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Many moons had passed since Fafnir fled the horror of Alcmene's death but not a single night passed that he did not look up and remember The Great Lion or the love of his life. The only solace he had in the world was his son and steadfast companion, the ambitious, grumpy cub that had grown in ways only a great tragedy could manage. Once they had thought he would be their problem child and now he saw more and more of Alcmene's steady heart in him. It was the last piece of her he held onto, though he wished dearly that his son would find his own happiness in the world and quit worrying about him quite so much.

"What are you thinking?"

Fafnir pulled his eyes away from the heavy moon that hung in the sky, settling the pale gaze back on his ever-aware son. What a blessing and a curse he was. The steely male managed a small smile.

"I was thinking that you remind me too much of your mother sometimes."

The snappy reply earned him a roll of the eyes but even Ladon could not hide that smile at the corners of his maw. Fafnir pushed himself up and crossed the few paces to the small stream they had camped beside for the time being, having already filled their guts with an easy catch. Drinking was a good way to dissuade the conversation from going any further, too.

Consumed with his thoughts and the cool water on his tongue, Fafnir didn't notice the pale lioness until she was upon him with his name dripping quietly from her jowls. Rigidness took his body along the spine, freezing him in place, though he caught his first glimpse of her as an unsteady reflection in the stream.

"Aapep?"

The name was a whisper on his breath as he jerked his head up at last, water dripping from the dark, steely fur around his mouth. There was confusion in his gaze as he took in the sight of her, slowly coming to the realization that he was not his daughter. This lioness was paler, lacking the hints of his own fur colors in the markings he knew so well along her face and spine. Even still, if she wasn't Aapep, there was no doubt she was...

"Who are you?" It was Ladon that spoke for him, calling out with a kinder tone than he would have reserved for any other rogue that happened upon them in the middle of the night. As his son came to stand at his shoulder, he could see the same peculiar, confused expression on his face. Ladon knew Aapep as well as he did, perhaps better, having been part of the same litter. They had been together until Ladon left to follow him out into the wilds.

Fafnir seemed stilled to silence, wearing his heavy heart on his face, open and broken as it had ever been. This lioness was his bloodline, of that he had no doubts, and though he had always wondered what his children were doing in the pride he had left behind, how they were fairing, it was an utterly different thing to come face to face with the legacy he had abandoned.

"Uruloki," Fafnir repeated softly, filling the word with an impossible amount of affection and longing for only three little syllables. It had been a long, long time since he had seen his other half - a long time since he had seen any of his bloodline apart from Ladon himself. That being said, Kimondo was the first of his grandchildren that he had ever laid eyes upon.

"You look very much like her, dear," he said gently around a sad but wistful smile, "I am overjoyed to see your beautiful face. I have worried that our family.."

He frowned and shook his head, finding at once that he was unable to finish his sentence. It was the sadness over losing Alcmene but, too, a guilt that worse had happened since then and that he had been as helpless to stop it as he had been that first tragedy. He sat and Ladon stepped forward, trying his best not to show all the worry he felt over his father. He could be strong where the old blue dragon could not.

"How do we fair, Kimondo? Is everyone else well?" Ladon had stayed behind scarce months before setting out to locate Fafnir, refusing to let both his father and mother perish at once. "It has been a very, very long time since we have heard any news."

The two males listened to her words with rapt attention, though they both seemed to be processing it with an altogether different attitude. Fafnir seemed heavy with guilt, even now, though his eyes shone bright with something akin to pride. His family was still growing, still strong, and that was all that he could have hoped for them after everything. Ladon, on the other paw, seemed to be filled with a sort of wistful longing - in his eyes it was easy to see that he still, after all this time, hoped that he could go home.

"Nothing can make you feel like an outsider quite so much as knowing that you have an entire family you have never met," Fafnir began, taking the floor back from his son. The laugh that escaped him was sad but honest and he shook his great white mane as he let it unfurl into the night. It felt good to laugh. It felt good to see her, the tiny piece of him he had never known. What were the others like, he wondered? At least all of his sons were home and safe, save for Ladon.

He turned that gaze on his figurative black sheep, then looked back upon his proud granddaughter, the one who was traveling with the Queen. There was a question on his tongue that he wanted to ask but seemed at once unable to. It hovered there for a moment until he swallowed it down and Ladon, ever perceptive as he was, chose to begin again.

"We have heard of the Tianxia. We have.. been out here a very long time." He sat now, too, at his father's side. How long after Alcmene's death had this pale lioness been born, he wondered? How much did she know of his father's heartache and the exile he had forced upon himself? It was a wonder how quickly things could change - maybe that traitorous fool had managed to bury his wrong doings by now. He wanted to ask but knew, unfortunately, that his father might not have been able to bear to hear it. "I suppose that means that things have settled then? We," a pause and a frown, "you are at peace again?"

