[PRP] Without a Trace [Moto'Seide x Veru]

[Kaelyndra]

Cubs didn't go missing during the day. They went missing during floods, rainstorms, at night, from creatures that stole them away. These were all things her father had taught her and her siblings to scare them out of misbehaving when the weather was bad, or a foreign threat knocked on their door. Kaanga had tsked at such tales, sometimes humored them, but at least Moto'Seide had behaved. By some miracle, she and all her siblings lived to see their adult years.

Everything her father said was a lie. Moto'Seide's gut had sunk down into her belly, dragging her paws down and making her mind begin to panic. Yes, the cool-headed Legate who could pull her warriors through a fight and keep logic at her side in the worst of situations was beginning to break down.

Four cubs, their bodies a mess with awkward juvenile features and roughening hair, had been carefully housed inside with their father. As always, Maipe was a disaster to try and get to lie down for an afternoon nap. The twins were notoriously perfect, and so was the most red of the brothers. They were outgrowing their need to be put to sleep, and were spending more times at sitters as Moto'Seide felt she could begin to leave them to their own devices.

Perhaps that had been a mistake. Moto'Seide had paced back and forth between this rock outcrop and that rock outcrop five times. It had turned into a frantic wandering, like pacing, weaving, and had no end-point. It left the Legate panting, eyes wide, hollering Huo's name.

No answer.

It was at least ten minutes of rushing panic before Moto'Seide found her head well enough to realize she needed help. Nothing had gone wrong before, Moto'Seide had insisted Veru stay inside to rest. He spent too much time on his paws, tracking this, tracking that.

The female Firekin rushed up the sandy rock faces that lead up to a series of overhanging dens and ducked her head into a familiar one. "Veru," she breathed. "I can't find Huo."  

[Mimsey]

Awareness came slowly for Veru, who had been in the middle of a deep slumber as he rested the hottest hours of the afternoon away. Ever since the storms had come and went, work for the scouts and trackers had been more aggressive than usual. And while Veru did an admirable job appearing aloof, the truth was that his paws were swollen and blistered from long nights spent walking.

He yawned, not quite spurned to the same sense of urgency as Seide. Raising cubs of his own had filled him with a sense of wonderment, but had also put his own childhood into a rather stark perspective. Compared to the outlands, the motoujamii and its endless supply of cub sitters and nosy neighbors might as well have been Fort Knox for children.

"What's going on?" he mumbled sleepily as he rose to his toes. A brief headcount of the cubs currently laying in tumbles at his feet answered that question. Huo was still missing. Ducking his head low enough to see the sky, he did a quick estimate of how much time had gone passed.

"Its been pretty hot today," he said with another yawn. "Did you check all the watering holes? He probably just went off with one of the other little fellows."

Mindful of the cubs who were still mercifully sleeping, he carefully sidestepped so that the bulk of his lean form was on the ledge. "Its still daylight," he added thoughtfully.  

[Kaelyndra]

"No," Moto'Seide answered truthfully. Dedicated a mother as she was, she simply could not check everywhere. Awkward a cub as he was, Huo tended to stick tightly towards older lions or his family.

It seemed unlikely that he'd venture too far from Maipe, and even more unlikely that the young female hadn't tattled on Huo for wandering off relentlessly.

Moto'Seide peered into the shadowed overhang of their living quarters, then focused her purple eyes on Veru. The yawn he made was calming, but calm to a distraught mother was only so effective.

"I didn't think he'd wander as far as the other side of the pride," she breathed out, exasperated. Her eyes snapped to the right of them, along cavities within rich red rock.

"If we both look, we'll find him." The waver in her voice wasn't so sure. "I'll ask our neighbors to watch them." A brief bob of her head towards their remaining children indicated what the Legate meant.  

[Mimsey]

Veru nodded. Although he hadn't been too alarmed by the whole matter, he looked further assured by the fact that she hadn't checked the water holes. As far as he was concerned, the mystery was already solved. "He's a lot bolder than you take him for! I'm sure he just found a new friend, and they snuck off to cool down."

Shaking out his own feet, he fell into step beside her as she rushed towards the neighbor's. He waited patiently a few ledges below while she informed them. But he kept chattering- mostly because he was Veru, and now that he was awake, he intended to keep himself that way.

