[PRP - South] The New Face (Nara x Ou Se)

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OU SE

So...this was a pride. And she was a part of it! Ou Se gazed around the South House, a smile spreading itself across her face. For the first time since the storm the cheetah felt safe and secure. And all the Tianxia asked of her was to run messages! Running was something the female adored and would happily do all day if necessary.

Messages were...well, they were part of the job and so she carried them.

Ou Se was still smiling when she caught sight of the lioness. The brown female seemed to be walking purposefully, but perhaps there was something the cheetah could do to be of assistance.

"Hi! Need any help?" she offered.  

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"Oh, I see," Ou Se replied with a sheepish expression. "I don't have much to do right now either?" the cheetah offered. She wondered if the lioness would be opposed to spending time talking to her. In her (admittedly brief) time among the Tianxia, she'd noticed that there were very few cheetahs around. She'd been informed of such when she'd petitioned to join, and hastily cautioned that this didn't mean the pride had anything against nonlions.

There just weren't many nonlions in the pride. And that's the way it was.

"Perhaps we could look for something to do together?" the cheetah offered.  

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"Yes, exactly! An adventure!" Ou Se agreed cheerfully, pleased the lioness didn't seem to have any prejudice. This was going very well so far.

"Oh I'm Ou Se...I mean Qing Jie," the cheetah corrected herself. "Sorry, I'm still very new here," she offered as an apology. She had her new name, but was still unaccustomed to using it. She did like it though. More than the name her parents had given her, though she'd never have told any of them that.

Her grey eyes lit up as Yeli brought up her duties as a messenger. "Oh yes, I love to run. So very much." She knew intellectually that lions weren't as fast as cheetahs, but Ou Se wasn't the sort to hold that against them. Lions simply had other skills that cheetahs lacked.  

[mouselet]

"Oh! I'd thought you were born here," Ou Se apologized. She supposed it was a silly assumption, to think that every lion she encountered within the Tianxia would have been born here, but the cheetah didn't have a lot of experience to go off of.

"I haven't been paying too much attention either," she admitted. "More focused on getting messages to where they need to go and finding my way than looking around." She considered Yeli's position. It sounded as if the brown lioness had essentially been adopted into the pride, though she'd been an adolescent at the time. The cheetah wondered what the explanation of that was, but didn't want to pry.

"It sounds like you found a good home here, and good people to make it so," she replied at last.  

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A new family? Now there was an idea that greatly appealed to Ou Se. She missed hers dearly, but perhaps here she could put together a new one. It wouldn't be the same, and she wouldn't be related to any of them, but would be something to assuage the loneliness she still felt, even after joining the pride.

"I certainly hope so," the cheetah agreed quietly. Then, making a decision to focus on the moment and something much more entertaining, she grinned.

"That sounds like a wonderfully fun game! Let's find some birds and do this!"

Leaving heavy thoughts behind for the moment, Ou Se headed for the trees, looking back over her shoulder to see if her new friend Yeli was coming or not.