ORIGIN - Rhythm of the Waves

MAKYNA

"life is precious"

After hatching she'd met her newest and best friend Leon and now was perfectly content to follow him around. Makyna never thought about whether she should or shouldn't follow him around, she just did because it felt right! She loved to be around him and talk to him so she felt like the feeling was reciprocated and he loved to be around her too. He had too, while else would he smile so much when they were together? Ky giggled. She was just so excited! They were traveling and already she had seen much and learned much from her friend. Just a she'd thought before he was already smart about their world and new lots and lots of words. Makyna liked words.

As she walked along beside Leon, her smaller steps causing her to take two for his every one, she sang out her words. Why was she singing? Because she liked the way the words sounded when they were singing plus it was an added bonus to practice. "Walkiiiing with bestest friend Leeeeeon. Is fun fun fun to walk with Leeeeon!" Here she paused to hear her voice echo back at her. It was like a little chorus of mewls. "We goooo to see all the otheeeers, they is in other roooooms." Now she high stepped in tempo to her little song and the new rhythm of crashing water. "I hears waaaaater! It sounds so preeeetty and coooool." Her tail began to sway along with the water sound as she fell silent to focus on her stepping and swaying alongside Leon.

Now her eyes looked around the new area, it had a strange dampness and coolness in the atmosphere. It was so neat! So different from her birth place though the ground had a slickness underfoot that she had to be careful about lest she fall. The room was also rather dark but with her sharp feline night vision she was able to make out a lagoon and a waterfall. "Whooooaaa. Water falls? Waterfall!" She giggled. Waterfall hadn't been her original intent to say but it sounded right. "Is waterfall, yes?" She looked up at her friend for confirmation.

.

words: 360
tagged: Leon, Cancer, Open
ooc: ---
muse: 6/10

"Talking looks like this."
Thinking looks like this...

They had traipsed on through Orion and then back through the tunnel, the snow and the ice, to a place Leon hadn't even visited before. The reason why was probably that he could feel the dampness, and he didn't like it. The coldness permeated his skin, breaking through even his thick brown fur and giving him a chill that settled in his bones. As long as he moved he would be okay, and every now and then he tried to warm himself up again using his magic, but he was unable to focus for very long. The little lion cub by his side was very good at distracting him, and every time she spoke or did something, Leon's attention span would shift from the warming magic to his new friend. But it was alright, keeping himself warm wasn't too important. It was simply the luxury of avoiding the damp coldness he'd wanted.

The silence dispersed at the sound of her childish voice ringing against the walls. A melodious song came from her lips, though it lacked any rhythm, Leon found himself giggling and joining along. "Leeeeeon, Leeeeeon, Leeeeeeeeooooonnnnnn!" He sang out his name after her, and while she went on to sing about the room they were in, followed through with her name. "Maaaa-KEEEEEE-nahhhhhh! Makyna, Makyna, everybody wants to meet Makyna, Makyna! Makyna is my friend~!" He sang, enjoying the cacophony of noise the two of them made as they explored the cold, wet room.

After a while, their noisy parade died down to bewildered silence. A waterfall seemed to erupt from the ceiling above, crashing down in front of them. The sound was deafeningly loud, but he was still close enough to the cub that they didn't have to yell at each other to talk. She pointed out that it was falling water, and when she deduced that it was a waterfall, he nodded his agreement. "Yeah! A waterfall!" The bear confirmed and looked up to it. But his paws were starting to feel icy cold. He snuffled and sat back on his rump, raising his front paws to his face. If he could just remember what he did last time, when he breathed out that hot air... maybe he could warm them up. Leon cast a side glance at Makyna, making sure that she wouldn't be in harm's way should his spell grievously backfire (again). The bear took a breath and puffed out a short, tentative exhale.

