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 Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 6:52 am
 In an effort to be helpful, Hiimatayt had volunteered to help clean up the temple a bit. She knew it was a full-time job, and that it wasn't particularly popular, but she also acknowledged that someone had to do it, and relying on cubs who were being punished for misbehaving wasn't the most reliable way to get exacting results.
Why, three times already the dark grey juvenile had noticed cubs her own age leave small piles of sand in the corner of a room simply because it was too much effort to go for one of the broom-plants kept specially for this task and tease the fine granules out. When she had called their attention to it, they'd rolled their eyes and said no one would notice, and then they went off as if the chamber was finished. Without adding any recriminations, Tay had simply found a broom-plant and taken care of it.
Now she stood in the center of the chamber, surveying it critically. Was it clean enough? Had she missed anything? She had already been over it twice to make sure that she'd been thorough, but maybe a third time would be necessary. She didn't want anyone to say that she'd been shirking her duties. And she also didn't want the other juveniles whose job it had actually been to clean the chamber to get in trouble for not doing a good enough job.
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 12:37 pm
 Msrah had calmed down considerably after his near miss when Naliah the nanny had ended up saving his sorry tail. It was not that he wasn't the same happy and bubbly cub as before. He was just a bit more subdued, a lot less prone to wander and generally trying to be on his best behaviour. He also had a renewed respect for nannies and what they told him to do. A week was a long way for a rowdy juvenile to stay good however, and he longed for some fun. Not dangerous fun, just regular fun-fun. And he knew just where to look.
Being well behaved and meek and not getting in trouble for a while had earned him a favour or two with one of the older nannies, and she had told him that she'd seen his friend Tay cleaning the temple. Now he just had to figure out which one of the many rooms she was working on. Msrah wasn't very fond of cleaning, mostly because it was used as punishment and it seemed as if he shouldn't enjoy doing it. Anything he did with Tay tended to be fun, however, so maybe the two would cancel out (or hopefully end up fun anyway).
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Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 5:02 am
Tay was singing. Or something like it. Most people would not have called what she was doing singing, or the noises she was producing in her attempt musical, but she was alone as far as she knew, and enjoying the echoing sound of her own voice as she sang a cleaning song she had made up on the spot. It was not very good, and her voice was not one of those untutored diamond-in-the-rough types, but she sang with enough exuberance that most people would not have held the assault on their ears against her. At least, not while she was still only a juvenile. As she got older, audiences might be a bit less tolerant.
"Don't let the sand in, no!
Sweep, sweep!
Sand on the ground must go!
Sweep, sweep!"
So went her song, with variations to serve as reminders that it was not good enough to simply move the sand around or push it under something. It had to go all the way outside, which was a pretty onerous task when one was in the dark depths of the temple. Tay was not, but she sang about doing that, too.
"Outside is far away!
Sweep, sweep!
But indoors sand cannot stay!
Sweep, sweep!"
She did not hear the sound of anyone approaching over her own caterwauling.
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:51 am
The improvised song coming from the temple room was catching and Msrah's tail started to sway in tune. It was Tay all right, and he debated trying to surprise her with a friendly pounce. But in the end the desire to sing won out, and he couldn't make himself stay quiet long enough to carry out a proper ambush. Msrah liked singing and listen to songs, and... um... songish things like this. It didn't have to be perfect, because part of the appeal of singing the prayers was how every voice blended to a strange harmony when the whole pride sang together. Any imperfections were polished down as the different voices merged. They were only two lions in this room, but the more singers the merrier, right?
"Sweep, sweep," he joined in as Tay reached the chorus again, "Sweep, sweep!"
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 7:45 am
A delighted smile spread across Tay's face as she heard someone else's voice come in to join her on the chorus. His voice was much better than hers was, and he made the notes she'd made up sound better and more certain. It was an improvement to her sweeping song, she decided, and turned around to say so.
"Your singing really makes it sound good," she said as she turned. When she had her duet partner in her sights her smile grew even more delighted, if such a thing was possible. "Msrah! It's wonderful to see you again!"
Then she remembered that she was sweeping, and that she hadn't really seen anyone else all morning who wasn't supposed to be busy doing similar work. Maybe he wasn't as happy to be here as she was, because maybe he had to be there, unlike Tay. The thought sobered her somewhat, though not a great deal, and she asked him with mock-seriousness, "You're not here because you're in trouble, are you?"
