[PRP] How Does This Go... (Isi and Ronan)

[MoonRazor]

Wide yellow eyes scoured the landscape. Scouring the landscape with his eyes was not a particularly pleasant task for Ronan. When he did that, he saw... Everything. How many trees, which ones were closer, which had more leaves, which looked healthier from afar and which looked like they were close to dead. He could tell how strong or light the wind was just by seeing the leaves twitch - there was hardly any wind that day.

His ears flicked briefly to show his frustration. He didn't care about the trees and the leaves or the grass. He was looking for someone in particular, and seeing all this only went to distract him. He tried narrowing his eyes, perhaps blurring the picture a little. It didn't help.

Discouraged, Ronan huffed and scuffed the ground with a paw. A small puff of dirt rose from where he had brushed it, and from the position of the angle in the indent on the ground, he could see that it was not too long past the middle mark of day. The sun was past its peak enough that nobody should be napping anymore. So...

He wondered if he would find Isithunzi. Ever since Kitambi had told him about the drum making, he had been itching to learn how to, and it hadn't been until today that he had actually plucked up the courage to find the lioness and ask how to do it.  

[Light Atago]

While nobody should be napping at this time of day... someone's nap was coming to a suddenly abrupt end. The shadowy lioness was twitching under a random tree in her sleep, dreams soaring through her head.

There were her daughters... The both of them out in the roguelands. Her dream was split down the middle, like two movies showing on two side-by-side screens. They weren't together, as they were supposed to be on their quest to find their rhythm, but... one was falling down a cliff, clinging for dear life. The golden daughter whispered for her mother before losing her grip and falling. Taka, in her dreams, had died.

Simultaneously, Mawi was meandering through a desert, lost without a clue where to go. She was quite obviously thirsting to death, collapsed in the heat, fainted from heatstroke, as a dark figure came to finish her off and make her into a meal...

"AHHHH!!!" The grey form shot up, panting heavily. She looked around to find herself safe, in her pride's lands. "Man..." Isithunzi had been having these nightmares often. She was worried about what would happen when her daughters went on their quests to find their rhythm. Mostly, she was scared they wouldn't make it back. She shook her head to get those images out of her head. "They'll be fine, just stop worrying. Look at yourself, you survived as a lioness their age out there all alone most of your life! They'll be fine."

... She hoped. No no no, they would be fine. With this reassurance in mind, Isithunzi rose before heading back to the drum circle. Before long, her eyes caught a light teal-ish color, though it was a smaller figure than Juke. This must be one of Juke and Muujiza's cubs! She picked up her pace, something to get her mind off that nightmare would help her put her mind to ease. "Hey there!" She said cheerily as she approached.  

[MoonRazor]

Ronan looked up to see who had spoken to him. As usual, he had been walking with his head down, so he wouldn't have to see all the trees around him and notice just how many branches were on each limb and how green the leaves were or were not.

"Hello," He answered cheerily, with a little grin, as his eyes swiftly adjusted to the light. Wait!

Tall, gray? That sounded familiar. And then he realized. "Are you Isithunzi?" He asked, wide-eyed. He felt giddy. His eyes rarely ever tricked him, and that little bit of instinct told him that she was who he had been looking for.

He had always realized that there was something odd about him. Something about him that the rest of his family were not like, although he had no idea what. They did talk about things he didn't quite seem to understand sometimes. But he made his peace with that, thinking that it wasn't anything of any real consequence.

And once his mother had tried to teach him how to dance. And he had had no idea what she meant when she said to just follow the beat. What beat? But he had tried anyway, and his attempt must have been good enough because she had chuckled at him and then sent him off to play again.  

[Light Atago]

"I am," she said with a little nod. "And you are one of Juke's sons." she stated confidently, staring down at the little teal cub. "Have you been looking for me?" She figured he would have been. It was time for many of the pride's youths to make their own drums and decide what to do with their futures. Her worries popped into her head for a moment, but she pushed them out quite promptly. She was worrying over nothing, she persuaded herself. "Now, are you Ronan or Laszlo? " She knew the names of all of the cubs in the Pride, but she could sometimes get names mixed up and decided it was better to ask than to assume he was one or the other.  

