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 Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 10:15 am
Hiimatayt loved the sun. She loved the way it made everything warm and bright, and the way it sometimes seemed to change the color of people's coats and eyes, and the way it made the polished rocks she wore as decoration shine and sparkle. Sometimes, though, she might have been a little more fond of the sun if it could manage to be a little less hot. She had a dark coat and it was difficult to keep cool outside of the temple when the sun was shining.
Tay also loved nighttime and the moon, because it was so very different from daytime and the moon changed every single day. She never tired of observing its changes and she loved to admire the twinkling bits of light which joined the moon in the night sky. Stars reminded her of the sparkly jewels her mother loved so much, and she liked to be reminded of her mother. It was also cooler at night, even a little cold, and Tay appreciated the difference.
If you were to ask Tay what her favorite time of day was, she would probably say whatever it happened to be at that moment, and it would be perfectly true. The same went for pretty much every favorite or preferene a person could have.
It would probably surprise most people to know that Tay did not love everything and was not happy all the time:
"Fondling fickle pickles!" Tay swore, looking at the hematite bracelet she usually wore around her forepaw with irritation.
It had come undone and slid off. Only the sound of the beads on the stone floor of the temple had alerted her to its absence, and now that it was off she was left with a dilemma. It was virtually impossible to clasp with just one paw, which meant it was theoretically impossible to lose, but she had only one paw with which to attempt to put it back on. She was less than pleased.
Looking around the juvenile noticed an older lion with a coat the shade of dark ashes and eyes like sapphires. She'd seen him before, but never spoken to him because he seemed so very serious and solemn. He was one of the few lions in the pride who was able to intimidate her even a little. Well, now was as good at time as any to get to know him, she decided, picking the strand of beads up gently with her teeth and striding over to him.
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:54 am
Sutekh had little time to interact with young cubs and...well anyone, really, these days. He was nearly an adult, and all too recently all his plans had been tossed to the wind. Once he'd wanted to be a scribe, and serve the pride in that way. It was a respectful job, and one that required great discipline and order. He had been fully prepared for that...but not for the sudden onset of his visions.
He and his sister were both seers. No matter where they were, or what they were doing, they both had visions at the same time. they saw the same event, but sometimes from different perspectives or from different ends. Together they were a force to be reckoned with...it was amusing, almost, to think that they were otherwise so different. She was his sister, and very dear to him, but she was...free-spirited, wild, and MESSY. Nothing like him.
So he'd gone from being a scribe in training, to being a young priest in a matter of what seemed like hours. It was frustrating having to cast aside all he'd learned and focused on for an entirely new set of skills. It must be done though, and so he was devoting every waking moment to the mastery of his new craft. Because he was so busy, there was no time to be social.
Of course, that didn't stop others from trying to be social with him. He pulled up short with a little sigh of impatience. It was a girl, younger than him, with beads in her mouth. What was she doing? He didn't exactly have time to be playing with beads! Still, he had some manners. More than probably most of the pride, he reminded himself. "Can I...help you?" The kindness in his voice was a little strained. Caught between trying to be nice and getting more work done, he felt a little taught.
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 9:40 am
Tay carefully laid the bracelet on the ground between them. She didn't usually treat it with so much care and concern, but usually she was wearing it properly, and was less aware of how fragile it actually could be. Not that she thought it was broken - it didn't look broken - but she was a little distressed not to be wearing it. She'd been wearing it for most of her life, except for when her mother would occasionally take it back to add a few more beads or a bit more twine so it would fit her better as she grew.
"I hope I'm not bothering you," Tay began, at first a little taken aback by the way he seemed to be making an effort just to ask a four word question.
It crossed her mind suddenly that he might have been busier than he looked, and she might have been interrupting something important. She didn't really know a lot about it, but she thought she'd heard something about him having been training to be a scribe, and then having to switch to training for the priesthood. The why of it had not reached her ears and she had not asked, but she imagined that must be incredibly stressful. She was very glad she knew more or less what she wanted to do.
