Alastor was doing his best to be a good father. Life was hectic for his little family right now, what with all the movement and instability in their lives and both Mendacium parents busy making preparations for their forevers, but the hulking behemoth of a wolf was never too busy to spend time with his children. His littlest, Avacyn, was fascinated by the strange fireflies that had appeared around Boreas seemingly overnight. How she knew about their existence when she should've been asleep well before their appearance he didn't know, but he had an inkling, and he couldn't fault his children for wanting to avoid sleep to see the world they would one day own. She had her father's inquisitive mind, and who was he to deny her a little adventure for some research? So the dire brute offered to take her someplace special to see the fireflies.

As the sun sank down through the twilight sky, Alastor carried his precious purple princess on his back toward the lake he had avoided since his terrifying ordeal over a year prior. It was somewhere he never thought he'd return, but for his daughter, he would move heavens and conquer hells for her. It was also where her inception had been, the place where he had been cursed in a way that blessed both of his amazing children into living stars. Massive paws crunched through dirt and snow as they approached the lake just before dusk. Frogs croaked and crickets were chirping already in preparation for night. The waters of the lake lapped placidly against the rocky shore. Alastor gazed over the glistening water with pensive obsidian eyes, ruminating on how life had taken him on such a strange path to where he stood today.

"We're here, my little star!" he declared, walking right to the edge of the water amongst some reeds almost as tall as he was, allowing Avacyn the best view of the lake he could. "It shouldn't be long now. Keep your eyes sharp." Gradually, the sun dipped below the western horizon and the abnormally huge full moon began to appear in the night sky. Once the last rays of daylight disappeared, those blue and lavender fireflies began to appear, rising from the reeds around them to float and dance over the surface of the lake. There was easily thousands of them around the lake and all around them, surrounding the father and daughter with their glow. The moonlight shimmered off the water's surface, making the lake look like it was glowing, an incandescent dance floor for the bizarre fireflies.


"Alastor"

Warning: Alastor is an explicitly mature character for violent and sexual content. Read his threads with caution.
As his mate, Manea may enter any of Alastor's threads not marked Private.
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Avacyn was always happy to spend time with her father, but the promise of getting to see so many of the beautiful fireflies had her even more excited than usual. She sat eagerly atop his back, her front paws wrapped securely around his neck to make sure she didn't fall off while her head rested on top of his so she could see where they were going. She had ridden on him many, many times like this and she loved it every time. She liked being up high so she could see the world around her better. Plus, she just loved all the attention her father gave her and how special she felt that they got to have matching dark eyes with him.

Her ears perked when he declared that they had arrived, lifting her head a bit as she looked over the fairly normal looking lake, listening to the sounds of frogs and bugs and all other various late evening activity. At least for now it didn't really look all that different from the lake that was outside the cave they lived in now, but she believed her dad when he said it was something special. "Okay!" she agreed when he told her to keep her eyes sharp, still keeping her post atop her father's head.

Eventually the sun finished setting and the blue and purple fireflies she had seen the other night began to appear. A grin pulled across her features with a delighted gasp and she watched as they appeared from the reeds and almost seeming like they appeared from the surface of the water itself. The marking around her eye lit up as well, shimmering with a bright iridescence as it had been since all of this stuff began. There were so many of the beautiful fireflies around and her dark eyes were open wide as she watched them all. "Wow..." she breathed, her tail wagging like crazy behind her.

A cluster of the fireflies drifted over to greet her and she giggled as they floated around her and tapped her nose, but then they drifted away again and she watched as they moved down to the surface of the lake in front of them. She scrambled up her dad's neck a bit so she could look down over the top of his head at the water and she tilted her head a bit when she noticed a shape in the water. It was a figure like she had never seen before and it was almost like a reflection, but it didn't ripple and move the way the reflection of the moon did. "Dad, what's that?" she asked, pointing it out to him.

"Avacyn Mendacium"

With his precious princess perched on his back and leaning over the top of his head, Alastor smiled and chuckled softly to himself at just how downright adorable her excitement was. Avacyn's enthusiasm was infectious and her bright indomitable spirit reminded the red-streaked brute of himself when he was younger. Of course, he'd make sure she never had to know the pain and struggle he had grown with at the paws of a violent and abusive monster as a father. On his life, he would do right by his children, now and always. Her gasps and coos of amazement when the fireflies appeared were exactly what he'd hoped for. He could even feel her tiny tail beating against the back of his neck when she started wagging like crazy, making the dire wolf laugh under his breath.

Keeping his eyes turned up to where Avacyn was leaning over his head between his ears, Alastor watched the glow of her marking grow brighter in the light of the strange moon, a trait both she and her brother had adopted since the unusual occurrences had begun. Several of the blue and purple fireflies flew up to dance around the little girl's face, almost like they were greeting her and playing with her. Her giggle brought life to his frozen heart, the smile on his face so wide from genuine joy that it hurt his cheeks. Alastor gave a soft grunt when Avacyn began to scramble up on top of his blocky head, her body all but leaning across his head and muzzle with her little hind legs scrabbling up the back of his neck. Thankfully she was still light and wasn't difficult to hold.

