The more he nears home, the more Leander feels the injuries from battle. Blood has now dried and caked on his pale coat, namely on his leg and his cheek though his body is beginning to tire and the bruises beginning to come to the fore. With @Brynja on his back, the Heir of the Oasis returns though he does not pause by the borders.

No, he travels deeper still -- pausing only when he reached the mouth of his den. He is well aware of the tensions that have reached breaking point and Leander would not be surprised to have any undesirable visitors. With a grunt, he rolls the Mire Gentry from his back to a shaded spot on the sand, mismatched gaze taking in his opponent's injuries and knowing that she would need assistance.

Low chuff calls out to anyone in Andal who may be able to assist in healing the woman.

@Freya

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Brynja

Occasionally on the trek through the lands Brynja felt some bit of consciousness return to her. She became aware that she was moving but it was not her own power doing so. Bits of the fight, of the scene before, all came back. They mixed and muddled together in her mind and the wolf woman groaned loudly with discontent, with confusion. She could piece together relatively well what had happened and why she hurt so bad but what was going on right now was more of a mystery.

By the time @Leander shuffled her off of his back and into the sand (at least shaded, a mercy on her bald bare skin) her eyes were starting to flicker open and stay open- taking in what was around her. It was definitely not the Mire. The ground below her was much softer, drier. She looked down her own belly, wiggled her toes and fingers. One of her wrists, sent a shock of pain up her limb and she winced in response. Hissing loudly until finally she looked up and saw the piebald lion her mind recalled fighting.

there's ghosts in my house

and i can taste blood in my mouth

Whether he knows it or not, Freya isn't far behind. She'd skirted unhindered away from the chaos in the Mire, and with what seems to be the whole of the island involved in it, the rest of the journey is eerily peaceful in comparison. It's a blessing, given the weariness of her paws and the growing swell of her belly — noticeable, but not yet a complete hindrance. Mud turns to dirt, to golden grasses, and eventually to somewhat familiar red sands, all the while following the trail of pawprints and blood without any great haste.

She traipses over Andal's border without caution — this is supposedly her home now, after all — and makes for the direction in which @Leander's path leads. She is nearly upon them when he calls out for aid. There, amongst the palm fronds, she finds the piebald along with an incapacitated @Brynja, her astutely curious gaze roving over her former pridemate.

"My hero," she teases Leander with a brief simper, coming up alongside him to lean casually onto her haunches beside his shoulder, perched ears tipping down towards Brynja's prone frame. "You really shouldn't have, you know," Freya chides the other woman; she can't quite figure out the motive behind wanting to defend her. Surely, there were better things Brynja could have done with her time than try to keep a devious lioness like Freya in the pride, and yet, this is the fight she had chosen. "Your wrist is broken," Freya mentions rather unhelpfully, entirely too casual about this entire situation than she should be. It is rather obvious that she is not behaving like a woman who has been captured, but one who is quite content with her current situation; she has to admit, the sands are rather appealing in comparison to winter in a swamp.

code by corvus

It takes a moment for @Brynja to come to -- or at least come to terms with her whereabouts and her new predicament. But when she does so, she does with distaste for his presence. Fair enough, he supposed. With a nonchalant expression, he watches her carefully without a word, slowly sinking onto muscles albeit tired haunches as he waits for her to calm.

But before she can do so, it is a heavily pregnant @Freya that arrives, not too far behind him. He is pleased to see her though Leander is hardly outwardly expressive at the best of times. If there is any bad blood between the two, the witch woman did not leave it up to chance, making a smart comment as she saunters in.

What does take him by surprise is her fully belly, the Heir soaking in the sight with mixed emotions. Whose spawn were those? And when had this happened? Had she known when she had declared herself trapped in the Mire? No matter, that was a conversation for another time. Mismatched gaze trails to the broken wrist and the Miroslav decides that it is now time to explain what the three of them all knew to be true, "You are a prisoner of Andal Oasis and under my guard. We can heal your wrist if you so desire."

He wouldn't exactly blame Brynja for not wanting to be touched or looked at by unfamiliar lions.. or lions that she despised as it were. Silently he waits to see how she may respond to the news.

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Brynja

He skin crawled at the arrival of Freya. Distrust, anger, nothing resolved or concluded from their fight in Brynja's mind. And it was bothersome enough that she'd wasted her time and blood for her without reward, with less than reward. The salt in the wound was @Freya's pleasure for this outcome. Brynja should have listened to her gut in the first place after all. Her bare face frowned, bare lips coiled over teeth and snarled equally in both of these lion's directions. Distrustful, angry. As much at them as herself. Because she should have kept looking out for herself first, this was what trying to care got you. This was what working for the pride got you.

Keep her away from me. She spoke to @Leander with a much threat in her voice as her tired lungs could muster. With claws flexing into the sands, one wrist quivering with pain as she did so, there was something left in her to try and fulfill whatever threat she was promising. Iofiel can help me, or no one. She decide she would let the lead medic of the Oasis, if he was even still here among them, if anyone help her. And if Leander refused that then she would deal with it herself somehow... couldn't rely on anyone else after all. A lesson she should have remembered and obeyed.