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 Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:58 pm
 It was not, perhaps, in keeping with the general attitude of the pride, but Hari had discovered that she really did love to sing, and that even though everyone was supposed to move silently through the swirling and eddying mists, she simply did not have it in her to do so. Oh, she'd learned to place her paws carefully and could now get from one place to another without a great deal of effort or accidental noise, but the real hindrance to her silence was her habit of singing constantly.
Sometimes when she sang she simply narrated what she was doing, but more and more frequently she had taken to making up her own ditties. At the moment, Hari was doing a little bit of both , dancing in circles over and across a very narrow stream, no wider than she was from side to side. She was beginning to wonder if her song might not sound better if another voice joined in, but she didn't see or hear anyone nearby and wasn't sure she could convince them to join her even if she did.
"Round about, round about,
In a fair ring-a.
Thus I dance, thus I dance,
And thus I sing-a"
So went her song as she criss-crossed the stream with leaps and bounds, delighting in the day and in her freedom to enjoy it. There were probably shepherds somewhere nearby, making sure she came to no harm, but that didn't bother her. It actually made her happy to think she didn't need to worry because there was someone else whose job it was to worry on her behalf.
"Maybe something about the water," she murmured as she paused in her antics to take a drink.
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Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 3:01 pm
 Mo'onasi was a goddess that came and went, but she always considered these lands as a home 'base of sorts. A place where she could relax with little worry. It was here that she had built herself a family. It was strange, having a gaggle of mortal children, but she adored it. They couldn't just fly away, like her god children had. Kituko would still come by now and then, but she never stayed long. Her powers were not something to share with the rest of the pride.
Stretching her wings, Momo's ears twitched as she heard a familiar voice. At times sound would travel in these lands, and at other times it seemed like the mist swallowed up whatever sound it could. Momo was grateful that she heard her daughter's voice, as she hated to be away from them for too long. They were still fairly young, even with so many adults around to keep them from harm.
"Hello, little one," she said quietly as she approached the stream where Hari was.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:50 am
Hari wasn't caught completely unawares by her mother's arrival. Being born and raised in this mist-filled pride had made her ears very sensitive to sound and somewhat adept at interpreting sounds, even through the mists' effects, which seemed to change on a whim. When she was littler a shepherd had told her that people, some of them, could talk to the mists and understand what they said. The idea still appealed to her, even though she didn't think she was one of those people. But maybe one of them would know why sometimes the mists dampened sounds and other times allowed them to travel easily. She'd have to ask someday.
"Hello, Mama!" Hari exclaimed, breaking off in her song and sashaying to her mother's side.
She thought her mother was just the most amazing lioness ever. Some of the other mamas in the pride were pretty special. She'd met one older lioness whose mother was like Hari, and had visions, which was generally pretty amazing and special, but no one else had a mama with wings like Hari's mama. And besides, she was Hari's mother. Obviously Hari would think her the best.
"Where have you been?" Not that it had been anything resembling a long time since she saw her mother, but she liked to hear stories.
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Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 2:08 pm
Momo smiled warmly. How was she always blessed with such kind children? Even those that had come from Chaos were good, even if Aharu couldn't keep her paws off of shiny things. She felt blessed for it, even if she was a god. She still felt that there were others above her.
"I was helping others," she answered happily, laying herself down on the soft ground. It was so wonderful here. There were moments where she missed the old lands, but knew that it was safer here than in a land slowly recovering from a long drought.
"A pair needed a little nudge to get their love on the right track," she added on. "I'm certain my little songbird has been good for everyone?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:56 am
Hari sat down, perfectly willing to ignore the slightly damp surface her bum rested on if it meant she got to hear her mother tell her all about what she had been doing. Her glass-green eyes fixed on her mother's face and her tail curled primly around her paws, the very picture of a perfectly rapt audience, which she was. She was a little disappointed that her mother chose not to elaborate too much on what she had been doing, however. She liked to listen to stories about people who lived beyond the pride's misty borders.
"And you helped them, right?" she asked. "How did their relationship go bad?"
It was always a guess with grown-ups whether or not they would answer her questions more thoroughly if she nudged them in the right direction. Some told her to quit being nosy, or that she was too young to understand - she particularly resented the latter of these - but most people were willing to answer her, if not in as much detail as she would have liked, at least enough to satisfy her immediate curiosity.
The question about how good she'd been brought a flash of a scowl to Hari's face. She thought she'd been good, but sometimes grown-ups had other ideas of what good meant, and they didn't line up with hers. It was very frustrating, and she couldn't understand why so many places and activities were forbidden to her. She could be just as careful as a grown-up could, and it wasn't as if she wanted to get hurt or lost, so she had good incentive to take care.
"Mostly," she answered. "But I want to look at the land outside of the pride, and they won't let me. Just look."
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 9:29 am
"Doubt can be a scary thing," Momo answered quietly. "When you let doubt grow in your heart, it is easy to push those you love away. Thinking you're protecting them, or protecting yourself. It's something to be aware of when you get older." The mind always seemed to get more complex the more it knew, but the goddess would never inhibit her children from learning. It was only then that they could make their own decisions and stand by them. "I just needed to remind them what was really important." She was happy when she could work some "magic" without having to use any of her powers.
She sighed softly when she heard her daughter's statement. "The world outside isn't as safe as it is here. Still..." she paused, thinking about how even within the Mizuka'nyevu there were still dangers. "One day I will take you out there to see. And I promise to, before you're old enough to do it yourself. It never hurts to satisfy a little curiosity, Hari."
