She tucked herself by her had-been home, golden eye narrowed at the intruder as her lips curled back to show small teeth, how dare he pounce on her! How dare he! Her tail trembled at her back, shifting the small leaves of the fern draped over her as she glared a dagger in the feline's direction. Fore paws scratched at the ground in front of her, a reaction caused by the sudden pulse from the orange eyes. A growl rose in her throat, one that sounded fierce to her, but in reality was more an annoyed grumble.

"What is wrong with you?!" she blurted out, ignoring the fact that even if he couldn't see her, she would have given away her location, her overly large ears folding back to keep them from being damaged. Stamping a foot on the dirt mound in front of her, the bear paused, realizing the uncomfortable sensation between her shoulder blades happened to be a shard of the chrysalis pushed a little too roughly into the short fur by the impact of having the cub in front of her land on her back.

Turning her attention away from the seemingly floating golden eyes, she craned her neck, trying to grab at the shard in her fur. Only to nearly tumble over her own paw as she threw herself off balance. Hitting the ground with an annoyed grunt, only to attempt once more, to twist her head the other way. The shard still remaining just out of her reach.

The bear had practically all but puffed herself up to seem intimidating. Though needless to say it wasn't enough to deter this young king. She had released something rather pathetic, a roar? It sounded more like a small grumble to him. 'What is wrong with you?!' she blurted out, obvious frustration dripping from each syllable. And within seconds she seemed to forget all about him. Becoming more concerned with a stray piece of chrysalis between their shoulder blades.

She was twisting and turning and attempting to bend and stretch her body all over the place! He sat down now, watching with slight amusement. She wasn't even focused on him! How would she survive alone in this world! Though with trailing thoughts, how would he? Quickly it spoke to him, assuring him there was nothing about his survival. He was king, and she was an ally. Someone who needed to be guided and protected by and with this instinct he knew so well.

Perhaps he should apologize for starling her? Maybe she had forgot already? Still watching the young bear he blinked a few times. Yes, she didn't seem to concerned or deem he was that large of a threat. So swallowing his rude to be words for a moment he coughed abruptly. "Do you need help?

The shard had barely moved through her wild thrashing in an attempt to grab it, fur puffed up enough to make her look like a little black and white colored cotton ball. Bell shapes ears twitched slightly as she heard the cub speak, turning her head back to the glowing gold eyes.

'Do you need help?'

Confusion flashed through her single eye, head tilting ever so slightly to the side before realizing they were referring to the shard in between her shoulder blades. Swallowing what small bits of pride she had in her tiny body, the cub sighed.

"... Yeah, I do." She stated, pushing herself to stand on unsteady paws, her gem slowly returning to its lightened color to allow the room to return to its previous light. And also so she could get a better look at this feline that pounced on her, she'd rather put a face to a voice after all. For a moment, she stood still, head tilting slowly to the other side at the obnoxious coloring of his fur. That was sooo not fair! How come he got to be gold and she was stuck looking like someone spray painted her chest? The longer she stared, the quicker she realized that this tiger wasn't too different from her. He was a cub too!

Pushing back her previous irritation, the bear cub moved slowly towards the tiger, wary of where she placed her paws to keep from toppling over her own feet again.

"What's your name?" She asked curiously, ears flicking forward with her words.

She looked at him as if he had just grown a third eye! Though maybe it was uncommon for someone of royal blood to offer help to one as common as her. How cruel he mused, he would offer help to any and all creatures in need. No matter royal or common! For the good of the...the...what were they?

Gembounds, it spoke to him. AH HA! For the good of the gembounds! While he was busy having an internal monologue, she had swallowed her pride and accepted his kind paw! Within second of her word the darkness dissipated. His golden eyes adjusting to accommodate the drastic change. Though when the lights had come back on, she flagrantly stared at him. No words, no attempt to just hide her gazing eyes. Just a slight tilt of her head was all she did to play it off cool he mused. Could she be staring at his purfect coat? Possibly, it was something he was already so proud of! Yes, that had to be it!

He was so proud she trusted him just enough to approach! And even to ask him his royal name! His name was-ah....uh...what was his name? Grumble and bit he scrunched up his face.

Sabor, it whispered. A smile took his features and he practically jumped forward towards her! "My name! Is SABOR!"

The cub waited for a few moments, watching the scrunched up expression on the golden pelted menace. Absently, she wondered if he heard her, opening her jaws to repeat her question, the cub had already belted an answer, nearly screaming on their name.

'My name! Is SABOR!' He'd announced, nearly jumping on her again as she scuttled back a few steps, tripping over her own paws once more to fall back on her haunches, the shard still stubbornly nestled between her shoulders. She stared a few moments longer before nodding her head, accepting the answer with a low hum.

"Well, 'Sabor.' My name is...." She started, voice trailing off as she attempted to figure out her name, she knew she had one, but what was it? After a few seconds, her mind had oh-so-kindly chimed her name in her ear. "... Tolani, I'm Tolani!" She finished after a moment, nodding at the sound of the name.

She liked it, her instincts told her what it was, her mind had chimed like bells when saying it. It was her name, one that was unique to her, and she loved it.

