Rosha loved going on walks along the beach in her new home pride. It had been a rough call leaving her brother, the last family she had, to come here, but she did not regret it one bit. This place was beautiful, and while things may not have worked out quite how she expected when she decided to stay, she had good friends to share such beauty with in the pride. The strangest thing of all was how she could make the decisions on what she wanted to do and when without worrying if her male relatives approved. It was such a nice change from her birth pride.

Rosha had always been lucky back home that her family had never really dictated what she could and could not do like others did. Her father had believed his banus should know what was proper on their own and as long as there was food brought in and the den was clean, Rosha and the other females under him could do as they wished. Even when she was there, the lioness had known how lucky she was to have a lenient male like her father around. She had often dreaded the idea of bent sent to a Pad of her own later to start a family because she could have ended up with a less tolerant environment.

Rosha liked how this pride did not make such a big thing of one’s gender. Males and females both got to have a voice and both partook rather equally in the raising of cubs. There were still somethings that might be more one gender or the other, but there was also an equality here that was so strange and faciinationg to the lioness. It was one thing to have her brother treat her like an equal when she had found him again, but this, this was a whole pride of STRANGE males that treated her as if she was as important as they! Okay so almost a whole pride.

There was that one male that had been following her as she went down the beach the last few days. That was just a little weird. Rosha had worried the first day or two, but he never did anything… just followed, and watched… and occasionally she thought he was talking to himself. She could not hear what he said, just knew there was a faint sound and his muzzle moved. She could have told someone and had him forced to stop, but he just did not strike her as scary. Odd, yes, he was certainly odd, but not scary.

Rosha tried ignoring him at first, but he didn’t go away. She had tried talking to him, but that had not gone well. The male had blushed, stuttered and backed away as if she was on fire or something. After that, Rosha figured that he would talk when he wanted to and just let him follow her in silence. At this point it had been going on for about a week and Rosha was no longer concerned about it in the least. She was too busy enjoying her beautiful walk.

~~~~~

Cam followed along after the lovely bright lioness and wondered at himself. He was amazed she had not told him to go away, or gotten someone else to tell him to go away, but he still could not talk to her. A week of watching her, of walking with her, okay a little behind her, and yet he could not find his tongue enough to say one word to HER. He had plenty to say, just not the ability to say it. He could talk to himself, call himself all kinds of things for his lack of nerve, but when he tried to use that same voice toward the lioness, he choked and stuttered before it died completely.

Cam did not have this problem with other females. In fact, since coming to the sea shore pride he had made many lioness friends. This was the only female he had a problem speaking to and this was the only lioness he had so much to say to as well! There were so many things he wanted to tell her if he could just find his voice. When he had first seen Rosha, the sight had taken his breath away. He had never seen such a bright and beautifully patterned female in his whole life.

Cam wanted to tell her that she was lovely, and that he had never seen any lioness that was as graceful as she was. He wanted to tell her how much he appreciated her letting him walk with her, especially when he was being so weird and awkward. He thought perhaps she was the kindest female he had ever met. He opened his mouth, thinking that perhaps now was the time. This time would have to be different… and nothing. He couldn’t make a sound. His throat just closed up and his tongue got all dry and heavy. Maybe he could try again tomorrow. At least the walks were nice while he tried to find that pesky voice and force his tongue to work.

Cam thought of all the other things he would do once he could speak around Rosha. He would ask her about herself, her family, where she was from, and probably if she minded him being around her. Maybe he would ask her to go out to that cave he had found with all the beautiful seashells everywhere. It would make a nice place for a date, if she wanted to go with him. The date would have to wait, though, because right now Rosha didn’t even know Cam’s name. That would probably be the best thing to say first.

Cam really should introduce himself before he gushed about how she looked nice and all the other things he had on his list. He made a mental note of that as the walk turned back toward Rosha’s den, and he knew it would not be long before he had to leave her. Once the walk was over, she would go back to her den, or her duties depending on the time of day they returned, and he had to do the same. He hated leaving her, and yet he didn’t know why. He always wanted to drag his paws when he walked away from her den, and yet he had no more explanation for that then for why he couldn’t talk to the female. Ah well, another day, another failure, he would have to try again tomorrow.