She has travelled with him for some distance, but she does not allow herself to become attached. This is not her child, but simply her charge to get rid of. She was supposed to leave him on the river bank, let the crocodiles have him. He is fortunate though because she, unlike his Mother, cannot bring herself to be so cruel. She cannot keep him though. They would know, and she would be hunted down and punished - she is not that brave.

Still, she will give him the best chance she can, this far from the lands of his birth. She can smell the scent of lions, lots of them, enough that there must be at least one who will take pity on this small bastard child. He did not ask to be born, he did not ask to have that monster for a Father - it is not fair that he should be left to die for a crime he did not commit.

She finds a small hollow, a safe place in the otherwise barren land. Shaded from the heat of the day and shielded from the winds which might give him away, she doesn't want to hide him too well though so after tucking his sleeping form in among some dried and dying grass, she leaves signs. Hints to other lions at what lies within, guiding a potential guardian to his hiding place.

When she is done it is night, and though she knows he will be wanting for food she does not dare go back to him, for it was hard enough to leave him this once. Trying not to dwell on the boy's future she slinks into the darkness, unshed tears in her eyes ready to report to his Mother that she has disposed of him.

The nameless child lay curled in a ball among the grass, her scent surrounds him and he feels safe. Why should he not, she leaves him like this to hunt and he does not doubt she will come home to him, and then they will walk on to wherever it is they are going. He does not know he is alone now, he does not know his future is in the paws of strangers. If he did, perhaps he would not sleep so well or dream so sweetly.

Caligula had taken a hiatus from heading out to the Passage in order to search for the missing lions of the Brook. Of course that could not last. He headed out to go and try his paw at recruiting once more. So far he hadn't had much success at that. He hadn't been able to tempt anyone to return to the Brook with him. Though he had managed joiners at the borders of the pride itself so that had to count for something.

The stars overhead comforted him. The darkness hid the water from him so that he didn't panic on sight. And the scent of someone in the area drove him forwards. Yet, he couldn't find the lioness that he smelled. "Hello? Are you lost?" He called out, hoping the mist hadn't swallowed this one before she had a chance to even find a home.

The bronze lion slowed his pace and he looked around for signs of tracks or the mist or anything. That was when he found the cub tucked away. "Hey there little one. Where is Mama?" He asked as he moved to stand protectively close to the cub. His gaze shifted around the area, looking for the lioness to whom this cub belonged.

@Cub

Valkravn hadn’t taken to the passage ever since she became Gentry many months ago. Something about it made her feel a bit uneasy at first, and maybe that was because she held distaste for the non-natives. But as her time back in Amaryllis grew so would her knowledge of the ones not from her homeland, and with that she finally decided to take the plunge and head out toward the sandy grounds that seemed to attract more and more each day despite how long it had appeared to them.

Ombré limbs would carry her leisurely toward the area, maw in the air as her nostrils drank in the scents around her in the night sky. She were trying to pluck out the freshest ones, for those would be the best places to start. But as she scented the air would she pick up something rather peculiar, causing for her ears to flick forward in alert and for her body to move in the direction the scent was coming from. As she grew closer would another scent catch her attention, one more familiar than the unknown one. Periwinkle eyes would soon land upon @Caligula, a curious expression on her face. She would near him, and as she did so would she catch his words - and then the sight of the cub. She would stay silent for now, waiting to see if the cub would respond to the question asked, and also staying guarded just in case others arrived.

ART BY GUNNER, CODE BY LARS

Eyes open with a blink and the child is surprised not to find the lioness but another, they smelt funny and he didn't know what it meant, but they weren't scary - he was too young yet to feel fear over strangers. His mismatched eyes searched the face above him, words he did not understand causing pointed ears to twitch. The cub had bene spoken to, of course he had but he had never bene taught words and had not spent any time repeating them.

Carefully he gets to his oversized paws, it's an awkward movement and his belly protests. As the growl rises from his hungry tummy the small child gives a whine of complaint, a long pitiful cry. He opens his mouth, flashing tiny teeth and then drops his head to snuffle at the ground. Are there any tiny scraps? Droplets of the yummy meat stuff she usually chews up for him?

When his nose finds nothing but the dry grass he whines again. Head rocking back to stare at the bronze lion, expectation shining in his young eyes. He is fixated and does not notice the lioness, doesn't recognise the new smell to be that of another of their kind. Instead he just plops his rump down and stares, surely the lion will produce food from somewhere.

@Caligula @Valkravn

He did not have a name for the lioness that joined him but he knew her immediately on sight. Another member of the Brook. One home was present at the hunts. Perhaps he would have to remedy his lack of knowledge. He really did need to get to know more members of the pride. But even not knowing her he still saw her as family.

