[PRP] In The Forest (Aulii'Naia & Nyamavu) FIN

[Velveteen Angel]

Aulii'Naia was slinking through the edge of the forest, dodging over fallen logs and other shrubs. The small juvenile was enjoying playing, though she wished that she had been able to convince one of her siblings to come out and play too.

She sighed to herself, eying a nearby tree. She was not a confident climber and tended to avoid climbing, but she knew she had to learn. She would learn! She fell into a crouch, as Yale had instructed her once, and laughed herself into the air, hooking her claws on the tree. Once more, she froze. Instead of bounding up onto the next branch, she simply hung of the trunk. Yowling lightly, she released her claws, ignoring the painful tug the bark gave, unwilling to release her claws without a fight.

She tumbled back to the ground, landing with an 'oomph' in faint annoyance. This should have come naturally to her! She was a leopard, but she couldn't climb? It was silly. Shaking her head, she checked her paws carefully, in case she had tugged one of her claws too much and caused it to bleed, but it seemed unharmed. She sighed, and began to move away from the scene of her embarrassment, hoping no one had been around to spot her failing.


 

[Lithiasaur]

Nyamavu had, in fact, been around to see her fall. He was a fairly adept climber, though he avoided it when he could. He didn't like getting too high in trees and getting stuck. Mostly because he was too shy to call for help. Going up the tree was always easier, but getting out was the tricky bit.

He padded up quietly, not wanting to surprise her, but then realized that slinking up quietly would make it look like he was stalking her, or just watching her struggles. Neither were very nice. Suddenly torn between making his appearance known and hiding until she wandered off, Nyamavu whimpered.

And then he sneezed, solving that problem.

Knowing he couldn't hide, he stepped out from the thick bushes and looked at her, tilting his head to the side. He saw her walking away, and he padded out after her, catching up before she got too far. Maybe she hadn't heard him sneeze.

"Hi..."  

[Velveteen Angel]

Aulii'Naia startled slightly when she heard the sneeze, but had shrugged it off as nothing and had continued to walk away from the place where she had failed to climb the tree, but she heard someone coming up behind her. She gasped in surprised, glancing behind her.

She spotted the male, around her own age. She hadn't seen him around the pride before, she realized, but that wasn't uncommon, she didn't interact with many people outside the few she already knew. She wasn't that comfortable around some members of the pride, so she tended to avoid them.

This male didn't seem threatening though, so Aulii smiled brightly at him. "Hello!" She returned the greeting, hers was a little more vivacious and friendly then she probably should have used when greeting a stranger, but she was not the type to shy from new people, unless she was given a good reason. "What are you doing out here?" She asked, curiously, though her tone stayed friendly.


 

[Lithiasaur]

Nyamavu blushed under his fur, hoping she wasn't too upset with him for startling her. He was very shy and reserved, and tried not to do anything that would upset anyone. He didn't like people being upset with him. Or upset in general. He was about as passive as a pacifist could be.

"H-hello," he replied quietly, even though he had already said hi. He kicked himself silently for that one, shaking his head. "I mean... uh. I was just exploring the trees and bushes and I saw you, so I thought I'd say hi."

He didn't know why, he was very shy and he would have been safer, better off, not drawing attention to himself. But he had risked it anyway. "What... what were you doing before?" he asked, meaning at the tree.  

[Velveteen Angel]

Aulii watched the other leopard with open curiousity. She was trying to place him in a family in the colony, but she couldn't think of who he could be, mostly because she didn't know most of the adults, let alone the youths in the pride.

When he seemed to stammer as he spoke, she relaxed her stance, trying to appear nonthreatening. Was he afraid of her? That would be silly, she was around the same age as him after all and, well, Aulii had hard enough time attacking bugs. "Hi," she repeated, when he mentioned seeing her and wanting to say hi.

"Oh," she said, instantly looking embarrassed. Had he seen her failing? Well, she had to come clean, and be honest, in case he had. "Well, I was...trying to climb, but I'm not really good at it, so I thought I'd go find some flowers instead." She peered at him, and hesitated. "Are you good at climbing?" Maybe it was just her. She was rather slow at learning, mostly because she got distracted easily.


 

[Lithiasaur]

Poor Nyamavu was very much afraid of everyone he didn't know. And because he was scared of them, he didn't go and meet them, which would alleviate the problem, because he was scared of them. So he kind of stuck himself in this place of perpetual nervousness.

Which was a shame, because his mother was one of the friendliest, most open leopards he knew.

"Hi," he said again, blushing under his fur.

"No, I'm not very good at climbing," he said truthfully. Though there were wings in his family he knew they were just markings on pelts, and they did not help him jump or climb, and certainly not fly. He tilted his head at her. "Flowers are... p-probably safer... Why did you need to climb anyway?"  

[Velveteen Angel]

Aulii looked a little bemused at the other leopard. Could he only say "hi" or something? He sure said it a lot...or maybe he was just really friendly. She perked up at that. She needed to meet more friendly people, she thought to herself. Unfriendly people were mean.

She looked relieved when he mentioned not being good at climbing either. "Good! It's not just me then. I thought I was failing at something everyone else knew already," she said, crinkling her nose in distaste. She nodded firmly at his question, "I know! I don't know why I need to learn it. It's not very fun...but apparently it's something every leopard should know." She sighed heavily, looking a little downcast, but she firmly shook of her bad mood and perked up again.

"Do you want to come pick flowers with me?" He was a boy, but he seemed nice, so maybe he would. Her brothers never liked picking flowers with her...maybe it was a boy thing. "You don't have to, if you don't want to," she added quickly.