[MoonRazor]

Ronan beamed, as much for the fact that she knew his father as that he looked enough like Juke to be recognized as his son, and h enodded an affirmative to both that statement and her question. Something, some sort of feeling within him, told him that he would excel at drum making. As with all the other feelings, those that told him he would never quite understand some of the things his father said to him, and those that vaguely told him that he was living in a land that he didn't truly belong in, he knew he could trust this one, and it felt right.

"I'm Ronan," He answered proudly. "Laszlo's a little bit bigger'n me. And a little greener." He added, thinking of the pale green points his brother had inherited from their mother. Well, now, Jiza would be proud of little Ronan when he went running back to the den to tell her he had learned how to make drums. Of course, she was proud of everything he did, and she didn't hide it.  

[Light Atago]

Isithunzi logged away how to tell the brothers apart and gave him a cheerful nod. She'd find it useful in the future, she was more than sure. Besides, she kind of felt it was her duty to know most, if not all of the Pridemembers.

From his smile, she assumed he'd not only heard of her, but respected her, which she found rather cute. Isithunzi never really considered herself powerful, and that wasn't about to change.

She laid down at the Juve's level. "So, what're you up to for today?" She asked. She had an idea that this had to do with his drum quest, but she wanted him to bring it up. She found that it was better if the youngster brought it up, the experience meant more. Therefore, she didn't want to out-and-out say it, and she felt the question was discrete enough.  

[MoonRazor]

He fairly wiggled in his joy. Especially that she had given him the opportunity to say what it was he was hoping to do. That was unexpected. He had always thought that he might be asked to take a drum making session, or something akin to it. Not that he minded either way.

"I-I was wondering if you... you could teach me how to make a drum?" He found himself tripping over his words, which was a strange enough experience for the little lion.

"Uhm, Kit... Kitambi told me you teach us how to make drums?" He added with another grin. The day was sure looking up for him.  

[Light Atago]

Isithunzi smiled wide, almost as excited as Ronan was. This was her first job, this was the first major duty she'd get to fulfill as the Umshayi! She hoped she'd do fine, but quickly pushed all doubt outside her mind. She'd made so many drums in her life, how could she go wrong!?

She couldn't, that's how.

"I'd be delighted!" Isithunzi said cheerily, her mood drastically improved and all of those motherly worries pushed from her mind. She rose to her feet and pointed herself in the right direction. "First thing's first, we've gotta go find a gourd. I'm sure you've seen them on the drums in the drum circle, they're the big, round bottoms. Do you have any particular rhythm that you like, Ronan, or are you still guessing?" It was a valid question, both of her daughters were already playing around with rhythms and seemed to tend to one type, it would make sense if he had something similar. Though, it would make sense if he didn't, too.  

[MoonRazor]

He nodded his little head gleefully. That made sense. And he knew what the gourds looked like, from having seen them. How big they could be, or how small, what they should look like.

Then he paused and thought for a little while. "Uhm, I'm still guessing, I guess," He said finally with another wide smile. It was mostly true. He was still guessing, in terms of he didn't really have a particular rhythm that he liked. He didn't really know what a Rhythm was, so he couldn't be expected to be attracted to one in particular, could he?

"How does that affect the drum though?" He asked, his interest piqued. If the very fact that having a Rhythm changed the way his drum would turn out, that was something interesting. Because as far as he knew, what he heard or felt didn't have so much to do with him as what he saw.  

[Light Atago]

"Well that's not unusual," Isithunzi said calmly. "Not everyone has an idea of what they're thinking for their rhythm at your age." She listened to him, yes, everyone seemed to ask that question. Isithunzi knew very much about drums, down to the minute details. "We can pick a particular gourd out that would blend much better with your rhythm if you had an idea, but this isn't a problem- not in the least!" The female said. She didn't want him thinking that there would be an issue with his drum today, he'd be just fine.

