Alexander awoke with the suddenness of one coming out of anesthesia. One minute you’re gone, and the next you’re awake, and it’s like you were never gone at all. You don’t even remember falling asleep. In his case, he’d been asleep for a month, growing inside his chrysalis, but his waking was not a slow process. One moment he was finishing the last remnants of growing into a juvenile lion, and the next he was just – awake. Golden light in slanted, shimmering angles twinkled back at him as he blinked hazel-brown eyes in confusion. He was… constricted. His body was now too large for his chrysalis to be comfortable, and he furrowed his brows as he glared at the massive hollow gem trapping him in place.

It was time to move.

But Fate, it seemed, had other ideas. Xander pushed and pushed against the spessartine chrysalis until his muscles ached and he was sweating. He was pressed so hard against its faceted edges he could feel his spine twinging in pain from the pressure, and his paws were screaming at him. After endless minutes, his body gave a great shudder, he heaved a breath, and collapsed. Limbs stuck out at odd angles against the round-ish shape of the golden prison, as he was forever going to call it.

Even at such a young age, he did not have it in him to just give up, but his whole body screamed from the effort of pushing and pushing. He would have bruises under his fur from the constant pressure. What was he supposed to do now? Still trapped inside, he had no idea that others existed, so he did not know to call for help. Defeated, he lay exhausted inside his beautiful prison, and waited – for what, he did not know.

@Adeyemi

Prince Adeyemi

AND THEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY, THEY ALL FIT TOGETHER
AND CARRY ME AWAY AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER

Once again, hunger had driven Adeyemi back to Eridanus, the wretched place of his own birth. Slowly he danced through the treeline, hopping from one branch to the next, awkwardly gliding between trees, obsessively watching for any sign of movement - he'd rather not fall to the ground below, this time, should the white pup return. The turaco, seeing no one, carried out his usual melody, a sweeping, slow song, waltzing from somber lows to brighter, happier highs, the sound picking up in volume the further he went. Caught up in the act, the bird almost missed the fact that he'd finally landed nearby mangos, and hurried down his current perch, snipping the stems of the fruit and cawing in victory as they tumbled to the ground.

A couple of hops, skids and near-falls later, the prince joined them, hastily digging a talon into the nearest orange-yellow fruit and gnawing at it, lost in his own little world - until a dull, continuous thump caught his attention. Wrenching his head up, Adeyemi's eyes narrowed, tugging his gemstone talon free as he searched for the noise, crest and chest feathers rising to attention

More thumps, and the multicolored chick followed the noise, curious, hopping along the forest floor with hesitant bravery. The thumps slowed to a stop, and Adeyemi cawed in frustration - only to freeze, stilled by the site of a massive chrysalis. It was easy his size, perhaps a bit bigger (quite a bit bigger, actually; at least eight times, but Napoleon complexes work in mysterious ways), and the prince's eyes widened as he trilled. Whatever was inside had to be powerful, greatly so, but it seemed trapped... just as he had been.

Glaring at the crystalline shell, Adeyemi swooped forward, beginning to peck and claw at the chrysalis with all his might. "Do not worry, little one! You will be freed from this prison forthwith!" The statement was brazen and confident, but that haughty temperament soon fled, once the prince realized his efforts were doing just about nothing.

Sneering at his own reflection, the bird leaned in closer to the shell, trying to get a glimpse of who lay inside. "Do not panic! Your egg is quite strong, but we will break it. You have my word, or I am not a Prince!" With this, Adeyemi resumed his onslaught, determined not to let another child suffer the fate he had, trapped, suffocating within his own growing chamber.

Alexander was not left to wait for long. A minute or so after he had given up and slumped awkwardly against the inside of the golden prison, an incessant tapping-scratching noise pulled him from his stupor. His body tensed – and screamed at him not to – as he squinted past the orange-ish filter of the spessartine to see what in the world was making that noise. He did not yet know danger, and so was unafraid. Merely curious. The tapping-scratching stopped after a good fifteen seconds, and then muffled squawks filled his ears. The words were mostly gibberish, but… there was some emotion tied to the words. The skritching continued, and Xander felt his resolve come back.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and then opened them again, bracing his paws against his horrid prison. He could do this. He had to. He did not yet know it, but he was a Knight through and through, bound for greatness. Fate had taught him a valuable lesson this day: Never Give Up. He barely placed any pressure against the chrysalis before it shattered with the gorgeous sound of a thousand tinkling shards. The weight he had been leaning against suddenly gone, he exited the prison with a bit less grace than he would have liked. He let out a noise of surprise, stumbled a bit, but caught himself.

