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Fjä had always been so very attractive, in a way that Shallan envied and yet did not envy, considering the sort of attention it brought her, she had never had to develop any actual skills. Sometimes Shallan found her uselessness annoying, but most of the time she was willing to teach her if she knew how to do a thing, or find someone else to teach her if she didn't. Fjä was so pleasant and loving, it was difficult to dislike her, although when they first met Shallan had been inclined to despise the pretty thrall. Now things were different. Although she had never been particularly close to Fjä's husband, Shallan still grieved for her friend when the reaver died. Fjä had been so dependent on her husband, and she had never really made that many friends as a thrall, besides Shallan, and so now that she was alone Shallan felt particularly obligated to look after her, even though Fjä was actually the older of the pair. It helped, though, that Shallan genuinely enjoyed spending time with Fjä. She was one of the only people in the pride with whom Shallan felt comfortable discussing girly things.

Fjä had always admired Shallan. At least, once she got to know her. Before that, she had thought the younger lioness was a headstrong idiot who went about everything exactly the wrong way. And while it was true that Fjä tended to get her way more of the time than Shallan did when it came to convincing others to do things, Shallan was still the more capable of the pair when it came to doing things for herself. She was trying to help Fjä become more self-reliant, which Fjä appreciated, but often she looked at the younger lioness and despaired of ever being even a tiny bit as self-sufficient as Shallan was. In these difficult days following Jensen's death, Fjä saw Shallan's friendship as an unlooked-for boon. It had been something she appreciated as a thrall, when most people paid her little heed because she was basically Jensen's bed warmer, but she actually found that as a freeborn she appreciated it even more because Shallan was so good at being a freeborn, it made it easier for Fjä to imitate her and try to behave more like her even when she wasn't actually around.

Originally Shallan had planned to spend today teaching Fjä the basics of hunting, but on the way to Fjä's den it had occurred to her that this was not a skill Fjä actually needed, and probably was not even a skill she ought to cultivate, considering she had begun her life in the Stormborn as a thrall, and hunting for food was typically a thrall's job, and there was no reason to remind anyone in the pride that Fjä had been a thrall, as she no doubt received more than enough flack about that as it was, given the nature of her thralldom. Ordinarily this change in her plans wouldn't be any sort of problem. Shallan was good at improvisation. The difficulty was that Fjä was not the sort of lioness with whom Shallan could do most of the things she enjoyed doing. Girly things and talking about men, yes, that was a thing they could do together, and Shallan liked that well enough, but right now she didn't want to think about men. She was angry at Freyr, and because of him men in general. She also didn't think that Fjä would really want to talk about anything related to men, considering how recently Jensen had died. So Shallan arrived at Fjä's den with no idea of what they would do.

One of the things ways in which Fjä had been able to exercise some influence over Shallan was by impressing upon her the importance of always arriving on time. When they had first met Shallan had no particular care for others' convenience, and to an extent she still did not, but at least when she was interacting with Fjä she made an obvious effort to be where she said she was going to be at the time she had said she would be there. Just this once, though, Fjä wished that Shallan might revert to her old ways and be late, because Fjä did not particularly want to learn to hunt today. She had woken up feeling melancholic and the thought of having to be alert and active filled her with a lethargic form of dread. She was actually giving serious consideration to feigning illness when Shallan arrived, even though doing so would mean that Shallan would probably send a healer to her, and Fjä didn't want that. She had no real means of paying a healer for their services, and since she wasn't really ill that would be wasteful. Still, she didn't want to learn to hunt today.

As she approached Fjä's den Shallan wondered if she ought to invite the older lioness to move in with her when she moved out of her family's den. It wasn't that Fjä was doing a poor job of maintaining her den, but Shallan knew that there was growing resentment toward Fjä for continuing to occupy a reaver's den when she, herself was not a reaver and was barely a freeborn, by the standards of many in the pride. She decided it would probably not be appropriate to bring the matter up now, but it would be good to do so soon, before she started looking for a new place to live, or moved into the maidens' hall. Or maybe today would be a good day for that. She could say she was considering moving out, which was true, and ask for Fjä's opinion on where she ought to live once she had done so. That would mean she wouldn't have to teach Fjä to hunt unless Fjä specifically asked, which she would probably not do, and it gave them something to do instead. One of the problems with having Fjä as a friend was that it almost always fell to Shallan to come up with things to do. Not that Shallan particularly minded, but today she was feeling too irritated with Freyr to be creative about anything that didn't involve making his life miserable.

