[PRP] A Morning Stroll [ Kala'ha'a + Nsundu ]

[chirigami]

Kala fell into an amazed silence, mulling over what Nsundu had just explained and the beat she had played on the ground with her paws. She had never known any lions to find such harmony or at least attempt it willingly, sometimes there was something in the way they moved but it was usually unintentional or at least how it seemed. The sound almost reminded of her one of the two-legged tribes she had come across one afternoon after hearing a strange sound some distance away. Not being brave enough to venture that close to them - especially if they had been one of the packs that hunted species like herself - there was still that sound that had vibrated upon the ground a few seconds past.

"Aa." The white lioness managed after a moment of silence. Having been lost in thought, the question the brown one had voiced was almost unanswered. "Aa, well she wasn't really a general.. but she sure acted like one, which is how the name came about. Father used to belong to a pride with such rankings and given her the nickname. She wasn't too pleased at first... but it grew on her." She smiled.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Nsundu let Kala absorb what she said, knowing that it was difficult for some lionesses to understand what she did in her pride. Though initially, she had managed to meet people who understood her, her run-in with the neighbouring pride leader Sen had taught her all she needed to know. Not only did many lions not understand Rhythm, they though the Nchi'mahadhi pridal customs were weird and a little on the crazy side. Nsundu didn't really mind what other people though, though. Besides, it made for some good debates whenever Sen came around.

"Just a nickname? Well that's still important. What kind of pride did your father come from? General seems like a real important rank."  

[chirigami]

Kala's whiskers flickered a little as she scrunched her nose up, lifting her head a little to look at the sky a little in thought; trying to reach into her memory of any names her father might have dropped about the pride he had left. - Oh hey, that cloud looked like an antelope .... wait, back on track. Pulling her head from her precious skies, Kala frowned for a moment. "Hmm... I'm really not sure which one he was in really, his family left when the plagues hit as well ~ kinda like your's. He never really talked too much about them, maybe it was hard? But, he mentioned some things about how they worked especially when we asked about the nickname he gave Mom ... something about the leader of a part of the warriors and the hunters and such. Not the King or something, but some sort of awesome position." All she could offer from that explanation was a smile, unsure of what else to say on the matter.

"So, you've been looking for your pride? How many have you found for it? Going all over you must have found a whole bunch, huh?" Kala brightened, switching subjects off of herself finally.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

"Ooooooh." Nsundu listened intently to what Kala had to say, having always been curious about the inner workings of prides. Having grown up alone, for the most part, she never had the experience of growing up in a pride. All she knew about ranks were those that Kazi and Isithunzi had told her about, and a little bit on being a queen when she had run into Saffer a long time ago. It was always interesting to see how other felines ruled their prides. "So your family was warriors? Nifty! I've never met a warrior before."

The lioness nodded at Kala's first question, and then paused to think about the second. How many had she found? Hmmm... "Well... I found Vinya, the lioness I thought you were, and then Isi who grew up in the old pride, and then Juke and Jiza who brought their family, and then Isi had a family, and I had cubs and... well, that made up a lot." She grinned, hoping that 'a lot' would suffice. Numbers weren't really her thing. "I don't need a huge pride, 'cause I want it to be like a big family."  

[chirigami]

"A little bit yes," Kala giggled to the assumption of her family, "we were raised into it kind of since my father's family were a long line of them, my mom was an awesome huntress .. so we're able to at least take care of ourselves because of all that. .. but it really wasn't my thing, hunting and fighting. They weren't too please but you know.. they weren't really disappointed." True, she liked to lounge around and talk, gabbering on about the day or random things. Perhaps thats where she had picked up her love of cloud gazing, since she wasn't too interested in what the others were doing. But, they hadn't had scolded her on anything she chose to do, just wished she had exerted herself more - and perhaps thats why she had such a worried face when she was the last to leave.

