Kisoni
Dawn was arguably Nyota's favorite time of day, though he had enjoyed more than a few sunsets as well. For the viewing of the dawn, this place was perfect, he had to admit. From the ledge he'd napped upon their first day on the Ocean's shore he watched the Sun's rise from the glistening Ocean horizon every morning that they'd been there, often rising far before his daughter, though oddly not before the 'king' of this land. It was strange that the male continued to say 'we' though there was less and less evidence of anyone but him having been there before Misae and Nyota had arrived. There was this "Kamaria" that Hadithi referred to on occasion, but they had yet to meet such a lioness.

Nyota was beginning to sense something was a little more than rotten in Kenya, and more and more he was certain this was not a place he should have taken his daughter. More importantly he shouldn't be leaving her alone in the mornings, and yet here he was far from the cave where that male could have--

The lion gave his head a great shake. Misae wasn't stupid or easy and Hadithi, for all that Nyota thought him insane, was a gentle sort of giant. While as thick as a rock, he had this childlike mentality that made him almost laughable to think of as any sort of potential danger. Yet, wasn't that also a perfect disguise? Nyota's own thoughts were torn on the entire situation, causing his fur to bristle and eyes to narrow in distaste. He'd rarely, if ever, allowed something to get him so riled. His ears twitched to the wind teasing them, his nose wrinkling against the stink of salt and fish.

It was pleasant in a fashion, once you got used to it, but every so often something rotten would wash upon the shore and ruin the area about it for a few days before the scavengers dealt with it. Nyota blinked rapidly to clear the sting of stench from his eyes, turning his head until the wind found itself a new direction to waft the putrid scent. "There are worse things in this world than your thoughts," A deep voice commented from off to the side.

Nyota turned, feigning calm at being snuck up on in such a manner. Behind him, from around a bolder, Hadithi appeared without his typical, idiotic grin. The green lion found his favor leaning more towards calculation than true idiocy, if only for the way that Hadithi's personality appeared to fluctuate so easily. It was a mirror of Nyota's own ways and he found that he didn't like it in the least, especially where his daughter was concerned. "That was what it was saying; do not think to harshly of its ways."

"More words from you, but little sense," Nyota responded as harshly and bluntly as he had ever done. His attitude prickled the air about them, taking the morning stillness and tossing it into the flames of the sun as it peaked above the water's edge. He turned his head from the newcomer to look back across the water, the gesture an obviously rude one.

"Misae speaks to the wind, why does it make so little sense coming from someone who is not she?" Hadithi retorted. He had known from the day they had met that Nyota didn't care for him for whatever reason. Hadithi suspected, though he had no proof, that it had something to do with Misae herself. He crossed the cliff to settle near Nyota without the slightest thought to Nyota attacking him.

Those green eyes had fastened on him again, Hadithi saw that through his peripheral vision but didn't respond to it. Nyota slowly drew his eyes down and back up the other male's bulk, giving him the closest inspection Hadithi had ever indured. Somehow this still didn't anger him as it might have another; rather, he was saddened by the distrust given to him. Had he done something untrustworthy?

"She may speak to the wind," Nyota responded slowly, "But that is just childish fancy. What she really is, is a seer. The wind cannot speak."

Hadithi's brows raised into his mane and he turned his head to look at the other male. His daughter may have shared the Kizingo'zaa way without knowing it, but the father did not. Strange, though he supposed it wasn't unheard of; after all, their family had ebbed and flowed with those that believed joining and those that did not leaving. Even in their people there were cubs born that could not accept the muses, for they were not ready to realize the meaning of their existence on this planet. It was sad, but it was the truth of things. "It speaks," He responded as politely as was possible, "To those who are willing to listen. Do not write your daughter off so easily."

"What I do with my daughter is my buisiness," Nyota snapped, "And you will do well to remember that." After a pause Nyota continued more calmly, "You would also be wise to remember that her well being is my priority, and I'll not have her head washed with such insanity."

His own adamant attitude towards the issue bothered him, but Nyota didn't wish Hadithi to know that. It was hard to accept that he'd grown to care so much for another, harder yet to say that he was willing to fight to protect her from such a perceived threat. Attempting to control himself was proving harder and harder; though he didn't wish to attack the other male, he did want to do him harm in some way... or to simply take Misae from this place. Feeding her insanity couldn't be good for her.

"Insanity?" Hadithi couldn't help but be a little offended by that. "We are not insane!"

"And there it is again!" Nyota jumped upon the strange inconstancy he'd been mulling over earlier. "'We'! You continue to use that term despite their being no evidence of anyone other than yourself in this land!"

A sigh racked through Hadithi's form suddenly. This was a subject he'd rather the elder male hadn't brought up, for all that he had finally come to terms with the deaths. "My sister has gone on a journey, called by the Stars, as I've said." He ignored Nyota's derisive snort, "As for the others..."

Hadithi looked up at the slowly disappearing moon, smiling at its last, final look upon their world before it pulled its blanket of stars about itself for slumber. "The others returned to the muses long ago, taken by sickness as, I've heard tale, many others of other lands were taken. I myself had it, but I survived where they did not. Only four of us made it alive."

"Four?"