"Just hope the others don't figure it out! Before you know it, there will be chaos in the den. Little children, galavanting around at all hours, drinking up their share of ration water, having to explain it to the quartermaster..." his voice trailed off teasingly. "Pandemonium."  

[Kaelyndra]

Moto'Seide's ear flicked back towards Veru, but her footsteps were already taking her to the neighbors. That ear remained on her husband. The sound of his footsteps helped to cool her voice. The neighbors would not be able to hear the waver in her tone, though they may see the heavy furrow in her brows which narrowed her eyes.

It was with silence that she hurried down the rocky pathway, worn in by days of tired feet returning from work. Moto'Seide had barely taken a step before another one was had, and the motion looked jarred and tense.

"If our daughter wakes up, it might be," Seide agreed. Her white teeth flashed as she forced a smile.

The ear still remained on Veru as they walked. It felt too slow and the effort it took to slow down made Seide's body rigid. Her tail hardly moved, her eyes remained focused on the sands in front of them. If Huo was simply off playing, Moto'Seide would feel a fool, not to mention guilty for having unnecessarily bruised Veru's feet all the further.

His willingness to please, even in a situation he clearly felt was blown out of proportion, made her heart flutter even now. "The sitters are near to a watering hole I did not check. I will ask there, if you ask at the watering hole itself."

A brief moment of horror crossed her mind--Had Huo drowned? Unlikely, with how many lions drank out of the watering hole. But it only took a second. Moto'Seide's steps grew faster.  

[Mimsey]

It was clear as they crossed the sands that it was just about all Seide could do not to run all the way across the pride. And he was dutifully ready to follow should she decide to do just that- but his feet were thankful just for the brisk pace. It didn't occur to him, even for a moment, that his wayward son would not be there.

"Sure, I'll give the area a sweep," he said with what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "He's fine, Seide. We'll find him, no problem. And then he shall receive a stern talking to from his mother."

As they reached the watering hole, the two split up. It was the middle of the day, so the heat had attracted a fair sized crowd to the edges of the water. A quick sweep with his eyes revealed no cubs. But he didn't let that rise him to alarm. Yet, at least.

He found Elcca draped across one of the rocks, sunning her belly and no doubt attempting to attract the attention of every male for miles. To her surprise [and no one else's], everyone had given her a fairly wide berth. Being spooky would do that.

"Have you seen any cubs around here?" Veru asked curiously.

Elcca stretched languidly. "I'm not a cub sitter. Don't block my sunlight please."

Veru rolled his eyes and stepped off the rock. On second thought he wasn't sure what had come over him to think he might get some progress out of her. He glanced around the pond and frowned.

Where had that child gone off to?  

[Kaelyndra]

Mimsey

A controlling part of Moto'Seide was reluctant to leave Veru's side. Purple eyes gave a long scan of the watering hole while Veru offered encouraging words. The Legate saw no golden-coated children. After a second sweep, she had jogged up the crest of a dune and down the other side.

The babysitters, much as she questioned them, were of no more help to her than Elcca had been for Veru. When she re-appeared on the ridge, Moto'Seide's ears were pinned. The Legate's fur was ruffled, puffed out in contrast to its normal sleekness. Trudging down the hill, she bumped her forehead with Veru, too aggressively to be purely affectionate.

"They will send someone if they see or hear anything." A low rumble moved from the back of her throat.

The thought that Shunqa could be harboring the child occured to Moto'Seide. Their Uncle had taken the entire group to the outpost a short time prior. Yet, if Shunqa did not have the child, would he let his strict sister live down the loss of her child?

"I haven't checked with the border guards."  

[Mimsey]

Kaelyndra

Veru met back with Seide, frowning somewhat once he realized she too had returned empty-pawed. As their foreheads touched, he tried his best not to let his concern reach his face. Not only would it only exacerbate Seide's fears, but he still held on to the hope that this was nothing but childish folly. Yet as aloof as Veru could be, it was hard to shake the instinctual paranoia that came with being a father.

He wondered, albeit briefly, what he had put his own father through. A man he hadn't seen or spoken to since he was just a bit older than a cub.

Moving swiftly, his lean form fell into stride with hers. "Shunqa is a good bet. Probably half the litter thinks they are little guards after his expedition," he reminisced. "The boy is smart, he knows not to head out into the desert on a whim. If he isn't with Shunqa, I'm sure we've just missed him on one of our sweeps."

