[PRP] Wondering minds [Zalediti x Tseva ]

[mouselet]

Tseva was going about life as normal. It wasn't as if the Mwezi'Johari was that different from the Jini-msemi. Well, this wasn't a swamp or a mountain (the latter a point in its favor, to be certain), but there were still mouths to feed which could only be done by hunting.

And if the lions around her weren't the ones she'd grown up with, and if she wasn't related to most of them...that wasn't such a big deal. In the latter case, her mate Avahk certainly was!

And true, there had been some big fuss just before Avahk left to find her, but as Tseva had scarcely known the pride under the old rulers, she didn't really have a valid opinion on the subject. Nor, to be frank, did she really care. This was home now because this was where Avahk lived. If the day came when he wanted to leave the Mwezi, well, Tseva would be right there by his side. She'd lost one home and given up a second already. What was a third compared to losing the lion she loved?

These were the thoughts running through the black lioness' head as she walked. Looking up, she saw another lioness, blue with stripes, who looked vaguely familiar in a "she must be another member of the pride" kind of way that so many lions that Tseva didn't know looked familiar.

"Good evening!" she called out to the other, drawing nearer.  

[mouselet]

"Sort of!" the dark lioness replied with a smile. "I was here before, more than a year ago, but now I'm here to stay," she elaborated for the other lioness. Amazing, to think that she'd first come to the Mwezi more than a year ago. How time flew! And in that time, she'd survived a fire, raised a litter, and come back to what she was going to make her new home.

Tseva wasn't sure that she wanted to add more to that statement, sure, there were lions who were curious and interested about other prides, but she had no way of knowing if the blue female was one of them, and didn't want to offend the other.

Or maybe she was just shy, and a bit nervous.  

[mouselet]

"Oh, you have family here besides a mate?" Tseva was intrigued by the fact that the blue lioness had joined this pride in part because she already had relatives living here. The way she'd said it, the black lioness couldn't be certain if they'd all been born here or not. The children, probably. The sister...maybe not.

It was an interesting concept. She was fully aware that many Jini-msemi pilgrims chose not to return home, preferring to take up residence in a pride they encountered on their name quest. But she'd yet to meet any of those transient lions.

"I don't know where most of my family is anymore," she murmured, not to the other lioness, but still audibly, if someone was listening closely.  

[mouselet]

Tseva blinked in surprise at the other lioness. She didn't have a mate? It wasn't unheard of, sure, but if she didn't, why join a pride? Surely not just because of her sister, right?

"Well...why would you join a pride if you didn't have a mate already in it?" the black female asked, confusion clear in her voice. She couldn't imagine wanting to live apart from her family (meaning, of course, her parents, grandparents, etc.) if she didn't have some stronger bond holding her in place.

But Tseva had to smile at the blue female's confusion about her not knowing where her family was. It was, surprisingly, a common reaction she'd found on her quest. But apparently most prides didn't expect so much of their adolescents.

"Among my people, when a lion reaches adolescence, they are sent out into the world to find their true name. Sometimes they return, but oftentimes they don't, and unless if they send word or someone picks up news of them, we never know what happened to them," Tseva explained.  

[mouselet]

Huh. So...she wanted to be a spinster aunt? Well, Tseva didn't mean to think of the other lioness in such a cruel light, but it was just weird to join a pride in order to help as your sister's nanny. It was her private opinion that the blue lioness needed to get a life, and maybe a mate, of her own.

The black lioness snorted softly. A happy place? Well, there were positives to living in the Mwezi, but the happiest place in her life would always be the swamp. But that wasn't an option anymore.

"Yes, I came back to live with my beloved, Avahk," she answered. Tseva considered adding in that he was the father of her children, but that seemed unnecessary, especially as they had been raised on the mountain, left on the name quests, and had never met their father once.  

[mouselet]

Brown eyes blinked in suprirse at the blue lioness' sudden and unexpected departure. Had Tseva offended her? She hadn't meant to...

"Goodbye!" she called out after the other female, still trying to figure out what she'd done wrong. Had she reacted wrongly to something the other had said? Had she inadvertantly said something cruel?

The Huntress continued on the path she'd been walking earlier, musing over what had gone wrong all the way back to her den.