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 Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 3:55 pm
 "Oh s**t!" Nyumbani cursed striking the ground with a paw. "Damn it!" She continued to attack it, her teeth gritted together, body convulsing in an attempt to stop any emotion from coming through.
"You will not cry, Nyumbani. You will get through this!" It was a phrase that she'd repeated a hundred times over, hoping, praying to whatever was out there that she'd find her way back home again.
It had been like this for months. Ever since Tara had left, here in this spot, she hadn't been able to get home. For a long time she hadn't wanted to, the ache of her heart had been too much. If she couldn't go back to a full family what was there to go back to?
But the months had passed, and she hadn't seen a soul. A leopard or two, and that obnoxious juvenille at the very beginning. Nothing that could keep her heart alight and her mind afire. The coals in her mind had long ago cooled, and now she was in desperation.
On any normal day, she would have cursed a stranger and driven them away, but today she was tired, bruised, hungry, and giving up on life.
Mostly, she was lost.
And she hated being lost.
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:07 pm
Everyone hated being lost. It was why Mwokoti exsisted. If creatures ventured away of their own free will, with no desire to remain or return to the place they'd left, they weren't lost to begin with.
She pitied those like this adolescent, the ones who had particularly strong pain. They were never just lost, they were lost with reason. They had ventured out to find another soul, was usually the case. At the same time, she felt great envy for them. To be lost meant you had a home, a place where you belonged.
No such place exsisted for a Goddess who's domain was to assist those like that.
While her size was more massive than a mortal, she landed gently, making not a sound. Even when she began walking, the volume created from it was minor. Her wings hung limply by her side, but her ears were held high and her expression content. It was impossible to fake a smile for her, but she would never frown near a lost mortal, either.
"Excuse me..." Stopping behind Nyumbani, she flicked her black-tipped tail and eyed the stranger. "You're lost, aren't you?" Of course she was, but it was always best to ask first.
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:16 pm
Nyumbani stared at the goddess her head spinning. What the hell? Her automatic response was, 'No! Go the hell away,' but even as she jerked her head forwards to say it she found herself biting her tongue. She couldn't afford to be mean. Family or not, this . . . thing could help her.
It wasn't her friend, that's for sure. Unless these goddess' could change color. She hoped not, that would get horribly confusing. She pinned her ears, and sat down, staring at the ground, still unable to get anything out cleanly from the lump in the throat.
"No - I mean, yes," she tried. "That is to say . . . I mean." Oh shucks, what was the point? Taking a deep breath she swallowed her pride and nodded, looking rather pathetic.
She wasn't supposed to be this! Puffing out her chest she did her best to look tall and proud, despite her situation. Then something occured to her.
"Why?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:20 pm
After watching what appeared to be an inner battle for the mortal, Mwokoti did smile, and it wasn't forced. It also wasn't a happy smile, more like a wary one, who had seen this reaction played out many a time and it no longer held any effect aside from causing an expression like that one. "My name is Mwokoti, I'm a finder of the lost. I can take you home," she offered.
Her wings folded back further, and she took a single step back. "If you would feel more comfortable, I could appear as a mortal to you. Any way you'd like."
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:25 pm
Take her home? How was that? How on earth could anything take her home.
"You have the whole world memorized?" she wondered allowed. It wasn't a sarcastic question. Nyumbani really thought someone could store a map of the earth in their brain.
The next question caught her off guard. So they could change. That irked her to no end. How many of these stupid lions that she hadn't seen walking around were really gods in disguise. It made her skin crawl.
"No, no, please, stay like you are." She stuck out her tongue in disgust and made a 'ghost' sound.
"No kidding, though? Mother will explode," she warned, tensing her brows.
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:29 pm
Something like that. Mwokoti could have explained it to her over time, but there were other creatures unknowingly crying out for her help, and it was best to get each task finished as quickly as possible. It was fastest and easiet to just agree. "Yes, I suppose I do."
She listened intently to the answer. "As you wish," she said calmly, then smiled again. This time, an amused one. "It's your mother, then. Well, we should hurry, if that's the case. Their wrath is like no other."
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:34 pm
Nyumbani didn't believe it, but it appeared the goddess was in a hurry and she didn't want to push the issue. Sighing she got to her feet. This was all so . . . formal.
She gave a pitied look to the goddess. It would get so old to see people lost all the time. Forever wandering with no home.
"Your life sucks," she said blunty, ready to go.
Mother probably wasn't explode about her being gone, Nyumbani thought. She'd been absent for ages. She'd probably unhinge at the fact she was walking with goddess in tow, or in head - whatever it may end up being.
"Lead the way," she said sarcastically, as though she didn't really believe the other could do it.
