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 Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:16 pm
"Oh how beautiful!" the cheeton stared avidly at the flowers blooming around them. It was strange how Maua, as a goddess, could make them appear where they had not been before! Experimentally she touched one with a paw, but was surprised when her gentle prod pushed her paw through the flower. Her gold eyes widened as she widened the area of her testing.
"I see them, but I can't touch them..." she mused aloud. "Oh! They're like the ghosts! I've never seen ghost flowers before!"
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:23 pm
She watched Aina with interest, remembering many times this had happened before as the cheeton discovered the trick. She never stopped smiling, even when Aina called them ghosts- though it made her wonder about the ghosts that Aina claimed to see otherwise.
"It's an illusion," she explained, looking down and watching one yellow flower grow taller and taller, standing far above the rest and apparently marking the midway point between her and the cheeton.
"It's much easier than growing real flowers in a hurry."
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:27 pm
"Illusion?" The cheeton held a paw overlapping with the tall yellow flower until the blossom was too high for her to comfortably "touch". The word meant that they weren't real at all.
"But that's not like the ghosts," she went on quietly. "The ghosts are real. I met a lion after I saw his ghost. I was so surprised he wasn't dead." So what was the difference between the flowers and the ghosts?
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:32 pm
Hmmmmm.
Maua was familiar with seers, though she could never claim to fully understand the abilities they had- no god really could, it was something entirely unique to mortals. But she knew something about it from her own mortal offspring. If Aina didn't say the ghosts were real- or truly represented an existing lion- she might not have guessed it could be this.
The alternative was that she was crazy, of course, and she wouldn't rule it out but meeting someone you imagined seemed unlikely. Especially since Aina seemed capable of differentiating between there and not.
"That's very interesting," she said, wondering which it was. Crazy or seer?
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:35 pm
"Yeah, I guess," she replied, quieter now than she had been. The flowers were of many different kinds, some that she had never seen before. Aina would much rather focus on them than try to determine any meaning concerning the ghosts.
She saw the ghosts. That was enough for her.
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:59 pm
And so they had come back in a circle to the topic she had no idea how to continue. It certainly wasn't appropriate to ask if she was crazy or a seer. If she had never met a god before, it didn't seem likely she had a god parent to make her a seer.. but not all seers were demi-gods, either, so that didn't remove that possibility.
"You are very interesting," she said, taking a seat in the flowers. As soon as she did, though, the flowers faded away and left only the empty grass the illusion was extended over.
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 2:03 pm
It saddened her when Maua allowed the illustion to fade away. So much that Aina almost failed to hear the goddess' words. But when they did penetrate, she looked up in surprise.
"Me? Is it because I'm a cheeton? My mom is a cheetah and my dad was a lion, I guess. I don't know much about him," she perked up the more she talked until she was almost as cheery as she had been when she first came over to Maua.
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 2:13 pm
Cheeton! That was why she couldn't figure out what exactly Aina was. She had the tail of a lion for sure but there was just something strange about her build. It was because she was part cheetah, of course!
"I didn't realize!" she said, "But that is very interesting, too! It's been a long time since I've seen a hybrid like you."
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 2:16 pm
"I guess cheetons aren't very common," Aina replied cheerfully. "Most people just give me funny looks because they can't figure out what I am. Some already know though so they don't give me a second look. It's strange, but not many people ask!"
This was silly, since if they didn't ask what they didn't know, how would they learn? Oh well, that wasn't her problem. The cheeton would ask questions when she wanted to know answers. Simple as that.
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 2:31 pm
"It can be a tricky kind of question to ask, I think," Maua suggested, based primarily on her own decision not to ask Aina what she was and from experience with some creatures who were very nervous asking her what she was.
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 2:33 pm
"Well that's silly!" Aina replied firmly. "I have no problems being a cheeton, so I don't see why anyone else should be so careful about asking me!"
"You know, there's a water hole nearby and there's some other cheetons who hang out there sometimes," she offered the goddess. "Want to come and take a look, see if anyone's there?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 3:08 pm
Crazy or not, it was hard not to like Aina. When she invited the goddess along to see if there were other cheetons near the waterhole, Maua was quickly back on her feet, nodding enthusiastically.
"Sure," she said, "I'd really like that."
With a smile, she tossed her mane and followed after Aina as she led the way.
Fin!
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