[Akki]

takes place during Inaria's visit

Akki understood the purpose of their outreach to Inaria. Reaffirming friendship (which, from conversations he'd had with Serrate, were strained at best) with an old powerful kingdom while their enemies seemed to come closer every day made sense. But he still thought it was stupid.  He had been an active face in the war, and he had stared down shaken soldiers while their comrads' blood hung in cords around his maw. He had children made in the image of his shape after cutting down Inaria's. So many of Gemini's ranks came from that battlefield, and it wasn't on the side that favored purple flowers.

He hadn't exiled himself completely, but he was cautious. He avoided scents he thought might be familiar. He kept to the black beach until people from golden shores came to investigate. He crossed the bridge when the waves opened and found himself approaching the hellish island he had endured for the sake of his... what? His Queen? His friend? Her children? The long tail lashed behind him when he made land and pushed through the odd air pressure that always pushed against him on its borders.

He drifted towards the old den, now overgrown with creeping thicket, he had helped the royal family maintain, and laid on a boulder nearby.

[Kashmir]

King now. That was a story for another day.

If Kashmir had known more of Gemini’s ins and outs, he may have judged them in his keen way as chaotic. They were comprised of its royal family and rogues from the world over, many of which it seemed were outlaws and castaways. The jackal would not have understood the monarchy’s predilection for this sort of rabble; so many wolves of conflicting character and background surely made the pack mercurial at best. And all the tragedies, the violent disasters... ah, but Inaria could match them stroke for stroke in that vein.

He didn’t care for mingling. Wasn’t good at it. Leaving that chiefly to the Shields, he did so with the land instead, making it his mission to scope out the state of the territory, get a eye for its resources and layout (could they send the children and elders here in wartime, if anything should happen to Nardir?) and how the society was ordered. It was in this way he’d found himself near the bridge, then across it, and when the black sand touched his paws, pressing between his toes like a sieve...

A coil of tension in his gut, heavy and cold. The guard hairs on his neck and spine prickled. This place didn’t smell right. He would not have been able explain it if asked, nor the sudden urge to turn tail and leave if not for —

there, on the rocks. Who was that?

Don’t let me see your face, warned this familiar smell. Kashmir moved closer, parting the mist settling about the earth.

“Is someone there?”

[Akki]

Oh Kashmir, if only you knew, and if you stuck around long enough this black sand would show you how the world's axis didn't tilt at all but swung in wild spirals. Inaria made a very peculiar friend in Gemini.

Akki didn't hear or see the jackal until a black nose nudged aside the foggy veil. Eyes wide but steady, he uncoiled his neck and pushed his ears forward. The tip of his tail flicked while the dim, gloomy light caught the silver of his eye.

Is someone there?

Gravel grinding together. A sore rasp after a coughing fit. A trap setter stuck in a hole. Akki was quiet and still, weighing options and probilities. There were others out there with painful voices. It didn't mean it was these same person.

(he knew better)

Finally, he saw to address the stranger. A curt but not impolite,

"Sir."

[Kashmir]

Should he have seen how the black sand twisted the earth, should he feel it circling its own axis, the jackal may very well not have run into this familiar pale face at all, turning tail in avoidance of something... malevolent? Were they though, these indescribable forces of Gemini? Kashmir wanted nothing to do with them regardless. Never willingly would he ever converse with ghosts. Too many of them would have one hell of a bone to pick. Old scores to settle.

Perhaps he should have treated this encounter the same way, but Akki was only a hellhound, only mortal, and Kashmir was ever the hunter who felt drawn to whatever he pursued like moths to candlelight.

The king of swords drew back a veil and found a strange white creature with pale eyes and black features. He looked into his impassive face. He never forgot a scent. Kashmir paused, considering for a long moment, taking Akki in with those keen eyes that missed nothing.

A split-second’s worth of debate: how to approach? Where to go from here? Will I talk to this enigma, try to unravel it like a certain renegade of myth might pry apart a creature’s mind? Will I play the fool, pretend I don’t remember that distinct tail, that smooth voice? Or... something else? The jackal betrayed an edgy lip-lick.

“My apologies... I didn’t mean to be rude.”

He hadn’t exactly barged into Akki’s space, but close enough, especially (supposed Kash) for a foreigner.

Almost as an afterthought, he added, “I’ve never seen an island before today.”

[Akki]

Mist begins to roll in from the sea, a cold spray that finds the pores in your skin and settles there. A penetrating, invasive little thing that could so easily find the secrets of a body and spill them to the wind. Akki watches it while gulls cry warnings overhead of some nameless horror they witnessed in their long travels, then his eyes cut back to the grey striped creature before him. He stays as he is, lounging with his tail curled like a ribbon over his paws and sinuous body angled to fit perfectly on the rock.

"No need. You've been given near free reign of the kingdom." Another decision he did not agree with that earned him a snort from the Girl-King. He did not know what to make of Serrate's daughter except that he found her mother's polite, strained politics easier to deal with than... brazen youth, maybe. Akira was ridiculous, unpredictable, and inexperienced-- none of which stopped her from having very loud opinions.

"I’ve never seen an island before today."

"This was the first for me too," he begins amicably. Saboro had islands in the small scale. Jungle marshes dotted with inhospitable pieces of land, over run with crocodiles and snakes. Would Kashmir know? Akki does not ask him. He only smiles. "I found the ocean very disorienting at first, in fact. It's humbling to find yourself so small and insignificant against a giant thing. I don't recommend lingering long on this one. The walkway comes and goes, and no prey stays here on purpose."