[PRP] Earth and Sky (Anatola/Kuari)

[jinxgirl5]

Kuari was in a very cheerful mood as he bounced from tree limb to tree limb, traveling through the canopy rather than on the ground like normal foxes did. The trees here weren't as big as the ones in the forest where he usually frequented and the branches a lot smaller, but he still moved around as comfortably as a squirrel.

He was on his way to visit a friend who lived in a tribe. She'd assured him that it was alright, Orestes was a learning tribe and welcomed visitors. Last time he'd seen her she'd hurt her ankle during her scouting job so they hadn't really be able to do much besides chat a bit. After that Kuari had vanished on a hunting trip that had turned into something of very long hunting trip as weather and distractions hit around that time.

But he was finally back and maybe if he was lucky Anatola's ankle would have healed! He'd promised to teach her how to climb and move through trees once it had.  

[Nasaiki]

Anatolia looked up at the sky where she was currently looking at different cloud shapes. She was actually taking a break from her scouting duties today and just relaxing. Luckily her ankle had healed up quiet nicely a while back and she had been back to getting back in trouble and exploring. Contrary to her youngest brother, who was actually still her older brother she did like relaxing every once in a while.

Still she normally liked to keep busy to cheer herself up. Out of all her siblings she wasn’t the one that was moving on with her life. Apparently three of her siblings had mated and where even trying for children and the other two where in very promising dates or at least that’s what Anatolia had heard from her mother. Sure she was the only one in a tribe but she kind of wanted some one special too.

Which was why she often threw herself into the things she loved doing. After all she was supposed to be the most like her mother and a little mafia princess in training. Ye gasp she ever feel down. Which was ridiculous as well considering her mother had her down moments as well. Hmm on a happier note wasn’t she supposed to have a friend come and visit her? Ah well Amali hadn’t come to visit she shouldn’t be to surprised Kuari hadn’t shown up either?
 

[jinxgirl5]

Kuari paused on a tree branch, looking over the giant entrance to the cave in front of him. He supressed a small shudder at the thought of going inside the earth, and looked around expectantly. Didn't Anatola say her job was to explore the caves? He didn't see her around at all.

.....Wait, she'd said caves. Like more than one. He shook his head, wondering how many caves this places had. In his opinion if any place had caves at all then it only needed one, or if there were to be mutliple caves they should just be those hollows that made good dens and didn't stretch down deep into the earth.

Well, Anatola wasn't here. Kuari resumed his walk circling around the mountain and searching for more caves. He came across two others with no sign of his friend, and began to feel a little bummed out. How many caves did this place have! Was he even in the right place? But with determination he decided to press on to another cave, and as many as it took until he found Anatola. That being said he really didn't expect to find her at the next one, so when he did finally find the dark female he had to do a double take to make sure he wasn't just seeing things.

Yes! It was really her! His previous excitement swelled back into his chest, expanding so quickly he couldn't contain it.

"Found you," he crowed happily, dropping from the tree in a controlled fall so quickly it would have frightened a climbing novice into thinking he had truly fallen. Instead he landed lightly, almost soundlessly, and trotted over to Anatola with the happiest grin on his face.  

[Nasaiki]

Being in a learning tribe, she probably shouldn’t spend the whole day just staring at the clouds. As a teacher she had a lot to do. Of course she wasn’t a cave dweller so even she needed to come out and visit the outside world. Maybe she could do some exploring again. There was that lovely flower she had found.

Come to think of it she had wanted to send the flower to her mom. Then again her Mom did like moving around a lot, even though Anatolia was pretty sure Amaidi had gone back to her first cave where she and Mercury had first started being mates, which unfortunately was pretty far away. Maybe she could bring the flower to Hermes? He was dating Csistri even if he denied it with all his fiber.

A weird face paced over her features as she thought of Hermes reaction. He probably wouldn’t like getting a flower, and Csistri wasn’t exactly the most feminine girl liking Hermes mostly for his experiments and stuff. Would she like the flower? Maybe this was a sign to figure something else to do for the day. Flower exploring wasn’t looking to promising. She really needed to make another friend in the tribe or something to spend her days with.

Speaking of friends, a familiar face suddenly entered her field of vision as Kuari of all people suddenly spoke up. She watched as he fell from the tree still slightly surprised and wondering if the boredom had affected her so badly she was seeing things. Hmm she was pretty sure that didn’t happen, and Kuari had mentioned he was going to try to see her, even though that was ages ago. Hmm from the sound of things he had been looking for her for a while and she really needed to speak up and say something right? “Yeah I would say I’ve been found. It’s good to see you again Kuari” Anatolia finally decided.
 

