Far their destination, 

Brine cut acerbic in the air, mingled with faint hints of the highly-toxic mesopelagic algae dredged skyward by Turifaar’s rousing. Even high on Knō’s penultimate plateau, where the air was fine and brisk, drones swept the sky followed by sideways plumes of biologic counter-agents.

A sour concoction, his nostrils flared and his snout puffed out bursts of rejected particles.

Siepf lounged, rear and paws pulled up on a sculpted bench in the shadow of the torii gates that marked Knō’s various wend ways. It was a campus park, elevated and with views that overlooked much of the strait and city. It was also empty, customary given its mystic association that dominated the park’s midst: a shrine to ██████, a structure made of colossal rutilated slabs of foggy quartz with gaps in-filled by flash-cooled molten brass. While the gates were made of the same materials, Siepf felt them orderly. Contrariwise, the shrine emanated a chaotic, primal, and ancient aura, or perhaps natural phenomenon like the snow-swept bluffs of his forested homeland. 

He wagged his tail slowly, his starsuck black fur occluding vision rather than inviting a description. Occasionally, vibrations of light escaped its depths, outlining a stray hair or whisker. Even his eyes were that dark. A trait that made him a perfect predator in his natural forests, especially at night. A shadow, with a bite of death. Adorned here in a classic reflective red raincoat with matching earbuds attached by a thin wire to a digitized radio, he was somewhat more conspicuous. Thus, when Talt exited the wend he readily noticed the whereabouts of his new partner assigned to him by the Sodality.

[i]“During the auroral festivals, the gates are said to shine with a thousand colors, some of which only exist for those fleeting hours in which the daystars sleep,”[/i] Talt quietly said of the gates, his tone almost reverent, as a way to intrude on Siepf’s consciousness.

Head bowed and unmoved, Siepf waited for a break in the lyrics, whereat he yawned a lazy reply: [i]“Guess we should meet up with the rest of the crew.”[/i]