The snow had proven more wild than she was accustomed to, the slow descent from the peaks treacherous and tiring. When she finally found her way down from the mountaintops, there were no Rike to be found. Across the land she ventured, aimless and lonesome, following the whims of her mind. Now she stumbled upon a fork in the river she had come to rest by, the sound of rushing water filling her ears. Along the banks, driftwood gathered to rest along the trunks of trees with drowned roots, protruding from the river, creating a canopy overhead.

Liserli sat near one of the trees that anchored itself on the bank, leaning against the bark with her gaze turned towards the rippling surface of the river, a distorted mirror. She watched a piece of wood float past her, headed downstream, and wondered if she, too, could float downstream to pursue another chapter in her wandering.

@Adalwolf

He was the Jarl now.

There was no other way to go about it. He'd searched high and low for signs of Odhgrimm, but had found nothing. From what he could tell, the man had either died or wandered off. He sincerely hoped that it was death, because wandering off while acting as the head of the Rike was shameful and deserving of a cruel and painful death. He'd just hate to think that one of their own would follow such a route.

With Astarte nearing the end of her pregnancy, Adalwolf didn't often leave the boundaries of the Mire, but it wasn't unusual for him to wander the lands around the Mire, either. He did his best to keep track of the comings and goings of anyone in the area, on the hunt for other Rike who might still be aimless in Amaryllis or any Sigrun who were wandering too close. They were too few to go to war just yet, and so he was doing what he could to lie low, as Alaric had suggested, and had not shared his full name with anyone. Valaine was laying low in the Cove, a Mire ally, but he almost would rather have her in the Mire, too, so that he could keep a closer eye on her.

All these things were constant worries in his mind as he trotted along the bank of the river, eyes flicking between the two banks and looking for signs of life. The air was cooling down with the coming of fall, and he couldn't be happier for it with his thick coat and mane constantly making the heat the threat. He hoped that one day his family would be strong again and they could take an area for themselves, but until then he was stuck here. How Valaine stood the heat of the Cove he couldn't understand.

Slipping away into his thoughts, he didn't notice the other lion until he was almost upon her. Her dark brown fur blended in nicely with the shadows of the jungle. She was staring at her reflection in the water. Adalwolf turned his orange gaze down at her. "Lost?" he questioned, his thick accent marking his origin, if not his family. There was a tension to his muscles that made it clear he wasn't playing around. His family was at stake if the wrong lions ventured too close and asked the wrong questions.

@Liserli

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Ripples in the water distorted her visage and Liserli looked away from the murky depths. Faint paw-steps joined the quiet murmur of the woods and the rush of the river, drawing her attention. A lion who stood large in stature like herself approached her. He spoke a single word to her in an accent that brought a pang of familiarity and glimmer of hope, but she did not dare to let that glimmer glow any brighter.

"Yes," she responded in an accent that coated her words just as thickly as his did, looking out of the corner of her eyes at the water for another quick moment before turning them back to the darkly shaded face of the lion. His orange eyes seemed bright and luminous against the shadows created by his markings. "My family..." She trailed off, wondering how much of her history she should speak to a stranger. "They sound like you," A statement with that same glimmer of hope in those piercing green eyes peeking out from her half-splotched face.

@Adalwolf

His eyes took in the plain brown lioness, noting the notches in her ear and the scars on her face. A fighter? Or a woman who didn't know when to do what she was told? Either way, a scarred lioness meant little around here. Plenty were warriors in their own right in Amaryllis.

It was her accent that really caught his attention. So similar to that of himself and his siblings. His ears strained forward, his eyes taking on a sharper gleam as he studied the woman even closer. The plain brown appearance of the woman would definitely be typical of the Rike. Was it possible that he had so easily stumbled on one of their own?

"Oh?" he responds, a raised brow. "Und chust who might your family be?" He couldn't just share his family name with anyone wandering around. He had to be careful. Enemies were everywhere, and they were few in number these days.

@Liserli

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She watched the changes in his darkly striped face, the raise of his brow -- curiosity, perhaps?

Scarred lioness shifted where she sat, wondering if she should reveal her name. She usually wouldn't, but there was something compelling her to tell him. Was it an inkling of hope, the thought that perhaps she had found another member of her blood? It was silly to think such thoughts.

It was after a thoughtful hesitation that she finally spoke. "The Rike." The name rolled off her tongue with a small pain in her chest, wondering where they all had gone after she'd gotten lost on the snowy peaks. "My name is Liserli Rike."

The lioness tipped her head slightly then looked up, watching, studying, waiting. Would he know her name at all? Or was it just wishful thinking? Her tail twitched behind her, impatient, desperately wanting to know. And even if he didn't know her name, maybe he knew someone who did. Maybe the Rike still lingered somewhere near the mountains and she could find them again.

