[PRP] What Makes the Taciturn Speak? (Kitisho and Msiba)-FIN

[Bloody Anubis]

What can make even the strongest warrior yield by simply being? What force can make a stubborn mind change?

Heat.

Kitisho had never felt so uncomfortable to be in his own fur as he did when noon hit their valley. The sun was hanging directly overhead and he was silently suffering, the mask of his restraint seeming to boil along with the humidity. He had been caught in the middle of a meal today, and had had to leave the rest of the carcass for Ulinzi's last pickings with his own mouth full of whatever hunk he could afford to carry. The eagle wouldn't linger long, he knew. There were only so many steps the lion could take before the circling vultures would fall, and the bird knew his ward would not linger long on his account.

Those damn vultures. Not only were they keeping even him from leaving the valley, but they weren't even all that great to eat. So small, so boney. One would have thought they'd have plumped up with the recent smorgasbord offered up by the earthquake. But no, even their metabolism served their veracity, made room quickly for more and left nothing really good to tear into. It was unfortunate- he could have been happy if they had been nothing but blood so long as there was just a lot of something. Anything but bone. He couldn't even get that much for himself. He already knew the food shortage was going to be the hardest on him, who had gotten used to eating ever since he came with Msiba and Mchawi to this little paradise. Ex-paradise.

"A good place to the left," Ulinzi was back, catching a hunk of Kitisho's thick mane as he alighted onto his usual perch. He was allowed to ride on the lion's shoulder so long as he kept his talons in check- it was beneficent to them both, they had decided. Being observant didn't fall under Kitisho's primary qualities, and he especially wasn't paying as much attention as he could with this heat affecting him, head lowered somewhat as he drove a course straight ahead of him. Things that could move would move out of his way, and the rest he planned to trample. However, with the martial eagle's comment, his path deviated accordingly, without a second thought, and he was on the straight and narrow again. He could see it now, yes- a patch of shade in the near distance. While he was tempted to pick up the pace, he decided it wouldn't be the best idea for his temperature or the amount of irritation from Ulinzi he would have to deal with. So he allowed his teeth to dig a little more into the meat he held in them, swallowed the resulting gush of blood, and plowed on.  

[MoonRazor]

Noon.

Even the wind was resting from the heat, Msiba decided, as once again, the sun reached its peak, and the land seemed to freeze. As if the heat of the sun had frozen time itself, and nothing, nothing at all, could shift in its fiery grasp. He stared out across the valley from where he stood, squeezed into a little spot of shade - the closest one he could find. Nothing stirred, save for the vultures circling overhead. And occasionally the rare lion that had braved the heat. It was like dead zone, eerie and silent. Even the vultures had halted in their incessant cawing.

"I see the heat affects your kind far more than mine." At the sound of the cape vulture's familiar voice, Msiba turned his head. Werevu stood behind him, tucking in his wings. Obviously, he had only just landed, having only just located Msiba.

For whatever reasons, Werevu had never taken a ride on Msiba's back. Perhaps pride, or vanity, in both of them. It was a sort of unspoken agreement. Neither had ever brought it up before, and it was a topic that did not need to be brought up. They both understood, though silent consent, that each would make their own way.

Msiba shrugged, unwilling to react in a more obvious way, given the extreme heat of the day.

"One of your posse, that big one, he's been out hunting."

"Kitisho?" Werevu nodded the confirmation. Msiba's brow twitched. "In this heat? He hasn't gone crazy with boredom, has he?" The lion was a tad concerned. Such extreme behavior, he knew, he supposed he could expect from the wordless hunter, but given the heat, Msiba didn't understand why anyone would want to be out hunting.

Werevu shrugged. "You should go ask him."

Msiba blinked for a moment, considering it. It would certainly relieve some boredom, talking to Kitisho, no matter how few words he recieved in reply. But ont he other hand, it meant... leaving the shade.

Werevu, noticing Msiba's hesitation, scoffed and shook his head. "You can't be serious."

Msiba scowled. Of course he was. But he wasn't about to let the vulture know. "Of course I'm not." He snapped, plucking up the courage and stepping out into the sun. Sunlight flooded his coat, making him just about want to melt into. His scowl deepened. The cursed sun. He threw Werevu a glare. The cape vulture only clicked his tongue and shook his head.

Fine. With a low growl, Msiba forged his way forward toward Kitisho.  

[Bloody Anubis]

"Seems like you're wanted, Kitisho."

