[Pride] ...Home [ Jemmnu x Luaith ]

[Chi Sohma]

So it was of high time to bring himself back to the pride. He hadn't walked this path in so long yet he never forgot where it was... the smells, the tastes, the sounds everything about it was.... home. But for so long- he had hated it when really, after he took out his father from the standings. The brotherhood wasn't bad in a whole- it was merely the fact that his father had been the soul reason of leaving along with its king but that time had passed and heard of its existence once again. The voice of reason and hope, he would have to see it for himself. Not ever one to show another his true feelings, he would simply visit and see if it was worth coming back. If it was home after all of what had happened that made him flee in the first place. He just hoped his mother would have died by now, or banished for the best part. That was just wishful thinking.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad seeing her, then again he had all the girls he wanted- and more. The males he had used and passed were just as easily unentertaining but the speak of his pride made him curious for the lack of better terms. The lion male that had passed him by, they conversation and spoke of many things and one being of the brotherhood after their evening.. Which made him up and leave once the male had awoke. Beside him, he could imagen was cold and he knew plainly that Jemmnu probably wouldn't have stayed. Not with his record of loving and leaving.. Lifting his chin up as he looked down below at his beautiful pride he had once loved. That small cave.. beneath it was a whole other world..

Slowly he slithered down the tree he had found himself in. Worried and quite oddly enough drawn to the place. Fireflies escaped out of the cave and drew him all the way to the cave's entrance.. How did he bypass the guards hidden in the bush...? Or had this place been a deserted place- and just a rumor of it's upbringing.. His heart sank in his chest.. he didn't know whether he could even step inside. Ears panned back.. with a lowly neck. Should he walk in.. would they greet him? Would they hang his father's death and sentence him? Would he be banished or even remembered?

So close to home.. yet he felt his paws stick to the ground- like boulders in the grasslands. How could he muster up the courage.. to take that first step.

 

[Lorne_Sionn]

Luaith waited for Jemmnu just outside the entrance to the Mazunguko. His wine colored eyes sweeping over the dark and pale coat of the other. It was just as he remembered it, and he had to look away to ease the tightness in his chest.

He had come because a vision lead him here, a second one that had not involved pain and destruction. Luaith did not understand what it was about this male that eased them, that broke the pattern, but he was grateful for the moments of peace.

The young lion had spoke quietly to Wachunga, the guards, and asked them to wait just inside the cave's opening. He would meet Jemmnu at the entrance. It was the leopards choice to face his fate, or not.  

[Chi Sohma]

After his escape from the Seer's embrace he found himself here. This place where he used to know so well. His paws became uneasy as he stood frozen in time with that stare in his face. The gears turning in his head whether to take that chance.. or not. It was obstructing his usual calm self. More he was getting riled up before taking that first step where the grass ended in to that rocky surface.. His pads feeling the rock and dirt under them, it was like a rush of memories flew in to his mind and he made that second step a push forward. Picking up his pace to an even, and longing stride til he got to the entrance. His breath was shown within the night's presence.

From the rush he had running up to the opening. It was as if he were finally facing it head first and those chaotic eyes. Of almost fear and the unknown shown across his face as he came up to the entrance. Eyes wide to take in every detail.. every rock thats was moved. Little did he know, beyond not feet away from him was the one he had laid with nights before.

Almost ready to dodge away as he trotted to a stop.

 

[Lorne_Sionn]

" I wondered if you would come Jemmnu," a soft, yet all to familer voice came from the dense greenery to the left of the entrance. Luaith stepped out of the shadows and into the faint light of the moon, no more then a shadow himself. His wine colored eyes swept over the dark and pale leopard, distant, yet welcoming all at the same time.

" I Saw you coming, yet once more it was not one of pain or destruction." His voice, changing now from a young male's to the deep rumblings of a adults seemed oddly confused, yet accepting, "so I came to welcome you. To see which path you would take Jemmnu, the path that you always do, of leaving before more can be born of something, or the path of letting what has been sown grow into more. I will walk with you to the council chamber, no guards, no one else, just you and I. Will you take that first step with me Jemmnu?"  

[Chi Sohma]

For once, he was left without a witty come back. For once he felt as feeble as a rodent passing the Savannah plains. This .. lion. He slowly retorted a paw back to him. Fear was slowly befriending his eyes as he found only truth.. This lion was a seer.. of a higher power. Something untouchable and all knowing for one like himself. He was stumped on words to express how naked he felt without his rich covered persona on. That cocky conceited yet alluring and enchanting male he had come to be. Leaving before anything could happen.. before he felt trapped and restrained.

But this time it felt different.. Like the weight was slowly lifting off his shoulders and he was able to move freely to an extent now.

Looking away and out in to the roguelands.. then back to Luaith. Unsure- yet all so sure.. Surprisingly. When he put his paw down, it was forward and towards the pride. Mustering up all he could, that courage he held in his fists as he drew himself in before he quickly realized.. could this be his demise?

