[FIN] Have You Tried Prayer? (Ua & Mstari)

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MSTARI

The young lioness was strolling through the pride, looking for someone who needed spiritual guidance. After all, what use was it being a Priestess if you didn't have anyone to...preside over? Pries over? Whatever. The point was, if she wasn't doing something for somebody, she was just being a lazy lioness who should probably be out hunting.

And since she didn't really like being around those laid low by disease, Mstari aimed her steps for the dens of those who were healthier. Or those who weren't even lions at all! After all, this wasn't a pride entirely of lions. Just mostly. But that didn't make other species bad, just ask Mstari! Wasn't her brother Sasta a leopard? And her other brothers leopons like their parents? And weren't two of her grandparents leopards?

Well, the point was that lions weren't the best. Just Mstari, if you asked her.  

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Mstari was looking around her, trying to find someone, anyone, that she could help, when she looked forward to see a pink lion right in front of her.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, stopping her forward motion, a few lengths away from the other lion. She hadn't expected someone to show up right there, and without her even noticing! Once Mstari got over the initial shock, she looked him over. That pink fur was distinctive, and she remembered that he was related to the Master Warrior. It was something complicated, but really, who needed to know more than the basics? He was related to Mittere, just like she was related to Sliabh, and that was that.

Of course, that didn't tell her his name. Which was kind of stupid of her, since she knew he wasn't that much older than her, and they had played as kids...a little bit? Somewhat? There'd been a lot of kids in the Kitwana at that point, or so it had seemed to Mstari.

"What're you doing?" she asked, breaking her train of thought.  

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"Well yes. You should," Mstari replied choppily. And here she'd been ready to explain to him why it was important to pay attention to where you were walking and he seemed to realize it exactly. That was disappointing, as the lioness liked being able to tell people what they should do. It was what made her a good Priestess, or so she told herself.

"Where were you going, that you weren't paying any attention?" the lioness pressed him for more information. She couldn't believe that he'd just been aimlessly wandering. Sure, she hadn't known where she was going, but she'd known what she was looking for and was paying attention to where she was going. Mostly. Enough. She hadn't almost walked into him, now had she?

So there.  

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A new den? Mstari puzzled over the words. Then she realized.

"Goddess! You mean you still live with your parents?" The Priestess, of course, didn't. In fact, she'd moved out as soon as she was old enough. It wasn't that she didn't love her parents or her brothers, but by the Goddess, a girl needed her space! Her privacy! And the ability to bring a male home without having to justify it to six other people.

"My den's over that way," Mstari gestured vaguely to an area closer towards the diseased folk, but still a ways out from the pride's center. It was, coincidentally, also away from her family's dens. Not that that had had anything to do at all with her choice. The den itself wasn't as big as many, but it was more than enough for her current needs. When she did take a mate, she had every intent of moving into his larger space.

That's what mates were for, right?  

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Mstari waited for him to say something interesting, to defend himself about living with his parents, to say something. But after an aborted attempt, the pink lion didn't say a word, just stared off into the distance. The lioness made a face. It was all very well for him to not pay any attention when he didn't know she was there, but when they were in the middle of a conversation? No way!

She went right up to him and, as if he were one of her brothers, waved a paw in his face.

"Helloooooooo? Anyone home?" she called out.  

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Well, it was absolutely obvious that he'd been a bit distracted, as well as that he didn't have his own den and that he was looking. In fact, the only less-than-obvious thing the pink male had said recently was that his name was Ua. Which sounded familiar. Mstari frowned as she thought.

"Oh, don't you have a brother named Kua?" she replied. She remembered the name now, and remembered how fun it had been to say "Ua and Kua". Or "Kua and Ua"! It often made her wish that two of her siblings had had names so similar. Or that she had a sister like that!

Unfortunately, she had no sisters at all. Which really, really sucked. And even if her parents had more kids, they'd still be so much younger, and they'd be babies for soooooo long.

Being the only girl really really sucked.  

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The lioness had a grin on her face and her mouth was opened to ask another question about the absent Kua...

...when Ua answered her question in past tense and the smile drained from her face. Oh. Whoops. It wasn't at all uncommon for families in this pride to lose youngsters to the disease. It had simply never happened in Mstari's immediate family. Which likely had something to do with all the leopard blood. It didn't even cross her mind to think that she was actually the most vulnerable to the plague in the family.

"Oh," she answered in a subdued tone. "I see. Sorry."

Then she realized she hadn't introduced herself. "I'm Mstari."  

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"Yes, isn't it?" the lioness replied without skipping a beat, leaving the awkward and potentially painful subject of Kua behind. Then again, she was always happy to draw attention to herself.

"I haven't really seen you around since we were cubs. What is it that you do?" He had to have some kind of productive rank in the pride, since only the royal family could get away with lazing around all day. Of course, there was work and there was work. The pink male didn't exactly look like someone who did a lot of physical work every day, but he had to do something.