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 Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:22 pm
Today he was lucky - he'd found a stream that had recently flooded, and food littered the banks. Smaller animals that had drowned, fish stranded on dry land, even a gator or two that hadn't been able to survive the current. The purple and brown lion trotted slowly, searching for something fresh enough to eat. Not that he was terribly picky, of course!
"Too old... too fishy, too -ugh!- " Kiju snorted and shook his head. Nasty! He trotted on and spotted a fish still flopping weakly on the banks. Perfect! With a quick snap of his jaws Kiju killed it and started eating. Fresh meat! Better than the last one he'd chased those hyenas from...
The taste of fish on his tongue brought back memories of the sea and his mother - the original reason for setting out. He chuckled weakly. She'd never recognize him, not like this! His reflection in the water was thin at best, his mane lank on his shoulders.
"Find yourself a home, you bum." He laughed again, and if it was a little bitter, a little sad... who was there to notice anyways?
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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:04 pm
A little brown bird, pretty in colour, was hopping around on the ground, picking at the dead grasses. Nothing! It seemed that this area hadn't gotten rain for quite some time; a pity, because it could of been so pretty! And had some more bugs to munch on.
The nightingale felt a familiar shift on the wind, warm and soft. "Mother Wind!" she called out, knowing that she was here. Oh goodie! Whenever the mother showed up, fun things were always around.
The goddess swirled out of no where, a small gold flash the only thing to reveal just where she would appear. Her long horse-like mane swirled around her as she opened her eyes, glancing around to where she had ended up. She was enjoying her time alone, doing what she wanted, since she knew that it would be a time before she could do that again.
"Aah, my little Kokia daughter!" she chimed, letting the little bird flutter around her. "It has been some time since I have seen you, I hope all is well." She was going to take the time to converse with the avian when she had noticed a not so well of being a bit away.
"But perhaps the conversation will have to wait," she interrupted, before the bird could reply. She motioned to have the bird follow her as she folded up her wings, intent to see just why the mortal looked the way he did.
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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 8:15 pm
He felt the wind ruffling his fur, saw the ripples spread across the stream in front of him, but he didn't really take notice until the scent of 'other' reached him. Since he'd left the beach and struck out on his own, it seemed to Kiju that he slowly lost touch with the world around him. At one time he would have felt the breeze, seen the water rippling, and wondered where that sudden gust of wind had come from.
Now... survival was all that mattered. If he wasn't in danger, he didn't stop to watch the scenery.
With these thoughts in the back of his mind, the young lion spun to face his perceived enemy, a grow thrumming deep in his throat. He'd caught this meal! It was HIS, and damned if he wasn't gonna make sure it stayed that way! What right --
-- OH. What he saw was enough to shock him into a stunned silence, effectively quelling his warning growl. A lion with wings? His mother told him about a god before, the god of the sea... could this be one of them?
"You have WINGS!" A childish glee painted the large grin across his face. For the moment he forgot about everything - his problems, his mother, his search, it was all blocked out. "Do they really work?" He asked, "Can you FLY?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:55 pm
The little bird, called Kokia, was about to reply to her Mother, but she was rudely interrupted by her. But not only by her, but my some loud talking lion! The little bird pouted, obviously not too thrilled with the fact that she was being put on the back burner! With a huff, she flew past the goddess to land on a little straggly stick that probably was once a tree. If she was going to be ignored, then fine. But there was no way that she was going to miss out on conversation!
"Of course she can fly! Just like me she can!" the little bird chirped, feeling like the lion just totally insulted her! Mother Wind herself!
Mana couldn't help but give a little laugh about the situation. She wasn't laughing at him, but more the fact that he seemed so excited over her. It was the first time in a while that it felt like she had actually come across a mortal that would offer her a little bit of attention. While she did not look for it, or endorse flattery, she wouldn't refuse it when it came across her paws.
"Yes, they do," she replied, drawing them out slowly to give them slow, long flaps. "Though I'm afraid that if I tried to use them now, I might fill your eyes with dirt! It seems this area is lacking in a good source of water." She glanced around with mildly sad eyes. There was nothing that she could directly do about it but mourn it.
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:21 pm
"Oh, sh-she can?" Kiju dared a quick glance at the tiny bird before looking back at his paws. He hadn't meant to offend, he was merely curious! But the little bird's tone lead him to believe he'd said something awful. "Sorry..."
His gaze returned to Mana, the broad grin returning as she flapped her wings. How magestic she must look, when she was soaring in the sky! But... were gods just SUPPOSED to appear in the mortal realm? He'd always had the idea that gods had their home, mortals had theirs, and they only met when something was gravely wrong.
Maybe that was the case here. His smile faded, replaced by concern.
"Nothing's wrong, is it? Or is that why you're here?" ... wait, did that sound offensive? Did it sound like he was asking her to leave? "I mean, it just... I always thought..."
Oh, just spit it out!