"speech"

On a higher ledge, out of reach and out of sight, the leopard boy lurked in his chosen homestead. Below, he could keep watch over the whole cavern, and above, another ledge jutted out from the rocks to protect him from the spray of the waterfall not some feet away. The boy's lair was perfect, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

Every so often, since his emergence, a piece of his precious birthing shell would wash ashore, and he would devour it greedily. This particular morning, he'd found a good sized chunk just before the shallow rise of the streambed, on the very edge of the lagoon which caught the falling water amongst a bath of foam and bubbles.

Cancer had taken quite keenly to watching these bubbles fizzle and pop below, pushed about endlessly by the torrent of water rushing down on top of them. It was a pointless effort, one he found to be both amusing and disgusting.

The boy would be broken from his thoughts- oh precious thoughts- when a strange sound came from one of the tunnels. He turned his head, and squinted his eyes to see. In came a dancing fuzzball and... another cub! The boy's interest doubled upon seeing the blue-eyed girl, with her tawny coat and pretty voice, come trotting in. He stood on his perch, big paws gripping the ledge tightly as he leaned forward to get a better look. They were amazed by his water! Silly things, hadn't they ever seen this before?

Did he have something special in his homestead? Surely he must've, for they seemed so amused and astounded by it. The cub puffed up his chest in pride- yes, his home really was all that and a bag of chips! Gawk as you like, strangers, for this was surely the finest thing they'd seen since birth!

"Does it please you?" He would call down from above, striking a subtle feline pose as he smiled down to them. "Isn't my waterfall the best?" For it was his, most assuredly. He'd been born here. Surely his parents, if he had any, had owned this place before him, or he wouldn't have been placed here! Surely he was due some pride for that! The boy would smile widely with crooked teeth and gleaming yellow eyes.

"My name is Cancer! Who're you?"

MAKYNA

"life is precious"

Oh, she loved Leon's voice! It was a little deeper than hers and when his voice echoed along with hers it was even more pleasing to her ears. She smiled up at her friend in admiration, glad that they both could sing together and that they both sounded so good together! What more could a cub want? Her paws as they tracked through the cold room were getting rather cold but she stomped them on the ground hard, it helped a little. Until her paws began to get numb from stomping so she stopped and adopted something closer to what Leon was doing and sat on her rump so she could lift her paws up to breath on them. It warmed her paws a little and she was glad that she had her bear-friend here to copy.

Makyna gave a satisfied nod when Leon confirmed that it was a waterfall and after she breathed on her paws to her satisfaction she turned to the falls. She watched at how the water fell into the clear lagoon, how it steamed and misted upon impact. Her gaze missed nothing as she took in and absorbed this new information. "Pretty. Pretty." She gasped out in awe. For a moment she pondered on going to play in the water but she didn't know if that would be such a good idea. The water was falling awful hard and how deep did the lagoon go? What if she were swallowed up and couldn't get away? No. The falls were probably best appreciated from the shore.

It was then that her thoughts were interrupted by a new sound. A voice alike yet not alike to hers was calling out to them. It took a moment before she was able to locate it at the top of the falls on a ledge. What she saw amazed her and she gave a wide smile up at what she thought was a creature just like her! Wow, there were others that were made just like her! Sure his fur was darker but other than that they were the same! In her awe and pleasant surprise it took her a moment before she registered what he'd actually said. "Yes yes! Waterfall is the best!" Her tail swayed side to side in her excitement as she stepped closer to get a better look at the other. She turned back once to Leon and said to him, "Lookit! He just like me!" Her head turned back around to look up at Cancer to hear the rest of his words.

Her eyes stared back up at the other feline with friendliness alight in them. His name was Cancer which was a good name. Equally as good as her own and Leon's, she thought. "I is Makyna! He is my bestest friend Leon!" Now her head tilted to the side curiously. He had said this was his waterfall. Could someone own a waterfall? "You own waterfall?" She called back up to him. That seemed like a tall, impressive, and altogether impossible order. Wasn't the waterfall too big for anyone to pick up and own? It seemed to her that it was everyone's waterfall to enjoy but who was she to argue?

