( aw & open to anyone but I appreciate prior communication if you're going to try and claim him somewhere )

Life was... well it was okay by Arthur's measure. He had his family around him and the tumultuous mist was lighter and lighter by the day. Until this morning when Arthur woke up and there was nothing. There was a gentle morning sun shining through the leaves of the forest, hues of orange and yellow lit up and glowed over his head. Wow- The boy mumbled to himself as he paced along a very worn forest path, dirt pressed down by the travel of lion and other animals. His head was looking straight up over his head and into the forest overhead, to the leaves yet to fall but a bright array of colors he had never seen before. They changed? He thought to himself, keeping the subject of his amazement to himself. In absence of noise from him birds cawed overhead and flew to and fro from branch to branch. Some larger flocks, moving with the weather, headed clear across the blue sky and to the south.

the sea does not like to be restrained ooc: Revna won't try to claim him, just as a heads up ;) The life of a rogue did not suit Revna in the slightest. She had enjoyed the purpose that her home in the Cove, and her rank, had given her, and now she felt more than a little lost in Amaryllis. Of course, she always had Elias and Dhaveira. Wherever they were was home for her, and that was enough...most of the time. She would never deny that she had ambitions about taking the Cove back. Mostly so that the Sigrun would still have a sea stronghold among the prides of Amaryllis, but also so that Eira would have her home back one of these days. In the meantime, it wouldn't really do for them to not know the lay of the land or have a place to call home, so she was exploring where she could. Today her travels took her to a place that was not as strange to her as some others. There had been forests in their northern homeland, after all, and this one was not so different, even if it was a little warmer. The towering trees offered shade from the sun, and the cool autumn air was a welcome change from the heat of the summer. If the cooler air wasn't a sign that the seasons had change, then the multicolored leaves overhead certainly were. She traveled a well-worn path, curious as to where it would lead, and was surprised when she spotted the small form of a cub on the same path, just ahead of her. Was the child alone? She glanced around, but saw no older lions present. Concern for the cub spurred her onward, and she approached him with a friendly chuff and a smile on her muzzle. "Out here alone, little one?" she asked softly, slowing as she neared him and keeping her distance, in case she had managed to startle him. @Arthur

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Her voice did startle him a little. Just a little tensing of the muscles in his face while he turned it around on his neck quickly to look in her direction. She was not that close, yet. I can't imagine my dads are far. He said with the lightest bit of warning. Any indication of threat was lost on his youthful façade- the mention of his parents merely meant to ward off any ideas this woman might have. Whether or not she could tell he was bluffing though... he had no idea. For a kid he was better than most at holding his poker face, he wasn't too energetic or vibrant of a lion when it came to that anyways. But he was not a practiced liar either, and the idea of doing it came with a discontent in his brain that left him feeling icky. Even to lie to a stranger like this.

He glanced his blue eyes back up to the leaves overhead. The leaves... they're normally green? What's going on. He asked Revna curiously, assuming that since she was older than him she might have seen this phenomena go on before and be able to educate him.

the sea does not like to be restrained The warning in his voice, as small as it was, drew a smile and a chuckle from the dark woman. "I'm not here to hurt you, little one," she said lightly, letting him have his space and even crouching down a little in place to make herself look smaller; perhaps less frightening. "Shouldn't you be with your dads, though? I'd bet that's a safer place to be than alone." Odd, that she hadn't seen or smelled any other lions in the area, if his dads were nearby. Had the child lost them somehow? Revna wasn't one to go about stealing cubs as she pleased, but leaving one on his own when he might be lost from his parents was an idea that made her stomach churn. She'd lost her own child to the sea and she was loathe to let another parent go through the pain she had suffered if it was something she could prevent. The cub's curiosity won out over his caution, it seemed. Her question drew another smile from her, and she looked up too, her tail moving lazily behind her. "When the seasons change, so do the leaves," she said calmly, having seen this several times in her life now. "They die as the weather gets colder, and then when spring comes they grow back bright green again." @Arthur

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Arthur shrugged a dismissive, and unsure, answer. He had started out with a lie, something he was not so skillful at yet and something that made his belly burn. It did not set his mind up for success as he wondered and wound himself up around something so simple. He should be with his fathers. But he wasn't. But he did not know danger quite that well yet and had trouble really comprehending the why of it. Just knew that he was supposed to stay close to them. Being a kid was hard...

They die? He, in quite an innocently naïve little voice, sounded concerned. Like the things we eat... but those animals don't come back. It sounded like the wheels in his brain were spinning. Fast. Trying to make connections between things he knew and these new facts Revna was giving to him. His blue eyes would flicker like the dancing flame light of a candle from her, curious, into the tree's canopy overhead with amazement.

the sea does not like to be restrained The boy seemed unconcerned by the fact that he wasn't with his parents. Revna, on the other hand, had growing doubts that they were even nearby. It wasn't an issue she wanted to press, just yet. He wouldn't trust her, and that was fine. It was probably better that he didn't, though he seemed comfortable enough at the same time. She'd hate for the little one to learn stranger danger the hard way. For now, she focused on keeping him talking to her. The longer she kept him near her, the safer he was for the time. "I guess you could think of it like that," she answered eith a smile. "But the leaves don't really come back, either; a new one is born after the old one dies." She took a few steps closer to him, to a few of the leaves that had already fallen and congregated at the base of the tree. "And the leaves that die provide food and shelter for other life on the ground. See?" As she spoke she gently used a paw to draw away several leaves, revealing several woodlice that had congregated there. @Arthur

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