Welcome to Gaia! ::

The white and green lion drowsed in the warm sun. He was of average size for a male in the Pridelands, with his coloration and markings proclaiming his family line. A casual observer might even think he was asleep.

Anyone who knew Juadoa, however, would know better.

He thought best this way, with the sun gently warming his fur, his eyes closed to the interruptions of the outside world, and nothing at all needing his attention or skill as a hunter. It was a relaxing state of being, all the more perfect for contemplating the deeper truths of the world.

Many were convinced that gods walked the land. Juadoa himself had never seen such a creature, nor heard a firstpaw account of an encounter with one. Still, it was hard to deny the existence of gods in general, he thought, though it seemed odd for them to spend any time amongst mortal creatures.

But there were plenty of other subjects he could dwell on, besides the odd things gods might or might not do. Like breath. The very sustenance of life...

The noises of another lion nearby was neglegible, as far as Juadoa was concerned. There were lions everywhere in this area, and oftentimes they came quite close to him. But they simply weren't as important as his musings, at least to his frame of mind.

The lion nearby was a heavy breather. Did that make him different from Juadoa, who had trained himself to breathe as quietly as possible? He wondered if the other individual even noticed the sound of his heaving lungs - some people appeared not to, or else they simply didn't care.

So what did the heaviness of one's breath say about themself? Did his near-silent inhalations mark him as one who strove to be fairly unnoticed...or someone who desired mastery of his own body? Did the other lion's heavy breath mean he was an idiot? Or was he panicked? Perhaps simply hardworking. It could even be none of those suppositions, for all Juadoa knew.

How complex life was!

Juadoa had been intending on ignoring his would-be visitor, but enough slaps from his mother had trained him to recognize the signs of "hey, I want to have a conversation with you". Sighing inwardly, the white lion raised his eyelids, revealing pale purple irises which turned, with his head, to look at the heavy breather.

The lion was male, brown and older than Juadoa. He was fairly certain this male had been around and adult when the white lion was just a cub. Despite that, Juadoa had no idea who he was or what he wanted.

"You are far from faint," he observed flatly, acknowledging that the other was there.

"No," the white lion replied simply. He considered the other male before him. Perhaps he shouldn't just leave his response there. The brown lion seemed to want more. Very well then, more he would receive.

"I was not napping. Rather, I was contemplating the necessity of breath to our existence and what the manner of our breathing may or may not say about our character to one another. The nonverbal cues, if you will, that we normally do not think of when we interact with others." Hopefully that explanation would suffice. Juadoa didn't know enough about the brown lion to know what would assuage his curiosity.

He...appreciated it? Appreciated what? That Juadoa had answered his question? That the brown lion liked breathing? The white male had no idea at all what the stranger meant.

"I...see," was all he said instead. "Perhaps you could elaborate upon your opinion for me?" the white and green lion asked when it became clear that the other was not going to add to his statement.

Ah, that made more sense now. He was getting something of a feel for the brown lion now, that the other male was not a particularly philosophical person, and thus preferred tasks of a more physical nature. The world took and needed all types after all, so it didn't surprise Juadoa to encounter one such as him.

"That is indeed one way of viewing one's own breath," the white lion agreed. "Simplistic on the surface, but perhaps more meritable than one might ordinarily think." It was true, the more he considered the idea, the more depth he perceived. Work was, after all, effort. And there was a great deal of truth in the thought of the satisfaction one felt after completing a day's work. But how did a lion measure the work they had performed? Was it in the food they had gathered? The strain in their muscles? Or perhaps something even less obvious?

Certainly a worthy set of thoughts to ponder.

"A new thought is never a bother," Juadoa reassured the older lion. And it was true. That was the most valuable aspect of having a conversation with another person - they had the ability to open your eyes to a new way of looking at what you thought you knew, simply because no two creatures thought alike.

There were some, twins and others who were very close, that were said to think alike. But Juadoa knew that even twins had their differences. It was another thought worth considering; the ways that people were alike and different in their worldviews.

"Fare you well," Juadoa replied, settling back down to his meditation. It would take him quite some time to follow up on all the thoughts that the brown lion had prompted him towards.