.

words: 537
tagged: Leon, Cancer
ooc: ---
muse: 6/10

"Talking looks like this."
Thinking looks like this...

Once they had reached the waterfall, it seemed the both of them were locked in the mesmerizing flow of the cascades. It was massive, so much bigger than the two of them, seeming to stretch up and up into the forever beyond the ceiling above them. What lie above the room, where the water came from? Where did it come from at all? His mind wandered to things he couldn't see, to mysteries he hoped to one day solve. Would Makyna be impressed with his adventurous spirit, with uncovering the truth? The bear cast a side glance at her after lowering his paws. He pushed the thought out of his brain, following it up with another distracted wonder at why it would even matter, but that too would leave his train of thoughts.

Suddenly a voice sounded from above, resonating much like the waterfall and its dulling roar. Leon nearly jumped out of his skin; though the stranger's voice paled in comparison to the tumultuous thunder of the waterfall, he still wasn't expecting it. The bear craned his neck back to look up, and there he saw a dark-furred feline peering over the ledge at the two newcomers. Makyna was pretty excited to see the stranger, considering he looked like her, and she went ahead and pointed this out too. Almost immediately Leon felt a small wave of jealousy. He didn't want anybody else to be like Makyna, because that might mean he had to share. And he definitely wasn't all about that.

His ego, however, swelled when she introduced him as her best friend and his jealousy inched away, returning back to its dark little hole in the furthest reaches of his heart. "Your waterfall?" He answered skeptically, raising a brow at the leopard. "How come its your waterfall? Can we have a waterfall?" He only asked for the sake of maybe leveling the playing field. Leon hoped that maybe he could poke a few holes in the other cat's claims, bring him down a notch, further reduce any chances of him stealing Makyna away. That was how it worked, right? Leon just had to put everybody else down to make himself seem like the best. That was definitely going to win her over, like, forever.

The lioness was pleased as punch to gush over him and his waterfall, but the bear seemed less enthused, so when Cancer looked between them, he decided the lioness was good- but the bear could stand to lose his attitude. When Leon questioned his ownership more crudely than Makyna did, the leopard slid down from his perch to address them on the same level. He wore his smile still, but now it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Makyna and Leon." He looked to Ky as he said this. "It is a pleasure to meet you." He'd even offer the lioness a polite bow of his head- a behavior he'd learned by accident from Bevy's bobbing. Then, cool eyes landed on Leon and that friendly smile was replaced with a look of insult. "Bevy and I both call this place home. We refuse to let anyone push us out or away, so we are protecting it. Therefore, it is ours. Mine, and her's."

Can looked back to Ky with a smile again, though. "But we welcome anyone who wants to help us keep it safe. Anyone can live here too, there are plenty of places to make a home. But we would need to work together, and keep this place from getting overrun with no-good trouble makers." Like a certain monkey Bevy had mentioned in passing since her arrival. His gaze fell on Leon again. "I was born here."

"There, under the water, in the lagoon." He turned to point out his birthplace, along the edge of the lagoon's steepest shore, where his stone had cemented itself long ago- and now sat broken and mostly unscavanged. He'd been eating fish since his emergence- the stones were too deep to reach. "That makes this place my birth place. I belong here." Then, seemingly out of left field, he looked back to Makyna and gave her a meaningful look. "You could belong here, too, Makyna. It would be nice to have you around." Childish affection gave the impression that Cancer now ignored Leon's attendance there, as he turned his full attention, more or less, to the lioness- the one like him- in hopes he could convince her to stay.

Life is precious.

Makyna blinked in surprise when the other feline gave a polite bow of his head after descending from his perch on the falls. She'd never seen anyone do this gesture before but she felt it was a polite thing so she mirrored it respectfully. After all, she wanted to be just as respectful and kind as this fellow as being. "It pleasure to meet you too!" She squeaked excitedly to the other. You could tell in her voice that she really was excited to meet someone like herself here.

