[PRP - Lux Aeterna and Sherlock] Bright as the Sun

[DemonBoyWonderr]

Lux Aeterna fluttered down onto a nearby stump. The immediate area was her general living space, complete with a shallow stream, a spot to sleep, and nearby game. Most importantly, though, she was in the center of the very foggy forest that she called her home.

Some days, Lux Aeterna felt as though her forest was timeless. The fog's ultimate goal seemed to be preservation. Of course, Lux was probably the only fox that would see it this way. For others, the mist simply served to obscure and confuse. This was especially true in her home, wherein even the time of day was ambiguous.

The firefly's daily schedule fluctuated based however she was feeling, and right now, she felt like making her rounds. She liked to think of it as patrolling the forest, but in reality she was just wandering.

Lux was in a figurative and literal haze. The rut that was her daily routine could only be broken by the company of other foxes. It had been a while since her last guest of sorts, though, and she hadn't stayed for very long. Even the coming and going of foxes was growing monotonous. But they were always so nice, they got along with her so well, they were all just... temporary... But, Lux Aeterna had to remind herself again, she wasn't helping stray foxes for her own amusement. It was simply the right thing to do.  

[Juliette06]

Sherlock had never been especially surprised by weather before. Even flash storms or lightning-strikes, he could feel in the air and sense in the clouds, but this fog just came out of nowhere. He knew, logically, that this idea wasn't true, because fog was the clouds lowering to the earth (his father had taught him that), but he hadn't ever imagined clouds to be so...well, foggy.

He had been flying, but then a tree showed up in his field of vision and more importantly his flight plan, and he hadn't been able to veer out of the way fast enough. He avoided a head-on collision, but his right wing had been clipped on his way down. It didn't feel like any of the fragile bones were broken, but it was definitely bruised, possibly bleeding. Sherlock couldn't crane his neck that far and see, nor could he move that wing without hurting himself.

So he was walking again, and now that he was on solid ground, he found himself kind of enjoying the hazy, smudged world the fog provided--it made the world seem softer and safer somehow, like he was wrapped in an all-natural foggy blanket.

At first he thought he was seeing things--a vague yellow light in the distance. He picked up his pace slightly and realized shortly that no, he wasn't seeing things and it wasn't a human hunting party: it was a fox, with the most unusual wings he had ever seen.

"Excuse me," Sherlock called, willing his legs to move faster and for him to not trip over anything, "Miss?"  

[DemonBoyWonderr]

Lux Aeterna's ear twitched at a sudden noise off to her left. Someone was lost, then! Lucky she was found him. "Yes, hello?" She called out in response as she headed toward him. She could just make out the general silhouette of the fox, and as she approached it grew larger in size. Not a normal fox, Lux was surprised to conclude. A 'Phim, perhaps? She had never seen one before, presumably because they could just fly out of the forest.

He was finally visible now, a black fox with white and gold designs and quite the impressive wingspan. They were in every way different from her own, and Lux could just imagine being able to really soar through the clouds, rather than just hovering through the fog that she was confined to.

Lux had to remind herself to return to the issue at hand. "Hello," she repeated, "Did you need help getting out of this fog? I would be happy to assist you." Her luminous tail swayed slowly in the air behind her, as though to emphasize her helpfulness in the matter.  

[Juliette06]

Sherlock smiled in spite of himself when the fox answered his call, proving that he was not, in fact, going insane. She looked to be more fairy than fox--if Mother Qing's stories were to be believed--but she spoke his language and looked real enough, so he decided he would put aside that hypothesis for now and focus on the matter at hand.

She was offering to lead him out of the fog. Did that mean that the fog never left this area? How peculiar; some strange weather and physics must have been at work; he knew the mountains were permanently hazy in some places, but he had never heard of it happening on solid ground.

"I don't have anywhere I need to be," Sherlock decided after a few moments, a hesitant smile returning. "But thank you. Do you live here?" he asked instead, tilting his head at her slightly. How could anyone live in such a dense mist?

