Redsand Canyon Stand-off

@Kukulkaan and @Sabah <333 can be set for whenever!

Sovereign had spent much time in the canyon since her run-in with Callum.
She spent a lot of her time within simply wandering, seeing the sights it had to offer.
The pale girl was beginning to grow fond of the place, which might've been evident in the fact she hadn't left the damn place in days, if not bordering on weeks.
The yearling continued to explore the rocky terrain, currently sitting in the shallower (and cold) waters of a hidden oasis within the labyrinth and its walls.

She thought she heard the distant footfalls of others after a time, but shrugged it off as the potential movement of...prey, maybe?
Hungry as she was, the girl wasn't desperate enough yet to try and hunt on her own, so she stayed within her little area, moving out of the water to lie down on the gritty rocks.

Eventually though, the girl grew too curious and would venture out to see what, or who, was prowling through the crags.

---

after much searching, they have found the sacred land. the place where the earthsong was heard among the redrocks, carried through the redsands.

sunsand and sunrocks, murmurs ajaw with reverence to sabah, or to the earth. both, even. this will be tikal. the sunkingdom.

in this place, red sands shifting beneath their paws, they once more become feathered serpent in all of their godly glory.

it changes the way they carry themselves: almost floating with armor of travel shed.

their steps slow, nostrils flaring as the scent of another is strong. close.

their path alters to intercept.

the woman before them is large, draped in a cloak of ivory; scarred. young.

this one greets you. speaks ajaw in common, words honeyed in their thick accent; gesturing sabah to wait for their command with a small movement of their muzzle.

Their place was chosen. It would be here. Ajaw decided this.

Tikal will be well. Strong. Perhaps even stronger than it had been the last time.

Another soon comes, blocking their way. Sabah is eager to rush forward, but ajaw tells her otherwise. He speaks no words, but she needs none to know his command. 

Nodding to him, a sense of acknowledgement, she stands patiently at his side, eyes fixated on the pale creature before them.

She sees two.
One is warm-toned and towering much akin to herself.
The other is a darker furred man with an aura that makes him appear as big as the female beside him. 

Sovereign hesitates in her stride at the seeming aggression in the sandy femme, hackles beginning to prickle; but the man stops her with a gesture... the yearling picks closer only by a few steps before she halts altogether. 
The man's words are honeyed and thick with an unknown-to-her accent: This one greets you.

The princess's ears want to slant back, but she forces them to stay neutral upon her crown. 
She hesitates to speak, even though his knowledge of the common tongue is right in front of her nose.
"Greetings..." She offers back, the uncertainty becoming clearer now by her more awkward tone. 
She is not confident in this moment. 
"...My name is Sovereign." She offers after a moment. 
The air the man holds, in the youth's eyes this man may as well have expected her to offer her name anyway, and she felt she was yielding to his whims, in a way...

She wasn't sure how to feel about that. 

I can edit my wording for Sov's view of Kukulkaan if needed! Feel free to ping me in Discord if so! <333

it read totally fine to me, no worries!

---

ajaw feels the tension rolling of sabah, but they are confident she will not disobey. this sunkissed canyon was tikal's ... but their borders were not established. interlopers were to be expected, and for now ajaw can excuse such trespasses; forgiving.

it would not remain so when tikal began to establish their claim in earnest.

frostbound gaze watches as the young woman draws nearer a few steps and speaks with great hesitance.

did she think they could not understand her" ajaw wonders.

or was it something else entirely?

she reminds them feverishly of timid things looking at them after their pack wolves were given the option: join, leave or die.

but as usual, ajaw feels no pity. they are not benevolent, not by any stretch. theirs is a mercurial temperament by nature.

the young one gives her name. sovereign. a hefty name for one so young.

a leader? or the hope of the one that had shaped her?

questions ajaw is not sure they would have the answer to.

this one is called kuhul ajaw by this one's people. but this one also accepts ajaw.

a pause, now that introductions were gotten out of the way.

what brings you to this suntouched canyon?

Attentive, and wary, Sabah watched this exchange, curious to see how it would conclude.

But all the while, she did not speak any words of her own. This was left to ajaw and they claiming to be known as Sovereign. 

This woman did not seem much of a threat, but the holcan would be ready in the event that this changed.

The man gives a title, or, rather, two. 
The woman is silent and tense. 

Sov keeps her eyes upon the man, especially as he asks his question. 
"Exploration. I was with a friend for a time, but he's since...vanished. So I am alone now. Have been for days, if not longer." She explains. 
Maybe her faltering faith in Ensio's presence would be damning, but for the meantime, she could not see it any other way except that he had left her. 
And by extension given her no reason to stay with the feral, bearish woman on the Lake.

"Do you seek to claim this place as yours?" She asks with a slight yet inquisitive tilt of her young head. 
She means the question without malevolence, after all to her knowledge she has no reasons  or ties to the canyon enough to stay here if someone else wanted it.
She wasn't going to say no though, if he offered her a place with his wolves. 
But if the offer didn't come, or if it was denied should she ask herself, she would leave without a fight. 
Better to live another day than fight for a place she had no connections to.