"Comfortable, your majesty?" he teased her with a snicker, trying to remain as still as possible so as not to cause Avacyn to slip or lose her grip. Ava asked him what something was, pointing her paw to where the fireflies had gathered at the edge of the water. Turning his head to follow her gesture, Alastor saw the cloaked figure in the water staring back up at them from where they stood right at the edge of the lake. The dire wolf's smile slid from his face. Him. The creature that had "cursed" him and been the cause of his daughter and son's glowing markings. It was as he suspected... these fireflies and events, the brighter glow of Ava and Sara's marks, it was all connected to the supernatural being he'd met long ago.

Alastor didn't know how to answer Avacyn's question at first. Even he didn't know what the figure was. "I don't know, sweetheart," he said, then got a wicked grin across his face. "How about we find out?" Taking a bold risk, Alastor lifted one giant black paw and brought it down on the reflection of the Firefly Guy, watching as his paw smashed through the surface of the water and kicked up a splash, the ripples distorting the figure, which ultimately vanished when Alastor's paw came to occupy the space it had once been. "Hmm, looks like it was nothing, darling. Just a trick of the light!" Alastor laughed.


"Alastor"

Warning: Alastor is an explicitly mature character for violent and sexual content. Read his threads with caution.
As his mate, Manea may enter any of Alastor's threads not marked Private.
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From her perch on top of her father's head she couldn't see how his expression changed when she pointed out the weird figure looking at them from under the water, her dark eyes too fixed on the shrouded shape in front of them to look. She watched the fireflies that circled and danced around the shape along the surface of the water, a couple of them floating back up to her again before going back to what they were doing before. More and more of them seemed to appear or at least gather from other parts of the lake in the moments while she waited for her father's reply and she was absolutely entranced by the dance they were doing on the fringes of her vision while she watched the unknown figure under the water.

Somehow she was surprised when her dad told her that he didn't know what it was. She didn't know why she felt like he would know, but she had been certain of it when she asked him. Maybe it was just because he was her dad and in her eyes he knew everything, but there was some other feeling that told her that he should know. Her paws wrapped around the sides of his head to hold on as he moved toward the water, her white rimmed ears flicking back when he reached forward to smack the water where the figure was hiding. She watched the ripples distort the image of him and the splash made some of the fireflies that had been lingering close to the surface of the lake vanish.

They reappeared fairly quickly after the ripples died and at least for her the figure looked clearer and closer, as if she could touch him if she got down from her father's back and poked a white dipped paw in herself. "What do you mean, daddy? He's right there," she insisted, pointing with her paw that was too large for her current size, assuming that maybe he just hadn't refocused on him after all the ripples and weird moonlight got in the way. Some of the fireflies drifted from the surface of the lake to move closer to them, more of them floating around her and also around her father's legs. "I don't think he liked that very much, daddy," she said softly, still looking at the mysterious figure in the water.

"Avacyn Mendacium"

Alastor's moment of self-declared victory was short-lived when his daughter insisted that the figure was still there. The smile slid from his face once more and he followed Avacyn's pointing paw back down to his own. To his shock and horror, there was the Firefly Guy, peering from around the massive onyx paw in the water as if he were looking at them through glass and not water. Furious black eyes locked with the emotionless glow of the robed creature, holding its stare while it gazed right at him. No... not at him. At Avacyn. Though the figure showed no emotion or reaction, Alastor could feel a shift in the air. A tension had settled over the lake, and the environment suddenly felt oppressive and intimidating. Alastor withdrew his paw from the water just as the fireflies began to move toward him and his daughter, the ones floating around her much more placid and seeming to try to lure the pup in with their pretty lights while the ones at his feet were buzzing frantically and furiously.

Okay, this bullshittery is over now, thought Alastor while he backed away from the water. His initial response was to growl and swat at the fireflies, but he recalled how poorly things had gone for him last time he'd fucked with the fireflies. Alastor was not going to let them get to his daughter though. Over his dead body! "You know what? How about we take the long way home tonight, my little firefly?" he suggested with a smile, just wanting to get Ava away from the lake and back home. "We can count the stars and see more fireflies on the way. How's that sound?" Turning from the lake, Alastor began a quick trot away from the lake, refusing to let his children experience what he had seen. The firefly freak had given him his two beautiful children—he would burn hells and tear down heavens before he let that abomination come anywhere near his family.


"Alastor"

Warning: Alastor is an explicitly mature character for violent and sexual content. Read his threads with caution.
As his mate, Manea may enter any of Alastor's threads not marked Private.
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Avacyn finally pulled her gaze away from the cloaked figure under the water when her father spoke about them taking the long way home. She was about to complain about them leaving too soon, how she didn't want to go yet and she still wanted to know who this figure was. Before she could do any of that though, he was already suggesting how they could count the stars and see more fireflies, turning and hurrying away from the lake before she could protest. She shuffled back a bit to her previous position at the top of his neck, hanging on to him as she craned her head backward to look at the lake retreating in the distance. The cluster of fireflies that had been around them stayed there in a clump for a little bit before dispersing back among the reeds and the lake, making it seem normal again despite the oddly blue hue to them all. "Okay, daddy," she said as she resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn't get to explore the lake more, resting her head on top of her father's again. She turned her dark eyes toward the sky, watching the streaks of stars go by as her father carried her back toward home, still thinking about the watery figure he seemed so eager to get her away from.

"Avacyn Mendacium"

Alastor

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