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In which Harper teaches Pons a game her mother taught her. Warmth blossoms.

Collab between myself and InTheDappledRain <3

In Which Icey Water Meets FlameWord Count: 4,846 Harper | @Zincwolf Pons | @InTheDappledRain Summary: - After the gathering that changed many cats lives in 39BC, Harper confronts Pons about Susi's kidnapping, Everest, and eventually... if he's alright, too. To be continued. Part 1Mentions: Everest, Susi, Whitney, Shabeel, Zataar, and many others EP to Pons and HarperHarperHarper frowned as she finally spotted Pons. She'd heard all about the gathering from her siblings at this point, having practically hounded them until they spilled the beans, but she felt like she wanted to talk to Pons after everything. She understood the dangers of running into the woods, and if Malone hadn't stopped him... She'd seen Malone come into camp, but he vanished not long after finishing talking to Everest, and she'd not seen him at all since. He was... weirdly good at vanishing like that. Seeing the red coat of the cat she was looking for though, she huffed and quickly padded over, not giving him time to escape either. "Pons!"Pons The gathering and the subsequent events that had lead up to the absolute disaster between himself, his mother, and what felt like half of the empire, still weighed down on Pons as he made his way through Ice Empire's camp. He had a lot to work on, and had hoped to maybe find Malone and talk to him some more. That is, until he heard his name. The ginger colored leopon froze in his steps, carefully (and fearfully) turning to look at whomever had called his name. He felt his heart lurch when he realized it was Harper. Not because he had ever had issues with the younger feline, but more due to how, well, everything was a mess with that family. There was a moment where he considered leaping out of the camp's entrance, but came to his senses before his feet could really take action. "Y-yeah?" Gods, he hated feeling so afraid every time one of them came near him. He was half convinced he'd never get to talk to Susitna again, and the fear of Everest sticking his nose into this business was... bothersome.HarperShe trotted close to him, slowing down a bit and half narrowing her eyes a bit. She wasn't like Everest, not boiling over in anger and offense, but she didn't look all that happy either. As she finally noticed his fear though, it made her pause. The scowl being replaced by a frown. "You... alright?"PonsThere was a brief moment where he didn't really process the snow leopard mixes words. He stood, frozen in panic for a few moments before it sunk in. She was asking if he was okay... definitely not what he had expected to hear from her mouth. When the leopon realized that she didn't hold a white hot fury to her gaze, he felt his shoulders relax ever so slightly. Good, at least she wasn't going to start yelling at him, yet. He flicked his ears back for a moment before dipping his head down. "...Not really..." He sighed, blowing his hair tuft out of his face for a moment before expanding on that thought. "It was a rough night, and I upset a lot of cats."Harper"... I heard" she mumbled. Sitting down. "You did a number on Susi" Originally, she'd come over in an anger about it. But... now... the words came out calmer. "Everest is boiling still"Pons"Susi was already having a hard time" He said defensively. "But I did upset them... and I've already apologized... I fought when Everest and while... I know Susi doesn't mind if we do it at other times... she was very upset with me for doing it while she was struggling in the woods. I shouldn't have done that, and I feel bad for making her feel worse. That isn't fair to them."He shifted a little the panic easing a little for a few moments. "Everest can still be angry. He didn't apologize properly to Susi and that's not fair to her either. I'm... still angry at him."That was an understatement. He was livid with Everest, only apologizing to his sister to make her feel better, but he also knew better than to launch into his full annoyance at the snow leopard mutt.HarperShe let out a tense little sigh. "Don't get me started on my hard headed brother" she grumbled. She didn't sound all that pleased about that fight either, honestly, and she didn't blame him forbeing mad at him for it. Regardless of how he felt about everything, it just got a bit extreme sometimes how he reacted to Pons when it came to Susi and Whitney. She got it, he felt protective. She did too, it was why she came out here. But hearing his side of the fight didn't seem all that different either from her own. He... did apologize, too. She regarded the ginger male for a long, long moment. Before she sighed through her nose a little in frustration, and looked down. "I was coming over here to yell at you a little, you know. I'm not going to anymore, but... man thats gonna be embarrassing coming back all calm" she mumbled. Trying to lighten the mood a bit. Almost like she was joking with himPonsHe tilted his head to the side, catching the sigh but not entirely connecting the dots in regards to what it was about. It seemed that the four cubs had their own issues with each other, which was something that didn't entirely compute for Pons and his own siblings.Though he was a bit more airheaded and hadn't exactly been able to keep straight his various siblings from both Mulligan and Lamia's respective litters. He would be the first to admit he hadn't been exactly close to the cheetah's kids as he had his own family... and even then his siblings had a very different family dynamic than Maryanne's kids. He had a good relationship with most of his siblings, right? She sighed again, this time bringing the ginger cat back to reality (sort of) forcing him to consider her next words, though the process didn't take more than a second. He snickered a little. "Sorry to disappoint?" He flicked his ears back for a moment. "I thought you were going to convince me to leave camp and never return from the look on your face... you looked very upset."Harper"I was upset" she grumbled softly, before she let out her frustration in a soft puff, untensing her shoulders. "What you did was dumb. You could've gotten your ears clawed off by my Ma, let alone yours... Evie really has it out for you too at this point" she mumbled. Then she wiped a paw over her muzzle, and shifted where she'd sat. "... Honestly though, that was a pretty cool gathering to get to be your first, huh? A murder plot and everything... I'm jealous"PonsThe lion mix relaxed by a margin, his ears flicking back as his eyes darted to the side. "He's had it out for me since we