Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rhea looked up at Cindy, her eyes bright with excitement. "Really?" she asked eagerly. "So I can talk to her? Will she understand what I'm saying?"

She bit her lower lip and giggled, turning back to the fluffball. "Suilad! Ich ise Rhea! Ist pretlich fich!"

She reached out to pet the fluffball as if it were already a cat, and giggled when it started to vibrate beneath her fingers.

"Like a baby?" Rhea blinked, turning back to Cindy. "What's a baby like?"

She had never seen a baby of any species but horse - and even then it was only at a distance, going to the ranch house and passing by the stables. She was the youngest person on the ranch or in the valley, and she had never had contact with anyone younger than her - save one or two of the children who had been rescued on the previous hunt, though they were still really her own age.

"Oh," Rhea nodded wisely, turning back to the fluffball on the branch. She watched it silently for a few moments, staring at it as intently as it was staring at her. Suddenly it blinked it's tiny golden eyes, and Rhea squealed and giggled.

"Do I have to go to my staff lessons today?" she asked Cindy, still grinning at the fluffball. "I want to stay here with her!"

Even though the her in question didn't yet have a name. She was going to wait until the kitty could talk, she had decided, and see what she wanted to be named.

Rhea pouted and said something quietly to the fluffball in a dialect of elvish, then sighed. "If I have to," she murmured. She leaned forward and kissed the fluffball right between the ears, then stroked it lovingly and hopped off the desk.

"And then lessons, right?" she asked Cindy as she headed towards the corner, where she kept her staff at night.

Rhea nodded. "I'll be back as soon as Nako lets me come back!" she promised, staff in hand. "Make sure the kitty isn't lonely, okay? I'll talk to her a bit when I get back!"

And she ran out her door, dragging the staff behind her.

The fluffball blinked at Cindy and just purred.


Ulani kept Rhea later than usual to punish her for being late (which, Rhea argued, didn't make sense since it would make her late for her lesson with Cindy as well), and half the morning had passed before she finally made it home for a quick bite to eat before finding Cindy.

Once she'd had a snack, however, she was back upstairs.

"Cindy!" she called out before she had even reached the top of the stairs. "I'm ready for our lesson!"

Rhea didn't know what lesson Cindy had in mind, but if it was possible then she wanted to stay as close as possible to her fluffball kitten.

"Can we stay in my room?" she asked hopefully. "I can open the window for fresh air if you want ..."

And of course that would help her with her meditation, because the air would be clearer and cooler, and thus make it easier for her to concentrate.

"I promise!" Rhea exclaimed excitedly - and without waiting for Cindy to say anything else, she ran into her room and over to the far wall, opened her window as wide as it would go, and then plopped herself down on the floor with her back to her bed - the fluffball would stay in her line of vision, but only barely, giving her the chance to glance at it from time to time but not be distracted by it.