[ AW ] Beneath The Silent Waters

Eternal love only exists in distress

The winter chill in the air does little to sate his wanderlust. It eats at him, chewing away at his nerves and fraying them with a strange sense of urgency. Find it, it says. Find it. Find it find it find it find it find it NOW. And yet, the constant thrum of demands in his mind is ever-dulled, pushed away by more pressing and more trying matters. He has yet to find what he seeks willingly, and so he meanders with an aimless passion, unseeing eyes set forward. Here it is quiet and calm, only the wind howling from the distant peaks rolls down into the still valley with little more than a whisper, and he finds himself stilled by the quietude. He knows not the water that laps at his toes but he knows it's name--Mirror Lake. Yes, the still waters that reflect the starry sky right back into his eyes. Mercurial and silvery, the moonlight bounces between them with an eerie glow, the slivers of light refracting along his oil-sheen of a coat as he walks along the outer edge of the shoreline. He would See. He would Look into the still waters and Peer past the veil of this life and the next.

"What have you to say to me this evening?" he asks, nose tilted upwards. Nary a cloud rolls across the black sky, diamonds strewn across a raven gown and he can only count on the myth and legend of his skills to guide him. But tonight is a night for reverence and reflection, and finally he settles. A gentle wind ruffles his coat, fingers gliding through his hair. A ghost of touch. A memory he'd never experienced. "Alright," he closes his eyes, letting his head drop to his chest to allow his nose to settle near the water's still surface,"Sing to me, then."

@Arythmetik

A R Y T H M E T I K

Winter fell upon the Lowlands with a whisper, then a sudden deluge of glistening snow. Arythmetik wondered if the Highlands fared worse; all those wolves in the northern forests and mountains had thick coats, though, and tougher hides to carry them through their harsh lives. And as far as he knew, the Mainlands barely experienced a bit of dusting on the hardened ground. But the earth was not fruitless. Not for a wolf who knew where to search. Aryth was an academic, an observer. He’d overheard elders discussing the rich willow bark and the winter berries that grew by Mirror Lake. It was nestled in the mountains, and Aryth knew it was risky for him to venture there alone with his...limited hunting skills, but he packed himself a few morsels for the road and off he went.


Yes, he’d rather be cozy in his den reading a book. Yes, he’d rather be planning the next lesson on weather patterns and the physics of snow. But he’d made a promise to himself to learn more about medicine so he could contribute to the good of the country. So...here he was.


Thankfully, the journey wasn’t as taxing as he feared. Despite his claims of being clumsy and unathletic, the lean male was often on the move. All of that walking gave him a hearty stamina that led him successfully to the hidden paradise of the Lowlands. A quiet, ethereally beautiful place, Mirror Lake was unbothered by cawing birds or trampling game. Wolves seemed to be scarce in the area, as well, probably because there wasn’t much to hunt. But Aryth wasn’t here for animals. He grinned with pride as he finally stepped toward the water’s edge, starlight shimmering against his tired facade. He might have to find a place to rest for the night. But then, he noticed a dark shape, just a few yards away. Another wolf who appeared to be deep in thought. Aryth’s tail wagged and he took a step closer, but he couldn’t see the stranger’s face clearly. “Excuse me, do you live up here?”

code by claerie

@Mercury

Eternal love only exists in distress

What ho? Company up here in the great wide? He chuckles, drawing his head back to twist over his shoulders, expression facing the eager newcomer with the sedated grin of a wild beast, confident in his nature and yet interested in his surroundings. "Not at all, though I can't see why I shouldn't." He half-jokes, for his sightless eyes reflect the moonlight and glistening snow shimmer just the same as the unmoving surface of the lake. He sweeps a paw across the water to break the surface, its ripples racing across the entire lake in a vivid sort of show that he is not privy to."Aha, but don't mind me. Here I find the water speaks in a way different to that of the rivers below. Here the ground whispers more-so than the wind and I find myself straining to listen. Here is where I think I shall remain for a while yet, this world has not yet imparted its secrets to me and its voice is new and I must listen." The emphasis on the word is accented by the way he swivels, his shoulders moving to follow his head and then the rest of him following suit in a mildly disjointed and none-too natural manner, even as he pulls himself to his feet. "But don't let me and my musings stop you from your journey, my own is one that's yet to have a destination. Far be it from me to halt anothers." He laughs, the sound a ringing chime in the chilled air, and he moves to follow the edge of the water for a moment before turning rather suddenly, his new trajectory being straight for the scholar.

"Though, perhaps you are another here who knows more of the land and can assist me in my hunt." he purrs, a plume of breath hissing from between his exposed teeth as he speaks,"How near am I to the land of the Fae? My little star seems lost amongst them and oh, how important it would be for me to find it."

