Luneshale Pass arrival

Akhtar had been thinking a dozen things lately. The place the princes had chosen was nice, but quaint. His mouth tasted like iron every time he looked at them, knowing exactly what they were here for.

Would they treasure the girl he had seen grow? Or would they stick her in a corner and leer at her like ruffians? All of this pomp and circumstance for some twigs and berries. Egos resting in running around like rutting bulls, playing a game of measurements, even if they didn’t call it that. Akhtar could not say he was impressed with any of them, and if he called upon Ra to give them sunburns upon their delicate places, well. He wasn’t going to speak such aloud.

Not that he didn’t, but who would ever know?

When her song rose over the land, Akhtar came as though tugged along by the nose, his high prance flowing him up from the caverns he rested in during the hotter parts of the day. His tail was a proud, fluttering banner as he came to stand beside Tavina, a smile tugging at his face. A vision, the girl he had watched grow up had become a woman before his very eyes. He swelled with pride, and though he did not particularly like the man beyond his musculature being something to drool over once, he wished Ramesses could be here to see this.

And, all at once, he looked at the princes and knew that none of them would ever live up to his standards. Even as his forehead met the ground, dipped low to his queen.