Na'ila still didn't understand why her Uncle insisted on escorting her around the pride. He'd done it a lot when she was a cub, and she understood that. She had often spent her time alone, and she knew her Uncle worried about her but she was an adolescent. She should be waiting at the den in case a Pad came to call on her father to take her into their harem. She was doubtful that it would happen, but in case it did, she needed to be there.
But she couldn't say no to her Uncle, she did enjoy her time with him. She'd grown up with him being nearby always, since he was often at her father's den. “Where are we going, Uncle?” Na'ila couldn't help but ask, glancing towards the older male. Unfortunately, that meant taking her gaze from the ground where she had been carefully monitoring her paws as she walked. Her front paw clipped a rock and she stumbled, almost falling if not for her Uncle who was by her side. His side took the brunt of the force from her fall, causing him to stumble a little – not expecting the added weight- but he managed to keep them both standing.
Obadias chuckled at his niece, carefully righting her on her own paws and ignoring the horrorified and embaressed look on her face.
“Just to the lake,” he told her. “Not far left to walk!” Obadias had always been a fan of the great lake, having spent a lot of time there as a cub with his now Beybanu. It was a great place to think, he'd always believed – plus, the ground was slightly softer there due to the water, so if Na'ila fell, it wouldn't be quite as bad.
Na'ila nodded, trying to ignore her little trip earlier and continued on towards the lake. Spying a fallen log, she moved away from her Uncle's side, jumping onto it and attempting to walk across the length of it. She used the logs a lot as a cub, practicing her graceful walk. It had ended with a lot of lumps and bruises for her, due to her clumsy nature, but she had to improve sometime – she just had to keep practicing.
Obadias stayed nearby, waiting for her to fall off. She would, he knew. There wasn't a doubt of if. It was just when. Even as he thought it, Obadias spied Na'ila begin to wobble at the end of the log.
“Watch out!” Obadias called out, too far back to stop her from falling this time, and he cringed, waiting for the thud of her hitting the ground. The log wasn't big, so it wouldn't hurt her, but still. He wished she'd stopped trying to walk on logs.
From the beginning he'd known it would be an adjustment. He didn't care about the prospective obstacles they faced in returning to the pride simply because in his mind they weren't obstacles so much as annoyances to be delt with, however...
However, Mwali hadn't anticipated how quickly the issue of finding a second banu might become. They were more or less trying for cubs-- at least they were practicing and ran the risk of succeeding. If that happened then Shiva would need the extra help around the den. He didn't doubt she could go on hunting for a while while carrying, but he could hardly nurse the cubs while she was doing other things, and of course it was in the pride's ways that females did that sort of thing themselves.
All in all he still felt his time would be put to better use hunting once in a while, it was twice the work to stay fit without other Firekin to spar against. He'd be very displeased if he lost shape, not that it would be her fault if that happened.
In any event, he was sitting at the lake side near the log when the uncle and niece pair approached, observing silently for a moment. It seemed they'd be staying so he took it as his cue to return to the den for the time being. He could discuss the matter with Shiva-- would need to, because for all that she had to obey him as her pad, well, he'd also rather not deal with warring, squabbling females as he was quite certain he WOULD be if he didn't give her at least fair warning.
He rose from his resting place just as she climbed up onto her perch. She was nearly over the whole of it when he drew close enough. He'd pass right by them-- intentionally --and planned on greeting them briefly in passing. What he got instead was horribly timed. As the female fell from her perch he was just a few steps away. He could probably have made it over to catch her before she fell, but he had NO intention of doing so, yet moments later he had taken three bounding steps as her balance gave way.
It would be months, maybe years later and he'd still question what made him do it.
If she'd ever tried moving a fully grown, fully trained Firekin male before then she wouldn't be surprised by what happened next, but since she hadn't-- As she fell against him with her full weight any lesser or smaller lion might have been pushed just by the sudden impact, as Obadias experienced first hand earlier. Mwali? Mwali just felt a bit of a thump against his side and kept his footing exactly where he was-- paws leaving indents in the softer ground just by the bulk of his weight alone. He didn't speak a word, not uncommon, he rarely spoke unless he had something worth responding to, just gazed down at her and quirked an eyebrow.
"And this is why you should be much more careful."
The look said, though he wasn't irritated at all.
