*Back Log*
How long has it been since I’ve been on the surface, Utako thought as he shielded his eyes from the brightness of the sun. The god was transformed into his normal form, his wings sprouting from his back, his mane growing in size. With a powerful shake, he scattered the dirt off his fur. ‘Last time I piss off a goddess.’ He thought with a small smirk.
He had been in hiding for too long. The wrath that goddess held could last for a long time.
His gold colored eyes looked around, trying to figure out exactly where he was. While he was hiding he had managed to find an underground pride called Mazuguko. At first he was a fan of the pride, since the pride was a giant maze! However it was going to be only a matter of time until he got bored. With the lack of female company in the pride, his boredom quickly fell until he had to leave.
He made his own tunnel until it led him here, where ever here was. At least there was light. He let his wings stretch as he walked around the forest area. It had been so long since he had taken flight. For a little bit, he decided he would just stick to walking.
There was a sound in the distance, which made Utako stop. It would seem that I am not that far from some mortals, he thought, trying to make out the sounds. He heard quick, soft steps heading toward him. Heading toward him, coming out of one of the bushes was a small cub.
The cub saw him, but not before heading straight into him and then falling backwards after running into him. Utako stared down at the little thing. The cub was no bigger than his paw (though truthfully his paw was rather large). He leaned down so he could see the cub better. “You weren’t watching where you were going were you?” He said with an amused voice. “Adults don’t like it when pesky little cubs run into them.”
The cubs green eyes looked at his yellow. A wide grin spread on her maw. “Well YOU were in my way. I was in a hurry and now you have distracted me!”
Utako raised one of his eyebrows at the cub. “And what does a little one like you have to do in such a hurry?”
She stood up proudly. “My job is to bring back fruit for my pride!”
That was a surprise. Utako had been under the impression that most prides kept their young safe and away from danger. Having a young cub gather fruit by herself seemed dangerous. “They know you are gathering fruit?”
“Well of course. If I don’t get fruit then I don’t get to eat. That’s the rules of our pride. Now I gotta get going.” She started to head away, but her head brushed into his wing. Her eyes went big. “Why do you have wings? Why do you have horns?” Her eyes went from his wings to his head.
AND she finally noticed, Utako thought with amusement. He enjoyed seeing mortals marvel over him. “You have just been honored with meeting the god of Labyrinths.” He gave the small cub a bow. “But for your ease, you may address me ask Utako.”
“Utako? You must be a weaker god cause I’ve never heard of you.” She said heading away from him. “I’ll talk to you later Utako! I have a job to do!”
He watched with slight annoyance as the cub walked off into the thick forest. It really was strange that her pride let her work by herself. And to make her work or she wouldn’t get to eat? That was pretty messed up, Utako thought. He looked toward the pride. Prides were something he tried not to get involved too much in. He would hang around, usually in his mortal form and watch silently. It wasn’t his place to tell prides how they were supposed to run.
His attention went back to the young cub and let out a sigh. If she hadn’t been so young and small he could have ignored her. He turned toward her and followed in her steps.
Kotone knew that gods were special. The elderly of the pride talked about gods and how terrible and powerful they were. She would have never guessed that she would meet one herself, thought he didn’t seem that great. He did have wings however and that made him cool.
She wished that he would have showed up at a better time though! Her keeper was an angry old lion with a quick temper. He liked his meat with fruit and it was her job to get him fresh fruit! But she always ended up getting more because the rest of the pride would want some as well. Bad things would happen if she didn’t get them their fruit.
As she walked, she kept her gaze up word to see if she could spot any ripe fruit. The ones she could see were too far up the tree for her to reach.
“How does someone with such short legs get up to that fruit?”
Kotone turned around and saw Utako behind her, his body was hovering off the ground. She gasped when she saw him. “How are you doing that?!” She said with excitement. “Can you teach me?”
Utako let out a laugh. The young are so interesting, he thought. “I could teach you how to fly, but unless you sprout wings, I doubt it will help you much. When I became a god the ability to fly came naturally.”
“Let me ride on your back and get the fruit.” She said in a demanding tone. The god had already wasted some of time. The least he could do was help her out.
“Ordering a god around? Mortals are supposed to cower before gods. Are you not terrified of what I could do to you?”
Katone shook her head. “You’re too fluffy to be mean. If you don’t want to help me then can you get going? You have distracted me long enough.
Utako landed on the ground next to her, his wing stretched out for her to climb up it and onto his back. He hardly ever went out of his way to help mortals. However the small cub was interesting to him. She was so trusting of a god who could easily crush her with his paw. Then there was the situation with her pride.
Kotone carefully climbed onto the gods back, making sure not to claw into his wings. When she was safely between his wings, she felt him floating upwards. She couldn’t help but dig her paws in for balance. When she did so he flinched.
“Sorry.” She said, trying to keep her balance. “I’m not used to this.”
“Not an issue.” He grumbled as they got closer to the fruit in the trees. Once they were there, Atone found her balance and hit the fruit, knocking them to the ground. It did not take long for her to get used to being on Utako’s back. His extra fur made a great padding. When she knocked all the fruit down from the trees, Utako lowered her back down.
“Thanks,” She said, as she examined the fruit. There was enough, she thought. Probably more than enough. The lions in the pride could get greedy though. It wouldn’t be that surprising if she brought enough for everyone, but they wanted more. “I can take it from here.”
“Are you going to ask your parents to help you bring the fruit back to the pride?” Utako asked. It was something he wondered about since he saw the cub. She did seem rather mature for her age, but she was still young. Any responsible parent would keep their cub safe.
The cub shrugged. “I don’t have parents.” She started to roll the some of the fruit toward her pride. “The pride said that they found me and took care of me and that I owe them my life.”
“And that’s why you do their chores like this?”
“That and I can get food. If I didn’t help out, they would make me starve or kick me out of the pride. They’ve told me stories about the monsters that live outside the pride. If they kicked me out of the pride, the monsters would take me away.” She didn’t look at Utako as she pushed the fruit down the path. “It’s not that bad though. Some days they are really nice to me and let me have some breaks.”
“There are other prides that would take you and give you a good home. When you are older you should think about leaving this pride.” He said, heading away from her. It was getting late and he had already distracted her enough.
Kotone continued her task, bringing fruit three at a time back to the pride. She didn’t dare mention meeting with Utako, not wanting to get in trouble for wasting time. Once she had delivered all the fruit, she was given scraps of meat to eat. She took the meat and went back to where she first saw Utako. She set half the meat down at the spot and bowed her head.
“Thank you god Utako for helping me today. You might not be a powerful or talented god, but you went out of your way to help me. Please accept this as a token of my gratitude.” In the pride the lions had great shrines dedicated to their gods. They had special offerings of pelts, food and trinkets. It always pissed Kotone off because she felt like none of the gods even cared. But this god had helped her out and she felt he deserved an offering.
Once she was done, she ate the rest of the meat in peace then headed back to her pride.
WC: 1,662
