[JRP]Mommy won't talk to me...

[Split Personality]

Unnebar was in the bottom of the pit and he was lonely. He was curled up into a little ball, his paws shuttering in his loneliness. He was only lonely because his mother wasn't talking to him anymore. She stopped talking a while ago. In fact, she lay not far from him, her body crumpled and... well... stinky. He hated that she was stinky. It was okay that she stopped talking but she was so stinky. He was lonely.

She looked very similar to him in markings, though it was hard to tell at that point of time. She was so far decayed and was... well.. missing parts. You see, Unnebar had gotten hungry and mommy couldn't feed him anymore; so he had to eat her.

He sniffled under his breath...  

[Reeshie Hack]

Split Personality

"Flowers, flowers, flowers, merde, where was that patch of flowers?" The voice was a little high for a male's, though the bearer was still young, he was into his full mane. Other lions might have had a deeper timbre, but his was more of a humming, chant-like quality.

But for all he had a pretty voice, Jean'luc was not an attractive male. At least, others didn't seem to hang around him much. And who could blame them? Half the time the houngan was lost in thought, eyes closed as he tried to summon up the particular ritual or piece of history he was hunting his mind for. For Jean'luc was very absent-minded. Love him as she did, his mother often told him that if it weren't for his neck, he would lose his head more often than he found it. And right now he had lost a flower-patch.
Which was somewhat unusual for him, since it was his favorite patch. The colors there were ones his preferred Loa seemed to like, which meant he just had to love them. Whatever his Loa loved, so too did he.

So lost in his searching, he almost fell into the pit himself, just barely managing to stop and take several hurried steps back before the edge crumbled beneath his paws. More cautious, he crept to the edge and looked down, ears flicking back beneath his hood. A mother and cub had fallen and the mother was most certainly dead. He couldn't tell about the cub, but from the looks of its body, if it was dead he wasn't so long so that the bugs or other scavengers had gotten to it.
"Sweet Eir," he whispered under his breath before rising his voice enough to be heard.
"Cub! Cub, are you still with us?" he called down, clever blue eyes watching carefully for any sign of movement.  

[Split Personality]

Reeshie Hack

His thin frame barely moved in his breathing. He hadn't heard the approaching male, nor the almost falling into the very pit itself. After all Unnebar had been carried straight into the pit in his mothers muzzle. Down down down they fell, she didn't get back up. She had talked to him and made sounds to him, she smelled funny and then she stopped talking.

He thought he heard something. His ear twitched, and he lifted his head upwards towards where the big bright thing came up to stare at them all hot and horrible. And every day the big thing came to visit, mother began to smell badder. He felt funny for a moment before he realized that someone was looking down at him... it was just a silhouette; to Unnebar.

"M-mm.." He mumbled, his eyes sunken. "Mothar zleepin'."  

[Reeshie Hack]

Jean's ears sunk even more at the cub's pitiful little response. But at least he was still alive. He looked around at the sides, clawed at it to see how sturdy it was. Oh, how he didn't want to go down there. The smell of death was pungent even up where he was, and while he made a life of summoning and consulting spirits he really didn't like death like this. A fresh kill or a newly passed loved one, that he could deal with. A lioness that had been dead a while and most of her had rotted away.
He even worried that the little cub had maybe... fed himself on her.

"Hold on, lad, I'll be down in a sec," he said and climbed carefully down, his claws helping him in the hard dirt. Thankfully the pit was large enough that he could climbed down and not land on the cub or his dead mother. Doing his best to hold his breath, he turned to look down at the cub.

"I'm going to lift you up and get you out, okay?"  

[Split Personality]

His sunken in eyes looked up at the stranger; his dry tongue licking his lips. A bunch of flies flew up as the cub began to move on unsteady legs. He nodded his head at the stranger as he spoke, wanting out of that hole as badly as any else would. Just cause of the smell.

"Mothar... Mothar sleep." He said simply, going too the side of the wall, looking upwards and standing on his hind legs; which seemed thin as sticks. "Unnebar wan' out!" He called up, his ears pressed against his scalp. "Pleeze. Out! Unnebar wan' out!

Reeshie Hack

 

[Reeshie Hack]

Split Personality

Jean'luc was extra careful going down into the pit, but it didn't take long. The hard part was picking the cub up by his scruff and getting the both of them out. For one thing, the cub was so thin that Jean was afraid if he held on too long, the poor boy's skin would surely tear off. Secondly, the scent of decay was filling his nose and making him ill. He almost never worked with death in his rituals, unless he was going about a funeral, which he had actually been yet to do.

He finally managed to get back up to the surface and walked several paces away from the pit before setting the cub down. He hadn't wanted to stay near there any longer.

"Unnebar? Is that your name?" he asked, head tilting to one side. The paws of his hood and the feather hanging from it waved slightly with the gesture.  

[Split Personality]

The boy began to dance excitedly, happy to get away from the biting flies and his mother, who still wasn't waking up at all. It was making him angry lately, her none existent talking was frustrating. He stood on his hind legs and begged at the stranger; anxious to be done of this hole. Done with the smell. He had forgotten what real food tasted like.

When the strange reached him, he rubbed against his front legs as quickly as he could before being scooped up by the male. He went limp, watching as the form of his deceased mother went out of sight. When the came up over the edge of the hole, he grew excited to see what it looked like up here again.

He sat down looking up at the purple stranger, taking in the sight of him. As the paws and feather dangled in front of him, he stared at it with interest before twitching and paying attention. "Unnebar. Yes." He said happily.

