The return home was meant to be triumphant... well, for the ones that had succeeded in whatever they'd wanted to achieve, but a completed reaving nonetheless.
But this wasn't what any of them had expected.
They'd all started to feel the effects upon reentering their home land again, hunger gnawing at them and making them question when they'd last eaten, but it had been brushed off as unimportant in comparison to returning as Reavers. Besides, they could always eat afterwards.
They weren't expecting to be faced with tons of other hungry faces as well. Even the cubs, normally well-fed and eager to play, were moaning about hunger and miserable. Now they wished that they had brought back food alongside their reaving.... They had no idea that it really wouldn't change much.
Dreki'dido, for her part, had very mixed feelings about the situation, or really, her situation in general, and had chosen to go off on her own to think. Nestled along the cliffside with her tail curled around her stomach, she stared out at the crashing waves before her with a critical eye.
All in all, the viking had been successful... to an extent. She could call herself a Reaver now, and be able to show herself for the amazing lioness she was. She could accompany Captains on reavings freely, venture beyond the pride lands if she so chose....
Though she wasn't sure whether she wanted to.
Her father was now MIA, though she had a feeling that she just wasn't being told what had become of him. Rumor had it he may have been planning on leaving anyway, but she had yet to find anyone who knew for sure. That said, she'd never been particularly close to him anyway, so honestly? She didn't really care if he was there or not, but.... that didn't change the fact that it annoyed her that he'd left without saying anything to her, her siblings, her step-siblings, cousins, not even his former flings.... That annoyed her.
Dreki gave an irritated shake of her head. She didn't want to think about that anymore.
Moving on to her viking, she thought she'd done fairly well, even with certain annoying pests CONSTANTLY getting in her way, she thought with a roll of her eyes. Hjalmar was going to be insufferable, especially since he'd come home with a thrall. Oh, he'd been scolded for wandering off, and she wondered if Tethys would punish his son for it, a part of her gleefully hoping she could watch if he did.
To be fair, the male was constantly throwing it in her face whenever they walked across each other. She'd snapped at him at first, but now just dutifully tried to ignore him whenever he was nearby. Obnoxious little worm.... She needed to find some way to one-up him.
The lioness tilted her head to the side as she thought about what she could do. Taint his food somehow? No, the pride was having issues with that as it was. Mess with his thrall? To be frank, she actually kind of pitied her. Not for becoming a thrall - it was just the way of things here - but entirely for having to live with Hjalmar, the poor girl. No one deserved that kind of hel.
Hm... he'd taken to gloating at her constantly over having a thrall. Perhaps she should venture out and find one for herself just to make him shut up.
What would she even grab? Another lion might be a hassle, unless they were a weaker sort, but they'd certainly be worth it in the long run. Prey would be easy to catch, but not terribly impressive. Another predator, perhaps? She'd never tried hunting for one though.
Ah, well. Food for thought when she went out looking for something.
The next problem was what on earth was going on with the pride. Everyone was starving but they weren't short of food. Not by a long-shot. It left her worried, though she would never admit it to anyone. Was there a disease going around? Had all the food been poisoned somehow, and it was affecting everyone all at once?
Now see, the thought of her pride being plagued with a disease did frighten her, and as much as she tried to tell herself that she'd stay to help, there was a tiny voice that told her that... she'd run, especially since she was a Reaver and fully capable of being out and about as much as she pleased.
Dreki shook her head. There was no point in worrying over whether it came to that unless it came out as true. So far, no one had said it was sickness, and surely the seers of the pride would have spoken up if it were.
She ignored the fact that it was just her trying to deny the possibility. It wouldn't matter anyway, since that wasn't what was happening to the pride. Not that she had any way of knowing that. Perhaps she would even run into the source of all their starvation problems while she was out and about, but that certainly didn't change the here and now.
With a sigh, she dropped a yellow-toed paw to the ground, not realizing that she'd lifted it up and had been tapping a claw against her chin while she'd been thinking. She blew a clump of mane out of her eyes as well, taking a moment to glare at the offending green mass. Her mane was starting to get longer. Soon she would be entering adulthood, free to do as she pleased.
She couldn't wait for that to happen.
With that in mind though, Dreki should probably start looking for a den for herself. She couldn't live with her mother for eternity, after all, nor did she really want to. She loved her mother, really, but she wanted to be independent of her and her siblings. It was time to show that she was just as capable as an adult as she was as an adolescent.
.... Little did she know that Hjalmar would end up making his den relatively near hers, but that was a story for another time.
Dreki'dido nodded to herself as she plotted out her next actions. It felt good to have a plan, she thought as she stood from her spot, and it was just a matter of executing it now.
With a flick of her green tail, she turned and started making her way back home.