It hadn’t been long since she had been given permission to remain in Caedwyn’s territory. In fact, it had only been a day. She had fished for her meal and slept on land for the first time in what felt like forever in one of the caves she had found. The next day, Fenella had chosen to rest. She napped in the sunlight and explored along the shore when she had the energy to. It had been at least a week since she had last stayed on land, so the sights and scents - even though they were new to her in this foreign land - were a welcome change.
There was one main reason why she hadn’t traveled far from where she ended up on the shoreline during the day, however. She needed to wait until after sundown for it. Fenella had spent enough time resting and meandering towards the east of the shore before finding a good sand-laden rocky area where she could lay and look at the stars whenever they could be seen. There had been a smaller empty cave close to the stones she chose to rest on and plenty of nearby points of curiosity regarding the shipwreck she saw int eh distance, but it had already been explored and nothing of interest had stayed there recently. So, she rested again.
As the sun went down and darkness came over the Realm, Fenella’s fur slowly began to change. What was once white fur now glistened with a bioluminescent brindle pattern. It was just enough of a glow to gently light the stones around her, but not enough to distort her vision from seeing clearly in the dark. She waited patiently as the stars became more and more visible and kept her eyes on the sky.
The stars here truly were different. Fenella studied them with a growing sinking feeling in her gut. The constellations were strange, sometimes even flipped from the stars she knew. How was she supposed to find her way now? She sucked in her breath at that realization and shook her head in an attempt to collect herself. No. She would study these stars. She would find north. Then, she would search for her father’s home island when she had a new guiding star. Fenella had to find her father’s birth pack. She had to. If they knew of a cure to his statue-like affliction, she had to cure him.
As the night continued on, Fenella’s softly glowing form could be seen at a distance. Her gaze shifted from the stars above to drawing some patterns in the sand and pebbles in front of her as she tried to map out what she could. The time was spent mostly in silence until, after a long while, Fenella caught a sound in the distance. Her ears twitched and she looked inland towards where the grasses and trees began to grow. She said nothing but looked out to the darkness with tense curiosity. This land was foreign to her and so were its residents. She may not have been here long, but she knew not to expect everyone to treat her as peacefully as Caedwyn had.
It had become more of a habit than anything else. Hop up onto land for a bit, wander around and see what there was to see before dipping back waves to travel to the next spot. Bermuda rarely found himself straying too far from the coast. There was no need to, not since his one land dweller he had called a friend had disappeared however many months ago. Sometimes he would think that they would show up at random, and surprise him with some wild adventure that they had been on.
It wasn't something that he like to linger on. The ocean depths were cruel and if they had taught him one thing it was that no one was ever going to stay forever.
Walking along the beach, his scarf wrapped around his front leg Bermuda glanced to the stars that had started to show themselves as the sun went down. It was almost like he was back in the depths and staring at the fish that glowed there. Yet as he walked he noticed that the most noticeable glow wasn't one that was in the sky, it was on the ground.
Bermuda slow drew near the glowing wolfess like a fish drawn to the light. It seemed like she was studying the stars intently and he circled her quietly. Studying her like she was studying the sky. Her pelt wasn't glowing from just spots like his could if he wished it. No, her pelt seemed to glow with a shimmering mixture that flowed from her face down to the tip of her tail.
Then she looked down and Bermuda realized that he had been watching her too intently as she had been drawing in the sand and that the sound that he had just heard had been from him. Rolling his eyes at his own blunder he padded out from under the trees that he had ended up under.
"Beautiful night." He murmured in greeting as he moved closer careful not to step on her markings though he did take a second to pause in watching her to look at them curiously. "Seems your not just enjoying the sky though." It was a statement but when he looked back to her he tipped his head in a silent question, just as curious to see if she would even explain what she was doing to him as he was to the actual answer.
