Welcome to Gaia! ::

No no no no no no no.

Kiraka had been away from home for so long, the hold that Muhali's blessing had over her was fading but the changes she felt in her mind, her personality, her motivation.. they were not perceived as sanity. No, something was terribly wrong with her. She'd found butterflies scattered here and there as she wandered, she had gone looking for them.. but today, when she'd found one, she'd been outright ignored. They wouldn't speak to her now, they had lost patience with her- they knew she wasn't feeling the same way about it! So Kiraka was starting to panic. She needed to go home but the more different she felt, the harder it was getting to imagine going home. She needed something before she did.

Standing out in the open, feeling anxious, Kiraka was pacing. Just pacing and thinking. She had to go home but she couldn't without finding a way to please her muse. She was just about ready to head back around to the Ela'wadiyi and try to figure out exactly how to get herself some tattoos. And feathers. And.. and.. It wasn't perfect but it might be something, surely they'd have to appreciate that..

Normally, Kiraka would have been completely oblivious to the world around her but with her slowly oncoming sanity, instinct overpowered her weak attention and she looked up-- spotting first the very colorful wings on the nearby. Immediately she was interested, color was what her whole quest was about and she was very impressed by the colorful lions she met. The rest of him wasn't very colorful but she could still appreciate that, wings were the colorful part of butterflies.

After staring shamelessly for a good handful of seconds, it struck her that he was had to be a god. She knew a little bit about gods, Muhali was the patron of her home and her father had spoken of his grandmother before.. so she decided there was nothing wrong with approaching him and seeing if maybe.. maybe...

"Hi!" she called. He didn't look friendly exactly, and she was more aware of that than normal, but that didn't bother her.

When he turned and spoke to her, she wriggled excitedly. She wasn't being ignored, she knew it was a possibility-- gods didn't have to chat with you, right? She had a god in her family but the pride never saw their goddess.. it made sense, kind of. If they were worshiped, they probably didn't have to chat.. but having a goddess for a great-grandma meant it could happen.

"Hi!" she said again, trying not to cower under his gaze- she was very conscious of her appearance but she had to deal with it. She shook her head when she realized she repeated herself and smiled, "I'm Kiraka! Who- er- who are you?"

Was that rude? She didn't have any practice being formal.

So close and suddenly so nervous, she looked down and realized what was going on. She squeaked excitedly when she saw the ground was changing colors- and that it seemed to go with the way he was humming. It was an obvious connection to make, a magical being was standing before her. He could make things change color!

"How- how do you do that?" she asked, looking up and then down again, "You can make things different colors? Can you do it to other things too?" She spoke a little too quickly, the realization of his abilities overpowering the worry about how he seemed not to really want to talk to her. Now she had to make him talk to her, she had to know..!

Her eyes widened when the colors moved on to her, lifting up a suddenly colorful paw to get a closer look and make sure she wasn't just insane- but it was colorful, it was really colorful! She was struggling to contain herself, and frantically she looked around them but there were no butterflies, none of her friends to witness this, to see it.

"That's amazing," she said, her voice quieter now she could barely find her voice, "Does it stay colorful? Can you make it stay?" She put her foot down but she wouldn't look up and she wouldn't blink, she didn't want things to go back to normal and she didn't trust blinking. She was beyond fascination and it showed.

When Kazi stopped humming and the colors vanished, Kiraka panicked. Whether or not he knew it, he had her. He could ask for anything, she wouldn't be able to say no. She pawed at the ground as if the colors might return and looked up, her eyes wide and intense.

"I want to be colorful!" she said, her voice higher than when she had started talking to him, "I'll do anything, give you anything! What do you want?"

What could she offer him? She didn't really have anything valuable- she looked over her shoulder, down to her tail, her paws.. all she really had was a bracelet an acquaintance had helped her find when trying to help her be a little more colorful, but that was hardly valuable. Looking at Kazi's paws, she knew he had a much better bracelet anyway.

"Uhhh!"

That was just about the most unhelpful advice ever! What could she get later that she didn't have now? She could collect food or more trinkets but that didn't seem like it would be very important to a god. Did they even need to eat? And he definitely didn't look much like the type who wanted a lot of trinkets. But a god of the arts might appreciate a craft like that.. but she just wasn't good enough at that and she'd need to repay whoever helped her, like monkeys. They were much more dexterous than any lion.

She started to pace, shaking a little more each time she changed color and felt more and more rushed. If she didn't think of anything, she wouldn't get what she wanted, she would never get it if she didn't get it now. How many gods could do something like this? Then, suddenly, she remembered a story she'd been told. By a lioness that had made her feel more comfortable than most of the others she ran into on her little quest, but maybe it was because she was just so strange and unlikely seeming. She claimed to be something that was common at home. The story she told had seemed to random and pointless... but... maybe..

Still shaking, she stopped pacing and looking over at the lounging god. She had nothing to lose making a suggestion but everything if she didn't try, so with minimal hesitation, she stepped closer.

"What about a cub?" she asked, her voice much more quiet but no less sincere, "It's a whole other lion, that's got to be worth something- and, and- gods like having followers, don't they? I mean, my pride has the Mother, and my dad came from a pride with their Mother.." It wasn't a pride but one lion was easier to influence than a whole pride, weren't they? And Kiraka knew the value of family, she loved her family! Her stomach twisted as she made her suggestion but she had to make it. She needed this.

It- it worked? The strange lioness had been telling the truth. It didn't matter, no, she was focusing on the wrong thing. This meant she got what she wanted, she could be colorful, she could go home and everything would be OK! It wasn't that big of a deal, right? She could have a cub right away and get it over with fast, not everybody in the pride had both parents around-- but that would be a whole other quest!

"Ok! Deal!" she squealed excitedly, and tried to think of exactly what she wanted, "I want to be- I want to be- um! Orange! Or blue. Oooo! Or red!"

.. what color did she want to be? She saw all kinds of different colored butterflies. But her favorite butterfly, the most important one she had to impress, she should be more like her!

"Blue!" she said, "I want to be blue."

( Visual! - same pattern, just blue! xD In case it helps somehow. )