Guess who'd come back to Amaryllis for some reason that was entirely not due to loneliness? Not him. Somebody else.

Look here, it was raining. Except for when he'd lived in the Band under the ice flows, he'd always loved the savanna and there the rain was as constant and inescapable as the sun. His broad, dark-lined back could handle either without complaint. He strode without complaint, his large bones lumbering, his shoulder and hip bones sticking out like pinched needles in a ball of yarn. Frame aside, he was nowhere near his prime. He was lanky, short of muscle, and the drought and not-loneliness hadn't helped with anything but making him even more testy and hateful than usual.

He wasn't lonely. Nah. He was bored in a way that he wanted other lions to satisfy. Wanted to wrestle, bully, shout and scream, take the pain from the inside and put it on the outside where he could wear it with pride.

Until then, him was a grumpy boi.

Grumpy boi couldn't be claimed and he didn't think anyone was a danger to him at all. So he took his time. His nostrils flared with distaste at the odor of so many lions. All their paths crossing. And not enough pools of blood, less than he expected. Were they all in league with each other or something? Pride lions were always up to something... something he wanted to know about. He strode to a clear-washed stone with sides barren from the waves and salt-crystal encrusted on its peak. Good place to leave scents, and he found a few that were more or less recent but he didn't know where they were from. The only pride he really knew was Vermeda. He frowned, remembering Astridr, remembering that pride was supposed to be a safe haven. Yeah, make him laugh.

The large stone was nice to lean on, and seemed to be well-traveled, so he rested against it for a while and waited to see if any of the swarming pride lions would happen his way. He was huge. He had potential. He could be useful. He did not intend be to be useful cause prides sucked but he wanted to be thought of as useful anyway.

+10 Explore a territory and find something useful in it
+10 Find a notable landmark in a territory
+5 Scout a neutral territory

The weather today was entirely murderous, or so it might lead one to believe; an eye cast upwards revealing the furling clouds of promised storms and threatening groans, but as yet little to show for it. He had yet to decide if there were likely to be more or less lions at he passage during such a brutal weather event - did they seek homes, or hide away sheltered?

Violarum had certainly had his fair share of wind-battering, and his lazy wander towards a distant figure is almost reminding of the life he was built for. Less lavished, less entitled. It was amazing what having friends could do for you.

"Hey, looking for a pride?" he asked the male, easing up with a cumbersome roll of oversized paws, suddenly feeling all the less large in his rather impression company. A far from subtle inhalation would bulk out Violarum's chest a little more for good measure.

@Aurochs _code

It was nice to rest. If only it was somewhere safe. Not that he was... afraid. Certainly not of the ocean. The large rock was an excellent blockade. He saw spray droplets teeming around it but nothing but the drizzle from the sky managed to hit him. The ocean appeared strong enough to swallow the disturbance of the rain. Few ocean birds were out in this weather. Little interrupted the seething of the waves, the sound that could lull his dark ears to sleep if he was foolish enough to drop his guard. Realizing he was tired at about the same time he realized someone was coming toward him, he snapped his eyes back open and resettled his balance to be more dependent on his own four paws. His mane was mussed and his shoulder was asleep from where it had been pressed, but he suppressed the urge to fiddle with these things. He only beamed bright green eyes at the approaching lion. Smaller, yes, but still large. Older, more muscular and better fed. More scars. You'd get that from prides too with all the fighting they did.

The open sandbar made him feel vulnerable. Uneasy. The colossal male's expression didn't quite approach malignant or rabid, but he was certainly guarded. Shouting obscenities in the middle of a raid was one thing. It was easy to be heedless in the middle of chaos... but in the steady calm of the rain, and with days belabored loneliness on his mind, he felt an instinctive pull to lie low. The other male's greeting gave an immediate impression of ease and confidence, with a puff of his chest to further prove the point. Aurochs looked him over and decided he didn't want to mess with him. Cool, easy, confident? That was fine with him. That was what he aspired to. (Except he wanted to come by it honestly, by his own skills, not because of whatever artificial position he had in some bullshit pride hierarchy.)

