[PRP] Taking a quick break (Ajani & Hotaru'Mai) Fin

[Fairy Snails]

Ajani felt like a leaf blowing in the wind. Spinning, turning, jumping and swirling, he took every step with care. He was becoming more and more like the rest of the entertainers that he admired so much. It wasn't that long ago when he was stumbling around trying to do the most simplest dances. He was still a bit clumsy at times, but for the most part he was able to do the easier dances smoothly.

He slowed down and came to a stop. It was tiring dancing so much, he was still unsure how the other entertainers did it. His legs felt weak as he walked on them. If he wasn't careful he would easily fall over. He walked forward, walking as gracefully as he could, with his head held high. As he walked he did not notice a rock in front of him. He accidentally tripped on it and fell on his face.

After his near perfect dance he falls on his face, perfect, Ajani thought as he stood up. He sat down where he fell, not wanting to fall again. It would be best if he let his feet rest for a moment. He started to clean his face. The dirt was all over his face. If the other entertainers saw him like this he would be completely embarrassed. They knew of course of his clumsiness, but they believed that he was getting over it. He sighed, he wished he was more naturally graceful. That would solve all his problems.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Hotaru'Mai, or Mai as she was called by her family and the few non-family members who were permitted to speak to her familiarly, had done a daring thing. She had evaded the watchful gaze of her devoted nanny and escaped from the den to go exploring. All of her siblings had done it at least once in the past, and while none of them had said anything to her, she knew that she was a bit of a disappointment by not having done as they did. But she didn't want to get their nanny in trouble because she was missing.

So while she was not where she was supposed to be, she did not wander particularly far from where she was supposed to be. In fact, if her nanny were to step outside and look down she would have no trouble seeing her young charge making her way through the lower portion of the pridelands. Mai, herself, was looking for Mana, who was one of the most frequent visitors to mama's den. She knew him and figured he would be a good person to be safe with so no one would worry. While she was looking around for a dark cheetah with flaming points she noticed a light cheetah with prismatic markings fall down.

"Hello," she said, going over to look at him as he cleaned himself. "You know, dancing will make you more graceful." She did not know that he had just been dancing.  

[Fairy Snails]

Ajani stopped cleaning himself and looked at the young cheetahess. He grinned at her. This was the second time he had met a cheetah in the pride who was younger than him. Usually he didn't have a chance to meet them. He was always working on his dancing. "I think you're right. Perhaps I should see if one of the entertainers will teach me a couple steps." He said with a laugh. "My name is Ajani by the way. I don't believe we have meet."

He took a moment and looked around to see if one of the cheetahess parents or nanny were. 'Perhaps my mother was watching her?' He wondered. It had been sometime since he really got to see her. He didn't see any sign of either a nanny or parents. "Are you supposed to be this far from the dens?" He didn't want to get the cheetahess in trouble, but he just didn't want to worry her parents. "If you need me to I can take you back to your den. I promise not to be too clumsy."  

[Princess_Feylin]

"That could help," Mai agreed. "Or I could show you. My nanny says I'm a good dancer."

It was true that Mai was often overcome with the urge to dance, and she wasn't bad at it, but she was also unschooled in the art, and so her movements were neither precise nor structured. She had made up a few steps and sequences of steps that she could put into different orders, but they were not the same ones trained dancers used. Even with the set steps, she still tended to forget the dances she made up because so much of the time her dancing was improvisational and impromptu.

"I'm Hotaru'Mai," she said, recalling her manners now that Ajani had mentioned his name. "It's very nice to meet you."

She didn't actually remember most of the things she was expected to remember. Her mind just didn't hold onto things that well. Dances and things she did with her body lasted longer, but it still took a great deal of repetition to make things stick. Her nanny, who dealt with her the most, probably wondered if there was something wrong with her head that made her slower to learn than her siblings. Mai knew she didn't learn as quickly, but it didn't bother her or frustrate her.

"You can take me back later," she said. "But right now let's dance like butterflies."

Mai had seen butterflies once while out with her mother. For some reason that memory stayed with her when she couldn't remember the different ways of greeting people of different stations, or the names of most of the pride members. She had liked the butterflies.  

[Fairy Snails]

Ajani laughed cheerfully at the young cheetahess. "All right Hotaru'Mai I will be your pupil. I would be honored if you showed me how to dance. It isn't everyday that I get a chance to dance with such a lovely young cheetahsess." Ajani did his best to be charming. He stood up despite his aching legs. He told himself it was worth the pain. Though he wondered how much pain he would be in the next day.

