Pur'Jed yawned and blinked sleepily at the sunlight outside her den. Something was nagging at the corner of her thoughts, but she couldn't remember what it was. There was something she was supposed to do, or somewhere she was supposed to be, and she could not for the life of her remember what or where it was. Rather than be bothered by this lapse in her memory, the young adolescent went about stretching, working all the kinks from her lithe, supple body. There weren't a lot of kinks to work out, really, but stretching still felt good."Mm..." she sighed as she walked into the sunlight, her stride perfectly graceful and ladylike. It had taken all of her youth to master that walk, but now that she had she took great pride in her accomplishment. Just thinking about how effortlessly she could manage it brought a pleasant smile to her face.
She was most of the way to the meadow where she liked to go and gather flowers when she remembered what she was supposed to be doing. She had agreed for whatever reason to spend the morning with Yhina, a somewhat younger daughter of another noble. It had been at her mother's request, she remembered now. Pur would rather eat her own tail than disappoint her mother.
With a muted curse, Pur took off at a much faster pace toward the den Yhina shared with her parents and siblings, hoping very hard that her tardiness wouldn't be noted. She could just say she'd been trying to let the younger lioness sleep in, and then she would seem considerate. Being considerate was one of the hallmarks of a good noble, she knew for certain.
A lady was always considerate of the comfort and desires of her companions. Her mother had told her that, which meant that not only was it true and correct, but it was one of many rules of comportment that Pur'Jed would try very hard never to break or forget. Arriving later than expected could be contributed to an attempt to be considerate of another noble's desire to sleep to a civilized hour, she supposed. But was it more or less considerate than being late at all?
The situation would have been different if Pur hadn't been going to see another noble. In that case, Pur wouldn't have had to worry, because a noble's consideration for others wasn't meant to extend to groundlings or commoners. It was only meant to include a person's companions, and neither groundlings nor commoners were all that likely to be her companions, now were they?
As she drew near Yhina's den Pur slowed her pace. It would not due to be late, but that was inevitable at this point, and so she might as well move at a more stately, graceful pace. From the way her faster gait had mussed her fur it would be obvious to anyone who looked that she had made an effort at haste, and had not simply been dawdling or meandering. Another few moments' pause gave her time to school her expression to something pleasant and yet also contrite for when she greeted Yhina's parents.
Pur also rehearsed in her head what she would say to them when they came to meet her. She would open with a greeting and a remark on what a fine day it was. That was polite and inoffensive. And then she would go on to say how much she had been looking forward to spending time with their daughter, Yhina. It was important, she knew, to mention the younger girl's name because it made it seem as though she was taking a greater interest than she actually was.
Only then would she bring up her own tardiness. In truth, there was a good chance it wouldn't come up at all if she didn't mention it, but if she didn't at least apologize for it then it would look as if she was indifferent to the fact that she had arrived late. Albeit unintentionally. Intent didn't matter so much as actual action, even among nobility, and she was actually late, though not by much, it was true.
Anyway, she would apologize, but not with too much distress, since it was just a little thing after all, and then she would ask how they were doing while she waited for Yhina. Or maybe she should ask after their health before she made her apology. That would probably be better. Get all the pleasantries out of the way before moving on to unpleasantness. Which didn't make much sense to Pur, but that was the way things were generally done. Herself, Pur would have preferred to save a bit of pleasantness to make the unpleasantness seem less so.
She was just coming up to the entrance of the den when another thought occurred to her. She had already done this. She'd taken these exact steps before, thinking these exact thoughts. There was a word for that, wasn't there? Deja vu, she thought it might be called, though the expression was foreign to her and she wasn't positive she'd gotten it correct. Pur had never experienced it before, but she was pretty sure that's what this was. It was confusing to be aware of one's own awareness, she thought, feeling dizzy suddenly as her mind began to overwhelm itself.
Before her legs gave out and sent her collapsing to the ground in an undignified sprawl Pur had just enough warning in her joints' trembling to think with horror how humiliating it would be to just fall down in front of someone else's den. In spite of her concern, there was nothing the purple adolescent could do, and in a matter of moments she was opening her eyes and blinking blearily at her surroundings, which had changed drastically from what they had been mere moments before.
For one thing, she was no longer in front of Yhina's parents' den, but in front of her own parents' den. The time of day was also different. It was late afternoon instead of mid-morning. Pur didn't think she'd been unconscious that long, and if she had been, there was no way she could have moved herself home. And if someone had moved her, why hadn't they taken a few extra steps to bring her into the den?
It was all very strange, and since there seemed to be nothing Pur could do about it for the time being she just shook her head and turned around to go back inside to lay down. She didn't feel very well. Her steps as she returned to her family's den were unsteady and her legs felt all wobbly and weird. For the first time in a long while Pur looked down at her feet to make sure her paws actually hit the ground each time. When she got inside she would ask her mother about it. Her mother would know what had happened and what to do.
