She continued to gather her plants, at least until she saw @Aelynthi and @Andraesa arrive. The dark Hollow woman had been noted, but it was the young female from the rainforests question about why they were fighting. She opened her jaws to answer when @Neeha did instead. The dark lioness chuckled, tilting her skull at the pair. "She's right.. The one with less scars.. I know her." She was a kind soul - Kireena didn't know much about Cirillia but she did know about Dio.

She drew up towards the young Firnen and grinned at the Caladan girl as well. "When prides fall - other seek to take them for their own.." She hoped that wouldn't happen to Firnen - at least with her as the heiress... The red giant glanced towards Aelynthi and tilted her skull - beckoning her over. She wasn't going to make the yearlings move.. or leave them unprotected.

ART BY VASILIA, CODE BY LARS

It's strange to wake up to.... all of this.

The little punk emerges from the familial den, blinking and yawning, and nearly walking straight into the pride challenge. She freezes, almost stumbling over her too-big paws, peering at everyone here with a wary, guarded look. What's going on? She says, to no one in particular -- though there's an awful lot of people around. Who were all these people?

There's a fight happening and that's not terribly strange, she's seen plenty of them before on this very beach. Though those had been between cubs and this was two strangers. Eh, whatever. Close enough. She drifts closer, terribly curious, as her attention is caught by @Toblerone cursing the name of... maua. Who's maua? She says, perplexed still -- even as the God's marking is branded forever right across her forehead. Hidden by her head tuft and never recognized for what it was.

With a terrible sigh she plops down, sitting as she watches.... whatever the hell this was.

CODE

i'm ready to suffer the sea Unlike his daughter, he knows exactly what's happened. The former queen had dropped the ball, and left enough room for the vultures to swoop in. The only familiar face he can see is @Carina -- she looks thunderous, and idly he wonders if she had wanted to step up and fight for the lagoon. He's only a little surprised to not see dagge, the drooling man with more brawn and brains. Seems it hadn't been a good decision to give him a crown, after all. Circling closer he seeks to find a place off to the side to observe. He knows neither of the challengers and something about that doesn't sit right with him. He didn't like the idea of staying under a stranger, though... he supposed they could go wherever they wanted. Softly he chuffs for @Calypso, his attention split between the fight itself and grimur as she plops down in the sand.

code // art // do not use without permission

Eisa heard the summons, the challenge in them and she understood what this must mean. A challenge would be had for the Lagoon it seemed, and so the young Sigrun approached the land. She'd been here before, witnessing a challenge on these very sands, but when she saw the two who would fight- she only recognized one. Cirilla (Super vague stuff here because ongoing thread) She took a seat, to watch her... well, she wasn't sure how she was related but she was family, no?

Silently, she would watch, eyes on the pair to fight, and yet ears on the others, in case anyone would attack her.

ART BY YUMPY, CODE BY LARS

with so much of her time spent among the shores of the beach and the caverns of the coves, places that brought her much more joy than she could imagine, the uproar that drowned out the sound of the crashing waves was unexpected. the scent of strangers is heavy and different from the salt furred lions that had created prides among the sands and imogen cautiously approaches. despite the itch that suggests she stay away and leave this to the lions that have the comfort and protection of prides, she simply cannot.

at the back of the crowd, imogen stands high on her toes. the sands shift beneath her as she attempts to peer over to the gathered mass of lions to see what's happening. there's a blur of movement somewhere near the center, one lion launching out to another and so begins a fight. it clicks, as she thinks to amaroq and his battle with the summit queen: they fought to claim these lands.

the woman presses forward, skirting between the bodies present. imogen has little business here but she feels deigned to stay, anxiously awaiting the outcome the same as all those around her.

double xp
+10 Observe a challenge and learn the results (diomedeidae v cirilla for sl)
+10 Attend a spar or challenge to assess the wounds (diomedeidae v cirilla for sl)
+10 Observe and study a new scent

CODE AND ART BY JAVS

Scilla Lagoon .:. October Y10

---

Having recently made her way back into these lands after having gone out of them, Sæunn had completely intended on reconciling with her family and figuring out where they all were at this point in time. She'd first gone to the Brook, knowing her family had lived there last. However, the scent of her mother was not at the borders and it smelled foreign to the young Sigrun. Figuring she'd meander around the lands and figure out what had happened to all of her family, she was lingering near the Lagoon when the challenge call rang out.

Sauntering her way towards the source, she peered at the group for a bit. She vaguely recognized the brown challenger (@Cirilla) but wasn't familiar with either one. However - there was one frame that stuck out above all others. Her big sister @Eisa. Making her way towards her maned sister, Sæunn plopped her butt right next to her red sister. "Who are we supporting in this fight?" She asked, flicking an ear as she spoke. "Also, where are mom, dad and the rest of the family?" She asked, curious as to if her sister would know where the rest of their family had gone off to.

---

OOC Note: Please no claiming ^^text. "speech."

