Meadowlark Prairie adventurer

@Tavina? <3

not once had she made such a trip. it had tested the limits of her wilderness capabilities and it showed in the slimness of her side and subtle start of matting in the longest of her feathery furs.

the sight of the great palace in the distance seemed familiar, familiar enough that she hoped the sesh would be around. truthfully the whole trip had been done just to see if she could find the purple-eyed woman. even if nala had cloaked it as a learning experience.

softly, she barked out, trailing the prairie not far from the palace's claim.

tavina had been dozing against a red outer wall when the call came up. her face was drawn with exhaustion; her expression wan.

yes. she knew that voice, though she had only heard it once before.

nala would not wait long before the dark figure of the physician appeared, moving down from the palace at a trot. tavina slowed. 

"you're back."

nala felt...hot. overwhelmed. sudden embarrassment for how crazy it must look to simply show back up on the sesh's doorstep.

sheepishly, her earth and water eyes shifted to look down at her paws. mostly obscured by the prairie grass anyway.

i wanted to see you again,

she couldn't explain why — or maybe she simply wouldn't.

tavina's mouth turned up in a wan smile.

"it's good to see you again, nala." she hoped that no one from the palace would call her. not now. "do you want to walk with me?" the purpleglint in her eyes rested upon the woman, and then she was slowly moving away along a narrow lefthand path.

of course, her feather tail was a banner behind them as she stayed near the medic's side. all too happy to be back here. with her.

the land was kinder to nala over here, for many reasons.

i'm sorry we didn't get to see each other again sooner... she started off with softly. i got a bit lost but then found a woman who helped me get a bit sorted again.

she'd met a woman.

something faded off the face of her spirit. it flaked away. she could not identify it.

"is she the reason you seem so content?" tavina asked, a wistful, encouraging look upon her face.

nala laughed, light and songbird. oblivious to any sort of foulness that may have ridden the heart of tavina.

no. she said this as her gaze fluttered from the field around them to tavina's peppered figure. i'm content because i convinced her to let me try to come see you. i didn't even know if i'd make it here.

"oh." surprise flitted across her face.

nala was positively glowing, pristine even after her journey. tavina felt old and heavy with the unseen filth of sorrow clinging to her every hair. "i'm glad that you did. travel seems to agree with you." her voice wanted to be sweet, but the sesh could not quite muster it.

something was amiss.

only now did she notice it. that the tavina here did not seem like the tavina before. had nala misremembered? misstepped?

except still she was met with kindness.

think so? she hummed softly. sometimes i think i like settling down more.

she had been foolish to worry at all. she had been foolish for worrying in the first place. nala was not — 

"tell me about your new home," the blackwolf invited, drawing an easier breath than she had for some time.

it's...a very intense place! she laughed, serious and awkward. i guess they're a bunch of warriors, but the warchief very kindly let me stay. it's over the mountain in this...wooded place. it's really pretty but i don't think they picked it for the looks.

she was rambling and this she realized as she abruptly looked away, flush under her patchwork fur.

still she mumbled —

i feel out of place.

warchief.

she appraised nala and found the dog wanting in all the ways a warchief might want. she was kind. she was sweet. she was hardly violent in the least; tavina would have been surprised to see her hunt.

it made tavina uncomfortable that she could not decipher her own thought as prejudice or fact, and so she put it away. "a bunch of warriors in a place they didn't pick for looks. maybe you haven't decided where you fit yet."

it's hard to find somewhere, she confessed, heart fluttered in her chest. guilt and anxiety met as mingling bodies in her gut.

i don't have anything for myself really. i'm...unique and i know songs and stories. it's not what the dogs here want.

she was suddenly deeply nervous, horribly exposed. there was a desire to return back home at once, to feel the greatness of power in the form of fury.

but the kindness of tavina was what she needed most now.

tavina rolled her shoulders. "it might be that warriors don't have any appreciation for songs and stories that aren't about fighting. do you know what a ballad is?" she inquired, then explained. "it is a song that tells a story, and it's usually about winning. bet your packmates would enjoy that."

her purpled eyes rested briefly on nala's pretty face.

she grew hot and nervous under the purple gaze of tavina. how badly it had been what she wanted until she was here. too girlish to speak the words in her mind.

maybe they would... she murmured softly.

i like that...you appreciate my songs and stories. without them being about fighting.

tavina looked at nala for a long moment. her lips had not stopped smiling.

she glanced behind them at the broad red expanse of akashingo. "would you care to join me just outside for a drink? i can ask the fellahin to bring it up." the palace was in mourning and so she would receive no guests indoors.

but to have the canine close, if only for a while; tavina would not pass it up.

an offer laid before her that nala found herself all too eager to take.

yes, please. she hummed in response with a grin threatening to split her features. what, um, what kind of drink? the bard only knew...one, really.

this offer sounded too fancy to be just water though.

"the servants gather berries and leave them to ferment all season. they become alcoholic and intoxicate you." she snorted a chuckle through her nostrils and inclined her head toward the mesa.

"we will not drink so much. but it would be nice to sit and talk with you, nala, before you return home."

her gaze was earnest.

nala had had berries before. she remembered small blue ones in the spring, she had also seen red ones before. although nothing that had been fermented.

that sounds awfully fancy... her tail a wispy banner behind her.

then her face felt flush. i have time...and—and she said if i can send somebody back to let her know, i can stay longer. so...no rush, really. maybe she was just too desperate to.

tavina stopped walking for a moment and glanced to her paws. "i do want you to stay longer, truly i do," she said, her gaze upon the lovely face. "but akashingo is in a state of mourning. i can take a drink with you and walk you as far as the edge of the flatlands," she said quietly.

her duty to the mesa came first. and after all, if she took nala into the palace, she would end up entangled, that was just how it was. she had a responsibility to be better than that.

akashingo in mourning.

nala frowned, soft and concerned. not so much for akashingo as she was tavina.

i could...come back. when you're not...mourning. she dared to offer, wishing she could bring herself to comfort the medic in some way. instead she only held onto the burdened knowledge that she would have to return home soon and that her time her with tavina was squashed by sadness in the medic's home.

"that might be best." gods, she hated to say it.

the sesh pressed her shoulder against that of nala for a moment. the contact felt rather electric, or perhaps she was so starved for touch she didn't care where it came from.

"i'm sorry. but maybe we can make a, um, a date of it. next time." beneath the black fur her cheeks glowed.

she leaned into tavina, not willing to waste such a thing that she had been too coy to initiate. especially as the next words to hit the air sent electric tingles down her spine.

a date.

i would like that very much, she admitted softly, not yet willing to remove herself from tavina's side. when should i expect you to be free for this date?

"not for another month, at very least." nala would have to travel back in a greater heat than this.

a thought came to her. "there is a lake to the west, a big one called rodney. we could meet there?" she suggested, charmed by how welcoming to the idea nala seemed to be.

i will find my way to the lake on the way back, so i can meet you there. her feathered tail giving away her charmed excitement.

would two months be better for you? it is a while but...i do not mind a wait. not for this experience.