[Nhu]

^{[prp w/ Achilles ft. Kanji.]}

A waxing moon meets an unusually warm dusk. Two wolves pace the brink of the border maze. Curving vines of burnt ash coil around the edges of the sandy parched terrain. The Yellow Rose stood far on the outskirts of her home, no, that place was unfamiliar now. She stared down the path of destruction, an ugly scar that time had yet to heal. The cracked wasteland reminded her of shattered glass, scattered shards falling away from the hazy mirage off in the distance.

The fires were insatiable, and incurable, but more importantly, intentional. And the land, and its leaders were poisoned from it, the smoke clouding their minds. Nhu stood on the outside, feeling the hot desert air tugging at the brim of her fur, but she dare not step over the threshold.

She was waiting for someone.

He knew to meet her here. They had their ways of communicating. The thought of her right-hand made her smile. She looked over her shoulder and saw her travelling partner, but Kanji was standing even further away from the pack's border.

There was a shadow lingering behind Nhu's eyes, as though she fell through the veil and saw the truth. She stood with a confident air, nevertheless and left the fervent fleeting nightmares haunt only her, behind shut eyes. But it would be good to see him, this was the beginning, but her anxiety was building for the end. Her heart beat faster still, like tepid fingers clutching at her beating heart threatening to choke out every ounce of life.

She turned to Kanji, her face unreadable, "he's late."

Her stomach growled, and she plopped down on the edge of the pack and looked up at the dimming skies, stars twinkling overhead.

"Maybe he will bring snacks," she mused.

_{ft. void's coding.}

[Achilles]

He WAS late, of course he was late, he spent ever waking moment just too late it seemed. His actions and decisions had ended up leading to this outcome and so he was always tragically late. He trotted through the crisp and seemingly still warm ashes that were the Scar of his home. Light was fading in the horizon, he'd only just noticed it by the  time he lost the feeling of being watched and stalked, he hated this feeling but without his bond or his mate to ease his mind, he would never feel at ease in the walls of the Valley. But that would change now, she was coming back, she was back and would make everything right like when she'd returned and he'd first beheld her visage and knew everything would be alright. 

He also had two rabbits in his maw, large juicy rabbits that had been a little difficult to catch.

He caught a familiar and soothing scent, followed the trail and soon found her beautiful white speckled black facade waiting for him. She was laying on the ground so he knew he'd been a little too late but it couldn't be helped, things just weren't the same, he felt so unbalanced. He also saw another and his heart clenched to see someone else traveling with his bond, someone that wasn't him when it should have only been him. He stifled a growl at the sight of Kanji but not before his ears turned back and his lips curled ever so slightly. Normally he'd have more control but again, things were not the same as they once were. 

He gently placed the bigger of the two rabbits before his Bond then took the other and roughly tossed it Kanji's way. A meal meant to be shared between he and she was now just going to him watching them both eat and get back some strength. After he relieved himself of the second rabbit he turned his feral blue gaze to her, HER. His True Bond, his burning light, his raging inferno, his GOD, "Foetida." He spoke her name with an unwavering conviction, it was apparent that saying her name soothed him, even more so now that she was physically before him in all her glory. He leaned to her and touched his nose to her temple, letting it linger for just a moment longer than necessary, ending the contact with the most gentle and chaste of licks to her cheek. He moved back a step to give her space to eat, something he'd forgone had they been alone like he'd expected. He knew she'd allow it, only because it was him but it was not her style to show such emotions before others.

...unless that had changed too?

Either way, he'd never risk her visage before others.

"Oukoku-Kai suffers without you Foetida, it will rejoice with your return." But he noticed she, both of them, remained well enough away from the border to not cross it. He frowned upon realization, ears turning back every so slightly. "You are...returning. Foetida?" Doubt, it stung his chest but where she lay, how Kanji seemed so ready to turn tail....it only made sense. "No...you're not." Despair. It was unfamiliar. It was brutal.

[Kanji]

The sun burns the eyes when one has been living in the dark for so long and as Kanji sat quietly behind the Yellow Rose she wondered what private fires burned through the would-be god’s soul. She was stronger than Kanji and it was unlikely she would find herself wilting from the inside out, but Kanji still stood by to catch her if she fell. Foetida was always honest about her feelings, used her actions to speak, but maybe things had changed with the blistering light of truth upon them. Depths that seemingly weren’t there before were being revealed. There were many things Kanji wanted to say, to ask, but words were difficult. The moment didn’t belong to her anyway. Maybe there were no gods among mortals, but Kanji wouldn’t be here if she thought the Yellow Rose meant nothing. Knowing did not alter her loyalties.

