The waves crashed against obsidian rocks as the ocean water ebbed and flowed. It was a familiar sound for the residents of Scilla Lagoon. But to young eyes, there was much novelty all along. Scilla, a land of white sands and sunshine, was a far cry from the black stands of Stygian Shore. It fascinated young Orson, who gazed around with wide blue orbs that nearly matched the color of the ocean's deepest depths.

The little prince padded along behind his older brother, @Nero. It had been at the boy's insistence and pleading that the Heir had agreed to take him beyond Scilla's borders. And although the Stygian Shoreline was not far, it was like entering a whole new world. "Where we goin' Nee-wo?" Orson asked picking up speed and bounding forward after pausing to inspect a sea-shell and lagging behind for a moment.

i'll never let you go
if you promise not to fade away

Nero would have punched a bull elephant in the face for the cubs. Although it was certainly different to see them being raised in a fashion so differently than he had, it didn't upset him in the least. They weren't Sigrún and they wouldn't be drowned and that.. that was just fine with him. Not that he ever would, but Nero knew if he ever had his own children, he would certainly hesitate to bash them upside the head and drown them. Fortunately, he knew he would never be so lucky to become a father. It simply wasn't in the cards for the young man. That was okay, too.

His ears drew forward at @Orson's question. "Somewhere special," he hummed with a broad grin, guiding his younger brother towards the tide pools. "We're gonna look at all the stuff that got stuck here during the last high tide. I bet there's lots of treasures," Nero chuckled as he glanced over his shoulder, amused by the cubs fascination with the shell. "If you think that's cool, wait until you see the starfish and crabs and fish!" The tide pools had always been a favorite of his when he was a cub, and now he hoped to pass that on to his siblings.

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While his littermate brothers were often a source of annoyance to the young prince, his elder brother Nero was quite the opposite. He was a source of fascination and idolization, a hero, the epitome of cool. Orson hung on his every last word, eyes widening as Nero explained where they were going. Special... A smile appeared in place of the usually stoic expression that the boy often sport. He was special, this trip was just for him. Not for stubborn Colsun, grouchy Lyle, or even wild-hearted Ezryn. Orson's little chin lifted a little higher. "Mama says tide and moon move togetha." He recited proudly, eagerly watching Nero for his approval.

When Nero described the treasures that awaited, Orson gave a little gasp. He sped up, pulling up alongside his brother and adding a bouncing bound to his step, trying to see as far ahead as he could. "REALLY?!" He said, focusing on one particular word. "Starfish? Fish from sky?"

i'll never let you go
if you promise not to fade away

Hmm? Nero glanced over his shoulder as the cub rattled off some knowledge about the relationship between the moon and the tides. It was surprising to hear coming from someone so young, but more than that, it was surprising to hear that Zaza had been the one to tell him. He had never pegged her as the sort to be interested in the weird, science-y parts of life; clearly he should have been asking her some more questions about the way things worked. Nero made a note to circle back around to that at a later date. For now, he simply nodded. "Yup! That's right. I'm not sure how, but the moon tells the water how far up onto the shore it can come. Fortunately, it happens in a pattern every day, so we can kinda guess when it's about to happen. Right now, it's low tide, see? The water doesn't come very far up on land. When it's high tide, the water comes aaalll the way up to here!" Nero said, gesturing to a random tide pool with a grin. "Then the fish and other stuff gets stuck in here until the tide comes back up." The heir scooted closer to the edge, peering down into the pool of ~mystery~.

He laughed softly at @Orson's wonder. Nero had never thought about the correlation between a starfish and the galaxy, but it kinda made sense. "Not from the sky, unfortunately. It's called a starfish because of how it looks -- here, lemme grab one." The lion carefully plucked a starfish from the waters, placing it near Orson for an investigation. "It's shaped like a star, see? But it's a fish, so we call it a starfish." The heir glanced between the child and starfish curiously, hoping to see that he'd made.. shit, he didn't know, a difference? He wanted to make a difference in the kid's life. Be the best brother he could be.

