to whoever replies,
` you are not inclined to match this post length. `
` using this as a plot device to further carina's current story. `
` located on the most southwestern corner of the shore, nearest the lagoon `

---

G-Ginny?

A voice cracks, mid-stride as she stares at the vision in front of her and tries to connect the dots. Why does she know this lions name? The lioness in question has stopped mid-stride as though trying to escape but clearly knows they have been caught. Carina can see the lady swallow and turn her head towards her, a tentative smile playing on their face.

H-hey, sis.

Their voice calls out to them meekly and Carina takes a deep breath as a faded memory comes into focus. Her sister, Ginevra, having left her sister briefly to go get food but having never come back to her. Then being found by those two boys after so much time had passed and she had been starving.

You look good.

Sister tries to warm her up, sensing the dead silence between them and not knowing whether it is good or bad. Ginevra takes a few steps closer but Carina doesn't budge, still growing in confusion second by second.

How did you find me?

Carina eventually asks, trying to find the right words for this moment in knowing that she had little family other than Tiamat at her side. If anything, Tiamat had been the one to raise her and this lady she only shared blood with. In another world, she expected they would have been exceptionally close. They had been before...

I... I've always known where you were.

The voice cuts like a knife in the air as Carina's mouth draws open, agape. Surprise written all over her face as it becomes painfully obvious that her sister hadn't cared enough to make the connection.

Then why didn't you come back for me?

There was an even longer, greater pause now as she feels the air around her sister beginning to suffocate. As though Ginevra was in-between leaving and staying, looking lost and startled. A place Carina remembered being in before those boys found her and helped her not starve to death.

Because I left you there. On purpose.

Ginevra's voice turns dark, twisted but there was honesty dripping upon them and Carina knew. There was no denying that this was not a lie. For her face did not depict anything less than the truth.

Why?

It was the only question she saw fit to ask, barring the emotions that were beginning to unfold in her mind. First it was sadness but quickly it turned to an anger that was, for the moment, quite tame. A controlled madness that lingered in her throat and chest, clawing its way out.

Because you were set to be betrothed to Aurelio when you came of age.

There was a great pause, Carina's was one of confusion while Ginevra's was one of emotional damage of the greatest price. That name, Aurelio, meant nothing to Carina - a name in slight passing among the adults that had hung around her when she was a babe but that memory was not present.

Who?

Carina finally asks, not sure she would even be deigned an answer.

Aurelio. He was my best friend, but Mother and Father chose you to wed him when you were older.

The girl can see in her sister's eyes that brief flicker of pain and hurt, but there was also vindictiveness and truth. A truth that Ginevra was set in having it her way by any means possible.

So I left you and returned home. Mother and father sent out several search parties for you. Ginevra pauses, but I gave them the wrong coordinates.

Heart hammered inside of the starry girl's chest as she began to take a step back, not at all hurt by missing out on some betrothal with a male she didn't know. No, hurt that she had been betrayed by a sister that she thought had loved her.

Go away. Leave. You're not welcome here!

Carina screamed, so loudly that anyone could have heard her. Let the whole world know that she wanted this lioness out and away from Amaryllis where she would never find her Lagoon.

I've thought about what I did, a lot. I am sorry, for what I did to you.. I was jealous and angry. I wasn't thinking.

To this there was some truth in her apology but Carina barely heard it over the thundering of her heart. The pounding of tears that threatened to explode from her eyes as she set a stern expression.

I came to warn you.

Obviously, Ginevra hadn't been completely sure if she would follow through on her reasons for coming since she had almost tried to turn invisible and walk away before being spotted. But Carina furrowed her brows and listened, for Ginevra to explain and for someone to come running to her.

Now that you're an adult, you should know what it means to be a Zvezd.

Carina had no idea what it meant or why it meant anything at all. Was she even a Zvezd at all? Did she want to be, considering what her own blood had done to her? Without Carina to stop her, Ginevra continued.