Art by Drifty | Code by Zodiac

She'd not anticipated the call, but when it rung throughout the harrowing wilds, Aurelia was not surprised. @Cirilla had proven herself ambitious more than once, and however much her daughter wished she'd stay, breathe, she knew that the fury that lived within her was something Aurelia could not ever quell. She might have had the same ambitions, too, had she not been so soft; had she not been so ruined. By the time Aurelia had crawled there, a group was already amassing, and Cirilla was already locking fangs with another lion. One, from what Reli could tell from this distance, looked to be around her own age.

A heavy, heaving sigh accompanied the pit of dread that unfurled in her belly. Though Cirilla were not here to usurp a sitting King and potentially make more enemies, there was still the cruel reminder of what all had happened last time, the fallout they'd all endured. She was unable to see above the shoulders of lions who could stand, and thus, Aurelia sought the slight height of a boulder in the short distance. Slowly, she crept her way upward, until she was able to hoist herself onto the flat rockface. From here, she did not appear so obviously mangled, beyond the scarring along her hind legs and hips.

From that moment on, she'd held her breath. She would likely not let it go until the challenge was over.

---

+20 (x2) Cast a curse or blessing on a character/group (1/2)
+20 (x2) Discuss pride, group, or family relations with another character (0/2)

Art by AleTie, table by cala

He doesn't care much for politics.

He doesn't have a mind for it, nor the patience. But there's still something interesting to learn, here. His paws press I to the sand as he walks along them, following the narrow land bridge that leads further and further into scilla. The scent markers are faded here but he can tell where they once were. A useless thing to know but he commits it to memory regardless, venturing deeper. Past the sand dunes that protect the lagoon from the sea wind, and off the curving sandbar that surely sinks when the tide is highest.

By the time he arrives a fight has already broken out; unsurprisingly, they are just two strangers. Among the crowd however is someone he recognizes. She's familiar against the sand even if the weather is much more agreeable here, and it's to @Imogen's side that he goes. He chuffs softly before stepping next to her -- a polite, quiet thing. Happy to be shooed off if she wants, but he asks a question of her all the same. Do you know either of them? Or was she, too, watching simply because she could?

+20 Explore a territory and find something useful in it
+20 Find a notable landmark in a territory
+5 Learn the extent of a pride’s border

BG — ART — CODE

Fuming in her position as though this land still belonged to her, to Tinuviel -- to Tiamat -- she hardly began to recognize that others were pouring in. Eventually, however, she did. One by one did they begin to come to the event and her blood boiled to a satanic degree. Head making a quick swivel to @Hero as he came to approach and her overgrown teeth glimmered in his direct as fire was lit within her ears. No! She shouted, not meaning to shout at him, really, but her anger was so far boiled now to see that neither of this lions were none of those who had previously been there. Though, given how their latest hunt had gone... she supposed none of them would have bothered to step up except her.

As soon as she looked at his face, really looked at it, she realized her tone and her volume. Body slackened as her lower jaw trembled and he tried her best to hide her trembling thoughts and to hide the tumultuous emotions that she could only lighten but not lose. This is my home. It is spoken as a whisper, tender and broken -- this was Tiamat's home and her children. Of course, somewhere deep within she knew that he would have no clue who the lioness was that she was referring to but its importance was no less so. This was to be theirs and now... now it was going to be one of them. One of the two that were going to fight over it like they had a claim to it at all...

Though, she supposed, if Tiamat were sitting next to her and this was a challenge for anywhere other than the Lagoon... her friend would've said that the best fighter would win. The one who won had earned it and they would be forced to shed blood to keep it just as she had hers. Her eyes scanned the tens of lions that had come out and the only one she recognized was @Hákon who had been one of the few adults of the Lagoon that had bothered to show at that stupid hunt. Carina wished she could have been here early to take this Lagoon back, to give him the home that she was certain he deserved. That his family deserved and yet, she was sequestered to the sidelines like a useless pup.

^{ART BY RABBIT, CODE BY CALA}

This beast stalked with agitation. Unlike the fighters, she had no opponent against which to plunge her rage. She also had no opposition to mangle her beautiful skin and slick down that doubled-up fluff - in a rage, in a tizzy, a ballerina in mimicry of violence (more accurately, a model; giant, lanky, alien beauty of proportions). Until @Grimur. Fangs bared with a hook and a smirk, interpreting an ignorant question as weakness and liking it. Front paws planted, turned, skull swooping downward then down another few inches as the cub was even smaller and shorter than first thought. The proportions and alien nature of this thing! Giant skull and paws, a halo ring of fluff for cheeks, mittens oddly shaped, and jaw jutted forward in a manner that (combined with the expression) was obviously endowed by nature and not by a moment's passing of arrogance.

"Maua," she repeated, a sugar grin on a poisoned spoon, "brought the mist. The mist comes in from the sea and down from the sky. It takes you and you can't follow your footsteps back. It's lonely and cold. Or worse." Lanky, bone-arched chest bone jut forward as she assumed a lector's pose. Schoolmaster or sermon.