I'd rather be dead than live a lie
BURN THE WHITE FLAG!

Night had fallen by the time Natha had left the cathedral and worked her way south. Shed been back to visit a few times but ultimately decided that it was no longer of her interest, being far too strange and mysterious. It struck her as the sort of place that would be haunted.

The sky above her was dark and mostly clear. The stars twinkled brilliantly. With the moon a slim crescent there was no other body of light to outshine them. It was then that she came to a large lake that was completely frozen solid even though it was the height of summer. That didn't surprise her too much. This far north there was no such thing as summer. Far as she could tell there seemed to be no sign of prey here and likely few other predators.

It had been hard to leave the North, with the summer in full affect in the other lands. Heat was not something that the thick coated male boded well with, having been born and raised in the mountains father north than even here. Despite being down here for a year now, his coat hadn't gotten the memo, apparently. Long tufts still dominated his limbs, making it nearly unbearable to be anywhere else during this time of year. A huff billowed out before him in the form of a cloud as he marched around the outskirts of the lake. He kicked at the ground below him, out of equal irritation and sheer boredom. Generally a loner, Lyulf had found it harder to be alone after running into a few strangers. He longed for companionship, but fear held him back from opening up to anyone around him. Another sigh left his parted jaws as he picked up the pace, jogging blindly in the dead of night. It was pretty though, he had to admit that, with the silver moonlight catching every glimmer of the frozen lake, hiding a secret below layers of ice. It was enough to occupy his mind, at least for now. Lyulf sharply turned as the lake curved around a bend, only slowing when he saw something else standing at its edge. He slowed, emerald eyes narrowing ever so slightly. It wasn't a wolf, that much he could tell, but the elongated shadows from the limited moonlight made the outline hard to place. Curiosity got the best of him, slow steps bringing him closer. A few paces made the picture before him grow more clear, blinking sharply as he realized that he was looking at a lynx. There had been a few that used to roam the mountains that he grew up on, but they normally kept their distance from one another. He hesitated, unsure if they would be hostile or not. He remembered the look of their fangs, the sharpness of their claws. The cat would surly out run him as well, given his apparent lack of grace lately. It was too late now, a breeze ruffling his fur as it blew past him. He was upwind from the lynx, it would have smelled him for sure now. Lyulf glanced at the lake, wincing as he realized that there was no quick escape. Well... only one think left to do, make nice. Or attempt to, given that he wasn't the best at small talk. "Erm, hi..." He sputtered, clucking his tongue against the roof of his mouth as his palatable awkwardness. "SPEAK!"

Art by Evelyn

I'd rather be dead than live a lie
BURN THE WHITE FLAG!

Natha elegantly bent her head to sniff at the border of the lake. It seemed pretty solidly frozen. Now the question was did she want to go around or go ahead and walk over it? It would certainly be quicker to just walk across as she had no idea how big the lake was but it was most definitely a considerable size. She eyed the ice pillars that jutted from the surface, some of them spearing into the night sky while others formed strange arcs. What a bizarre territory indeed. She couldn't imagine why anyone would want to live in a place like this and so she was taken by surprise when she noticed a wolf.

Her golden eyes warily sized the wolf up for a moment but he spat out an awkward 'hi'. Her ears twitched for a moment but she started to relax. He didn't seem at all aggressive and it seemed the wolves of Boreas were far more open to speaking with a cat than in other areas she had been to. She dipped her head. "Hello there, sir. Are you exploring the north as well this fine night?"

