[PRP] Breaking Away -- Cor x Liraz

[bipolar bee]

Today was one of those days that it was truly a chore to drag herself out of bed. Liraz was nothing if not determined, and listlessly moping around the den wouldn't accomplish anything at all. Liraz refused to let the exhaustion and pain of her sickness drag her down, and she was not going to let this day be any different. Though she was young, she knew that each day was a gift and the youth would not waste the days she was given.

Gritting her teeth she waved away her worried mother and slowly moved out of the den. Being outside made her feel immensely better. There was something nurturing about the warmth of the sun soaking into her striped fur, warming her skin - perhaps even easing the aches in her joints. Liraz liked to believe the sun was good for that though honestly she had no idea if it truly was.

An hour later she'd made her way a short distance from the den she shared with her mother and siblings. This was a nice enough spot to sit for a few hours, and Liraz made herself comfortable before gazing around, hoping that someone might happen by. Liraz did so love making new friends.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Cor Oxidat was of a more melodramatic mindset than Liraz, it seemed. She, too, had left the den of the lioness who cared for her while her father was away, but she was very obviously morose and moping as she did so. The reason she was in such a mood was that her father had just left to do his scouting thing again, which meant her favorite person in the entire world was gone. She was feeling very bereft.

It didn't help, really, that Cor was also not feeling very well. When she was younger she didn't experience the frightening symptoms which indicated infection, but now she woke up stiff in the mornings. This morning had been a particularly bad one, since she had not only woken up alone, but she'd also woken up stiff. The night before, after her father left, she had been inconsolable, distressing her caretaker with her grief at her father's departure, and so she also woke with crusties in her eyes from her tears.

"I hate this," she grumbled as she made her way in the sun.

Movement served to help loosen her stiff joints and she tried to convince herself that she was only stiff because she'd slept in an odd position. As she was rationalizing things - a talent she had in spades - and explaining to herself why it wasn't possible for her to be sick, she noticed another cub her own age with absolutely gorgeous stripes. Momentarily she envied the other girl, but she didn't seem to look like she was feeling very well, and so Cor's envy faded quickly.

"Hello there," she said, forcing herself to be more cheerful. There were enough moody people around the pride that she didn't need to be one of them. Particularly not while she was talking to someone who wasn't feeling well.

"The sun's really bright today." Okay, not spectacular conversation, but not a horrible opening.  

[bipolar bee]

Bright eyes turned immediately towards the voice that called out, and a smile soon followed. Though Liraz was feeling absolutely awful this morning, she wouldn't let it get her down. After all, there would always be someone sicker than she was, and moping about all the wrongs in the world accomplished nothing. Liraz didn't like feeling sorry for herself - one could always find joy in something, no matter how minuscule. The warm breeze through her cinnamon-colored mane, the fluffy clouds in the sky, even the chirping of a bird... all of these things were provided by the Gods to be admired, cherished. That's how Liraz felt, anyway.

"Good mornin'!" she rasped, careful not to raise her voice too much lest she induce a coughing fit. A tickle had been threatening her lungs all this morning, and while it'd taken her nearly an hour to make her way a short distance from her den, she hadn't wanted to push herself.

"Yes! The sun is bright and warm. It feels nice," she added, beaming at the dark lioness that appeared to be around her own age. A strikingly beautiful lioness, Liraz thought to herself as she admired the pretty fur of the other. "You're really pretty," she commented off-hand, that smile never leaving her face. "I'm Liraz."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Cor was taken aback at first by the other cub's rough tone. She had heard grown-ups who were sick speak in that voice, but she'd never heard someone her own age use that rasping half-whisper. Her golden-orange eyes widened in surprise, but she didn't say anything about it.

"Thanks," Cor said, far more startled by the compliment than she'd been by Liraz's voice. Having been born into the Kitwana'Antara, sickness didn't really upset her or surprise her when it was others who demonstrated the symptoms. Not once she'd decided they were just sick, anyway.

"I take after my daddy. He's a scout, so he's not around a lot, but he's really, really wonderful."