"Yes, but my grandparents were old, even then. They held on as long as they could, forcing themselves away from their much deserved slumber in order to teach Kamaria and I. Death cannot be run from for long, and they went with the ages a few suns before you and your daughter appeared on our shore."

Nyota considered this, weighing it against his will to believe anything this odd lion cared to tell him. He was a storyteller, that much was certain, as announced by every carefully chosen word that dripped from his dark furred maw. He wasn't certain he believed it, and yet what proof was there that he was not speaking the truth? Save, of course, the continued absence of this "Kamaria." Nyota shook his head once more, "That does not explain your persistent belief in voices that do not exist."

Hadithi forced back a sigh. For a moment he'd thought himself free of the other male's scrutiny. It wasn't to be and so he tried to let himself forget the momentary relief and concentrate on the task at hand. "They are not imaginary," Both sides glared at the invisible but solid brick wall between them, "Which is why I believe in them. Everything about us is alive and it all will speak if we give it the chance to; even trees, though they are slow to form words, slower yet with sentences--a speech from one may last weeks."


Kisoni
A snort issued from the lion beside him and Hadithi's eyes cut towards him, something akin to anger bubbling in their ocean-blue depths. The green lion hadn't missed that, however. The laughter died and his throat and he raised his brow and once more the tension grew tangible between them. Minutes of unnatural silence reigned between them, not even the usually constant breeze dared to break it; the feeling crackling in the air was so great the passing of an ant might have instigated blows between the pair.

Nothing moved, however, until Nyota finally turned his head fully from the 'boy' in his presence, looking out along the opposite stretch of beach. The tawny lion relaxed behind him, shame not yet creeping over his ears for acting as he had, though it would reach him in time. Force was never a way to prove your beliefs superior to another's; no, only words or song was of use for that. Briefly Hadithi considered putting his thoughts to the wind's music, indeed he felt the Wind tug about his mane to urge him and the Ocean offered its splashing chorus for back up, but Hadithi declined. No, acting more the "loon" with this one would never help his cause, despite how much that rubbed against Hadithi's fur.

"Let us say that they are not imaginary," Nyota's voice cut through the air like a bell. Though the words seemed to be more malable than before there was still that stinging tone behind them that screamed his mind would never be changed; Hadithi tried to ignore this and denied there was anything more than face value to the other male's suggestion. "Let us say that you and your kind do speak to and are answered by the flora and fauna and earth about us...... what good does it do for us?"

Those emerald eyes were upon Hadithi again, the male gave the faintest of shudders. There was something nearly serpentine about that gaze. While that wasn't necessarily a bad thing all about, as he'd met some very sweet snakes indeed, a dangerous snake's gaze was not one you ever forgot once you'd seen it; it was most unsettling to see that same sort of look from the face of a lion. Perhaps, the idle part of his mind whispered insolently, Nyota's muse was a snake. Hadithi huffed at that, but turned the noise into a cough so as not to upset his guest again. "It teaches us the way to become muses again, to find that peace and fullness of being that we lost to become this way."

"Become what way?" The eyes flickered and in Hadithi's imagination it seemed as if the lids had come from the sides rather than the top and bottom.

Forcing his gaze further from Nyota's was difficult but not impossible. Straightening his back a little further, more for posture than any semblance of pride, Hadithi found himself slipping into the training his grandfather had long since ingrained into his mind and heart. "Everything around us is perfect for itself; it is what it is and no other. The Ocean can be nothing more than the Ocean, the Sand must be the Sand; the Owl is the Owl and the Hyena is the Hyena. All these things move in harmony with one another and perform their dances and songs of life everyday. It is only we lions who are out of psych with everything else. This is because lions are not Muses, where everthing else is. We are the Fallen Muses, the ones who somehow became imperfect and must once more learn to regain that perfection...."

Hadithi trailed off as another faint snort came from his companion. He offered him a dour look, but continued on, "No, there isn't any of us that will ever achieve this perfection."

"Then why try?"

"Because trying means that we have not given up on ourselves. In trying to accomplish a task, even one that may seem or even be impossible, you make a statement that says that you care about what you're trying for. You care enough to spend your life searching for this, and that is what gives us perfection when we have shed the mortal flesh and returned to the muse which birthed us."

"So, what' you're saying," Nyota replied slowly, as if his mind were a blanket too small what it would cover, "Is that you attempt to live your life as if you were a muse, and when you die you become a muse?"

Hadithi cracked a smile. Though the other didn't sound as if he believed him, it was still a beginning of sorts. "Yes... and no. We don't just strive to be any muse, though we talk to them all the same. There is always the one muse that will claim you in particular. This is the muse you came from originally, such as I am of the Ocean, so the Ocean is my main teacher. It has taught me many things and when I die, I will rejoin the Ocean and teach other lost Oceans how to return home."

This time the snort was much less derisive, though there was no true comment from the other lion. Nyota instead continued to lay there, watching the waters that stretched out in front of them. Hadithi stayed there with him, watching as the sun grew out of the deep blue, sending glimmering lights across the waves. Eventually it threw off the blanket of blue entirely and jumped into the sky, lighting it white and blue and puffy. The sight was extraordinary but neither male made comment of it. Soon after Hadithi rose and retreated back into his jungle.