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 Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:37 am
She was a little startled by this sudden show of reassurance, but it was welcomed none-the less. She cast him a smile that said 'Thank you' better than she could ever articulate it.
"I suppose taking away the 'royal' bit kinda makes everyone feel more equal. Our royals try their best to do everything involving the pride and with their help and judgement, but they still assume the most responsibility...it can be...quite a weight..." she sighed.
No one had been named the 'heir' in her siblings, but that shadow was always hanging over them. Over all of them. And even if only one were to be chosen, they were all expected to be helpful, to be good leaders...and it was something that was trying Tamu's nerves at times.
"So, do you have a name?" she asked him, suddenly aware of this nameless covnersation.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:53 am
"Yes, it can," He agreed, thinking of his own duties. He wondered, somewhat, if whether his grandfather would have chosen him as the heir had any of his other siblings lived? Kamaria still lived her care-free life, roaming as she pleased for she had been ill suited for leadership her entire life. Even as a child she'd been more interested in running off after the stars than reciting poetry or prose. Hadithi had always taken an interest in the old legends so.. maybe he wasn't as ill suited as he sometimes thought.
Her question lit his face once more, and he answered easily, "Hadithi, for my place. And what might yours be, Daughter of the Sea?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:37 pm
Tamu wondered if maybe her companion faced the same stresses and worries as she did. He'd just mentioned being 'of the blood' in his pride, but his was a foundling pride, maybe smaller than hers even. Still, it made her feel a whole lot less lonely. She didn't ask her siblings about how they felt, feeling maybe she'd be cast as 'the baby.'
A change of topic onto names was a welcome mental reprieve.
"A pleasure to meet you Hadithi. My name's Tamu," she nodded her head politely.
"So, what stories might your pride live by?" she asked, curious to hear anything about a new pride.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:55 pm
"Tamu," He grinned as he rolled the name over his tongue; it sung like the waves. He gave an approving nod to its appropriateness and grinned at her question. It wasn't often anymore that he got to indulge in his stories, though he thought that would be changing soon. Misae had been the first to ask... and now. "There are many stories we live by, but the most important of which is how we came to be."
He smiled upon the sea and it licked his paw as he thought about it, "You said yours were born directly of the Sea, and so you settled here. While we believe our ancestors too, like all life, came from here, we as a Pride were not so fortunate as that. Or, rather, we were fortunate, but in a different way. The Mother came to our founder, who was lost a long way from here. She showed him the things he, like all of our kind, had forgotten and reawakened his mind to the world about him. We wandered for a long time after this, learning the things that She wanted us to know, and though we thought we had no path, we eventually realized we were being lead... here."
He grinned and turned to her once more, "She lead us Home, and thus She is our greatest story."
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:14 am
"Wow, so it must have been quite the journey for the first of you. What kinds of things did She want you all to learn and know and keep for the generations to come?" she pressed further, even taking on Hadithi's address to the The Mother.
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:01 am
"To Listen." He answered simply, with a grin. After a moment, he decided to elaborate as the Ocean licked his paw in a gentle reprimand. "To Listen and See the world about us. Our Ancestor's folly was that he had thought himself alone in this world; outcast from all other lions because he was different. Mother showed him that this was not so--that no matter where you go or what you do, you always have friends about you. These are the Muses, you see."
He patted his paw in the water, like one might have an old friend. "They teach us, and guide us so that we too may become Muses when we pass from this life. I am of the Ocean, and so the Ocean guides me. Its song beats in my blood as surely as do the stories of my ancestors, which I was taught to carry from birth."
Hadithi sighed softly as he trailed off, sight once more focused on the waves shining in the mid-day sun. He loved his home, his Muse, and his people, though they were all long gone beneath the waves. That he believed this story whole heartedly couldn't be questioned--even though he'd had his own doubts on the subject in previous months. "What do your people believe?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:03 am
"The muses?" she was fascinated, and wondered if these were any different to the spirits and gods of her pride's beliefs.
"So if you might become a muse of the ocean when you...er...pass on...does that mean there are other types of muses? Like for the trees or the ground...?" she pressed further as she tried to grasp this new concept.
Tamu shuffled a bit and almost wished her pride's stories were half as interesting. Although she had a totally biased view. She'd grown up with the stories 'as standard', and so there wasn't really anything fresh or new about them.
"Our creator seems somewhat removed compared to yours. We were all members of the great Sea Godesses' court in the beginning. Created in her image. And it was when she sent us to explore the great lands when my kind first set paw on sand. As much as they loved their great lady, they were so enamoured with the land. They promised to continue to worship and make honour to her, but it came at a price. They would no longer resemble her so closely."
"Its a bit sad really..." she trailed off. "I would love to meet her...see if maybe we still have a place in her heart..."
