Well, it was good to see her stuff hadn't been destroyed during her extended absence. As it turned out, it had been way easier to get lost than she'd thought it would be. Probably a bad idea to chase potential prey too far in the future, especially without paying any attention to one's changing surroundings. Oh well, she'd managed to get back so that was all that really mattered.

That, and the fact that her really cool den seemed a bit...small...for her now. She frowned, the ribcage had seemed huge when she'd picked it but...well, it seemed she'd grown a little too quick for it. She still fit it just wasn't as roomy any more. With a sigh, she left it behind to seek out a bigger one. Picking a what had probably been a younger elephant at death had been a poor choice. She needed a nice, big, adult. "Or," she told herself, "you could just suck it up and move somewhere boring, with real dens and junk." A pause, then a scoff. "Yeah, right." Live in some dull hole? No thanks.

Bones clattered as they shifted under her paws, the youth sliding confidently sideways down a pile to reach real ground below. She was just as at home among the field of death as the vultures circling overhead. "Okay! First thing's first - new ribs." Bigger, sturdier. Even if she ended up only being able to use them as an entryway to something else, that was just fine. Maybe, with creative use of preserved hide, she could make a cover for a set that rested spine-down in the dirt. It would be an interesting project no matter what she figured out.

code by corvus

The mud splattered girl was back. She still hadn't managed to find a cure for her curse but she was still on the lookout and had on her caked covering in the meantime. Carried within her jaws was a trophy, the skull of a recentlyish departed gazelle. It had been mostly cleaned as it had come from a pride kill. Still, Bijoux had been in on that hunt and had taken a decent role in it. Sure, the skull wasn't big enough to live in but one did need decorations for their den.

Bijoux immediately made her way for Curse's old den but didn't find the female there. "Curse?" She called out as she poked her head beneath the set of ribs after she had placed down her trophy. Where had she gotten off to? Maybe she had found a cure. If anyone was going to find a curse cure then certainly it had to be someone named Curse.

@Corvus ★ @Curse

[[sorry this took forever i thought i had more time and then she went inactive]]

She hadn't wandered too far when someone called out for her. And the fact they used what passed as her name narrowed the list of possibilities considerably. Briefly, she considered ignoring it and continuing her exploration of the area, but she remembered who that voice actually belonged to and...well, the girl wasn't annoying enough to outright ignore.

Curse would appear over the crest of a pile of bones some distance behind her den site, picking her way casually toward her visitor. "Hey Queenie." 'Queen @Bijoux', wasn't that how the girl had introduced herself last time? Looked like she was still using the mud to cover those unique white patches. Pity. They made her stand out a bit more among others.

As she reached her visitor, she spotted the skull, "Come to add to the piles?" Maybe she'd been wrong in assuming this was a special place where creatures came to die, or were brought by their own friends or family after death? Maybe it was just a big garbage pile instead?

code by corvus

"Bijoux." The girl corrected, but only mildly. She wasn't certain if Queenie was meant to be a name or a play on her title. It did have Queen in it after all. Still it wasn't exactly her name and Bijoux was all about having her name used properly.

"You got piles of skulls already?" She asked as she glanced around for this supposed hoard. The yearling really had thought that she had brought a great gift with her. Now she wasn't so certain any longer. Or course Curse had a home in a pile of bones so of course she would have all the skulls that she needed.

"Is decoration for den. I get it myself. I really good at hunt." Or at least the pride hunts that she had been in had continued to be successful, no matter the size of the hunting party.

@Corvus ★ @Curse

The correction earned a slight smirk, maybe she didn't understand nicknames? She did seem a little odd, but maybe Curse wasn't the best judge of that. She shrugged at the question, gesturing vaguely to the bones strewn across the area, "Well, I mean...kinda? They're not all really mine though, I guess." She lived among piles of bones, many of them skulls.

So, surprise flashed across her face when the other girl revealed it was a gift. Specifically brought to decorate her den. "Oh." A blink. And then another. Was she blinking too much? Her brain didn't seem to want to do anything else in the face of the unexpected gesture. "I- Nobody's ever-" shown her much more kindness than not immediately attacking or outright ignoring her, honestly, aside from @Bijoux. "I've never- Um." Words didn't seem to want to cooperate any more than her brain did. Her butt plopped to the ground, tail wrapping around her paws, gaze drifting off to the side in what Curse would argue was very much not a flustered or awkward display. "Thanks." A small smile tugged at her lips, "That's..." incredibly thoughtful since they barely knew each other, "really nice of you."

code by corvus

Bijoux really did have a thing for proper names being used. She had never been one for pet names, and supposedly not nicknames either. She had never experienced nicknames before to know for certain. Still, she was a stickler for her name being used and nothing else.

The vitiligo laced yearling tilted her head in wonderment as Curse stumbled over her words. Was something wrong? She had never witnessed anyone start and stop so much. What was going on? Maybe she was sick or something. Should Bijoux try to find a healer then?

Suddenly the other lioness sat down and this spurred Bijoux to react and move towards the other. She sought to nose at the other lioness in a fit of concern. A whine even bubbled up in Bijoux's throat. She didn't know healer things. She didn't know what to do when someone fell down, other than go get Mama Maia but that wasn't a possibility in the moment.

"I got bird one too but birds too little." Which meant it wouldn't make for great decoration.

@Corvus ★ @Curse