He couldn't help but remember what it was like to be younger. It made him smile thinking about all his little adventures he had and all the friends he made. He wasn't interested in dancing than. In fact he probably would have felt that dancing was a for females only. At his old pride he would have been teased by all the other cheetahs.

He took a moment to stretch his mussels. That way there would be a smaller chance of injury. "Dance like butterflies? That sounds very exciting. Did someone in the pride teach you the dance?" he asked curiously. Ajani still was trying to figure out who the parents of the cheetahess was. He thought that maybe her mother was an entertainer because of her love of dance.  

[Princess_Feylin]

"Good," Mai said with all the self-satisfaction of a youngster given their way. Not that Mai was often denied anything she wanted, since she rarely asked for things anyway, but she liked to get what she wanted, just like everyone.

"Thank you. You're lovely, too," she told him, and meant it. "I like the sunny-dew markings on your coat."

She actually meant to say that she liked the pale rainbow shades on his pelt, the ones that looked like they'd come from a prism, but sometimes Mai didn't express herself very well. She was thinking of a sort of prismatic effect, like the kind when sun shines on dew. It was just not terribly likely that anyone else would understand that was what she meant. She had yet to figure that out, though, since her family and nanny were all pretty used to her.

"No one taught me to dance," she said. "I just do. But being a butterfly is supposed to be fun. Not so much exciting. I don't think butterflies live very exciting lives, except when my brothers pounce after them. But we aren't being Pounced Butterflies. Just regular ones." She nodded. There was a difference, of course, but it wasn't as much fun to dance like scared butterflies. They didn't move in any special sort of way.

"So, start like a butterfly on a flower in the sun," she said. "You're enjoying the flower and the sun on your wings, and you don't have to move very much so everything is peaceful, though you might make your wings go up and down a little bit to sun the underside."

She didn't explain how he was supposed to do this. She simply began to to so herself, making the slow wing movements with her tail instead, while closing her eyes and putting on an expression of mild bliss. The rest of her body dropped into a meatloaf-shaped crouch where she swayed a little bit, like there was a flower on a stem beneath her. To her, this was Butterfly on a Flower in the Sun.  

[Fairy Snails]

"You have a very artistic way of describing things," Ajani said when she described his coat. Ajani had to admit that he was a bit confused by Hotaru'Mai's description of his coat. He was flattered by it either way. Everything about her made him smile and laugh. It had been far too long since he was around younger cheetahs. "Regular ones, not excited ones. I'll remember that," he said with a nod of his head.

He listened carefully to her instructions, not quite sure what he was supposed to do. It amused him when she started the dance. He began to mimic her movements, starting with his tail. Than he crouched down, keeping his eyes on her. He had never seen a butterfly look like this, however he went with it.

It was relaxing, crouched down, letting his tail flow threw the air. This was a nice break from his regular dancing. Plus it didn't add any extra stress to his legs. He could feel the sun shining against his light colored coat as he stayed there, unmoving.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Mai smiled in acknowledgment of Ajani's compliment without opening her eyes. She was dancing now, and dancing wasn't really a time for talking. However, she remembered she was also supposed to be teaching Ajani to dance, and that meant she couldn't just dance without any thought for what he was doing. Teachers made sure their students did things right. She knew that for sure!

So the slim young cheetah opened her eyes just a little bit to survey her student's dancing. She tried to look at his technique critically, like her nanny did while teaching her, but it wasn't exactly easy to do that when so much of Mai's kind of dance came from what a person was feeling inside. Oh, they were supposed to replicate their feelings with their body, so that they looked like what they were imagining, but it wasn't easy or fair to judge a person on their ability to do that, she didn't think. Not everyone was cut out to be a dancer, after all.

"That's good," she said. "Butterflies are like flowers, you know. They get strength from the sun, so when you feel like the sun's made you stronger and more rested you might try Leaving the Flower."

For Mai, Leaving the Flower was about minute adjustments of her tail, ears, and whiskers, making them fluttery and soft, while simultaneously letting go of the ground with her paws. It was permissible to hop a little bit, but it shouldn't be like pushing away from the ground, but rather simply letting go of the flower and floating naturally upward, which is how she imagined something as light as a butterfly actually flew.

