The feeling of moss underfoot was achingly familiar, cool and almost soothing to his otherwise sore paws. Caroller-song filled his ears, and Mercurius couldn't help but pause to take in a deep breath - but, ah, there were important things to fret about. Such as the current state of his old grove.

Its entrance was mired in brambles at this point, entirely unnecessary. Their thorns were marked with a few white clumps of hair that weren't his, but no blood - thank the Caves. At least his sons'd (and Pride?) still made use of this old place. The pale beast tossed a warm glance over his shoulder at his companion, before murmuring, "strange - I don't recall being gone for so long. And yet..."

His magicka pulsed gently.

"The forest already wishes to take this back," Mercy chided softly with a laugh. He waved a paw, shooing the briars back, "away, away." They shied from his touch, exaggeratedly animated and brought to life. With another gentle chuckle, the storyteller slunk into the overgrown den.

"Ah, what a mess," he sighed, eyeing the moss beds and settling upon one, "but, I can deal with that later. I'm sure we have much to catch up on, now that we're settled."

@Pride

Pride was following sedately, something about the long-missing sense of familiarity bringing a sort of warm relief to him. There was contentment in doing it, after so long--in following the white lion through the foliage, and to his grove.

He'd checked on the grove, periodically--the fur might've been in part his, or Azizos', or Arsu's, or a mixture of the three. Now, he could see that the gemstone that had lain there was shattered; shards of moonstone gleamed where they lay strewn throughout the foliage.

"Azizos has woken," Pride observed, mildly. "I suppose it's time to tell you, now. I wish I'd found you sooner-... I wish I'd found out sooner, but for some reason, our son entered his gemstone afterward." Pride took a breath, following Mercurius through the briars as they pulled out of the way, teased along by the white lion's magic.

I have something to tell you, he'd told Mercy, though he'd resolved to keep it until they were somewhere alone, someplace safe--it was important news, and now was the time to deliver it.

"Azizos created a child of his own. A little girl. She cannot speak, but she can think, mind-to-mind, as I do. Shy, but... kind, intelligent, and creative--good at heart. -We are grandfathers, Mercurius," he told him, expression crinkling into a smile.

He tried to conjure up an image of her, but all he managed to form was a splitting headache that threatened to knock him into a chrysalis of his own, for a moment. He sighed, grimaced, and closed his eyes. "...I wanted to show you," he told him, wryly, opening his eyes again, "but you know how that spell goes."

@Mercurius

Ah, the shards of moonstone - Mercy turned one over with a flick of his paw. They were dried, by now, but the scent lingered in the air. He hummed softly, a hopeful "I'm sure that he is doing well." A warm smile spread on inky lips as he turned to regard Pride, "he always has." The storyteller was certain that he wouldn't need any reassurances, but they were offered nonetheless.

In the same vein as their son, though... moonset eyes widened, brows hiking upwards. Mercurius wasn't at all upset that he hadn't known already, but truly knocked into a state of wonderment; his thoughts echoed we're grandfathers? before Pride could even begin to state as much. The pale beast was at a loss for words, turning again from where he'd been nudging aside some hanging vines from where they choked his old shelves and trinkets. His jaw worked with tried and failed words, before he finally settled on a breathless "that's wonderful..."

Pride wanted to show her to him, but the magic backfired horridly. Mercurius laughed - still sounding winded by the news - and extended his own reach, hoping to establish a mental link, comfortable and eager like holding your beloved's hands to ground yourself in your own giddiness. His mouth didn't move, but he spoke nonetheless, I'm listening - show me.

He added a moment later, Grandfathers - by the Caves, I feel old.

@Pride

Pride gave a quiet laugh, half-amused, half self-deprecating. His light magic was a big pain in the ass, and he knew it. Mercurius' link, then, was a welcome one, and he dipped his antlers in acknowledgement.

He would show him.

Pride brought an image of Vivilene into his mind, in a memory: the white stag lying curled in thick foliage, Vivilene listening wide-eyed to a story. She was silent--her lips never moved--Pride speaking, responding, in that muffled way that memories and dreams sometimes hold. And between his pauses there was nothing from the child, only tilts of her head as she responded the way Pride spoke now to Mercurius: mind to mind.

