Star Light, Star Bright

Aoede hadn’t gone far from the place where she had met Levi, one of the Armada’s youths. He had been short with her, but Ao couldn’t deny how much fun she had pushing his buttons. Part of her wanted to linger here in the northern reaches for exactly that reason. She wanted another chance to bother the short statured man. She wasn’t sitting idly around, waiting for him to stumble across her path a second time, she was making sure she saw every inch of the Northern reaches.

Her fox-like paws carried her over the frozen tundra, not much in the way of vegetation could grow up here. Still, hardy green grass took hold to every speck of dirt in this harsh land. Lichen clung to the rocky surfaces, living and dying and creating more soil for grass to colonize. Large grazing animals flocked to these places in the late spring and summer as the pastures grew, sharing the space with smaller animals as well, grazing geese, small rodents. All of these beasts brought with them the predators of the land.

She saw hints of other wolves in the area, a faint whiff of a polar bear, but much more were arctic foxes and coyotes. In the day she could see golden eagles high in the sky, a raptor of that size was a threat to a smaller wolf like herself. She was careful to try and find cover when their shadow raced over the ground. In the evening and night she found herself transfixed with the snowy owls.

The most interesting part was where an ancient river had opened up a deep wound at the surface of the earth. A deep gouging ravine that cut through brilliant veins of marble. Aoede’s dark paws carefully traversed the lichen covered marble at the top of the gorge. She and her companion fox both moved with great caution, survival was unlikely if either slipped into the ravine. Thankfully this night the moon was a brilliant light over the land. It lit the white marble and streak of gold in otherworldly light. Like nothing the star spangled she wolf had ever seen before.

To her amusement, she was not the only one here having their fill of the nearly unbelievable gash into the marble. Her golden gilded gaze watched as the boy’s deft paws put an old mountain goat to shame as he painstakingly ascended the sheer walls of water carved marble. He was lucky that the river had been gone for so long, or there would have been no footholds at all. Thanks to the relentless rolling on of time, the years had chipped away at the incredible ivory colored marble.

She lowered herself to the scruffy grasses, not voluntarily making herself known to him as he leaned abc and looked up at the stars above. She could hear him muttering from downwind, but couldn’t really hear him as he traced the sky with his toes. Reading the stars, no doubt. Suddenly his concentration was broken, and it looked like he was aware that he was no longer alone. The night was quiet, but she couldn’t hear his whisper over the gentle wind. Thinking she was caught, Ao lifted herself to her paws, she was far enough away to not be a threat, just watching.

"Aoede Regni"