Leon's brain was still frozen, and he found himself struggling even more as Makyna placed her paws with his. He blinked and stared down at their paws, together - they didn't look the same at all, but somehow it just felt... right. He was content to think that maybe it didn't matter much that they weren't the same. Leon had been so afraid all this time that she wouldn't like him as much as Cancer because her and Cancer were both felines; they had the same kind of body shape and probably the same instincts, they seemed to have so much more in common than he and Makyna. And yet... here and now, all those things didn't even matter. Their similarities made no difference in how they mingled in the grand scheme of things. Physical forms did nothing to stop them from sharing thoughts, feelings, experiences...

Time had slowed. For Makyna, mostly; for Leon, his thoughts were still frozen, unable to produce anything worth speaking or doing. But when he found himself staring back into his friend's eyes, he didn't care. It didn't matter - he didn't have to say anything. He was lost in the deep blue of her gaze, and something about it reminded him of... home. Not Pisces. Not even his birth tunnel. It was the sensation. It was his very first memory, before the obsidian chrysalis that contained him had cracked open. It was the sound of underwater, a quiet lull in his ears that filled his head and soothed him. She gave him the sensation of home; it didn't have to be a physical place. It was with her. It was always with her.

The realization had brought with it acceptance and peace. He came to terms with this existence now. He knew what he wanted, and he would crave nothing more; even if he couldn't have it, he would pine, because nothing else could amount to this. And even if this was the closest that he would ever come to achieving that, then Leon would die happy.

He closed his eyes just before she had started to sing. He allowed his one sense to revel in the sound of her voice; a harmony interwoven in the still, misty air, in the oneness that became them, in the beating of their hearts. Mentally, he followed along, but his tongue still did not permit him to speak for fear that he would damage this fragile point in existence. Somehow, he felt he knew the melody, and he wanted to sing with her. But the song came and passed. As her voice faded back to the silence, he opened his eyes and smiled. Finally, he knew what to say. His lips parted, and he didn't care what would come of it, because he was so confident in whatever it was that existed between them that even if he messed it up, she would forgive him. He was so sure of it, so enraptured in this, in her, that even if it all went wrong, Leon would still emerge metamorphosed into what was destined of him. "Makyna, I-"

But it could not be.

A sudden cry rang through the crags. His voice cut off, faltering; without thinking, he had withdrawn his paws from her, snapping his head to the direction of the sound. He had been so lost in her, he hadn't noticed the young leopard cub sneaking nearby until she attempted an escape. Leon looked back at Makyna, and in his eyes now were only worry. He fumbled to his paws and loped towards the source of the noise, where he would soon find a familiar form crumpled into a heap of spotted fur. "Mia?" The bear called, brow knitted in concern. He ran towards her, occasionally casting glances over his shoulder to check and see if Makyna had followed. She's hurt. "Amaria, are you okay? What happened?" Leon skidded to a halt, pacing around her as he looked over the cub while swooping his muzzle down to her head, sniffing in search of blood scent. She didn't seem to be bleeding, but the sound she made suggested she was very much in pain.

Leon huffed and turned his eyes back to Makyna. His heart had twisted. He'd wanted so bad to say something, anything... He had been so certain. Was he truly destined for what he'd thought? Or was this a sign that he was wrong?

She could feel it, the same feeling within her he felt it within himself. One of peace and bliss that would never be broken so long as they had each other. They were two separate beings but together they were one and they would always be one. When her song ended Leon began to say something and whatever it was he wanted to say Makyna wanted hear every word. Her blue eyes met his and she gave a smile, wiling him to go on, to say whatever it was he had to say. "Makyna, I--"

But alas, it would not happen.

Makyna heard the cry the same as he had and snapped her head around, her emotions turning immediately from happiness to worry. What had made such a pained noise? Her blue eyes landed upon the crumbled form of the leopard who she had adopted as her little sister. Her heart went out to the creature, no more did she have time for herself or the feelings she was discovering. She had to tend to poor Amaria!

The lioness rose to her paws and while she ran over to the cub her thoughts briefly hit upon what had just happened. How could she have let herself feel so about Leon? She was with Cancer and it wasn't right that she should feel so much for Leon. It startling to admit that the feelings she felt with him were absolutely nothing when compared with the ones she got with Cancer. A wave of guilt washed over her as she realized it. Cancer made her happy too but as she had just thought... that happiness was not but a drop in the bucket compared to the rushing wave of bliss that came over her with Leon. How could this happen? The lioness would have to be on guard lest something make her truly act on those impulses. Cheating wasn't a term that she'd ever heard anyone use in the cave but it was one that she innately knew and with it came connotation of awful things.

