The tiger managed to get him good across the shoulder, nearly damaging more than just skin and flesh as he dug his claws dangerously deep, nearer tendon and muscle than the man would like. With one final swat and a snarl he attempted to separate from the tiger with a wordless admission of defeat. He had better things to do than squabble with the pest. Especially now that, he noticed with a slight surprise, the challenge for the rainforest had concluded and this new man stood as victory. There was a small pang of pity for Lucifer as the former king slunk away without even addressing any of the gathered pride, what little of it there may be. He'd liked him well enough but had to make note that this had been the very first time his rule had been questioned and he'd been swiftly defeated. It took more to be a king than just sweeping up the debris of another and placing a crown on your head.

As Bruno addressed them all he gave the slightest lift of an eyebrow at his decree and command to speak with him in the morning if anyone wanted to leave. Rhett had no such plans, he just wanted to work and hunt and have someplace to survive out the winter.

He gave one last glance at @Wilson, a scowl etched at the creature's direction, before he began to move away from commotion. It had all be decided, there was nothing left for him to do here now was there?

-Exit Rhett

Barbarian
-+5 Observe a fight (Bruno vs. Lucifer 2/2)
+5 Complete a spar or fight
+5 Lose a spar or fight (defaulted or judged)

code by corvus & art by Shazaki

@Clove was focused on @Roan, which turned Dalila's attention there as well. Questioning him and getting an answer that was just as shocking as it was not. I am his father the man says, and Lila looks to her sister with some apprehension.

"He didn't mention you," she says, speaking up before her sister could add anything, the statement bordering on accusing. Why, was the unspoken part, had they not heard of their grandfather? Certainly Lila knew the truth of it; that so much had happened and changed and then their father had disappeared... but still she wanted to know. Why had Roan never come? Why had all of their family seemingly forsaken them?

A small frown tugged at her lips, the expression out of character and ill-fitting on the usually bubbly princess. Even as age had popped more than it's fair share of bubbles she had tried to hold on to her friendly demeanor. Nevermind that her fur was filled with a fair few more plants than it had been in her youth.

Who is the challenger to you?

Ah and that reminds her -- swinging her gaze back to the fight she catches the end of it, watching her father rise victorious above the former King. Perhaps she should have been overjoyed, but instead there is a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. A sprinkle of regret, perhaps, or jealousy that only now when she was grown had he managed to take what they had deserved all along.

Forgetting to answer Roan as she listened to @Bruno ♔ speak, growing still as stone when he addressed her and Clove more directly. "No," the word comes quick to her tongue, glancing at Clove with the reappearance of that little frown. "I'm going back to the Cove. Come with me..." But she knew it was pointless to ask. Knew, even as the plea left her lips, that Clove would leave her, too. That once again the rift between them would grow...

Art by Pretty Bloopa || Code by Zay

He didn't mention you. The lighter of the two girls would speak to him first this time, further confirming herself related to the mauve girl beside her, and thus as Tai's progeny as well. Two granddaughters then, but her words cut right through him. His son had never mentioned his own father to his children? Never told them of their grandfather who would have surely doted upon them had he even known of their existence? What had transpired in the few years since he last saw Tai to make him sever his ties with his Hodari blood? All this time, Roan ignorantly assumed his absent sons were simply off living their own lives somewhere. It was the only way he could continue living without agonizing everyday over their whereabouts. His children should all know they would always be welcomed back home, wherever home might be at the time, but apparently such was not made clear enough to Tai.

"I cannot explain why he hadn't, but I am his father, nonetheless," the elder lion offered with a bit of a defeated sigh in his tone. He could not force these girls to believe his connection to their father, even if the family resemblance was undeniable. While Roan wanted to argue and offer every shred of evidence to confirm his identity, the time was not allotted as the challenge came to a close. The Hodari male would get his answer of how Bruno was related as the new king addressed his daughters. Another assumption confirmed as Roan followed the Stark-Rike's gaze towards @Dalila and @Clove. It took a moment, but now that all the pieces were put together, Roan vaguely remembered the boy. A tussle between Tai and Bruno as Roan had defended his crown in Obsidian. Their... situation had started long before these girls were ever born.