@Arythmetik

A R Y T H M E T I K

As soon as the enigmatic creature noticed his presence, Aryth was enthralled by the lilt of his voice. There was something strange about that laugh. Something ethereal. It called to his childlike wonder and sounded warning sirens in the back of his practical mind. The scholar found, immediately, that he wanted to study this man, to hang on every word, to take note of every behavior. His eyes narrowed slightly in concentration even as his smile widened in charmed glee. The stranger’s poetry washed over him and he could see that the male was blind; the moonlight was nearly blinding itself as it refracted off the water and onto those smooth, milky orbs. He wondered if the wolf meant to come here; according to his riddle (what else should Aryth call it?) the lake was speaking to him and he was obliged to stay.


Then the raven male turned, and Aryth couldn’t withhold a gasp. It was brief: not fear, but merely startled by an unexpected sight. The scholar’s emerald eyes clung to the too-wide smile for a moment longer before flickering back to the mysterious poet. His own shame kept him muted and stiffened his body with desperate politeness. Still, the other needed an answer and Aryth shook himself out of his stupor. “Oh, well, I am familiar with the area. I grew up in Rionnach and I’d be happy to help in any way I can. You...must be referring to the Fae Forest, north of here?” Aryth chuckled faintly, embarrassed by his lack of wit. “I’m sorry, it’s just, you speak like a Highlander but you don’t sound like one. My name is Arythmetik, by the way, but you can call me Aryth.” He took a step closer, his warm, even voice unfurling in the crisp air.

code by claerie

@Mercury

Eternal love only exists in distress

His amusement seems reflected back at him, and it causes an easy silence to stretch between them as he settles back and turns to the gleaming skull set beneath his paw,"Well, what do you think? Such a helpful soul indeed!" The skull, however, remains silent, only its' grinning visage staring eyelessly up towards them with nary a thought in it's empty mind. But still, he leans in and cocks it's ear against it as if it were a shell and he could hear the ocean roaring within it, and suddenly he exclaims "Ah-HAH!" As he pulls away sharply and jerks his attention back towards the kindly scholar with his wild grin only peeling farther back until the flesh seems pulled too far taut against his skull and away from his jaws, pinching at his ears.
"North, you say! Even farther north than this? Oh, that will be a bit of a journey though not one I can say I'm dreading. Who among us wouldn't relish a bit of extra adventure? Ah, but my dear sister--ah, say hi--" he briefly swivels the skull around to face Aryth, letting it's hollow sockets settle on him just as Mercury's own glassy eyes did," --says that one who's grown up here would very much be a perfect guide! That being you, of course." he makes a wild gesture as he settles back down on the shoreline, the water of the lake rippling just slightly with the disturbance caused. "Am I to understand that a Highlander is some sort of nationality?" His accent speaks otherwise--to a place beyond the mountains and perhaps beyond the sea. A rolling curl to his words, sharper in some vowels and perhaps drawn out a bit in odd places--as if the language he speaks now is not one native to his tongue. "Oh, quid pro quo! Your name you gave me and I so rudely didn't reciprocate. الزئبق," The word rolls off his tongue despite missing much of his lips, and then he repeats it by syllable,"Al-ziy-baq. ...But, in this language, it would simply be..Mercury."

A R Y T H M E T I K

It wasn’t until the stranger leaned down to “speak” to the skull that Aryth noticed its presence. Maybe he’d subconsciously, willfully ignored it, or maybe it simply blended in against the white snow. But the way the sassenach listened to it made Aryth’s eyes pop wide once again. The sudden stream of consciousness that blurted from the inky poet’s mouth like a revelation was enough to send a shiver down his spine. This is what one called a “red flag.” No, then the sassenach introduced the skull as his sister. “Oh.” That was a red flag. A million questions exploded in the scholar’s mind. Was this blind man simply confused, deranged, or a psychopathic murderer? Why was he talking to the lake and to skulls but making such astute observations about his surroundings!? Arythmetik swallowed heavily, his ears falling back against his head in face of the other male’s intense expression. Perhaps he had made a terrible, terrible mistake wandering this far from home in the middle of the night.


And yet, despite all the warnings that blared in Aryth’s mind, the outlander was...friendly. Polite, even. If Aryth weren’t so on edge, he would have found the interaction comical. Nervously, he smiled as he heard the enigma introduce itself in that lulling, lyrical accent. “Mercury?” Aryth asked, and his interest was piqued once more. He could have sworn he’d read that name somewhere. It belonged to a figure of great renown, of mischief, from cultures long dead. Aryth’s brows lowered and he tilted his head curiously. “Mercury, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” the scholar (half-) lied smoothly. “I’m actually somewhat of a language savant in these parts. I’m hoping, could you enlighten me? What’s your language, and where are you from? You must have traveled a long way to visit the, er, fae.”


