Greatwater Lake eighteenth

attn: @Zharille as this is also open to all GWL wolves! set for tomorrow morning

before dawn, senmut set out, having murmured to @Makono and departed in a different direction.

beyond the palace's reach, his step grew determined.

he searched for @Khaba, and when he found the man's trail mingled with those of several other wolves, he stopped and called out for the man.

pharaoh is dead. pharaoh lives.

the jodai would understand.

Where silence had once been, it no longer was.

A voice rang in there air. One Khaba knew well. 

Senmut. Along with a message. Pharoah is dead. Pharaoh lives.

At last! Makono had taken her rightful place.

Hurriedly, the dark beast found his way to where the hem stood. It is true? Tell me it! It had been said at a distance, but he wanted to hear it here from Senmut himself.

a call sounded - calling to her khaba, drawing him from her shores. the woman would heed the sound as if the voice had said her name, ever an impossibility.

zharille arrived later than her darkwood man, scrutizing him as much as she watched and studied the stranger; this newcomer was a reed, where khaba was a mountain.

she looked once to her man, approaching from behind him, focused intently on the other man. who? why?

what reason did this thing have to crawl before her?

"yes, khaba. it is true." senmut might have said more had not a behemoth of a woman appear, her mien possessive.

the priest stepped back, ears flicking. he looked incredulously to khaba: had he taken a new mistress in so short a time?

"will you come back to serve the Horus Throne, jodai?"

It was true.

But there was little time process before a familiar form appeared.

Muzzle following one body of company to the next, Khaba snorted softly. Hem, here with us is a woman I have met in my time away.

Then to the woman, his attention was focused. If she would allow him to do so, the beast would offer a nudge to her cheek. As much as he enjoyed her company and envied what may become of the lake, he had promised his return upon Makono's enthronement. He could not go back on this.

I must go. A chuff told her. Khaba did not fear leaving her, though. She would be well looked after. But would she allow him to leave? That was the true question.

their noises interested her, but moreso the shift of khaba's posture and the way he moved to appease her with a touch. without moving her glare from the other man, zharille sized up what was going on here.

it did not make sense.

he was bound somehow to this small man, or to the dust that he carried with him. the woman was unimpressed - but she relented also, to letting khaba have his way.

he was strong. of course others would seek him out. zharille huffed and flashed her front teeth to the little man as a warning, however she turned her eye to khaba and then away - accepting.

senmut watched in silence as the two spoke in the way of wolves.

he bowed to the woman as she warned him and then seemed to decamp back into her land. "lady qiao is awake. injured but living. pharaoh knows it was my order which ended with her pain." he studied khaba. "you will be judged not only by her but by the priestess when you return. i have offered to soften what comes next."

senmut stiffened his shoulders. "the woman who was queen is no longer. she has been sent away. loyalists to she and to ramesses have also fled the palace. you are needed, khaba. pharaoh desires you at her side."

i'm going to fade it out here and we can pick up in a new thread where they return to the mesa.

Zharille was hesitant, but accepting. Khaba knew he would not need to provide any further excuse for his departure.

Senmut then spoke of Qiao and how the former jodai had harmed her. And then of punishment. I do not care what happens to me because of my doing. It was the truth. Take me home, hem. Take me to my pharaoh. A command and a plea all in one.

Take me home.