With the challenge over, one girl seemed intent on denying her father his desire for princesses, but the other had yet to voice her opinion. Either way, Roan seemed forgotten at this point, and that was alright. They had bigger decisions to make than to accept him as their grandfather. For a split second, the Hodari was faced with the realization that their other grandfather was Alaric. Did he know they shared grandchildren? He'd never said anything, but the two men hadn't caught up in a while, even when living in the Summit at the same time. So many questions. "Can I speak with the two of you... elsewhere? Please?" The old man's voice pleaded quietly towards his granddaughters, hopeful they might just give him a moment, give him a chance. There was so much more family they could have if they just gave him a shot. Roan worried, though, how much longer his presence would be tolerated by the new ruler as Bruno had demanded spectators to leave now.

table | art

Clove Stärke-Vandiir ...

Puffed and positioned, Clove could only blink dumbly at the revelation that this lion was their grandfather. While perhaps she should have expected it, the fallout from the war in which they met had distracted the girl from coming up with any theories of her own. Roan Hodari: the surname of their father they did not share.

"What? Really?" She thought aloud, Dalila insisting that which Clove thought privately. Her heart felt heavier in her chest by the moment, especially as the thud of the azure lion's fall marked Bruno as the winner of that rainforest.

Her expression plummeted from wonder to careful resignation. He spoke with the same firmness as ever, promising a new era – but where was the promise for retribution? Why was Luther never mentioned in any of this, his chilling form tucked neatly in the crowd only yards away? Where Bruno claimed victory, Clove saw only the forfeiting of everything those daughters had grown up with. Did he expect them to be glad for it?

"My daughters will join me as royals."
"No, I'm going back to the Cove. Come with me..."
"Can I speak with the two of you... elsewhere? Please?"

Clove swallowed and gathered herself to her paws as if to escape the demands physically. Three green gazes bore into her, each bidding for her loyalty – each tugging puppet strings in differing directions. She had said she would join the cove. She did not know Drauhir – not enough to entrust him with the safety of her sister. Yet their father's words left no room for argument, not when Clove had no such arrangement tying herself to Caladan. The frown etched upon her features answered for her as she lingered upon Dalila, tongue refusing to utter what she did not wish to speak, hating her sister all the while for forcing Clove into the position of denying her.

"You know I can't," she murmured lowly at last. Bruno could spare one meager daughter for politics' sake, but to leave himself with none? Perhaps it would be different with Nyoka and Silke there. Perhaps a lot would be different.

Clove looked to their new grandfather where she could not bear Dalila's disappointment any longer, chest tightening as she became aware of each second counting down. Even if she could not name the feeling, she knew she did not want their father getting ahold of Roan – not yet, not before they could gather his version of things.

"We will meet you here tomorrow." Clove answered in a voice far older than she was. We, for she was not about to let Dalila escape her family so easily. "The river over there; don't come to the border." She did not need anyone asking questions.

She looked between them one last time, her stomach fluttering with nerves over what was to come. She would not entertain their refusal; time would reveal their willingness to discuss all that had occurred. Clove could only hope that this would not be the last time she laid eyes upon her kin, even if she could not give them what they wanted – not yet. She turned to duck through the foliage while the new king was otherwise engaged in conversation, mind reeling at the strangeness of this land she was supposed to call home.

---

-exit- @Roan @Dalila

code | art | background

• Nagi •

---

She pressed herself firmly against her husband's side, seeking the safety he always seemed to infuse on her. She didn't know what this would represent for them, but she could only trust in Himura's judgment and simply let him be the one to decide their fates.

After a while, after watching the former king was bested now the curly maned lion taking the crown of the Forest. Unsure of what this might represent for them she looked at her husband. "I trust you will do what is best for us, I will go to our den to rest. I feel like needing to think things alone." Though he was welcome to come if he so wanted.

exit

+5 Observe a challenge and learn the results

---

art by shazaki ♡︎ code by scorpixia

+5 Observe a challenge and learn the results
+5 Learn a character’s full name and rank
+5 Observe a fight

The fight concludes, and the curly-haired lion is left standing triumphant. Throughout their duel, Rosemary was impassive in her observation, but then the new rainforest king begins to speak, and his words spark interest in the depths of her two-toned eyes. Not from an indication to join his ranks, but instead in the intrigue of it all—of what spiderwebs of drama might spin out from this shifting of crowns. The new king introduces himself, and then speaks of zealots and the woman finds her curiosity roused as her eyes dart over the crowd as though she might identify who he speaks of.

