Even with his new title, Valdi felt a little lost in the world. He wasn't certain what his purpose was here, either in relation to the Sigrun, or Talitha and her band, or to Maia and the Rainforest. The yearling felt adrift on the ocean that he had spent his first few months of life listening to, however quiet it was in his faded ears.

The sounds of the world were muted to him, but that was just normal for the hard-of-hearing boy. He'd found over the first year of his life that some lions were easier to hear than others. Soft or low voices could be difficult, but some louder and higher voices could pierce the deafness easily enough. Rumbling voices were interesting because he could feel them in a way he couldn't feel the others.

The sounds of the water lapping the shore of the pond were quiet enough that they were almost not there to him. There were no birds here today. Perhaps they had flown somewhere else for the winter? Or maybe they were just elsewhere at the moment. He'd come here to contemplate things away from others, but really he missed his family. His mother had not been to visit - though to be fair he had not visited her - and he had not seen his father in some time either. His sister was also missing from his life, and that was an ache that created a hole in his heart. He missed Rhetta dearly.

Though a Barony, he wasn't sure what to do with this idea of rank. He had committed himself to Maia and the Rainforest despite that, and he would defend it and his pridemates with all that he had. Things were peaceful, though, and he had little chance to hone his skills or improve his strength. He was not yet confident enough in himself to hold events or try to solicit training from those around him.

A hefty sigh escaped his lips. The large boy was growing, yes, but there was still so much to learn of the world. And he wasn't sure where to begin.

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she came from the ocean There was no telling why Rhetta had made her way towards the pond, instead it was as if her paws simply led her here. She didn't have any set destination in mind, lately it was easier for her to just wander. She still hadn't met back up with her mother yet, perhaps it was because she still had some lingering resentment. It seemed like she was the only one that cared about what happened to @Valdi. Her brother had disappeared virtually without a trace, and she had spent months looking for him to no avail. She felt lost without him, he had been the only one that fully understood her and she him. No one else understood, no one else could feel the ache that she felt. And she felt like a failure on top of that, because she hadn't been able to find Valdi despite her best efforts. Rhetta tried not to think about it as she moved closer to the pond. It was odd because ordinarily there would be flamingos everywhere, the land however was eerily empty. The pond however hadn't frozen over yet. Glancing down at her own reflection she frowned; she was the mirror image of her mother and yet she couldn't feel more detached from her in this moment. However, something caused her to glance upward, away from her reflection. Perhaps it was the snap of a twig, maybe it was from the trill of a nearby bird, either way when she glanced upward she caught the briefest glimpse of someone familiar. "Valdi?" She practically whispers before darting to her right. She moves as quickly as she can around the pond until she can actually see him. And it is him. He's alive and he's well, huge! She had almost forgotten that they both weren't babies anymore. "Valdi!" This time she says it loud and with force, knowing that her brother would only really be able to hear her if she put a growl behind her words. She runs towards him as quickly as her paws will carry her until she flings herself against him, wrapping her paws around him in a tight squeeze. It's then that she burrows her face into his mane, realizing that this was realer then real, and not just some dream that she was having. "I've been looking for you everywhere.. I never stopped looking for you." She fights back the tears, but some still manage to fall down her face. She was just relieved her brother was alive.

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Perhaps fate was smiling on them that day, that they were both drawn to the pond. The birds were gone, the air was still, and a chill gripped the land. And still, the siblings ended up here, perhaps pulled by a force they couldn't understand.

It had taken time, but his mother had found him in the Rainforest, where he had chosen to stay with Talitha. By then he was old enough to make his own way in the world, and he liked the beauty and sound of the rainforest and the surrounding jungle (perhaps because it made enough noise that he could actually hear it). But being without his family was still a trial. He needed to go visit his mother - perhaps he would head there next - and he dearly missed his sister, who had not come with them on their search.

He couldn't hear her first whispered question and he didn't hear her as she moved towards him from the other side of the pond. Unobservant as always, he hadn't expected to find anyone else here and so he simply wasn't paying attention. Not until he heard his name shouted at him from the left. He startled, lifting his head and turning to look at who could possibly be calling him, and was surprised to see his sister running at him. He had barely a moment to turn to her before she flung herself against him in a great bear hug. When had she gotten so big? The last time he had seen her she was so much smaller. They really weren't cubs anymore, were they? His mane was only just starting to grow, showing in the lengthening of the fur around his neck and face and the whisps of gray hair, and they had both grown taller and begun to fill out.

@Rhetta looked much like their mother with her dark fur and split face. Even so, he knew it was her right away. She lacked the scars their mother had. He blinked for a moment as she hugged him, his brain still catching up with the suddenness of her presence. Then he raised one of his paws to wrap it around her shoulder, though it was a struggle with her legs wrapped around him first. A purr rumbled through his chest. He'd missed his sister even more than he realized, he thought at that moment.

And then she told him that she had been looking for him all this time and he blinks back more surprise, pushing away from her. "You didn't stay with Móðir?" he asked, a little confused. "I got lost in the Rainforest when everyone left," he explained. "Talitha found me and I stayed with her. Vio helped Móðir find me a little while ago, but you weren't with them."

