The coast once again drew her to it. She had not been to this coast in many moons, but every inch of it was still familiar. Every breath she took was sharp and tasted of salt. It reminded her of times that had long since past, of wolves she had been fond of now to never be seen again. Eyes felt misty as she watched the sun settle in the sky. She spent hours sitting on the beach, simply watching the waves crash into the sand, the water occasionally lapping at her paws.
It was all she could do, the weight of everything that this place made her remember heavy on her chest. Of beasts and fae and things she had spent so long driving from her memory, all flooding back at once. She closed her eyes.
ramesses the great traveled back and forth upon the coastline.
he had made for himself a little stowaway shelter facing the island; the diet of salt fish and snow had thinned his frame, hardened it. pharaoh walked with his gods now, and they alone were allowed to judge him.
a figure facing the waves, serene and striking. the exile sauntered closer but said nothing, seeing the meditative countenance of the other.
ramesses settled himself nearby and was silent, thinking in growing anger of all the things he had lost when he had been sent to this wretched shore.
She felt that strange tingle on her spine, like someone's watching her from down the coast line. She turned her head, seeing another silhouette wandering closer before settling in the sand. Andromaque cocked her head slightly, wondering.
It took a small amount of convincing to get her paws to raise her from the sand and propel her towards the silhouette. She approached with her head and tail lowered.
"The ocean is pretty," she stated, observing the look on his face.
"it would be more lovely if it was not so cold," ramesses rejoined swiftly. she was curiously marked and direct. he was unsure of how he took to either, and so gestured toward the dark expanse with a disgusted air. "look how the white stones collide in the waters. it is an ugly sight."
his attention flicked back to the woman, hard as blue stone. "i do not expect someone who has only known this place to understand what i might find pretty."
She could not help but agree -- the cold seeped into her bones and stayed there for moons while winter raged. Andromaque followed his gaze to the water with a huff and a nod of agreement.
This place had been beautiful.
Especially when she was there. Andromaque barely remembered her but she still sometimes haunted her dreams.
"I've known other places," she said, remembering the fire that burned her homeland. "They are all ash now." There was a tinge of sorrow in her voice. Andromaque had learned not to let the past define her.
"So you are not from here?" the wolf said, turning and looking at him. Andromaque was confident and it had been ages since she had seen another wolf, talked to another wolf. Part of her longed for it, even though he seemed far from interested.
"better ash than snow. at least the burning is quick." not so with freezing, wandering half-starved, as he had found before taking up beneath the empress. that reminded him of his duties to her. a passing tendril of this woman's scent suggested she was alone.
"if you are looking for another place to live, go to yuelong." he gestured proudly with the well-bred line of his muzzle. "it is better than wandering by oneself through this wretched cold. and i am not from here," ramesses went on. "i hail from a better place and a better time."
Better ash than snow.
She supposed this was true. Andromaque didn't respond and he started talking again.
Yuelong.
"Do you lead Yuelong?" she asked, unfamiliar word struggling to roll from her tongue. He was right, it would be better than wandering in the cold. Anything would be better than the cold. She remembered her old pack, even though she tried not to. She did not like to think of the things that had happened to them.
She wondered what a better time, a better place was like, and doubted that she would ever know.
ramesses swept a proud, appraising glance toward the stranger, truly seeing her for the first time. her marking was indeed particular: a shadowed face with a cowl of red that swept the rest of her body. eyes carved from malachite. they turned her from eye-catching into something that held the stare, and for a long moment that was all he did.
"i do not. it is led by an empress and her strong-man." he suspected that in the moons to come, aiolos might become more to hua. "it is upon an island. surrounded by water. an interesting place to reside."
Andromaque was confused by his stare. She waited for him to speak, and when he did, her ears perked up. Surely a woman-led pack would be well suited for her.
"I will go there," she decided aloud, wondering how she would make it through the cold water. She would figure it out when she came to the island. "I assume it's not hard to find," she continued, thinking that there weren't many substantial islands off the coast.
"it is easily seen. a path of sand rises from the water when the sea is low." ramesses was still fascinated with it all; he had twined himself into the workings of the salt-wolves even if he thought himself prince and god over them. it reminded pharaoh he had other hungers yet unsatisfied.
he shifted toward the woman, welcoming her closer. "if we are to reside in the same place, i should have your name," ramesses smirked with a lingering touch of his inscrutable ocean-stare.
She nodded when he explained how to reach the island. Andromaque pictured a bridge of sand rising from the sea, thinking it would not be hard to find. She hoped she would find it. Andromaque had been growing lonely and hungry.
Then he asked for her name. "Andromaque," she told him. "And yours?" Her tail twitched behind her as she waited for a response. She watched his face for any changes.
andromaque. the syllables were foreign, but he could see how such a unique visage needed the same in a name. "i am called ramesses the great. but my title is pharaoh." he did not elaborate; he would hear either from her, though the arrogant boy suspected he might only henceforth give his royal title when asked.
he had not ceased to be pharaoh when his sister had exiled him from the kingdom that was rightfully his.
until the end of his days he would always be what hatshepsuun could not.
There's something regal about him and the name that he gave. Andromaque could not quite understand what the titles meant. She was unsure if it was something that she should ask him. Some folks were never interested in talking about their past -- her included, it was far too painful to remember the pillars of smoke rising from the forest that she called home.
Against her better judgement, she spoke.
"What is a Pharoh?" she asked. She took note of how he introduced himself -- Ramesses the Great. Curious. She was not sure what to think of it all, of him.
"a king." words poured to his tongue like wine; ramesses closed his eyes a long moment, thinking of all that had gone on in his life. "beside him, a queen. beneath him, his children. he controls the land. he brings tribute to the gods. he speaks to them on behalf of his people." the incarnation of the Horus.
but ramesses only served Amun.
"more than what you know as 'alpha,'" the hotlands wolf added, a little smirk coming to his handsome lips.
words shared as time wheeled. eventually parting, and he returned to his home.