It was a cold and blustery night.

The rain hadn't started yet, but there was an icy chill in the air -- the sort that promised that winter was surely coming.  The night smelled crisp and clean, a harbinger of the snow that would fall upon the morrow.  But for now, the sky was clear overhead; the rising moon, just a sliver shy of its fullest breadth, lit the forest all around him, helping the trees to cast stern shadows against the last remains of lingering snow.

Normally, he would have expected the forest to be alive all around him.  Night was when the creatures here did their work.  This close to a full moon, the Forbidden Forest should have been full of verve and activity:  centaurs searching for portents in the heavens, giant acromantula prowling about.  They were still a night away from the peak of the lunar cycle -- but tonight, the woods were as quiet as they were during a full moon, without even the werewolf's mournful howl.

He'd found the clearing without much trouble.  On another night, he might have had to share it with the centaurs; free of tall trees, it offered one of the few clear views of the night sky overhead.  But tonight, there were no other stargazers to contend with.  Nothing but him, amd the stars, and the faint black shadows dancing near the moon.

If it hadn't been for the one footfall behind him -- one step out of place, whether by accident or not -- he might never have heard the other man approaching.  Atash Hendurabi glanced back, one brow raised, his attention momentarily returning to the mundane.  For all his quirks and inconsistencies, this strange, pale man could move as silently as the moon he so reflected when the mood struck him.  Tonight, he was apparently in such a mood.

But whether his colleague was intending to be mysterious or not, it didn't bother Atash.

"I didn't realize that your Headmistress was allowing you to leave the castle," he remarked politely. He let his gaze drift back toward the sky as he spoke, focused on a point just to the right of the moon.  A quiet, enigmatic smile crossed the mage's face.  "Have you come to stargaze, Professor?"

"She knows that she can not stop me," He answered just as the moonlight sighed over him only long enough for the clouds to cover her once more, and where there had once been a man there was nothing until he followed the steps of the other. One hand had come to touch the bark of an old oak, finding there the stillness as eerie as the very voices that haunted his dreams. Too long has it been since he'd patrolled these woods, took refuge amongst the stars, and let physical healing come before his mental state. The past few months had been rough, but all it took was the news of the attacks to sober his sanity.

'Have you come to stargaze, Professor?'

When the other man returned his gaze to the heavens, Gale thought for a moment that maybe he'd been wrong about the Mage, finding within him a darker night than any moonless sky. He had been transfixed by the handsome features, the dark  hair and even darker eyes, and perhaps had let his guard down too easy. So when he asked of his intentions, of the stars that he had once been able to enchant him with, Gale did not answer at first.

Stepping wide into the clearing, from his attire alone it was easy to tell that Gale wasn't just on a midnight stroll. His hair was braided down his back, keeping the long strands from his face, and he wore thick black fabric that was fashioned tight to his skin. His shirt had a high collar to protect his neck, and various forms of leather straps crossed his chest keeping the weapons close but concealed.

"No," His voice was quick yet low, and the silver of his good eye narrowed in on the face of the other as though a wolf had found his prey, "I have lost my interest in the stars, sadly. And I can not remember why, though I think it has something to do with a dark alley and the rain....and the faint heartbeat of a man from the middle east." His blind eye didn't move like the other, though the white orb that wasn't concealed appeared to have the ability to look through someone, as if staring straight into their soul.

"What are you doing out here Atash?" He asked with sharpness in his voice that almost sounded bored, though his shoulders were tense and his feet squared as though at any moment he would attack even the most distant shadow, "And don't tell me you are on a walk, because I have a funny feeling that would be a lie."