So, after a little more exploration with some of the younger Ela'wadiyi, Tawa'di took the time to look for someone a little older to talk to. His younger impulses made everything a little more difficult. He couldn't help if that butterfly looked a little too tempting to pounce on.
His problem today was the grass. It tickled his belly, and was anything but enjoyable to walk through. So instead, he leaped through it, pushing down what he could before bouncing on the next bumdle of grass that was in his way. It was hard work, and sure, he could just use his wings, but...he forgot about them a lot. "Hmph, who let this grass grow so tall?" he grumbled outloud.
Alenisgi was doing her usual rounds. She liked, if the word could be applied to anything the generally stoic lioness did, looking around for new faces to meet. New stories to hear. New adventures to go start. New people to confuse the hell out of by being cryptic and sagely.
‘Fun’ stuff.
She dished out advice like it was going out of business, though whether half the things she said were actually useful she didn’t know. So long as they worked in the moment, she couldn’t complain. Her goal was to help others, sure, but she did like to make things interesting, and test patience was well as will when she could. She didn’t know what she was looking for, whenever she met someone new, but she always seemed to be testing them.
She didn’t have many friends, of course.
“I would think the grass let itself do that,” she said, hearing a question before she saw the source of the voice. Tilting her head, instantly fascinated, she moved closer to the young God, “why should someone tell the grass what to do?”
Tawa'di was a little startled at hearing someone's voice. Man, he was getting rusty. It didn't help that he had lost his seer powers when he died, and that had always helped him get a hunch about what was going on within the pride. Now, it was all guessing, with a little intuition to help him out.
He glanced upwards, his green eyes meeting a pair in return. "Um," he started, not really sure how to answer that. He lost his wit, too, it seemed, to such a younger mind. "Well, it sure didn't seem this tall when I was here last," he grumbled, halting his pouncing and looking up at the other with a mixture of curiosity and irritation. He hated being caught, but she seemed familiar...to a small part of his old mind.
Alenisgi almost smiled. Except not really. In her mind she knew she was amused, but not trace of it fell over her expression, save the faintest of flickers in her eyes. She sat down nearby, tilting her head at him. Now this cub had a lot of promise. She was already very interested in him, and he had barely done anything at all.
Of course, there was a lot to be interested in, without him having to do anything. But she played it cool, keeping her ever vigilant composure.
“And when were you here last? I can’t imagine that long ago, considering how little you are. If anything, I would think the grass would look smaller now.”
Now he remembered his wings, but that was only because he was thinking about his death. Odd, that. He stretched them a tad, just enough to remind him that next time he could just fly over the worst parts of the grass and avoid this situation altogether. He quirked his brows at her, wondering just what it was she was interested it. She had to be in something, or she could have just easily walked off rather than sit down.
"A while ago," he replied, wondering what she'd think of that. "Longer than you might think, for how young I might look." He felt the 'older part of his brain starting to take over, and he felt relieved. As long as that short-tempered part stayed away, this might be a little entertaining. "Though, I don't enjoy being so small again."
She watched his wings keenly as he moved them, still keeping her expression blank. But oh, they were incredible, and seeing him moving them like that was striking. She had never met a God before, young or old, and didn’t know what to think of it just yet.
“I think I’ve heard about that before. You were born again? So now you have to grow up a second time,” she nodded slowly. “I don’t envy you. I think my being a cub once was enough, for everyone.” She might have been telling a joke, but she didn’t laugh. Instead, she laid down, stretching out and rolling on her back, her paws reaching up to the sky as she stretched.
“My name is Alen, if you wanted to know. I do envy your wings.”
"Yes," he said bluntly. "I'm Tawa'di, and I'm certain," he paused, narrowing his eyes as he looked at her, "Met you when I was still alive in a mortal sense." He shifted uncomfortably, still not content with this idea of mortality and being immortal, but he had to face it. It was the truth.
