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 Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:53 pm
 A million billion points of light shined down through the jungle canopy to make a million billion pools of sunlight on the ground. Four white paws splashed in these pools of light, skipping over the dark patches of the jungle floor. Xenia’s musical laughter filled the quiet afternoon. Her large family was on the move again, fresh from their morning nap. For Xenia and her siblings, another ordinary day was charting its course, walking through the jungle with their mama.
Oh, look at all the sights to see! Smell that air! The birds are singing, mama, they’re singing to us! What are they saying? I can sing too, watch me!
To Xenia, it seemed that she woke up one day, stretched her stubby little legs and started walking. They had always been walking, as far as she was concerned. She hardly ever thought about the past at this age, for she had very little past to think about, but she lived in the now. Now had a mama smell, an earth and trees smell. Now was perfect. Now would last forever. The future was now, and always would be.
As they walked Xenia giggled and skittered under her mama’s pink belly. Her mama’s big, strong legs looked like trees moving around her itty bitty body. Instead of bird song, Xenia lifted her ears and heard the beating of her mama’s great big wonderful heart, a sound she’d learned to love since the world was a wet, dark place inside her mama’s warm tummy. She rubbed against the inside of her mama’s front leg (without realizing it, she almost caused her mama to trip). “Mama h’art go thump thump!”((NOTE: All the other cubs are there too, but for the most part they're just going to be witnesses in this RP. I'd like this to be just a one on one RP with me and Eski, to give Xenia some dim memories of her mother, but I guess if you REALLY want to join and Eski is fine with it you can. Just ask first; this is a PRP! 8D))
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 10:25 am
It had been four sunrises since Clotho left her home, the Undergrove. This was the fifth sunrise. It was the most pleasant one, the leopardess thought. Perhaps because she had gotten used to traveling. It was a cool, moist morning, sun dappling through the leaves in the trees and making her cubs appear to be spotted. Her children romped and played, some stayed close, some wandered. She tripped over them occasionally, but never hurt them; never.
To see her cubs so full of life and so happy filled Clotho with an indescribable emotion. Perhaps it was simply the feeling of being a mother? She had never known the feeling before. She hoped to never know it again.
Throughout the day, Clotho smiled with little to no reason to smile at all. Just looking at her cubs made her smile; made her laugh and nuzzle them. They pulled her towards them, each and every one. She loved them equally and to the fullest. She was happy and careless all of the time for the first time in her life.
But it would not last.
Eyes raised to the heavens, Clotho uttered a silent prayer to the gods for strength. What she was journeying to do was hard for her; harder than anything she had done in her entire life. But it had to be done.
Her youngest cub, Xenia, took her mind from darker thoughts. The leopardess smiled warmly, looking down at her lavender daughter. Clotho stumbled a bit at the nuzzling she received from her cub, but she caught herself with a grunt.
"Yes," Clotho answered, still smiling. "my heart is beating. Your is, too." she explained. "Because we are alive, Xenia."
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 11:45 am
“Xexe ah… ah… ah lie va.” Xenia moved her jaw to fit the funny word. Her lips tingled, the tip of her tail bristling. “Aliiive. Alive.”
She grinned. What a fun word!
“Alive. Xexe alive! Mama alive!” She bubbled with childish glee. Oh, how fun! Right then Xenia decided she liked being alive very much. She was happy mama was alive, too. Alive must be a good, special thing.
The little lavender cub bounded out of her mama’s shadow, getting a little ahead of the group, and looked around the jungle. Was anything else alive? When Xenia looked back she almost gasped in fright. She suddenly felt very far away from her mama (she was only a few feet ahead) and ran back to her quickly. After a few seconds the trauma was forgotten. “Toot-toot alive, mama?” (Toot-toots were birds, of course.)
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:05 pm
Despite being so young, Clotho was always surprised with how smart her cubs were; all of them. Though she did notice Cerberus having trouble understanding most things, he was able to keep up with his siblings and had a general idea of what was going on. Clotho had heard that rumors of last-born cubs being slow and weak, Xenia was always exploding with energy, always eager to learn and speak with whatever words she knew, and whatever words she made up.
"Of course, Xenia." Clotho answered, nodding. "Birds. The birds are alive, like us. Can you hear their heartbeats?" she asked. The leopardess demonstrated to her cub by pointing her ears up to capture all the sounds around her. "Anything with a heartbeat is alive." she stated calmly, smiling. And of course, Xenia would understand after Clotho said that. She was very quick to understand all Clotho said. Had Xenia been able to stay in the Undergrove, she might've become a great healer. She was much like Clotho, sucking in all the information she received, and holding onto it. Healers needed that ability because of how much they needed to know. But that was not to be, Clotho thought. Xenia was not meant to be a healer alongside her mother.
But it was possible that she would be a healer, some place else...Fate would reveal all in time. Though Clotho knew she would never witness what path her daughter chose...
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:41 pm
Xenia copied her mama. The trees replied with a chorus of noises; birds, monkeys, leaves and wind. Some of the noises frightened her, for she could only imagine the kind of creatures that made them. When the dark time came – the cold, boisterous night – Xenia nuzzled close to her mama and folded her ears against her head so she would not feel frightened by the calls of howler monkeys and other beasties that moved about in the dark.
