[PRP Tale] Stubborn Friendship [Aminah and Keilana][FIN]

[kaname423]

Aminah was walking through the small crowds of people that had gathered when the call for attention came from Enki. The others were coming from Jauhar and there was a small span of time where the leaf tribe could still talk with each other. All of the leaf tribe was now clustered together watching the approach of the others, even those that weren’t about to embark on the expedition. Aminah spotted the girl who had eyed her earlier when she had greeted the others that morning. She seemed to be on the outskirts of the others.

Aminah didn’t know the girl personally, but she did know that she had a brother. Maybe she was looking for her brother… or maybe she was avoiding him? Who knew? But what she did know was the girl was alone and Aminah was very interested in meeting her. She seemed so spunky! And she had the cutest little spitorog following her with that blank stare. Cute wasn’t really the word, but to Aminah, all animals are valuable, and the spitorog had to be here for a reason. She might as well find something positive about the creature. She bounced her way up to the girl, of which she didn’t really know her name, and introduced herself, grabbing the girl's hand in the process.

“Hiya! I’m Aminah. What’s your name? And how’re you? Are you looking for someone? Or are you taking a break from all the excitement?” The spitfire of questions wasn’t meant to be interrogating, but she always got nervous around new people.  

[jayoku]

Keilana wasn't really out looking for her brother or really anything or anyone. In fact she was trying to be by herself as she wasn't used to being around so many people at once. A problem she had never encountered before but at the same time bothered her. Kneeling down she was curiously sifting her hand through the dirt, stirring it up and catching small bugs that were trying to escape the onslaught of the mini earthquake.

Figuring these would be good snacks for the spitorog she figured must be nearby she nearly jumped out of her skin when the bouncing happy shifter mix breed came her way. A flurry of questions were barraged in her direction and she felt herself reply rather snarkily.

"Wow you talk a lot."

As soon as the words were out she felt mildly bad about saying them, after all it was rather rude especially when she had only just met the girl. Sighing she ran her free hand through her hair.

"It's Keilana...I am...FINE....no...I am not looking for someone.....no I am not taking a break.." She answered the questions one at a time trying to be patient about it all.  

[kaname423]

Aminah’s smile never faltered as Keilana let loose her snarky reply. It was alright, Aminah was just excited to meet someone new. She grew more excited at Keilana’s response. She was rooting in the dirt earlier before she ran up to her, and Aminah didn’t need any more explanation about what she was doing before being interrupted.

“Sooooo… does that mean that you have nothing to do right now?” She grabbed Keilana’s hand with both of her hands at this point and started to pull her into the forest. “We should explore some! Maybe we can find some treats for your spitorog!” The spitorog that Aminah assumed was Keilana’s was watching from a few yards away, unblinkingly staring at the two girls and blowing spit bubbles down its face. “I think he’s… cute…” Aminah’s answer wasn’t completely convincing, but in truth she did like spitorogs; just not so much when they were in effect just drooling all over themselves. “I know a place where there are lots of little bugs and things that I think spitorogs would love to eat.” She squealed with excitement at the thought of a new adventure with this girl.
 

[jayoku]

Keilana was not used to having someone quite as chipper and happy as Animah around. Having her hands pulled into the other girls and then dragged towards the forest her eyes were wide. What? Explore? But...yes there must be a lot of bugs there but ..would any of them be small enough for the spitorog to eat? That on its own was a stupid question. There must be bugs small eough for the thing to eat...otherwise how would it survive? Not likely from handouts from people that much was for sure.

"Hey...wait!" Keilana yanked her hands free from the other girl and gave her a furrowed eye brow look. Even if she had been in the forest before she had no idea if the girl ever had and she wasn't about to play babysitter. Then again she had no idea if she was the same age younger or older than this girl. In fact the only thing she did know about her was her name...and that she was overly hyper.

"Have you ever been in the forest before?" Keilana asked as she went to wipe her hands on her skirt as if she might catch some happy disease from the other girl . What she could gather was that this girl had probably never had a hard day in her entire life.  

[kaname423]

Amainah’s hands squeezed air as Keilana pulled away. It didn’t look as if Keilana was too willing to go anywhere with Aminah. That’s alright though, what did Keilana know about Aminah. Aminah was just rushing things. She should have probably explained a little first.

“Well, of course I’ve been in the forest!” She flashed a warm smile at Keilana. She held out her scuffed up hands as if they were a sign of proof. “I go in all the time, and I LOVE to climb trees!” she squeaked a little at the end, trying to convince this girl that she should indeed venture off into the forest with someone that she had just met. “Thought I have this bad habit of usually falling out of them… I actually know this place that’s not too far from here where the trees’ roots made a little pond for bugs and other little animals to play in.” She really wanted Keilana to go with her and hoped her face didn’t show too much excitement. “The place is all covered up with vines and it’s pretty hard to find on your own. I sort of just fell into it!” She gave a small laugh at her own clumsiness.

