Kingsfall i played soldier, you played king

The aspiring scout by the dark wolf’s side made no further comment, and Kisla’s eyed instead drifted to Gent, who very brazenly made a statement she had not expected – he knew that Kjors knew. For a silent moment, she cursed the one-eyed dragon in her head for not notifying her that he had known about potentially pissing off their allies.

Her fleeting anger at Kjors however dissipated just as quickly as the wolf before her continued – instead, with veiled threats to their alliance and potentially her pack subordinates, the honeyed wolf did not take kindly to his words, and her brows lifted upward to reveal this. “Kjors is new to us. I will discuss with him,” was all she offered on the topic of the estranged male.

Naia’s shift in demeanor was not missed by the Baranski matriarch, and her eyes flickered to her pack mate, withholding a look of displeasure at the amount of emotion she revealed to the man who stood before them. She did not trust Gent – and she certainly did not need Naia to act upon the dirty laundry of their pack and show it to their neighbors.

Her stance did not warm to the man as her eyes shifted back to him. No, if anything, the moment his true attitude had shone through, she had lost what respect she had begun to build for Minka’s pack. “It seems strange to me that you did not seek us out sooner on this matter – and that other information was given first, as if a trespass on your territory is more pertinent than the news of your Alpha’s murder.” She paused then, leaving her statement to linger – if Gent was looking to play with her pack like a mouse, he would not find wolves that would so flippantly show their belly to him. “I will travel with Round Stone Crest with Kjors and Naia to meet with Minka – he will give her the information he knows.”

(This post was last modified: Oct 27, 2015, 06:53 PM by Kisla.)

sparking up my heart

Bleh post, sorry.
The notes regarding Minka did not occur in a thread, but were discussed between myself and Ghost multiple times as being canon.

His eyes slid to Naia, taking in her countenance for a brief moment. It registered within him that her reaction had been appropriate to the news given. Pale gaze transferring back upon the queen's, he balanced this contrast with the possibility that perhaps it was Kisla's chosen habit to where a perpetual mask of solemnity when in the presence of foreigners. Even if those foreigners were the pack's sole allies, forged from not just politics but a bond between two leaders. Yes, he was willing to perhaps push it under the rug, but then leadess answered him so simply and it took a conscious effort to keep expression off of his own face.

No, it was quickly becoming clear; Kisla did not care about the Crest. In fact, she seemed offended by his words. Storm clouds began to gather within his head as he knew that he would not be able to return to Minka with any positive notes to sing, but rather only concerns. Then she spoke further, and his ears pressed forward, quivering as they took in each abrasive syllable.

A chuff left his throat, distaste passing plainly over his face for a brief moment. A trespass, she spoke it so simply, as the nothing more than a scuffed tree had resulted. Perhaps it wouldn't have been such a sting to him if it hadn't been Raela that had nearly been murdered that day. These are Minka's friends, he had to remind himself. This is important to her. But he was beginning to believe that Hearthwood River could never truly be useful to his pack. Not with this Kisla involved.

"You're not the only ones who've had their paws full. We came when we could, and I truly doubt you care to hear more than that."

She didn't. It was clear within those judging eyes, and it had thoroughly dissolved all trust he had placed in the alliance.

"I chose to allow Cessair's nerves a rest and get formalities out of the way before going into heavier matters. It's not really all that strange," he stated plainly, before pausing, considering what to tell Kisla now and what to allow Minka to impart. Surely, it wasn't wise for Gent to inform Kisla now that Minka wanted more than her husband's killers identity now. His mind flashed back to the day he had returned from his meeting Kjors, the anger that had possessed her as she learned that those she trusted would disrespect her so severely. If Kisla was going to coddle the snake amongst her ranks, he hoped that Minka held true to the threats she had passed to him.

Gent decided instead on asking questions on his own behalf, for a moment disregarding Minka and her desires to focus on his own.

"What do you expect from this alliance? What is your stake here?"

(This post was last modified: Sep 25, 2015, 04:53 AM by Gent.)

Excuse the wait, I didn't realize we were skipping Cessair.

 ♦♦♦♦♦

Naia met Cessair’s eyes for a long moment, wondering what the scout-in-training must be thinking about how the conversation was unfolding. Naia would have to find her later to explain that this was not how allies conducted business with one another. Perhaps Minka and Maksim were friends, but their co-leaders had some differences that were not mixing in a pleasant way.  This is why alphas have scouts, Naia thought to herself, knowing exactly how a touchy wolf like Gent would react to Kisla’s shut-down body language. There was certainly something to be said for guarding your expression with strangers, but considering Round Stone Crest was an ally—an ally who had just lost a beloved leader nonetheless-- Naia had to admit her alphess was coming off pretty cold.