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:41 pm
Formal was best. Formal was proper, and things that were proper had no attachment to them, in her mind. Things kept formal meant it was easier to avoid forming any sort of bond, any lingering hope to see someone again. It was the hardest with cubs, who had that innocence and playfulness about them.
Mwokoti startled, for the first time in a very, very long while. Recovering from the comment, she drew in a deep breath and stepped forward, highly tempted to agree, but her willpower stayed in place like a mountain.
"Your mother is in the land of the Unity Walkers," Mwokoti said informatively, a hint of surprise in her voice. She hadn't felt any mothers mourning for lost children when she'd past by there. "She doesn't know."
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Thanks for that sherlock. She knew where mother was, just not how to get there.
'She doesn't know'
"What do you mean she doesn't know!?" Nyumbani shrieked. Could mother really have forgotten about her that easy? Was she just a thorn to be tossed to the wind? Someone who was born, raised and cast out to the world. Perhaps mother had wanted her dead.
No, no, this one was lying. Of course mother knew. Mother would see her gone, right? Right?
Then a thought struck her mind.
"If you can see the lost. . . are any of my sisters?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:50 pm
"No, you misunderstand me," Mwokoti cut in quickly. Her ears pinned back, not in annoyance, but because of the shrill voice. She herself wasn't sure why she wasn't used to such cries yet, but she wasn't. "She isn't aware you're lost, she's well aware you're gone."
She continued walking, but fell silent for a while. Finally, she shook her head. "No. If any of your siblings are gone as you are, they must not feel the same way you do."
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:55 pm
Nyumbani breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She couldn't say why she counted so much on mother's knowledge of her existence, but she always had.
How could someone know so much? Her eyes were wide and she gazed at the big creature in wonder. Perhaps this was why mother was so crazed the time she'd told the other about the bird stuck on a lion. It made sense, sort of.
"Oh," she answered softly, glad that they weren't lost, but also sad as well. She'd like to see Tara come home. Maybe she already had? She was hopeful, but doubtful, too.
"How long will it take, do you think?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 5:04 pm
Mwokoti's eyes seemed to glaze over enough for another to notice. They came back into focus as she spoke. "You've wandered far," said the Goddess. "At least all of today, the night and some of the day tomorrow." Really, it varied, depending on mostly how much the mortal slept, how fast she walked, things like that.
If she'd been younger (or just smaller), Mwokoti might have offered to fly her the way. It would've been faster. As it was, chances were very great the stranger would fall off.
"I understand you're hurry, but we must not rush. Caution is important even for us." 'Us' being lions, kings of the food chain. They may be on top, but they were not immortal.
--Gods aside, of course.
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:22 pm
No wonder she hadn't been able to find anything! With that far to go, Nyumbani was sure to give up quickly. It readily explained why nothing was familiar as well. She could live with this information until the time being.
Patience, however, was not something that was high on her list of things she was good at. She was used to things coming her way quickly, and when they didn't, she tended to force them. Travel, she supposed, was one of those things she would have to learn took some time.
"Do we have to walk all night?" she asked, the promise of large amounts of walking taking a heavy toll on her head, and, "I'm hungry."
Her stomach grumbled loudly, as if to announce the fact.
"You don't have food in that oversized head of yours that stores maps, do you?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:30 pm
"Oversized?" Mwokoti blinked. She was certain her head was an average size. Not that she had the chance to gaze at her reflection all that often, but... "I don't, I'm sorry. We can rest in the night, and I'll get something for you then," she promised. That was that.
An hour passed, then two, then three. Mwokoti spoke only to inform her temporary travel companion of upcoming holes in their path or particularly large rocks.
They reached a rapidly flowing river, rocks of different sizes appeared to have been tossed into it. By another God, perhaps, Mwokoti mused. Her wings stretched out, but she made no other movement. "Can you cross this?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:39 pm
Nyumbani was nodding off as she walked. It felt so strange to be constantly walking and at such a pace! Her head was filled with the eerie drown of silence. She didn't dare talk the whole time for fear something might bite her while she wasn't paying attention. Now she struggled to keep herself conscious, wondering if she sleepwalked before and that was how she became lost?
The sound of a voice awoke her, and she blinked twice, her mind fuzzy. I took a few moments for the river to blur into focus before her, then the roar of the water came to her ears.
The question sunk in and Nyumbani almost died. "Er. . . . sure," she answered, watching the water skeptically.
She carefully slunk over to it, dipping in a paw, and quickly jerking it back out. Cold. Gritting her teeth she surveyed the rocks around.
"I can probably use the landmasses." She'd also probably fall on her a**. Lovely vision, that. She had never been fond of water, unlike Ohahira, or rather, never been fond of drowning in it.
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