[PRP] Something Positive (Kalju & Nagua)

[mouselet]

Nagua was, for once, staring towards the pride, in the direction of the water hole, as he sat and thought. He was thinking over what the pink lioness had told him, that he shouldn't blame someone for the choices their parents made, even when that resulted in a hybrid because the parents were of two different species.

It was...hard. To say the least. He still didn't like hybrids and the thought of even considering sex with a leopard or a cheetah made the teal lion shudder convulsively. But...he supposed they couldn't help being what they were. Like he couldn't help it that he'd never met his father.

Yellow eyes widened and Nagua's posture straightened as he repeated that to himself. He couldn't help it that he'd never met his father. It wasn't his fault, or his siblings. If it was anyone's fault, it was their mother's for sleeping with some lion she'd only met once. It wasn't his fault.

The boy felt a smile slowly stretch across his face at the realization.  

[mouselet]

He was, actually, and the meaning behind the sudden noise didn't penetrate for a few moments. Then the boy shook himself and turned to find...a lion. A big adult male. Yellow eyes blinked rapidly as he looked up at the big orangey-brown male.

Then he realized he'd been asked a question and he had no idea what the query had been. Nagua grinned crookedly upwards.

"Sorry, I didn't hear your question. What was that again?"  

[mouselet]

"Oh!" It was, after all, a fairly logical question for someone to ask him, Nagua reflected. Unlike some...

"Yeah, I'm back, and fine," he answered. "Just doing some thinking, you know?" No more and no less. He wasn't quite ready to share the fruits of that meditation with anyone yet, but he wouldn't deny what he'd been up to.

"Is there something I can do for you?" The adolescent had no qualms about being polite and making the offer to a normal lion who wasn't threatening to kill him or anything like that.  

[mouselet]

Nagua shuddered slightly at the oblique reference to the fact that this was a pride full of diseased lions, but pushed it aside. This lion didn't seem ill at all, and he was certainly the nicest person the adolescent had met here, aside from Jani (who had saved his life and so was in a different category).

But what was this? He was looking for interesting things - always a fun pasttime - for bards to use as props? The latter part of the sentence made no sense at all to the boy, and his confusion showed clearly.

"What are bards and why do they need to prop things up?" he asked.  

[mouselet]

Nagua couldn't help gaping as the lion expounded on what bards were and what they did. It was an entire rank that he'd never once imagined could exist! It sounded, as the lion had mentioned, like a lot of fun.

"I've never heard of anything like that," he admitted. "But that's probably the neatest thing I've heard of since leaving home!" If the Kitwana'antara had these bards, it might just be worth staying here after all!  

[mouselet]

Nagua was very interested to hear what sorts of different things the bards did to entertain the pride. It was an entirely novel form of entertainment, and a whole lot more welcoming than what the Ghosts back home did. The Jini-msemi did get together as a pride on occasion, but not the way this lion was describing.

It would definitely be a new experience.

"I can't wait to see," he told the orangey-brown lion, real excitement suffusing his voice.  

[mouselet]

The boy nodded excitedly. "Deal! Oh, and if you're looking for me, my name's Nagua," he told the older lion belatedly. He'd almost forgotten to introduce himself! How rude!