She moved amongst the shallows with fluid grace, pausing only to pick through some seaweed or shells that caught her eye as she went. The land's bounty was a precious but beautiful thing and Kirjava had learned to appreciate what it offered long ago.
She was proud to call the Bahari her home. The place of her birth. But if only there was some more excitement to be found! Some sea monster leaping out to grab her except that before it could set tooth on her she would befriend it.
That sounded like a fabulous thing indeed.
Kirjava was an adventurous spirit. She had adored the stories and legends told to her as a youth and listened to them more avidly then the rest. Of storms and heroics and epic romances in which the male and female lived happily every after. She wanted to live her own epic romance someday, except that she wasn't quite sure how to get it started. She had asked the sea on numerous occasions to help her but as of yet, it had given her little: except of course the tsunami which had ripped through the lands. That had been an adventure, although the ending had not been as good as she might have hoped.
So many missing. Even now, long after the event.
Sometimes Kirjava wondered whether the whole thing had been her fault. After all, she had wished for adventure and it had been given to her; though not exactly as she had pictured it. Maybe she ought to be specific.
"I didn't wish for sadness." She murmured, stepping into deeper waters and pushing off from the rocks to swim out through one of the deep pools the receding ocean had left in its wake.
And then a voice called from up above.
"You look more comfortable in water than on land."
The voice startled her and she altered her path so that she swum in circles, lifting her head and eyes to see a male lion draped across a spire of rock overhanging the pool. His paws hung over the side and he smiled casually down at her.
"Of course I do." Kirjava replied. "I'm of the Bahari. And, from your response, I take it that you are not?"
"No. I'm here on an adventure with a couple of friends of mine. I just broke away to scout further down shore. Didn't realise we were so close to a pride. The Bahari, you say?"
"Yes." Kirjava replied, still circling. "I'm Kirjava. What's your name?"
"Ruia."
"You've had adventures?" Kirjava added. "I'd love to hear them!"
"I'd be more than willing - if, of course, you agreed to stop circling." He laughed good-naturedly. "You're making me dizzy."
Kirjava laughed in return and with a nod, moved towards the edge of the pool and pulled herself up. The water ran down from her fur in a rush until it receded to a rather melodic dripping against the stone. She was a little on the thin side, perhaps thanks to her diet of mostly fish and seafood. However she seemed to be in good health, her fur curling as it dried. She'd always been proud of her looks; taken from both sides of her family. Many of her blood-kin bore similar traits. It made her feel a part of something bigger. It made her feel...special.
"Better?" She asked, shaking her fur to rid it of the worst of the drips.
"Much." And, stretching leisurely, Ruia dropped down from the rock to join her on the ground, reclining by the water's edge so that he could pat it with a paw.
"So!" Kirjava settled in for the story. "Where does the story begin?"
"This adventurer had the adventurers spirit in his blood. His grandmother was an adventurer who went on many a journey before she met her end. His own mother and father, too, travelled to distant lands before settling to have a family of their own. And so, when he was of age, this little adventurer was living just as his ancestors had."
"Wow!" Kirjava replied wide-eyed. "You're following in their paw prints!"
"I like to think so." Ruia agreed. "But to be honest, I'm still quite new to adventuring and unlike them, I'm travelling with a small group of friends."
"I imagine it's better that way. Sharing the experience means you have someone to talk about it with who knows exactly what you mean."
Ruia agreed. "Exactly. I do love travelling but not so much if I'm there by myself with no one to speak with. You do meet a lot of people on the way but not all of those are good people so having the advantage of peers makes everything that bit safer."
"So you chose to come to the sea for one of your adventures, right?"
"We did. No one in my group has seen the sea before. We're from inland and the journey was long and tough. Sometimes I really though we wouldn't find it and some of the land looked so similar I actually thought we were walking in circles. But just as I really started getting worried the air changed and I knew we were almost there."
"The air...changed?"
"Yes. I suppose...if you've never left the sea behind, you wouldn't know. The sea air is different. Very different, actually. It leaves a strange tingling feeling in the nostrils."
Kirjava smiled at that. "So what do you think of the sea so far?"
"It is very beautiful." Ruia replied. "I'm so excited to see what else the world can offer. So much variety in landscapes. So much beauty to be found everywhere. But this place...this place has a music to it."
"The sound of the waves." Kirjava agreed softly. "It draws you to love it even if you never wanted to."
He smiled warmly at that. "Yes. I think it does. How about you give me a little tour of the area whilst we speak? I'd love to learn more about the shore?"
"We could go in the direction of your friends?"
"Only if we go slowly."
"Oh?"
"Yes, I think there's a budding romance between them - though they don't realise it yet. I hope something comes of it - although that could mean losing my adventuring partners."
"Just because they're in love doesn't mean they can't travel with you." Kirjava chided gently.
"We'll see." Ruia replied with a grin. "We'll see. Now, let's get on our paws. I need to tell you about the first day of the journey when night fell and we were left out in the open..."
/fin
