[LOG/PRP] A meeting of the gods [Ninati/Kefanaan]

[Bronze Coffee]

Ninati sighed deeply as she started her day again. This time Tanaka wasn't there to make things difficult with his powers of well...persuasions. She got completely distracted the other day and Hylinn wasn't that happy with her. The tasks she'd been asked to do weren't done, and there was just a lot of yelling. Luckily the goddess in disguise had fairly thick skin already.

Though she could tell that it was really trying her patience here. She constantly felt like she had to be this hard and bitter slave, when that just wasn't her. She wasn't exactly bubbly, but she wasn't a depressed sad sack.

Either way, it was time for her to do whatever it was she had to do before she set about her daily tasks. Today it was actually just go get a drink of water because she woke up with a serious case of cotton mouth. Smacking her mouth a bit as she tried to wet it with her tongue, the stripped female made her way toward the closest watering station.  

[Bronze Coffee]

Kefanaan had not meant to arrive in the midst of a pride. He'd really just been shooting for somehwere icy in the mortal realms because he wanted to experiment with causing ice to change its state. He was really trying very hard lately to consciously effect change, but it was harder in the gods' lands, he'd learned, so he had decided to do more of his experimenting in the mortal realms. In any event, Kefa had startled himself by appearing in a place with a large enough leonine population that it had to be a pride. Kefa had never been around a pride before.

In order to avoid being seen by the lions, who seemed a warlike bunch, Kefa made an effort to hold an avian form. Shape-shifting was not difficult for Kefa. In fact, it was usually too easy. Kefa's appearance and form shifted constantly as a result of his domain, and it was much harder for him to hold one form than it was for him to shift. So in the end Kefa looked mostly like a bird, but not like any one species of bird. He settled in to concentrate on the ice, and in so doing forgot that he was supposed to not look like a basically lion-formed god.

Even concentrating on getting the ice to do something, Kefa was pleased with himself for noticing that a striped lioness was approaching. He forgot that he was supposed to be a bird and forced himself to be a normal, lion-sized lion without wings. It was enough for him to focus on that, and to keep his markings from shifting around too quickly. He could slow that down if he thought about it.

"Hello," he greeted the lioness.  

[Bronze Coffee]

Unmatching eyes settled on the lion before her who seemed to be staring at the ice not too long ago that had greeted her. Her paws had stopped moving once she saw a large lion at the very place she was going to drink from. How awkward. No one really told her how she was supposed to act around others. The larger lionesses shifted a little on her legs and then moved forward a little.

"Good morning," she greeted warmly. Her eyes were cast down and she slowly moved around this larger male to wet her mouth like her body was failing to do for her.

It was cold, the water, but there was no real surprise there. She didn't have as much trouble at focusing on her form as he did, it seemed. From a young age she was coached on how to hold this shape in case of something bad happening. No one questioned a larger lioness. They happened, just like this male and his large form. He was a large male lion. It happened.

"Nice day so far?" Time to be polite.  

[Bronze Coffee]

"So far," Kefa agreed. "Has yours been?"

He couldn't feel himself shapeshifting when it happened, and so it required a great deal of concentration for him to hold one form. One of the cheats he had come up with as a cub to make it easier was to allow the colors of his eyes to change. Very few lions really noticed that sort of thing in others, particularly if they don't see that other lion often, or again. Kefa was not one for forming long-term connections. He had met very few mortals, but he thought he liked the idea of mortality. It was the essence of impermanence, at least to an immortal's gaze.

It was because he was in the habit of allowing his eye color to shift as a means of holding the rest of himself unchanged that Kefa found himself noticing that the lioness had mismatched eyes. Interesting.  

[Bronze Coffee]

"It's been good other than this serious bout of dry mouth. I swear it feels like when my sister shoved those dry flowers in my mouth one night." Ninati pulled a face at that and just licked her muzzle at the memory with a cringe. She tasted flowers for days after that. Ninati also swore she coughed up flower petals which wasn't fun for at least a full day.