If it had been a family member – one of many in the pride – that Na'ila had crashed into, Obadias would have simply laughed loudly and bound over to help his embaressed niece. He'd have apologised to the person as well, since Na'ila wasn't a tiny creature, though compared to this male she was. The male who wasn't really related to them, but sort of was in a way. Instead of laughing, Obadias' eyes went wide and be launched himself closer to the pair.
“Pad Mwali” - Obadias knew quite a few pride members, and it wasn't hard to recognise the male, considering the fuss that had been raised back when Mwali had returned with Shiva. Not the mention that Shiva was a half-sibling of Obadias, so he partially kept track of who the pad was. He wasn't close to his half-sister, but that didn't mean he did not keep track of them. - “Allow me to apologise for my Niece! We did not realise you were there.”
Obadias worried for his niece, for she didn't immediately move away from the male, thinking perhaps she had injured herself – again.
Na'ila had felt herself falling, and the only reaction was wide eyes. She had fallen so many times, shrieking was just a waste of energy. Really, screaming did nothing to help, since her Uncle was going to see her fall, if she got hurt, someone already knew where she was.
However, instead of hitting the ground, Na'ila felt like she rammed a tree. She let out a soft 'omph' as she hit whatever it was, but remained mostly in balance. At least she hadn't hit the ground, she thought, trying to regain her breath. After a moment, she peered up cautiously, trying to see what she had hit, and met the gaze of the Pad. Her eyes went even more wide, and her ears instantly dropped in embaressement, pressing back to her skull.
She leapt back from him, horrorfied that not only had she hit a pad, she had been very close to him! A pad she didn't know! She was ruining her honor already!
“I'm s-sorry, Pad!” She blurted out, forgetting for the moment that Banu shouldn't speak until spoken to, or something like that. Gosh, she'd already forgotten all her manners! This day was going from bad to worse.
It was no great surprise when they reacted so sharply, in a pride with a varied range of methods for socializing and dealing with such scenarios they had no way of knowing how he'd react to the incident, nevermind that he'd intentionally caught her, it might not have looked quite that way. None the less he showed no indication of anger. He couldn't help the bare furrowing of his brow as she reacted-- poorly timed, a simple reaction of his own to the fear she exuded. As long as he'd been with the pride now and he was still unaccustomed to such submissiveness, such demure behavior! His people back home (his first home) would have scoffed and scowled. Mwali had been with the Ukuucha'Wafalame long enough to know better. He let the female gather herself and looked to the male, expression calm, hell, almost bored if not for just a touch of sternness that was ever present.
"You can relax, pad Obadias. It was intentional. I believe I'm a little more forgiving than the ground would have been for a landing." He rumbled, voice deep, but low more than anything, He was more in the low tenor range, or a high baritone, but the quiet way in which he spoke still seemed to rumble up from his chest.
Obadias was glad when his niece lept away – she looked funny doing so, but it at least meant she hadn't hurt herself. The male's response was a relief that he was not becoming enraged at them both for what she'd done. His tense shoulders relaxed slightly and he offered the male a lop-sided smile. He was surprised to hear that it had been intentional that Mwali had let her crash into him.
Na'ila's eyes were fixed firmly on the ground, thankful that the male didn't seem upset, but she couldn't help but blurt out, “I think you and the ground have the same resistance.” She'd thought she'd hit a tree at first, which was harder than the ground, but she hadn't really even intended to say anything at all, let alone tell him that. Her ears still remained flat on her skull.
Obadias couldn't help but chuckle but he tried to disguise it behind a cough. Na'ila's mouth sometime got away from her at times.
It was certainly not worth getting angry over, he couldn't help that. There were much more insulting or annoying things that he'd have had to deal with back in the desert, usually something done intentionally since there was a shortage of things to trip over in that sandy home. Someone moving in on his kill, THAT was something worth getting angry about.
Obadias wasn't the only one. Her comment caught him just a touch by surprise. He might have expected it from Shiva (With much more intent, to be sure.), but not from one of the pride's other females. Perhaps there really was more to them than met his eyes. He just managed to hold back a full on smirk, instead just feeling the slightest curve of his muzzle.
"I suppose you're right."
He finally addressed her directly in saying so, intense gaze staring her down despite her gaze being directed at the ground. Obadias was familiar already if only because of conversations with Shiva. This female, however--
"And you are, female?" Not a question, a prompting for an introduction, a name. He wanted to know who it was he was dealing with and perhaps what her story was.
