[PRP] Wandering Through. Again. (Deinthanay x Morska'Zelena)

[Dame NightFury]

Morska'Zelena had no idea how much time had passed. She didn't know where everyone was. She didn't know who had survived. She didn't even know anything about her Mother and her whereabouts. During the scouting for survivors and pilgrims, Morska'Zelena had been separated from the group, and had gotten lost. Of course. What could go wrong did go wrong.

Thankfully, during her Naming Quest, Morska'Zelena's adventures had led to helping her survive now. Barely surviving any time she allowed herself to travel back into the heart of what was once her home. There wasn't anything to hunt here, but Morska'Zelena still hoped to find some clues. A hint. Anything of her pride. Of her family. Her friends. But the only think she ever saw that was slightly familiar was a bit of blue in the flora trying to grow, but failing. Mr. Azure. Or a relative of his. That's what gave Morska'Zelena allowed herself to believe for comfort.

She was thinner than she had been in years, since hunger was a constant companion throughout her wanderings through the abandoned lands that had once been a lush swamp. One Morska'Zelena missed dearly.

Morska'Zelena sat on the bank outside the center of the once pride lands. The river nothing more than a trickle compared to when she was a cub. Or even when she had first returned from her Naming Quest. She could spare a day looking around before Morska'Zelena would have to head back out to lands with more prey and food and water.

A day. It wasn't enough time, but it would have to do. Morska'Zelena couldn't allow herself to strave if she wanted to return to the pride and be useful.  

[ShinosBee]

Deinthanay had proved he could live up to his new name. It'd been hard, leaving their old pride's lands, but he'd taken to the long march with more grace than most. Perhaps because his mother had once been a rogue? That would make sense. He had the wandering blood in him. Their current residence was about as far and different from the old one as things could get. Rough, mountainous...at least there was still fog. He wasn't sure if it would be a permanent place for them, but exhaustion and the weakness and failing health of some prominent members had made it if nothing else a long pit stop.

And that's where he'd been when the night-visions had come again. In all the hectic haste of fleeing the fires he'd not had time to find her, but now that his dreams had brought her back to the front of his mind he felt rather guilty. Morska was missing (well not really, he knew right away where she was) and he'd gone ages before he even realized. He could blame having to help his mother and siblings, but he should have looked for her too. Long ago, and it shouldn't have taken a dream to remind him.

The trek back to their old lands had been long, but much faster now that it was just himself. One lion could make more tracks than a whole pride, filled with the elderly and the young. It wasn't long before he spied the remnants of the charred swamp they'd once called home. And within it, hopefully, Morska still was waiting. He called out as he slipped in amongst the blackened tree trunks. "Morska? Are you here? It's...it's Dein...!"  

[Dame NightFury]

The bleakness of Morska' Zelena's surroundings were putting her into a lull, a trance. It always did every time she made her way back to this spot. She didn't think it was the vijini that showed themselves to her pride. She felt pretty sure that the spirits had left with the pride. Or perhaps disappeared as the swamp was ravaged. No the shadows Morska'Zelena saw and the whispers were nothing more than the ghosts of her memories. Even that call from a childhood friend. All her memories of her pride and her home.

How much longer could she hold onto the hope of finding a clue to where the pride had disappeared to? How could a pride disappear? Surely there was something to point her in the right direction. But Morska'Zelena had not come across many lions even in the rogue lands. The only rogue she made a habit of seeking out, and had failed more than once, was the hyena Shabnam. After everything her friend had taught and shown her, Morska'Zelena only ever sort her out when she wasn't hunting to keep herself alive.

Moments like this often found her in the burnt swamps. Morska'Zelena admitted to herself it was because she was relating to the swamps more to anything or anyone else. She felt just as enemy and abandoned as the swamplands were at the moment. And she knew even before the fire, she had made her way into deeper swamps because she had been pulling away from the pride. Feeling lost when in a crowd. Feeling - lonely. Now without anything that feeling was so much worse. At least when in the rogue lands, Morska'Zelena could distract herself with finding food, whether it was prey that ran from her or finding fish filled streams to feed from. There was nothing to distract her here.

Revelation complete.

Now Morska'Zelena had to find a way to snap out of this spiraling mood. She had to do something. As much as she loved the swamp, it wasn't divulging any hints of her loved ones. And in Morska'Zelena's mind, it was on purpose. The swamp didn't want her to find the pride. Didn't want her to leave completely. What it wanted at the moment was to share the misery it must feel. After all, even their goddess had left. Everything had left it.

Morska'Zelena made her decision, stretched out and stood. No point in staying when the land could or would find a way to force her to stay. She would get out of the once swampy area, rest, hunt, and head to the rogue lands and listen for ghost stories. That was how most of the rogues had given her news of her pride on her Naming Quest, and that was how she was going to find them now. And once she found them, she wouldn't let herself do what she had done before. She wouldn't be lonely in the midst of her pride.

