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 Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 11:26 pm
Today, for Soali, was turning out to be just like any other day. It was warm and humid outside (which was expected), her parents and siblings were lazing around (also expected), and she was doing the same. Boring, boring. Today was one of those days that she had an itch to do something, and that itch desperately needed to be scratched or else she could very well go crazy.
So with a nuzzle to her parents, the juvenile announced she was off for a walk, and departed her family's den. Her paws took her past their most often-used water hole, grinning and making faces at herself through her reflection as she passed the water. Then she circled around some swampy parts, giggling as she pounced through the mud puddles. This was so much fun, she decided, that she kept a game going, to see how many puddles she could dodge before her legs tired out and she slipped into one of them.
Brown ears swiveled around as Aushi heard the echos of childish giggles. Curious, she turned her head slightly, but couldn't see anything. Hm. One of the children must be out and about today. She smiled at the sound, happy that it would never bring her worries of the future. This was her home, the land she loved. Now, if only she could get used to the wetness of it all.
She was spending her day wallowing in the water, nearly up to her belly. She knew that the only way she would eventually get used to it would be to literally be in it. Her brown coat blended in wonderfully with most of the mud, though a bit of moss was sticking on her fur here and there from the murky water.
The voice seemed to grow louder. Was the child heading this way? Instead of looking, the lioness merely began to hum as she moved around in the murky waters. Her children had never known anything else but the swamps until their naming quest; she was still learning how to navigate throu- oh! She stumbled as she slipped down a bit, letting out a slight yelp. "Yikes!"
The sudden yelp stopped Soali from jumping from her paused position to straighten up and look around in the direction she had heard the sound from. Curious, the cub slowly picked her way through the puddles and peered through the tall, thick grasses. There she found a brown lioness, incredibly muddy, who had obviously slipped on a spot of mud and gotten the way she looked. The cub couldn't stop the stifled giggle that escaped her throat, and once that had been revealed, she giggled again, louder.
"You missed," she told the older lioness. Soali thought she was playing a game just like the one she had been playing earlier: jumping around and dodging puddles where she could. Obviously, this female had 'missed.' She was muddy. Soali wasn't. Yet.
Her tail wiggled from side to side in excitement. She had never seen this lioness before. Was she new? Or had she been here for a while, but had never run into the cub? That could very well be it. To her, the pride was really big, and it would be about impossible to meet every single lion and other creature that called this place home.
Sputtering a little of the muddy water out of her mouth, the brown lioness glanced around to finally see the owner of the cute voice she had heard earlier. The giggling wasn't exactly what she expected, but Aushi couldn't help but smile back as she rubbed what she could off of her jaw. She slipped down further than she originally thought.
Shifting through the water was a little more difficult when one was almost completely wet, but she managed to get to a 'safer' area that was a little more higher up than the rest underground. Settling herself down to sit in the water, she tilted her head to the side. "What did I miss?" she asked, feeling a little worried the more she thought about it. Was it something important? Did she do something wrong? Even if she was only a youngster, Aushi knew to never doubt the knowledge that could come out of their mouths. "Was it just my slip?"
"The jump!" Soali exclaimed, bounding forward to get closer. "Weren't you playing the puddle game?" Not that that was what it was called, but it seemed like an appropriate name nonetheless. "I was just playing it when I heard you yell. You jump around and see how many puddles you can jump over 'til your legs wobble and you slip into the mud! And you missed your jump," Soali giggled again, sitting down closer to the edge of the water the lioness was currently in. "I didn't," she added with a beam.
"Oh, I'm Soali, by the way," she added as an almost-after thought. Her parents had taken great pains to teach their cubs manners and politeness when dealing with others. Mostly adults, but sometimes, other cubs could be nice too. She hadn't really met many, but she was getting there, slowly.
Aushi watched the cub with amusement, trying to visualize this game that was just presented to her. She hadn't really heard of a game like that, but then the games that the cubs played were exciting one day, and boring the next. She let off a small sigh, feeling the water ripple away from her body. Ah, children. Always so adorable.