The child does not speak but the sounds he makes more than speaks to his situation. "The water... I can't..." Eyes plead with the lioness. The cub needed food. The only thing to find here were fish. "Or milk instead?" But where did one find a lactating female? He was due to have cubs with Aquila but that didn't exactly work the same way.

"Should we take him back to the Brook?" At least there Caligula knew he would be safe. He also knew that there would be plenty enough meat there for him. But he also didn't want to just steal the little guy away from his mother either. His heart was torn between the pitiful state the cub was in and waiting for his mother to come back.

The bronze lion glanced around once more before looking back to the cub. "I know little one. Soon." He promised and aimed a lick at the boy's head.

@Cub @Valkravn

She would watch as the cub rose to clumsy paws and released whines and whimpers, hearing the rather loud protest of his stomach growling. She’d watch in silence, attention being shifted to @Caligula as he began to speak about water. She remembered vaguely about the time they were hunting in the Brook where their prey was submerged in water and the lion acted a similar way was it a hippo or a rhino? She couldn’t remember. But as the cub sat down and her fellow pride member suggested milk and then bringing him back to Vermeda she would nod her head in agreement.

“I didn’t see any lions on my way here, though I did catch scent of one.” The comment would be spoken in a hushed tone, whiskers twitching as her eyes shifted back and forth between the two. It wouldn’t be the first time a cub was left abandoned in the passage from what she had gathered from word of mouth. “We could take him back and see if he’d be able to tell us anything after his belly is full.” Maybe all he needed was to eat.

@cub

ART BY GUNNER, CODE BY LARS

More words were exchanged and the child looked beyond the bronze male at the other stranger, she was more like the lioness so maybe she had food for him. He watched her with wide eyes, expecting food to appear at any moment. When it didn't and the male instead licked his head, the cub lifted himself onto his hind paws and pressed his small mottled forepaws against @Caligula's chest, his mouth opened and closed as if trying to further explain his plight. He didn't know the word for it, so instead he made exaggerated chewing sounds. "Nom nom nom." A little bit of saliva dripped from the boys lower lip and his tongue slid out to lick Caligula's chest fur as if there might be some remnant of a meal there.

@Valkravn

"Yeah, I had smelled a lioness on my way in but I just found him instead." And that had been the basis for his assumption that the mother had just left briefly and would soon be back. Likely with food given the way the cub was behaving. He wanted to wait but he really couldn't stand to see the poor thing suffer much longer. Caligula had no way to leave a message for the mother but maybe she would follow their scents instead. The bronze male had no problem with giving the cub back should his mother come looking.

Caligula's heart nearly broke when the boy licked at his chest. "I'm sorry, little one, I have nothing. But soon. I promise." His mind was made up. "We have to take him. I can't leave him. I'm not sure how much longer it will take his mother to return but I do know he needs food and it is a long enough walk back to the Brook." Not that Caligula really planned on walking.

The maneless male reached down to try to pick up the cub by the scruff of his neck so that he might be able to carry him back to Vermeda Brook.

@Cub @Valkravn

The Brynmawr was not going to object to the lion wanting to bring the cub back to their pride. She had the same thoughts about if the mother was truly still around that she should be able to follow the cub’s scent back to Vermeda. But for now, with the cub now moving closer to @Caligula and licking at his chest, there was little left to contemplate. They needed to bring him back and give him a good meal at the very least.

“I agree. Regardless if his mother is still around, this is not a place for him to be waiting by himself.” There we’re many cruel lions out there in Amaryllis, and Valkravn would only breathe a sigh of relief that it were the two of them that had come across this cub and not one that was far less kind. Gaze would watch as he then attempted to scruff the cub so that they would be on their way, continuing to keep an eye out in case either the mother came back or if other lions approached them to see what was going on.

@cub

ART BY GUNNER, CODE BY LARS

Suddenly he is being lifted, this is not unfamiliar to him. Maybe food is big and so he has to be taken to it rather than the other way around. He had never seen big food before, not so big she couldn't bring it back. He trusted these adults though, because he had no reason not to. No-one had ever harmed him before, why should he expect they would now.

Letting @Caligula carry him the little cub stared long and hard at @Valkravn, she was very pale with touches of darker colour on her cheeks and legs. He was darker on his legs too. The male didn't seem to have any distinct markings but he was that very bright bronze, an off shade to the clay which coloured the cub's hind limbs and striped his hips. Her eyes were a lot like the boy's but more vibrant, less like a storm and more like a river. The male's were something between green and blue, a colour he'd never seen before.

Dangling by his scurf the little boy blinked tiredly at the lioness, his belly giving another grumble as his paws curled close to his body. Hopefully the food wasn't far.

Exit w/ Caligula and Valkravn