Griffith certainly had not expected their journey from the kingdom to be filled with so much water. But it would have been just his luck to get stuck in a hurricane, it hadn't exactly helped their travel. Days of rain and wind and when they'd finally reached the coast it had felt like the pair of big cats had been stuck between a rock and a hard place, but he'd been very sure that they weren't that far from the neighboring kingdom at the time, so he'd made the absolutely moronic decision to swim. Wis had tried to caution him that it was a bad idea of course, but he was nothing if not pig-headed.

Now they were paying the price, the wind ripped at his sea water-soaked pelt as Griffith dragged himself ashore, not yet aware that he hadn't even been remotely close in his guess about geography and the sands he now pulled himself upon was almost totally unknown to him and his family. The man pulled himself forward, tail limp and dragging in the sand until he was far enough up the shore that the stone walls of the cliff cut the wind somewhat, far enough up that he was pretty sure the tide would not sweep them back out to sea, and then he collapsed. Massive head dropping into the sand the man fought to catch his breath. Was Wisteria alright? He wanted to lift his head and check but the water that soaked his mane made his skull feel like it weighed as much as he did, and so instead he called out, hoping that he hadn't lost her in the storm. "Wisteria, you better be alive or I will be right cross with you!"

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code by Cloudy

Wisteria had never been so afraid in her life. First, Griffith took her away from the Kingdom. For whatever reason she didn't know but they were alone and despite her complete trust in him, she was scared. Being away from home was only the first stage, though easily managed at the beginning. Once the storms came and they were trapped in a hurricane, thrown  about the ocean as if they were nothing but ragdolls, her fear really set in. Luckily for her, tigers were better built for the water than male lions however, she was smaller and the storm did it's worst to her, throwing her into the cliffs as the hurricane drove her towards land and tossing her onto the shore.

She laid there for a while, flat on her side until life came back to her and she heaved a mass of salt water from her lungs before falling back to her side exhausted and sore. She hadn't heard Griffith call out to her, but she wasn't even fully conscious yet, either.

Fuck. Wisteria's did not respond and fear rose in the man's chest. She had to be alive, she had to be. Or else what had been the point of everything he'd given up? Griffith still did not have the strength to lift himself and so instead he simply tried to sniff her out, but all he could smell was the salty brine of the sea, no doubt partially because he'd snorted so much salt water on the swim over. Griffith closed his eyes for a moment, summoning all the lessons he'd ever learned as a child on how to maintain poise. He was admittedly pretty close to panicking but knew that would serve no one, first he would get his hammering heart under control then he could focus on getting his body to respond.

A few deep breaths later and the man was finally able to will himself onto his paws. It wasn't easy, his movements were slow and his whole body felt weighed down immeasurably but he was up, which meant he could finally see his surroundings. It did not take long to spot the black and white shape of Wisteria laying prone on the beach. Griffith stumbled his way over to her, he nearly toppled over when he reached her, only just managing to fall away from the smaller woman, though yes, he did fall over. He wanted to press into her but considering the freezing water that soaked them both assumed that was probably a terrible idea. He supposed it was probably a good idea to try and get themselves dry but it certainly would not have been becoming for the former crown prince of any kingdom to be found being intimate enough with one of his retainers as to groom her... So instead he would have to settle with trying to get himself dry for now. He rasped his tongue along his chest, down his forepaws (which then circled his head) as he tried to remove as much salt water as he could from his pelt and to stimulate the blood flow to get himself warm. "You better wake up Wis." He said between licks. "Because you were right, it was a stupid idea and you were right." His tone was light, almost teasing though there was notes of worry, of barely held back panic. "So you better wake up so you can rub my stupid face in how right you were."

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code by Cloudy

Groggy couldn't even begin to describe how she felt. Her head was pounding and she felt like she weighed twice what she did, likely from the amount of water she swallowed. It wasn't sitting well with her, but she wouldn't allow herself to vomit. Wasn't very lady-like, after all. Even if she was nothing more than a handmaiden to a prince, appearances mattered. Vomiting in front of the Prince wasn't a good appearance, regardless of how ill she felt. As the ringing in her ears started to cease, she heard the end of Griffith's words. Perhaps if she had the energy she would have a witty remark for him, or at least one that she kept  to herself. Instead, she forced herself up despite the world spinning.