But the lion didn't seem to hear, ducking finally into the shade and sighing quietly through his nose as the temperature kicked down a few notches. Whoever it is, he conveyed to the eagle, could wait until it wasn't so unbearably hot. He didn't plan to move again until that happened, and the last of the meat was in his belly. If he had to, he'd play the great, ignorant oaf. It wasn't too hard.

"Maybe you ought to make room," Ulinzi suggested, though he didn't seem too adamant about making Kitisho follow through on it. He wasn't so sure about this Msiba character, despite what he had been told about him. He was a stern character, Ulinzi, and didn't see himself very accepting of an individual that seemed so two-faced. Sure, there were some things that his own companion was holding back, but at least Kitisho stayed straightforward.

The behemoth curled in his spot of shade before he allowed his bulk to sink into the cool earth. He could see Msiba now, trekking his way toward them in the midst of the humidity. Oh, he must really be desperate for company. Kitisho snorted softly to himself, allowing the meat in his jaws to drop onto the tops of his overlarge paws. After biting off a good chunk, he regarded the approaching male, the King of coups. He still didn't know what Msiba had planned for this pride, but it really didn't matter either since he hadn't been steered wrong yet.

He considered staying just the way he was, lounging and taking up most of the shade. Msiba would have to squeeze into the one little spot with his back to the sun. From the looks of the other lion, however, it didn't seem like he'd appreciate the joke. Scraping up the ground with his back feet, Kitisho scooted over and left a couple more feet of shade for his visitor of sorts. He'd be silent when Msiba finally arrived, no surprise there, assuming already that the other had concocted a mouthful on his way over.  

[MoonRazor]

"You don't mind the company, I hope," He said as he neared the lion, noting quite thankfully that Kitisho had scooted over to make some room for him in the shade. He stepped into the shade and sat, feeling the cool wash over him.

Msiba himself could not be considered a very small creature. Of average size, perhaps, if not a tad bigger. Next to Kitisho, he felt rather small, and all too grateful that the lion was on their side.

"It isn't much," He said, launching into his speel of words as he made himself comfortable in the shade. The damn track had very nearly given him a heat stroke. "But I was just trying to figure out, how come you're hunting out in this heat?"

It wasn't much of an opener, but it had been what Msiba had made his way over to ask, with thanks to Werevu, and getting that out of the way was easiest. After all, there were a ton of things he could say to Kitisho without expecting to get an answer. So in essence, all the lion needed to do was sit there and pretend to listen to what Msiba was saying.

And Msiba tended to have a lot to say. Talking was his great talent, and although he didn't have the habit of talking continuously during a two-sided conversation, when it came to just himself, he could come up with quite a bit.  

[Bloody Anubis]

He had adjusted for the other to come sit with him- clearly that must have been rhetorical. Eyes trailed themselves idly over the other lion with their ever-present smoldering intensity, indicating that Kitisho was listening even though he seemed a bit preoccupied elsewhere. Really, was that it?

"An appetite doesn't stop for heat," It was Ulinzi who spoke, he who still sat high upon the great lion's shoulder. As a martial eagle he was no little package, able to take down as much as a young impala on his own if he so desired, but he found little to no insecurity on his perch. Kitisho offered more than enough space and strength to accommodate him. Even so, he leaned forward somewhat, his head tipped so he was looking up at Msiba. "Besides, we've been out since morning. It's not that easy to find game anymore. With everyone trapped here, the prey is trying to get out."

It was going to get really bad really soon, he imagined.

Kitisho didn't seem to have any objections for such words. Instead of snorting, he merely chomped on the meat in his mouth, not bothering to be dainty about it. When he was pretty sure he wouldn't choke, he swallowed, tail twitching to convey the brief pleasure of it. He gave the impression that he was still waiting on something.  

[MoonRazor]

Msiba nodded. The eagle had a point. "Well," He said with a smile. "We're not so much trapped here as... here by choice." But he supposed Ulinzi was right. The prey would be trying to get out. And when they did... that would not be a very pleasant situation for the lot of them.

But at least, he thought, his little group of interlopers were here by choice, so if things really took a drastic turn for the worse, they could always leave and save themselves. All that kind of self-preservation talk. After all, they didn't know if this little seer that Mchawi had envisionized really was so crucial to them. So in the interest of not slowly starving to death, they could, and would, make do without him if the situation arose.

Now that he knew that Kitisho hadn't, in fact, gone crazy for whatever reason, he realized he had little need to be here any longer. Still, he had made his way over, and he had absolutely no intention of attempting the journey back to his original shade at any time in the near future.