For all they knew, he could already be back home, curled up with his siblings! He liked to keep that thought in mind as they approached the deeper desert, towards where the outpost and guards would be stationed.

"What route does Shunqa work?"  

[Kaelyndra]

Mimsey

"Maybe he is practicing," Moto'Seide automatically agreed, her head and mind lost in the prospect and dulling the tone of her words. With a goal, Seide's marching pace resumed.

It was not until they'd crested a dune Seide answered Veru's question. "I don't know," she forced from between her teeth. "He hunts." And no sand-trodding deer would pass by the stench of lion en masse.

The sky was beginning to deepen, and should they return now, dusk would envelop them as they reentered their den. Glancing towards the sky, Moto'Seide's ears flicked back. Her steps hastened to a jog, and then fell back to a walk.

"Hraga is there," she noted, eyes focused on the horizon. Many of the guards were indistinguishable, a blur or red and black and white. However, many had heard of Hraga, if not dealt with him. His form was no stranger to the Legate's eyes. When she broke into a jog this time, Seide did not slow back down.  

[Mimsey]

Veru struggled to keep pace with Seide. Not necessarily because he was less the runner, but because her frequent stops and sudden bursts were like a strange game. Veru was used to steadiness from Seide. She wasn't the sort of woman who one could describe as indecisive or erratic.

He'd been so focused on making sure he was level with her that he almost missed her words when she targeted Hraga. He stopped, regarding the guards in the distance before bolting after her when she started to jog.

Hraga was a decent fellow. Just a bit younger than he was, he'd always got along fairly well with the guard. His mentor, less so. Veru allowed himself a sigh of relief to see that Azar wasn't among those posted. He could only imagine the lecture the gruff fellow would issue them over their missing offspring.

Slowing, Veru nodded in greeting to the collected guards.

Even though he hadn't been addressed, Hraga approached. He had a broad smile across his face, as though the idea of unrest hadn't yet crossed his mind. "Seide!" he said. "And Veru. Don't usually see either of you out on this side of the desert."

Veru smiled a wan smile and attempted to handle the situation. "We were looking for Huo, one of our cubs. You wouldn't happen to have a small, miniature guard along with you this evening?"

Hraga blinked. "Cubs? No, there's no one like that here. Is something wrong? Is he missing?"

Veru had a feeling that alerting the entire guard force to look for their son would only exacerbate Seide's mood. He shook out his white mane casually. "Its more likely he's just trailing his uncle. Have you seen Shunqa? Neither of us could remember his patrol route for the evening."

Hraga furrowed his brow in thought, and then nodded off to the east. "He checked in about a half hour ago. I can't say I spoke to him though. Having an apprentice out after dark is typically against the-"

Veru cleared his throat. "Oh, well. You know Shunqa. He's a...rebel...we'll keep in touch if we need you."

One more place left to check before the real panic started.  

[Kaelyndra]

Skilled at evasion and diplomacy as he was, Moto'Seide simply let Veru handle things with Hraga. The guard was needlessly suspicious, or perhaps overzealous at his post. No doubt he'd inflicted quite a few headaches upon Firekin entering and exiting via the outpost. While Veru spoke, Moto'Seide's eyes wandered the muting sands. Here and there a shrub had worked through the desert sand and latched hold.

"Evening, Hraga," were her Seide's parting, and only, words to the guard. Try as Veru might to keep the situation under wraps, the Legate was relatively certain the folly would leak. Someone had recently asked her whether Maipe had nearly killed her in childbirth. Though there was some truth to the difficulty of Maipe's arrival, Moto'Seide certainly hadn't sought to tell anyone about it. Rumors blew out of proportion and traveled rapidly.

"I thought he'd be here," she murmured to Veru and led him a short distance from the guards to re-adjust and gather their wits. For her, the real panic had already begun to set in.  

[Hopefolly]

Anything lost would be found in the last place you thought to look.

Bimnono hadn't a single paw print in Firekin sand, but the outpost was home enough for her. She helped to hunt and to find water, often alone, so the laziest of guards looked the other way. The most introverted thought she'd already gained membership and been assigned here; since they never asked, no one corrected them. Others assumed she was consistently trying and failing to gain entry. Taking bets and making jokes helped pass the time, so they were in no rush to be rid of her. She'd made a pact with Shunqa, the gist of which was you say I'm trying, I say you're fighting, and we both get to tell them what they want to hear.