When Shallan arrived Fjä had decided that she would simply say she did not feel like hunting today. Probably Shallan would give her one of those looks that Fjä hate which said she was only hurting herself, but she wouldn't fight about it. Probably. It was also possible that Shallan would insist it was important, but then Fjä would just insist back that she would rather not. It did not come naturally to Fjä to disagree like that, particularly not with people she liked, like Shallan, but she needed to practice that, too. Freeborns said no when they didn't feel like doing things. They made thralls do those things they didn't feel like doing instead. Fjä could sort of attest to that, although Jensen had rarely asked her to perform many of the duties that thralls were left to do. He mostly liked her to be around him and be available to him when he sought physical release. The rest of the time he regarded her fondly, even tenderly. She still found it difficult to believe sometimes that he had cared enough for her to look to her well-being after his death by freeing her.

The first thing Shallan did upon arriving at Fjä's den was to give her a quick and hopefully surreptitious once-over to make sure the older lioness was taking care of herself. Never in all of their acquaintance had Shallan seen Fjä look anything less than lovely, but since Jensen fell ill and subsequently died it had seemed to Shallan that Fjä was taking less care with her appearance and was definitely eating less. Both behaviors were understandable, seen in light of Jensen's death, if Fjä was mourning, but if there were other motivations, more serious ones, Shallan was concerned. Fortunately, Fjä looked to be in tolerably good health, for a lioness in mourning. She was warm in greeting Shallan and inviting her inside. At the same time she suggested that perhaps they could delay the hunting lesson for another day, as she did not presently feel much inclined to hunt. Shallan blinked in surprise at that, but agreed, since she had planned to say much the same thing. Instead she brought up her idea of looking at places for her to live once she moved out of her parents' den, which she was hoping to do in the near future.

If Fjä was surprised by Shallan's quick acquiescence, she gave little sign of it. She was accustomed to going along with others' wishes, and while she was relieved that Shallan was not going to make her defend her position, she was adept at adjusting to unexpected scenarios. The fact that this particular unexpected scenario happened to coincide with her wishes was just a lovely surprise. She was a little bit surprised by Shallan's proposed alternative activity, but when she thought about it, it was something she was definitely better suited for than hunting, and she probably would have some insight to offer when it came to places to live. Not that she had ever chosen her own place to live, but she had more or less had free run of her home in the Stormborn, as long as Jensen did not specifically object to something. She was willing to come along as a consultant of sorts. Maybe she could even find a place for herself. It wasn't easy to live in this den without Jensen or someone living with her.

The pair set off, first to Shallan's home so that she could show Fjä the things she liked about her parents' den. Their next stop was the maidens' hall, which was where she was most likely to end up if she did not find someone else to live with. Freeborn lionesses living on their own tended to get a certain reputation, and Shallan had been raised to be careful in guarding hers. The fact that she was friends with Fjä, whose reputation was not worth mentioning except as a bad example, was a source of amusement to many. And a bit of a headache to her parents, but they had learned that it was usually best to let Shallan do as she wished, because she was bound to do it with or without their permission, and their ability to punish her was unequal to her ability to ignore their punishments. At any rate, it would be better for her to have someone to live with, and she really thought she would like living with Fjä. It would be easy, and comfortable, and probably Fjä would take care of all the boring domestic things that Shallan had no interest in, leaving Shallan free to pursue her own interests. In all respects it would be ideal, if she could just talk Fjä into it.

About halfway through the day the day Fjä had managed to fall completely in love with one den in particular, but it was too large for her to occupy on her own. Well, she probably could, but justifying it would be difficult. Probably she ought to just move into the maidens' hall, as Shallan was considering, although she found the idea about as appealing as Shallan seemed to. Nevertheless, she couldn't help but be a little horrified when Shallan said she was considering the same den Fjä herself had fallen for. It was petty, perhaps, but she didn't really want to think of anyone else living there, now that she'd seen it. Not even her good friend, who would probably give her free rein to decorate it as she saw fit, if Fjä could bring herself to ask. It turned out to be unnecessary though, because at the end of the day Shallan suggested that perhaps she and Fjä ought to move in together. Fjä would never have considered the possibility, but she knew at once that it was a great idea and she agreed immediately. When she returned home it was with a bounce in her step and a swish in her tail that had been absent for a while because for the first time in ages, she had plans for her future.