[Crow]

Rain had settled in a light patter and it would only grow more persistent as the afternoon burned into evening, but for now she enjoyed what little of it that she could. The noise wasn't all bad.

Huddled in a mass of wet fur she sat contently next to varying shades of red blossoming roses. The garden empty today, the acolytes that had seen to her had long since taken off, and oddly enough Lana found herself wanting the company back. The silence was deafening, and as funny as it sounds to even think that silence could be loud, her's spoke volumes.

Past lives reconvened on some hidden road in her memories, a spiteful eyed child stood behind her parents, glaring as they spoke highly of another wrapped in a coat of ginger-red. If Azuhel was here now, they could simply laugh about it, but her dear sister had a way of leaving friend, blood, and lovers behind. Ear twitching and she'd turn slightly to a the creeping of a rather sinister looking shadow. Ah. She didn't know him well, Azuhel's odd little play thing, but she knew enough.

"You won't find her here."

[Crow]

“Really?” came his reply, all slick black slime, underlined always by something mercurial and unstable. “And what might I find instead?”

It was only natural for leaders to play musical chairs with their power, a papery and ephemeral thing at best that walked on brittle legs despite looming so tall. Crow had long since passed the impressionable days where kings and queens had any real intrigue to him, but — oh, his dear Red Dragon was the exception. Had been. Was.

The black wolf leered, swaying absently as he did, and studied Telana with predatory care. He spent a long moment on her crippled leg, looking her in the eyes when she spoke, and returning to the handicap when she fell silent.

“My lovely Azuhel... is she dead?” That was difficult to believe. Their kind were as cockroaches.

[Crow]

"All things that are broken. A kingdom in shambles, of course this is all depending on WHO you ask." The tone was for the most part nondescript, but a hint of bitterness might be caught. It had latched onto her so long ago, that it was unsurprising that everything she said wasn't just dripping with bitter, pettiness.

She'd caught sight of him then, and a brow raised as keen eyes inspected him. Scars littering his back in a gruesome fashion, pale skin with few little patches of fur and darker scarred bits. Then his eye, a milky, murky color. Like an unpolished pearl that was embedded in a sea of black. It was surprising that this was one of her lovers. Telana didn't take her sister for a lover of the disfigured, she did have her odd little ways about her, perhaps this was a new development.

Muzzle would scowl bitterly at his words, though her eyes hovered on him for a time, before dragging off to look at the rose bushes. A derisive snort expelled from her, and Telana gave him a shrug at first. Letting that silence soak in between them. "I haven't a clue. I hope not, for my sister's sake. Dying out in the wilds beyond her home was a fear of hers, I'd think." Came a thoughtful reply, shifting her body to better see him.

Tail curling around her legs to hide them when she noticed him staring for too long, ears pulling back. "Did you love her? And... did she also love you? What were you to her, do you think?" Another little pet to be strung along on a short leash? She knew of Azuhel's love and how intoxicating it could be to the rejected, knew of the manipulation tactics her sisters used in getting what they want. Was it real, did it feel real to you? One broken thing to another.

[Crow]

“Oh,” he cooed, an insincerely sweet sound that brought to mind decaying velvet or perhaps just the worst kind of madness, “but this kingdom has always been in shambles, love. That’s the nature of the circus you’ve... inherited.”

He didn’t need to say that he’s been born here once, so many years ago, when even the Red Dragon was still another neophyte under his dear old father’s command. Behind the eldritch eye Telana studied were countless memories, a terrifying labyrinth.

Crow didn’t reply when she denied any knowledge of Azuhel’s whereabouts. He only went on watching her, his gaze falcon sharp, the silence mounting uneasily around them both. She would be back. In some form, they would meet again. He’d left the valley behind for her, taking only his chosen few, converted and saved once more. She would be back, and if she wasn’t, he’d track her down himself.

“Another dragon.” He licked his teeth, smiling in that transparently faux-affable way. “She brought me fire... I was born again. Your king Cocytus is our son. Did you know that?” He followed her gaze incuriously to the rose bush. “What we have is more powerful than love.”

The black wolf regarded her again from the corner of his bad eye. She was all formless red, indistinct movement.

“I’m Crow, by the way.”

[Crow]

She bristled, even more so now than before, his voice leaving a sour taste in her mouth, just like his company. Somehow she wasn't surprised about this one, there was something faintly resembling Azuhel here. Sparkling and shining, and like some greedy bird she probably snatched it up. She wasn't sure that her sister was as vain as their other, Kaede, but Lana was convinced that all three of her elder sisters loved finding similar pieces in whatever fell into their laps.

"Aren't I the lucky one then?" Lips curled into a grimace, not even trying to hide the sarcasm that dripped heavily from her words. "I know a lot about circuses, it's funny spending all your life trying to get out of one, that once you finally do... You end right back up in one." The Valley was possibly the biggest circus of all, a pretend show of religious devotees with a streak of violence. That could never hurt. "I assume you know a lot about them though, don't you?" That's all it was, a hunch an assumption, amber-gold eyes narrowing on his inky form.

