[PRP] Wait? What do you mean, Historian!? (Fia & Saha)

[Kimaria]

Fia had been neglecting her duties as a historian...badly.

With all the water-seeking she was doing, she'd hardly had the energy to trudge up to the circle of stones and check on the images emblazoned on their sand-worn surfaces. Now they were looking distinctly shabby and, as the dark-pelted one patrolled from one to the next, she shook her head in weary dismay.

The harsh climate meant that pictures needed constantly updating and retouching so that they didn't fade and become wiped off completely. Here, a harsh wind had blown a great swath of sand across the area, banking across the base of some of the stones, concealing some of the oldest drawings.

Fia's brow furrowed as she moved to the first one, pausing to dig in a lame attempt at uncovering them. Thankfully only three of the stones - the ones most open to the climate - were affected. Even still, with her weary, blistered paws, such digging was painful and it took her a great amount of time uncovering the first of the rocks, pausing to inspect the drawings that had been covered there. Ah, dear Makadari! How you have fallen since your reign of power! She gave his image a gentle brush with her paw and sat, moodily, casting a critical eye over it. Dear, dear, this was a terrible mess. Thank goodness Mzaa hadn't had a chance to come up to these stones in the last few days!

Fia supposed that she ought to tell Vesta to go on ahead without her for the afternoon's water-seeking expedition. And yet...wasn't searching for the water sources more important than repainting these images onto stone?

She wasn't sure she knew the answer...but the loss of history scared her.  

[ShinosBee]

Saharan had been feeling mixed things since she had become an official Firekin. For one, the pride was still under drought effect, and water and food was already being rationed. She'd added one more body needing sustained to the already large number of them, and felt some guilt over that. She'd thought for sure the drought would have ended by now. As it was though there was nothing for it but to pitch in and do her part, and try to make do with even less than she'd been allotted, to prove that she would not be a burden more than she needed to be.

Another worry niggling at her mind was that she had yet to run into Naur. After he'd bested her she'd spent some time away from the pride to recover and to train herself. She hadn't heard of anything bad befalling him, but with the state of things, she wouldn't have been surprised. Still she held out hope. He must be out with the others trying to find water, and he would return to her soon.

Roho had been her companion for the first, introducing her to people and even helping her choose a den to call her own. She'd returned to her duties today though, and Saharan had been directed to tend to hers. There was so much to learn about the pride, knowledge she'd been denied when she'd visited before, the thought of learning it all drove all her worries and wants from her mind. It was with the eager, bright-eyed look of a researcher about to uncover a big find that she crested the hill where she'd been told the stones that told the history of the pride were. She'd spotted them on her way, and couldn't wait to see them up close! Ah...there was someone already there. She smiled at her, "Hello! I'm Saharan! Oooh..." Her gaze slipped right past Fia to the faded paintings on the stones. They looked in bad shape, but were fascinating! She stepped closer, trying to look around the bigger lioness.  

[Kimaria]

Fia was just smoothing the sand away from the stone when the sound of paws approaching drew her attention. Uh-oh, that was bound to be Mzaana! What was she going to say?

'Oh, sorry, Mzaa. A huge storm must have blown up in the night and ruined all of this work!'

No.

'It's those damn cubs, I'm telling you. The little ruffians, coming up here to cause trouble when I'm out searching for water to keep them alive.'

Better.

She turned her head and sought the dark shape of her old teacher and dear friend. However, it was not Mzaa. It was...wait? What? Who was she? Fia didn't know this lioness, so what was she doing way up here? Her words began with a low growl - until it was interrupted by the chirpy greeting.

Saharan? Was that supposed to mean something?

Fia leapt to her paws and tried to ward the other away with a flailing paw. "Hey, hey! Saharan. What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here! No one's been scheduled for a lesson." Or had they? Uh...she was sure there hadn't been any planned, not since this whole drought thing, anyway. Much more important things to worry about!  

[ShinosBee]

Saharan very much wanted to get a better looks at those paintings, and sidestepped Fia just as she started swinging at her (a lucky and totally unintentional dodge.) She glanced sideways at the older lioness before being drawn once more to the stones. She kept an eye on her out of her peripheral vision though. Just in case she tried to shoo her again.

