She moved slowly away from the pridelands, the lioness making her way towards the caverns in the distance. She needed a break today - something unrelated from her work with the pride. The lioness shifted slowly and was careful with her footing. It wouldn't do to have her slip and fall - be unable to return to her children. The screeching up ahead had her ears pinning to her skull, lips twisting in mild irritation. Perhaps she would have to see what bat tasted like.. Jewel was already aware that the white ... sludge on the floor smelled terrible.. and it clung to the pads and folds of her feet, leaving her with nothing more than the desire to simply turn and find a body of water to bathe in. Still, she had to keep going - to find out what she could about this place. This new land she had brought her family to live in.

Table coding by Jolee

This place smelt rank. Tosca liked to think she had a strong stomach - she was not some delicate, prissy lady, and would resent any such implication - but even she was feeling a little grossed out by this whole set-up. White sludge coated the cold, damp cavern floor, and it took a real concerted effort on the yearlings part to not actually step in it. It was an inevitable fate, she imagined, but focusing on that at least distracted her from the fact that her surroundings were a little creepy. She'd come here in a bid to cure her boredom, and it didn't really occur that she'd actually run into anyone else in her wanderings until she nearly barrelled into her.

Oops.

Tosca takes a hurried step back from the form that had suddenly appeared in her path, bright pink eyes widening in surprise. "Oh!" The girl did her best to put distance between herself and the stranger, hoping beyond hope that this woman was not malicious; she was awfully large, after all, and behind all the bat poop she's pretty sure she could detect the scent of other lions on the lioness' pelt. What that meant exactly remained to be seen. "Sorry," Tosca began quickly, remembering her manners. "I... uh.... didn't see you there?" No shit, Tosca - she's the same colour as the rest of the cave!

Cracking an uneasy grin, she's just hopeful that her genuine comment doesn't come off as facetious.

The bump of another to her hide had the ebony female shifting, her hackles rising along her spine for just a moment before the hurried words of the other broke the silence. Fur smoothed and she offered the younger female a smile, her scarred visage relaxing into a less warning and more gentle expression. "I do sort of blend in....no harm done." The female chuckled, looking around the space before she turned her attention back to the female standing before her. "I'm Jewel...Though I admit I don't know the name of this particular...cave.. or I'd tell you that to." She couldn't quite keep the disgust out of her tone as she gave the bats overhead a rather irritated look, a shudder running down her spine at the feeling of the squishy between her toes. @Tosca

Table coding by Jolee

The way the woman's piercing blue eyes narrowed, lips tensing up into what could've been the beginnings of a warning grimace, filled Tosca with just a second or two of dread. Oh shi- But, as soon as it'd come, the placations offered by the younger girl had clearly been enough to smooth things over quickly. The freckled girl relaxed considerably, silently thanking her parents for instilling good manners in her. If they hadn't, she could well be being taught a lesson as they speak. "It's nice to meet you, @Jewel," the younger female dipped her head in a polite nod. "I'm Tosca." Bright pink gaze would follow the attention of the larger woman, scanning the ceiling and finding tons upon tons of furry stinky forms all huddled together. "Ew... do you know what they are?" She hadn't really seen them before - she knew they weren't birds (they smelt too different, for one thing, and the lack of beak was an obvious difference) but that was about as much as she'd gathered so far. Maybe if she asked questions, she could focus on the answers and ignore the fact that poo was beginning to seep into her paws.