She smiled, thrilled to have the opportunity to talk about her fantastic father. She'd learned a little since she was just a cub about how much it was appropriate to talk about her father, and how much others would be willing to listen to, so she didn't go into as much detail about why he was wonderful as she might have liked to. Asking would be a mistake, but it was one Cor hoped Liraz would make.

"It's nice to meet you, Liraz. I'm Cor Oxidat. My daddy - and everyone else, really - calls me Cor though."

Everyone else was unimportant compared to her father, but she mentioned them so that Liraz wouldn't get the idea that Cor was a special name only her daddy could use. She preferred her nickname to her full name, since it was easier to pronounce and a lot shorter.

Cor was still grinning when she returned Liraz's compliment: "You're really pretty, too. I really like your stripes, and the spots between them."  

[bipolar bee]

Liraz grinned. "My daddy is a Warrior! He's real big and real strong. He's real handsome too, at least that's what mama says. I love him a whole lot." She did love her papa with all of her little heart. He was everything that she wanted to be in her life. Liraz looked up to him. "I dunno who I take after. Mama is spotty and daddy is kinda stripy, so I guess I take after them both!" Liraz beamed.

"Cor, that's a real interesting name," Liraz mused over it for a moment. "Cor Oxidat." She grinned, giving a slight nod in approval. "It's nice!" It suited her, Liraz thought to herself.

"I have a friend," Liraz confided, fair to bursting with this information. "His name is Ndale. Do you know him?"  

[Princess_Feylin]

Cor grinned at the idea of Liraz having a warrior for a father, and then wondered how her father felt about having a cub who was as sick as Liraz obviously was and her grin faltered a little. To cover her little facial slip-up, Cor said, "So do you know any of his stories from the things he does as a warrior? My daddy always has lots of stories about the things and people he sees while he's out scouting."

It was probably where Cor had gotten her love of storytelling and her rather unfortunate habit of lying. She didn't always lie, of course, and so far she had been remarkably truthful, but that would probably be changing soon, since Liraz had mentioned mamas. Cor believed with all her heart that there was a romantic story about her birth, and that her mother was a princess in another pride, and couldn't resist telling the story to anyone who hadn't heard it before - and even to people who had heard it many times - just because she liked how it went.

"It's nice that you got markings from both of your parents. I don't really know if I look like my mama, because she's not part of the pride. She's a princess in another pride, and so she's not allowed to live with my daddy and me. It's a really romantic story." Since Liraz hadn't asked about her daddy, Cor sort of doubted she'd ask about her mom either, but she thought she'd leave an opening, just in case.

"Thanks. I do like it. It's kind of fun to say. But Liraz sounds like a princess name. You'd make a really good princess, I think. Just like me." Cor understood that if her mom was a princess, so was she, even if she wasn't a princess in this pride.

"Ndale..." Cor was distracted from her idea of being a princess as she mulled the name over in her mind. It was familiar, but she wasn't sure if she could match a name to a face. "Maybe? What's he like? Is he very smart and handsome? He could be your prince charming if he is."  

[bipolar bee]

Liraz mused over Cor's question about warrior-stories that her father shared. She hadn't really asked him to tell her any, but one time she'd overheard him talking to mama about a terrible lion he'd met that had hidden in the mucky rivermud before attacking him and the smell of the mud had made him sick to his tummy and then they fell into the sick and so her papa was covered in rivermuck AND sick. Liraz thought that it had sounded terrible, and she didn't rightly know if her papa wanted those kinds of stories going around the pride so she merely shook her head and gave a small shrug, all the while looking properly apologetic.

"Oh! A princess?" This delighted Liraz. "That's the most romantic thing I ever heard! It's so sad that she can't be here, but being a princess must be real important if she had to stay there and let your papa take you away. I bet your mama is so beautiful, just like mine." Liraz nodded decisively.

"You think my name sounds like a princess name?" Liraz beamed. She couldn't wait to tell that to Veena. "Maybe someday we can play pretend-princesses and go boss my brothers around." Liraz grinned, pleased by that thought.

On the topic of Ndale, Liraz looked thoughtful. "He... he's nice. I saw him in my vision. Mama says I was gifted by the Gods. He has one brown eye and one gold eye. They're real pretty. And he is very handsome." Liraz was enraptured by the thought of Ndale being her prince charming. "You need a prince, too!"  