"So, how is this valley suiting you then?" He asked, realizing he had never really asked anyone that since they had arrived. He had simply assumed they would all adjust, and maybe they had. Maybe they hadn't. Who knew, unless he asked them.  

[Bloody Anubis]

"That mob of degenerate scavengers don't really make the prospect of hunting outside of the valley tantalizing. It's about the option, which is slim at best." Ulinzi pressed, the feathers around his neck swelling briefly with his obvious discontent. As an afterthought, he addressed the cape vulture. "No offense to you." The eagle was truthfully fed up with the bunch, for more than just the fact they were binding his partner from loping off to a place where the eyes of the pride couldn't see what he was really feeling lately. Those buzzards were blocking his rights to the sky. He, a high-altitude flier by nature. He believed himself deserving of being a little more than cranky about it.

Where Msiba and his sister went, so did Kitisho. His was a choice, certainly. The circumstances were that- circumstance. And if there was anything he had learned to do in his earlier days, it was how to adapt. No, he wasn't as seamless as Msiba was, he never would be. But he could behave himself, he had a set of his own principles to follow. This was nothing...

So when the question surfaced itself, the larger male only offered a grunt. He was dealing with it, his will was stronger than his impulse. It wasn't such a bad place, really, not a bad pride for a lion who was planning on settling down. Kitisho turned his intense gaze on Msiba again, let him see the restless fire of boredom and battle-lust that boiled just below that resolute surface. That should be enough to remind the other of what should have been a well-known secret, that Kitisho had no plans of actually settling here but he also had no plan of doing anything other than what he'd been ordered to do. He wouldn't be the weak link.

Even though he was sure that his answer was thorough, Kitisho decided that Msiba might enjoy a little joke. His lip curled, a simultaneous sneer and grin as his baritone snarl noted, "It's still too peaceful."  

[MoonRazor]

((Sorry this took so long. I thought I'd have the chance to reply Wednesday night, but when I got back, the Internet wouldn't connect. Thursday I was out early, and didn't come back because we went and stayed a night in Macau. Just got back xD))

"Mm," Msiba acknowledged the eagle's words with a small smile, that seemed to have some sort of secret concealed behind it, though perhaps only those privy to the knowledge could really be sure. He had long since decided he was going to stay neutral when it came to some of his band griping about the vultures. If he was going to piss someone off, he preferred it be everyone in small doses, rather than only one in a rather large dose.

Werevu simply stared at Ulinzi, a somewhat sour look upon his face. For a moment, he only stared. Then, "None taken. Obviously." He didn't mind that the eagle was complaining about the vultures. What other species thought of his, he really couldn't care less about. It was only that the cape vulture knew that behind the comment, the eagle thought his access to the sky was more important. At least, from what Werevu knew of eagles, that was what Ulinzi was more than likely thinking.

Msiba nodded at Kitisho's grunt. It meant, he assumed, that the lion was dealing with it, for better or worse. His bright eyes caught the other's stare, and for a moment, he paused, seeing the fire and restlessness that played across them. Something, he thought, had better happen real soon. Otherwise, he was afraid he might lose some of his little group of interlopers. And that was simply not an option.

A grin broke across his face. Those that did not know Kitisho would not have understood the comment. But Msiba knew, more or less, what the lion was like. "I suppose you're right," He agreed. "Who knows, maybe something will happen."  

[Bloody Anubis]

[[S'cool. We're just going to have to shut this down right here I'm afraid. We'll be able to move on to other things soon, though!]]

Ulinizi's stare was quite serious upon Msiba, disliking the smug expression though he simply gave the impression of a no-nonsense sort of bird. His charge may have been used to it, but the eagle was not at all comfortable feeling like someone thought they were smarter than him. His beak clacked softly, his eyes jerking back to Werevu as the cape vulture replied. Good. The last thing he really cared to do was insight what was supposed to be a comrade. They had so few, after all. Not that vultures weren't sneaky, grumpy, caustic spirits from his experience. They definitely weren't about to be friends.

One did not really have to know Kitisho to be in on their little joke, just privy to the group's track record. And who better than Msiba? A little sadistic humor- he knew it was in their leader just as it was in him. Probably in all the rest of them as well, discounting Unveyu perhaps. He didn't seem the type for anything, though Kitisho didn't know him quite so well as he did Msiba.

When the other male issued the subtle hint, whether genuine or merely to pacify him, a deep rumble issued from the scarred lion. Were he a lesser cat, one could speculate it was something like a purr. Perhaps it was more of a deep-throated encouragement, an agreement. Yes, soon. Good behavior should be rewarded.