[PRP] Outside Influences (Shunqa x Asami)

[Hopefolly]

Shunqa crossed the borders two mornings ago and left his laudable hunting prowess in his wake. He floundered about the rogue lands as an inept adolescent would, helpless to do anything but trail behind his prey until his aching paws conceded defeat on his behalf. Had every member of the pride known the burn in his lungs, they'd have never called him fireless again.

It could be said he more retreated than returned, nothing to show for his journey but a pair of vicious cuts, one across his forehead and the other traversing his belly. When at last he'd gotten close enough to pounce an anteleope it turned out to be a surly sort whose kicks had been aimed and precise, not the panicked flailing Shunqa was expecting. By the end of it, he could taste more of his own blood than that of his target.

He ducked his head to avoid attracting more attention from the guards. Once they recognized him -- Mpaji's boy -- their interest waned and they continued to chat amongst themselves, eyes on the horizon for any potential threats or misguided fools trying to fight their way in here.

One such enigma was a lovely lioness with a coat so vivid and red Shunqa suspected Azar'bijan himself envied her for it. He knew her name: Asami. He didn't know why she'd come here, but he'd -- well, maybe he'd admired her from afar once or twice.

As luck would have it...

 

[Kaelyndra]

--he was about to have a headache brought on by more than a cut to the forehead.

"Hey!" It was a light sound, alarmed, but hardly commanding given it was muffled by a large medicinal root; the exact voice one might expect from a lithe lioness frail by Firekin standards. She was attempting to cram the root into the overfull bag before jogging up to Shunqa, her small, elegant muscles flexing with each step she took. Unlike his niece, no part of Asami's body bounced when she moved. An extra meal or two certainly wouldn't hurt her appearance.

As luck would have it, Asami had been returning from the outpost, laden down with trade goods and looking a little ruffled from the desert heat. They'd stuffed everything into a fat leather pack which hit the ground when she let her head fall. The result was comical--Asami had to hold her head high in the air to keep it from dragging in the sand, and should she dip it, the object would drag and sometimes she'd get her foot caught in the strap and have to stop to untangle herself.

Even a learning medical student had trained their eye to see when someone was trying to hide an injury. Firekin were so absolutely stubborn! They'd pretend they could keep fighting after they'd lost three of their five toes! (Or four in some cases, she reminded herself).

"Are you headed to the wards?" she asked, not wanting to make it seem like he was a Stubborn Firekin that would stupidly refuse medical attention, but most certainly assuming that he was.  

[Hopefolly]

Good question. Was he? Shunqa liked to think he had nothing to prove by letting a wound fester. Why hide his injuries from the guards if he was so confident? Seemed he couldn't quite shake all the arrogance ingrained bone deep in every Firekin born and raised. Their way of life was new to her or she may have known better than to ask. He found he both pitied and admired her for this. Goddess help her if she planned to birth any cubs and her lineage was anything but all red lions.

"Yes, I'm on my way there." Spoken as if he hadn't just decided. Shunqa was too much the courtly gentleman to look too closely at her -- unless she happened to turn around, then he might steal a glance. Most of the females he'd seen lately had been his sisters or like Elda and Bimnono. They were... um, pretty in their own right, but. "Your name's Asami, right? Do you want me to carry that?"

 

[Kaelyndra]

"Yeah," she answered, a large smile pulling across her face. How'd he know? Maybe the Firekin were talking about her and what kind of a medic she was. At first, this made her brim with pride, and then it flushed her already red cheeks with embarrassment.

Do you want me to carry that?

"Hm?" Asami looked down, blinking as she searched for what he would have carried for her. The stuffed leather sack found her eyesight a few moments later. Should she refuse? Was that polite?

"Yes, please," she eventually decided, feeling more than the desert warmth creeping up the back of her spine. He was a good deal taller than her, not to mention bigger, and the item might not even give him trouble.

She leaned over her forepaws to pick it up with her mouth. A large leaf fell out, and she seemed to have a moment of not knowing what to do. She eventually decided to return for the leaf after she'd brought the bag to Shunqa.

It was set on the ground before him, and she picked the strap up in her teeth, holding it high so she could slide it over his very large head.  

[Hopefolly]

Truly it was one of those days. The strap of the bag skimmed over his cut and snagged on his mane before it settled around his neck. Shunqa grit his teeth when they started off for the wards. No matter what precautions he took to avoid it (short of not carrying them to start with), the bundle of roots struck his legs every other step. He maintained a haltless gait and their conversation so Asami would be none the wiser. "How are you liking it so far?"  

