[PRP] So You're a Healer, huh? [Ashiki + Naamini]

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Naamini wouldn't have said she was bored. Instead, she was merely having a hard time deciding what she was to do. Kamau was not present, no doubt staying put in the den like a good boy. If asked, he might have said he went on a cool adventure when she returned, but they both knew that he was much happier staying where their mother could see him. Naamini didn't mind pushing the limits of her explorations, even if her territory was only the available pride lands. They were big enough to keep a cub of her sized entertained, and by the time she had run out of places to explore, she would be big enough to travel further. Things had worked out quite nicely.

Exploration was her first choice of activities, followed by nappy, chasing butterflies, or potentially visiting the old caves she had seen with her brother. The first option was by far the most exciting, but it meant that she had to pick a place to explore. Where hadn't she been yet? Hmm... Perhaps she should go and try to find one of the newer arrivals. She had heard that some of the lost members had returned to the pride, having been dispersed after the earthquake. But how would she know who was a new arrival and who was an older member? Humph. She would just have to go and ask directions from the first lion she saw. With a look of determination, the cub set off, eager to find someone to talk to.  

[TheMadHatter]

She was happy to be back home where she could stop worrying about not being there to help anyone. Even if she couldn't get to everyone at once she at least was there. She could help them. It had been torture wandering around not knowing if anyone was safe and not knowing who needed her help.

While she had a moment she was going about and trying to figure out what plants had survived and where she'd be able get whatever she might need. It wasn't going so well so far but she had found some things. Plus she knew how to get in and out of the lands now to go explore for more.

He was watching Ashiki down below him as he circled a bit above her. She was exploring and he was keeping an eye out for anyone who might be looking for her.

Which so happened to mean that he noticed a small white form moving about. A cub! Letting himself drop carefully from the air he perched on a rock a bit in front of the little one. "Getting away from your mother are you?"  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Naamini was quite surprised when a falcon practically dropped out of the sky, forcing her to come to an abrupt stop. A quick look at him was enough to tell her that she didn't recognize this bird as one of her family members' birds. Her mother didn't have a bird, and her aunt Ficha's bird looked very, very different from this grey one. There was always the possibility that this bird belong to one of the cubs she had yet to meet, but more likely he belonged to an adult member. He definitely looked self-confident enough to fit that role.

She frowned at him when he addressed her, though it was more from his words than his arrival. "I am not getting away from my mother. I'm on a mission to scout out the new arrivals to this pride. My mother wouldn't mind, so long as I stay within the pride borders and don't do anything too stupid." The last rule was 'don't make Kamau do anything dangerous', but that was more of her own rule than her mother's. Naamini always had Kamau's best intentions at heart, even when he didn't think so.
 

[TheMadHatter]

"Dizi what are you ... oh!" she'd seen her little companion dart out of the sky which meant generally that he'd found something interesting. She was still a bit worried about being separated from him again so she had moved quickly in that direction. She hadn't expected for his find to be a little cub and one she didn't recognize at all. "Dizi, don't be mean."

She smiled as she looked down at the cub. "I'm sorry ... he's a little forward."

"That still sounds like getting away from mom to me. That's what exploring is for." He fluffed up slightly and then huffed as Ashiki appeared and got on his case.

"I was being nice. Just asking questions." He hopped over the ground and fluttered up to perch next to one of the lioness' ears.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

The cub gave a small shrug. "She could come exploring too, so it's not really getting away from her. She's just busy doing other stuff so I'm entertaining myself. My brother does the same thing." Since when did birds know anything about getting away from their mothers? The only birds she had ever met were full grown, thus she assumed that all birds started out that way. Naamini's ears swiveled at the arrival of a lioness, and she stared quietly for a moment at Ashiki. Judging by her familiarity with this bird, they were bonded.

"Questions can be mean sometimes," Naamini replied with a small sniff, before returning her attention to the lioness. "It's okay. Forwards is better than backwards after all, unless you're backing out of a cave." She gave Ashiki a once over, before asking, "Are you new here? I've never seen you before..."
 

[TheMadHatter]

She laughed softly. She'd been very attached to her mother when she was little and had never really thought about getting away from her to explore. She wouldn't have learned what she had if she'd gone exploring alone. "Exploring can get you in trouble some times. You should still be careful. I bet your mother would be beside herself if you got hurt."

She sat down carefully so she didn't tower over the cub. "New? No. But i was trapped outside so it's not surprising you don't know who i am." She nodded a bit. "My name's Ashiki ... i'm a healer."  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

"I am careful." Naamini drew herself up and frowned, despite the fact that she knew this lioness was right. Life was full of trouble, however, and just because something was a little dangerous didn't mean she should avoid it. If she was fearful about everything then she would end up like her brother. One of them had to be the brave one and go exploring. That way if she ever needed to hide Kamau somewhere or save him she would always know where to take him. There were benefits to her explorations. "My mother knows when I go exploring. Besides, she could find me if she really wanted to."

Aaah, so she was one of the pride members who had not been here during the earth quake. She was in luck. "It's nice to meet you, Ashiki. I'm Naamini. Hisia is my mother and Kamau is my brother." Family ties were very important to the young twin, and she made an effort to encourage the association between her and her proper family. "What's a healer though?"  

