Her tail thumped on the ground as the tiny finch landed on the girl's head, her black beady eyes looking down at the wolf as she pecked at her head softly. "Finch! I have been looking everywhere for you! Did you get lost?" The girl whined, careful not to nod and knock her friend off her skull. That is when the little bird noticed the giant wolf laying on the earth in front of her wolf friend, feathers puffing up at the giant. Civetta knew that Finch didn't like strangers, but he was pretty to look at. "Did you find another pretty thing for your collections, Finch?" Finch giggled at the bird, looking back down at Mithras. She felt a little bit more relaxed now that her bird friend was here, the double-barred finch usually did most of the talking for her, so it didn't hurt her throat as much. But the bird thought that she was going to collect Mithras! Her gray and white tail wagged on the ground a few times, even though she still shuffled on her paws slightly. "M-my n-name is F-finch, a-and t-this is C-c-civetta." She introduced. "SPEAK" "CIVETTA SPEAK"

Mithras realized in a wave of fresh embarrassment that the young thing was talking about his literal fall from the side of the fjord which he'd be hoping to just sweep under the metaphorical rug. His ear's flicked with the unpleasant emotion and he cleared his throat, looking out to the water beyond. "Ah. No, no that was just gravity doing it's job!" He coughed once more and thanked the Gods that she had more questions to follow. She seemed flabbergasted that he would call her strange to look at and he chuckled. "Plain is a matter of perspective. Where I'm from, wolves with mottled blues and greens and purples are as common here as gray and white coats, but if a wolf like you waltzed across our borders we would have stared at you like you were some sort of... Well, I don't even know!" He decided not to tell her that the shamans would probably have ordered her sacrificed as soon as they got over the shock, knowing it wouldn't do much to calm her fears. That just seemed like an unnecessary addition! He might have said more before their conversation was interrupted by a new arrival, one who made his eyes widen. This wolf was friends with a bird? She was much more interesting than she gave herself credit for! "Who's your friend?" he asked with a laugh, pointedly ignoring the part about him being collected. "Talk" "You" Think

Her ears flickered as he talked about gravity doing its work, blinking slowly at the man. "D-did y-you r-really h-h-hurt y-yourself?" She asked softly. She didn't know much about healing, but Starling had showed her the basics. If anything was infected, she knew what they could go hunt and put on him. But he seemed eager to move on, and she couldn't help but let out a small giggle. He didn't want to talk about his fall, and she could see now that he was embarrassed. He went on to explain how people back at his home looked, and her mouth formed a little 'o' as her eyes grew wide in surprise. So many colours like that! She didn't meet many pretty coloured wolves, and it sounded like they were really awesome there! "I l-like t-to c-c-collect p-pretty th-things, l-like y-you," she stuttered sheepishly, tail swishing behind her slightly. "a-are t-the r-rocks wh-where you c-c-come f-from p-pretty l-like you?" It was impossible to hide the growing interest in her eyes, the spark of desire that she had to collect more rocks and shells. When Civetta joined them, Mithras asked who her friend was. She was about to introduce the bird when the lively thing hopped down the wolf's face, standing on top of her muzzle. "I am Civetta! That means owl in Italian, which Finch here speaks. She called me that cause I look like an owl, see?" sang the song bird, hopping in a tiny circle to show off her form. Finch giggled at her friend, then shook her head until the tiny bird flew off and landed on the girl's paws instead. Even though she was small, Civetta wasn't scared when she was around Finch. She just looked up at Mithras with her black eyes, head bobbing to and fro as she looked on. Finch raised her head back up, smiling at the purple wolf as she shook her head, gold leaf necklace jingling against her throat. "M-me and m-my s-siblings w-were a-all n-named after s-songbirds. A-and w-we s-seem t-to a-all be m-making f-friends w-with t-the birds w-we were n-named a-after." The girl said softly, finding it ironic that both her and Starling had found bird friends, her a finch, and him a starling. ooc ;// Her companion and necklace are both shown in her profile if you are curious! "SPEAK" "CIVETTA SPEAK"

She pressed the issue of his unwanted decent, and Mithras held in a sigh. She didn't seem to be picking up what he was putting down.. Oh well. "No, I'm fine! Really, I've had worse. In a few days I'll be good as new." He forced half of a smile, hoping she bought it. She brought up the topic of collecting 'things like him' again, and the astral brute did his best to not be perturbed. She was tiny, but that didn't discount a family of collectors who may or may not be lurking nearby. "Oh, no, they're the same as rocks here for the most part, but I'll keep an eye out for you if I ever return," he promised with a wink. It was an empty promise, unfortunately, because he had no plans of ever returning to that evil place. His eyes roved over the avian while it and Finch herself tried to explain the situation. Mithras didn't even think birds could speak wolven languages, let alone be intelligent enough to learn them in the first place, but that was apparently in error! "Well, its nice to meet you too Civetta! Do you have many siblings?" Mithras was genuinely curious about the frightened little fae, and only partially concerned about whether or not her family might want to steal him away as well. "Talk" "You" Think

Finch finally started to understand that the big colourful man wanted to drop the subject, and her lips made an 'o' shape. Shuffling on her paws awkwardly, she cleared her throat and made no other comment. She didn't really talk to many wolves outside of her family, who she knew through and through. But this stranger, she didn't really understand. She had a hard time picking up his clues and hints, where with her siblings she could read them so well. Finch had obviously made a mistake in pushing the matter, and for that she felt bad. She wasn't even really sure what to say, head hanging a bit low. She was terrible at all of this. Thankfully they moved on soon enough, onto her topic of rocks. She had to admit that she was a bit disappointed that the rocks were the same here, but he had said that he would keep an eye out for her. Finch grinned, her grey and white tail wagging behind her. Oh boy! She couldn't even imagine if she could have a rock that looked just like him! "t-that would b-be a-amazing!" she squeaked, her voice raising in pitch in her excitement. She loved her collection, and was always looking to add to it. Civetta gave a thrill as Mithras said it was nice to meet her, before she nested herself comfortably in Finch's fur. When he asked about siblings, her head nodded slowly. "I h-have f-four other s-siblings, th-three brothers and a s-s-sister." she stuttered slowly, her mismatched ears pulling back slightly again. Would they be worried that she had gotten herself lost? "W-what about y-you?" she stuttered softly, knowing that it was nice to keep the conversation going. See, she was learning! "SPEAK" "CIVETTA SPEAK"