She didn't notice anything about him shifting, but the Thrall didn't really raise her head to meet his fully. She looked as far as his chin, but not his eyes. She saw a few other Thralls acting like this, and figured it was how one acted. Getting dragged into this pride the way she did, Ninati knew very little about it. Sure she stalked for a long time before she got dragged in, but you could only learn so much about a pride from lurking like some kind of weirdo for months at the border.

He didn't know that. That she wasn't born here. At least she didn't think he knew. Honestly this male didn't look like he was born here either.

"My name is Ninati. In case... you need me for anything. Since... I'm a Thrall."  

[Bronze Coffee]

Kefa had never experienced dried flowers being shoved in his mouth. With siblings whose domains covered things like spring and permafrost, dried flowers weren't really in abundance around him, growing up. Still, he could imagine it was an unpleasant sensation, and made a face indicating his sympathy for her dry mouthed plight.

"It's nice to meet you, Ninati," Kefa said. "I'm sorry to hear about your sister. I hope you got her back for it."

He was stalling. The first part of her introduction had made perfect sense to him. An introduction with an invitation to call on her, which was very thoughtful, if totally unnecessary. Kefa could think of no reason why a god would need to call upon a mortal for something. Though maybe if he got better at causing things to change on purpose he could call on her to practice? No, that could take long enough that she'd've died of old age by then.

The baffling part wasn't her offer of help - although Kefa did think he'd have to revise his first impression of the pride as being warlike, given how polite this lioness was being to him . The baffling part, to him, was her justification of her offer by claiming to be a thrall. Whatever that was. Maybe that was the name of the pride, and they'd dedicated themselves to helping others or something. It could happen.

"I'm Kefa," he added, realizing that he'd forgotten that part of this exchange.  

[Bronze Coffee]

Kefa looked more confused than anything at her introduction. He really wasn't part of the pride then. Swallowing a little, the lioness shrugged and settled comfortably on her haunches at the water's edge, careful that it wouldn't get her wet. That's seriously the last thing Ninati wanted, to be wet in the cold.

She worried on the inside of her cheek before shrugging. "I don't know. I think I tried, but she's super crafty. It's always been a bit uneven in the pranks department. That's fine. I hear she has a bunch of kids now."

Ninati smirked at that, her head held a little higher. "I hope they're pranking her! It'd be fitting. Karma and balance." She laughed a little, almost cackling at imagining all the pranks her sister could be falling prey to. It didn't make her feel sorry for her sister in the slightest bit. She deserved all the pranks. And happiness. As much as she wanted her sister to get joked on, she wanted her sister happy and healthy too.

"Anyway. Kefa. You're not from here. So... Ah.... where are you from and what brings you here?"  

[Bronze Coffee]

Kefa decided that he seemed to be making the lioness uncomfortable, or unhappy, or something. He excused himself before taking a few moments to give himself a quick, pretend wash which was really an excuse to make sure nothing too drastic had shifted in his appearance. Nothing seemed out of place, so if he'd made the lioness - Ninati - uncomfortable, it wasn't because of his appearance, which was actually a pleasant change for the god, who had been told numerous times in his youth that watching his appearance shift so rapidly and piecemeal was stomach-churning to watch.

"I move around a lot," Kefa said. It didn't seem as if he'd be able to bluff and pretend to be a long-lost member of the pride. "Most of the time I have no idea what the names of the places I go are. I just sort of...go there. I like to keep moving though, not stay in one place too long."

In fact, when he stayed in one place too long, that place tended to experience unpredictable changes. Not to mention his domain drove him to remain in constant flux. He probably couldn't have settled down if he'd wanted to. Given what tended to happen if he stayed in one area for more than a week or so, the results of him setting up a home base would probably be catastrophic. Especially if it was in the mortal realm.

He had no way of knowing, although maybe he should have suspected, that he shouldn't have been able to get to this icy drinking spot if he wasn't part of the lioness's pride.  