From the corner of her eye, purple. Purple? But Mr. Azure and his "family" of lizards were blue. What was purple doing here? Morska'Zelena froze, trying to decide if it was the land playing tricks to keep her here, or was it something else. Someone else. Someone that had actually called out to her before and she had thought it was an echo of memory.


OOC: Do you think Dein would prefer to call her Morska or Zea as an display of affection?  

[ShinosBee]

For so long the thick murky swamp had been their home. He almost couldn't recognize the area. Where once he'd be wading knee-deep in mire, now there was at best a toe-deep sift of ash and dirt. Not even mud. The trees were jutting, sharp, jarring spires of black and gray; most bereft of branches as well as leaves. No vines. No shrubs or tall concealing grasses. No water in any form. It was abysmal.

Of course, the dim and dull landscape made it easy enough to catch a brief flash of white between the branches. "Morska...?!" His heart froze then stuttered to life again as he charged - ash puffed into the air in a fine dusting behind him as he ducked and wove through the char to find...

A stone.

A pale, bleached stone, standing inside a small ring of barren trunks. It was unburned, but still had lost whatever moss or growth had covered it, dried to death by the raging firestorm's heat.

A sigh slipped from him like a dying breath. He'd thought. He'd hoped. But it was just a stone.


((I think he'd still call her Morska for now - he'd probably be something like formal until they were properly mated. He wouldn't want to bring her shame by seeming too familiar. Sort of like if they were in an arranged pair? He's deeply fond of her and wants to be sweet, but doesn't want to mess it up if, say, she doesn't want him.))  

[Dame NightFury]

As quickly as the purple had flashed in the corner of her eye, it was gone. And now Morska'Zelena was left with yet another decision. To follow it or go in the opposite direction.

And she had to do it quickly, because if the purple was not a jini or a ghost of memory portrayed by the land and her mind, Morska'Zelena would lose it. Would the dead and lonely energy here throughout this land allow the lure to disappear so quickly? Before she could even get a hint of what or who it could have been? Was it real or illusion?

Morska'Zelena turned her head in the opposite direction. The way out. And bit her lip.

Five. Four. Three. Two.

Morska'Zelena shook her head and carefully plunged further into the dead land, ashen and dull. Not that she didn't resemble everything around her. Her fur was caked in ash, dirt, and dust. Barely a hint of white or green to be seen. It had served her well during her hunts. Prey couldn't see her as well. Couldn't smell her as well. But now, if this was really someone - someone real - the coating would be a hindrance.

Moving slowly, she made sure the small amount of water dripping through was in her path. It wouldn't clean her fur, but maybe she could get a streak of white to appear between the grim. Maybe two, one on either side of body. Flashes of white as she moved, just in case.

Sending a prayer to the vijini, the absent swamp goddess, and whatever god now looked after her pride, Morska'Zelena set out after the purple flash.  

[ShinosBee]

For lack of anything else to do, any signs or prints long gone it seemed, the pale purple lion sighed and clambered atop the pale stone. A higher view...honestly did him little good. The trees were still tall and dense, though many had fallen. He could hardly see out of the ring around the little clearing, for the gods' sake! Dimly he wondered if she would even still be here. No one had seen her since the fire at all. He'd dreamed but...what if the worst had come to pass? Would his dreams show him that? Maybe she had been here, and so the dreams only showed him the last place she'd been before...

No. Thinking that way'd just make him miserable. Maybe she was still alive, maybe not. Maybe he should just...

Another flash of white, moving this time caught his eye, and before he could think he'd cried out. A wordless sound of desperate hope before whatever it was vanished from view between the trunks. He slid like water from the stone and raced after the white, but it was like the remnants of the swamp were working against him. Always whatever it was was out of reach, circling around, making him go in loops to try to get through the dense trees and deadfall.

"Wait...! Wait up! Please! I don't mean any harm...!"  

[Dame NightFury]

It was becoming more and more obvious that whatever she had seen was just something to torment her. As Morska'Zelena moved through the area looking for the flashes of purple, she concluded that it WAS the land luring her further and further in. It had to be. Would the purple flashes constantly moving, Morska'Zelena couldn't think of it being anything else, but a distraction.

Morska'Zelena sighed as she slowed down. If she went much further, she'd have a harder time making her way out to hunting grounds when she started to get hungry again. Well hungrier anyway.

There was hope and there was foolishness. If she went any further, Morska'Zelena knew she would be playing the fool. Time to stop and admit defeat this time around. She'd return in a few days time. Maybe a few weeks and try again.

Than she heard it. Him. Morska'Zelena froze. She didn't move. Well ... What was the worst that could happen? It could be a lion that thought he was a demon again. Or a jini possessed one. A hostile hyena. Shabnam told me about the normal relations of hyenas and lions and they weren't so friendly or good.