Pushing herself back onto her paws after a moment of scrabbling at the loose soil around her, the bear cub returned to where she had been standing, turning slightly to allow Sabor an easier way to pull the shard from her shoulders. Now that he wasn't pouncing on her, or looking like some creepy pair of floating eyes, Tolani could appreciate the fact he'd been willing enough to offer his help when he'd noticed she couldn't free it from her fur.

"Oh and uh... thanks for helping me out. I appreciate it."

She had scuttled back a few steps from his enthusiasm. Though she wasn't wrong, he already had a record of tackle now and talk later. He watched the bear through golden eyes, she was staring again. Digesting his name, she could probably tell he was kind of a big deal. A name like that is one of a kind after all! Though not as nice as the name she repeated to him.

Tolani. Now that was a unique name. Even in his diamond prison he wasn't fed information with words anything like that! Except maybe toe, but that was besides the point of this. She was scrabbling around the lose soil now. Man oh man she sure couldn't seem to walk with those feet.

Musing over how well she would be able to live alone he approached her. Almost being oblivious to the fact she was talking! Quickly he threw a grunt of two together and attempted the words 'sure thing'. Only for it to come out garbled. Hey wasn't his fault! He was busy prepping for the main event! To pull out this shard! Placing his teeth ever so delicately upon it he got ready to pull. Please just don't let it be like the chrysalis all over. One, two and a three! Not a sound was made! It was barely hanging in there to the point where Sabor nearly fell backwards with the shard in between his teeth!

Her ears twitched faintly in Sabor's direction, noticing the spaced out look to claim he was thinking. Her stub of a tail wiggled slightly, shifting what fur it could reach on the backs of her hind legs. Her eye rolled slightly at the garbled words, vaguely able to understand them before shoving her amusement away. She couldn't blame him for being spaced out, if her estimate was correct, then he had only freed himself from his chrysalis only a few minutes ago! Only seconds before she had at least. And even though she wasn't certain what his home had been made of, she didn't doubt it took a lot of energy to break through it.

Tolani was honestly feeling tired herself.

Her focus quickly snapped back to the present at the faint tug on her shoulders, the shard being held carefully in the Golden Tiger's jaws before one quick tug against short fur, pulling the tangled portions of her pelt free, the blue and brown swirls of color on the troublesome shard danced in the light, reflecting onto the loose soil under their paws. For a few moments, she watched, captivated by the fresh memory of those very same colors entertaining her for days. It took all the will power she had not to break out into a ridiculous grin.

"Thanks, that was really annoying to have it sit there." Tolani said again, the corners of her mouth quirking upwards in a smile, dipping her head momentarily in thanks before shuffling her fore paws, watching the dirt churn under the motion as claws dug small lines in the soil.

"... Look, you seem like you can see pretty well," she started, turning her attention back to the golden tiger, "I can't see anything on my right side, and I'd appreciate if someone were to stick around with me, so I know that if something does happen, and I can't see it because of my blindness, that I'll at least have someone to help me out." Tolani said, absentmindedly shrugging her shoulders a bit.

"Would you mind, maybe sticking around for a bit? I mean, if there's two of us. What could happen?"

Standing back on his feet he spat out the shard from between his teeth. She thanked him and he flagrantly watched her with an intense curiosity of why she was shuffling her paws. Even as she spoke up about not being able to see out of her right eye. Wait a second, did she really say that!? Squinting he noticed that it was a gem similar to the shard he had just spit out. A grumble escaped his thought, maybe that's why his instincts insisted on the word gembound.

Musing along to himself he once again trailed off in his own inner monologue. Squinting even more so now attempting to collect the words that had just passed by his ears. So she was blind, and she wanted to team up? He somewhat collected the basic gist of the situation. It seemed smart! After all if she could barely walk let alone see out of one eye, then she was in for a hard life!

Sitting down he continued to stare at her, asking 'it' what it thought. As sure as always it spoke up loud and clear. Protect the bear, its what a king would do. Not to mention the higher chance of survival should anything go wrong. Two is always better than one! At least that is what he felt.

A smile curled his lips and he stood up on his paws. "Alright! You got yourself a deal! We can travel together!...but first lets go get a meal!" he hadn't originally expected to say that last half. But hey, instincts kick in and it was demanding he be fed. Maybe she was hungry too. Either way he had begun his path to food, where ever it may be. Occasionally looking back to ensure the bear was indeed following.

[exit]

Tolani watched as realization flitted across Sabor's face, once glowing eyes narrowing in a squint, boring into the gem she knew rested on the right side of her face. Turning her head to keep the gem from sight, the cub lowered her ears at the growl, already preparing for the refusal from the rambunctious cub. Her gaze instead moving silently to the ground at her paws.

'Alright! You got yourself a deal! We can travel together!...but first lets go get a meal!'

The single golden eye glanced at the gold furred feline as his words broke the silence, her lips curling back in the form of an attempted smile. Pleased with his answer, Tolani nodded, hearing the pause before the comment of finding some sort of nourishment had been added onto the sentence.

Now that she thought about it herself, her stomach was growling at her, might as well join the hunt! With that thought in mind, the small bear cub quickly adjusted her stance, ignoring the threat of tripping over her own paws to catch up with the slightly larger tiger.

"I'm glad you agree!" She chimed happily, single eye closing momentarily before turning her attention back to the ground ahead of her. "I think I'll take you up on that meal offer..."

[exit]