[ORP]Settling In (Tarina)[FIN]

[fenshae]

Tarina had been back in the pride for a few weeks now, and it was definitely good to be back. She didn't recognize many faces, to be sure, but that wasn't much to deter the spider-marked lioness; indeed, the more new faces, the merrier, because Tarina loved nothing more than meeting people for the first time. First impressions had a sort of magical quality that made them especially appealing -- you never knew what to expect, and everything seemed possible.

She was wandering, mostly, around the pride lands, enjoying a leisurely day with nothing to do but find someone to amuse. After all, wasn't that her duty? She supposed she probably had some other, more official, job duties, but so long as she was finding somebody to hear a story...well, that was close enough.

Humming to herself, the dark-coated female wove through trees, orange eyes flicking over the area, all of her senses on alert for someone to talk to. She wondered briefly what Vieras was up to, and how things were going with his lady-friend, and made note to check up on him later. For now, though, it was something different that she was looking for, and although she wasn't sure exactly who she hoped to find....she'd know what she wanted when she saw it.  

[Yin-Bug]

If she had already met Vieras she had already met some of the crazily large family that was in the Nchi pride, part of it started when Isithunzi had Mawi and Mawi's sisters. Mawi had two litters one including her most recent one, where Kirja was born into.

The little stripped lioness was excited to wake up this morning, both of her parents were going to be wandering around and she and her large amounts of sisters and brothers were going to visit their older siblings and play with the other cubs of the pride. She loved to meet some of the other cubs but the idea that she was looking forward two was the fact that two large litters of eight meant it was going to be easier to sneak away. the adults really didn't mind because the pride was safe but that wasn't the point!

But so far the day wasn't going the way she was liking it. They were all having a 'nap time' as her older siblings went off to catch lunch but Kirja wasn't going to have it. She lifted her head before her body too and she started to slowly sneak out of the den. A grin grew on her face as she took off into the forests of the pride a smile a mile wide on her face. She puffed out her chest as she walked.

But one of her nieces wasn't that far behind her. Vevilla the splotched little tan cub was Kir's neice, however she was older and she knew it! However she acted the same way to the other cubs as if she was talking to some one the same age. She had the same idea as Kir today and she planned on following her. She giggled as she bummped into her aunt as they walked. "Daddy isn't going to be home for a while. I mean Kova." It was so hard talking to Kir some times. What Vevilla called Daddy Kirja called 'Big brother.'

"What do you want to do?" She asked curiously before her attention was drifted to something new. "KIR!KIRKIR!" She squeaked, bouncing forward and pouncing on Kir and then nudging her and pokking her to look to their right. "It's that new lioness, let's make friends with her!" she giggled before sitting up, however before Kir could speak the little cub opened her mouth.

"Hey you!"

 

[fenshae]

The sound of two young voices caught Tarina's ears and she swung her head around, a wide smile crossing her maw as she made eye contact with the pair of them. Oh, cubs! Her favorite! Tarina loved cubs, although she had never entertained the thought of having her own. No...she just loved their innocence, and the fluidity of the way they looked at things. In many ways, Tarina was still very much a cub herself, and she relished any time at all that she could get with the younger of her species.

"Why, hello there," she called out, shifting her stride so that her path would intercept theirs. Her eyes swept over them curiously, taking them in, and she wondered if perhaps these were Vieras's nieces; last she'd seen him, he had mentioned that he needed to do some cub-sitting for his brother. Well, anything was possible... "And who might you two be?"  

[Yin-Bug]

The two cubs walked up to the lioness as if it was nothing to them. They had no fear of the lions in the thread, new or not they knew that they were going to be friendly and both of them knew that they were safe. But then again Vevilla was a little more out going then her slightly younger aunt. They both loved to wander around and make friends and cause trouble, however there was some differences of course, the main one was that Kirja liked to stay back a little more then Vevilla did.

Kirja looked up at the lioness with a small smile, she started to smile a little more remembering that her mother told her that all of the lions in the pride were friendly and would never hurt her. She felt a little better about the idea. "Hello! The smaller lioness chirped as she looked up at her before looking over at her niece hoping to see that she was just as excited as she was. The other small lioness grinned before nodding toward the big lioness. "Yes! Hello! Are you new?" Vevilla asked curiously.  

[fenshae]

She looked between the two of them and smiled, a great ear-to-ear affair that lit up her eyes and brought a sort of fiendish glee to her features. "New? Nah, I'm as old as the sun." She winked at the bolder of the two. "But I've been gone a long time, like the sun disappears in the night, so perhaps you haven't seen me...but now I'm back, and it's like day has returned." She certainly had a high opinion of herself, didn't she? "My name is Tarina, but you can call me Big Sister Spider if you'd like." Why they'd want to call her that rather than her proper name wasn't particularly obvious, but she liked to lay out all the options.  

[Yin-Bug]

Vevilla looked up at the the lioness and her eyes grew wide. "Really!? Was it dark when you were little?" The little tan lioness looked up at the lioness with an appalled look on her face, but Kirja looked at the other lioness and shook her head before nudging her cousin then huffed. Kirja shook her head a few times. "Of course not! She was kidding Vevi." She then looked back up at the older lioness.

Both of the small cubs looked up at the lioness, Kirja sat back on her haunches and Vevi kept looking up a the lioness amazed with what she was talking about. "So you were an orginal member?" Vevi asked curiously and then Kirja looked up at her as well showing that she was just as interested at the question. She flicked her hair out of her eyes before Kirja spoke. "What was it like back then?" Vevi spoke right after just as interested into what they were talking about. "Big sister spider?  

