⇪[Egyptian wild dog/cat pack things that live outside Akhsemhat]⇪

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"His wings? What's so great about his wings?" Hex mumbled aloud, taking a quick glance at his own.

"They're probably just like mine, bat and dragon wings are the same. Nothing that special about his."

With Chronos seemingly sound asleep in one of the guestrooms, the rest of the group took to settling for the evening by hanging about in the shop's upstairs living room, most having a quiet conversation and sipping on some homemade tea. Seris, Apep and Osiris were seated together on one of the couches, with Cider naturally taking a whole recliner to himself; Hex chose to abstain and stand next to the right of Seris, and he always kept his line of vision somewhere around Osiris, still bothered by the events that transpired before dinner. The White Wolf didn't care that he was practically in Hex's imaginary spotlight and ignored him, his white wolf ears pointed instead in Seris' direction, who was beaming about something rather interesting.

That "something interesting" happened to be about a distinct species of Astral, a celebrity more so in this world, and an incredibly elegant creature; No, it was no wolf, nor bear, not even an unusual species of seahorse, but a flamboyant, colorful ambassador from a far-off land-

The coveted Kirin.

"Somebody sounds a bit jealous."

Cider had nosed his way into Hex's business, catching a whiff of the bat's self-mumbling.

"Nonsense," Hex shoved Cider's smug face away from him, and the lime wolf casually pried off the rude hand that was covering his eyes.

"I don't get jealous. That's a 'you' thing," Hex spoke to the wolf with a huff.

He wasn't much curious about anything Cider had to say, as his own velvety bat ears had been perked on Seris' conversation. The goat was gushing over someone he had talked about before, a particular species of ambassador dragon who lingered about the factions with diplomatic business, but also had a side hobby of putting on a show.

They were called Kirin, and were a very expressive species among the gods. They enjoyed the more feminine activities, especially fashion and dancing, and Seris would often talk about how much he adored their personality, or their physical features, or-

Or their glamorous, yet delicate, fur and scales.

And now the conversation had melted into Seris expressing how graceful their wings were, or could be, by Osiris' awed inquiry. He learned some Kirin didn't have physical wings; It was more like streams of colored light that would flow behind them as they stepped. But Hex thought they weren't THAT pretty.

Honestly what a fuss.

Hex whipped his right wing open briefly to check his own colors, not that he cared. Or was comparing. Though he couldn't lie; They weren't nearly as flashy as Seris described the Kirin's to be.

He wasn't worried that in a few weeks he'd probably be meeting one of these Kirin face-to-face, and that Seris would be there too. It'd be weird if he weren't. Why would Hex ever want to bother meeting a Kirin? He had no fondness in gazing upon such impressive creatures, and with that, he quickly closed his outstretched wing.

"You keep mumbling to yourself. What's a Kirin really look like anyway? It's sure got you riled up."

Hex didn't bother to paw Cider's face away from his own again.

"They're just splashy and bright. That's the best way I can describe it."

"Oh come on~" Cider prodded, leaning forward to persuade him further. No one could resist the lime-wolf-lean. Not even Hex.

"There's gotta be more."

"If you keep doing that, I'll go from 'simply shoving' to 'simply hitting' you," The vampiric bat thrashed his tail.

"And I'll enjoy it immensely."

The wolf only sniffed the air in reply, ignoring his warning. The scent of the tea had been quite intriguing, and all evening he had been trying to figure out its ingredients. One such ingredient he thought was mint, but there was another that kept him wanting more of it. It was addicting. Damned secret ingredient.

"Ok, but what are they like? Seris said they have sparkly scales. How sparkly ARE their scales? More sparkly than yours?"

The wolf leaned one hand on the back of the recliner he was seated in moments ago. Hex couldn't recall when he had stood up from it, or when he walked behind it, but here he was, in all his lime glory.

"First, I don't have scales, so they couldn't be nicer than mine to begin with," Hex shot back to Cider. The wolf only watched him, awaiting his answer.

"Their scales are..." Hex searched for a word, reluctantly.

"Like stardust."

"What! Stardust!?" Cider waved his arms as he exclaimed aloud.

"HOW are you gonna compete with stardust?!"

Hex frowned. Why did this dog always bark so loud?

"Stardust huh..." Cider took his green tail in his hands, petting it. Hex could only assume he was thinking; He hoped he wouldn't hurt himself by trying to hard. Poor guy.

"I don't even know what stardust looks like."

Cider then let go of his tail, letting it spring back in place, and motioned to the bat.

"And Seris said this Kirin's gonna be here in a few weeks?"

Hex nodded, glancing back to Seris who was still chatting with the rest of the group about the creatures. These 'Kirin' regularly made diplomatic rounds to different parts of the factions, to learn more about each others cultures in a sort of 'cultural exchange'. And in a few weeks, they would be visiting Emberguard, and if they weren't interested in impressive displays of military power, extensive mining operations or heavy machinery, it may be more along the lines of lackluster to them.

"Then we gotta get you glam'd up fam."

Hex narrowed his eyes at the confident wolf, who was now making a camera lens pose with his hands. The bat looked shocked, but also dismayed.

"I'm sorry, what?"

The wolf framed Hex between his fingers quite nicely, and snapped an imaginary pic.

"Like...now don't hit me when I say this...but, so you stand a chance against these Kirin, ya know? Gotta get ya-"

Cider took another imaginary picture, changing the angle, his tail wagging. Osiris looked over at him, briefly confused, but said nothing, and the heterochromic wolf finished his sentence.

