Hakuna yawned and stretched. Afternoon already? And his twin was missing... What was happening here?
Ooooh yeah, he thought to himself. Mat and I decided that today would be a break day from travelling, we'd meet up again at night to sleep and get moving again tomorrow. He took a look around at where they'd ended up last night. This place, the roguelands.... They were nothing like home. Home had a drum circle, and was bordered by the lake, which was typically on his horizon. Here.... Endless plains as far as the eye could see. Weird. It was like out near the gourd tree, but without the familiarity of that place.
"Well, we've gotta be within a couple of days of the place, not far now..." he said to himself as he padded out to explore the roguelands, something he'd not really done before. With no real goals to accomplish today, Haku decided that he'd work on his seer skills. He padded out somewhere that seemed peaceful enough, plopped in the shade of a rather sizable bush, and closed his eyes, bringing back a vision of a rockslide that happened to Taka and himself when he was much younger. So far, he could summon up visions, but he couldn't control what of, or when they took place. Typically, the visions were of whoever he was with... Since he was alone, it only made sense that he'd get a vision of himself. He pondered this for a few moments, tail tapping out a rhythm subconsciously.
Zurina was behind a tree, lips pressed together as she sat with her back against it. "Oooooh mister sand," she began to scold shaking her head at the ground. "You've led me on a wild hare chase and I'm not happy about it. Not one bit!" She exclaimed, a bit louder than she meant to. "I don't know why I listened to you at all," she shook her head throughly disappointed by her muse. "Muses are supposed to help, not led me astray," she sighed pressing her head against the bark.
The white and purple female found herself in quite the predicament; a few days ago while she sat at the edge of the ocean her muse, sand, had begun to speak to her telling her that there was more to life than her pride and the ocean. Now that she was far away from the ocean, the thought made her sigh, and her pride she began to suspect that her muse simply wanted to ocean all to itself.
Zurina, do not think like that, I'm helping guide you to a place where you will prosper.
She pouted pushing herself off the tree and onto her paws. "Whatever!" She growled wrinkling her nose. "Fine, lead me wherever you want, I'm lost as it!" She grumbled storming off, although it did little to aid her, the sand was everywhere. "I need a distraction," she decide and proceeded to search for something to do just that.
It wasn't too long in her search that she spotted the male, who seemed to be daydreaming, and decide that she would head over to him and wait for him to wake up.
Hakuna's brows furrowed as he thought a bit, frustrated. He opened them and had his eyes on the ground some distance ahead of him, where he saw... Black toes? He jumped just a little at the surprise of someone having snuck up on him. His tail stopped thumping out that tune that he had in mind and sat still. "Oh, hi!" he said, unafraid. He may be in the roguelands, where some lions may be dangerous, but the lioness before him didn't seem too dangerous. "What's up?" he asked with a smile.
Delight lit up on the female's features as the male opened his eyes and greeted her. "Hello~" She chirped quickening her pace before plopping down to her belly before him. He seemed cheerful enough and the sands was peaceful, meaning he didn't sense any harm. "Just following my..." she paused unsure of how to phrase her sentence correctly. Surely this male didn't know about muses and might look upon her strangely and she simply couldn't have that. Unless he already her her argument with herself.
Instincts, the sands whispered supplying her with the word she needed.
"Following my instincts," she stated nodding her head firmly.
"Really? Me too!" he said happily. "My twin and I are acting on..." He wanted to say "a vision I had," but he figured that would sound too weird. "We're acting on instinct too. We're leaving our old pride and heading for a new one, just a subconscious pull!" That last bit was true enough. Hakuna had no logical reason to leave home for this unknown place, but he still felt that he absolutely had no choice in the matter. He was happy that Mat had agreed to come with him, it would've been dreadfully lonely without his twin.
He wondered if this lioness knew where the place was. He'd picked up a potential name from a bird, but wasn't sure it was correct. "Say, maybe you would know where we're headed, I'm not entirely sure we're going the right way to get there, I think the pride's named... the Tuait'tekem." He wondered if he pronounced it right.
