For the past little while, there were a few places in particular that Leon had taken up residency. For the most part, he and Makyna took turns guarding their den. Perhaps they were being a little overprotective in that sense - Pisces was probably the safest cave he knew, for him and his children at least. With the ever watchful Bevy and the rest of the Maji Walezis almost always around, he knew that they wouldn't be in too much danger. By now, most of the group learned of the trio of chrysali propped up against the wall in the den, but Leon had stressed that he didn't want many more to know about it. Because, at the root of his paranoia, there existed Vazi.

Down to his core, he knew the problem that the water elemental stag posed. He knew that if given the chance, Vazi would storm the cave and steal his children out from under his nose. He was thankful in that they were safe in their gems for now, but what would prevent the stag from smashing them apart? What would prevent him from destroying them where they sat? He doubted anybody in Maji Walezi would be able to hold them off - with exception of Leon himself, and maybe Makyna, but he didn't want to take any risks. That was why he'd been obsessively guarding the den when Makyna wasn't around.

The other place that Leon would be was, well, anywhere else in Pisces. Because of his watchfulness, his patrols had pretty much ceased. There were always others in the group to perform them, and it wasn't due to laziness or inattentiveness - he just needed to be able to watch those growing chrysali. So when the coyote had emerged from the water like a whale and startled the visiting capybara, it was inevitable that Leon would take notice. He'd been lounging on the lip of the overhang marking the entrance to their den, soaking in the gloriously artificial light of the lamps. The bear lay on his side, picking his most recent meal from his teeth with his claw, when he heard a great splash and a sputtering - an apology - and cast his gaze down to see Firenze burning himself in an attempt to warm up the capybara. He furrowed his brow for a moment, noting her pale leg. Weird. There was something familiar about her. Something he couldn't place.

Still, Firenze had burned himself and Leon felt the need to help. The bear rolled to his paws and lumbered from the ledge down the slippery trail along the rocky ridges. His eyes lingered on the capybara for the duration of his descent, but once he approached, he turned his gaze to the coyote. "Hey, Firenze," He called, keeping his pace casual. "you alright? Who's your friend?" The bear flicked his nose towards the capybara, but ultimately kept his eyes on his young friend.

The fish? Oh... oh yeah, the fish. Leon curled his lip in an expression that was half grimace half grin, snorting at the boy and dismissing his question. Having lost once was painful enough, he didn't need the coyote rubbing it in his face! Well, it didn't matter, Firenze was about to introduce her - or nevermind, since apparently he didn't know her name. Leon loosed a quiet laugh and leaned back, only for his friend to have noticed the gruesome scarring that crossed his neck, face and back. Thankfully, it had plenty of time to heal by now, but that didn't make it look any better. It was still as ropey and wrinkly and black as ever, the scar tissue twisted and gnarled. "Oh, it, uh-" Leon fumbled, trying to think of a quick explanation to give to Firenze that wouldn't outright make him seem like a monster.

Only in the midst of his flurry of thoughts, the capybara had suddenly turned to him and sputtered out a name.

Carrie.

Leon looked to her. He blinked once, twice, then widened his eyes. It should have been obvious - she was the only of her kind that he had ever seen, how could he forget her? How could he forget that day, when his paws stung and he had witnessed an accident like no other, when Makyna had called for him and he came to help as much as he could? By then, it was already too late. Her leg was frozen solid. It would just have been dead weight, it would have gotten scraped and injured and infected; their only option was to remove it. Yet here she stood with a new leg in its place, albeit pale, like a ghost.

"Carrie?" The bear repeated dumbly, staring at her. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't..." He trailed off, furrowing his brow as he sought for the right thing to say. What could he say? "Sorry about your leg by the way, even though it looks like you grew a new one, no hard feelings, right? Where've you been all this time? You know Makyna was torn up about you, right? She was upset for days - no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that - we missed you - the bear cleared his throat. "It's been so long. Are you... how are you?" Leon pinned his short, round ears back.

Just as he was hanging on nervousness, worried that the worst possible thing could happen, the worst possible thing really did happen as Carrie essentially freaked out and bolted away. She said not fine and ran, begging not to be hurt while she made her escape. Leon's eyes widened and he leaned away, startled - making no attempt to stop her, of course - watching as she disappeared through the tunnel entrance and away from Pisces. The bear was left with his maw gaping, lost for words or really any idea of what to do. It wasn't until Firenze had piped up with a sobered jest, and Leon slowly closed his teeth and glanced over at the coyote. He was both embarrassed and disappointed; whatever had happened to Carrie after removing her leg, it hadn't been good. She must think of him as a monster.

"No, its..." Leon finally said, sucking in a sigh and rolling his shoulders back. "She was a friend of Makyna's, a long time ago. They were practicing their magic together when Carrie accidentally froze her leg. I found them and tried to help, and we had to..." The bear's voice trailed off and he glanced back in the direction the capybara had run off to. "I had to remove her leg." His lips tightened into a grim line. Maybe it was hard to believe, considering the capybara now had four legs again. Something must have happened to her for her leg to come back, but what? Worst of all, it had caused her to resent him.

The bear sighed and rose to his paws again. "She disappeared after that, for a long time. Makyna and I feared the worst. And now she's back, and her leg's back, and I - I probably shouldn't have been so upfront to her, I think I scared her pretty badly." The desire to pursue her, to right his wrongs and apologize, was nearly overwhelming. But he didn't want to make their encounter any worse. "Don't tell Makyna about this, okay? It'll probably break her heart." He huffed. The last thing he wanted was for Makyna to find out that he had freaked Carrie out and caused her to run away.