All of a sudden he heard his mother's voice in his head. "Oh! I'm sorry. My name Sherlock, and it's nice to meet you," he said, robotically repeating the formalities his mother had drilled into him since birth, since his father was, in her words, 'hopeless'. He even tried to bow a little, but it hurt his wing, so he just kind of awkwardly bowed his head and hoped it counted.  

[DemonBoyWonderr]

"Oh." Lux really hadn't been expecting that as an answer. Did that mean he would just stay in the area for a while? She couldn't imagine why. Of course, Lux realized she had been hoping for a fox like this. Rather than ponder the coincidence, she remembered to respond to him. "You're very welcome, Sherlock," she said with a smile and a little bow of her own. "And it's a pleasure. I'm Lux Aeterna, or simply Lux."

She couldn't help but noticed the difficulty he seemed to have with bowing. She received more of a slight nod than anything else. Lux tried not to jump to any conclusions about his state of being. Returning to his earlier question, she added, "I do live in this forest. I am, perhaps, the only fox who really can, given the circumstances. Most foxes wish to leave as soon as possible, frankly. I am glad to finally meet someone who isn't in such a hurry for once."

Presently, she couldn't help but ask: "Are you hurt somewhere? It's just, earlier you seemed to be having some difficulty, and this forest is rather dangerous..." Lux trailed off slightly. She would feel terrible if she wrongfully assumed something was wrong with Sherlock, and she would feel even worse if something was actually wrong with him.  

[Juliette06]

"Hm? Oh," Sherlock realized, then smiled sheepishly and looked up at his wing. "The fog kind of took me by surprise. As did, um, a tree," he added, an embarrassed smile tugging across his muzzle. "It's okay, though, it's not broken," he said, trying to flap it to show her--but that hurt, so he stopped.

"How is it that you can live here when nobody else can?" Sherlock asked, tilting his head slightly at her. "Is it--is it because--I'm sorry, does your tail glow?" he asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, because he was sure he'd seen something glowing in the distance. He was sure of it.

Unless he hadn't, in which case maybe he had a concussion or something, even if he hadn't hit his head on the way down.

"Oh! And you have a very lovely name," he added with sincerity, because he had been distracted by his wing to comment on it when she had first said it. Lux Aeterna. Lux. It sounded like Luck, and he liked that, because it was lucky he'd found anyone in the fog at all.

Huh. Maybe that was the point of her name. Because a lot of people were probably lucky to find her...but she had said something about all of them leaving. That must be rather sad for her, Sherlock realized, to always be meeting people but never be making friends with them. He was a drifter too, but he never had had that sort of experience before.

Poor Lux. Lucky for other people, unlucky for herself.

He decided he would stay for as long as it was appropriate. She deserved to be lucky too; he could just tell.  

[DemonBoyWonderr]

"Oh, dear, are you sure you're alright?" Lux Aeterna had to ask. Despite not actually having children, she had a lot of maternal instincts. "Even if it's not broken, it must still hurt." She tried to get a better look at the wing he attempted to move, bringing her tail forward through the fog for some light. The act prompted the answer of Sherlock's question.

"I apologize, it must seem very strange to you," she said. "My tail does, for some reason that I'm not even aware of, naturally glow. I use it to find my way around the forest in the fog and, consequently, help other lost foxes find their way out."

As Lux spoke, she inwardly determined that the 'Phim's wing wasn't openly bleeding. At least he wasn't prone to infection. Lux lowered her tail, since light wouldn't help solve any internal pains Sherlock may be having. She took a step back and, responding to his complement, thanked him whole-heartedly. "You are too kind, Sherlock, and have quite the lovely name yourself. Does it happen to mean anything?" Lux knew the meaning behind her own name, but wasn't sure that everyone's had a specific reason for originating. Sherlock was one she had never heard before, though, and could very well mean something of which she was not aware.