[[absence post 2/5, directly after this one]]

He needed to make one stop first, but luckily enough, it was on the way. With the family ordered to stay in and around the badlands until things were resolved, he needed only to ensure his strong-willed wife would not be throwing herself into the jaws of the enemy again and potentially leaving their young cubs orphaned. So he'd adjust his path to take him through the middle of the jungle, in the hopes a certain red giant had remained in the area.

Imagine his surprise when he found clues to a marked boundary.

Pausing, he considered the implications - She'd staked some kind of claim on the place. One of those bands that occasionally popped up then? Hm. Seating himself, he'd call lightly for @Kireena, and hope she didn't despise him enough to refuse him a simple favor.

The call came and Kireena frowned, looking up from where she had been tending the new garden. Having uprooted and moved from the Rainforest,she had left behind much... The majority of which were the gardens. Here, the druid had once again started to cultivate the ground, using large paws to dig up and churn the earth, mixing in things she had found contributed to the growth of the seedlings... Dung, dried plant matter, beetles and bugs. How it worked she didn't know but it just... Did. Shaking herself, the lioness would chuff, to call to @Ryker and let him know she'd heard. Perhaps he was coming with Levana and the cubs? The two-toned female had promised to bring them by eventually after all. As she made her way through the jungle, the red giant spotted the dark lion and chuckled at the irony of this meeting. "Ryker...come on in." 'In' was of course more or less 'down' given the basin was essentially a crater, but it had the same effect. "How are your youngest cubs doing?". She doubted Levana had kept their earlier meeting to herself.

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How strange for their roles to be so reversed. For him to come calling at her borders - though his arrival was less aggressive than her first visit to his own. He didn't move at her invitation, though, simply letting his gaze drift across what he could see and take it in. If he entered, if he let her give him the tour and get him comfortable and chatting, she might just help him talk himself out of things. This wasn't something he could afford to change his mind about.

"They're fine, growing like ravenous little weeds." Fond amusement colored his tone, though it faded when he spoke again. "You've been an unexpected ally. I have a...very big favor to ask." And he wouldn't fault her if she refused. If she told him to fuck off or called him any number of names or tried to change his mind. But Levana liked her, and of his choices, @Kireena seemed most likely to actually do what was needed and without any more injury to anyone than was absolutely unavoidable.

"I'm about to do something...incredibly stupid and uncharacteristically selfless." The humor was back in the way his expression twitched into a half-hearted smirk. "I've come to ask you to...well, restrain my wife when the time comes, so she doesn't also do something incredibly stupid." Because he could very clearly imagine Levana quite literally throwing herself, all claws and fangs and rage, at the very lions he was trying to protect her, and their cubs, from.

She chuckled when @Ryker spoke of his children growing like weeds and rolled her gaze towards the heavens above. "Don't I know that problem...sometimes I wonder if ours will eat us out of our home." Kireena looked amused before his next words had a brow winging upwards and she frowned. "The way I see it - you could have killed me when you had the chance, so it's me that owes you a favor." Her ears tilted towards the dark lion while she waited for him to speak on what it was that he was going to ask. When it game, she shifted just slightly, head tilting a little to the side. "I would need to know what this incredibly stupid thing you're intending to do is..." Perhaps it may be the dark male before her that she would sit on instead. She was well experienced with her own stupid acts and wondered if he was about to do the same that she had done. "Is... it something that would make them better if they were somewhere...safe?" She wouldn't come right out and ask if the Dantantian family would need a place to lie low once Ryker did whatever it was he was going to plan to do, but she also needed to know if there would be the need to further stock supplies.

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He didn't want to linger too long on the pleasantries, so would brush past the topic of cubs and owed favors to focus on the true reason for his visit. Weight shifted, gaze drifted, and he hummed as if trying to find the best way to explain. "I'm...gonna go make a deal." And it was very likely this was the last time she'd see him alive. This new branch of the Dieu were...well a younger Ryker might have liked them very much. But these days, he greatly preferred the ones who ruled the bluffs, rather than the more vicious and unpredictable lot that squatted in the rainforest.

"They'll need to know what's happened. That...things are settled...but you know Levana." He'd been the cause of a lot of her hardship over the past few years, whether he'd meant to be or not. And here he was, just as things had begun looking up, about to break her heart. Hm. Honor and foolishness were cousins, it seemed. "She, and our cubs, and living out around the boneyard right now. Maybe you could convince them to come here, if you have space, and want them around." Some sense of security since he wouldn't be around to provide it anymore.

@Kireena

Kireena would listen to @Ryker, frowning as she read between the lines. She sighed, closing her eyes and letting her ears fall to either side of her skull. "I...am not as connected to Maua as others in this land are.. but there is a life after death in this land.. If you'd like - you're welcome to come visit..." She would have every intention of going to where Levana and the kids were after this meeting.. to invite them back to the basin. "If they'll come..they will have a place here.." And she would do what she could to help, protect and provide what they needed. "For what it's worth, Ryker.. I thank you - for putting your trust into me." Even though she'd tried to usurp the lion who's very family she would now be on the prowl for in an attempt to take in.

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Life after death? Wouldn't that be interesting. Or would it? He wasn't sure if he'd prefer eternal nothingness to some form of continuing life. If there truly was a heaven or a hell, he supposed he could guess where he'd end up. But he hummed in consideration anyway, "Yeah, maybe." Haunting the jungle didn't seem like a bad fate, actually.

Ryker nodded, a wry smirk finding it's way to his face. "Yeah, well, strange as it is you're the only one outside of them that's still anything close to a friend." Would he use that word to label whatever they had? Not really. More like a mutual respect? But she was the only ally that remained. Maybe certain members of the Savante family, but just as many would still like to see him dead or gone. So. Yeah. This was it.

There wasn't any point to putting things off any longer, so he'd turn and move to leave. "Thanks @Kireena." He really was asking a lot of her.

-exit-

Kireena felt there was nothing really to say to @Ryker - he'd made up his mind. She heaved a sigh as she watched the dark lion leave and after he was gone, she turned back to the Basin to find her mate and tell her of what was going on. The red giant would leave shortly after this - and head towards the boneyard to try to collect Levana and her children. She let her thoughts wander to the dark lion that would likely end up dying in this endeavor. "Good luck, Ryker." It was whispered in the darkness - a farewell that she knew he'd never hear. //Exit//

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