Talisa was a busy, busy bee as she wandered southward towards the ocean shores. It was a rather long little trip but one that she enjoyed nevertheless. Despite the panic attack that she'd had nearly two weeks ago in the Oasis, she felt a lot better now knowing what she knew. Feeling what she felt. Family was still number one in her book, while Maua took precedent over even that. Her beau, however, was quick to linger on her mind as she made it to the Shore where they exchanged the truth about their affection for one another. It had been a good time and with so many more to come but she was on a mission here to find something new and bring it back to the Brook. Depending on what she found, she intended to gift it to someone but for now, walking the Shore was as good a journey as any.

TRIPLE XP:
+15 Teach a cub something new
+15 Bring a cub some food
+15 Tell a story about the after-life

^{TABLE MANIP BY MONO, CODING BY DUSK}

@Mara

The little shadow knows she should not be out this far - in fact, she’s so far out that she’s rather lost. Worry has not touched her yet, however; there’s still much to explore and no danger (that she can sense) in sight.

She likes this place, where the ground is soft and warm and black - just like her. It’s fun to press her paw into the sand and watch her pelt blend in almost perfectly. She’s camouflage, just like she is at night. The giggle she lets out is high and childish - for once, Aleks acts her age while unsupervised, away from prying eyes that might think her weak or vulnerable for such a display.

So distracted is she that Aleksandra hardly notices the stranger - that is, until the lioness is so close that instinct makes the cub drop to her belly, ears flat against her skull, in hopes that she’s somehow left alone.

@Talisa

Unfortunately for the dark mass, Talisa tends to be rather observant of things around her. Especially when they're vastly out of place. Amaryllis was a place she was quite familiar with and prided herself on knowing far more than a non-Native might but the difference was that she was eager to teach them. So as she traveled through the dark sands of the Shore she let her curiosity wander. Lilac eyes tracing along each bend in the beach and watched as the water came up and lapped and went straight back out only to repeat the same process. Eyes roving over a lump in the ground and back towards the treeline to the west only twisting her head back to the lump with a rather perplexed expression. That lumpy was very lumpy; more lumpy than usual.

So Talisa took a few more long strides towards this bump in the sand and was a yard away when she noticed a few more peculiar lumps. One's that were increasingly obvious now that she'd gotten a little closer. Is this little lump... alive? she asked, praying ten times over in her head that it was alive and not dead -- Talisa was not in the mindset to be host to a funeral or burying the dead today.

TRIPLE XP:
+15 Teach a cub something new
+15 Bring a cub some food
+15 Tell a story about the after-life

^{TABLE MANIP BY MONO, CODING BY DUSK}

@Aleksandra

Despite her best efforts (which, admittedly, were simply hunkering down and hoping for the best) Aleks is found out. The voice that reaches her is soft, a pitch different from the adults that she’s used to. There is really only Zoticus in her life that’s bigger than her, at least that she pays attention to, but without the pink lion as a buffer ignoring this voice is not an option.

"Y-Yes," she says softly, hating how scared and unsure she sounds and feels. Fear is not a useful emotion, but it’s not as controllable as others are. Aleks dares a peek, one of her paws shifting from her eyes. She squints up at the brown lioness not so far away at all. The shadow feels small, dreadfully so. She thinks of the mice she’s chased, toyed with and eaten. Those mice were all scared of her - they ran and squealed when she loomed over them.

She is not a mouse.

Aleks head lifts up, and her legs push the rest of her off the ground. "I’m not dead," she insists, forcing herself to look the bigger woman in the eye.

With some rare amount of luck, Talisa gets to finally see the little lump emerge from the dark sands. It made a lot of sense now why she blended in so perfectly and it was because the cub was very, very dark in color to where it was hard to spot the differences. The eyes gave it away a little bit as well as the legs with the spaces between but now that Talisa was getting a grand view, she couldn't help but smile lovingly at the youngster. Smitten by the idea that she'd roamed out here for no set reason but seeing it now.

Phew! That's a relief, she admitted to @Aleksandra, in my experience, you can't take on the world when you're not alive. The cleric had a feeling that this dark cub had a lot more to do in life and hiding in the sand or playing dead would not help anyone. Unless she were trying to sneak up on something but besides her, there was no one else in the near vicinity. So, maybe the girl was hiding from the Valour woman? Hm.