"It's just that my bracelet's come unclasped, and I can't quite fasten it again with just one paw."
She would have picked the bracelet up and shown him how she was incapable of doing so, just so he wouldn't think she had come over specifically to bother him for no reason, but she decided that would probably be unnecessary, and waste his time even more, which she didn't want to do. Instead she smiled sweetly, but not really in the way of someone who's being sweet because she wants something. More like someone who's being sweet because they're actually sweet.
"Would you mind helping me?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:36 am
Aha. So that was the culprit of his few lost moments. Inwardly he smiled a bit. Girls and their trinkets. Funny how one could place so much value on a bauble. True, such things were a part of the history and culture of the pride, but this was a perfect example of why he'd never put any stock in them. They fell off, they broke, they got messed up. Then it was just a waste of time and resources, if you asked him. But clearly this meant something to the girl, and it'd be right to aid her and see her on her way before tending to his own matters. All of this flitted through his mind in the time it took her to finish asking for help.
"Hmm. No bother at all." His smile didn't reach his eyes, but he bent to peer at the bangle a little better. Yes, that would be tricky to do with just one paw. His paws, trained originally to record the pride's history and goings on, would be perfect for this delicate work.
"Please hold out your paw. The one you want this on?" He sat back on his haunches, extending his front claws to gently and expertly pluck up the thin band of beads by the ends. He held it out expectantly. Oh his paws were NOT built for this sort of grabbing. He could feel it in his dewclaws. He kept a straight face though. To look unsettled in front of a FEMALE just wouldn't do.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 7:00 am
"Thank you," Tay exclaimed in a more subdued voice than her usual exuberance for life tended to produce. "It's a silly thing, I know, but...you know how important silly things can be to people."
She added a smile to her words and obediently held out her left paw, which was the one she always wore the bracelet on. It would be odd to think of the beaded thing fitted over her other paw. Nothing as obvious as a human wearing their shoes on the wrong feet or anything, but still it would feel a little off and she would probably feel slightly unbalanced for a while.
Tay sat very still from the neck down, but her head looked at his paws as he picked up the bracelet and then she looked back up at his face. She didn't mean to stare, but there weren't a whole lot of other places for her to look, and she thought it would probably be even more rude to just look off to the side and pretend that he wasn't right there in front of her, doing her a favor.
"My name's Hiimatayt," she said, still a great deal less bubbly than usual, though her effervescence was returning now that her bracelet was that much closer to being back where it belonged. She hadn't realized how important it had become to her to have all of her baubles and trinkets on her person. "But everyone calls me Tay. I like it better."
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Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:26 am
"Indeed." Yes, silly things were oddly important to people. He couldn't imagine why, but he wasn't about to judge them for it. Enough lions held even stranger things than a bracelet to high levels of importance. At least a bracelet could be a memento, or a gift. That gave it some right to be important.
Deftly he held the bracelet up to her offered paw. As skilled as he was with his claws, the clasp still troubled him for a long moment. He refused to fail and look silly though; he'd said he could do it, and do it he would. Eventually he was able to hook it in place, and he sighed with relief. He gently turned the bracelet around her lag, putting the clasp part at the back. "There you are, Hiimatayt. Now if you'll excuse m--"
He'd looked up from her paw and found himself staring right into her eyes. Uhm. Was there something on his face? No, he was certain there was not. She'd simply elected to...stare at him. Why? He felt his face redden under the fur, and cleared his throat. Maybe he'd caught something, and was getting sick? For some reason he felt sick. "...Miss Hiimatayt. You're bracelet...it's fixed."
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Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:54 am
His agreement made Tay smile broadly, pleased that she'd said something he could agree with. Agreeing meant that they had some thoughts in common, and that was a good enough basis for a friendship, as far as she was concerned. Now that he'd agreed with her and even helped her, Sutekh was more or less doomed to be the object of her pursuit until he admitted that they were friends.
