Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I know you’re here! Show yourself!"

Adanna had hesitated when learning a lioness named Amaka was looking for her. It didn’t seem like much of a trap, rather she immediately knew what it meant and spent some time in denial. Finally, after days are arguing with herself she’d settled on an ultimatum. Either she would go and face this lioness, or she would get Adeyemi involved. It was only so long she could go without letting the mama’s boy in on the secret.

She was between the Hongshan Quarter where Amaka had been looking for her and where the hunters had settled. She was also completely oblivious to the proximity of Tapana. But Adanna knew she was here, even if she couldn’t find her.

Seemingly out of nowhere, especially from what Tapana might see, a bright red lioness appeared. She had an arrogant smile on her face and didn’t hesitate to approach the shouting lioness.



Adanna was genuinely surprised when a lioness appeared seemingly out of thin air (though there were a few stray feathers..?) The lioness before her was no stranger, either. She was built like Adanna’s lost sister but the eyes were a dead giveaway.

"Hello, Adanna," Amaka said.

Adanna growled in response, taking a threatening step forward but Amaka was unmoved.

"So you are here," Adanna said, stopping her approach when Amaka didn’t react but still fiercely glaring, "And you are.. you’re.."

While Adanna has never doubted her conclusion about her mother, seeing her mother’s eyes on her sister’s face in a plain red package was hard to swallow.

"I knew you’d have me figured out by now," Amaka said, taking a step back. As each paw hit the sand a part of her true form was revealed, from her back feet up to her front, ending at her nose. With a rough shake of her fur, she even seemed to grow larger. Her illusion was gone, and a winged lioness stood before Adanna, looking smug.

Adanna stared as it happened. This was the mother she remembered, but larger and with wings. If this was her true form, her disguise for life in the Hongshan hadn’t been especially creative.





((Written on mobile while at work, all fixed up now xD Couldn't get quotes to work at the time! Ayira is currently without her crown & cape, but she is in her god form))

A long silence hangs between mother and daughter as Tapana stumbled in her approach at the revelation that the plain red lioness was secretly a god. Adanna, clever and angry though she is, was at a loss for words so Ayira stepped up to start them off. She was peripherally aware of Tapana's presence but she knew enough about both Regents that it will not put her off.

"I've been waiting for you," she said, "I arrived after the Hongshan and I waited and waited. And here you are."

Adanna stared, scowling.

"Does Adeyemi know?" she asked, realizing that her idiot brother is detached enough to keep a secret like this. She would rip him to shred either way, if he'd been hiding something like this. But her fantasy of having an excuse to attack him was cut short.

"No," Ayira answered simply. If she had to explain why she would reveal herself to Adanna and not Adeyemi, well, the answer wouldn't be entirely clear even to her. Adeyemi was less likely to care, perhaps. Adanna was always more likely to see the potential.. despite her general preference to stay out of the affairs of mortals, Ayira was here for a reason.

"I assume Amara and Askari are dead," the goddess said, sounding almost regretful at the loss of her third child and once-mate.

"Neither survived the Nergui," Adanna confirmed, "They tried harder to keep Amara alive, but she would have none of it."

After her time in the Nergui, after realizing what she and Adeyemi were, what Amara must have been as well.. she understood why Amara had been such an attractive prize. The problem was that her sister was more stubborn than either of her siblings and more fiercely loyal to the Hongshan. She chose to die on the mountain rather than live as a slave to be converted.

"Pity," Ayira muttered, filling in the gaps on her own and understanding. Amara had been her favorite child, once. Knowing her survival instinct was so easily overridden was a disappointment. More and more she was realizing that daddy's girl Adanna was perhaps always the more impressive of the two.

Adanna looked affronted by Ayira's remarking, brushing off Amara so easily .. but she didn't get a chance to speak. Ayira's eyes finally went to the side, where Tapana was inching closer. Adanna turned and was shocked to see they were discovered by the Regent.

Not that this had been a well-concealed choice of locations for a surprise family meeting.

Ayira and Adanna both waited silent as Tapana approached them. The goddess was smiling but Adanna's expression transitioned slowly from shock to blank. They both knew what Tapana was thinking before she said it, and Adanna silently looked to her mother to see what her answer would be. If her physical disguise was simply a slightly smaller, wingless version of herself.. could she be anything but Ayira?

"I'm afraid not, Regent Tapana," Ayira answered, "Though we are connected. You could say Finar-si is like a mother to me, I'm sure she once was."