The female shifted, lifting one paw and shaking it with distain, slinging white and black to the nearby wall. "Bats... They're...bats..And this is their poop." The lioness shuddered, repeating the process to keep her paws free - though she was careful not to sling it on the female.. that would be just rude! "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Tosca.. I apologize if I scared you earlier.. I meant no offense." Simply a reaction to being touched in the dark by a creature she knew nothing of - until she'd turned to see her that is. Jewel's chuckle echoed against the walls before she shifted to the side to give the younger lioness a chance to see the cave even better without her large ass in the way. "They're not bad for eating if you can catch them.." @Tosca

Table coding by Jolee

Tosca would gawp at the splatter of guano that @Jewel would send flying at the wall, before - unable to contain herself - chuckling childishly. "That's gross," she wailed, wrinkling her nose up as the black lioness confirmed one of the most upsetting facts she'd heard in a while. The wet stuff this place was blanketed in.... Poop. Scowling up at the little furry winged beasts she now knew to be bats, the pink-eyed yearling would huff in a melodramatic fashion. "I'm definitely taking a bath when I get out of here. And not a tongue bath, either." Using the opportunity to get a better look at the chambers, Tosca would smile and advance a little when Jewel shifted to one side, peering further down the dark corridors. Wait - catch them? The yearling shook her head incredulously. "I can't imagine that being easy... Have you done it before?" And what if they were covered in guano? You'd definitely have to wash it before eating it..... Yuck.

She was amused at the girls whining over the batshit on the floor but she had to agree. Jewel chuckled, giving her a nod before she glanced up at the varmints hanging from the ceiling. "Rats with wings... but you can catch them if you scare them.. And yes - washing them is generally first thing on my list." Jewel didn't know if the girl was thinking such a thing, but that had been HER first thought when she had caught them the first time to. "They're not.. fabulous.. but I'd eat them if I was hungry and that was what I could catch. When you scare them - they flock out in such numbers that it's easy to knock a few from the air." She remembered coming here with a young child who had managed to scare them and she had taken the time to rescue the poor thing. @Tosca

Table coding by Jolee

To describe them as 'rats with wings' did, from where Tosca was standing at least, seem pretty accurate. It painted a horrible visual in her head, sure, but it was a good way to describe them. "Oh, yeah, washing them definitely seems like a good idea." The idea of tucking into something covered in..... Ugh. Yeah. Let's not even go there. "Scaring them sounds like a kind of fun game. I think I'd be scared that they'd swoop down and gouge my eyes out, though." Her expression would turn a little more thoughtful, though, after a moment of consideration. Pink gaze would watch the movement of the furry little beasts crawling along the ceiling, suppressing a shudder. "I guess if you're hungry enough then you'd eat anything. Or.... almost anything." With an airy chuckle she would turn to look up at the taller woman, offering a smile. Moving along, she would keep her pace slow to see if @Jewel was keen on following. "I haven't actually spent much time in here before. I much prefer being out in the open." She wasn't exactly claustrophobic, but..... Well, it was always nice to see where you were going, and wide open spaces gave you the advantage of good lighting at the very least.

Jewel followed the female, her own footsteps falling into place behind the other, her tone thoughtful as she looked around the caverns that they trailed across. "I tend to avoid them myself.." Though, she supposed that the reason for avoiding them might be different for the pair of them. Jewel knew some of the men of the pride that resided within these caves, and though she supposed that most would hold themselves to a certain standard, she wondered if they would continue to do so if Gwyn wasn't there to stare over their shoulders. "The open has much more to offer, certainly.. but I suppose that if you're stuck and in the rain, getting out of the elements might be preferable." Ears twisted as the female listened to the sounds of the bats chitters echoing off the walls, though she was focusing on sounds much lower than that - scuffs of large feet, the brush of fur against stone.. the echoed breathing of someone other than the two women. @Tosca

Table coding by Jolee

The older female certainly had the right idea; avoiding the little horrors altogether was probably the safest way to avoid their claws and their poop. Tosca would nod sagely, shooting a small smile over her shoulder at @Jewel. "Yes, that's true," the brunette would hum, not nearly as in tune to her surroundings - and the sounds of an approach that could otherwise be masked by the scuffling and squeaking above their heads - that the more experienced lioness was. "I think I'd take the spooky cave full of bats over getting sick from being drenched in rain." Just barely, anyway.