[JRP] No One Expects To Become A Prisoner

[hibi-tea]

It was late out, but Eppie couldn't help going out. Her daughter, Liraz, was feeling quite ill once again and had requested for a specific fruit that grew around the pride lands. Of course she would indulge her youngest and sickest child. She wasn't sure how much time she would have with Liraz before her daughter eventually passed, and so anything to make her daughter happy was done.

"You have to like the hardest things to find, don't you Liraz?" Eppie muttered to herself, a bit frustrated. Granted it wasn't Liraz's fault she liked something a little hard to find. Eppie liked someone she couldn't have, after all, so it's not like she didn't understand her daughter's tastes.

Eppie shoved her head into a small batch of bushes and looked around. There! There it was! Eppie sighed and shoved her paw into the bush, knocking the small fruit from its branch and swatting it out towards her. She inspected it for a moment. Nope. No bruises. Good. She didn't damage it trying to get it. Now just to take it back to Liraz.  

[Painted Moose]

Despite the hour, Bizoo couldn't manage to settle down. She hadn't stopped moving since she had run into the guard that tried to keep her within the pride lands. She'd just bet he was looking for something more than that. It didn't matter, though, because as soon as he turned away, she'd run.

And now, after spending hours hunkered down in a bush without food or water, she was starting to rethinnk her plan.

Bizoo shook her head. What the hell did he mean, she couldn't leave? Were they so desperate for females around here that they were going to capture her and use her as a breeding slave? Was she going to be enslaved in a cave for the rest of her life? Would they even feed her?....Would the males even look pretty?

"Oh great. You're starting to think like them." She murmured. The pale lioness slipped out of her bush, large, frightened eyes scanning the distance. She only saw one lioness, and as she started to slink away, could only hope the other didn't see her.  

[hibi-tea]

The noise Bizoo made as she scurried out from underneath the brush caught Eppie's attention almost immediately. With so many of the pride's lions being ill, galavanting out after dark was something reserved for only the immune or those guarding the borders of the pride. Eppie was surprised to see the form that had emerged from the brush was a lioness. Especially considering her stark white coat. She was like a ghost.

"Oh... Evening," Eppie said, giving the white lioness a sweet smile as she gathered up the fruit for her daughter. "It's a lovely night out, isn't it?"

Eppie didn't think anything of the unfamiliar lioness. There had been so many new additions to the pride, young and old, lately that she had simply figured she was one of the ones she hadn't met yet. After all, her work was that of a Nanny so naturally she spent most of her time around children than adults. Not that Eppie minded. She loved those little sweet faces so.  

[Painted Moose]

Bizoo slid to a stop. She flipped her ears back on her head, clear blue eyes looking over the other lioness. With the way she looked in the evening glow, the tan lioness looked as nice as she sounded, but Bizoo knew better than to trust a stranger. She could be working with the males! Or maybe...maybe she could help her escape.

Bizoo approached cautiously. "I hadn't noticed," she said, taking in the fruit that was next to the spotted lioness. A sex inducing fruit, no doubt. The young lioness fidgeted from paw to paw. What should she say? Could she come straight out with it? Or should she be more subtle? Finally, it all tumbled out like word vomit, "You have to help me! I don't live here, and a couple guards were trying to capture me, so I ran and I don't know how to get out. Please, please, please help me."  

[hibi-tea]

Oh. Oh dear. This poor girl.

As soon as Bizoo disclosed to Eppie that she was not from this pride, and that the guards had been trying to keep her in Eppie's heart almost tanked into her stomach.

It was one thing to be born into this pride, knowing since birth that you may or may not die from an unsympathetic disease. It was another thing entirely to have the ill fate of wandering into this pride, and be told that you may or may not now be diseased. That you may or may not ever get to leave. That you're now not free.

Eppie gave Bizoo a very sad smile, her eyes sympathetic and full of sorrow for the girl before her, "I'm so sorry. I really am."

She sighed, placing the fruit on the ground and sitting herself down quietly. How would Eppie break to this girl that they weren't trying to capture her, but spare everyone else? Even if for some reason she had not come in contact with anyone else in the pride aside the guards, she had now had contact with Eppie. Eppie was infected.

"The guards... They're not trying to capture you miss. They really aren't. They're just doing their job keeping everyone outside these borders safe," She explained, still struggling to find the right words to tell her that she would never be able to leave.  

[Painted Moose]

Bizoo's blood was racing. All at once, she hated the way the other lioness was looking at her. Why were things any different now than they had been a few moments ago? Dread filled her stomach like a venemous snake, preparing to sink it's fangs into her heart.

"Safe? Safe from what?" Bizoo snapped. Fear made her anxious, and anxiety could do horrid things to a lovely personality. "Shouldn't they be more concerned with whats inside? Look, whatevers going on here doesn't concern me, so why won't you just tell me where to go so I can get out?"  

[hibi-tea]

"Safe from us." Eppie said simply, heaving a heavy sigh.

Eppie was not used to anger. At least not the anger of someone who wasn't that whore Gerda, or poor betrayed Furaha. Not many within the pride were the types who were quick to anger. When you're born into a dying pride, you try your best to look on the bright side or at least try not to be a sulking mess.

"Miss... This pride is is the Kitwana'antara. The pride of the diseased. The pride of the dying," Eppie tried to explain, in a soft tone she usually only used with the children. "You can't leave because when you accidentally crossed the borders you were exposed to our illness. You're probably infected now."

She should probably take her to see Nawiri. Nawiri could explain this girl's new circumstances to her better than Eppie could.

Eppie took a few steps closer to Bizoo and gave her a small smile, "I'm Eppie. I'm a Nanny in this pride. Here, you should come with me. We can take you to see the Queen, and get you set up with a den and some food."  

[Painted Moose]

A sulking mess was exactly what Bizoo would become if she made it through this conversation. "Kitwana'antara...?" She visibly wilted. The pride of the diseased? The pride of the dying? She'd stumbled into a pride swarming with the plague!

Bizoo moaned and flopped down to sit, her mouth slack and hanging. "I-I-I can't be infected...can I? I haven't been here long enough. It hasn't even been a day yet!" She couldn't stop herself from tearing up, even thoug her mind was racing for a loophole. Surely this couldn't be real. It had to be a dream, or some illusion....right?

"I don't wanna go," Bizoo whimpered, slowly scooting away from Eppie. "My brother's out there, and I can't leave him alone. We're all each other has left. Please...Isn't there something to cure this? To prevent me from being infected?"

Bizoo was freely crying now. She knew now that if she ran away from Eppie that the lioness would not doubt call for someone to chase her. She'd never get away. She had to talk her way out of this...this...hell. Ever since she was a cub Bizoo had dreamed of nothing less than bearing cubs for a God, and having a high position in a large pride.

And now, her future suddenly looked very lonely.