[PRP] A sandy meeting

[Zingling]

Mihika wasn’t thinking clearly. She hardly ever was lately and somehow she found her way out of the safety of the pride. Not by much. She could definitely still smell her pride, but this part of the beach she hadn’t been to before.

The blue lioness looked around when she seemed to come to herself. Her pale eyes blinked a few times, silver tufts of mane fell into her eyes and stung worse than the bitter wind when she turned her head just wrong. “Wheeere am I?” But that’s when she found it. There was this crevasse in the rocks, she could hear the sound of the wind echoing.

“Hello?” she called, delighted at the rich echo that greeted her ears. “Hello, is anyone in there? I want to come in.”  

[Zingling]

Seiki had been out and about, taking a much needed trip away from the swamps to gather his own supplies. Without the help of Hesper, Votla and Kakali, he had found himself in dire need of items. Sniffing the air, the heavy scent of lions filled his nostrils, he was close to one of the prides, however he wasn’t exactly sure which pride he was closest to. From the rumors, both the Kizi and Bahari had been having issues with one another again, on top of that, there was also something happening in the heavens causing many creatures to be on guard. Never in Seiki’s life had he ever seen anything quite like it. More and more creatures were calling the swamps their home now. Raaisel was constantly helping heal others and Kivati could barely keep up with the good luck charms she created.

Musing about the happens in the world, Seiki continued to wander, closer and closer he got to the ocean, hoping to score shells, smooth branches and pebbles for his work. Several small satchels [toolbelt] were attached to his hips, allowing him to fill up on whatever he needed. Taking another deep breath, Seiki stopped moving forward and instead stood waiting. A lioness was in front of him, calling out to the… wind?

Watching her curiously, the starry pelted lion sat down and watched her for another minute before finally deciding to call out to her. “Hello? Umm… Miss?”  

[Bronze Coffee]

The voice that caught her ear wasn't her own, or even the echo. The lioness let out a screech and turned around, every bit of fur on her back and neck standing up, tail fluffing out as much as it could. "Aaa!"

It was very undignified, that much was sure. She hadn't expected a physical answer, much less a physical lion in front of her. Her ears flattened and she backed up a few paces, stumbling over herself and falling onto her plump backside.

"Don't DO that to a lioness," she said with an anxious laugh.  

[Zingling]

Watching the lioness stumble and then fall in front of him, Seiki wanted nothing more than to help, however he kept himself where he was to not make himself seem threatening. Frowning, the artist waited until the stranger addressed him before he spoke again. “I… wasn’t trying to scare you, I am so sorry.”

Standing, Seiki took a step close before stopping as an afterthought. “Can I help you up?” The lion offered a gentle smile, hoping he wouldn’t scare her any further. “My name is Seiki, by the way. I am looking for crafting items.” The lion searched the ground for a moment before honing in on a beautiful shell on the beach. Stepping closer to it, he picked it up and offered it to the lioness.

“See, like this one! It would make a pretty pendant to wear, don’t you think?”  

[Bronze Coffee]

"I'm fine, I'm fine." She got up to her paws by herself and shook the sand off before settling again. He wasn't hurting her, and wasn't threatening her in anyway, which was was majorly thankful for. If Mihika had to defend herself, she would, but in all honestly, she'd rather not. She was, after all, a healer.

"I was looking for herbs, myself, and sometimes they grow in caves and cracks.." She was trying to explain herself. "I don't like just barging into a cave. One time I came across an angry creature from the sea! It was really fat, but it had huge long front teeth and charged at me really fast. I got out of there as quickly as I could." Her silver tuft fell into her face again and she shook it before he stepped closer with the offered shell.

It was really pretty. "My sister does this. She collects pretty things and makes them into things..." Her light eyes looked back up at him before grinning. "Her name's Livyathan."  

[Zingling]

Sand flew everywhere as the lioness stood up and shook her pelt, allowing Seiki a moment to give the lioness a once over. No cuts of any sort and she seemed overall healthy. Letting out a sigh of relief, the lion felt noticeably better. She hadn’t been harmed, just scared.

