Welcome to Gaia! ::

As was completely normal and expected for Kalanu lately, she was far from her home clan and was stalking around the edges of the territory currently occupied by the Shadow Clan. She was looking for Poa, but he didn't seem to be on his normal patrol route-- and she was rather disappointed. It was the first time she had managed to convince Sesere to come along with her, she was feeling bad about leaving her avian friend out so much.

"We'll just have to go farther inward," she said brightly, not all that worried. The clans weren't hard on each other when they decided to wander through and Kalanu had friends here, she knew the family of the alu'nadi and nvwati. She had to be welcome, right?

"Are you sure that's OK?" Sesere asked doubtfully, perched on Kalanu's shoulder for the moment as they walked, "It's not really trespassing but you might be a bother."

She wasn't as open and friendly as Kalanu was, and she had met Poa briefly before.. and heard plenty of the stories. He didn't seem all that interesting to her, though Kalanu almost made it sound that way, the way she spoke of him. Not to mention the fact the pride must live in clans for a reason, though Sesere wasn't clear on the rationale.

"Don't be silly," she said, glancing over to Sesere before picking up the pace again.

"It would be easier to find them if you would stop sitting on my shoulder," Kalanu said with an overly dramatic sigh and another glance over to the bird on her shoulder after they had been walking some time, "You know what Poa looks like and I told you about Laka."

She didn't really need Sesere to help, or really even want her to- she just enjoyed arguing with her. It was almost like a game they had developed as she got older. Not that Kalanu was ready to stop playing games like hide and seek, though.

"I suppose it would," Sesere remarked, pausing in her preening to return Kalanu's gaze-- and she spotted something the lioness did not. There were lions headed their way, and they definitely did not include Poa.

"I suppose if you stopped whining, though, you'd notice we have company," she added, ruffling up her feathers in a quick effort to make herself presentable.

"What?"

Kalanu turned her head back to the direction they were heading and started, "Oh!"

It took barely one second for Kalanu to know she liked these lions, though the lady seemed more together than the male, she still gave a good impression. Kalanu beamed, looking back and forth between them as they struggled to introduce themselves.

"I'm Kalanu Kalisetsi," she introduced herself cheerily, "I'm from the Mantis Clan but I am friends with a couple of the Subianis, I just came out here looking for them."

The Shadow Clan was starting to seem like a lot of fun- but that made Poa an oddball. She was OK with that.. in fact, it kind of made him more interesting.

Sesere looked put off by Kiazi's bouncy and overly friendly introduction- and didn't even try to hide how she leaned back a bit when he addressed her directly and held up a paw to her. She gave him a confused, judgmental look through narrowed eyes.

"Sesere," she introduced herself shortly, also gaining a new appreciation for Poa. Kalanu being kind of crazy was one thing, she'd mostly grown out of that.. but Sesere didn't seem equipped to deal with it in strangers.

Kalanu seemed oblivious to what was happening with Sesere until Uziwa elbowed Kiazi and told him to put his paw down. She spared a second to glance over to Sesere with a glare.

"Don't worry about her," she said, looking at Kiazi when he pouted, "She's not really nice to anybody."

Sesere glanced to Uziwa when she told Kiazi to back off and she was appreciative.. though she still wasn't sure what she thought of Uziwa'muundi. She was this one's mate, she said. But then again, Sesere hardly seemed a good match for Kalanu and they were best friends.. and Poa would have hardly seemed a good match and she obviously had a big crush on him.

Sometimes relationships didn't make sense.

She looked back at Kalanu when the lioness glared at her, but stubbornly stayed quiet. She didn't have to say anything, Kalanu wasn't technically wrong.

"I was looking for Poa," she continued, perking up at the happier topic, "He normally is out patrolling but I couldn't find him today. That's why I decided to come in farther, to look for him-- or Laka."

She made a face at the mental image of Poa covered in cubs, it just didn't sound like something he would have enjoyed-- but then, she had never seen him in a large group with the rest of his clan and she didn't know how many cubs there were. If there were a lot of them, it might be unavoidable.. and he would be one of the more fun ones to bother.

"Oh oh!" she squeaked, "Can I come with you?"

Sesere sighed, imagining waltzing into the midst of the clan, where everybody was.. she just wasn't that social. But she had said she would come along and she was here now, even if it would be easy to bail, she was stuck.

Kalanu beamed at Kiazi and then looked to Uziwa hopefully as he begged- suppressing the urge to join in the begging. She jumped when Uziwa pushed Kiazi, said OK and challenged them to a race. Her eyes darted to Kiazi just as he urged her on and, barely sparing a second to glance to Sesere, she bolted after them.

Sesere reacted much more quickly than Kalanu did. As soon as Uziwa took off, she was pushing herself off Kalanu's shoulder and into the air-- perching on a running lion was not a smart idea.

Besides, she couldn't race if she didn't fly. She liked races, mostly because flying gave her such an advantage. If they were going to race, she was going to play too! So off she went after the bunch of lions.

Fin!