met." He grumbled in response, knowing that it was probably because of how he had treated (and sometimes still treated) Whitney. The little snow leopard mix wasn't exactly an easy cat for him to get along with... mostly because he cried over everything. He had heard some cat say once that adults didn't cry, and beside it caused such a pressure in his head. It was hard to focus with cats cried. Crying was stupid, but that wasn't really a conversation starter in this situation. "I could've followed our scent home. I've at least been out in the territory enough on my own to figure out how to get back." He sighed, shoulders falling as he remembered how many of the adults seemed to think he was just a cub with no idea what he was doing. Everybody thought he was just dragging Susi with him for the fun of it, but he had been genuinely concerned for his friend. They didn't handle stuff well, and he knew how he felt when everything was chaotic. It had to be worse for his friend. As she paused, he flicked his ears up, surprised that she wasn't digging further into him. Instead, she mentioned she was jealous of them. The gathering hadn't exactly been easy, but... she had a point. "Yeah. I know that Dad was kind of close to Zaatar... I... I don't know, it was an interesting event but I missed a lot cause I was focusing on Susi... and fought with Everest..."HarperHarper sighed. As dumb as Pons was reacting, she understood it at least. His heart had been in the right place, even if his brain had been up his butt in his actual reactions. She wiped a paw down her face a bit, shaking off any lingering frustraton along with the dust that clung to her warm toned fur. "I think my dad was too at one point... but that was before he left for a long time, apparently... I remember him telling stories of the Empire's march on the City? Zaatar led that, apparently. I don't really remember much of him besides how he walked around like a hero... to think that skull on his armour wasn't a prey animal... I thought it was, like. A deformed badger or something"Pons"Yeah, pretty scary to know that it was a cub's face." He paused, shaking the feeling that prickled his spine as he said the words out loud. "I disliked that so many cats just agreed with Lightning Empire without waiting for proof, but then he just up and admitted it." The details at that point were a little fuzzy, mostly because Pons had had Susi with him. If things had played out a little differently, he may have agreed with Zataar's reasoning behind having the child's skull still with him, but that was a point that was beyond Pons' actual perception. Thank goodness for that. "Apparently everybody got super uppity at that point, and mom was upset with me because I had asked why everybody was just ready to go after him without reason... like... it's a pretty big accusation but last I checked it wasn't safe to just... agree with whoever without listening to the other side first..." He paused again, thinking. "It was definitely an event. Why did you stay home?"Harper"How did you forget I'm not an apprentice yet? Dummy" she puffed, tone almost... playful.She did pause to think though, over what Everest and others had told her. "Apparently, the kids skull? One of his brothers was at the gathering, and he had evidence saying Zataar was one of the hunters around at the time when skull kid was last seen. Think his name was Snapper...? I dunno, some fish name. And his bother's name was Ocean...? No, Surf. Anyway, Snapper had that evidence. Surely though, if you killed an empire cub, and put it on your goddamn armour, you'd have the sense not to march back in with it. How dumb could he be, someone was obviously gonna call him out"Pons"How did you forget I'm not an apprentice yet? Dummy" Yeah, he deserved that. He had forgotten. "I don't know, I guess I assumed... Sorry." He tilted his head to the side, thinking. "Maybe he didn't think anybody would notice? Or maybe... nah, I don't think he forgot. I'm not really sure. I remember hearing something about him being a true warrior being yelled, but by that point I was with Malone and everybody else somehow had gotten to me and Susi." He wasn't going to mention how he was glad that Malone hadn't chastised him or treated him like he was a literal child still. When he had stopped Pons, he had been gentle, but not patronizing... and that was something he respected. "But yeah... I'm not sure... either way there was definitely something wrong with the guy... So much for being a war hero."HarperShe scoffed at that, finding the war hero line pretty funny "You know who's actually a war hero? My Great Nana Shay" she purred. "I bet she looks so cool up there on the rocks, right? I can't wait until the next gathering. I'll totally be apprenticed by then. I don't know why I didn't quite cut it this time" she grumbled. "Oh well... who's your mentor, anyway?"PonsHis eyes widened a little bit. He hadn't realized that Susi and company were related to Shabeel in any way. "Woah." He whispered before regaining his composure. "Yeah, she looks so strong standing above everybody. I'm glad we have her as a leader..." He would've said the same about how he was glad about his own family being descended from leaders, but with how his grandma Chara had been acting on the return, he wasn't entirely sure if it was a thing to be proud of. A lot of cats, he recalled, had been angry at her. "I'm not sure either. You seem perfectly capable if you ask me... Maybe your Nana is waiting for the perfect mentor to come along, though?" He tilted his head to the side in thought. Shabeel did seem to care about her mentor and apprentice pairings, so that must've been the reason. "My mentor is Mara, though I haven't really gone out with her much." Though that was most assuredly more on Pons than it was on her. Pons just didn't want to admit it.Harper"Mara? Aw, thats cool..." she grumbled. "I hope you're right... and I also hope mine is cool too, when we get there..." She shook her fur out, trying not to be jealous of that particular pairing. Though if she was honest with herself, she was jealous of most of the pairings she'd heard about recently. "Did you hear that Evie got the Ice Ghost?" she scoffed. "He's curious, but... my parents always told us to stay away from him"Pons"You'll have to let me know when it happens, maybe I can go out and train with ya." He and Susi were already always out together, what would it hurt to have another family member tagging along? Besides, he could maybe help Harper get a bit of a head start if she wanted it. That was a big if. He then paused, flicking his ear to the side. Ice Ghost. He hadn't heard the title before, but after a moment