(( Almasi-tifu: Das Tor
Bahati'Farai: Manda ))
Pale blue eyes scanned the area, taking in all that was around. A new place, and she was bound to run into new creatures. Perhaps one of them could help her with her 'problem'. Almasi-tifu sighed and shook her head. So long away from home. So many creatures met. And not a one could get her to feel like others. She was still like ice, barely able to feel her emotions at all. It was...hard. Finding no one in her direct sight, and no threats, the pale blue and white lioness sat, then lay down, resting her head on her crossed front legs.
Perhaps it was time to head home and give up. Her mother surely missed her. Yakuti as well. She closed her eyes, uncertain now. Perhaps this had been a fool's errand.
Farai had been here for a little while yet... exploring these strange new lands. He remembered jungle a little bit like this from when he had been on scouting missions for Xibalba before... but. This place was far outside of her reach and totally unlike that other jungle. That one had been dark and threatening, filled with strange and dangerous creatures. This one ... had a sense of family and -belonging- like he'd never felt anywhere else.
Smiling for the first time in what felt like years, the mid-sized blue male leapt over a little stream and ran through the trees for a bit - acting something like a cub. Then he pulled up short when he spotted a paler colored female almost right in front of him. Whooooops. Females still kind of made him nervous, but... he'd met a few good ones, and this place seemed to attract goodness.
Almasi was startled by the sudden entrance of the male, quickly on her paws and ears back. But...huh. He seemed as surprised by her as she'd been by him. And didn't look to be hostile. Hm.
"I apologize for startling you. Are you from around here, or a fellow rogue?" Her expression was calm, her voice even and almost monotonous.
Well, if there was -anything- he had learned, it was to be polite unless the other made some kind of hostile move. "I'm sorry too," he said quickly. Then, "I just got into this area, actually..." he admitted with a sheepish sort of smile. "But I think I might want to stay..." Tilting head a bit, he blinked at her for a moment. A rogue hmn? It had been a little while since he talked to someone who had wandered as much as he had in his life.
Almasi smiled slightly...the edges of her mouth barely quirking upward. "It does seem a nice place. Very different from the place I grew up in." She'd grown up surrounded by grass and dirt, with a river not far off and the den areas rocky. "My name is Almasi-tifu. I'm....not truly a rogue, but I've been looking for something for quite some time now. I left home, hoping to find an answer I seek."
Farai took a seat at that, tail curling about his paws. "I'm Bahati'Farai. I've also been ... looking for something for a little while now, but I don't think I'll ever find it." He sighed softly. He hadn't seen any of his family for years... ever since Xibalba stole him away. "What are you looking for, though? Maybe I could help."
Almasi felt a bit of a tugging at her heart. There was something about the way he said his words that made her a bit sad. "I search for an answer to why I cannot feel emotions like others. Or a way to feel them like others do." She held a paw out. "Those who have come from the far south say I am like 'ice', cold and unfeeling." But that wasn't entirely the truth. She could feel. Just...not deeply. Her emotions seemed to barely be there, but they were there.
He blinked at that, head tilting a bit. "You ... don't feel emotions, and you want to?" he asked, just making sure he was clear on this. How ... odd. He'd heard of this 'ice' stuff before, though he had never seen it himself. "Well, uhm. What have you tried doing so far?"
Almasi nodded. "In a way. I know I have them they just...are barely there. I think the strongest I've ever felt something was around my family." She sighed. "I've talked to many creatures. I've had one lion suggest that perhaps I have not found the right creature to get those emotions from me. I...I cannot think of anything else to do."
He nodded thoughtfully at that. "Well, if you feel strongest around your family maybe he was right... " He smiled faintly. "And it might be possible that you're ... just not meant by the gods to feel very strong about things. It doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you." After all, he'd met all kinds of others in his life... some very very strange.
Almasi sighed. "I have been contemplating returning home. But...around my family, whenever they express strong emotion around me it's like...I feel like I'm melting. Like I'm nothing but water."
Farai frowned at that. "Well... that doesn't sound like too much fun," he murmured - though he was starting to look a bit down at the constant menions of 'family'. Not that he was about to pour out his own sob story here. He'd lived with it for almost his whole life, after all ... and he got the sense he was a bit older than her.
Almasi nodded. "It isn't." She was silent a moment. "Do you know if others live here?" Others meant she could keep looking. Yes. She'd look here, and then , if she had no answer or solution, she would return to the Matembezi'wasakaji.
He nodded at that, glad that there was finally a question he could definitely answer. "Yes, I've seen others around here... I'm fairly sure that there's a pride in this jungle. But they don't seem too terribly inclined to chase off outsiders..." He had been thinking of joining said pride, perhaps. After all, he liked this place and there was plenty of prey...
"I think...I shall see if I can't find a definitive answer here than." She nodded, almost as if to herself. "If not...well, I shall return home." She shook herself a bit. "I've heard more than a few creatures say things are found in the last place you look for them."
Farai nodded at that. "Oh indeed... " he agreed with a faint smile. Such as respect ... and perhaps even a bit of love, from females other than his mother. That had happened twice in his life already - aside from the fact that a very -nasty- female had cubnapped him. He'd never met a lioness as nice as Almasi seemed to be, though. "If I can do anything to help you, I will," he offered impulsively.
Almasi blinked, surprise in her pale blue eyes. She hadn't expected that. She smiled again, the expression a little wider than the one she'd had before, a little more defined. "Thank you...very much." Perhaps...there was a chance she would find the answer she sought here. Perhaps she would find her way to call forward her emotions.
Farai smiled at that and nodded encouragingly. "Don't give up yet. I think I'll be sticking around here for a while, so if you want me, just hunt me down."
