[JRP]When shall we three meet again( Tam, Nuala, Pur'J)FIN

[Lorne_Sionn]

Tam Linn smirked down at the rose colored leopardness who was singing for him. He'd always enjoyed Nuala's voice when she was a cub, but now that she was fully grown, it was lovely. As was she. The large white lion narrowed his eyes at the green eyed imp, and gave a slow, predatory smile. Yes, she had grown beautifully. He would enjoy the months to come as he taught her so much more then singing and dancing, so very much more...

Nuala gave Tam Linn a coy look, her eyes sparkling with anticipation as she caught his steely gaze focusing on her. She hid the triumphant smile within the words of her song, finally he was looking at her the way a male in his prime should be! It had taken her to many moons to count to have him see her other then a cub he taught to sing and dance.

The two had come to the fresh water spring Tam Lin had claimed as his own, along the very edge of their forest. The whole of the ground was bathed in dappled sunlight, and all around them wild roses teased the eye with riots of color, and their lingering sweet scent.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Pur'Jed was still torn between feeling horrendously guilty and terrifically relieved. She was finally within sight of the mountain on which her pride made its home. Unconsciously she quickened her pace as she drew near the forest which sprawled along the lower portions of the mountain and was home to the groundlings. She was so eager to see her family and friends again, it was like a physical ache.

Or maybe the physical ache she felt was her remorse at leaving her three cubs alone and asleep, just abandoning them before they could wake up and follow. She had used every ounce of stealth and sneaking ability she had gleaned or learned in her life to make herself difficult to track. Her son, Ru, was already showing signs of being a talented hunter, and she didn't want him to pick up her trail.

She didn't want any of them to pick up her trail. No one in the Suka'Fumo was supposed to know that they existed except her parents and her sister Gali. As far as everyone else was concerned, she had been on an extended trip to visit her sister Nyota, who had taken an unsuitable mate and left the pride to raise a passel of non-nobly colored offspring. At least Pur's cubs had some purple on their pelts.

She was working on getting her facts in order when she took her first steps into the forest which marked the borders of the Suka'Fumo lands. Nearby she heard the soft burble of a spring and headed in that direction, looking to taste proper water for the first time in a season.  

[Lorne_Sionn]

Tam Linn's ears flicked forward at the soft sound of paw steps entering the forest, and heading toward his spring. He pushed himself up onto his feet, and threw a warning look to Nuala.

The young Groundling caught her mentor's look and instantly stopped her song. Gathering her legs under her, she lept into one of the trees above them and concealed herself in its thick cover of leaves.

Once Tam Linn was sure that Nuala was safely hidden in the boughs, he slipped back among the thick white roses, waiting to see who it was that dared enter this part of the forest, his domain.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Pur would never be much of a huntress. She had spent a great deal of time hunting while living outside of the pride, but mostly what she had learned from the experience was that she wasn't very good at it. She was not observant or quick on her feet, and it was damnably difficult to be limber while pregnant or nursing. Some of her old flexibility had returned to her after the cubs got a little older, but she still felt slow and out of shape. But in any event, she was still one of those lions who tended to hear what she wanted to hear, see what she wanted to see, and exclude anything unpleasant or unexpected.

Thus she hadn't heard Nuala's song or her escape into the trees above. She was intent on quenching her thirst and only after she had reached the spring and taken a few refreshing laps of water did she become truly aware of her surroundings. What she saw then took her by surprise. Roses were rare flowers in her experience, and she'd had no idea that they grew thick and healthy in this part of the pride. She wondered if anyone knew that.

An appreciative smile touched her mouth at the unexpected welcome home her pride was giving her. It was as if the lands themselves were pleased by her return. She stepped toward the white blossoms and sniffed delicately, charmed by their presence to the point of excluding her other surroundings once again. After all, she was within Suka'Fumo territory, which had to be safer than the rogue lands, no matter what.  

