Serendipity was somewhere between exhausted and running on pure adrenaline when she walked back into Monoceros.

Her meeting with the Seven-- or at least just one of them --had ended in no one getting hurt or dying, at least, but it had ended in Serendipity having a whole lot of confusing feelings and the horrific realisation that people aren't always inclined to tell the truth. Surely, though, Azure wouldn't have lied to her? They were friends.

She was almost certain friends don't lie to friends.

And! She'd join the cave guardians sometime. That'd be fun, as long as they didn't try to murder her friend for stuff that her family did.

Siren scooted out towards her den where she left Azure, half-nervously. "Uhhh," she drawled on for a moment, coming over to the mouth of the shallow cave. "Azure? Are you in here?"

@Azure

Azure spotted Dip the moment she entered Monoceros. It'd occurred to her that with their plan, the best way to avoid getting snagged by vengeful Kingdom of Eridanus or Sinful Seven members would just be to hide up high and watch the entrance to the cave. It only had one tunnel, so this wasn't as challenging as it could've been.

Dip passed, and for a time Azure laid quiet, but nothing else followed. So down she went, flying the direction Dip had taken, until she spotted her down near her den in the distance. Azure landed, talons scratching on the rock, and tilted her head a little.

"Hey, Dip," she said, trying her best to withhold the tremor of nervousness in her. Her thoughts were racing. How did it go? Are they pissed? Did she even find them? Maybe she didn't, maybe it isn't even dealt with at all and I have to wait all over again-... She fidgeted, briefly, and took a breath. "So, uhh--what happened?"

@Siren

Serendipity was-- very slightly --disappointed that Azure wasn't in the den. But maybe she was off peeing or something. It's not like she even had the chance to turn around to wander back into the main area when a clatter came from behind her.

She flinched, slightly, then turned. "Oh, hi," Siren said, blinking several times. "So, uh, I found them? I mean-- one of them, he was this big white thing with four legs. Sorta like you, actually-- but he had a softer face and no feathers. Uhh."

Where to start? She rattled her head, briefly, trying to pick her words carefully.

"So, uh, his name was Pride and he said that he wouldn't hurt you or anything, but that he wanted to talk to you instead. Uhh. He called you Cloudberry, I think? Or he thinks you're someone called Cloudberry but that you changed your name," she wasn't even going to start trying to unpack that one, incidentally. "He said that you'd have to talk to a plant-grower in, uhhh, Eridanus as well. But that he was close to that guy? Called... uh... something."

She crinkled her nose for a moment, quietly trying to conveniently forget about the kidnapping thing. "He, uh, said that Huckleberry and Yewberry were doing fine. And he said that, uhh-- Jayberry? Was still alive and violent and that she'd attacked Yewberry once already. Um."

This likely wasn't good news for her, at least.

She opened her mouth to continue speaking when she remembered Pride being nigh unable to keep up with the rate in which she ran her own mouth, and instead gave Azure a moment to respond and digest.

@Azure

"Attacked Yewberry?" Her tone--and her mind--held surprise, more than worry. That wasn't something she'd expected.

Why? she wondered, and then--with a brief flame of anger--it hit her: Because they'd gotten caught. Because Jayberry's fucking evil, and hates 'traitors.' She let out a shaky breath.

"I almost wish I was a fighter," she said grimly. "To fight Jayberry," she then immediately clarified. But she wasn't; she'd never really fought anything, and certainly not well.

"And yeah, that stupid fucking name... that was what they gave me. I hated it. I hate it," she amended. She'd never felt anything about it, really, back when she was one of them--everything'd been a long, dull roar of nothing.

And Pride... she remembered him. Briefly, but she did. He was the one who'd brought the cages crashing down. He'd been stern, cold, severe, and the idea of facing him again sent a roil of hate and fear through her--emotions that she quickly tried to quash. She took a moment, again just breathing until she was again ready to talk.

Azure eyed Dip, then. "I don't know if I trust them, but... it's worth a shot to try, I guess. I can fly anyway, if it goes bad. ...Thanks, Dip. I owe you one. You're real nice, you know?"

Little did she know, Dip hadn't even finished talking yet.

@Siren

"I'll help you!" Siren squawked immediately, wide-eyed. It was an attempt at reassurance, of course. "Pride said they're guardians and I wanna be a guardian, too. He said he'd teach me magic and stuff, and if Jayberry is bad and you have to fight her I'll help you."

She nodded several times, and then twisted her mouth before she continued speaking. "Yeah, um-- he said that you wouldn't have made a mistake in changing name or something, I think?" She paused, briefly. "They all have -berry names and it sounds pretty dumb?"

It was difficult for Serendipity to even imagine anyone with the word 'berry' in their name was even remotely intimidating, or capable of doing bad things. Destroying stuff, like Azure said, or kidnapping like Pride had mentioned. She rolled her shoulder back.

"He, um... he said some of them might have to go to trial, too, because they were really bad people-- but you weren't one of them, right?" Her tone was vaguely hopeful-- even though a voice in the back of her head told her that it'd be easy for her to just lie about this, too. Just a quick reassurance would have been enough for her to stop doubting, right?

@Azure

"Trial," she echoed, and snorted a little listlessly. "Yeah, good luck taking Jay or Blackberry alive. No, I didn't do shit," she answered bluntly. She flopped down into a lazy, weak sort of just-lying-there and explained. "Not even sure which of 'em were my parents, but I was pretty much still a kid. All they were ever talking about was strength and killing and pain. Then one day they said hey, we're all going to kill some cat in Eridanus, for some fucking reason-..."

