Caspian King

When Deya first arrived--he doesn't like Deya, she really needed to remember to only use Caspian--he scared her. He wasn't big, but he always seemed angry. He spoke a different language, usually, only using broken Lionstongue when he absolutely had to. Seli didn't think he wanted to be with them, but Mama assured her that he did. She said that Caspian wasn't used to people being nice, and it was at that moment that Seli decided she would be his friend. He didn't like it when she or Kazo gave him hugs without asking, but he was nice to her when she gave him drawings.

Over the course of many moons, Seli learned three things about her new adopted brother; one, he wasn't a fan of physical affection, two, he was the best at braids and flower crowns, three, never challenge him. Really, he had a stubbornness that rivaled her family. It was almost surprising they weren't actually related.

Gentle fingers comb through her blonde hair, bringing her back to the present. While his accent was still very present, it wasn't any accent she knew of. Seli had just come to recognize it as being singularly Caspian. "Who?"

"Your Nunhs. Li'kallan." She didn't point out how she liked the way he pronounced their names, even with steel in his voice.

"Why would you call him 'sir'?" Seli frowns, turning her head slightly before stopping, remembering not to move a little late. She gets a small, chiding tsk as Caspian adjusts his hold on her braids.

Instead of an answer, she feels a small puff of breath on her shoulder, a strangely tired sound. She's happy to wait. Seli learned quickly enough that she was more likely to not drive him away when she didn't probe with questions. Kazo didn't mind when she did it, but Caspian called it "prying". It was difficult, at first, because she had so many questions. He was from outside!

"{Leaders of a clan command respect.}" Her silence is rewarded as he mutters in his native tongue. It was so familiar, yet not fully comprehensible. Mama said his birth Pride was far, but just close enough for their languages to be something like cousins. That raised questions of language parents, did there have to be two, if all languages were related then, why did someone decide to split the original language into so many different-almost-the-same-but-not languages--...

...--but Seli didn't really want to open that can of worms just then.

Again, her attention is brought back to the present by Caspian's hands in her hair, tying off the crown of braids around her head before starting on the joined braid down her back. He promised he'd put many small tresses in, along with some decorative rings she saw in a huntress's hair the other day. "Biggest male in family. After Li'kazo."

"He's just our big brother," Seli snorts at Caspian's silly respect for the "eldest". "He is the best at cooking, though." Kallan's dishes were always very popular at their table.

"Yours," Caspian's correction, while it seemed like it was meant to be said in a sharper tone, is soft.

The silence seems to stretch for turns.

"Do you have big brothers?" Seli dares to ask, quietly, as if the trees were listening in. She feels Caspian freeze behind her, and she catches her lip between her fangs. She even finds herself holding her breath.

"No," he finally answers after too long a moment. Really, Seli thought to herself, this boy liked to keep them all guessing. "Sisters. Small. Mother big with more cubs." The range of emotions that he seems to go through with those words was fascinating and confusing. It was obvious he loved his sisters, but he seemed more hesitant when he mentioned his mother and her pregnancy. Cubs were good, right? Maybe he was worried about her.

Seli was already using all of her power to keep herself from vibrating excitedly. He was talking to her. "Sisters! No wonder you're so good at this," she compliments him brightly, quick to fill any quiet gaps now that they had some kind of ball rolling.

She's rewarded again, this time with a chuckle. "Should see what I do with gems and gold," he hums, "Kayin likes... Mm..." He grows quiet for a moment, and, being unable to see his face in this position, Seli worries that he's closing off again. Her worry is quieted once more when he speaks again. "{Snow Bells}. Not knowing name in Lion." He almost sounds apologetic.

"That's okay! What do they look like?"

"Small. White. Round, like berries, but..." A small noise, halfway between a sheepish chuckle and a grunt, "Eeh... ringing metal bowl?"