it clicked to place that she was talking about Malone. "I was never told to avoid him... wonder if there was a reason for that with your family?" It was an interesting thing to wonder, but Pons wasn't exactly the investigative type. "He seems calm. I'm... kind of jealous that he's paired with your brother." Kind of would eventually become an understatement, but in this moment, he was being truthful. After all, Malone had been the one to bring order to the ordeal at the gathering without making Pons feel like he was in more trouble than he already happened to be in... He needed to talk to his mom. He had been kind of rude to her.HarperHarper shrugged. "Honestly, we don't have any clue. Evie wants to to find out more about him through like - this apprenticeship? I think he should just ask Great Nana Shay to change it" she grumbled. "He could be dangerous. If you think you could take it on thought, maybe you should ask her to swap you mentors" she scoffed. "Better then my idiot brother getting himself potentially mauled in the woods. You ever notice he's like, never around? Ever? And then just, appears when Shay calls for him in the Small Council? Its creepy. Evie and I have spotted him just, watching us sometimes from behind rocks or while he's talking to the other council members"PonsHe tilted his head to the side. "Yeah, it'd probably be smarter to ask her than to go to your brother. Everest would probably claw my ears off before listening to me." He huffed a little, though it did seem pretty weird. "I've never seen him as a threat, but it is a little weird that he kind of just appears and disappears at will. I can see why you guys call him the Ice Ghost." He paused, considering everything. "He is colored like the rocks of the territory, though. I wonder how often he's actually there and you guys just don't see him? Though him watching you guys is kind of... odd." He had to think about it. Wasn't there a reason? Something he had been told not to bring up? Eh, if that was the case he had forgotten entirely what had gone down.HarperHarper did, in fact, actually reach out and gently smack him at the colouration comment this time, half glaring. "Pons! That just makes him way creepier!" she whined, batting at his ears with three or four half hearted boxes. "You're gonna give me snow leopard themed nightmares!" PonsHe rubbed where she hit him, looking kind of offended, but took her patting at his ears without complaint. She had a point. "Well just pretend like I'm right around the corner and it'll help, I'm sure." He joked, knowing full well that he wasn't capable of being ghost like with his reddish colored pelt. "I'm basically the opposite of a ghost with how easy it is to spot me anywhere."HarperShe rolled her eyes, and gave him another pap just for good measure at the offended look. Offended at a pat. Big baby man. Evie took way worse without complaint. It was kind of nice, having another teasing partner though. How easy their conversation flowed. At the help comment though, she tried to hide her laugh with a cough, turning her head away for a moment to try and look like her mouth wasn't quirking up at the corners. "My hero " she purred, practically dripping with playful sarcasm. "I'll be sure to call on you to whisk me off my paws" Then, after a long pause, she lifted a paw to seemingly examine her claws. "Bet you couldn't even lift me"PonsHe snickered at her response, knowing full well that it was full to the brim with sarcasm, yet he felt his ears burn a little at the statement anyway. Gently, he batted back at her. "You think I'm weak? I'll show you!" While she was busy looking at her paws, clearly trying to feign disinterest, he moved forward to try and maneuver her onto his back. Clearly scruffing her wasn't going to be the way to go, but she definitely wasn't going to be impossible to pick up. Strength and size were on his side, though whether or not he actually managed to pick her up was her cooperation. "I'm sure I could easily whisk you away. After all, I was able to pick up your sister."HarperHarper let out a soft a soft grunt as Pons was suddenly all up in her business, not expecting it in the slightest She thought she might get a rise out of him, sure, but for him to have the balls to actually- Pons was already half way under her before, ears burning at the sudden flush of heat that rolled over her face, she papped at his back to try and wriggle away - but she clearly wasn't trying very hard. Not upset. Just playing along. "W-Whisk me away to what, your secret safety den in the trees outside the gathering~?" she scoffed back, not quite able to roll off of him, her reply sputtered as a result She'd never really played or rough housed with another cat outside her family - let alone one that was going through an awkwardly handsome phase, for sure. "What would Malone think abut you stealing up random girls, huh?"PonsLaughter, true genuine laughter, erupted from him as she batted at him as playfully as she did. He hadn't even managed to do something like this with Susi, and they went out on the territory together quite often. He snickered. "Nah, I'll just take you to my wall back in the old camp. I'm sure that counts as a safety den." Amusement lit his eyes as he turned to look at her, assessing how she was sitting on him. "Why would you care what the Ice Ghost had to think about this, wasn't the point that I was protecting you from him." He responded back, knowing full well that she was poking fun at him because of the gathering. She was a little heavier than Susi, but not by too much. Out of the siblings, he was pretty convinced the only cat he couldn't pick up was Everest, and that was because much like his head, his body was built like a rock.Harper"Well you seem to care so much about his opinion, I was just saying~" she cooed, genuinely surprised at the fact he'd gotten as far as he had with picking her up. She knew Susi was kind of heavy, and she'd mostly just been messing with him about not being able to pick her up - but actually managing it? She was kind of impressed. "Maybe you're secretly working for him. Spying on us when he's not around" To punctuate this, she bit at the bottom of his mane, trying to grapple him, a happy gleam to her eyes. She'd never actually heard him laugh before. PonsHe gently bumped her, amused by her teasing. He could get used to this... how easy a friendship was forming between them. It was almost like how he had gotten to be friends with Susi. He didn't have to think about it. "Oh yes, let me go report to him now. Harper, cunning as usual... Everest has rocks in his brain and is built like one too.... Susi is Susi, and Whit is always crying. I'm