[PRP] Thicker Than Water (Leto x Xabryel)

[The Captain Britain]

Leto sighed happily as her paws sunk in to the muddy bed of the river. The ground, scorching with the day's heat, had been rough on her pads. The cool water and soft mud was welcome relief. The current lapped up at her legs, water making her fur float freely. She watched absently as the dust and dirt from her travels was washed away downstream, a trail of brown that slowly dissolved into the water. Sometimes Leto felt like her past was being washed away from her like that. It had been so very long since she had first set out to explore the world beyond the Amazon border. The lioness had changed since then. Her ideals, her thoughts, all had been molded by the experiences she had been through. How strange would it sound to her pridemates, going back and saying that she had made friends with males? Would they call her crazy? Say that she had been brainwashed? How different was she now to them, her sisters, her mothers? Could she even still be counted as one of them?
Leto gazed at her own reflection, at the scars running down her cheeks. Yes, she would always be an Amazon at heart. She had forged that bond in blood, in the ritual that gave her these permanent markings on her face. And no matter what else happened, blood was thicker than water. Surely that meant her Amazon sisters would respect the knowledge Leto had come to find? Knowledge that related to a different kind of blood, one that didn't require any bleeding at all. Leto knew that male cubs were removed from the pride when they came of age, but did anyone ever stop to think that they were related to the males they claimed to hate? That they claimed to be evil? How thick was that kind of blood, when faced with opposition like that? Leto could never, and would never, know for sure. And she supposed that she was quite alone in the feeling that there was something very wrong with that ignorance.  

[Painted Moose]

Xabryel lumbered through the undergrowth with all of the grace of an Elephant herd. Stealth had been something poured into his daily routine since he had first come to live with his father, but some things didn't stick as well as others. Another such concept being a sense of direction, which as it seemed, he had yet to acquire. His family was close, right? He sighed, and rolled his gaze to the sky. Xabryel could just hear his grand-father now. 'How the hell do you lose a huge group? WE'RE THE SIZE OF A DAMN PRIDE.' At this point he would welcome a scolding if it meant he could see his "mothers" again.

At least he was close to a river. Thinks couldn't be that bad, right? He would get a drink of water, maybe splash around a bit to get rid of the horrendous burn his pale skin was suffering from, and be on his way. Xabryel came to the rivers edge a tired fool, not bothering to look at his surroundings or even notice the lioness not ten feet away from him. Instead, with his head lowered, he simply started to walk into the water, submerging his entire body in the cool liquid. Life...life was good when a male could just walk into a river and own it. Still, he knew the upper portion of his body was still sticking out, despite his head, and he had to dip down to get a good soak.

When he could hold his breath no longer her submerged on a gasp, shaking out his mane with a relaxed sigh. Then he stilled. "Ummm....hi?" When did she get there?!

The Captain Britain

 

[The Captain Britain]

Painted Moose

Once, Leto's claws might have popped out of their sheaths at the sight of an approaching male, her muscles might have tensed, her body ready for battle. But now, the only reaction the female gave was a wary glance and a raised eyebrow. The other lion didn't seem to even notice her presence as he plunged into the water. Not that Leto minded all that much. Her paws were washed off, she had drinken her fill, and now she could slip away without being noticed. Leto wasn't sure she was really in much of a socializing mood, considering the somber thoughts swirling around in her head. The lioness gave the stranger a once-over before beginning to climb out of the river...
And whipped back around, red eyes wide and staring. Her eyes had already taken in the lion's appearance and deemed it to be nonthreatening, as her Scout training allowed her to do, but something had just clicked in her brain. Leto looked back over the male, analyzing him carefully.
One paw, black and splotched. Black hind legs and a black tail. A singular black ear, contrasting the other. A purple mane that so closely matched her own fur. The male looked up. "Ummm....hi?" Leto found herself staring into matching ruby red eyes. Apart from the white on his coat, Leto could have very well been staring at a male version of herself. Memories, flickering like shadows on the wind in the back of her mind, called forth a sense of familiarity that Leto couldn't place. Her mind jumped immediately to her sister and mother, white with black splotches. Leto had always wondered how her purple coat had come about, attributing it to her mysterious father. This male..."Do I know you?" Leto heard herself asking, mud and sediment beginning to pool around her paws underneath the water.  

[Painted Moose]

The Captain Britain

Xabryel let out a nervous chuckle once he got a good look at the lioness. That necklace was pretty intimidating, and so was her scars! They had to have been voluntary, unlike the one that split his bottom lip. They were just too perfectly situated.

Her eyes were very familiar, though, as was her pelt. He squirmed his lips into an odd tilt, as his body turned of it's own accord to face her. "I don't think so...?" Xabryel responded with an turn in his voice. "I'm not sure, though. Are you sure we haven't met before?" The crisp water cooled his warm coat as he stood, looking over every little visible inch of her. "You have eyes like mine, and your paws the same."

When it came to him, his eyes widened, and his mouth slacked. If anything, Xabryel was a very expressive young male. "Is...Is your mother named Lulu, by any chance?" She couldn't have been...No, no, his memories weren't solid, so she could have been someone else. But really, what were the chances?  

[The Captain Britain]

Painted Moose

Leto let out a breathy laugh in disbelief. No. This was too crazy to be possible. "Yes! And my father, a white leopon." She had never committed the name of her father of memory. In her youth, when first learning about her biological relatives beyond the border, Leto had never once thought that she'd ever meet any of them. Not even her...brother. Her brother. Leto had a brother. Playing alongside the river, tousling in the dirt of the Amazon dens, it was all coming back to her. One day he had been there, him and their sister and herself, siblings. And then the next day he was gone, carried off by some of the pride females. Leto had been so, so confused when he first left, she hand't understood why he had to go. And then the training, the teachings, the lessons, everything had filled up her mind and sent what few memories she had of her brother in the recesses of her brain, forgotten.
This was too much. The lioness needed to sit down. Leto hopped out of the water and sat down on the bank, a headache forming. She stared back up at the lion, locking eyes. Red stared into red, and for a moment, Leto was staring at a much younger face, one still round with cub fat and uncovered by a mane. "Xa...Xabryel?" She whispered, heart pounding in her chest.