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:40 am
"Well, of course..." Hadithi sounded a little confused, but more by her way of putting it than by any lack of belief or understanding of his own part. He scratched his forearm and thought about this for a moment. "Everything is and can be a muse. The sky, the sun, the sand, the crabs, the water, the fish, anything at all is a muse... Each Lion's soul is a tainted part of a Muse that must work off its taint in order to rejoin the rest of its True kind; its just a process that can take a whole lifetime, or several lifetimes. You won't, of course, return to the Muses until you live a life following their footsteps--but everyone does eventually."
He grinned a little, liking that he'd found a way to, he thought, sufficiently explain it. Tilting his head slightly, he considered this other point of view. "Our creator?" That got him slightly confused once more. "Our creator is the same as everything else's creator: the Ocean. The Mother is just our Mother... that is, she taught us what we had forgotten and gave us renewed purpose.. but she did not Create us. Like all other forms upon this Earth, and even the Earth itself, we came from the Ocean."
After clarifying another point his thoughts instead turned to this "goddess." Like "royals" he wasn't entirely certain what was meant by that word. "Well, if she is your Mother in the creational sense--which makes sense as she seems to be a part of the ocean--then I would say that she loves you. What sort of Mother is it, after all, that does not love her children regardless of what they might do or have done? Even the coldest of murders has had a mother.
"That said, I'm.. not entirely certain what you mean by Goddess, though that's hardly the point. Still, if you don't mind my asking, I should like to know."
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:21 am
It seemed 'creation' was something different to every lion or pride. If she had known about the Firekin they'd have a different 'creation story' again, and same for the Mistweavers, etc. But that didn't bother Tamu. It truly fascinated her, and it was evident on her fresh-face.
"Okay okay...lemme see if I've got this right...so, you don't have a specific 'creator' but you came from the great water, the ocean, and you live by your muse, which can be pretty much anything...?" she concentrated hard to grasp this foreign concept of belief, as if she were learning for a test.
Of course, her grasp wouldn't be as strong as Hadithi's or anyone's who might be joining their pride, but she still wanted to know. Her father had always taught her that knowledge can be power.
"Oh a Goddess...? Ummm...I always thought they were like....the supreme powers in the spirit world, they can help shape the world and soforth..." she tried, and then realised her definition of a 'god' was not so complete.
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Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:28 pm
Hadithi didn't mind that she didn't understand. She was trying to, which was more than enough, and he offered her another of his pleasant smiles in return for it. He liked this one; she was fun to talk to and extremely intelligent on top fo that. "Fairly much, yes." He chuckled softly over her thought of a Goddess. It was a strange concept, a 'supreme' muse, as it fit into his own belief. Still, it was how she believed and it wasn't in him to deny her that.
"Well, then, I still say that your Goddess would welcome you back with open arms were she a true Mother. Unless, of course, staying out here is in your best interest--but only she would know that." Hadithi nodded, "Sometimes parents do have to do things their children don't like, of course, because it is what is better for them."
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Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:23 am
Tamu beamed back at him, somewhat proud to have grasped another pride's belief system, at least rudimentally. It would probably dwell and nag at her brain for much longer until she had it all down to a tee. And she also seemed quite happy at Hadithi's suggestion.
"I never thought of it that way before," she said aloud.
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:56 am
"But it can make things easier where they may have been... hard to cope with before," he offered. She wasn't the only one that had questioned her people and their beliefs, after all. He had been glad to stumble across that bit of truism for it did indeed make things easier to accept.
The lion lumbered to his feet then and stretched. "It was good to meet you, Miss Tamu, and I hope to again someday. But, i feel a tugging back towards my home--I think there is something that may need my attention there, if you wouldn't mind excusing my abrupt departure?" The tugging pulled at his paws as did the water, though it didn't whisper to him what it was about. All it would say was that the tide needed to wane, and he was holding it up. Sometimes the muses were cryptic, but in this case Hadithi thought he knew what it meant.
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 12:57 pm
She looked a little disappointed to see him go, but she too realised she had to return home. If her father ever found out how far out she had been, alone, he would most certainly curse her to the depths of the sea. Tamu mimicked him and got to her feet, with a more energetic gait that came only with youth.
"It was a pleasure, and an honour, Hadithi," she smiled and nodded her head politely. "I certainly hope I can come visit you in your lands one day."
She left the invitation open - she wanted to travel as much as her father did - and with that she began to pad back up the soft sands.
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:45 am
"As I do you, yours." He called back with a laugh. Bowing his head to her, the elder lion turned with a nearly childing bound to his steps and began to half-jog, half-dance his way back down the beach. Finding others was lovely, indeed, and he thought he might come out here more often now to see what might lay further down the shore.
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