Rhosiris was fairly certain his hearts were going to thud right out of his chest, just slip right out of him in a puddle of gold for how hard they were beating. Hell, they very well might just beat their way all the way back home, even after violently escaping him.
The thought was... less than settling, and Rhosiris' mouth pulled into a tight grimace at the wave of nausea that followed, that only compounding as he somehow, brilliantly, became incapable of thinking of anything but how disgusting that all would look.
"Wait, wait," he gasped softly, moving to one side of the hall to lean against the cool stone wall and gather himself a bit. Groaning softly, he squatted down, as if being somehow lower to the ground would work in his favor. Abandoning Hero's fur lest he rip it right out, Rho instead held onto his knees and took slow, steadying breaths.
Grasses. Clear waters. The scent of frost on the morning wind. Fresh stew -- oh, oh no, no food thoughts, moving right along -- some of the purple flowers they'd seen further north, those had smelled quite nice.
Rho took another breath, and rose to his proper height again. His stomach was still surly, but the feeling was ebbing just as quickly as it had come about in the first place. He sank his hand in Hero's fur once more, giving an apologetic sort of pet to him as they continued their way to the quarters afforded him and his kin.
"H-hey, hey you, wh-- you can't have a wolf in here!"
Nausea quickly gave way to annoyance, the heat of the emotion superseding all else. All Rho wanted was to get inside and have things put to rights and not have his life in chaos for a single, solitary moment. Naturally, being approached by one of the passing palace guards was not going to grant him such a mercy.
"Listen, you need to get that thing out of here, right now, elf, do you hear me?"
Straightening his back and raising his chin once more, Rhosiris fell back on the old staple that had proven fairly useful when dealing with the local population:
He played dumb as hell.
The Ztara Vratazi mother tongue, thankfully, was incredibly syllabic, such that many words in the common, human dialect were damn near paragraphs when it came to a translation. Which helped, when Rho's entire goal was to overwhelm and confuse this poor guard into leaving him the hell alone.
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, I can't understand a single word you are saying, and if I did, I would perhaps be of the mind to hold you up near the ceiling until you decided that you could FUCK. OFF."
Being suddenly bombasted with a language that no one south of the isles had a single hope of understanding seemed to have an immediate effect, as the guard stopped short fairly quickly and raised both his hands.
"S-- listen, I can't-- I thought you all spoke trade-- wait-- slowdown--"
Rho did not, in fact, slow down. If anything he just got louder.
Which, while that might have helped his situation elsewhere, it did have the unfortunate result of summoning his own kin, as the door to the quarters opened and none other than their wordsmith Ana stepped out to see what the commotion was.
And he certainly wasn't expecting the commotion he found. Similarly raising his hands in a placating manner, Ana stepped around Rho and Hero, eyeing the wolf in very deep concern before turning to the guard and trying to be as amicable and peaceful as possible.
"I am so sorry, this is-- we are not quite familiar with your customs, and this is a-- prized beast my companion brought from home."
"That thing's a fuckin' pet?" the guard asked incredulously, momentarily stopping Rho from retreating into the door while they were both distracted.
"Yes, a pet, a most tame one, I assure you. I do apologize, but I really must speak with my kinsman here, urgently," Ana said sweetly, and Rhosiris recognized the soft bell-like tone of a wordsmith trying very hard to get his own way. Which served him just as well, inching Hero further to the open doorway.
"A pet," the guard said, as if in a daze, finally shaking his head and wagging a stern finger in their collective direction, "just mind it, yeah? No wild animals in the halls."
"No wild animals in the halls, of course," Ana continued in that soft, sweet tone, stepping backwards and all but shoving Rho inside, "we understand, thank you very much, sir."
Rho barely got inside before Ana closed the door with a solid thunk, and turned a white-hot stare right onto Rhosiris.
"What. The fuck. Is THAT." Pointing rather hysterically at Hero.