Makyna shook those thoughts away when she arrived at Amaria's side. Briefly she heard in her head a thought, a faint one but a thought nonetheless. It was Leon. She didn't know how she knew but she did... It had to be him, who else would be able to enter her thoughts without the use of magick? The lioness nodded her head in agreement, yes, she was hurt badly. Would she even be able to talk to tell them what happened? Makyna wanted to touch her and give her a few licks to let her know everything would be alright but she was afraid too. What if she hurt her more? No. She'd have tow ait and see though the worry was starting to eat away at her, it was obvious within her blue gaze that she was extremely concerned. "Tell us, please, we need to know what happened so we can help you." The lioness said, voice trembling from worry.

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words: 510
tagged: Leon, Amaria
ooc: ---
muse: 6/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

"Speech"

Very much to Amaria's dismay both of her siblings had heard her. She could have cried in her own self sorrow, but she would not allow that now. She felt Leon's nose sniffing at her head first and then along her body and she instinctively tensed up hoping he would not bump into her injured side. The tensing cause more pain to flutter up from her ribs to the surrounding areas, but she quickly pushed it away. Slowly she pushed herself up to sit upon her haunches. Her dull blue eyes glued onto her paws as her head hung almost as if she were ashamed. "I'm okay..." She murmured as she dug a toe at the ground she now sat on.

She just couldn't tell them. What would they think? What would the say if they knew she had caused something bad to happen with Cancer? She didn't want them upset at her too. Especially not them. They were her favorite ever and she loved them both dearly. It would break her little heart if they got mad at her and said mean things. What if they kicked her out of Pisces?! Where would she go if she had no home? All those bad thoughts quickly brought tears to her eyes once more, but they did not yet fall. She would not tell them what happened. She just could not face their reactions over it at this time. Even then they were probably made she had obviously interrupted something. Whatever it was they were doing she didn't understand at all, but she had ruined it and now they had to focus on her. She was such a bad little sister to them.

"I can't tell you..." She nearly whined as she ducked her head even lower. Still refusing to bring her gaze up to either of them as her entire body seemed to want to curl into itself and just let her disappear for a bit. How could she be so stupid as to allow this to happen anyways. She should have been paying attention. Should have kept her focus on more than one thing so stuff like this wouldn't happen. And even worse what if it had not been Cancer there, but someone else? Would it have ended up being even worse than her getting an injured side from a fellow leopard she had thought was her friend. He probably didn't want to be her friend now and that in itself made Amaria sniffle as she attempted to hold back her tears.

The two of them clamored over the little leopard. Leon felt the worry in his chest surge, pained at the sight of Amaria struggling so obviously. What had happened to her? What could he do to help her? Nothing now - he wasn't a healer. He was a guardian. All he could do was try to prevent it in the future, but that did a whole lot of nothing for him now. Amaria pulled herself up, but he could see that it hurt her to do so, and she tried to convince them that she was okay. She seemed almost ashamed of herself, relenting against telling them. It must have been something very bad for her to hesitate to tell them. "Amaria, please." He spoke gently, coming back to sit in front of her. The bear lowered his head slightly, seeking her gaze, trying to get her to understand that he and Makyna only wanted to help her. They were worried, so worried - and if it was a creature that had done this to her, he had to know so that he could deal with it appropriately.

Leon sucked in a short breath and looked to Makyna. His eyes reflected the concern he felt, but they held helplessness, too. What could he do? He was consumed by that lost opportunity, and now he couldn't even redeem himself in the face of injury. Leon focused back on Amaria. "We're just worried." He added, as if she couldn't tell before. Why in the world did she resist telling them what was wrong?

The lioness felt helpless as she sat next to the leopard. The poor girl was still in pain, very much so but she was adamant about not saying what had happened. If she was any judge the leopard seemed guilty. But why? When she refused to speak then there was nothing she could do... Or was there?

The lioness glanced briefly at Leon before raising a paw and touching the little leopard's back. It might have seemed like she was just petting the poor creature but the lioness had other intentions. With a slight glow of her gem the lioness searched into her memories with her magic. The leopard might feel a slight lethargy or a tugging of her memories with the use of her powers or she may not, everyone reacted differently to the spell.

However, Ky didn't. With her growing magic usage she was finding that using hindsight was becoming a more intimate experience. As it was this time. Rather than the third person view she used to have it was a first person view from Amaria's perspective. The view was distorted, the lights off and things were still shadowy but she could tell the leopard was in Orion. Climbing and playing as Amaria was known to do.

The leopard had just made it over the side of some throne and was about to pounce on Cancer when all of a sudden she felt a jolt, like every bit of blood in her body was being shift, moved, paused, and bruised. The lioness gave a gasp of pain but kept her paw on the leopard's back as not to end the vision. Her breath hitched as it felt like she couldn't breath, couldn't get enough air into her lungs as Cancer did something to Amaria. That wasn't the epitome of pain though... the epitome was when the leopard was slammed hard into the rocky ground. Air rushed out of her lungs and it felt like her insides had been shattered. Every time she tried to breath it felt like her chest was being shattered all over again.

