Welcome to Gaia! ::

Karounos jumped, a bit in excitement and a bit in relief, at his mate's roar. He sensed to be quiet in his entrance, however, and understood why - Yukio and Daveigh were fast asleep near the entrance to where his mate laid with his queen. He bowed to Adia, "Ah apologize fer any interruption," he voiced quietly, wearily. "But still nothin'," he said, his voice quieting more as he directed his sorrowful words to his mate. "Ah'll jest.. go an' lay outside here. Sorry ter interrupt." He bowed again, nuzzled his mate, and ducked out - the scene had made him somewhat uncomfortable, for the air hung heavy with a conversation he had been avoiding for some time. It made him more comfortable not to talk about serious matters with others of the pride. Old, independent and lonely habits could not be broken, despite how long he had been in the pride now. But it was times like these that he most wished to retreat for a few days and wander the countryside alone. Then again, he knew this was the worst time to even consider it.

With a heavy sigh, Karounos rested himself just outside the cave entrance, fighting the sleep that threatened to engulf him any moment. His body ached and his mind soon stopped bouncing question to question, location to location, daughter to daughter. But his mate and queen needed a guard, and it seemed that right now he was the only one around who could provide that service. What a turn life has taken for our happy little family and pride... It seems that the shadow of despair threatens to hang over us for the rest of time...

Perhaps if he talked to Naida about leaving the pride for a few days... to futher his search for Nomis outward from the pride and to sort out his thoughts... But with the cubs coming so soon - he could feel it - it seemed a worse than bad idea... Even to consider. He couldn't leave his love alone with newborns. That would be unfair to her and them.

Naida smiled at her mate, but her heart broke to see him in such condition. Though she couldn't read his mind, she knew his thoughts must mirror hers in the aspect that she wished she could be out there searching. Fact is, Santos wouldn't of permitted it in her condition anyways no matter how much she argued with him, so she hadn't even tried.

When Karounos left, Naida laid her head back down thinking about what they could do, and it wasn't until her contractions got particularly strong enough to make her cry out in surprise and lick her stomach did she remember there were more that needed her now than ever. She wouldn't give up the search, but now t here were a few others that needed her a bit more. "Seems that even in the most troubling times, joy can be found...", she whispered, looking up to see Adia eying her own stomach. Were they both in labor?

Naida couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the whole situation and nodded. "They started for me a few hours ago...seems it is almost time for them to come." Turning to nudge her tummy a little, she added, "I do wish it was a much happier time, though...so much troubles and stress...it won't be good on them. Sad to have to sheild them from so much so soon..." Suddenly concerned she looked over at Adia and asked, "Do you wish to be alone? Should I send Yuki to find Santos?"

Adia nodded in agreement to Naida's first words. "It is... extremely sad." She said but as concern seemed to spread over Naida's face her ears perked and she was surprised by her questions. Wish to be alone? Why would she... She was shaken from her thoughts by Santos' sudden arrival and her ears perked only to fall as she nodded. "It is possible." She replied to him before looking over at Naida and frowning. "Naida, I don't want you to leave. We'll go through this together." She said a smile now appearing on her maw.

((Ok so I have the ok from DHS and Mira to go ahead and do a time skip since the brith rp isn't moving so the cubs are born and all that jazz. A bit of drama has happened leaving the pride with one less prince. Ama has left the pride to live with Altaria. An rp that was never finished but... yeah. It should explain the drama stuff. And please let me know if we've lost another lion that I don't know about since the last time skip. So here we go! *Waves hand amd skips through time*))

Even the evening was hot to Adia but she needed the fresh air after having cooped herself up for so long after Amador was run off abruptly. Luckily he had come back to straighten everything out and now though he still chose to go off with Altaria everything was much more cheerful and everyone was falling back into their normal rythyms. Adia was giving her two new daughters lots of attention to make up for the neglect she had put on them during the ordeal. She still felt really bad for doing it but when depression hit her it was lucky she remembered to feed them as she had. Well now she devoted every waking hour to them. She had them with her at all times or she was laying with them while they napped. It didn't matter where she just wanted them with her.

Course Rylee wasn't minding the attention at all though at times she did get tired of her mother dotting over her and her sister. She had ignored them for what seemed like a long time and now she wanted to spend every waking moment with them. It was hard to transistion from having no one to having someone there every moment. It was often this made her very cranky and she pushed her mother away just to get her to leave her be. There were times when enough was enough and now was one of them as she'd got up and dileberately walked away from her mother to sit at the edge of the ledge in front of the den. She just needed a breath without mom there.