It seemed like she was right. Someone else was present. Fenella remained silent as they approached and nodded in agreement to his greeting. Even if the stars were different here, it was indeed beautiful. She noted he had taken care to avoid her crude map in the sand and couldn’t help but slightly relax at his cautious action. Things like that took time and Fenella would need to study how the stars shifted over time to find a reliable guiding star.
"I’m studying them," she replied simply. It was the truth, after all. Even though he was nearly twice her size, it didn’t mean she automatically had to feel intimidated or threatened. There was also no reason for her to explain her reasoning behind her studying the skies besides pure interest.
Fenella stood at that moment and silently moved to face his perspective, giving him a brief tilt of her muzzle to look at the map she had been drawing. After a moment, she looked up at the sky and gestured with her nose in the direction where she had been mapping. "That’s the section I’m looking at right now. What do you think?"
She then moved back to her original spot but remained standing. Her body language was relaxed, but her mind was racing. There had to be a faster way to study the skies than what she was doing, but she didn’t have her father’s light. She couldn’t create beautiful, lifelike scenes around her that glowed like they did in the darkness. But she could definitely make as many maps in the sand as she needed to get a better idea of where she was. Who knew? Maybe this stranger had a clue she could use to her advantage.
A bubble of delight filled him as she responded to his silent question with a short and sweet answer. There was bound to be more to it then just that, but that was not what he had been initially curious about. The fact that she had also responded was also an answer one that let him glimpse into the sort of wolf she was.
"Anything beautiful is worth studying." He murmured with a smile. "I'm guessing you aren't studying them just because they are pretty though." Unlike his last statement this one didn't hold another silent question.
She stood then and Bermuda watched as she came around to stand next to him. If he had been delighted before now he was even more so. There was no fear as she walked closer to him, his frame seeming to dwarf hers as he held still. The sea predator in him whispering to not move in case he scared her. He had found very few who weren't scared of his size unless they were equally large. It just made him watch her more closely before letting his gaze drop to the drawings at her motioning.
Now that he was looking closer he could recognize a few of the stars or rather the constellations that he had memorized. Though it was a pitifully small number that he had cared to learn about. A quick glance upward only confirmed what he was seeing.
"I am not an expert but itlooks good to me, though ." He hummed in consideration. "I can recognize one of the constellations to." One paw was carefully picked up to gesture lightly over what his friend had liked to call 'The Dragon'. He like to call it 'The Sea Serpent' if only to be contradictory.
The fact that he didn’t move as she approached was a good sign. While she didn’t trust easily, it was at least a clear message that he wouldn’t pose a threat to her if she wasn’t one to him. It wasn’t like she would be a huge threat to someone almost twice her size anyway, but she knew her magic was still strong in this land, if only a bit more unstable than usual. What she lacked in size and strength, she was confident in her speed and evading skills. After having been traveling through the sea for so long, however, she wasn’t sure how fast she would be on land anymore.
His response to her map caused her to nod in an attempt to hide the slight upturn of her lips in pride of her work. He pointed towards a constellation that seemed familiar, yet slightly different from what she had known. "The stars are different here compared to where I’m from. I use them as a guide, so I need to learn what’s the same and what’s different before I stray too far from where I arrived to shore."
Fenella looked back up at the stars, more focused this time, clearly looking for a specific constellation. In a short amount of time, she found what she was looking for. Orion, what one of her brothers was named after. She gestured to it silently, feeling a sense of comfort at the familiarity. "That one is the same as my homeland, but the stars around it are just slightly different."
She looked back at the larger stranger again. His eyes glowed in a similar way that her pelt did and there was something peculiar about his markings that made her just a bit curious, but not enough to ask. "Are you from this land? Or did you arrive here in some way?" Fenella tilted her head slightly after her question. It was interesting how the stars had shifted in her travels, how this land was so foreign yet still had familiar plants and life. If there were others like her that had experienced a similar situation, it would be good to learn as much as she could if she wanted to find her father’s home isle and return to her own home.
