Sunrise

"It's only sunrise, you know."

Mzatamo's remark caused his fellow Healer, who'd been attempting to sneak off without waking anyone, to freeze in his tracks. His tail had accidentally brushed the other Healer's paw as he was passing, but he'd thought he was in the clear. Apparently not.

"Why are you up so early?" Mzatamo rolled over a bit and cracked one eye open, staring at Cuore.

His companion gave a small shrug and smiled. "I've just...always liked looking at the sunrise, I guess. I can't explain it."

"You wake up every day to watch it." Cuore was definitely surprised by his friend's observation. He knew Mzatamo had always been one to notice the finer details, but he'd never realized the extent of that behavior. He had been so sure that Mzatamo was asleep every time he crept out, but maybe he was a much lighter sleeper than Cuore had thought, or maybe he'd just figured it out since Cuore was always out and about by the time the sun was up. "Why is that?"

"I dunno. I've just...always liked it." He paused, then asked, "Does a sunrise mean anything here?"

"Does it need to to be enjoyable?"

The question left Cuore a little stunned. "I..." he trailed off, shaking his head. "There's no story to explain it? Nothing?"

Mzatamo shrugged. "Not that I'm aware of. A sunrise is just a sunrise. But like I said, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it. You can enjoy something even if it has no larger significance. Sometimes, what makes something so special is the fact that there's nothing special about it to anyone but you. It's okay to enjoy a mundane thing, even if there's no explanation that 'justifies' it to anyone."

Cuore snorted, shaking his head. "You sound like an old man sometimes, Mzatamo."

"Yeah, well, I feel like it most of the time too. Now go ahead and stare at the sky. I'm going to try and get some more sleep."

Cuore nodded, taking extra care to quietly finish creeping out of the den. However, as he stared up at the rising sun, the light-colored lion found himself continuing to dwell on what his friend had said. Mzatamo was a large proponent of things being the way they are simply because that's the way they are, and normally, Cuore did not agree with him; however, in this situation, the perspective that Mzatamo offered really got Cuore thinking. Was it really okay to enjoy something, even if it was meaningless in the grand scheme of things?

Somehow, that was more comforting than any story he had been supplied for the sunrise's existence.