OOC: continued after this thread. Anyone from SL is welcome to pop in!

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@Ghyslaine ♔ was small but that did not making dragging her through the sand any less pleasant. As she dragged, Tiamat's mind moved like a whirlwind, trying to lay out her next move. She would have to play this carefully to avoid stepping on the toes of every leader in Amaryllis. But, well, she had her reasons and the girl had been disoriented anyways. Tiamat was even gentle as she dragged, avoiding obstacles and trying to not damage her. After all, her quarrel was not with this poor girl.

Eventually she made it to the area that held most of the dens and stopped, releasing her captives scruff and panting for a moment before she released a few soft chuffed for either @Carina or @Calypso. She left her sovereign in peace, knowing the loss she had recently suffered would be foremost on her mind. Though Tinuviel was welcome if she heard and wanted to see what was going on.

She could tell that the woman had been injured before. Perhaps not so long ago, too. Wounds were mostly healed, but there was something about her that seemed not quite right. She'd have her healers look her over for old injuries that could be eased with treatment, as well as check the new head wound and for anything that might be causing her disorientation.

After that she would be needing to make another visit. To the Oasis, this time. She'd go straight to Nero, but she didn't know where he lived. She had probably missed it in the meeting considering the slight done to her sovereign and the other tensions surrounding them.

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Awareness slowly returns, first by a tingling sensation in her paws- and then a sudden heaviness of life. Ghyslaine fights against the overwhelming oblivion that has become her closest ally in the past few months- her shelter from the pain, the shelter from the horror. Yet, she knows she must wake up, wake up, wake up.

Wake up

Blinking her eyes open, her nose twitches as the scent of salty air, the same scent that reminds her of a night in Nero's den, after her drowning accident and she wonders... had everything since been a dream?

She doesn't smell him, and it's that realization that makes her eyes open fully. Her body rests against sand, and she can hear the gentle sound of waves. The air has a tang of salt, and she slowly lifted her head only to feel the dull throb of pain as she does so. Glancing around her, it is one scent she recognizes- @Tiamat.

"What happened?" She asks, trying to orient herself, to figure it out. What on earth had happened?

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@Ghyslaine ♔ began to awaken while Tiamat waited for one of her healers to arrive. Good. That meant that she hadn't hit her too hard, since it had only been a short time since the encounter. The woman stirred, lifting her head and glancing around her. "Hush," she said softly, not at all like the cruel woman who had knocked Ghyslaine on the head to begin with. "Rest your head - I have healers coming." She placed a paw gently on the woman's shoulder, urging her to remain laying down.

"I knocked you out - and I am sorry about that," she informed Ghyslaine calmly. And that wasn't a lie. She didn't want to be cruel enough to do such things, but the threat of Alizabeth was one that she took quite seriously. "Unfortunately your husband is the son of my worst enemy, and he once tried to keep me captive at her orders," she explained. The woman was a bit disoriented yet, so she didn't want to delve too deeply into things. "I had to treat you as an enemy at my border."

She pricked her ears to listen for sounds of approach, hoping that one of her medics, at least, was on the way. @Carina was still learning, but this was a minor injury - though Tiamat wanted Ghyslaine checked for any illness or other injuries. She had seemed confused, though it might simply have been the knowledge of Alizabeth being gone and the desperate search for her husband and children. @Tinúviel's expertise would be welcome, too, but with her recent loss Tiamat would never ask her to appear. @Calypso was also a healer and might be able to help, though Tiamat was not sure of the extent of her capabilities.

Turning back to Ghyslaine she said, "We'll talk when you've seen a healer. Do you have any other injuries they can help with?"

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like the sea touches the soil they had begun to settle in to the lagoon and calypso had work to do. at the cay she had a well established garden -- one she would visit and tend to frequently even as she moved to scilla -- and now it was imperative that she have one here, too. in the middle of summer it wasn't ideal for planting but she was doing what she could, in addition to stocking their den and ensuring she was ready if and when she was called on. which turned out to be far sooner than she had anticipated. with her trusty bag slung around her neck and one foreleg she heeded the queen's call, directing her paws towards the summons. within the bag were any herbs she might need to tend to any manner of injuries. arriving to find both @Tiamat and a stranger she paused a step away, her gaze levelled on @Ghyslaine ♔. "how cen i help?" it was clear who the patient was, but it would be ideal if she had a better idea of what she was working with.

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Ghyslaine

A voice speaks above her, and there is a flicker of recognition in her mind. She feels a paw resting on her shoulder, the pressure insistent, that she should not rise. Ghyslaine shifted, moving her head, trying to take in the speaker, to remember... oh. She had been here, to talk to... the details rushed back as the lioness spoke. She had hit her over the head? That was rude. Yet, she apologized, and Ghyslaine did not have the energy to do anything more than shrug. "Rude to hit others, you know?" She muttered- yet she did not resist, merely waited to see what was next.