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 11:15 am
Hari didn't quite understand what her mother was talking about when it came to doubt and how it could have anything to do with love. Hari never doubted when it came to love. She knew she loved her siblings and her mother more than anything else, even if she wasn't particularly good at showing it. She had no doubt that they loved her, too. That was what family did. But then, Hari didn't think that was what her mother was talking about, exactly.
"Love. That's what's really important, right?" she said. She was young, too young to have much of a grasp of sarcasm, but even if she had been able to understand and use it, she wouldn't. She was proud of what her mother did.
She forgot all about that, though, when her mother dangled the most tasty morsel Hari could imagine in front of her nose. The promise of maybe getting to go out into the world beyond the pride was hugely exciting to her, even if it was only the faintest of possibilities. She could only imagine how exciting it would be to go out with her mother.
"I'd love to do that someday," she said. "It sounds like it would be very interesting."
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Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 8:03 pm
The goddess smiled. Oh how she loved her children, mortal or not. They gave her so much joy. "Exactly right. And remember that I will love you always, little Tari." Her gorgeous daughter.
She stretched one of her wings out, wondering just how heavy of a load she could carry. The wings didn't do all of the work, but that didn't mean that Tari would feel weightless if she took her out. "Soon, then. Before you go a little stir crazy from staying within the mist all the time." Hopefully she wouldn't want to leave, but there was little that Momo could do when she became of age. Tari would find her own path in life.
"Have you heard of any interesting places you'd want to check out? Or just let me do all of the deciding?"
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 7:56 am
Hari grinned, basking briefly in her mother's love. She never doubted that her mother loved her, not even for a moment, but it was always pleasant to be reminded of that. And, no, it did not factor in that her mother was the goddess of love, and therefore more likely to love her children even than a normal mother would be. Hari knew her mother was special, but she didn't often single her out or compare her to other mothers.
"That would be wonderful," Hari said, a grin lighting up her features and making her eyes seem to glow very green, as opposed to their usually less vibrant shade of the color.
Until her mother mentioned it, it had not occurred to Hari that the mists might make a person a little crazy, but now that the idea had come up, the little cub realized that maybe she was getting a bit tired of being surrounded by mist all the time. The view never seemed to change, nor the temperature, and everything sounded more or less the same except for very up close. It was, perhaps, a little bit boring.
"I haven't really heard very much about the outside," Hari admitted, and was about to add that her mum could choose where they went, but then she had another thought: "Maybe, could we go somewhere warm and where you can see the sun really well?"
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 8:25 pm
Mo'onasi nestled in comfortably, happy to talk about the outside world a bit. She preferred the comforting shield that the mist offered, but it was hard to explain it to a cub who hadn't experienced the world, or the things it offered. Good and bad. As she also had the ability to roam around for short periods of time outside of the Mizuka'nyevu lands, Momo never grew tired of the mist.
"Yes. There are many places we could go to see that. There's also the ocean, a body of water that is so large you can't see the end of it. Or there's the sands of the desert, just like the ocean except there's endless sand instead of water. There are other forests a bit like ours, but the protection of the mist is absent."
She wondered how many ideas she was planting into her daughter's mind, and chuckled. "Of course, only one at a time. That'd be a lot of ground to cover for one day!"
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 5:33 am
"Sand?" Hari repeated inquiringly. "I don't think I know what that is."
It was hard enough for her to imagine somewhere where there wasn't a perpetual mist obscuring everything. Ideas like desert and ocean were a bit beyond her ability to grasp and imagine, but she would try. Likely the pride would soon be regaled with clumsily composed songs about oceans and deserts, and some of the lions who had come from beyond the pride would find themselves bombarded with questions about their original lands.
"It would be," Hari agreed. "A lot. Even for you. But maybe we could go out more than once, if you aren't too busy. I would really like to see sand, I think. And the ocean."
Her mother was probably right to wonder about the ideas she was planting in her daughter's mind, but she had no real reason to worry that the ideas would cause her daughter to stray from the pride. Even though she was too loud to hide herself very well, what with her singing, Hari had been born in the misty lands and had learned to appreciate the mists for their usefulness as well as for their coolness and beauty. They were her home, and it would take something or someone extraordinary to make her leave them forever.
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 12:11 pm
"Sand...is hard to explain. I think it would be better for you to just experience it soon." The goddess' tail curled behind her as she was excited for this prospect. It may or may not put the wandering bug into her daughter, but the benefit of being a god was the ability to fly far, and visit her family that was scattered all over the land.
"I'm never too busy for you, little Hari. Let's say, you pick what day we go out, and we'll do a short little trip, just to give you a taste?" Plus, that way in case anything happened they'd be close enough to home to return quickly. A test flight, really, as it had been a long time since Momo carried anyone with her when she flew.
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 12:20 pm
Hari nodded and tried not to grin too widely. She wanted very much to see the things her mother had described, but at the same time she didn't want anyone to think she wasn't happy in her home. Because she was. She loved the swirling mists and the trickling streams and the diffused light. She just wanted to experience more than that.
Maybe, if she lived a really long time, she'd go exploring all by herself. After she'd gotten married and had her cubs grown up and all that. She wanted to live out her life first, the one she was expected to live. Though if someday a lion from outside came to the misty lands she inhabited, she wouldn't mind hearing his stories and songs.
"That sounds more than fair," she said. Remembering her good manners, Hari added, "Thank you."
Then, having held still for about as long as a cub possibly could, Hari hopped to her feet, tail swishing back and forth, and challenged her mother: "I bet I can get home before you do."
Without waiting to see if her mother accepted her challenge, the brown striped cub took off at a reckless run, unmindful of the many little hazards which littered the way between where she had been and her family's den. She was familiar enough with the lands to be at no great risk, and she sort of wanted to be able to announce their mother's return to her siblings before they observed it for themselves.
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