The sun started setting when the lions got the 3rd den done. Rustymane sighed with relief, as most lions would have somewhere to sleep. Sunset sat next to him. "Why, I knew they could get that den done by sunset." She chuckled. "It's weird talking about sunsets when your name is Sunset."
"I'd imagine." Rustymane chuckled too. He looked around. Some of the lionesses were starting to enter the dens after a long days work, while others chatted peacefully.
"The pride is settling well." Sunset pointed out. Rustymane nodded silently. The leopon looked over at him. "I take it that you aren't?"
"N-No, I am! I definately am! I guess I just... didn't think we'd be off so soon. It was getting comfortable down there, with Akirl's pride. Almost felt like home.." The king shook his head. "No, I'm happy here. I'm content with my pride." He sighed and laid down on his belly.
Sunset felt a bit of pity for the king and laid next to him. "Bonds are always hard to leave behind, even if only very temporarilyor in certain ways. You never truly leave it behind. You will see Akirl and his pride again. I assure you."

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Akirl settled down, looking over at Meadow and Midnight playing, Queen talking to Festivity and Bristle about why they shouldn't climb trees, Forbidden and Stalker giggling as Sodden and Spirit tossed a rock at one another to see who'd lose the rock first, Ocean watching Rosy's tail wave, wiggling before she jumped to grab it. He felt peaceful seeing it all. He decided to loosen his muscles and ran over to bowl Sodden over, tussling with her. She gave a squeak of alarm then pawed at him as Spirit climbed onto his back and pulled at his ears. He gave a roar and tossed himself over, the adols backing away before he accidentally made himself vulnerable and the two jumped onto his stomach, playfully biting his paws and tail.

Root chuckled and huffed; "You lost, Akirl! Give up."

He gave the lioness a sly glance and murmured: "I never give up!" and he shook himself viciously, wobbling the adols until they leaped off him, slightly dizzy. He got up and roared in victory. "See? Looks like they lost, instead."

"We're only getting started!" Spirit announced, and he looked over to see her with all the other adols in the Pride behind her. He blinked, then turned and ran off. "I'm not being ambushed today!"

The adols ran after him, and the lionesses laughed at the commotion.

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Rustymane watched as his remaining cubs and his adol daughter (Marble, Shine and that other cub) played together happily. Copper was playing along with them. The other adols were chatting happily in a group, Feral also in it.
The older lionesses had already padded into the dens for a nights rest, including Sunrise... The younger ones started looking a bit tired too. The other cubs were walking into a den with Shining Rays, Rosebloom watching the other cubs play tiredly.
It seemed every lion in the pride was tired from their long day and weren't talking much, besides their own close friend groups. Rustymane laid on the hillside, looking out into the forest to the side. Sunset glanced at him, unfazed.
"Your pride seems to have their own friend groups and things to do. I saw how Akirl and his lions play and chatter frequently, while yours only stay in their own groups.." She looked about the pride members that hadn't run off into dens yet as she spoke quietly.

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Akirl ran around so he didn't lead the adols too far from the Pride yet he saw Lost running in his direction at the corner of his eye and when she was close enough he attempted to leap over her, yet she jumped after him and grabbed his side, throwing his aim off and he fell with a thud, the ground giving him a harsh scrape.

Lost was about to jump onto him with the other adols when he roared in pain. The adols backed away, Losts ears especially flat, as Queen and Kindness ran over and snapped together; "What happened?!"

Kindness leaned over to check him as Lost explained; "W-we were- I mean, I was running at him and we both jumped and we ran into eachother and he just landed wrong..."

"Landed wrong?!" Valentine screeched in the distance, and the adols backed away even more as she ran over and roared; "You little idiots need to learn how to be more careful! What if he fell and his eye scraped the ground?! Or if his paw went the wrong way?! He'd be limping for the rest of his life!"

The adols seemed close to breaking down, and Queen sighed, turning to Kindness, who was checking the large scratch on his shoulder and asked; "Can you help him?"

"Of course I can. I think he has some herbs I can put on it that'll suck up the blood and heal it."

She then turned to the adols and said aloud; "You all are free to go. Akirl's in good paws," She narrowed her eyes at Lost. "Except you. Stay here."

The adol looked frightened for a moment, yet nodded and sat as still as she could.

Queen watched at Kindness helped Akirl up, the Kings eyes closed tightly in pain, and they both nodded to the adol, Queen explaining; "When an adolescent hurts the King, on accident or not, they have to be the Kings support until he is safe and able to be helped."

Lost looked relieved, clearly expecting something more harsh, yet when she was next to the King she noticed just why this was punishment; he was SO heavy! Even with Kindness at his other side she trembled trying to keep him up.

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Rustymane watched as his pride slowly walked into their dens to sleep, all until only he and Sunset were left in the camp. Sunset looked to Rustymane. "Do you want to go into that small den?" Rustymane shook his head slightly.
"Alright then..." Sunset laid on the hill next to him until he eventually passed out. Sunset huffed as she, with a bit of difficulty, dragged him into a nest in the hillside den. She then walked out and sat on the hill again, on guard for any predators or anything of the sort.

Immortality is pretty op, ngl. -Narrator

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Once he was finally next to his hoard of items Kindness said; "You're free to go now."

