It was late at night and the stars were shining brightly overhead, not a single cloud in sight. The moon was a bright oval in the sky. Andromeda was wide awake, as she sometimes was most nights lately, having spent most of her days asleep. The injuries she had sustained were a fading nightmare, though the ones hidden inside her would remain with her for the rest of her life. Already she'd begun to shove them into a dark corner of her mind, to be ignored so that she may live a normal life after the physical ones healed completely. One day soon she hoped to be able to hunt once more. To help provide for this wild dog who had used so much of his time to nursing her back to full health. She felt a large debt to him. It would take a lot before she felt she had paid it all back.
Laying on her back, front paws against her chest, the cheetah was looking at the sky, watching a few lights darting across her vision. She had no ideas what they were. Her pride had no beliefs attached to the night sky like Manahem's did. He'd told her many stories about them. It intrigued her. She wished they were still around, that she could have spoken to them all. She'd never known of animals with such interesting beliefs. Her pride had been one bent more on survival than spiritualism. They cared for strength over what the sky might be telling you.
She thought Manahem's way was better. More magical.
Manahem himself was close by, slowly walking towards the distracted big cat. He, too, had been watching the sky, looking for his constellation among all the bright lights up there. It usually came out around this time of the year. It was this time that he'd left his pack as an adolescent, to travel the roguelands by himself until he discovered what his constellation was. It was a rite of passage all wild dogs in his pack had taken before they were considered full members. He thought nothing much of it. It was just what he had been raised with.
"How are you feeling tonight?" he asked Andromeda when he was close enough to be heard. It hadn't escaped him that she also liked to look up at the stars. Perhaps, though she wasn't a wild dog nor of his pack, a constellation would make itself known to her. He didn't see why not. Why should certain things in the world be exclusive like that? If anyone needed a guiding light in the sky, it was Andromeda.
"Mm. Okay. I think." Her answer was vague. Not on purpose. She wasn't sure how she felt. She felt a lot of things. Grateful that he had saved her life. Guilty that he had spent so much time caring for her and that she still couldn't help him. And also survivor's guilt. Part of her still wished he'd left her there under the tree to die. Why should she be the only one of her pride to live?
"The sky sure is pretty tonight." Shifting her head, Andromeda looked at Manahem, offering him a small smile. An invitation to join her. Her tail swayed slowly in the dirt, in the constant motion that was a cat's tail.
"Yes," he answered, sitting down next to her and looking up.
"Which one is yours?" the cheetah asked suddenly, still watching the wild dog. "If it's out tonight." She saw his head move towards her curiosity. Maybe he hadn't realized how much she had been paying attention to their talks. Of course she had. She liked things that were soft and gently. And what was more gently than the softly blinking lights in the night sky? Or the belief in an image in there guiding over you until the end of your life? It was sweet, in a way. She liked to think her parents were up there, watching over her and protecting her. They had died many years before the attack. She'd been a late birth, so they had already been rather old by the time she and her sister had been born. Her sister....Far as she knew, no one had made it out except for herself.
She took a deep breath to calm her emotions. Giving into grief would only ruin the peaceful moment.
The question had indeed taken Manahem by surprise. In truth, he wasn't really used to having even a normal conversation with someone, least of all someone who was interested in himself,
He looked up but didn't need to search far for it. He'd already been looking at it every night of his entire existence whenever it showed itself.
"It's there," he answered, trying to point with his nose somewhere to the right of the tree they were under. "It's a tree with no leaves. Probably a dead one." The perfect constellation for a grown pup who had spent so much time with dead bodies, talking to them as if they were alive. Manahem had never really had any friends, even back in his pack. He'd always been such a loner.
"Ah." That was all Andromeda could think of to say, as she strained her neck to try and see what he was seeing. To the right of the tree's full branches was a cluster of stars. Just like the sky was all around the tree. Just a cluster of stars. She couldn't see images in the sky no more than she could in the dirt. Maybe she just lacked imagination.
"You can't really see it, can you?" There was amusement in the wild dog's voice. He wasn't offended by her inability to see the very obvious dead tree in the sky above the living one on the ground. If you never grew up this way, how could you know what to look for? You weren't adjusted to it. He saw images all over the sky, even when he wasn't looking very hard. "It's okay if you can't."
Andromeda gave a start, her gaze quickly returning to him with a little bit of panic. "No! I totally can!" As he gave her a skeptical look, she pursed her lips, puffing out her cheeks a little. "Yeah, okay. I can't see it. I'm sorry."
Manahem gave in to the chuckle that had been threatening to come out. "I'm not insulted. Not everyone can see. If you want, I can try and show you more clearly what I see up there." Her eyes widened and she nodded enthusiastically, reminding him of an excited cub.
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1,104 Words