[PRP] Tail Shakers (Maelewano x Meera)

[RuIerr]

Maelewano was the quiet type. Thus, it wasn't surprising that she was huddled by herself in a corner of the Nchi'mahadhi lands, carefully crafting tail ornaments. She grew up in this beautiful, musical pride, but the only music she had a penchant for was drumming. With those in the pride dedicated specifically to drumming during special ceremonies, Maelewano was thus relegated to crafting musical instruments for the extras in the crows at such ceremonies. Therefore, the lioness took great care to craft tail shakers out of hollowed out nuts and tiny pebbles.

She was humming while she worked. It was notable that she didn't have the voice for singing, but her name itself meant "harmony," and thus she had to have some semblance of musical talent. It was nice, getting these free moments to herself where she could simply practice her craft and keep herself company. But truthfully, the small pride had been dwindling in activity and things were starting to feel more and more lonely. Not having many personal friends of her own, Maelewano found herself getting quite lonesome. She could only hope friends were in the future for her.

MangoMeow

 

[MangoMeow]

Meera sniffed curiously as she walked, using the different scents to more or less guide her paws. This was a new place, which meant new people, and she loved meeting new people! She just had to find them first. She hadn't come across any guards, and so had assumed that it was fine if she walked on in.... but that did still pose the problem of finding someone.

So far, her searching hadn't yielded anything of interest, though she did note that the air had an almost musical tone to it, as if it were made for it, and it piqued her interest even more. Music was a more recent discovery of hers, having been introduced to it by Seiki in the swamps, and to find another pride that used it as well -- why, she would love to see what they came up with.

With a huff, the cheeton gazed around her, trying to see if she could spot anyone in the brush. As luck would have it, the lioness she'd found was a bright red and very vivid against the browns and greens around them. Finally!

She perked up visibly, before hopping forward, "Hello!"

Ruler of Everything

 

[RuIerr]

Not too much time had passed since her musings on loneliness when Maelewano heard a chipper "hello" in her direction. Drawn from her task of assembling tail shakers, Maelewano turned and rose to see a starry-coated female standing before her. Friendly as always, the large red lioness planted a gentle smile on her face. "Hello there," she said softly, ever the quiet one, "Are you new around here? I don't think I've seen you before." She studied the other female surreptitiously, taking in the brilliant coloring of her fur before realizing her manners. "My name is Maelewano - what might I call you?"

Beside her, the small bunch of half-finished tail shakers lie on the ground. Typically, Maelewano was a very focused lioness, but today she was okay with that focus being disrupted, particularly if it meant a new friend. Although, she was pretty sure the female before her was not a member of the pride. Even so, having someone to talk to was always appreciated. She twitched her tail anxiously, eager to hear from the one who stood before her.

MangoMeow

 

[MangoMeow]

Tail swishing excitedly behind her, Meera trotted closer until she was standing in front of the lioness and then sat down with a thump. Such bright red fur! It really made her stand out, despite her quiet tone.

She let out a giggle at the question, before shaking her head, "This is the first time I've come this way, so I doubt you have." She grinned brightly, "I'm Meera! I travel around a lot, basically wherever the wind takes me." The cheeton paused then, glancing up at in the air, "Though, I'll admit that this time it was sound. This place just seems to have a," Hmm, how would she put it? "... ring to it, I guess. Like a song."

She turned back to Maelewano, "It seemed welcoming enough, and I wanted to see what was making it." So far, her only experience with music had been Seiki's wind chimes in the swamps.

Ruler of Everything

 

[RuIerr]

Maelewano listened to the female - Meera - as she spoke, nodding along gently. "Travel? That sounds incredible," she said softly, wondering what the lands outside the Nchi'mahadhi even looked like. She had called this land home for her entire life - born here as a small cub - she had no clear idea of what lay outside the world of her pridal lands.

At her comment on the musicality of the air, Maelewano laughed lightly and spoke once more, "There is a bit of magic to this place, huh? We're largely musicians, the lot of us. Not me in particular, but I help out by making trinkets that can be used to create sound." She paused, looking down at her half-finished tail shakers, thinking Meera might be interested in how they work.

"We are a welcoming pride, I like to think, so I am glad you chose to visit," she said with a smile. "I'm actually making a small instrument to be clasped in a paw or attached to a tail - just something small - do you think you might want one? It would be uncalled for to visit the Nchi and not experience some of our... magic," she faltered for another word, but that really was the most appropriate one. If Meera said yes, she figured she could quickly finish up one of the tail shakers while perhaps the other female regaled her with descriptions of the lands outside the Nchi. That sounded great to Maelewano.

MangoMeow

 

[MangoMeow]

Her ears perked up at the mention of magic, interest piqued and her curiosity flaring. Immediately, her thoughts were drawn to the couple godlings she'd run into in the rogue lands, but she brushed the idea away as the lioness continued. She doubted that the "magic" she meant had anything to do with actual, well, magic, but that didn't mean that music in and of itself wasn't magical in it's own right. Her gaze was drawn down to the object Maelewano was working with. Musicians, huh? So the whole pride used these trinkets to make music? How neat!

Meera threw her a wide grin back up at her after her offer, "Oh, I'd love that!" Maybe she could wear it on her tail and have pretty music as she walked -- her eyes practically sparkled at the idea.

She plopped down into a sitting position and tilted her head to look back at the object. "Is it hard to make?"