Normally, Aryth would have made it quite clear that fae were nothing but fairytale nonsense. But, well, it seemed a moot point to a wolf who thought his sister’s skull was speaking to him.

code by claerie

@Mercury lmaoo

Eternal love only exists in distress

He waves a paw, gesturing towards the distance as if that explains it all. Not that it does. Instead, he uses it as a backgrop,"I died," he explains,"...Again. As we all do, and as we all have. Not one soul alive is fresh and new, though there are others older and more ancient. I think, perhaps, that the oldest of souls recognize kindred spirits. And I've come in search of my missing children...and perhaps my missing loves. It has been too long since we've had flesh and bone and had a chance to set foot on the earth again, and the youth I seek, the child-- he was not ready to yet be born, though he was thrust into the world regardless." He taps the top of the skull he has,"This, my sister. One deserving of the utmost respect, as she is a martyr of the highest degree. She gave her life so that myself--and my brother and remaining sister, wherever they may be--might live. Thus she remains with me--with us all. As for where I am from... I am from far beyond this land--across the sea and from a place cast in sand and mountains in equal measure. My family is nomadic, and as a result, we speak many languages. Some more fluently than others." his sightless eyes seem to be focused past him, though he is at least speaking in his general direction. His words are a bit more enunciated now,perhaps for the respect for the pursuit of learning, as he cannot deny the desire to fill ones' mind with knowledge, however niche it may have been. "The languages I speak fluently are this 'Common', the two I grew up speaking--which, I suppose, would be ' Hejazi Arabic' and 'Urdu', a long-dead language called 'Latin', which has it's own dialects, and one from father off, called 'Greek'. This one is learned second-hand, as I have not yet been there, though I'm certainly planning on it. My paws can only stay in one place for so long and wanderlust will eventually push my bones back into action. As for why I specify the type of Arabic, it is possible--as my homeland is very, very large-- that someone from one side of the country can be speaking the same language as someone from another, and yet our dialects would be so different that there would still be a communication barrier. Mine is specific in that another language--Turkish, which I speak vaguely and only by coincidence-- has left it's mark upon words and pronunciations, and thus it is distinct from other variants. It is a regional dialect, I suppose, and if I were to teach you, I would instead be teaching you an entirely different dialect spoken, which is more widely-used and would eliminate the communication barrier that my native phrases only intensify." He seems more than willing to teach though, despite the several red flags he had given previously. "And you fancy yourself a scholar?" he rolls his spine upwards in an arch before finding himself once again drawn by the gentle waves lapping at the stony lakeside,"Then I shall be happy to impart whatever knowledge to you my travels have afforded me. As for the fae, they are not a story just of this land but many others. I find that there is often more truth to local legend than ignorant wanderers see fit to believe, and oft find themselves as bones in some distant witches' cave." Not him, of course. He chuckles at the prospect--perhaps one day a toll for a bridge will have to be paid and knowledge of the legend and myths would come in handy. Alas, today is not that day, and for now, he seems to decide that this would be a decent place to make a home. At least, until, he finds what he's looking for.

@Arythmetik

A R Y T H M E T I K

The amount of information this strange man divulged at once was...overwhelming. Even for a studious creature like Aryth, it was difficult to keep up. It was probably the combination of the late night, the eerie quality of Mercury’s voice and the many unrecognizable terms and references. Arythmetik did fancy himself a scholar, but he struggled to keep up. As the outlander rambled on, his eyes started to glaze over, and he shook his head, glad his counterpart was blind and couldn’t see. So he took a deep breath, shifting on his russet paws. Trying desperately to understand the majority of what was relayed. Okay, the scholar noted mentally, the man thinks he’d died many times. So he knows multiple languages from his multiple lives? He could have amnesia...or he could have a disorder that makes him think his travels across the world were different ‘lifetimes.’ He could even be making up these languages. After all, Aryth had never heard of “hejazi arabic” or “urdu.” Of course, that didn’t mean Mercury was lying—Aryth certainly didn’t know everything, and he wasn’t exactly “worldly.” Everything he knew, he knew from books.


Still, it was difficult to put stock in Mercury’s explanations when he claimed to have carried his sister’s skull through multiple lifetimes. The last thing Mercury said didn’t sit well with Aryth either: wolves who didn’t believe fairy tales were ignorant and often wound up dead. The Junior Professor swallowed heavily, taking another deep breath before replying, “Oh my, well, that is...quite an explanation.” He glanced at the moon, wondering now how long this conversation could last. It wasn’t that he didn’t find the outlander interesting. No, interesting was an understatement. But the friendliness that comforted him minutes ago now worried him. “So, do you think that finding the fae forest will help you find your missing siblings? Were you planning on heading out tonight, or waiting until morning?” Aryth smiled weakly, his need to be genteel outweighing his inner warnings. “I feel like leading you to the fae woods would be a fair trade to learn a bit of your Latin.” That was a word he recognized.

code by claerie

@Mercury