Harbringr was restless, he'd woken from a nightmare that was so close to real life that for a moment he wasn't entirely sure he dreamed it. In the dream he woke up in his den and in reality he woke up in his den. It was disorienting and so he decided he was going to go for a walk, maybe explore the Tall Grass Plains in the dead of night where he hoped Sirius was not patrolling. Hari wasn't quite familiar with the rules. He knew that Zee visited him before in the dead of night so surely he could do the same? Ah, yes, Zee, the most rule abiding wolf he'd ever met so surely it was ok…

He chuckled to himself then glanced up to see Costanza flying above him. She'd been out hunting and she called out sweetly to let him know she'd accompany him on this journey. It was a lovely night. Still hazy thanks to the volcano but a westerly wind had pushed the bulk of the ash far enough that the stars could be seen, twinkling above them. He still was irritated at being moved this close to the volcano. The tides were unpredictable, flooding frequent and they still had to deal with minor earthquakes here and there. Not to mention dead fish and debris continually floated up on the shores of the archipelago.

Harbringr did his best to give his sister space during her grieving but this was disturbing. And he quite frankly didn't want to hear any preaching from Sirius about the safety of his pregnant wife that he too would follow suit. Hari closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The dream had scared him and he found himself far more irritable than usual.

Iolaire warned her that the pups could be coming soon, and Zee felt suddenly like she'd had not nearly enough time alone as an adult. It was like a deadline steadily approaching, a deadline to her carefree life. When would she find time to battle bears or spar or explore the world or go on that damn honeymoon Sirius kept promising her if she had pups chained to her ankle? With the day coming up fast, she'd taken over a few of the patrolling duties simply to find a reason to get out and away from the den. Most nights it was calm, their members dens all seemed to scatter nearby the borders and thus it was rare for an intruder to make it into the heart of the territory without someone sounding the alarm. Sirius' companions Bast and Marshal served as added eyes in the trees and sky, so Zee felt comfortable knowing that most nights would be wildly devoid of excitement. The vulture called to her from overhead and Zee's eyes caught his circling form. By now she'd learned the difference between panic and a casual alert from the bird, and with a soft sigh she turned towards where the 'intruder' was spotted. It was rare an Ashen wolf came this way, was Pesto back to further harass Sirius' fur? The queen shook her head, trotting onwards. Zee would never get over how ridiculous her husband had been in his choice of location. Of course one of the tallest wolves in Boreas would lay claim to a territory with grass that in places could touch his shoulders. The horned queen was nearly engulfed by the grasslands, and as she walked she pushed past a multitude of flowers that only served to worsen her line of sight. From above Marshal led her - the bird having sense enough to know that Zee couldn't see worth a damn - until she came close enough to scent the intruder. "Hari!" Her voice called to him. Heavily pregnant, the queen was in the waddling stage. She moved as quick as she could regardless, breaking through the foliage and exhaling a heavy exhausted breath. "Decide to try and get lost tonight? You need to be careful, I've found old bones of wolves who must have been unable to find their way out." Lecturing Hari wasn't something that came easy, the two of them had already dove face first into enough danger that she knew the Daimyo was capable. "Speech"

Harbringr kept pushing his way through the grass, much of it came right up to his cheeks and he felt rather like he was swimming. Swimming in a sea of grass. Over all the grassland was flat and if he leaned back on his haunches and poked his head up above the grass like a giant meerkat he could see far into the horizon. Speaking of seeing… there seemed to be two very thick strands of grass heading his way… wait… no those were horns.

A familiar voice spoke his name. "Zee?" He ducked back down on all fours and started moving in the direction of the horns until at last he found her. He chuckled at her question. "Well, getting lost wasn't my intention. I haven't explored this territory before. I didn't realize the grass would get so high! What brings you out so far? Come to look at stars while the viewing is decent?"

Zee gave her friend a soft chuckle, shifting her paws to press them down upon the base of the grass to hold them out of the way to better see him. A part of her envied Hari for his unattached life, being able to go see the world and explore where ever he wanted to with nothing to hold him down. Zee wished for that type of life once upon a time, but that was before slavery and husbands and kingdoms. "I'm patrolling, technically." She replied, tilting her head back to gaze at the stars at his mention. "Though I suppose some stargazing might do me good. It could be the only way to find your way around all this bullshit." Her paw lifted to gesture to the tall grasses that surrounded them, causing the blades she'd held down to fling back into her face. Blinking hard she stamped them back to the ground, lips pulling back to growl at the offending plants. "It's hard to figure out which way is which when the sun is gone, and I just make sure not to wander when it's at it's peak. At least it's rising and setting give me some direction." Zee's eyes squinted at the sky, then back to the thick grassland. "Sucks being short. I swear, the first person who invokes Sirius' wrath and becomes enslaved I'm calling dibs on. Maybe they can chew the grasses to a normal height."   "Speech"

"Patrolling? It's a miracle you can see anything in this mess. Tell your husband to mow his damn lawn." He chuckled. Hari would probably never stop giving the larger man some shit, but it was all in good fun to his mind.

