The walls of the crimson hideaway rose around him, casting the boy into silent shadows as he lay upright but still. He was mulling within himself... Deep within his own mind and retracing the happenings of the past few months with a sense of somber grief covering him like a blanket of uncomfortable itchiness. A state of peace that he had gathered was ripped from underneath him and cast away to something new, a fresh uncertainty that really seemed like him no less than a test of his faith. Although his recent visions that he had with Sidonie were enlightening, they were also horrifying. He was still struggling to understand them, as well as the voice he'd heard.

But he was drawn from his thoughts, hearing the sound of someone nearby- perhaps above him at the service of the shallow crevice he'd wedged himself into. He didn't move, only cast his thoughtful gaze upward to try and glimpse the interloper through the opening where the sun shone through. No sound to be made until he knew what had approached him- either knowingly or unknowingly.

@Poppy

Just when she had finally found a home, it would fall apart just as quickly as she found it. Shame how life had ways of making her suffer right? She wandered the landscape - her head hung so that her chin rubbed at her collar bone, a soothing motion as she walked. And her home disappearing wasn't what hit her the hardest. Her family had been gone...she had no idea where Sunflower or even Daisy was, and then to make things worse atop it all - the one friend she REALLY enjoyed being with, Walthari, was gone too and it seemed his home had fallen to ash as well as her own. She stood staring out across the dunes as a whimper left her lips. "This one is yet again....all alone.." she felt the bottom of her lip quivering as her eyes began to water.

The voice that came to his ears was like a song, one that lit him up from the inside and ignited his features from their formerly somber placement. Hazels widened and he immediately got to his feet- or tried to, in the comically small space he'd put himself. He nosed himself from the crevice, wincing as a few of his scars painfully scraped against the rock in his haphazard attempt to leave his hiding place, but it was short-lived as that clearly wasn't the current focus.

He was happy- beyond belief- to be greeted by the sight of the flower-adorned lioness. To the point where he even debated whether she was there or this was another lingering vision from another herb-induced stupor. After all, he had thus far failed to find both her and his beloved angel when he had very much tried, and now she is simply wandering within his path?

"P-Poppy?" He mewed, voice unintentionally shaking.

@Poppy

Her eyes shot up like she had seen something rare falling from the sky and then dropped them back down as she landed on @Walthari 's form before her. It was him! Oh, sweet Sol and Jord had answered her prayers, FINALLY, she was not alone wandering this world anymore. FINALLY!!! She chirps loudly as she bounds to where he is, and by the gods when she got closer she couldn't stop the worry that hit her face. "THIS!!" the woman gestures to his injuries. "What happened?!?!?" panic started to rise up in her chest as she then looked over the boy in a quick run around the lion game. She stopped at his front and parted her lips with a sigh. "Thought you'll be gone for good. This one has been all alone out here. Can't find anyone." she sobbed a moment. The tears now dripping from their ducts. "And this one sees you are hurt..." ahh there goes the flood from her eyes. She smacks to the earth, body shivering as she is trying to calm herself down before the injured boy.

She was upon him, the excitement on her face followed quickly by tremendous worry as she caught sight of his wounds that were still healing, namely the ones that had been scraped to bleed again by his careless exit from the crevice. He was unused to such concern for himself, even though it mirrored the way he felt about her and he no doubt would have done the same- he was more or less frozen like a deer in headlights as she came and circled him. Emotion spilled from her eyes and it made him tremble in his own overwhelming flow of emotions.

"I-I t-thought I was alone.. t-" He stammered, chin quivering before he gave up and just wrapped his paws around her. The discomfort in him with touch was hushed for the moment, only wanting to pull her close and comfort her, seeing her cry was like a twisted thorn in his gut. Closeness had helped Talisa, perhaps it could help his crying friend as well. His crying friend that he really thought he'd lost like Faust.

But she asked him what happened, and he tried to gather himself enough to explain. "Hyenas. T-they overran the... Bluffs... F-Faust is gone. I-.. I tried to.." Find him, but he couldn't get out those words aside from a light mouthing.

"I was attacked." He finally said in regard to his wounds, the pink fleshy score along his side, the tear on the top of his muzzle, and the punctures on his legs where furious teeth had tried to bring him to the ground. With a deep breath, he was able to steady his stammering a bit. "I'm fine. But you? What happened?! I looked in the Oasis when I h-heard it was being claimed- but..."