[TheMadHatter]

"Your brother stays at home nice and quiet then?" Usually if there was one cub who liked to go running around where ever they could there was another one who would prefer to stay home. "Hisia? .... who's your father?" She remembered the lioness but couldn't remember that she was with someone before the earthquake. She should probably go have a chat with Hisia to make sure she was alright and still healthy.

"A healer is someone who takes care of others when they're sick or injured. So it's my job to make sure everyone stays safe and healthy." She smiled and nodded. "Dizi's my assistant."

He fluffed slightly at the comment directed at him. He liked being Ashiki's assistant. It meant he got to do something worthwhile with his life and help others.  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Naamini nodded at the first question, and then hesitated before shrugging at the second. She really had no idea who her father was, and nobody around seemed to be giving them any hints. They only whispered whenever they thought she and her brother were out of earshot, but the younger twin was not stupid. She was just not yet old enough to understand what had happened in the pride, and since nobody was willing to tell her why she was treated the way she was Naamini simply ignored the whispers. No use wasting energy on things that didn't matter.

"Oh. Is that what you're doing now, making sure everyone is all better after the earth quake?" It sounded like a very honorable job. Naamini was quite curious about the whole thing, but did her best to only ask one question at a time. Her serious face, however, kept twitching into little smiles whenever she let her curiousity get the better of her and let her imagination go wild. "What do you do to help them?"
 

[TheMadHatter]

"Ohh..." It was a little odd that the cub didn't know who her father was. Why wouldn't they tell her? Or even better why wasn't he here taking care of everyone? Unless .....

Mapa had told her what had happened. Could it have been one of them? The black lion hadn't given her descriptions of the rogues but the little cub didn't look like anyone she recognized.

Shaking her head she smiled at the questions. "It is. It ... it bothers me a bit that i wasn't here eariler to help since that's my job but i'm here now and i can do whatever i can."She nodded, ignoring the slight chirp from Dizi at the rattling. "Well ... i set bones and i know what plants are good for keeping away infections from cuts and what ones are good to eat if you have certain afflictions. Anything that can keep others healthy/."  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

If Naamini noticed the lioness's reaction she didn't comment. Instead, she focused on the question she had asked and the answers that she was being given. They were, after all, more important than who her father was. If he wasn't there to raise her and give support to her mother then she didn't care about him. At least, that was what she told herself. But enough of that. She had to focus on the healer.

"Doing what you can do now is important too. I think it would have been good to have you here, but I heard we had a lot of good lions and lionesses missing. But you're back now." And that was what was important. "Oh... so you could heal any kind of injury? Do you make sure that lion cubs don't get stomach aches? Because I'm kind of worried that Kamau is going to eat something and feel sick later." She frowned a little at this.
 

[TheMadHatter]

"Well .... yes and no." She frowned slightly. "Some injuries you just can't heal. It's sad to think about but some times all you can do is help as best you can knowing it wont get better." It had always bothered her that there were things that she couldn't do to help others but she'd been taught early that some times that was the case and you had to move on.

"I can cure stomach aches though." She nodded. "You just have to eat the right kinds of plants for what is causing the stomach ache and it will go away."  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

Naamini was quiet for a moment as she digested what the lioness had said. So sometimes even healers couldn't fix everything. She had thought that Ashiki was quite skilled just because she said she was a healer, but she supposed that being a healer didn't make you a goddess. "Well, so long as you help as best you can that's good, right?" What a puzzling situation. She would never like to be put in a position where she knew she couldn't help something. That wouldn't be very good.

"So it's all about plants then? Could you teach me? About some simple stuff. I don't want Kamau getting sick or anything." Everything was always about her older brother. Naamini was positive that she would never get sick or her – just because everything seemed out to get Kamau – and thus she always focused her attention on her twin. That was the way it was supposed to be, after all. She had to look out for him.  

[TheMadHatter]

She nodded slightly at the cubs question. "We always do the best we can even if we know it is futile. After all, some times miracles happen and things you don't think will heal do." She had seen it on occasion. Some times a lions drive to be healthy was better than any medicine that they'd created so far.

"It's not all about plants. Some of it is about knowing how the body works so you can put it back together the right way. Mostly bones." She smiled. "The plants help though. We couldn't make medicines without them."

She wasn't sure about teaching the cub though. She'd never taught anyone and wasn't sure that she was even ready for it. But what if the other healers hadn't survived? She'd be the only one. "I .... i suppose i could teach you a bit. But if something happens to your brother you get me as fast as you can."  

[Chibi Sheepcat]

The young cub listened in silence as Ashiki continued what she had to say. She had never thought that bones were of any importance, other than something good to gnaw on when the meal was finished. “So you look at the bones of lions then? Or the bones of other animals too?” Naamini couldn’t stop the hair on the back of her neck from prickling a little at the thought of lion bones. If she had ever found any lion bones when she was exploring the old caves she would have been out of there faster than a cheetah. Kamau would be scared too, if he heard about lion bones. It was probably better he didn’t know about their potential existence.

She was glad when they moved onto other topics. Naamini nodded at the healer’s words, not minding the agreement she was making. “Yeah, if he gets really sick or really hurt then I’ll come and get you. But sometimes he says he has a stomach ache or he feels sick but he’s just scared or ate a bug he shouldn’t have.” She made a face at that. “But you could teach me how to help him then, right?”