Ruler of Everything

 

[RuIerr]

Maelewano was happy to have someone so interested in her work. Within the pride this sort of behavior and work was commonplace, so others didn’t put much stock in it. But Meera here was excited to see what she was doing. “It’s not hard at all!” the lioness exclaimed, before settling back down in a lying position and continuing her assembly.

She deftly maneuvered the materials in front of her, narrating as she worked. “I take half of one of these shells and put little pebbles in it,” she started, “Then I take part of a vine and loop it around, and spread mud on the edges of the shell.” The shell was, actually, the casing of a large nut. But she thought of it as a shell. “Then you push the two parts of the shell together and hold it, waiting for the mud to dry.” she said, pausing for a few moments as she held the trinket in her large paw.

Soon, she could see the mud drying and she smiled. Pushing herself up to a sitting position, she took the small musical object and shook it, glad to hear that it made a fun little jingling noise due to the pebbles clinking against one another and the hard outer edge of the nut. Without a word, the lioness presented it to Meera – it was hers, after all.

MangoMeow

 

[MangoMeow]

Meera watched with fascinated eyes, enthrallled as she showed her how it was done. With how much she traveled, Meera rarely took up crafting. In fact, her hobbies tended to be walking, singing, and sleeping. Maybe she should try something new sometime, but for now, she could enjoy learning about this new pride!

And enjoying it, she was. As Maelewano turned and held out the new noise maker, Meera was almost wiggling in her excitement, but she was careful as she reached forward to grasp it between her paws. Green eyes scanned the object before giving it a shake, a wid grin blooming over her face at the noise.

“Oh, this is so cool! Thank you so much!” She glanced around her, trying to decide where to keep it, and ended up just sliding it into her satchel for now. She would figure out where to wear it later. For the moment, though, she wanted to see what else there was to see here.

“Can I see some more of what your pride does? I’d love to spend some more time with you!” A tour, maybe? She loved to spend time with the locals.

Ruler of Everything

 

[RuIerr]

Maelewano could see excitement evident in Meera's body language, something that made her quite happy. The pride, it seemed, was dwindling in membership and activity, and she rarely got to interact with others, so it felt good to spend time with someone.

At the request to see more of the pride, the lioness nodded eagerly. “Of course!” She rose to standing and swished her tail, immediately leading the way towards the drum and dancing circle. It was one of her favorite places in the pridal lands. “Here is where we do various ceremonies – as you can see, it’s a large circle of drums where our drummers will beat out the music. In the middle, our dancers will perform ceremonial dances. It’s a really neat spectacle,” she said, explaining a bit of the ways of her pride. She didn’t want to overwhelm Meera with technical terms or information, but this felt like a nice introduction to the pride.

“Over there,” she pointed with her nose to the rocks behind the circle,
“is where we make our dens. And this way…” she began walking again, not waiting for commentary from Meera. “Here’sLake Victoria. This black soil,” she padded forward slowly, letting her paws sink in to the beginning of the soil, “is partially how I made your tail shaker!” Maelewano then stopped her tour, beaming at the hybrid before her. “Any questions?” She noted mentally that there were very few lions around, a phenomena common of recent moons. It was sad and concerning, but Maelewano loved her pride so, that she wasn’t going to comment on it.

MangoMeow

Glad I asked you about Meera exploring the Nchi now that they’re disbanded >w> I’m happy she got to experience the pride first!

 

[MangoMeow]

Meera followed excitedly behind the lioness, eager to see what the pride had to show. So many different things to look at - she has never heard of a drum before, but she did love dancing. Maybe she could see them perform sometime!

Though she did note the same thing Maelewano did: there were very few people here. She had no way of knowing what the pride was like though, and so assumed that they simply were all stretched out everywhere, doing their own things.

As they got up close to the lake, Meera bounded forward to get a closer look at the soil. Weird! She has never seen anything like this before! Before she could try sticking her own feet in too though, she looked up at the request for questions. Humming in thought, she tried to think of what she could ask. "I guess I have a lot." She laughed, "Like, can I try one of those drums, and can I play in the lake?" Because of course she would ask that, she loved water.

She paused as her stomach chose that moment to growl, "Although the first should probably be 'where can I go to rest for a minute'?" Meera let out an embarrassed laugh, "I've been traveling all day, I guess I didn't notice."

Ruler of Everything

Yeah, the timing on this. XD;; Also, I'm good to tie off this rp whenever you are. :3 Maybe with them heading off to find something to eat?

 

[RuIerr]

Maelewano enjoyed seeing the excitement on Meera's face, bounding about as she explored the Nchi's pridal lands. It was refreshing, seeing someone so thrilled about being here - as membership seemed to stagnate, it seemed like the charm of the place had started to wear off, to Maelewano. But here it was, charging right up again.

She was about to answer Meera's inquiry about the drums (maybe not) and the lake (definitely!) when the other's stomach growled loud and clear. She was tired, presumably from her journeys, and had an empty tummy to boot. "Of course!" She said, a bit ashamed for not thinking of that. Of course, she'd never played the part of host before. "And perhaps we can find some food. You can follow me to the dens, I'm sure we'll have something there we can scrounge up," she explained with a smile.

And with that, she turned tail away from the water and started towards the stony dens, musing on her new friend. Although she was a rogue and Maelewano knew that she would soon leave for other travels, it was nice getting to know her for the brief time they were together. She could only hope that Meera's past and future endeavors were so pleasant, as she really deserved the best.

MangoMeow

Fin~