"Oh, and my name's Hakuna," he introduced, almost forgetting to give her his name.
A large smile spread across her lips as she leaned forward interested in this male. So he was acting on 'instinct' too, from the way he hesitated, much like herself, she had a feeling that wasn't completely true, yet she had no reason to push the matter. She hadn't told him the truth either, though it wasn't a complete lie so his probably wasn't either.
"Tuait'tekem?" She repeated tilting her head back in thought. The place sounded familiar, maybe her muse knew about it. She looked down at the sand beneath her and stared at it for a minute, brows knitting together. After a minute she shook her head, the sands had said nothing. "I'm sorry, I don't know, but I've heard it has a human temple!"
She giggled. "My name's Zurina!"
"Yeah, it does have a human temple, but there aren't humans there, and it looks like a desert... very different from home," he said before he thought. Oh! Why do I do that?! He yelled at himself in his head. That didn't sound suspicious at all, that he wouldn't know where a place was, but then he knew what the place looked like.
Well, it seemed like the only way to explain that was the truth. It wasn't that big of a deal, right? He'd heard of others who have visions. Nobody he knew, but certainly she should know some about Seers.
"I know what it looks like, because I've seen it before... I have visions, you know? Some people have visions, and are apparently called seers. I didn't know it had a name until recently," he said, but muttered the last sentence, hoping the lioness wouldn't think he's bonkers. He waited to see her response.
Zurina was obvious to the whole thing, she only began to realize that it didn't add up as her muse spoke to her. "Wait..." she mumbled looking up at him. She didn't get the chance to finish when he began to explain it recognition lit up on her features. "You have visions too?" she asked before realizing that it sounded like she had the visions as well.
"My mother has visions, the wind tells her about them..." she explained only to realize that it sounded very funny to her. "Well...see, where I come from we all have muses and they help guide us," she paused thinking about it. "But momma's muse is special, it tells her about the future some times."
"That sounds interesting!" he said genuinely. Hakuna was relieved to hear of a specific someone who had the same ability that he did. He hadn't heard of the wind helping out with visions, but he imagined that it was probably the same as the way he needed to have someone around to have a vision about them. "Your muses kinda sound like what we had in the Nchi lands- everyone has a rhythm to cheer them up, to represent who they are. Different, but similar," he said, almost to himself. "My visions, though, I can stop them or summon them, but they can only be about someone I'm around, and I can't always tell when they are, whether they're past or future..." He said. Zurina was the third person he'd talked to about his visions- the first being his twin (who surprisingly didn't have them) and the second being his mother, who also didn't have them. It felt great to have someone who had a bit of knowledge about seers to talk to.
Zurina listened with interest, she was one that adored learning about others. "A rhythm?' she repeated tilting her head as she thought about it. "I guess it's similar," she stated with a happy nod. She looked down at the sand beneath her paws scooping a small handful.
"My muse is stupid though," she grumbled dropping the sand. "Led me on a wild goose chase and now I have no idea how to get home," she sighed sitting down. "But it's probably for my own good, it's hard not to run into a family member there anymore," she shrugged.
"Really? That sounds sooooo cool! I wish I could do that!" she exclaimed as he explained his visions.
"Aw, well... Maybe there's a reason for you to be out here away from home," Haku said, hoping it would be of some comfort. He looked down to the sand too,wondering to himself if there was truth to her words, and that sand had a mind of its own.
Well, it did have a rhythm, like everything did. It pulsates in the wind, and squeaks as it blows across other sand... Perhaps there really was something to that idea. However... He didn't think it was much more than a thing having a rhythm. Not that he'd share that.
"R-really?" Haku asked, a little shocked. He'd expect people to be a little... weirded out that he could do this- she didn't seem to mind at all. "Yeah, I guess it can be cool," he said. "At the beginning it wasn't, though, I'd lose sight of the real world randomly and see things, but I've got it under control now," He said with a more cheerful smile. Come to think of it, he hadn't considered his visions a burden ever since he reigned them in... Strange. "You want me to try to see something about you?" He asked suddenly, never having performed in this exact manner before.