Lost stepped to the side, seeing Akirl fall to his side as Kindness worked on his shoulder.

She went over to her King and mumbled; "I'm really, really sorry.."

"It's alright.." He chuckled. "It was an honest mistake. You had no reason to be punished." He gave Kindness a glare, and she rolled her eyes. "They need to be taught that if they hurt you they hurt the entire Pride. What if a rival was watching and found your weakness a good time to attack?"

Akirl huffed but didn't respond. Lost nodded and left, giving Akirl a few glances before sitting with Rosy and she asked; "Do you think he's gonna be okay?"

Rosy smiled. "He'll be fine. If he wasn't he wouldn't let you two take him back here."

"I don't think that's how it works but he didn't refuse the help." Sunbeam said, and Rosy looked up in thought then blinked, nodding eagerly. "Yep! You're right."

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Sunset watched Star Pride lions appear in the camp. "Sunset." The leopon nodded to a male Star Pride lion. "The assemblies. You must establish them." Sunset nodded. 'I know.' She thought. As soon as they were there, they were gone.
She shrugged and layed back down. 'It's the middle of the night. I'm not gonna tell the pride to meet with the other at midnight.'

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After Kindness wrapped the vine over the large leaves she wrapped around his shoulder she asked; "Can you walk?"

He twisted and attempted to get up, and his paw was able to put weight fine, yet he cursed and mumbled; "It's not the paw; it's the shoulder. I put weight on it and I can feel it trying to push blood out of the gash."

"But it must be working, yes? The leaves aren't leaking with it." Queen said hopefully, and he nodded in agreement. "You have a point."

"Exactly, but now you need to rest."

He huffed, giving the lioness a glare. "You want me to do everything, don't you? Stand up now sleep? What was the point of seeing if I could stand if you two won't let me?"

"Because if something important happened you can stand to be able to help yourself at all. If you couldn't that'd be an issue, but even if you can you need to make sure you don't lose too much blood so you need to rest to let it heal." Kindness explained, and Queen nodded.

Akirl laid on the ground, looking at the two. They looked back, clearly waiting for him to close him eyes, yet he kept them open until Queen put her tail over his eyes. "Sleep already."

He moved at bit and lightly grabbed her tail with his jaws, making her jump and yank her tail away. He chuckled and settled at sleep.

The lioness hesitated then mumbled; "Oh course he had to do something like that before he finally went to sleep.."

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*timeskip)

Rustymane woke up, but insisted on staying in his nest whenever anyone asked him to get up. Eventually, Sunset walked in and grabbed him by the mane, eventually dragging him out of the den. He insisted on staying on the ground when she dropped him.
Sunset grunted and hauled him onto her back, throwing him up onto the hill where he layed near the bottom until Sunset again had to drag him up. He just laid there, looking around.

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Akirl's wound had completely healed at this point and he was running and tussling with cubs and adols, yet Lost sat and watched.

Frigid noticed this and went over to the adol, asking; "Why don't you go play with the others?"

"I'm afraid I'll hurt Akirl again.." She mumbled, and Frigid looked over and said defensively; "But that's no reason to sit by yourself. You made a mistake, the lion you hurt even forgave you! I'm sure he'll let you play with the others. Go on." She nudged the adol forward and she gave Frigid a worried glance before slowly padding over.

"H-hey.." She mumbled, and the King and adols stopped to look over. "Can I join you guys?"

"Sure you can! Nothing's stopping you." Akirl said, and the adols nodded. Lost gleamed and jumped onto Akirl's back. "Hey, no fair!" He roared.

Frigid sat down and watched as they played, feeling accomplished.

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Rustymane blinked as Sunset looked skeptically at him. He huffed and still laid there.

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After a long while to wrestling Akirl shook the adolescents off him and said; "Alright, alright. You guys beat me."

They celebrated as he went to get some food, and once he was done he saw Sunbeam come over to him and sit next to him, saying; "Hey, do you remember the Spotted pride?"

"Of course! How could I not? They only left not too long ago."

"Well, I want to know if they're settled where they planned on settling at. You know, just making sure they were alright and all."

Akirl thought about it, then agreed. "It would be nice to see that they're able to handle themselves now."

"Alright! Who should we take with us?"

"It's just a visit. Noone has to go except you and me."

"Why me?"

"You asked me."

"Oh, right." Sunbeam flicked his ear embarrassingly and nodded, heading off already. "Well I want to check on them as soon as possible."

Akirl got up and followed, saying over his shoulder; "I'm going out for a little bit. Queen's in charge while I'm gone."

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Sunset grunted and brought a couple of gerbils to him. "Atleast eat!" She insisted. Rustymane huffed and begrudingly ate them before laying back down. "You know, the clan needs you. They're trying to settle in too, you know." Rustymane still laid there. "They hardly even speak to me." He murmured to her eventually.

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They adventured out of the territory in search of the Pride they were looking for; Sunbeam led the way while Aklirl trudged behind, blowing flies away and batting ants.


Finally, Sunbeam sniffed the air and said; "Here it is! I can smell them from here."

He rushed off and Akirl sniffed and mumbled; "You can?" running after him.

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Rustymane heard a rustle from afar and flicked his ear, lifting his head slightly when it got louder, and seemingly closer.

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