”He’s late.”

Kanji returned the Yellow Rose’s indiscernible expression. She may not struggle in the same way, but the situation makes her uneasy. They both know how a nobody can turn a ‘god’ into a pile of meat with the worst type of words. Oukou-kai is nothing without its rigid status quo. Perhaps even Achilles can’t be trusted if he is more loyal to the concept of the Yellow Rose than the actual living, breathing wolf who stood before him. Kanji knew her own sins in regards to this subject but she is left to let her Rose keep the better judgement.

”Maybe he will bring snacks.”

“I can hunt for you once we’re off, my Rosa,” she promised.

Achilles delivered, himself and two rabbits, but when his ears flicked back and his lip curled Kanji also showed her teeth; for her it was nothing personal, a simple kneejerk reaction to his unfortunate greeting. She was too willing to make it personal if that was what he wished, but wisdom told her she would stayed restrained. She was thankful for the rabbit he tossed her way, snapping it up and dragging it off while the two had their moment. She stayed close enough to keep an eye on them and intervene if things went awry, less worried about Achilles and more about potential stalkers in the maze. A mouthful of rabbit kept her from saying the things that would needle Achilles in the most painful of places:

If you truly loved her you would come with us.

[Nhu]

The Yellow Rose smiled knowingly to herself, which would hopefully read favorably toward Kanji. Her travelling partner mirrored her uneasiness, but she was so separate from the task at hand, she couldn't possibly bare the same burden as Nhu.  But Kanji was smart, she favored the yellow rose so much, Nhu had no reason to resent her. Her stomach churned with a concoction of anger and dread, and it was mounting. But she smiled to Kanji, because soon they would be free of this, jinxed with a twist.  

Her thoughts were clouded still, and she allowed silence to fall between them, a prickling silence, like a cold breeze biting at exposed skin.

She had come to the edge of her throne to ask her seour for advice, one last time. She hoped that he would not disappoint her.

The Yellow Rose turned her unfocused attention toward the stars, and she melted on the cold grey earth, finding it hard to blot the stars with her dark false stare. Still the stars stained patterns in her eyes, and with every flutter of her eyelids, she was struck blind by the shine. Despite her clouded mind, she was looking well, her milky white coat awash with moonlight. Her coat's tiny speckling of black crescents dotted alike to ash powdering on snow. A shroud of foreboding fell upon her back, figurative valkyrie wings folded like origami, feathers shredded like paper, a reluctance to fly.

She allowed herself to fall among the stars for a moment. For when she turned next, she was looking up at her seour, and she had to shake out the stars to really see him. He tossed something down to her, but she was already swept up in the moment. He spoke her name, and she genuinely smiled, hearing her name felt good. He called her GOD and she shined, a spark returning to her eyes. She allowed her seour to give her the attention she desired. She rose to her feet as he lapped at her cheek, and she smirked. Before he could pull away, she leaned over and playfully nipped at his ears, wriggling her nose down the length of his face, landing a final lick on his snoot.

His gaze fell to between her legs and she finally realized that he had brought her a snack! He never failed to please her stomach, but she wondered whether he could tackle her more challenging emotions as well. She plopped back down on the ground, and she greedily snatched the fat hare up in her jaws. She tore out its heart and punctured it with her canines, spurting blood across her cheek. Nhu happily gnashed on the rabbit like a gleeful child.

"Oukoku-Kai suffers without you Foetida, it will rejoice with your return."

She swallowed.

"You are...returning. Foetida?"

She shoved her snout deeper in the rabbit hole, pulling out bits of meat, savoring every inch of the squishy innards.

"No...you're not."

CRUNCH.

She hit bone.

After eating all the good bits, the wolf had no use for the skin lazily she tossed the rabbit to the side, licked her lips and stood up to face her frazzled seour. She let his words linger in the air, and had she not been quite certain the trio was alone, she'd have ripped out his throat for uttering those words.

"Don't be so hasty to spoil the surprise," she said gruffly, teasing.

"I'm not surprised the valley suffers without me," she said. "It's on the verge of an even worse fate." She allowed her tone to sound ominous, didn't want to reveal the weight of the situation all at once. She still needed his help after all.  

"Achilles, I have not left," she paused, lifting her head higher, cocking it in the direction of Kanji, "yet." She circled around her seour, stepping into the valley and then out of it, she was not afraid of the consequences.

"I am God and you are my second, tell me, who has the right to take my place?" she asked, knowing what his answer would be, but asking for a sense of drama.

