The first thing she noticed when she woke up was the awkwardness of whatever position she was in. Something was wrong with her paws, too. She groaned quietly and brought a paw up to rub her head, but as she brushed her face she froze.

No fur. No muzzle.

Arina's eyes shot open and she brought her paws before her face, staring at them. They looked different – like a monkey's, except they were pale in color. She sat up slowly and looked down at her body. What was showing was all the same pale, furless color, but some of it was covered by an odd skin – white on top and blue on the bottom. She became aware of something tickling her back and reached a paw up, rubbing at her head. There was fur there, and even though it was long and not exactly furry it was the color it should have been. She held a clump of it tightly in one hand, taking comfort in it.

Arina looked around her surroundings, not recognizing anything. She was in a cave of some sort, but that was all she could tell. It looked to be sealed off on every side, which made her nervous. If she was trapped…

She tried to yell for her father, or Maten, but the only sound she heard herself made was a squeak. She closed her mouth, running her tongue over her teeth. No fangs anymore – they were different, too. She tried to growl, but it sounded weak. Her power of speech had been stolen from her with this new body.

She was about to try and walk to the walls of the cave to try and find a way out when part of the wall swung open. A tall animal with a body like hers walked in, followed by two others. Two of them had short fur, one gray and the other brownish, and the third had long fur like hers except a lighter color.

The one with gray fur opened its mouth and began to make noises. Arina stared blankly at it, not recognizing anything it said. She could, however, determine it was a male by the way he sounded, and was probably the pride patriarch. The brown haired one was probably the prince, and the other one the princess. The females had manes in this pride of animals?

The patriarch was looking at her, blinking. He walked closer and Arina instinctively moved backwards until her back pressed against the wall. He looked her in the eye and began to repeat a similar sound several times. She listened to him, hoping to catch onto his language so she could ask where she was.

"Kimya. Kimya. Kimya."

Kimya? It must have been his pride name. Wondering if he was asking her whether or not she was part of this pride, Arina shook her head. He made some other noises, looked confused at her prolonged silence, and then made the one sound she recognized.

"Kimya."

She swallowed and looked to the prince and princess. They were both staring at her as well but made no sound. She whimpered quietly and looked back at the patriarch, hoping he would let her go.

"Kimya" was all he said to her puzzled expression.

She didn't want to join his pride, but figured if she could get on his good side she could find clues that would lead her home and out of this weird body. She nodded slowly, he smiled and moved out of her face and then walked out of the cave. The other two followed him, although the female hesitated. Their eyes met for a second before the patriarch's voice sounded from the other side of the wall. She left, closing the wall behind her. In the privacy of the cave Arina curled up and began to cry quietly, wishing she was with Maten.

"It's rather odd. She doesn't seem to understand what I'm saying – she must be from another country. Either that or she suffered a head wound I didn't find and has forgotten how to speak. Either way, Kimya is a suitable nickname until we discover her true name."

The family had picked up some Swahili vocabulary while visiting villages, and kimya was the term for mute. She only appeared to make small noisesbut otherwise had no verbal skills, which is why Da had chosen this nickname for her.

"Didjya catch those eyes? Pretty weird color; just like your pink, except the acidy green's a little cooler."

"She's beautiful…" is all Rose managed to sigh out. Damien smirked at her, but Da held up a hand and cut the tangent off from getting further.

"The fact of the matter is we don't know who she is, where she's from, how she got where she was, or anything else about her. Besides that, I think she needs time to recover. Give her a few days of peace, and then we'll try to figure out who our Kimya really is."

Damien nodded and immediately left to his room, probably to look for any missing persons reports. Da stared hard at Rose, who looked awkwardly away after a moment.

"Alright, Rose?"

She nodded slowly but didn't move. Da sighed and moved around her, going out to the living room. After a few minutes she heard the front door open then close. He was going out to skin the lioness and preserve her fur before stuffing her. This meant she had several hours alone, time and privacy enough to get to know Kimya.

She heard a thud from within the room and opened the door, finding Arina trying to pull herself back onto the bed. She froze and turned, staring at Rose. Rose chuckled and closed the door behind her, moving to her side and taking her hands.

"Here, let me help you up."

She pulled Arina to her feet, not entirely surprised when she began to collapse. Rose caught her, holding her upright.

"Don't remember how to walk either, Kimya?"

Arina looked up at her. Rose smiled and held onto her hands again, moving a little away. Arina tightened her hold but didn't fall over this time, managing to maintain her balance.

Arina was reminded of learning to stalk. Kovu had her balancing on narrow ledges for long periods of time so her balance became as close to perfect as possible. He did it when he was young, he told her, and it had helped him immensely. He would often join her on those ledges, grinning when overbalanced but easily catching her in a paw.

Kovu… Arina felt her eyes beginning to tear, but she stopped herself from crying. She couldn't show weakness to these animals; she had no idea how they would react to it. Rose, not noticing her tears, started to let go of her hands. Arina managed to stay upright for a few seconds before she lost her balance and collapsed onto the bed. Rose moved over to her and held out her hands again, smiling.

"Try again."