[ P ] the finest treasures are buried under waves

  in life, in death

we'll be together  

Dusk falls over the jagged peaks of Ayr. The wolf of night silently stalks the crags with keen eyes well-adjusted to the dim lighting. They scan her surroundings, searching for something that might make a fine addition to the altar she keeps higher up in the cliffs. Night by night, it has been slowly coming together — she has crystals and herbs and flowers and wine and fruit but there is something missing...

A momentary pause at a short ledge, beneath a pine and over a slope of cobbled rocks. A steady grey gaze stares out into the distance, making out the winds of the rivers and the planes of the grassy meadows down below. Even at this relatively low elevation she still has such a magnificent view and she allows herself the opportunity to watch the sun sink into the horizon. In its absence, the sky is painted in shades of pink and violet, the palette of twilight.

She is so taken by the view that she forgets where she is and what she is doing, until a sharp caw snaps her out of her stupor. Her head jerks up for her to see a jet-black crow take flight from the tree beside her — it feels like it beckons her to follow and so she does just that. Nyx hops from the ledge and traverses down the slope, eyes following the crow's trajectory.

But her focus should have stayed on the path, and with one misstep she stumbles over a spur and sends herself tumbling down an incline. Large paws grip at the rocks for purchase. They find it and she's pulling herself back up to her feet. The tall wolf shakes the dust out of her midnight pelt and simply brushes off the fall. The crow lets out another cry as it circles in the air before it makes its descent.

Nyx makes her steady approach as the crow perches on top of what she quickly realizes is the skull of a wolf. When she comes too close, the bird flutters away. She watches it for only a moment before her attention is drawn back to the skull lying amongst the gravel. A paw delicately traces the arch of the cheekbone as she contemplates what she has found, left with so many questions which could never be answered.

@Nimue

Everything is torn in the river deep

Nimue had stayed behind a bit longer in Ayr after having been given a tour of her homeland by Rhiannon. She felt there were still many wonders of this particular region that was mysteriously carved into the mountainside. The discovery of a variety of bones she’d begun to find that had been left behind by the once living had begun to peak her interest. She was not one for collecting them personally, though her Aunt and perhaps a few others she’d met in her travels would find use for them and even trade her for something that did tickle her fancy.

The wolfess would glide across thin cliffside paths on slender legs, moving downward to collect what she could at the bottoms of each of these fated ravines. Having nearly taken a fall of her own, she was far more careful with the placement of her paws, and familiarized herself with the rough texture of the walls that she hugged against to keep herself from adding to the collection of remains of an unfortunate plummet.

Reaching the base of one of the gorges, she noted a larger specimen and her eyes grew wide with curiosity to see that it appeared to be a skull. Nimue had yet to find a full cranium and she began to pick her way nearer until the echoing clatter of a disturbance of one of the upper inclines caused her to halt. She took several steps back and tilted her face upward to see ahead a cluster of rock and debris come tumbling down. There was a sick amusement that briefly danced inside her mind at the thought of having more than bone to deal with.

The though was fleeting with the sound of fluttering wings and the appearance of a crow that landed atop the skull. Nimue remained still, seeing the form of a large woman donning a pelt of midnight and shadow. The female was quick to get acquainted with the skull and Nimue’s eyes narrowed to slivers of deep blue.

Dammit…finder’s keepers i suppose… She cursed herself internally for not having claimed the magnificent piece right away, though swiftly shrugged it off as she began to make her approach. “Made a friend, have we?” Nimue asked in order to announce her appearance as she looked the woman up and down.

@Nyx

"Go to the water so every near,
the river will be your eyes and ears."

code by claerie ~ art by ashon

  in life, in death

we'll be together  

Imagine being forgotten and lost to time. It's a thought sobering like no other. The fallen prince wonders who this wolf was in life — was he noble or wicked, a warrior or a poet, or was he even a 'he' at all? So many possibilities, a story she will never know... It's a pity, knowing this wolf was never honored with a proper burial, instead cast aside like trash and left for the crows. This wolf will be disgraced no longer; these remains will serve a higher purpose now.

The tall woman begins to lean down to pick it up but pauses before she even parts her jaws, stricken with the sense that she is being watched. Pointed ears flicker at the sound of approaching footsteps. Her head turns, silver gaze falling upon a lissome woman with fur like earth after a spring rain, notable for the lack of any distinct patterns to draw the eye.