 

And then there was Gent, bristling at being denied the respect he had clawed his way to the top to earn and clearly felt he deserved from Kisla.  Perhaps bullying others into submission had worked for him so far, but he had another thing coming if he thought this would work with other alphas. Kisla and Maksim were a true Queen and King, and what Gent didn’t seem to understand was that he would have to prove he could do more than talk big before other dominant wolves would take him seriously.  He might have stepped into the pawprints of the Crests’ late leader, but he hadn’t yet shown that he could fill them.  He directed the conversation toward the state of the alliance, and Naia’s ears perked to attention. Wasn’t that really a discussion to be had between Minka and Maksim? The alliance was forged out of their friendship after all. If anyone was to speak to expectations or “stakes,” shouldn’t it be those who created the alliance in the first place?

 ♦♦♦♦♦  

"You're not the only ones who've had their paws full. We came when we could, and I truly doubt you care to hear more than that." She let his words linger for only half a second as her bright eyes regarded her solemnly. “You’d be wrong,” she clarified, finding herself more annoyed at the ebony wolf’s continuous attacks on her and her pack mates. This was the viper that now lead aside Minka? Casting a stray glance to Naia, the honeyed woman now saw in full what her Scout had meant when questioning the point of their alliance with Round Stone Crest – this only seemed to solidify Naia’s words, now.

Allowing the man to continue to talk, he instead chose to continue a more belligerent approach. Her eyes would drift to Cessair, offering the woman a small nod at the mention of giving her nerves a rest – of this she could understand. But what she wouldn’t understand, nor tolerate, was Gent’s next question. What stake did they have?

Her wolfish brows lifted incredulously at this – her eyes darting back to him and studying him, to see how serious he was. He was openly questioning their allegiance now? “I’m not sure I understand,” she began, her tone becoming more clipped as the conversation continued. “The last I checked we had an alliance – one that harbored Minka and her family during your trek to Round Stone Crest and one to which we not only offered our food, but our resources to aide you upon.” And what had they received in turn, when they had been ousted from their own home in Cedarwood Forest?

Certainly nothing from Round Stone Crest. And yet now, this near usurper stood before her, questioning what they wanted out of the alliance?

“If you think to come here and make demands upon one of our newer subordinates before I even have a chance to discuss anything with him, or feel fit to question our stake in this, then I believe our conversation is over. This is not a conversation I will have without the presence of Minka or Maksim.” She would discuss with Maksim, Kjors, Naia.. and from there, visit Minka and put this all to rest. The alliance had been born of both her husband and Minka's friendship, after all -- he could be the one to decide if it was worth saving now that the Crest wolves were trying to place blame upon them.

sparking up my heart

nnng another shit post, sorry. & sorry to keep this going buuut Gent wants to try one more time to reach an understanding. ^^;

Finally, a reaction from the River queen, and yet when finally she decided to show her emotions they only exasperated the leviathan further. He had to bite back a sigh as it crossed his mind that there were two possibilities at play here: either he and the woman before him were oil and water and through only acting as themselves they would never find common ground, or @Kisla wanted to be offended. His inclinations toward anticipating the worst urged him to suspect the latter, and with each twist of his inquiry within her mouth this line of thinking was only further driven home. Perhaps he had been misunderstood, yet it seemed dearly that the lime-eyed alpha was seeking the worst in him. To what ends? That was the worst of this all. He had come himself in hopes of familiarizing himself with his allies, hoping to reach a mutual understanding so that he could work with them as Minka did, yet Kisla seemed only to shut him out. Was it simply her? Would the same treatment have been given to Minka? For all he knew, Minka's friendship with Maksim was a source of jealousy for Kisla. For all he knew, she wanted the alliance to crash and burn. Whatever it was, he would not simply allow such grave misunderstandings to continue between them.

"I'm not here to offend you, and I haven't intended such with anything that has been said today. I'm here to trade information, to keep you informed, to ask how your pack is doing, and to better understand the alliance that I am entering. This may have been forged between Minka and Maksim, but it is not just between them, regardless of how Tokino may have regarded the matter.

Yes, we have an alliance. Yes, your support has been invaluable to us. I haven't disputed any of that, nor have I made any demands as you claim. I'm asking what you expect from my pack in return. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but when a supposedly dear friend of Minka's seems completely disinterested in the trespasses made against her pack, the disappearance of her members, the murder of her husband, and her own subordinate's part in it all, I find myself at a loss. Is this not what you wish from us, this wealth of information? Would you rather we only seek you out in times of war? Only wait for you to approach us? I have to know in order to do what is best for my pack, and to better communicate with you."

It was his last attempt. If Kisla still chose to play victim to his words, he would waste no more breath upon her.