[Lorne_Sionn]

Tam Lin watched the female with hooded eyes, his gaze sweeping her from nose to tail. He supposed she was not hard on the eyes, though she was a little on the unobservant side. He saw that she was the favored color of the Pride his people had allied with, and that made him rise an eyebrow. Odd to see one of them this far from acceptable borderline that marked the Suko'fuma territory and that of the Groundling's forest.

When she came closer to his roses, and smelled one delicately, he stepped forward, his rich, midnight voice flowing over her in a husky whisper, " Lady, why do you disturb my roses?"

Above, well hidden in the boughs of the tree, Nuala's jewel bright eyes narrowed at the female, the ends of her lips turning upward in a silent snarl. How dare that light pawed Jezebel come traipsing into their wood, into Tam Lin's spring and ruin her BEST laid plan to finally get the male to see her as a full grown female! Uggghhh, she was so frustrated she could just spit claws. Grumbling she kneaded the wood of the branch in front of her with her paws, counting to ten very slowly...several times....

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Pur was more startled than she let on, but she had lots of practice at concealing things like surprise. A well-bred lioness was never taken by surprise, no matter what. Even when something unexpected occurred, she was expected to be able to deal with it gracefully and with poise. She had managed to deal with being unexpectedly pregnant that way, and doubted very much that it would prove at all challenging to deal with some out-of-sorts gardener.

"I was smelling them, not disturbing them," she replied evenly. "I assume since you call them yours, they don't grow here naturally?"

Now that she had been made aware once more of her surroundings, a few of her newer habits of observation kicked in and a prickling in her dewclaws told her that she was being observed. Well, obviously, if someone was speaking to her, but she could see him. Someone else was watching her. She didn't like that.

"Also, I would appreciate it if your companion would stop skulking. It's rude."

She met the mostly white lion's purple gaze without difficulty. In fact, she gave him one of her more imperious stares. His color may have granted him nobility, but if he was down here he was probably one of those renegades who chose to live as a groundling. Her subordinate, in that case.  

[Lorne_Sionn]

Tam chuckled, an amused expression playing across his muzzle as he stepped clear from the roses. It reflected in his violet eyes, as if there was something truly humorous about the lioness and her imperial nature. He let his gaze sweep over her, weighing her, judging her, and dismissing her all in one long look.

" I have no control over my companion, she may choose to come down or not. We are not like you Lady...." the way he said lady almost made it insulting, almost, " the color of my coat does not lend to my words holy writ."

He moved toward the fountain with a predatory grace, despite his rather large build, each movement flowing into another, with nothing wasted. It was elegant, and measured, a tightly controlled violence which no one held the leash to. " As to the roses, they have always been here. Since I was a cub and Blodeuwedd found me here. No one owns them, though they seem to respond to my touch and have flourished since I have tended them. They belong to themselves."

Tam sat at the water's edge, his tail curling around his paws, violet eyes looking at the newcomer without shame or modesty.

Above them Nuala laughed, the sound like chimes or bird song. She so enjoyed the lions from the other side of the forest, so stuffy and proper. It made her just want to run up behind them and tweek their tails to see them make a funny face, anything to get them to lighten up.

Being as ever changing as the wind, the leopardess decided that the lioness down below was not a threat to her and her stake on Tam, but rather something to play with. So with an easy grace, she flowed down the tree, her green eyes sparkling with mischief, " I'll come down, I wouldn't want her to get her fur all rumpled, just think how long it must have taken her to get every hair in place!"

The leopardess gave the lioness her best harmless smile, and went to sit opposite Tam across the pool. Laying down she crossed her front legs demurely, after all she may have been a Groundling, but she did have manners, when she wanted them.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

"My words are hardly holy write," Pur replied a little waspishly. She was out of practice when it came to being teased, and not just because she had been living in the rogue lands with naught but cubs for company.

In truth, Pur had changed, though she was not yet aware of the difference. Before living independently she would have been far more rattled by Tam's teasing. She would have been so distracted by the fact that he was a lion who could live as a noble but chose to do otherwise that his manner would have completely disarmed her, and not in a charming way. She would have viewed him with deep suspicion and haughty condescension.