She wanted to know the faces of those beasties, but she wanted her mama to be there when she met them.
Everything had a mama, Xenia believed. Everything needed someone warm and soft and loving to take care of them, and for them to love back. Love (if Xenia had the life experience to think about love in metaphorical terms) was like a river that flowed and flowed. A river always flows to somewhere. Love too must always flow toward someone. For Xenia, that someone was her mama. She loved her brothers and sisters of course, but more than anything, Xenia loved her mama.
If Xenia was destined to become a healer one day, the seeds of that future had not yet been planted. The world was a perfect place. Only imperfection needs healers. Xenia did not see her purpose in the world yet. Her only desire was to see and touch and listen and smell the world around her, understand it and be brave in it and make it real. She stood still, watching her mama walk on ahead of her in the corner of her eye while she tried to hear the heart beat of the jungle. When her mama’s tail almost passed Xenia’s muzzle the distance became too great to bear and she shook herself and bounded to catch up with her mama’s head, almost bumbling into her blue brother along the way.
“Uh-uh,” said the little cub with certainty and uncertainty. She had not heard the heart beat of the jungle, even though her mother said she would. The paradox troubled her. But she decided quite quickly that the fault must lie with her and not with her mama. After all, Clotho was her mama. Xenia was just little Xexe. If anything ever got hard in Xenia’s young life she could always blame it on her size and feel better about herself, knowing that she too would someday be as big as mama. She imagined it wouldn’t take long.
“Mama?” She looked into her mother’s pink eyes. There was something else she wanted to ask.
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:58 pm
Clotho had known the jungle for a long time. It had been her home since birth. She had not had the same experiences her cubs were having, however. Clotho didn't grow up with her mother; she never knew hers. Her two older sisters were her family and only true friends. She loved them deeply, with all hear being. Yet now, the love she had for them was somewhat tainted. They were the reason she had to leave her cubs in the care of others. Them and their rules...Her rules. She tried not to think of the fact that it was all their fault she was where she was right then, traveling through the jungle with a litter of seven cubs; her cubs. But the "if they hadn't"s kept playing in her mind, good and bad...
If her sisters hadn't left on their soul quests and been gone for much longer than planned, Clotho wouldn't have grown soft to all of their strict rules. She never would've spoken to any adult male, lion or otherwise...Males were not always welcome in her home, especially when Clotho was by herself. She would never have wanted that male to come back. If her sister's hadn't left, she would never have been with that lion...She would never have had cubs. She wouldn't have to give them up, had it not been for her sisters and the rules the three of them made...When she thought of it like that, Clotho's eyes hardened with realization.
Was it really all her fault?
Sighing, she glanced down at Xenia, remembering they had been in the middle of a conversation. "Yes, child?" she answered, expression softening.
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 1:08 pm
Xenia stared deeply into her mama’s eyes. Now and then her mama’s eyes looked at her funny. They looked at the world funny. But Clotho never said a harsh word to any of her cubs. Still, Xenia sensed that something troubled her.
Xenia rubbed affectionately against her mama’s leg and looked up at her again with questioning eyes. She had hoped she could communicate this way, but her mother’s silence told her she needed to use her words. She trotted along emphatically. “Go go go. We go?” She glanced ahead, down the deep shadowy jungle trail, then back at her mama.
Even though Xenia was too young to give much thought to the future, she did sometimes wonder if her family would ever stop and settle in one place. Walking made her tired after a while. There were also times she wanted to explore a little, but she had to keep going because if she wandered off for too long her family might walk on without her, or at least that was her fear. So it might be nice if they had a place she could always come back to.
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:35 pm
For a moment, Clotho envied her cub's innocence and naivete. Xenia was ignorant of where they were going, and why. Most of what the cub had been doing once she learned to walk was journeying to a place she didn't know of, fully trusting her mother; never questioning, never doubting...Just following like a good girl. And Clotho was proud of her. But she was sad; very, very sad, at the same time.
Eying the dark, sun-speckled jungle ahead, Clotho tried to comprehend what Xenia was saying in her own language. It was common knowledge that each cub had their own language, after all.
"Yes, Xenia," Clotho answered, smiling reassuringly. "We go." But she knew that wouldn't be enough to ease her cub's curiosity if what she wanted was to know where they were going. "We're going...Home." the pink leopardess said hesitantly, unsure of the word. Perhaps Xenia would understand, perhaps not. The concept of the word "home" was different depending on who you talked to. But it would be hard for Clotho to explain to the cub...That she was taking them to their home...
And she was going back to her own.
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:42 pm
“Home.” Xenia smiled and said it again, looking at her mama for reassurance. She barely knew the word, but it left a sweet taste on her tongue. “Home good?”
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:51 pm
Of course her cubs' home would be good...It would be the absolute best; perfect for them. Clotho would make sure.
But it was also not good...Their home meant being away from Clotho. It would mean she had left them. Why did it all have to happen...?
No, she was not one to question fate. It simply had to happen. It just did. That was all. To question one's fate for selfish desires was foolish...Or so she had been taught.
"Yes, Xenia." Clotho said softly, eyes misted as she looked ahead, legs still moving though she desperately wanted to stop forever.
"Home is good."
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