The static of the present encounter crackles calmly into the ground. Alex is still in a readied position, watching the visitors make conversation with the fluffy hyenas' leader. The blackened blood drips from his nose as he cowers his tail between his legs but scowls in her direction. As Lady Tethra and the Hyshpa leader interact, Alex is spotted by the surveillant, Inka. Their sharp eyes stare at him as if he can feel his burning heart ripe with fear from the encounter. Rather than back down, Alex prefers to stand upright while he stares back, trying to keep his calm. 

Akhmin looks up at Tethra and puts Achiin down behind him. His eyes are angered and the corners of his mouth, sour. "Tethra..." He gets up, stomping his clawed fluffy foot on the ground. His soul draws everyone else's in with a negative field of dis. Alex can feel his heart aching as if it's compacting itself, his chest is unable to intake the air and yet his systems feel nominal despite. Zyphon taps his neck softly to calm him down as he senses despair. Akhmin trudges slowly toward the stark woman with his fists clenched and grudges against her momentous arrival. His feathers writhe in a cold updraft as his eyes mask a light blue iris. 

A bound of gravity is felt from Akhmin's aura but only so much that atoms can gain in the low altitude of his surroundings. She looks at him... unfettered by his presence. "Oh Akhmin I didn't see you there. How are the kids?" She looks at Achiin's body resting behind him and her eyes stricken in judgement. "Who did this... who..." She looks at the Hyshpa in front of her. For a moment, she thinks, but her irises become a complete tangerine, masquerading her lightened yellow gaze. Inka idly stands by. Tethra lunges for the Hyshpa's throat, clawing at his muscles deepening them until he's unable to breathe. He laughs in her face until he is silenced.

As the Hyshpa leader's gasp is lowered to a faint and silent breathing, Tethra releases her grip. She trembles and watches her victim dream. "I hope you have nightmares you piece of--" Akhmin puts his hand on her shoulder and she closes her eyes. The orange glow recedes as she reverts almost immediately back to her normal snickery self. 

Tethra sighs and stands up formally, putting her hand on her hip. "Is Achiin ok...?" Akhmin nods but replies with a question as well. "Is he alive?" She looks at the dog on the ground. He seems lifeless but his tongue is out while his nose twitches, nostrils flaring as his chest practically pants for dear life. The surrounding followers crowd him and cower at her power. When she turns around to Akhmin they ditch the area and wander off quickly, dragging their leader with them. One of them razzes their tongue at Alex to which he looks back in confusion of the gesture. Tethra breathes out again, replying to Akhmin. "Yes... I'm not a monster..." she looks away, crossing her arms. "So why are you here... Akhmin... what business do you have down here?" Akhmin yet again looks at her with a question. "Why are you?" Tethra glares at him, her mouth peaking at one side in disdain. "Tsk... what... you think I'm in this?" 

Akhmin looks back at the troop of Hyshpa running in the distance down the larger alley. A small, slivered group of white strands are stretched outward in the distance. "A lake..." He says. "Why is there a lake?" Alex looks far off and enhances the detail around twenty times. He can see multiple Hyshpa working on what looks to be huts. Some are yelling at eachother and a bigger, scarier one holding a hammer like the leader Hyshpa is snarling. He can somewhat hear what they are saying but the soundwaves are dissonant and intermittent. Something about 'work'. He sees them cackling and giggling, running away from the big one who then lowers his eyelids in bother, walking away. They... don't really seem dangerous. "Why did these Hyshpa fight us...?", he asks them both. Akhmin looks at him. He has nothing to say. Saddened, he goes back to Achiin as he sleeps smiling and snoring. 

Tethra puts her hand on Alex's shoulder but he swipes it away immediately. He blinks a couple of times and looks back at her, holding himself. Awkward, Tethra stares for a moment but respects him and continues, "So these 'dogs' basically have been bothering me and my men for quite a time... it all started with the uncovering of a portal..." Alex brings his attention to this. "They... keep whining about a 'numen' and that their 'god' needs them to thrive... long story short they keep attacking my supplies and they keep blathering on about 'messages from beyond'. It's absolutely driving me insane--" After looking back at Alex she spots his eyes widened in worry. Confused, she looks at Akhmin. "What's with this kid? What's going on...?" As Akhmin pets Achiin's mane he shakes his head. "He's a chiro..." he pats his son's head and leaves him in a nice bed of grass walking over to her. "You'll know in a few moments..." He walks past her and toward the Kymerin chieftain. Tethra stares at them. She cannot make out who that is. Their patterns, their facial features. Their ears are far too long and jagged to be a Kymera... She speaks under her breath near Alex, "That's... no Kymera..." Alex stares deeper into the chief's blackened eyes. He sees a flicker of white light in the abyssal cornea. Their body somewhat takes a form he's seen before in his dream. "The dog...", he says. Tethra scrunches her face and looks at him in confusion, "The what??"