He had done not enough, and too much it seemed. Pulled away into recklessness by his youth, unable to deny teenage urges as his hormones had begun to bloom alongside the sprouting of his mane. He had become scarce, distant, distracted. Though now, as guilt and realisation pulled him back to what was important - he retained the feeling of guilt.

The scent of @Solveig only further rouses feelings of unease, faltering his stride; hesitating. He's not sure if he wants to face the fact he had encouraged her here, and then faded - less present than he should have been. Yet, he continues onwards, gingerly; forcing himself to suffer the consequences of his choices.

Her presence within the Rainforest had been... sparse to say the least. She'd pulled away from anything involving the pride, including from Linnæa who had tried so hard to help her figure how what her uneasy feelings were within the Rainforest. She still had like no friends within the lands, and had pulled into herself when her pretty much sole friend had disappeared.

Solveig didn't exactly have the best friend-making skills, and with her only friend and connection having seemed to have up and disappeared from her - it made her question her place within the Rainforest even more. So when @Thrain's scent started to come towards her, her head turned to face him. She'd been standing on the borders of the rainforest, where she'd been quite often. Orange and green eyes rested on his frame for a moment noticing the mane growing more prominently.

Her mind caused to hesitate for a moment, worried that he'd disappeared because of her. But then her happiness at seeing her friend again overwhelmed her and she rushed forward to close the difference between them and aim to press her head against his chest. She didn't even know what to say at the moment, but she really wasn't good with words anyways.

text. "speech."

Art by yumpy | Table code by Zodiac

Entangled within the uncertainties of his mind, Thrain approached with an attempted confidence that was entirely orchestrated - born of his life teachings, burying the sense of guilt beneath his duo-tone gaze. He is emotionally braced, his chest only weakly expanded as his neutral expression remained more taut than usual - the typically outgoing teenager succumbed to something far more awkward.

Though, as he finally halted to await... whatever, he finds himself surprised by her reaction. The tawny girl, adorned with her usual silver lacing, approached with brief hesitation - but then silently, wordlessly squashed her forehead into the center of his chest. It is an immediate increase to his pulse, his heart quickening beneath the contact of Solveig, a wave of heat flooding to his cheeks. Huh?

"Uh, hello @Solveig," he said, a small crack evident within his vocals, standing motionless for a good few moments before finally doing what he thought would be the cooler thing in that moment - lowering his skull just enough to settle his jaw along her shoulders. Okay so maybe it was nice, if he could gather himself up enough to enjoy it.

"Where have you been? You left me alene*... I didn't know anyone else in the Rainforest until Linnæa kept me from killing myself accidentally..." Solveig said softly as @Thrain greeted her and rested his jaw along her shoulders. She honestly had been considering leaving the rainforest before he showed back up. It was kinda why she'd been lingering by the borders of the pridelands.

She had missed her friend, and honestly hadn't thought her gesture odd, considering its how she'd greeted those in her native family and traveling group. "I was honestly considering leaving the Rainforest... Its why I was at the borders today." She admitted, not sure what he'd make of her want to leave. Without a true friend hanging about and helping her grow accustomed to life here in Amaryllis, she had been struggling between her mind and heart. She knew life in this pride situation was supposedly better - but she was so used to constantly being on the move that being stationary was hard.

*alene - alone

text. "speech."

Art by yumpy | Table code by Zodiac

As confident as Thrain attempted to be, he was not only an uneasy teenager, but a boy forever condemned by the over-activity of his conscience. A lion forever to be at war with himself, entangled within the expectation of his mind and the flaws of his heart. Where @Solveig may have wondered what Thrain would make of her confession, the boy expected no less.

The moment he had caught her scent upon the breeze he was flooded with guilt - realisation that he had failed in so many aspects of his role here. Not only as Heir, but as a friend and a son. For a boy who had been raised to some day be King, he was doing a very poorly job of being a leader.

He hesitated, clearing his throat with a crackly cough of unease. "I was uh," distracted was the truth - entangled within his youth and testosterone, getting tugged towards a life of roguish urges and regret, "Training." Oh, that was a lie. It sort of just fell out, unwilling to tell the young lioness he was swooning over a strange girl.

"I just needed to spend some time alone," I'm sorry, he wanted to say. But he didn't. He held it hostage behind the sharpness of his teeth, not wanting to seem weak, not wanting to appear any less himself. A shallow exhale and Thrain sought to withdraw from her contact, leaning back just enough to part them. "You can leave if you want to," he didn't want her to want to... but he certainly understood why she might.