If he was, she planned to ask him what he had done, because she was sure it would make a good story. Whenever her siblings got into trouble, even though she did disapprove a little bit of breaking the rules, she still enjoyed hearing them tell the tale of their misadventures and escapades. Still, she hoped Msrah wasn't in trouble. Because then he'd be stuck having to clean and they couldn't play.
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:06 pm
"Nah," he said and smiled, "I've been sooooo good lately, I think I'm going to lose my mind. Have you been naughty since you’re here?"
He continued humming the tune as he checked out the room Tay had been sweeping. It looked really good to him, but when he thought he was finished sweeping he usually had to re-do some parts he had missed, so he wasn't the best judge. Little details like sand stuck in a crack or in a dark corner seemed to be invisible to him some days. Um... Most days.
"Well, I did get in trouble," he confessed and looked at his paws, "But I've been good since."
Tay would find out eventually, and it was not nice to lie to friends. Getting in BIG trouble and being rescued by one of the younger, nicer nannies was sort of embarrassing, but friends should know such things, right? He just had to work up the nerve to tell her all about it, if she hadn't already heard.
((Note: That particular RP is unfinished and I haven't decided exactly what happened/will happen so she'll get a vague story at the best. Bottom line: Msrah snuck away from Naliah when he was out with her and one of his sisters and he had a near miss that could have led to serious injuries))
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 7:18 am
Tay smiled at Msrah's manner, and then laughed at his question. Had she been naughty? Really, what a question!
"Of course not!" she giggled. "But I thought maybe it would be nice of me to offer to help, since the people who have to be here don't want to be, and they don't really work as hard because of that. The place does need to be swept."
For her part, Tay went back to sweeping while Msrah inspected her work, though it pleased her to hear him humming her silly sweeping song. She was also glad he hadn't said anything about her singing. She knew she wasn't very good at it, but it made her happy to sing, and she also tended to sing when she was happy. She didn't like to bother others, though, so if someone said something she always stopped, though she didn't let what they said bother her for very long. Hers was an irrepressible cheer.
"I'm glad to hear that you've been good since," she said, pretending to frown at him, though her frown didn't last very long and soon reverted to a smile once more. "I didn't hear about anyone getting in a lot of trouble, so whatever you did must not have been too bad. And that's good."
"You could tell me about it while you help me here."
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 6:29 am
"Sure," Msrah said, and started thinking about how to best tell her about his adventure. "You know that nice nanny Naliah? And my sister Rashida, you must have met her some time. She has a way of getting what she wants all the time, even when you know she's not really sad, just pretending."
Before Msrah knew precisely how it had happened, he was wielding a broom-plant and chased the sand from the corners of the room. He still hummed the tune Tay had made up, when he wasn't talking. And he actually enjoyed himself, despite working with the same thing he had often moaned about when it came in the form of punishment. It was actually fun to clean, at least when cleaning with Tay. And during short pauses in the brushing he slowly told Tay the tale about the adventure he had with his sister, and how Naliah had saved him. And how cool she was, and that he wanted to become a nanny now. And that he didn't want to leave the temple again until he was bigger... That last part was something he wouldn't admit to anyone other than Tay. He was pretty sure she wouldn't try to tease him for it. At least not in a mean way. They were friends after all.
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 7:18 am
Tay nodded. She knew Nailah. She'd met her when they were both younger, before she'd actually become a nanny. Nailah had said that she was pretty. Tay didn't tend to forget compliments like that. People were always telling her what a nice person she was, and how good she was, and how helpful, but not too many told her she was pretty. Not that it should matter, she supposed, how a person looked. But it did a little.
As they worked and Msrah's story unfolded Tay found herself smiling around the broom plant she grasped in her teeth. Some of the broom plants used for cleaning had loops around the one end so that they could be slid onto a person's tail and swooshed around that way, and she had one of those, too. It was what she'd been using while she was singing. However, she'd gone to fetch another at some point so that they could finish the task more quickly. She enjoyed working alongside Msrah, but she'd rather play with him.
"I'd've been really scared," she told him. "And I don't blame you for not wanting to leave the temple until you're bigger, but there's a lot of things to miss that way. I wouldn't want to miss them, either."
It was a problem, and she didn't really have a solution that would help. Going with other people his own age wouldn't protect them so much as provide multiple targets for potential enemies and the possibility that maybe it wouldn't be him they went for. Tay didn't think he'd like that idea. She knew she wouldn't, anyway, and couldn't imagine how anyone else would either.
"I want to be a nanny, too! So we'll both be nannies together. How fun!" It didn't occur to her that nannying wasn't a very manly profession. What did that matter if the person was good at it and loved doing it?
