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Chamiyu proweled about in the dense part of the forest inside the valley, creeping about like a stealthy black shadow in the twisting puzzle-like shade of the canopy. With her blue eyes wide and searching for something, the lioness was on the hunt. Then she froze.

Aha! There it was!

Chami rolled her shoulders back and pounced forward out of the bushes with a little playful roar, landing near a collection of purple flowered moss, "There you are, you sneaky little thing you." Chamiyu hissed at the plant, "I've been looking for you everywhere."

Chamiyu jerked her black head up, slightly startled from the unexpected voice and more at the fact that there were two lions before her. Both of them she had never seen before, but one of them looked like the mirror opposite of her mate, Mteuli. So he must be Mteuli's twin brother, Mteule. Grinning in embarrassment, the lioness replied with a laugh, "It has escaped me for so long, I think it's a surprise that I was able to find the Glossemer Moss out here."

Then, with a gentle incline of her head, Chami looked up at them with her blue eyes and asked, "Who are you? I can guess that you, "She gestured to Mteule, "Are Mteuli's brother...But I don't have the faintest idea who you are. Forgive me, I'm new here and all. And it seems that I've lost my manners! I'm Chamiyu."

"And it is a delight to finally meet more members of the family!" Chamiyu said with a flower-like smile, blooming onto her velvet black fur and pushing her cheeks into her happy blue eyes. She had been wondering where the rest of the clan was and, for a while, had the crazy thought that they had been avoiding her. But, convinced that this valley couldn't hold anything more than the pleasant folk she had been hearing about.

And then, in a joking manner and mocking playful voice, Chamiyu straightened her back as stiff as a tree and held her nose high in the air in an egotistical manner, "Yes, it is I. Chamiyu, the wanderer of the open plains, brought here to mingle within your kindred." She then slipped out of the disguise and giggled brightly, "Truely! It is alright. I forgive you! I would've been more like a stubborn clamshell had you found me right when I entered the colony. Now that I'm accustomed and used to this place, I'm more of myself."

Then turning to Mteule, she gave another charming and dazzling laugh of amusement, "It sounds like a disease the way you put it. You and your brother are truely blessed with the silver tongue! I've been wanting to meet the lion dear Mteuli has spoken so dearly about." She gave another smile and the lions could tell that she was pleased and excited to meet them both.

"So what is it that you two are out here for?" She asked in a child-like curiousity.

The lioness perked up with the notion of a festival. She had heard of them, but she didn't know much about the gatherings. After being alone for the entirety of her life up until now, Chamiyu had no notion as to what kinds of social functionings there were and what they would do in them. All that she heard was the word 'celebrate' and 'fun', really. Twisting her black ears back in embarressment, Chami confessed, "I've never been to a festival gathering before. I don't even know what they are! But, they way you speak of it sounds as if it is great. So, yes, indeed, I will join! You can't taste the fruit until you've tasted it, right?"

Chamiyu grinned and she lost her shyness once again, like a mist melting away from the sun, "Fruit gathering? There is a great spot by the creek you just passed. It's not that easy to see, but it is there. And there are many fruits there to be found." She offered, trying in her best way to help.

"Then I look forward to this festival. I'm positive that dear Mteuli will bring me there when it is time." Chamiyu giggled as the two males exchanged a friendly glower and haughty smile. Obviously, the two knew each other well, and they seemed almost like brothers. Was that how everyone in the valley treated each other? As one large family? Watching as Matifu circled around her and her plant, Chamiyu grinned at him, "This is actually the last batch I needed to find for today. So I'm free to show you this place I've found, but I'm afraid after that I need to head to my den so I can dry these properly." Chamiyu rolled her shoulders and then she laughed again, "Anything I can do to procrastinate on my own work!"

Leaning down, the black lioness carefully bit her plant from the stem in such a way that it left an angle. If you bit it the right way, the plant would grow again twice full as the last, and that's what Chamiyu intended. Lifting the plant delicately in her mouth, the lioness, with Mteule's help, dropped her plants into the carrier offered.

Then, with a flick of her bangs, Chamiyu nodded her head in the direction of the fruit gathering area she had discovered. "It's over this way. Come, we can talk while we walk." Then as an afterthought, she nodded and continued, "I've met the young Tamariku, blessed fellow he is. The poor thing has had such a rough life, but I'm positive that now it's going to get better from here on out."

"You are most welcome!" Replied the black lioness with a good-hearted laugh, "Thank you."

Chamiyu led them through the maze of rinkling shifting greenery til they came to the cool stream. The sun light fell like scattered rain betwixt the shadows and created an ever shifting pattern on the ground as the lions moved around in the masquerade-like forest. "It is amazing what lions can do, especially when it comes to survival. I'm just happy that Riku is still himself in heart and that the damage done will easily be healed with time. There will a scar remaining, yes, but that will hurt less with the years, I hope."

They came to a part of the stream, where, looking up, the lions could see bundles of ripe fruit hanging from the trees sagging branches. This place seemed untouched, unharvested for years so that the fruits were bontiful and ready to be picked.

"Here they are."

Chamiyu watched as the fruits came cascading down from the emerald heavens above them and she picked one of them up and placed it in Mteule's basket, beginning their gathering. Every time she glanced at Mteule, she thought of her mate Mteuli and her chest swelled with pride and love. She could read what thoughts flittering in the sky priest's mind and she smiled at them.

Then she gave another bell-like laugh, "A breath of fresh air? I haven't heard that one before. I like it!" Then she heard the comment about the seedlings and Chamniyu brightened with the thought, "That would be a fun exercise to keep the cubs entertained with. That and they'd learn to plant as well. With all this preparation, I'm getting more excited by the minute for the Moon festival."

"The Divide?" Asked Chamiyu in her child-like curiousity, "What is the Divide?" She leaned down again and picked up another bundle of fruit to place into the large tortoise shell, carefully sparing a glance upwards to watch Matifu's careful gracefull steps along the branches, causing a rain of sweet fruity bodies.