He hissed as tiny crystalline pieces bit at his paw-pads and hopped away from the mess of orange-gold splayed all over the grass. When he turned to survey the scene, he spotted the tiny bird who had been scratching at his prison and calling gibberish to him through the foggy orange haze. Speech was foreign to him, so instead he simply stared at the creature, then gave a short chuff of greeting and curiosity.

@Adeyemi

Prince Adeyemi

AND THEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY, THEY ALL FIT TOGETHER
AND CARRY ME AWAY AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER

Another scratch, a peck, two, before the crystalline prison practically burst, shards flying everywhere. The babe inside tumbled out, but Adeyemi was a bit preoccupied in pulling a shard out of his leg, chortling more in amusement than pain. The piece came free with a small trickle of blood, and the prince simply shook the leg, annoyed, before beginning to pick his way out of the maze of orange-gold gem pieces, landing on the clear grass after a bit of stumbling and huffing.

Safe, the turaco turned to focus on the babe, hopping closer to the massive creature, tilting his head from one side to the other. "Greetings, little one! Though I suppose you aren't so little," Adeyemi added, chirruping in a strange mimic of laughter.

Indeed, the newborn was huge, towering over the prince, and had no beak, feathers, or wings to be seen. Then again, neither did Delphine, and she was as much his family as Willow was. Perhaps this was his opportunity to help properly, rather than his fumbled attempts with the foal and with the small, screamy babe. Red-brown eyes narrowed on the cub's paw, cooing. "Have you gotten anything in your feet, little one?"

He hopped closer, clucking, before straightening up with a soft, welcoming coo in reply to the chuff. "Ah! I am being rude. Welcome to the world. I am Prince Adeyemi, of the Flame." With this, the turaco swooped low to the ground in a bow, blue, green and red feathers shining in the light.

Alexander watched carefully as the tiny bird made his way carefully over to the lion. He noted with eyes and nose the blood on the creature’s leg, feeling the urge to lick it off in an attempt to help. Plus it was blood. He was a lion. Blood tasted good. He didn’t know why he knew that. He just did. However, he felt no predatory instincts towards the colorful talkative one. He tried his best to listen to the flow of sound that came from his mouth, and blinked quickly as he attempted to piece it all together into something coherent. The bird was – Ah! It was a bird! Alright…

The bird was… greeting him. Yes. He gathered that from instinct, mostly. The tiny thing bent down to study Xander’s paws for some reason, which reminded the boy of his injuries. The pads stung still and he lifted one paw up and shook it, trying to dislodge the tiny pieces stuck inside the pink flesh. They came loose and fell to the grass, disappearing. He did the same to the other paw, then studied the bird once again. What was he doing now? Well, he was… bending low, like he had when looking at the lion’s paws, but now his – wing! – was outstretched.

Attempting to understand, Alexander copied the movement, head lowering towards the ground, though he looked more like he was stretching than bowing. When the bird lifted from his odd position, so did Xander. So… the bird was… Prince Adeyemi. Not knowing what a Prince was, he assumed that was just part of his name, and not a title. “Alexander,” he said, not really sure how to put the words he thought in his head into coherent sentences. “Name… Alexander.”

@Adeyemi

Prince Adeyemi

AND THEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY, THEY ALL FIT TOGETHER
AND CARRY ME AWAY AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER

Tilting his head up to watch the cub, a strange, grin-like expression split Adeyemi's face when it mimicked his gesture. It was the first time anyone had ever bowed back, and the prince found he quite liked it. Lifting from the welcoming, the turaco chirruped, nodding, repeating the name with a slow, pleased blink. "Alexander. A fitting name, for a strong Gemling."

A quick glance at the babe's paws revealed they'd been cleared of crystal, and he huffed out a soft breath of relief - infected wounds were much harder to care for, especially on someone so young. "Ah, but you must be hungry!" Studying the cub, Adeyemi winced internally - definitely not the type to eat mangos. This was more to Willow's expertise, then, but a royal never turned down a challenge... especially not when it would help another of power.

post roll:
Mind made up, he held up a wing, cooing out a soft "Wait here, for just a moment," before hopping off towards the underbrush that littered the treeline nearby. Moving slowly, methodically, Adeyemi stalked through the shadows, climbing up the trunks of trees and gliding silently from one to the next, red-brown eyes narrowed in concentration.

There! Movement below, and the turaco swooped down, intentionally half-falling to just about stomp on his prey. Lifting his talons, Adeyemi croaked, sticking out his tongue at the sight of a mostly smushed jungle mouse, its golden fur stained red with gore. Shaking off his uneasiness, the turaco made his way back to Alexander with the quite dead mouse clutched in his beak, dropping it before the cub with an air of self-satisfaction. "Something to curb your hunger. Then we can move onto hunting on your own, yes?"