[Princess_Feylin]

"That's too bad," Cor said sincerely.

She liked to hear new stories, and even though she didn't think Liraz's daddy would have stories as interesting as those told by her father, she would've liked to hear them anyway. Then she could tell them to her daddy the next time he came home and he would be impressed by how she'd learned new things and how clever she was. She always wanted desperately to impress him.

"Yeah, she is. At least, that's what daddy says. He doesn't talk about her a lot because it makes him sad, I think. But, yeah. Your name definitely sounds like a princess name." She nodded emphatically, very pleased by the good reception her story about her mother had gotten. It wasn't quite an invitation to tell the story, but approval of just the little teaser she'd thrown out there was good, too.

"You have brothers? Wow. I don't have any of those. Or sisters either. Or princes!" She giggled at the thought of having a prince of her own. Of course she'd have one someday, but she hadn't thought about it before. And she should have. She'd always known she was a princess, so why shouldn't she have a prince?

Cor wasn't sure what to make of Liraz having visions. She knew she didn't have visions, but who could prove that? No one! So she grinned even bigger and exclaimed, "Omigods! You have visions, too? That's so cool. And you've seen your prince in them. Mine never show me anything like that." She'd have to decide exactly what they showed her at some point in the near future.  

[bipolar bee]

Liraz squealed with pleasure, the quick exhale and high-pitched cry of joy setting off a bout of coughing that seized her delicate body. The hoarse bark-like chest cough subsided after a moment, and Liraz grinned at Cor as if the coughing fit hadn't even happened. "You have visions! What do yours show you? Mine has only shown me Ndale so far, but that's okay I don't mind. Tell me about your visions!" Liraz was pleading with Cor now. Maybe they could be best friends for all time! They both had visions and that had to mean something, right?

Excited now, those peridot eyes gleamed with anticipation. Did Cor have visions of even grander things? Liraz hoped so. She longed to hear of fantastic things that she hadn't seen.

"And you have to tell me some of the things your papa has told you about!"  

[Princess_Feylin]

Cor waited until Liraz's coughing fit passed. She was used to lions breaking out into bouts of coughing, both spontaneously and not. Laughter was something she had learned to identify early as a trigger, but that didn't mean she didn't try to amuse other people and make them laugh when she could. The pride's healers said that laughter was the best medicine, and Cor liked to feel like she was helping by offering it. Everyone said she told great stories, too.

"I don't always remember them very well," she said, stalling for time. Fortunately she was very accomplished at making things up. "But the last one I can remember was really weird. I didn't know anyone in it, but I was a lot bigger, 'cause there were cubs around me and they were smaller than cubs look now. I don't know if they're mine."

That seemed like a good sort of thing to have seen, and vague enough that she could maybe prove it. It wasn't impossible to think that she'd grow up and have cubs, though in this pride it wasn't as much of a given as it would have been for others. Lots of cubs didn't grow up, or if they did, they died before they had their cubs. Cor's siblings had died before she could meet them, even.

"Maybe some other time. My daddy really does tell the best stories. But we're being princesses right now, right?"  

[bipolar bee]

Liraz nodded sympathetically. "I forget my visions too, and sometimes mine don't make any sense." She had a troubled look on her face that was soon forgotten when Cor shared one of the visions she'd had. That brought a huge glowing smile to Liraz's face! "I saw Ndale, like I said, but he was really happy in my visions! He was a lot older too, but he was like, SO happy!"

It was so wonderful to have someone that she could talk to, someone that understood her. It was almost like a dream come true. Liraz enjoyed her visions. She loved the sense of escape they offered from her life of illness, and she was certain that Cor must feel the same way.

"Yes, we're being princesses!" Liraz bobbed her head, though the exuberant expression on her face turned to that of confusion. "Now what do we do, though? We could make crowns," she offered with a proud smile, "I have a ton of feathers I found, and some pretty flowers, too."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Cor nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly! I mean, I have no idea what was going on in the one I told you about. I don't even know if it was really me I saw. It could've been someone else, somewhere else. At least you know the people in your visions. And you know they'll be happy. That's really great."

