And so it goes { open

[L]

AVIS WREN

The ashen male had left her alone. Avis Wren sat by the edge of the grassy plains, where the grass had begun to thin and hug the soil closer to itself. That was impossible, of course - the grass dug shallow roots into the earth and lodged itself there, but one tug and the leaves came away in her jaws. The girl considered it; she could do so, she could employ her teeth and maw and mouth and reach down to grasp the plants firmly within her bite. What would it feel like, she thought, to live here?

It was clear that she had no way of retracing her steps. Before her lay two options, both as dark as the night was long. She could stay - stay and allow this place to become her new home; or she could simply pass through like a drifting spectre. She could go where the wind took her, and perhaps her magic would return to her. Oh, how she pined for it. She had felt it thrumming so strongly through her veins once before. It had sung to her and tugged at the depths of her soul. Oh, unfettered power! There was a presence here, yes, yet... it was so foreign... so hostile...

It was as if it had sensed her otherworldliness, and stolen her magic from her. The thought left a bitter ache in the roiling pits of her belly. Here was life - the green was a verdant shade; here, where the grass met the shadows and shrunk under its unseeing glare, where trees towered over her - and yet the life was so vastly different from what she had known. The trees here bore no magic, and they had no glow about them. They offered naught but shade and dark; even the trees of her Forest had come alive with night-glow, and the god-pool was still with power. She had been a god, once.

Avis rose. She began to walk, feet drifting where she felt the bends and dips of the indecisive earth. It led her left and right, but downwards, always downwards. She did not know how long she had walked for, but eventually, the scenery changed and presented her with a scent that vaguely reminded her of the god-pool. I drowned there, she told herself. As if she needed to remember. Nestled in a small clearing was a thin sheet of ice. Clearly, it had been some sort of lake or pond before the season had changed.

The frost that coated the thin hairs of her muzzle served as an obvious indicator. And the girl shivered.

"The god-pool never froze..." Even in winter, the god-pool had remained as liquid as water could be. But how could it not? That pool was magic-infused, and this... Though she had been robbed of her powers the girl could yet feel the stinging absence of magic. This pool was mortal. It was a mortal creation. It bent to the will of nature and her whims; one day, she would control it. Avis took a step forward, placed a single, blunt claw-tip upon the frigid surface. Almost immediately a chill spread through the nail and she withdrew it. A thin film crept onto the surface; it was cold to the point of burning, and Avis winced at the odd feeling.

She had never been so susceptible to cold before. How do the mortals survive?

You're one of them now, her mind said. "I know." Avis didn't want to admit it, but she had to. "I'm as mortal as they come."

"And they will come." In her melodic, lyrical voice, she muttered silently under her breath. This would be home. "I will make sure of it."

"Speech."

OOC:

[Meds]

Nyx

Black and orange eyes swept over the Hidden Glade. It was winter in the Valley once more. Everything was bathed in white, lit by a watery sun. The shadows were weak, and the days short; however, this no longer posed a problem for Nyx. When she had first been blessed by Geist, sure. The power of the sun, the inescapable coming of night—all of these things would have been limits to her. But now?
Cracked lips split in a half-grin that flashed yellowing teeth. Nyx had no limits anymore. Now at the highest tier of her power, she had yet to discover something she could not achieve with her shadows. Shadow Mastery, the power was called, and indeed—she was their master, and listen to her they did.
She moved through the sparse winter trees like a ghost in the night, her ribs pressing against the orange highlighting on her sides. Somebody was there. Nyx could feel them. She had already been coming towards the Glade, but when she had felt a being pass through the shadows, she had quickened her pace.

Eventually Nyx came to a break in the trees, and was able to spy a female gazing into the frozen pool. Without making a conscious decision to do so, all of the shadows in the area leapt to life and were pulled to her—even the stranger's own. The patches of darkness deepened once Nyx had hold of them, and they began to circle her. They formed into one and began to pour over her body, as if she was veiled in night mist. The orange of her rear-end no longer shone so brightly with such deep shadows over it, but the orange tattoo on her head was glowing brightly. Such a thing had become a constant for Nyx.
She moved forward towards the female, the shadows coming with her as if they were bound to her; for indeed, they were. Her eyes swept the female once more. Nyx had thought that perhaps the stranger had been her slave, Yami. The little speck of dirt was nowhere to be seen lately, and once Nyx found her it would be dire indeed...