He wondered why she rolled onto her back, but refrained from asking. Maybe she needed a little sun on her stomache? Tawa'di really didn't know how females work, in his previous life or in this life.
"Wings are a little heavy, I'll admit." He tripped over himself a lot in the beginning, blasted things.
Alen rolled onto her side, looking up at him without lifting her head. She watched him keenly for a very long, quiet moment, just considering him.
“I heard that,” she said again, nodding. She didn’t seem nonplussed by it, accepting the truth for what it was and moving on. That was life. This life, in this world they lived in. To argue facts or fate was a bit meaningless to her. Things happened for a reason, people were led down paths. She liked helping them along the way if she could, but sometimes, she found, meeting some creatures had not been for her to help them but the other way around.
“I remember that. When we met. I was just joining,” now she actually smiled, though it was such a small gesture, and her head was tilted, it was easily lost, “your wings are heavy, huh? I wouldn’t have thought that, but I guess I’ve never asked a bird what it’s like before. Much less a God, like you. I would have though they were light, since you fly.”
Tawa'di felt a little pleased, and relaxed, slipping down to sit on his bum. In reality, as he had been spending more time with the cubs than adults, he had mildly worried that with his death memroesi of him had gone. Nothing huge, but just enough to make him worry. The small reassurance was enough to make him toss all those unjustified worried out.
"Well, wings are heavy if you've never had them before," he reassured her. "One day you close your eyes, and the next, you wake up with another set of limbs you don't know how to use. Certainly not the best morning I've woken up to." He was intriuged by her look of almost apathy, and yet she continued to talk with him, staying near him. He wondered, did he foresee someone like her when they had first (and only) met, in the tree ceremony so long (and yet not long) ago?
Alen nodded, her eyes laughing, “That would be very strange, I imagine. I’m trying to think what it would be like.” She looked down at her paws, imagining new limbs would be controlled like them, like her legs. But on the middle of her back, separate from walking? She doubted she would be able to do that very easily. “I’d probably move my wings with my footsteps. It would look like was trying to walk in the air with them.”
She rolled over on her back and pawed at the air slowly, as an example, imagining moving wings like that.
“That would look funny,” she said, all the while remaining serious. Which, in itself, was silly and a little bit funny.
“But you seem to have gotten them in order, at least. Can you fly on them?”
Tawa'di couldn't help it. He chuckled a little, swallowing what was left of it before opening his mouth to speak. It wasn't only that she was pawing at the air; it was the whole situation that was entertaining. At least someone finally understood that spouting wings wasn't the best thing in the world!
At least, not initially.
"Nah, I just folded them up and ignored them at first," he mused, remembering his short time within the god's haven. As nice as it was, it wasn't for him. "Flying is great!" he chirped up. "Minus the few hundred times I crashed while trying to figure it out, it's nice once you stop falling out of the air."
“Well, since all I can do is jump and fall directly out of the air, I’ll have to take your word for it,” she said, rolling over once more. She was laying on her stomach now, watching him, her head tilted slightly to once side. She could imagine him as he was, when she had joined, and then tried to picture him trying to fly, but falling.
Now that was funny, even to Alen. But she didn’t share her thoughts, closing her eyes contentedly, still sitting up. She was glad, though, that she had gotten a chuckle out of him.
“Are there other things you can do now, that you couldn’t before? Besides flying. And being a child again, I suppose.”
"They way you fall when you jump was how I fell, and how it felt," he commented, feeling a bit of a sinking feeling in his stomache. It wasn't fun, especially if you fell sideways, and landed on your wings a bit wrong. That hurt. And it wasn't too fun, either.
He pondered over her question. Would it sound odd if he answered truthfully? "I'm not certain," he wondered aloud. "I lost my visions when I died, which is crippling, having it for so long. I suppose I'll have new powers, but I haven't quite figured out what they are yet." At least he knew what he was, but that didn't help him in terms of powers. Ah well, he'd figure it out if the time came for them. "Otherwise, I function a lot like you would, I think it would be safe to assume."