Alexander listened without speaking as Prince Adeyemi repeated his name, said something about hungry and then turned and flapped away. Xander was, in fact, quite hungry. Having to work so hard to burst from his chrysalis had taken its toll on his young body, and his stomach growled in protest just to make a point. In a few minutes, the tiny bird returned and dropped a dead mouse at the lion’s paws. He scarfed it down in just a few seconds as Prince Adeyemi spoke of hunting. His stomach rumbled again, and he decided that hunting was most definitely a good idea.

“Yes,” he replied. Then, “Thank you. For the food.” Language, it seemed, was coming faster to him by the second. He did a cat-stretch, bending down and arcing his back, shaking his scraggly unformed mane and standing up straight again. “Need bigger food than mice,” he told Prince Adeyemi in broken language, not quite at the level of proper grammar. “What else here?”

@Adeyemi – sorry for short post.

Prince Adeyemi

AND THEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY, THEY ALL FIT TOGETHER
AND CARRY ME AWAY AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER

Watching as the cub snarfed down the gore-covered food in moments with a rare, truly disgruntled sneer on his face, Adeyemi quickly hid the expression at the lion's thanks, hopping back a bit when he stretched. "You're welcome, of course. As for larger food, there's plenty. Not including me," the prince added, half joking and half really, really not. "Appropriate for your size... a rabbit would do nicely, I should think. Or a deer, if you'd like more of a challenge." A tilt of his head, and Adeyemi's eyes sparked. After all - he loved a good test of strength.

"Won't find any food that large here; we'll have to travel farther into the forest. I'm afraid the whole exploding chrysalis... thing will have scared off most prey," he added, clicking his beak in an odd mimic of a chuckle. "Follow me, little one," the prince advised, before turning, slowly creeping into the underbrush, stopping just a few feet away to make sure his - no, the cub would follow. Too early for possessives.

Alexander listened with rapt attention as his protector of sorts explained to him about food. The bird was not food. He nodded immediately at this information. Of course the bird was not food. Why would Xander ever eat someone who had been so nice to him? Besides. The bird talked. Somehow, instinctively, the lion was well aware that talking animals were different, that they were not prey. Also, lions didn’t eat birds, anyways. He had no idea how he knew this but, when he thought of eating a bird, it was a rather unappetizing thought. Too skinny, too many bones, not enough meat. And he didn’t imagine it would be easy to catch a creature who could fly.

Now he was given two choices: Rabbit or Deer. Immediately, the over-achiever squared his young shoulders. “I think Deer,” he said, with a gleam in his eye. “Bigger, more meat, more fun to hunt.” Prince Adeyemi explained that they would have to travel farther into the forest now to catch anything, because Alexander had frightened everything away when he’d burst from his chrysalis. He felt a little guilty at this. “Sorry for scaring everything away. I was… too strong, the second time.” He shook his head, realizing the words must not make sense to Adeyemi. “I mean. The second time I pushed against the prison – chrysalis – I was… too strong.”

Of course, only he would apologize over a triumph like that. With a shake of the head, he followed the Prince deeper into Eridanus.

@Adeyemi

Prince Adeyemi

AND THEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY, THEY ALL FIT TOGETHER
AND CARRY ME AWAY AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER

I think deer. Bigger, more meat, more fun to hunt. A spark entered Adeyemi's eye, an odd mix of disgust and pride. While he'd never been one for live food, it was gratifying to already see confidence and strength in one so young... and one so very possibly his. "Then deer you shall have," the turaco assured, bobbing his head in thought. Sorry for scaring everything away. I was… too strong, the second time. The prince's head tilted to one side, confused, but the cub soon clarified. I mean. The second time I pushed against the prison – chrysalis – I was… too strong.

Some tiny part of him was almost... endeared by the apology. "Oh, do not fret, little one. Strength is a glorious gift, one above even royal blood. To be strong, to live, to thrive - that is the greatest accomplishment of all." With a soft chirp, Adeyemi turned tail and began to walk once more, peering through bushes and shrubs, occasionally stopping to listen.

Finally, he raised his crest in warning, wings fluttering as he crouched low to the forest floor, clicking his beak softly. "There. Through the trees," he whispered, glancing back at Alexander with a click of his beak. "A deer." The thing blinked its third eye, and Adeyemi croaked, revising his words. "A jungle deer. Do try not to get any gore on me, would you?" His words hid little of his disgust - and even less of his excitement to see the lion in bloody, brutal action.