- Renzi had a problem. Not shortage of food; she wasn't hungry. Not an absence of water; she wasn't thirsty. Not a lack of shelter; the night was overall balmy with respect to the weather. Any bite to the wind was but a fugacious chill that came and went.
What troubled her was the quandary of what to do with her newfound normalcy. She had always strived to distance her mind, her very sense of self, from her... heart? Soul? Whatever appellation the populace preferred these days.
The rigor of a mundane existence she found more discouraging than the threat of death itself. Yet here she was, wandering along side the mountain by her lonesome, missing her -- dare she say it -- friend. Wishing she had asked Damu to descend the rocks and walk with her as she found the fastest route to the other side suitable for a lioness.
A sorry state of affairs indeed, and so dreadfully typical.
- Roka preferred more socially-oriented pursuits than Renzi. Why the coruscating stars dotting the sky above her were there was of little interest to her in comparison to the creatures dwelling below them. She wanted to know what made every type of personality tick -- and just how many there were. Everyone could be labeled. The question remained into how many different categories.
Word must have gotten out that a certain nefarious Goddess was hellbent on stalking her. Roka couldn't imagine going days without seeing another lion was anything coincidental. Especially not after having been in the Pridelands and growing accustomed to be surrounded by them. Good luck throwing a stone and not hitting someone there.
By time she encountered Renzi, she was raring to dissect someone's psyche. She didn't know it yet, but luck couldn't have sent her a better specimen.
They spotted each other where a slope downward fooled naive lions into thinking it was steep enough to climb.
Roka turned to her and said, "You won't be able to get up and over this way."
- In many (if not most) situations like these -- social ones, that is -- Renzi left an obnoxious first impression in her wake. But there were benefits to her mindset, one of them being the well-practiced ability to rise above any petty, immature petulance when being told something she obviously already knew.
Did she look like an idiot?
Of course not. But she wouldn't hold this lioness' ignorance against her.
Just for the record, Renzi had already determined the gradual incline was not sufficient enough a means of scaling to the other side. They'd have to find another way.
--Wait.
They?
Curse you, Damu. That leopardess really was making her form some bad habits.
Renzi nodded toward the space behind Roka. "Did you come from that direction?"
- Roka was glad to tell her she hadn't. That meant there was still the potential to find a way over if they continued on this path. "I came from the same direction as you," she explained, turning to face her.
Since they harbored shared ambitions for the time being (if they hadn't, she figured the lioness would have said so), Roka assumed this stranger would join her in the search. What reason did she have to believe the contrary? It would be illogical to split up now.
That in mind...
"May as well rough it together. I'm Roka. Pleasure to meet you."
- Renzi obstinately refused to yield to the so-called logic that company was more beneficial than not, let alone to go so far as to deem it illogical to abstain from it. At any given moment, a stranger could say something so utterly ridiculous she'd have to all but bite her tongue until it bled to keep from curtly correcting them. She had yet to meet another of her own kind who took her cultivated opinions in stride. Being honest with them led to quarrels she had no interest in; therefore, she had little interest in their companionship to start with.
That's how it had been for so long. These days, she felt more... patient? More patient with strangers.
"Renzi," she offered, then she set off on the unbeaten path.
"--Nice to meet you," she added. Eventually.
- Araiya didn't care why the stars did shine. Why those around him acted as they did. All he wanted to know is why he'd thought it had been a good idea to try and walk through this cluster of vines. They'd seemed harmless enough at first glance, hanging down in front of the cave's entry point. Not just anyone would have known it was there, but him? He had a keen eye.
It was just the wisdom he lacked. Yeah, he'd had to shake off a vine or two when they wrapped around his paw now and then, but he certainly hadn't expected it to escalate to this.
He was tangled in them with no hope of escape. Doomed to die. That is until --
"Nice to meet you."
Finally, his savior had arrived!
"Hey! You out there! Can you hear me?!"
- Roka was the first to stop. Her ears perked up high, flicking toward the voice. "Did you hear that?"
- Whether or not Roka had heard him, Araiya had heard her loud and clear. He didn't mean to be rude by shouting at them. It was just he'd rather not meet his untimely demise by starving to death in the relentless grip of evil vines.
"Yes! Me! I'm here! Hello? Here! In the vines! I could use some help!"
- In the vines?
Renzi exchanged inquisitive looks with Roka prior to hastening her pace. It didn't take long before they reached them. Admittedly, she wouldn't have noticed the cave had she been given no reason to pause in front of it. There must have been one, though. The voice wasn't echoing from the vines themselves.
"Are you behind these?"
- Thank the Gods!
"Yes! Yes. I can hear you better now. I'm right behind them, in the cave. I went to peek inside, but they get thicker and more... bunched together. Now, I'm stuck. Help me out, will ya?"
- "Of course we'll get you out. Just keep calm." Roka leaned toward Renzi, lowering her voice. "If we go in there, we're just going to get stuck ourselves.
- "Just wait here," Renzi said to Roka. Perhaps she should have offered some words of comfort for the lion in peril, but the thought slipped her mind, given said mind was already swarmed with potential ways to solve this.
She left immediately and didn't return until the following morning.
