Asali trudged on, slowly circling the banks of the lake. She had determined she was south, but how far had she come already? She had been distracted on the onset, recalling her conversation with the young beybanu. While the other lioness had seemed nice enough, something of the situation had left a sour taste in her mouth. She did not like it. Now though, she was free of there, and she had managed to bring her things along. In her mouth she held her dusty pink crystal, her prized possession, along with a few of the bits and bobs she had gathered at the lake. These were her family, they were beautiful and they comforted her. She was not watching her step, too intent on keeping her bundles locked between her jaws. Her eyes seemed glazed over, as if her mind had somehow locked itself away. It was like this that she had been traveling, and it was a miracle she had not been picked off. Suddenly, with a jerk, her small frame dropped to the ground. It was not one of exhaustion, but a seemingly random decision to rest.
"Luckily you stopped there - a few more steps and you'd be a rather waterlogged lioness." came a rather pleasant voiced comment from the shade of a tree by the water's edge. A slender and sleek looking dark female was stretched out and enjoying the cool patch of land she'd found under the tree, and seemed perfectly content to make conversation with whoever walked by. Bashira had nothing to fear from the locals, not even the young males of the U'W that came by in search of a female to make their mate - she could evade them or dissuade them when need be, after all.
The lioness's eyes were a bright orange and glittered like jewels against her ebony pelt as she looked over towards the fallen Asali, "Tired, young one? You look like you've traveled quite a ways."
The brown lioness quipped an odd noise, the light flashing back to her eyes. For a moment she began to say something around her things, but realizing she might choke, she laid them down carefully between her paws before turning to look toward the voice. Her green eyes scanned the horizon for a moment before she settled on Bashira, and when she did a quizzical look came over her face. "I was thinking, I think," she mumbled, scratching the ground with one paw, "Have you seen any feathers about?"
The older female looked around for a few moments before shaking her head, "No I haven't, I'm afraid. I've seen a few birds fly overhead but none dropped feathers and I haven't seen any lying on the ground." it was an honest answer to an odd question, though really, it wasn't her business why this other wanted a feather or two. To each their own, right?
Asali nodded thoughtfully, as if processing the lack of anything pretty to collect in the vicinity. Might as well leave, a bit of her mind told her, but her recent experiences with the banu had given her a new curiosity surrounding her own kind. "Have you got any things to trade then?" she asked with little tone, pushing her own small pile of things closer to the tree. It was small now, but with any time she spent in one place it tended to grow and fluctuate. The only constant was the pink crystal, she wouldn't trade that away. "Or a story maybe?" Nothing in her mind let on that this might be rude, not even knowing the others name.
Bashira shook her head once more, "I'm afraid not. I don't have anything physical to give you." she answered, shrugging a little, "I don't really put much value on objects, I'm afriad."
The second question, however, brought a small glimmer to her eyes. "A story? Mm well what sort do you want to hear? I have been all over the world and met many people and done many things, but those aren't always the sort of stories that interest most people." she commented, stretching out a little so she could look over at Asali from a more comfortable and relaxed position, "Though if I am to tell you a story, perhaps you should tell me your name first."
Asali blinked, as if not understanding the request. She began to c**k her head to the side, ears laid back, the suddenly it came to her. She jolted, "Oh! My name is Asali, and these are my things." Gesturing to the pile, she settled herself again, laying out on her belly, "I've found them all over, they keep me company, but they're not much for stories." She pawed at a round stone just within her reach, rolling it back to join the pile.
"I am Bashira." the older feline told her, a little amused by the odd behavior but not particularly concerned by it. She wasn't a threat to Asali's things and highly doubted the other would become violent with her over them. "So what sort of story might you want to hear, hm?"
Asali seemed to disappear into her own mind for a moment, then an idea came to her, "Do you know of the pride south of here and their customs? Or any Gods perhaps?" She remembered the many times her mother proclaimed her a curse bestowed by the gods, but she had never been able to find them to ask what it had meant. "I should like to speak to them one day," she added, mostly for her own benefit.
The dark lioness through for a few moments, fishing for the name in her mind - hadn't she just been thinking it a few moments ago? "The only pride in this area I know of is the Ukuucha'Wafalme." she replied, with a small wave of a paw, "Not really my sort of group, honestly so I try to keep out of their lands if I can avoid it." Bashira was much too much of a traveler and independent to want to be tied down to any one male who was supposed to dominate her and keep her in the lands, thank you very much.
"Gods? Oh not that I know of. I might've met a few but they'd have been in disguise, if I did."
"So I should stay away from them?" Asali asked with a slight suspicion in her voice. The banu she had met had made it seem so welcoming, but perhaps that was their trick. They would lure her in and take her things from her and make her care for all of their cubs. She pushed the thought out of her mind, placing her paw over her treasured crystal, "Perhaps the Gods are a myth. You should decide I think, whatever is the most interesting thing you have done." As if this were a very simple request, preceded by no sort of blasphemy.
The female shrugged, "Oh I have no idea if YOU should personally. They're a perfectly nice group from what I've seen, but not my sort of people. I'd rather not be tied down to one male is all." Bashira explained, "I don't think they're really much of a threat to you if you meet the right sort of pad and have the right sort of friends."
