Thoth had finally gotten a chance to talk to Amalthea alone, though he was skeptical that either Nyota or Lela had gone far off. They were friends and, well, this was an unfortunate situation. He still didn't know what exactly to say but he did stand close, his head resting sympathetically by her shoulder, a feline hug, so to speak. He just stayed there silently, waiting for her to break the silence when she was ready to say something. He thought of the others, Kallisto in the upper-middle class, Atlas and Hecate in the high class and Amalthea alone in the low class. And she didn't even know it yet, for all she knew they had woken earlier in the night and had already gone off to get their thoughts sorted out.
Amalthea felt numb, she didn't know what to think. She knew when she woke up to the dark and two lions looking over her that something wasn't quite right, she had barely reacted when they had told her what it was. It just didn't feel right, you were just supposed to accept wherever you were placed and she didn't want to cause any trouble. Even now that it was just her and her father she was having trouble figuring out what she was supposed to feel, say or do. At first, she just leaned against him but then buried her face into his mane.
"What-" She took a couple steps back, realizing she was talking into his mane.
"What happened to the others?" she asked, her voice shaky and louder than she intended.
"Atlas and Hecate woke up on the same night," he started, trying not to frown but unable to hide it. At least answering direct questions like that, he knew exactly what he was talking about, exactly what to say to her, "They barely went to sleep before they were awake again. Kallisto woke the next night." He didn't say it directly but the meaning was quite clear. They were certainly not in the situation she was in, which very likely explained their hesitation in coming to wait for her to wake up with him.
She had mixed feelings when he said they woke up so soon after falling asleep. That meant they were high class, and if not then they would be upper-middle class. She was happy for them, glad that they were so favored by the Great Lion but there was another part of her that felt worse knowing she was the only one. What had she done wrong that she had not been able to catch the Great Lion's eye? Not even a little bit.
"They're high class?" she asked, "Where are they?"
"Atlas and Hecate are, Kallisto is upper-middle," he answered, hesitating in answering the second question. There wasn't a very good answer to that question if she wanted them there with her but the obvious truth was that they weren't there. He'd spent so much of the day worrying about Amalthea, he couldn't say he knew for sure where they would have gone off to now.
"I don't know where they are right now, I don't know if they know how to react," he said finally, taking a seat and nudging her gently with a paw.
Amalthea didn't respond to the information, and barely responded when he offered some excuse and tried to get her to sit down with him. She looked down at her father's paws and reluctantly took a seat beside him, sighing. It was a reasonable excuse but she didn't have to like it. No, she did have to like it. She was a slave now, she didn't get to have much of an opinion if she wanted to stay on the good sideof everybody. She needed them more than ever now.
"What did I do?" she asked quietly, leaning against Thoth, "What do I do?"
And now they reached the questions he couldn't really answer well. He shuffled his paws absently as he tried to think of a good answer but there wasn't really one, these were just how things worked out. You couldn't explain everything the Great Lion did and you were best off not doubting it too much. The Great Lion might not watch the slaves themselves but the pride certainly cared that they did not bring unnecessary trouble. He still watched over the pride as a whole.
"I don't know what to tell you, kiddo," he said, "But look on the bright side, we're still your family, you'll always have us. We'll always be there to protect you."
It was a sweet sentiment but it didn't do much good for cheering Amalthea up. She felt guilty as her stomach turned and knotted at the thought, and at her own thoughts. They were supposed to accept the places they took, especially the females- once you had a class, you were stuck in it. Amalthea had been born outside the pride, had grown up in an unofficial middle class while nobody knew exactly where they would fall. They had their childhoods to earn the attention of the Great Lion, she had obviously messed that up somehow. She'd never know if one different step or many would make the difference but with the ceremony just completed, she dared to blame the plant itself. Had she just managed to wake up one night earlier she could be a huntress, she would not be so different, so alone.
"I don't care," she muttered after a long pause, not sure if she wanted to yell or cry.
"OK," he said, realizing that now was a pretty good time for him to just shut up. So that's what he did, he stayed by her side and let her sit by him and comes to terms with what had happened. She wasn't born into it but she was raised in the pride, he wouldn't be surprised if she felt this differently than either born or rogue slaves. She grew up trying to impress the Great Lion and it just didn't work, she wasn't raised with reassurances and she wasn't just learning about the pride and her place.
Amalthea took her time, just leaning against her father and taking her time to think things through more carefully. She was the only one in her family that was in the low class, she had failed to impress the Great Lion in all of her antics as a cub and now she had to deal with it. It didn't really have to matter but she couldn't help but feel like it did. But she could work on that, she would have to work on it. This was what happened. She wasn't sure the ceremony could cause dreams so she could only assume this was reality. Besides, it was a little too realistic and drawn out not to be.
She opened her mouth to say something but in the end only sighed, and then her mouth closed abruptly as her stomach growled. She had completely forgotten about food, she'd been asleep for so many days now, it was amazing she was as lively as she was.
After giving her her time, Thoth took the sigh as a sign that she was done thinking-- and the audible growl as a sign that it was time for him to intervene anyway. WIth a short sigh of his own, he nudged her over a bit so she was supporting her own weight.
"OK, let's go get you something to eat," he said, pushing himself up to take her along to find where Lela and Angani were waiting for her to come eat, "You'll feel better."
Amalthea wobbled a bit when she was pushed away, nodding when he said they would go get something to eat. She doubted she would feel back to normal but he probably wasn't wrong saying better. At least she would be better than now. So she got up to her feet once again.
"OK," she agreed, and followed after her father to go see Lela and Angani.
Fin.
