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Sakhile was once again sneaking away while his parents and extended family were busy. If he could just get outside with out any of them noticing he'd have the whole day free! Or at least until his mother found him.. which would be a while anyways!
He just managed to get to an open window (the door being too far) when he heard his mother calling for him. Throwing stealth tot he wind, he dived out the window, landing on the branch outside with causal easy of someone who'd grown up int he jungle. Then he swung himself down the vines to the street below and dashed off, laughing as he spalshed through puddles and mud.

Sakhile was trotting down to the oban parts of the city to find his playmates ad see if any of them had escaped chores and school today when he spotted a matori boy. Odd, he thought; I never see matori here! Maybe he's lost and can play with me? The young hybrid shifter grinned as he saw he young kinfa dive and land in a puddle.

"Kinfa!" He chirped as he trotted over; "How'd you get a kinfa?" He handed one of the many handkerchiefs his mother always forced him to carry around to the other. He saw kinfas with in the city often enough it wasn't to startling.. but it was with a young matori who tended to not have kinfas.... and it was an excuse to talk!

Sakhile frowned; "Why you call someone master? You're free aren't you? Or is he your boss?" His eyes lite up: a boss? Like one of those underground gangs in the old stories Momma told? All the dashing daring evil doers or warriors who were on the wrong side of the law but had honor?

"Is your boss one of those bandit tribes that are always about here?" He asked with a whisper as he crouched down with large eager eyes and completely unaware there was no way that this boy would be able to follow his thoughts.


"I'm Sakhile! I see some kinfas about here since we're so near where you can find hem.. but never this close!"

Sakhile deflated a bit. oh... really?" He sighed in disappointment. "That's not a fun story!" He looked around and leaned in to whisper again; "Better not call him master though... I saw some nasty fights in the taverns near home between the water and fire tribes.... someone may think you're a slave or something! And that's not allowed here." He nodded before loking happily at the small bird.


"He's so flufffy!" He cooed as he held out a hand to be sniffed first. Living at the theater and the few animals they kept that aided in plays or as pets he had learned the hard way not to suddenly touch an animal.

Sakhile wrinkled his nose as well; "Not know his name? That's silly! How you supposed to know a person if you don't know a name?" Names had power; names were important! All the stories said so! He grinned, eyes gleaming with eagerness when the small ball of damp feathers walked onto his hand.
"Baby kinfa! Tiny cute baby kinfa!" He cooed as he poked the small stomach gently.

Sakhile looked up from the kinfa when he heard Virian slip and watched as the boy fell and he got splattered with mud. Chortling, he offered a hand out to the stunned looking boy; "Ehehe! Now you match Tweet!"
Mud was not something that bothered him; he routinely came home and walked all over the place, leaving tiny foot prints behind. His mother did mind and he always got a scolding.. not that he let it get him down! Mud was just a byproduct of fun! If you didn't get dirty, you weren't playing hard enough!

Sakhile giggled at the small kinfa's fluffing up.. and ignored the mud dripping down his back. He wondered how his mother would react to him coming home with just mud on one small smear down her back. He loved to come in with odd markings on him, just to hear her exclaim and go on about how he managed to get messy in the strangest of ways. it was almost as fun as running around on too thin branches where his father could see him and go into hysterics!

He was a bit surprised when the boy, who'd seemed to him to be a bit more reserved than he was (not a hard thing to be) pulled him into the puddle as well. Sakhile managed to catch himself so his face didn't get muddy... but his arm, legs and chest did!

"Hehehe! Momma is gonna throw a fit!" he chortled happily at the mess. "I will make sure to give her a big muddy hug when I see her!" He giggled again and spashed about in the mud puddle. "Hey Virain, you gots anything to do this afternoon? I was going to play about with some friends and avoid home and chores." Virian had a sense of humor and was willing to get messy; that meant he was a friend to Sakhile! And he had played with Matori and Obans before.. though not often at the same time. Sakhile knew something was up; it was rather hard to be ignorant when his family was the bastion of the gossiping hub! (Or so it seemed to him)

Sakhile patted the kinfa with a muddy hand; "Sorry bout that..." He hadn't really meant to make the kinfa fall off... guess the small thing couldn't fly yet!

"You should come play with us then!" His ace split into a huge grin; a new play mate! Though... why hand't he been allowed out? Sakhile shrugged and forgot about it as he got excited about plans. "And if the others didn't manage to escape their chores or schooling.. I cna sneak us into my family's theater and we can go exploring! It was rebuilt after the city got sacked so there's interesting attics and rooms that I haven't finished searching through yet. Momma says they stored the items from fallen warriors somewhere in the theater... " He wasn't quite sure if she was telling the truth or a tale... she had a habit of saying something off hand to make him get all excited and go looking only to come back home empty handed to hear her laugh and say it was just a rumor....

"I'll introduce you to some of the other kids about here.. the ones who don't mind matori... which is most of them." he chirped happily. He had a mob of friends... playmates really, other children who ran around the streets fleeing from chores and school just like him. Like children everywhere, there'd been issues when different groups had met.. but the prospect of games and exploring the rather fabulously decorated Crystal Rain Theater had gone a long way to easing those tensions... and Sakhile was quite willing to use that as a game to get people to play with him.. he hated exploring on his own; being with others was more fun!

"It is fun! There's always something going on!" He waved his hands excitedly, splattering the air around him with mud. "Plays being practiced, music being taught or practiced, always some performance going on to watch.. My favorite is the dancers though." He nodded sagely. "Love watching them dance! The new dancers, the ones from Oba? They've got some cool ones!" He loved that he could go into the theater and find music, dances, and plays from so many different places. They even had an iceling dancer staying for a bit!
"Theater is where you can go to find performances. Mostly plays, where they act out a story." He started giving a mini lecture, since the other did not know what exactly a theater was. "But ours also offers a lot of musical pieces, where it's just the music, no dancers. Or we have dancers performing with the musicians. Or singers. Only storage rooms I've found have been full of old instruments, stage props, outfits.. fun to play with those!"
After Mama had kept telling him tall tales, he'd gone to his grandfather about this latest one; he'd said that he'd stored them in a room in the back somewhere! Which meant... it was real!

His happy grin vanished as he frowned at Virian. "No! No faking it! That's not friendship. Friendship is being happy with each other, playing games, and also getting into fights. They get along with the matori friends I have, so I bet you'll be able to be real friends with them." He assured the other boy.