sure that'll be an update for the ages." Her teeth digging into his mane was a mild sensation, he had a lot of fluff coming in around his shoulders that made it hard to really tell where his body began. Yet the sensation stopped him in his tracks. It tickled, that's for sure, but there was this underlying otherness that he couldn't quite put a paw on. "What are you doing by the way?"Harper"What am I doing" she scoffed, like it was the dumbest question ever - before promptly spitting out the little loose hairs she'd managed to get in her mouth from biting what she thought was skin, but turned out to be purely fluff As his comment about her heavier set brother actually sank in though, she couldn't help an actual, true laugh spilling from her chest. It was true. She couldn't deny that. "I'm sure he'll care like, so much" she nodded, sagely. She got a little distracted in her search for his actual neck though, having been pawing apart his fuzz while they talked. "Jeez, your neck like, disappeared under fuzz" she giggled despite herself. She pawed at his neck a bit, shifting to flop on him even more as a result of her twisting, her long, lion like tail swishing behind her, brown tip soft and long furred. The snowy-iest thing about her was her rosettes, but even then, she was more just like her mother in that aspect. She almost looked entirely lion, compared to her siblings. "You're like... half lion or something, right?" she hummed, finding where fur ended finally after some careful fussing, thoughtful. In a pretty decent mood after all their play fighting. Unknown to most of Ice, she was actually kind of a cuddly cat, reserving it for the home den or her siblings mostly. Like hell she'd actually admit it out loud to Pons though, that his warmth and familiarity was comforting. Curling her tail up a bit to show off the little tuft, she chuckled and continued with a lighthearted "Between us, we make a whole lion, huh?" Pons"So much so that I'll be appointed Patrol Captain along side him, I'm sure." He added, watching as little bits of his mane carried on the wind in front of him, he made a few steps forward, proving that he was just fine to carry Harper as they were. Though he couldn't help but beam over her comment on how thick his mane was. He wouldn't admit it to many cats, but he did like how it was growing in. Compared to the little fluff that he had sported in his cubhood, he felt that the way it sprouted around his shoulders and became the unruly mess that it was behind his ears was nice. "Yeah, it's pretty thick. My mom's a full lion and my dad was half, so I'm like... uh..." He paused, trying to figure out exactly what that meant for him. "I'm mostly lion." He settled on, nodding to himself. How much was mostly lion? He wasn't sure himself, but it was a lot of lion. The weight and feeling of her paws in his mane went from strange to comforting pretty quickly as she searched for his neck. He was actually quite pleased with himself, getting a laugh out of her seemed to be no easy task. "I think you're right though. Though I'm sure you've got some weird mix up of lion in you." He smiled, remembering how Susi had recently brought up her own concerns about their mane growing in and how they were getting bigger. "Maybe you'll start sporting some fluff too, hmm?"HarperShe snorted softly at that. "Nah... my furs all smooth. Even Whitney has thicker fur then me. We recon its because of the tiger" she hummed. "I think... Mum's mostly like... lion and cougar? With snow leopard, and dads, um... I think Jaguar and tiger, with like... other stuff mixed in?" she offered. In the end though, she just shrugged. "I take after Ma most anyway, so. Makes sense" Her tail and one of her backlegs dragged a bit on the ground as he started wandering, making her grab on to his shoulders to avoid sliding off entirely like an idiot. "Alright, alright, you proved your point"Pons”An interesting combo for all of you that’s for sure.” He hummed, stopping with a devilish grin. ”Would the lady like to be let down then?” He slowly moved down so that she wasn’t wiggling to get off of him, leaning his weight down onto his front paws. ”I know Susi is mostly fluff, I recon they’ll have a full mane by the time their two or three years old.” He added after a moment, thinking on how different the four siblings were from one another.Harper"The lady would" she puffed, glad of the added inch or two. Harper flopped onto the ground regardless though, mostly to continue their weird little play session. Her front leg folded beneath her and she rolled onto her shoulder and then flat onto her back, paws reaching up to the sky in a stretch, before letting them relax again, rested on her chest. "I bet her mane is gonna be pretty cool..." Harper agreed "Hey - you wanna play a game my mum told us about? I'd play it with Evie and Whitney all the time before"PonsHe laughed as she flopped down beside him, his own haunches finding the ground quickly after. He hadn't expected Harper to be this way, maybe more like Everest or Whitney, but he wasn't complaining. He liked her. "Yeah. I think it'll be a nice silver or maybe a darker grey. We'll have to wait to see how it comes in." He pawed at his own mane, thinking about how it was seemingly growing in in patches, with the back of his neck sporting most of it. Maybe someday he'd be lucky enough for it to be fully grown in. Her next request didn't take nearly as much though for him. Placing his paw back down ont he ground, he nodded. "Sure! I'm down for a game. What is it about?"HarperShe nodded, agreeing with him It be pretty cool if Susi had a grey one. It'd match the rest of her fur. At the question though, she motioned for him to come closer. "You lay on your back - and look st the sky. If its night time... you try and make shapes in the stars. But in the day, you point out what cloud look like. You cant play it on on overcast days, or cloudy nights usually cause they all look the same. You cant just say it's a cloud, that's not playing right" she snickered "So, for instance. That one looks like a charging bull" she pointed out, pointing with her paw into the skyPonsHe flopped down onto his back beside her, eyes glancing up. Okay, so he couldn't just say they were clouds. That was an easy enough task. Quietly, he watched as she pointed up at the sky towards a particular cloud. It was changing shape in the wind, but he could see exactly what she meant. Oh, that one over there looks like a deer and it's fawn. You can even see the little spots." He added, pointing towards the one he had seen.To Be Continued~

Description
In which Harper teaches Pons a game her mother taught her. Warmth blossoms.