"Will..I be judged..for the sins of yesterday. If you are all so knowing.." His attitude was more of the side of fear yet confusion on to to expect on the inside.. what would he become.. and if he would be handing his head to the leader.. The answer was more than filling.. Looking down to decide his fate.. Closing his eyes tight to reflect before incling his head back and lifted his chin tall. "Without company." He nodded and slowly to the first unsure step before he gained more confidence to finally come close enough to Luiath. Though the lion towered him, he closed the gap between them. Accepting the path.. nodding his head. 'Yes'. Though still his fears were curling up in his chest. He still took that step forward- and now.. with an unlikely sorta company. But company non the less.

 

[Lorne_Sionn]

" I see only what the Gods choose me to see Jemmnu, but I also see with my own eyes. I do not know what the King and the Council will decide, but I do know that from here to those rooms, and from there to where they will lead you. I will walk with you."

Luiath felt his fear as if it were his own, and he leaned into the smaller feline, giving him his warmth and letting him borrow all of his promised strength. The young lion was near an adult now, and his father had been a God. As filled into his frame, Luiath seemed to fit more the body of a warrior then a sage.

" Come, I will be your shield, as you were mine once Jemmnu and the darkness will bring no harm to you as long as I am by your side."

It seemed the months since the leopard had last seen the lion, somethings had changed for him and the awkward youth just growing into his mane had become this male who was almost full grown.  

[Chi Sohma]

"I can not go before the council. Not-.." He turned his head and quickly closed the gap between him and the lion. His capture for the moment. He was scared and the only thing he could do- was reveal in the lion before him. The nights they shared together in the roguelands- was this all a plan to bring him back here? Did he want to engage in his demise? But looking up at the lion.. he couldn't find a reason not to believe and go with him. To trust that he would be safe with him...

"I have forgotten how dark.." What the sun first felt like- and now he was going in to the light of darkness... He pressed himself against the lion, to feel his warmth like Luaith had came to HIM to find... So many nights ago they had shared a bond- it wasn't only what Jem was used to after leaving for his new life but something more.. and the want to be that-.

"..Then. As long as you're with me.. Then." He inhaled the scent of his courter. "I shall find courage to venture the beyond." Looking in to those beautiful eyes- that showed so many things, and could see- the fear in his own eyes.. their bond was different.. this much he knew.. If he mended the bonds of the past- would the lion still be there? "Take me to your king but if I fail.." His pessimistic ways of thought trailed in his voice more out of fear of being killed and labeled..

 

[Lorne_Sionn]

Luiath let the leopard lean into him, being his strength, for he knew how terrified Jemmnu was to come home to a clan he was not sure would desire his death or not. Would he be judge by the new King for crimes of the past? The Seer did not know. His sight was not one of simple futures, though there were times he wished it was.

The Seer looked down at the leopard, for now that he was near full grown, he already was much larger then the other, and there was almost a need to protect him, and he would, as much as he was able. In Jemmnu Luiath had found some measure of peace from the visions of death and destruction, for the third time now the leopard had brought ones that while had not been tidings of good fortune, they had been ones that had given others a choice, a true choice to change what maybe.

At the tone of fear in Jemmnu's voice, the Seer stopped, and turned to the leopard, leaning down and licking him once, very softly, over his ear, whispering into it, " Even then Jemmnu, I will be there till the very end, it will be I that last your eyes see."  

[Chi Sohma]

"I'm used to never staying in one place for too long.." He felt the lion's affections and soaked in them for a moment. Uttering the words.. made his heart sink. "The same goes for my lovers.." He had come to call them, lovers... his one night stands to his short romances with any that came his way. Helping them guide their path, and making them feel as if they were royalty. The world was theirs.. he'd pull them out of the ground to let them feel the sunshine.. The same feeling that Luaith gave him..

Was this why he couldn't just leave him forever? Not drawn to him like a lovestruck wilddog? "I will hold you to that.." Shaking his head... Then seeing the guards eyes, they looked new- and one he may have even known.. But they looked as though he were someone new. Some rogue- little did they know that it was this place he was born in.. "My paws may deceive me once in a while.. they are committed to a life of wondering.. you accept this? If I make it out of here alive that is.. I want you to know that from all of those who I left out in the roguelands- you were the only one I ever wanted to stay.. whom I ached to find.. But you must have known that already.." He tried to smile. "You've grown quite a bit.. Like I knew you would.. now I'm sitting here feeling like the younger one.. Damn lions and their height." He could only laugh.. to disguised it further. His fears..but he was slowly coming to accept.. that he could die.. but it was ok.. He would die at peace if his time was now..

 

[Lorne_Sionn]

Luiath gave the leopard a sad smile, nuzzling him once, and only once, " I know your paws will not keep you here among us for long should the Council find you not a fault for what it is you have done. I have known this, I did not need my Sight to know it. You will leave, and you will return, and always will another's scent be on your pelt."

The larger feline stopped for a moment, further into the tunnel, turning to face the leopard his heart had not forgotten in the long months he had been left by him, and somehow had been given a small measure of peace from the Visions that tormented him. Though they were replaced by another form of torment.

" I have accepted that Jemmnu from the start. You will not be a faithful lover, and I can not change that. So I will have you as I can, and I will pray it will be enough. It will have to be. "