But alas, this was not her. It was an older female, and she was talking to herself. Nyx was able to catch some of what was said, for she moved so eerily quiet, her presence was yet unknown; unless of course, the female had noticed her shadow slipping away from her. The stranger mentioned her own mortality, as if contemplating it, and then went on about making sure others came. Nyx's dead-eyed stare flicked around quickly to make sure there were no others present—but such a thing was redundant, for if anybody else was there... she would have felt it.
"Mortal, you say?" Nyx's voice was like dry sandpaper, and may have been rather abrupt int he other-wise peaceful Glade. "Just noticed, have you?" Nyx would not be sharing her history of necromancers and night-walkers with this wolf that she did not know—but for her own private fulfillment of sick humor, it would do.

[L]

Avis Wren

Something moved in the silence. The winter wind ghosted through her fur; tugged at it, whipped playfully around the girl as if it had known her once-connection to it. Ah, but she had breathed fire before, and the flames had tickled the back of her neck the wind did now. Mind recalled the movement of smoke upon her nape, of flickering fire ever so teasing. Ever so childish. Did she still bleed silver? Silver like her eyes, silver like her teeth, silver like the memory of an age that had been too long ago.

Her shadow flickered in that moment. Presently the girl's gaze was drawn to it, as it slipped away from under her. Ah, but she was not fazed; it reminded her only of the youth she had left behind. Even shadows had bent to her will before, and now? Avis gave the barest whisp of a smile. Metallic gaze remained fixed on the hardened lake even as she withdrew her nail from the cold kiss. And it was gone.

So you play with shadows, she murmured - to the listening wind, to the snow-tipped trees, to the air rigid with frost. A chilling tension had entered their arena, and yet, and still, it seemed as if Avis bore it no heed. There, even in the weak light, her dark fur gleamed. A ring of light seemed to encase her form; she appeared almost ethereal. As if she could disappear any moment, as if the wind could take one hard breath and she would be gone, gone like her shadow.

Avis absently noted the lack of shadow around her. Her movements were silent, soundless; eyes, unblinking. Maned-wolf figure rose idly, yet through gloriously soft fur the lean muscle that laced her bones was evident. She stood on long, seemingly endless legs; snout slender, onyx mask silver-tipped at the edges by the light of the sun. She moved like a river, like time itself, graceful and yet bearing a certain sort of inevitability. Like her approach could not be avoided, and she supposed, in a way, that was true enough.

"Just noticed, have you?"

The voice was a dry, scraping thing. It was the sound that kindling made before it sparked alight. An interesting thing to note, yes. Avis turned her piercing, silver stare upon the newcomer. She appraised the wolf, as she was sure the wolf was appraising her. Oh, the wolf had burning eyes - Grandmother's eyes - she had not seen ones quite like those in a very long while. It was a familiar, strangely comforting sight. Another ghost of a smile crossed her lips; her teeth, almost like an afterthought, were silver, and knife-sharp. You sound like you'd be familiar with it.

Death is an old friend of mine. The girl seemed to have no pupils - her eyes were silver all the way through. Dust to dust. She seemed unfazed by the sight of the other female, who stood like a lanky beast. She was a yin-yang figure of fire and night; her front was darker than the shadows that currently swirled round her, her behind could be the child of a smouldering ember. A thin fog surrounded her; her eyes tore a path through that fog, and settled there, gleaming. Fire in hollow pits.

You remind me of my father. It was almost casual, the simple sentence that spilled from her lips. Perhaps this grating voice and its owner expected her to tremble, but Avis had stared down the Sun himself before. No god, no end of the world could frighten her now. He would melt into the night, as if he were nothing more than a shadow himself. Oftentimes he was.

She did not ask for a name. Names, she found, were trifling things.

"speech"

[Meds]

Nyx;

"So you play with shadows," The female murmured. Nyx watched on in silence, her head creaking to the side. Somehow, she didn't feel that the female had been speaking to her. Presently Nyx's theory was proved correct, when the stranger turned and fixed her with a silver stare. Nyx met her eyes unflinchingly, her head still tilted a disturbingly far way to the side. She stared on in silence at this admittedly pretty female.
Such contrast between those two wolves as they looked at each other and waited for who was to speak first. One, lifted on graceful legs, with lush fur and a fair distribution of healthy fat and muscle—the other, broken. Deranged. Nyx's legs seemed too long, her back and shoulders, too arched. Her ribs and bones pressed against the thinness of her body, and the poor quality of her fur—straw-like and thin—did nothing to hide them.