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Although he was still too young to fully grasp complex concepts, Orson did his best to listen as @Nero explained the rising and falling of the tide. His brother had a way of explaining it that made sense to the boy, and he nodded as he followed Nero's gaze to the nearby tide pool. Cerulean eyes lit up and widened as the onyx sands gave way to scattered rocky projections that rose up like jagged teeth but also gave way to shallow glittering pools of wonder. Orson clambered up to the edge and peered over. "Wowee..." He murmured in fascination.

Nero retrieved a starfish from the tide pool and set it next to the boy to inspect. It was not at all what he had imagined. It didn't look like a fish at all, in fact. Like most new things that the cub encountered, his first inclination was to raise a paw and bat at it hesitantly. Then, when it appeared to offer no threat, he leaned in and reached for it with his mouth, picking it up but then dropping it immediately, surprised. "He's scratchy!" Orson proclaimed, shocked by the strange texture and stiff appendages of the alien creature. "Where eyes? Where mouf?" Orson wondered, gazing at the starfish even more perplexed than before.

i'll never let you go
if you promise not to fade away

It was enthralling to see his younger brother so excited by the same things Nero had been at his age. He wanted nothing more than to protect the cubs from the outside world and keep their Innocence as long as possible because he knew, he knew how precious it was. Once it was gone, it was gone for good and he'd probably end up a jaded, angry cotton ball like Nero. If he had control over anything in the world, it would be to make sure his siblings didn't turn out a single thing like him. All of their parents were still alive, though, so they already had one up on him.

"Oh hey, don't –" Ah, too late. Nero flashed a sheepish grin as Orson found out that starfish weren't exactly the best to eat. "It's scratchy to stop bigger animals from eating it like we have our claws and teeth. It doesn't have either, so it makes itself scratchy." He didn't know how, but hopefully the cub wouldn't press further on it. Fortunately he moved on to asking another question rather quickly, but unfortunately, it wasn't something Nero really understood himself. "Well, starfish are kind of.. like, they don't have mouths and eyes like we do. See these spots? These are technically its eyeballs, but they only see light and dark. The mouth is here," he said, flipping the creature onto its back. "This hole in the center. They're not like most fish that have gills and fins." And they weren't nearly as tasty, either.

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The strangeness of the creature fascinated the boy and he hung on @Nero's every word, trying hard to understand. It was difficult to grasp a comprehension of the biology of a creature so alien, especially for one so young. But the lesson was one that Orson would not soon forget, seeding from such a young age a love and fascination for the sea.

Orson studied the underside of the starfish for a moment longer as the poor creature slowly wiggled in protest at both being overturned and removed from the water. Then the boy's eyes wandered back towards the tide pool. A moment later the starfish was forgotten as Orson wandered closer to the edge and peered in. "OoooOOooo" He cooed, spotting a multitude of rainbow flowing anemones in a rainbow of colors. Unable to stop himself the cub reached out a paw and dipped it into the water.

Immediately the anemones retracted into their columns and Orson yanked his paw back with a gasp of shocked surprise. As the ripples settled, the cub gazed at the spot the anemones had yet been. "Nee-wo? Where go?" Hopefully his older brother had studied up on his sea creature knowledge, because Orson was full of wonder and questions today!