Meanwhile as Adia lounged at the den down at the edge of the prides boundaries a pair of lionesses with carrying cubs were drawing close. One of the lionesses was Dafina, a beautiful blue in color and black markings mirroring Adia's except backwards so that they faded from back to front. The scent of the pride as they drew near caused Dafina to faulter. There were a lot of male scents among the faint female scents. The pride was big she could tell from all the different scents of lions that patroled the boundaries. With her mouth full of cub she couldn't speak but she turned her gaze to Floria, the other lioness with her, and gavr her a questioning look as if to ask, 'Is this it?'

The roar hit many ears at the same time. Daveigh was the first up on her feet having been lightly napping just inside the den with Kian who'd grown tired while playing. She'd slipped away from Kian doing her best not to wake him and then stepped over to Adia and whispered in her ear. "That's Floria's voice." Adia already knew who it was. She would know her daughter's roar anywhere but she did not answer Daveigh to let her know she'd heard her. Instead she had her ears perked so she could hear better and her eyes were wide. "Should we answer?" Daveigh was hesitant but she so wanted to answer and allow her entrance but this was not her pride it was her parents and it was Adia's choice since she was one of a pair of rulers. "Mom?" Daveigh lightly nudged Adia.

Adia jumped slightly at the nudge and gazed at Daveigh. Daveigh looked at her expectantly waiting for her decission. Coming back to her senses Adia stood up and made her decision not a tad worried about what the consquences of her choice would be. She let out an answering roar that meant the roar asking to enter was accepted. Once her roar was out Adia turned to Daveigh. "Go meet her and escort her here would you dear? I don't want any of the others trying to chase her off. Bring her directly to me."

Daveigh listened intently and with a nod she was off trotting at a fairly fast pace towards the boarder hoping none of the others had been closer than her and reached her first.

The wait before an answering roar came was worrying. She began to wonder if she should have roared instead so they would have thought it to be a stranger but when a familiar voice answered with a roar her spirits lifted. Watching Floria closely she waited till Floria had hold of the cubs again before she started into the pride. She'd learned a little bit about pride eticate from the family that had taken her for a bit before she had snuck away from them after less than a month to search for her sister. She had not seen the pair since she had left that silent night.

As Daveigh came in sight of the five lions she was surprised. She'd been expecting only Floria but here was a lioness she'd never seen before but that partially reminded her of her mother and in her mouth and Floria's were three little cubs that were by no mistake Floria's. The rose markings and deep reds made it almost too easy to know they were the grandchildren of her parents. Slowly she approached them and nodded in respect to the blue female and then turned her gaze on Floria. Her face held no expression but in her eyes which held a bit of happiness and sympathy for her sister. She knew all too well what it felt like to return home with cubs without the father by her side. "Come. Mother awaits you all at the den."

Dafina figured the female who approached them to be just another lioness of the pride till she got close enough to look into her eyes. The purple of those eyes were like looking into her own or looking into Adia's. There was no mistaking this female to be another daughter of her sister. And such beautiful girls they all were.

Daveigh led the pair of lionesses back to the den. All along the way she wondered what father would have to say about this. He'd been fairly broken when she'd left and now she wondered how warmly either her mother or father would welcome her back. She even wondered if she was bringing her sister up to her mother just to see her get run off when she was no doubt genuinely wanting to come home to her family. It didn't take long till they were walking up to the den's platform entrance where Adia awaited them.

While waiting Adia had moved to snatch Rylee up and clean her as she'd done all she could to Amarantha and now she was with Rylee to get the dirt from her paws. However as Daveigh, Floria and the other lioness came into sight she released Rylee and allowed her to go about her business as she took up her position on the peak of the den's platform and watched the lionesses come forward. As they moved onto the platform with her she turned about and sat as tall as possible doing her best to look like the very elegant queen she claimed to be. Had it just been Floria and Daveigh who had returned there would have been no reason for formality but with this other lioness there as well it was only fitting she showed her rank. She gave nods of respect to both lionesses just like they were both new comers. Adia was going to wait for Floria to speak first before she made to speak. It wasn't something she usually did but with Floria she was making an exception.