@Adalwolf

He needed to know who she was - if she was family - but there was also the hope that she would be discreet with her surname. It shouldn't be shared freely, not in Amaryllis where the Sigrun were so much stronger. But, perhaps it was hope that drove her onward. She did, indeed, share her surname with him, giving him the knowledge that she was family.

He tilted his head, studying her. The name @Liserli was familiar, but it had been some time since he'd been around some of the family. He had still been quite young when the first few had migrated to Amaryllis. "You should be careful vho you schare zat name vith," he cautioned. "Sigrun und zeir allies run rampant here."

He stepped to the side and glanced down into the water at his reflection, pensive. How much did she know of what had happened here? He could provide a quick summary, he supposed. "Adalwolf Rike, zon of Halvar Rike," he began, his eyes flicking to her. "Und current Jarl."

Turning back to her, he sat down with a sight. "Eulalia, Sunniva, und Erna are all dead. Odhgrimm is missing." He tilted his head, burning eyes watching for her reaction. Whether or not this news was a surprise to her would tell him a lot about how long it had been since she had been here, and perhaps who she had come over with.

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Her eyes fell to the water, the way it rippled freely. As the words fell from her jaws, she felt a pang of regret -- enemies of the Rike were not uncommon. Perhaps she should have been less forthcoming with her name. Perhaps if sharing it meant she might finally find a place to belong, she did not care who knew her name anymore.

"I-" the words caught in her throat, her claws twitching as he spoke. Sigrun was a name that she had not heard for some time, and she did not expect to hear it now.

Liserli listened as he continued, introducing himself as Jarl. The news of what had happened to her family fell upon her ears, and she lowered her head, squeezing her eyes closed for a moment as she processed what she thought would be the worst case scenario. She had always hoped she would find them again.

"It... it feels like only yesterday that I was traveling alongside them," Liserli said quietly, opening her eyes and giving her head a quick shake, attempting to dismiss the pain that burned in her chest. "You say the Sigrun have allies here -- what about the Rike? Do we..." -- it felt strange to say we -- "...have allies?"

She must have been lost a long time if she remembered traveling with them but had not been there for their deaths. All had died before he had come here. And while he felt little in the way of affection for those lost family members, he could appreciate that their loss had been a heavy blow to the Rike.

"Zey underestimated zee Sigrun," he said, his voice a mix of a scoff laced with regret. Driven mad by their hatred and emotions, they had pushed things too far and had paid for it dearly. But they had also made things more difficult for their family in the meantime. That was not how to win a war.

At her question of allies he lifted the corner of his mouth in a half-hearted smirk. "I have been working on zat," he said smugly. "Ve had none, for ein time, but now...Erna's husband, Alaric, is king of zee Mire, and I believe I haffe secured him as ein ally." A powerful ally. The Mire was a strong, well-established pride. He had hope that this would go well.

"You should join us zere," he urged, not ordering the lost Rike right away, but at least putting the seed of it in her mind. "I vant to gather as many as I can together."

@Liserli

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She looked to him, finally breaking her gaze from the water. There was a taste of bitterness in her mouth. Her family, dead. Liserli's ears perked up as he spoke. "I will not be so foolish, then," came thickly accented voice, a statement she intended to stand by. The Rike would not make the same mistake, and she would not allow any other members of their creed to fall.

He spoke of the work he had done recruiting allies. Perhaps they needed to be more diplomatic, abandon some of the brute force that she had adopted as her main survival tactic. Was there more to life than fighting one's way through it? Liserli shifted where she stood. An offer of accompanying him to what he called the Mire -- she was not so sure how to feel about it.

"I will come with you there," she decided. It likely her smartest course of action. A lone lion was not a strong one, and if she could cement herself as a valued member of the family, perhaps things would start looking up for her. "Which other Rike are with you there?" she asked, wondering how strong their family was in this place.

@Adalwolf

"Good," he rumbled approvingly to her declaration. As much as a shame that it was that the others had died or gone missing, it was left to those who remained to learn from their mistakes and grow stronger. He held no less hatred for the Sigrun here than his fallen family, but he knew that to win they had to have a strategy. And with as few of them as there were left they needed to regroup and lie low for the time being.

He was even more pleased when she decided to come with him. It would be best if she did join him in the Mire, where she would have protection and backup if she were discovered, as well as where she could serve the family, as was her purpose. He huffed that approval and nodded. The Rike typically looked down on pride life, but Adalwolf was not a fool. Prides were the way of life here, and they were safer within one, especially one that they were allied with.

"Mein wife," he told @Liserli, "und mein children." The next generation of warriors for the cause. "Erna's children, too - three I zink - born before she died." He tilted his head to think for a moment. One ozzer. I think a wife of one who was here before." He'd seen the woman around but knew little of her. Mein sister is in Caladan Cove, a Mire ally.

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