Luxspur had found herself wandering the north, and to her dismay without anything to keep her warm - lucky her - Yippe here she was walking around her body heat being sucked right off her back with each step she took forward. She needed to find a cave, some grassy weeds to pile onto her slumbering form. But so far she found no grass. Just ice, snow and dry dirt, and open rocky passages. Dear Maua, please guide her to a place that she could rest and not die to death from the cold. She stares up at the star-lit sky above and ponders if she should back track south and give up her explorations to the north. After all, it was stupid of her to go this far alone.

weird.

Amaryllis had so many... little ecosystems. he was just beginning to discover them all. a desert, a rainforest and now a frozen wasteland. the man sighs, his breath coming out into white air. snow, ice and frozen shit. all that and more. but what's this? he caught a whiff of a stronger scent, a recent scent. lucky him. maybe he could persuade them for directions. he was, for all intents, lost.

"excuse me" he says to thin air at first, calling. Oberon's words bounced off the emptiness of this location. ah shit. he probably sounded like some rawr bear. beginning to shuffle inside, grateful for shelter from the cold air, he sighs. tales his mother told him of flesh eating beasts that were doomed to be forever cold... sent a chill up his spine. "anyone here?"

he tries again. that's all he could hope to do.

@Luxspur

"Hellllooooo" the words echoed across the open valley. Oh dear, she was not alone anymore. She turns - her silver hair bouncing around her shoulders as she looks around her surroundings. It was then that she noticed the distant figure. Making a turn and heading back to the lion she would chuff - please be nice please beee niiiiceee - her mind chanted. She had heard so many stories so far from the other Natives about how some of the new lions that arrived were either nasty crazy hell-bent on attacking or cheerful and loving beasts. Which one would this lion be to her?

The lioness perks and looks up, why he was quite the looker. Taking a breath and then chuffing again. " A...llo.." broken English was wonderful yes? She blinked her bi-colored eyes up at the male. Lips pursed in question as she stares at the man under the starry skies. @Oberon

oh, well there were no flesh eating monsters but he'd take a pretty lady. yep. no take-backs, nature. she smelt of the Brook, his encounters with the natives sparse and few but he at least knew what Vermeda smelt like. "hey" he says, unbothered by her broken English. Oberon keeps his distance respectful as she openly stares at him. "do you know where we are?"

stupid bard, not knowing the path laid out. he sorta just wandered until he found a direction. it was better for a story. whimsical even. "oh, shit" he reminds himself, freezing on the spot "we should get some shelter. I can barely hear over the roar of this tundra" even if she gave him directions, he'd not be able to listen closely "erm, do you know where shelter is?" he flattened his ears against his skull, looking sheepish.

@Luxspur

'Do you know where we are?' the question was asked. How funny that the lion would assume SHE knew where they were. Well, she KNEW but she would act confused for a moment. Looking up and then back at him as if 'tryng to think' of where exactly they were she would shrug. "Kwenye indawo emantla." (somewhere in the north?) she teased in Xhosa knowing full well she never met anyone else to speak it but her parents who were dead, long dead. She turns forward, makes herself presentable before coming closer to @Oberon as he shivers.

Yes, yes it was cold here. She takes a chilled breath in through her nose and out of the mouth - ahhh he was from the Cove. The coves were respectful lions and lionesses - she would be eased a bit more around him now. " Ice...cove...near...edge of west.." she turned her paw to point behind her and out to the left side of her body. " Somewhere...there." that was all she could recall as she shivered in the dark. Eyes bouncing over his also chilly body before connecting their eyes at a glance.

a-what now?

kwe-something something and something else. he tilts his head, smiling politely but having no fucking idea what she had said. the woman comes closer to him and says in English this time. oh, thank gods for that. she tells him there was a cove (still ice!) nearby. "thanks" the man nods, wondering just how good this fabled cove was going to be for shelter. he turns his body away from her, but notices out of the corner of his eye she also shudders.

damn it, being a gentleman was... okay, it wasn't as bad as it seemed. he couldn't just leave her here. that was the point. "coming?" Oberon looks back at her, a clear invite. being frozen wasn't a merit. even if she'd look pretty still, death was not attractive. might as well get out of the chill. he didn't know why she was wandering around in the cold like this, and she could ask him the same anyway. but he had a good retort; lost. he was so dang lost.

@Luxspur

The non-native male seemed to thank her? For what? She wasn't sure and her mind bubbled at the topic of it all. Was it because she related information of where possible caves lay across this area? Perhaps it was. "mm.." her tiny shivering voice replied back to @Oberon. When he moved she faced the other way, she was not used to the whole 'being around others' so this was something entirely new for her to deal with. 'coming?' what? she turned to look back at the fleeting hip of the man ahead of her. Did he want her to follow him? She curiously hums and perks a brow at his question. Moving she steps to the side and walks albeit slowly to his left side. "...Sure." she stated. She looked forward and lifted her toes off the ground - right limb stretching out to point before her " cave that way, sometimes cave has bedding." other times not so much. She moves to place her foot back down against the frozen earth before releasing a bubble of hot air into the space around her face. Exhaling before moving into gear to make way to the area that may or may not hold a cave or den for them to get out of the weather.

she agrees to come with him. Oberon doesn't want her to freeze to death out here, but he can't help but inwardly scoff. if she was so eager to follow a stranger... it may not end so good next time. "bedding" he muses, drawing a thoughtful look "do lions live up here?" though from her limited speech, he didn't think it'd be an enlightened conversation.

he just hoped whoever used the bedding wasn't around. like a frigging bear. they walked in near silence, save for her answer if there was one. Oberon looked around before spotting the cave in the near distance. he cranes his neck to motion before darting across the snowy tundra. fat chance of him being outside a moment longer than required!

@Luxspur

They walked through the tundra, her eyes casually looking up at the man before her - he wasn't that bad looking at all if she had to say so herself. She kept some distance between them but still close enough that she could feel what body heat he had lifting off of his body. "Some yes, Mostly natives. Natives found variously across Maua's lands. " she shrugged. Though if someone claimed the cave as their home she was unaware of it as she very rarely ventured this far unless bored out of her mind. "Most caves and dens here are just filled in case of the lost stranded souls enter. Other times vacant due to the lions dying or forgetting to come back." she shrugged.

When @Oberon darted for the cave that came to the first view she trotted behind him, in less of a hurry than he was. When they got close and entered she quickly made for the back, sloping her body and tucking her legs so that her mane would dip and draw over her ankles. Heavy exhale left her lips as she looked up and watched where he decided he wanted to lay himself. Thankfully there was SOME bedding inside this cave but not a whole lot - so by her guess it had been empty for many months.

wow.

he didn't think she could speak common tongue so well. her broken English was a bit cute, if he had to be honest, and he was almost disappointed hearing her speech. "I've seen a few of your kind at pride challenges" he tells the woman "but I haven't the pleasure meeting all of you" he had met a native woman with a split ebony and ivory coat, but he knew more existed. "I'm Oberon, by the way." he adds to her, having forgotten to give his name.

stupid him. how improper.

the woman would rush, not as quickly, toward the back once they hit the cave's entrance. she was quick to claim part of it for herself. Oberon knew some natives were wary of foreigners, and he didn't blame them. "I'm glad we aren't going to fight anyone for shelter" he muses, staying near the entrance. he couldn't help be a bit cautious. the tundra-like location here in the north... so foreign to him. he would fight to defend himself or others, but not for the sake of something trivial.

@Luxspur