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 Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:28 pm
However, she'd never seen rain. And she'd never catch a wildabeast, and she'd never be a very powerfull hunter. She could hardly catch a gazelle. See, she was.. to put it bluntly, a midget. Partially to blame from her aged father, an older lion who was taking each time longer and longer naps, and getting worse at hunting, even as his daughter had been growing. And the drought had not helped either. She simply couldn't have afforded to be large. Mistweavers weren't big lions, no. They were small. But the little silver lioness, she was tiny.
And this showed. See, right now, the lioness was lying near a rock, trying to cower in its shade and.. surprisingly enough, she fit in it. Barely, but she did. "Mean sun. " She muttered, though she didn't actually hold a grudge. She just.. wished it'd change sometimes. The sky's had always been clear as far as she could remember. She saw clouds every now and then, yes. But she was happy. A young lioness, who had begun to hunt game enough to feed herself.
The little lioness yawned, then something seemed to catch her eye. "Mouse! " She shouted to no one in particular, and shot after it.
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Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 5:30 pm
 Paws stepped silently, ghostly. No blade of grass stirred in his wake, no insect displaced, as if nothing more than a spirit had drifted over the earth. His posture was upright, proud, his height towering from paws to the antlers that adorned his head. His ears turned forward, senses alert, green eyes ever aware of that which surrounded him, though he was confident, unthreatened.
Though the god of nature generally kept to the forest, he did not appear uncomfortable in the plains on which he now trod, indeed the druid seemed perfectly at home here as he would have among the deep sea of foliage, as perhaps he would have in any terrain. All nature was his domain, his home, his protectorate.
Ears flicked, catching the sounds of rustling grass, of small creatures disrupted before approaching paws. He knew she was there long before eyes fell on the pale hide, knew of the tiny creature that fled the predator's claws.
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Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 5:48 pm
At first, there was a pounce, then, after landing on the ground, her belly less than an inch from the ground, the mouse had wriggled free, but she let it go. She'd noticed it too was thin. Normally, she'd catch the mouse, as any little food could help sometimes, but.. she didn't need it now, she was sure. She was still rather cublike, surprising what would be expected from a lion who'd faced the drought. But Kimaji was happy. She liked the simple things, chasing a mouse, enjoying the stars, or playing with a leaf as it fluttered down to the ground.
She flicked her ears, watching the mouse go, before she seemed to notice something else. She normally would spot it faster, but she' been distracted. The pale head turned to the god, blue eyes for a moment looking surprised. Not really by the fact this was a god; actually, by the fact someone was there.
"Hi. " she said, flicking her tail slightly. She didn't seem to focus on his wings, however. She was used to wings. "Who are you? "
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 4:56 pm
He paused in his steps, green eyes focused on the small lioness, ears flicking as she spoke. He did not need to follow the mouse to know it had scurried beneath his paws, perhaps knowing that the druid was no threat, that under the god it was safe even if it was unaware it hadn't been in much danger to begin with.
His gaze was piercing, yet soft, a kindness shining beneath the wisdom that seemed to radiate from his very presence. His gaze reached beyond where he stood, senses reached through the bounds of his domain, as if all of nature spoke to him, conveying all that happened within the land he protected.
"I am nature."
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:08 pm
"Nature? Thats a funny name. Whats it mean? "
She blinked, tilting her head and sitting up. What was nature? "I'm Kimaji! " She nodded, perking her ears at the god before her, as she attempted to pay attention to his body. Wings, like gods should have but..
"You have a strange fuzzy-- I mean, mane. " She mused loudly. However, she didn't know the mane she referred to was another set of skin. "Why do you have two heads? " She got up, and moved a bit closer, a brow quirked. "You're a funny god. " She stated with a small smile, but by funny she didn't mean ha-ha. She meant. weird.
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 6:05 pm
He shook his head, the hint of a smile in his gaze.
"Nature is not my name, it is my domain. If it is my name you wish, I am called Corellon."
It was perhaps the first time he had been startled by a mortal, his tail stilling as he blinked at the lioness. Fuzzy, what on earth did she mean by that? His mane? It wasn't especially unusual save for the face that it perhaps fuller than most lions. Two heads?
And then he realized, she must have meant his cloak. The bear pelt he wore had often been mistaken, by animals, and by poachers who had quickly spread the legend of the man-eating nandi bear, but he did not recall meeting one who had mistaken it for his mane (though perhaps others had mistaken it for a second head). His shoulders shook, shifting the pelt on his back until the bear's head fell back like a hood.
"I suppose I am, though perhaps no more than any other god."
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 6:13 pm
"Oooh. Corellon is a pretty name. Whats nature? "
She didn't know that she knew what nature was-- she simply didn't know it by that name. As he shook his head-- one of his heads, Kimaji seemed confused at first, perhaps amazed as the other for a moment seemed to move but then.. it fell.
"Corellon! your head broke! " She gasped, ears perked and blue eyes going wide in alarm as she scurried over to the god, peering at the other head that now hung like some sort of.. big.. weird.. leaf, near his shoulders. "Is it supposed to bend like that? " She frowned, sitting down again and lifting her front paws from the ground, balancing on her haunches and poking the head once, then jumping back as if expecting something to happen.
Of course, nothing did.
"That.. " She frowned slightly, tilting her head so that she could try and get in eye-level with the brown head of the god. "That is weird. "
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 11:25 pm
"Nature is the life that surrounds us, the trees, birds, animals, grass, you, and me."
The guardian of the forest had encountered many creatures through the millennia of his days. He had met with awe, respect, fear, and even at times hatred, but it was rare he ever encountered such a creature as the lioness who now stood beside him. She had a childlike innocence, a simple curiosity, it was refreshing, proof that not all in the world had become corrupted.