A flick of her non-floppy ear would be given at his answer of where he had been. She didn't really understand why one would need to disappear like that for training, but then again there was a lot she didn't understand about this land and the customs those within it had.

"I guess I can understand wanting to be alone... my family wasn't the kind to want to be alone, hit i suppose not everyone is like that." Solveig mused slightly as she spoke. Her family and traveling group had always been close, without any wanting to be truly alone from the rest of the group. But she was learning more and more after arriving here that there was quite a few lions who enjoyed being alone sometimes. Once again, odd to her but probably not to someone who had grown up here.

As @Thrain pulled back, she allowed the distance to go between them. "I don't know if I want to leave... I just feel like I'm not allowed to just wander as I please, like j used to with my family.." Solveig admitted. She felt weird, considering she both wanted to leave but didn't at the same time. She didn't really know how to truly describe it.

text. "speech."

Art by yumpy | Table code by Zodiac

He found his heart to slow and his breath to catch weightlessly as they parted, easing his teenage anxiety as his eyes were again allowed to rest upon her golden form - at a more familiar distance. He was interested by her words, saddened that she didn't feel whole in Firnen, but a moments thought revealed his understanding of it. Without his family, Thrain would struggle too.

His lip quirked more genuinely this time, distracted from his feelings of guilt and sliding back into a feeling of authority. He felt more at ease within the moments of familiarity, enjoying the warmth of charted waters. "Hey, you can go where you like," with his confidence returning vaguely, the boy reached to scuff a paw gently upon her shoulder, should she allow it.

"Because I said so," a mischievous quirk of his lips signaled a boyish enjoyment, a quiet and frequently reserved sense of play. He didn't want @Solveig to feel trapped, and he was sure his parents would allow the girl to come and go if she desired.

The golden girl hadn't seen her family since that fateful day. Had no idea if they even were still alive or anything. But her hesitancy to share too much about her past had caused her to keep quiet about where her family and parents truly were these days. She was alone, without her family and with only truly one friend in @Thrain. Sure Linnæa was a good companion, but she was older than she was, and she didn't exactly feel as though she would understand her issues with coming clean about everything she'd been through and how she'd ended up in this land to begin with.

Thrain would then let her know she could go where she liked, scuffing his paw against her shoulder. A glance would be given to his stockinged paw as it went back to the ground underneath him before she lifted her gaze to meet his. "All this stuff with... prides and what one can and can't do is so... forvirrende*..." She would admit, slipping back into her native tongue as she spoke. "I don't understand half of it, and I've been in this pride for awhile now." She grumbled, sliding down to lay on the ground and covering her eyes with a leg as she huffed.

Pride life was very confusing to someone who had never run into a pride before in her life before now.

*forvirrende - confusing

text. "speech."

Art by yumpy | Table code by Zodiac

Her accent is heavy, but he's used to it enough to understand her. She seems distant however, troubled by her thoughts of family and not remotely eased by his reassurance. His smirk fizzles vaguely as @Solveig grows more unsettled by her feelings, reverting briefly to her native tongue. He was young, but his family were mostly empathetic - his mother had taught him enough to keep him on his toes.

The bronze yearling could sense her unease and frustration, pondering what his place was here - what his parents would want him to do. Jafar was emotionally strong, Thrain had never truly seen him be soft, and yet he felt the Queen would expect him to support the members of her pride to the best of his abilities.

He cleared his throat amidst a moment of thought, masked façade following Solveig as she dropped to the leaflitter in defeat. "Well, I could help you," right? Though he didn't know where to begin. "Did you have particular questions?"

She didn't mean to cause her friend any kind of unease or anything - she was just being herself, and everything about this land confused her. Why didn't the lions move around in groups rather than staying in one place? Why were the borders so staunchly defended and marked? Sure her family had come across a group that had settled permanently somewhere, but where she was from it was so uncommon thay the thought of settling permanently somewhere was the oddity instead of the idea of constantly being on the move.

If her family culd see the pair of them, they would likely question what she was doing joining a group that never moved around from their territory, or even a group that had set tiers in the group as to their rankings. In her native group, there was a leader, but other than that no one was truly above each other. Here? Here it was weird.

@Thrain would offer to help her understand more things about pride life. "Jeg vet ikke hvor jeg skal begynne...*" Solveig would mumble, having no idea where to even begin with asking questions about pride life. Or maybe just not knowing how to exactly phrase in the common tongue what she wanted to ask. Perhaps her bronze friend had some idea as to what could help to be understood first.

*Jeg vet ikke hvor jeg skal begynne - I don't know where to begin

text. "speech."

Art by yumpy | Table code by Zodiac