"Oh, well in that case I lost a long time ago!" she said with a bright smile. "So you must be the reigning champion of the game to still be dry!"
"Now that I lost, I'm just trying to get used to being all wet," she said with a silly face. "And you can call me Aushi if you'd like, little Soali." My, what a polite girl too! "Seems that I haven't come across you before." But then again, Aushi wasn't the most social member of the pride. "Are you having fun with your game?"
Soali laughed. "You lost a long time ago? How awful! I bet you would have won a lot if you hadn't lost then!" This lioness seemed nice enough. The only other adult the cub had met had been that nice other male lion, whom she had spent a good hour or so with just talking. Hearing his story had been incredibly interesting and she couldn't get it out of her head. But, then again, she would often forget and randomly remember him at different times. Such was the mind of a cub.
She beamed again. "Yep! I guess so," she laughed.
"Well," she added shyly, eyeing the water surrounding Aushi, "you can't be completely used to being all wet if you're not all wet." And she dipped a paw into the water and sprinkled it on the lioness' back, wetting her more. "Yup! It's a fun game. So far, I haven't fallen in any puddles at all!" She forgot that she had already said that before.
Aushi shook her head. "Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not really all that graceful, like you must be." She reflexively twitched her tail, but it didn't do much in the water. Blech. She was going to hop out soon enough. Soali was distracting her, but she didn't mind. It was much different than being interrupted, and Aushi never minded the company of a bright child like her.
She couldn't help but sneeze when the little girl sprinkled more water on her! She furrowed one brow playfully, raising up her own dripping wet paw out of the water as if threatening to sprinkle back, twofold!
"I'm sure you'll stay as the champion if you're careful!" she said with another sneeze. "This water sure is getting to me, though. Puddles at least are a little less harmless than this stuff." With that, she stood up, getting most of her body out of the water. Without another thought, she shook herself to rid her body of some excess water. Whoops.
Soali shook her head and grinned. "Nah, I'm not that good. I still have a lot to learn, Mommy and Daddy say! But you're older and you must know a bunch of things already. Do you think you could teach me something?" One of her favorite things was learning. Anything that someone told her, like a story or a lesson or anything, she would always listen attentively and remember all that she could. That probably explained why liked stories so much.
She shrieked and skittered back so as to try and avoid most of the water Aushi might flick at her in retaliation. She hadn't meant to start a water fight, but there wasn't any harm in it! As long as it was water, although if mud became too involved then they could always wash it off later. That's the good thing about water: it was very, very useful for cleaning.
"I'll be careful! I'm good at being careful, too. Why do you keep sneez--ahhh!" Her query turned into another shriek, this time because she was, indeed, soaked with the water Aushi shook off her coat. And since the lioness was so much bigger than Soali, she had more fur, which absorbed more water. So it was basically like a tidal wave coming down on the cub.
Oh. OH. "Whoops!"
Before she realized it, she had shook off too much water, and right next to the cub! "I'm sorry, Soali!" she exclaimed, but she couldn't help but giggle slightly at the whole situation. "I wasn't thinking for that moment. Now that we're both wet..." she shook her head with a sigh as she climbed completely out, wandering off a bit to shake more without risking the chance it would all land on Soali.
Content that she was at least not dripping too much anymore, she padded back to the girl and plopped down on the soft ground. It wasn't dry either, but it wasn't anything like being in the water at least. "Well, I could tell you a little bit of something, but it's nothing amazing." Aushi never shared her stories of long ago, but she never minded talking about everything that had happened to her within the pride.
"Do you know much about the spirits that linger around us all the time? How the push the breeze, make the water ripple, even help the sun warm your fur?" Aushi had a deep, loving belief of the spirits.
Soali shook her head and then the rest of her fur, her legs, and finally her tail, trying to dry herself off. She had been doing so good; the plan was to have had fun and -not- get dirty today. It would be a first, since her parents had asked her to try to keep herself decently clean for at least today before her nightly bath before going to sleep. But it seemed that no matter how hard she tried, things always worked out to getting her dirty. She sighed. Oh well. She'd tell her parents that she would try harder.