But regardless, she was still fine and she smiled brightly still and nodded along as Nsundu recounted a few of the other members of her pride. To it, it didn't seem too big, but perhaps these were the ones she had found personally, "Thats a good idea! You wouldn't want to get things too big 'cause then you wouldn't know everyone ~ and the closeness creates good and sturdy foundations.. right? I think I heard that somewhere." Kala's eyes went skyward again, trying to recall but she just shrugged and looked back at her new found friend.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

"Aaah, I can sort of understand that. My dad didn't like any of the things my mum did, and my mum wanted to give up the things that she did in order to go with my dad. I enjoy doing all the things my mum liked doing though, like singing and dancing and drumming. But my mum gave it up for my dad. My pride wasn't too happy with her about that, but they forgave me and all." She gave a rather sheepish grin. Her mother hadn't exactly been the best role model for Nsundu, nor had she been a very good mother. It wasn't surprising that Nsundu wasn't a very good mother either. "But you have to do what you want to do and what you're good at. Otherwise you won't be happy." Nsundu said with a sage nod.

She gave another nod at Kala's explanation, glad that the lioness understood where she was coming from. "Exactly! Don't want nothing like the Pridelands. Waaaay too many lions. I mean, you wouldn't know if someone had just snuck in and was living among you, or if they were an actual pride member, you know?" You had to be careful about those kinds of things.  

[chirigami]

Kala nodded in agreement, "But a big family at least would be fun ~ lots of people to talk to and to have fun with you know? But nothing too big I suppose." Pros and cons to everything it seemed, and Kala just nodded again as her tail swished behind her. Her own family wasn't too overly large, no one was really forgotten or ignored unless they went out of their way to be so.

"But, yeah.. you do have to follow your heart, yeah." She had figured that herself a long time ago, she still felt tingles of guilt every so often of not taking her parent's lessons to heart and for going her own way.. but it did make her more happy even if it did end up leading her into a more seclusion.

"Aa," The white lioness cleared her thoughts, "I've never tried drumming and stuff like that, I've seen it done ... from afar... is it fun?" She asked, perking up a bit from the idea as she had never seen fully how lions could express what the two-leggers often did. Kala half wondered if Nsundu would show her more.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

The same could be said about the Nchi pride. Everybody lived together like one big family, and if you wanted some alone time then you could go out of your way to do so. Otherwise, chances are if you were sitting out by your lonesome someone would come and talk to you. You did have to try to get away from people if you didn't want the attention, but there were very few members in that pride who wanted to be left alone. Sadly, Kitambi was one of them, but she was getting better.

Nsundu nodded her head eagerly at Kala's question, always game to talk about what her pride did. "Drumming is amazing! You can do it by yourself, but if you get enough people to do it all at the same time the noise gets so loud that you can almost feel the ground shake! And then once you get the drumming going, you can get dancing and singing and it's really, really awesome. You can come and hang with us for a while if you'd like. I don’t 'spect anyone to join right away, but you can always come and watch what we do, if you want."  

[chirigami]

Kala was expecting to hear that Nsundu's pride did all the other elements she had ever seen within the whole concept with drumming. Dances and singing? Her blue eyes lit up at the whole idea and nodded excitedly, "You would let me? That would be so amazing of you!"

This had so totally made her day, going from wandering aimlessly to then finding someone nice - and with holding power to boot but didn't let it go to her head! - and who would allow her to see something she had always seen from afar and by now getting to see it performed by those of her own kind.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

"'course I would let you! Anyone who's interested can come and hang with us for a while, learn a bit and then leave. We even got one cheetah member who comes and goes as he pleases, so it's no trouble at all." Nsundu was quite thrilled to have Kala coming with her. It wasn't every day that she got to invite pretty and intelligent lionesses into her pride lands, and thus she would treat this new guest with a bit of a celebration. Perhaps she could get Muujiza or Vinya to make Kala a necklace or something.

"Well, follow me and you can see the Nchi'mahadhi pride with your own eyes!" She gave Kala a playful nudge before bounding off in the direction of the drum circle. A new visitor! This was ever so exciting. She couldn't wait to show her off to Isithunzi or even Kitambi!

[Ending here sound good? <3 ]