This meeting was disintegrating quickly, though perhaps it never really had a chance. The unexpected call and the following accusations toward Kjors had immediately put Kisla on the defense, and her shell was difficult enough to penetrate without the added resistance. It was normal for her to share very little—emotion or information—while at the same time taking in and absorbing everything in pieces. This was why she liked to hear the most important things first, and why she liked time to think over her answers.

Gent , on the other paw, took a very different “think tank” sort of approach, where he seemed to like to have all necessary information and opinions, great and small, dumped out in front of the group for sorting and piecing together. Both methods were effective on their own, but a communication disaster when combined, as this little encounter proved.

Gent had launched into quite a speech, one that Naia predicted was just as ill-fated as the rest of the meeting. Kisla was not one to be swayed easily back and forth, and her second knew that her impression of Gent was all but set by this point. It was not Naia's place to suggest ending the meeting, though she would if she could. There was nothing more productive that was going to come out of a discussion between Gent and Kisla, two leaders as different as night and day.

Guys, I am so, so terribly sorry for the wait on this. It's unacceptable. Pulling Kisla -- not sure if you want to wrap up and fade or what.. but this is her exit.

‘I think you'll agree that holding such vital information ransom is no way to keep an alliance, and therefor Minka and I have chosen to bring this information to light with the assumption that you and Maksim were unaware of the trespass.’

He had spoken it only moments before, but now she listened to the man fumble over his words – attempting to backtrack to when his tone did not hold the slight edge to it and the thinly veiled threat upon their alliance had been spoken. There was no other way to take it – and now, Gent insisted they had come here, to ask about the well-being of Hearthwood River, despite not having done so yet, even after being so far in to the conversation.

The man was a snake, and she was finished here – her cool gaze spoke so. Upon the news of Tokino her voice had softened – she had questioned if they had answers – but apparently, her reaction had not been significant enough – she had not fallen to her knees in grief for the man she did not know. The ebony wolf was only upset she had not demanded the head of her subordinate – no more, and he was quite transparent in his intent.

“As I said, I believe this is best discussed with Minka present – possibly Maksim, if he feels two leaders should be away from the lands. We will make the journey, I will bring Kjors and we will settle this matter.” She paused then, her gaze drifting between both Cessair and Naia, wondering how much the two longed to simply part ways from the verbally bristling leaders?

She paused then, her eyes shifting back to Gent. “If you are tired and hungry from your journey, we can spare some food from our cache to help you before your journey home. I’m sure Naia will be happy to aide you there. Have a safe journey home, and we will see you soon.”
She waited for nothing more – her skin practically crawled being in the presence of the man, and with a brush of her nose to Naia’s cheek in familiarity and gratitude to the woman, the honeyed Alpha swept away from the group, eager to tell @Maksim of what had just occurred, knowing even he would be distinctly upset at the demands made to their pack mates by the Crest pack – even if it was the dragon.

(This post was last modified: Feb 29, 2016, 05:20 PM by Kisla.)

sparking up my heart

@Naia up to you to archive!! (:

He had been speaking to a wall, it would seem. As she responded, his pale eyes narrowed. The suggestion was to cut him out of the equation altogether rather than put any effort into reaching some form of common ground. She could try all she wanted to be successful with that, but Gent refused to have the authority he had fought for taken from him in any portion of the pack's business, and such would be relayed to Minka the moment he and Cessair returned home, upon a multitude of other observations.

His gaze followed Kisla's retreating form until it was gone before transferring to Naia, irises softening considerably.

"We're fine, thank you," he assured her in regards to the offer of hospitality that had been tossed to them. If Cessair wanted for anything, Gent would be sure to supply it once they were out of Kingsfall.

"I suppose I'll be seeing you. Take care until then."

With that simple goodbye, he and his subordinate were gone.

The exchange had come to an end, thank the gods.. As each participant said their chilly farewells, Naia was left wondering what exactly either pack had gained or lost in this ill-fated meeting.  Gent had been promised the information he requested, but he would more or less be returning from his long journey with empty paws. Kisla had protected their packmate for the time being, but at what cost? With Gent whispering in Minka’s ear, how much longer could the Hearthwood Wolves expect to remain in her good graces? 
Naia let her honey gaze fall on Cessair in unspoken sympathy. This was certainly not the sort of exchange she would have hoped for training a new scout, unless perhaps it was used as an example of how things should not go..
Kisla exited swiftly, and Naia could not help but notice how much brighter Gent’s demeanor became with the monarch’s departure. Naia tilted her head invitingly, but the swarthy male swifty declined Kisla’s offer of refreshment. Another forboding sign.. Naia was aware that many of Relic’s inhabitants believed in the guest right, and declining that offer when it was extended—cloaked in politeness though it was—could be considered a very subtle threat. “Until then,” Naia replied softly, watching the Crest wolves retreat until they had disappeared from sight.