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 Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:42 pm
Kiongozi was on her way home, finally. She'd not received to great of a reward, physically, for her time away and all of her help for the goddess- but she had a very special feather now, currently held tight in her beak until she figured out what exactly she would do with it, and a promise that if she needed the goddess then she could be called upon for help. It was interesting to have a goddess in your debt, but with things settled with that insane brown lioness, the honeyguide was more than happy to get back to Kunda and their considerably more peaceful lives. Oh the stories she had for him when she got there, though! Wasting no time, she was already back near the area Amadet had met Ezeoha, near the Pridelands borders and not far from the Swamps.
A lanky pale hare pumped her paws in the air triumphantly, celebrating the victory of jumping a great length, she was constantly trying to excel at jumping higher and farther. "Yeah woohoo!" She shouted and using her strong back legs sprang into the air, "Champion right here!" she shouted and suddenly became very conscious of her surroundings, this was not the land she lived in with her family, this was not the pride lands at all! What was the young hare to do? Her happy mood was not all together shattered, but she was still very nervous, what was mommy always saying? Don't wander away? The other pale hare seemed to be worried about just about everything. Reluctantly Tonra took a hop forward and sighed, she would have to go slow, so she could try and find her way, not speed past everything.
A sudden gust of wind caught Kiongozi off guard, and the goddess' feather flew from the small bird's beak. With a shriek, Kiongozi came to a stop in the air, hovering and looking furiously around as she tried to locate where the feather ahd gone. Spying it fluttering away and heading for the ground she shot after it, not realizing how close she was coming to a rather excited hare. No, her birdy mind was much more focused on getting back that feather. If she didn't, she would have no proof of what had happened when she told Kunda- and besides, how often would she get a chance to own a feather from a goddess? Not often at all!
The female just happened to look up in time for the feather to pick up speed and smack her right in the eye, "Ow!" She squealed and tossed the feather to the ground with one paw and then commenced blinking rapidly and holding the side of her thin face. "Ow, stupid feather where did you come from?" she grumbled and looked up with her good eye catching sight of the small honeyguide.
"Was that /your/ feather?"
Kiongozi saw the hare just in time to stop herself from flying straight into the poor thing, and it would not have been a comfortable situation for either of them. Plopping onto the ground, her red eyes went immediately looking for the feather despite the fact that now she was being spoken to. Spotting it beside the hare, Kion immediately hopped over and onto the feather so that it could not get away again. She looked back at the hare with a smug look in her eyes.
"Yes, my feather," she confirmed, "Though not from my own wings, no. It's special."
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Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:58 pm
She grumbled and rubbed her watering eye, "I am Tonra, why is it special?" An odd look spread across her face, one that might have passed for intrigue but failed miserably with her squinting eye. Her mother was protective, but Mn said she was worse when Cheshi's second litter wasn't even thought of just yet. She watched the brown bird and blinked her eye a few more times allowing it to clear enough to see properly. "You're an interesting color, and different than the feather."
"Kiongozi," she introduced herself, taking a slight bow when she introduced herself, having very limited gestures as a bird. The hare was rather young, that was not hard to see. And she was rather amusing to watch as she tried to recover from the feather to the eye, though it did look like it had hurt a fair bit. However, it didn't look as though she would go blind and that was the important thing. Eyesight was important, predator or prey- and overall the world would be very boring and bleak without it!
"The feather came from a goddess," she explained smugly, "Part of a reward for my help."
"Nice to Meetcha!" She smiled and resisted the urge to laugh, she supposed it would be quite hard to move with such a tiny body, but watching a bird bow was funny. Tonra stood on her hind legs in a standing position, her brown eyes growing wide at the word goddess, what was that, it looked like a very large feather indeed! Was a Goddess a giant bird? "What is a goddess, some sort of bird?" She'd lived with lions and hare her entire life, which was not all that long and did not know what a goddess was perhaps it had been spoken before in her presence but her mind was usually on hopping and adventuring.
"Nice to meet you," Kion returned, ruffling her feathers a bit at the suppressed laugh but deciding she was best off simply ignoring it. She grinned inwardly at the fact that the young hare had not yet learned about the deities, and privately thought that birds would make just as fair gods as lions, but the way it sounded it was rather limited. She had not been well educated in the matter until meeting Mtima'safi herself, it was not too surprising or too concerning. She just felt a bit more pleased to know something that might not be so well known.
"No, the gods are lions," she explained, "I wondered about why they couldn't be birds, but I never asked. They are lions with great wings, feathery on this one, though who knows. She was about the same as a normal lion, I don't expect the flight was from the power of wings alone. Hard to fly if you're too heavy."
