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High altitude. A broad spanse of unmelting snow along the high peaks, a twin mountain that never saw the loss of his white cap. Speaking streams flowing down rocky paths, hidden falls and chilling mist. This was where Livia led her new companion. Her shinning star, the first to traverse this narrow overlook in her company to the nestled tops, parts of the mountain that shielded trees and game in earnest despite its odd location. And indeed it was perilous, one outcrop overlooked a stunning view of a near sheer cliff, where one could watch the skies melt with the earth and be able to tell what parts the sun would strike first in the morning. Here and there, an unfortunate misstep could lead to a fatal fall. So, it was lucky in this sense that Eqqus had a guide who'd traveled it many times. Though once the path was known it was difficult to forget.

After a bit of rough climbing Livia came at last to some level ground where, panting, she sat back on her haunches in the snow. It wasn't so much that she wasn't fit for such a journey, it was just so much uphill that at times even she wasn't certain of a sucessful travel. One look over her shoulder at the Shinning Star though, and her panting melted into a smile. It was easier with company to rest and chat with along the way, at any rate. And this male was better company than any.

Livia would have liked to keep herself more distant from him for a time longer, but the attraction was strange and she was certain it travelled both ways. She did after all, hold the starred wolf in some kind of trance whenever she liked. While the wintery wolf held a certain pride in being able to do this, she had also been quite flattered by the attention Eqqus showed when they had first met. Strange what one can find in the midst of an odd snap of cold. Now though, no trace of that odd weather remained on the valley floors. The mountaintops overlooked rolling green.

"How are you getting along, Shinning Star?" Livia called out in her smooth, almost musical voice. As ever it carried the feel of icy wind across fur, though certainly not in an unpleasant sense. "I do hope the view makes it slightly more enjoyable." Her lips curled back in a smile that could have been deemed coy, though she was genuinely referring to the many overlooks along the way.

The closeness, she could feel the heat flowing off of her Star as though he were a wisp of spring in this ever winter world. Not that she found it distasteful. Quite the contrary, the cold loving femme was beginning to like the idea of a warm body near her, and he was quite close. A little shift forward and there was no more than a hair's width separating snow and sky from being muzzle to muzzle, chest to chest. Her starry night, her compass in the eve.

Still she must have felt the same as he, because that hair kept her frum nuzzling up to him then and there. It just wasn't quite right, something had to be said or done first. Soon, perhaps, they would slip gently toward that first touch that both of them had seemingly long been desiring.

Withdrawing slightly, Livia cast a charismatic smile at Eqqus. Every second she looked at him she grew to like him more. After all, it was true that no other had ever been either brave or devoted enough to follow her up these treacherous slopes to the calling twin peaks above. Little did she know that these very grounds were being eyed by another from below, but that was for another day.

A light blush crept under her light blue cheeks, and Winter Eyes turned shyly away. "You flatter me, my sleek companion. I am glad you like the view, for many it is not worth the trip. And the company, well," she tilted her head to the side in a classically lupine fashion with a playful wink, "I am the winter wolf after all." Compared to how she could have been it was a surprisingly joking comment. A bit of haughtiness melting away perhaps, in the wake of his warmth.

They actually weren't far from the top, and the brief rest had Livia more than ready to overtake the remainder of the trail. She sprang to her feet, tiny ice particles flying from her paws. The snow had been frozen and refrozen, leaving it more icy than soft, so it was easy for her to start up the last leg of the trail at an easy trot, pausing to look back over her shoulder and respond with a playful, "True, their loss. The top of the world is not far, the final overlook calls. Twix twin towers of rock lies our final destination, the highest growing grove awaits with evergreens wound in everlasting white forest floor." It was highly poetic, and Liva was back to speaking in an almost musical tone to lure her star into the sky above. Not that she believed she had to lure, but it was all the more fun that way.