[jinxgirl5]

Kuari finally reached Anatola and gave himself a hard shake, sending flying the bits of bark and pine needles that had been sticking to his fur. He gave Anatola a suffering expression.

"Kuari was searching and searching for Anatola, but he couldn't find her!" He made a face. "Anatola says lives near caves, but caves everywhere here." He shuddered a little. "Kuari doesn't like down-in-earth caves, cold and dark and close. Couldn't go in looking for Anatola, had to keep looking for new caves and hope Anatola was outside one of them instead!"

His expression turned a bit more cheerful. "But Kuari found you, so is alright now!" He was really glad he hadn't had to chance going in any of the caves to look for her. Not that he'd have gotten further than a couple of feet before he'd have wussed out, anyway.  

[Nasaiki]

Anatolia watched with a slightly amused expression as Kuari went to clear himself of debris and rolled back and up onto her feet. Well hadn’t she asked for something to help make her day a bit more exciting?

“Well I live near a set of caves that are in the mountain yes, but I do occasionally go up for air, like today” She stated with a smile. She felt a little warm that he had obviously been searching for her for a while, although she did wonder why the visit had taken so long. Something had probably come up though and she was taught not to go prying.

“Well sorry you had to go searching for so long, since the caves actually go on for quite a while” Anatolia stated. She would have felt terrible if he had waited for the day for her to come out of the cave since normally she got very absorbed into exploring. “Well I’m glad you found me then”
 

[jinxgirl5]

Kuari’s face was a comic mask of dismay as he shook his head so hard his ears flopped about. “Oh no! No no no no no,” he said emphatically. “Kuari does not like caves, does not like at all! Air and water tastes like rocks! Daaaark and cold, no sun down there.” He shook his head again, though this time not as hard. “Kuari is not liking going into earth. He prefers being above it with sun and sky!”

Not that he truly condemned caves. He’d heard enough stories about the wonders you could find among the rocks that he was actually interested, but he just couldn’t get past that gut-deep fear of the earth closing down on him every time he tried going down under the ground. Shame, since one had to go into the caves to see their wonders.

Even worse than that, the thought of getting lost in the caves, never to see the sky or feel the sun on his face again…

Kuari quickly tried to think of something else before he started shuddering and Anatola could tease him for it. “Kuari very glad he finally found Anatola too,” he said. “Glad he doesn’t have to keep looking at more holes in earth. Place has too many holes in earth. Good trees though,” he admitted. “Lots and lots, nice and tall and good for walking in.”  

[Nasaiki]

Anatolia shook her head at Kuari’s sudden panic of caves. She couldn’t really understand being afraid of something as she loved exploring all sorts of things. “It doesn’t smell like rocks always, after all some of the cleanest water you can get you can find down there, and sure at first it does smell a little like rocks but there are enough.” Anatolia pointed out with a smile on her face to show she at least understood his want not to go into said caves.

It was a bit sad that she wouldn’t be able to show her caves to her new friend but she was hardly going to force Kuari down there. “However its okay, everyone has something that they are really afraid of. Besides I think you promised to show me how to climb better right?” She pointed out trying to shift towards happier topics.

“Well I guess the Modeity here wanted all sorts of different environments since its about learning different things. “ Anatolia mused. There where a good number of trees she had to agree. She had looked at them, but she never really liked to go climbing up them before. However the scenery here was very lovely to look at. “Well next time we’ll definitely have to work on arranging a time to meet so I’m not stuck in the caves, although one of my tribe members should know where I am… I think” she hadn’t really talked to more than one or two of them
 

[jinxgirl5]

Kuari nodded, looking much happier now that the topic had shifted. “Yes, very good day for climbing. Sky bright and sun warm, but not too warm, and no breeze to make tree shift and sway.” He grinned at Anatola. “Kuari very good at climbing trees, shift and sway not bother him at all, but ground-lovers get really nervous when high up off ground and under their feet is moving.”

He didn’t Anatola would be scared of climbing, but since she spent a lot of time in caves and on firm, solid ground he would be more than willing to bet an over-night stay in said caves that she would not like standing or moving around on the thinner branches high up in the trees with the wind going. Heck, all you needed was a faint breeze and you’d get the branches moving. A lot of foxes freaked out once they got a few branches up and realized that trees were a lot less unmoving than they looked from the ground.  

