---

---

seven months |

The gentle swell and fall of the fields nearly seemed to shudder beneath the storm that loomed over them. Dusk was falling, but the sun had been blotted out for hours by the gathering malice of the thunderclouds. The wind flattened the tall, slender grasses and delicate petals of the wildflowers in bloom in rollicking waves against the hillside. It swept over the crest of a hill, diving down the other side to claw at handfuls of the boy’s fur. The sideways rain hadn’t yet soaked through its fur, but it did pelt its face with small, cold droplets. It would have stung, but for Trygve, it was just viscerally uncomfortable. It was a spring thunderstorm, and so it was unkind.

He knew he should have insisted on going with Akira. He’d told her he would protect her, but she had told him stay here and just a couple days. She must have figured it out at last, and he was just grateful he hadn’t watched the compassion bleed out of her eyes. The betrayal stung, but some part of him wasn’t wholly surprised.

It had waited, and then, it had headed south. It hadn’t expected to encounter the storm, but he hadn’t been paying attention. It had realized sometime walking away from the last place he’d seen Akira, that it was truly alone for the first time since the surviving the harrowing days after the sea had spat it out. It didn’t remember what came next - the sheer animal dread that the near-ceaseless lightning arcing between clouds overhead and unfettered downpour caused had finally dragged him back into his body.

Trygve dug his claws into the muddy earth and hauled himself to the crest of one of the shallower hills, watching a slender sapling bend nearly to touch the earth beneath the gales of howling, wet wind. In the morning, the storm would clear, and the meadows would flourish with idyllic life once more. But that meant surviving the night, and while he could weather the storm - he knew staying out in this was a gamble with his fickle health wiser avoided. The hills had little, as shelter went - but the lightning flashes illuminated in haunting contrast a tight-knit grove of aspen, old enough to stand against the severe weather. They would likely not protect from the rain too much, but they would serve as a windfall. The chimera lowered his skull, leaning into the howling winds as the storm thundered overhead, close enough to rattle in his bones. It knew fear familiarly. This, however, inflicted on him an almost comforting awe.

Life was not what it was supposed to be. She came into this world from a dream, down from the sky. She was still not completely sure if this was real or a vivid dream…the realm her father would get caught in between often. There was one stark difference though…Stardust had spent much time here, where as her father Starfall would only get caught in dreams for a shorter amount of time. She had not even waken up back home in Taviora yet.

Her entrance here was a painful one, and if it were not for Kirain she is not sure how she would have fared. Stardust was determined to find a way back home though, so she separated from her friend to get a better feel of the land and perhaps find signs of home. Her hind leg had mostly recovered from implement, but the scar it left made Stardust recoil. Regardless, she wandered the land with a plan to meet back up with her friend…and well, she sorta got lost.

What a time to get lost too. The sky was turning, and the woman of blacks and greys of the night sky looked up with a rather disgruntled face. Her face still remained naturally elegant and beautiful, but her expressions never failed to take over. The land was hilly now, and even though the storm was brewing and rain was starting to fall from the sky, she felt that she could perhaps get her bearings atop a hill. Perhaps she can find her way back where she wanted to go, because this direction was giving no clues to getting back home.

This was awful. Just terrible. Mud was touching her paws and she wanted to shiver at the sight of it. Grass was whipping against fur, and she just knew…stuff was sticking to her glorious fur. She was not able to keep her fur pristine since she say she fell here, and that in of itself was enough to drive her mad. For now, the woman had to just…deal with it. But it doesn’t mean she has to deal with it gracefully. Or quietly.

”Ridiculum est. Quid infernum? Nunc non pluviam, sed tempestatem futurum est? Quid limo? Quid pilum meum? Maledicta tibi!” she rambled in Latin, the language she preferred ranting in, as she came up the hill, her cyan eyes looking around unhappily as the sky thundered above here. It was LOUD, and Stardust burst forward, almost running into a younger wolf she didn’t notice was there initially. Luckily, she did indeed notice the other at the last moment and ensured they did not collide…unless the other moved.

”You have GOT to be kidding me,” she spits out, huffing a bit as the wind flings her fur around. She feels a bit of a sting in her right hind leg as she had to maneuver oddly. That leg is the one that was impaled by a branch when she fell from the sky to this dream world of pain. It was healed mostly, but she wondered if it would ever be quite the same as she grimaced.

”What the hell are you doing here? Do you need like, help or something?” she asks, her voice perhaps a bit brash on this day. What can she say- she is a bit grumpy. There is a lot to be grumpy about right now. This is obviously a younger wolf, under a year. Interesting looking. Regardless, she wondered if the other could be taken by the wind. Weirder things have happened. Literally. She fell from the sky in the dream. A gust of wind hit in that moment and Stardust lowered herself a little, her cyan eyes looking at the younger stranger and attempting to take in what information she could…considering the less than appealing circumstances.

---

The boy did not make it to the grove. A distant voice, ranting nonsense, was nearly silenced entirely under the crash and howl of the storm. He stood amongst it fearlessly, squinting against the rain pelting his face and rivulets streaming down the gnarled furrows carved into his features. A tall she-wolf galloped atop the hill it stood upon, nearly slamming into the boy. It sprang back with a flash of his teeth, tail lashing over his hips. What the hell?

She was dressed all in shades of midnight, her fur flecked with white freckles that looked like a perfect reflected of clear skies at midnight - rife with stars, winking mockingly down at him. Source-less rage welled within it at the sight, the wail of everything he'd lost rising to a black-out crescendo within his mind. He stared at the woman dumbly for a long moment, rainwater slicking his split coat to his juvenile frame as his mind warred with itself. He thought she was -

But no, this wasn't anyone he knew or ever had. He still seethed at the sight of her purple-toned blues, the glinting pale flecks within her dark fur. It made him feel sick, and lost, and frightened. All things he couldn't afford to feel if he wanted to survive. Trygve blinked at the woman, gaze more vacant than not, as he wrinkled his muzzle at her. Same as you, I bet - looking to get out of the rain. He spat. I'm fine. It huffed, the wind attempting to bowl him over. It grit its teeth. Are you?