Ghyslaine laughed softly, as Tiamat went on, and she spoke. "If this is an attempt to get back at Alizabeth, I'm sorry to tell you that I don't know that she'd care much. We don't really know each other- I've only recently married her son." Ghyslaine said simply, quietly.

Yet, she's willing to let it go for now. As Tiamat asks about other injuries, she shrugs. "Fell off a cliff. Busted some ribs pretty bad. Broke some toes but they're pretty much okay." She said simply, reflecting on the fall she'd taken, though she did not reflect on how that fall had come about.

Another arrives, and Ghyslaine shifts her head to study the female, her voice is a welcome sort of accent- though her words are brief. She wonders how much the strange lioness has heard, and merely turns her head to study her- remaining silent for now.

@Tiamat @Calypso

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@Ghyslaine ♔ remained laying down, much to Tiamat's relief, and @Calypso arrived in good time after her summons for the healers. "So I'm told," Tiamat chuckled in amusement when Ghyslaine muttered about the rudeness of her actions. "But I was raised in a warrior clan. We tend to be...more physical where I come from." Hit first, ask questions later. Of course, Tiamat had made it clear that she was willing to break from tradition in some things.

It was a little disappointing to learn that she most likely couldn't use this woman against Alizabeth, but this was still something she could work with. She dismissed Ghyslaine's words with a flick of her tail. "Truthfully, I never wanted to involved Alizabeth's family in our little spat," she said honestly. "But when she sent her husband to break my leg I had to widen my focus a bit." She glanced down apologetically at the wheaten woman laying on the sands. "You have children of your own, you said before," she stated, rather than asking. "Maybe we can come to an agreement to keep them and your husband safe from myself and my....friend." Because Tiamat was not the only one seeking to hurt Alizabeth, and Caelum might be far more ruthless than she ever would be.

"You fell off a cliff?!" Tiamat demanded, a bit startled by the news and curious as to how one went about falling off a cliff. If she had known that she might have been...gentler? than she had been with Ghyslaine. "Calypso, can you make sure she's alright? I knocked her over the head, and she seemed a little confused before that. Maybe check those ribs?" She motioned for the healer, one of the newest members of her pride, to take a look at their patient.

"Calypso will help," she assured the woman. "In the meantime...did you know your husband once tried to hold me captive because I dared to challenge for his mother's pride?" she asked, amusement in her tone. She had not recalled seeing Ghyslaine there, but things had been chaotic and there had been a number of lions from the Mire there as well. It would have been easy to miss the girl that day, even if she had been in attendance.

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like the sea touches the soil There was a lot going on, here, and Calypso listened as she set down her bag and prepared her things. Politics didn't necessarily concern her, but it had been a very long time since she had heard much gossip. Between the two women there seemed to be a healthy dose of it. Preferring to stay quiet she merely nodded, not wanting to be any kind of imposition. Instead she moved closer and gently began to inspect the woman, blinking in some obvious surprise when @Tiamat said that she had knocked her over the head. "I cen give ye somet'ing d'at will help yer mind clear," she finally said, "and somet'ing fer de pain." There wasn't much to be done for broken ribs or toes, it was only a matter of waiting. They didn't seem to be misplaced, at least, which would save the woman a world of pain. Resetting bones was a messy experience -- one that Calypso had gone through with @Ghyslaine ♔'s own husband, in fact. Small world, and all. Without waiting for permission she turned to gather the aforementioned herbs, thankful that she already had them prepared and ready to mix in to a paste. It wouldn't taste great, but it would help...

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When @Tiamat commented on her rudeness, commenting that she was born in a warrior clan, Ghys snorted out a soft laugh. "Of course you were." She said, remembering a fond memory of a certain clay male that had horribly claimed her, and taken her to the Mire years ago now. What a friendship that had become! She would willingly die to defend Violarum, even if he was a bit of a goof at times. "You should work on that." Ghyslaine said with a small smile. Yeah, it wasn't her fault that she could see that she could get along with this female. Head-blow or no.

She doesn't miss the subtle sort of threat that perhaps she and Tiamat could come to some sort agreement to protect Nero and her children. "I think for the safety of both of us," She grunted, "Perhaps this conversation should shift to Nero or I's safety- because head wound or not, I'd kill any threat towards my cubs... and I don't think we want to become enemies here." A flare of temper, perhaps her maternal instincts. "Cubs shouldn't be used as pawns in political games." She said flatly. It didn't matter that she could hardly stand, that the implied threat of her being a threat was... laughable. Ghyslaine hated the idea of any cubs being used for pawns, harmed, or even threatened. Especially her own.