CODE BY CORVUS

i'll never let you go
if you promise not to fade away

It occurred to him at that moment how dangerous a tide pool could be. He had never looked at one from a guardian's point of view, but now his eyes were landing on everything that could potentially hurt his younger brother. Sharp rocks, slippery surfaces, stinging jellyfish and pinching crabs. Oh god, why had he brought @Orson here? It was basically a deathtrap! The lion sucked in a breath as he returned the starfish to the water, not bothering to watch as it sank and somersaulted a few times before finding its final resting place. Now he was focused on whatever Orson had found and straining to see whether or not he'd just met something capable of swallowing him whole in one gulp. Fortunately, it was only a few colorful sea anemones bobbing and swaying – up until the tyke touched them, at least. His fears momentarily assuaged, Nero settled onto his stomach behind Orson, amused at the surprised yelp. "It's alright, you just scared them. Those are called sea anemones and they're actually kinda like the starfish. They don't have eyes or anything but they can feel, which is why you always gotta be nice to things. They have feelings too." He nodded sagely, happy to impart this wisdom of don't be mean, mkay? "So those wiggly things are kind of like.. their paws, I guess. You know how when you're not expecting someone to touch you, but they do, and then you get startled? That's what happened. They didn't see you coming, so they went like this." Nero flipped onto his back and curled into a little ball, tucking his feet close to his chest and belly. "Made themselves smaller so a predator, in this case you, couldn't eat 'em." He sprawled back out. "If you watch, they'll come back out soon." Timid little octopus-looking freaks.

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As Nero spoke, Orson's eyes went from his paw, to the water, and back again. He looked a little abashed at hearing that he'd scared the mysterious creatures. "Ahh... Ah-mem... Ahmemnemonee..." Orson struggled to pronounce the new word. He gazed up at @Nero as he explained about anemones, rapt with attention. He may have been mischievous, as cubs were want to be, but to his credit Orson was a pretty good listener. At least when he was being directly spoken to. But perhaps unbeknownst to his older brother, a somewhat dangerous fascination was taking root. The more he learned the more Orson wanted to learn. It was all so cool, so interesting, so fun!

When Nero threw himself back to do a physical interpretation of an anemones defensive recoil, Orason gave a delighted giggle and launched himself towards his older brother. As the lion spread his body back out, Orson leapt and landed on his neck, aiming to take an ear in his mouth. A tiny playful grown was emitted as Orson attempted to wrestle with his brother while he was down and "vulnerable". But then something caught his eye and just as fast as he'd launched his attack he became distracted again. He slid off and made directly for the next nearest tidepool.

"OoooOOOooo..." Orson said, gazing down at a ground of strange, round, needle-covered creatures, black as the night sky. The urchins were clustered together, securely fastened to the rocks beneath the surface. A paw was lifted to bat at these new delightful creatures when Orson suddenly remembered Nero's words, his reminder to be kind. Restraining himself, the boy turned to his brother, "Look Nee-wo!"

i'll never let you go
if you promise not to fade away

Before he knew it, there was a cub attached to his ear! His good one, fortunately. Even though the tattered bits had healed since the maim, Nero was still a bit leery of letting anyone near it. It was a bit of learned head shyness he supposed, but only on the one side. @Orson had thankfully gone for the other and Nero was happy to wrestle with him for a hot minute – second? Orson was off again before Nero even allowed himself to get into it and the older lion pouted as though he'd just had his favorite toy taken away. Little siblings were technically toys, right? Ah, well, he had a feeling that with two giant dads they would all end up much larger than him, so maybe it wasn't a great idea to beat them up. You know, on the off chance they held a grudge and waited a few years to get revenge.

Rolling back upright, Nero watched with curiosity – and some amazement – at how Orson listened to his suggestion to be kind. He was glad, too, because the urchin had become a foe of his; the sticky sensation, the prickliness, the overall ugliness of the things. He had never tried to eat one based on that alone, although according to Rach, he was missing out.

"Be careful with those, they have those prickly things that can hurt you. You know how the anemone sucked itself up to defend itself? These – they're called sea urchins by the way – these have pointy quills. It's not fun to get 'em stuck inside your paw, I'll tell ya that. Be careful when you're in the ocean or a tide pool, because they're small and blend in. If you ever get stuck with any of the needles, I'll help ya get 'em out." He sure as hell didn't want to demonstrate for the kid, though.

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