Alen scooted closer to him. She didn’t get up, just scooted along the grass until she was closer. She didn’t seem to think there was anything odd about that, watching him as he spoke. She also didn’t get closer to him for any apparent reason, just watching his face as he spoke and not examining him in any greater depth, or doing anything else of note.
Besides the scooting.
“That’s a shame. I’ve always wondered what it was like, having visions. I guess now you know both sides, what it’s like to have them, and what’s like to not. Most of us only know the latter,” she mused, canting her head thoughtfully. “You function like me, hm? So you like napping in the middle of the day, particularly when the sun is high? Because I do.” She looked up, almost straight up, “and it certainly is high.”
Tawa'di did withdraw a paw when she scooted closer to him, a little taken back as to why. He had a hunch, after exchanging this many words with her, that perhaps he wouldn't get the answer he'd be looking for out of her, and so he decided to just go with it. No real harm could happen anyway.
"I miss my visions," he said sadly. They had become who he was, and to be without them was feeling like he was missing half of himself. Kimbilio hadn't thought of that when he gave his god essense to Tawa'di's soul, and so the young god couldn't blame him. Still, it was weird, functioning without it. Like without a limb.
He glanced up at the sky, surprised. "High sun already?" Geez, it felt like the day had just started! And they said that time flew by when you were old, pah! It flew by no matter how old you were, proof in it right here. "Maybe a nap, but under a tree, certainly?"
“Why a tree?” she asked, once again rolling onto her stomach. She closed her eyes and finally smiled, purring softly. She did like her naps, and was happy to sleep in the sunlight or under the shade. So she didn’t have any real objections to trees.
“The sun is nice, but I guess if you fall to sleep under it it does heat up the fur a bit too much,” she flicked her tail behind her, sighing. She absorbed a bit more sun on her stomach, opening one eye to see if he would do the same, or if his wings prevented him, or if he didn’t want to.
“Still, it feels very good,” she was very content. Her tone and the way she was smiling without noticing it was evidence of that. She was a simple creature, in the end, despite how complicated she tried to be, and how confusing she often was. The smallest things in life made her happy, like a sun bath, or just enjoying someone’s company.
O-oh. So she was hinting to join her in a nap. Well, that couldn't be all bad. He wasn't very tired, but it wasnt too hard to get one comfortable enough that a nap was too tempting to ignore. The hints about a tree not needed, comfortable sun, and that smile. It was obvious that she probably wanted to share her joy a little, and Tawa'di wasn'ta brat enough to ignore that.
He plopped himself right down where he was, folding his wings up and stretched them out in an awkward manner before flopping onto his back. It wasn't too comfortable lying on top of them, so instead he stretched them out along his side, carefuly folding them up enough that they wouldn't get stepped on by a random passerby, or perhaps even poke Alen if he shifted around. "A midday nap does sound like a treat, hm?" he said, still shifting himself here and there, settling in. A good way to pass by the time that would fly by whether he was awake, or asleep.
“It does, indeed,” Alen purred, flicking her tail on the ground and kicking her paws. She had them up, toward her head, her back feet stretched out in a decidedly unlady-like fashion. She looked over at him with one eye, noting the way he was keeping his wings. That was interesting, and she nodded thoughtfully to herself.
The she dropped her head back against the ground, so she could get some sun under her chin and on her neck, yawning terrifically before closing her eyes.
She ended up falling to sleep like that, not meaning to be rude to her company. She was just a very big fan of naps.
He had to admit, he was pretty impressed with how quickly she fell asleep. Perhaps training, or habit, something made it easy for her to fall asleep like that. He had been, too, but he had be old, and that's what old lions did. Nap the days away.
He thought about that more, looking up at the pale blue sky above him. It was bright, as the sun seemed to shine strongest at this time . He closed his eyes, still thinking, and that thinking ended up in him falling asleep, too.
