[ JRP ] Shared wounds | Tancho & Zuberi | Complete

[Thalion]

Tancho:
It wasn't enough that her eldest brother had been the first deserter in the troupe. It was an insult to everyone that had known the cub... he'd been the first born following the founding of the Chokwe and as the first and only for the longest time, all the masters had poured themselves into his upbringing. The hyenas had called him brother and the leaders had put all their hopes on his shoulders... then he betrayed them all. Spitting in the face of their efforts, turning his back on their affections, and dishonoring his family. Tancho had been among the second litter born to her father. From their birth the cubs had been trained as their older brother had been, they’d been informed of the history of the troupe and, unfortunately, of the first deserter. She didn’t want that to be the legacy of her father’s line…
And then he left. Turning his back on the pride not only to pursue the same vile temptation as their older brother but to join their mortal enemies… vampires.
Tancho had been a playful, eager youth but shortly after her brother’s departure she became a resentful, angry spitfire with little tolerance for nonsense and even less for weakness and temptations. She trained long after the others had been dismissed. Often times she could be found soaking her paws in the cool water of the stream, cooling them and reducing the swelling from her training.

That afternoon she had volunteered for border patrol. It gave her the chance to cool her heard and come of some use to the troupe.

Zuberi:
Lost.

He was utterly lost his entire life.

Zuberi had been ashamed to return to his birthland with no female, so he left. Ever the follower, he followed another male into a pride that, he thought, fit his standards. He assumed it was a band of brotheres that had more than what they did. Turned out that his den mate had a one sided crush on him. Another male loving him? He couldn't ever look at another male that way, and yet this pride seemed to thrive on it. Females were only breeding fodder and then pushed aside when cubs were weened. The girls went with there mothers to who knew where. What kind of pride was that? Not one he was very comfortable with, that was for sure. When his den mate disappeared, he took it on himself to leave the pride as well. It was full of uncomfortable memories and just lions and others he wasn't quite comfortable with. He understood the phrase to each there own, but he had been the center of a couple of males affections. That didn't sit right with him at all.

Still, he couldn't return home. He had no female. He had no idea where to find a female to bring back to the pride that would go willingly. Not many wanted too, it seemed. So he took off in a random direction. He honed his hunting skills. At the same time, his communication skills dissolved, leaving him a 'grumpy' individual. That's what he was called the few times he encountered someone. Zuberi wasn't grumpy. He just honestly didn't know how to talk to someone. It was awkward for him.

He was wandering again, completely lost in thought and not paying attention to his surroundings. He missed his family. His mother and father, his brothers and sisters. He wondered if any of his sisters had cubs and how many neices and nephews he had running around. Cubs had always been a weak spot for him. The big male sighed as he kept walking. He was unfamiliar with his surroundings, and for all he knew, he had literally wandered into a pride.

Tancho:
“HALT.” A strong but young female voice called out from a nearby hilltop. The valley overlooking the sea-bowl that the pride called home was perfect. The hills surrounding the area gave them a perfect vantage point over both the freelands and the pride’s lands. They could keep an eye on their fellows while keeping an eye out for danger and newcomers. In Tancho’s mind, they were one in the same. She didn’t trust outsiders.

The female was barely into her adolescent years but she had a frame thick with muscle and a hardened expression that could freeze over the savannah.
“…who are you, and what do you want?”

Zuberi:
A voice snapped the gray male from his thoughts and he blinked blue eyes and looked toward the voice. The voice obviously beloned to a female, from just the sounds of it alone, and that made him look around at his surroundings. No, he still didn't know where he was. Frowning, he pushed that thought from his head as he looked her over. She was kind of short, not yet an adult, he guesse add looked kind of stocky. Muscles? He didn't know. He was a distance away. Sighing mentally, he figured she was doing some kind of training, especially with that sour expression on her face.

"If you have to know... I'm Zuberi and I'm just wandering. I don't even know where I am, little girl, so stop trying to put fear in me with that weak expression you have." He had given just about the same expression before, but he hadn't seen it on another lion. Much less a female. Usually they were sweet, at least from what he could remember of females. Then again, he remembered the females of his mother, and his sisters from his pride. The females were so accommodating.  

[Thalion]

Tancho:
Little girl!? Weak!? She could have snapped his leg just for that!…or she would try. Perhaps she was young and perhaps she wasn’t the biggest lion in the pride but she wasn’t a little girl! She was on border patrol. Who did he think he was?

Biting back a sharp retort the lioness drew in a deep breath. She’d not come any closer, just in case he was a stranger baiting her. There were others nearby- Gremio was just a call away and Jowy was even closer patrolling the mouth of the river valley. Both were capable though…Jowy would likely only add kindle to the spark of humor the stranger had.

