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 Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 6:27 pm
 Tired from many days travel cross country, Gienah Cygni yawned as she watched her siblings sleep. And there beside them lay her dark furred father, who she adored beyond all things. She had come into this world with few impressions, but had immediately bonded with her parents as strongly as any pup ever did. It was her only regret so far in her short life that her mother had not come with them on this long journey to the new place called Tearmann, where father said things would be good.
But despite the weariness brought by such a long trip, she couldn't sleep. She rarely could; there was so much to experience in the world, it overloaded her senses. It was beyond her how anyone could lay down and think nothing when there was life bustling and wind murmuring, and a sky overhead that reached on forever.
So, even though father had told her many times not to, Gienah waited for her family to fall asleep, and then headed out into the grasses to see. She tread quietly and slowly, careful not to lapse into puplike clumsiness that could give her away to a predator. But her eyes were frantically busy, examining tiny details and glorying in newfound experiences.
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Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 6:45 pm
Tonight she was pacing elegantly along through the grasses, which rippled beneath a healthy breeze. In the end, it wasn't the pup's movement that gave her away, but her scent carried on the wind. The lioness paused, nostrils flaring to catch the nuances of scent. Young things of any species had a certain smell, that of milk and cleanliness and love. Puppies seemed especially prone to this, and the story the wind told her was that a pup was upwind of her, possibly on its own, for there was no accompanying scent of an adult.
Concerned for the welfare of a little one, she followed her nose, stopping occasionally to deeply inhale and turn her head this way or that. It wasn't long before she nearly stumbled upon where the little thing was joyously enthralled with the night. With a soft chuff, Delphia made herself known so as not to frighten the child. "Why hello there, small one," she said, her tuft of headfur ruffling pleasantly in the breeze. "What are you doing out here all alone?" She lowered herself to a reclining position, getting down near the puppy's level and reducing the threat she posed.
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Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:13 pm
Gienah had been examining the details of a small twig, and its tiny branches and patterns of the bark, when the voice startled her. She whirled and backed away, right onto the twig, snapping it with a crack. She winced at the sound, but more so at the destruction of something that had so fascinated her only seconds before.
She made as if to bolt into the grass, but before she could, she spotted the lioness. Her innate wonder stopped any fear she had as she studied the other. She had a dark grey color, or maybe not. Maybe it was the night making her look grey. Gienah's feet dragged her forward to get a better look, despite any danger. Here was a question to be answered.
Once she was satisfied that the fur really was grey, she turned to the issue of meeting another creature. "Hello," she said, remembering her manners. "I was just looking at a twig, but... it's gone now." Her eyes focused on the lion's hair rippling, and she crept even closer. "Who are you?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 3:56 pm
She laid still, letting the youngster creep closer, laying her head on her paws in a relaxed manner. She blinked slowly and gently at the babe before answering. "My name is Delphia, and I am travelling with my son." She smiled then, a sweet and small gesture of affection. "He once was small, but I'm not sure he was ever quite as small as you." How she loved cubs and pups and any other young thing that required protection and nurturing! They were so precious, so valuable in their potential, so adorable in their innocence.
"I'm sorry you've lost your twig," she continued softly. "Would you like me to help find another for you?" Even such small losses, to a pup, could be earth shattering. Delphia gamely refrained from dredging up any fond memories of Helaku as a cub. He would not thank her for telling embarassing stories about him, even to this tiny canine baby.
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 8:54 am
Sniffing around the lioness, Gienah studied her curiously, the twig easily forgotten in favor of such an intriguing new animal. She crept ever closer so she could get a good look at the tiny hairs that made up the adult's fur, and the gentle shift of muscles underneath them. This was her usual way with things... she had to examine each part individually before she could contemplate it making a whole. The details always came easier to her than the big picture.
She circled, poking at feet and tail with her nose, cataloging her discoveries. Finally she returned to the front, and backed up to get a better view of it all together. Yes, this was a fascinating new person. "You're a funny lookin' 'yena," she commented.
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Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:49 am
Delphia laid still, permitting the close contact from the pup. She watched with amusement as each part of her was examined in minute detail, by sight, scent, and touch. She patiently waited until the pup was back in front of her before she sprawled a little more comfortably. She smiled indulgently at being called a hyena.