Peering at her through his mask, the smile on his maw broadened to allow the escape of a faint chuckle. Raising one paw, he nudged the head of his cloak, shifting it against his shoulders. Bears had long since vanished from the African continent, the one he wore one of the last few murdered by poachers, therefore it was certainly to be expected that those mortals he met would be confused by his appearance.
"This? It's not my head, it is a pelt."
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Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 4:00 am
"I didn't know that all had a name. "
The little lioness mused, allowing herself to be slightly distracted from the god's extra head. But he said life.. She was alive, but there was the forest she used to live in. Now she could only bear to stay at the outskirts. Did dead stuff count too? However, that might be a silly question, she she blew it away from her thoughts.
When Corellon decided to mess with the head, she quietly wondered if he couldn't move it on his own, but then he said it was a pelt.
Well, that explained a lot.
"Really? Like wildebeest? " She asked, moving a bit closer again to peer at it once more. "But.. it doesn't look like a lion and.. " She followed the pelt down to its paws. "It had huge claws. What is it? "
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Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 11:09 pm
"All things bear a name, even if we do not know it."
He smiled, but there was a sadness behind his expression. He had expected her to ask about the origin of his pelt, it was a question he had been asked before, and though it was not always voiced, he knew it was asked by all who laid eyes on the brown pelt.
But it did not matter how often the question was asked, or that he knew it would always come, reguardless it was always a sad question. He bore the pelt of the last bear of Africa, a magnificent creature struck down, destroyed beneath his very gaze, a tragedy he had been unable to prevent.
He had seen to it the creature did not die unavenged. The poachers that had taken its life were to pay for it with their own, as did those who dared follow them. He had taken the pelt as a reminder of what was lost, refusing to allow the creature to simply fade away to nothing but a memory. And if his acts inspired fear among the poachers, than so much the better, perhaps they would think better of their actions when the 'nandi bear' exacted his revenge.
"It is the pelt of a bear, a noble creature that has long since vanished from our land."
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Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:26 pm
"Bear? "
She blinked, tilting her head some more to peer at what once was a real bear's face. "How did they vanish? " She questioned slightly, with a small frown. They were probably weird animals, but.. No one deserved to vanish. She didn't want to vanish ever-- what had happened o these 'bears' he spoke of?
"You sure we just don't see them much? " She flicked her tail slightly, looking perhaps disappointed that she wouldn't see a bear, besides this skin that now covered of the god. She liked learning things and seeing things-- why couldn't she see a bear now?
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 3:32 pm
The god shook his head, turning to look toward the horizon as if distracted for a moment by an awareness of something in the distance. There had been a time when he had hoped that the bear was not truly gone, that there were a few of them still hiding in an isolated corner of the continent.
But he knew better than to hold to such a hope. He was a druid, a guardian, the very soul of nature itself, he felt it when a creature fell, heard the words spoken by the forest. The moment the last bear fell, he had known they were gone, in that instant whatever hope he had held had fallen with the slain creature.
"They were destroyed by poachers, those who take more than they need and hunt solely for greed. This," he indicated the pelt, pulling the 'hood' back over his own head, " was the last one."
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 3:47 pm
She blinked. Poachers..? Those sounded bad. If they had destroyed bears-- they were bad. So instead, she decided not to ask what they were for once. She could live without knowing, right? "So, they'll never come back. " She sighed, folding her ears back slightly and looking at the ground. That seemed.. sad. Unfair, maybe.
"What did it look like-- when it was alive? " She asked, sniffing at the bear slightly. Surely it didn't look as thin as it did now, draped over the god's back like a mantle. "Were they big? " well, she could at least assume that. Corellon was larger than she was, and the bear-skin seemed to be just a bit smaller than he was. Surely they looked bigger alive, right?
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:52 pm
How was he to answer such a question? How did he describe the appearance of a fallen creature, one that had faded never to be seen again by the eyes of mortals? How could he bear the knowledge that there were creatures that those who now trod the earth had never seen, were unaware had passed before them?
The noble bear was not the only creature to fade from his forest, nor was it the only one threatened by that fate. Since the beginning of his domain many creatures had fallen, some by natural course, others by unnatural, by those who hunted a creature to extinction for sport or greed. Those, who like the ancient great reptiles, had faded by the path of nature itself were tragic, but the way of life, and even though they were gone their legacy lived on in those who now roamed the land. But then the hunters had come, those who did not belong to or respect the land, but rather ravaged and destroyed all in their wake. Those creatures they destroyed vanished without a trace, rent from their land by evil with no chance to fulfill the path that had been placed on the land to follow.
It enraged him, each innocent life lost a tragedy he would not tolerate, he would destroy every poacher he discovered, only leaving those few required to spread the word, the terror of the nandi bear. But though he was a god, he was still only one, and despite his efforts, he could not protect them all.
"They were large, broader than a lion, though not as long, with great paws useful for fishing and very short tails. Ferocious though they may have appeared, they seemed to prefer eating small things; berries, insects, and fish were among their favorites."
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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:45 am
Imagination. Nice thing, eh? Almost immediately, Kimaji began imagining what a bear would be-- and unintentionally, it looked alot like a lion. A very.. fuzzy, lion. Like it had a mane all over. And a big lion, too1 Bigger than Swaii! But Swaii wasn't very big. No, he wasn't. So it was a lot bigger than Swaii?
Uh. Okay, lets stop thinking about how they looked. But aww, they could be chubby! And small. That'd be cute. They ate little things, too. They didn't sound 'ferocious', to her. However, now Kimaji pondered. There was here. Corellon said there weren't bears here. But.. could there be somewhere else? It was possible, right? That this world wasn't the only world? "Do they still live anywhere? Not here. Is there anywhere else? " The idea of another wold.. it kind of startled her. If there were other worlds, what was out there?
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