He wasn't quite sure what he was expecting, but he was still surprised by the polite manner in which the cat spoke. It stunned him into silence for several heart beats, before he was able to shake himself to his senses. He couldn't recall the last time that he had been called sir, if ever at all. Licking at his lips, he slowly nodded his head, letting his gaze roam to the icy lake. He had seen what happened when the ice was stepped on, the eruption of blue that bloomed beneath his paws. It was beautiful, and something that he wanted to see over and over again. "I am. Much more comfortable than the summer heat," Lyulf said slowly, chewing over his words carefully. He didn't miss the wary glance of the lynx, mirroring his own feelings. He hadn't had much interaction with his own species, let alone others. An ember of curiosity burned in him, enough that he took a few more steps towards the cat. "I'm Lyulf." He remembered that introductions were a thing, sparing him some of the awkwardness of forgetting, unlike the last run in that he had had. A few more steps were taken, eyes lifting from the feline to the lake once more, tracing the arches of ice that seemed to burst forth from the frozen lake. "Have you stepped on the ice yet?" He asked, his words flowing a little more freely now that he had been speaking for a little bit. The tension in his shoulders started to ease, although his limbs were locked and ready to flee if he needed to. It was nice to have someone to talk to on this night, and for some reason he felt far more comfortable with this lynx than he did another wolf. It was hard to understand exactly why, but it didn't tug on his scarred heart like his own kind did. A lifted sigh left his lips, ease returning to his once pinched expression. He even managed a hint of a smile, inclining his head towards the surface of the lake as if she should watch him. Moving to her side, keeping a number of feet between them just in case, he reached out and pressed his pad into the surface of ice. At the pressure, blue lights exploded under his touch, twisting around his paw until they faded and died away. Briefly his mostly pale toned coat was outlined in the wonderful blues that the bio-luminescence cast on him. Lyulf's smile grew a bit, lifting his eyes to peek at the lynx in wonderment. "SPEAK!"

Art by Evelyn

I'd rather be dead than live a lie
BURN THE WHITE FLAG!

Natha nodded thoughtfully at his words. "I agree!" While her coat thinned out in the summer she was still very much a creature of the north and the warmer temperatures of the south and the west could get uncomfortable for her. She might move in that direction when winter hit the north but there was no guarantee. In truth she really felt she was in her element here. "A pleasure," she purred. "My name is Natha." She was pleasantly surprised to find him such a polite fellow, that wasn't always the most common experience with wolves and she was grateful for his manners.

Her head tilted to the side as he asked if she'd stepped on the ice. She shook her head. "I've been examining the thickness as best I could in the low light. I'm working my way south and if it looks good I plan to walk right across. Ice is thinnest at the edges." She'd learned that from her mother. Lyulf gestured toward the water and when he reached out his paw to step on the ice a flash of beautiful blue light light up around his paw. It startled Natha who leapt back instantly in only the way cats could. Her fur was on end as she stared at the spot that had been glowing. "What was that? Was that magic?"

She lowered her body and crept forward before reaching out a paw and batting sharply at the ice. Just as her paw struck it glowed but then swiftly faded. Natha pawed at the ice again, her short tail twitching as she examined the strange glow.

It was unexpected, just how much he felt himself calming down around this feline. His own kind often made him tense and worried, but this lynx didn't pull at the scars on his heart like his own kind did. He had seen what a wolf could do, the twisted manipulation that rested inside of all of them. He didn't trust anyone else, having witnessed their rise to get what they want. One would think that that fear transferred to all beings, but apparently not. He could feel his muscles starting to uncoil, folding himself down to a seated position as he settled beside the feline, who named herself Natha. A warmer smile curled on his lips, ease chipping away at his icy exterior. As he tapped the ice with his paw, he watched from the corner of his eye as Natha jumped backwards like a bat out of hell, before stalking forward and batting at it as well. A genuine laugh burst from him, something that rarely happened anymore. It was brittle and dry from sheer misuse, the sound almost burning in his throat. Lyulf watched her with warming eyes, head falling wayward when she asked if it were magic. A smaller chuckle bubbled up from his belly, sounding a touch more normal after the last had seemingly cleared the way. "Not magic, no. More... biology. It's called bio-luminescence, I believe. They are trapped in the ice and reactive to touch, apparently," his lit came easier now, more obvious comfort in his tone. The male couldn't help but grin at her very cat-like reaction, her stub of a tail twitching behind her as she pawed at the strange lights. Rising to all fours, he slid forward, the lights following behind him like a trail of smoke. He didn't go too far away, turning around to face Natha with a goofy look, so unlike the generally stoic male. His tail stood tall, shoulders wigging as he slid his paws across the ice. Lyulf had had no intentions of finding companionship, let alone someone that could make him laugh for the first time in a year. "SPEAK!"