Zurina was a special character so to speak, in a way she was handicapped but in a way that she would eventually be able to overcome. Her pride, the one she was born and raised in, was constantly under the influence of insanity which forced their minds to develop muses. Okay it didn't force them too but it encouraged them to along with the culture of the pride.
Their muses in turn were different for each and every one of the members of the pride. For Zurina, her muse was really just a deeper level of her sub-conious. It was her guide directing her in a physical manifestation, in the form of sand that could talk to her. One who wanted nothing more than to separate her from her beloved ocean.
She looked up at Haku smiling brightly. "I think it's wonderful," she told him nodding. "Oooh could you?"
"Mmk, alright, here goes nothing," Haku said as he closed his eyes. He liked to close his eyes to start... It wasn't long, though, before he opened them again. He looked as if he was looking through everything, on to the farthest horizon. However, in his mind and overlaid on top of what his eyes really saw before him, the vision began to manifest from the corners in. It was the same temple at the Tuait'tekem lands! And there, before the temple was none other than Zurina herself. She seemed to be gazing up at it (who wouldn't gawk at them, those temples were really spiffy looking!) He thought to himself how he'd like to see the towers in real life, for once, and started to get a feeling in his heart of the desire to get there renewed.
And then it was done, Haku gave his head a shake and a few blinks to readjust to actual vision. "Well, I saw you! You were in front of a big temple- one of the ones in the place I'm going, and you were looking up at it! I'm sorry, though, that vision was short," he said with a sheepish chuckle. While he could summon visions forward, and stop them from coming, he couldn't alter how long they would last. Not yet, anyway.
Zurina didn't understood how visions work and she found herself staring intently at his face as though she was trying to figure out just how it worked. She found herself focusing upon his paler features and finding herself captured by the blank stare as he seemed to look past her, captivated by his vision.
She was startled as he spoke to her, he had caught her off guard. "Huh?!" She gasped stumbling back a bit. "So I find the temple, the pride you're looking for?" She asked tilting her head.
He hadn't even noticed her intent gaze- Hakuna had been lost to his vision for that little bit of time, and while he could still see behind the vision, to the real world, he hadn't been paying attention to it.
"Well, not exactly. But I can tell you what I saw wasn't the present, unless you have a twin..." He wasn't sure he'd have seen that, in her presence anyway. "If you've never been there before, then yeah, you do find the pride I'm looking for!" Haku said with a chuckle. He pondered asking if they could travel together, then... Of course, he'd have to run that by his brother... Eh, maybe not such a good idea for her best interests. After all, when combined with a lady, Hakuna and Mat tended to be a crazy combination.
Zurina giggled as he began to explain his vision in a bit more detail. "No, no twin, just lots and lots of siblings," she chirped flicking her tail side to side the sand. "I've never been there silly, if I had I would be able to point you in the right direction!" she explained shaking her head.
"Well whenever I go to the pride you're going to I'll just have to find you and have you show me around," she told him delight showing in her expression. She already considered him to be a friend.
Haku smirked sheepishly and itched his front leg absentmindedly. "Heh, I guess you're right! Shoulda thought of that!" He chuckled. "And yeah, that sounds like a plan! For the time being," he said, checking the horizon, "I think it's time for me to meet up with my brother again." Hakuna's face turned to one of genuine disappointment- he rather enjoyed Zurina's company. "I'll see you in front of the temple, then?" He asked with a wink and a smile before padding off to the rendezvous point. "Later Zurina!" he called as he picked up his pace. Now that he thought about it, it was pretty nice being able to know a little something about the future.
"Sure!" She chimed pushing herself to her paws. She wouldn't keep him from finding his brother, even if it saddened her a little, she liked his company a lot. "Be sure to look for me," she warned him with a chime of laughter as she turned back in the direction she had come from.
"Bye Haku!" She called in response as she let her paws lead her away.