"You could sense my hesitation here, at the edge of the valley, but I need your advice. Someone is coming for my throne, and they are undeserving of the call," she confessed, dropping her voice to the barest of whispers, sinking her lips between the soft tufts of fur in his ears. "What would you do in my stead?" she asked.

What are you willing to do?
{What are you willing to do for me?}

Lean in close my seour, we have much to discuss.

_{ft. void's coding.}

[Achilles]

To see that smile, Her smile, was to witnessing perfection.

It warmed him to the core and filled his entirety with hope and passions like the day he'd first seen her return to the Valley. He might have shook with how complete he felt in that moment. It was only heightened with her meeting his affections with her own, something he did not expect in the slightest! He would have cautioned a glance at kanji, fearful for Nhu's honor or something silly that a mortal fool might think of but he resisted. This was Foetida, Nhu, and when she did something, it was right and necessary no matter what he thought. He would never doubt her actions or her reasoning, she was his Goddess now and forever. 

With each touch, his fur buzzed, with each inch she traveled, his skin tingled, with her final kiss, he finally began to shake though only enough that she would notice. His eyes were wide, his ears were high and his tail was flying. 

His Goddess loved him, her most devoted servant, her truest student and only one close enough to be mistaken for her equal.

But his fears came to the front with her indifference, her lack of simply entering the border, the way she just ignored his claims while she ate his offering. Of course it had been foolish to say what he had aloud, dangerous even but they were in fact alone, the three of them. But in this kind of situation, you couldn't just stay quiet! You couldn't compress this kind of fear, it bubbled and threatened to devour you until you either blew up or melted down. He got it out here and now while he could, where it was safest.

She finished what she deemed was important, tossing aside the scraps without a care in the world and his eyes followed them. Not because he wanted any of it but because he suddenly felt a very strange kinship with the discarded remains. The pain was plain on his features, his ears turned back but his body did not wilt, his emotions did not dictate his stance. His fears could never make him cower. 

He met her eyes with his own just before she began to speak.

A surprise? This was no surprise, this was terrible, even the idea of what he'd spoken was terrifying.

A tragedy!

But she professed even greater darkness, something he'd known her to do before, and his attentions were of course captured. If it was an issue, he'd deal with it, if it was a foe, he'd crush it, if it was HER wish, he'd grant it.

She told him she'd not left and he followed her gaze towards Kanji when she said yet. A soft growl erupting from his throat towards her. He didn't think she encouraged the idea but still, Nhu said the word and now it was a thought associated with her. If kanji was the wind beckoning Foetida to leave, Achilles would be the anchor that grounded her and kept her focused. Nhu moved past him, his head turning to watch as she moved into her domain and out of it, where most would suffered consequences, she would find none. Oukoku-Kai Belonged to the Rosa, to Her. 

Period.

She posed a question of who had the right to take her place and it dredged up a feeling so foreign in him it rocked him to his core like most everything Foetida did. And yet this time it wasn't a good feeling because he'd never known true terror before. She might think she knew what he would say, that he might have plans or schemes of his own but that wasn't true. His hackles rose slightly and a growl touched his words as he answered, honest to Goddess, "No one has the right to take anything from You." Their culture dictated that a Rosa's chosen Seour was their heir, the next vessel to carry the mantle of deity but Achilles had never once imagined something of the sort. Unlike other wolves that might desire power or influence, Achilles only ever hungered for Foetida to have power, to be strength, to lead them to absolution in Ragnarok. 

"Least of all me." He lived to give her everything and anything, to support her and serve her, in all ways. If she believed he would ever take from her, he'd failed her and his life was forfeit!

Of course, like it often was with Gods and mortals, he had misunderstood. 

She needed him to think like her now, to act like her here, to speak to her like she would speak to herself. As she whispered to him, as she shared this secret he took it in and allowed it to live in his very soul, to rule him in this moment. "As you say," He whispered back, his lips kissing her ear with his words. "They are undeserving or Foetida's call and there is only one fate for pretenders." 

He spoke with a total conviction, he spoke with his very being in his mouth and her ears, "Foetida's call  [b]conquers, Foetida's call destroys, Foetida's call IS victory[/b]." A fake could only fall and fail. "As your Seour," No that wasn't right, not enough for him. "As YOURS," Yes better, much better, for that was the very truth of it. "I would conquer any pretender, I would destroy any false prophet, I would display my absolute Strength."

He leaned back slightly, so his gaze would meet hers and the truth could reach her from his eyes as well as his words. "That is who you are." Who you were meant to be. "You are Foetida." The Conquerer, the Destroyer, the Leader. 

"You are the Yellow Rosa."

No one else.