"You sound like you'd be familiar with it." Her words were even. Perhaps meant to instill a sense of common ground? Nyx righted her neck slowly, painstakenly, one vertebra at a time. Not so much as this female might imagine...
"Aren't we all familiar with the darkness that one day comes for us? What claim have you to be a friend of Death?"
It was a fair question, because in this respect, Nyx had the competition beat out. She thrived in the darkness she spoke of. She sought after it. She had been to the other side and back again—but supposedly, death was an old friend of this female's, too. How interesting...
When she was likened to the female's father, a wolf who could disappear into the night, it earned her a broken-toothed smile. Nyx nodded slowly, eyes still trained on the other. If what the female said was actually true, then Nyx was more alike than she might even realize.
Nyx did not sleep—she didn't need to anymore, not with her gift. She couldn't even remember the last time. The night was Nyx's domain, and anybody who likened her to it was very spot on indeed.
"Your father sounds like an interesting wolf." Her jaw cracked as she spoke. Suddenly, the shadows around her began to take form. They pulled away from her body and pooled in the middle of the two females. In little to no time, they had darkened still more and risen up to form a remarkably realistic and detailed silhouette of a male-sized shadow wolf. The beast turned its head slowly, and faced Avis Wren. Nyx's smile had faded, but she glanced towards the shadow male with something almost bordering fondness.
"Might his welp be as interesting?"
And from the shadow male peeled off a smaller shadow that quickly revealed itself to be Avis Wren's own.

[L]

Avis Wren

"Aren't we all familiar with the darkness that one day comes for us? What claim have you to be a friend of Death?"

Absently, she turned her eyes towards the distance. Thoughts of her death flooded her mind - it had been torn with pain, and sorrow, and beneath it all, peace. The girl remembered the gaussian glow of her forest, the sweeping water that encased her broken body. Another smile crossed her lips - perhaps for another wolf it would be a frown, but Avis merely smiled at the thought of the quiet that had come after. Monochromatic gaze realighted on the other's face; they were piercing, but somehow cool, at the same time. It was a curious thought.

I've walked before with death, said Avis, very simply. Matter-of-fact tone laced her voice, a low, smooth, lulling drawl. She is a fickle woman. The words carried in the empty air and lingered there. Waiting. Just waiting. The other female's bones seemed to pop with each movement as she righted her head. Her eyes were empty, as empty as Avis' own, or perhaps not. Perhaps Avis was simply devoid of feeling at this very moment.

And most times, she was.

The orange woman smiled - grinned was the right word for it - a cracked, levelled stretching of the lips to the cheeks. A strange mark glowed upon her forehead then, bright, tearing through the dark fog. From all around them, the shadows yawned, and swirled into a great wolflike silhouette. The beast turned its head; where its eyes would be was nothing. It was dark all over, pure, untouched black. How it stung of home and the shadows and fire she'd left behind!

You're missing the eyes, Avis commented. She took a languid pace, encircling the shadow creature. It was a writhing, detailed mass of onyx. It was darker than the night sky, perhaps darker even than space itself. She had died once; she had been in that black all around - this was almost as black. It was a comforting memory. The girl nodded in admiration - shadows had never been her forte, no. She could meld into and travel using them, cause them to creep up and down her frame, but she had never mastered the art of it. Her control, while she had had it, had been average at best. Eyes roamed about the shadow mass, but none too much. It was a beautiful creation - if not somewhat unsettling. But even if Avis felt any discomfort she didn’t show it; and it was true - she was more impressed at it than put off.

Crystal blue and as cold as the mountain wind. A memory surfaced, that of her father, at their lessons. He had been a remarkably absent one, but as gods went, he was there more for his demi-god children than he might have been for the mortals.

"Might his welp be as interesting?"

Avis cocked her head to the left. Her shadow did not. Fascinating. She could not quite recall how great her father's control over them was, but she did remember that he had been able to stop a wolf from moving simply by commanding their shadow to stay put. Many times he had done so to her, if he required her complete attention.

Perhaps. Or perhaps not. It was a subjective matter. His power over darkness passed on to me. His great talent, however, did not. Fire has always been my strong suit. The girl paused for thought. Fire did not come to her now, but it had once been hers to command, hers to wield.

Do you, too, travel within the dark? He would sink into one shadow, and reappear within another, a hundred metres away. Voice was a long, cool lull. I see my own fancies you.

"speech"

[Meds]

((I’m not going to reference the part of her father disappearing into shadows, just because of the reasons I mentioned in the PM. I forgot to ask you to just edit that last part out, so I just won’t reference it))

Nyx;

The female commented that Nyx was “missing the eyes” on the shadow wolf, as if such things as living shadows were simple tricks that this stranger was unsurprised by. Nyx did nothing to impress others, of course, but the audacity this female had to point out a so-called “flaw” with her magic irked her slightly. Eyes were made of light, silly creature—it was no wonder there were no eyes. Nyx was a creature of darkness. The proverbial goddess of the night. She did not tamper with things of light.
Her blank face showed none of her thoughts of course, it rarely did, but her eyes narrowed slightly. Nyx’s eyes were curious things. Equal parts ember-like and bottomless. Others could get lost in her eyes, but not in a comforting or romantic way—it was more like getting lost in a maze. A maze with no end, no heat, and no feeling. Nyx had been told many things about her eyes—it seemed that eyes, as the female had pointed out, were a rather important part of a being. A window into their soul, if you would. What that said about Nyx, whose eyes were blank and walled, was a mystery.