Fools, they said the word was. She felt ridiculous for losing so many duels to them, they who couldn't even keep track of their young. She had such a stranglehold on her daughters they had to ask permission to breathe.

In the time she'd spent here they had taught her the language, with or without intention to do so, and with a decent vocabulary and sentence structure at her exposure, she proved to be... ah, a compelling raconteur.

"They tell me of your kind. You want to run from home early, little huria?" Nono pronounced it who-reee-uh. Cue story about how she'd once had four daughters, not three, and the fourth was a "disobedient child" same as him. She'd decided to leave one day, too good for her family, yet too weak to handle their problems.

"Sun was bright, huria, very bright. But I still see her there by the water, tired, hungry. From water jumps crocodile — biggest crocodile you see in all your days..." Bimnono paused. "SNAP! With the jaws. Just once. It closes them so tight I will not even hear my girl scream. And by time I reach her, only her tail is left. And you know what crocodile says to me?"

From where she lie stretched across the sand, on her belly, she leaned closer to him.

Mimsey

Kaelyndra

 

[Mimsey]

Veru at long last allowed a small frown to cross over his face. He wasn't sure what he had expected, but it had certainly been his hope that their errant cub wouldn't have made it this far. Maybe had never made it this far. "I don't know," he said as they picked back up into a brisk pace. "He's not a foolish cub."

Veru wasn't sure what he meant by that. He certainly didn't think he had raised foolish children. He'd always hoped they would have their mother's smarts and his own good fortune. But one fear was stirring in his chest- the idea that this was all somehow some sort of karmatic retribution. When he had been a child, he had followed his dreams away at an age just a bit older than their son.

While he'd never felt direct love from his father, he often wondered how the lion had reflected upon his absence. Perhaps it was justice to have him experience the same anxiety.

As they rounded the next dune, Veru huffed and shook out his mane, as though chasing the thoughts from his mind. It wasn't the time. "We still have a few places left to search. We still have-"

He paused. In the distance, there was a strange lioness. If he squinted, it almost seemed like there might have been something small with her. "That one- she's awfully close this time of night."

kaelyndra

 

[Kaelyndra]

Huo's lower jaw stuck out, and his nose tucked protectively in a full, puffed out chest.

"I'm not!" he'd insisted, every time Nono's obliteration of the word had reached him. His adult coat would be pale again. This was just his awkward juvenile body. Huo had a thousand excuses. But his oversized eyes watered and his tail lashed with doubt.

He'd never actually seen a crocodile. The Firekin borders were tight, and the water sources much too precious to warrant dirty feet, let alone dirty feet that liked to swallow undersized lions. He found himself swallowing. Huo's eyebrows could not furrow any further, and his lip was raised in something part apprehension and part horror. He wasn't sure he believed this strange lioness' story. He wasn't sure he didn't.

Huo was sure, however, that she was unbearably creepy. The cub strained his eyes back over his shoulder. He could see the guards in the distance, a fuzzy blur against the colors of the setting sun. Even if he made a run for it, she could out-pace him. "I don't care," he answered her disturbing question. Huo didn't want to know what the crocodile said.

-

Seide's gaze followed Veru's. The contrasting patchwork of Bimnono's fur stuck out like a sore paw from the dunes. Moto'Seide's nostrils filled with air. Hackles rising, she changed course for the rogue.

Both sight and smell were recognizeable. She'd seemed much like the Hongshan refugees; the language barrier made them seem incompetent and slow. The Legate's hopes were not high, but she would question anyone and anything that came across their path.

"Too close," Moto'Seide finally agreed, whether or not Veru had heard her. Hopefully, their fast movement across the sand did not startle the cloak-wearing lion into abandoning her post.

Hopefolly

 

[Hopefolly]

Nono echoed Seide in a different language through different means. Too close, she thought. Too close to be coincidence. "You will sit quietly here, huria," but what she really meant by sit was lie down, and being quiet meant utterly silent. "If you run they catch you if you're —" What was that word? Lucky? "Or you can die out there alone," she continued, and by the end of that Huo had her cloak tossed over him.

Kaelyndra