[PRP] What is home? [??? & Ninau]

[Das Tor]

He didn't used to go towards the borders so often. Not when they lived within the swamps. But more and more, Ninau had found his paws gravitating towards the border. And not just any part of the border. He always found himself along the border that, if he crossed over it, could lead him in the direction of the ruined swamps. Of home.

Home.

That word was so strange now. Once, it had conjured up the image of the safety of trees and water and mud. Of islands and wet lions greeting one another as they swam past each other. Of fireflies and frogs and toads. Now it was supposed to be cold rock and strange plantlife and creatures that wouldn't last a day in the swamps. It was cubs born never knowing the warm embrace of the place he'd grown up in.

Sighing and shaking his head, Ninau sat at the border, looking wistfully in the direction of the ruined swamps. Perhaps one day, they could return home...

Tanakako

 

[Tanakako]

((She isn't a pilgrim any longer, I've just lost her cert.))



Renáta sighed softly as she crossed the boarder into the pride. Of course she loved her home, her family was here, her mother and father and all her friends, or at least those that had come back from their pilgrimages... But for her, her home was still back there... behind her.

She had started a habit of visiting the old swamps almost directly they had finished settling into the new prideland. The mountain was fine and dandy, if somewhat colder than she was used to, but she missed the place where she was born and where her parents had courted... Her pilgrimage had been interrupted by the move, though she had been due to go back, the migrants had found her first.

Shaking her head she paused to clean the dried mud from her coat, rubbing up against a nearby tree. She didn’t think anyone would mind her visits, but it was always best to be cautious...

Das Tor

 

[Das Tor]

He hadn't expected another so near, but it seemed he had company. He caught the scent long before he spotted her, bearing markings vaguely familiar to him. Well...just about everyone was vaguely familiar when you grew up in a tight-knit pride. Everyone had seen everyone else in the Jini-msemi, and new faces were easy to spot. But she was not a new face and...

Was that dried mud on her?

Curiosity piqued, Ninau stood and made his way over to the female. He was rather wanting to know where she'd found mud in this place. "Good day, pride-sister."

Tanakako

 

[Tanakako]

The guardian started as a voice spoke up behind her. Turning, the last bits of dried mud flaking from her legs, she cast about for the owner of the voice, almost immediatly finding him. Relief filled her expression before she mastered it, managing to give him an easy, confident smile as if she had not just been caught red-pawed.

"Indeed it is, pride-brother." She responded, giving her back leg a subtle flick to try and loose the last of the evidence of her out-of-pride adventure. She studied him for a moment. His markings were incredibly familiar but she couldn't place him. Was he the son of someone her father Szürke had known? Or maybe her mother Avichayil'Cayla, who was after all of Jini decent, as opposed to her rogue-born father.

Giving up she gave him a smile. "Visiting the boarder?" Nudging her chin towards the open plains below them she kept her guilt hidden. Though he had quite possibly seen her arrival as it was... At least as a Guardian she had a reason to be wandering round near the roguelands.

Das Tor

 

[Das Tor]

It seemed he had caught her doing something. Though...depending on things, he couldn't really judge her for it. "Yes, I am. Reflecting on days gone past, and pondering the 'why's of the spirits." He didn't question the will of the spirits, really...but he couldn't help but wonder the whats and whys. And perhaps how to better appease the spirits as a result of that knowledge. "You?" Perhaps she'd simply gone to the base of the mountain. A journey in and of itself, really. And perhaps there was mud somewhere along the way.

Tanakako

 

[Tanakako]

She nodded at his answer, finally getting the last of the mud off her coat by flicking her tail against her leg, disguising the movement by pretending it was a fly bothering her.

"Ahh, well, who knows why the Spirits do anything? I am sure it is not for us to understand, or at least that is what Papa always told me." She gave a slight shrug, not knowing how else to answer. She herself was not happy about them over several matters, but she would never speak out against them. Though weather it was respect or a healthy dose of superstitious fear she couldn't say.

His question made her grin faintly, the expression lop-sided. "Out for a walk.. I like to get a change of view every once in a while." Well... it wasn't a lie, exactly.

Das Tor

 

[Das Tor]

"I simply wish to know how better to appease them." Perhaps if they'd known...they wouldn't have lost their home. "It's rather hard to if you don't know what they want. Rather like lions, really." Just...not visible to them in a way they knew.

A walk? Hm. Interesting. "I rather got my fill of changes with my name quest, and then...coming here." He was obviously unhappy about that last bit. "No offense to those of you who still like the change of view, though."

Tanakako

 

[Tanakako]

She huffed an agreement. "It would be easier, for sure." She acknowledged, glancing up at the mountain that was their home now. She still wasn't convinced that the Spirits had followed them. What if they had been left back at the swamp? What would happen to them? And to the pride?

Shaking her head she studied him a moment but finally decided to come clean. Especially as it seemed he was of a similar sentiment to herself. "I went to visit the swamps. I miss the old land." She shrugged, turning her head away, clearly embarrassed.

Das Tor