The stranger then acknowledged that she wasn’t sure if she was as interesting as her father, as Nyx had asked. The shadow-Avis moved towards her as the real-Avis spoke, and starting pacing around her slowly, while the male-shadow stayed frozen. So easy, so easy... it was a distant memory when forming such intricate designs and controlling them had been difficult.
Avis’ next words interested Nyx though and brought her attention back, however slightly.
”His power over darkness passed on to me,” She said.
Nyx withheld a mirthless chuckle. There was no dark power emanating from this wolf. No pull against the shadows like Nyx had felt with Bane before she had become all-powerful. So either this female was a liar—Nyx’s eyes narrowed a fraction more—or she knew not of what she spoke. She then claimed to be more apt with things like controlling fire. At this, Nyx really did let a chuckle crawl out from behind her peeling lips.
”You speak of powers which you clearly do not possess, mortal.” Her words were matter-of-fact, her voice as dry as ever. Nyx had no time for story tellers and imagineers. This female had admitted out loud that she was as mortal as they came. Nothing special, nothing to admire. Why then did she feel she had the right to speak of things that she did not understand?

Nyx’s boney shoulders rolled under her loose skin. Oh, the things she could do to this female—this female that supposedly had a power of darkness. The idea of it almost brought another laugh to Nyx’s throat. She was the only shadow god that Geist had blessed. Bane held the gift as well of course, but he was like a big under Nyx’s paw. His hold on shadows so weak that Nyx could all but pluck them from his grasp.

But ah, ah, ah... Nyx was not there to intimidate the stranger. She was not there to frighten. She was simply there. Anything more would be too involved for her. No, Nyx preferred to pass by and to observe—not so unlike a shadow herself.
One ear flicked then, and suddenly the shadow wolves melted down into a revolving puddle once more. She might not be there to intimidate... but having a little fun was against no rules. Tendrils formed from the shadow pool, and slowly began to inch across the ground toward Acis like a seeping poison.
When it was but an inch from her, Nyx allowed one tendril to brush her foot.

A strange thing would happen then; at least, Nyx was confident it would. As had been exhibited by other wolves lately, the female would suddenly, and perhaps only for a minute, fancy that she could actually feel the shadow against her. If what Nyx’s half-cracked and admittedly useless slave said could be trusted, then indeed, Nyx’s shadows had started to become palpable. Another yellow-toothed half-smile.
She withdrew the shadows quickly, and they pulled back to her like water down a hill, to simply circle her once more. She had nothing to prove.
”You’ve not been in this Valley long.” It wasn’t a question.

[L]

Avis Wren

Not anymore, no, breathed Avis very, very quietly. So quietly that it was certain that the other female would not be able to catch it even if she tried to. It fell from her lips like the wind did from heavy tree boughs; dissolved and was gone. In that instant the shadows seethed into a roiling cyclic shape. Night caressed her foot, almost a delicate sensation. Barely there yet not; the girl wanted to laugh in delight but the memory was hazy and it did not come. Silver gaze flickered to the shadow - this, manifestation of the past faded into present.

She sighed a gentle, lulling coo. Onyx paw reached out to touch the shadow in turn, but it was intangible as a breath; her paw passed through it with nary an obstruction. Still darkness seeped around her as did a blanket did, as did the snow, as did the night cradling stars in their embrace. Felt liquid beneath her touch, like threads interlaced into the silkiest of clouds.

”You’ve not been in this Valley long.”

Eyes glinted in the weak light, against ebony fur. Visage tilted towards the other wolf's; Avis sat, jackalesque ears tipped towards the female.

No.

Mask was cool as her steel-flecked eyes turned towards Nyx. Death kept me. Her tone was flat, though her ears were tall atop her crown and muzzle laced in a slight smile. Was it arrogance? No, it was not. It was something else - perhaps cynicism. Yes, that was it. Cynical Avis; teeth were flashed in quick grin.

Caesar's words ignited in her memory. Avis was not yet familiar with his terms but this female could be no good wolf. She thought of her grandmother - crisp, snakelike, a woman who leapt into battle with no concern to her safety. The image of Nyx appeared over it, jaws hungrily gaping to take more than a pound of flesh from her enemies... Might I have the pleasure of your name?