Azure shook some bitterness away. "I went with them, but I got knocked into my stone before I could do anything. I never hurt anyone," she explained dully, "not that mother wouldn't have wanted me to."

She shrugged, a little, again. "I always felt out of place with them. They went on and on about murder and shit, and I thought there was something wrong with me for thinking it wasn't so great, you know? Don't ever get caught up in something like that, Dip. Guardians--that sounds great. Just don't let 'em ever do bad stuff just because they say they're the good guys. It's not a nice thing to get stuck in." She tried to offer a little smile--a wan one, but a kind one anyway--but she had a beak, so that didn't work out so well.

@Siren

Serendipity shifted to sit down next to Azure as she plonked down onto the ground, blinking. She was hesitant at first, but she listened quietly and eventually set a small hand against Azure's forelimb. It was a small touch, but a gentle attempt at reassurance.

She was saying a lot of words that didn't entirely register, but she tried anyway. "But that's a good thing, right?" She asked. "That you never hurt anyone, and that you never wanted to hurt anyone? I mean-- it's-- it's not good to like, not feel like you're fitting in and stuff--" she knew plenty about this part, incidentally, "--but if they were bad then you wouldn't wanna be like them, right?"

The child shuffled a little closer, frowning, offering a gentle squeeze to Azure's forelimb. "I won't. Uhh. I promise I won't ever be mean to someone else just 'cause I think it's the right thing either."

For a long moment she was silent, ears flicking back quietly as she tried to think of what else she was meant to bring it up. Eventually, she shifted and spoke again. "Pride said we can go find a place in, uh, Orion, though? He offered to clear it out but we need to find it and stuff and I kinda wanna clear it out on our own. Uhh-- you don't need to help with that if you don't wanna, though?"

@Azure

Azure glanced at the hand on her forelimb, and gave it a gentle beak-nudge. At Dip's talk of being like her family, she vehemently shook her head.

"No, caves no, that's not what I meant--I'd just... I mean, I never... They stole my childhood from me, you know?" As quickly as she'd begun to explain, she shook her head again. "It--listen, it doesn't matter. I don't wanna talk about it. The--the place thing sounds better, yeah? I'd like to help, it'll make it... It'll make it feel more like ours. More like home," she added.

Azure then cast a sad look around Monoceros. Hot as it was, it was warm, bright, somehow happy; she'd managed to stay alone here, and safe (so far as she remembered, anyway) and content. Leaving it behind... the idea made her unhappy, but she didn't want Dip to go without her. She'd found a friend, and she wasn't willing to abandon that, yet.

I just... wish Orion was brighter, she thought miserably.

To Dip, though, she said nothing of her doubts and fears. Instead, swallowing that all down (hooray for horrible conceal-your-emotions training through childhood), she simply offered help: "If you want to move stuff from your den, I can help? I can fly, so just... I mean, I can carry stuff, or maybe you can tie it to my back. We don't have to go now, but just... whenever," she finished quietly.

She was glad Dip had reassured her about not doing bad shit, too, but she didn't really feel the need to comment on that one.

@Siren

Siren opened her mouth to speak-- but Azure was telling her to drop it. She still wanted to speak, as most children would, but she managed to restrain herself on the topic for now. It wouldn't have been fair to Azure if she kept pressing it after she made it very clear.

"Yeah!" She nodded along instead, latching to the new topic. "We can make pretty things to put around it? We can light them up, too, so we can see, and remember which place is ours." She glanced back at her stuff-- it wasn't a lot of stuff, but it would be a bit of a trek, especially since she was mostly exhausted as it was.

"We don't have to go right now if you don't want to?" She said-- though, honestly, she didn't really mind either way. "We can hang out here for a while, or go and take a look around?"

She paused, briefly, before adding-- "do you want me to come with you when you go talk to Pride?"

@Azure

"I can go whenever, just--I thought you might wanna rest. I know it's pretty far and you're just goin' back and forth. You gotta be tired?" Azure nodded into the den. "If you wanna nap or whatever, do it, yeah? I'll wait. This way you can be all fresh and shit when we go to pick a place out. Instead of falling on your face and snoring halfway there," she added, with humor.

"I'm down for all the lights. I can do that," she added, offering, probably forgetting that she was the only one of the two of them who could. "I look forward to it, Dip." This was half-reassurance... most of Azure didn't want to leave Monoceros. But she realized, saying it, that it was true too: some kid part of her that'd never gotten to show itself before, some child Azure that'd never been allowed out to play, was excited. Excited to have a friend, to make a place their own, to share it. It didn't occur to her that she should probably get to know someone better before going "roomie" and settling in with them; if she was unhappy she could always return to Monoceros, in her mind. She didn't really think of how upset she might get if Dip turned out to be, well. A dipshit. She liked her! She'd probably be fine. They'd be friends, and hang out, and talk, and do... friend stuff.

She paused in her thoughts.

What do friends do, exactly? ...She could wing it. It'd be fine. She hoped.

"I don't know, about Pride. I'd say yeah. But if he does something bad, if he turns out to be bad, I don't want you to be there and get hurt or something," she mused. "Did he seem like... mean? Violent?"

Leaving it to a week-old kid to be the judge of character on someone who held Azure's life in his hands was probably unwise--but she herself didn't have all that much worldly experience in the realms of "common sense."

@Siren