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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:27 am
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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.
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:27 am
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:27 am
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:28 am
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:28 am
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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.
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:28 am
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:28 am
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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.
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:29 am
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:29 am
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:29 am
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:29 am
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"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.
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:30 am
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