The Zvezd women are sacred; following strict guidelines upon adulthood. Things even I wasn't taught about until recently. If you..

She pauses, conflicted by the information and despite having loathed her sister once upon a time does not wish to continue to endanger or hurt her now. Wanting to make amends (without giving up her Aurelio).

If you find yourself expecting, eat an Angel Trumpet leaf before bedtime. It is written into our family that this is necessary. Otherwise, you won't make it.

Okay, that last part was partially a lie but Ginevra felt it was better that Carina understood that it was important. This was of great significance to the Zvezd family and Ginevra did not wish to see her sister fail, no matter what the consequences may be.

Us Zvezd women are not so fertile, the leaf is the only way to guarantee life.

That was the best way that she could explain this so that her baby sister would understand. Life in both child and mother, all tied up around a single leaf. Carina didn't understand and did not wish to make true the words of a backstabber. Of an abandoner.

Why should I believe any of zhis? You could still just want me dead!

She shouted, angrily stomping her foot in front of her as though demanding that her sister see that she was serious now. That her time here was coming to an end.

I never wanted you dead, Carina.

For Ginevra, that was the truth but unintentionally she might as well have signed her sister's do not resuscitate order if not for those two boys.

Leave, before I make you.

She pauses, a deep frown etched into her face and growing the longer her sister stood there.

LEAVE!

That was the final push and Ginny began to turn away to leave, but not without turning her head with sorrow on her face to give a last.

I love you..

Words that were whispered on the breeze as her sister ran off like a cat with her tail between her legs. Meanwhile Carina simply stood there in a daze and feeling like her whole body had gone weak, trembling and uncertain as she let her gaze travel down to her white socked paws.

Who am I?

| 1228 words |

^{ART BY RABBIT, CODE BY CALA}

He exhales softly as he waits on the edge of the shore, where the sand meets the rough grass and rock. There by the water's edge is a lioness, her coat dark with a strange sort of sparkle to it where the light markings dapple her fur. Typhon leans forward slightly, his ears tipped forward to listen - her voice is sharp. Anger resonates off her, but also... confusion? Uncertainty? He licks his lips thoughtfully.

The creature standing there is young, too young for his interest, but still he watches. Claws slip into the sand and pull at the grass, he must decide what his next action will be. Does he approach her and find out exactly what has irked her - perhaps there's a fight waiting to be started, or finished. He grins at the thought of blood shed. She may just be mad, her mind broken in some way he could never begin to understand.

Finally her voice seems to quiet, her madness subsiding - if indeed it is madness. He takes a deep breath, tasting the air to find no scent but hers carried back on the wind, tinged with the refreshing tang of salt.

Slowly the white lion rises to his paws, his purple gaze lingering on her as he pads slowly along the boundary between grass and sand, positioning himself to approach at an angle from her left.

Soft pads make no sound as he moves, treading with practiced grace and leaving deep indentations in the soft sand. It's warm beneath his toes, hotter than the air made cold by its proximity to the ocean. His mane is pulled away from him by the breeze and tugged toward the infinite deep blue.

As he draws closer the brute can see she's trembling, shaking like prey when it sees nothing but death in its future. He sniffs to taste for fear, her soft words filling his ears as he closes their distance. "Is that a question you often find yourself asking? Or only when you speak to the water?"

@Carina

Traveling down the spit of land that lead from the shore to the Lagoon, Tiamat caught @Carina's scent on the ground, as if she had traveled this path recently. It wasn't of too much concern since members of the pride could come and go as they pleased, so she filed the information away, not considering it of any real importance in the moment. She was on her way to look for her own sister, who had been missing for some time. Shiva could take care of herself, of course, but she would have liked to find the woman to share her accomplishments with her.

It was the screamed words, intelligible from this distance, that drew her attention to the shore. The voice was Carina's and she could hear the distress in it. She pricked her ears forward and broke into a trot, hurrying towards the black shoreline that was so close to their home.