"Moderately small cliff?" She offered, at the comment of her falling off a cliff. "It wasn't... very fun." She said. Carefully circumventing the truth, though at least she hadn't been asked how, she had fallen. "It seems very backwards to knock me over the head and then call for a healer-" She says, looking up at @Calypso. "Not that I mind, you seem nice." She says to the healer, nodding at her comment about herbs- before she offers Tiamat a wry glance. "You sure you're just not bad at making friends?" She offers with a grin.

"Hi, I'm Ghyslaine. I used to lead a pride, but after a small falling off a cliff I'm a bit... out of the loop. May I have your name?" She asked Calypso, and then grinned at Tiamat- "See you introduce yourself, like that."

What could she say, head-blows made you a bit loony.

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Tiamat chuckled, partly at @Ghyslaine ♔'s nerve of addressing her captors so and partly because she found the whole situation amusing, largely because she was finding that she rather liked the younger woman. "I'll keep that in mind," she said, somewhat serious about the idea of actually trying to change. But that wasn't really the point of their 'meeting' here.

She listened to what Ghyslaine had to say, her face impassive in the face of the mild thread - the same threat she would make if she were to have her own children. She would expect no less from a mother, and would probably look down on a mother who would not die for her children. "I don't plan on threatening your children," she said, completely honestly. She'd killed enough children - albeit unborn - in her lifetime and she had no plan to take the lives of more. "And I agree that children should not be used as pawns." The 'but' in her statement was apparent in her voice, and she was quick to glance away, looking out to the horizon where the sea met the sky.

"But not everyone believes the same, and I know Alizabeth would preach hatred of me to her own children," she laid out her concern slowly. The implication was clear, she thought, that perhaps Nero could behave in the same manner. Ghyslaine was in a good position to prevent that from ever happening.

"I apologize for thinking ill of your husband," she continued, turning back towards the woman. "He was one of several who attempted to keep me captive at his mother's orders after my first challenge for the Lagoon and I am not inclined to trust him after that," she explained. It was true, and it was also why she wasn't going to take Ghyslaine to the Summit where Nero might be. No, she could not go to a den of enemies to tell the son of her greatest enemy that she had his wife here. She would go to Ronin, she decided, and arrange a transfer as soon as they were done here.

Moderately small cliff? Ghyslaine offered by way of explanation and Tiamat gave her a look that clearly said the size of the cliff did not make much of a difference. There was a small pocket of guilt tied in a knot deep in the back of her head, telling her that she felt bad for this. It was very small, for Tiamat was not inclined to feel too guilty over protecting herself and her pride in any way possible.

"Well you weren't listening very well," she insisted by way of explanation. "And you are the wife of someone who might be an enemy. But I didn't want to hurt you," she said, honestly coloring her voice as she nodded to @Calypso.

Regardless of the strange situation they found themselves in Ghyslaine seemed to find amusement in some of it and it teased a grin onto Tiamat's face too. "I am terrible at making friends," she replied with a laugh, chuckling when Ghsylaine made a show of introducing herself to Calypso by way of an example.

"Maybe I hit you a little too hard," she said with a chuckle, but really Ghyslaine was talking fine and probably quite alright. Taking on a more serious note, she added, "I'm not comfortable with going to the Summit as they are enemies with the Mire, my closest ally, and there was a recent war," she explained to the girl. "But I will go to Ronin in the Oasis and arrange to have Nero come and meet you, if you will promise to keep him out of my conflict with his mother." She looked to Ghyslaine for confirmation, hoping that this would all work out in their favor in the end.

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like the sea touches the soil It was... a lot of conversation. Calypso listened but a good majority of what was being said went over her head. There were some names that were vaguely familiar, but none that really stuck -- surprisingly she knew very little of Saga's connection to all of it, considering how closely her path had travelled to the long-dead Sigrun. As it were, though, she was not terribly interested in what was being said. She listened, sure, and tucked away the bits of confusion discussion that she could, but Calypso doubted it would serve her at any point. So she merely went about her work in quiet, shrinking herself so as to be small and barely noticeable, not wanting to get in the way of what was obvious serious talks. She placed some herbs before @Ghyslaine ♔ with a hushed "eat d'is" but otherwise she was quiet, applying poultice if and where it was needed, and then gathering up her things again. "d'ese are fer ye, if ye want d'em. some more of d'em same herbs." nudging forward a few leaf-wrapped bundles connected with a vine, portioned for the woman so that she might some benefit in the future. "once a day, an' if ye need more ye know where to find me." Calypso steps back, then, with a look to Tiamat. "If ye need anyt'ing else, jest call." It was good to be a help again, but there was little more she needed to do, here. So, assuming they did not stop her, she would turn to leave. -exit unless stopped-

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