[Bronze Coffee]

It wasn't that she was uncomfortable, it was just... Social interaction since being a Thrall was very hit or miss for her. Not that she'd been extremely mistreated...She just wasn't sure who to talk to or how to talk to them. Even if they weren't part of the pride, she didn't know what to do. Still, the fact he turned and seemed to focus on washing himself did cause her anxiety to die down a little.

"Oh. I moved when I was younger than I am now. When I left mom and dad.. I can understand that. I ...wandered for what felt like years."

The grin on her face showed she wasn't exactly missing it. She liked this pride. She liked learning how to be humble, liked learning how certain lions thought they were better than her just because of the rank name. Mortals were so silly with their labels.

It didn't even register that he was in the pride without being part of the pride. She was rather focused on talking than putting the actual facts to happen.

"I probably shouldn't... stay too long and talk. I've got chores to do before Hylinn gets back. Thus the life of a slave."  

[Bronze Coffee]

A slave? She was a slave? Kefa knew what slavery was, in a vague sense, and he had always thought that it was a curious concept. He did not understand why one being would accept a slave's status, and why such a one would choose to remain where they had been enslaved. In the realms of the gods he had supposed that they stayed because they were physical restrained and prevented from leaving, but this lioness seemed to be unshackled and not unhappy with her lot. He had no idea what to say.

"I could...I mean...Do you need help?" It was awkward, and Kefa had not planned to do more than experiment with ice when he came to the mortal realm, but he also could not bring himself not to offer. "Not with your chores. I mean, with the slave thing. I could...take you away from here?"

He hadn't thought as far as where he would take her, or what he would do with her if he did so. Probably he'd just leave her somewhere hopefully nicer than this place. Follow-through wasn't his worst trait, but permanence was not in his nature.  

[Bronze Coffee]

Did she need help?

Ninati's head tilted to the side at the question and then blinked at further explanation. "No...?" She was quite alright here. "I might be a slave, but I haven't really been treated unfairly. I get to eat, and sleep, and have others protect me. I just have to answer to someone and do some tasks for them. If I worked toward it, I could get out of being a Thrall. Nothing is permanent here... Even the leader isn't chosen from blood..."

She was very touched by his concern though. "You're very sweet to ask and offer! It's...Probably a shock when I said slave, but that's the equivalent. If I were suffering, I would definitely let you help me escape. It's... not so bad."

The lioness's body language relaxed once she saw he cared about someone's well being though they'd just met. It was heart warming to see someone could still be a bit selfless.  

[Bronze Coffee]

"If you're sure..." Kefa said hesitantly, leaving her ample time to tell him that she'd changed her mind.

As he waited for her to chime in and request rescue, he frowned suspiciously at the lioness, even bending down to peer into her bi-colored eyes, although what he thought he could learn from doing so was a mystery. He was no great shakes at reading people's feelings in their faces. Body language or scents, sure, that was easy, but facial expression...not so much. Her body language said that she was fairly relaxed. Maybe she was mentally ill.

When she didn't do that he gave a confused sigh and said, "I shouldn't keep you any longer then. It's been interesting meeting you, Ninati."

Then, forgetting that he was supposed to be mortal, he vanished into thin air, taking the most expedient route out of this unsual and awkward meeting. As he returned to the realm of the gods, Kefa decided he would learn more about this slave-keeping pride, and decide if he needed to take a more direct hand here. If he made a point of hanging around the area, he could surely effect some sort of change which might even result in the slaves' freedom.  

[Bronze Coffee]

He left her staring at nothing and that's when it clicked for her. She laughed and put a paw to her mouth to keep it from being to loud. So she'd just met another god, and he had no idea she was a god?

Well, this pride just got more and more interesting. First Tanaka, now this one in disguise. She couldn't help but shake her head as she got the rest of her drink. She wondered if she'd see him again. Part of her hoped so. She wanted to show Kefa why she was so okay with being a slave. As a god it meant nothing to her. Nothing they could do really hurt her.

"See you around, Kefa.."