sitting under the stars

[johnnyboy]

Johnny couldn’t sleep. This was not uncommon for him, but it was annoying. He decided take a drive to the cliffs so he could look at the night sky. He drove there so he didn’t have to walk through the forest in the night. He parked his Jeep at the base of the cliffs and started to ascend. When he reached the top he sat on the edge and looked out over the city. Most of the houses and businesses were dark, but the street lamps orange glow gave it a eerie beauty. After a little while Johnny put his hands behind his head and laid back to look at the stars. He let his mind be enveloped in there wonder. After a while Johnny sort of wished that somebody else was there to see this, but he was happy either way just to look at the stars

[nicomae]

It may have been the quiet of the night, or the call of the stars, but as calming as the air came the soft, padded steps of the lady Nicomae. As always, she preferred her wolfen form to any other. Silent as the wind her presence was only a whisper beside him. She would say nothing until he spoke, and perhaps nothing would be said at all. Suddenly one star shot across the sky in a brilliant display and it vanished within the second. It make her smile within and the ivory wolfess sat on her haunches enjoying the night with a complete stranger and potential companion.

[johnnyboy]

Johnny lay there totally unaware of the wolfess behind him. A shooting star shot through the sky and Johnny watched it streak through the night, and as it burned out he caught something in periphery of his eyes. He looked over and jumped a little as he saw a white wolf sitting behind him.
“Oh! Heh…” he said as propped himself up on his elbow. “Hello…”

[nicomae]

She nodded in greeting to the boy, though she only thought of him as such for she saw all others as children; Nicomae was a very motherly soul.
"Hello," her voice sounded like the first breath of autum, "Sorry for startling you," her eyes seemed to mirror the moon as if the had come from the sky itself as she looked at him kindly. She paused and closed her eyes, "Did you make a wish?" Her voice lifted a note, as she remembered her pup Naomi; how her little brown eyes would have shined if she could have seen this. In her heart she wished this stranger well, "My name is Nicomae, sister of Azriel, and member of the Azmith Pack. I am pleased to make your aquaintence."

[johnnyboy]

“Johnny Dean,” he said, “Heh. Brother of none, and a pack of one.” Johnny started to reach out to shake her hand, but pulled it back almost immediately, remembering that he was talking to a wolf.
Johnny sat up and put his legs out over the edge and let them hang there. “And to answer your question, I wished my parents well. Become a bit of a habit now, I guess. You?”
She was giving off a very kind vibe that Johnny found comforting. He was pleased that he had somebody to talk to.

[nicomae]

"They say if you tell someone your wish, it won't come true," she said quietly, almost giggling a bit, "You haven't a pack? My brother was once that way, but I'm sure he woudn't want me talking about it. He perfers to keep himself to himself, you understand. Someday you'll find your place among others, as he did."

For some reason she then thought of herself. Wandering alone, finding her brother, being rejected by him until he was chased out and abandoned. She stayed with him until he decided to tolerate her, then came nicomae into her life. Another abandoned puppy that just fell into her life, for she had no mate, then finally Azzy another wandering sould, though all the pack was related, apart from Naomi the pup, they had all once been loners. Perhaps he would be the next addition to the Azmith pack, then again, her brother was alpha and there was no way to tell who he'd allow in and who he would not.

[johnnyboy]

“Pfft, packs.” Johnny said with a slight roll of his eyes. “Packs have brought me nothing but grief. A pack is the reason my parents are dead, and a pack is the reason I wandered through the woods for three years. In my mind, I find it best to avoid all organized packs all together.”
Johnny thought back to that fateful day and heaved a long sigh. “But that is a boring old tale.”
they bothe sat there for a littel while in scilence.
His watch beeped and Johnny realized it was close to three a.m.
“so what are you doing out here so late?”

[nicomae]

She was insulted by his distaste for packs. To her, a pack was an eternal bond of love, family, and safety, and it most definitely was, "Perhaps you're previous pack did not understand what the word 'pack' means. " When his watch beeped, followed by his question, her answer was this, "I am one with the night, the stars and the moon; she gives me peace and patience." Her voice faded to the wind as she closed her eyes and felt the slight chill in the early air, "I should return to my daughter," her endlessly deep eyes studied him a moment longer. "I hope you find you way, loner." And like a whisper, she disappeared back into the darkened forest.

[johnnyboy]

Johnny sighed as he saw her walk off in to the darkness. He looked back up at the stars.
“great.” He said to himself. “somebody comes up here and talks to you, and you go and insult her.” Johnny sighed deeply. He did not mean to insult her or imply that because she was a member of a pack that she was in any way a idiot. He envied her in a way, he missed having a family, he missed that feeling of love and safety that came with being a part of one. “If only she knew…” He said, talking to himself again. Sitting up on the cliffs, the memories of that day came flooding back and Johnny could not stop them. HIS pack hadn’t been the one that killed his parents, HIS pack hadn’t been the one that kidnapped him and took him so deep in to the woods that it took him three years to find his way back home. No, his pack didn’t do any of that, his pack had been slaughtered that day. It was another pack, one he had never heard of before. That experience had left a mark on him, not a visible mark, but a mark none the less, and that mark made it next to impossible for him to feel that he could be a part of something so wonderful as a pack again, without something going terribly wrong.
Johnny sighed. ‘Maybe I should try to Join a new pack,’ he thought. ‘Being a loner is not a pleasant way to live life.”

[nicomae]

Just hidden by the shadows of the trees, she smiled and hoped he would find a place. She took off running, rushed by the rising sun, and once she had covered nearly a mile she let out a howl for him. The note peirced through the heavens and rang out long and proud as the stars faded in the morning light. To the Azmith homelands she would go to nap for a while before fininding her daughter.