[Kaelyndra]

Asami fell into a rhythmic step, going over herb and root uses in her mind. How to glue a deep, but narrow cut back together, and what to pack an open wound with--most wounds were doomed to this fate, lions lacking the thumbs and the medical advancement for needle and thread.

How are you liking it so far?

The red lioness glanced over to Shunqa, debating the specifics of the question. Rather than inquiring further as to whether Shunqa meant the pride in general or training to be a medic, Asami simply picked one.

"Difficult," she freely admitted. "I have trouble remembering all the plant names, and no one has even heard of the family remedies from back home." Because, as of yet, the Firekin was still some great adventure Asami fully intended to leave behind someday. It was a fascinating cultural experience, and she would surely find her proper name here.

"How'd you get that cut?" she redirected, finding talking about home too much made her feel ill at ease. She'd left her mother far behind, and her siblings, because she'd been impatient for her Pilgrimage and there was no way of knowing, truly, where they were now.  

[Hopefolly]

Shunqa had meant the Firekin, not her role in it, but he didn't press the matter. As for his cut... he responded with the truth, just not the whole truth. "Hunting." A subject change was swiftly implemented. He'd grown paranoid about discussing his rank, since to him it seemed it could never be announced without a captious remark. "Where are you from?" he asked, and he tried not to glance at her too often.  

[Kaelyndra]

Hopefolly

What a terribly wonderful and excruciating question.

How often did people ask her where they came from? Truthfully, all the time. The cubs found new rogues as though a firefly to the glittering moonlight on the waters surface. Asami's mouth grew thin at the absence of both water and fireflies in the dry desert.

Asami had not yet determined if it was hot, freezing, or some strange temperature down the middle that was somehow a painful mix of both. Her pawpads still felt cracked even if they were outwardly healed.

"A swamp?" Asami tried. Her voice heightened at the end of the sentence over the uncertainty of his knowledge. Without waiting for him to ask, she continued, "It's a place where so much water pools in the earth that you have to walk through it to get anywhere."

Hopefully that was education enough. What Asami would not give to see what the Firekin was imagining at that moment in time.

I miss my family. The words pressed against her throat and pooled into her mouth, but Asami refused to say them. He didn't care. She was on a pilgrimage; this is what she wanted.

"What about you?" The second it was out of her mouth, she realized it was a stupid question and she was so busy worrying about how to fix her grievous error that she tripped over her front foot and stumbled a few steps.  

[Hopefolly]

Kaelyndra

Shunqa was born with remarkable acumen in the art of reading those around him. He need only one conversation with a stranger to gauge their mood, possibly their temperament. This didn't make him a seer, a prophet, a mind reader. Detecting the change in tone and body language was worth as much as water in this so-called swamp. It was hard for him to fully grasp the precious commodity being so abundant that they walked through it, but given some context, he could fathom it on some level. That was his problem with her: Shunqa was given no further background to know why she reacted the way she did.

Until the stumbling. He had a pretty good inkling what was responsible for that. Where he should have informed her -- charmingly, of course -- that he could have easily been an immigrant himself and thus the question wasn't as senseless as it seemed... Shunqa couldn't manage such knee jerk
finesse when an opportunity to woo someone smacked him across the face.

What literally had smacked him was the sand from her paws finding their footing, loosening some grains. Just a couple specks in the eye. Nothing more than a blink to do away with them.

"Are you all right?" he asked swiftly. The cumbersome bag made a good scapegoat for why he hadn't rushed to her side.

Yes.

The bag.  

[Kaelyndra]

"I'm fine."

And Asami was, indeed, fine. His poorly crafted excuse was a saving grace. Now neither had to deal with the awkwardness of having an unfamiliar body in their personal space.

To save face for them both, the red lioness smiled shyly. Her eyes glanced towards the hanging back and then scouted out the sand in front of them.

"Is that the dune before the wards?" The words were full of air. Asami had no idea. All the dunes looked the same to her. The swampie was completely missing whatever mental tagging allowed the Firekin to navigate constantly changing landscapes.  

[Hopefolly]

Pretty and shy. Be still his heart. There was an undeniable allure to a female with some class and good looks. Trying to find one around here was like finding a specific grain of sand. Even a Firekin born and raised would struggle with that.

Shunqa started counting the glances they -- correction: she -- was getting. It irritated him to think how many might pursue her because of her outside lineage alone. Her, Niu, all of them really. "Hm?" He tracked Asami's gaze to the indicated area. "Yes, right there. Are you ready?"

He was ready to follow at any rate.