 

[Lithiasaur]

Blushing under his green fur, the wing-marked lion looked down at his paws. There was nothing interesting to really distract him, but he was doing his best to focus on it anyway. He didn't feel as silly if he just focused on his paws. Not seeing her staring at him was key.

"My mom tells me we know how to climb already, we just need to practice," he said, looking up, "but I don't think that's right. I didn't know how to climb until I saw her do it, and I'm not very good."

He didn't mind making conversation, trying to be a bit more confident.

And she invited him to do something simple and nice. He smiled, looking at her and nodding.

"I'd like to pick flowers. Maybe we can find a blue one, to match your spots."  

[Velveteen Angel]

Aulii looked confused at his words and nodded emphatically. "That doesn't make sense at all. We can't learn until someone teaches or shows us how to and no one has done that for me before." She shook her head, "but I'm glad I'm not the only one confused about it." She shot him a bright smile, the young leopardess a cheerful soul, even if she knew all her own faults, and there was many.

She brightened considerably when he agreed. "Great! I don't get to pick flowers with other people often. My brothers don't like to," she crinkled her nose in disappointment, but smiled. She twisted a little, peering at her own spots, and then nodded. "That would be really nice! And find a flower for you too. Maybe we can pick some for our families too?"

She wiggled a little, excited to think of someone actually picking flowers with her.

 

[Lithiasaur]

Nyamavu agreed, smiling softly. He was very glad she was so nice, or he would have regretted talking to her. He usually kept to himself, so it was interesting to be having a normal conversation. Not because he didn't like others, of course. He was mostly just scared of them.

"That would be fun. My family has some pink in their fur. We could find pink flowers for them..." he nodded, liking the idea very much. Smiling, he flicked his tail behind him, then bounded forward.

He was going to continue with his 'getting bolder' thing, maybe, and since he was feeling eager about all this there was no harm in letting his excitement show.

"This way, I think," he said, smiling as he bounded off through the trees. He sniffed as he ran, looking for the scent of flowers and, soon enough, they were in a small field of them. "Ooh," he said, looking around. He had never been to this one before, and it was rather pretty.  

[Velveteen Angel]

"Pink is very pretty!" She said in agreement, and smiled brightly. "My family is mostly blue and white. I bet we could find both white and pink flowers easy."

She followed him quickly as he set off towards somewhere, she assumed they would find flowers whereever they were going. She was pleased to have made a new friend, which was what she counted him as already. The young leopardess made friends easily, which she found a fun trait but others might have said made her too trusting.

Her eyes lit up as they entered in the small field of flowers, and a bright grin worked across her face. "This is amazing-!" She paused, about to add his name to the end of the sentance, and frowned. "Hey, you never told me your name!" She protested, as if he might have left it off on purpose. She picked up a flower, the closest one to her which was white with green leaves around it still. Bolding walking over to him, she dropped the flower on his head and smiled, as if that had been all part of her introduction. "I'm Aulii'Naia, but you can call me Aulii, most people do."


 

[Lithiasaur]

Nyamavu smiled, nodding. He thought blue and white was pretty, but he didn't want to embarrass himself by saying so and getting awkward. He thought her colors were very pretty, and he smiled at her.

He looked at her in surprise, ears falling back.

"I didn't? I'm sorry... I'm not very good at introducing myself," one of the curses of being shy, really. He blushed under his fur, wondering if she was cross with him.

"My name is Nyamavu," he said, offering her a timid smile. He winced like he thought she might hit him with the flower, but instead she just put it on his head. His ears perked up and his smile strengthened, "it's very nice to meet you. Properly."  

[Velveteen Angel]

Aulii'naia shook her head. "Don't apologise, silly. I forgot to introduce myself too," she smiled reassuringly at him. She frowned a little when he winced at her placing a flower on his head but shrugged off the odd movement.

"Nyamavu? Hmm, can I call you Nya or Mavu? Your name is long," she said with a faint laugh. Also, nicknames meant friendship, didn't they? She liked having friends, and this boy looked like he might need a friend or two.

"It's very nice to meet you too! Now that all the formali...formaliti...official stuff of names and things is over, we can pick flowers!" She wiggled and moved towards some of them, eying them and trying to spot the best one, with the best shade. She peeked to the side, to see if he was doing the same.


 

[Lithiasaur]

Nyamavu chuckled hesitantly, but he was relaxing now so he could laugh more freely. He nodded, trying not to disrupt the flower from his head. He liked it, and wanted it to stay there.

"You can call me whatever you want," he said honestly, not minding. His siblings all called him different things, after all, and even his mom had nicknames for him. He imagined his name was too long, so it was just easier to shorten it.

He laughed and padded out into the field when she said it was time to pick flowers, trying not to step on any. All in all, it was a good day, and he was very glad to have stumbled on his new friend, his first friends, really.

He wondered if they would stay friends, or if he could make even more. He had one, right? Why not try for some more? It was really fun, after all.  

[Velveteen Angel]

Aulii beamed at the other leopard, pleased that he was so agreeable and that he was laughing now. He seemed like he was more relaxed, which was good. He had been so quiet and a little nervous when she'd first seen him, but now he was much better.

She moved around the flower field, making sure to keep him in view in case he tried to sneak off without saying goodbye, but focused mainly on the flowers. She was going to find some for her family, and definitely more for her new friend.

He had seemed happy with the first flower, so she'd have to keep giving them to him. It was nice to finally have a friend who appreciated flowers like she did! She would have to invite him out to go pick more flowers again sometime, she decided, before becoming distracted by the multitude of colours before her, though the smile stayed on her face.