[FIN] Have You Tried Prayer? (Ua & Mstari)

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Now he was playing her game. Mstari grinned at the lion as he spoke of how skilled a healer he was. If it was true, well, that was no small thing, even considering how many Healers were already in the pride. If it wasn't, again, no big loss, everyone expected a bit of exaggeration when talking to a pretty lioness like herself.

"Oh really?" she replied coyly. "That's good to know." She posed a little - just a little! - for him before answering his question about her own rank.

"I'm a Priestess of the Goddess," Mstari informed Ua proudly. "I'm a very spiritual person, you know."  

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"Well, a Priestess goes through the pride and offers spiritual guidance and advice to all those who need it," Mstari told the lion proudly. Nevermind that she'd had trouble just finding someone who wanted her help, but he didn't need to know that.

"You know, better than most I'm sure, all about how Healers tend to the hurts of the body. Well, Priestesses do the same, but for the hurts of the soul," the lioness elaborated. Which was actually why, though Pestilence was the primary focus of worship for the Kitwana'antara, some select few worshipped the goddess of Souls instead.

A select few like Mstari, of course.  

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"Oh, I'm sure some people would tell you that it's a great deal harder than healing," Mstari replied confidently. "But they're lying. After all, while a person can die of an affliction to the soul, it's not very common. And I don't need to tell you how vital the skills of the Healers are to this pride!"

Oh sure, Mstari liked being a Priestess because it got her out of so much heavy lifting. But the trick wasn't just to not make light of her rank's duties, but to also be humble about it, and to share the glory around.

In other words, after she'd flaunted her rank, she needed to downplay her lack of work and play up the contributions of whomever she was talking to. And some people thought she was dumb. Boy were they wrong.  

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"If you insist," the lioness agreed graciously. She thought about pushing him again, pointing out how very much the Healers did, but that would probably be overkill. She didn't want to alienate Ua.

Nor was she quite ready to let the conversation go. But how to prolong things without turning him off? Wait, he'd said he was looking for a new den. Perhaps...

"Now, I wonder, do you find yourself in need of any guidance, spiritual or otherwise?" she offered, batting her eyelashes a couple times. It usually worked on her brothers, time to see if it worked on other males.  

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"Well, I wouldn't claim to be an expert," Mstari allowed, "but I just so happen to know of some available dens not too far from my own..." She trailed off so that Ua would fill in the rest for himself.

"Interested?" the lioness offered.  

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Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Mstari led Ua onward with little more than an amused backward glance. She did, in fact, know of several available dens, and was already thinking in what order she should show them to Ua.

Perhaps she'd tell him that one shouldn't simply choose a den based on looks and space. And maybe, just maybe, she'd convince him that a den should be...ah...tested, before one claimed it.

Then again, maybe she wouldn't help him test it. She hadn't decided yet.