Shadow in the night. Yes. Despite the flames that ravaged her lower half the upper body was almost formless with how dark it seemed to be. Or perhaps, the night itself...

And still, the shadows circled.

"speech"

poooo bad post on low muse but free time jdbkjwbdwkjbfekje screams
i hate myself

[Meds]

((XDDD Noooo, it's fine!!))

Nyx;

The female whispered something. Whatever it was, Nyx had not the patience nor the interest in finding what it was. It had slipped from her mouth like an afterthought, then quickly turned into a contented sort of coo. When she reached her paw forward, Nyx's eyes fell to the shadow closest to her with ungodly speed, like something posessed. She did not allow Avis to touch her shadow without permission, so when the female brought one black paw down, Nyx ticked the shadow just millimeters out of grasp. It was one thing for Nyx to drape a shadow over another by choice—but it was quite another for them to reach forward of their own accord.

"No."

A simple reply. Not one that particularly made Nyx want to remain—but then,

"Death kept me."

Nyx's ember-like eyes, usually a strict void of deep orange surrounded by pitch-black, kindled slightly and shivered upwards from the ground. She did not believe the female's words—all this about death and powers and shadows—but the idea that the female herself believed them, was interesting. She then showed her teeth in what Nyx could only imagine was a smile.
Nyx matched her expression, but took it to the next level. Nyx's mouth was not accustomed to smiling in anything beyond sarcasm. When she did smile with enough strength to move her cheek bones, her eyes widened just slightly too-much, her stained and too-sharp teeth flashed abundantly, and her dry lips cracked and began to bead with blood. But in that moment, smile she did. A haunted, possessed, disgusting expression.
Avis spoke of death—but did she truly know? Had she, too, been ripped apart and rejected by the demons on the other side of all things? Had her conscience danced with the shadows that drank the life of mortals like water? Nyx had. She could only remember it in dreams—and never anymore, since she no longer slept. She did not know the specifics of her death or resurrection, but the rumors that had spread around her like ivy on a grave were tantalizing.

Then Avis spoke again, peeling Nyx from her thoughts, and asked for her name. The bone-cooling expression left Nyx's face as fast as it had appeared. What she said next, however, surprised the orange and black female. Nyx was not often taken by surprise, but when Avis murmered 'Shadow in the night', she felt what little breath she had, catch for a moment.
She had dubbed herself that exact thing many season ago when poking fun at Yukio. The Shadow in the Night. Quite a fitting title—for with the strength she now held, even night-shadows could be bent and controlled. Weaker minds thought that darkness stopped shadows. No. Everything made its mark on this world...

"Nyx." She said her own name so little that it felt foreign on her scarred tongue. "The Shadow in the Night." She had been told that her reputation often preceded her arrival in the valley. If such a title began to filter as well, all for the better. She licked a droplet of blood from her dry lips. "Though I don't believe that anybody has called my name a pleasure after hearing it..."
Nyx did not ask for the female's name, but she had a feeling it would be forthcoming. Such was the way of things.

[L]

Avis Wren
then came the night of the first falling star

Avis watched with a morbid sort of fascination - watched the blood drip from the corners of the wolf's taut lips, the yellowing of her pointed teeth, the widened grin with which the female faced her with. It was a ghoulish, haunting sight; in that moment the onyx-masked wolf's eyes only gleamed the same cold silver that they were in the pale sun. The shadows stretched, twisted, coiled themselves around fire-coal frame, danced even as the sun began its descent into the second half of day-time. Belief appeared not on the other's face; 'twas evident in the manic smile etched upon her visage. Avis only stared simply, for whether she chose to accept the reality of it was up to her. For whom amongst the living could say they had met face to face with Death and come away with a memory of her disembodied figure?

Very few were able to.

It was the quiet that came after the fact, for Death was a peaceable creature; she came and went as a spectre did into the night. Death came like rolling fog, there one morn and gone by the time the sun had awoken from slumber. Death romanticised herself, and yet precious few claims had she relinquished before.

Sharp eyes did not fail to catch the intake of breath, yet she made no comment, nor motion, nor gave any indication that she had noticed. "Nyx." Rasped the charcoal-tiger woman, the sound harsh and foreign to her own ears. Yet it exuded a certain sort of elegance; it was a short, monosyllabic name, but silently beat to the drums of power. The sound dragged into a hiss, twisting and turning with the mouth. Avis caught it on the tip of her tongue and tasted it for herself, soundlessly tracing the shape and weight of it. Nyx.

"Though I don't believe that anybody has called my name a pleasure after hearing it..."

