Watch the stars, see yourself running with them

The air was cold, sunk into his bones as the sun dipped beneath the horizon. Like it'd never rise again. Levi's brows furrowed, the Armada had not called the north home for long and as such he probably shouldn't have wandered off quite so soon. But the unknown called out to him, had him slipping away like a shadow, and before he knew it night had fallen. Far earlier than he'd anticipated, like the sun was shy here. Didn't want to outstay its welcome, like a guest who had a long journey home.  He cast his gaze back the way he'd come, saw his footprints fading and knew they wouldn't last long enough to guide him back home. The falling snow would see to that soon. And so he turned his gaze skyward, eyed the dots that began to make themselves known. They were solemn and distant, unmoving despite the wind and the flecks of snow that tried to capture his attention as they swirled and danced. And yet they remained in place all the same, stringent in nature. Eternal.

Faintly he heard the lapping of waves, the wind pushing the sound into his folded ears in the opposite direction. As though forcing him on, goading him to seek out what had once been familiar. Like a home away from home. He would heed the call in a moment, but for then he made a point of staying a moment longer as he examined the night expanse. The void filled with dots, the trails filling his mind as he recalled old navigation lessons his Mother had attempted to pass on. Attempted being the key word, as she seemed to have a nature talent for travelling. Didn't know much about it as an art, barely enough to pass on and yet the skill had been inherited on his end, it seemed.

He knew the north star when he saw it, felt it orient his senses. If that was north then he'd come from the east. The rise of Col mountain range would be enough to guide him home once he got close enough, putting two and two together grounded his sense of position. Had him mapping out the land in his mind, noting the slant of cliffs as they narrowed into a cove. No doubt responsible for the hissing of waves, louder now as he was on the move once more. Small paws crunching against the snow, a winter coat forced to grow in thick at the sudden change of climate. Thicker and denser around his neck than he would like, his spines bunching together as his skin contracted against the cold.

He pressed on and soon enough the ocean came into view. The sand was dark and dense beneath his paws, not unlike Obsidian Beach back south. Where the Ashen Empire had been whole and one. The stars shone even brighter beyond the sea, stretched out as far as he could see. Like there was nothing but space beyond, emptiness as the world found its end. He knew wolves from strange lands arrived on Boreas' shores all the time, that there was a world out there, one the Fatalis linage had once hailed from. And yet in the moment Levi struggled to imagine anything else but this, the finality of the sea and stars. Meeting as though they were all there was, two sides of one coin.

Would the sky look different at another time of year? He assumed so, even things in the background didn't remain the same. Forever shifting and swirling, like the blurred stars he'd seen when he was little. He now knew that wasn't the norm, but for the longest time the streaks in the sky had been all he knew. They'd be useless for navigating, would lead a wolf to walk in circles, dazed and confused, compared to those he saw now. Constant enough to be relied upon in the night. Predictable in ways they ought to be.

The moon was out tonight, bring and looming. Shadows and divots marking its surface, as full as it could be. Its reflection shuddered and danced on the waves, lapping pitch black against the equally dark shoreline. Levi breathed deep, nostrils flaring as he took in the salty brine. Why his grandfather hadn't claimed this beach was a mystery to him, but he supposed the Warlord might have been looking for change. Wanted something new, to begin again in the only way he knew how.

Now that he was here he figured he ought to fish, make his trip valuable in the eyes of others. The water was calm enough, nothing he couldn't handle and as long as he didn't get too wet he didn't think the cold would make him sick.

But he wasn't in any rush to return home, for if his other senses failed to guide him he'd always have the stars.