This content might touch on topics that are sensitive or triggering for some readers. Trigger Warning for allusions to death.

Balathet

heavy is the head

Perhaps he has walked too far,
or not far enough.
But by the time his paws lead him step by agonising step into the depths of Maua's passage, his stride has lost it's desperation. A lion who would not have ever given up on a task a simple as walking, as staying upright, is on the verge of just that; giving in, succumbing. Balathet slumps with his last grunt to the crags of the passage wall.

Each paw pad has cracked wide open. They bleed and weep, soaking up rocks and sand that cling to any moisture left to find within. Sea salt remains cloying to his mane, tangling it in knots. Both eyes are sunken far into their orbit, his skin clings to what remains of wasting muscle. It all tells of a journey not only across a continent but from another entirely.

If a calf walked shakily toward him, nose outstretched and ears pricked, he wouldn't even raise his head to strike. If a pool of water lay twenty more feet ahead, he could not lift his body to draw towards it.

But it has grown darker and colder here at least. Looking up beyond the black confines of the passage, he sees billions of stars and planets and moons and space. Balathet decides that though it is not a battlefield, it is second best. It will make a fine place to rest.

Minutes or hours pass since he takes his last glimpse of his skyward view when, through the tinnitus of crickets, he feels the vibrations of approaching footfalls. Opening a blurry, bloodshot eye, he sees the silhouette of another like him for the first time in weeks.

"I Balathet." he rasps to the pair of ears peering down at him. "far come have i. far go i must. legs of mine now take me none."

---

Translations (lol)
I Balathet - I am Balathet
Far come have I - I have come far
Far go I must - I still have far to go.
Legs of mine now take me none - My legs won't take me there.

code by corvus

The blessed news was that the dark collapsed figured was definitely not Caeso. The cursed news... it wasn't Caeso. Aquila had began to give up on his hope of finding his wayward fiancee within Maua's lands and turned instead to the last place he'd have liked to look. The passage. A land rotten with the thick musk of mixing odors, of prides, of travel and missions. It was no place he'd go for any other reason... it was the place Caeso would first arrive back though, or maybe the place he left through. Today though, as already established, he had not found Caeso but another lion none the less. And one in worse shape than usual. Aquila sighed softly under his breath, deciding to approach. His standing figure looming over the tired one of @Balathet. He gave a name- and Aquila leaned his head downwards closer to the dark figure's face while cupping his ears forwards. One of them looked freshly torn, it had a piece missing and the edges were pale with new skin. "If the place you're going is the grave you're pretty close." He surmised with a quick glance up and down the male with silver eyes. Maua would not look kindly on a Valour lion leaving someone out here like this.

"If it's somewhere else you aren't getting there today." And perhaps not without a healer's help by the looks of things. Aquila was not sure if rest alone would patch this lion up to full. Not that many around here were whole anyways. "You need help." He stated the obivious but rather than jumping in to help Aquila continued to speak. "Do you want it?" Oh Nymeria please your cousin is not good at this...

ART BY BESSONA , CODE BY LARS

This was gonna be new for her but it was going to be part of her life now right? Building things up so the pride had a large number that other prides wouldn't want to mess with them. Adding those numbers and having them be loyal was going to be a job but hopefully, she would be able to pull in enough willing members to match those Vermier dragged into the pride. She didn't count those as loyal. She made her way to lands she hadn't touched since she crossed into the lands over a year ago with Ambro, Mona, and almost all of the cubs. She spotted a dark lion with another one, a familiar one. She had seen him fighting for a pride not long ago. Seemed like this might be a good start. She arrived to hear his broken speech, good lord another one. He didn't sound like he was french so she decided not to try that. She looked toward the King as he spoke and did her best not to look like a total bitch. My pride isn't to far from here. I can help you there if you would like. We have the means to help you heal and rest up. She didn't know what the other pride had but she knew that the walk to the other pride was longer and the stranger likely wouldn't make it.

@Balathet

Artist | Coding by Analese

Balathet

heavy is the head

Before he can drag another breath inward, the silhouetted pair of ears and eyes offers a string of words that in other circumstances might earn a smirk or a growl. Here with only crags and stars for company, Balathet offers a rare singular huff of laughter - because he wholeheartedly agrees. There is little else he can do at this stage to gain a better view of the lion except tilt his head back against the rockface he's fallen upon, sand collecting and falling like sawdust from his maw.

The eyes that look back, he notices, are so pale in comparison to any he's ever seen. Where he is from the yellow hue of his own is as bright as they come. It's astonishing even to the likes of Balathet - the kind of man who, when shown a breathtaking view, remains unmoved and declares he's seen far better.
With the gold pools of his own eyes now widened and fixated he murmurs something unintelligible; something in his own language, but perhaps doesn't need translation. It is of wonderment and fascination, translated by it's tone only.

You need help says the stranger with one eye of moons and the other of stars. do you want it?
Balathet's jaws open to reply when the passage is disturbed by the echo of another's approach, and his words turn to a sharp intake of breath. In this place, in this state, it becomes harder to feel like a predator.