Art by Evelyn

I'd rather be dead than live a lie
BURN THE WHITE FLAG!

Natha carefully stepped out onto the lake, the strange light continuing to glow about her paws. According to Lyulf it was not magic that was the source of the glowing but some strange little creatures. "That is fascinating! I wouldn't think anything could live encased in the ice like that." She scratched at the ice for a moment but thought better of it. She took a few more steps to catch up with the wolf. The lynx moved gingerly at first but slowly picked up confidence. Her hind legs crouched beneath her and she pushed forward while shifting her weight forward and keeping her front limbs stiff yet supple. She slid a little ways, tail twitching as she grinned. "I don't suppose you'd be heading south would you? You'd be welcome to join me."

She stabilized herself and gazed up at the stars until she spied the big dipper. "Ah, there we go, that's the constellation I was looking for. It points north so I just planned to go in the opposite direction. A bit of a pain to go in reverse but I don't know if there is a good constellation to follow south."

The grin on his lips never seemed to falter now, settling into the wolf that he used to be before the trauma. Apparently he was more lonely than he thought, and his lynx was just the blessing that he needed. A content sigh filtered out of his nose, his emerald eyes alight with joy. He continued to watch the large cat play with the creatures stuck in the ice, the blue glow casting on both of them as it ebbed and flowed with their touch. Her statement about things living in the ice made him shrug his shoulders ever so slightly, bending down to peer deeper down into the lake below them. "It's like they get locked in time and space. It has always made me wonder what's trapped under all this ice, what could possibly have been in there before the ice claimed the lake," Lyulf said in wonderment, ears pulling forward as he tried to peer down to the lake bed. If it could hold these little glowing things, what other secrets was this lake hiding? He snapped out of his mental haze when Natha spoke again, asking if he was heading south per chance. His ears flickered in thought, his smile melting away into a thoughtful frown. He had planned to stay in the north to wait out the heat of the summer, but the idea of traveling with a companion after being alone for so long was tempting. Lyulf's striped tail swayed behind him slightly, chewing on his bottom lip as he fell silent for a moment. "It hadn't been a thought, but I'd be more than happy to join you, if you'd have me." Anxiety made his heart pick up in pace, suddenly worried that Natha would deny him, despite the fact that she had already said that he was welcome to join her. The wolf's hair stood slightly on end, the fear of rejection making his toes curl into the ice below him, blooming more blue lights under him. Thankfully the conversation moved onward, the lynx looking to the starts and talking about constellations. Tan brows pulled together as he looked upwards as well, trying to pick out what Natha was talking about. His knowledge of stars was sparse, mostly from tales of his mother and on how he could always find his way home. Silence fell over them again as she spoke of ways to go south, making Lyulf spin in a small circle as he looked for one of the stars that he knew well. "The Southern Cross, there is a blue hued star that points you southward." He said softly, still squinting into the sky to try to find it. It was one of the stories he remembered well, and one would think that an actual blue star would be easy to pick out among the sea of others. "SPEAK!"

Art by Evelyn

I'd rather be dead than live a lie
BURN THE WHITE FLAG!

Natha crouched down low, her belly fur just tickling the surface of the ice as she thought about Lyulf's words. So there were little things caught in little spaces in this ice? Maybe they were like little plants and got their energy from the sun. In such a case they would not need to move and perhaps they were hardy enough the ice did not bother them, like lichen. "I wondered that myself. I bet there are all kinds of interesting creatures frozen permanently in this lake."

The wolf seemed a bit uncertain as to if he would head south but in the end he seemed fine with joining her. "I'd be happy to have you! And you do not need to follow me all the way. I only intend to go as far south as Atlantis Island or perhaps Waterfall Peak. I haven't quite decided yet. Ideally, I want to explore every territory in the north and then I will pick my favorite to live in." At least until Shorty and the Gang arrived. Which they likely would before she was done but still, it gave her something to do.

