Adira nodded as he explained how the pouch had been made. She would make a mental note to remind herself of the recipe when she would make it in the future. It would make her practise easier; instead of carrying around ingredients, she could store items for her rituals in it. The many possible uses for the bag spun through her mind – such a versatile idea. “Interesting. Thanks for telling me about it.”

The priestess watched as @Zaahir ♔ gazed at the stones. Her own gaze settled on a small russet feather, its tip marked by black. Adira gently brought it closer to her face to smell it. She didn't recognise it, but that didn't detract from its beauty. “Were you born here, in Amaryllis?” she asked, she asked, eager to learn more about Zaahir if he would be willing to talk to her.

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With the pile separated as evenly as seemed possible, he'd start moving things into his pouch. "Nah," he shook his head, "I'm from a desert on the mainland," somewhere North-East? ish? Honestly, if he tried to go back now, he probably wouldn't remember the way. It didn't help that he'd found Amaryllis totally by accident and had not been paying any attention to how he'd gotten to the passage in the first place. He hoped his family didn't think he'd run off and died...or abandoned them on purpose.

"What about you?" He knew many came from outside, from mysterious far-off places across the small span of water that separated their little peninsula from the rest of the world. Was she a fellow traveler or had she been born here?

@Adira

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"I've heard about deserts." Adira’s eyes twinkled as she imagined Zaahir’s birthplace. Deserts brought to mind rolling sands that were hot underfoot and dry winds that blew through your fur. Though mother rarely spoke about her cubhood, it reminded her of Arachnae’s stories. So her new friend was also a stranger to these lands. Perhaps that is the way it was here?

“Oh, I’m the same! But my mothers lived here before they had me, though.” Adira would likely have trouble finding her way back home if she tried. And her view of Home was that it was wherever her family were.

The priestess smiled at the bundle sorted in front of her. “I haven’t done much exploring yet,” she admitted. “Have you?”

@Zaahir ♔

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In his opinion, deserts were the best. Other places had their good points, too, but he was most at home in the scorching sands. "Oh! There's one here, actually, on the other side of Amaryllis. That's where I live - Andal Oasis." His pouch filled, he'd duck his head to maneuver it back around his neck. "Just go west and a little north from here, through the plains and past the fighting pit." After that, he figured the dry lands were pretty hard to miss. At the worst, she'd go too far and just end up at the coast, but she'd still have to cross the desert to manage that anyway.

The way she spoke of her family led him to assume one of her mothers had found someone willing to 'help out' with the litter, but then his education on the subject had not included things like divine intervention and so he remained entirely unaware that was even a possibility. He caught himself before he could ask if her father (or donor, or whatever) was still in the picture, that impulse averted by her question which instantly shifted his attention.

"Sort of, I've been here a lot recently 'cause something weird is going on. I've visited a few pride territories when something exciting was happening." Mostly, his explorations thus far had been in search of things like new plants to add to his garden. Or new spots to keep a garden for things that wouldn't survive the desert.

@Adira

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Aria's pointed ears perked forward at the information he gave her. @Zaahir ♔ mentioned that he came from a desert called Andal Oasis, and that she could find it by heading west. It helped to fill in the blanks in her mind, of which there were admittedly many. It didn’t bother her, though – quite the opposite, she felt compelled to seek out the places he described. “Thanks, I think I’ll pay it a visit soon.” His reference to a fighting arena sounded exciting, another place she wanted to see. Amaryllis was turning out to be a place full of wonders.

"Is something going on? Do you mean to say you’ve seen more weird stuff like this?" Pumpkins mysteriously appearing and revealing gifts had been a pleasant surprise, if nothing else. And then there was the ghostly apparition.

“We joined pride, but only for a little bit. I think it was called a Mire? What is your Oasis like?” Adira's memories of the swamp were dim, and besides, her time there had been so brief that there wasn't much she could tell. The priestess dipped her head to sort through her treats, pausing to consider how to get them home. As much as she would have liked to take them all with her, perhaps this was the way of the gods.

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