[fenshae]

"It was SO dark," she said, earnestly, meeting Vevilla's eyes. "The sun was young, so he was small, you know -- you could hold up your paw and blot him out and the whole world would go dark again, so you'd have to be very careful. But he grew up fast." The smile on her face was good-natured and pure, and her eyes shimmered with amusement. She looked to the more-earnest cub, the smile unfaltering. "I was, indeed. When the world was young, and I was smaller even than the two of you. Everything was different then, but then...everything was very much the same as well."

Ah well. She wouldn't be Tarina if she didn't speak in riddles. She looked again between the cubs, head tilted. "And I don't think you two ever told me your names. Do you need me to give you new ones?"  

[Yin-Bug]

Vevilla looked up at the lioness with a slightly scared look on her face but then as her aunt spoke she looked back at the lioness feeling a little bit better at the idea that she was joking. She relaxed a little more before smiling slightly, it made her feel better to know that the moon was there when the other lioness was too. She glanced at Kirja wide eyes the second part was believe able. "You were smaller then us?" "Wow that is small!" both of the smaller lionesses spoke at the same time. That was amazing to both of them. Really meeting an older member of the pride other then their grandmother and Bina was amazing to them.

"I'm sorry that was rude of us. She said quietly before being interrupted by her niece. "No!No~ We like our names." Kirja chuckled before nodding once more. "My name is Kirja and this is my niece Vevilla." The tan lioness made a small face "But I'm older! She pointed out proudly.  

[fenshae]

"And it's a pleasure to meet you both!" She said heartily, and meant it. "Kirja, Vevilla..." she repeated, softly, committing both to memory, matching names with faces; Tarina had a fairly extensive memory bank when it came to lions she had made acquaintance with. "And before I came and so rudely interrupted your plans for the day, where were the two of you headed to, then?"  

[Yin-Bug]

Kirja looked at the lioness and nodded in agreement before he aunt spoke before her. "It's really nice to meet you too!" The older lioness seemed really nice she was glad to see that the lioness was really nice. Kirja then flcicked her hair out of her eyes and shook her head at the lioness a few times. "We were just heading toward... the lake!" The younger lioness giggled a little bit nodding slightly as she did before turning toward the other cub. Vevilla nodded in agreement.

"You should walk with us and tell us about the pride a long time ago". Both of the lionesses looked excited about that idea. "Yeah, grandma is too busy too have the time to tells us and we don't see Bina that often."  

[fenshae]

"The lake?" Her attention piqued, eyes glittering. "I'd love a nice swim." She skipped a bit, hopping forward, and grinned.

"What was it like, before..." she mused aloud, a devilish gleam in her eye. She glanced back at the cubs, thinking honestly about her childhood. It didn't seem so far away, but then, time never meant much to Tarina. Those had been dark times, when she was young and illness was sweeping over the lands...when her parents were still alive...before Jukka and his father had adopted her and Zima and all three had escaped to travel on their own for so long....

She shook her head, clearing the thoughts. None of that made for an appropriate story for cubs, and certainly wasn't anything she wanted to say. "The sky was closer to the ground, back then," she said, finally, with a soft smile. "And the sun was younger, paler, so it didn't burn you being so close. Because the sky was closer, the stars could listen in on the affairs of lions down below, and it was lions that taught the stars to dance."  

[Yin-Bug]

Kirja giggled as the older lioness said that she liked swimming. Kirja loved chances to be able to run around and play with a lot of company even if the company was older then her. She looked over at Vevilla who looked just as excited as she was. They started trotting with the lioness with a grin on their lips. Vevilla looked at the lioness with her eyes wide interested into what she was talking about. Vevilla was one that would fall for every thing she was very interested into it all of what she was saying. "Really!?"

But Kirja wasn't into it as much, something about the story wasn't just rigt but Kija kept her mouth shut, her aunt was enjoying the story. She was going to have to ask her mother if she knew about it, there was a good chance that her mother knew, her mother knew a lot about the pride. She chuckled slightly at the comments as she kept an eye out for the water, it was hot and water sounded good.  

[fenshae]

"Yes indeed," she said, with utmost seriousness, although something glittered in her eye. "You can ask anyone. Before the lions shared their rhythm, everything in the whole world stood still. The stars didn't twinkle, the lake didn't shimmer, the leaves didn't rustle. It was a sad, dark world in those days." Her nose twitched, and she scented the lake coming nearer; a smile planted itself firmly on her maw. "But luckily, we were here to set things right."  

[Yin-Bug]

As Kirja heard the story of the fact that the world stood still before the lions shared rhythm. She really did believe that one a little more. something about that just seemed to be a little better and a little bit more possible. To A cub anyway but that was what mattered at the moment. "Wow." She said simply before looking at her niece who seemed just as interested into all of those ideas as she did.

A giggle escaped Vevila's maw as she started to take off and make her way toward the water. "I'll race you guys!" She giggled loudly as she started to run quickly toward the water. A grin grew on Kirja's face as she looked up at the lioness and then started to take off two. She hoped the lioness could play tag too.  

[fenshae]

Tarina considered herself a master tag player, although perhaps she was a little fuzzy on the execution -- as evidenced by the fact that, as soon the cub darted off, the Sheha dropped to her belly and began inching forward. "I'll get you!" She called after them, dragging herself along like a worm. Her tail lashed behind her as she moved as though in slow-motion. "Except! Oh no! That snail LIED to me when he taught me how to run!"