She loved getting dirty anyway. It certainly didn't bother her very much.
She laughed and shook her head at Aushi. "It's okay! I was going to get wet and dirty soon anyway," she added with a giggle. Then she sat up straighter, scooting closer to get the best seat possible while she listened to Aushi's stories. She shook her head at the question. "Nope, not really." She tilted her head to the side. "Spirits are in the sun? Really?"
Aushi nodded. "They're everywhere, really. We can't really see them, but we can always feel them." She smiled warmly. "It's something you'll see when you get older, I think. Playing games is always a little distracting. See, you even distracted me from what I was doing!" She laughed lightly, "I don't mind though, so no worries there."
She lowered her head a little, content that she could speak a little bit about something she loved. She knew that the idea seemed a little silly to the cubs, but they were always more concerned about playing and eating and running around than the world around them. That was the importance of their naming quest. She firmly believed in it.
"I think you'll find out once you're old enough to go find your true name," she started, assuming that the girl had heard of it. Usually they might have an idea, but since you never knew when you were being sent out, it wasn't a big thing, either. "Everything around us is affected by them. I think they even like to tickle us when we're in the water."
Oh, that's right. She remembered now. When she grew old enough, Soali would be sent away to find her "true name." How she would discover this she wasn't completely sure. She didn't even know if she would be allowed to keep the name she had now, as she rather liked it and thought it was pretty to say. "So, are there spirits around us right now? In the water, like you said? Were we playing with spirits?" she asked, curious to know if these spirits like to play games as much as she did.
The cub figured that now was as good a time as any to ask her questions, so she launched into them. "When will I find my true name? Is it hard? How do I know when I find it? Do I have to be called that name forever once I find it? I like my name now. Was it hard for you when you went to find your true name?"
Just as is expected of children, they go and ask a million questions at a time, leaping from one tangent to the next, a never-ending fountain of queries and a thick sponge to soak up all the answers. Soali was no exception, and she hoped that Aushi would not regret her decision to share her stories and wisdom with the cub.
Aushi smiled. Children, always full of questions. She always viewed it as a good thing. They were excited about the world around them, about the future ahead of them. They cared about things, and wanted to know what was possibly going to happen to them or those around them. It was admirable, and she loved it.
"I'm sure they were! They must love games as much as the rest of us. Just make sure that they're happy, and everything will be good. You can tell just if everything around you seems happy!" Aushi was...a bit of a hippy, at least with that comment. It was true, though!
"And to start attacking that wall of questions...well. Finding your true name is hard, I won't lie. While I wasn't born in the pride, when I came here it felt like I had been on my naming quest for my entire life!" She laughed, since she wasn't that young once she came here. Once she was accepted though....she adored it with all her heart. "And you don't have to be called that name. My full name is Aushitia'moyo, but it would be silly to always say that. I'm sure you'll be proud of your name once you discover it." She tapped at her chest. "It's always sitting inside you. Once you go looking for it outside of the lands, you'll discover just what it is."
Soali tilted her head to the side again and listened obediently to the vast amount of information Aushi was bestowing upon her. It was a lot to take in, no matter how big her sponge of a brain was, for a child this young. But she tried valiantly to understand and to make true sense of it all. She thought she did okay.
"Good! I liked playing with the spirits," she replied with a giggle at first, then hushed to listen as her questions were answered.
She figured it would be hard. What was easy? Nothing. So it was no surprise to hear that this Naming Quest was going to be another tough thing she would have to overcome in life as well. Soali pondered on the whole naming subject, and wondered how long it would take her to find her true name. She looked down at her chest and stuck her tongue out at herself. "I wish it would hurry up and come out and tell me what my name is!"
Aushi laughed. "I think sometimes we all wish things were that easy." She paused for a moment, pondering over offering a bit of information. Sometimes it wasn't smart to get a child too excited, but knowing how time passed, she would only blink and Soali could already be gone onto her quest. Whatever small information she could pass on could help.
"I've heard that some lions finish their quests quite quickly, actually. Sometimes they wake up one day and just realize what their name is! Other times, they're gone for a while, learning more than they can here, and they find their name that way." She lowered her voice, too. "Sometimes through more boyish means, like fighting. You know how they get," she added with a small laugh.