At this point she was still uninterested in why he had chosen not to live among the pride's nobility and assumed it was some sort of mental failing, but she was not unsettled by the arrogance of his judgmental gaze. She met it unflinchingly and then looked through him, as her upbringing had trained her to do in situations where she felt someone was failing to show her the respect that was her due.

Though credit did have to be given where it was due. It just didn't have to be given in a nice way. Two could play at that game, after all, and if he chose to be a groundling, he was fair game for her scorn. Laughter from above distracted her from delivering any sort of stinging remark about his affinity for the dirt and caused her instead to turn her head toward the green-eyed leopardess who seemed to pour herself from the tree. Pur envied her grace.

"I'm so glad you could join us. It's so much pleasanter to be able to see people when speaking to them." Her smile might have passed for sincere to someone who didn't know her.  

[Lorne_Sionn]

Tam Linn took in her look and chuckled with amusement. Yes, there it was, the haughty look all of her kind could effect so well. He had wondered for a moment if somehow she'd managed to escape the stamp of the Pride who claimed the Groundlings as part of them. It would have been disappointing if she had, disappointing but refreshing. Her caustic remark to Nuala made him raise an eyebrow, that was interesting. His lovely companion rarely suffered insults and he wondered how it would play out. He didn't have to wonder for very long.

Nuala giggled and turned to look at Tam, " Oh look Tam, she has manners. She even called me a people...though, I thought it was impolite to lie to someone." The leopardess effected a reproaching look and tisked at the lioness in front of them, " Not nice to lie. Honesty is much better. Like this, I am not glad you joined us, because you see, right before you showed up and slobbered in our pool and got snot on the roses I was going to seduce Tam," Nuala gave her a winning smile, " BUT since you did...I guess I can seduce you too!"

She looked at the white lion over her shoulder, " Wouldn't that be fun Tam! We could play with her...she could be our new PET!"

Tam was trying very hard not to break into a fit of laughter and instead merely gave his once student a steady stare.

Nuala blew air out her teeth and pouted artfully, " Oh poo, you're not fun at all! Either of you. Dumb lions."  

[Princess_Feylin]

"Enough of this," Pur said in much the same tone one would take when speaking to herself, perhaps chiding herself for being so much more tolerant of these two groundlings than she had any cause to be. It was true she had craved company in her self-imposed exile, but this odd pair was not true company. They were not of her ilk, and they were not worth her time. She would not be the butt of whatever ridiculous joke they thought they were playing.

"Since you do not care for untruths, even when they make a person more tolerable company, I will tell you that it has not been a pleasure to meet either of you," she said without changing her expression.

Her expression did alter when she took in Nuala's announcement that she had been about to seduce Tam. At that point she gave both the lion and the leopardess carefully appraising looks and said, in the spirit of honesty of course, "He could do better."

And then, before either of them could get any ideas that she was referring to herself, she added, "Though not by much. Anon."

At that point she began walking away, beginning the trek up the mountain to her proper home. Finally and at last.  

[Lorne_Sionn]

Tam Linn only raised his other eyebrow at the females bickering back and forth. How rather droll of them both to break into meaningless insults. The white lion refrained from shaking his head, he preferred how males dealt with things at times, so much easier to knock each other senseless to prove who was the more dominate rather than using barbed tongues.

" Nuala, that was an unkind way to treat out guest." Tam rumbled at her as he watched the retreating back of the lioness, " Though she was not much of a guest."

The pastel leopardess stuck her tongue out while waving a paw, " Pish, she wasn't going to be nice any way. She's one of those who thinks just because they have a certain color on their arses they are gods gift to feline kind."

Bringing her paw up to begin to groom, she looked at her mentor sideways, " Besides, we have much more pleasant things to attend to..do better my left paw..." she muttered as she stood and began to walk back toward the roses. Looking over her shoulder she purred at him, " Coming?"

Tam chuckled, and rose to his paws, " Of course."