Sky High Star Watching

"A beautiful night for it," the crested Cryo said placidly, staring up at the stars.

"A cold night for it," the piebald Utah interjected.

"It isn't that cold," the spotted Alberto scoffed, earning him a scowl from the smaller carnivore.

"We should be going," Gildír continued, like they hadn't been interrupted at all, "Come along, there's a while to climb yet." The star-reader began to walk off, not waiting for their clients to catch up, simply trusting them to follow. Pardus shook himself before moving, the dry mesa air reacting with his scales and causing them to prickle. He had spent his entire life up in the mountains and had assumed a lower altitude wouldn't be too bad, but the conditions of Outlook Ridge were different enough to make him bristle. The little Utah seemed sickly, like she was also having difficulty adjusting to the air. Perhaps she was from even lower down in the savannah, he didn't care to ask. SHe was just a client on the same session with the star-reader as him and Pardus found it hard to care about who she was and where she came from.

The cool stone slipped easily under Cherry's claws and she directed her entire attention span to staying balanced. At the very least it seemed the Alberto was also struggling with the climb, despite coming from the highlands. She knew that the highest point of these rock formations would probably rival the height of the ranges he and his pack lived in, but it still gave her an unreasonable flush of smugness to see him stumble once in a while. She knew him, vaguely, through tales of those passing through, the spotted Albertosauruses with their blinding coats that used snow like most predators used the cover of trees and long grasses. It had been a surprise to see him there for a number of reasons, but chief among them was seeing him there alone. She wondered briefly if he was the only member of his pack to believe in star reading, if the others might ridicule him for it. Instintively, she cast her eyes to the west, where the abandoned mines lay below the forming clouds. They had climbed for most of the evening but as the night wore on they finally seemed to be making progress, like they were fighting through the clouds themselves to get an interrupted view of the stars.

At the peak of the desert mountain, the star reader threw their head back, their mismatched eyes soaking in the sight of their beloved constellations.

"I will not keep you long, it is far too cold for that," they said amicably, "Please, approach with your questions." Cherry bolted forward first, eager to ask her question before she lost her nerve. 

"Star reader, will my children inherit my condition?" she asked in a low voice, barely loud enough for the seer to hear. The Cryo hummed, looking directly up and scanning the sky. After what seemed like an age, their head levelled out again.

"One will, the others will not," they said confidently with a smile, "The one will be cradled by stars, do not fear the life the child will lead, because it will have what you did not." It was a firm and confident answer but somehow Cherry felt more unmoored than ever, knowing she was guaranteed to curse at least one child. 

"That's all I had to ask," she said weakly, walking away to sit at the edge of the mountain and stare out over the cloud layer. It was quiet up here, like all the night time noises had stopped at a certain altitude. She had never been up this high before and she wondered if it was always that quiet high up or if it was the nature of the desert environment to muffle any signs of life. She pointedly ignored the clear view she had of the abandoned mine, like the clouds had parted to form a window for her to look straight through. 

"Will I rule the pack?" Pardus asked plainly, a simple question, the only one he had for the seer and the only thing he needed an answer for. Gildír looked to the sky again, frowning into the dark and taking far longer to parse the patterns than they had with Cherry. The Alberto was on the verge of snapping at them and leaving when the Cryo finally lowered their head with a sigh.

"Complicated," they said gently, "Not in name, but in deeds. All of the work and none of the glory." Pardus' expression was unreadable as he also turned to stare out over the vista. It seemed so much higher than the mountains he lived in, though he knew it could not be true. Maybe it was the lack of other mountains that made the height so dizzying, maybe it was the confirmation that he would go unrecognised for the rest of his life. No, he shook his head, it was the height, he was feeling vertigo despite living close to the clouds for his entire life. 

Gildír tried not to stare at their clients, knowing that far-off look meant something confronting had happened during their reading. They enjoyed the view while they could, feeling the night chill beginning to worm its way under their feathers. It felt transcendental, being so close to the stars and they would endure the climb, the cold, the shortness of breath for as long as the stars were willing to speak to them.