"Remember that when you're Leaving the Flower it's as simple as letting go. You should rise easily, because that's what butterflies do."  

[Fairy Snails]

It was different. This was the first time he was learning a non-traditional dance. He wondered if that, perhaps this was the way some dances started, with a youth using her imagination. He allowed himself to be young again and use his imagination. In his head, he imagined himself as a butterfly, about to fly for the first time. He needed to make sure he had enough energy for the first flight. Normally he would feel a bit embarrassed about doing such a cubish thing, but he figured that it would be a nice break from being an adult.

He imagined butterfly him, flapping his wings, slowly at first, but gradually speeding up. His body was slowly lifting off the flower. In reality he was gradually raising his legs up to stand, his tail floating in the wind. Ajani opened his eyes and looked at Hotaru'Mai as she gave a little hop. He followed suit and gave a small jump. When he came back to the ground he felt a quick bolt of pain enter his front right paw. He cringed at the pain, but did his best to not show it on his face.

Ajani did not want to end their dance so soon. He would just have to be a bit more careful. "How was that Hotaru'Mai? I think that I might have to take sometime outside this practice to perfect it."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Mai did frown when she saw Ajani watching her and then doing as she was doing. It was about as serious a frown as anyone was likely to see from the young dancer, who wasn't a frowning type of cheetah. She was a fairly simple girl, not inclined to fight or argue or disagree. However, she was a little unhappy to see that Ajani wasn't feeling the dance, and wasn't being the butterfly.

"You weren't being it," she said seriously. "That's why you landed badly. A butterfly never lands badly, you know."

She peered at his forepaw, though, making sure there was no blood. It was obvious that he had hurt himself, but she was sad that he had done so. He shouldn't have, and he wouldn't have if he'd been doing it right, but dancing wasn't easy. It took Mai forever to master her steps exactly right, and sometimes she just couldn't do it. Maybe butterflies were hard for boys. She wasn't sure. She wasn't a boy.

"Practice carefully," she admonished. "And give yourself time to get better. Otherwise you'll get worse."  

[Fairy Snails]

Ajani felt a bit a shamed when Hotaru'Mai frowned at him. He should have figured that this dance lesson would end up like the rest of his lessons. Though it was different being scolded by someone younger than him. In some ways it felt worse. "I am sorry Hotaru'Mai. It would seem that being a butterfly is harder than it looks. I'll have to practice extra hard on this dance."

He looked at his paw to see how bad it was. He lifted it off the ground and made small circles with it. Occasionally there was a stabbing pain. When this happened he would wince. "It looks like I hurt myself more than I thought I did. That is what I get for over working myself." He said more to himself than to Hotaru'Mai. "It shouldn't take too long to heal up."

He looked back at the young cheetahess and grinned. "I will be sure to practice again once my paw is a bit more healed. Maybe if I get better I can preform the dance for you."  

[Princess_Feylin]

"No," Mai said with a reassuring smile. "It's exactly as easy as it looks. That's why it's so hard. If you practice extra hard, you'll just end up looking like you practiced extra hard. Instead, just take some time to think butterfly thoughts and butterfly dances. It doesn't have to be a lot of time, or a lot of thought."

It wasn't a very lucid description, but Mai wasn't much good at lucid descriptions. She was even worse when it came to explaining herself and the way her mind worked. She had never really tried to explain her dancing to anyone before. Now she knew it was difficult. Why couldn't people just read her mind?

"Well, you should go home and rest. Maybe see if one of the slaves or low grunts can bring you something extra nice to make you feel better. That's what I do when I don't feel well."

She stepped forward and touched her nose lightly to his hurt paw, and then she bumped her head against his chest, in a friendly gesture. "I hope you feel better soon. I would love to see you dance."  

[Fairy Snails]

Ajani nodded his head at the young cheetahess. He liked the way she explained how he shouldn't practice to hard. It was much different than how he was taught, it had a more natural feel to it. "I will try it. Thank you."

"I think that I will go to my den to rest. Give my poor paw a rest." He said with a grin. Though he hoped he wouldn't have to rest too long. There were many different dances he still needed to get done before too long. He didn't want to get too far behind.

"Sounds good Hotaru'Mai. I hope to see you again soon." He said as she bumped her head on his chest. He was glad that he had a chance to meet such a sweet cheetahess.