A more romantic heart might have appreciated the soft glow of morning over the plains, finally returned to their rightful owners. Perhaps, for Lorien, Anniston did possess that heart, and it was merely the drain of all that had transpired since that had her eyes glazed over and tired and her lip curved subtly downward.

She lumbered carefully through the grasses, twitching her ears at the sound of morning birds hooting and warbling in the distance. Once well within the Lorien borders, Anniston allowed herself to shimmy her back down the side of a large boulder and recline with a groan of released tension. What a shit show.

---

|| august y10 | two years | LP ? | at lorien plains | set post-challenge/healing | @Violarum ||
+5 - Relax with someone else

code by corvus | img by yumpy

Violarum had kind of expected his plum princess to seek him out with some kind of girlish thrill and pamper him in kisses and flowers and food. It was @Anniston's inborn need for a return to royalty that had most motivated him - aside from a want for pay-back for keeping her prisoner of course.

So, as he scent meets his nose the King is somewhat tense with jolly anticipation; expecting her to appear over the tall grasses and thank him for her refurbished crown. The lack of excitement in the soft morning atmosphere is enough to carry him onwards with a bit of a pout - perhaps something akin to her own.

Yet her closeness is enough to change his train of thought, and with a low and steady chuff of greeting the father would seek to ascend his daughters boulder with great inelegance; clambering his meaty wounds to invade her personal space as always. "I made you a princess again," he fishes, seeking to flop somewhere against her with a dramatic groan.

_{art by rabbit}

She heard the lumbering of his paws before she saw him. Anniston flicked her ears with minor acknowledgment as Violarum made his clamoring approach, his familiar scent mixed with that of plains grass and dried blood. The young lioness opened an eye to peer at him sideways as he slumped dramatically at her side, their pelts warm where they met.

"I made you a princess again." She arched a brow.

"Better than being a prisoner," she conceded, a bitter twang to the words as she looked back on the situation. "Now, we can never let the plains go again." And Anniston meant it, no matter how lofty the goal.

---

@Violarum
+5 - Relax with someone else

code by corvus | img by yumpy

With a hefty groan the King would sprawl, restricted only by the tightness of dry wounds tugging at his skin. The sun beamed upon the father-daughter duo in the same way he remembered it had; with that extra Lorien oomph. Simultaneously, his core would heat from within, satisfied with the presence of his daughter.

She was a little colder than he, though Violarum was mostly oblivious to it. "Did they hurt you?" he asked, turning a broad chin to peer at her where she lay, as if he needed any more reason to dislike the manic women who had resided here before - or the man who had dared to keep his daughter against his will.

"Okay," he agrees with a pout, knowing full well how much that commitment was out of his hands, but not being bothered to argue it.

@Anniston

_{art by rabbit}

She allowed their skin to melt into a pile of brownish-purplish goo under the light of morning sun, a peaceful symphony of field crickets serenading the pair in their relaxing conversation – perhaps juxtaposed against such heavy subject matter. Anniston glanced at the lion as he questioned if they had hurt her, her mind immediately latching upon the opportunity for sympathy in all that she had endured.

"Yes. They made me hurt for them, too," the girl bobbed her velvet head as if to insist upon her point. As if it had not been her idea. "They're mostly a lot of talk, though – threatened to break my legs and rip off my ears," and there she sat as proof that they had not succeeded. The father was wise to agree with her, even if such things could not be promised. There would be no telling Anniston that.

"I should be Heiress again, you know. I've bled for it." She shot him a sideways glance as she searched for the acceptance she desired, studying the fresh wounds upon her father's face expectantly.

---

@Violarum
+5 - Relax with someone else
+5 - Convince someone to give you something that you want
+5 - Use a friendship or relationship to your advantage

code by corvus | img by yumpy

He eyes his daughter with a pouty frown, displeased to know the manic nutters who had displaced them once dared to treat his daughter so. Vio, even as big and stronk as he was , chose not to bestow his brawn in cruel ways. Even though he obviously could - with a flick of a toe he could fell them all!

If only it were that easy.

"I'd never let them," he assures his dark daughter, blinking beneath the rays of vibrant sun, as if to suggest he had been there all along. He had come as soon as he knew of course, but he also knew little was good enough for his plains-princess.

At her words he eventually eases, stretching his hind legs out with a dramatic groan and flopping his head against the rock; squashing his wounded body only further against her warm skin. "Yes, Heiress..." he would confirm, drifting out into a shallow sun-sleep.

--- exit via snoozes
@Anniston

_{art by rabbit}

Part of her wanted to argue. You did let them. The words hissed in her mind involuntarily, her chest panging with heat. There had been no escaping it – the resentment she felt bubbling up when she looked at any of her closest ones, save for Orson. When it came down to it, only he had stuck out his neck for her time and time again, and Anniston knew this was what she deserved. As it were, fear alone managed to stay her tongue. She shot him another sideways glance as he shimmied into the rock, her stomach turning with uncertainty despite the vows he had made. She worried he would give up on her again.

"Yeah," she murmured, purposefully playing up the drowsiness she felt welling up somewhere. She could not fester if she was unconscious, right?

---

-exit- @Violarum

code by corvus | img by yumpy