Her gaze turned once more to the stars as Lyulf mentioned the Souther Cross. Her gaze scanned the horizon until she spied the blueish star that seemed to be part of a group of stars that form the cross. "Excellent! That's what we'll use then. I'm still learning the constellations. It doesn't help that the some times seem to change based on the season and of course what we see here is different from what we see in Auster. Do you have many of these formations back where you are from?" She assumed the Southern Cross was one familiar to him as she had never heard of it before.

In the Northern lands, a lot of the areas were covered in permafrost, never to melt again. But there had been a lake here, creatures that had made it their home before the frozen air took over. It was a curious thought though, to imagine what would happened if the earth warmed enough that they would be able to explore the body of water below them. Lyulf hummed in thought, twisting his paw across the ice to watch the kaleidoscope of blues. How many stories lay trapped beneath miles of ice? It was an itch that he would never be able to relieve, stuck only with his thoughts of wonderment. "If only these little blue things could tell us what was down there," he said with a breathy chuckle, dipping downward to gently rub the side of his head and ear around as if they would whisper sweet nothings to him. When it came to talk of travel, he started to smile once again, lifting up from the ice to look over his shoulder at the pillars around him. It was a journey that he should probably take as well, given the fact that he had just found a spot to settle in every night, not usually returning to the same area again. It was nice that the lynx seemed to have some of the same goals in mind at least, in exploring and finding a place to rest. Lyulf's would be much less permanent though, his paws itched far too much now to settle for too long. "Do you plan on staying in the North then?" He asked, his voice sounding far more eager than he had hoped. It would be nice to have someone to call on after all this time, given just how comfortable he felt with this cat. The lynx's eyes were sharper than his own, spotting the very star that he had still been searching for. Lyulf's eyes met her own, a somber smile curling on his lips as he thought of his home land and his mother's tales. "I only know of a few. The one you spotted, I'm not sure what that one is. However, the Southern Cross used to lay across the plains at the base of the mountain I lived on, they led to our hunting grounds. Above the blue hued star there is one that looks almost orange, I always thought it looked more like a sun than a star, really. And then two other smaller blue stars make the cross of the, well... cross." Lyulf's voice held more of a note of sadness than before, thoughts of his home making his ears pin tightly against his skull. They were sweet memories once, tainted by the end game that ended up making him flee from his more northern home. Shaking his head slowly, he turned back to Natha, attempting a hint of a grin. "Shall we?" "SPEAK!"

Art by Evelyn

I'd rather be dead than live a lie
BURN THE WHITE FLAG!

"Do you plan on staying in the North then?"

Natha nodded. "Yes, for the summer at least and I should like to stay into the fall. When winter comes I may move farther south. I haven't decided for sure." Much would depend on Shorty and what the cats he brought with him would want but she was pretty certain she could convince them to stay up north for the summer. And even the, she was a cat, she would go north when it pleased her.

She listened as Lyulf spoke more of the constellation he'd pointed out and she grinned and nodded. "A star that points right to your hunting grounds? That sounds nice!" She had had her own hunting grounds back in her homeland before an intruding mountain lion and his posse pushed her out. "Well the nice thing is that if I head back north I can focus on the north star. The big bear's head points right to it. I may go south to the Peak then work back up. We'll just have to see."

He asked if they should go and she nodded. "Yes, let's go!"

-exit-

It was strange for him, to talk of his homeland once again. A more somber look took over his features as he recalled their stars, a sad smile curling on his lips. "It made it a lot easier to train the little ones once they were old enough, they could always find their way home. Our ancestors spoke of the gods making it that way, but I'm sure that's just a fable." Lyulf said softly, chewing on the words as he spoke them. He didn't have much faith in anything, let alone a greater being that ruled them all. He had seen places of decay in the north, ones that spoke of other life forms that had lived long before they had been here. And these creatures trapped in the ice, they weren't put there on purpose, of that he was sure. The lynx spoke more of stars, pulling his ears forward with interest. There were some she named that he had no idea about, but he would save his questions for later. He stood and followed her instead, suddenly glad that he had braved his fears and came to speak to the cat. He had no idea how lonely he had felt until he found another creature to share his thoughts with. His tan striped tail picked up and wagged several times as he bound after the cat, carefully avoiding slipping on the slick ice below. -exit, end thread!- "SPEAK!"

Art by Evelyn