Harbringr nodded, his head tipping skyward as he took in the constellations. "Indeed, it's a useful mark during the day, particularly around the solstice." Like most celestial bodies the sun did vary a bit in its rising and setting and this wasn't always in true east or west but it was close enough to get a wolf to the territory he needed to go.

"I've found that searching for the north star helps. It's the one star I feel I can use to find north though I have to find the big bear first." He was lousy at picking out the little bear on the first go.

"I think that sounds like a splendid idea! My sister picked up a little healer. If you like I'm sure we could loan him to you, maybe set him to work paying off his debts." He gazed out again across the vast expanse of grass. It was surprising how much of a variety there was of different kinds of grasses. Some bore flowers and he was pleased to see the little bit of color. He was even more surprised to see how quickly the grass had grown back since the eruption.

Zee's brow raised at his words, wondering what little healer Ashen had picked up. "They seem to be everywhere nowadays, Sirius goes out looking for warriors and returns with his paws full of tiny healers. We're turning out to become more of a sanctuary then Abaven at this rate."She looked amused for a moment, remembering her husband's complaints on lacking some muscle. "Oh well, more lawn mowers are always welcome." She looked back up at the stars, pushing her head past the long grass to better scout the sky. "The north star, that's the bright one? I can never seem to find them. My adventures generally take place during the day." Blue eyes squinted slightly, willing herself to see the bear in the sky Harbringr had mentioned. It was a beautiful sight to see, the inky black backdrop with twinkling lights scattered across. She wondered whether the brightly colored flowers and long grass of the plains would look similar if she could look down at them from far above. "Speech"

Hari cackled at Zee's anecdote about tiny healers. Oh yes, it seemed Boreas was full of them and they always needed some sort of help. "I want to be there to see the looks on their faces when they receive their new lawn mowing orders." He could just imagine a line of tiny wolves chomping at grass, getting finished only to need to start again.

"Day time is probably a safer time to travel but if you need to find it look for the big bear. See those four bright stars and then the three next to it? Those three are the tail and the four stars make up the bears body." He gazed at it for a moment then laughed. "Awfully long tail for a bear if you ask me, but then they say the bears head points to the north start but it's more like the chest. Just follow the chest downward and there you go, that bright star in the baby bear's tail is the north star."

Zee's gaze followed his instruction, passing over the tiniest stars until she found the cluster he'd mentioned. It didn't look like a bear really, well at least not until he explained further how it was supposed to depict one. If she squinted hard and tilted her head she could see the faint shape, and tried to remember that this would be the big bear. Next she followed it's 'chest' down to the little bear, spying the brightly shining star within the tail. "I see." She mused quietly, sweeping her gaze forward and back to try to memorize it's positioning. "That way is the Shrine, then." If it pointed north, then Deathbelle's territory had to be in that direction and thus that was the way Harbringr must have came. She curled her tail in to hug her paws, sitting and staring up at the night sky in wonder. "Thank you, Hari. That will help. I'll make sure you're in charge of the navigation lessons for the kids, Sirius would just pick out a constellation that looks like wolves eating each other." A soft laugh, and she leaned over to butt her friend affectionately with her nose. "Speech"

Harbringr hoped he was making sense. He enjoyed looking at the stars but he often found himself wishing he'd listened to his instructors more. Thankfully though some knowledge was retained. Harbringr watched as Zee worked out the navigation method he'd told her and he nodded excitedly. "Yup, that's correct!" He had to admit it was nice being neighbors so he could sneak over and visit his friend.

"I'm still learning some of this myself but I'm always happy to help." He chuckled at her mention of Sirius picking out constellations of wolves fighting each other. "There probably is something like that up there but I'm not sure how helpful it would be for navigation. Especially since constellations like to move so much in the sky. There's only a few like the north star and Orion's sword that are fixed enough to navigate with." The north star more than the sword.

"Well, I suppose I should let you get back to your patrol?"