Two Eyes Cenote maybe they're no different 'cause they look the same

AW... but maybe someone from the forming Akashingo branch under @Toula, hmmm?

A smarter man would have stayed away. His trek to the lowlands was primarily of selfish pursuit, if he were honest with himself, but he did try to tell his brain it was to ensure nothing terrible had happened to her.

The scar across his eye and the ache in his heart apparently had not been signal enough—and now, the sundered heart of a little girl who had come looking for a woman she did not realize was her mother in the creek… @Silvertongue was important to many.

For Wren, if he could bring home her girlfriend…

But she did not wish to be brought home. He could respect that. But that didn’t mean he didn’t hope to catch a far view of her—or here a whisper of her well-being.

Because if she were dead… No, he couldn’t consider it.

But he drifted further than where he had last seen her—and when the faintest trace of a searing and familiar scent pulled him closer, he felt a frown darken his scarred features—his muzzle tilting up, his nose testing the air.

What was Akashingo doing here, of all places?


And what would Silvertongue do if she knew...

the reappearance of ashikaga had a thousand things fluttering in tavina's heart. first and foremost was the return of pains which she thought had finally ended; the loss of her pregnant wife to an unknown fate, and thus the immediate death of a future which she had allowed herself to vividly imagine.

she had been at the beside for both toula and ashikaga, for makono, for siptah and sethnakht.

the desert was a source of medicinal flower and roots, if one knew where to look. it was among the sandblooms that she was when the silver man called. only a moment's hesitation and an eyeroll delayed the sesh, and soon she was approaching. "hello. what can i do for you, sir?"

He was found gawking in disbelief--if not even a moment where his mind could not compute what the next action or reaction should be.

Lavender eyes fell upon him-- the lift of a slender muzzle from a dark woman and his eyes snapped upon her with careful consideration.

don't be a dick... don't be a dick... It was the only mantra he could hold onto in this moment. The wolves of the red sand were of a curious diplomatic nature--one he wasn't keen on drawing the attention of. 

Forgive me. I wasn't aware a pack was making claim in the lowlands. He paused--did he claim pure ignorance? No--too easily caught with a hand in a cookie jar. 

Not that there was anything sweet about the nest of vipers before him. I am vaguely familiar with Akashingo. I was surprised to scent your own here, rather than the flatlands.

how could anyone be unaware of them after all the pomp and circumstance of the last few days? but he didn't look like a desert dweller. the purple eyes narrowed and then her face unfurled into something more affable.

"our queen is soon to be married. we're expanding for her purposes," tavina explained vaguely, "mr ... ah?"

pointed arch to brow. he might have been acquainted with akashingo, but tavina was not acquainted with him.

The queen was to be married—Akavir blinked, though spoke nothing—only considered. She had seemed so youthful, and thus, it would seem a prime victim for the politics of such a pack. Toula had been pleasant—warm, beautiful. Perhaps everything he had not expected, if only because of the horrors he had come to know of the palace in which she reigned.

When the questioner asked his name, he drew from his thoughts, as if in a fog. The desert sun was warmer than in the valley—but he refused to reveal any fatigue to the she-wolf. “A—“ he began to answer, and then his jaws clipped shut—no, they were not aware who Akavir was.

“Ahhh,” he continued, as if it was a natural progression to his words. Foolish man. “Taltos. I had visited the palace months before with a friend, looking for my daughter. Lilitu.”

taltos. tavina couldn't remember meeting him, but it was a palace and a kingdom after all. not every visitor needed to be run past her. "well then, i hope you find her. do say you'll come. the queen loves parties and gatherings. this is certain to be no less than others have been," she added dryly.

a memory came to her then, certainly not something she could share with the very father of the princess. she had known lilitu, if ever briefly. 

tavina considered how best to reveal this. "your daughter was always poised. kind. she left the palace after her husband, charles, failed their alliance. as far as i knew, she went back to brecheliant." where there was no taltos.

so where had this man been all the while?