Aislin gave a huff as she weaved her way between rocks. She knew that a couple of her cubs had chosen to trail behind her after she'd chosen to leave, but she wasn't too concerned about slowing down to let them catch up. It was about time that they trek out on their own, as she had when she was young, and she felt no desire to hold their paws while they did so. On that same vein, she saw no reason to chase them off either. What they did with their lives was their own.
The majority of them had gone on their own path. She was pretty sure they had been muttering some nonsense about finding Roku, but whatever. It was no longer her problem. She had done her duty of raising them, and while they were a crazy bunch, she was sure that they would survive. (honestly, she pitied whoever came across them)
Pausing, the lioness sniffed at the wind for a moment, trying to see if she could find something to eat. She had left the relative safety of the Bahari sands, though that safety was questionable now. There was talk of shadows and death on their shores, which had led her to believe that yes, it was time to move on and it may be a good idea to steer clear for the time being. War and blood were never high on her priority list.
There was fog over the area that she found herself. Her fur bristled uncertainly at the sight (or rather, the lack of) and her tail twitched at every sound echoing towards her. Why had she ventured in here, again?
.... Well, alright. Maybe she had been trying to lose what remained of her spawn. And while she didn't regret that, she was perhaps regretting her decision to lose them in the mist.
Renshu was completely at home, here within the pride of mists and crystals. No one to bother him, no one to question why he hid all the time, no one asking if he was really a mouse. (he was not, thank you very much!) And he could study to his heart's content.
Which was what he was doing at the current moment. The lion was standing in front of a jutting rock that towered over his form like an giraffe, but his tail flicked excitedly at the barely-visible sight of a crystal lodged inside of it. Crystals meant a lot to his pride, so he would need to be careful about extracting it, but he was sure that they would enjoy the addition to their collections. And if he took a moment to study it before handing it over.... well, that was his business. He was a scribe anyway. Studying is what he did.
The cream-pelted feline leaned up against the rock-face, and began pawing around the crystal, trying to figure out the best way to remove it without harming it or the rock he'd found it in. It would be difficult, he could tell, but patience was his middle name! He began chipping at the edge of it with his claw, carefully scratching to only take off what was needed.
So into his excavation, he didn't notice the dark form walking closer to him until she started speaking.
"... What on earth are you doing?"
Now, Aislin had seen her fair share of strange things. Rogues could become a little... eccentric from living a life of solitude. So a part of her wasn't too surprised to see a curly lion scratching at a rock. She kept her distance too, feeling like he may not be entirely there in the head, and it was always best to make sure she wasn't too close to someone like that. She would have just veered around him entirely, but he might know where exactly they were.
Plus, he was the only interesting thing for miles.
Renshu let out a tiny, high-pitched squeak, sliding down from the rock and cowering with wide eyes at the lioness that had just appeared out of nowhere. She was unfamiliar too, which led him to believe that yeah, no, this wasn't someone from his pride. What was she doing here?! Rogues were normally turned away at the border!
Was she a spy? A murder?!
For a minute or two, neither of them moved beyond Renshu heavily breathing on the ground and Aislin staring at him with a flat expression on her face. Finally, the brown lion coiled himself back up and then slowly stretched himself up into a sitting position. His mouth opened and close a few times, before he managed to stutter out a response.
"I-I was, I m-mean, you were, ho-how did you, where-"
Aislin cut him off at that point. "Wow," she snorted, "Alright, whatever. I don't think I actually want to know." This was just ridiculous. She'd never met such a ruffled lion before. Had she really startled him that badly? He must be incredibly unobservant, head up in the clouds like a bird.
Rolling her eyes, the black lioness sat back on her haunches, "I just want to know where we are."
Renshu let out a gulp, ears pulled back into his mane as his eyes dropped down to his paws. "Uh... You're in the Mirilli'tavari." He swallowed here, unable to help himself from asking, "H-how did you get so far in here?!" He glanced around. Perhaps she was a visitor and one of the guards was here with her? It would be something they would do, tricking him like this.
The Mirilli-what? Wait.... she groaned aloud. Crap, had she wandered into a pride's lands? That was the last thing she wanted to do!
A scowl grew on her face, and she ignored the flinch it induced from the other lion. She was probably lucky a patrol hadn't caught her, although she sort of wished they had. They would have been able to steer her away.
Well, too late now. She would just have to coax an answer out of this flighty lion.
"I didn't mean to," she snarled back, before taking a deep breathe to calm herself, "I apologize." Aislin was speaking slowly now, "What direction do I go in to leave?"
Apparently he was still tongue-tied, but he did manage to point to Aislin's left and stutter out some nonsense about it being the fastest way out. That was good enough for her. Scoffing, the lioness turned on her paws, muttered a short thank you, and stalked away. The sooner she could get away from here, the better. She would need to start being more careful. The last thing she wanted was to run into a more aggressive lion or lioness. At least this one was just weird.
Renshu watched as she left, even a few more seconds beyond that, before he let out a whine as the breathe he was holding was let go. He practically melted against the rock with questions spinning through his head endlessly. He would probably never know how she had wandered so far in, but clearly she hadn't wanted to. He would likely need to bring this up with his pridemates. They couldn't allow a random stranger to come skulking in like that.
Of course, that would mean talking to someone....
.... Maybe he would keep this to himself for now. This was probably a one-off anyway.
Shaking his head, he cast another unsure glance in her direction before turning back to his project. What were the chances of something unusual happening again? Not very high, he was sure. So it was best to move on.