"I don't suppose you ever had anything like this?" Tay asked. "Not the bracelet, I mean, but just some object that you were attached to even though it's just a thing and not nearly as important as people."
Also, the fact that she had decided he had friend potential meant that Tay felt little to no compunction about asking him questions of a personal nature, though to varying degrees. Since he was still a new friend, she wouldn't pry too deeply, but her concept of what was too deeply was still a little bit iffy, since her life was an open book. Should anyone care to know anything about her, she would happily tell them and feel good that she was able to tell them what they wanted to know.
She was completely oblivious to the effect her innocently direct gaze had on Sutekh. Being the sort of cub she was, she was not uncomfortable with physical contact or eye contact or anything of the sort. When people rejected her attempts to touch them she was more often confused than anything else, but would then remember that they didn't like that and try not to do it again. She had no idea, though, that simple eye contact could startle a person, and thus no idea why Sutekh had cut himself off.
"Are you all right?" she asked, alarmed and concerned for her friend's health. Her concern mostly passed when he said something else, proving that he was actually all right after all.
"Thank you. My mother made this for me - she found the stones and shaped them and everything - which is why it's special to me," she explained to the older lion. "It was really very sweet of you to help me with it."
So saying she shifted her weight back a little so that most of it rested on her hind paws and balanced for half a second to give him a quick thank-you kiss on the cheek. Like she would have done for any of her siblings or friends - so anyone, really.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 7:16 am
Sutekh hadn't ever had any trinkets or bangles of importance. He'd always been an austere lion, and had matured very rapidly since his visions had set on. He momentarily considered mentioning his assistant, a bird that had become rather attached to him...but that counted as a person, not a thing. He shook his head. "No. Nothing. I do not put much value on things. People. Those are more important."
He stiffened as she reared back, then loomed suddenly close.
A breath on his fur. The passage of her muzzle over his.
A shiver ran down his spine, and he felt as if all his fur was standing on end. It lasted only a minute and she pulled away again. He registered that she was still nearby and observing him, but for some reason he couldn't quite seem to focus. He felt itchy in his own fur, and he very much wanted to either turn to stone, bolt, or...something else. It was a strange feeling, and he wasn't sure he enjoyed it.
Eventually something seemed to click, and his eyes snapped to her. He managed to work out a strangled, "Please...excuse me..." and sharply rose, turning, and walking stiffly away. Perhaps thinking he heard something, he slowed once, and though he didn't look back, one ear swiveled around towards the female. Just in case.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 8:35 am
Tay nodded, agreeing that people were more important than things. But she still thought that since this particular thing reminded her of people she loved and who loved her it wasn't so bad to think of it as being important. She wasn't going to argue with Sutekh though. She didn't like to argue, and since she didn't disagree with him, there was no reason for it.
"I could make you something," she suggested. "To thank you."
Her mother could show her how it was done. Probably she'd be delighted to show her, in fact. The thought that she could make multiple people happy at once was a pleasing one to Tay. She smiled, or more accurately she beamed at Sutekh, willing him to accept her offer and planning to follow through with it even if he didn't. If he refused, it was surely just because he didn't want to put her to any trouble, and it wouldn't be any trouble at all, so she could ignore that sort of refusal.
She wasn't an oblivious creature, and so she did notice that her thoughtless gesture of thanks had not gone over very well with her new friend. Well, some people just weren't all that fond of public affection. Or gestures of affection in general. She would have to remember that about him in the future. She didn't want to make him uncomfortable after all.
And obviously she had, judging by the abrupt end their conversation came to. That both dismayed and distressed Tay, though not as much as did the fact that she had not thought to ask his name. She had told him hers, but she did not know his!
"Wait!" she called after him, breaking into a jog to catch up with him. "I forgot to ask your name."
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