The lioness yowled in pain before tearing her paw away from the leopard. She collapsed onto her side, gasping as she had felt the exact same thing as the younger cat. Even though it was now only echoed the memory of it made her weak. For a moment Makyna curled in on herself until the memory pain vanished and she could get up again though her breaths were still shaky and her paw pads were sweating. "Cancer... He did something to her... Slammed her into the throne at Orion with some power..." She shook her head as she remembered it. "I think it was an accident though, he seemed very surprised." That was the only defense she could muster. Even so, how had Cancer managed to come up with so much deadly power?

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words: 482
tagged: Leon, Amaria
ooc: ---
muse: 7/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

"Speech" 'thoughts'

The more they spoke the more Amaria felt worse. When Leon dipped down to catch a look at her eyes Amaria could do no other but look at him with tear stricken eyes. Oh, she didn't mean to cause such a mess. She truly didn't want things to go wrong. Not when things had started out so well. All she could muster was to inch just a little closer to Leon and give a small head bump to his nose, as if to reaffirm that she was okay. She didn't want them to worry and she definitely did not want them to get upset with the news of what had transpired between herself and Cancer.

Amaria nearly jumped when Makyna's paw touched her back, the movement was enough to jar her ribs and a soft mewl of pain escaped her. Then, all of a sudden, a strange sensation overwhelmed her. The shock of the sensation made Amaria gasp for air before she was suddenly sinking down to her belly. Her eyelids drooped as she remained there motionlessly. Not because of the sensation, but merely because she did not want to move all that much when her chest was against the ground. Her world seemed to spin out of view, her memories whirling right back to the forefront of her mind.

'No' Not again. She did not want to think of those memories. Yet now there she was, back in Orion. It was as if she was reliving it once again and a sob choked in her throat. Only this time she seemed to be standing back and watching as it all happened again. The moment she saw herself be flung down against the throne was when she felt that excruciating pain darken her world once more. She found she couldn't breath properly and it wasn't until Makyna's cries did the memories finally fade from her mindsight and vanish, pushing back to the dormant of her minds memory banks.

She couldn't stop the tears this time, could bring herself to look at either one of them again. When she heard Makyna speak her very heart froze. "I didn't mean to!" She suddenly sobbed, moving one paw to try and cover her face as she found that she could not move her left paw without causing pain to go coursing up her ribs. She had never felt so exhausted in her life. Both physically and now more so mentally. Whatever that sensation had been, it had drained her. She couldn't even will herself to stand up at the moment even if she wanted to. "It's all my fault..." Her words chocked out, even as she desperately tried to regain steady breathing, but with her sudden nerves fried and exhausted she couldn't contain her emotions any longer. So she would just lay there and accept what annoyance, or anger they would feel to learn about her upsetting Cancer. If they left her there then so be it, she would manage. For right now, however, she would just lay there and do nothing but wait and see.

When the younger leopard reached forward and booped her head against his nose, Leon's brows quirked into a look of concerned acceptance - at least she was okay enough to believe that she was okay. Leon couldn't really see the damage. He couldn't really smell blood, but by the way she held herself, it was obvious that there was pain somewhere. The bear exchanged a glance with his friend and huffed, stepping back. She would probably be able to handle this better than he. Leon was great at comforting - his big, warm, thick fur was best at it, then came his gentle words; but that was the extent of his abilities. When it came to actually healing someone, Leon was at a loss. Makyna would likely have better luck at this than he. He sat back and watched as the lioness caressed Amaria's back and seemed to daze off, staring into space, watching what had unfolded only moments before.

He started to worry when both of them seemed to experience pain. "Makyna," The bear spoke to her after she'd gasped, his wide eyes pinned to the lioness. Watching every quirk of her face, every emotion that flashed through her eyes. Everything she felt, he felt it stir in him too, and he wondered just what she was experiencing in Amaria's memory. Suddenly, both of them reeled back and cried out, suffering the same pain. His chest tightened. "Makyna!" He whimpered, scampering over to her side. The bear looked over her, afraid that something bad had happened - but after a moment, she collected herself and spoke a name. Cancer.

Leon's heart sunk even further. It was always Cancer, wasn't it? Taking Makyna, hurting Amaria; could he not let Leon live in peace? The bear frowned, knitting his brows together. He'd slammed her into something with his magic - yet Makyna claimed it was just an accident, immediately forgiving of him. Even Amaria apologized, sobbing that it was her fault. But the fact remained that this was Cancer's doing. Cancer was the one that had hurt her. He should have known better. The bear huffed and looked back to Amaria, wiping clean his expression of anger. "Amaria, it's okay," Leon spoke, turning back to her. "It's not your fault. He should've known better." He added and pinned his ears back. "But it's in the past now. All that matters is getting you home safe and sound, so you can rest and start to feel better." The bear offered her a small, encouraging smile, hoping that his words would reach her.