TRIPLE XP:
+15 Teach a cub something new
+15 Bring a cub some food
+15 Tell a story about the after-life

^{TABLE MANIP BY MONO, CODING BY DUSK}

OOC: Talisa is adorable and I’m sorry Aleks is a brat.

She does not know what to expect - but the reaction given causes the cub’s brows to furrow. For just a moment, she is silent, pondering the strange statement. Finally, with a decisive nod, Aleksandra looks back up. Her nose crinkles. "You’re weird." It’s a statement, and not one offered apologetically. It’s simply something that Aleks has decided, and with it comes the fact that this woman must not be a threat. At least, not one that the shadow needs to concern herself with.

The cub’s tail lashes out behind her, sending dark sand out around her. "Where you from?" The concept of other prides is fairly new to Aleks, and she’s taken to asking such questions. Where is this from, where is that from. The information is always neatly stored away, next to the missing chunk of her own place in this world.

@Talisa

The statement that falls upon Talisa's ears is met with strange glee. It does not hurt her or damage her ego, but instead she finds it very similar to a compliment. Being weird had never been an insult to her and she didn't expect everyone to think that she was normal because no one was. Normal wasn't a real concept - it was just a word put into the language to pretend that there was consistency between two to compare.

So Talisa takes on bold step forward as she draws a line in the sand with a paw as she does so. Gaze holding steady on the dark cub as she asks a really, really good question. One that she's surprised that not everyone knew already but it was a child - there was a lot still to know. I'm from Vermeda Brook. A pride to the North of here. She paused, wondering if the cub had even heard of the place or of the Natives that lived up there. My name is Talisa. If questions were what @Aleksandra had, then Talisa would be happy to be of assistance where she could. Teaching the youth anything was just as important as teaching them something specific. Sate their curiosity at the earliest age and allow questions to be asked no matter how odd.

TRIPLE XP:
+15 Teach a cub something new 1/2
+15 Bring a cub some food
+15 Tell a story about the after-life

^{TABLE MANIP BY MONO, CODING BY DUSK}

Aleksandra’s head tips to the side, not unlike a puppy listening to something interesting, but the frown dissipates as quickly as it had come. The woman answers - and though Aleks has little concept of directions yet, it sort of helps. As a bonus, she even offers her name.

"Tal-issa," the cub mimics, testing the name on her tongue. It’s funny, but then most names are. An ear flicks before she adds, "I’m Aleksandra." A name for a name, she figures, isn’t a bad deal. Very quickly, however, the little shadow begins to grow bored. She shifts on her big paws, casting her gaze over the lioness’s shoulder. "What’s this place?" It’s as close as she’s willing to come to admitting she has no clue where she is - or where home is, for that matter.

If she could readily deduce anything about @Aleksandra was that she was nothing like the blind little bluebird that Nymeria had adopted. Much the opposite, actually. If Talisa didn't have eyes to see with she might've thought that this cub was nearing her first birthday but it was clear that Aleks still had quite a while before she was there. Maturity level, though, very much on par with an older cub. Aleksandra it is. Mostly saying it for herself so that she wouldn't slip up and say Aleks or Sandra. If a cub introduced themselves with a name, then you call them by that - not a shortened one. Most of the time when people gave a name, that was what they wanted to be called and not a suggestion.

This place is called Stygian Shore. It's got some tidepools, a Cay out in the ocean there and some very pretty tunnels you can wander through. The tidepools happened to be her favorite out of all of them but she was rather biased for more than one reason. The best of which was because she'd found love there but that was no conversation for a young child, not that Aleksandra would want to hear it. You like fish? Talisa asked, meandering over towards the ocean water as she waded in until the water was halfway up her legs.

TRIPLE XP:
+15 Teach a cub something new 2/2
+15 Bring a cub some food
+15 Tell a story about the after-life

^{TABLE MANIP BY MONO, CODING BY DUSK}

Aleksandra nodded, as if understanding everything Talisa said. In truth, she understood very few words from all that information. When she got home - if she ever got home - she’d ask Zoticus what a cay was, and what tidepools did. The tunnels get her attention the most - mainly because she knows about the tunnels in the Bluffs. It’s less silly to ask him, and not this stranger. She doesn’t want Talisa to think her stupid for not knowing something.

Suddenly, the lioness turns away and starts moving. Without sparing a second to think, Aleks scrambles through the sand after her. She only stops at the very edge of the water, glaring at it lapping gently on the shore. "Don’t know," she answers with a huff. She’s never had fish before, that she can remember. Considering how much she dislikes the water, she’ll likely never find out.