In Dire Straits

The afternoon was loud and full of life, the fog having been burned off by a summer sun, though the cloud would later settle in with threats of rain. It had taken the female at a steady hobble all morning to get from the hovel to the bone pit. And what little she could see of the sky through a densely packed forest of trees, she could just barely make out that it was at it's highest point in the sky.

Moisture clung in the air and she grimaced, coming to a stop as came upon the meeting ground, golden gaze casting out to the crescent shaped lake that wrapped around the little alcove. The scent of decay and moss was strong here, the forest being particularly overgrown, bones jutted out this way and that, there were even some that stuck out of the water by the bank, tangled in cattails.

There was a fog the extended far out across the lake's surface, forms of waterfowl drifting among the reeds, and hiding behind the boughs and leaves of old willows. Telana would take a seat on a plush piece of moss, soothing her aching joints that had been howling in pain the entire way here. Cursing under her breath, claws would dig little troughs into the soft, wet dirt.

With the upcoming of their announcement, it was pivotal that all parts were played accordingly. Azuhel had a following, Telana was there silently in the shadowy backgrounds as her elder sister ripped the crown off the jaws of a boyking. She was there when all her people chanted Long Live to the age of a dragon. There was some cowardly part of her that feared the same fate. With her sister gone and the triumvirate's reign not yet made official, Alteron was vulnerable, but not just to the outside forces. Her people had shown that they were just as willingly tear down old leaders for the sake of some great change.

In the stagnancy of the land many had left, though many more had stayed behind. Two of which being elites, she wished to know how far their loyalties extended, be it just to Azuhel, her bloodline, or Alteron itself. Her nephew, Cocytus, had a better claim, a better favor, perhaps she could use that to her advantage. She'd turn slightly at the sound of snapping twigs and rustling bushes. Crows cawed and the faint quacking of ducks, followed by a haunting cry of a loon. "Right on time, how punctual of you." Came a catty remark, as the small female pulled herself up into a sitting position, gaze casting to a hulking form.

"Need I remind you why you're here? Chariot?"

It annoyed her, that southern drawl that everyone spoke with here, as if they'd picked it up from Azuhel herself. All of the Dragon's children spoke with it, and if only they knew, heh. What a sham. But as the Chariot approached with his hulking steps, she rose a brow at his words and glanced off to the lake. "Mmm, you're under new management." She said with dull sounding words, though that hint of pettiness was still there, ever so slightly rising.

"Hopefully you weren't late on noticing that your Dragon has flown the coop. Azuhel is gone, Cocytus, myself, and.... another Falco. Have taken graciously stepped up to rule this slow motion accident." Rolling her shoulders to release any tension that built up, though she winced when a joint finally did pop. It always hurt, always. She'd turn her head back then, and he'd invaded her personal space. Her face contorting into displeasure as she rose a dainty paw to shoo him away. "Ahem. AHEM! I like my space without you in it, move, thank youuuuu." Came a reprimand similar to an adult toward a child.

The ginger woman's head titled to the side as she glanced up at him, as if to say don't make me say it again.

Ears would pull back, as those keen eyes of hers narrowed at his bulky form, getting used to the features of his face. Her snort was a dry one, a spiteful laugh that was more of a sputter if anything, rolling her eyes. "It would appear as though you do. Especially if you want to keep your spot on this food chain. I'm sure there'd be others to fill your position, think about it." That would be all the reminder he needed, perhaps, it could've probably done better without the sass and sarcasm, but that was just Lana's miserable charm at work.

"Telana, your Hierophant. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. What about you?" Came barbed words, her crooked grin pulling at her lips, though all and all she looked simply bored of the conversation. "We're whatever Alteron needs us to be, and whatever loose ends my sister left behind, I'll tie off. If you could coddle the infection, they can amputate at once. She'd flick an ear as the loon cried out on the waters again. "I need to know that we have your loyalty, your support. That you'll make this transition as painless as possible, because that's what's good for the pack." And secondly what's in your best interest.

She looked at him and frowned, brows lifting in a classic bored expression. "At the time, yes, she was YOUR dragon." Her tone very matter-of-factly, though not as harsh or stern as it could have been. "Just like anyone else that ruled before her and so on." By now Telana was sure he'd gotten the point that she was trying to make.

An ear would flick idly at his words, and the expression that she stared at him with was blank, uncaring, unfeeling. "And you mistake me for someone who gives a damn about your mother, dear." It was spoken coldly, firmly, unflinching. Kingdoms rose and fall on the backs of people that no longer mattered, and so she wouldn't waste an ounce of her energy on that.

Scoffing at his rumbling, and the loon cried out once more and her gaze was ripped from Orc to the lake once more. Tail would flick and the occasional 'hmm' would come from her just so he'd know that she was still listening. "You're not the very blood that made it, you may have it in you, but you didn't build this place. While you were a squirming pup nipping at the teats of your mother, THEY were making this place. The people, your parents, not you. It's their blood that's in this soil, you're just the aftermath." She turn to him then, ears pulling back as an annoyed sneer settled on her face. "I might not be from here, but I know MY family well enough. Azuhel gave you what you wanted, she bought your respect with a cushy rank. That's just how it is." I fail to see the blood, the sweat, the honesty.

He was a prince, hardly having to leap at the opportunities that were probably simply handed to him. Little more than a lazy brat, how disappointing.

By the grace of these Outsiders, the Chariot kept his rank, not that they felt like they owed it to him for sticking around, but rather it was something they had overlooked until Telana had thought of it. The three of them agreed to keep the Chariot and Star, there was something to be gained from the old ways. "I'm not here to buy your loyalty. We allowed for you to keep your rank, and that's all there is to say about it. We respect you, and in time you'll get to know me, if this introduction hasn't been proof enough. I'm not my sister, and this is not her regime anymore." All she wanted to hear was that 'sure', but even more so she wanted to see it in action. Words meant little, actions meant everything.