"That would be because I am a lioness, not a hyena," she answered with a firm tone. Best to be straight-forward with such an inquisitive and thoughtful little one, in her opinion. "You are a hyena, and I am a lion. We have many of the same parts, but they are shaped differently, of a different size sometimes too." She leaned a little closer. "My nose is different from yours. Can you see?" It seemed a safe enough comparison. Her first thought had been that her claws extended and retracted, but that seemed rather too threatening an attribute to focus on with the baby.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:14 am
Gienah watched the giant paws stretch out in amazement, as the lioness sprawled mightily. What might be a small gesture for the larger creature was enormous from the little cub's perspective, but it didn't scare her in the slightest. Gienah wasn't very skilled at fear; most of the time she bypassed it completely in her insatiable curiosity. When the legs settled she crept back towards them to investigate the toes.
Recognizing the word, her head popped up. "Oh, li-yons! My papa told me about 'em. We're going to a... a co-a-li-shun..." she sounded out the word carefully with a frown of concentration, "where there will be yenas and li-yons and all sorts. It's gonna be our new home. I hope." She jumped forward at the comment about the nose and got up close to the lioness, peering upwards. "Yah, your nose wouldn't fit on mah face! S'big. Are all lions big?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:03 pm
Delphia beamed at the tiny creature in amusement. So small, and yet so curious! "Yes," she answered her. "lions are bigger than hyenas." She tipped her head in thought, letting her headfur curl to one side. "I am not as big as many lions, though. I am small, for a grown-up lion." She gave the pup a light laugh and a bright smile. "I know that must sound silly to you, when I am so big compared to you! But there is always something bigger than you, and something smaller."
"Here, let me show you." She gestured the little hyena close and peered at the ground. "Look how much bigger you are than this tuft of grass! You are a giant compared to it. But look here!" She pointed with her paw to a pebble nestled next to the tuft of grass. "See how small the pebble is to the grass? The grass is much bigger than it, just like you are bigger than the grass, and I am bigger than you!" It was a highly simplistic example, and entirely lacking in thoroughness, but she wasn't seeking to enlighten the child to the mysteries of the universe. Merely illustrating that size was relative, all in how you saw it.
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:18 pm
Gienah twisted her head to gaze skeptically at the adult's comment; surely lions couldn't come any bigger than that? Was she playing a trick on the naive little pup. Gienah's mind supplied plenty of imaginative examples though, of lions as big as trees. How big those toes would be! There'd be no end to them, Gienah would fit between them like a bit of sand stuck into your footpad. Her thoughts boggled in wonder.
At the gesture to the pebble and grass she obediently dropped her head to the ground, getting way up close to see them in detail. She always loved this, how small things that seemed so simple from a distance would grow incredibly complex under scrutiny. She widened her eyes as far as they would go, to soak in all the tiny veins in the grass and the glints on the pebble. "Does it keep going?" she wondered aloud. "Smaller and smaller and bigger and bigger?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 9:24 am
She nodded her head solemnly, careful to not laugh as she wished to, for fear it would crush the young thing's feelings. "Yes, I believe so, even down to things too small to see, and too big to see entirely as well, like the sky." She waved a paw upwards. "But there isn't anything that comes in all those sizes. Lions cannot be as big as a mountain, just like hyenas cannot be as tiny as a grain of sand." She traced a pawpad through the dirt, displacing infinite grains of sand and earth.
She chuffed softly and gave the little thing an affectionate lick across the tuft of fur on her head. "You are a very smart pup. I am sure your mother is very proud of you." She knew she was of her child, but this little one seemed especially intelligent for one so young. "But I imagine you'll be looked for soon." Mothers tended to count heads to be sure everyone was safe, and she could not bear to be the cause for another mother's panic at finding one of her babies gone. "You should go back, little one. Ask your papa about sizes tomorrow and see what he says, hmm?" She gave the pup a gentle nudge with her nose and rose to her paws, waiting to be sure the youngster toddled off safely.
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Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 5:31 pm
"I wish 'yeenas could be small as sand," Gienah mumbled wistfully. She imagined a landscape of huge pebbles and towering blades of grass, all hers to play in. "I would hunt ants for my dinner, omph omph." She made biting motions to demonstrate, then spat out the dirt she'd inadvertently mouthed. "I'd probably get stepped on though."
She cringed from the lick of her forehead, but only in good spirits. Though this lioness was a strange beast to her, the motherly aspect was undeniable, and as a pup she responded accordingly. "She was proud, I think," Gienah replied, contemplating. "She's not coming to the co-a-li-shun with us. But papa's proud of us. Calls us troopers." Thinking about it made her blue for a moment, so she rubbed up affectionately against the lioness, before obligingly trotting away. "Bye miss lion!" she called over her shoulder. "I'm gonna tell my sisters all about you!"
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