As she neared she heard another voice, muted and unfamiliar. Carina shouted again, ordering someone to leave, and Tiamat pushed forward harder, trying to reach her friend - her family - quickly. By the time she arrived, Carina was not alone, but the man that had approached her was not the owner of the voice that she had heard before. A low growl rumbled in her chest as she approached the man; the only warning she would give to him to mind his manners while he was here. She didn't take the time to recognize his scent in the moment, more worried about Carina than the stranger.

"Carina?" she whispered softly, approaching the young woman with care. She was standing, staring at her paws, her distress still visibly etched into her body. Another scent lingered some distance away, but there was no one else there.

@Typhon

i confess these sins with a sharp and spiteful tongue

code by anyu, art by 86

Battered emotionally as she struggled to come to grips with what her sister had said as well as the fact that her sister had purposefully left her alone when she was just a few months old. Frustrated that she had believed their bond to be close when really it had been nothing but a façade. As soon as she heard someone's voice she jumped, turning to face @Typhon with a firm expression, not of anger but of light warning. That same expression was quick to fade as she could not see any telltale signs of aggression or bad manners. Only questions. Questions that she could not foresee an answer to.

Never. Though she has no idea why she humors a stranger with an answer. A male that smelled of no pride, no allegiance and yet something about saying it soothed her. As though she was expressing that she didn't ever second guess who she was but now, it seemed that her mind was giving her no choice. Thankfully @Tiamat showed up, quick to call her name in shout and question. While she did not wish to be rude to the male that had, in some way, come to her aide, she was pleased to have her best friend.

A disbelieving laugh swings from her mouth, as she stares somewhat numbly. Information still rolling on a Ferris wheel that never stopped moving. My sister... she abandoned me on purpose when I was only a few months old. She knew where I was this whole time and never bothered. Not only that, but she had done it for her own selfish whims. Things that Carina could have never controlled and yet she was the one to be punished for it. She wondered if her sister would end up telling their parents that she was alive, now that she had confessed to the starry woman.

^{ART BY RABBIT, CODE BY CALA}

as i play roulette with a broken gun

ooc: skipping typhon since this is a development thread for carina

---

The man who had approached @Carina first said and did nothing as Tiamat approached her friend. That was probably for the best since Tiamat was willing to rend and tear anyone who might be a threat to the girl. Even so, Carina graced the stranger with an answer to his question. Tiamat angled herself to keep him in her periphery, but her focus is on the girl she has come to see as family.

Tiamat could sense the turmoil inside her lead medic. it was only confirmed by the strange laugh and the words that slipped from her mouth in a rush. Tiamat frowned, not understanding for a moment. It had been so long now since that fateful day in the passage when she had claimed the girl, standing against Violarum in a bold move against a Mire ally. She didn't regret any of it. But as she processed the words that the girl spoke she realized that it gave her answers as to why she had even been in the passage to begin with, at least to some extent. She had been more than just a few months with Tiamat and Violarum had found her, however.

Now was not the right time to ask for clarification or specifics, however. She could understand the emotional turmoil that the girl was experiencing with such a revelation. "Your sister was...here?" she asked, her only attempt at clarification. She gave Carina a moment to give the affirmative or not before continuing with what she had to say to the girl. The Lagoon queen was perhaps not the best when it came to matters of the heart, but she would do all she could to soothe the emotions of her friend.

"Sometimes it is the ones who are supposed to love us the most who end up hurting us the worst," she begins with a soft sigh. Did she not know that well? Had not her own parents cast her from the clan because she merely won a death match? Murderer, she had been called, all because someone who was supposed to be her best friend had stolen her mate and pushed for such a fight, and Tiamat was the winner. "You do not deserve that hurt, sadiqi," she added softly, shifting so that her pelt brushed gently against the girl.