The woman who emerges looks as though she was cut from the same cloth as this sky. For that reason alone, she quickens the pace of his heart. How unsettling - to see something so ethereal. How utterly intriguing, though.

Spoiled for choice in offers of hands of healing, he wonders which, if any, he should trust. so before he decides he draws the strength gained after the cool hours of slumber in the passage, and stands. He is taller than the lioness, and with the slightest tilt of his chin can make himself appear taller than the lion who seems of equal stature. "hmm" is murmured as he takes his gaze between the pair. Both look well fed. "need of help I am, but need of home... more." mournfully, the lion drops his gaze, nose crinkling a second later at the pitiful lapse of strength. "without home, without pride... Become this again I will. Rest now better than, starve always must not ."

---

need of help I am, but need of home... more. - I need a home more than I need help.
without home, without pride... Become this again I will. - Without a home/pride I will become like this again.
Rest now better than, starve always must not . - better to die now than to starve forever.

code by corvus

Aquila met Balathet's bright luminous eyes, like blazing embers plucked from the sky and placed deep in his features. There was little life in the lion's tired frame but those eyes seemed to hold universes worth of life within them. I am Aquila Valour, Sovereign Protector of Andal Oasis. He introduced having been given time enough to decide he was okay introducing himself and being known by this man. Though while he had been caught up in the brightness of Balathet's gaze the approach of another was mostly lost to him until Amara spoke. The bronze lion turned towards her, towards the unfamiliar face whilst Balathet's broken words fell upon his turned ears.

He frowned a tad, his posture shifting away so he was looming less and could keep better watch over the Lagoon female who had just arrived as well. I won't promise you a home. I don't know you, you don't know me. And with @Amara here now Aquila wasn't keen on giving up a lot more information about Andal. The Native Son was not familiar nor comfortable with the idea of freely allowing souls into his home- it had seemed to change and starve the entire land itself. The practice did not bode well for his pride. But I can provide the shelter you need right now, and if you staying seems to suit us both then a home you could have. @Balathet seemed utterly harmless now, weakened and sapped of life. Aquila doubted this was the lion's whole self on display now. There would be more to him, there was more to Aquila than he'd let on so far.

Amara watches and finds it amusing when the new king seems to be wary of her. She didn't know if it was her or if he was just like that but she liked thinking that another was weary of her. She gave him her best smile before focusing on the unknown male as he stands up to talk to them. It was easy for her to put together his words, only time listening to Vermier talk has turned useful. She nodded as @Aquila spoke, more or less what she was thinking as well. Once healed and well, we can see what your worth is to the pride and the pride to you. No promises attached other than he would be able to get better and rest. Her golden eyes look into his as she waits to see what he will do. Walk to his death to this other guy's land or stroll down the coast to her sandy home.

@Balathet

Artist | Coding by Analese

Balathet

heavy is the head

Despite his eyes sunking in their orbit, there remains a bright curious quality to his gaze as he looks at Amara - almost as though he's rarely beheld a female of the species before. Because he hasn't really. Aunties, cousins, sisters - all had left his prideland in the days he learned to walk, leaving the cub alone with elderly patriarchs too old to hunt.
His jaws slacken, parting to ask her if there are more where she has come from - if this place truly is where their mothers, sisters and aunties went so long ago. Before he can voice his question, the High sovereign speaks.

Aquila Valour he says, drawing Balathet's yellow eyes with equal curiosity, this time as though he has seen a ghost. "Aquila" he mouths in his own accent, but he is not testing the word - he is saying it in a way that sounds as though he has said it before. His eyes look skyward in search of the creature that the word implies, because to him it is not a given name but a noun.

Balathet is struck by both, and finds himself desperately wishing he could take up both generous offers. There is something unsettling and unfamiliar about Amara that he cannot shake, and he decides he will find her when he is healed. "you go with will I." says the black lion, nodding in the direction of the Andal sovereign, stepping forward on shaky paws to proceed forth through the crags. "you again I will see." he nods to the lioness, attempting a weak smile on his way forward.

To the Andal Oasis he goes.

*EXIT*

code by corvus

The familiarity on @Balathet's tongue wrapped around Aquila's nomen- unwilling as he might be it managed to draw a subtle smile to the Oasis Sovereign's lips. Ancestrally his family would have known Aquila as eagle too, with age and time it ended up being the banner this bronze man held. Something fierce, something strong and proud. Aquila could not ignore, deny, the enjoyment he felt hearing his name spoken with something kin to comfort. Not disdain, not being shouted nor with pity. He is eager to get the chance to know this lion more while he rested. I have you. He voiced an assurance, stepping ahead to walk beside Balathet and serve as support if the tired and weary lion needed it on this last leg of his journey. Over his shoulder Aquila looked to @Amara, briefly nodded in acknowledgement before taking his leave at Balathet's pace.

/exit