The sun was high - the dust rolling at his ankles, the dull roar of some poor creature in the distance calling for some kind of lost hope he could find. Honey tipped ears flex and pull at his head while eyes roamed the location surrounding him. After a few minutes of silence, he waited to see if someone called back to the stranger somewhere else, but when nothing was heard he shrugged it off. Poor thing was utterly alone. Who knew what he was searching for, perhaps companionship? Family? a lover? Vasilis didn't care to be frank.

Long flowing lashes would bat away the sun from his eyes - reflexively of course, as he huffed a small puff of air from his lungs. What now? Continue to find shelter? Or seek out the man who was calling somewhere up ahead? Sticking his tongue out like that of a lizard, he would taste the air - no rain so far hinted in the air. He was not going to go searching for that wandering male and instead would continue his search for shadows to lay under.

Half an hour later he finally found a broken Baobab tree to lay himself under. The branches were once struck by lightning, who knows when but it wasn't something that happened recently. The bark was pitch black and the green was all gone on one side of it. Hoisting himself up on the roots to the right, where there were enough green growths to cast a shade, Vasilis would lean himself over the thick object below and get himself into position before looking out across the landscape in silence.

The maneless lion wasn't fond of the sounds of water that he could hear far too close for his liking. But then any water within range of hearing was far too close for his liking. Of course when it was in eye sight it was even worse. But he had made the crossing once and if he stayed in the middle of the sand bar he didn't particularly see the ocean. Or at least the water wasn't immediately closing in upon him.

Then there was the tree and the other lion residing within it. That alone felt almost solid land-ish. At least one wouldn't typically find a tree in the middle of the ocean, or so Caligula's experiences with the water had led him to believe that.

"Playing King of the Tree?" He asked of the male whom had already perched himself within the half charred tree. What exactly had happened to the tree he couldn't really say. It wasn't something that he had come across before.

@Vasilis

'playing king of the tree?' the voice rang over the silence. Turning his eyes to the man he laughed "More like claimer of the shadows..." he liked the shade very much due to his lightly colored coat, he couldn't fathom having a dark chocolate pelt like his parents had if he did he knew surely he would be burning up over the sun on the highest point in the sky.

" You're welcome to join with me? " he tells before clearing his throat "My name is Diuris Yeager. You?" he let his eyes bobble over the other male's body. He drew in a breath, shaking his mane out before subsiding silently in wait to see what the male would say.

@Caligula

Claimer of Shadows certainly had a nicer ring to it than King of the Tree. Caligula had never claimed to be good at titles though. "That sounds so much better than what I came up with." The maneless male admitted with a laugh. "Shadows are a completely underrated resource." Though Caligula didn't mind the sunlight. There was nothing quite like having the sun warm your fur and make you drowsy and having a nice, long afternoon nap. And that was something he could do again with him no longer being King. Well, so long as his cubs decided that a nap sounded like a good idea as well.

Caligula moved closer when he was invited to join the other lion under the tree. He figured that should the water decide to ride up then at least he had somewhere of some elevation to get to. He would just have to figure out the problem of how to get down far later. So yes, this seemed like a safe enough spot for the time being.

The maneless male grabbed his own bit of shade beneath the tree and laid down. "Caligula, just Caligula." His own name was given with the clarification that there wasn't anything else to his name, no secondary name to speak of.

@Vasilis

" Well I've been known as many a few things in the past" he looked up trying to think of what they were. " Tail spinner, Winded fool, False Apollo...." he smiled and shrugged it off. Taking a breath, he swept in the scents that the man before him held on his body, wildlife, desert, and something else something..unfamiliar to him. "Nice to meet you, @Caligula. " he bounced his head up and down in a greeting. "and your right Shadows really are - I knew a child once that was so scared of shadows that even at his own reflection he'd pass out on it. His poor parents." he tried to hide his laugh as he thought back on how the child would never go outside during the day, thinking that the cool shade was going to eat him and he'd never come back. He had hoped that the child grew up to better understand the shadows of the world and not fear them, but he was ...sadly sure that the boy and his parents were probably dead by now....like most of them from the woodlands...but he held onto some wild fantasy that they were not there when it happened, the fire - the burning of innocent souls...

"I will admit that I have been called a few choice things myself. Nothing as imaginative as your names and far more derogatory." Of course it all namely had to do with his lack of a mane. And those that didn't had something to do with his mannerisms. He had gotten used to it, as most of it came from his own family, and had learned to shrug it all off.

Caligula listened to the tale that he was told of some lion that Dirius knew. "Certainly you must be exaggerating." Could someone really be that afraid of shadows? But then he was just that afraid of water. Even the smallest amount bothered him. So he supposed he could understand having such an extreme fear.

"For me it is water." Though he had a very big reason for that. Twice he had nearly drowned. So water really wasn't something that he did that well with.

@Vasilis

+5 Have someone share a secret with you

He nods "The child was very afraid of them." he shrugged. "It was a hard time trying to show them even through their teen years. That the shadows were not to be so scared of them..but alas that lion I am sure would have continued to think that way" but he wouldn't have known as that child was probably dead now.

He shifts and his ears catch the words, so he was telling his secret of the fear for water? He swallowed, looking down, and huffs " I can certainly feel that fear for sure. Mine ......well....they are not so practical as your own.." he takes a breath "I had an issue during a Hunting party many many years ago as a young child. Ever since my body freezes when I try to hunt anything bigger than that of a fish or small bug...Sometimes I black out badly.." he grumbles "Its a weird fear....and one that probably shouldn't exist at all, but it does for me..." he shares his secret to @Caligula as he sheepishly frowns.

"How did he handle the night?" Caligula was curious if it was just the darkness of the shadow that set the lion off or the actual shadow itself. Perhaps the absence of light would make him feel comfortable instead. It was a curious fear for certain and it made Caligula wonder as to its origin and how long it had been going on.

Caligula listened as Dirius explained his own fear to him. "Then you should say the same of my fear of water. I had never been particularly fond of it but it didn't become near paralyzing until I nearly drowned, twice. Something happened to you, it is only natural that an adverse reaction should form from that." He didn't fault the other his fears.

"If it makes you feel any better, I've never been a great hunter. Lizards and snakes are my thing, early in the morning before they have had a chance to warm up. Otherwise it is worms and snails." Delicacies that most others turned their nose up at. He didn't understand it when they were still meat, still bits of protein. And there wasn't all that energy spent in trying to track them down and catch them either.

@Vasilis