It pleases me to hear it... voice emerged in lulling, cool tone. And indeed it did, for the name of Nyx brought to mind the image of stars chasing down the sun into its cradle. Such was the sound that it felt like the moon-loving tides, the sky that wept for the earth, the creeping, unshakeable sensation of that which arrived at the threshold of the home and slowly seeped in. For Night herself... it is fitting.

Avis.

Tell me, thought she, do you serve Geist? Or perhaps it was a far-fetched notion and still it seemed too plausible in her mind. Perhaps Sheba claims your loyalty. Fickle thoughts. What else can you do, shadow-mistress?

!

[Meds]

Nyx;

Avis watched her closely—Nyx could feel her eyes upon her, like a beetle nettling into flesh. She spoke not, however, and for that Nyx withheld judgement. So many wolves were always trying to speak and be known. It was a tiring business. Nyx cared not for other beings—she barely cared for herself—and the amount of time wasted speaking and trying to get somewhere was maddening. If one was already mad however, perhaps it would be a different story...
The female wordlessly repeated her name, perhaps making sure she would not forget it. Ah, no. Not many wolves who heard the name of Nyx and met the creature it belonged to forgot her. This, she knew. The stranger highlighted that is was indeed a pleasure to hear of her name, and dubbed her Night. Nyx was pleased by this, especially because Avis had gotten there so quickly. Night... Nyx tilted her head side to side as the female gave her own name, which earned the silence a few dry cracks of her bones.

Avis.
It filled Nyx's mind with thoughts of birds in the wind and lofty sky-views. She did not appreciate images being put in her head, but alas, wasn't that what names were for? She clicked her teeth together a few times, counting the syllables in the female's name, over and over again.
"And who dubbed their spawn for the birds?" It seemed like a flighty name to Nyx. Perhaps others would view it as free, but the wind was a fickle friend. Of course, Avis had already mentioned her sire. But if he was indeed a host of the night, was it fitting to give his welp a name so distant from the source? Nyx almost felt herself hoping that Avis would reiterate the question and put it back to her. Nyx purposly knew nothing of her lineage.

When asked what else she could do, however, another smile passed over her lips. This one was quicker, more sarcastic but less targeted. What else could she do? A silly question, for what else couldn't she do? She flicked her head slightly, her neck cracking once more, and suddenly both females were thrown into the darkest of spirit-nights. In reality it was just a small dome (for Nyx had no need of a larger one), but as far as the female would know, the sun could have died.
Avis would not be able to see through it, for all of her past 'experiences', if indeed they were true. No. The darkness of Nyx's domes of night were so complete, so absolute, that the only other creatures that could see through them would be other Shadow Masters that had unlocked the height of their power.
"You see?" Nyx said, watching the female as the blindness set in, and allowing her ears to drink in the strange-muted tone that the shadow domes always seemed to demand. "What a moronic question. Of course you don't see." She crept forward towards Avis, chattering her teeth once more, until she was very close at hand.
After another short moment however, Nyx blinked and the dome disappeared, back to the depths from which it had been borne. She stepped back, away from Avis once more, and tilted her head very slowly.
Defensive tricks of the light, in truth—but what had Nyx to fear when she could blind all opposition?

[L]

AVIS WREN

"And who dubbed their spawn for the birds?"

Sharp smile spread open her lips. "And you, with fire in your eyes, who gave you to the night?" Silver tongue flicked between her jaws; idly running over equally silver teeth. An afterthought it might be, but they appeared as if they truly might be shaped out of the metal, instead of the ivory they were within. Seemingly pointless banter it was, but naming a thing was an act that most bestowed reverence upon and Avis was not one to defy that which did not affect her so. And then -

-blackness. The barest caress of a breath swept by her side, dangerously close to her frame; the rattle of chattering teeth. The sun had winked out, and it was the deepest of nights that surrounded the pair. Avis did not move even when her instincts roared at her to do so, to escape the threat, and yet - if the female - if Nyx could do this, then what would stop her from moving the dome? There were better options than running, better options than fleeing the all-encompassing, creeping darkness.

It was as if her ears had been buried in sand. It was a strange little thing; it was like swimming with the head fully under. Avis maintained a neutral expression but her ears moved involuntarily. They swivelled atop her head and settled very straight. The fur on her neck bristled slightly, all minute actions that no wolves could quite control. No doubt Nyx had seen - why blacken the sky if you could not see through your own magic? There was a cold air about her, the dark-furred she wolf, and Avis did not need to suspect that the older woman had more tricks up her figurative sleeve.