Collab between myself and InTheDappledRain <3

In Which Icey Water Meets FlameWord Count: 4,846 Harper | @Zincwolf Pons | @InTheDappledRain Summary: - After the gathering that changed many cats lives in 39BC, Harper confronts Pons about Susi's kidnapping, Everest, and eventually... if he's alright, too. To be continued. Part 1Mentions: Everest, Susi, Whitney, Shabeel, Zataar, and many others EP to Pons and HarperHarperHarper frowned as she finally spotted Pons. She'd heard all about the gathering from her siblings at this point, having practically hounded them until they spilled the beans, but she felt like she wanted to talk to Pons after everything. She understood the dangers of running into the woods, and if Malone hadn't stopped him... She'd seen Malone come into camp, but he vanished not long after finishing talking to Everest, and she'd not seen him at all since. He was... weirdly good at vanishing like that. Seeing the red coat of the cat she was looking for though, she huffed and quickly padded over, not giving him time to escape either. "Pons!"Pons The gathering and the subsequent events that had lead up to the absolute disaster between himself, his mother, and what felt like half of the empire, still weighed down on Pons as he made his way through Ice Empire's camp. He had a lot to work on, and had hoped to maybe find Malone and talk to him some more. That is, until he heard his name. The ginger colored leopon froze in his steps, carefully (and fearfully) turning to look at whomever had called his name. He felt his heart lurch when he realized it was Harper. Not because he had ever had issues with the younger feline, but more due to how, well, everything was a mess with that family. There was a moment where he considered leaping out of the camp's entrance, but came to his senses before his feet could really take action. "Y-yeah?" Gods, he hated feeling so afraid every time one of them came near him. He was half convinced he'd never get to talk to Susitna again, and the fear of Everest sticking his nose into this business was... bothersome.HarperShe trotted close to him, slowing down a bit and half narrowing her eyes a bit. She wasn't like Everest, not boiling over in anger and offense, but she didn't look all that happy either. As she finally noticed his fear though, it made her pause. The scowl being replaced by a frown. "You... alright?"PonsThere was a brief moment where he didn't really process the snow leopard mixes words. He stood, frozen in panic for a few moments before it sunk in. She was asking if he was okay... definitely not what he had expected to hear from her mouth. When the leopon realized that she didn't hold a white hot fury to her gaze, he felt his shoulders relax ever so slightly. Good, at least she wasn't going to start yelling at him, yet. He flicked his ears back for a moment before dipping his head down. "...Not really..." He sighed, blowing his hair tuft out of his face for a moment before expanding on that thought. "It was a rough night, and I upset a lot of cats."Harper"... I heard" she mumbled. Sitting down. "You did a number on Susi" Originally, she'd come over in an anger about it. But... now... the words came out calmer. "Everest is boiling still"Pons"Susi was already having a hard time" He said defensively. "But I did upset them... and I've already apologized... I fought when Everest and while... I know Susi doesn't mind if we do it at other times... she was very upset with me for doing it while she was struggling in the woods. I shouldn't have done that, and I feel bad for making her feel worse. That isn't fair to them."He shifted a little the panic easing a little for a few moments. "Everest can still be angry. He didn't apologize properly to Susi and that's not fair to her either. I'm... still angry at him."That was an understatement. He was livid with Everest, only apologizing to his sister to make her feel better, but he also knew better than to launch into his full annoyance at the snow leopard mutt.HarperShe let out a tense little sigh. "Don't get me started on my hard headed brother" she grumbled. She didn't sound all that pleased about that fight either, honestly, and she didn't blame him forbeing mad at him for it. Regardless of how he felt about everything, it just got a bit extreme sometimes how he reacted to Pons when it came to Susi and Whitney. She got it, he felt protective. She did too, it was why she came out here. But hearing his side of the fight didn't seem all that different either from her own. He... did apologize, too. She regarded the ginger male for a long, long moment. Before she sighed through her nose a little in frustration, and looked down. "I was coming over here to yell at you a little, you know. I'm not going to anymore, but... man thats gonna be embarrassing coming back all calm" she mumbled. Trying to lighten the mood a bit. Almost like she was joking with himPonsHe tilted his head to the side, catching the sigh but not entirely connecting the dots in regards to what it was about. It seemed that the four cubs had their own issues with each other, which was something that didn't entirely compute for Pons and his own siblings.Though he was a bit more airheaded and hadn't exactly been able to keep straight his various siblings from both Mulligan and Lamia's respective litters. He would be the first to admit he hadn't been exactly close to the cheetah's kids as he had his own family... and even then his siblings had a very different family dynamic than Maryanne's kids. He had a good relationship with most of his siblings, right? She sighed again, this time bringing the ginger cat back to reality (sort of) forcing him to consider her next words, though the process didn't take more than a second. He snickered a little. "Sorry to disappoint?" He flicked his ears back for a moment. "I thought you were going to convince me to leave camp and never return from the look on your face... you looked very upset."Harper"I was upset" she grumbled softly, before she let out her frustration in a soft puff, untensing her shoulders. "What you did was dumb. You could've gotten your ears clawed off by my Ma, let alone yours... Evie really has it out for you too at this point" she mumbled. Then she wiped a paw over her muzzle, and shifted where she'd sat. "... Honestly though, that was a pretty cool gathering to get to be your first, huh? A murder plot and everything... I'm jealous"PonsThe lion mix relaxed by a margin, his ears flicking back as his eyes darted to the side. "He's had it out for me since we met." He grumbled in response, knowing that it was probably because of how he