Gossamer took a moment to watch the clouds shifting through the sky. They blotted out the stars, a torrent of darkness sweeping across the night sky until they reached the moon, and seemingly by some miracle or curse, divert around that great light before continuing on their way. The moon remained unblemished, brighter and fuller than she'd ever seen it. It persisted in the sky, night after night, neither waning nor waxing and the eternal light it gave made her skin crawl. It was abnormal. Something that was meant to cycle and yet seemed to have stopped. In some ways it reminded her of the past winter and spring, how it seemed that the seasons had stalled. Though she knew little of a time before she could sense the wrongness in all of it.

Azure had assumed that one of these nights he'd become accustomed to the strangeness, though each encounter with the unnatural atmosphere was new and changed enough to startle him all over again each time the never-waning moon rose again in the sky. It felt like the nights were lengthening almost, like he was spending more hours in the unnatural night then he was in the normal, familiar day. He was well into the second patrol of the evening when he came across his monochromatic sibling, pausing and frowning at the sight of her. The youngest Fatalis litter hardly gathered his interest, but Azure had new responsibilities now, and he assumed one of those responsibilities was to get to know every member of the pack better regardless of whether they were young and annoying. Az came up alongside her wordlessly, tilting his head up to watch the clouds with her. "Come patrol with me." He offered after a moment, gesturing to the border line with a swing of his head and starting off with the assumption she would follow. Fireflies danced in clusters above the tall grasses as they walked, and Azure gave them a respectful berth of space. "I haven't ever seen anything like this. Have any thoughts as to what it might be?" "Speech"

Gossamer picked up the sound of movement and her head whipped around to look behind her. She relaxed a little when she realized it was her older brother, Azure. A brother she hardly knew but still more welcome company than a filthy pirate. Just thinking of that wretched old woman made Gossamer's new scars ache. He offered for her to patrol with him and she nodded, walking up along side him. "Yea, sounds good." A soft breeze whispered through the grass. On a happier evening she might consider it a gentle breeze but tonight it seemed threatening, like a monster stalking quietly before the pounce and kill.

Her attention was drawn back to Azure and she shook her head. "No idea, though I wonder if last winter did something to the land here. Maybe set off a chain reaction, maybe woke some things up…" She didn't know how much she wanted to pursue that thought.

Walking with and talking to Gossamer was much less familiar and safe feeling then it ever had been spending time with Mortis, Indy or Asla, and once more Azure wondered whether or not he would ever manage to bond with the yearlings. While not realistically too far apart in age, it felt as if they were years apart in experiences. Az was expecting children, stepping up to the mantle of leadership.. what were Gossamer and her littermates doing at this point in their lives? She mentioned the winter previous as a possibility and Azure's fur stood on end. He did not want to think of the winter that his mother was kidnapped beneath his nose. "Last winter I was 'dead', I wouldn't know what happened here." He stated, perhaps a touch too firm. From the stories he'd heard, mammoths and wolves larger than direwolves roamed the land. It was not a calm time in Boreas, not was it this year with the eerie changes. "Our mother had a strange encounter with fireflies before then" He squinted over at her for a moment. "Perhaps before you were even born. They stole her horns from her." It made him uneasy to consider that it could happen again, that fireflies could steal from the Armada wolves their mutations. Hopefully Zee's firefly man and these fireflies were unrelated. "Speech"

Gossamer didn't press as Azure as he spoke of last winter, clearly the events of that winter still bothered him. She couldn't blame him. When she should've celebrated her birthday she instead attended her mother and brother's funeral. When she should've been learning how to prepare a winter den and supplies she was fighting against wolves even larger than her father, making her first kill. Last winter had been hell. This winter didn't look much better.

Gossamer came to a sudden halt, mouth agape as Azure mentioned the fireflies and Zee's horns. "What! No, I remember that. She came home without her horns, her Klein friend was there." She'd been very young but she still remembered that moment. Her eyes narrowed as she looked out at the blue fireflies that were still flitting about the tall grass. "You think there may be a connection with these ones?" Gossamer spoke in hushed tones. "I mean, everyone I've talked to said fireflies aren't usually out in winter."

Gossamer

The air feels somehow thicker than before. You also find 4 mushrooms. Maybe these are worth keeping…