His family had been scattered like the wind. Multiple times they had tried to settle and multiple times they had been uprooted. Where they had all gone Mneme couldn't begin to say. Constant movement made it difficult to keep track. Then there had been the inter-family fighting at the Hot Springs. It had all grown to be too much. Everyone was gone, that was it.

Mneme wasn't suffering for it though. Sure, he missed his family. Ties that bind and all that. But he and his siblings were old enough now that they could make it on their own. He no longer had to be the big brother keeping an eye over his siblings, though that was hard to do when he had no idea on where to find them.

The yearling had wandered and eventually found himself in a place he had never been before. He wandered down the sandbar and dipped his ebbed toes into the water. Nearly drowning as a sub probably should have scared him off from the tide and its unpredictable currents but it didn't. Instead he slid into that watery embrace. He had always felt most at home in the water.

He allowed himself to wade out until only his head was to be seen out of the water.

Helah was an a-okay recruiter by her standards. She sometimes brought someone back and most of the time didn't but got to piss off her time here and meet potential allies. Perfect. Walking along the beach of the passage, she hadn't expected to actually have to do anything- but go back empty pawed with a shrug like, 'Sorry, no dice.' Without the sorry, and with ten times the arrogance because that's just who she was.

Until she spotted a bobbing head of a lion swimming?

Well, if it was drowning she was definitely just going to watch it happen, and not get herself wet. "Uh... you... having fun there?" She cooed from the border, her eyes roving over the sand interestedly as she glanced out to where the swimmer was. "Not worried about sharks, are you?" She asked- hopefully loud enough to be heard.

Perhaps he should be both worried for sharks in the water and on land...

@Mneme

ART BY MOOGLE, CODE BY LARS

She was a queen now, and with a pride that needed to grow, she would have to be the one to put in the heavy lifting and draw in new members. That was why she found herself at the passage. Well, also because it had become a habit while functioning as a gentry for the Mire. It was a habit she was willing to maintain for the time being.

The passage was familiar now. Dry, rocky, sandy ground that met the surrounding ocean. Paw prints littered the earth and a variety of individual scents, some old and some fresh, assaulted her nose as she entered. One scent was particularly fresh, but she didn't recognize it as one that she had come across before. She followed it, and before long it led her to the edge of the sandbar where a lioness was watching a head bob in the waves.

Curiosity prickled at her and she approached, watching the figure in the waves carefully. He seemed fine out in the water, not drowning or anything. With a shrug, she stepped up beside the stranger and settled her haunches in the sand. "Kid likes the water," she said simply, seeming unconcerned about the idea of sharks or anything of the like.

"Hey kid, you need a home?" she called out, louder so that her voice would carry the distance to where the young lion swam. "The Lagoon has plenty of water to swim in, lots of sand, if that's what you like."

@Mneme @Helah

image by rabbit, code by anyu

Mneme had always enjoyed being in the water. There was just something soothing about the weightlessness that he felt there. It was unlike anything ever felt on land. He could feel all his muscles just letting go as he floated there, only doing the barest minimum to keep his head above water.

"Nope, not having fun. Relaxing." Because those were two entirely different things. Having fun required a whole lot more activity than he was putting forth in the moment. "There are no sharks here." Or at least the yearling had never seen a shark before. To him sharks didn't exist simply because he had never encountered one before.

The another lioness showed up and was speaking to him as well. Why did they not get in the water? Sure, there was still a slight chill to it when you first got in but it was easy enough to acclimate to. "I don't like sand. Sand is dirty. Water is nice. Water is clean. Father used to have Scilla Lagoon. I was Royalty. Then everyone had to leave." Exactly why they had to leave he still didn't get. Just from one cold spot to another. And the Lagoon cold had been nothing like the cold up in the Freeze.

@Helah @Tiamat

Helah rarely felt a little thrown off by the types of lions she met but a swimmer? She stood there, watching him, and when he spoke- her eyes left him to survey the water. Was he... sure there weren't sharks? Because personally- she wasn't a fan of the ocean. Nah, too much shit where she couldn't see where it was coming from. Helah wasn't a fan of surprises. "Doesn't look... relaxing." She comments, softly- her eyes turning to note the other female approaching.

She recognizes her- from the passage, from challenges- a former Mire lioness, but with a new scent.. and as she speaks, that makes sense. So she's finally taken the lagoon? "Ah, so you've taken the Lagoon, eh?" She coos- eyeing @Tiamat, studying her. "Helah Molotov, Noble of Wolfbron Bluffs. Pleasures, I'm sure." She introduces herself- and to the stranger- as her gaze drifts back to him.

"The Bluffs doesn't have any sand, it's cleaner, if that's what you're... into?" She trails off, completely baffled by this entire exchange. "Not much water but..." She shrugs- watching the floating lion- with a twinge of confusion, but mild interest as well. @Mneme

ART BY MOOGLE, CODE BY LARS

Ah, so the child was one of those who came before her - a child of the one who had left the Lagoon empty before Alizabeth had come and taken it back only to lose it again. "You can come back to the Lagoon," she told the boy simply. "If you want; the mountain doesn't have water for relaxing. Besides, it's not safe on your own when you're so young." She couldn't force the boy, but she could make some strong suggestions. Hopefully the familiarity of the Lagoon would sway him in her favor.

Tiamat turned to @Helah when the woman spoke to her, nodding in answer to the question. "Tiamat Anatu," she offered by way of introduction, but a title wasn't needed. The woman had already figured out where she was from and what rank she had. "I'm hoping to meet with the Bluffs queen soon," she commented, eyeing the woman. "Hopefully we can all be allies, since the Bluff and the Mire already are."

But that was all she had to say on the situation for the moment. After finishing her little talk she stood up and moved to the edge of the water. She was named after a dragon goddess of the sea. The water did not bother the likes of Tiamat. "You're a good swimmer," she tells the boy, slipping slowly into the water, which was still cool from the time of year. "I'm Tiamat. What's your name?"

And after a moment she had moved away from the shore and was swimming near him, her skin already growing used to the cooler temperature (and even enjoying it a bit).

@Mneme

image by rabbit, code by anyu

"That is because you are still on land. Weight of everything pressing down on you. Out here there is no weight. No worries. No cares. In the water everything becomes nothing." At least that was how Mneme saw things. When he was in the water he could just let go. "Come and I will show you." Sure, he had nearly drowned before when he was only a few months old but still he felt safe and at ease in the water. As well as a respect for storms.

He was invited back to the Lagoon, as well as to the Bluffs. The Lagoon he knew, if only for ever so briefly, but the Bluffs was entirely new to him. Bluffs were clean but lacked water. Lagoon he knew to have water but there was also sand that clung irritably to one's fur.

The two women spoke to each other for a moment before attention was returned to him and introductions were made. "Mneme Black." The yearling gave his name as he glanced over to the woman whom ended up joining him in the water.

"Tell me more, both of you. What are the pride like? Rules? What is there for me?" Would he just be a body there to fill in space or could there be something more?

@Helah @Tiamat