Livius felt themselves swelling with pride as Rift spoke, thanking them for their help in the Eridanus battle, saying that were it not for them, the Kingdom would have perished. Envy's tail flicked with excitement, their quills prickling upright, their chin lifting. They beamed.

"Yes, yes, excellent! An alliance would be perfect!" they agreed, with an eager nod. "Our kingdoms will get along wonderfully, I'm sure!"

Livius glanced from Rift to Aure as the hybrid began to speak, as well, listening with eager twitches of their tail. What could they say? "W-well, we'll welcome it, thank you!" they twittered in response.

As he turned to talk to Pride, they couldn't help listening in with interest. If offensive magic was what he wanted, then he was in the right place. Livius waited for him to finish with mounting eagerness.

"Well, you've come to the right place. We can do just about anything!" they chipped in, and though it may have seemed an exaggeration, there was sincerity, and a bit of pride, in their tone. "Light, plant, water, fire, energy, earth, you name it. I'd be happy to show you an offensive spell or two, as well."

Livius didn't know any fungi magic; at least they didn't think they did. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to expand their repertoire and learn something new, even if it meant... giving out some of their elemental secrets. The weasel didn't much like sharing, but if it made them look better in the eyes of the other head honchos in the caves, then they could tolerate a trade.

It had been a while since they'd been to Canis. A long time. Come to think of it, when was the last time? They could hardly be sure.

@Pride

Pride listened in on Rift, offering a solemn nod--and then a more kindly expression down toward Amazon. "I would like that very much--and I am glad to hear it." Toward Shengxiao, he continued--"You are welcome to remain here, of course--my name is Pride. I think you have heard most of the information about what we are; we will not harm you, if you wish to remain as a guest at this gathering." For a briefly, faint moment he ran his eyes over Shengxiao, wondering if perhaps it could be one of the children of the Bloodberries, sent by Jayberry to spy--but it looked... nothing like any of them, really. It was a rather strange tapestry of appearances.

"Reign--whenever you do wish a lesson you have but to ask, and I am at your disposal. I hope everything else has been well." So long as you pay attention this time, he thought to himself, dourly. The last time he and Envy had tried to give Reign a lesson, the cheetah had asked questions, listened to the long, detailed answers, and then promptly asked them all over again. Pride was fairly certain that Reign had been simply daydreaming, but the cheetah hadn't answered as they'd left, so he was never sure what had truly happened. Still, several cycles had passed, since then. If Reign wanted to try again, he would offer-...

Ahh, and here was, apparently, Amazon's--child? How the hell did I not know about this? -Caves forbid she shares a stone. Pale eyes searched Luster's head, but he found red instead of green, and relief struck him. "It is good to meet you, Luster. King Envy, I believe this one wishes--to join?" He turned, silver tines catching the light with a flash, toward Envy.

The weasel was listening, and now offering aid, as well.

"Good: we can both train you--King Livius' grasp of magic is far more wide-reaching than my own," he told Aure, with a brief bow of his head.

@Rift

Rift nodded happily. "Let me know when you are ready for our assistance. I'll bring some of our Cultivators to help. Unless there's anything else you need from me, I'll return to Eridanus and gather some of them to help." He stepped back, but didn't leave just yet, in case Pride and Livius needed him for the announcement further.

It struck Amazon, as Pride looked over her daughter, that he'd never met her, before. She could understand his momentary hesitation - any daughter of hers could possibly share her stone and, in turn, the same issues that she had. "Oh, yes, Pride! My daughter, Luster. An old friend of mine passed some time ago and I gave her life again." She looked over fondly at Luster and, for once, felt no sadness talking about Onye. The aardwolf's life had been short and painful but Luster lived a fuller life - happy and blissfully unaware of the pain of her past life. They were the same creature, as well - the oddities that Luster showed were the same strange quirks that Onye had. Not a product of her fatal stone placement, but simply part of her personality.

The creature cocked his head in confusion. "Pride? Like the emotion? Or feelin? Didn't know that was a name. Then again, we all have strange names, don't we?" His ears lifted and he looked around, trying to remember everyone's names, but he simply couldn't think of any. What about friends from before? Yeah, he didn't have any of those.

But okay, now was the decision. Should he join them? To be honest, he had nothing else to do. He could go back to his cave with the bugs and rats and stuff that danced for him, but he was kind of bored of that. He'd been around there too much. "Well, if ya don't mind me hangin around. I'd like to have a new kinda home. Wouldn't be bad. Name's Shengxiao, but you can call me Sheng if that's a mouthful." His eyes moved up to the talking gold thing. "You the king, then? Gotta say, I didn't know gold could talk. Mighty strange, but these caves are strange, ain't they?" Despite the fact that Sheng was very, very wrong about his assumption, there was nothing in his body language, nor in his voice, that meant any kind of disrespect. In fact, he looked quite nervous to be directly addressing the king.

@Aaliyah