zelda The journey was boring but she had not expected it to be filled with constant conversation, either. Zelda was happy just to wander in silence sometimes even when her brain begged for attention but she was more or less happy to have found a pride. A place that might be quite disgusting to look at and even more disgusting to tread through but a place meant very little in the grand scheme of things. She just needed to nestle up into the ranks of her pride and make sure that she was known. Not knowing anyone here aside from Ronin made it a bit difficult but once she figured out who and what she was now living with, it would be easier to find where the best place for her could be. She was an adaptable creature, after all! What better way was there to make yourself look good to your superiors than to patrol the borders you were now able to walk freely back and forth upon? Straddling that border lengthwise as she traveled the vicinity of the Mire and familiarized herself with the scent that was attached to it. Obviously, a male but it wasn't Ronin's that was the heaviest but another. A curious stench that she looked forward to finding the owner of.

Ghyslaine

+5 exercise to gain endurance, not including spars.

Ghyslaine had taken on a new attempt at training and strengthening herself. Tree climbing. She was horrible at it- actually, but it required an intense use of skill and the fact that she was so small helped her, in some cases.

She'd been climbing up a tree on the border, until she managed to find a thick branch to rest upon. It was going well, she thought, until she scented another- and heard them approaching. She tilted her head just slightly as she realized she recognized that scent. Zelda?

She craned her head over the branch to see the gray lioness as she approached- and sure enough it was Zelda. Her claws dug into the branch, while her muscles strained from the effort of holding her there as she studied her. She was just about to speak from the tree when the thick portion of bark her front claws were dug into broke off.

Suddenly she was falling. To her, it seemed like hours passed as she raced towards the earth, when in reality it was probably a second or two. She landed on the frozen earth with a splat, and a groan left her, as she stared up at the trees ahead- before whispering. "Hi Zelda." She winced and groaned as she lay there on the frozen earth.

Shit.

@Zelda

"I am a pretty lady,"

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zelda It would have been quite the understatement to say that she wasn't easily surprised so as she was simply meandering through the swampy layer of mud, it came as little surprise to her that there were others hanging around. That their beady eyes might be upon her but Zelda encouraged it entirely. Just as she could faintly hear something above her make a giant S N A P and her head raised to take a look but before she could even move to see, an object flew straight down in front of her with a gross slap on the muddied ground. A few sprays of mud having flown and spattered across her forelegs. A part of her deigned to snap her teeth for the oaf's transgressions but all it took was two words for Zelda to have a good chuckle. Ah, Ghyslaine. So wonderful that you've come to see me. Because it made absolute sense that she was someone worth wanting to see a second (third?) time. Especially if it meant that @Ghyslaine had broken that branch because she was trying to get a better look at the grey minx from afar.

The impact of the fall radiated through her body, and it took a moment for her to even attempt to roll over onto her belly- and push herself into a sitting position. She was going to feel that over the course of the coming days. She offered Zelda a smile, that may or may not have been more of a wince, as she spoke.

"So the mire huh? Who brought you here?" She asked conversationally, wondering how exactly @Zelda had made it here. It was ironic, to Ghyslaine that she ended up in the same pride as the other lioness- when she was one of the first lionesses that Ghys had met here.

"How've you been? Have you found your friend again?" She followed up, with another question- curious to see how the other lioness had been getting along.

words

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zelda It was a strange and fascinating situation to know that she had wound up in the same pride as @Ghyslaine, as well as with Violarum. Two of the first lions that she had seen upon coming into Amaryllis. Though, she had been the one to siren call to Violarum for help so he had come to her. Your Sovereign, Ronin. Not a whole lotta personality, eh? Much different than the fresh faced lioness that was in front of him that could probably out-talk the second in command with ease. She'd reckon a snail talked faster than he. Good, haven't found trouble... yet. My friend decided to put her adventures elsewhere for now but you can't get rid of me quite yet. Zelda had yet to find her fun and that was half the reason that she was alive was to find the fun in any situation. How'd you get here? Did Sergeant Bland invite her, too?

So it was Ronin that had brought @Zelda here. Interesting. Ghyslaine knew of Ronin- and could recognize him, but she hadn’t personally one- on- one met him. Therefore she couldn’t speak to his personality- though Zelda didn’t seem to think that he had much of one. ”I haven’t actually met Ronin, if I’m being honest. I know who he is... but I haven’t ever spoke with him.” Ghyslaine explained to Zelda.

Zelda answered her question about her welfare, and about her friend- and Ghyslaine nodded along. She was glad to see the gray hued lioness, glad to see that she had made it safely and in a seemingly good condition. Zelda posed the question- asking Ghyslaine how she had got here, and she couldn’t help the bemused grin on her face.

