At last! At long last Saharan was free to explore this wonderous new place. The leaders of the Firekin had found her cause suitable (of course) and relented to her wishes. Wonderful! She'd eagerly departed them for a little stroll around the immediate area. She'd been quite curious, and many of the residents seemed but of by her at first--as would any tight knightly knit pride, she reminded herself.
Of course she assumed the pride had been told of her presence and purpose, and more like as not guards had been discretely posted to monitor her. For a pride full of the biggest, toughest lions she'd ever seen, they were terribly paranoid. So very interesting...
And she could tell beyond a doubt that this was where she'd come from. Though she was not tiny, she was not huge like them. She was red though, and black and white. She could imagine her mother's mother here..."Huh!" She grunted as she leapt up onto a rock for a better lay of the lands. Several of the natives peered sourly up at her; she only smiled back. Their bad attitudes would not stand in the way of her pursuit of knowledge!
Naur was not used to seeing new people around the prides. He wasn’t usually by the borders, and didn’t fight much to test visitors. On top of that, he wasn’t very social, so even when he did see an unfamiliar face he didn’t go out of his way to say hello to it. His mother told him he needed to be a bit more outgoing, but now that he was grown he found that to be funny. He heard from members of his family that Runya, his mother, hadn’t exactly been a social butterfly.
Following the glares of some nearby older lions, he turned his head to see a completely unfamiliar face connected to a lioness’s body, atop a rock. He tilted his head, wondering what she was doing so proudly up on that rock. He padded up to her slowly, holding his white maned head up proudly.
“Who are you?” he asked, skipping over, mostly by accident, the part where he said hello and tried to be nice. He was terrible with remembering the rules of pleasant conversation. That didn’t mean he was rude, per se: he was just very used to not engaging creatures outside his family and their friends, or those that lived near his family. Lions he had grown up with or around. His pride.
Saharan took immediate interest in the native who came wandering up, demanding to know who she was. None other had been so bold now that she'd gained approval from their leaders. As a cultural anomoly he fascinated her. Maybe he was just rude, but hey...one never knew.
She leapt down from the rock without hesitation and stepped right up to him, staring him down eye to eye. Well eye to chin more like, and without a hint of malice in her stance. In fact, she grinned. From what she knew, the male was a picture of 'Firekin-ness'...big, red, white, and grouchy.
"I'm Saharan, envoy from the Simbafutaji. My ancestors were from this pride. I've come back to research my origins...this place; your customs, how you live. You're the first one to talk to me though, aside from your leaders." She leaned in close, eying him over like some insect that might scurry away before she had time to properly study it. "And who are YOU?"
He watched the lioness, who was smaller than him, but not as small as he would have imagined. His mother was bigger, as were his sisters, but she didn’t seem as tiny as some of the rogue lionesses that joined up, which he caught sight of at a distance. Maybe she had firekin in her? She had the right colors, he thought, though his glorious red coat was a much finer example of Firekin pride.
Then she spoke and let him know that his thinking was right. He nodded slowly, though he didn’t follow everything.
“Simbafutaji? I don’t know that place,” not surprising, he didn’t know of many prides, “I’m the first to talk to you? That’s odd. Well. I guess not.” He didn’t shy away from her scrutinizing him, flicking his tail behind him and watching her just as curiously. “I’m Naur. I guess it’s nice to meet you. Kinda. How long are you going to be around here? Are you just going to be staring at us? That’s a little weird.”
Oh yay yay yay! He wasn't just a grumpy gus (though his interacting with her seemed to further sour the moods of those looking on) after all! She nearly pranced with excitement, thinking of the possibilities if she had someone on the inside who could explain why the lions were acting how they did. He was an even luckier find than that amelly marking stone in the desert!
"The Simbafutaji is a pride to the south. We live between a jungle and the sea, mainly on beaches full of sand like this. It's warm there, but moist too. Comparitively, this place is quite dry. I would love to see how your people cope with their water needs. I assume there's some sort of oasis?" She nodded to herself. That must be it. "We are hoarders of information. Pride locations and cultures, the movements of herds, the timing of the rainy season and other changes. We even keep records of plages that come and go. Any information we can get , we keep."
"Yes yes," She brushed aside his suprise at being the only one to talk to her. "As I'd assumed by your choice in location, your people seem fairly closed to outsiders. You, Naur, are an anomaly. And of course not! I find the best way to really learn about something is to immerse ones self. I plan to meet people, try things out, see how well I can adapt to your ways. But you know...having a little help wouldn't be that bad. And you'll do fine."
Naur watched her, finding her odd behavior not as offputting as he thought he might. Or maybe as the others thought he should and did. He smirked a little, shaking his head in wonder, but he didn’t tell her to stop with the prancing, or to settle down. He tilted his head to the side, just… trying to figure her out. Coming from a family of competitive lions, folks who liked to fight and brag, he wasn’t used to playful lions.
“The sea? I don’t think that’s the same kind of sand,” he didn’t sound like he was teasing, actually meaning it as he thought about it. Beach sand and the sand here was different, right? He didn’t know, as he had never been. This was the only sand he knew.
“Oh, yeah, we have water sources here. Oasis’ and things like that. I mean, we have to, or we’d all dry up,” he smiled. He had never heard of someone so interested in learning things. Except maybe Iroh. “Anomaly? I don’t think so. I think you need to look around more, maybe. Not all the Firekin are anti-strangers. Though, I guess those guys over there are, from the way they’re glaring. But uh. I guess I could help you.” He frowned.
“Are you much of a fighter?”
She listened intently, and thought a moment. "Maybe. Beach sand is part rock all ground up, and part dead things. Shells and the bones of sea animals that've been powdered up by the water. And I can't imagine you get many sea creatures way out here. This sand...I bet it comes from the wind, not water, wearing the rocks. Probably different kinds of rocks too..." She eyed the stone she had just leapt off of intently, almost totally ignoring the male for the moment.
"Hmm? Oh, no. I wouldn't think so. Well, I've never had to fight." She finally tore herself away from the stone to regard Naur again. "I gather from the emphasis on physical strength and stature in the pride here, those skills would be highly valued. In the Simbafutaji, intelligence, and more importantly, memory takes the top rung for abilities."
"What about you though? You seem young. My age? Maybe younger...I suspect that strength plays a big part in who you associate with, hmm? If being weak would hinder my studies..." She brightened suddenly. "Oh there's an idea! You'll teach me to fight! That would work...Yes, it would work!"
