RP log between DFA & Naita.
The twilight was always a time Kita'mauti enjoyed, when shadows stretched long upon the earth, giving the goddess a far greater playground from which to watch her subjects. The Mteo'nyungu had grown to greater numbers than she had seen them in lifetimes, cubs appearing everywhere, flowing from Nyungu itself, it seemed.
It was a happy time, as happy as it could be, given other sights, hidden conversations, that the goddess had witnessed. But hers was not a position to tell them how to go on, merely to watch, and help in the rites as needed.
Still, it gave Kita'mauti great pleasure to watch the youngsters, and in this pursuit did she now skitter from shadow to shadow, melding herself into the darkness to enjoy the sights.
Usahihi.... could not sleep. This was an currance she found was rather usual for her. It was the fact that whenever the small cub curled up for sleep, or even closed her eyes, the voices would start. They'd whisper to her, strange things she didn't quite understand, and things she actualy did, but did not wish to dwell upon. Thus was mostly why she strayed from the den her parents and sibblings sleeped within, to sit on a bolder, staring up at the twiligth.
There was no wrong in this; after all, the lands were safe, and even if they hadn't been, one whimper from her, and the ones resting within the main den would rush to her aid, it being only meters away.
Blinking, it was then the small cub noticed the shadows shift, just barely to her right, and her brilliant red eyes gazed upon the moving darkness. She was not scared; she figured it must be the ghosts and voices that haunted, "Are you well tonight?" she called, expecting not to be answered - they never answered BACK to her.
At the youthful voice hailing her from the land of light, Kita'mauti froze. This was not planned, nor was she sure what to do. If she answered, would the cub flee? If she stayed silent, would it come looking for her? Surely the latter was the more worrying, for while the cub was outside the shadows, and she in, it need not know who she was, surely?
"I, uh, I... am w-well."
Stuttering out an answer, the goddess unthinkingly backed away a few steps, retreating into the safety of her domain as the crushing reality of the mortals came in the form of a tiny cub saying hello.
An ear flicked then, red eyes blinking up rather curiously as her Ghosts actualy decided to answer her tonight. This was surely a new development! Never before had the ghosts answered her, before tonight, not to mention said ghost... resembled female, if her voice was any indication.
"I'm glad!" it was chirped happily, though she dared not move from the rock she'd perched herself upon, "Will you grant me company for a while?" spken witthout fear - strange for such a young thing, "I can't sleep. Do you sleep?"
The cub was the strangest mortal she had ever witnessed! It just kept chirping away, as if the world and any happening to occur to it were normal. Again the thought of escape flitted through Kita'mauti's mind, fleeing from the child before it realised to whom it spoke and ran in disgust or fear, yet she stayed in place, and found herself answering once more.
"Y-yes. I sleep. D-do you?"
A pause from the girl as she looked up at the sky, "Not well," she admited, "At least not at night... the voices keep me up."
It was the truth, really; the small cub barely slept during the night - she was used to doing so during the day, when her parents were awake and could keep an eye on her in intervals of time. It wasn't that night or the voices were scary, but they were loud, insistant... and hard to ignore in favor os sleep, "When the sun comes up, the voices hush a bit, so I sleep then," she smiled towards the shadows, "I'm not sad though - it means I'm not lonely, if they're there."
There was a certain temptation to be sad for the chit, but the words spilling from her tongue held no such sadness, no remorse for the claims she made. It was a strange thing to hear, and the realisation that to the cub, the goddess was simply another voice in her head came with a jolt. A comforting idea, that.
"Do th-they ever scare y-you?"
Voices one could not place would surely be an unsettling thing, even in one too young to know it wasn't normal, would it not?
"No," it was said so sweetly, so confidently that it was obvious the cub held no doubt to them, "Not really..." her eyes still fixed upon the twilght, she smiled, her tail curling about her form, "Some are sad, sorta lke you; you sound... .sad," she paused and thought, the continued, "Some are happy, and some are strange, but never are they scary. And I'm sure, if they were, they probably wouldn't really mean it."
A long pause followed during which the cub seemed to recollect her thoughts; she was young still, and thought processes were hard to put to words in a way for others to understand. No one really believed she could hea voices, for example, but loved her all the same, "No one ever MEANS to be mean, I think. Not even ghosts, or voices. Just.... lost."
She sounded sad? Well, she had the right to be, Kita'mauti supposed. She would be shunned by mortals, those she was created to protect, those she loved best, if they saw her. She had given up her son. But she had her shadows, her way to watch.
Perhaps the child heard what she needed to.
"Do you kn-know who th-they are?"
The goddess wondered, momentarily, whether the child were crazy or blessed. Either way, her life would be hard.
"No," again said without fear, "Like I don't know who you are. But that's okay... one day, I'll understand why I can hear them, and maybe I can help them. Do what it is I am expected to do for them," as far as she was concerned, there was a reason. There had to be. Everything had a reason to be, "I will wait," in fact, the poor child wasn't a seer, and not blssed, but rather, perhaps on the lighter side of crazy, even if she herself did not know this. It didn't affect her temper, nor did it seem to affect the way she looked on the world, cheerfully as she did.
Perhaps, in a way, it was thanks to those voices that she could bear the world like she did, "I'm not sad; daddy told me... that even during bad times, there is good. After the storm comes the rainbow," a pause as she smiled softly, turning the smile upon the shadows, "It is out of darkness that we learn to see," she claimed, "And out of silence that songs come to be," she'd heard that from a lullaby her parents had sun to her on one of the many sleepless nights.
She liked the sound of that.
Well, for a child with such a high likelihood of insanity, she had her fair share of wisdom. 'Out of darkness that we learn to see,' she liked the sound of that, would perhaps remember it.
"Have y-you talked to a l-lion named M-Mtume?" it pained her to speak her name's son aloud, but if the child were blessed, she was sure that he would guide it. He was blessed, that much the goddess knew, and he would recognise it in others better than she could.
"No," she shook her head, "Not yet, but I have seen him in the main den," she smiled then, her head tilting, "Mother says we're young... we're meant to stay with her and father, mostly, for a while longer, then we'll be allowed to wander," she seemed to pause then, pondering before nodding to herself, "I will look for him. I like the idea of a friend. A real one."
It mattered not to her that age would be different. They were both lions, and both real, unlike the voices, that was enough, "I'm Usahihi," she spoke then softly, her tail curling about her body, "What should I call you? Would you have a name?" a pause, "Everyone should have a name.... if you don't have one, I'll give you one!"
The question of her name brought reality back with a thud. She had to get away before the cub found out the truth.
"M-my name i-isn't important. Just-just tell Mtume that th-the sh-shadows sent you."
Whether he would know what was meant was not important, he would know something was special. With that, and a fleeting look back at the cub, Kita'mauti fled. She could not stand to see fear in the child's eyes.
"Okay," she didn't question this; it was as it was, and as far as Usa was concerned it was just as well. After all... if it was this way, it was MEANT to be this way.
It was a while later that the cub noticed the voice had left, and dawn fast approaching. Thus so, with a fleeting look back, she too returned to the den, in order to curl up to get some well deserved rest. SHe could only hope the Shadows, whatever they were, would grant her company again soon. Being answered was such a breeze of fresh air.