She looked like a violet version of Azizos, from what would be his neck downward: cloven-hoofed and delicately graceful, a long tail with a twist of paler fur at the end. And her waist, it seemed, began where a neck should have been: humanoid, and yet it wasn't disfigured as one might expect such an odd amalgamation of two bodies to become. It was upright, arms and torso, a humanoid face with long ears, and more of that pale hair piled atop her head. In this memory she was scrambling up, and bounding away. She reared up, front hooves leaning on a tree trunk, taking something in her hand; and then she returned, enthusiastically presenting in open palms a round and fuzzy peach.

Her childlike happiness in that moment was clear through the memory, and as it faded Pride gave a little nod. "She is a good child," was all he said aloud.

@Mercurius

Enter Vivilene, not at all how Mercurius expected, but a gentle-faced creature nonetheless. She certainly held the deer-like body, the whip of a lion's tail, pads on her hands and a cub's claws, but her upper half - it was reminiscent of a creature he'd only seen once before. The very one that hadn't been seen in thousands of years. Flat, warm, expressive. Pride certainly could've felt the lion's mild confusion, but it was quickly drowned in warmth.

It was a pleasant memory, hosting that distant sound of voices and a sort of light vignette around the edges. Even the fuzzy fruit in her palm held a peculiar bloomed effect, glowing as bright as her smile. Mercurius wanted to meet here then and there.

Magical strain forced him to end the link when Pride's memory faded out, but the storyteller just smiled and treasured it. "Vivilene," he tried on his tongue, "she certainly seems to be full of light." His tail flicked with a contented rumble. "I hope that Azizos will introduce us - properly - soon." Presuming the lion-stag was involved in the parenting process at all - ah, "who is her other parent?"

@Pride

Pride gave a little nod; light was certainly very her, very Vivilene. "She said that she had never met him, Mercurius. I do not think she even knew who her other parent was--Azizos, that is. The one raising her, I have not met; I think it is some form of humanoid, judging by her shape. She calls him--unsurprisingly--Dad." Pride offered an amused, warm smile. "But I should think that when we spot him, it won't be difficult to mistake, given the... uniqueness of that form, and color."

The stag picked his way through the overgrown grove, nosing here and there, gently, at familiar places and baubled stones. His movements were both fond and absent; the idle touching of someone for whom good memories rose up with every contact. "So, tell me, Mercurius--how have you been?"

It struck Pride that he hadn't mentioned, even, the war against Mother; but that, at least, could wait.

@Mercurius

"Never?" Mercurius noted, brows furrowing just so. His lip pursed slightly, though he smoothed it out with a lick at his jowls. "I have to wonder if he gave life - or stone - and fell asleep right after." Surely the kirin wouldn't just avoid his own child under normal circumstances; nor his fathers and brother. The pale beast was quietly considerate, noting to himself to find the lion-stag, wherever he'd gone.

But, ah, at least little Vivilene was growing up with one father - unsurprisingly named Dad. That was assuring enough, and so was... best be sure. "They live here?" Eridanus was a small cave, though it was choked with foliage. "It'll be hard to miss either of them, I'm certain." Not too many purple-cloaked creatures with hands roamed these caves, after all.

His magicka pressed at the overgrowth as Pride milled about, trailing his path through and pruning vines away. Mercy would never go so far as to outright tear plants away - he was merely a visitor, after all - but he shooed them off regardless. He was here now, and they ought be a bit more respectful of his things.

They were not respectful of his things, and didn't move one bit.

And here, he could talk about the startling quiet running away had offered, "as well one can be away from home. The dragons are amicable company, if loud. Oliver and I have populated quite a bit of the gorge with greenery." The thought of dust blowing in the wind brought a soft chuckle out of him, "though, it's difficult to keep soil from disappearing." Sigh. "I am grateful, though, to know that our people are safe."

