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The water felt incredible. It flowed around and washed over her body like air, but much more personal- water was more there. For all she knew, the air might as well have been nonexistent. Jini waded happily in the shallows of the sea. The young lioness had never fully appreciated the effects of a nice, long bath before. She'd always preferred running around in the dust and generally looking filthy to being clean. Cleanliness had never made any sense to her before. Now, as the mud that had been caked into her fur was slowly washed away by the cool liquid, Jini had begun to understand.

Plus, this was fun. She splashed and rolled around in the water, and made wild attempts to catch a bird of the water every time they swam too close. The results of her little attacks usually turned up negative. The young lioness sighed, shrugged off her lack of success and continued to play.

((post edited. n___n))

She'd seen the great, aging lion approaching out of the corner of her eyes before he stopped at the edge of the sea and addressed her. At first, Jini wasn't all that sure that she was the person he'd been speaking to and she glanced over her shoulder, in search of the other person- the one that he was actually talking to. She hadn't meant any harm, after all, and it was the middle of the day! The sun was shining and the tide was flowing in and and out at a steady pace. Who wanted to rest on a day with so much potential for fun? Not her.

The young lioness blinked in astonishment when her little hunt came up negative. It was only the pair of them there.

"Go where you can't hear me, then," Jini announced boldly, feeling quite safe in the water, at least a couple of lovely feet away from him.

((no worries. 8D It's completely understandable. ^^ *dislikes the new update, too*))

The ever-present water continued to flow; in and out and around her knees. Jini paid it no mind. Her interest in the water had evaporated along with the mist from the sea. Instead, she was put-off by this other, much older lion's grumpy demeanor. She hadn't meant any harm.

It had been just a little bit of fun.

Jini had little experience when it came to aging animals. The oldest lions she had met were her parents, whom she hadn't really had the pleasure of getting to know. They had seemed easy-going enough. Then again, she couldn't be sure. Were older lions usually so distasteful? The adolescent rolled her eyes and flicked her tail, still content with the safe distance between them.

"Respect is something that ought to be earned," she shrugged, and mocked his condescending tone, "age doesn't have much to do with it. I don't recall you ever being very polite about this. Don't manners usually come with old age?"

"There's two sides to that particular blade of grass," Jini responded in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone, "Why should I be polite when you, who should probably know better, have done nothing but complain and accuse me of things I never intended?"

If he had just said 'please,' she might have obliged. Jini was, by nature, a regular drama queen. She was never one to back down from a fight, so long as she was guaranteed not to suffer any major injuries. At the moment, a cloth had been pulled over her eyes and she, naive, felt quite safe. So much so, in fact, that she inched forwards in the water, to show him that she wasn't afraid.

"Why?" she asked softly, near enough to him now that he could surely hear her without straining her voice, "What did you ever do to deserve my respect? I don't even know you and could care less about how old you are. Unless, of course, you're going to just collapse and die any minute. That might be a little bit frightening."

"Of course I would," she nodded solemnly and, as the sand from the beach collected in her wet fur, shook her hind legs to relieve them of some of water, "if I was as old as you."

Jini wasn't as annoyed by the older lion's grumpy demeanor as he was by her. While she did not know many aging lions, she had had plenty of experience with ill-tempered ones. So far, Mzimu had been reasonably tolerable. She was used to being spoken to so rudely. Her brothers, particulary Damu, had never been the nicest of lions.

Jini sighed, stretched out on the sand and kept a wary pair of eyes on the much bigger male, "but I would know enough to be kind. Children learn from example, after all."

"The same could be said of you," Jini chuckled in a good natured fashioned and rested her head on her front paws, comfortable around this much older male now that he was attempting to be civil. She hadn't made very many friends in her young life (unless you wanted to count the various insects she'd named 'Bob') and Jini, who was very much a people person, never turned her back on an opportunity to connect with somebody. Mzimu's age was irrelevant.

"I was exploring," she said with a shrug and lifted her head to glance around them; at the sandy beach, the ebbing sea and the never-ending sky, "Looking for an adventure. The water looked like a good place to take a bath, and to play."

Jini had always loved to swim. It was the being clean part she hadn't really understood before. She reveled in the comfortable feeling of the sand as it clung to her fur, but resigned herself to the fact that she ought to take another bath before she left. No dirt was much prettier than a lot of dirt. She had seen the truth of it in her reflection.

"The water doesn't taste as wonderful here as it does at home, though."

"I would imagine so," Jini nodded thoughtfully and shot a wary glance at the sea. The unfamiliar bite of salt was still very prominent on her tongue. She didn't like it at all. In fact, the young lioness found that she craved a gulp of clean, fresh water to just satisfy her thirst and erase the nasty taste.

"Mzimu?" she, who was always up for an experiment or two, tried out his name, "I like the sound of that. It's different."

It was a few moments before she realized that he might like to know her name, in return. The adolescent blinked and gave a bit of a start before scrambling to make up for her slightly embarrassing slip.

"I'm Jini."

That was it. Nothing particularly significant or special. She glanced at Mzimu curiously, and was surprised by the realization that she wished her name was something spectacular. It was only a name, after all, but Jini couldn't help feeling that if she was called something more impressive, she might be able to prove something to the older lion. Prove what, exactly? Jini didn't know. Mzimu wasn't being as rude now as he had been before, and Jini suspected that some other, sub-conscious part of her mind wanted to stamp out any notions he might have had about her being just another stupid youth.

Never mind the fact that she was very young and still very naive. That was beside the point.

It was the fear of being labeled that urged her. Jini reveled in being unpredictable.

"What is it about this place that you like so much? I know that it mustn't be the taste of the water."

The beautiful view, maybe? She imagined that the setting and the rising of the sun over the water would have been incredible things to see.

"Thank you," she said sweetly.

A compliment! Jini beamed at him gratefully, more than pleased by the fact that he'd cared enough to return her attempts at good manners. She loved to have her ego stroked and, now that he wasn't yelling at her to get out of the water, the young lioness found that Mzimu was very good company. It was hard to believe that he'd been so grumpy at her earlier. They were slowly crossing the line from civil conversation into friendly, you're-not-so-bad-after-all conversation.

"I'm not sure I could ever grow accustomed to the taste. Not when I know there's something better out there."

She nodded in agreement and paused before replying to him again, ears twitching in the direction of the sea. It really was peaceful here. She could understand why he liked it. The solitude was strangely comforting.

"You're avoiding somebody, then?" Jini asked curiously, imagination jumping to wild conclusions, "A group of somebodies, maybe?"