Two Eyes Cenote actinide

maybe @Ceridwen? :D <3

her head throbbed. tavina returned to the celebration, choosing more water this time and another few dates.

her own private medicines had done enough to quell her drunkenness, and now she navigated the throng toward her perfectly appointed medical chambers, pausing only when she heard the name 'brecheliant.'

akashingo's closest ally; tavina stopped and glanced over at those who had come from the caldera. "i hear you've got good hunting there. elk."

Frankly speaking, Dwin was bored and did not feel entirely comfortable in this gathering. It was a new discovery about herself. While at Brecheliant she had yearned for company of other people and had enjoyed every single meeting with people outside her pack. Now here, where there were plenty opportunities to expaned her network of connections, she felt awkward and unfitting. There were simply too many strangers for her to handle. 

They were mostly interested in either food or drinks and the more time passed, the more she could observe, how some drinks changed the demeanor of the guests. She never thought too highly of anyone she had not talked in person to, but watching the drunken crowd was as if seeing them throw their carefully crafted masks away and showing their true colours. Most of the time they were not very flattering.

Now and then she spied Frolic and her friend appear here and there among the crowd. She wondered, if she should make sure that her younger sister did not try the truth serum and thus cause a lot of trouble, but it would be a fruitless task. Then someone addressed her and she turned to meet a small, thin she-wolf, clad in black. Small talk. Great. Yet, Dwin mustered up a polite expression and replied: "Maybe. And I have heard that you do not need to hunt at all, that magic works for you?"

It was a friendly tease, a joke. Dwin's way of evaluating people always started with finding out, if they had any sense of humor. 

"that's absolutely right. we just clap our paws and prey bows to our teeth." tavina's rejoinder was quick and dry; she smiled broadly at the girl. "i am tavina, the doctor to akashingo and now to muat-riya. and you're from brecheliant, though i don't know your name."

a tray passed, on it not venomous liquid nor delicate meats, but rosehips in honey. "good for your immune system," she pointed out before taking one of the tart desserts.

the servant now, turned toward the caldera visitor and offered the same, eyes filled with a grin.

"No, thank you, I am full," Dwin dismissed the servant and watched him leave with a very thoughtful look in her eyes. She had not touched any of the foods here, despite her being hungry. But for a forest wolf, who was used to the simple pleasures of a well-rotten deer carcass, the odd-smelling foods here raised suspicions. 

"Dwin," she turned to face Tavina again and smiled. An awkward pause followed, because, while this particular Blackthorn was famous for being able to talk ears off people, if given free reign, she was not used to small-talk. The months of spending time only in the company of her own family members had made that already creaky skill even more rusty. 

"So with that magic in hand, the fountain of youth and immortality is something you drink from daily, I presume?" she resumed continuing to play "rumours say that your folk is all voodoo and magic" thread. "Tell me - what now that you have a new pharaoh? What will her duties be?" she asked quickly, in case her previous attempt at being witty had fallen on deaf ears.

tavina wondered at dwin's look, but did not comment on it. she instead realizing — assuming? — that the girl meant to compliment her?

fountain of youth indeed!

"her duties will be much the same as that of the queen: mind her kingdom, keep her people happy, establish trade as far as she is able." a pause. "and bring forth children, that will be her main duty this spring."

her purple eyes recaptured her intrigue. "you're from brecheliant, aren't you? we had one of your princesses here, once upon a time."

Dwin liked being the queen part. Having children because of that position - not so much. It turned out that even a queen, who had gods blessing to rule the people, had duties she could not escape. Sounded very little of "I do, what I want" and a lot of "Well, you might think so, but there is a catch". 

However, she kept her thoughts to herself, because she remembered Maia's warning and her intuition was quite correct in assuming that they would not take it kindly her questioning their ways of life. "Oh, yeah, I have heard that story," she replied diplomatically. "But it happened such a long time ago that the actual facts have turned to myths and therefore truth is no longer discernible without having the party involved to confirm or deny it," she smiled. 

