Cairidan,
Lion of Prideless
Played by dusk

Night settled with an aching familiarity. The sun had long rescinded, plunging the world into a brilliant black-and-blue, the sky alight with stars that danced across in dazzling constellations, wispy clouds of cosmos accompanied by the auroras that flittered in the far-off distance toward the mountains. A bitter chill swept across the moorlands, unhindered by the jutting and jagged rocky outcroppings of the rolling hills, sustained by the early winter of the mountainsides. All was still and quiet as Cairidan moved across the rocky slopes, sparse grasses underfoot providing cushion where his pads had long grown cracked and ragged from his traveling. Long had he grown accustomed to his solitude, content to dwell within his own thoughts even if it had meant abandoning everything he'd had; a home, a family.

His breaths escaped in soft vapors, flitting into the sky before disappearing into the darkness. His night-adjusted eyes peered northward, seeing from his elevated perch a lake shimmering in the far distance, too far to reach that night. Rather, the beast settled on watching it from afar; he was unafraid to lay down out in the open, perched upon a rocky slab and large enough to frighten any other night-dwelling predators. Half-awake yet keenly did he watch the night sky dappled in the far-off reflection of the Mosmori, enjoying the way the wind unfurled along his back, and the way his curled mane danced along his jaws.

Art by AleTie