It was her first time really taking off on her own. After spending so much time at home (or as close to a home as they could get right now), you would think that Alisaie would be more worried, more frightened.... but no, mostly she just felt bored, which wasn't an uncommon thing for her. She found herself almost looking for things nowadays, confident in her ability to get away from trouble.
Besides, she doubted that anyone gave a crap about a tiny speck of a bird swirling around in the wind. Her head feathers were only just starting to grow in, making her feel a lot younger than she actually was, and she was positive that she was barely visible among the clouds.
Why was she in bird form? Well, why not? She enjoyed soaring above everything, snooping into people's business, and these mortals were awfully dismissive of birds. A pity -- they could learn a lot if they bothered to try.
That said, even birds got tired, and she hadn't flown this far for this long before. With a huff, the godling took a nose dive to the ground before splaying out her wings at the last minute to catch herself on an oncoming breeze. Adjusting her tail feathers, she fluttered to a stop above the top of a tree branch, elegantly grabbing onto it and pulling her wings in close.
Ah, what a good flight! She smiled to herself and closed her eyes, content to just sit and rest for a moment. It was a nice day too, all sun and shine with no rain clouds in sight, and had been why she'd chosen now to strike out on her own. Her parents hadn't seemed too surprise at her choice, despite the rain the day prior to her leaving. She'd always been good at knowing where to go and when.
Of course, despite her powers giving her an edge, there were still times when she was caught off guard. She was intuition, after all, good at knowing what to do, but not capable of seeing the future.
And of course, now was one such time.
She wasn't sure what she noticed first -- the almighty roar, or the bang that shook the tree she was perched upon. Either way, she gasped as she was launched off of her branch and sent tumbling down to the ground. With a squeaky chirp, she fell face-first into a thick brown mane, and had to scramble to hold on as the owner continued his tussle.
To his credit, he had noticed something hitting him in the head, but with an opponent in front of him, he kind of had to make priorities. Whatever-it-was was holding on anyway, so Sora tried to brush them to the back of his mind.
It was a mock fight, started by a fellow traveler who wanted some of the food Sora had caught that day. Now, honestly, he didn't mind sharing, really he didn't! But the chance to practice his fighting skills wasn't one he could pass up. He used to be pretty good at it, but lately... Well... He'd become lax about it.
So he had offered a challenge to them: spar with him and they could have the meal, no strings attached.
It had been going well... until the something-or-other landed on him. Seeing his focus falter, his opponent charged under him in an attempt to launch him upwards onto his back feet. Sora let out a gasp at that, stumbling backwards until he fell back, and had to twist himself around to keep from landing on the creature clinging to him. That wouldn't have been good!
The roar in front of him had him lifting his head up just in time to see them leap into the air to try and pin him. With only a split second to think about his actions, he kicked upwards... right up into the other lion's stomach, and sending them flying backwards. They landed in a heap a good few feet away, and when they didn't move, he sat up worriedly.
There was a moment of silence before the lion groaned, making Sora sigh in relief. He didn't want to actually injure them.
As the two finally seemed to stop moving around so much, Ali let out a shaky sigh and started trying to untangle herself from this nest of hair, all the while muttering angrily about "ruined moments" and "barbaric mortals". The lion, because she was now able to identify him as a lion, was stumbling up to his feet by the time she got herself out, and with puffed up feathers, she marched down his head and across his muzzle to stare him straight in the eyes, her own green eyes flaring grumpily.
"Are you done?"
Sora blinked back at her, a sheepish grin slowly growing over his face. "Sorry! I hope you weren't hurt." He lifted a paw up and hovered it beside her, watching as she eyed the appendage for a minute and then huffed as she scooted onto it.
The lion tilted his head to the side, curiosity taking over, "How'd you fall, anyway?" He squinted, "Are you still learning to fly?"
Ali let out an offended chirp at the question, "I most certainly am not!" Why really, just because she was small, it didn't mean she was a baby bird. She lifted a wing to swipe at his nose, though it only led to him scrunching his nose up in an attempt to keep from sneezing, "You two knocked me off of the tree!" With that said, she flapped the aforementioned wing up into the air to point at the branch.
"Oh." Blue eyes followed the feathers (very, very ticklish feathers. He was glad he didn't have them. He'd be sneezing all the time) up the tree. It was the same one he had been tackled into. Huh, he hadn't realized anyone was up there.
Sora opened his mouth to continue but he paused as the other lion started to get back up. Well, he probably won that one, but a fight was all he wanted anyway. "Hey uh," he started as he moved the little white bird to his shoulder, "good fight! The meal is yours." And then he turned and started walking before the other could say anything. Not that he would, judging by the still dazed look on his face.
Sora had found something more interesting now anyway. Birds tended to stay away from lions, so this was the first time he had ever gotten to talk with one!
With an excited glance behind him, he started talking, "I'm Sora, by the way! What's your name?"
The bird-goddess gave him a look, unsure if he was serious right now, but yeah, he looked like he genuinely wanted to know the name of the bird whose day he's crashed into. Why would he think she wanted to be carried around like this? She did have better things to do.
But then, she had never actually talked to a mortal before. She and her siblings had been kept away as cubs, for the most part, and she had never felt the need to do so... until now. Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing. He had no idea that he was talking to a godling, so there was no risk of him spreading that little fact, and she would like to learn more of them.
Fluffing her feathers, she responded back testily, "Are you always so forward?"
Two innocent blue eyes stared back at her, not quite sure what she meant but.... "Yes?"
The response made her snort. She wasn't sure what sort of answer she'd been expecting, but somehow, that seemed about right.
Her green eyes slid to the side of him, debating if she should point out that he should be watching where he was going, but instead just shook her head and chirped, "Alisaie. My name is Alisaie."
He smiled, a hop in his step, "It's nice to meet you! I've never talked with a bird before. Is it fun being one? It must be nice to fly through the-"
That was when the world lurched in front of him. He had a split second to note that she had taken flight before he was pitching forward with a strangled yelp, toppling over himself until he landed in a heap at the bottom of the steep hill he'd managed to walk right into.
Ali drifted slowly to the ground, landing with a soft pat and a raised eyebrow down at him. The amused smirk betrayed her thoughts though. "Yes, it is nice to fly. I don't generally have to worry about things like this." She started hopping her way down, her feet making little clicking sounds as she did so, and then stopped beside him.
Rolling himself upright, the male gave himself a shake and glanced down at her with a laugh, "I bet!" He set his nose down in front of her, letting out a breath that ruffled her feathers and made her squawk, "What's it like?"
There was a pause, and then, "Are you just going to be asking me questions?" The shrug she got as a response made her roll her eyes and flutter back up to the top of his mane. If they were going to play twenty questions, then she wanted to make it a little more interesting for her.
"How about this: I'll tell you what I know, if you tell me what it's like being a lion." Not that she didn't know the obvious basics -- she was one, technically -- but she wanted to see if she could find out what it was like being a normal lion.
"Sure!" That sounded easy enough. He had nothing to lose by sharing his life with hers.
"Good. Then let's walk and talk."