It didn't matter.

The anger, the fuss. It didn't matter to her. It was over, and in the past and Ghyslaine could never hold it against Violarum. When he pulled away finally to sit above her, a lazy paw gently pushing against the swell of her belly to push her onto her side, he speaks and her heart sinks.

"Sersie." She breathed. "My sister. She... we don't have a good relationship." She began, still somewhat defensive of her sister. "She... Her name is Xylia but she insists on being called Sersie now. She pushed me from the top of a cliff. I guess she thought me dead?" She breathed out.

"I was... unwell for a long while, but I didn't die." She said, a bit more strongly- reaching out to try to touch his paw gently with her own. "I didn't die, Vio." She breathed out again.

@Violarum

_{— art by yumpy}

If he had once known the name of the murderous wench he had long forgotten it. His mind doing it's absolute best to aid him in surviving the torment of an assumed death. His lip tugged upwards in distaste upon her words, remembering the way Olive had frozen before the lump of meat - like a terrified deer in headlights.

His eyes did widen somewhat at the mention of a cliff - how had she possibly survived that? "Strong @Ghyslaine," he says with an affirmative yet almost disbelieving nod of his skull, he'd have thought her more the resilient sort - but never strong.

"Yes..." he mumbles in relief upon the woman's reassurance, purring happily as his snout pushed itself in the soft crook behind her elbow - enjoying her return to the world of living. "She did though," half a mumble, half an impulsive blurt. As far as he knew, Cersei was dragged off by hyenas after she bled to death. He didn't want to consider the fact she may have survived.

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Ghyslaine

How had she survived the fall? She was not sure, even to this day. It had been some sort of miracle, some sort of feat that when she'd landed... she'd been unconscious- less tense, and able to absorb the impact better. That- or perhaps the diety of this land- Maua had guided her fall, and kept her alive. She wasn't sure she believed that, but after the events of Kivuli and his voice... and Maua's.. well she was becoming a bit more flexible in that regard.

There is a flicker of a smile when he says, she is strong. She huffs a soft laugh, and yet, when he speaks of her sister... his words clang through her. Sersie is dead? Her heart thunders in her chest, and though she perhaps she shouldn't... she feels an icy stab of dread- of pain.

"That's the past now isn't it?" She says, her voice a bit tight, but she does not want to sort through the puzzling emotions of how she feels about her sister right now. She'd rather focus on the here and now.

"How many cubs did Fallon have?" When she'd left the plains, Fallon had been expecting, and she was curious how many more children did Vio have now.

She gestures to her stomach, and she sighs. "I'm expecting... again." She said with a small smile. "Nero's... not their father though." She goes on.

@Violarum

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Suddenly he's remembering the way he had fought the wench - the way he had exploded with rage and hatred and pulled her very limb from her body. The sight of her unconscious form staining Lorien red. Was she still a murderer even if @Ghyslaine survived? Or was he?

Well, it didn't matter - just as she confirms. He straightens himself reluctantly, ears pushing forward to peer down at his sprawled friend; the life that swelled her usually-lithe belly. "Four," Violarum offers, "Birdie, Gramercy, Enola and Enver." How old were they now? Surely almost one. How time flies.

"Good." Is a conclusive approval of a lack of Nero-spawn, though he's not entirely sure he wants to ask who was. That had caused him a lot of trouble in the past. "This one will be better," he can hope.

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To hear, that Fallon had had a large litter- a successful one from the sounds of it- brought a smile to her mouth. Not that it had faded from the general elevated sense of enjoyment of finding @Violarum again. "Congratulations." She said happily, and as she looked to her own stomach, as Violarum spoke, she chuckled softly- the fondest of eye-rolls leaving her.

This would go better- because she wouldn't go missing. She wouldn't miss out on these cubs, and that made a pang of longing course through her for her first litter. She sighed softly, before asking. "Have you seen Olive recently? I haven't.. I haven't gotten to..." She said, because if Vio thought she had died... had Olive thought the same?! That thought horrified her. "Are you staying near here?" She asked, following that question up, wondering if he was. If... they'd truly only been seperated by mere distance- since she'd taken up in the Gardens.

_{ART BY YUMPY}

"Not a lot since... you died," except she didn't die, but he still remembered the event as if she had; the memory of that feeling in his guts, the sound of Olive emptying her stomach and the frozen look of dread in her eyes. Those feelings and memories would never really leave him, and his skin prickled at the thought, the male lowering himself onto his elbows, seeking to stay nestled somewhere against her warm body as a reminder.

"We were at the Watering Hole a lot. But Aeistrios took Anni prisoner, bested her friend Orson whenever he tried to free her. Stupid... plum-head," an attempted insult, a curl of his lips that proved far more menacing than the slandering name he had given his once-usurper. "So I will make him pay. Will you come to The Plains again?" ruby vision sought her own, a puppy-like plead in his softened brow.

@Ghyslaine

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And so it goes. The scar of her death - not death would remain on Vio and Olive despite her living. She briefly is brought back to her first meeting with Andras and the darkness of her mind in those moments. Ghyslaine shudders, but hopes that is thought to be a shudder of relief against her friend. Aeistrios, a name given to the strange scent that had overtaken her former home. @Violarum spins a tale that pierced right through thoughts of her death not death, and pricked at rage within her.

Though she was not close with any of Vio's brood, the idea of his children being harmed did not sit well with her. She felt her eyes narrow, her tail flicking. "Dad to the rescue." A soft teasing word, and then he asks a question she cannot answer. Not without first talking to Andras.

"I... need to talk about it with their father." She said carefully. "I... want too but I will discuss it with him." She said aiming to gently headbutt him. She wonders what Andras would think- rouge life had been fun... but the cubs would need safety that a pride provided... Hmm.

"Will Olive come home you think?" Because home, that's what it was wasn't it?

_{ART BY YUMPY}

She shudders, and his ears perk in her wake; umber frame nudging a smidge closer, squashing in to her in an instinctive effort of comfort. Yet so begins the seeds of a repeat event, even in his absolute ease of her new partnership with this Andras, his best friends need to seek permission niggles a frustration at his core. If this man says no - then what?

Would he prickle and fester and find issues in this man too? The mere thought of it was tiring.

He grumbles audibly at her words, making blatantly apparent his displeasure. Yet he moves on quickly to her mention of Olive, "Yes." It was certainly more of hope than true knowing. What point was leadership if one didn't have friends to share in it? Pointless.

@Ghyslaine

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While Ghyslaine wants nothing more than to simply go home, she knows that it cannot be that simple. There are steps and processes that had to happen, to be fair to Folke, to the family they would have. To keep everyone safe... and to know what they were getting into. She grins a bit at @Violarum's obvious unhappiness about her talking to Folke first, and shakes her head bemused. "Getting the whole... group back together, huh?" She said lightly- teasingly. She knew, in her heart, where she'd gladly end up... but... time would tell. Ghys looked to try to meet Vio's gaze, and laughed softly, thinking about what it would be like for the trio to be back together again.

-exit via chatting?-

OOC: Wanna exit here for something more current/ maybe a joining thread soon?

ART BY NAME KIM, CODE BY LARS

"Not Fallon though," he adds to her comment with a frown. He hadn't really been worried for his wife, he knew she was off looking for Falki or something or rather. She needed an adventure and he wanted her to have it, but as time went on he had begun to wonder when she would return - if ever.

Still, he eases into @Ghyslaine's company despite his displeasure in her unwillingness to simply join him mindlessly; always expecting a childish and responsibility-free answer as though they were merely kids. Regardless, he adores her in ways that can not ever be spoiled.

--- exit

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