"I'm sure the spirits will help you out if you keep them happy, too," she added, reaching out to ruffle the bit of fluff that was growing on the top of her head.
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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:25 pm
Spirits! It was comforting to think that even though she was alone somewhere, there would always be spirits around her anyway. She just couldn't see them, and they couldn't really talk back to her when she spoke to them..but it made her feel...
Safer.
"Maybe they tickle us to help us get clean when we're in the water!" Who liked a dirty cub or lion, anyway? Obviously the spirits didn't either, for whenever she went into a pool of water, she came out a lot cleaner than she had gone in. And she didn't even need to scrub that much.
"I hope I find my right true name," she added softly. What if she thought of a name, but it wasn't the right one she was supposed to have? Did that ever happen before?
((Sorry. Toootally forgot it was my turn. xDD; ))
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Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 8:08 pm
Aushi's ear twitched as she thought about what the young girl had said. Her right name? It had never been something she had really thought about, but there was a sense of truth in her words. Her children, when they had known of their coming pilgrimage to find their name, probably had the same doubts.
"You will know when you find your true name," she replied just as softly. "I wasn't born here like you, I found it once I was a grumpy old adult." She said, making a silly face. "Through a little encouragement, I learned what it was like to find what my name really was, inside of me." She hoped she wasn't talking for too long; kids had the strangest attention spans. "Then, that's when I felt the name Aushitia'moyo; life, take heart. It was sort of like...my chest growing warm once I thought those words." She brushed her paw against her chest for a moment, remembering that. "I'm certain the spirits are part of that warmth."
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:20 am
She giggled appropriately at the silly face. Soali liked this lioness; she was very nice and very smart, and was teaching her all kinds of new things. Plus she was silly. That was a big one.
"I hope so. I don't want to have to wait 'til I'm a grumpy old adult to find my true name!" she laughed. "I wonder what it will mean. I hope it's something pretty, and not too silly. I like my name now, but I know it has to be different. I'll practice as much as I can until I leave."
She knew that even if she practiced, she wouldn't be able to feel the warm feeling in her chest like Aushi did until she was older, and properly on her naming quest.
"Can I come see you when I know my name? I'd like to tell you it, when I"m older and stuff."
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Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 4:48 pm
Aushi watched the young girl seem quite tickled at the idea. Pleased, the older lioness hoped that she had indeed given quite the self esteem boost for when she would be sent on her naming journey. She wished she had known exactly how her own children would have been sent out, as she would have given them whatever well wishes she could. Instead, they merely left when the Queen had deemed them too. Now, though, it would be the King.
Distracting her mind from lamenting over the past, she nodded to the girl. "I would be honored if you would tell me yourself, when you're older and returned from your journey."
It would be something to look forward to indeed.
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:50 am
Soali beamed up at her new friend happily. "I will! I promise!" One that she intended to keep, of course. Her parents had taught her well. Speaking of her parents, they were probably wondering where in the world she was right now. It was getting late for her to be out and about--and though she doubted they would truly be mad when she told them who she was with, they would be mad when they saw how muddy she was.
"Uh, I think I better go wash up." She glanced down at herself with a sheepish smile. "I don't think I can go home this muddy. Thank you for talking with me, Aushi!" Again, her parents had taught her well. "I would like to visit you soon." Her smile was now one of a genuine happiness for making a new friend; and an older one at that.
She gave Aushi a small nuzzle in farewell.
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Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 5:05 pm
Aushi feel touched when the child had offered her an affectionate farewell. She was quite a sweet girl, and the older lioness looked forward to seeing her grow more as she went through life.
Perhaps it wasn't so bad to linger around with the other pride's members. She had always been pretty solitary, but the sweet and direct affection of Soali had pushed Aushi to think differently. Even if she only lingered with the children, she decided that it would be a better move to take. She couldn't survive alone for the rest of her life, and needed to learn how to live within a community, a pride.
"Farewell," she called after the child, hoping for the next time.
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