Ilayda - Redbud-Tree
&
Hillaire Lavigne - Das Tor

Word Count: 1,988 [According to Google Docs]


It was always nice when their paws took them near the ocean. Hillaire always saw a spark of recognition in Ekundayo's eyes at the sight and smell of ocean water, never enough to bring back her old memories, but enough that she'd find a secure place and spend the day singing of the ocean and rains and other such beach things to her daughters. And while she did that, he found himself ranging further away, down the coastline to hunt for them all. He didn't mind it, since Ekun normally helped him, or one of her daughters. But...

He couldn't bring himself to interrupt the rare days by the ocean for her. She looked...happy. Whole, even without her long-lost memories.

He still wished he could help her find them…


It wasn't uncommon for Ilayda's need for herbs to take her to places on the mainland, far from her home and her sisters. Her life was a quiet one, rarely spent in the company of others. Instead, she spent it with her plants. At one time she had held ambition for a higher ranking, but of late she had been dealing with, instead, a growing level of dissatisfaction with her life. She covered this well with her work, choosing to roam farther afield in search of rare herbs. And while she did this, she contemplated things. Perhaps she needed a dalliance with a male - providing cubs for the pride might lift this growing malaise that no herb seemed to aid. If nothing else, it would be another way to contribute to her pride and aid her sisters.


Hillaire followed the path of eaten plants that tended to signal a herd in the area, worn scents of prey on the ground. He paused when he caught another scent, however. Frowning, Hillaire raised his head to better sniff the air, then smiled. Oh! Another lion! A female at that. He let his nose lead him until he caught sight of the owner of the scent...and paused in his tracks.

Oh. She was very pretty. VERY pretty. Like seafoam on the waves as they came into the shore. He found his voice quickly enough, a d'Angeline through and through.

"Good day, mademoiselle!"


Well, she had been considering an encounter with a male, but actually running into one like this was entirely unexpected. That said, who was she to turn aside a possible gift of fate, a chance to bestow more sisters upon her pride. "Hello," she greeted, stepping closer to the stranger, inspecting him slowly. He might sire strong cubs, yes. But was he worth such an investment? Only a little more time would tell. "What brings you to the ocean's shore, stranger?"


The female's scent close up was odd and intriguing. Sea water and plant life mixed in with her own unique scent. It was...nice, in all honesty. Her question was met with a chuckle. "Just wandering paws, that is all. I was thinking of doing some hunting for a friend of mine, since she's enjoying the shoreline further down." He nodded in the direction Ekun and the girls had been left. "We like when we end up by the sea. She feels at home here, and I don't think anything quite compares to the moonlit ocean and sands."

It was a shame he and Ekun had no spark of romance between them. A moonlit walk along a beach sounded like an absolutely perfect evening activity for one and their paramour.


He certainly had an attractive scent, at least, Ilayda decided as she checked the male over again - for posterity's sake, certainly not because he was somewhat striking in appearance... for a male. His scent, too, had an air of refinement about it, a far cry from the last male she had attempted to woo for the sake of cubs. That male had smelled of blood, and while handsome enough had left her with lingering unease and a sense of uncertainty given that it appeared her visions had lied to her. But perhaps, she thought idly, turning her gaze out to the sea, perhaps she had merely deciphered it wrong, and her visions had referred not to the pale lion who had smelled so strongly of blood, but rather to this one, instead.

"Hunting for a friend?" A female friend? How peculiar, in a rather pleasant way. "Is she unwell, that she cannot hunt for herself? Or do you do so merely to save her the trouble?"


"Merely to save her the trouble." He chuckled. "She doesn't often find the sort of peace the ocean offers her. So I want her to be able to make the most of it before our paws lead us elsewhere again." It was nice, though, that the female had asked. Not many would inquire, just simply think his friend was incapable of hunting for herself, or that he was trying to woo his friend.

Ugh.

Non-d'Angelines just did not understand most of the time.

"What of you? What brings you this way, mademoiselle?"


"That is very kind of you," Ilayda said, surprised and pleased by his answer. That was certainly a rare thing to find among rogues, and certainly a far cry from the little she knew of the nearby prides. "I'm certain she is most grateful." The seafoam-speckled lioness gave her thoughts to the ocean for a moment, then turned back to the stranger at last. "As for myself, I'm an herbalist, and I've come to search for rare plants that do not grow near my pride's homes. I hope I haven't interrupted your hunting?"


"An herbalist?" He perked. "I know a little of herbs. The place where I was born had many who worked with them for various purposes!" The marquists, the priests, the Servants of Naamah, the various physicians..."You haven't really interrupted it. Beauty is something that should be taken time for, be it the sea, or an intriguing lion or lioness."