Another dragon, hah, the ginger woman would laugh inwardly to herself. Then again, birds of a feather flocked together, or in this case dragons? "She gave a lot of people fire, but I know how attractive it can be." She regarded him with a lazy, yet firm gaze, face remaining unchanging as if she didn't truly believe his words. "Ahhh, so you're the one? Are you proud of your son? He's well enough, I think."

She came from a home of two severely critical parents, and so it was only right to ask. Though her ears would pull back as she pulled a sour face, lips curling in disgust. Telana had always thought love was for the foolish and easily manipulated, a derisive snort expelled from her nose. "You'd better hope so, because is love about one of the most useless emotions there is." Bitterly spoken, but ah, his name- "You look like one, a crow that is. Telana, I'm sure Azuhel never mentioned me or any of her other sisters." A biting reply that danced around sounding just a little hurt?? Maybe harsh??

[Crow]

No small wonder that a madwoman like Azuhel would be attracted to a monster like him, like the greedy bird and its shiny treasure in Telana’s... less than charitable thoughts on the duo. Couldn’t have been directed to a nicer wolf, her subtle aristocratic snark.

“I’ve had a lot of time to watch,” returned Crow, a little coyly, as if he wasn’t aware he was probably twice her age. “The world itself is a circus and it’s never short on clowns. You’ll... do fine.”

He licked his sharp top teeth, tasting plaque and bone. They ached a little at their roots with the urge to bite; a acidic flush of jealously had stirred in his rotten heart. Surely there were others Azuhel had burned, but... that was hardly the same. They’d had something special. He would find her again. He’d find her. He’d find her. “Do you play with fire, Telana? You should, at least once in your life. And my well-enough son... we shall see, right? He’s not the first of my children to become a king.”

She went on, and so did he, helping himself to some shade provided by the nearby rose bushes. “Aww, lovely... you’re more burned than even me.” He laughed a little at his own jibe. “Real crows have black feet. I used to catch them when I was a boy to see. I thought my mother had played a trick on me.”

And because Crow was about as nurturing in the face of apparent unhealed baggage as a kick in the nuts, to Telana’s assertion he simply replied, “Nope.”

[Crow]

Eyes rested upon Crow with a look that teetered on tolerant and unease, though it didn't last for long as she turned her head from him snorting in order to hide the scoff that wanted so desperately to escape her. Clowns, that's not generally how she'd want to call the people that resided under their leadership. He was careful not to call himself a clown though, eyes flickered to him for a moment considering, on this grand scale what are you? A question to be asked later, perhaps.

Another shift under that singular eye, uncomfortable about how well it tracked even the slightest of her movements, teeth and all, She watched him as he watched her, though his nonchalance was noted, it still did little to quiet the sudden restlessness in her feet to move away further from him. "No." She said flatly with a raise of her brow, all and all she looked rather unimpressed by his words. "I left the fire to Azuhel, she always had such a knack for it. Kaede too at times." Within that statement held a hidden barb, a dig at a pretty and dear sister. "Oh? Is that right?" A prod to all him to speak further on the matter of kings, if he so wished, Telana was just gleaning for information at this point.

It wasn't hard to pick up her bitterness, she didn't exactly try to mask it, she looked at him plainly. Both of them looking like too wretchedly, miserable creatures as it was, she was just more open to admitting it. "What can I say, it keeps me young." She rolled her shoulders to exercise a audible pop that made her wince and slump slightly from the after ache. Another brow quirked upward, again she has to ask herself, how and where does Azuhel find these things. When did they become her problem?! Though Telana wasn't exactly surprised by his last statement, a hollow, dry laugh. "Never hurts to ask, but understandable. We weren't important at the time." She gave up easily enough.
"If you came here for her, however, does that mean you'll leave to find her?" Telana really care one way or the other if he stayed or left, but she did find herself just a tiniest bit curious for the answer at least.

[Crow]

“Oh,” he cooed again of Telana’s disinterest in fire, watching her back away from him just slightly, watching her as she cracked a joint that made her flinch and bow under its ache. Baby girl, you know it’s not nice to tease. “That’s too bad.”

The scent of the rosebush was cloying; he didn’t prefer it. “Yes... their sisters, as well. Their grandchildren. I liked to stand behind them while they barked their orders and played with their toys.” He’d never been much of a leader. Too wild. Too unstable. His sort of authority was... different.

Crow watched her still, from the corner of his good eye, letting the silence pile up as she confessed to him her own childhood unimportance. He supposed they’d had that in common, not that he’d be as forthright...

“It’s your stage now, isn’t it? Now they’ll never forget your name. They won’t dare ignore you.”

It wasn’t really a question. She asked if he’d leave, and he reversed the inquiry a little playfully, probing for things to come, for something magpie-shiny to clutch at.

“Should I?”