had treated (and sometimes still treated) Whitney. The little snow leopard mix wasn't exactly an easy cat for him to get along with... mostly because he cried over everything. He had heard some cat say once that adults didn't cry, and beside it caused such a pressure in his head. It was hard to focus with cats cried. Crying was stupid, but that wasn't really a conversation starter in this situation. "I could've followed our scent home. I've at least been out in the territory enough on my own to figure out how to get back." He sighed, shoulders falling as he remembered how many of the adults seemed to think he was just a cub with no idea what he was doing. Everybody thought he was just dragging Susi with him for the fun of it, but he had been genuinely concerned for his friend. They didn't handle stuff well, and he knew how he felt when everything was chaotic. It had to be worse for his friend. As she paused, he flicked his ears up, surprised that she wasn't digging further into him. Instead, she mentioned she was jealous of them. The gathering hadn't exactly been easy, but... she had a point. "Yeah. I know that Dad was kind of close to Zaatar... I... I don't know, it was an interesting event but I missed a lot cause I was focusing on Susi... and fought with Everest..."HarperHarper sighed. As dumb as Pons was reacting, she understood it at least. His heart had been in the right place, even if his brain had been up his butt in his actual reactions. She wiped a paw down her face a bit, shaking off any lingering frustraton along with the dust that clung to her warm toned fur. "I think my dad was too at one point... but that was before he left for a long time, apparently... I remember him telling stories of the Empire's march on the City? Zaatar led that, apparently. I don't really remember much of him besides how he walked around like a hero... to think that skull on his armour wasn't a prey animal... I thought it was, like. A deformed badger or something"Pons"Yeah, pretty scary to know that it was a cub's face." He paused, shaking the feeling that prickled his spine as he said the words out loud. "I disliked that so many cats just agreed with Lightning Empire without waiting for proof, but then he just up and admitted it." The details at that point were a little fuzzy, mostly because Pons had had Susi with him. If things had played out a little differently, he may have agreed with Zataar's reasoning behind having the child's skull still with him, but that was a point that was beyond Pons' actual perception. Thank goodness for that. "Apparently everybody got super uppity at that point, and mom was upset with me because I had asked why everybody was just ready to go after him without reason... like... it's a pretty big accusation but last I checked it wasn't safe to just... agree with whoever without listening to the other side first..." He paused again, thinking. "It was definitely an event. Why did you stay home?"Harper"How did you forget I'm not an apprentice yet? Dummy" she puffed, tone almost... playful.She did pause to think though, over what Everest and others had told her. "Apparently, the kids skull? One of his brothers was at the gathering, and he had evidence saying Zataar was one of the hunters around at the time when skull kid was last seen. Think his name was Snapper...? I dunno, some fish name. And his bother's name was Ocean...? No, Surf. Anyway, Snapper had that evidence. Surely though, if you killed an empire cub, and put it on your goddamn armour, you'd have the sense not to march back in with it. How dumb could he be, someone was obviously gonna call him out"Pons"How did you forget I'm not an apprentice yet? Dummy" Yeah, he deserved that. He had forgotten. "I don't know, I guess I assumed... Sorry." He tilted his head to the side, thinking. "Maybe he didn't think anybody would notice? Or maybe... nah, I don't think he forgot. I'm not really sure. I remember hearing something about him being a true warrior being yelled, but by that point I was with Malone and everybody else somehow had gotten to me and Susi." He wasn't going to mention how he was glad that Malone hadn't chastised him or treated him like he was a literal child still. When he had stopped Pons, he had been gentle, but not patronizing... and that was something he respected. "But yeah... I'm not sure... either way there was definitely something wrong with the guy... So much for being a war hero."HarperShe scoffed at that, finding the war hero line pretty funny "You know who's actually a war hero? My Great Nana Shay" she purred. "I bet she looks so cool up there on the rocks, right? I can't wait until the next gathering. I'll totally be apprenticed by then. I don't know why I didn't quite cut it this time" she grumbled. "Oh well... who's your mentor, anyway?"PonsHis eyes widened a little bit. He hadn't realized that Susi and company were related to Shabeel in any way. "Woah." He whispered before regaining his composure. "Yeah, she looks so strong standing above everybody. I'm glad we have her as a leader..." He would've said the same about how he was glad about his own family being descended from leaders, but with how his grandma Chara had been acting on the return, he wasn't entirely sure if it was a thing to be proud of. A lot of cats, he recalled, had been angry at her. "I'm not sure either. You seem perfectly capable if you ask me... Maybe your Nana is waiting for the perfect mentor to come along, though?" He tilted his head to the side in thought. Shabeel did seem to care about her mentor and apprentice pairings, so that must've been the reason. "My mentor is Mara, though I haven't really gone out with her much." Though that was most assuredly more on Pons than it was on her. Pons just didn't want to admit it.Harper"Mara? Aw, thats cool..." she grumbled. "I hope you're right... and I also hope mine is cool too, when we get there..." She shook her fur out, trying not to be jealous of that particular pairing. Though if she was honest with herself, she was jealous of most of the pairings she'd heard about recently. "Did you hear that Evie got the Ice Ghost?" she scoffed. "He's curious, but... my parents always told us to stay away from him"Pons"You'll have to let me know when it happens, maybe I can go out and train with ya." He and Susi were already always out together, what would it hurt to have another family member tagging along? Besides, he could maybe help Harper get a bit of a head start if she wanted it. That was a big if. He then paused, flicking his ear to the side. Ice Ghost. He hadn't heard the title before, but after a moment it clicked to place