"Do you?" Ilayda asked, pleasantly surprised - yet again - by this lion's response. A male who knew something of her profession? This was getting better and better... And then he complimented her, and the lioness squeaked. "A-ah... Surely you jest," she murmured, well aware that she was hardly the most attractive female among her sisters. "Or perhaps you speak of your friend, who waits for you near the shore?"


"I do. Enough to keep from eating the wrong thing, and basic first aid if I get myself sick or minorly injured." His relatives had made sure of THAT. "Ah, I jest not, mademoiselle!" He chuckled. "While Ekun is a very pretty girl, she and I have settled into a very comfortable friendship, nothing more." Their tryst, cub-resulting or not, was a one-time thing neither was interested in repeating.


That was... surprising. Ilayda knew that she was far from the most visually attractive of her sisters, so to be given attention such as this was somewhat odd. Still, flattery meant little, even as pretty as it was - especially coming from a male. Males had no place in her life, or the lives of any of her sisters. She knew that. He was a rather... nice fellow, though. Perhaps even attractive enough to spend an afternoon or two (or three) with. "As... as you say, then," she murmured quietly, and looked back out over the ocean. "Have you had many females in your life, then?"


"Quite a few! And each of them was beautiful in some manner. But..." He looked to the ocean as well, taking a deep breath. "You look like the waves when the sunlight hits them. That seems a rare beauty to me." He chuckled, smirking. "And I come from a place full of beauty." Or...it once had been. He mourned the loss of Terra d'Ange, but he didn't let it show. "What of you? Have you know beauty in your life, aside yourself?"


"Many of my sisters look similar," Ilayda said quietly, but was flattered despite herself. "Beauty is... important to you, then?" She asked, and looked back over her shoulder in the direction of the ocean, thinking over her answer before actually saying anything. "I suppose... My home is beautiful, and my Sisters look out for one another..." Though there was fondness in her tone, there was also a sort of melancholy that seeped into her voice as she spoke - though even the lioness herself didn't quite know why.


"Ah, but I suspect no two of you look exactly the same." There was amusement in his expression...and then he felt his heart go out to her. Oh...she sounded like all was not well at home. "Is there something missing in your life? You sound a bit...sad underneath that warmth."


"Perhaps not, but there are similarities enough," Ilayda murmured. Then she blinked and took a step back, surprise in her features as she registered that he was right - she was somewhat... unhappy. But how could she be, with her home being the ideal that it was? "I am... unsure," she admitted slowly. "We have every opportunity... I do not know what I could possibly be missing." And yet, there was a feeling of that sort. How odd....


OH. That was iiiiiiiit. Hillaire chuckled, shaking his head. "Have you had no hardships? No challenges? That may perhaps be it. It is...hard to appreciate what you have if you've no perspective. I've often observed that those who have everything given to them, everything open to them, find life very...unfull. Unfufilled."


"None," Ilayda answered, frowning softly. "I'm aware it is a blessed position to be in, but it is..." She paused, the words finally clicking in her head and she sighed. "Frightfully boring!"


Hillaire nodded. "There is likely your problem than! Perhaps...set a challenge to yourself? Something you know will be difficult, and perhaps out of reach, but that you want anyways."


"Such as what? There is nothing forbidden me," Ilayda said, and frowned. "Nothing, either forbidden or unattainable..." Well, save a permanent mating, but really what point did males serve? Nothing much, so far as she could see - for so her pride had taught her. This one was rather nice, though.


"Hmmm...." Hillaire looked thoughtful. "That does pose a challenge in and of itself..." Something of a challenge for her..."Have you witnessed others have challenges in the pride?"


"Not particularly," Ilayda said, but then she seemed to droop. "To be quite honest, I rarely get to spend much time with my sisters, unless we are working alongside one another. I am... something of an overachiever, I suppose, and haven't spent much time being social with the others in quite a long time..."


"Perhaps set it upon yourself to make a friend. Start small. If you don't spend much time with others? Than making a lifelong friend is...rather difficult. Because you'll often end up with friends who will abandon you at the first sign of distress, or you won't end up with friends at all." He gave her a warm look, one of encouragement.


"Perhaps," Ilayda said, and cast him a somewhat amused look. "Although... perhaps I already have that first step underway?"


Hillaire smiled and nodded. "Perhaps! I certainly wouldn't mind a friend who could patch me up!" There was a teasing tone to the last bit, a humor that said that was far from the only thing that mattered to him in a friend.


"Then," Ilayda purred, looking at the male with the interest of one who was already - whether Hillaire realized it or not - being rather rebellious just for this act of forming a friendship. "I believe we have an agreement?"


His blue head nodded, smile still present. "I believe we do." A possible new friend! He certainly wasn't going to turn it down. And he looked forward to getting to know her.