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she came from the ocean At first it almost felt like this was a figment of her imagination, after all she had thought endlessly about what this moment would be like. When she was finally reunited with her brother again after months of being separated. It felt surreal, but as she pulled back and got a good look at him it was clear that he was actually there, and not some image that she had conjured up. You didn't stay with Móðir? He asks her, and she can tell that he is confused. Her nose scrunches slightly before she responds, "No, I went searching for you." She answers him then, wondering just where he had been all this time. I got lost in the Rainforest when everyone left, Talitha found me and I stayed with her. Vio helped Móðir find me a little while ago, but you weren't with them. The news hits her like a ton of bricks and for a moment she remained frozen, processing the information. Rhetta tried not to let the fact that @Valdi was calling their father "Vio" bother her, but it still made her stomach twist uncomfortably all the same. "Oh." She manages to say softly, secretly hoping that he might not hear her at all. "I'm sorry I didn't find you myself." But now that she knew where he was, what would she do with that information? "Are you still staying in the rainforest? I only just returned to the Plains.." She offers then, hoping he might be able to fill in a few more gaps for her.

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Valdi took more after their father when it came to emotions and intelligence. He was a simple creature, though he had compassion that he believed their father lacked. The happiness and excitement at seeing his sister again after so long apart quickly overruled any other feelings or thoughts he might have had in the moment. He didn't catch on to most of the feelings that @Rhetta seemed to have, instead taking what he could hear at face value. He was not the best at reading emotions.

"You spent all that time looking for me?" he asked, a little surprised and blinking dumbly at her. But the gravity of it wasn't lost on the simple beast. The emotions that then welled up inside of him were still simple, but strong. Love, and a feeling of worth that he didn't always have because of his hearing loss. "You love me that much?" he asked.

He was completely unable to hear the soft 'oh' that she whispered, but despite his difficulty in reading her emotions he still got the slightest feeling that there was something wrong. "Are you okay?" he questioned, his eyes skimming over her body as if looking for wounds of some sort. Had something happened while she was gone?

"It's okay," he assured her. "I'm just happy to see you again. I missed you." He followed it with a happy purr and a soft twitch of his tail. With only one sister, there weren't a whole lot of other family members for him to turn to. "Mom let me stay in the Rainforest," he explained. "Maia, the new queen, is really nice. She gave me the rank of Barony." He said this with a hint of pride. He still wasn't completely certain he was the right lion for the job, or what the job was, but he was still proud that someone had thought him worthy enough to give him something like that. "Are the Plains nice?" he asked her. "And is mom still there?"

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she came from the ocean You spent all that time looking for me? You love me that much? @Valdi asks and Rhetta nods with certainty, watching him closely, still analyzing him to be sure he wasn't injured in any way. "Of course I do, your my brother." She says to him, bumping her forehead against his but it was a much harder feat then before given his new added height compared to when they were younger. Are you okay? He asks and she nods, still thinking, still wondering how she had managed to miss him after all of this time when he was quite literally in front of her face. She pushes everything from her mind though, instead focusing on the new information. He was Barony of the rainforest which was no light title, "Barony huh? That's impresssive!" She says it with a smirk before responding, "Mom is fine. I don't spend nearly as much time with her anymore. The Plains are nice I suppose, they are all I'm really familiar with." She leaves Vio out of the equation for now, unless of course Valdi decides to ask and then she'd explain that her relationship with their father still remained strained. Perhaps it always would. *So sorry for the wait!!

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Like their father, Valdi was a simpler beast. He could be a little over-protective of those he cared about and was vocal about his thoughts and feelings, but most of the time things didn't go too deep for him. So it was no surprise that he hadn't realized that his sister cared for him so much that she had spent all that time looking for him. "I love you too," he purred with a happy thump of his tail before leaning into to bump her with his shoulder.

He'd been quietly tucked away in the rainforest and hadn't even known that his sister had gone off traveling. Vio and their mother hadn't come to visit him yet, so he hadn't even realized she was gone. It was easy, then, to have missed him there. He was sorry she'd thought she needed to go searching for him, but very happy that they had finally found each other.

"It's cool!" he said, then frowned. "I'm not really sure what it means to be Barony though. But I try really hard to help out with hunts and stuff." That was really all he knew to help with, and he was still learning how to hunt. "I need to come visit mom, I just haven't had time." But he was glad that she was doing ok, even if @Rhetta didn't spend as much time with her. She probably spent more time with her than he did!

"You should come live in the Rainforest with me!" he exclaimed when she said the Plains was really all she knew. "Maia is really nice, and so is everyone else!" He loved it there. Something about the tall trees and thick foliage and Talitha's band being there just made it seem like home. He couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

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she came from the ocean @Valdi mentions her coming to live in the rainforest with him and she can't help but pause to consider the notion. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad, and at least then she wouldn't have to sit and watch their half-siblings succeed at damn near everything they did. "You know that doesn't exactly sound like a bad idea. I'll have to ask Violarum for permission to leave.. and I'm sure mother would be a bit sad about it, maybe." She says moreso to herself in the moment. It seemed that Ragna had a good way of compartmentalizing things, if anything this would just be another issue for her to tuck away and forget about. But Rhetta couldn't help but be intrigued and enticed, "You think Maia would let me join?" She asks him then, after all he knew her a lot better than she did!

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Valdi was blissfully unaware of their half-siblings, or even of the fact that his father had a mate. He was aware enough to realize that their mother was not his mate, since they hadn't been together at first and the relationship seemed more strained.

"If you came to live with me we could still visit mom," he offered, having heard @Rhetta's concern about Ragna. "I need to do that, but I'm not sure where the Plains is." He frowned. Maybe in the fields? That seemed likely, he supposed.

As for her question, "Yeah, Maia would! She's really nice, and she encourages us to practice her skills. I've been learning how to hunt!" And he was very certain that Maia would not turn away his sister. After all, they were both capable yearlings. No doubt she would see that, just as she had seen enough value in him to make him a Barony. And, like he said, she was a very nice lion. She had been willing to give him a choice to go with his parents or to stay in the Rainforest.

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