She laughed at that, amused by the other's blasphemy. What business was it of Bashira's if the gods were real or not? It wasn't her business to judge them. And it wasn't her place to judge Asali for her opinions on them either. "Mmm the most interesting to date? I spent three days on a rather nice rock in the ocean, just myself and a rather young male from a pride in that area."
Asali's ears perked up at the mention of this. She did not seem to catch on to any sort of alternate meaning, should there have been one. "The ocean? Was it beautiful?" With this she nearly choked on her words, her eyes blazing, "Were there all kinds of shining fish and shells?" Her mother had told her of the ocean once, but she had never gone in her travels. The pride seemed to have fallen out of her thoughts, pushed away by what she deemed much more interesting in the moment.
"Oh yes, very." Bashira agreed with a happy sigh, "The water was the purest shade of blue-green I have ever seen and the fish were of so many colors and tastes. There were shells on the sand and strange little creatures that lived in some of them and tried to pinch my paws." It was a wistful moment for the older lioness really. She had enjoyed the days on that rock quite a lot, whether or not her companion had been able to appreciate them as much.
"Oh it sounds just lovely," Asali purred, her words seeming unnaturally heavy. Beauty was a sort of a drug to her, a panacea for all of her mental ills. She closed her eyes for a moment, "I should like to go there myself, which way is it?" In all her travels she had never developed a real sense of place, even now she knew only that she had walked for quite a long time and come upon a lake. For all she knew the ocean could be this lake, though she would be quite disappointed. "Did you ever pinch them back?"
The older lioness thought for a time. "East of here." she said, pointing, "It's a long ways away, but if you walk enough and try to avoid the large prides, you will get there eventually. You'll know it by the smell of salt on the air and how clean and fresh it feels. Keep travelling till you run out of land and the water stops being fresh." That was really the best Bashira could do, not being much of a navigator.
"Of course, and I squished them a few times, by accident."
Her face twisted into a cringe at the thought of crushing a poor pincher. It must have made a horrible noise, and you couldn't even take the pretty bits with you then. "You can run out of land?" She said with a bit of a fearful tone, "Does it ever happen out here?" Surely someone would have warned her about this before, they wouldn't just let her find out by running off the edge. It was a shame sometimes, how literal her isolation had made her. "What happens if you fall off?" There didn't seem to be a connection in her mind that the water would replace the land.
Bashira laughed loudly at that, "You fall in the water, silly. The land stops because that's where the water is. Just like if you ran into the lake, eventually you'd be standing on just water, or else you'd start to drown." the older female explained, walking over towards the edge of the lake to demonstrate, "It's not like there's nothing there for you to fall in, it's just wet."
"Oh." That was a great relief, and she felt a bit silly for having made the mistake. "I don't like to fall in the water," she added, "But there are a lot of shiny bits on the bottom." She got to her feet to follow the older female to the edge, gazing down at her own confused reflection, "When does it become land again?"
"Well here, it becomes land on the other side of the lake but it's a really long way till it becomes land in the ocean." Bashira explained, idly remembering a time she'd ended up on an island - talk about a strange and confusing few days! "Most of the time it's best to just go back to land or not fall in. The water's pretty but unless you like cleaning salt out of your fur, it's best to be careful."
"Salt?" Asali knew what the substance was, but she couldn't imagine finding enough of it to coat her fur. Perhaps the older one was exaggerating. "Well, I'd still like to go I think, maybe if I follow it long enough I can find the other side," she proposed, feeling that she had come to a rather sensible solution for the puzzle. She could certainly walk around this lake, large as it was, why not something larger? She had all the time in the world.
"Yes - there's salt in the water in the ocean." the other told her companion patiently, "I don't know if it connects to another side but you could try. It'd be something to do for sure."
"I will try then," she resolved, stretching herself out on the ground. The sun was beginning to set over the horizon, which usually did not phase her but she felt this lioness might disappear into the night. She was more nervous lately, for reasons she could not entirely place. "Do you think anyone have ever made it before? I suppose they wouldn't come back. A God could do it, if they had a mind to, I hear they can lift themselves off the ground, perhaps water is the same."
The darker female leaned down to take a drink from the water as she considered yet another answer, "Oh maybe, I'm sure there have been creatures determined enough to make it before, even ones who weren't gods. Maybe that's how you become a god even - you have the will to do something that great." she suggested, tossing her head lightly, "Myself, I have never had that much ambition for one project. But if you wish to go and try it, I'm sure you'll find many interesting things along the way."
Asali seemed to weigh the possibility, "If that's the case I should like to be the god of pretty things." It was a naive dream, but once that seemed nice to her nonetheless. She still was not convinced that gods even existed. "I wonder what type of pretty things I would find along the way, do you suppose there might be more of these?" she gestured to the pink crystal among her stash, and sat to rub away a bit of the dirt, "I'd like to find more, it would be worth it."
Bashira shrugged yet again - she sure was doing a lot of that tonight, "I don't know. I've only ever seen things like that in caves. But I'm sure there are many caves by the sea, so you'll just have to look very hard." That's about all she knew of crystals really, as they never interested more than as passing pretty things.
