Serendipity was somewhere between exhausted and running on pure adrenaline when she walked back into Monoceros.
Her meeting with the Seven-- or at least just one of them --had ended in no one getting hurt or dying, at least, but it had ended in Serendipity having a whole lot of confusing feelings and the horrific realisation that people aren't always inclined to tell the truth. Surely, though, Azure wouldn't have lied to her? They were friends.
She was almost certain friends don't lie to friends.
And! She'd join the cave guardians sometime. That'd be fun, as long as they didn't try to murder her friend for stuff that her family did.
Siren scooted out towards her den where she left Azure, half-nervously. "Uhhh," she drawled on for a moment, coming over to the mouth of the shallow cave. "Azure? Are you in here?"
@Azure
Serendipity was-- very slightly --disappointed that Azure wasn't in the den. But maybe she was off peeing or something. It's not like she even had the chance to turn around to wander back into the main area when a clatter came from behind her.
She flinched, slightly, then turned. "Oh, hi," Siren said, blinking several times. "So, uh, I found them? I mean-- one of them, he was this big white thing with four legs. Sorta like you, actually-- but he had a softer face and no feathers. Uhh."
Where to start? She rattled her head, briefly, trying to pick her words carefully.
"So, uh, his name was Pride and he said that he wouldn't hurt you or anything, but that he wanted to talk to you instead. Uhh. He called you Cloudberry, I think? Or he thinks you're someone called Cloudberry but that you changed your name," she wasn't even going to start trying to unpack that one, incidentally. "He said that you'd have to talk to a plant-grower in, uhhh, Eridanus as well. But that he was close to that guy? Called... uh... something."
She crinkled her nose for a moment, quietly trying to conveniently forget about the kidnapping thing. "He, uh, said that Huckleberry and Yewberry were doing fine. And he said that, uhh-- Jayberry? Was still alive and violent and that she'd attacked Yewberry once already. Um."
This likely wasn't good news for her, at least.
She opened her mouth to continue speaking when she remembered Pride being nigh unable to keep up with the rate in which she ran her own mouth, and instead gave Azure a moment to respond and digest.
@Azure
"I'll help you!" Siren squawked immediately, wide-eyed. It was an attempt at reassurance, of course. "Pride said they're guardians and I wanna be a guardian, too. He said he'd teach me magic and stuff, and if Jayberry is bad and you have to fight her I'll help you."
She nodded several times, and then twisted her mouth before she continued speaking. "Yeah, um-- he said that you wouldn't have made a mistake in changing name or something, I think?" She paused, briefly. "They all have -berry names and it sounds pretty dumb?"
It was difficult for Serendipity to even imagine anyone with the word 'berry' in their name was even remotely intimidating, or capable of doing bad things. Destroying stuff, like Azure said, or kidnapping like Pride had mentioned. She rolled her shoulder back.
"He, um... he said some of them might have to go to trial, too, because they were really bad people-- but you weren't one of them, right?" Her tone was vaguely hopeful-- even though a voice in the back of her head told her that it'd be easy for her to just lie about this, too. Just a quick reassurance would have been enough for her to stop doubting, right?
@Azure
Serendipity shifted to sit down next to Azure as she plonked down onto the ground, blinking. She was hesitant at first, but she listened quietly and eventually set a small hand against Azure's forelimb. It was a small touch, but a gentle attempt at reassurance.
She was saying a lot of words that didn't entirely register, but she tried anyway. "But that's a good thing, right?" She asked. "That you never hurt anyone, and that you never wanted to hurt anyone? I mean-- it's-- it's not good to like, not feel like you're fitting in and stuff--" she knew plenty about this part, incidentally, "--but if they were bad then you wouldn't wanna be like them, right?"
The child shuffled a little closer, frowning, offering a gentle squeeze to Azure's forelimb. "I won't. Uhh. I promise I won't ever be mean to someone else just 'cause I think it's the right thing either."
For a long moment she was silent, ears flicking back quietly as she tried to think of what else she was meant to bring it up. Eventually, she shifted and spoke again. "Pride said we can go find a place in, uh, Orion, though? He offered to clear it out but we need to find it and stuff and I kinda wanna clear it out on our own. Uhh-- you don't need to help with that if you don't wanna, though?"
@Azure
Siren opened her mouth to speak-- but Azure was telling her to drop it. She still wanted to speak, as most children would, but she managed to restrain herself on the topic for now. It wouldn't have been fair to Azure if she kept pressing it after she made it very clear.
"Yeah!" She nodded along instead, latching to the new topic. "We can make pretty things to put around it? We can light them up, too, so we can see, and remember which place is ours." She glanced back at her stuff-- it wasn't a lot of stuff, but it would be a bit of a trek, especially since she was mostly exhausted as it was.
"We don't have to go right now if you don't want to?" She said-- though, honestly, she didn't really mind either way. "We can hang out here for a while, or go and take a look around?"
She paused, briefly, before adding-- "do you want me to come with you when you go talk to Pride?"
@Azure