With a laugh like tumbling icesickles, she took off at a sprint up the now steeply climbing trail. A few hundred feet above lay her home, the nestled grove she spoke of that was actually surprisingly expansive for the lofty mountanous heights.

Snow flew off like a tail behind her as she ran, climbing and panting up between the two white spires, bounding this way and that to avoid the slipperiest places. Livia was back in her element, and she looked the part. Ice wolf gliding home, flying over drifts on broad pawpads. She was built for this. Her fluffy down undercoat was after all, still in full bloom and flew in the wind of her movements.

Not long until she came leaping in a final burst of energy up the last few feet of slope. Over a dune of white she sailed, coming down in a tumble, body flopping to rest on the tundra-like ground. Her land. Her place in the world, where she fit in. She must have looked much like she did lying out on the frozen pond when the two had first met, sprawled out there with a grin on her lupine muzzle. Though there had been snow on the forest floor, she had been away from here too long and her gladness to be home showed on her features.

Behind her, thin trees condensed into an evergreen thicket a little beyond the edges of this interesting flat piece of land. On either side rose mountaintops. Standing on the edge of this highland, a keen eyed wolf could see seemingly into forever, and watch the earth bend beneath him.

That sound. It had every droplet-covered hair on Livia's body standing on its very end, and her eyes went wide in panic. A thousand thoughts went through her mind in the seconds that her paws were scrambling to bring her body upright, slipping on the slick snow in her haste. Mostly she couldn't believe she'd left him alone to scramble up the last, and arguably steepest, part of the trail. But he'd done so well the rest of the time, she had no reason to think he might have trouble...

The ice wolfess vaulted over the edge of her high mesa like a gazelle. Oh, what if he'd already gone over the edge? The light blue wolfess practically paled to stark white at the thought as she raced the downdraft from the mountain top toward where the howl for help had come from. Why had she left him to scale the last bit alone!

Livia was built for this, and she would have thanked the stars for her unique body structure if she'd thought of it, for while she was also scrambling and slipping on the ice after her dark, shimerring wolf, clear claws and spongey pawpads kept her relatively secure.

At least for most of the time.

When she reached nearer the edge where Equus' fur came into view, tangled in evergreen, the trail turned completely into ice. The Winter Wolf dropped to her belly and skidded, claws digging against the slightly rough surface in desparation against flying headlong into Shinning Star and sending them both pitching to their doom. As it happened, she dulled her claws nearly to the quick with the effort, but managed to come to a half-spin halt just inches from Equus' predicament.

She was still noteably paniced, eyes wide and dialated she glanced for something that would help, anything. But no one was in vision, no one to help her.

Desperate, she moved to grab him by his scruff and heave, dull claws biting against slick ice and rock. Livia was sorely beginning to regret choosing such a remote residence.

Oh thank all holy. Really. Livia had never felt that kind of panic before, and she was genuinely shocked that whatever adrenaline had been coursing through her had been enough to haul her dark sky from the edge of death.

She was panting. The after effects of flying down a mountain and making an edge of the earth rescue. The lick across her cheek hadn't even registered yet, her eyes were flicking back and forth to make sure everything really was okay. And it was. She was on relatively solid ground, and though she wouldn't be doing any mountan-goat style ice climbing for a while with her worn claws, neither of them was the worse for wear.

Relieved to the point of exhaustion, the Winter Wolfess slumped against Equus, leaning him away from the edge of course. Finally starting to catch her breath, she closed her eyes and only then realized that her cheek was wet from a reassuring lick. Flush returning color to her paled features, she returned the gesture of affection gently, glad for the feel of his fur under her tongue. He really was okay.

"Don't scare me like that!" Livia barked, the only way she could really think to react verbally at the time. Of course she wasn't actually angry, just still a little shakey. An understandable outburst.