[Nasaiki]

Anatolia nodded, being up that high wouldn’t scare her at all, and after all she tended to get into extremely high and dangerous places as a child, something her mother often scolded her for. She didnt think she would mind much being in a tree. However she would take it carefully as she did just heal her last sprain. “I will take your word for it, I noticed how you fell, and it was rather skilled”

“Shall I show you around now that you’re here” Anatolia asked. She was trying to remember her manners since it was practically forever since she had a friend over, actually she hadn’t been able to show anyone she was close with her home, It was kind of sad. She made a mental note to bring her mother and maybe her father here as soon as she could. Her mother had been talking about visiting after all. She should probably ask her elder to be if it was okay, but her tribe often took others in to teach them about different things so Anatolia was sure it would be fine. Plus she had no idea where he was since he liked to disappear to different places and journey around a lot.
 

[jinxgirl5]

Kuari laughed. “Was not falling,” he corrected. “Was jumping! Is like climbing down, but very very fast! Then jump from tree when close enough to ground not to break leg. Or head,” he added with another grin, giving said appendage a little shake to emphasize his words.

“Kuari would like to see Anatola home,” he continued, looking around with interest. “No want caves, no no, but lots of above cave to see yes? Kuari see that, Anatola show him, he sure he like Anatola home.” He looked behind her with interest not at the cave opening, but at the rocks around it.

“Kuari one day like to try to climb rocks,” he confided to his friend. “Only done not much before, harder than climb trees! Not so easy to grab hold to, must be veeery careful. But fun, much challenge!” He gave Anatola another cheerful grin. “Anatola home got lots of rocks, maybe Kuari try to climb some while he here.”  

[Nasaiki]

“Jumping, not falling got it. Well I’m more of a cave climber so I’ll take your word for it” Anatolia commented with an amused little smile. She believed him though; he would obviously have a few tricks that she wouldn’t know about having stayed on the ground for the most part.

It took her a second to piece together what Kuari had stated. Some times it was hard to follow his talking. However Anatolia never really thought of Kuari as slow in the head or anything. She could tell that he was pretty smart and there had to be a reason for him to talk like that. In fact one of her friends growing up also spoke weird.

“Hmmm whats a good starting place” Anatolia thought out loud. The one place she knew pretty well was out of the question. Anatolia did like showing off her caves but Kuari was obviously pretty uncomfortable about the whole thing. However there were some open caves that really couldn’t be considering a cave they could probably go past, she wouldn’t bring him under them just in case they where close enough to a cave. “ah the outside lake”
 

[jinxgirl5]

“Ah, sounds very good! Kuari not see what since sun start go up, would like to see lake place very much,” he said; that drink he’d had this morning had worn quite thin, and he could feel thirst beginning to tickle the back of his throat now that he wasn’t so focused on trying to find Anatola.

“Why say outside though,” he asked with a curious tilt of his head. “Aren’t all lakes outside? Very big, don’t think could fit inside.” He gave the cave another quick, brief glance. Of course he’d never gone very far in them, but in one or two he had come across water. Tiny pools, not even big enough to rate the name “pond” let alone “lake”.

Could there actually be caves big enough to hold entire lakes under the earth? The thought was fascinating, yet also highly disconcerting; if being underground and in the oppressive dark was bad, Kuari hated to think of what it would be like to also be tossed in a large body of water!  

[Nasaiki]

Anatolia smiled glad that their first starting place had been picked out, she just had to remember the way to it now, normally she took one of the cave entrances but that was out. Well she was a scout so it was her job to be able to find it even if it wasn’t part of her normal area, and she had been there once before.
“Well because we have two other lakes, ones pretty deep in a cave and the top is all covered with stalactites, although you should only go into it during the day, it has enough holes that you get a pretty decent amount of light, but at night its pitch dark and the ground is rather bumpy. Actually most rivers and lakes start from something underground” Anatolia began teaching and then blushed. “Ah sorry for um spamming you with all that info. Towards the lake now?”
Sure it was natural to start talking to foxes about her caves since she was the one that taught other foxes about scouting such areas but she really needed to have an off mode, she was supposed to be having an off day not trying to teach her friend.
 

[jinxgirl5]

Kuari followed after Anatola, walking at a casual pace beside her but with her head cocked sideways so reminiscent of a bird that it was a wonder he didn’t have a kink on his neck from it or that he hadn’t managed to run into anything.

“Kuari don’t know this word, spaaa-ming,” he said, drawing it out as though it was something foreign. “What word mean? Sound like kind of fish. Is a fish? But Kuari don’t see fish,” he asked, muttering the last sentence to himself in a contemplative kind of way. But while he was actually not an easily distracted fox, he put that little bit of information aside for later to pursue something else Anatola had said.

“Water come from underground,” he asked, eyes wide and amazed. “No wonder Kuari not like swim very much, though far and deep anyway,” he corrected. “Lots fun when hot outside and no wind in trees to cool Kuari down.”

A thought suddenly occurred to him. “Oh! Does spahming fish come from underground water,” he asked brightly, wondering what such a fish might look like.