Welcome to Gaia! ::

Unyezi was walking around the outskirts of the forest. She had been hoping to watch the players perform, but to her dissapointment, they weren't. At least it was a nice day to be out on a walk. She padded along, just looking around at the trees. Well, lets see... I could go hunt... I could go see Eros... Or I could just keep walking. Somehow, none of those options really appealed to Unyezi. She sighed. "Oh well."

Unyezi felt something hit her paw and looked down. A little ball of purple fur had run into her! Well, at least it wasn't me running into someone. The gods only know how many times I've done that! She heard the cub quietly say an apology. "Oh, don't worry about it. I run into things all the time."

She looked at the cub's purple fur and said, "Let me guess- the noble life boring you to death?" Unyezi chuckled, "That's why I chose to be a scholar instead of a noble when they offered! Well, come on, now, do want me to teach you about the groundlings?"

Unyezi smiled back at the purple cub. "That's what I figured. Just wait until you grow up. Hopefully you won't have to deal with politics! All they talk to most about is just small talk... I never understood how they can stand it." Unyezi just couldn't understand how the nobles could stand all the... Well, nobleness.

"Great! Now I can unload one of my educational rants on a helpless victim!" Unyezi grinned evily at the cub for a moment, then laughed. "Just kidding about the helpless victim part. But I'll warn you now, once I start I sometimes go on and on. If you want less of I flood, so to speak, I reccomend Eros. And no, I won't tell your mother." Unyezi noticed the cub glancing back. "Don't worry, if any of the guards come I'll tell them I'm lecturing you on the pride's history. And it's very nice to meet you, Nyota; I'm Unyezi."

"Okay, that's good! Oh, your mother yells at you? That dosen't sound very... Pleasant." Unyezi thought of everything she knew about the groundlings. Where to begin... Oh, I know!

"At first, no one lived in the forest, due to legends of wicked beings living here. If anything bad happened, it was blamed on fairies living in the trees. No one dared to come close until Bwana's father died and the pride fell to chaos. Those that wanted no part of the fighting came here to live. Here, they were still a part of the pride, however, the pride's laws were not as strictly enforced. They lived carefree lives, apart from the chaos.

When Bwana returned, he made an agreement with the groundlings. They have a leader, the Auberon, to represent them and the law would not be as strict with them; and in turn they would help the pride in times of need."

"That must get annoying after a while." Unyezi commented. How does she stand it? she wondered. Unyezi probaly would have snapped back if someone tried to lecture her on noble behavior. Eather that or she would end up lecturing the one lecturing her.

"Hmm. That is odd. I guess they thought that anything down here couldn't be any worse than what was up there." Now that Unyezi thought about it, it would have made more sense for them to just leave. "Perhaps some of them had friends and family they didn't want to leave."

"Oh." Unyezi said thoughtfully. Seems to me like an angry noble who happens to be your own mother wouldn't be very boring. And if her mother could see her now! Unyezi grinned at the thought of Nyota's mother learning what she was teaching her cub. It sounds as if Maua needs a more open mind. Oh well, at least I get to teach her cub!

"Well, if you suddenly had almost all the rules ristricting you taken off, a nice place to live, all you had to do was hunt for yourself, and something entertaining was almost always happening; would you want to leave?" Unyezi explained it to Nyota in the form of a question. It was simple enough to understand why the groundlings had stayed if she put herself in their situation.

Unyezi nodded. "Exactly my point." Unyezi had almost burst out laughing at the simalarites of Nyota and Unyezi's friend Eros. The questions the young lioness had asked about the groundlings deciding to stay had sounded exactly like what he would say. Of course, somehow disscusions with Eros would always lead up to the same thing: Unyezi's past, which Unyezi didn't know about. Then he would get depressed, and she would get depressed because she knew she must have done something horrible. She was glad she didn't have to worry about that with Nyota.

"Yes, but then again, they never get to do work to help the pride. They can do things, but they never get an offical job. For example; if I were a grouldling, I could still teach, but I couldn't be a scholar. And I could teach you about the pride's history; but most of that involves politics and a particulary stupid and prejudiced king. Not Bwana; mind you."