the sea knows no calm 《》 joiner

[wormwood.]

Although Merlin would likely never know it, Aurum knew a thing or two about changing bodies. Not only through shapeshifting from animal form to animal form, but also through a complete change of spirit, and physical being. At one time, the luminary had been an angel. He technically still was, but back in heaven, he had looked quite different. A creature of dazzling light and brilliant power, with no solid form except for massive white wings, and golden rings shifting around him. His gaze had been endless, and he would never be able to take such a form now that he was in the Beyond. To do so would not only take an enormous amount of energy on his part, but it would likely blind or kill all of those around him if he ever did. The closest he would ever come to that again was his MAMA form, but he didn't feel particularly sad about that fact. After all, there was a reason why he was a fallen archangel, rather than one that remained in heaven. He heavily preferred his current form and place within Tanglewood, as opposed to his form and place within heaven. Although, he wasn't quite in his most preferred form, at this very moment. While he didn't mind his golden tiger form, he would never try to claim that his birth body wasn't his favorite. Still, it wouldn't be long until his pregnancy was over, and he could go back to his lion form after caring for his children.

Even though he knew about crossing spiritual forms, Aurum probably would've never expected that Merlin was a former human. She seemed surprisingly comfortable within her new form - or perhaps she was just so shocked that she hadn't processed it yet. Either way, her light call of "good morn" was enough to draw the angel's attention, his gaze lifting from where it had formerly been focused on the ground. Temporarily putting aside his former plans to hunt, Aurum made his way over to where the feline stood, arriving shortly after both Rat and Atbash. Despite the rather unorthodox way that Rat had arrived, he didn't hold that against her, and was glad that she seemed to be helping. He did have to wonder how Merlin had gotten so thoroughly drenched, though. Had she fallen down in one of the deeper puddles of muck leading up to the border? That didn't seem likely, considering she would then also be caked in mud and anything else that decided to cling to her. He didn't decide to press her on it, though. It wasn't all that important in the grand scheme of things, after all - she could've merely been taking a bath in a nearby pond before she arrived.

Rat had already addressed the most important things, and Atbash had asked most of the questions, so Aurum really just made himself comfortable, tail curling around his paws as he sat. He offered Merlin a smile, rumbling softly as he introduced himself, "Hello there... Rat and Atbash already addressed the other things, so... I'm Aurum Kingmaker, and I'm the luminary of Tanglewood, or the leader. If you have any major questions about the group, feel free to ask... you seem as though you might be a bit lost." He then said, looking Merlin over and offering her a bit of a sympathetic smile, "I hope that the trek to our border wasn't too bad. I know that some joiners or visitors have a bit of... difficulty dealing with the new environment." The edge of the border was hardly the worst muck-filled place of Tanglewood's territory, not by a long shot, but it could still be a shock to the system. Although it had been quite a long time ago, Aurum could still vaguely remember when he had first arrived, and he had slipped and slid in the muck before finally managing to pull himself up onto a log. It was a reason why he had been so overwhelmingly grumpy in his initial joining... one among several reasons, really.