Reeshie Hack

 

[Reeshie Hack]

Split Personality

Flowers completely forgotten now, Jean gave the raggedy little cub a somewhat lopsided smile.
"Well, then, Unnebar, let's go get you cleaned up and then we can find you something to eat, okay?" he asked, walked to the cub's side. It didn't really occur to him just what he was doing or what he would do with the cub once he'd been cleaned and fed, but at the moment, it didn't matter. He was just doing what seemed right. If he had been that dirty and thin, he'd want to have a bath and something to eat, too.

He took a few steps back towards the main pridelands before stopping as he remembered something important. A glance over his shoulder had his violet eyes returning to the cub.
"You're not too tired to walk, are you, lad?" he asked, eyebrows rising into his twisty mane.  

[Split Personality]

Unnebar did not seem to affected by what had been his recent situation. He looked up at the stranger and gave him his own cheesy little toothy grin. "Eat... yes..." He said with a nod, looking rather serious now. He stood up and shook himself off, dust and dirt flying off his dark pelt, so similar to his mothers. Whom he would not remember for the rest of his life. He would know that he had a mother, but she would not be apart of him anymore.

"Name?" He asked, looking up at him questioningly. He looked down at his front paws. He lifted them, looking at them for a moment and then looking back up. "Unnebar walk. Yes." He put his feet down and stomped them happily.

reeshie hack

 

[Reeshie Hack]

Split Personality

If Jean could smack his forehead as he started walking, he would have. He'd completely forgotten to introduce himself. Social protocol, he was not well versed in it.
"My name is Jean'luc," he replied with that same lopsided smile. He was glad the cub wouldn't have any trouble walking, he honestly didn't want to carry him anymore, for those original issues.

"Bath first, and then we can eat," he corrected. It had been his mother's rule when he was little. When he came home all dirty, it was bath first and than he could have dinner. The pridelands were mostly dry, but there were some places where members could drink or wash and cool off if they really needed to. And, honestly, he was not about to clean the death from this cub with his own tongue.

It didn't take long for them to wander into the heart of the pridelands, the air gloomy and dark around them. Jean loved it. Sure, it was humid, but it was darker than the open savannah, and it was home. it always would be, in his opinion. They came to a small pool, absent of any life. It was small, just big enough to support some fish. Not even a crocodile would think it worth the effort to crawl into.
"Wash up, and then we can see if I can't catch a hare or something."  

[Split Personality]

Reeshie Hack

The little one toddled along beside the male with a rather crooked grin on his little dirty face. It was almost as if being out of that hole made him forget everything he had experienced. The taste of his mothers flesh. "Bath first. Eat wif Jean...." As they came upon the water, Unnebar frolicked over into the water and splashed his paws in the pool.

He seemed rather distant all of a sudden, staring at his reflection for a moment before pushing his face under and giving it a good scrub. He waded deeper, flailing and splashing, though the serious look on his face never strayed. He kept checking his face in the water, over and over before it seemed like it was repetitive. In fact though his face seemed clean.  

[Reeshie Hack]

Split Personality

Jean looked down at the cub when he spoke, finding it rather adorable. But the cub was off into the water before he could say anything in response. He just sat by the edge of the pool, watching as the cub cleaned himself. And did a rather fine job of it, too. In fact, the cub was probably cleaning himself better than Jean did half the time. His mother, Jae'marie, would have been proud of the cub.
Actually, Jean could hear her voice in his mind right then, scolding him on how the cub had better bathing habits than he did. He smiled at the thought, glad that even after their deaths his mother and father were still with him.

"I think you're cleaned up enough, Unnebar. Let's go find something to eat," he said after another pause, standing up and waiting for the cub to join him.  

[Split Personality]

Reeshie Hack

Unnebar stomped his feet hard, sending water up over his back and washing away the rest of the grime and much from his skinny hide. Now that the dirt and caked on filth was washing away, his thin ribs were visible; he had been starving. He looked up at Jean and smiled, nodding quickly and waddling out of the water and beside his new friend. "Eat. Eat... Eat wif Jean..." He said so in a sing song voice. He looked upwards with those baby brown eyes and there was true happiness in them.

"Mother was good at hunting... getting eat." He rather liked this fellow Jean.  

[Reeshie Hack]

Split Personality

Jean couldn't help but chuckle at the little male's antics, watching him splash and then waddle out to meet him on solid ground. And the cub even started singing a bit. Or chanting... Whatever you wanted to call that. As he started to walk, he glanced down at the cub, his heart going out to the boy. To lose his mother at such a young age... He'd almost been into his mane when his mother pined away after his father's death. It was sad, but he had been old enough to cope. He wondered if Unnebar ever understood what had happened to his mother.
But he wouldn't bring it up. He wouldn't know what to do with the cub if Unnebar started getting upset.

So Jean just smiled, nodded his head, and kept walking.

Needless to say, Jean wasn't an exceptional hunter. He was just damned lucky. After a few moments, he asked Unnebar to sit quietly under one of the trees on their lands. It was hung with all manner of things from the pride.
He disappeared into the haze for a few breaths before he returned with a hare. It was scrawny, but enough that the cub should be able to eat and be comfortable on. At least, he hoped. He didn't think he'd get so lucky again.  

[Split Personality]

reeshie Hack

When he was told to go sit quietly, he did so. Staring off into the distance for a moment as he waited. To him, he was not sure what he was waiting for specifically. He hadn't been aware of his mother hunting much; so he didn't understand the concept of capturing food. When Jean padded back, with the hare in his muzzle he grinned widely, trotting over to the purple lion and rubbing against him. "Jean eat with Unnabar?" She asked, looking up at him with his brown eyes eager for companionship and the sharing of a meal.

"Jean is... Jean is very nice."