Another week or so had passed before Esona bumped into Rieseln again. The blue lioness was out and about, letting the baboon that had made her satchel patch it up while she waited. The baboon had been very apologetic which was nice, and Esona had let her know that if it broke again she'd be taking her business elsewhere, thank you very much. She was a busy lioness that didn't have time for her important things to be breaking! It was while she was walking around killing time that she spotted the while lioness, picking through some of the tall grass.

"Hey, Rieseln, right?" Esona called out with a grin. The white lioness lifted her head in surprise, a bit of dirt on her nose. When she saw who was calling out to her she smiled and shook her head to rid it of the dirt, then headed over to Esona.

"Yes, that's right, Esona?" Ries asked, to which she got a nod. "Great! Ah, it's good to see you again." She looked the lioness over and noticed her little pouch that had broken the last time they had met was nowhere in sight. "Oh...did your little bag not make it?"

"What? Oh, no, it's being repaired right now," Esona said with a little nod. "And if it breaks again, I'm finding me a new baboon to make me stuff like that! Sheesh, you'd think since they have opposable thumbs they'd know how to use them properly."

The comment made Ries laugh, even if she did feel badly for the baboon. Esona was a blunt lady, that much was obvious, and she could only hope the baboon she was dealing with had tough skin. "Well, I'm glad it's on the mend," she said with a fond smile. "I never did ask what it was for. You seemed to be carrying a lot of stuff with you, wherever you were going."

"Hm? Oh, I'm a medic. The pouch carries my medical things. Herbs, potions, things like that," Esona hummed as she lifted a paw to wipe the last of the dirt off of Rieseln's nose. "And I was off to the rogue lands to assist some passers by that had a sick lion in their party. Just a case of the sniffles, though, nothing that was too dangerous."

Ries turned a bit red under her fur as Esona brushed off her nose for her. Dang, she shouldn't have been sniffing around in the dirt so intently! "Oh, a medic. That's a lovely profession," she said as she wiped her nose once more just for good measure. "And that would make sense then, to have to carry so many things around you'd definitely need a pouch or something like that. I'm glad the lion was okay," she added, smiling a bit more. Funny how on her way to the rogue lands, she had been stopped by someone else who was going out to help a rouge in need. What were the odds?

"Mm. Nothing I couldn't handle," Esona said with a confident grin. "I've been practicing medicine before there was even a healer rank! I had this dream when I was little to be the best huntress the Pridelands had ever seen, but once I got older, I realized I was awful at it. I'm good at making a distraction but that's about it. So once I realized that dream had bit the dust, I focused more on my natural talents for helping others. I'd always been good at cleaning wounds when I was younger, I just never really realized that I could do that for my job."

Up until very recently she couldn't but now that the new ranks were implemented she could without feeling like she was slacking off. Ries gave a soft 'ooh' of understanding once Esona was done, nodding with a grin on her face.

"That's great! I'm glad you found your calling. I'm still sort of looking for mine. I was...well. A bit pampered back in my last pride. I'm a seer, and the other lions and cheetahs in the pride would come to me and ask me why they had lost a race. I'd use my powers to look into the past to see what had gone wrong. So lots of people would bring me gifts and praise me but...after a while it got boring."

Esona listened to the story with raised brows, very interested in what Ries had to say. "I didn't know you're a seer," she pointed out, reaching out again to gently swat Ries' shoulder. 'That's so cool! I don't think I know any seers...well, now I do, but before I didn't."

"It's not that cool," Ries said with a little shrug. "I mean, I can see why those who aren't a seer think it's cool. But after a while, all the attention became sort of suffocating. At first it was just bothersome to be hounded everywhere I went, but then it was annoying, and then I couldn't take it anymore. That's why I left my pride. And I have to say I've never been happier since doing that.'

"Aw, good for you," the blue female said with a nod. "Sometimes it's hard to make decisions like that, but you seem like you knew exactly what you wanted."

"Mm! And now I'm here," Rieseln said with a wide smile. There had been a fling and some cubs between now and then, but Esona didn't need to know that. "And I think I'll stay for a while yet. Thanks for talking me into staying, by the way," she said before her ears twitched. "Oh....I think Hadaya is looking for me. It was so nice to see you again!" she said, standing up as she spoke. "I hope we come across one another another time,"

"The same to you," Esona said with a grin. "Have fun!" She watched the other female go, shaking her head, before resuming her little walk around Pride rock. Hopefully when she got back the baboon would be done with her bag and she could go on her merry way.

FIN
WC: 1025