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“Huh?” The syllable came out in a dry grunt that made the inside of his mouth hurt. He stopped walking for a moment and turned his head. For a moment all he could do was stare half-lidded at the golden plains quaking with the oppressive heat from above, but as other creature approached her outline became clearer. He envied her coat a little. Wahadi never had any difficulty hunting in the swamps. Out here his fur color was less than ideal, particularly in the mane area. This lioness looked like she sprang straight from the golden ******** grass.

“Oh, hello… d-do you live around here?” His voice sounded as dry and cracked as the earth. He also panted a little when he spoke, even though he had sat down by the time she came near. He had been walking for about an hour and felt absolutely miserable. His fur was a little messy. Lately he hadn’t any saliva to spare.

He was quite small for his age, the runt of his litter. Even his sisters, also on their name quests, were larger than him. Life in the swamps had been good to him despite his many misfortunes – he was learning that now. The swamp provided ample food and water, an abundance of shade and perhaps most importantly of all the support of his loving aunt and foster mother Kabu. Everything was different now.

Oh dear. He didn’t sound so good. Keena frowned slightly, a faint look of concern on her features before she smiled faintly, shaking her head. “No, I’m just passing through,” she replied. She didn’t really have a den or territory or anything. But she didn’t miss not having one. The whole world was like her home, just because she didn’t have a place that she claimed as her own didn’t mean she didn’t belong.

But he didn’t seem like he was from around here either. His fur looked like he wanted to groom it, though it wasn’t so bad as the sad lion she’d found in the rain a while back. And his voice was so…cracked. As if the sun had baked it the way it had a patch of mud she’d once played in when she was a little cub. It was a barely remembered memory, but still there. The dampness she’d enjoyed had vanished in only a week, the ground getting hard and warm and filled with little broken lines.

Maybe he was lost? Keena could, arguably, have been lost herself. Except it seemed like if someone were lost, they first had to have been trying to get somewhere. She had nowhere she was going, so where ever she was was where she was. There was no end goal, so there was no wrong way. Still, he looked absolutely exhausted, the poor little thing. Except he had his mane coming in, soft and dark even if it did seem a little messy right now. He couldn’t be so young… but why was he all alone and looking so…tired?

“What about you?” Keena asked, “You don’t seem to be from around here either.” There. That was better than asking if he was lost, wasn’t it? She licked her lips, starting to feel just a little dry. Maybe she should have stayed at that muddy waterhole she’d found that morning instead of pressing on for hours… it was just a little warm after all…

Her question surprised him. He wasn’t used to conversations with outsiders. Even though his aunt, the only parental figure he had ever known, spent most of her life outside the swamp, he knew her after she had found her true name. Everyone he knew in the swamps had either been born there or lived there long enough to have become part of the pride, rather than simple provisionaries.

He took a deep breath, though the air tasted like dust going down his throat. “Well… Wahadi is just the name my mother gave me, but it’s not who I am. My true name will have a special meaning. I will have to learn something about myself, or do something very great, before I will know my true name.”

Indeed, it was a difficult quest. Wahadi knew that not all spirit-talkers who set out on this journey returned to the swamps in the end. Those that set out very long ago and still had not returned were presumed dead. Now Wahadi began to understand why. If he continued this way for a week or so he might die himself, but Wahadi would not let that happen. He had a big family at home waiting for him. There were no guarantees out here but Wahadi never felt afraid. His mother and father had died trying to protect him. Although he never knew them, he respected their devotion and sacrifice. Death had never frightened them (or so he imagined) so he would not let it frighten him either.

He looked back to Keena and smiled hopefully. “So… you’re just passing through, huh? Have you seen any watering holes?”

Excited by the opportunity to have a drink, Wahadi wasted no time in getting to his feet. His head hurt a bit from going so long without water but the pain was tolerable. Besides, he would feel much better once he had a drink. Maybe there would even be a nice shady spot by the watering hole where he could cool off for a while. "I don't mind. I've had enough time to rest."

He stretched and shook the dust from his pelt. The past three days on his own had taught Wahadi that resting for too long made it harder to get up when he needed to, so he never allowed himself to rest for more than an hour unless he was going to sleep. He was hot, not tired.

Wahadi did his best to keep up with Keena. Even with Keena using an easy pace his tired short legs had trouble keeping up with her, though he never strayed behind her hindquarters.

When they finally reached the watering hole Wahadi was near exhaustion. His legs ached, his throat felt as dry and coarse as the dirt beneath his sore paws, but that blue water looked so inviting that he dragged his feet right up to the shore and flopped down with his front paws sitting in the water. He lapped it greedily, barely even pausing to breathe. "Ah!"

Thirst quenched at last, Wahadi began rolling around in the shallows until his entire body was soaking wet. He was never very fond of water in the swamps. If he had to cross a stream he would rather search for a dry path before taking the plunge, even if the detour took longer than a swim across, but out here there was no humidity and few places to cool off from the heat of the day. Later on he might feel embarrassed when he remembered this, but for the moment at least he was too hot to care.

Wahadi wasn't the playful type. He half-heartedly batted his paws at her, barely causing a ripple. He rolled onto his belly and shook himself, flinging mud and water everywhere.

"Aren't there a lot of dangerous animals that come out at night?" When night came Wahadi usually went up into the nearest tree. Unlike most males his age, Wahadi was still small enough to reach the safety of the branches without too much difficulty. By the end of the day he was usually so tired that it seemed safer to hide in the trees than continue on foot and risk a fight he wasn't rested enough to win.

"What?" Wahadi missed that last part. If he had heard her, he would have been a little miffed that she would say that about him. It was fatigue that stopped him from traveling at night, not fear. However, after what Keena said, he was already thinking of changing his habits so he could travel at night, so he simply shrugged and dismissed whatever it was she tried to say.

Feeling much better now, Wahadi pulled himself out of the water and lay down on the sand near Keena. He made sure their bodies didn't touch, partly because he preferred to distance himself from others but mainly because he didn't want to give her the wrong idea about him. Wahadi wanted to save himself for the right person. This had nothing to do with chastity. He was smart for his age, smart enough to know what happens when lions get careless with their passion, and he did not want to find himself responsible for the cubs of a lioness he felt nothing for.

"Thanks again for showing me this watering hole," he said sincerely, looking at her with his head on his paws. All that walking and rolling around in the shallows left him tired. He could barely keep his eyes open.

Wahadi watched Keena play with the leaf on the surface of the pond. The gentle ripples danced in his head and Keena's words were lost.

As the leaf twirled and Keena's voice drifted on the gentle breeze of the afternoon, Wahadi's thoughts also drifted. What where his sisters doing right now? Had they been summoned for their name quests, too? And what about Tana and the others? For a split second he imagined seeing Tana walking along through the tall golden grass, a strange female by his side. His heart leapt into his throat. Wahadi blinked and tried to fight off sleep. He wanted to escape this stupid dream.

But there was no stopping it. In a few minutes Wahadi was fast asleep, lip curling and twitching jealously over his dream brother's new girlfriend.

((Naw, I think we can just end this here. ^^))