Aminah was willing to share with this girl her secret hide outs from the rest of the leaf tribe, just to be able to do something good for Keilana and her spitorog.
 

[jayoku]

Keilana rubbed her hands wondering if this girl had a whole brain. Was she serious? They were about to go out an venture forth into the unknown and she wanted to go play in the forest? Quite frankly at the rate the girl was babbling she wouldn't of been surprised that she had little animal friends in the forest as well. In fact if a bird suddenly landed on her shoulder and starting to sing a little song...it wouldn't surprised her at all.

"Are you nuts? We shouldn't be going too far! What if the group leaves with out us?" Keilana asked almost desperate to find an excuse to go back, to have this girl get away from her. She was just too...perky! Too happy! It was enough to make her jaw hurt from clenching her teeth together tightly. If she found her brother annoying, if was for completely different reasons.

"Look I don't know you from a hole in the ground, " Keilana started a hand on her hip as she pointed at the other girl. "I am not sure WHY you've decided to be buddy buddy with me but I don't buy it. What do you want?"  

[kaname423]

Aminah’s face dropped a little at the mention of the group. She was already being left behind if the others had their say. But she shook it off and the happy smile returned to her face. She had other plans anyways. The group wouldn’t leave without her this time.

But again, another blow to Aminah’s smile came soon after. Keilana didn’t trust Aminah in the slightest and thought her motives were shady at best. This wasn’t good. Aminah just wanted to lighten the mood and have some fun before going out on something as serious as what could possibly turn into war. Who knew how many happy moments were left today? She wanted to make the most of the time that she had right now. Her eyes met Keilana’s and held them for a moment with intensity, then quickly returned to her normal self. “Well, I know you don’t really know me, but I don’t want anything!” She smiled wide. “I just thought that this gathering was a very good time to get to know you!” Aminah stretched her arms above her head. ”I mean, what other time are we all here together in the open? If you don’t want to go out into the forest with me, then we can stay here and talk more! We have some time to spare anyways.”
 

[jayoku]

Keilana could of fallen to the ground in a dramatic display and beat her fists into the dirt and dust that was how much of a temper tantrum she wanted to throw. Instead she stood there her arms closely wrapped around herself, she wasn't good at making friends, she was snarky, rude quick to temper the only person she knew of who loved her despite all these things was her brother.

Keilana was forced to look away from Animah's intense gaze and she just hugged herself in a tighter fashion. It wasn't that she didn't trust Animah...she just was reluctant to make friends, after all her parents left her and brother and never came back...what would guarantee Animah may tire of her and do the same?

"Fine...we ..can talk then." Keilana was reluctant to state as she fidgeted on the spot uneasy. So what would they talk about? Keilana figured she would let Animah drive the conversation.  

[kaname423]

Aminah was slightly taken aback. She wasn’t really expecting Keilana to agree so easily or for her to let Aminah lead. She searched her mind for some semblance of conversational topic to start with.

Aminah dropped her arms from her stretch and looked down at the ground for a moment, drawing a blank. Her eyes drifted and fell on Keilana’s spitorog. “That’s your spitorog, right? What’s his name? Or is it a girl?” Aminah thought that this would be a good place to start, since her first idea was to look for snacks for the creature, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to begin there. “You’re so lucky to have one. I wish I had a familiar to play with. How did you get it?” Aminah wasn't lying when she said that Keilana was lucky to have a familiar. She recalled her escapades through the treetops a while back where she came face to face with full grown kinfa. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but she still wanted some form of pet for herself.  

[jayoku]

Keilana couldn't help but STARE at Animah when the subject of the spitorog came up. She...WANTED one of these things?? What was she nuts? Well she had already established the girl must not be all there in the head and her claiming to want one was...just another nail in the coffin so to speak.

Okay one question at a time... sighing she rubbed her temples as if this entire conversation was giving her a migraine.

"First of all...I didn't 'get' it, it followed me home...some ..how. From the forest...I ran into it their originally. Second, WHY would you want such a stupid looking thing as a pet? Its...literally useless! Why if I didn't feed it breakfast every morning I doubt it would of survived this long!" Keilana proclaimed before she...clamped her mouth shut suddenly. Dammit she gave away that she was...taking care of the stupid thing...

"B..besides...you can't hug..it..its covered in spikes....so.." Keilana was trying to recover her tough girl attitude after all liking critters seemed like such a girly thing to her.  

[kaname423]

She watched Keilana rub her temples, like Aminah was annoying her. Uh-oh; this couldn’t be a good sign. She had to try to get things on the right track.

