For some this is all a game

Panya had been unknowingly through Maua's Passage, skirted the lapping shores and seen no sign of life. She continued to wander the coast with a limitless thrill of independence, a rare solitude like she'd never before experienced. It was her birth month, her second year; her body blossoming into the maturity her pride recognized as a queue for departure.

It was custom for her people to send their youngsters out into the world to find a mate, a pride unrelated, and though it was not her purpose it had become her instinct. So, at the first sign of a pride land, she grows increasingly anxious - more with excitement than true nerves - a slight jitter in her stride as she snuffed about the borders and sought to place her own scent nearby, hoping somebody might seek her out.

@Walpurgis

Don't take me just a fool

_{art by yumpy —}

Another day wandering across her borders, marking scent and chasing shorebirds. Life was good. Few scents were here other than hers. Those outsiders had finally cleared out - no more could she smell them; all the fresh scrapings along the brush and trunks were of her claws, and their old scent marks just seemed like anonymous ammonia. Her scruff fur was finally regrowing. It was a less greasy patch of deep ebony, surrounded by longer tangled fur of her variegated pelt. She was still a rangy looking thing, muscles with fitful purpose, but she was happy.

She carried a desiccated albatross, one wing dragging and the other splintered bone. She had intended to bring it to her den, but had been distracted and now she carried it on patrol. Even when her pace quickened at a new scent, and her jaw dropped with mumblings in her throat, she picked it back up. She briefly remembered its purpose -- and then it was carried along with her again, forgotten baggage, hindering her eager step but not dulling the light in her eyes when she spotted the young female. She was scuttling around like a busy ant. Like she belonged here and had found her nest partly awry.

"Whatcha doing?" she toned, genuinely clueless but also genuinely wanting to know, her ears perched forward and white toes mincing impatiently. She found feathers scratching her lips and finally dropped the bird. Her tail swayed up in exchange, a curious tilt to its tuft at the end of its crooked arc.

@Panya

For some this is all a game

Panya is many things in this moment; young, inexperienced, anxious. Though, through her engrossed snuffing amidst golden sands she is no less aware. Her face, still soft-edged and cushioned by youth, lifts to meet the arrival of a woman? - the kind she might have hoped to find without truly knowing it.

She is bullish and broad, built more akin to a top-heavy male than any true lioness she had met before. Still, Panya marvels quietly within the greatness the stranger exudes, strong and commanding, her flesh vibrant yet simultaneously drab against the tropical scene of rolling sand and lapping waves.

Distracted from her prior activity, the pale fleshed youngster slides white paws through dry sand, facing her company wholesomely with a gentle and feminine smile of greeting. "I was looking for you," perhaps it is more personal than it should have been, but presented with the company of a lion of such impressive stature the youngster has decided rather matter of factly, that she was indeed looking for @Walpurgis all along.

"My name is Panya, I am looking for a home," it is polite enough, the adjustment of her weight perhaps allowing the stranger to best survey her. Panya would grow to be large in her own right, but certainly a little softer around the edges than her company.

Don't take me just a fool

_{art by yumpy —}

The girl smiled, and damn. She had a hell of a smile. Whopper grinned back, half drool and half feathers and all the absolute opposite of self-conscious. "I'm famous?" She had always hoped to be. If anyone in the land needed a WARRRIOR she wanted to be the one they wanted. She wanted to be wanted and known and feared. All these things meant power and praise.

Her attention was yanked back by a name, half heard amid the rumble of undistilled thoughts. "Panny?" she echoed. "I'm - I'm - Walpurgis de Pardes, but if you're friends ya can call me Whopper. I was lookin' for a home and I live in da Rainforest for a long time. But I find this place where the lions living here they left, so I got into a fight and when you get into a fight in da right place you win a pride. I won this pride. I'm high WARRIOR."

@Panya

For some this is all a game

There is a rawness to the woman before her, the kind that boasts of greatness in an unlikely way. She seems simple, yet strong; the kind of leader one of ambition might seek. The sort of Queen that could command and rule, yet perhaps not with entire success without having somebody pragmatic by her side. Panya is busy in thought, but her gaze and attentions are ever-present, absorbing this bullish woman keenly.

Unlike her company, there is an easy practice to Panya's mannerisms; a smile that is trained and thought-out, but comfortably executed. Peachy ears, curved atop a graceful skull, remain trained to the sovereign - reading her as a lioness who liked to be taken seriously, and so Panya would.

"Do your warriors need a lioness, Warrior @Walpurgis?" this situation could be perfect for her. Ever so vaguely, the pale woman lowers her front end, bending at the elbows to offer the slightest bow of submission. Will you take me?

Don't take me just a fool

_{art by yumpy —}

This lady was so perfectly disarming. And she'd always wanted a lady to disarm her. Most weren't interested and Walpurgis figured it was because she wasn't a notorious enough WARRIOR. Since she was female she had more to prove, even though her deeds would be enough for AT LEAST 3 ladies in the past she hadn't gotten a single one. She was quite sore and lonely about this, and sunk scatterbrained into the pretty lioness's smile. Walpurgis nodded slowly, a little vacant eyed and definitely slackjawed. What was she agreeing to again? "Uh. Warriors? I'm. I'm da best warrior. A real good - uh - WARRIOR." she puffed herself like she usually did when she spoke her title. It was the most important thing she could do, to fight, to eventually gain respect and belonging. "I need a lady cause uh. A warrior's nuthin' without their lady. Like they always say. I dunno what that mean. But I want you here, uh, come in? Please?" she crooked her head inward, absolutely forgetting that ladies were meant to be won with fury and bloodshed instead of whatever begging she was digging into.

@Panya

For some this is all a game

Intelligence was a formidable weapon, and one might be enticed to feel pity for the bullish woman who so blatantly lacked it. Yet, Panya senses this lioness needs no charity. She has seemingly made up for her basic mind elsewhere. In shoulders perhaps? Blush eyes wander with a keen interest from the woman's scarred face to the matted pelt that draped her shoulders.

She had never met anybody like @Walpurgis, and that was exciting. "Then I will be your lady," she offers, the smile reaching further up the plumpness of her cheeks - disguising a vague urge to giggle on the assumption it may not be well met. Well, this went well. She was inexperienced of the world, but she had been told to go and find a home, a leader, a mate. So she had.

She looks to the limp bird that had been dropped by the Queen's feet, "Should I carry that for you?" a singular step forward, careful to appear entirely lady-like, sure to hip-sway.

-- exit ?

Don't take me just a fool

_{art by yumpy —}

Ladies in her life were to be bestowed, or taken. Such violent ways and public awards of renowned appealed to the WARRIOR. She was aware that sometimes ladies were wooed and courted, but, well. That involved more conversation and potential for social embarrassment than she liked. She had not entirely expected this to go well. Therefore she stood a moment cockeyed and slackjawed, mysteriously enamored by this female and this precious turn of events. Amazingly her eyes focused on Panya's movements though comprehension was lost. It was only when the lady offered some service - as the bird had been thoroughly forgotten, although she had carted it here in the first place - that she made move to nod vigorously. She would agree with whatever she said to keep the lady pleased... though keeping promises was somewhat beyond her power of will. "Yeah! Yeah! Whatever you like!" And Whopper would follow with hearts of gold in her crimson eyes.

-exit