OOC: WotD: Portentous, adjective - Marvelous; prodigious; wonderful; as, a beast of portentous size.
WC 648
©table code and image to jacoby: For Orin
Once she spied Niro’s slate-colored form darting towards her, she bolted off again. She cut a clear path almost exactly from the way she had come (but not the way she had originally gotten to her destination, for that was round-about and askew), following her own tracks and scent. She led her brother North, through the streets of Lunenburg and towards the Shattered Coast. As they bolted through the mostly abandoned city, held together and kept up by a few pack members here or there, her eyes began to wander. At one point, she led Niro around the wrong turn and to a dead end, where she promptly spun around and pounced her brother playfully before dashing off in the right direction again. Sometimes, when she thought he might overtake her, for he could probably follow her light scent trail, she would dodge this way, or that, to throw him off, or trip him, or other games of devious sibling rivalry.
Eventually, the two made an exit from the city and flew into the territory of the Shattered Coast. Her tongue lolled out of the side of her mouth, and she panted heavily from the extended run, but still in her excitement, she would not stop until she brought Niro to her destination. It almost seemed that she would run right off the map, when finally, at the far end of the Shattered Coast, her jog slowed to a peppy walk. There was a heavy gale here, whipping cold winds through their fur, like the tail end of Winter not wanting to relinquish its reign to Spring. The waves crashed madly against the cliffs, and the oceanspray dappled their coats but did not penetrate her thick underfur.
She panted still as she trotted and looked at Niro. “You’re still here?” She yipped and bumped into his side before bounding a few steps ahead to avoid any retaliation. She glanced over her shoulder at him, taunting, and then looked ahead at their destination.
Before them, at the end of the cliff face that they padded on the northernmost tip of the Shattered Coast, loomed a portentous structure. It was marvelous - majestic even - the way it watched over land and sea alike, teetering on the brim of two worlds. Gulls seemed to float about its precipice, too lazy to bother to fight the winds and fly forward. Occasionally, the high tide that assaulted the rocks would crash with such a vigor that the waves would spray all around the structure and punctuate its very presence.
She slowed as she neared the great construction and stopped a few meters from its walls. Time had worn away brick and mortar here and there. A stair had crumbled away. A railing was being consumed by rust. But ultimately, the lighthouse was in great condition.
She peered up the tower and squinted at the lantern room that seemed to kiss the sky. She marveled that, from this vantage point anyway, it seemed to be fully in tact. She had never seen anything like this. Perhaps there had been some monolithic skyscrapers that far surpassed the height of this tower in the condensed cities of Florida, but she had been too preoccupied watching over her shoulder to take a moment to look upwards and marvel at the architecture there.
“Have you ever seen anything like it? Do you know what it is? I think I know, I’ve read about them.” She couldn’t bring herself to look away while she spoke to Niro. There was a somber, awed tone to her voice that made it almost inaudible beneath the waves and the relentless wind. Her eyes turned from the skytower to the stone stairway that led to the entrance. The stairs were well enough in tact to get them there, they would just have to skip a collapsed stone or two. “I haven’t been inside yet.”