Monoceros had gotten... quiet. Mags and the rhino were somewhere, surely, though it seemed Louie and his "prisoners" had left, permanent-like. As for Fang, well, she... Fleur didn't want to think about Fang. She really, really didn't. Every time it caused a her stomach to flip, bile creeping up to sit between gemstone-bound jaws, blistering her tongue with guilt. She wasn't doing enough, not even close. What had she done? Ineffectually "protected" Fang from across a goddamn room, from some sort of nonexistent threat?

Florence would be disappointed.

Fortunately, dead people couldn't be disappointed, and the skunk carried that thought with her like a tiny rock that crunched and shifted between her lungs, pointed and painful, grounding. It didn't matter what she did now, because the only person who would care was her, and the only person who mattered was Diamondfang.

Fleur wasn't into self-pity, or self-examination, or any of this wallowing bullshit, so she straightened up, carried her title as well as she could, snarling silently at every out of place echo. She just needed to be better. She didn't need her brother, or family, or friends, or any of that extraneous nonsense. She just needed to be stronger, smarter, faster, follow orders to a T, beg if she had to to be allowed to stay.

The Merrymen didn't care about feelings.

They wanted results.

Tunnel J had been weird, but better than home. Quieter. No wind, just silent dust and shadows, soothing her eyes and calming her nerves. She'd run through Orion, ears pitched back and terror gnawing at her ankles, spurring her on until she'd found a tunnel dark enough to swallow her whole. Too much light, so much of it that the ceiling lit up with fire, with no cover, nothing but rubble. The star-room was a no flight zone.

This tunnel was nice and damp, dark, silent and still, somewhere Fleur could sleep for once, relax. The muscles in her back ached from balancing on her back legs, practicing how to walk along the ledges of Monoceros, how to drop down into a roll from above, how to use her limited magic to fix the cuts and bruises before her queen saw them. Soldiers were invincible shields, and she needed to look that way. Always.

Diamondfang was the center of her world, her universe; everything led back to her. Not even Fleur's thoughts could stay away for long, always trailing back to the mongoose, and every glance made her face flame, her body tremble with fear and panic and poorly hidden affection. Florence would laugh.

Then again, Florence was probably laughing from wherever you went after you died, at this point. Fleur would be laughing at herself, if her jaw could open that wide.

Her stomach roiled again, and acid splashed across her tongue. The skunk stumbled to a wall of the tunnel, flopping down onto the floor, long white fur insulating her against the chill, the dark soothing her blood-red eyes. Another flip of her stomach before it settled, the buzz of sickness lying dormant.

@Makyna

MAKYNA
"let's sing a song for the heart"

The day, it was coming so soon! In a couple of days to be exact! Oh! She could hardly contain her excitement! It was for this reason that she felt a song bubbling in her heart, one that would hardly be contained no matter how much she tried to hold it in. So... Why should she? The whole cave pratically knew about the wedding and if they didn't then she would tell it to them! Let them come! Let them all come! It would be a glorious day.

"You're the light, you're the night
You're the color of my blood
You're the cure, you're the pain
You're the only thing I wanna touch
Never knew that it could mean so much, so much!"

Her paws landed in time with her tune, her tail raised and swayed gracefully behind her. Eyes were half-lidded with joy, a smile curved at her lips. Her voice wasn't quite high yet... No. It was still low, as she felt out the words and the song in her heart.

"You're the fear, I don't care
'Cause I've never been so high
Follow me to the dark
Let me take you past our satellites
You can see the world you brought to life, to life!"

She could feel the atmosphere changing as she went from the known area of Orion to that of a forsaken tunnel, filled with darkness... dread... But she did not stop, nor did she let it deter her. If this was a cold tunnel then she would sing and lift it up with the weight of her lyrics and bliss.

"So love me like you do, lo-lo-love me like you do
Love me like you do, lo-lo-love me like you do
Touch me like you do, to-to-touch me like you do
What are you waiting for?"

Her voice was louder as she walked into the tunnel, tail still raised as she took a brief pause as she looked around, the skunk was still unspied as she unknowingly closed the distance. If she had peered into the darkness she would have seen the tiny creature but... She did not. Instead she spied a place to sit, a nice rock that she leaped atop. Her eyes closed and still, she did not see the skunk.

"I'll let you set the pace
'Cause I'm not thinking straaaiiiight
My head spinning around I can't see clear no more..."

Her head lifted, tail raised even higher as she felt the song swell within her heart along with the emotion. The cat felt the emotion burst within her and after a small tear pooled from underneath one of her eyes she belted out a single line with all she had in her heart and voice.

"What are you waiting foooo-ooooor?!

One paw lifted and with eyes still closed she finished her song.

"Love me like you do, lo-lo-love me like you do
Touch me like you do, to-to-touch me like you do
What are you waiting for?

