The leopard cub's stomach rumbled. Meats. That was what was on her mind. But where to one find meats in this sandy place with low visibility due to the mist? Her stomach grumbled again and the child found herself snapping at a tendril of mist that thought to try to wrap around her.

There was nothing substantial there and her teeth just clicked together instead. But almost as if the mist was a sentient thing and playing a game with her it once more sought to wind itself around a limb of the cub. Once more Lulit snapped at it but her teeth only ended up grazing her leg instead. This caused the girl to girl, irritated with the annoying mist and with the lack of meats.

She had spent so much time here in her youth that coming here was second nature. She roamed the beach like she owned the place. Always had. Given how close she was to the place of her birth, it was to be expected.

The mist corralled her, leading her directly to another, and Dysnomia had to stop and study the girl. Now what was this? She'd never seen a feline other than a lion, so she was quite intrigued.

"Careful, it might eat you," she commented, absolutely joking but not realizing she was inadvertently telling the truth. She hadn't seen the mist take anyone, and so she wasn't aware it was a concern.

@Lulit

"No. No eat. I not meats." The girl answered the joking jab in a serious manner. At her age, with her mother gone, of course the one thing always on her mind was food. Her stomach continued its grumbling and the mist continued its dance.

Lulit lifted her paw from the ground before the mist could tangle back around it again and wobbled to the side in an attempt to save another paw with the one still lifted. "Stop!" The child whined out the words as she tried to dance away but ended up just tumbling over.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, there was a tidepool there to catch her. The girl hissed and flailed when she struck the water, more so from the surprise of it than any actual fear. But at least the mist didn't follow her into the water.

@Dysnomia

"Aaaaactually, you are," she replied with a slight smile. Technically speaking, anyway. It wasn't like she was going to eat the strangely spotted, lanky girl. She raised a paw and opened her mouth to warn the child that the mist was reaching for her, and then again to say that hey there's a pool behind you, but both warnings came too late.

To her credit, Dysnomia managed to keep from laughing at the child, and she also got up and approached to help fish her out.

"Need some help there? Or did you want a bath?" she asked, attempting to reach out with a paw to scoop the child up.

@Lulit

"No. Not meats. No eat me." The girl continued to insist that she wasn't food. She had never heard of felines eating other felines before. Meats were something that was small than you. Meats didn't have sharp teeths and she had sharp teeths. All of these were very important things to keep in mind.

The girl accepted the help on being pulled out from the tidepool. Once she was back on the sand again did she shake herself out to get rid of the clinging drops of water. "No baths. I no stinky." Because that was when one needed a bath right?

Of course being back out of the water meant that the girl had to watch for the mist once again. Luckily didn't seem to be coming for her at the moment. The tendril that had been mocking her had disappeared into the larger portion of the mist once more.

@Dysnomia

"Okay, fiiiiine, I won't," she replied with mock reluctance. She probably shouldn't be joking about something like that, but at least she was amused. It wasn't like she was actually going to hurt the girl or anything.

"Hey, I don't want a shower either," she said as the girl shook herself off and stray droplets splattered her. Not that it was a big deal, but it was the principle of the thing.

The girl started staring at the mist again and Dysnomia looked at it as well. "It seems odd," she commented. "Some places it makes a wall you can't get through, and it just appears everywhere." She didn't know if it was actually dangerous, but it was definitely strange.

@Lulit

The leopard child seemed happy enough with the promise to not be eaten. But then it didn't really take much for her to be appeased in the first place. Youth made expectations quite low. As long as she had food in her belly and a warm place to sleep then that was all she needed in the moment. Of course she was currently missing the food in her belly part.

"What shower?" The girl asked, not recognizing the word. She knew what a bath was but a shower was a completely foreign concept to the youth. But is wasn't like she had received a lesson in all of the nuances of language.

The girl listened as the mist was spoken of. She had encountered one of these impenetrable walls herself. "It hides meats!" The child declares. That had been the brunt of her prior experience with the mist.

@Dysnomia

"It's like a bath except when you're standing out in the rain. Or when someone splashes water all over you," she explained. She wondered if the girl had a parent, or if she was out on her own. Someone ought to be teaching the girl all this, and she didn't want it to be her.

"Yeah. It hides a lot of things but meats is definitely one of them," she agreed. "Guess you'll have to get a meal somewhere else." Where? Well that she didn't know, but definitely elsewhere.

"You got a name?" she asked, not really caring but thinking it would solidify in her mind whether or not the other actually had parents.

@Lulit

"Where get meats? Mama used get meats but Mama no come back with meats for long time." And so the girl had to survive on whatever it was that she found. It was never much, only just enough to ease the gnawing in her stomach.

"I Lulit. For white toes." The girl said and held up a paw to show off her white toes. They were unlike the golden toes that her mother had had. Her mother said that her toes made her special. That made Lulit proud of her different colored toes and so she did her best to keep them pristine.

@Dysnomia

Oh no, the kid didn't have a mother. Dysnomia felt a sinking feeling in her chest. She knew all too well what it was like to suddenly not have a mother. At least she'd had Xerxes to take care of her until she was old enough to make her own decisions, but this little one? Didn't seem like she did. She supposed she ought to try to take her to one of the prides and dump her at their doorstep so they could take care of her, but at the same time, well, obviously she was doing well enough for herself given that she was still alive. But, Dys wasn't going to just abandon the girl entirely.

"Well, there's scavenging for a meal, or you can go join a pride and they'll give you food. But for now let's go find something for me to hunt and I'll catch you something fresh," she promised, nodding for the girl to follow her as she turned away from the tide pool. Maybe she could find a fish in one of them.

"And I'm Dysnomia," she replied. At least now she had a name to go with that little face.

-exit dysnomia-