Orson had left the gathering after the group pep talk. It had been comforting to know that he wasn't going to lose those that become so familiar to him. His Lorien Plains brethren had become like family to him, especially considering that his own family had been scattered to the wind. Orson tried not to think about them often, for when he did it brought on creeping uncomfortable feelings that he worked so hard to repress. He knew that his family was out there, somewhere, but they seemed to be wanderers. And Orson preferred something more stable. Should he be seeking them? Was he a bad son? Was it his own fault? He could not be sure and he didn't like to think about it. Orson did not want to be alone.

Losing Lorien had upset his carefully constructed walls, and he found that the intrusive thoughts were escaping their confinement. It made him agitated.

Orson had stalked off, following an outlet stream from the watering hole in a direction he'd never taken before. When he came to the Flamingo Pond he stopped, staring in wonderment. He'd never seen such a sight- countless tall pink birds, gathered together. The sheer amount of pink was almost blinding, but he could not look away. The color was pleasing... it reminded him of something... someone. It was the very same color as @Anniston's eyes, rosy and vibrant. Orson sat down as his thoughts turned towards his friend. Stripped of her Heiress title and evicted from the only home she'd ever known. Orson frowned. He had shied away from her bad mood, practicing avoidance as usual. Running away from his problems as usual, just like with his family. If he kept this up, was he going to lose her too?

She stalked after him stubbornly – possessively. With the meeting finished and the Lorien lions scattered as if to the wind, Anniston found herself standing alone there in the grasses. Each moment prodded her heart like pinpricks, her chest thudding with a steady agony before she had turned to look for them – had spotted his retreating figure of glowing earth against the sunset. Lucky for Orson, avoidant or not, Anniston had a way of holding onto her possessions with an iron grip.

"I hate them," she murmured sourly as she made her hasty approach, a glower settled deep in the furrows of her expression. "Now we're out of Lorien we'll have to smell their stink all the time!" The fallen princess complained, practically slamming her ass down in a seat at the boy's side. She stared out at the flock of powder-pink birds, her throat thick with tears that could not quite squeeze past her sheer fury.

---

|| september y9 | 1y 4m | rogue [band?] yearling | at flamingo pond | @Orson ||

An ear flicked back at a familiar voice, and Orson glanced over his shoulder to see Anniston stalking onto the scene. She still looked unhappy, and Orson couldn't blame her. He knew what it felt like to have your home stolen from you. She had at least had all of her family still present, but Orson would not minimize her feelings by pointing that out. He sympathized with her completely, and he was feeling the loss of Lorien Plains rather sharply himself.

"They're obnoxious too." Orson pointed out dryly. Not that the raucous cacophony of honking wasn't completely obvious. There were hints of his normal humor and good nature in his wry observation, but his tones were flat and his eyes dull. He glanced towards @Anniston as she sat beside him and inched, almost imperceptibly, closer to her. He could feel the heat of her tension and raw emotion as their sides touched and he wanted to comfort her. But he did not quite know how.

"We don't have to stay near this place if we don't want to," he offered, "we can go wherever we want..." Well, except back to Lorien, but he decided to omit that technicality.

"Yeah," she agreed easily, happy to fall into the simple camaraderie of shared hatred. She watched them with laser focus, too consumed in herself to notice the way he inched closer or the way he turned his sideways stare. She could not see anything but the blinding pink of a family who dared to have a home when she did not.

"We don't have to stay near this place if we don't want to. We can go wherever we want..."

Finally, Anniston saw him. The girl craned her neck to regard her companion for a few moments, a storm of emotion brewing in the fuchsia of her gaze. The honking of birds grew deafening in her silence.

"I just want to be in Lorien," she answered, softly this time. "I don't like anywhere else." I don't know anywhere else.

"Will you leave?" Suddenly she asked, the twinge of accusation gilding each syllable with heat as she fixated upon the azure of his stare in search of any trace of doubt.

---

@Orson

Their eyes met, and Orson had to lean in to hear @Anniston as she uttered a soft reply to his suggestion. At her words, a frown traced his muzzle and he inhaled long and slow. He knew just how she felt, and his heart went out to her with that. "I know." He answered with a long sigh.

He had more to say, but found his words cut short at her accusation. His eyes widened. "No!" He said, shaking his head emphatically. "I'm staying with you, Princess."

He rolled, his body giving a heft as he pushed himself to his feet. "We'll figure this out. We can live wherever we want for now. And when I'm strong enough, I'll take that tacky haired bozo down if you haven't found somewhere else you like better."