Caves. Asali pushed the word to somewhere in her memory that she might recall it later on. "Have you never had a thing that made you very happy?" The question seemed a bit outside herself, as if something in her mind was questioning whether happy was the right word. "A thing, or a small friend?" She wondered how the older one seemed so calm and collected, when she had her things and was still so scattered.
The older female turned to look at her companion, mild confusion on her features, "What do you mean exactly? Made me very happy?" as far as Bashira knew, people and things weren't really as important as life itself. But she had met a good deal of people and maybe this younger female just wasn't phrasing herself well.
"Have you never carried anything with you?" The older seemed so unburdened, she wished to be more like that. She was not tied to one spot, as the beybanu she had met earlier was, but she seemed just as happy. "Do you have a family or have you always been alone?" It hadn't sounded strange in her mind, but there was a sorrowed undertone that betrayed her own past.
"Not really, no. As I said earlier, I really don't value things. I'd much prefer to travel without having anything to worry about." Bashira explained with a small smile and a knowing look, "And I do have a family, but I have been alone as well. My family are like myself - we travel as we please and see the world as it makes us happy. We see each other when the time is right and we are alone when need be."
Carefully she pat the brown lioness's head with her one paw, "What works for me, may not work for you. I'm happy traveling and meeting new people always. You might be happier finding a nice place to settle down with people you love and your hoard of things to protect."
Asali flattened her ears at the touch, it was something she was not very used to. "I do not hoard," she whined defensively, "I just like pretty things." She did not wish others to think she was greedy, she gave these things as readily as she collected them, excepting the crystal. "I should like a family like that though, but I think they would miss me when I go to cross the ocean." She seemed to think on this for a moment, her nose scrunching up, "Perhaps I could take some cubs with me."
The older laughed at that, "I didn't say you hoarded - I said your hoard. It is a term for a collection, little one." she assured the other gently, "Maybe your family will go with you - I'm sure there are others in the world who would love to cross to ocean with you. Though maybe you should just find a mate and some friends and have cubs when you reach the other side - it might be safer. You don't know what could happen as you cross."
"Are there lions on the other side?" This prospect set oddly in her mind, how different would they look? Would they be much larger than she was, what if they were evil. She shook her head, "I think I might be more worried about what I'd find when I do, I've never heard of anyone going and coming back, perhaps they died." She'd like to be alive for a while longer, if at all possible. With that she remembered again the beybanu, who had emphasized that the pads were there to protect. Perhaps she would leave her cubs there, if she ever had any, they'd be safe and when she came back she could bring them all sorts of pretty things. "I don't think I'd like a mate, I'd have to spend so much time hunting. On my own I eat barely anything."
"I wouldn't know - remember, I haven't been there?" she pointed out, before shrugging, "I'm sure a mate can hunt for himself some of the time. If you're expected to do all of the work that's just silly. I think it's part of why males in the Ukuucha'Wafalme have more than one wife - to split up the work better."
Split up the work, she liked the sound of that. "If there were enough wives," she pondered, "Might I be able to get away with doing little?" Perhaps she would like a system where she was still able to go off and gather her pretty things. Even still, she did not know of a way to arrange this without having to stay put for a while. "I shouldn't like to be captured though, and I'm fairly sure I don't have any cubs in me." She prodded her belly with a paw, "That's the other way I think. Being saved."
Bashira considered for a few moments, "Doing less anyway. I don't think your pad would be pleased if you did nothing and the other wives would dislike it. However, if you meet the right ones, I'm sure you could work something out. They're good creatures, most of them." The older female shrugged, "Mm I'm sure you could negotiate something a bit better than a capture. The males that go in search of their first banu are a tad young, they might be able to be persuaded."
"I'm not very persuasive," she admitted, "But I might bribe one with something pretty." A young one might be ambitious though, and she did not wish to leave her things behind. "I suppose I'll think on it. Worse things could happen." Perhaps she would find a big beautiful feather and all of this would drift away, as many ideas had before. "I think I'd like to stay alone for a while."
"That might be best." the older female agreed, "Though if you need company for a time, you're welcome to remain with me. I have no objections to company." After all, this younger feline seemed quite lost and Bashira half felt she'd end up in trouble if left alone so close to these lands.
Asali considered the offer, but ultimately she had other plans. "I think I will cross this lake, as practice for the ocean," she decided, "But perhaps I will find you again when I come back to this side?" She yawned, glancing at the sky, "But tonight I should find a place to rest." It was not particularly cold in this area at any time, but she worried still.
"All right then." the older one agreed, "Have a good evening." Bashira agreed, standing to go find her resting place under the tree once more, "I'm sure we will meet again in due time." After all, the world could be a small place when it came to friends.
Asali gathered her things up in her mouth once again, nodding to her new found friend. She seemed very awkward for a moment again as she tried to speak. "Maybe," she managed, though the words were garbled, "Maybe next time I'll have a thing you will like." It wasn't clear what she meant by that, a literal thing or the sort of family that had been discussing, but she did not clarify. Instead, she turned away and headed back the way she had originally come, not seeming to notice or care about the change in direction.