"Maybe," he replied, trying to come across as aloof and disinterested and cool but really seeming more evasive and nervous. Especially as he flitted his gaze further up the sands to see if any more lions might be crowding in. "if there's any pride that doesn't have a stick up its ass." He obviously spoke from experience, bitter without self-consciousness about it. He didn't think that this could be taken as an insult to this male's pride specifically; he didn't think about a lot of things. If it seemed like political bullshit he didn't want to think about it.

@Violarum

+10 Explore a territory and find something useful in it
+10 Find a notable landmark in a territory
+5 Scout a neutral territory

He seemed easy going enough, his grey flesh rather suited to the stony pedestal he lounged against; the more upright form of his build definitely only cause for extra unease, the Firnen King somehow managing to find a little more air to blast into his own lungs. Extra beef.

Violarum certainly didn't have a type when it came to the making of friends, but he wasn't much suited to the pompous and formal kind. So, though @Aurochs was seemingly taking a stab at pride life in general, Vio could relate. "Weeell," he began, eyes turning skyward in momentary thought, "We do have a lot of sticks."

In all seriousness they did. "Violarum, new King of Firnen Rainforest, you can check it out if you want," the man had never been good at recruiting, but he supposed he'd done it enough to pick up a thing or two, "Mostly just my friends there. If they're happy I'm happy." A lazy shrug to conclude.

Essentially, he only asked that his fam could live happily and safely without copping any weird stuff from random, over-zealous strangers. But he wasn't good at words. _code

Now that he was slightly away from his lounging rock, and upright, the wind again tugged at his mane and a rain-sea mix weighed against his whiskers. This, combined with the fact that the other male seemed even larger at second glance, didn't have Aurochs feeling very safe. He was used to being vulnerable and alone. That was fine. He was mostly concerned about other lions. From this good vantage point, he took another second to scan the island's shoreline just to make sure he wasn't going to be mobbed. Although his ears were turned to @Violarum, his attention was obviously elsewhere for the first parts of the king's reply. He resettled his gaze around the time the guy mentioned a Rainforest. Firnen. Surprising to hear something familiar. "I've been there. They took my sister in after she got fucking ambushed by some hobo stranger." Here was where he would spit if he wasn't so thirsty. Aurochs looked an awful lot like a hobo stranger but it was the hobo on the inside that counted and he wasn't a hobo on the inside. At least not a bad hobo. Just a good hobo who never meant no harm to anyone who didn't deserve it.

Mr. Good Hobo thought he liked this 'hanging out with friends' deal. "Sounds cool. And if it doesn't work out, it doesn't." The rough gray male was somewhat used to being disappointed. At least now he was an adult who could jet off at the first signs of things not going his way. "I'll check it out, I guess."

At this point, Violarum almost felt a little threatened by the oozing amount of cool and calm that radiated from the younger guy, and found himself slouching his previously expanded shoulders as if to somehow match his lax stone-lean. He was usually the laziest in the land, unless there was a good reason to brawl, and he wanted @Aurochs to know it.

"Plan," Violarum agreed simplistically, straightening himself subconsciously; way too excited by a potential new pride member (and cool pal) to maintain his slouch for too long. "You'll like it," he assured, mostly out of hope, but near as much out of an inability to imagine who wouldn't.

"See you there?" the clay male offered, departing with a super casual ruffle of his mane; the ultimate bro-ish departure.

-- exit _code

This hadn't gone entirely like he'd expected. He'd expected to have to clash tongues or fangs with some over zealous pride recruiter, but Violarum was anything but. He took another look to the shoreline, just to make sure he wasn't dreaming and a horde of enemies wasn't going to come popping out, but it seemed like if he was dreaming then he better not wake up. Better get moving while his luck held. He half-blinked and slouched a half-nod in acknowledgement. This was far less formal than even forming a Band with Astrid had been. He liked it.

OK, he probably was asleep. But he wasn't going to dwell on it. "Sure thing," he drawled in reply and followed at a curious distance. Had to see what on the island had changed since he left. He'd come 'round to the Rainforest sooner or later, when his boredom exhausted all other avenues of delay. He still didn't like prides. Whether they were ruled by a cool dude or not.

-exit