But the four-eared woman is out of the loop, and she knows it, and while the politics of the situation were momentarily interesting, the other woman’s voice pulls her attention back to the borders where they lingered. Rosemary offers her a partial smile as she begins to turn away. “Well, I think it is safe to say we both now know that Bruno Stärke-Rike over there is the newest King of the Rainforest, and between you and me, he doesn’t seem like the type to take kindly to bystanders.” As though he didn’t make that perfectly clear when he invited all spectators to leave. As though any monarch enjoyed having the unallied gawking at their doorstep. With a polite nod to the woman she had chatted with, Rosemary would take her leave of the humid forest and make her way back down the darkening trails.

@Isolda
Exit.

code by scorpixia♡︎

ooc: Isoldas thoughts are IC only

Brows furrowed when the young male made his declaration of being king. A amused little giggle left her, as she couldn’t help but see @Bruno ♔ for what he was currently in her eyes. A cub with a mane, playing king of the hill (or in this case, jungle). For kings did not need to declare their triumph in such a way, he had won and this was clear enough. The announcement was unnecessary to Isolda, and childish.

Ears pushed forward to listen to the boy speak, and she found herself rolling her eyes. The ambition of childish men bored her to no end, and by the sounds of it Bruno was no exception. Isolda felt her age wear on her a bit now, how many had she seen come and go after such pompous fluffing? Too many. No, males like this were better suited to be a ostrich or a peacock.

@Rosemary spoke and she smiled chuckling, turning to make her way out of the borders of the forest. Muttering for Rosemary’s ears only. “Pups like him will not bark for long,” she spoke rather cryptically but Isolda was making a prediction, a bet if you would, because what else was she to do in her free time?

exit
@Rosemary

code | image

DALILA

So she steels herself and she goes for luck She pulls the trigger and lives it up

there is a pain in her grandfather's voice that makes her own heart ache, feeling more than a little bad for causing him any kind of discomfort. a part of her wanted to hunt down her papa and find out exactly why he hadn't told them of the family they had, the extended pieces that could have given her a safe place to land when her world had been turned upside down. if there was one were there more? aunts and uncles and... others?

dalila has a thousand questions but she is distracted, her attention shifting to her sister, forgetting almost completely about the crown her vater now wore. thinking only of the ache that blooms in her chest when her sister denies her, of the welling sense of panic that rises when she thinks of parting from her again. "we can ask..." but even she knew it was futile, and she hates that her eyes well with tears that she turns her face away to hide.

@Roan asks them for time and dalila turns to him, focuses on him now, unable to bear looking back at her sister. unable to bear thinking of the rift that was opening even as they stood there, with her in the cove and her family finding a home in the rainforest. in time she would accept it, see reason in the short distance between the two prides, but for now it feels much like it did when the mire had been snatched away.

"tomorrow," she repeats, eager to give roan some kind of comfort to make up for the discomfort she had caused. but she, too, does not linger, turning from the newly forged starke home and fleeing for her own, hopeful that she might find some comfort with drauhir. if he could be found..

-exit- @Clove @Bruno ♔

code by cala, art by acheavsmisle

Roan could only watch as something transpired between the two sisters, unaware of what they've been through up to this point. It seemed one wanted to stay with their father while the other wanted to go elsewhere, but the mauve lion was not trying to eavesdrop on conversation he was not entitled to know. Still, he was standing right there, so it was hard to ignore @Dalila when she hid her face from her sister. It was only when @Clove gave him a chance did the masked lion brighten up. Tomorrow, by the river. Certainly, he could do that. The Hodari did not miss the we used in the offering, hopeful that both sisters would in fact show up. Luckily, the paler of the two seemed to second the agreement. "Thank you both," the mauve elder spoke with relief as he looked from one sister to the other. "I will see you tomorrow, by the river." A small sense of brightness had returned to his features, though it was short lived, not wanting to dawdle too long in Bruno's new home.

As the pair of sisters went their separate ways, he too would find a path out of the Rainforest, a place he had called home on more than one occasion.

exit Roan

table | art