"What does that mean?" Adanna asked, not hesitating to demand answers while she expected Tapana to be more cautiously reverent. She had no fear of her mother, and her respect for the lioness was low after she disappeared before the Nergui conquered the Hongshan. Tapana was likely to be wise and respectful while Adanna was reckless.

"Finar-si governs Change. I govern Evolution, gradual changes in the name of survival," Ayira explained, looking to Adanna as she did and then back to Tapana with a smile, "You may call me Ayira."

"What indeed," Adanna muttered, looking to her mother to see how she would answer. She could sense the hesitation in Tapana, and she understood how one who longed for something to believe in, for proof of what they did believe in.. it had to be hard to see a lioness who only saw her mother standing before her. A mother that had abandoned them before war broke out and their family was torn apart.

Ayira smiled pleasantly, well aware of what Adanna had on her mind and finding that, luckily, she could answer her unspoken questions with Tapana's.

"I followed the Hongshan," she said, focusing on Tapana first, "In truth, I arrived not long after the first set of refugees. I don't often interfere with mortals but the Hongshan were interesting."

For the first time in a long time, she had found a lion worth connecting with. She missed Askari more than she would say, but she was a practical goddess who knew she would outlive him by far. For the rest of her explanation, she looked to Adanna.

"When the Nergui arrived on the mountain, it would have been foolish for me to stay," Ayira said, a hint of regret in her voice, "The Hongshan had no use for a goddess, I wouldn't rally the warriors half as well as Jianjun. I can fight but not enough to win such a war myself. Even with magic, without a strategy prepared, I would have been overcome like any lion."

Adanna wanted to be skeptical but.. it made sense and her mother seemed as sincere as she had ever heard her. The tension in the guard's body began to relax, but she still didn't look especially happy. The Nergui would never have taken Ayira as a slave, somehow they'd have known what her family failed to realize. Maybe her only options really had been to fight and die, or run and live.

"I don't often interfere with mortals," Ayira repeated, looking again to Tapana, "Especially in matters of life and death."

Ayira looked silently at Tapana when she asked her questions. She had said enough about the Hongshan that the answer to the first should have been clear.. but it was truly her final statement that said the most. For the Hongshan, the conflict with the Nergui was life or death.

Adanna returned Tapana's look and then stared expectantly at her mother. She guessed the answer before the long silence confirmed it, but the second question remained. Was she only here to see her surviving children? She could see them fine from hiding, obviously.

Suddenly, the goddess looked off into the distance. They would not be alone much longer, this was a rather central spot in a large pride. She looked back to Tapana with a smile.

"If you want to chat again," she said, her wings spreading and wrapping around her, "You can find me with the Bird Clan."

Her body seemed to twist beneath the wings and when they unfurled again, she was in the form of a large hawk. A few flaps of her wings and she had shrunk down to a more believable size. Without another word, she took off, purposefully brushing her wings over Adanna's face as she went.



Adanna frowned, snuffling back the urge to sneeze at the tickle from her departing mother, and then looked at Tapana. The regent was clearly uncertain, but Adanna herself had never been more self-assured. It was a strange feeling after such a strange reunion with her estranged mother.

"She's exactly as I remember," she said, "I wondered about that, if we had ever known the real her."



(( Translation: If you get lost figuring this out, I can help.

OOC note: Sososo tempting to have Adeyemi walk by, say "Hi Adanna, hi Tapana, hi mom" and then keep walking. ))

Adanna nodded at Tapana's evaluation of how their discussion had ended, and the decision to try to figure out the motives she had before making any real plans with the council. She wasn't a political lioness, it wouldn't be up to her to decide how to use this opportunity. As for weighing in on what Ayira's motivation might be, she wanted to speak to Adeyemi first. She didn't think of her brother as particularly intelligent, but he knew their mother as well as she did. It was likely that they would have two similar but different perspectives.

"She definitely didn't say no," she added, "I could hazard a guess, but I'd like to talk to Adeyemi about this first. What I will say is that she clearly doesn't think our fight with the Nergui is life or death."

If Ayira didn't get involved in matters of survival, then she didn't think they were in serious danger. On the other paw, that meant it wasn't life or death for the Nergui, either. Maybe that shouldn't have been surprising, knowing what she had seen and how they had survived against the Firekin so far.. but it was a bit surprising.

More to think about, then, after the strange reunion with her mother.



((More like Adeyemi: Doesn't Care rofl

I think that's a good place to stop! o: yay! ))