“What do you do with the herbs, miss?” Eyeing her curiously, his friends Kivati and Raaisel had taken to using herbs and roots for their ‘crafts’. One created things that helped heal others while the other created poisons and ‘lucky’ pouches. He wasn’t so sure if they worked or not, but he’d never say a word about it to the old swamp witch.

As the stranger babbled, Seiki found himself rather interested in her story, he hadn’t thought to call out before entering strange dark areas before so he too, could have been in her position. “I will have to keep your story in mind when I look for items. I don’t wander too far from my home normally, but the beach is a nice change of scenery from my swampy home.”

He twisted the shell so the light hit it, making the iridescent colors shimmer. “I’d hope to meet her one day then. It is always nice to see what other artists create.” Tucking the shell into one of his belt pockets, Seiki sat down again. “Would you like some privacy or is it okay if I stay here with you miss?”  

[Bronze Coffee]

She hadn't realized he was worried if she was injured. He didn't know she was a healer. "Oh. I mash them together, or dry them. I use them in healing things. Scrapes, infections, tummy aches," her head canted to one side as she thought of a few more examples but shrugged. "Sometimes broken bones, pain, burns..."

Mihika hated thinking about the more serious injuries she couldn't heal. The lives that were lost because she and the other healers just couldn't keep up with what was wrong with someone.

"Swamp?" That sounded interesting. Her eyes honed in on him with a bot more focus. "I was near a swamp once. When I was little. I think that swamp ended up burning, if the stories I remember are true. How ironic, really." If lives were lost, she was ignorant of, so she didn't think much of it burning.

Miss. It made the female giggle and then shrugged. "You can stay, it doesn't bother me. Just use my name. Mihika." It felt strange to give that name instead of her older one. Siren. She missed being Siren. She missed luring men to bed with her. Now she just didn't have the time. Most of her energy was spent on making sure everyone made it through the night, and that pregnant mothers weren't going to miscarry or anything like that. There was a great stress everywhere right now. So many strange things happening.  

[Zingling]

Seiki’s ears perked as Mihika explained how she used her herbs, it seemed she was a healer like Raaisel. Breathing a sigh of relief, Seiki thanked the gods that he hadn’t met another witch. Kivati, as much as he loved her, was about as much of a witch as he wanted to meet. “It sounds like you have your paws full…” Unlike this lioness, Raaisel only ever had to help Kivati, himself one of the traders or a random wanderer that passed by.

“Swamps?!” He had blurted it out so quickly that he felt almost embarrassed for doing so. Frowning, he looked at the ground in embarrassment before looking back up at the lioness. “Sorry, that was a bit awkward.” His eyes trailed away from her, focusing on the water in the distance. Her story caused him to feel a bit of heartache as he imagined his own home going up in flames. “…How unfortunate…” Pausing, Seiki’s eyes trailed back to the lionesses face. “I wonder what happened to the inhabitants.”

As he mused, the stranger offered her name catching his attention, “Mihika…” Taking a paw to the sands, Seiki wrote it down so he wouldn’t forget. “Mi…” swirling he paw he continued, “Hi..” a little flick of the paw created a swirl, “ka.” The name was finished. It had taken him awhile to figure out how to ‘spell’ words that he would remember, however he had gotten help from Yudu who had told him about humans and how they spelled words.

“It is nice to meet you, Mihika… I have trouble remembering names… so… I do this.”  

[Bronze Coffee]

She had been relaxed around him until he raised his voice blurting out that word. Mihika startled, staring at him with wide, pale eyes and then snorted with laughter. It was a true laughter from her belly that made tears prickle her eyes and the air to leave from her lungs. Nothing could have prepared her for that.

As her fur settled back down, she cleared her throat and shook her head.

The subject matter turned a little serious when he wondered hat happened to the lions living there and she couldn't help but frown. "I would hope they got away. Maybe they relocated. It's not unheard of for prides to change locations and stay together after a disaster like that," she mused out loud, her head canting to one side.

Then he started to 'write' her name and she just watched.

"Whatever works, I suppose." She had heard of people saying names over and over to commit them to memory. This, Mihika found, was less annoying. "My sister's here, too. Her name is Livyathan. We used to call her shrew. She's not a lot of fun."

Zingling