Welcome to Gaia! ::

Things had been...all right lately, all things considered. There were no more crazy gods tearing the heavens asunder, no lions dying left and right, no ancestors raining down their disapproval upon the lands. Stirn hadn't been at the large gathering but he had certainly seen the aftermath and had borne witness to...whatever it was that had fallen from the sky.

But the dead had been seen to, the wounded healed, and as with all things, the Pride Lands moved on. There were still whispers of worry and fear that would spread through the pride occasionally but for the most part things were back to 'normal'. Stirn, however, wasn't convinced. Something like that didn't happen and then everything was hunky-dory again. Oh no, he knew something else was coming. When? Dunno. What? Search him. How could he be so sure? Because life was pain and suffering and the bits between those two things were fleeting.

Today was. Fine. The sun had just risen, casting long shadows of trees over the savanna. Stirn had just woken up and was heading to the watering hole to get a drink. As he went he caught sight of Aoife walking not far from him and her voice carried over the still relative silence of the lands.

"Do you?" he asked with his signature drawl. "What happens if you don't?"

"Oh, constantly," Stirn drawled again, pausing in his walk as Aoife turned towards him. He hadn't meant to startle her but he supposed those that were speaking to themselves assumed they were alone. Ah well. Couldn't be helped now.

"I find standing still is better than moving forward, though. Less things can go wrong if you're stagnant." Sure, it was boring at times, but boring was safe. Stirn had too many things happen to him in his life that came about by him trying to get things done, so he'd made a promise to himself years ago to just let things continue on while he remained constant. 'Keeping busy' often lead to 'getting in trouble' or 'sticking your nose where it doesn't belong', and he had enough scars to prove that was a terrible idea.

"Stick to what you know. Don't veer off course. Nap the day away. Boring, but boring is better than anything else the world is giving us lately."

Aoife's reply made Stirn actually laugh. Not in a self-depreciating or wry way, but an actual amused, delighted chuckle. Those were rare to pull from the pond half empty male, though that was his style of humor.

"Very true," he said with a grin. He'd rather nap with the knowledge of getting caught at the back of his mind than in blissful ignorance. That way if he was found it would be expected, but if he managed to get a good amount of sleep in he'd be pleasantly surprised.

"What's chasing you then?" Stirn asked, tilting his head. She'd gotten a laugh from him, that was good enough in his book for him to ask after her troubles. "If you want to keep moving surely something is waiting to catch you if you stay still."

Oh, now wasn't that interesting? Stirn tilted his head a bit, sizing up the cream colored lioness a bit differently. It was hard to admit failure or defeat, especially to a relative stranger. Sure, they were both part of the pride, but the Pride Lands were massive. He knew her name only because she was a Seer and those tended to stand out from the crowd.

"Fair," he said after turning the comment over in his mind a few times. "What was it you did that you consider a failure?" Stirn had loads of failures - it was why he was a messenger. His mind was like a steel trap for information, names, useless tidbits and facts. But when it came to hunting? Fighting? Useless - but had found his place in the pride because of it. He wasn't good at finding silver linings but even that one was hard for him to miss.