Auðumbla's Den

During your patrolling, you had decided to take a quick trip to the nearby river, partly to take a drink, partly since you had never really been there before, so here you were, pushing thick leaves out of your face, huffing softly in annoyance all the while. Why were there so many plants here, anyway?

You hear a sudden sound – your ears prick, and you growl softly, hindquarters lowering in preparation to pounce. Until –

A winged achromic lioness, draped in pink cloth and rainbow flowers, bursts out of the underbrush in front of you and sits down, purring oddly loudly.
A ghost, is your first thought. Then, No, that can’t be it; ghosts aren’t real, right?
As you take a closer look at her, you notice she appears to have hooves instead of paws on her hind legs, of all things.

You take a nervous step back, ears pinning, as the lioness… simply continues to purr.

Lifting your nose to the air and sniffing, you realize – that isn’t a lioness at all, that’s a male! An achromic, maneless, winged lion with hooves… You shake your head in bewilderment. Well, you've seen stranger things before, you suppose.
"...Hello?" you try, tilting your head at the lion.

"Hi," he replies, smirking. "You thought I was a lioness, didn't you?"

Not entirely sure how to respond, you just nod, a bemused smile on your face.

The lion hums, moving to side-eye you while still smirking. "I'm Auðumbla, king around these parts. I s'ppose you didn't show up here to join my pride? Or maybe you diiiid~"

You can say with absolute certainty this is perhaps one of the oddest lions you've ever met -- and not just because of his appearance.
Still unsure what to say, you just nod and smile again.

"Mmhm, well..." Auðumbla trots over to you, before turning to trail his tailtip along your jaw. "Don't kill anybody and you'll be alright, yeah?" He winks at you, sticking his tongue out and condescendingly patting you on the head with a wing, before bounding away to who-knows-where -- presumably his pride -- crashing through the undergrowth, his hooves giving him an odd hopping gait.

...You decide to head back to your pride.