I Just Wanna Play

The forest extended further than she could have imagined.

Tiifu was, for want of a better word, exploring. Of course, she was aware that the Great forest that she now called home had been left behind a fair while ago; but as she didn't have a name for this new branch of forest that she'd come to find herself in, it perhaps wasn't too great a stretch of imagination to assume that they were one and the same, despite visible differences.

Either of the densely wooded areas were far removed from her anything she'd known in the Pride Lands; so, in essence, both forests struck her as the same in that differentness.

She certainly hadn't kept track of how far she'd walked between the two; only the way her paws were starting to hurt a bit informed the girl that it had probably been a fair distance. A sigh - or, perhaps, more of an oof - was given as Tiifu plopped herself down on her rear and shook out her forepaws, trying to will the ache to go away. She didn't want to walk any further right now, that was for sure... although, it occurred to the cub, that she probably ought to make sure she was back on friendly territory before nightfall, or the rest of the pride might worry about her.

The idea of repeating that walk all over again however, just in reverse, wasn't an appealing one.

She could at least rest before she gave that any serious consideration, right? Licking the back of her paw a couple of times, Tiifu took the moment to glance around her. It was pretty out here, perhaps moreso than in the part of the forest that the Pride had claimed for its own, and the young cub allowed her thoughts to drift away from her sore paws. She actually found herself wanting to look around more... even as she wandered what Zuri and Kiara would make of the place. Both of her best friends had been busy with things that didn't involve her today, which was part of the reason why the green-eyed girl had taken to the idle wandering that had led her here.

A butterfly flittering past caused the cub to turn, tracking it with her gaze for a moment. That, at least, was a familiar sight from back home - butterflies, it seemed, were a universal constant - and Tiifu found herself smiling at that.

At least, for the moment before the unfamiliar voice caught her ears. Startled, she jumped a little; but no real fear seemed to be in the cub's reaction. It didn't even occur to Tiifu that someone so loudly proclaiming their love for a patch of woodland could be up to anything malicious; rather, curiosity prodded the girl forward. Peering between a couple of trees that had screened the other from her view, Tiifu found herself regarding another cub, this one slightly smaller than herself. She didn't look familiar, but if it occurred to Tiifu to interpret this fact as a threat, she gave no sign whatsoever.

Moving more fully into view, she looked down at the other girl, who was sprawled on the grass.

"Who're you? I haven't seen you around here before."

That was mostly because Tiifu herself had never been around here before; but that didn't feel particularly significant to mention right then.

"Well... not really here here. There's a different bit of forest... it doesn't look quite the same as this."

But it was still all the same kind of forest environment, if that was what the unfamiliar girl was getting at; Tiifu supposed it was probably close enough, at least. The question did, though, at least vaguely suggest to the green-eyed girl that Nia also wasn't a local to this area any more than she was. That was fair, though; Tiifu knew all too well that lions didn't really come from this part of the world. As fascinating as the place was... if she stopped to think too much, she'd remember how much she missed the Pride Lands.

Her poor home, overrun by those terrible black thorns...

Don't think about it, don't think about it!

Shutting down the memories - which had got so muddled with her recurring nightmares of the event that she had no idea anymore where the line stood between real and imaginary - Tiifu reminded herself instead that Nia had just introduced herself; that meant it was her turn to do that, too.

"I'm Tiifu!"

Could she have mentioned her role as bestie and advisor to Princess Kiara? Probably... but even Tiifu figured there were some times when there was no need to make a big deal of that. Around the Enchanted Suns, of course, she would make known the fact that she had Kiara's ear; but to a complete stranger, that fact probably meant very little.

Besides, she wasn't here in any capacity as Kiara's advisor. She was just here as... herself.

She wasn't quite used to that these days, honestly.

"Play?" The question surprised her for a moment. It wasn't a foreign concept to Tiifu, or anything like that, but she was aware that it wasn't... something she did so much anymore. Zuri had introduced her to so many other ways to relax - like mud facials, and all those other good things - that Tiifu really didn't give a whole lot of thought to traditional playing. But that wasn't to say she couldn't, or wouldn't, do that thing.

"Oh, sure! What did you want to play?"

She failed to see any harm in agreeing to this; and besides, if she made a new friend out of it? That would be neat, too.

"Oh."

Was that odd? Maybe not... but all the same, Tiifu tilted her head a little, finding herself surprised. It was true that some other cubs she knew - possibly even Zuri, if she could think that of her best friend - might indeed have turned down Nia's request... but that the other cub had gone into this expecting to be rejected? Why would that be?

Perhaps she didn't think that an older cub would have time for her? Tiifu wasn't sure quite how much difference in age there was between her and Nia, but it was clear to her that she was the older of the two.

