When Icarus woke up, his head was tense from frustration. Given that he remembered falling asleep in the main den with the rest of the Pride, he knew he was dreaming again. And yet this headache was so very real and so very painful. He closed his eyes and massaged his temples, and though that seemed to assuage his headache for a split second, it was in that split second that Icarus was able to remember when and where he was. And why he was massaging his temples and taking a deep breath. He was in the cave that he had been born, raised in and then excommunicated from. He looked at his mother, who was curled beside two sleeping cubs. The male cub shared the same cinnamon fur as his mother, while the female cub was yellow-orange just as her father was, but both cubs had traits that were a near-perfect mix of their parents. "Tsara." Icarus calmly called his mother by her birth name, and to his surprise even to this day she didn't bother correcting him. She also allowed the two male lions to look right at her two sleeping cubs, as though they were trophies to be displayed, and they had lost their chance to win them. "Icarus. Saul" She acknowledged her blood son and one of her spiritual sons.
Although Icarus did not turn around, he had known Guan was standing at the entrance of the cave. He was happy that he didn't, lest his anger explode right there just as soon as he faced the offending lion. Instead, Icarus simply addressed the name of the lion he had thought was his other best friend. "Guan. Where is Tsavo?" Icarus didn't need to turn around, because he could almost feel Guan look away. And he now knew why, but perhaps Icarus would have rather the silence continue than to have it be broken with Tsara's response.
"Tsavo refused to leave like I told him to. He disobeyed, and he suffered the consequences." Tsara said simply, and coldly. Icarus felt the light in his eyes dim for just a moment, even though he had heard this before, but then the fire and hatred in his eyes returned with a passion. Tsara met Icarus's eyes, but she knew he had nothing further to say. She knew, right then and there, that her son had given up on her. He no longer considered her worth his words, and she knew it. However, whether she cared or not was hard to read. Though Icarus had a pretty good idea about that answer.
Saul, for his part, was much more verbose about his disillusionment and anger. "So, you cast out two of your sons, had the other one killed, all so you could get under another of your sons?" Saul seethed, and at that Tsara's unreadable face hardened even more. "Only Icarus can claim to be my son, and you know it." To that, Saul growled. "Only Icarus, eh? Then what do you call the day you and Daedalus found me? What do you call all of these years where you raised us alongside Icarus, as though we were your son? Everything that you've ever done, was so that we would be 'raised right', wasn't that what you always say?" Saul asked, his voice cracking as he spoke, and it only seemed to get worse as Tsara narrowed her eyes as a response. Saul was barely in control of his emotions as he recounted the same childhood that he did; one where Daedalus was their only comfort and reprieve from Tsara's draconian rules. Looking at it from this new perspective Icarus realized just how selfish and awful Tsara actually was and had always been; though he would never express it, he blamed himself for he and Saul's predicament and their hurt feelings. Being the smarter of the two, he thought he would have seen this coming sooner.
And it was perhaps that self-blame that lead him to say what he said next. "Tsara, I had known all along. I knew you had abandoned both of us. That you'd turned your back on me, and on everything my father stood for." At that, Tsara snapped at her son. "Then why did you return, after I told you two to never come back? You stupid fool: if you knew, why did you do this to yourself?" She asked, and Icarus had to take a deep breath, for he felt his claws unsheathing involuntarily. More importantly, they scraped across the rock and Guan began to move towards the disillusioned sons. That is, until Icarus spoke up without so much as turning around.
"I don't suggest coming any closer Guan, if you value keeping what you have stolen from my father." The sheer venom and rage in Icarus' voice was enough to warn off the larger and likely stronger male. "And as for you and your cubs-" Tsara had the audacity to interrupt Icarus at this moment. "Their names are Kyabe and Ijara; Guan chose them carefully. You had best remember who you are talking to." Icarus's purple eyes lit with fury, and in another rarity he raised his voice, at the lioness he had thought was his mother no less. Even Saul jumped from fright, for in his anger Icarus' voice dropped deeper than even Daedalus' voice had been in life.
"THEIR NAMES ARE SHIT FOR ALL I CARE! AND SO ARE YOU! I DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE YOU OR ANY CUB OF HIS EVER AGAIN! IF I DO, I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" Icarus roared out, though his voice alone would have been intimidating enough. The cubs were jarred awake, and what they were greeted with was a large, dark stranger who was roaring at their mother and who had intimidated their father into staying where he was. Icarus looked down, snarled at the two of them, and then turned around to leave. Saul hesitated for a little while, before doing as Tsara did to him and her own son. He turned his back on her, and followed his best friend. As soon as they were far enough away, Saul spoke up.
"Icarus, I'm sorry." Saul said, sharing in the moment with his darker friend. Icarus, however, stopped but did not turn around. "We head for the Kuatan Jungle tomorrow. This place, this lifestyle; it disgust me!"