[PRP] The Airhead Charmer

[Green_Eyes]

It was perfect bug catching weather. The air was humid; thick and hot with water particles and there was absolutely no wind. Other lions lazed about by the watering hold and, as much as Jini wanted a swim, the young lioness knew that there was no better time to frighten ants than in the middle of the day.

Jini, who was just as dusty as ever, crouched in the dirt with her nose pressed right up against the edge of an anthill. The little, black insects were mainly oblivious to the lioness's silly attempts at 'hunting' them, but she liked to pretend that they were running away from her giant teeth.  

[Lethrossen]

Sawa, like so often before, had left Siyo to his own devices. He liked going off on his own, it was much easier to meet girls this way! His tail flicked as he roamed through the foreign land he'd slipped into, tongue lolled from his mouth as he panted in the hot sun. Normally he went out in the night and slept through the day, but he was feeling a bit more restless than usual.

He sighed and looked around dully, feeling bored. Wasn't this land crawling with girls like the pridelands were? He frowned, getting a little sulky. But then he spotted something! Darker than the grass and was it... why yes!

A girl his own age! Bingo.... wait... what was she doing? He made a face as he got closer, squinting to see. Sawa never judged what girls did for fun until he's really gotten to know what it was. I'm sure he'd stay away from any girls that killed for fun though.

"Ello there lil' lady." He said pleasantly, thinking himself quite funny for calling her 'little lady' since she was his age. But smaller. Was she staring at an ant hole? He frowned. "Do no' ants bite?" He asked curiously, finally next to her and peering down close to them. He had no sense of personal space, really!
 

[Green_Eyes]

The sudden approach of this unfamiliar male set Jini slightly on edge. Not because his appearance there bothered her, but because she'd never been approached so easily by a stranger before. She wasn't quite sure what to make of him, but found the tone of his voice friendly enough.

"Hello," she replied easily and shot a dazzling smile his direction, "I've never been bitten by an ant, but that might be because I'm too clever to let them close enough."

The last time she'd gotten too close to an ant, the poor thing had ended up flattened beneath her paw. It'd been a little bit horrible and Jini suspected that she'd never get over the guilt.  

[Lethrossen]

When she gave him that gorgeous smile he warmed inside and grinned back. Ah, smiles were nice and so were girls!

"Ah! Bu' wha' if one o'em crawled up yer leg from be'ind?" He grinned and glanced behind her to see if there were indeed ants in that area. There weren't any. He shrugged and looked back to the ant hill. "Well I guess yeh are jus' too clever." He replied, and chuckled.

"M'names Sawa." He offered.
 

[Green_Eyes]

Jini wasn't accustomed to spending times with lions as friendly as Sawa. Her brothers treated her with cool indifference a lot of the time and, well, the young lioness hadn't really spent much time with her sisters. It felt so odd, being spoken to and complimented like this.

Not that she was complaining. Before she had time to collect any of her thoughts, Jini had to admit that she genuinely liked the male beside her. How could she not, when he was smiling at her like that?

"I am clever," Jini repeated and backed away from the anthill, suddenly more interested in Sawa than she was in the little, black insects.

"My name's Jini," she returned gratefully, "Are you from around here?"

She'd certainly never seen him before.  

[Lethrossen]

He just chuckled and nodded. Jini? Cute, cute, cute! He loved the short names he'd come upon, those usually made a female sound cute no matter what. Really long names made a female sound elegant and the medium names were somewhere in between.

"Lovely teh meet yeh Jini." He purred out and bowed his head, sitting himself down. "M'names Sawa an' no' from around these par's, jus' a traveler. I 'ave a frien'oo's originally from 'ere though." He nodded slowly.

He doubted anyone knew much of Siyo, he said he hadn't interacted much with any of these lions. His mother ignored him and he felt it okay to just hide from most of this pride. So who would know him?  

[Green_Eyes]

The more he talked, the more she warmed up to him. Jini was having a bit of difficulty believing Sawa's friendly, open disposition but, as she gazed upon his smiling face, her doubts were easily pushed to the side. There was no way somebody could pretend to be as charming as he was at that particular moment. It must have been a natural talent. Jini envied him for it.

"It's lovely to meet you too, Sawa," the sweet smile on her face transformed into an ear splitting grin when he announced that he wasn't from the Kusini lands, "What place do you call home, then? I love to travel myself, so I might have visited there once or twice without even knowing it?"

It was true. Jini spent more time wandering foreign lands than she did at home, which accounted for most of her skinny, slightly muscular frame. She wasn't a very big lioness, that was for sure, but she was light and built for speed- perfect for somebody who loved to run.