The two males listened to her story with rapt attention, again with differing reactions. As Kimondo suggested that somewhat awful had happened yet again during Khathelela's reign, Fafnir's face fell heavy and every trace of his laugh retracted. Ladon, though, tensed in a way that suggested he was not quite so beat down as his father - he was angry, for many reasons, not least of all his own choice to seek out Fafnir instead of remaining behind.

"I am sorry," the brown male said at last, "perhaps if I had stayed behind.."

The words trailed off before he could finish his hopes and ifs, knowing deep down that there was no way of saying what might have happened if he had been present, only that he knew he had been a loyal, strong male. Capable. For the first time in a long time, a part of him resented his father's choice to abandon the family but it didn't change the connection he shared with the older male. They were a strong blood connection, his choice had been made the day Fafnir set paw in rogue lands.

"The pride seemed so different when we were growing up," Fafnir spoke at last, breaking the silence that followed Ladon's regret, "if only Alcmene and I had known that it would not last. It is hard to recognize the best time of your life until after something has happened to throw it into contrast. My heart was a great Queen but perhaps.. too gentle."

But who could have known? In his heart of hearts, he knew she was the Queen the pride had deserved. The Great Lion worked in mysterious ways.

"It is good of the monarch now to see the need for peace, I agree," it would have been what Alcmene wanted, he knew. For all that he had been a lord's son with no hope at being aught but a hunter, he had learned a great deal from his great love. "Who is it, now? How have they fared since.. Shangyue?"

If Fafnir had noticed the sadness that swept across Kimondo's features, her next words quickly made him forget.

She chose me.

Both males wore stunned silence like a shroud, staring at her as if she were a ghost haunting them, not the sweet relative that seemed so concerned with their existence. It was Fafnir that recovered first, pushing himself back up to his feet politely and dipping his head so his shaggy, somewhat ragged mane swayed with the motion.

"You do an old lion proud, my Queen." Beside him, Ladon offered his own bow, but kept his maw tight as his eyes settled on the older male. The blue dragon brought his head back up and showed her a smile that was, truly, enamored of her. "Alcmene would be so happy to know that her blood rules the Mwezi'Johari again, I know that."

Ladon, afforded the grace of being out of his father's eye line from where he now stood a little back of his shoulder, seemed perplexed. Honored, certainly, to be in the presence of the queen but his attention was all reserved for Fafnir who seemed, for the first time in more moons than he could even count, at peace with himself. It could only have been Kimondo's presence, he knew, though if it were her status or her blood he wasn't quite sure.

"My father is right," he chimed at last, offering her a smile he hoped was not dampened by his curiosity, "the Shaman was very wise, though I guess that goes without saying, hm?" Beside him, his father chuckled at the silly joke, but it was enough to brighten Ladon's serious demeanor.

It was hard for Ladon to contain his anxiousness as Kimondo extended her invitation to them and while he worked at schooling his widened eyes back to neutral and forcing the rigidity out of his stance, his father was already eyeing him askance. He was excited by the prospect, even the old male could see that.

For a long moment, the blue dragon said nothing, only let his gaze shift from Ladon to the white queen and then up, as always, to the Moon that hung heavy overhead. He wished it had the answers for him. Would rejoining this part of the pride open an old wound? Would it heal it at last?

"I suppose a night could not hurt," he said gently, pulling his gaze away from the dappled face of the white orb. There was a small smile on his mug, though it was laced with that same sad tint that always seemed to linger just beyond his eyes. Truth was, seeing his old pride might hurt more than he had reckoned but Ladon had never deserved the exile he had imposed upon himself. He was a good son, better than Fafnir often thought he deserved.

Ladon was more enthusiastic, shifting his weight between his paws at the mere thought of being back among his kinsmen.

"We really do appreciate the invitation, Kimondo, truly. It has been such a long time."

Ladon, for one, seemed elated. He knew the tone in his father's voice so clearly said just a small visit but he was already planning three steps ahead and hoping against hope that he could convince the old man to go home. The past was long since quiet and he could not keep up in the rogue lands like this, not for much longer.

Fafnir simply smiled in the wake of both their surprise, feeling at once guilty for keeping Ladon from his family (even if he'd spent the better part of the first year telling him to go home) and glad to see the younger male so excited over something for once.

"Alright then, let us stop dallying." The blue lion nodded his head at the pale Queen and Ladon, beside him, stepped anxiously sidelong as he waited for them to get moving. "Lead us to them."