So as she stretched out a leg in front of her, letting the stretch hold for a moment before swapping to the either leg, she spoke. ”Violarum brought me here.” She didn’t go into the whole thing about him claiming her and her arguing that she wasn’t claimed but had chosen to go with him- she didn’t much see the point in thinking about that today.

”Are you liking the Mire so far?” A fair question, as far as Ghys was concerned. To be perfectly honest, the wheaten lioness hadn’t really cared for the Mire at first. She wondered if Zelda felt the same.

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zelda Be thankful for that, she issues to @Ghyslaine without a second thought for she had seen nothing about him in that one moment to assume that he had any kind of redeemable qualities. Lackluster, unamused or perhaps she was getting the wrong idea and that he had purely just been there for business and nothing more. Not that that helped her opinion at all, given that her entire existence was built on finding some crack to wiggle into. Ah, Vio. She mused, reveling in her own first memory of him and how he had fallen into a trap of a damsel in distress needing rescued. Especially when she was the one who had purposefully shoved her paw and lower leg into a rocky outcrop and called for help just to get someone's attention. Not that she was going to tell the wheat woman that. They weren't that close yet to share it in confidence. After all, it would be hard to say whether or not Ghyslaine would go and tell someone else that was she was running scams. It's... okay. Kinda drab and pretty disgusting at the end of the day. I like the plentiful trees, though. Plenty of places to hide and spy on others and get an idea for who the hell they were. Zelda had yet to truly find her place in Ecrosia and still didn't even know what her leader looked like aside from Sir GrumpyPants.

Truthfully, Ghyslaine hadn’t experienced Ronin enough to know what in the world Zelda meant by him having no personality. Never-the-less, she chuckled at the other lioness’s words, and smiled again, even if it was possibly rather pained.

When Ghyslaine mentioned that Violarum had brought her, Zelda seemed to know her friend. She almost rolled her eyes. Didn’t everyone know the clay colored brute? Curiously, she would ask, “How did you meet Violarum?” She was honestly surprised that the gray lioness hadn’t said she hadn’t come because of Violarum.

About the Mire itself, she couldn’t help but have an agreeable nod. It was rather disgusting here. The mud clung to her all the time. “The mud- the mud is absolutely horrible.” She said with a disgusted sort of frown. “It always sticks to me and I feel like I’m never clean.” A disgusted frown, and a snarl of disgust leaves her. But Zelda is right, there are a lot of trees- even if Ghyslaine sucked at climbing them. She shot the tree she’d fallen out of a rueful sort of glance over her shoulder, and sighed. “Do you climb a lot?”

@Zelda

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That would be considered a great blessing to not know who or what Ronin was. So far, aside from the muck of the mire, he was the next worse thing until he showed otherwise. That was the benefit of Ronin being a living and breathing entity who could have thoughts -- he could actually fix his issue but the Mire could not choose to be anything else. Violarum, on the other paw, had at least shown promise and had given her a brief glimpse into who he was as a male. A little dense and show-boaty but it only went to show that he was much younger than most males she had met. He... helped get my foot out when I had accidentally wedged it in between some rocks. Even if her brain enunciated the word "accidentally", she was careful not to express that out loud. The last thing she wanted was folks realizing that sometimes she did things to get attention or a reaction. Me? Definitely. Climbing was half the fun sometimes and it was a skill that she would likely in the near future implore @Ghyslaine to learn how to do and do well. You would be amazed what all you can see and hear when you're under the cover of the canopy. She winked, hoping to instill some good advice to the wheat-coated lioness. If she had learned anything growing up was that information was key whether it was useful or not.

^{MANIP BY YUMPY !}

Ghyslaine

Ah, Violarum. Saving females and showing the world the side of him that Ghyslaine adored. (In a purely friendly way- of course). She smiled at Zelda’s story, and then spoke, “Violarum is a good soul.” Ever loyal and defensive of her friend, even when she had no reason to be defensive.

But ah, back to climbing! Despite her recent fall moments ago, Ghyslaine was determined to one day get good at this climbing thing. It was mostly that she just had so little experience with it. In her homeland, they hadn’t grown up climbing. The trees had been to tall, the branches too high from the ground. The piney sort of tress on the edge of their prairie type land hadn’t been good for climbing.

She listens carefully to Zelda’s words, and nods thoughtfully. “Have you climbed since you were a cub or is this a new skill you’ve come to enjoy?” An honest question, and a curious one.

@Zelda

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