that she was talking about Malone. "I was never told to avoid him... wonder if there was a reason for that with your family?" It was an interesting thing to wonder, but Pons wasn't exactly the investigative type. "He seems calm. I'm... kind of jealous that he's paired with your brother." Kind of would eventually become an understatement, but in this moment, he was being truthful. After all, Malone had been the one to bring order to the ordeal at the gathering without making Pons feel like he was in more trouble than he already happened to be in... He needed to talk to his mom. He had been kind of rude to her.HarperHarper shrugged. "Honestly, we don't have any clue. Evie wants to to find out more about him through like - this apprenticeship? I think he should just ask Great Nana Shay to change it" she grumbled. "He could be dangerous. If you think you could take it on thought, maybe you should ask her to swap you mentors" she scoffed. "Better then my idiot brother getting himself potentially mauled in the woods. You ever notice he's like, never around? Ever? And then just, appears when Shay calls for him in the Small Council? Its creepy. Evie and I have spotted him just, watching us sometimes from behind rocks or while he's talking to the other council members"PonsHe tilted his head to the side. "Yeah, it'd probably be smarter to ask her than to go to your brother. Everest would probably claw my ears off before listening to me." He huffed a little, though it did seem pretty weird. "I've never seen him as a threat, but it is a little weird that he kind of just appears and disappears at will. I can see why you guys call him the Ice Ghost." He paused, considering everything. "He is colored like the rocks of the territory, though. I wonder how often he's actually there and you guys just don't see him? Though him watching you guys is kind of... odd." He had to think about it. Wasn't there a reason? Something he had been told not to bring up? Eh, if that was the case he had forgotten entirely what had gone down.HarperHarper did, in fact, actually reach out and gently smack him at the colouration comment this time, half glaring. "Pons! That just makes him way creepier!" she whined, batting at his ears with three or four half hearted boxes. "You're gonna give me snow leopard themed nightmares!" PonsHe rubbed where she hit him, looking kind of offended, but took her patting at his ears without complaint. She had a point. "Well just pretend like I'm right around the corner and it'll help, I'm sure." He joked, knowing full well that he wasn't capable of being ghost like with his reddish colored pelt. "I'm basically the opposite of a ghost with how easy it is to spot me anywhere."HarperShe rolled her eyes, and gave him another pap just for good measure at the offended look. Offended at a pat. Big baby man. Evie took way worse without complaint. It was kind of nice, having another teasing partner though. How easy their conversation flowed. At the help comment though, she tried to hide her laugh with a cough, turning her head away for a moment to try and look like her mouth wasn't quirking up at the corners. "My hero " she purred, practically dripping with playful sarcasm. "I'll be sure to call on you to whisk me off my paws" Then, after a long pause, she lifted a paw to seemingly examine her claws. "Bet you couldn't even lift me"PonsHe snickered at her response, knowing full well that it was full to the brim with sarcasm, yet he felt his ears burn a little at the statement anyway. Gently, he batted back at her. "You think I'm weak? I'll show you!" While she was busy looking at her paws, clearly trying to feign disinterest, he moved forward to try and maneuver her onto his back. Clearly scruffing her wasn't going to be the way to go, but she definitely wasn't going to be impossible to pick up. Strength and size were on his side, though whether or not he actually managed to pick her up was her cooperation. "I'm sure I could easily whisk you away. After all, I was able to pick up your sister."HarperHarper let out a soft a soft grunt as Pons was suddenly all up in her business, not expecting it in the slightest She thought she might get a rise out of him, sure, but for him to have the balls to actually- Pons was already half way under her before, ears burning at the sudden flush of heat that rolled over her face, she papped at his back to try and wriggle away - but she clearly wasn't trying very hard. Not upset. Just playing along. "W-Whisk me away to what, your secret safety den in the trees outside the gathering~?" she scoffed back, not quite able to roll off of him, her reply sputtered as a result She'd never really played or rough housed with another cat outside her family - let alone one that was going through an awkwardly handsome phase, for sure. "What would Malone think abut you stealing up random girls, huh?"PonsLaughter, true genuine laughter, erupted from him as she batted at him as playfully as she did. He hadn't even managed to do something like this with Susi, and they went out on the territory together quite often. He snickered. "Nah, I'll just take you to my wall back in the old camp. I'm sure that counts as a safety den." Amusement lit his eyes as he turned to look at her, assessing how she was sitting on him. "Why would you care what the Ice Ghost had to think about this, wasn't the point that I was protecting you from him." He responded back, knowing full well that she was poking fun at him because of the gathering. She was a little heavier than Susi, but not by too much. Out of the siblings, he was pretty convinced the only cat he couldn't pick up was Everest, and that was because much like his head, his body was built like a rock.Harper"Well you seem to care so much about his opinion, I was just saying~" she cooed, genuinely surprised at the fact he'd gotten as far as he had with picking her up. She knew Susi was kind of heavy, and she'd mostly just been messing with him about not being able to pick her up - but actually managing it? She was kind of impressed. "Maybe you're secretly working for him. Spying on us when he's not around" To punctuate this, she bit at the bottom of his mane, trying to grapple him, a happy gleam to her eyes. She'd never actually heard him laugh before. PonsHe gently bumped her, amused by her teasing. He could get used to this... how easy a friendship was forming between them. It was almost like how he had gotten to be friends with Susi. He didn't have to think about it. "Oh yes, let me go report to him now. Harper, cunning as usual... Everest has rocks in his brain and is built like one too.... Susi