Nyx returns that up and down look, her lips pulled into a smirk. At a glance, this stranger appears a bit plain but she does have rather nice legs and carries herself with grace. Not bad at all. "You could say so," replies the wolf of night. Her attention lowers back down to the skull at her paws. "However this friend is not very talkative. I'm just dying to know what happened to him or her..."

Still smirking, she tilts up the chin with a paw and gazes into those hollow sockets, as if the answer lies therein. "But I suppose it doesn't matter now. I have great use for this."

@Nimue

Everything is torn in the river deep

Nimue's study of the woman was mirrored and her eyebrows rose with interest as she watched the other's lips settle into a smirk. By the way it so naturally complimented the lovely features of the fae, she determined that this might have been her signature look. She let out a gentle breath of a laugh, turning her sights upwards towards the various edges that led to the drop-off of this ravine.

"If I didn't know any better...I would say a fall may have had something to do it. It's fortunate that you have your wits about you, else you might have joined them." Nim teased the ebony wolfess, giving her a knowing look to clearly convey that she was aware of at least one occasion in which her footing was lost. She drew closer, peering over at the skull, taking in the head shape and formation of the once living creature. "You know...there is a way to tell if this poor unfortunate soul was male or female."

Her acquaintance did not seem to care one way or another when the discovery could be used as a resource. Nimue followed starlit eyes to rest upon the deceased and hummed to herself. "And what plans do you have for this lucky contender?" She gestured with her muzzle to the empty, soulless void of the eye sockets that endlessly stared out into the world.

@Nyx

"Go to the water so very near,
the river will be your eyes and ears."

code by claerie ~ art by ashon

  in life, in death

we'll be together  

The sylphlike stranger suggests a quick fall may have been what had done this specimen in, an idea which Nyx briefly toys with. "That is one possibility, yes, but isn't that the most uninspired assumption to make? Could his death not be by a lion's claws, or by swallowing koneion, or perhaps it could even be a punishment by his state?" the ebon prince offers a few other ideas, and decides merely to brush off the implication that the woman had seen her stumble. To that, she simply comments, "The Gods have made our kind surprisingly resilient; those of my blood especially so."

The Orpheides held a divine legacy after all. As the stranger makes her bold approach, Nyx finds herself setting a paw overtop the skull's dusty cranium. The woman suggests there is a way to determine the sex of the long-deceased wolf, a curious notion which prompts the dark wolf to arch a brow and smirk crookedly.

"Is that so? How, if may I ask? By the strength of the jaw, the size of the fangs, the length from nose to crest? If all that was left of me were bones, one would easily think me male," says Nyx. Wolves are not deer or sheep or birds. The differences between sexes are not so immediately obvious — size is the only real tell and even then there is so much room for error.

But she's curious what ideas the stranger might have, just as the stranger seems curious of her plans for this skull. Obsidian claws rap at bone as a sharp grin spreads across a swarthy maw. "Who wishes to know?"

@Nimue

"koneion" - hemlock

Everything is torn in the river deep

"That would surely make for a more interesting story. We could also be looking at a victim of poison giving by a spouse who had found another lover and wanted to get rid of their ball and chain with the only way to dispose of the body being the ledge of a cliff." A grin turned the corners of her lips upward as she now had the two of them musing on this poor soul's undoing. Nimue's ears flicked, noting the interesting phrasing that the other used accentuating their own bloodline in terms of resilience. She thought to keep that in mind, yet it was clearly a door that the other had opened not for her to simply pass it by. "Your blood? Care to elaborate, dear?"

She was certainly glad to be asked to share her knowledge of the anatomy beneath their own skin. Nimue moved closer, lifting a paw to point towards the back of the skull. "If you look there, right at the back there is a crest of bone...on a male it protrudes farther and is more pronounced, while a female's would be far smaller." By now, she'd become vastly curious about the item held at the paws of the other, eyeing it from a short distance away.

Nimue looked up to meet silver eyes, her ears swiveling to catch the odd, yet somewhat soothing tapping of claws against bone. She slowly mirrored the grin and made a show of looking about before leaning forward and whispering. "If I were to make a guess, I'd say it was between myself and your little friend there."

@Nyx

"Go to the water so very near,
the river will be your eyes and ears."

code by claerie ~ art by ashon