"I came to see the stones, of course! I'm new here, though I was here before, as a visitor. I'm the new historian, and I'm just SO eager to start learning all there is to know about this pride...my ancestors came from here, but my own mother and upbringing weren't terribly similar to what I've seen here before. These stones are the history stones, yes? Well what else could they be...they looks a bit worn though, do you care for them regularly? You know, I bet certain pastes, if we could get them here, would stand up decently to the sand. The sun would bake it nice and hard, but...well I don't know if the right materials are here. That's a shame, I saw the perfect berry to make this color red here before I came back to the desert..."

The lioness rambled on, slowly circling the stones. It seemed she was talking to herself, postulating what the markings meant and occasionally commenting on the wear the stones had seen. In fact she'd all but forgotten the other female there. There was KNOWLEDGE to be had, and that was always far more interesting to her than living people. Unless they got in her way, of course.  

[Kimaria]

What the-!? How rude! Just strutting up here like she owned the place. Who exactly was this Saharan, anyway? Surely no one important, else Fia would have heard of her! This was just...just...unbelievable! She needed to talk to someone about this. See this place kept out of bounds unless it was for a lesson where Fia was here to oversee everything.

Thankfully, she didn't try shooing the other female again - not just yet anyway - and instead, resorted to fixing her with a blank stare.

And then the truth came out.

New historian?!

Fia was very rarely speechless. In fact, it had possibly only happened once before and she had not thought it could ever happen again. Yet, here it was, another surprise come to slap her in the face when she least expected it. There was a new historian and she was babbling on and on about berries and the condition of the stones. Her mouth even hung slightly agape as she stared, watching the lioness circle and inspect. Then, at last, she found her voice, strutting up to bar the way.

"Woah, woah, stop right there a minute. What do you mean historian? When did this happen? Did Mzaa send you up here?" She frowned suspiciously. She really ought to spend more time with her old teacher and keep in the loop about these things. Yes, there were a couple of other historians hanging about somewhere, but she'd not seen any of them in ages and her slight OCD around recording meant that she mostly just yelled at them when they happened by. "I wasn't told about this!" SHe huffed indignantly. "Why am I never told anything?!" And then she was off on a faint, pacing back and forth.

"And you're a rogue, too, right!? So more lessons. More teaching. A whole lot of work I really don't need." She paused, switching subjects with strange ease. "You know about the drought, right?"  

[ShinosBee]

Saharan took the other's silence for acceptance and started rigorously trying to decipher the meaning of the paintings on the stones. It would have been faster to ask, surely, but she was so entranced by them that the thought only occurred to her and flitted away again. She'd never had trouble picking up new things before, and surely she could make heads AND tails of these. The Firekin weren't exactly primitive, but many of them she'd met had seemed more like fighters than thinkers. How hard could it be?

She seemed to startle, folded back her ears, and gave Fia a rather cross look at her outburst. "I'm sorry you're not in the loop of things, but that's not my fault, so there's no need to shout and distract me. I told you, I'm Saharan. I just joined the pride. I won my duel, I've met your regents before, when I was visiting, as I told you, and they let me have this job. I was told where these were, and about the drought, though I knew. This duel wasn't my first, I've been around a while, actually. Though before the other day I'd been back in the roguelands and had the foresight to drink all the water I could stand before I came back. I won't be a burden for a while yet, unless you count me looking at these as being burden-esque, in which case you'll kindly let me get back to reading them so I'll be out of your mane that much faster."

She huffed, and then looked back at the drawings, calling over her shoulder, "If you do decide to fill me in, I'm sure you'll find that I"m a quicker learn than any of your native students. Where I come from the whole pride was raised and trained to take in information and never forget it." A smirk crept onto her face, and she seemed to bite back some sort of quip or joke, instead merely looking on at the stones in bemused silence.  

[Kimaria]

Well, this female certainly had a mouth on her. That wasn't good. Fia was used to meek Vesta for company and that timid little girl wouldn't stand her ground even if Fia demanded her to. Saharan...Saharan was quite the opposite and it ruffled her nerves a little more than she would have liked.

Dammit, and she had to work with this female?

Growling under her breath, she decided to stay silent for a moment, returning to the first stone and beginning to gently brush the sand from the surface. The pictures beneath were fading and she made a mental note of which ones needed the most attention as she worked. Perhaps, seeing as there was so much work to do on making repairs and such, having Saharan here wouldn't be so bad, especially if she was as 'experienced' as she said she was.