Of course she wasn't actually angry with him, and her instant smile at his musical words said so. The winter wolfess was in fact, quite relieved at this very moment even though it was going to be slow moving without her icepick like claws. Slowly she rose to her paws and started along the difficult last hundred feet or so of the path for the third time. She took it at a very easy pace, placing her paws carefully along her tracks from both ascent and descent earlier, to make her traveling easier. Her white peaks were waiting to welcome her home more fashionably.

"Yes, slow and sure, a warm breeze on a crisp day." Livia followed at his flank, oddly content to be second in line. The trail was clearly marked now at any rate. Her forelegs, those especially were protesting with every step, the wolfess had landed much too hard from that final bound onto cold, solid earth. It would heal. Everything was alright now.

With the boundary of touch shattered now, Livia found herself even going so far as to rest her head ever so gently against Equus' side as they traversed the path. She marveled at how the invisible barrier seemed gone, as if it had never been in the first place. Of course she had wanted badly to rub her muzzle ever so slightly against his even on that first meeting, but being appropriate was in her nature, and she appreciated more than she would admit how her Shining Star felt the same.

It was a workout to the top again. Her body was singing a symphony of ache, but it should go away with a good nights sleep and a warm body to be near. "Snow's highest hideaway lies just beyond the trees, my shimmering, shining Star." Flashing a charismatic grin, she led onward toward the evergreens, passing not far under their shade before reaching a deeply burrowed den. It was built purposely to go well below the frostline, where temperature would never be below around fifty degrees. Welcome warmth for an aching lupine. Smiling in an expression that could only belong to one who had just reunited with her true home, Livia took the first steps inside, a draft of warmish air welling up to greet her and soothe the tinging in her joints.

In all honesty Livia wasn't very much aware of the social aspects related to dens, or much else for that matter. After all she had never exactly been host to much company at this altitude, or really ever for that matter. Because of her seclusion she never needed to guard a den from any other wolf. To her it was just a shelter, to keep high winds from biting to the bone.

So when Equus didn't follow right away, naturally she assumed that either something was wrong, or he was mildly suicidal. His small whine affirmed that something was indeed awry, and the snow wolfess crept back up from the earth and stood at the entrance, in the lee of the building wind. Her pose indicated that she did believe herself to be at the top of the world here, the edges of her fur ruffled ever so slightly still from their close encounter. Of course she wanted him to stay. Her eyes said so. Why else would she have led him so close to the sky, to this secret place?

"You'll freeze out there," Livia offered gently, still very much unsure why he wouldn't come forward. Naieve though she thought highly of herself "Unless you plan on digging very far before dark and starlight blanket the sky." She was more concerned with his wellbeing than anything. There was no place better to rest and recouperate after dangling from a cliff than somewhere just a little warm. Even the snow femme had been grateful for it.

"Why do you stand here so, Shinning Star?"

Love?

Livia took a long moment to mull that over. Wasn't love a bit premature? Perhaps not. She had invited him here. She was the one who suggested he stay with her. So what was it that was holding her back from agreement? Her mind was moving very quickly to settle this dilemma. The winter wolfess felt as though she had little time to come up with a response. Curse time for not standing still for her.

An admission of love, even if it were true (which Livia suspected it was), would mean something important. Perhaps both of them were being held by some invisible string. Commitment would mean a companion to lie next to at night and hunt with, stay with her and break the cruel isolation of the highland. Perhaps, someday, even a family? But Livia was far ahead of herself, and her mind was going faster than she cared to think. Where was the easy pace of a large snowflake when you needed it.

Even for all this thoughtfulness, however, Livia did not look frightened or startled by Equus' words. In fact she was very flattered, and the more she considered, the more she blushed beneath light blue fur.

At length she came to the conclusion that she did love him, and she had better say it or risk crushing her Starlit Sky, her night compass. "Are the little things together so great that you cannot let my love pull you forward?" Not quite the gushy confession she had originally intended, but it was an admission. "Your love for me compelled me to bring you here, please do not say you are tethered to the green earth."