[Orion]

speech ♚ thoughts

Orion yawned, a loud bellowing sound, as the sun rose against the pink-blue sky. Gemini was peaceful, but they had visitors today! Red claws dug into the park beneath him as he stretched out, his back popping satisfyingly. "Time to start the day." He rumbled to himself, humming a little nonsensical tune. He hops out of the tree easily, landing on the ground with a thump! and dispersing a small puff of dust.

Starting the day is easier said than done. The children he's usually watching are now mostly sticking with their mothers and fathers, or off playing with their new visitors. No one really needs to be watched, particularly, which makes him a little sad. Playing with the children was his favorite past-time, but surely he could find something else to keep himself occupied in their absence.

He wanders around Gemini, eventually ending up in the lowlands, where he just.... sits, for a little while in the shade of the wall. There's still mist rolling over the fields in the early dawning light, and it's... peaceful. Gemini is so calm these days--he'd heard tales of times where it wasn't, where children too young were slayed. He wouldn't let that happen again. He was a warrior no more, but he could be a shield. He was large enough.

There were few to miss him if he was gone.

Shaking dark thoughts from his head, he turned and made his way up one of the dips in the rock until he was atop the structure, then plopped himself down. The sun warmed his back pleasantly on the chilly morning, and he was... content, if not happy. He watches the mist roll along until there's almost none of it left, and then he notices a figure near the wall.

"Goodmorning!" He booms pleasantly, probably taking the poor person off guard. Can they even see him up here? "How are you on this fine day?"

Orion waves a dark paw with blood red pads at them over the lip of the stone.

They were probably better before he scared them to death. Oops.

[Excalibur]

The morning had dawned cool and crisp, autumn was fading into winter and a thick mist blanketed the lowlands. Excalibur weaved her way through it, silver through smoke, feeling the silence around her like a pressure against her body. Not a bird called. All silence and greyness except for the sky who's subtle pinks and blue seemed shockingly loud and vibrant in comparison.

The wall was a blackness in all the grey and it loomed tall above her. It still filled her with the same unease it had when she fist saw it; it was still a barrier and had as much potential to be a prison as it did a protection for those inside it. For all that it also awed her. She approached it head tilted to the side, examining it closely. She wanted to learn all she could about these structures, to see how they were made, to figure out how she could do it too. Perhaps one day do it better. She ran her paws over the wall, comparing the smoothly dressed blocks to the patches of stacked stones that marked the repairs. She took it all in: the shape of the stones, the gaps between, the pattern they used and-

"Goodmorning!

She physically leapt a clean foot off the ground in fright.

"How are you on this fine day?"

"You startled me!" Excalibur snapped, annoyed and embarrassed, bristling with indignation as she glowered around for the source. She only located the object of her anger when movement caught her eye as he waved a big feline paw at her from the top of the wall. "What do you think you're playing at? Are you trying to give someone a heart attack?!" She snarled up at the big dark shape, practically shaking a fist at him.

Then after a pause, where her heart stopped hammering around her chest like a caged thing trying to get out, added more civilly though with an inflection that clearly apportioned blame. "I was quite well thank you."