LEADER ❝ RHINE ❞ PALMCLAN

Rhinestone wasn't really the biggest fan of the forest. It wasn't that he really had anything personally against it, he just... found the forest at the boundary of Palmclan's territory to be rather spooky. With confusing, winding paths and towering and creaky trees, the Twisted Forest had a way of making one feel isolated, and lost away from the rest of the world. That feeling could certainly be useful in some situations, such as if an invading group got lost and separated within them. Otherwise, however, it just made forest prey hunting all the more hard, and Rhine couldn't help but feel frustrated about that. So, the leader had grown determined to overcome his fear of the forest, and he knew the best way to do that was through exposure. However, he wanted to be able to do something else productive, so that he'd be focused on a task while traveling through the woods. Hunting had been the obvious first idea, but the camp had plenty of food, and the tom didn't want to unnecessarily kill prey that could reproduce more later. That meant that, for the moment, hunting was out of the question.

After a great deal of pondering, Rhinestone had eventually come to the conclusion that camp was looking rather drab as of late. It was tradition for Palmclan to decorate their dens, but after the rat attack, that hadn't exactly been top priority. Which meant that Rhine now had a task to do while he was in the forest – get flowers. That was enough to motivate the leader up and out of his den, out of camp, and towards the Twisted Forest. He could already feel a familiar sense if apprehension rising up, but he pushed that aside, delving deeper into the trees as he searched for his goal. It was only a bit of time before he finally happened upon a patch of flowers, hidden behind a grove of densely packed trees. His eyes lit up with delight, and he immediately began to grab as many as he could, carefully gathering them all into his jaws. There was a wide variety of different kinds and colors, and by the time he eventually turned to head back to camp, he had a colorful bouquet gripped in his mouth. Thankfully, this made the journey back home a lot less frightening, since he was motivated to return to camp and show off his wonderful new collection.

When the rusty red feline did eventually return to camp, he smelled heavily of pollen and the various flowers, and he couldn't help the grin that was on his muzzle. Carefully putting his bundle of flowers down in front of him, he announced proudly, "I've got flowers! If anybody wants some in order to decorate their den with them, then feel free to come over. I've got all different kinds... except for the roses. Those had thorns, and I didn't really want to prick my tongue." As pretty as they were, Rhine wasn't willing to risk physical harm for a few flowers. Maybe at some point in the future, when he could bring a basket to put them in.

LEADER ❝ RHINE ❞ PALMCLAN

If Aiza hadn't been expecting a call for flowers, then Rhine certainly hadn't been expecting Aiza to respond to that call. When the large canine had initially approached, the leader had shrank back slightly, completely ready to defend himself on why collecting flowers was fine. Instead, he was caught off guard when the other male ended up offering to grab some roses. Rhinestone blinked up at Aiza in confusion for a moment before he spoke, mouth suddenly feeling dry, "...Won't the thorns hurt your mouth, too?" Of course, the tom was then equally caught off guard by the fact that Aiza seemed to be able to differentiate between flowers, and was asking for specific ones. After a moment of hesitation, Rhine pushed forward some pansies, as well as some lilac as well. He questioned softly, head tilting to one side, "Of course... what are they for? Just decoration?" The male couldn't help but wonder if they were for some kind of special someone, but that would be ridiculous, right? Aiza had only been around for a few days, he couldn't already have found somebody.

LEADER ❝ RHINE ❞ PALMCLAN

Rhine found himself wrinkling his nose when Aiza said he had worse things in his mouth in the past. He was fairly sure he didn't want to know what, even if it wasn't quite as awful as his mind was imagining. The leader was about to question what exactly the canine was speaking of, when suddenly Aiza was asking him a question. Not only a question, but a flirtatious question. He immediately felt a cloud of confusion sink down over his mind, and he physically recoiled a bit, as if he had somehow been struck. He wasn't used to flirtation of any kind, and his only relationship had been back when he was a paw, so he was pretty fucking rusty. He just blinked at Aiza for a moment, a baffled look on the feline's face, before he shook his head firmly from side to side. He hissed, trying to ignored the heat he felt rising up to his face, beneath his thick pelt, "What? For me? No! No, I don't want them to be for me. You're not even... my type." That wasn't really true, if Rhinestone really thought hard about who his last boyfriend had been, but he shoved that aside for now. Instead he just brushed Aiza off, ignoring the blush that he hoped wasn't making his rust red fur even more red.

Instead of focusing on Aiza, Rhinestone turned his attention to Hailpaw and Medusa, shaking his head when he heard Hail's question, "I think it's best not to ask, honestly..." He then glanced down at the assortment of flowers that he had gathered, eventually pushing forward a couple of late bloomer sunflowers that were still alive. He said with a smile, his blush gradually dying down, "Ah... here. Sunflowers. They're very pretty, so I think you'd like them." Medusa, meanwhile, seemed quite sure of what she wanted, expect Rhine was disappointed to find out that he didn't have it. His ears briefly pinned back before he said, sighing, "I'm sorry Medusa... I'm sure if they weren't out of season, I would've gotten some. Feel free to take anything else that catches your eye, though." Rhinestone wasn't sure of anything that could quite match the distinctive look of the snowdrop, but maybe something could come close.