It was.. quite busy. Betheku had joined the pride at a time that he would have described as, well, quiet. He had taken to thier nomadic nature quickly, reminded as he was of his homeland and their seasonal migrations as they followed the currents of the herd, but it had been a bit different, too. Here, his decision to protect was a choice - he could have devoted himself to hunting, to healing, to so many things that this pride have given him the opportunity to grow and blossom into but he had stayed true to his heritage. His father had been a great fighter, a warrior fit to protect all that belonged to the Bonelands, and he would not deny that he felt the need to do such a thing in his bones.

Of course, when he joined he hadn't realized the sheer mass that truly was the Ela pride and as he sat at the edges of the ceremonial battles, it was almost overwhelming. The Bonelands had felt big and free even when they were all amassed together and here, as bodies jostled together for the best views and cheered on friends and family members battling for sport, it was almost too much. Battle had never been sport for him before and though he felt like he understood the appeal in what his new brothers and sisters saw in these battles, it still made his skin crawl beneath his fur. Back home, a lost battle meant losing one's home, not a gentle 'better luck next time'. He shook his dusty head and drifted away, to the outskirts and loped along in a distant silence.

What he hadn't expected was to see another soul, a sandy, older male that was clearly a native judging by the massive amounts of tattoos that scrawled across his fur. He was sitting farther away than the other clan members, peacefully alone as he stared at the crowds milling before him. Betheku couldn't help his curiosity, it didn't seem in their nature to avoid their own festivies and without anything else to do anyway, he found his paws drawing him closer to the furry, calm male.

As he neared, the great head turned and a pleasant, if lazy, smile greeted him.

"Ahh, you do not look familiar. Did you join during the festival?"

Betheku hesitated, then found a weak smile of his own. He was still unused to how welcoming and kind the majority of this pride seemed to be, even this lonely male that sat by himself.

"No, no. I joined the Sky Clan some few moons ago - this is the first time I've attended the Sky Festival though." Then, after a moment of awkward silence, he dipped his head and remembered his manners. "I am Betheku, I hail from the Bonelands."

"Ahhh, that sounds.. spooky," the male commented and then followed it with a laugh that rumbled through his wide chest. It was a pleasant sound and as Betheku brought his head back up, he found his smile was not so hard to wear. Something about this Ela male was contagiously pleasant, comforting. "I'm Kalju Waya, son of the Wolf Clan. My family has been here for nearly so long as we have wandered these lands. It is a pleasure to meet you, Betheku of the Sky Clan."

Then he dipped his head and the great, white mane that surrounded his dusty face swayed with the effort. They seemed very furry here, full of puff and hair. It was no wonder though with how cold the nights often seemed to get. He had found himself dreading his leaner build many, many a night.

After a moment of hesitation, he took a seat calmly next to the great puff of a lion and let his gaze drift out in the direction Kalju himself seemed to be watching. It was hard to see the battles from here but he had a good view of the specators as they milled about and chatted amongst one another. It made him feel a bit odd, more like an outsider than he already did, as if he were simply an owl perched in a tree. It made him wonder why Kalju seemed to enjoy this if he was from such a well founded family - for himself, it made sense. He was a rogue that had joined, unaccustomed to their ways. After a moment, he couldn't contain it, and he turned to look sidelong at the pleasant, if quiet, wolf clan male.

"Why do you sit so far from the crowd? Don't you like to watch the fights?"

Whatever apprehension Betheku had about speaking his mind was quickly forgotten in the wake of Kalju's warm, contagious laugh. He found himself smiling awkwardly even if he was somewhat unsure of the reasoning behind such mirth.

"It would seem that even the newcomers can see the black sheep. I guess it would help if I didn't make it so obvious." The pleasant laughter died down to a deep smile and, at last, his eyes pulled away from the milling crowd to look at Betheku entirely. "I prefer the quiet, to be honest. I stay on the outskirts of my clan, for a lot of reasons, but it's easiest to say that we have had a rocky history lately. I don't like the crowds but, I suppose, I like to watch them."

Betheku nodded, flicking his tail as the male laid out a very vague reasoning behind his decision not to participate.

"So you've never watched the games?"

Kalju's mouth opened, then closed, and his smile turned a little.. sheepish? That was the only word that came to mind when Betheku tried to place the expression.

"That's not entirely true. Last year I did because someone I care about very deeply was participating. She ended up being our Champion last year, I was very proud and very, very glad that I watched."

Though he didn't know that much about the ceremony, he did understand what that term meant and his brows shot up in a moment of surprise. The Champion, huh?

"Where is she now?"

Kalju shrugged, but his smile was still in place as his eyes drifted back out to the crowd.

"I'm sure she is there, cheering them on. She is much more of a social butterfly than I could ever dream to be but, in the end, I'm sure she'll come find me. She always does."

Betheku smiled at that. If this male could be so at peace with the idea of being alone until a female decided she missed him, well, perhaps he wasn't such a strange creature himself? He settled in, at peace, and let the silence fall around them as they stared on. Lion watching wasn't so bad.

(1,133 words)