"I'd never, my Prince." She purred weakly with the smallest amount of teasing she could muster, tired eyes looking over his drying body for signs of injury. Her body ached everywhere, but maybe that was a good thing. If she felt everything, then that meant she wasn't not feeling something. Pain was better than paralyzed. As she tried to gather her legs beneath her into a more appropriate position, she hissed through gritted teeth at the pain. She wouldn't allow herself to think about it though, and quickly tried to distract herself with any injuries he may have instead. "Are you hurt anywhere?" The concern in her voice was genuine, chin tilting to gaze around him to search his side for anything he may hide from her.

"Speech!"

code © skelle 2022 | art © dergenn

Oh thank god! Griffith breathed a sigh of relief when Wisteria finally responded, telling him she could never. Almost certainly a lie. He was after all quite prone to dumb ideas, and he doubted very much that she'd never once gloated about being right, even behind his back. And then of course she proved how much of a better cat she was than him by asking him if he was hurt.

"Only in my pride." He said, rather convincingly if he said so himself... At least until he shifted and felt a twinge of pain shoot up his hind leg and visually flinched.  "And my everywhere." He admitted, slowly pulling himself to sitting and grimacing at his cold, sore limbs.  "But nothing that getting dry and warm won't fix." Then he looked at the tigress, concern plain in his face.  "Are you hurt?"

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code by Cloudy

Wisteria held back a snicker at his words, following them with her own playful remark. "As if that's anything new," she smirked, though it quickly faded when she saw him wince. Relaxed ears shot forward as she leaned in to examine, though she couldn't see well without moving. She couldn't see any blood though, and for that she was thankful.

She frowned as he moved into a seated position, though was at least grateful his leg didn't appear broken. The ocean was quite strong, they were both lucky to survive. Though, it wouldn't be for much longer if they didn't find a shelter and get warm soon. "I'll be fine," she lied through a sweet smile, something she believed herself to be good at but at times she thought that he knew she was lying. She hoped that this wasn't one of those times.

"We need to find a shelter and start a fire or you'll get sick," her tone was serious now, worried what would come of the Prince. It certainly wouldn't be good for her if he perished in some far away land because she couldn't take care of him. If she perished, well, she wasn't important like he was. She had an important job, sure, but she could easily be replaced. Without a second thought, the woman forced herself to stand through clenched teeth though she wished she hadn't. Every part of her body lit up with pain, but she smiled through it as she did everything else and did her best to ignore it. She felt tears forming and looked away, blinking back the display and shoving it down with the rest.

"Speech!"

Art by Talia & Code By Skelle 2022

Griffith would have tried to cuff her ear at her teasing, if he wasn't sore all over. Griffith narrowed his eyes at the tigress as she told him she'd be fine, he doubted very much that she wasn't also in pain. Her ability to lie to him wasn't always on par, and there were plenty of times that he'd decided to play along to save her pride and he decided that now was one of those days, at the very least it wouldn't help either of them to wallow in their pain. Wisteria got to her paws and started to move, Griffith wanted to jump to his own to help her but as he started to rise it was all he could do to stifle a groan of pain. He grit his teeth and managed to get himself to standing.

"If we get further in we should be out of the wind at least, not much to be done for the rain though." He would attempt to take the lead then, pushing himself to walk past her, jaw locked to keep his pain from breaking free from his lungs. He wanted to at least find them a dry place to rest. Pale blues scanned the inlet they'd found themselves in and he spotted an over hang along the cliff side, he glanced back at Wisteria and jerked his head towards it. "Maybe we can get out of the rain."

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code by Cloudy

Bones felt like they should be broken as she stood, her light weight far too heavy for her legs now. Tears welled in her pale eyes but she blinked them away in favor of making sure Griffith was okay and getting to drier land. They wouldn't be able to make it far, that much she knew. Whether Griffith could push on further or not was something only he would know, but Wisteria knew that she wouldn't be able to make it very far like this.

She spotted the overhang as he pointed it out and smiled, happy to find a place so close that would protect them from the worst of the elements. Of course, finding anything dry to start a fire would be impossible, but at least they would have some form of shelter for the time being. "Lead the way," she said softly, the storm preventing her from being able to see well as the rain struck her face. Her shoulder pressed softly into Griffith's side so that she wouldn't lose him as she squinted through the rain.

"Speech!"

Art by Talia & Code By Skelle 2022