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The grey lion was walking steadily, though slowly, for the pride's border, muttering to himself. It had been many moons indeed since he'd last seen Tseva Reygehl (and oh such a joy that had been!) and he was trying to remember all she'd told him about how to reach the swamp where she lived with her pride. The black lioness had been on a journey of her own at the time, a name quest that all members of the Jini-msemi were to undergo when they reached adolescence. They had met and loved and made plans for him to go and visit her in her lands soon.

Well, one thing led to another and now it was close on a year later that Avahk had finally managed to find a good opportunity to take that trip. He felt sorely guilty for putting it off for so long, but at last he was finally going to keep his word to her!

The grey lion almost didn't notice the lioness standing nearby, he was so distracted by his memory exercies, but stopped abruptly when he did see her out of the corner of his eye. His startlement quickly changed to happiness and a huge grin broke out across Avahk's face.

"Aunt Aysu!" he called out eagerly, not noticing the fury of her pacing. "Aunt Aysu, it's wonderful, I can go visit Tseva!"

Indeed, the change in regime hadn't done much for or against the young Hunter thus far, and as such he was most interested in finally being able to see the lovely young lioness whom he'd met far too long ago. True, no one could be thrilled to see four royal lions murdered, but Avahk couldn't deny that Shangyue had had a right to his throne. It wasn't something that lions liked to hear from him, but the grey lion simply didn't care that much who was in charge of the pride.

Avahk gave a sheepish smile as Aysu so casually referenced the uphevals that had recently tried to tear the pride in two. He supposed he should be more politic since parts of his aunt's family had been so directly involved, but the younger lion couldn't imagine her being very strongly affected. She might be the best person to go to for gossip, but in the grey lion's experience, she'd never been so immediately involved in anything that happened in the pride.

"True enough, but it's not going to be that easy for me! You know I've never left the pride before, so I only have her directions to go by," the lion reminded his aunt. He did remember, when he bothered to think about it, that neither he nor his sisters had been born in the Mwezi'Johari. That was, after all, why they weren't all in the same class. But they'd been so young when their mother brought them here to their father, he didn't really remember anything of the outside world.

Or anything of his mother, but that was a different story altogether.

Avahk smiled back at his aunt. It meant a lot to him that she was in favor of his journey, or at least not trying to make him stay. And it wasn't as if he'd be gone forever! He fully intended to return. The Mwezi'Johari was his home, the way no other place could be. Not that he had a lot of experience with other places, but he just knew that this was where he belonged.

Then the lion's grin turned cheeky.

"You've never left, huh? Then I guess that you made the boys come to you, huh, Aunt? Since I know I have a couple sets of cousins on your side..." the young male gave a lavicious wink as he jested with the older lioness. It did seem appropriate and fitting though.

The younger lion stopped joking at Aysu's exclamation, though he didn't stop smiling. That was actually a fairly interesting piece of information. He hadn't realized - hadn't even considered - that other lions in the pride might have had liasons with members of Tseva's pride. It did feel sort of like a betrayal, that he wasn't the only one, but he consoled himself with the knowledge that they hadn't been involved with his beautiful black lioness.

He hoped that hadn't changed.

"Well, maybe I'll see him while I'm there," Avahk replied. "If so, should I give him a message for you?" the grey lion gave another wink as he made the offer. Not that he expected Aysu to ask him to carry anything...explicit. But it sure would be funny if she did! Also embarrassing and mortifying, but that was life.

Avahk rolled his shoulders in a shrug as Aysu turned down his offer. In truth he was relieved. He wouldn't put it past the older lioness to ask him to do something that would make him look rather foolish. Well, more so than he usually managed to do on his own.

The grey lion laughed aloud at his aunt's regret. "Don't worry about it! Tseva and I had planned for me to visit her, so she made sure to tell me how to get there. But it doesn't seem like you and Arufu-machwa did that, so it's no problem."

It would have been nice if the black female could have lent him some wisdom for the journey, but he wasn't going to ask for the impossible. The fact that she was here to see him off, though that was pure chance in and of itself, was enough of a blessing for his trip.

"Thanks Aunt Aysu! I'll see you soon!" Avahk responded before turning and loping off to the border and beyond. It was truly exhilirating to leave, but the best part was the knowledge that he'd return soon.

He missed his den already, but he was looking forward to seeing Tseva once more.