Most days, being a Watcher was boring as hell. No one really came to the hideout much, on account of there not being all that many of them in the first place, and them being scattered all over the place. Add that to the cavern was just high enough up that it was borderline impossible to stumble upon by pure coincidence, and Tifua spent most of her days up here alone. There was a good reason the Watchers worked in shifts, and it was so that they didn't go absolutely stir crazy. Alone time was one thing, but a month or more without seeing a single other soul? That would have been a little too much alone time. In the early days, Tifua had mostly alternated with Yehl, and although there were a handful of others who could now rotate in and out, Tifua didn't mind the two week stretches of relative quiet.
Not only was she one of the earliest members of the Guild, she was fairly certain she was the oldest, although that wasn't a status she was wont to share with anyone. She was in quite fine shape for her age, thank you, and just as capable of impressive feats and clever tricks as any of the others - cleverer tricks, even, owing to her wealth of experience. And if she hadn't been physically capable, she wouldn't have been up here as a Watcher, anyway - ostensibly, part of the reason she was here was to guard the shrine and offerings, on the (admittedly off) chance that someone arrived with the intent of stealing something. It would have made a certain amount of sense, sure, and been a bit funny besides, someone stealing an offering meant for the Goddess of Thieves, but it would also be exceedingly foolish. Admirably brazen, in a face-pawingly reckless way, and Tifua would almost have liked to meet someone with that much attitude and that little sense, but...then she'd have to smack them around for their trouble, and that would be an awful lot of effort to go through.
So, really, she preferred that it stay quiet. It had been less so, after Yehl had found those orphaned cubs and the shrine had doubled as a den for awhile. Tifua hadn't been around cubs in a long, long time, not since her own had grown up. And that had been far longer ago than she cared to admit to anyone, even to herself. Theoretically, she was old enough to have grandcubs and then some, but as her children had been hybrids, well, that was unlikely. Not that she could say with absolutely certainty, considering that she hadn't seen any of the three in years, but chances were slim. That didn't bother her any, though - she'd not been all that maternal (obviously), nor was she terribly concerned with leaving some sort of legacy. All she'd ever wanted was to live her own life, and she'd done and was still doing just fine at that. And she had no shortage of relatives, regardless, half-siblings all over the map thanks to the sire she'd never met (most of them hadn't). From what she'd heard, somewhere along the line he had, apparently, somehow managed to ascend into godhood, which was laughably absurd.
Like most mortals, she didn't know much about gods, but really? Someone could really sire so many cubs that they could become a god? That factoid alone almost made it impossible to take deities seriously at all, but she knew better, or else she wouldn't be here, guarding the shrine of the one she worshipped. Not that she was particularly devout, but hey, she was here. Tomorrow, assuming he was on time, Kalagca would come to give her a break, and now that made her feel old, that Yehl's little orphan trouple was long grown and semi-responsible. (Oh, and they had turned out to also be Tifua's half-siblings, because of course they were.) If she were taking bets, however, it would be against Kalagca arriving on time; he almost never did. He'd show up, sure, but he'd be at least a day late, and probably with some tall tale to tell.
Tired of watching the moon's slow progress, the dark-eyed lioness turned from the cavern mouth and settled herself on the floor closer to the shrine with a sigh.
"What, no twenty-four hour guard?" a voice huffed out in a laugh from the dark recesses, two gold eyes reflecting in the faint light.
Tifua snorted. "Nope."
"Mm, not much to guard anyway," Aharu'kai noted, glancing over the pawful of offerings with a shrug. That the pale lioness was so casual didn't offend her in the least: a follower was a follower, and she tended to attract a different sort.
"What do you do with all that stuff, anyway?" Tifua wondered aloud, turning over onto her back. She didn't expect an answer, especially not a serious one, but there was something satisfying about finally asking. The goddess did occasionally take things, presumably items she found particularly appealing, but Tifua never saw her wearing any of them.
Another shrug, a ruffling of wings in the dark. "Eh, we gods have a sort of running popularity contest. We like to compare who has the most followers and offerings."
"Guess you're not winning that one, are you?" Tifua accompanied the irreverent words with a low chuckle.
"Nope," Aharu responded, echoing the Watcher's earlier answer. "Hard to compete with the really big ones everyone needs something from: Hunt, so they can eat; Water, so they can drink; Love, so they can...well, you know. Some gods are just born popular." One of them happened to be her mother; why Thieves had been born to Love, she couldn't say. Maybe it was random chance, or maybe it was some bullshit to do with stealing hearts. Who knew? Was anyone even in charge of that sort of thing, sorting through gods' souls and deciding which ones came back when and where? Or was it just a scramble for available vessels? Whatever it was, Aharu sure as hell didn't remember. She barely remembered anything prior to this incarnation at all.
"Don't let me keep you up," she added after a long pause, turning her gaze from Tifua to the scattering of objects at the back of the cavern. "I just came to visit."
To think.