After all that had transpired since leaving his cat— he was a father of a child with a woman he deeply cared for, and he had promised his lover a chance at happiness together— it was too much to mull over, too much to feel, to much to think. The Elephant King found himself more engrossed in personal issues than those of the herd… is that how corruption started? Is that how greed started? Were these the sour seeds that soiled the Makutano?

His head jerked up, ears perked and navy eyes immediately sweeping (admiring) the curves of her body. There was a new kind of emotion that leapt in him; it was equal parts tilting arousal and impulsive guilt— it gripped and wrenched out the bottom barrel so that he had no foundation for his emotions. He just felt then. Confused, affected gaze crinkled at the corners, however, in the easy amusement he found at the cheetah’s question.

“If you only knew how long it could be,” his low rumble is laced with hilarity, for Ada didn’t know that he could shift into an elephant. But that was a surprise for a different day, he mused. Instead, his thick neck stretched out in greeting (perhaps a more personal greeting than he afforded most others entering the Edge), great skull aiming to brush his pal muzzle against her dark one. It was not a lingering touch (at least he did not intend it to be), but it was still intimate. It was impulsive, instinctual, and he could not deny his body.

“Did you find what you were looking for, when you left me?” His question started honestly, but ended hurt and nearly accusing. He knew the cat couldn’t help herself… But he had never suffered from curiosity like Adaeze, and so he didn’t fully understand.

There was a resolve in the the Elephant King to protect the cat. Not that she needed— and she most assuredly would have scoffed and laughed and shrugged him off had he voiced aloud such a resolve. But, still, it existed in him and he kept it deep within his chest. He hadn’t known, however, that that protection had morphed to include protection from himself. Perhaps it was the flash of sun on the shiny, scared skin on her shoulder as she approached him that made him realize this. Or, perhaps it was the heat that filled his veins as she came closer and her scent filled his nostrils— the very scar he saw on her shoulder meeting his own.

Her coat slid easily against him, a warm silk to his rough hide. His neck twisted so that darkening, navy eyes could follow her every move; black-rimmed ears perked to ear her throaty hum. Though they laid back slightly as her humor fell thickly on the sudden, sensual tension that leapt up between them; however, he couldn't help the small, lopsided grin that turned up the corners of his muzzle.

But he stayed quiet, eyes that trailed her body finding more and more scars, even as she came to a halt at his left shoulder. His head swung around to face her, heads close and breaths shared as she answered his question— quickly inciting the heat in his veins to melt some parts of his resolve (mainly the parts that had to do with him not touching her). And that was entirely futile hope in the wind the moment her velvet muzzle brushed his cheek and the purring words of “petting.”

A long, slightly ragged breath left his nostrils as his bulk was suddenly leaning into her felines feminine frame. “I know cats wander, but I would prefer if my kipaka wandered with me so that I may do the petting,” his murmur was low, rumbling quietly from his barrel as her pet name fell easily from his lips. His thick neck curved more, great muscles bunching in such a close space as he reached to grab and yanked her forelock to expound in his point.

—but what was he doing? His head drew back, flames retreating and blood cooling as he realized just what he was doing, what she was doing. “Adaeze—” his voice was hoarse, abrupt, “Ada I’m—” but he wasn’t sorry for what he had done. Was that the crux of his internal conflict? He was sorry that he had hurt her, but it had been necessary… A sigh pushed out of his nostrils as his head away from her, facing forward. After a short pause, his voice finally continued (although less hoarse), “—I’m glad you came back to me.”

Ears twitch at her question of his chains to the herd. “I may wander where I please,” was his quick, rash, immediate answer. But he followed it shortly with, “But I should stay near or close within the Edge’s borders…” his low rumble trails, perhaps with some regret— though it faded as a scowl creased his brow and face as she called him ’slow.’

His scowl deepens as her words continued to tease, forever promise just outside of reach. Firstly because of the Makutano and now… Now because of his ties within Helovia and the scars on her flesh. Though her sudden giggle draws at parts of him— parts he found hard to ignore; parts that drew his attention to the sway of her hips against his skin as she moved forward and turned to face him.

And, for a moment, he thinks he has reached her as he watches her listen to him. Her plains-marked face is lined with seriousness, hearing him… “You know me, I’m a glutton for punishment.” Ears that had swung forward tilt back against his skull as a harsh, annoyed snort pushes past his nostrils. Eyes narrow, “Ada, I do not like joking about that,” Indeed, his lips purse at the memory of finding her bleeding, collapsed body after Mawindo had trapped and beaten her…

He sighs at her question, thinking long and hard about his answer. There was much wrong— when he thought all was right, suddenly his relations were all in shambles. His chest grew tight, heavy, as the faces began to run through his mind; navy eyes darken, dropping away from Ada’s watchful gold…

And, instead of voicing aloud all the fodder his demons were thriving on, his low rumble simple says, “I did not think I would see you again. I though, in Dorobo, that it was goodbye. I never envisioned myself escaping alive.” The last part of his confession catches him by surprise— he hadn’t realized that until he had fled. Fled the pointed horns pointed at his great chest. He had planned on dying amid the ruin he had caused.

Instead, now, he was a King. Shaking his head slightly, his eyes seek to meet hers again, “You’ll be happy to know that Aji is here,” his muzzle reaches out to innocently nibble at the ends of her mane, eyes trying to lighten and leave the demons and darkness behind as he teases her with her frenemy’s name. And, after all her teasing, he couldn’t not touch her.