"That's so cool." She wanted to learn more but the conversation was once again shifted to her own pain and Bei's ears flattened on her head as she looked towards her paws. "I..." She would sigh then. "Someone I like found out that his real mom is here and he hates her for letting him go. He hates the cubs that she's pregnant with and wants to kill them.. Eventually.. I tried to get him to understand that maybe she had no choice but to let him go and instead he told me to leave and not come back.." Tears began to swell up on her cheeks again. "It's like my heart just broke into tiny pieces.. If that's what it's like to be hurt by someone you love I don't want to fall in love ever again.." She would state, fighting tears.

@Tyrion

Tyrion would watch as her expression changed when the subject was adverted back on to her and the reason for her sadness. He waited with learned patience as she gathered herself to fumble out the correct words. In silence, he would listen with ears cocked forward to show that she had his full attention. Only when she was done would he make a move. A deep breath filled his lungs and caused his chest to puff for a moment before it was expelled between parted lips. "Family matters a tough one, lass." Again his eyes shifted over her in thought.

"You are young, so I can imagine he is as well. In youth, it is hard for a young lion to decipher his emotions and thoughts. Often they are so entangled into one that they do not know how to express any of them separately." He wasn't sure if she understood or not. Gaze drifted from her to the pool that had once again grown still. "He is hurt and unsure how to handle it right now. His thoughts are unclear due to his pain. You-" He paused to point a large paw toward her. "Were an available target for release." He said in finality. "You must give him some time. Let him pick apart his mind and stew on his actions. If he cares, he will realize his shortcoming and if you care, the way you say, you will remain loyal through it all despite what words his anger may blindly seep out."

@Aardbei

His words were different but Bei listened to them eagerly as he began to speak to her. Ears twisting on top of her strawberry head as she would look to him. His paw touched her's and Bei glanced down at it as she pondered his words. It was true. Neither of them were over a year old or were just a year old. Perhaps Xerxes just didn't understand what he was feeling and all he was feeling was anger. Something that he couldn't control. She had wanted to stay with him today, but how could she? He wanted her gone and it showed in his words and features. She would sniffle at him then and look back up at him. "Are you sure?"

@Tyrion

He had hoped that his words had done some good, at the least enough so to ease her sorrow for the moment. She asked a question and thought it over a moment. He could only speak from his own experience, after all, he was a young boy at some point a time ago. "I am. Just check back with him, even if he pushes you away. He needs to know someone still cares." If the relationship with his family was not well, who knows who else the boy could have. He knew it would have helped him through many things as he grew up. "Now, where do you stay? I can walk you back."

@Aardbei

She would nod her head at him then, still sniffling slightly before speaking. "I will.." Little did she know that today may have ended up as the last day she got to see Xerxes. But that was for a different day and different thread as he would soon ask where she was staying. Slowly, Bei blinked at the pool before them and would shrug. "I stay in the Lagoon but not as a member.. Just there so I smell like them until I find a place that I can call my own.." She would state. As much as she loved her family, there were times that one was to leave the nest and start their own life, right?

@Tyrion

"Good. Love is a wonderful thing to experience in life and you will have many forms of it to come." Perhaps by the time she grew older she would find another to give her heart to that did not push her away. Or perhaps the boy would come to his senses and sweep the youth of her paws for years to come. Regardless, it was his duty to return her to wherever she wished to be. "I had cubs of my own once... I would have loved to see them grow to this point." He smiled in his soft musing as he rose to his paws. "I like you Bei and you are more than welcome to come home with me under my care- or as I said before, I can walk you to the lagoon. The night is no place for a lass." And eventually the darkness would fall over them. He wanted her tucked away safe before that time.

@Aardbei

"So, you're saying there is a chance that me and Xerxes may not even end up together?" That maybe he wasn't her soul-mate. That thought hadn't crossed her mind at all until now. However, his next words caused her to frown at him slightly. "What happened... if you don't mind me asking?" He didn't have to answer that question if he didn't want to and Bei would completely understand if he didn't. Even still she felt a great deed of sorrow hit her, not as strong as the one that she had just suffered but it was there. "Where... where is your home? Will your pride let me stay there?" She was tired of being around familiar faces and comfort.

@Tyrion

"It is a possibility." He had mentioned before the topic had time to move on. And ah, was the change something he had not expected. A question he had not had to answer in quite some time. A past he had yet to face. The brute shifted as he cleared his throat softly. "We were rogues at the time, a sickness crossed them, and with lack of proper help they were lost." It was the simple story. It lacked how hard he had to fight for them. How it wrenched his heart to watch them fade no matter how hard he had tried.

Then to be abandoned by his wife and blamed for their hardship. Something that weighed heavy on his shoulders, even now. He managed a weak, soft smile. "We are natives- not savages. Our queen would love to meet you, I'm sure of it." He tried to ease her doubts and worries.

@Aardbei

"I hadn't even thought about that.." She would admit glancing towards her paws as her toes wiggled on the solid ground. But she was still hopeful. Maybe. Perhaps. Ears twisted as she would glance back up and towards @Tyrion as he would explain what had happened to his family. And her heart clenched at that very thought. "I'm sorry.. I'm adopted.. My biological family was killed and a friend had helped take me away when I was only a cub." Well she was a cub now but she meant when she was younger. "I'm grateful for my family regardless though!" She would chirp. And she was but there were parts of her that missed her biological family. "When I get older, I want to help others." She would admit before he mentioned his queen and being native. "I didn't mean it in a bad way.." She would giggle nervously. "I'd like to meet your queen though."

"I'm open to being you're family if ever you should want more or need it." He would be there for the youth in a time of need. Would aid the girl in any way that she wanted. There was something about the youth that tugged at his heartstrings and attempted to wrap them around her strawberry paw. The need to wrap her in a protective blanket was strong. Perhaps it lingered over from his time spent as a father in the past. He gave a nod as he took a few steps off and waited for her to fall in to step alongside. "Then let us be on the way." He smiled to ease any doubts that may linger as they moved out.

-exit-

@Aardbei