"But becoming a princess anywhere is the highest any of our kin as ever climbed. Career-wise," she noted. "Even if it was for a short while, no one has surpassed it. Yet."

"Will your queen be required to marry well or may she take a mate of her own choosing?" she decided to steer the conversation back to Akashingo and their traditions.

"she is pharaoh now, and has chosen a consort to represent her," tavina explained. "he will rule at her side, but the power is her own." it intrigued her, what ceridwen had said about there being no way to verify the authenticity of said princess.

"and what about you? you're a young woman. does all this talk of mates and princesses intrigue you on more than an observational level?"

Rule beside her how? Dwin furrowed her brow, not quite understanding, what Tavina had implied. The general message, however, was clear, whether you were a pharaoh by the grace of, whoever god you worshipped, or a leader of a small pack that put their faith in their own skills and luck to survive, the role of the woman did not change. Once of age and if on a high rank, you had to provide the next generation to ensure the future of the pack. 

"I am a bit too young to enter the marriage fair," Dwin pointed out. Sure - she would turn two years old in just a few months, but physical maturity meant nothing, if you were not prepared for it mentally. "So - observations and collection of opinions for now," she smiled. "Never hurts to know the culture of your neighbours," she added. "What about you - what are your prospects?" 

a bitter laugh escaped the doctor before she could stop it — "none," tavina said, cutting herself off before she could reveal any more about her dire lack of anything romantic.

her mind wandered to eset; she resisted the urge to look for the hebsut, and instead began to stroll slowly away, inviting dwin along. "there's enough to keep you busy in a palace, either way. if you're looking for something to observe, i need some air. the stars are just coming out. have you ever seen the night fall over a desert?"

"Really?" Dwin tilted her head to the side. Didn't all girls Tavina's age want one and the same thing? "Is it by choice or circumstances?" she asked next, pondering the offer to go outside. It occurred to her that she had not seen Frolic for quite some time and she should find out, what the girl was up to. Even if it was for the sake of telling Maia that she had made an effort in an attempt that had been doomed to failure from the very beginning. 

"Yeah - let's go outside," she shrugged. Frolic could wait. There was a high probability of seeing her sister doing something extraordinarily stupid and reckless from that point of vantage anyway. When it came to this Blackthorn, trouble not only found her under the most extraordinary circumstances, but somehow the same luck provided audience to witness it. 

out from the din and beneath the stars, tavina breathed more easily, the loosening of the proverbial collar. "by circumstance. i had a wife. we married. we went away so she could — well. so we could find a man for the scientific portion. she was — perhaps she had conceived. bu then she just disappeared. gone. no trace. no struggle. no sign."

tragic? more tragic than pouring out her heart to a girl?

the stars beckoned her gaze, and tavina fell silent for a long time.

"So, it turns out that women are not that much better as men, are they?" Dwin said dryly, adding just another confirmation that people as partners were not very trustworthy and that the only person you could rely on fully was yourself. She could imagine Tavina's disappointment of family life that had simply vanished in thin air due to no fault of her own, and swore to herself that she never ever wanted to experience anything like that herself. 

"What now?" she asked.

"now," tavina murmured, "now we enjoy the quiet without the throng and the noise," she murmured to ceridwen.

a smile; and then the healer was silent, tilting her face skyward.

"no," she said after a long while. "women are much better. but when it comes to communication, ah," and she waved her paw as if such things no longer hurt her heart.

"Yeah, sometimes people were better off, if they just kept their mouths shut," Dwin agreed, unaware of whether Tavina had implied this herself. While she could spend hours perched on her favourite ledge at caldera, watching the surroundings in quiet contemplation, for some reason getting the same peace of mind here was difficult. Either it was the unfamiliar surroundings that kept her alert, or the fact that in the back of her mind she was worrying just a little bit about Frolic causing havoc at the wedding party. Or it was the presence of the stranger. Either way the silence grew increasingly awkward for her, she sighed and said: 

"If it was up to you to be anywhere else in the world than here - where would you like to be?"