Keilana’s answers to her question made her giggle. She thought it was cute that Keilana took care of the spitorog, even if it was just to keep it from dying. And her mention of being able to hug an animal let out more than Keilana probably meant to. It seemed to Aminah like Keilana wanted a fluffy, cuddly pet. The thought of this girl hugging a radaku or an aldabuk brought a smile to her face.

“I just think that all animals are here for a reason,” Aminah said with a smile. She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “Even if the only reason is to be a pet, like the spitorog. Even if you can’t pet it or hug it, you can help it.” Aminah smiled even wider. “And I just want a pet to call my own. Something that can be my friend, even when no one’s around… though thinking about it now, talking to a spitorog would be like talking to a rock… so maybe not a spitorog.” She laughed a little at the thought of talking to one of the blank staring, foaming creatures.

“Well, if you didn’t want a spitorog, what kind of pet would you want?” Aminah decided that since they probably weren’t going anywhere at this point, she could sit on an exposed tree root. She looked at Keilana warmly as if to say, you should sit, too.
 

[jayoku]

Right...here for a reason? So the spitorog was put on the earth to be laughed at? Keilana wondered her mind starting to hurt by Animah's constant happiness. She regretted mentioning to the other about how she helped it...good thing she hadn't mentioned the proscuta that she set free from one of her traps a week past. She'd never hear the end of it she was sure.

Trying to find a way to n** it in the bud when it became obvious this girl seemed consumed with the idea Keilana wanted an entire horde of creatures at her beck and call.

"Take the stupid thing if you want a pet so much.." Keilana offered with a shrug, before she went to fidget with the hem of her skirt. "I never said I WANTED the spitorog..is followed me home and has been stalking me ever since." Keilana felt her temper flare again and she sighed once more...the girl was trying to be nice...and she had let her choose the subject. Even if she regretted it now.

"Most critters are too tasty to be pet material. When you live on your own you don't have time to play with animals and sing songs...and be stupidly happy."  

[kaname423]

Keilana kind of skirted the question, but Aminah was going to let it slide for now. She tilted her head a little at the mention of singing songs. Who sang? Was Keilana talking about Aminah? Stupidly happy might fit in with what Keilana thought about her so she decided that yes… Aminah was supposed to be the sing-songs girl that Keilana was talking about.

She giggled again, thinking about the large kinfas of Tale singing with her and landing on her shoulders or something. Too heavy to imagine, she smiled to herself. Aminah looked at the spirotog now sitting next to Aminah on the tree roots. “Well, I definitely couldn’t take him from you. He seems to like you,” she laughed. She thought about the animals of Tale as being her dinner. It wasn’t very appealing. She knew that she had to eat them in order to survive, but her parents did all the catching and cleaning themselves and Aminah just saw the cooked, ready to serve meat. She didn’t have to think about what the meat once was.

“So do you and your brother have a hard time without help? I don’t really know what it would be like to be on my own…” Aminah wanted to know more about Keilana, but didn’t want to push her away with something she said. She hoped Keilana wouldn’t take offense to her interest.
 

[jayoku]

Needless to say Keilana was pretty sure that if tree's could come alive and sing they would do it just to delight the girl chatting her ear off. Looking at the spitorog..that god knows how it managed to catch up with them and STICK with them at this point was beyond her understanding she watched it spit some bubbles and then watched as its eyes unfocused and began to drift apart. Seriously who would want that as a pet??

"Eh....I dunno...it seems more stalker like to me.." Shivering as she had lost track of the amount of times that the stupid thing had shown up out of no where. When the conversation shifted to her and her brother she seemed more...irritated? No it was more like the wall she had up around her to keep people up just shot up another twenty feet.

"We manage." Keilana put it simply, after all she didn't want a pity party, "Jac and I both forage, I set traps and snares...I catch the meat, though Jac came from Jahaur forest one day with a bug...claiming we could eat it." The look on her face showed the disgust that still lingered on that memory. "Unfortunately it...did taste good.."  

[kaname423]

Aminah stuck her toungue out at the thought of eating a bug. “Yuck! A bug?” She laughed a little. “I don’t think I could have gone through with that, no matter how good it was supposed to taste.”

Aminah was enjoying her conversation with Keilana, though she could feel Keilana stiffen a little at the mention of her lifestyle with her brother. “I think it’s really neat that you guys can handle yourselves and live like you do. I don’t think I could ever survive away from home. I don’t know anything about gathering food or finding water, or any of the skills that I would need just to survive.” She didn’t want to make it seem like she thought that Keilana’s life was great or easy; “Not that you guys would choose to live the way you live. I’m sure it’s hard work.”

Aminah had yet to know a hard day of work in her life. Maybe the expedition would change that, her thoughts wandered for a moment to the adventures ahead. “Are you excited to finally go on the move and find out what’s happening?” Aminah smiled at Keilana.