Seli squints ahead of her at the deeper forest, slitted pupils following the path of a honeybee as she tries to understand what he means. "A... bell?" She's hesitant, because it seems like too obvious a word. Worried she might insult him by believing he wouldn't know it, her ears twitch anxiously until she hears a "Hm!" of agreement.

"Grow in cold. Push out of snow like... surprise. Favorite of Kayin."

"What does she look like?"

Again, a pause that yawned like a chasm.

"Small," he says, repeating his earlier description of the flower, his voice a great deal quieter, before he adds in a slightly teasing tone, "Smaller than Li'seli."

"I'm not -small-! I'm -growing-."

Seli doesn't want to think about the face that goes with the smugness that emanates off of him.

"Quiet," he continues, "Hair... long to shoulders. Like me, but not so much red." He leans forward to shake his own hair in front of her, a slight uptilt to the corner of his lips. Before sitting back down, he points to his eye, sharp and gold. "Darker." As he disappears from view, Seli blinks rapidly, trying to imagine a version of Caspian that was smaller, with the details he mentioned.

"Does everyone have ears like you?" She was getting bold with her questions, but he seemed to be in an answering mood, however long that would last.

"Many. Some no."

"And big floofy tails?"

"Mm, no."

"Tails like us?"

"No."

Seli frowns, turning her head slightly to try and look back at him, earning her another chiding hiss. "Skinny tails? Furless??"

Caspian's expression seems mixed between amused exasperation and discomfort. "Short."

"Like Auntie Tzana!" Seli beams.

He blinks once, registering this information before using a hand to turn her head back into position gently. "Do not know. Li'tzana is Lynx?"

The young lioness lets out a laugh, not noticing his guarded tone. "No," she goes back to her attempt at a flower chain. "She lost her tail in a great battle. We're a Pride of warriors, you know!"

"Yes." Caspian's voice is warm as he agrees.

"So why do Lynxes have short tails but you don't?"

"Mother. Big tail." His tone is back to reserved, his words slow as if he was picking them out carefully, or perhaps was worried about her line of questioning. Seli heard the tone often enough to recognize it; she asked a lot of questions to a lot of people.

"Why?"

"Born with it."

She almost lets out a frustrated groan. "But she's a Lynx too! Why doesn't she have a short tail?"

"Li'seli," he murmurs out, and she can hear the way he's holding back his agitation in his voice. She takes the warning, her ears curving downwards guiltily. "Lions not all have your tail."

"Yeah, but their families came from other--" She stops because she understands. "Oh. You're not only a Lynx?"

He doesn't answer, and she can't tell if it's because she's overstepped or if he was thinking about it. "Not only lynx," he repeats, but it sounds more like a placation rather than a real answer. There was more, she knew it, but she'd pushed enough for the day. It would be so sad if he never spoke to her again because he was afraid of what she would ask.

By the time he needs the flower crown she was supposed to be making, she's made very little progress. Still, he makes happy "oohs" and "aahs" and praises her weaving skills. "Getting better!"

Apparently it was very nice indeed, as he decides to pick entirely different flowers for her hair, claiming her crown was too pretty to just use as an accessory. They both compromise and she wears it as a necklace instead--obviously necklaces aren't accessories--though she thinks she catches him in the corner of her eye looking at the chain like he wants to add to it.

"Beautiful," he praises warmly as she gets up to twirl in her new hairstyle. He gave her a dress earlier, from Limsa Lominsa, that was made of pretty, very pale green, flowing material. With the braids, the jewelry in her hair and the flowers now woven into the tresses, she felt very fancy. "Like... queen? Goddess?"

Seli blushes bright red in embarrassment and glares at him. "There is no one who is like any Goddess! They-They're... They're--" she puffs out, as he watches with an amused smile, "They're!" She gestures helplessly up at the sky.

Caspian nods sympathetically and amends his statement. "Yes. Forgive me. Beautiful like Li'seli."

Seli nearly stamps her foot before she runs, hearing his laugh behind her. "You're worse than Kazo!"