"You see?" Time passed in steady beats as Avis waited out the dark. Perhaps this was the wolf's idea of fun. Nyx's voice swept past her, a husky, grating tone that was reminiscent of the sand washing against rocks by the shore. It reminded Avis of her past; her life from before, when shadows had been under her domain. And she had left it all behind when home was no longer home, and for a land where different powers pulled the strings. "What a moronic question. Of course you don't see." Biting, sarcastic.

Snake, thought Avis Wren wryly. But at least you are a decorated viper.

Nyx was not a creature to be walked over. How many wolves had seen the diminutive she, rag-thin hairs flat against her body, and decided that she was nothing to be afraid of? "I wonder how many have underestimated your prowess..." quiet, cool sigh escaped her lips. The darkness lifted; Avis gave herself a short count before re-opening her eyes so she would not be blinded by the sudden influx of light. "I wonder how many have professed to be unafraid of the dark and still succumbed to its grasp."

The words were pulled from her throat even as she spoke. She was not a talkative creature, but the blackened wolf had roused her interest. And while Nyx had bountiful control of the shadows Avis did not think that the shadows suited herself. The raven fur on her snout had been almost as black as the artificial dark. But then again, it was magic. She belongs to Geist, realised the wolf, and there had been no other conclusion. But it was an interesting thought all the same. It made for good consideration.

"speech"

OOC:

TABLE BY L

[Meds]

Nyx;

She ignored Nyx's question, and instead posed it back to her. Nyx felt a shiver of irritation tickle the ringlets of her spine, but allowed it to wash away. Besides, Avis had asked her the question she had half-wanted her to. It was so rare that Nyx felt a desire for anything, she figured she may as well play into it when it happened.
"Ah, I always belonged to the night." She fixed the considerably more 'whole' wolf with her pit-like eyes. "It was but good foresight." Her lips cracked to reveal her teeth in a joyless grin. In truth, whoever had named her had made a good call. Easily, so easily, she could have been named for fire. For things that burned hot, with life and passion. She was equal parts the colour of flame, after all...
But whoever had named her had looked past that. Indeed. They had seen that the darkness within her was more than fur-deep. Perhaps they had looked into the pups eyes and seen nothing—the void that Nyx was so often told they now held—or perhaps all of that came later. But Nyx knew it was more than coincidence. One born into a pack of night-worshipers was not named for the darkness easily. They had seen her...somehow, someway...

"That is as much an answer as I can give," She croaked, her thin tail twitching behind her as she waited to gauge the female's reaction. "For I was never told who—or what—chose Nyx."

Avis moved but little when the sky died, but Nyx drank in her would-be reactions like other wolves might drink water. A small perk of the ears, a minute intake of breath. It was intoxicating for Nyx. To see wolves feel the depth of the darkness spilled from within her; and all for the better when they fought that feeling. She belonged to the night, and the night belonged to her.
Avis then wondered aloud how many wolves had underestimated her power. Nyx did a quick mental count of the wolves she had killed within her shadow domes. At least two... perhaps up to four, though she had crippled another for a deliciously longer sort of decay. She nodded along slowly as Avis murmered on.

"All creatures are afraid of the dark." She dragged a long-clawed paw through the ice and snow at their feet. "Not all right away, of course. Such things would be too easy. No... Sometimes they have to be given a reason to fear it..." Her head moved in rhythm with her paw, her eyes wide and fixed as she spoke—but when she finished speaking, her head flicked upright, quickly, to stare into Avis' own eyes once more.

Enough about her. Nyx grew tired of such things.
"And what of you, who is named for the sky and yet tied to the ground?"

[L]

AVIS WREN

Sometimes they have to be given a reason to fear it...

I will not, promised Avis, to herself. For if all things feared the dark then there was precious little that thrived in it - and yet so many things did, small creatures, and nocturnal animals that had made the night theirs. They had learnt of the way that darkness folded beneath their grasps, and of how they could mold the night to their will. She would be one in the long list of many; and if her time were to come again, by the hand of Death herself and her midnight cloak, then she would go into it as she had once before: without fear and trembling.

It was a passing thought.

The woman's claw traced a long, winding path through the snow. It pierced the thin layer and left its mark there, a shallow trench that would be filled when the day had passed and fresh snow had fallen. All things would return, reset, when the sun rose once more, and this realisation gave Avis pause, for what were they all but mere flecks in the current of time? Perhaps they would cause dips as shallow as the path drawn out by Nyx's claw, but the water would always wash it away, and time would flow on without them.

Comprehending your own mortality was a deed better left to the moments when the night was long and the day short, for lives were nothing more than the few hours wolves had in the sun, and death and whatever came after, the long passage of night. Illuminated by the watery light of the moon, the girl could well imagine how one might travel into that deep sleep - in peace - or as Nyx had mentioned, in fear.