"I thought that gods didn't live in mortal realms!" He paused for a moment, then smiled shyly. "That's what you are, right? A Goddess?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:36 am
Kokia's orange eyes staaared at the odd coloured lion, trying to figure out just what he was asking. She felt the urge to retort at him again, but could feel the disapproval from Mana. Alriiight, alright, she wouldn't say anything mean. Or well, she'd try. She really couldn't help it though! Mother Wind was so important to her, and she felt extra special since Mana favored her over a lot of the other birds that hovered around Mana, and so she couldn't help but feel overprotective with the Goddess that had given her a second chance at life.
For the moment, she would stay quiet. Staring was okay, though, right?
The golden Goddess smiled. "No, everything is fine, as far as I know. I merely let the wind guide me wherever it thinks I might be useful." She drew her wings slowly back to her sides. So many questions! She did her best to try and sort out just what he was asking, so she could answer them all as best she could.
"Well, you could say that we have our own home to live in. Though sometimes some of us will feel more comfortable in the mortal realm." Was that good without giving too much away? Oh, well, if he wasn't sure he could figure it out on his own.
"I like mortals, though. Always so sweet and kind. So I stay here most of the time to try and help those that need it."
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:37 am
Kiju risked a glance at the tiny bird near the goddess. Yep, still staring. That bird was beginning to unnerve him! He swallowed hard and tried to ignore her, but he could feel her eyes boring into his back.
"That makes sense!" The young male agreed. "That you live in both places, I mean." At least to HIM it did! There was, after all supposedly someplace you went when you died. If gods were immortal, they weren't technically alive, since everything alive had to die, right? So they could live where both the living and the dead were, maybe? Of course, he didn't REALLY know if gods died or not...
Maybe they just had their own private piece of heaven or something. Kiju mulled this over for a moment, his eyes unconsciously drifting over to Kokia. With a jerk he settled his gaze back onto Mana.
"Not... not all mortals are nice, though." His voice was quieter. "But hopefully you'll only meet the nice ones!"
He glanced to his left --
-- orange eyes locked into his.
Still staring. Jeez, she was creepy!
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:45 am
"Oh? Well, I hope it does, then," she replied, smiling. "If you're wondering, we have a place that we call God's Haven. You could call it a first heaven, I guess. Spirits aren't there for too long, they return to Mkodi, as far as I remember." She actually didn't pay too much attention to the spirits. Sometimes they were a bit too emotional for her to try and converse with.
"Kokia," she said in a harsh tone. "You shouldn't be so mean to him. You know he didn't mean it, and I took no harm."
She nodded again at the lion. "I'm sorry about that, my little bird child here gets a bit protective over me, over everything." She swished her tail behind her.
"And I know what you mean about some not so nice ones. I've had some just leave me in the middle of a conversation. I do hope mothers raise their cubs better now."
Kokia gave a little huff, still staring at the lion. "Hmph, well. If you say so Mother Wind." She let her gase lighten, even offering the lion a smile, though it was hard to tell if if was genuine or not.
"Is Mr. Lion lost?" she asked. She didn't realise that he might get overwhelmed with two conversations going on at once.
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:07 pm
"It's okay." Kiju replied quickly. It took a lot to offend him, and he rarely held grudges. What was past was past, after all! "It's nice to have someone looking out for you sometimes. Makes you feel better."
He thought of his den back home, almost feeling the warm bodies of his siblings and mother curled in close to him. He missed them every day, but he couldn't help but wonder if they missed him as much. Did they even think of him? Did Mom think about him?
"I haven't met too many mean ones," Kiju admitted, "But it's just a matter of time, at least while I live like this." He gave a wry smile. It was true, if he kept wandering he was bound to run into trouble. Kokia's question made him hesitate for a moment. When he replied, it was with slow, thought out deliberation.
"Being lost implies that I'm looking for something, Lady." He explained to Kokia. "And I'm not sure that I am, not anymore. I'm not sure what I'm looking for would be happy to be found." Then his eyes grew wide, his ears pinning back in shame. His mother would reprimand him for his lack of manners!
"I haven't introduced myself. I'm Kijuvo, but you can call me Kiju, if you want." He tried to smile at both the goddess and the bird, and felt a little foolish.
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:07 pm
"Well? Aren't you?" she teased. "You don't really look like you know where you're going, and as far as I know, that means your lost. Unless you like wandering around nearly starving, that is." She ruffled her feathers, feeling like she was teaching him something even though she probably wasn't.
Mana shot a quick glare at the little bird. She certainly wasn't helping matters, but at least the lion didn't seem to mind too much.
"Mdhamana'kinyamkela," she said, offering a bow. "Though Mana works just fine for me. And this is obviously Kokia, my little loud-mouthed companion." She couldn't help but crack a smile at that. "May I ask as to why you're trying to survive in such a desolate area?" It was far from picturesque.
