Akira had wandered a bit from home, attempting to map out the area well enough to understand where she resided a bit more. It seemed she wanted to make more of a home of the foreign land, so she would no longer be a foreigner. The Swan had to impress Ford atleast somehow, other than her knowledge and customs. She could train her skills as much as she could...

Yet something, some small and child-like voice in her cried how little it mattered, how in the end, it meant naught to the behemoth. Some wicked and condemning whisper only furthered her depression, pushing the yearling into an emotional spiral down. And it gleefully pulled her clouds apart, bled her sky into red rain, and stained her easygoing manner into a downcast of woe. Now little did she know, it was her hormones attempting to adjust and spurt her into a heat, a short and near useless one, but the Hong was uneducated on such circumstance. She knew only of battle, of politics, of training. Akira did not know the delicacies of mortality until fangs were at her throat, or a correction pointed how swift her life could have been snatched from her.

The wind whipped hard in some places, and one of those places seemed to be the coast. It pushed hatefully against her lithe body, and momentarily she wondered if this fight was worth fighting...if mapping out the area today was needed, dire, and worth her effort. Another batter shook the young Empress from her question, almost forcing her to reconsider. But her stubborn need to better herself surged her painstakingly onwards. The coast lay before her, dark blobs being the sea lions, scattered in their various formations upon the beach. But watching them was a single streamline of ivory, one so close to her own shade, yet their ears were not dipped in sapphire tinged ink, nor did cream tarnish in places where her own fur witnessed. They held a perfect strip upon their snout, and though she could not see where it led from this angle, it was clear they had no ebony blue cape of their own as she did. They seemed pure, holy, and as trustable. Though she was naive in personal matters, the youth knew she could not trust by looks, alone.

Nearing, tipped ears flayed back as she offered a gentle bow. Chimes in a seafome breeze blew her voice to the male, and she made herself acquainted as politely as she could. Perhaps he would be a friend of the pack? Or even just to her- 
She hadn't seen Posie around. "Greetings- my name is Akira." It was basic, but sometimes that was all one needed to begin a friendship. It wasn't until she rose from her bow that she had noticed his eyes. They were a forbidden hue of lavender, darkened by various shards of darker crystals, within. They glittered, yet were as smooth as freshly groomed silken fur. Sapphires were taken to be a color revered in her family, her legacy based off of blue herald- was he of royal bloodlines too, to have such breathtaking shades about him?

Her thought process was lost as she attempted to deduce this man. Thus she said no more.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Athan," she offered in her demure way. Though it lacked the majority of shyness, her open face spoke of her lack of fear, and thus her lack of judgement of new individuals. She had come from a place where everyone did not hide daggers behind their cloaks, where poisons in cups were replaced with open challenges for a throne. Where no snakes lie, and where letters held no hidden threats nor warnings. Honesty was her principle, and her naive nature had not been culled by this land, yet. A lotus in first bloom upon the calm waters of a grove's hidden pond.

She brought a slender sight to the blubber blobs before them, watching with a bit more interest than a voracious predator. She was a scholar first, a killer second, and an Empress third. "I do not know what those are," she blew forth, wistfully. She only knew of birds, and with that, the only ones from her homeland. Several were unrecognized to her in this continent. "I saw you study them...but from what I feel, you are far from home here, too," she added with an empathetic feel in her sapphires. He was not as the rest of the timbers or mackenzies here. He was something else, entirely. But she would not ask, nor pester- Should he desire to reveal his homelands, it would be upon his own choice. But she had no problem talking about where she was from. "I am from a place very far from here, where tree trunks are narrow and green, having forests of them with many leaves. There are ground birds with beautiful feathers called Emperor's Pheasants, and massive bears who do not dine one them, but of the forest wood, instead," the Swan began with a dampened lilt to the charm she held before. Though she had been sent here to try and establish another branch of her home here, it was far too different to attempt anything like that. Especially on her own. "But this is not like home."

Well, obviously. Yet the bird did not catch the creeping sorrow that began to pulse through her with each palpitation of her small heart. Being in a place such as this, a place without the harmony of a togethered people...It was a wounded plane. A place where drama and infighting, outfighting, wars...Bloodshed was unnecessary and often in a place like this. She had seen enough and understood it well from Ford and his stories. 

Her heart, fragile and unbroken, was not upheld by a community here. 
She did not feel unified, even as she was protected by mates who knew nothing of her. 

She brought a sigh forth to refirm her mind, wishing already she had not dwelled on memory of China, as with it came the avalanche of her memoir. Yet it was too late- Akira had felt like she had spoken too much enough as it was. 

It wasn’t much further before his voice had come to run scandalously over her ears and sharply through her initial assumption. Auds canting delicately back, the precision of her sharp skull was arched, regal, yet humble as her apology came from pale lips. “Forgive me- I had not meant to be so forthcoming. I am not like this.” She was embarrassed that she had allowed herself to judge another by their appearance, despite having the discipline of not doing such a thing. She knew better! 

In an instant, he grew close. Wrapping around her as a python, yet he did not squeeze. He was merely there. 
In her dismay, she thought it comfort, his words coming forth to pry her persona out of her with acute needlework.

“It feels this place has drained me, Athan...it feels as though the world is not as I would have known it, once. As though I do not belong, regardless of my efforts to try.” A furrow came to her brows, and she turned to him, wondering if she had done enough to push him from her- she had spilled her troubles, insulted him- what more wrong could she inflict to grow her dishonor? 

The asianic woman could near hear the humor in his voice, the ridicule in what sounded like a mixture between exasperation and disbelief. Yet his next words were of console, relief, and she felt as though he might be looking out for her. She had turned to offer her friend a smile, something grateful to show she appreciated the time he had taken to offer her such sage wisdom. Of course she had felt a bit ashamed of using a foreigner to help her own foreign problems, but it felt as though birds of different flocks too could fly together.

His warning had crossed her as strange, yet it settled on very aware ears. Where Akira was daft in ways of companionship, but her skills as a warrioress were frightening, and if necessary, lethal. But her confusion prevented her from countering, and instead her instincts unioned with training, shifting her into a clean dodge away. Hinds of lithe and lean muscle pulled her clear from the immediate vicinity, freeing her by a hair’s breadth from the crisp ivories of her company. 

Where Akira had been raised, surprise ambushes and sudden spars were so regular that it nearly became routine- Akira simply listed this as another one of them. But for it to come from someone who was not of her land- 
did they train as a warrior, too? 

“You are swift Athan.” The Swan Heiress brought endless sapphires to gaze within the emblazed amethysts of her company. Her slender form was primed, yet at ease for someone so young- as though she fell naturally into the rhythm of battle. She had- that was the blood which ran through her veins; rich in the heat of battle, spiced as cider from royal legacy, yet refined and aged unlike that of typical youth. It was a wine of the most decadent degree, an unforgettable savor, and her training would not allow her sparring mate to take a single drop of it. 
Not unless he had bested her speed, agility, and discipline.

“And you are wise.” The bird stepped lightly, the majority of her weight seeming to vanish as she strode almost cat-like in a semicircle to the ivory prince. Her compliment was true- he was both quick and smart. 
But now, she was ready.