When Leon questioned the plausibility of his claim Makyna couldn't help but look back curiously at him before turning back to give a head tilt to Cancer. While she couldn't help but ponder at the bear's disbelief in the leopard's words she also wondered the answer to his question. How indeed did someone own a whole waterfall? Her own inquiry had been politer though and Cancer seemed to appreciate it a lot more by the looks of his body language.

The dark cat went on to explain how it was his falls. She knew not who Bevy was but apparently it was some "other" and she was perfectly fine with that. More people to meet! Cancer went on to explain that it was a home where everyone would work together and help each other. Like a family! She hardly knew the word but it rang in her mind with certainty and security and warmth. The female was but a lioness and all lions held a want for community. She was no different.

Everything he said made sense to her and was quite appealing. You could almost see the wheels in her mind turning as she pondered all that was said to her. Her thoughts wrapped around his words, weighed the possibilities, and the negatives. She only snapped back to reality when Cancer addressed her with a question. "Oh!" She gasped in surprise. He really wanted her to stay? The idea was flattering but then... Her gaze turned from Cancer to Leon. What about him? Her bestest friend in the world? She would do nothing without him. "Would be nice to have such pretty waterfall home like yours..." She looked with awe at the falls, then at him with a warm glow of happiness at the one like her. It was obvious that she would absolutely love to stay but she shook her head and went to stand with Leon.

Her smaller body pressed into his furry side as she looked up into his eyes with glowing warmth. "But I no stay without my Leon! If he can stay, I stay. We like... um... Pair! Pair 'o bestest friends, right Leon?" She giggled up to him. If she stayed anywhere without him it wouldn't be like a real home. "Does Leon want to stay?" She asked curiously with a tilt of her head. It was up to him. She would absolutely loved the falls but if he wanted to go then they would go. Besides, there were always more others to meet and they could do it elsewhere just as well as here.

"Speech." || "Thoughts."

table by lisa

words: 521
tagged: Leon, Cancer
ooc: ---
muse: 7/10

It was becoming increasingly obvious that there was tension, or something of the sort, arising between Leon and the melanistic cub. He took note of the way the other smiled and bowed his head to Makyna, only to stare coldly at Leon. It was a little uncalled for, sure; maybe the cub felt that the bear had no place being Makyna's best friend. If that was the case, then he'd be in for a world of hurt should he actively try and separate them. Leon hadn't felt so close to anybody else since his emergence beside Rohan, and at this point, both Rohan and Makyna were on par for being his best friends. In any case. Cancer's adamant demonstration that he felt as little about Leon as Leon did about him would be shrugged away in favor of what his friend wanted, so when Cancer began to explain the situation, Leon simply remained silent.

Cancer sure did talk a lot however, and about halfway through the cub's spiel, Leon found his attention fading in and out. By the time he was inviting Makyna to live with him, Leon had cracked open his jaws and let loose a loud, long yawn. In fact he was just about to chastise Cancer for being so damn chatty when Makyna spoke out first, wistfully stating her desire to have a waterfall too. The bear blinked and lowered his head again, turning to look at his friend. She insisted that she didn't want to stay if Leon didn't want to stay, for which he was thankful, but the bear was bound by his desires to make Makyna happy. "Yep. We're inseparable." He confirmed half-way through his thought process. Even if he didn't want to stay because Cancer was a jerk (so far), he knew it would be a nice place for Makyna to be.

Although... they really hadn't done much exploring yet... There were still a lot of rooms to discover. Still a lot of places to see! Leon furrowed his brow and scratched his cheek in thought. "If you want to have a pretty waterfall home, then you will! We can come back here." He nodded with finality, settling his gaze on the little cub. "But first, I need to show you more of the cave! There's so many other places, they're all really pretty. You have to at least see them!" He decided. They would explore first, and Leon would show Makyna everything he found so far. Maybe if he was lucky she'd completely forget about the waterfalls. Otherwise, he would dutifully return her to the waterfall room and stick by her side.