"For instance- My daughter Taka likes a bit of a higher-pitched, almost tinny sound." Isithunzi explained. "She already knows that she wants her rhythm to sound like that, so we can search for a slightly smaller, hard, but thin gourd which produces a sound closer to what she wants. But like I said, don't worry about it. Let's head out!" Isithunzi said boldly and over-dramatically, trying to have a little fun.  

[MoonRazor]

"Oh, I see," He nodded and giggled at her enthusiasm. Now that someone had finally explained the noises in a way he could relate to, he found he was just starting to understand what it was they were looking for. But still, he didn't see anything so special about high pitched tinny sounds.

Already he was beginning to picture his finished drum in his mind's eye. What would it look like? He wondered what kind of gourd he would take to the most. Perhaps a smaller one like himself. Or perhaps not. He never knew what his mind was going to make him do, and he followed along with it and most of the time he just let it run wild.

For to simply sit and imagine was one of the little lion's greatest hobbies. He found that in the deep recesses of his mind, where nothing could bother him unless he wished them to, he could find a sort of peace that meant the rest of the world didn't matter in the least. He could do what he wanted, and see what he wanted without anyone else's knowing, and it was his own private little oasis.  

[Light Atago]

Isithunzi nodded, she thought she had a feeling that the young male was starting to understand rhythm more deeply. "Let's go," she said again, not as dramatically but still with a light tone. She started to pad towards the distance where she knew the gourds grew and matured. "You pick out the one you want, we'll take it back to the drum circle, I have the rest of the supplies there. You can pick whatever kind you want, there are big ones, small ones, thick ones and thin ones. Don't forget, you get to decorate it too, so don't pick on color or stripes on it. You can add those later..." She said as the two padded along, her tail swishing behind her.  

[MoonRazor]

"Hm, alright," he nodded joyfully, padding along beside Isithunzi until they neared their destination. Once he squinted into the distance and noticed the gourd shapes, he scampered on ahead, eager to browse through and pick the one he wanted.

And there were gourds of all shapes and sizes. Not that he hadn't expected it, but he still felt himself awed at all the many differences in the gourds he saw around him. Big, small, thick, and thin were only the beginnings of describing the various gourds he could see, and he took them all in all at once. Often, he found, when he took in too much at once, his eyes and mind would move and pick up the one thing that most attracted him subconciously, and would hone in on it. So that was what he did. He opened his yellow eyes wide and tried to see as much as he could possibly see around him.

He settled on a roundish one that reminded him awfully of his mother's - and his - spots. It was a rather simple one, plain and of moderate thickness. It was an average gourd, but it was the perfect one to the little lion's eyes. Average was just perfect for him.  

[Light Atago]

Isithunzi followed the juve's gaze to the round gourd and nodded. It did seem to fit him somehow, though Isithunzi couldn't pinpoint why exactly it fit him, but it did. "Good choice, Ronan," she said honestly, making the assumption that she was looking at the same one he was. "Go grab it, bring it along," she said. Not that she didn't want to help, but she found that youngsters often felt more proud of something when they did it themselves. "We've got the rest of the supplies down at the drum circle, we'll finish it and decorate it there."  

[MoonRazor]

He nodded and scampered over to it. For a moment, seeing how nice and round it was, he felt tempted to roll it along and have some fun with it. But he decided against it - he wouldn't want to have it damaged - and picked it up, holding it gingerly at first, as if he was afraid his little teeth would put holes into the gourd. But upon realizing that it was nowhere near fragile enough to be broken without effort, he gripped it more firmly and made his way back to Isi.

There was some sort of feeling of pride welling up in the little lion's chest. He was well on his way to making his drum, and there was just something in that thought that made him unexplainably happy.