For once Cor didn't mind letting someone else take the lead in talking about a subject. Right now she wasn't the expert, and Liraz was, and so she was trying to learn all she could about having visions so she could more accurately pretend that she had them, too. Usually plausibility wasn't one of her main concerns, but she felt bad for Liraz being sick so young, and didn't want to disappoint her.

"Oh, wow. Where'd you find feathers? I've only ever seen them on birds. Did you kill a bird?"

Despite herself, Cor was impressed. She'd never met someone other than her father who impressed her and didn't make her feel like she had to top their stories. Liraz definitely had the potential to be a good friend. Maybe even Cor's best friend. She didn't have a best friend yet, and she was certain she ought to have one by now. Liraz could be her best friend.

"Well, princesses usually get have spells put over them, I think. Like by gods. We could try to figure out what spells are on us."  

[bipolar bee]

Liraz shook her head emphatically. Kill a bird? Goodness, no. She couldn't even think about hurting the flies that sometimes buzzed around her ears. "I find them on the ground," she explained gently, "I find lots of them after big groups of birds go swooping past. Sometimes my papa finds them and he'll bring them back to me." She smiled brightly, obviously enthralled by her papa. He was a wonderful papa, after all, and Liraz did love him dearly.

"Spells, huh?" Liraz looked thoughtful for a moment, mulling different powers over in her mind. "Well, I bet you have a spell on you that makes you really pretty." She grinned. Cor was awfully pretty, and Liraz very much liked her eyes. "I bet we both have spells on us that make the boys fall in loooove~ with us," she joked, shaking her head in mirth. She'd never had a friend like this, one that she could joke about with and share silly girl-stuff with. It was fun, and Liraz cherished the potential of friendship.  

[Princess_Feylin]

"Wow. That's really lucky of you," Cor replied, a little relieved that her new friend hadn't been such a great huntress as to bring down a bird. Privately, she doubted that Liraz would make any sort of huntress, given how weak she already seemed, and her vehemence in denying that she'd killed a bird.

"It's nice of your dad to do that. My papa brings me things sometimes, when he comes back from doing his scouting things. But he's never brought me feathers." And by sometimes she meant rarely, but that wasn't the point. She knew her daddy was the best of them all, so if Liraz's dad did this good thing, hers had to do it, too. Simple logic, that.

She shifted her weight from one forepaw to the other. Holding still didn't exactly make her uncomfortable, but she wasn't one of the infected, and so her natural inclination at this age was still to bound and bounce and run and play. She was doing her best to contain it, though, in deference to Liraz, whose coughing didn't seem likely to permit her to join Cor in those activities.

"Why would they put that kind of spell on me?" Cor asked, even as she smiled at Liraz's flattery. "Spells are supposed to make our lives horrible and difficult so we're pitiful creatures."

After a moment's thought she said, "Actually. I think having all the boys fall in love with us would be pretty horrible. Then we couldn't walk without stepping on them or the gifts they brought us, and they'd always be fighting over us. It'd be a real problem for the pride, and they couldn't even kick us out for causing it because of the rules."

Cor grinned, relishing this fiction she was concocting.  

[bipolar bee]

"You can have some of my feathers if you want! I bet we could make a really pretty feather-thing to stick in your hair, or even a necklace if you wanted! I have some stones, too, I think that would be really fun to do." Liraz beamed at Cor, thrilled at the idea. "You can pick out whichever ones you want and maybe we can ask my mama to help us piece it together on some vines or something? Would you like that?" After all, princesses needed grand jewelry to prance about in, and Cor needed something as pretty as her to wear!

"You're probably right about the boys," she said after thinking about the topic for a second, "getting in our way and giving us presents that we have to find someplace to put. It would be kind of fun to watch them fight over us, though," she joked, grinning at Cor.

A sudden bout of coughs wracked her bony form, and once they were through Liraz lifted those bright eyes back to her friend. "I should go home soon. Mama worries, and I'm kind of tired." She didn't want to leave, really, but she knew if she didn't... well, she would pay for it for days to come. "Will you come visit me soon, Cor?"