is Susi, and Whit is always crying. I'm sure that'll be an update for the ages." Her teeth digging into his mane was a mild sensation, he had a lot of fluff coming in around his shoulders that made it hard to really tell where his body began. Yet the sensation stopped him in his tracks. It tickled, that's for sure, but there was this underlying otherness that he couldn't quite put a paw on. "What are you doing by the way?"Harper"What am I doing" she scoffed, like it was the dumbest question ever - before promptly spitting out the little loose hairs she'd managed to get in her mouth from biting what she thought was skin, but turned out to be purely fluff As his comment about her heavier set brother actually sank in though, she couldn't help an actual, true laugh spilling from her chest. It was true. She couldn't deny that. "I'm sure he'll care like, so much" she nodded, sagely. She got a little distracted in her search for his actual neck though, having been pawing apart his fuzz while they talked. "Jeez, your neck like, disappeared under fuzz" she giggled despite herself. She pawed at his neck a bit, shifting to flop on him even more as a result of her twisting, her long, lion like tail swishing behind her, brown tip soft and long furred. The snowy-iest thing about her was her rosettes, but even then, she was more just like her mother in that aspect. She almost looked entirely lion, compared to her siblings. "You're like... half lion or something, right?" she hummed, finding where fur ended finally after some careful fussing, thoughtful. In a pretty decent mood after all their play fighting. Unknown to most of Ice, she was actually kind of a cuddly cat, reserving it for the home den or her siblings mostly. Like hell she'd actually admit it out loud to Pons though, that his warmth and familiarity was comforting. Curling her tail up a bit to show off the little tuft, she chuckled and continued with a lighthearted "Between us, we make a whole lion, huh?" Pons"So much so that I'll be appointed Patrol Captain along side him, I'm sure." He added, watching as little bits of his mane carried on the wind in front of him, he made a few steps forward, proving that he was just fine to carry Harper as they were. Though he couldn't help but beam over her comment on how thick his mane was. He wouldn't admit it to many cats, but he did like how it was growing in. Compared to the little fluff that he had sported in his cubhood, he felt that the way it sprouted around his shoulders and became the unruly mess that it was behind his ears was nice. "Yeah, it's pretty thick. My mom's a full lion and my dad was half, so I'm like... uh..." He paused, trying to figure out exactly what that meant for him. "I'm mostly lion." He settled on, nodding to himself. How much was mostly lion? He wasn't sure himself, but it was a lot of lion. The weight and feeling of her paws in his mane went from strange to comforting pretty quickly as she searched for his neck. He was actually quite pleased with himself, getting a laugh out of her seemed to be no easy task. "I think you're right though. Though I'm sure you've got some weird mix up of lion in you." He smiled, remembering how Susi had recently brought up her own concerns about their mane growing in and how they were getting bigger. "Maybe you'll start sporting some fluff too, hmm?"HarperShe snorted softly at that. "Nah... my furs all smooth. Even Whitney has thicker fur then me. We recon its because of the tiger" she hummed. "I think... Mum's mostly like... lion and cougar? With snow leopard, and dads, um... I think Jaguar and tiger, with like... other stuff mixed in?" she offered. In the end though, she just shrugged. "I take after Ma most anyway, so. Makes sense" Her tail and one of her backlegs dragged a bit on the ground as he started wandering, making her grab on to his shoulders to avoid sliding off entirely like an idiot. "Alright, alright, you proved your point"Pons”An interesting combo for all of you that’s for sure.” He hummed, stopping with a devilish grin. ”Would the lady like to be let down then?” He slowly moved down so that she wasn’t wiggling to get off of him, leaning his weight down onto his front paws. ”I know Susi is mostly fluff, I recon they’ll have a full mane by the time their two or three years old.” He added after a moment, thinking on how different the four siblings were from one another.Harper"The lady would" she puffed, glad of the added inch or two. Harper flopped onto the ground regardless though, mostly to continue their weird little play session. Her front leg folded beneath her and she rolled onto her shoulder and then flat onto her back, paws reaching up to the sky in a stretch, before letting them relax again, rested on her chest. "I bet her mane is gonna be pretty cool..." Harper agreed "Hey - you wanna play a game my mum told us about? I'd play it with Evie and Whitney all the time before"PonsHe laughed as she flopped down beside him, his own haunches finding the ground quickly after. He hadn't expected Harper to be this way, maybe more like Everest or Whitney, but he wasn't complaining. He liked her. "Yeah. I think it'll be a nice silver or maybe a darker grey. We'll have to wait to see how it comes in." He pawed at his own mane, thinking about how it was seemingly growing in in patches, with the back of his neck sporting most of it. Maybe someday he'd be lucky enough for it to be fully grown in. Her next request didn't take nearly as much though for him. Placing his paw back down ont he ground, he nodded. "Sure! I'm down for a game. What is it about?"HarperShe nodded, agreeing with him It be pretty cool if Susi had a grey one. It'd match the rest of her fur. At the question though, she motioned for him to come closer. "You lay on your back - and look st the sky. If its night time... you try and make shapes in the stars. But in the day, you point out what cloud look like. You cant play it on on overcast days, or cloudy nights usually cause they all look the same. You cant just say it's a cloud, that's not playing right" she snickered "So, for instance. That one looks like a charging bull" she pointed out, pointing with her paw into the skyPonsHe flopped down onto his back beside her, eyes glancing up. Okay, so he couldn't just say they were clouds. That was an easy enough task. Quietly, he watched as she pointed up at the sky towards a particular cloud. It was changing shape in the wind, but he could see exactly what she meant. Oh, that one over there looks like a deer and it's fawn. You can even see the little spots." He added, pointing towards the one he had seen.To Be Continued~