"Get ya - Glam'd. Up. Fam."

Hex's gaze bore into the lime dog.

"Don't ever say that in front of me ever again."

Cider grinned, dropping his hands from their pose.

"You and Chronos both hate pictures. Ya'll picture hatin' people."

He stopped for a moment, and his tail wagging stopped as well. And thank the gods too, because Hex really wanted to grab it for a while there. Is that why dogs chase their tails sometimes? Do they find the motion alluring as well? Hex didn't find it at all alluring though. More like 'Grab it, it's bright green and making me mad'.

Ah yes, that was it. That made more sense.

"Wait a second. You didn't object to my idea?"

Cider stared at Hex for an answer, but the bat only continued his onlooking at Seris. His stance didn't reveal anything either, as here he was with his proud patented posture, but Cider knew there was something not quite right. The bat acted strangely every now and then, and Cider had been trying to decipher it for a while. It was no matter; He'd figure it out eventually.

Cider knew he was loud, but he also knew he could be a great listener if someone needed it. Not everything was about him; He liked understanding other people. He liked when Zephyr would voice his unhappiness about the strict rules Chronos had put in place that prevented him from going outside and simply adventuring a bit, and Cider would sit and listen, and then gather up all that knowledge & feelings and send it towards Chronos, who would still say no and deflect it all.

Because he was Chronos. And he knows best. But Cider would constantly try anyway, because it meant helping someone else get a little bit closer to their goals, just a little bit of happiness and a little bit of freedom.

And if Hex needed someone, anyone to safely talk to-

"Ah! I see we've run out of tea."

Apep's voice cut into Cider's thoughts. The male cobra had been trying to pour himself a glass, but the kettle was dry, and he set it back down onto the coffee table, muttering to himself in shock.

"How did we run out so fast? I just made an entire pot."

Hex glared at the Cider, picking up Apep's mutterings with those big bat ears of his.

The reason Hex was now glaring at the lime wolf was because he was trying to steady one-too-many cups stacked on the nightstand by the recliner. How did Cider get there so fast? Hex didn't know, but it would've been easier to steady the cups is the wolf actually turned to look at them, instead of guessing where they were by feeling behind him. Eventually, he met Hex's gaze when he realized his sneaky actions weren't so sneaky after all.

"What?"

"You said you were taking those to Chronos before," Hex scrutinized, counting the cups he hoarded. There were an extra three whole cups there.

"Well," The wolf started, picking up a cup that fell over from his awkward handling.

"It turns out he was asleep, and he couldn't drink them."

"How convenient," Hex noted.

"And I wasn't gonna let good tea go to waste."

Apep looked to Cider, and stood up from his seat, taking the tea tray in hand.

"If you wanted more, all you had to do was ask! With all the herbs I gathered earlier today, I can make more than enough."

He held the tray carefully as he started down the stairs to the shop's main floor.

"But I'll need to go to the garden and collect some catnip. I just ran out with this last tea batch."

Cider snapped his fingers. That had to be what the secret ingredient was. Good stuff.

Near him, Seris had jumped up from his spot on the couch, quickly running over to catch Apep before he left the room completely.

"Oh, let me! I can grab some for you."

Apep met the goat's eager cocoa-brown eyes.

"Yeah, the garden's out back. The door's over there."

He motioned downward with his shoulder to his left, leading Seris to believe the garden was on the main floor.

"I'm sure you know what catnip looks like."

"Oh yes! It's a common plant where I come from," Seris answered him as he hurried down the stairwell. Once he was at the bottom, he faced a large covered window on the left wall, and pulled the curtains to the side, revealing a glass door that led to the outside. After pressing the latch to unlock it, he turned to Apep, who was setting the tray down next to a cauldron he used for tea making.

"You need just a handful for this next batch right?"

The male cobra nodded.

And with that affirmation, Seris opened the door, stepped outside, and closed it behind him. The night was still warm, and the garden was quite large in front of him, but it appeared very colorful even at night, with an abundant assortment of perfect plants lined in rows, and Seris took a stroll down one of the aisles searching for the catnip Apep requested. He looked left and right, but unfortunately, no catnip was to be found.

The garden was dimly lit not to disturb any foliage during these darker hours, and it didn't help one bit that it was so, and after going down each row and not seeing the sneaky herb, Seris thought it must be somewhere along the far back wall.

He trotted to it, his hooves tapping the bricks below him, to the far wall where several patches of herbs lay, and he knelt, looking over each patch carefully until at last, he found it, the catnip patch he had been seeking.

But there was something peculiar about it, and he pressed it hand to the patch. These herbs weren't so perfect looking as all the other garden flowers were; These were matted and gnarled, as if something had been rolling over them. Something that very much enjoyed the scent of catnip. And it was quite recent too.

And it was still hunkering about, because Seris could hear noises coming from the other side of the garden, near the glass door. It was a small creature in a dark corner, digging up a storm and sending dirt all over the pathway behind it.

And then it had stopped it's vigorous burrowing to sniff the air a couple of times, no longer curious about the garden beets it had been excavating and flinging about. Something else had caught its interest, and it made sudden, strange clicking sounds when it stared at the brown-eyed goat on the other side of the garden.

Seris couldn't remember if Apep mentioned anything about having a pet dog.