"That seems ridiculous, lions can't fly I live with a whole family of them and they certainly don't have wings, are you sure you actually me a lion?" Tonra blinked wide eye and squinty eye slightly widdened. "That doesn't seem right at all." She shook her head and stomped a foot as if to prove a point this bird was trying to pull a fast one on her and it was not going to work, surely lions didn't grow wings, where would they put them?
"That feather is probably from some giant bird, did you find it?"
She did not understand the dynamics of wings, after all Kion was the first bird she'd ever spoken to, so no one had told her that weight made it impossible to fly, it was simply the wings that did all of the work. The concepts the honeyguide was brining up seemed ridiculous, she wouldn't believe them. The next thing you know she'll be saying hares fly!
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Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 9:15 pm
"Oh, no no no," Kiongozi said, remaining perfectly serious and shaking her head firmly, "This was most definitely a lion with wings. I might not have believed it myself if I didn't see it with my own eyes, and I have very good vision you know." She hopped back a step and leaned down, picking up the feather and letting it fluttering to the ground again (and putting a claw on it to make sure it didn't try to escape again, of course!)
"This was different from other lions, normal lions don't have wings," she said, then realized exactly what Tonra was saying. She lived with a whole family of lions? Of all things! And she thought Kiongozi was strange! She blinked a moment and tilted her head, "You live with lions? Are you serious?"
"I don't know..I mean that's pretty unbelievable," she leaned down and sniffed the feather the bird had picked up and dropped, she suddenly thought of something, "Is it hard without arms?" she blurted out, no shame or embarrassment for being so blunt and rude. She looked up and then sniffed the feather agian, all it smelled like to her was the bird that had been holding it. "Why would a lion have wings they hunt things on the ground?" She asked again and shook her head.
"Of course I live with lions! They keep us safe!"
Hard without arms? What an interesting little question to toss out there in the midst of their conversation, it seems they would going to have several conversations going on at once! What an interesting hare, if it had not saved her feather she might have been less inclined to continue talking but she had to be polite. No reason not to be, and who wanted to leave the impression that they were insane? Not Kiongozi, and that was for certain!
"Is it hard without wings?" she counted, "I don't need arms, I get along fine with what I have."
She took a moment to consider the question Tonra posed, and a good question it was.
"I did not get the impression at any time that Mtima'safi seemed hungry," she commented, "I don't know if gods don't need much to eat or if she was very good at controlling herself. The other lioness she was with, a normal lioness most certainly, was much less agreeable. Lost a couple feathers to her, I did. I've never heard of lions keeping prey beasts safe, but if you can avoid extreme hunger.. wouldn't surprise me to learn that this family of yours was in a pride."
"Oh, I just don't know life like a bird," she answered and thought that perhaps the next time she was hoping she would pretend to be one and not use her paws at all, how interesting would that be? Perhaps she would put her wings out and pretend to flap, for being an adult, even a young one she was thinking very childishly, but when you're out alone, who is to stop you from acting silly? she nodded as the bird spoke.
"I'm sure they need to eat, why wouldn't they need to? Are they magical?"
"Are you okay? Why did it attack you?" it dawned on her that she was trying to head back to her mother to the pride, when Kion said pride it rereminded her, "I..am tying to go back home to my pride do you know where it is? It's in the pridelands, do you know where that is?" Tonra hopped topics far more than she actually hopped with her feet.
"And why should you?" Kion asked with a bright chirp, "You're a hare, you need mainly concern yourself with life as you are." It was a simple answer, and it was becoming more and more apparent how immature the hare was, but then perhaps you had to give a bit a time for youth like that. As long as she put herself in no danger, she was fine to act however she wanted- though out here, in the roguelands away from your protecting lion family.. well, that was another story!
"Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Magic.." she trailed off, certain there was some magical element to the goddess. Afterall, she seemed to be able to find the goddess when she needed to, with no trouble despite how vast Africa was for them. She clicked and was about to answer the question about why the lioness had attacked her when Tonra asked if she knew where the Pridelands was. She was astonished to learn the hare was lost, but at the same time it made more sense.
"The pridelands?" she repeated, "Yes, I do believe I saw a lion heading for them. You should be more careful not to get lost, but you are lucky to have found me! Guiding is what I do best, though it is usually telling my dear Kunda how to find us some honey."
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Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 9:53 pm
It did make sense the young immature hare was just now discovering adulthood, her childhood seeming to fly by, her adventuring feet were just starting to awaken and she wanted to see parts of the large world she did not yet realize she was apart of. She grinned, "Why honey? Who's Kunda your mate?" she blinked and noticed her squinting eye was saying open longer and longer and did not hurt as much as it originally had.
"If you could help me find my way home, that would be fantastic,"getting lost was something it started t seem that Tonras do best, she was lost in seas of words as well as lost within the world.