Mercurius put on a sad smile. "It was only Rift that was being hunted; and, he has been gone - into a chrysalis, I hope." His tail flicked once. "The garden could not sense him, and I did not find traces of a struggle."

@Pride

"Here, yes," the white stag confirmed. "I imagine you'll run into them soon enough."

A pause, then, as he turned, as he listened to Mercurius speaking of Monoceros, of the dragons, of Rift and of the Gorge. "Well, if you ever need further decoration--gemstone or the like--please do let me know. Is it still--secret? Are you still in hiding, then? After Nemean's little fit with the Wallcrawlers, we've not heard from her at all, so we at least are--I think--in the clear."

A pause, again. "Do you know about the fungus in Cetus--about the battle fought there?" he asked, lifting a half-shrouded gaze to the lion. Perhaps Oliver knew, and had told him. Or not; Pride didn't know. Or maybe Dread had told him of it.

It was important enough to mention, but somehow it felt almost... sacriligious, bringing up war in such a moment of peace.

@Mercurius

"I'll have to get this place tidied up for them," he hummed softly, furrowing his brows in quiet focus, "mmm - ah!" At long, Eridanus allowed him a hold on it, and the vines and ferns shied away from the root-shelves, from crowding his baubles and choking out light. The grove visibly brightened, putting a rumble in Mercy's throat.

Next would be - bah, one thing at a time.

"I would come to you first," he murmured with a pleased note, "and - I'm not sure if... it could be considered a secret kingdom or not, given my own presence here." Mercurius deflated some, moonset eyes averting, "perhaps, it is selfish of me, but I'm tired of hiding. I miss us - and our sons." Beat. "Ah, to want and yearn is to be alive, isn't it?"

His head swung, regarding Pride more properly, "I'm glad to hear that you haven't been hassled further. Filling the cave with insects seems to be enough of a statement."

But, ah... there was talk of war. Mercurius grew just a tad more somber, a weak dip of his head punctuating, "some. I do not know many of the details - only the... more grim." Many of Cetus's lessers, brought to a horrid reduction of flesh and fungus. "All of them there, though... they were saved, yes? Reji, too?"

@Pride

Mercy's question gave him pause.

Reji, too? He hadn't a clue who Reji was. He'd never even asked--not after Astraea had turned up, and then left, also without asking. Not after-... the sunken bear, and the angry dragon (and didn't that sound like some sort of strange moral fable?).

"Saved-... I think so. But I do not know if this Reji was even there. Oddly enough, Astraea didn't ask. One of theirs--a large bear--was sunken in the mud, deeply, by accident during the fight. I asked Dread's help with exhuming him--he survived, he had returned to his chrysalis--and the dragon grew... impatient." Heart and breath quickened a tad as he remembered the dragon looming over him.

And, in turn, Orthoclase-Alpha; Overseer Vargas. Such memories were... unpleasant.

Pride glanced about, and noted what Mercurius was doing--cleaning up. He cast out his magic, trying to gently tease aside a few of the vines, but they resisted his touch. Wryly, Pride decided that they would answer only to the lion; and so he leaned his antlers down to lightly push them to one side. Nothing damaging--and he hoped the lion wouldn't mind--but he moved the worst of the tangles closer to him as he spoke.

"I did not have a chance to ask specifically about Reji. I will try to find out about her," he resolved. "Still, it was good to see most of the caves coming together to help, even if it was a fight. Bonebound, the dragon, the Seven, the Children. It was a strong, effective assault and I think that fungus--in Cetus, at least--has been wiped out, though Astraea warns there may be more. It is, from what I can tell, a sort of..." (and here Pride paused, searching for the right words to describe it) "...biological control mechanism. It controls those it infects." He had no idea of its source, of course--oh, if he had! but he didn't--and he gave Mercurius a little nod. "It is over, though, in any case. So tell me; aside from making your home in the Gorge, what have you been doing? And for that matter--was it difficult? Did you have to reshape much?" It was not, either, idle small talk; as he turned to Mercurius, his eyes gleamed dimly with curiosity.

@Mercurius