Obadias was amused as he stood off to the side partially, seemingly ignored by the pair. He felt like a chaperone, which was a weird thought, though he had done it before – for his own cubs and for his nieces and nephews. It was just odd that he was chaperoning Na'ila around a male.
He held back another chuckle, letting the pair talk.
Na'ila shifted nervously, pleased that she wasn't yelled at for her comment – though it might have been considered a compliment to the male's strengths. Male's liked being complimented on strengths, right? The question of her name made her look up and she shifted again.
“Na'ila, Pad Mwali,” she said respectfully, adding, “daughter of Pad Anwar'mazin and Beybanu Zarha.” The male seemed to know her uncle, so perhaps he knew her father too? She didn't know why the pair seemed to know each other, except that the name Mwali seemed slightly familiar somehow.
It certainly wasn't his intention to ignore Obadias, but making big conversations had, of his own desire, never been a strong point. He listened well, could respond of course, but largely he just didn't feel the need to waste his breath on what all more or less amounted to small talk. There was no denying, though, that the air about the three of them right then seemed rather relaxed. He had opened up a bit since coming to his new pride, no doubt that was Shiva's doing.
Well, moving along. The names, familiar, vaguely, the name Anwar'mazin had probably come up in passing with Shiva then. Still, for a random and brief encounter it had certainly turned out to be rather interesting so far.
"I hope you'll be careful not to let the log win the next round then, banu Na'ila."
She probably wouldn't pick up on it unless she looked at him, but he was teasing her, it showed in just his eyes, though, which jumped just a bit with mirth.
Her eyes had dropped back to the ground, trying hard to be respectful to the male. She'd messed up so much already, she had been sure she would get scolded but she hadn't. She counted this encounter as a success, if only because she had almost tackled someone and had not gotten yelled at. Wonderful.
Her gaze snapped up at his words, blinking in surprise. She gave a shy smile, seeing something that might be humour in his eyes. She hoped it was humour and not him planning to yell at her. “I think it's already won every round, Pad Mwali, but I'll keep trying.” She had to keep trying. If she didn't try to be a better banu, than she had already given up and then she would just be a failure for the rest of her life. Never. She was never going to let that happen.
Obadias tilted his head, watching the pair. He hadn't seen the humour in Mwali's eyes, but Na'ila didn't seem insulted by his words, so he hung back, letting them talk.
Her behavior seemed to break the norm. Shiva would likely have been annoyed or derisive of her forgetfulness concerning her place as a banu, but Mwali had his "unconventional" upbringing to thank for thinking nothing of it right away. Sooner or later such corrective thoughts-- she spoke out of turn, she's being much too bold --would become second nature, but not when most of his time was spent with Shiva alone in their den, or training nonstop. This little female (compared to him at least)...
It was a rare encounter, to be sure, but the uniqueness of the experience wasn't reason enough to draw it out, nor him from his usual mannerisms-- it was about time to be getting back to those. He offered the banu a nod, looking back to Obadias with the same gesture, and began again in the direction of he and Shiva's den.
"Excuse me, then."
There was a great deal he'd need to consider and discuss with his beybanu before any decisions were made, now or later.
Obadias nodded to the male, in farewell and waited for him to move away from them, before stepping up beside his niece.
She had dropped her eyes back to her paws as soon as she'd said what she'd said, fearing that the Pad would think her impolite, but he had said nothing to make her think that, but still she worried.
"Come, Na'ila," Obadias encouraged, nudging his niece. "Let's get to the lake so that we might relax before your father and mothers realise I have kidnapped you again." He smiled at her, though he cast a glance back at the pad who had left. He had been understanding of Na'ila's clumsiness, and her breaks in the mannerisims, but Obadias still worried that perhaps it was an act. He didn't let that worry show though, or else Na'ila might have died of anxiety thinking about it.
"Father doesn't mind you taking me out, Uncle, you know that," she said gently, peering after the Pad rather obviously. She was curious as to why he had not yelled at her, but she knew he was not born in the pride - not like her father and mother. He was a rogue, of some sort, which meant that maybe he didn't know how badly she had screwed up.
She heaved a sigh, but obediently followed her Uncle towards the lake, already thinking and revising the proper banu manners, lest she forget them again.