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 2:54 pm
"We'll soon be allowed to go out on our own," Msrah said, "We can catch up with everything outside then."
By some weird logic he assumed that it would be less dangerous outside the temple when he was big enough to be allowed outside. Less dangerous and thus not as scary. In reality the dangers of the desert would be the same, but he would be bigger and hopefully better equipped to deal with them. One could hope so at least...
They were both going to be nannies? Awesome! That was really great and Msrah had to stop sweeping for a while to run around Tay instead. He was sure she'd understand. Sometimes the happy had nowhere else to go so you had to run for a bit.
"We're going to be nannies together!" he called in a sing-song voice as he ran around her.
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:52 am
"I suppose," Tay allowed with a wistful sigh.
She couldn't quite take Msrah's easy attitude toward delaying their outdoor adventures. Tay was quite happy inside the temple, and notably cooler with her dark coat than she would be outside, but just the same. She knew there had to be wonderful, fascinating things outside if only she could get out there and experience them. She'd sneaked out with her siblings a time or two, but that had been a furtive trip, and more enjoyable for the company than for the experience itself.
Her brief melancholy evaporated with Msrah's joyous running around her. It was hard to stay unhappy when confronted with that sort of exuberance. And besides she shared in his delight, and so she joined him in capering, though she mostly stayed in one place and danced in a small circle, responding to his singing announcement with a somewhat tuneless song of agreement:
"We are! We are! Nannies together!"
Her turning began to make her dizzy and she let herself fall to the ground laughing. She hadn't forgotten about their chore, but she could let it go for just a bit to celebrate the news of their shared future occupation. After all, it wasn't as if she had to do this anyway. She had volunteered, and most people would say she'd done more than she had to do at this point.
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 4:47 pm
Msrah ran faster and faster, something that made it difficult to talk or sing, but running seemed to be the best way to express his happiness. It was a good thing Tay fell over because he was starting to get dizzy and out of breath. But since Tay lay on the ground laughing, it totally made sense to crash half on and half next to her. He laughed too, both because he was very happy, and because his friend laughed. There was no better way to laugh than with a friend. And laughing in a pile of friends was even better. Two didn't make a very impressive pile, but it would have to do. He'd have to coax his siblings into making a laughing-pile sometime... That would be something!
"Tay," he said when he could catch his breath again, "Can we clean the rest from down here? I don't think I want to get up."
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:16 am
Tay was very glad Msrah didn't land on her. Sometimes one of her siblings would flop on top of her when they came in, and while it didn't hurt, per se, it tended to knock the wind out of her and wasn't very fun. And since she was already laughing and didn't have much wind left in her to spare, she imagined it would be even less fun to be landed on now.
"I think...we can do that," Tay supposed. She had to speak between outbursts of giggling.
"Maybe we can convince some of the spiders to finish the job. Since they make a lot of the messes in the corners anyway, it seems only fair that they help clean up once in a while."
Now she was just being silly, but that was what friends were for: to be silly with. And while it was true that being silly wasn't getting the place cleaned up, given how unlikely the spiders were to actually help with the process, she was only a cub, and it was difficult to make herself keep at difficult or boring or unpleasant jobs for long periods of time. Particularly when there were fun and interesting people around that she could play with.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:05 am
"That's an excellent idea," Msrah said, trying to keep a straight face but failing. He succumbed to a new fit of giggles, "Here spidey, spidey... Come clean up your mess! Or ELSE..."
He rolled over on his back and waved his front paws in the air, fighting invisible spiders. They might hide up in the roof or in the corners, but unless they started cleaning he'd have to take action! He kept waving his paws around until he grew tired and folded them across his chest insted. He started humming again, but his tune wasn't as catchy as Tay's had been.
"Silly, silly spider
making work for us
Lazy, lazy spider
come clean up your mess!"
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:15 am
Tay couldn't stop giggling as Msrah addressed the spiders of the room and then demonstrated his "or else." Somehow she didn't think the spiders would be terrified, but it was a very nice attempt on Msrah's part. Even if it looked and sounded ridiculous.
Actually, no. His song was ridiculous, Tay decided as she panted, too tired from laughing to laugh any more. She panted and grinned through his first verse before trying to add her own second verse:
"Silly, silly spider
don't you ever bathe?
Lazy, lazy spider
look at the mess you've made!"
The rhyming wasn't quite right, but it sort of worked, and coming from a little cub who was lightheaded with laughter it wasn't bad at all. Of course, she still sang horribly, but Msrah didn't seem to mind that.
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