"Well, Miss-Know-It-All, it doesn't look like I've been given much choice in the matter. Clearly you're here to stay." She said eventually, sitting back to briefly admire her handiwork. She'd managed to remove most of the sand without smudging the pictures beneath, which was always a plus. "So." She said at last, mulling over her words. "Have you been told anything of our history or do we need to start from the beginning."

Oh. Wait. Another thing.

"And I'm Fia, by the way. Head historian of the Motoujamii-Simo." She wasn't really a 'head' of anything, but she figured she'd give herself that title. She deserved it, after all, didn't she?  

[ShinosBee]

Wonderful! It seemed that Fia wasn't totally bent on making her life hell. That was always a good sign. Given the wealth of knowledge before her though, the thought barely registered. Without warning she began to assist in the cleaning of the stones, her smaller paws making quick work of the coating of sand. As the figures and markings were revealed she continued to make excited commentary to no one of particular.

"Have you been told anything of our history, or do we need to start from the beginning?" The question finally managed to pierce her shell of fascination. She looked around, ears ever so gently pinned back for the slightest of moments. "Fia, is it? I wasn't told about a head historian, but as long as you don't try to bully me from doing my job, I won't go making a fuss about formal titles and what not. As for what I know, I'll admit that my knowledge isn't entirely up to par, but then, you have your own regents to thank for that. Our regents, rather. They were bound and determined not to let me even look at these things when last I was here. Of course, it's only cost them...us...more time, in the end, but I guess I can't imagine them to have understood the importance of getting a full account of a history to really understand it."

She turned back to the stone and continued gently cleaning it. Her tail twitched in the air behind her, making repetitive, annoying swishing sounds. "I understand the gist of what has happened, though the years and names of exact events were never shared with me. I know the pride was once the keeper of slaves, and about the war and split, and the withering of the "Safi" branch. Most of the recent history can still be gleaned through careful attention to gossip. I heard today that not long ago there was also a string of murders associated with a young rogue who'd come with a group to join? A shame. And of course the drought is too current to be 'history' yet, but one day it will be, and I've got my ears open. Care to regale me with the missing pieces while we dust these stones?" At least she was trying to be friendly and helpful...  

[Kimaria]

"Those 'regents' are my parents." She corrected stiffly. "And do you think it odd of us to keep our history away from the prying eyes of outsiders before they have proven themselves?" She replied with a growl, getting irritated at how much this female seemed to like to talk. "Because if so, you have much to learn. Our history is for us alone. For our people to remember. Not for tourists."

She was up on her paws again, scanning the stones as she did so, listening to Saharan recall some of the information she had already gleaned. Okay, good, so she wasn't a complete beginner. She had the foundations down, now all they would need would be to build upon them with facts and names and introduce the complexities of family lines." This information instilled life in Fia that nothing else could. Some Firekin got enjoyment from battle but Fia got hers from knowledge, for knowing everything about the Firekin and recording it down so that others could know too - if they cared to come and look.

"If you're going to dust stones, be careful. And, since the stone there holds early history, we may as well start with that." She moved back to sit close enough to Saharan that she could monitor the other's work and slap her paws if she started getting clumsy. "The earliest known ruler." She gestured towards the image of the large red lion she had uncovered earlier. "The Tyrant King Makadari. A cruel king whose strength could oppose anything -- or anything except a plague, of course." She smirked a little at that. "Who feared prophecies enough that he killed a daughter and left her rogue children for dead to avoid his downfall. He was a fool but his mistakes should be remembered all the same."

It was hard to believe that she had Makadari's infamous blood in her veins, though thinking on it, perhaps that's where she got her temper from.  

[ShinosBee]

Oh. OH. So this lioness was a child of the regents! That would probably be a little intimidating to most lions, but all Saharan really took from that tidbit of knowledge was how wonderful it was that even what might equate to a princess in another pride followed the path that led to the search for and care of knowledge. It boded well for her future life in the pride, if you asked her!

Diligently she set to clearing off the stone, listening raptly to the explanation of anything that was revealed. In the event her paws were slapped, she took it in stride. Just one more thing to learn, to get right. "I think I rather prefer the idea of regents to a tyrant. I suppose fear can make lions do strange things..." Like murder your children, or other lions. She so hoped there'd be little enough of that in her future here.

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H-heeey...I was going through logs and realized I never put an end post on this one so...yyeeeaaaaahhh...at least now it'd count as complete for you? Sorry!! *failure*