"Or really?" she asked him, curiosity peeked at the mention of his friend, "Whose your buddy? Maybe I know him?"

It was unlikely.  

[Lethrossen]

He chuckled softly. "No pleace be my 'ome." He replied smartly and winked. "I be free teh go where'e'er I wan'." Well that wasn't completely true but if he was sneaky enough he could slip through most prides. As long as he didn't stir up trouble.

"Though I guess I mos' frequen' the pridelands area. I ne'er woul' call myself a pridelands member though." That sounded so stuffy to him, who wanted to be pride-bound?

He chuckled and realized he probably shouldn't have mentioned Siyo at all, Siyo didn't want to be known to his homelands now did he? But he thought it was okay... he could never resist such a cute face asking for information.

"Eh 'is name be Siyo, bu'e 'asn't been back 'ere in a long time."  

[Green_Eyes]

He didn't have a home and he could go wherever he wanted?

Those words clung to Jini's ears like sap clings to trees. She has always been an adventurous lioness and, while she was very loyal to the lands where she'd grown up, the adolescent couldn't help but imagine what it might be like to wander wherever she pleased, and have no obligation to return, well, anywhere. The only definite thing tying her to her homelands was her family who, even though she hadn't spent much time with anybody specifically and she didn't even get along very well with a couple of her litter mates, was very dear to her.

She would miss them all terribly if she were to stay away for any long period of time.

"I think I've been to the pride lands," she said conversationally, and a picture of Kura, the oh-so frustrating male that she had been, apparently, doomed to think about forever floated into her head. Jini shook the image out of her head, and turned her attention back to the lion in front of her.

"I've never met any Siyo," Jini shrugged simply, and then smiled, "odds are that I'm related to him, though."

It was rare for her to meet somebody in the Kusini lands that she didn't share blood with.  

[Lethrossen]

"Aye, pridelan's be a nice spo' teh visit when yeh firs' star' travelin' bu' it do seem a bi' borin' when ye've gotten teh o'er places." Like the sea, that was amazing and so much different from anywhere else how could one begin to compare it to the pridelands? Or even the desert, a land most mysterious. Large and vast and looking so dead... yet life still clung to those lands.

He chuckled at her remark that he was probably related and shrugged lightly. "Aye, maybe, 'e'ad mentioned somethin' ah being related teh quite a bi' o'is pride." He shrugged again, it didn't seem to bother Sawa either way.

He yawned slowly and looked back toward the woods. "Any'ow I think I shoul' be ge'in back teh the outside." He said, but frowned lightly because he'd been enjoying his conversation with the female.  

[Green_Eyes]

"What kind of other places have you been to?" Jini inquired curiously, and shifted so that she could rest more comfortably on her behind. Something in his voice suggested that there were far more exciting places to visit; places loaded with things she'd never even heard of before, never mind being able to guess at what they looked like. All she knew was that the lands bordering her home varied greatly in almost every aspect. It struck her suddenly that there were probably places (WAY) out there that she could barely begin to imagine, regardless of how ingenious she was.

The world and life were just too unpredictable.

Jini wasn't particularly interested in talk about whether or not Siyo was her relative. She hadn't met him and, therefore, she didn't really care. What she wanted to talk about was travel. Sawa's harmless words had plucked at one of her heartstrings- she wanted to see more.

"Where will you go now?"  

[Lethrossen]

He grinned brightly at her. "Yeh know, 'ere an' there." He said mysteriously, and then laughed. "All sorts a' places I guess. I been teh where mountains grow tall an' trees grow thick. I been teh the greates' lake yeh e'er laid eyes on." He shrugged again and winked. "May'aps ye will see all this fer yerself one day."

He stretched a little more and bowed down lightly to her. "Where e'er my paws carry me." He told her honestly, smiling. "'s been nice mee'in yeh." And he turned to slowly pad away.  

[Green_Eyes]

"Good bye, Sawa," she said easily, with a pensive expression on her face as she watched him stroll away from her. Their meeting had been incredibly brief, but he'd left an impression on her like nobody else had been able to before.

Jini had always loved adventure and traveling as far as the eye could see. She'd been brave enough, once, to venture a long ways from home- and had had one of the most unique experiences in her life. She'd swam in the ocean and met a very blind, though rather unfriendly lion.

The last part was nothing new. Most of the men she'd met, with the exception of Sawa, were inconsiderate and prone to temper tantrums.

All at once, Jini knew that she wanted to go wherever her paws would carry her and she had every intention of doing just that.