Tembovu

The Elephant King, with continual hesitant glances towards Nyx and Rexanna, approached Alysanne. With a motion of his great and heavy head, he invited her away from the bulk of people, “Hello, Alysanne,” was his deep rumble of greeting. Though it was warm, his gaze was still guarded, forever testing the waters with his fellow monarch, “Would you join me? There are things about the Edge we should discuss.”

Slowly, his limbs began to strike out at the overgrown vines and shrubs that robustly bloomed in Birdsong’s warm sun, nutritious soil, and abundant water. Massive shoulders rolled with thick muscle beneath his black-slashed hide as he, with every swipe of his hooves, removed chunks of overgrowth.

Though his massive, heavy body was focused on the task at hand, his mind, ears, and eyes were focused (mostly) on the Devoted and (partly) on the silver and gold mare. To his credit, he did try to focus wholly on his Queen. But, given the situation he had stumbled into at the Endless Blue, there was only so much his paternal-driven mind could do to ignore the possible threat to his blissfully happy domicile.

Although, the kingly parts of his mind roiled, there were also a few potential threats within the Edge. So, with great mental fortitude, he focused on the black and white beauty, pausing in his digging of vines to wait for her approval to speak.

Alysanne

Though she was loath to leave Lena and the easy friendship she held with the bay mare, Tembovu’s polite request wasn’t one that she could ignore. There were things that she needed to tell him as well - and she wondered if he already knew and this was why he was taking her aside. Without comment or hesitation, she followed her fellow monarch to a spot where they were on their own.

Although Alysanne could guess where Tembovu’s gaze kept disappearing to she didn’t say anything about it. Teasing the King felt like far too friendly of an action and she wasn’t entirely sure they were at that point. Tension between them had eased a little, it was true - she couldn’t entirely hold a grudge against someone she had trusted enough to stab her in the chest. The wound was healing slowly but, as he had predicted, had proven easier to keep clean and she had not succumbed to another fever or infection.

There was still a part of her that was bitter over any feeling of ease or gratitude she felt towards him. There was still the potential of disaster housed within him and she could not be lured into submission by any stretch of peace.

She started to work, pulling at weeds with her mouth and delicately picking up any bones to place them aside so they could be brought to Kisamoa later. Once her mouth was free, she took Tembovu’s pause as an invitation for her to start speaking as she dug at a stubborn root with one of her hooves. “I went to speak with the Falls’ Czarina…. To return the bag that caused so much trouble.” She hoped this would not come as a surprise to him, nor that it would incite any anger. He had fought hard to defend the Edge and she had gone and given back the bag anyway. But there should have never even been a fight in the first place if she hadn't let her anger blind her.

Hesitantly, her green gaze looked to him as she finally stopped moving. “I believe our peace with the Falls stands, she seemed as willing as I was to keep an alliance between our herds.”

Tembovu

His worried gaze ceased it’s darting towards Rexanna and Nyx the moment Alysanne fully joined him—and it reseted on her breast. Or, more aptly, the round wound that slowly healed there. A soft sigh pushed out of his dark nostrils, navy lingering on the small amount of freshly pink skin, remembering that the Devoted had trusted him to make that…

His lips pressed slightly together. How convoluted the King and Queen’s relationship had become.

Shaking great head slightly to rid it of the past’s distractions, his black rimmed ears tilted towards her, both listening as she spoke and watching as she began to pull weeds. While her approach was far more delicate than his, he could not help the suppressed chuckle and grin as the very vines she pulled free seemed to bloom just as robustly beneath her hooves—though the King knew better than to remark upon it.

His attention came wholly upon her words as she mentioned the Mountain— and his eyes clouded slightly, before he nodded, “Good. I am glad to hear it,” was his simple response, though it was laden with so much more. More relief. More uncertainty. Just more. More that he was allowed to infuse into his voice while he was with a fellow ruler.

Then as a silent stretched for a few moments, broken only by the ripping of shrubs at their hooves and teeth, he took a deep breath and began to speak, “There has been a change in the Edge’s ranks while you’ve been at the Falls. Toulouse, a man from Dorobo, has challenged and won over Raeden for her role as Specter. The fight was bloody, and Toulouse fought well and rightfully won, however…” He paused, a long and pregnant pause as the Elephant wrestled with his pity, mulled over his disapproval, and checked his consent. “There was a moment where it appeared the man sought to push Raeden over the cliffs.”

He sighed, briefly interrupting his labor to glance towards his Queen and take in her response.

Alysanne

Her news about the Falls wasn’t greeted with any sort of surprise or disdain, for which Alysanne was incredibly grateful. In fact, Tembovu’s response seemed rather simple and short - which made her wonder. Did he have more to say on the matter, but was wary about getting into an argument with her? Or was there something else they needed to talk about?

In the few moments where they were simply working side by side, Alysanne’s mind considered the possibilities - always coming back to the idea that Tembovu was working up the courage to ask her to step down so he could appoint someone better as queen. She often wondered if he regretted his choice but her pride stopped her from ever (EVER) asking.

Sure enough, the silence was broken by the King as he explained what had happened in the Edge while she had been gone. Figures, that when she was somewhere else entirely that she would miss something incredibly important. At first, her response was a troubled frown. This was only the second rank challenge she had ever heard of happening since she had come to Helovia - they hardly seemed common. The challenge between Aurelia and Kahlua had caused long-lasting ramifications inside of the herd and the personal lives of both the mares involved, was this the same?