That was kind of a nice change of pace, when she was the youngest cub she knew of back home.

And there came the answer to her question; the suggestion was of hide and seek. A pretty standard game, by Tiifu's reckoning; she'd definitely played it in the past, when she was a cub... Well, okay, she was still a cub. But before she'd found herself in the incredibly serious role of advisor to the princess, at any rate.

"Oh, yeah, we can play that! Just you wait; I can be the best hidey hider and seeky seeker!"

She crouched playfully, tail swishing behind her. In spite of her words, however... well, honestly, Tiifu wasn't trying to impress anyone. If Kiara had been here, then of course, that would have been a different matter; Tiifu wanted the eventual future queen to think highly of her at all times, and remained oblivious to the fact that her approach to that could be far more annoying to Kiara than anything else. But here, she wasn't trying to show off or anything... she was just, genuinely, excited.

Had it really been so long since she'd last played a simple game like this? Tiifu rather felt like it had.

She was about to leap straight into the game when it occurred to the slightly older cub that there was just one thing that needed to be addressed before this could really get underway.

"Oh, do you want to hide first? Or me?"

"I'm ready!"

Her brows were lowered with no small amount of determination; but the grin stretched across Tiifu's features gave her away. Honestly, even if such a game was just a touch too young for her? There was no-one around to judge her for it; and the green-eyed cub was honestly eager for the chance to just let loose a bit like this. For so long, all of her focus had gone into impressing Kiara, and following Zuri's lead to be a worthy friend for a princess, that it felt like... like a weight off her shoulders, at least for a while, to have a chance to just play again.

Most of that weight, granted, was either imagined or self-imposed; but that was quite beside the point, right?

As soon as Nia started counting, Tiifu was off like a shot. She had no particular direction in mind to search in for a good hiding spot; her forest-coloured eyes seeking this way and that for a place where she could conceal herself. There were plenty of places to try, some that looked promising, some that looked just a little beyond her reach... thoughtful, Tiifu slowed to a stop just a short way from where she'd left the younger cub. She still had a bit of time left before Nia reached the end of her count, which meant she had time to choose...

Out here in the forest, there was no shortage of places to hide; the challenge, rather, was picking the best one. There were bushes and thickets she could hide in; there were rocks she could crawl behind and be out of sight; even a hollow log she could slip into... though the cub balked at the thought of that. It probably wouldn't be dark dark in there, but still, she'd...

Prefer not to chance it.

She had to be running out of time now; once more, she cast her gaze around and hastily settled on a large cluster of ferns. As quickly as she could, Tiifu bounded over to them and proceeded to hunker down behind the plants.

The perfect hiding spot; no-one would find her here!

It escaped Tiifu's notice entirely that only held true for as long as Nia approached from the exact same direction Tiifu had. If she came at the cluster from quite literally any other angle, it would be impossible to miss the older cub's rear poking out from behind her 'foolproof' hiding spot.

It had, perhaps, been longer than Tiifu had realised since she'd taken part in something like this and done so seriously.

She was the master at this.

At least, Tiifu was confident that was the case. She was hiding behind her ferns, completely concealed from sight; and while, of course, she didn't want to make the game too hard for the younger cub, it still seemed natural to try her best. She grinned to herself as she heard the other girl pondering aloud, completely convinced that Nia's puzzlement was genuine. Tiifu's tail twitched slightly behind her, rustling the plants back there; but if she noticed this fact, the older girl didn't take it into account.

So she was caught thoroughly by surprise a moment later as a cry of "Got'cha!" came from behind her, and she felt something heavy land on her back. The breath left Tiifu in a startled oof; never much of a girl for rough-and-tumble play, the older girl would have had no idea how to respond even if she had seen Nia coming. Her paws slipped out from under her, at the impact, leaving the green-eyed cub lying flat on her belly with her 'attacker' triumphantly atop her.

Still, it took even her barely a moment to realise what had happened. Either her hiding place hadn't been as good as she'd thought, or Nia was either really skilled or really lucky at this game. Her face now planted in the patch of ferns, which tickled her nose every time they swayed slightly, Tiifu turned her gaze upwards to try and regard her new friend.

"How did you find me?"

Her question was genuine; Tiifu was quite baffled. She hadn't been aware that she'd given anything away, she certainly hadn't been trying to do so; and yet, Nia had found her as easily as if she'd been wearing a big flashing sign around her neck. The cub simply didn't get it.

She didn't try to squirm her way out from under Nia. As much as Tiifu might think she was good at tracking and pouncing, at least enough so to really impress Kiara, she truthfully had no idea what to do in even a playful brawl... and so she just lay where she was, for as long as the younger girl wanted to keep parading over her back.

"...does this mean it's my turn to find you?" she asked presently.