Morska'Zelena crossed her claws and shouted out into the burnt lands. "Here! I'm here! Hello?"  

[ShinosBee]

AT long last the white...something...slowed to a stop. Saving his breath for running the purple male fought to weave closer. Every now and then he'd lose sight through the trees, but the something-or-other was blessedly no longer moving. He was gaining. And he heard a voice.

"Here! I'm here! Hello?" A female's voice. One achingly familiar, but he knew better than to hope. They'd not spoke as oft as he'd have liked before; propriety'd made him keep his distance until they'd grown and he could wait to confirm his intentions were returned.

Now he was doing anything but keep his distance, and as he burst through the last of the trees to face her he'd never been so glad.

"M-Morska..." His mane was tangled from his headlong rush, his sides splattered with murky dark water and smears of ash. He looked a mess as much as her, but he made no mind of it. Instead he surged forward again, crossing to her in a blink and folding her against his chest. His chin tucked just over her shoulder as he pressed himself as close as he could, relief and joy making tears p***k at the back of his eyes. "Thank the gods, Morska," His voice wavered, then cracked as he mumbled into her fur. "No one knew where you'd gone."

"I'd thought you were dead..."  

[Dame NightFury]

The purple was large and fluffy and strong. And if he hadn't been holding onto her, Morska'Zelena would have been bowled over. Possibly flown a few yards or so. Wow he had gotten really strong since the last time they had been like this.

Well, not like this. After all Deinthanay as a cub had run away from her the one time they'd played together without any other cubs or lions around. So this strong reaction kind of confused Morska'Zelena. Not that she was happy to see him. Quite the opposite. But the only other interactions they had had were in group settings. And Deinthanay had kept at a distance. Always polite, but distant none-the-less.

Apparently, Morska'Zelena had missed something along the way.

"Deinthanay." She nuzzled into his chest, his mane tickling her nose. The display of affection was multipurpose. It was meant to comfort him. It was comforting to her, nuzzling against a childhood friend. And to verify that he was in fact really Deinthanay, not some figment of her imagination or of the land's desperate attempt to keep her here. He passed with flying colors.

Morska'Zelena pushed her head deeper into his mane, half tempted to start licking the ash and dirt and dust from her fur. She only just stopped herself, remembering that he was a very proper lion and this was a moment of excitement. It was not normal behavior.

"Is everyone okay? Our families? The pride? Where did you all go?"  

[ShinosBee]

If he'd known how his lack of (apparent) attention would have effected his intended, the purple lion would have made a point of reassuring her long ago. But as he never guessed and still did not know, it had taken this long for him to reveal the depth of his feelings. As a cub he'd been unsure, not at all used to his visions. His mother had given him extensive tutelage as he grew, but her sight and his were different. It made him not want to trust his own gift, and he had not wanted to harm the white lioness if he'd been wrong. Of course he apparently had anyway, but that was beyond helping now.

What he didn't know, couldn't know was that he'd spent ample days watching we from afar. By the time he'd had to go out on his name-finding he'd known beyond doubt that she was all he had dreamed of. He'd planned to woo her properly, but then it had been her turn, and so shortly after had come the fire.

Ah. She didn't know. He felt a rush of sorrow for her confusion and butted his he's to hers in a show of solidarity. "Fine, as far as I know. Fire came, obviously. Drought first, and the swamps dried up... Everyone got out though. They moved. There's mountains they were resting in when I turned back. Not like here of course but I don't know if they mean to stay." He didn't mention that others were missing an that some of their leaders had begun to show signs of weakening. It would only distress her, an he wanted to give her not comfort now. Not more fear.

"When they old me you'd not caught up I turned back. Morska, can you forgive me for not being here for you?" His tone was clear that he meant more than just in this one instance. Fear had made him realize that he should not waste time hiding his affections. If she would have him of course.  

[Dame NightFury]

"Oh, good. I was so worried." Morska'Zelena sagged, all but collapsing onto her bottom, sitting down in the ash, dust and dirt hard. The fire had raged for so long, even after she had made her way out of the swamps, and away from the rescue party.

Morska'Zelena made the decision not to tell Deinthanay about her part in that dangerous situation. Maybe she was wrong, but his reaction kind of made her think he wouldn't have liked knowing she had joined the party, rushing into the danger.

"The mountains to the south? I was driven north and west by the fire. When the fire finally burned itself out, all trace of the pride and any tracks were long gone. There was no way to catch up or to even follow."

Tilting her head, Morska'Zelena looked at Dein quizzically. "For leaving me behind? Dein, what did you think you could do against a fire? It's not like you were going around watching my every move. Don't be so hard on yourself." Morska'Zelena bumped her head against him. "You came back, so its not that big of a deal. You got here just in time."