"It doesn't seem to be doing much good for you either," she added on, taking a good look at his scraggly body and not so lush looking coat. If he needed a little help in being pointed to a better place to live, then by all means would she do her best to help him out.
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:28 am
"I guess I don't know where I'm going." Kiju shrugged and smiled wanly. "And no one likes wandering hungry! But seeing as I didn't really know where I was going in the begining, I guess it's not like I'm any more lost than I was when I left home."
Kiju blinked as the goddess recited her name. How could anyone remember that? But it sounded really pretty! "Mana... I like that! And Kokia." Kiju bowed solemnly back to both, his mane falling past his face as he did so. "It's nice to meet both of you." And it was! It'd been a while since he'd had a real conversation.
"I don't live here, not really." Kiju glanced around and noted, as if for the first time, how desolate the landscape really was. "I'm just passing through, but I do have to find food so..." He let the sentence drop off and shrugged, avoiding a reply to her comment on his condition. "Hopefully I won't be here too long."
Really, he'd love to be in a lush, green land filled with prey. Who wouldn't? But for now, he'd make due. He wasn't one to complain - it was nothing more than a waste of time anyways.
"I hope you don't mind me asking, but my mother said that there was a god of the sea, and a god of the sun." Kiju looked curiously at Mana. "Are you the goddess of weather? Or..." Something the little bird had said earlier came back to him and he smiled. "... wind?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:19 am
Kokia chriped, fluffling her feathers in disgust! Well, at least he wasn't living here, but how could he say he was hungry when he was looking around for food in a place like this! This lion sooo needed help, and she would certainly love to help him!
....maybe after Mother Wind was done speaking.
"Well, I think that would be terrible news for me to hear if you did say you lived here! It certainly isn't a good place to live, especially for a lion so sweet." She smiled.
She reached out to give him a tap on the nose. "Perfect! Yes, I am the Goddess of the Wind. That's normally why I have birds around me, I suppose."
"Yes, Mother Wind, that's excatly why! Where would we be without your wind to fill our wings?" the nightingale butted in, singing the goddess' praises.
"Kokia! You are much too sweet, but my little daughter, you should learn your turn," she replied, but still unable to keep her laugh inside. "But yes, to elaborate further, there are gods for nearly everything out there. They just don't all visit the mortal realm, so you wouldn't actually see them manifest before you."
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:43 am
"Yeah, it is pretty bad, huh?" Kiju gave a faint smile as he glanced around. Well... at least it wasn't freezing cold, and there wasn't anything currently trying to eat him, right? That gave it at least a bronze star in his book. He blushed under his fur at the compliment, his smile growing stronger.
"I've noticed that nice things don't always happen to nice people, and bad things don't always happen to bad people." Like that old lion he met a while ago - kind and stuck as a 'servant' for a nasty young male.
Kiju's purple tail tuft thumped softly against the ground, his head cocked to the side in thought. As the goddess' wing tips brushed across his face he couldn't help but laugh. "If I was a bird, I'd hang around too!" Coming from a different lion, this phrase might have sounded suspect. But coming from Kiju, the phrase was merely an innocent remark.
"There must be hundreds of gods then." He wondered if they were everywhere all around him, and if he would ever meet another one. Another thought occurred to him then, and he shuddered.
"There must be not-so-nice gods around too, huh?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:14 am
The goddess nodded. "It's the same for everything. There is good where there is evil. There is evil where there is good. It's the same as a shadow. Don't you see a shadow following you all throughout the day? It's everywhere. Light followed dark, dark follows light."
She reshuffled her wings again. She could feel the sun beating down on them. While not painful, sometimes they would get a bit itchy folded up like that.
"Though I'm sure you get the point," she added on, smiling. "Normally, most of them have very similar caracteristics you could keep an eye out for. It anything doesn't look good, follow that intuition. It should keep you safe. As far as I have heard, though, the really dangerous ones do not come into the mortal realm too much."
Kokia listened to her Mother Wind intently. Though she could consider herself a familiar to the goddess, she still did not know everything that there was to know about other gods. Wind didn't talk about it much herself, and Kokia knew better than to pressure her too much. Besides, there was much going on in the mortal realm, enough to keep the pair of them busy.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 12:49 am
Kiju couldn't help it - he glanced at his shadow, hovering beneath him as if in fear of the midday sun. He knew it was silly for him to think like this, but he wondered if a shadow could be a representation of the darkness everyone had inside of them. Sure, it was just a spot on the ground where your body blocked the light, he understood.
But couldn't you use it as a reminder to yourself of your own mortal flaws?
"I will!" Kiju replied, nodding solemnly. "My mom taught me that when I'm in doubt, I should trust my instincts. A lot of times my mind knows things it doesn't share." He laughed, realizing how silly that sounded as he said it. But it was true!
"I'm glad they don't venture out much." The young male admitted. "I'd much rather meet a nice goddess like you!" Really, meeting another like... say, the god of the dead, would be too much for him to handle, he would think!
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