Alysanne waited patiently, only picking up a few small items while waiting out the pregnant pause between one piece of news and the next...

And then he said it - the point that she was sure he had called her over here to state.

“He did WHAT?!” Alysanne, ever the one to remain totally calm, could have nearly decked her co-leader in the face with her wings as they unfurled in surprise and she spun to look at him. For a moment, her green eyes were wild and it looked as though she was going to take off and push a certain someone off the cliff herself. But that moment passed in a heartbeat - and of course Alysanne never actually would resort to such terrible violence. Her pale wings returned to her side but she did not return to the task at hand.

She thought carefully, willing her anger down so she might think about this clearly as she could. Although Raeden had certainly caused a little bit of trouble herself, she had trusted the mare - bonding with her over, of all things, a certain leather bag that had caused so much strife.

“I wouldn’t consider attempting to push a fellow herd member from a cliff fighting well but you are more of an expert on these matters than I.” Though there was an edge to her tone, it existed only in the beginning of the sentence - there was no bitterness in Alysanne to admit that Tembovu was more knowledgeable about war and fighting of the two of them. Everyone knew that. “How can we trust Toulouse to be a member of the Edge’s high ranks and council if these are the tricks he uses to gain a rank? What else might he be up to?” Alysanne frowned more deeply, clearly troubled by this turn of events.

Before she got herself fuming in the defense of Raeden, she tried to think logically about this - ask the right questions - before making assumptions.

(“What Would Isopia Do?”)

“Did you speak to him afterwards? Did he have anything to say in defense of his actions?”

Tembovu

A low grunt escaped the King as Alysanne’s quick, violent unfurling of wings and sharp turn did hit him. Though in the thick brawn of his shoulder rather than his face—that would assuredly be sore come the morrow. Slowly, gingerly, he rolled his shoulders back from his withers, making sure the abrupt (but unintentional) hit from Alysanne’s wing was nothing more than a superficial bruise. Pegasus wings (he now knew well) were weapons in their own right.

His ears perked to attention as his eyes jerked to her verdant, angry eyes as she squawked in outrage as he revealed what Toulouse did. Shifting uneasily, he closely watched the Devoted, her angry outburst reminiscent of their perilous encounter that had resulted with him collapsed with fever-delirium before her.

So, carefully, he waited for the Devoted to finish all of her accusations, words, and questions. And he was in agreement with her questioning the loyalty of Toulouse—Tembovu had known him in Makutano, after all. But, he also knew that Toulouse had been fiercely loyal to his patron lady in the Council… His lips pressed in conflicting thought as he watched Alysanne.

And he was surprised that all of her emotional outburst was ended with calm questions—logical even. Though they did not lull the King to relax; even the cleaning task at hand was forgotten as he began to answer her, “Yes, I spoke with him afterwards. He claimed that simply wanted to scare Raeden.”

The Elephant paused, wondering how to explain his reasoning after hearing Toulouse after the fight so that she may understand him. “As I said before, Toulouse is from Dorobo—” his deep rumble paused, contemplating how to tell Alysanne what that truly meant. He suspected that the serpent would not appreciate the gory details of his bloody, horrific, forced-gelding shared with others. So, instead, the Elephant chose to share different brutality of Dorobian culture, “Dorobians can be…harsh. The Plains are not an easy place to live, so it creates a toughness that may be seen as brutality, here in Helovia. Such as, in Dorobo, a Banderi disobeying his commanders may have his innards spilled by a horn through his—eh—rear.”

Again, he paused, looking at Alysanne for a few moments after stumbling over more polite words for a very impolite subject. Then, he continued, “So, pushing an opponent towards our cliffs may not be as serious to him as it would be to us. Though—” he hastily tacked on, eyes widening slightly and hoping he could finishing speaking before Alysanne could take offense and have another outburst, “I agree with you that, perhaps we should ensure he knows Helovian customs are different. A probationary period as Specter?” He offered, ears twitched as he watched the Devoted.

Alysanne

Alysanne did feel a little bad about hitting Tembovu with her wing - surprisingly, it was very much unintentional. She had every intention of apologizing for it all the same…  after they discussed the matter at hand.

Tembovu’s story about Dorobo didn’t exactly make Alysanne feel better about Toulouse, nor any of the other Dorobians she knew lived in the Edge including the stallion that stood before her. She already believed brutality lived inside Tembovu’s heart, waiting for the chance for it to show itself again. Knowing that there was a portion of the Edge that believed acting in this fashion was normal was a gigantic cause for concern and her partially-dormant bias against Tembovu began to wake once more.

She seriously considered hitting Tembovu with her wing again when he started to suggest that pushing someone off a cliff wasn’t that big of a deal but he quickly continued and she held her tongue, waiting for him to finish before she responded. Damn right Helovian customs were different.

With a sigh, the pegasus nodded in agreement to the idea of a probationary period. She didn’t like it at all, and would sleep much better if she knew Toulouse wasn’t in the Edge any longer, but this idea seemed reasonable. If he continued to show such irresponsible and dangerous behaviour, a more serious reaction would be required. “Yes, that sounds fair. We’ll keep an eye on him.” Agreeing to it felt like defeat and her wings slumped a little bit as she turned her attention back to the decaying land that needed to be cleared.

Before she continued, she glanced back at Tembovu and added with a small, embarrassed smile. “Sorry, by the way. About your shoulder.”