---

1. sadiqi - my friend, a person you are close to

i confess these sins with a sharp and spiteful tongue

art by hush, code by anyu

The rogue male became a fly on the wall of the conversation, Carina forgetting that he had been there as her mind sought to wrap around the news that she had learned today. Things that she had never thought would ever be possible and yet, her whole world seemed to twist and turn. Everything that she had thought she knew about her own family was wrong. With a singular nod and not a single word, she responded to @Tiamat's question of her sister having been here. Present and strong, she knew her sister's face without question. They had been so close but Carina was slowly beginning to realize that jealousy and hate could turn even the best of folks into the worst.

The advice her friend gave her was truly enough to make her truly see it. To know that, despite the love that she and her sister had had once, made her see that the place in her heart was nothing more than an empty shell now. Truthfully, the act that her sister had betrayed her felt more heavy than news of the ways of her family. Carina had never found herself in a predicament were children were even something to fantasize about so it mattered little to her in the present. All this time ... she murmured mostly to herself as her friend came to rub against her side and she leaned heavily into her. Closing her eyes tightly and trying desperately to let the moment go.

^{ART BY RABBIT, CODE BY CALA}

as i play roulette with a broken gun

Finding out that someone you had once loved had betrayed you would never be something that was easy to cope with. She could feel the heartache that @Carina felt. She had felt the same heartache before. The best she could do for the girl was to be there for her to comfort her.

"I came to Amaryllis because I was exiled from my home," she told the girl as they leaned against each other. "The man I loved broke my heart. My best friend seduced him to get back at me for being a stronger fighter than her." In a world where strength and fighting skill was everything for a woman, being beaten was not something that was easily accepted among those of the Anatu Clan. "We fought, I challenged her to fight to the death and she accepted." There was little emotion in the telling of things that were now long-past, though there was still an ache somewhere deep inside when she thought of it. "I won," she said flatly. "And I was exiled for it."

What a shame that her friend's parents had been influential members of the Clan.

"But Amaryllis is a land of new beginnings, where you can write your own story and forge your own path and create new bonds," she told the girl, looking down at her now. "You can choose your family and fill your heart with love for them. It doesn't....fix it," she said, rolling the words around in her mouth as she tried to explain her thoughts correctly. "But it helps. The healing takes time, but it helps."

i confess these sins with a sharp and spiteful tongue

art by hush, code by anyu

Through everything that Carina had been through before and now, she would have stayed by @Tiamat regardless of what came about. Even as her friend divulged information about the past that had not yet come to light between them, she was comforted in knowing that she could be trusted. That there was love and support and kindness between them that she truly felt was real. The kind of real that had not been present in the relationship she held with her sister but one that could carry throughout time.

She deserved it. She states clearly, your "friend". She deserved the loss. And the death, Carina imagines. While death was not a comforting topic to one unaccustomed to war and fighting, in this moment it was nothing short of a necessary means to an end. A way to end suffering before it gets worse and Carina wished that she had never seen her sister again. Never learned the ugly truth of what family meant to some.

In a long and drawn out silence she nods her head to her friend's words. Feeling the swell of strength in her heart as she knows that everything is up to her. That she need not suffer on the words brought from her past but to look to the future that was ahead of her. A young medic that she doubted anyone was as skilled as she and only barely two. One that would heal an old man's wounds and at the same time, be smothered with doubt because of her age and gender.

I love you, Tiamat Anatu. She says entirely platonically, as the mother-sister-best friend that she had come to respect and adore. Knowing that her place beside her once-claimer had become so much more than she could have expected. The one lion in this world that had truly seen past her naivety, innocence and youth but saw the product of what was to come. You never cease to amaze me. And never stop doing so. Though, Carina knew she wouldn't. Tiamat was full of surprises and her heart was strong and her courage sweltering. It was why Carina was more than happy to follow her friend to the end of the road, wherever that may be. fade carina

^{ART BY RABBIT, CODE BY CALA}