She’d snuck out from the family den (family, but missing important pieces and it doesn’t feel the same) to get some fresh air, and wandered away. It’s in her blood, she’s been told. Wandering and adventure is something she will always want to do, just like her siblings do. But Jac’s heart is heavy and her wandering isn’t looking for adventure, but looking for those missing parts of her. Some of them… won’t be found, no matter how hard she looks.

He’s never coming back.

The reality of it had sunk in slowly, over weeks. As she’d watched her father heal and her mother mourn, and papa wasn’t there with them, the cub’s mind had finally accepted what death meant. Dead means gone. Dead means forever. Dead hurts in a way she’s too young to describe, but it aches whether or not she has a vocabulary to voice it.

So she creeps away when it hurts enough to make her cry.

The glade is empty, and the night dark and the clouds so thick overhead there’s no stars to guide her. But Jac knows the lay of the land, and her steps are sure as she climbs the rise through the thick grass. Finally, she crests the lone hill in the clearing and flops onto her belly, a soft sigh escaping her painted maw. Elvish ears flick back against her head, and Jac looks up to the sky as a million fireflies begin to take flight from the grass and float up.

A million little stars.

"Can you see it?" She whispers to no one that can hear her, no one that will answer. But she asks him all the same, clinging to the idea that he isn’t out of reach. That wherever he is, he can see what she sees. That not even death can keep them apart.

This was a new place for Ghyslaine. She hadn't been to this glade before, but as soon as she saw the rolling hills with tall grasses in the dim light of the night- she was immediately mentally transported back home. Her home had been so similar... Her heart ached, as she padded silently through the tall grasses, letting them conceal her dropping tail and head.

Being alone was permission to just be.

She had no one near her to cheer up, no one to be kind too- she could just enjoy the sights around her as the fireflies took to the night sky, their lower abdomens shining a bright green color, in a strange tempo. She halted where she was, and watched the fireflies...

She thought she heard a soft voice, someone speaking and immediately, her head raised with an attentive search through the darkness. The dark night wasn't her friend in finding the source of the voice. Instead, she began using her nose. She lowered her head to the earth. There- a scent was there, she thought, and so she followed it slowly but surely, until she started to climb a small hill. She lifted her head, as she started to make out a small figure there, and she paused before speaking.

"Hello."

@Jacquotte

words

_{— art by yumpy}

Jac is not yet the most observant creature, especially when her head is in the clouds. The voice startles her, shakes the illusion of being with her papa, and the skittish little creature turns and snarls at the intruder. Her dark pelt fluffs up like an irritated housecat, and her fangs glint from behind black, curled lips. Embarrassment heats her cheeks, but the pirate princess hides it behind anger.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Jacquotte deands quickly, flinty gaze narrowed on the older lioness. "This is my hill and you can’t have it!" She adds after a thought, deciding that scaring this woman away is entirely possible and the best outcome. She’s not meant to be out here alone, and she definitely isn’t meant to talk to strangers.

@Ghyslaine

Ghyslaine

She hadn't meant to startle the small lioness. Ghyslaine never meant to cause any undue stress on any youngster. As the smaller lioness whirled around, her posture signaling that she was angry- defensive? Ghyslaine felt her ears flatten a touch, but she did nothing but offer a soothing smile, her own posture as neutral as she could make it.

"I don't want your hill, young one." Ghyslaine rumbled. "I am Ghyslaine. I was just out for an evening stroll, and I heard you speak." She studies the area, a frown forming on her jaws.

"Are you out here alone?" Surely that wasn't safe, and she hoped the youngster knew that. Ghyslaine's tone is almost a coo, soft and soothing is her goal as she sits back on her haunches- hoping that alone potentially alleviates any anxiety that the youngster could have about her presence.

@Jacquotte

"I am a pretty lady,"

_{art by yumpy}