She watched him with a scrutinizing gaze, noting the surprise and denial made plain there with reluctant easing. Anniston jutted out her bottom lip as she regarded the boy quietly, greedily. She would not let him out of her clutches so easily as that, even if it was what he wished, but it soothed some part of her to hear his stubborn attachment. A breeze blew at those tall grasses then, the flamingo flock swaying with its winds as it brought inspiration to the yearlings.

"And, when I'm strong enough, I'll take that tacky-haired bozo down if you haven't found somewhere else you like better."

Anniston stared at him with growing intensity, her mental gears whirring to catch up with this idea. Yes – it seemed obvious, then. They would take back their plains at any cost.

"Say you'll take the plains back someday – if Daddy doesn't," she tacked on urgently, still scanning the umber details of Orson's expression in search of reassurance.

---

@Orson
+10 - Have another character perform a task or favor for you
+5 - Convince someone to give you something that you want
+5 - Use a friendship or relationship to your advantage

Orson's tail twitched behind him as he stood facing her, a bit flustered by the intensity of Anniston's stare and the urgency of her request. He was caught by that vibrant pink gaze, in awe at the beauty of that particular shade within its depths. He felt warmth rising to his cheeks, and he tried to hide it by tossing her a roguish grin. "Well... don't say I have to call him daddy though..." He remarked.

Orson chuckled at his own humor, but cut his laughter short for Anniston's sake. He was aware that she had been being serious. He straightened himself up, standing tall in his large framework. There was work to the be done - the boy was big boned but not nearly full grown. It was a bit of an awkward look, but the kid had promise at least. And along with were glimmers of his mother's unflappable confidence.

"Someday, I will take back Lorien Plains." He declared. For you. And to show her that he meant it, Orson would step forward and turn himself so that he was facing the direction of distant Lorien Plains. Jowls parted and he released a series of grunting roars, doing his best to make them carry as he'd been practicing since practically the day he could walk. Perhaps the call would carry across the savannah; not a challenge, but a warning, a taunt.

When he was finished he turned back to @Anniston, flicking his ear. "Not bad, eh?"

"Don't you have two of your own?" She countered easily, narrowing her gaze to study the large adolescent. It occurred to her that she knew little of his personal life outside of her – little of what had shaped Orson prior to his joining her family. It was as if he was always meant to be there within the plains, weaving himself within the fabric of the Frei.

Anniston watched as he stood to make his solemn declaration, pleasure simmering up within her chest as he made his vow. "Someday, I will take back Lorien Plains," he echoed her and let out a series of challenging roars as if to seal the promise. Her inky lips tugged involuntarily into the suggestion of a smile – the first hint of gladness she had shown since the moment the gaudy usurper had shown his face.

"Good," she decided with a concise nod. "But, you have to say it's for me, too," Anniston pointed out with a lazy wave of her paw. No tricks, Orson!

---

@Orson
+10 - Have another character perform a task or favor for you
+5 - Convince someone to give you something that you want
+5 - Use a friendship or relationship to your advantage

"Exactly." Replied Orson with a resolute nod. He had enough daddy in his life, though admittedly Orson had looked to Violarum as a sort of father figure during the moons he had live there under the founding king's rule. But Orson didn't push the conversation any deeper than that. The young man scarcely spoke much of his family these days. There had been a time when he had grieved the loss of his home, and despaired at his family's tendency to scatter to the wind like so many seeds. But as he lived and grew, Orson began to see that perhaps his situation was not so unique.

They were on their own, he could see that now. The most he could do was to make sure that he did not lose Anni too.

Orson was emboldened by her subtle smile as he came sauntering back to her from his taunting roar, giving her a toothy grin of his own. "It's all for you, Princess... no - Empress." And then the roguish expression fell away very suddenly and he fixed her with a searching look, his brows furrowing to show the sudden wave of anxiety that had over come him. "Just promise me you'll stay. Don't go away, ok?"

______
@Anniston

"It's all for you, Princess... no - Empress."

Anniston smirked as he came trotting up to her, the new title setting something alight within her.

"Empress," she echoed wistfully. It sounded important. It sounded like she would be respected when that day had afforded her none. Her gaze met his, her shimmering resolve contrasting against the anxiety shining within his azure eyes.

"Just promise me you'll stay. Don't go away, ok?" Orson stood there looking the part of the rugged orphan and it pained her in ways she could not begin to label.

"I'm not going anywhere," Anniston insisted, attempting to sling an arm around his shoulders in a leaning embrace. There was nowhere else she would rather be – nowhere but returned to their rightful home, together.

---

-exit- @Orson