@Poppy

She embraces the young @Walthari right back, her arms floating around him and pulling him tight and close. "This one is so thankful." she stated and then looked up to Sol in silent prayer. Her paw reaches up and wipes her face before a sniffle echoes a few times from her lips. "Woke to sand storms...then..then Fionn was gone...all was leaving because he wasn't found...no one...This one didn't stay...was too scared. Storm got bad and decided to leave to see if Fionn was outside......but nothing...entirely..........just gone.." she fights back a sob.

His words about his angel disappearing made her frown even more, and then Hyena's driving forth and having him getting hurt. She raises a paw to touch gently where she could SEE his injuries. "Must get them healed up fast. Stick together yes? We find somewhere to go with your Angel - Faust and my Fionn gone." she tells with a nod.

The boy was much larger than she, he was nearing ever closer to being full-grown. It was easy to hold her smaller form in an affectionate embrace. Of the sort that he hadn't felt since his mother and her expressions of half-love-half-necessity, and that simple fact alone brought more tears to his eyes. Childish tears that spilled silently and longingly onto the ground at his paws. The thought of being cared for by someone was overwhelming but in the most enlightening way that he couldn't describe. A feeling that he, honestly, wished he could simply stay in. Let everything else fall away...

But it was also terrifying, intense. She sniffled and continued to fret over his wounds, and in light of the rolling feelings in his chest he had trouble understanding and even coping with he decided to approach that instead. He drew back with a brief sense of braveness in his gaze, a reassurance to her and a dismissal of his meager scars. "They're healing." He said softly, Maeve had done a good job tending after them when she'd found him. "I'm so sorry Poppy...A-and that I wasn't able to f-find you sooner. L-lets stick together yes."

He couldn't be happier that she'd echoed the same sentiment he had thought. He didn't want to lose his dear friend again or even think that he had. But then he did realize that she hadn't been alone in Andal. What of her flowered kin? His heart sunk and wept for her, even the softest stir of anger for the fact that the innocent woman didn't deserve such sadness. "I will help you find your kin- okay? I-I promise."

She nods "Glad that they heal for you, always good that they heal yes?" she tells the young boy before her. She shifts and sits back a somber feature eclipsing over her face as she hangs her head a moment. "Daisy....and Sunflower....." she sighs heavily. Who knew where they had gone to? She shifts and nods again to him. "yes stick together. Should us go to passages? Maybe find another place to live?" surely it wasn't safe out here right? She looks to @Walthari in question on what to do now that they found one another.

The boy does much the same, sitting back on his haunches and sighing, bringing a blackened paw up to wipe his eyes of the moisture they'd gathered. But as for her question... He hadn't thought of joining another pride. It was clear she needed to however, she had already had a run in with someone else claiming her and although he would surely spare no mercy to anyone who tried- he knew she perhaps needed the protection of a pride more than him.

He thought for a moment, looking down at his paws before bringing his softened gaze up to her again. "B-before I left Andal- it was reclaimed by a former member. I... I don't know who she is though. Maybe you might? O-otherwise... I know Vermeda is safe, they are friendly to me! M-maybe they would take us in? At least until we f-find your family."

He trailed out, letting a gentle smile cross his face to crack through the forlorn atmosphere between them. Hoping to shine a little light on her. "You and your flowers might like it there- in the forest."

@Poppy

Poppy watches the boy, sniffling - moving - watching him. When he speaks of someone else claiming the Andal location she huffs "Sadly this one did not know others of the pride..only of Fionn and the chubby cubs that were there..." she felt odd going there without Fionn. Poppy thinks a moment when he brings up another place, there were other prides? "There are others out there? Beyond the Hollow and Andal?" she questions curiously. "this one had no idea.....hmm...." she thinks.


Her mind was reeling and bouncing. He said it was a rainforest right? Well, she turned her head to the sky and hums loudly. "Det skal være nok sollys for Sol..." she paused to tap her chin and then looks at @Walthari with a calmer expression this time. "Sol should be there as well unless it's very thick tops..." she looks at her toes, his toes, and then to his eyes. Nodding she swallows a bit down her throat and takes a deep breath " Hmm okay, we go there to see. yes?" she tilts her head and waits to see what the boy would do now. After all he stated they liked him right?