That her son is interested in the cat rather than afraid does not surprise her; its not that the child is too stupid to know she’s dangerous with her paws and fangs, its that he trusts his mother and the herd enough to believe that even if the tiger decided to eat him, even if she succeeded – it would be something she regretted for a long, painful while before she died. The Lady was good to her people – mostly her kin but for two now, soon three when Zima arrived if the cat did not lie – but only so long as they were good to her and followed the rules laid out for them. They were few, really, and she thought “don’t eat the room mates” was a fairly reasonable arrangement, she herself feeling little hesitation at the arrival of the boy and his eagerness to learn more of the great feline that had arrived with his dam smelling of the wilderness and the tall, regal trees of the Threshold.

The woman’s golden eyes watch with great interest as the tigress observes the sentinel and his partially finished partner in war, overly proud of the Engineer’s creations and endlessly impressed with their splendor, assuming that any with brains should be as well; its what she searches for as she watches, that single glimpse to swell her ego and her heart all at once, the same intoxicating combination that drives most of her actions on a daily basis.

She thinks she sees it there, but can’t be sure; the face of the tiger differs greatly from that of a horse and the use of whiskers is foreign to her, leaving her with many questions as to what a twitch of the strange hairs might mean or what any motion from them at all might be. She files away mentally to find someone with an old enough cat creature for a companion to ask these questions of and discover answers, deciding its better to be prepared as she might be to glean secrets the beast didn’t want her to have.

The cat gives her son her name as she takes her time to look around her, the colt having been on pins and needles thinking he’d been forgotten and nearly exploding with excitement when she answered. Not knowing what the tiger was, Illynx already knew what he would ask next, her velvet voice clipping in as his lips dropped open to let his own free. "She’s a tiger, darling," sweetly explains the golden wench to her child, his mouth clipping shut and a slight frown wrinkling his features at his question having been stolen from his mouth. Turning her eyes to the feline before he can interject anymore blabber into the air, she slips her own more prudent (at least to her) comments to Saffron, her steps flowing back into pace as the beast indicates that she wants to go further in.

Interesting, thinks the woman; unicorns tended to remain at the border for a few moments at least, hesitant almost to go further in unless they had lived there before. Not tigers, apparently – they wanted to know what there was as soon as it could be learned of.

"Along the eastern border of the lake is the Haruspex Cave. Its usually inhabited by a man who bears the same title as the cavern and the mirror he keeps, but occasionally," she pauses, a smile quirking her lips as she gives a verbal tour of the land as they pass through it, "the God of Spark may be found, as well. He is the patron of the mountain, and though he does not demand your worship, I assure you the rewards are boundless." Directing her eyes to the large knoll rising ahead of them, she continues explaining land marks. "Meetings will often be called along the lakeside or on this hillock, if you are interested in attending our political affairs," quiet until she reaches the top of the hill, she gestures for the tiger to stop – all of the realm can be viewed from this one spot, aside from the mountainside hidden by the old growth pine forest that fringed the plentiful valley of their home, "the steam that rises in the distance is a hot spring, delightful for bathing in or warming up alongside during the chillier times of the year." As if to accentuate her point, her glossy and almost tangle free tail whispers against her sides, gleaming in the autumnal sunlight.

Rikyn is pouting alongside his dam, feeling ousted and forgotten again. His frown permeates his face still even as his eyes light up in realization his mother hadn’t explained everything. "Oh! And we have caves to live in along the mountainside. You can usually tell by smelling ‘em if anyone is living there or not, but I’d hang out a while to make sure," he leans his head in towards the cat, lowering his voice so that his mother won't be able to hear him as clearly and hopefully not at all, "some of us around here aren't very nice."

[ OOC: FOREVER LONG but tourssss yay ]