Love me like you do, lo-lo-love me like you do
Love me like you do, lo-lo-love me like you do
Touch me like you do, to-to-touch me like you do
What are you waiting for?"

With the last "what are you waiting for?" her voice quieted and stopped as her head dipped. In her mind's eye she was thinking of only one person while she settled, heart feeling like it was about to burst with the weight of her feeling.

______________________________________

"This is how I talk!"
"This is how I sing!"
This is how I think!

578
@Fleur
---
6/10

Something made her startle awake with a harsh, strangled intake of breath, jolting in place, knocking the strained muscles in her back against the cold floor. Nausea lapped at her senses, making it hard to stand, but she did anyway. Warriors never showed weakness, never bowed, never gave in, even to exhaustion.

This did not mean, however, that they were above being very, very pissed off.

In an instant, the bright white ball of fluff had lurched off the ground and swung about to face the noise, baring pink gemstone teeth and lifting her tail to point up besides her snout in warning, snarling silently, all sound pinned between stomach acid and sealed-shut jaws. As soon as the noise-maker in question came into view, however, the hiss turned into a gape.

A lion. A giant fucking lion was singing. A happy lion was singing through her napping tunnel. Fleur sneezed, pinned her ears back, gaped some more, and finally began to stomp tiny, heavy paws on the stone ground clacking her teeth together wildly. What was surely supposed to be a vicious verbal beating was reduced to a harsh "Shhhhhhh!" and another round of frustrated stomping.

A wince, and Fleur stilled, raising a paw to rub at her jaw and slowly, snappishly growling out a few words. "Trying. To. Sleep." As her paw fell to the floor she stomped again, more out of childish aggravation rather than true anger. Then, she seemed to realize that she was antagonizing, as previously stated, a giant fucking singing lion, and froze, before wheeling around and darting into the shadows with a terrified squeak, hiding behind a chunk of wall with a gentle hiss.

The lion had teeth. Big teeth. But Fleur had three cycles of training and no true fear of death - only of pain. The disease in her gut squirmed again, and she retched, wetly, to one side, before lifting her head once more, red eyes glinting in the dim light.

@Makyna

MAKYNA
"let's sing a song for the heart"

It was after her emotional performance that she finally heard the sounds of discontent. Her ears perked and those blue eyes opened to gaze around the room. Someone was trying to sleep? Where was that someone? It was then that she saw a ghostly shape disappear around a wall. There was a fluffy tail and sharp hiss, then she knew what it was... or rather, she had an educated guess at what it was. The lioness figured that she had interrupted some other feline's nap and it was now trying to scurry away to find another place to sleep. Oh dear... She should probably go apologize. She loved music but perhaps there were others who did not, especially when they were sleeping.

The lioness leaped down from her perch gracefully, all four paws landing almost silently on the stone floor. After taking a quick look at her surroundings she then trotted forward where she saw the other creature disappear. Her trot slowed to a walk and then to a stop as she peered cautiously around the bend. Her mouth was curved into an apologetic smile and she called out softly, "Sweetie, I'm so sorry... I didn't know you were trying to sleep. But, please... I'll hush my warbling and you can come back out to nap. How's that sound?" Hopefully the other critter wasn't past listening and would hear the sincerity in her words. Makyna absolutely hated to ruin someone else's day.

______________________________________

"This is how I talk!"
"This is how I sing!"
This is how I think!

242
@Fleur
---
6/10

Footsteps. Headed her way, oh no, big heavy lion footsteps; Fleur backed up until she felt the cold tunnel wall at her back, baring her teeth and chattering, anxiety rising with the leftover stomach acid in her trachea. The sound stopped when the other spoke, dying down to an uneasy rumble as the skunk listened, shivering, tiny, rounded ears strained forward to listen for the obvious anger that was to come.

Instead, all she heard was... well. The lion was being nice. Which made absolutely no sense at all, and she squinted, wearily, grimacing and hunching down a bit closer to the ground, confused and bone-tired. Her voice was soft and as rasping, as gruff and venomous as always, but filled with a sort of rare trepidation. "...sweetie? What. Sweetie?" Fleur hadn't ever heard of such a thing, and clacked her teeth together again, sharper, the sound crisp and ringing through the silent corridor.

At the offer to come out, the skunk's red eyes widened, and she rushed to shake her head, fur puffing up in fear. "No! Big!" The words shook, and Fleur with them, but the tiny warrior soon straightened up, as if offended by her own reactions.

"Not. A. Merryman!" Another stomp, and her tail twitched in warning, unable to see that anyone outside of her "family" - if it could be called that, considering she didn't even know kindness when she saw it - could be anything but a foe. Still, she had to check, if only to follow Diamondfang's code. "Finis. Originae. Pende!"

@Makyna