[PRP] Two Pound Fish

[Bronze Coffee]

It wasn't pity she looked at him with, just even more confusion. Maybe he just hadn't explored his options enough to find something to spark that special interest in him. Oh well.

"No. I haven't. Why?" Charybdis couldn't figure out what that had to do with anything.  

[Kisoni]

Kampfur took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "I have. I've lived in the cold for days, just so I could see the sun rise and set over the peaks. The way the light moves on the snow, the way your breathe fogs in the air."

He gestured with his chin to the ocean. "I came here for that. I'd seen the ocean before, but not this part of it. Not this beach or the light as it hits this water."

There was more to his travels than this, of course. There was being pushed out of caves by prides or hyenas, and following the herds, and escaping the floods or fires...but those weren't the sort of things this girl seemed concerned with, and so he focused on the impractical.

"I don't know where I'll go next, but I'll see something new. I'm sure of it."

He turned back to her, finally, a little curious how she'd look at him now. "I don't measure starfish, or care how they eat, and most of my time is spent providing the basic needs for myself--that's true. But I don't think that means there's nothing to my life."  

[Bronze Coffee]

"...So your passion is the thrill of tomorrow," she basically romanticized for him, a wide grin on her face. She laughed afterward and nodded. "You like traveling, seeing new things. You know. I was going to ask if you thought about joining a pride, but I think you'd just get really bored and depressed."

It didn't seem like much could make this girl stop smiling or laughing, even in little serious moments. Charybdis might be very focused on her starfish, but she was part of a large family that knew how to look at the positive. "So yeah. You found your passion it sounds like to me. .....And can you tell me some of those exciting stories?"

The last half of her sentence was cut short by a loud clap of thunder that she swear she felt on her belly. She stared out at the rain with a little sigh. How long was it going to be like this?  

[Kisoni]

"That..." wasn't exactly what he'd said, but Kampfur thought better of pointing this out.

His ears laid back at the clap of thunder and he jerked back as a spray of water hit his face.

The waves were tossing, and the tide had begun to roll in--eating up the shore beneath them. As such, the waves loomed closer...but wouldn't get into the cave, he thought. They would just get a little wet.

Kampfur muttered a curse beneath his breath and settled back down. He'd have to dig the cave out further in the morning, perhaps up and to the side. So long he didn't hit rock, he should be able to make a more comfortable space with a lip to shield him from weather.

As he settled, though, her words washed back over him. "The thrill of tomorrow, huh?" He mused, his voice so low she might not hear it. But it was other statement, pondering his lack of a pride, that really hit him.

Rather than sharing that story--those stories--Kampfur said instead, "I don't think they're all that exciting. Or stories, really. I just...walk. Follow the herds, settle in places where things seem good until they're not.

"Are your starfish friends going to be here after this?"  

[Bronze Coffee]

When the spray of water hit his face, it hit hers, and Charybdis made a growling squeak of protest at getting that wet. She shifted and grumbled lightly under her breath. Of course her luck was this bad. Everything went wrong with her studies, so why not this too? It looked like the gods just wanted to test her for a while.

"Oh. That's.." That was a good question. She seemed to almost lean forward like she was going to get up to go check on them, but didn't really move. It never occurred to the dark female that he was deflecting and changing the subjects.

"I'm not really sure. Hm. I hope they're going to be here! And be safe. Oh I think they will stick themselves to rocks and just kind of hope they don't get swept up in the waves? I don't...really know." A little questioning noise escaped her throat the more she thought about it.  

[Kisoni]

Kampfur was relieved to talk about something else, and a little alarmed at how quickly he'd jumped to wanting to talk about starfish. He twitched one ear as though a fly were bothering him; the oddity of having someone around was beginning to settle in.

"You've seen storms before, surely. If the starfish aren't something new, it stands to reason they'll be back."  

[Bronze Coffee]

Her head canted one way and then the other as she thought about his words. "You're right! But it just makes me worry. What if they don't come back for a long while? I suppose I'd get to see tiny starfish grow and can probably document that.." She seemed a little more into that idea.

"They make good necklaces and things like that, starfish. I only gather them once they're dead. I don't think we should kill something just for fashion." Food was one thing, fashion wasn't needed.

Kisoni

 

[Kisoni]

Kampfur chuckled faintly. "On that, at least, we can agree. There's no point in adding to death unnecessarily."

He'd come across too many in his travels who seemed to view death a sport; something to be cherished.

The water outside the cave was rising even higher, lapping at the bottom of the cliff edge. Kampfur made a face after being slapped by another spray of water. "I don't believe the beach cares as much for me, as I for it."  

[Bronze Coffee]

"Death isn't unnecessary. Even when we can't figure it out." Charybdis was completely serious on that point. She turned to look at him and then stuck out her tongue to blow it at him in a silly manner before he spoke again. She needed to break the serious vibe that was happening. It was a bit too heavy for her.

The beach didn't like him. She hummed and shrugged a little. "No it's not you... This is what happens here. It's fairly normal, just unexpected. I suppose I wasn't paying much attention to the weather yesterday to notice it was going to happen." The black and neon colored lioness shuffled just a little before a yawn caused her to open her mouth wide, and her tongue curl. When it was over, she groaned and frowned.

"Rain makes me tired. Ugh, anyway. You should totally join our pride. You can watch the star fish with me."

Kisoni

 

[Kisoni]

"I didn't say it was unnecessary, just that there's no sense in adding to it when one doesn't have to," Kampfur said, more in a mutter to himself. He put his ears back, wondering a bit why he bothered.

The last part of what she said caught him by surprise. He'd flat missed the portion about the beach just being the way it was, but the idea of joining a pride...

"You seem rather set on bringing me to them. First an offer of food, and now...what makes you think they'd even want another lion around?"  

[Bronze Coffee]

"We always want more lions," she replied honestly, looking him over seriously. "We don't care about your past, about things like that. Just work in tandem with the pride, and who knows. Maybe the beach'll ease up. Maybe it's mad I hadn't already offered!" She giggled and shrugged a bit. The ocean was a fickle, wonderful thing. It really was. Charybdis shifted so she was more on her side, her legs still tucked as close as they could be so she didn't like squish him or something.

"You don't have to say anything now, not yes or no. Just think about it. See what you want to do after a few more days. If it stops being like this," she waved to the front of their cave, "and you like it.. think about joining."

Kisoni

 

[Kisoni]

The thought was an unsettling one. It wasn't so much that Kampfur hadn't wanted to join a pride--he'd thought about it, and tried, more than once. It was simply that every effort before had failed miserably. That was the problem with being born a rogue, and raised to wander; few trusted them easily. To be fair, Kampfur didn't trust easily, either.

So he nodded, and fell into thoughtful silence as they watched the storm roll in, and the sea rage. As Kampfur had thought, the water stopped rising just shy of his little niche, enough that they could spend a more-or-less comfortably dry night there, before it rolled out again.