Nyx's head moved in tandem with her foot. When it stopped and drove deep into the earth, Avis matched her empty pits with her own steely pair. "And what of you, who is named for the sky and yet tied to the ground?"

"That was my mother's choice: to be freer than she was. My father would have left me for the shadows, as was his calling."

The truth was that her father had wanted very much to name her for the shadows he so loved - her mother had set her iron will upon him, and, as a father to children conceived out of wedlock and into godhood, he had no choice but to acquiesce.

""

OOC: Sorry I keep switching tables haha I'm trying codes out. Hopefully this is more readable on low brightness!

[Meds]

((It IS daytime, right? XD I hope so, that's how I've been writing bahahaah. Nyx can still see shadows in the darkness now so it doesn't really matter, but I want my stuff to have integrity!))

Nyx;

Many things flashed past the female's face as Nyx looked on. The light from her tattoo was a constant, but she no longer put her shadows to work. Instead she had allowed them to adopt the natural and organic flowing that she imagined her brain waves mimicked when in passing. As such, they wafted in and out from her like dark waves, in time with her beating heart (however weak it was). They trickled over everything like tar, then slipped back to the orange and black beast as if lighter than air. A curious thing, shadows were, when their very substance could be mimicked and abused.
Wolves too, Nyx thought, as her mind drifted back to her irritatingly scarce slave.

So, apparently, Avis had been named by her mother. Nyx's chin flicked upward slightly, her eyes becoming heavily lidded as she watched the stranger. She knew nothing of mothers—though doubted she was missing much. Avis continued to mention that had it been up to her father, she would have been named for the shadows.
"An interesting fate encircles beings born with family ties." Her black and orange eyes smoldered, though not necessarily with anything good. It was true, though. There was nothing to prove or live up to if one were born into a pack like Nyx's. No family, no expectations or judgments being preformed. "I was never drowned by such things." No. In Nyx's pack it was just the raw slate that they all became when they entered this world, and the blood and tears it took to get them to where they wanted to be. How much blood had it taken to get Nyx to this spot? Her gaze lifted to the trees for a half-moment, then down again. It was too deep a number to recall.

Nyx's head leveled, and her eyes then roved over Avis once more, moving so quickly and with such perfect accuracy, that it appeared they were shivering. What had Avis wanted to be—back when she had been born to a family that believed certain things about her? Had it taken blood to get her where she was?
Nyx withheld a snicker.
Rather, where she had been? For she was nowhere, now. Just a mortal on the muddy ground, dreaming of the sky.

"Fire—?" Nyx repeated in a dry whisper, for the female had said it had been her 'strong suit.' Nyx still did not believe it—for she believed in what she could see—but something about this female was either very interesting, or very irritating, and Nyx had half a mind to figure out which.

[L]

AVIS WREN

"I was never drowned by such things."

No?  mused Avis, Because that's funny. I did.

There was no warmth in the way she looked at Nyx, through Nyx, and then past Nyx.  There was no sympathy, for Nyx did not sound like a woman who neither desired nor deserved, and there was no envy, for they were two different wolves who had led different lives, and what did it matter whose ledger was red and whose wasn't?

Avis looked at Nyx, and wondered what she could be thinking about. There was no doubt that the ashen woman held some sort of derision for the younger, some sort of contempt, but it was a thing that Avis was not concerned about. After all, who was she to decide the ways and whims of this land and its inhabitants? And it was unlikely she would come face to face with Nyx again; and if she did, it would probably be her shadows.

But it was a small world.

She recalled the look on her father's face as he surrendered himself to knit the world back together. She remembered the divinity stolen away from her mother's powerful aura. She thought of the wolves who had burned to fell the gods that ruled their world. She thought of the wolves whose lives her jaws had claimed, and decided that it was not worth it to do so here.

Nyx's eyes roamed hungrily over her smaller frame, over her ears that stuck ungainly out of her head, her legs that seemed to long for her body, the full tail that hung by her rump, unmoving. "Fire—?" Came the sound of the woman's voice, rough and dry, like kindling before the spark. If she ignored the glowing mark on Nyx's fur and focussed instead on the fire-bright stripes on her midsection and orange flanks, it was almost conceivable that at any moment Nyx might burst into flames and be gone.

"Extinguished." The girl paused and this time, she fixed Nyx with her unblinking stare. "Something tells me you are not a woman for stories." Behind them, the sun began its descent towards the unyielding horizon.

""

OOC: The sun's beginning to set!

TABLE BY L || IMAGE FROM JASON WONG ON UNSPLASH