---

exploration.

and further information that she had been traveling with a friend but that her friend had gone from her. this information is, perhaps, oversharing.

ajaw had not asked for detail and the simplest of answers would have sufficed. but sovereign offers this information that ajaw cannot help but accept it.

how oft worshippers overshared to their gods? sharing sordid secrets and things they would not dare whisper anywhere else but in the perceived safety of the confessional.

this one is, indeed, claiming to this canyon. it was not a secret and ajaw has no issues sharing it. they had sent flecha off to spread the seeds of words about them. for tikal.

phone post, Apologies for it being super short ;w;

Sovereign noted the potential disinterest in her details to the matter. 
But whatever, that part wasn't important.

"I seek to be a Warrior. I want to be one of the best. Can Tikal offer this?" 
The yearling decided to ask, voice lightly tinged with both interest and hope.

---

a warrior.

she looks the part, ajaw thinks ... but does she harbor the skills? scars mar her otherwise pristine fur like badges of honor but ajaw needs to see proof of skill for themselves.

there is a prickle of their nerves, displayed in the bristle of their hackles at the way in which she asked if tikal could offer this. as if she were calling the shots here.

a snap of ajaw's teeth follows the rumble, perhaps tikal can and will. but it is this one that determines that. not you. if she sought to be apart of tikal, she must learn. ajaw's word is law: divine and resolute and to question is to evoke the wrath of the feathered serpent ... and their holcan.

if you wish to join tikal ... there is potential for you to become so much more than you can imagine, ajaw continues. this one's holcan are the strongest, fiercest women warriors. this one's personal guard, defenders of the nation, spies, diplomats, trusted council, bringers of justice ... they are this one's right paw. by ajaw's words, it can be foretold that they revere those they handselected for the title.

but to become holcan ... there is much training, there must be absolute obedience, a flick of ajaw's doe-like tail. it is not for many.

a pause; an assessing sweep of ajaw's frostbound gaze.

or you could join tikal as a simple border guard. the choice is yours. the unspoken offer: or you could leave the canyon and not look back lingers in the words left unspoken; between the lines.

the offers are made, set upon the air between them: transparent and waiting.

The snap of teeth and his rumble made Sovereign's ears slant back a bit further, but she otherwise stood still and soldier-like the further he spoke. 
He spoke with a reverence for his....holcan?
It was a language she did not know, but she was willing to learn all the same. 

As soon as Ajaw was finished speaking, Sovereign held the briefest of pauses before nodding with a certainty in what she wanted.
This.

"I want to train - to become one of your Holcan." She responded, though her tone held a deference that meant to say she knew it was up to him. 
There was a new fire in her eyes though, that was telling of ambition.
After all, it was in her nature, part of her blood as per her mother before her. 
She could say more to drive her desires home, but she didn't quite feel she needed to.

The sentence probably said what she would say otherwise - offering her body, brawn, strength - and her loyalties - to Him.

realized i made a small typo, fixed! lol

i forgot to mention that we received permission to skip sabah via pm; just so no one thinks we're arbitrarily skipping her. ^-^

---

she wishes to one day become holcan.

ajaw nods.

very well. they speak. not all of holcan speak the shared tongue of many, 'common' they mean, though the translation gets lost in their mind. you will learn the sandtongue and you will train. they are your teachers. they will keep this one informed of your trainings ... and this one will test you to see your progress for this one's self.

ajaw lays out the expectations for sovereign.

this one assumes you do not need a tour, a soft grin ghosts across their lips before it vanishes just as quick. come. this one will answer any questions you may have during a patrol.

ajaw aspires to keep moving, for there are many borders to be made and reinforced.

Sovereign listens attentively to the expectations lain before her. 
She nods once, firmly, dutifully, to show she understands before glancing briefly to the warm-toned woman at his side.

Sovereign then herself, steps aside and makes to fall into line on Ajaw's other flank, though she hesitates in this to see if the action is okay to follow through on, unsure where he wanted her in their formation on patrol. 

Eager to learn, through and through.

"I know a couple other tongues, from my upbringing." She offers hesitantly, unsure if her Lord was interested in knowing of them. 
If he allowed further conversation upon the matter, she would explain, but if not, she would just as quickly drop it.

This white girl was invited, welcomed. She would learn from the holcan, as well as from ajaw. Soon, she would be one with them.

It all reminded Sabah of her own invitation. The time when she first agreed to join ajaw. Life had been good since then. Hopefully, it would be the same for this one.

They were to set off—to continue patrolling. But what made Sabah uneasy was where Sovereign placed herself. Yes, she had been told to come. But to stand so close while still so new... she was not holcan yet. To be holcan was to be given this honor. It did not yet belong to the girl.

A calm, yet firm warning, Sabah turned her body, backsteppingng towards the white one. One hind flank would meet the other, pushing lightly. A small, faint growl followed.

She could follow, but not so close.

went ahead and archived as it seemed like a good place to wrap. <3

---

ajaw motions for sabah to either join them or go on her own way, if she wished.

sabah joins and issues warning to sovereign to learn where to stand.

ajaw does not intercept. sovereign would learn and it was the holcan's job, primarily, to teach her.

then learning the sandtongue should not be too hard. ajaw surmises; pleased.

they lead the way, beginning sovereign's teachings of the sandtongue, and peppering in their own questions of her native tongues, eager to understand the young girl that has newly joined tikal all the while, while further marking the borders.