"Honey and the larvae sometimes in the combs is our food of choice," Kiongozi explained, grasping onto the feather with her feet and lifting herself up into the air, "Kunda is my badger, he is the one who has to retreive the honey. I am a honeyguide bird, I find it for him. We work together so that we might both eat." With that explained, she fluttered forward in the direction she'd seen Ezeoha head off after speaking with Amadet. It was the only way she could imagine they'd find the Pridelands, having never visited it personally.
"This way!"
"Larvae?" She questioned and started her giant hops her eyes on the honeyguide as she followed, "I've never met a badger, are they as nice as you?" she hopped and called to the bird. The thought of being a winged hare seemed very appealing, but she loved hopping too much and it did not seem you could hop in the sky.
"Could I have a honeyguide too? How did you find your badger?" she glanced down now and then to make sure she wasn't hopping into anything and glanced back up towards the bird a million more questions forming. Would mommy be fine with her hanging out with a bird? She was just a tiny bird, not a bird that ate hares either, honey and larvae.
"Bugs," she replied, "Kunda is quite harmless sometimes, but then again he listens to me. Sometimes I wonder about how social he is." She laughed to herself, sticking near the ground where she could continue this little conversation with the hare. It was rather amusing, she wanted a honeyguide as well, now! Kion doubted very much that the hare needed help finding food as Kunda did, or that she'd need help obtaining it, as Kiongozi did.
"I found Kunda when he was small, needed my help to find food," she answered brightly, "We've stuck together ever since, no need to ruin it when you have something going in your favor. I don't know that a hare would really need a honeyguide."
"Aww, so Kunda lost his mommy? That is very sad, do you think he'll ever see his original family? Or are you his family now?" She questioned panting a bit as she hopped. Having a honeyguide would be great! she would never get lost because someone in the sky would be able to watch her back at all times, and know where they were going, and be able to gage how high she was jumping. Plus they could find honey and bugs, which both sounded like a good thing as well, a few hoppers and she'd be so very happy, herhaps with such good eyes as she said they could find hoppers too.
"Of course I would, you're a very neat type of bird, all I've ever seen are loud squawky ones or the kind that want to eat me, I guess I've seen your kind around,but never actually talked to one," she explained, "I would need one so that we could always be together, she could help me find honey, and help me learn to jump very very high."
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Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:10 pm
"No, I'm his family now," Kion said reassuringly, having already guessed that Tonra must still live with her family. It made sense, especially if they were living with lions in a lovely, protected environment. Very likely a good place to have a family in the first place, and to keep one if it was so safe. She doubted that any bird would truly want to follow around a hare, honeyguides used honey badgers for a reason, they needed each other for some of the 'hunting' and that's just how it was. Perhaps a visit was more believable for a relationship with a hare.
"You can do those things without a bird," she said, glancing back curiously, "You must already be a very good hopper."
"Aww...well maybe just a good friend besides my family," she nodded and jerked her eyes back and forth to mak2 sure she wasn't hading towards anything. The pale hare liked the idea of a bird friend, it still made sense to her even if a honey badger was what a honey guide required. What if she got a baby honeyguide and said it was supposed to guide her? She did not think that was a bad idea at all.
"I am a fantastic hopper!" she exclaimed loudly and thumped her paws down hard to emphasize.
"Say...I know where we are now! I hopped over that log!" She pointed towards the large fallen tree and then looked around, they lived quite close to her actually, not too far away, perhaps if the young female paid more attention she would realize how close she was to home.
Kiongozi smiled and nodded at Tonra when she said she could settle for a bird-friend if not a personal guide. She was not especially surprised to hear what a great hopper Tonra was either, it made sense. Just as Kiongozi was better at flying, Tonra would be better at hopping. It's what hares did, and Tonra would always have that. Whent he hare called up saying she knew where she was, Kion slowed down a bit and lowered herself to a better level to bid the hare farewell.
"If you know where we are, I had better be going," she said, "I'm on my way home, I disappeared on Kunda several days ago, I'm sure he'll be wondering where I've gone off to."
"Thank you so very much for helping me find my way, Kiongozi!" She stopped her hopping for a moment to say goodbye and to catch her breath, "You are a very nice bird indeed, I can't wait to tell my sister about this!" She thumped her paws to make it solid, like a promise. "I hope you find your badger, he seems like he needs you." She waved a paw to the brown bird and smiled, honeyguides were interesting. What other types of birds were out there? Were there any hopperguides? She decided she would search out and try to find any birds she could, that were smaller than her of course.
"Tata!" She hopped on catching her breath enough, afterall, she was young and vibrant, not like an old aging hare who needed lots of rest, "Have a good liiiife!" She whooped as she jumped a particularly good jump.
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