“You’ve happened upon the border of the Chokwe troupe stranger. I am a border guard here.” She took a deep breath and added, as was custom of the border guards. “I’ve no quarrel with you if you’ve none with me.”  

[Bronze Coffee]

"I have no problems with you. I didn't know I stumbled into a pride, I'm sorry. I'm Zuberi.. I.. am coming out of a difficult situation and I'm trying to turn my luck around. What kind of pride is this?" His blue eyes turned curious, his expression softening a bit. Licking his lips a little, he sat down and watched the female.

Honestly, she wasn't quite an adult yet, but her coat color was nice and her tuft of hair seemed to suit her personality well. He'd heard red-heads were often hot headed and now that was proven before his very eyes. "I come from the Ukuucha'Wafalme, originally. ...I.. got myself into a nasty pride full of lions that make no sense and I want something the complete opposite of what that was..."

His voice trailed off at that, expression souring as he wrinkled his nose. His time in that pride that allowed the rape of females and tossing them away like they were nothing... He was drugged the whole time he was there. He had to be. There was no way he could have come there without some kind of drugs.  

[Thalion]

Tancho:
Tancho sneered and glanced over to the intruding male. He must have been a numb-nose to miss the border markers...that or the tengou weren't doing their job. She'd have to bring it up to Taban later on... if he had the time to listen to another complaint. "It's a coalition. If you want to get technical." She settled her nerves just enough to speak evenly.

"Hyenas, lions, leopards, cheetahs, and some hybrids. It's where broken lives come to find healing again." Her expression tightened. "Or it should be..."

She fell silent and her expression faultered somewhat. She'd not heard of the Uucha'Wafalme but the male obviously hadn't found a place in any pride his paws had taken him to...

"..well you're...welcome to rest here. If it's the kind of place you like you'll have to speak to the Tenei. He's in charge here but he lets everyone in. The only rule is you have to leave what you were behind."

Zuberi:
Leave what he was behind? Zuberi wasn't anything, honestly. He'd been trying to find that out when he met the other male and well, that didn't plan out how he'd hoped. Zuberi wanted to find a pride that he suited or suited him. A pride where he could figure out who he was at his own pace and eventually settle down and maybe start a family.

That was all up in the air now. Sighing as he thought about it, he looked back up to the brown female and shrugged. "I can do that. I really... want to be fixed. I'm tired of being broken. It's exhausting."

The tone he spoke was an exhausted one. His brows knit and he looked down at the grass before letting out a huge sigh. "The Tenei? I can get more information out of him?" He wasn't about to join a pride blindly again. That was the biggest mistake he'd made in the past. That, and blindly following male without even knowing the male for an hour.

Tancho:
"His name is Taban. He's a cheetah but he's a good sort. Looks after us and working his backside off to make sure everyone here's doing well for themselves." She jerked her chin towards the way she'd came and turned, fully expecting him to follow.

"He can tell you more about who we are... I'm just a trainee here and I'm not the poetic sort. Things are what they are. I don't know any different but the Tenei came from the outside. He'll know."  

[Thalion]

Zuberi:
"I don't do well with poets, anyway. That's how I got mixed up in my last... problem." Yes, Zuberi fell for a romantic version of the last pride. On paper it sounded good when it was as glossed over as it was. Before he found out the real pride objective.

He did follow her, walking beside her but not directly. "... Already this coalition is different than the last one I was in. There are actually females." He tried to ligthen his darkening mood and just shook his head afterwards. "Sorry.."  

[Thalion]

Tancho:
The female hissed a curse and squared off her shoulders as she continued forward. "So you were a dandy then? Well there's no room for that here. We're a military troupe, not some collection of psychopaths." Minus a select few...but the special quirks of said few were...well sane and had some reason behind them. Flik and his nervous behavior stemmed from the traumatic loss of his beloved years back. Gremio's compulsive nature stemmed from having spent his entire life fighting beside the son of his former general. Veterans weren't exactly the most stable of individuals but they had good reason for it and they'd earned their quirks.

"My brother ran off to get a cactus up his backside. Pardon my language... and then my littermate ran off to join a group of blood suckers. No warning! Just got up and left..." It was a sore spot for her and, if anything, she felt she had every right to be hostile on that front. She'd lost not one but two family members to dishonorable discharges and many within the troupe still grumbled Nedu's name from time to time. The bone-crushers especially. He'd been raised as one of their own under their mother for lack of having his own to live with.

"Sorry." She said again. "At least you got yourself out of a bad situation. That's more than most can say."

Zuberi:
"If that's what it's called, then I don't think that's what I was. I have no interest in males like that. I never had. I just thought it was a brotherhood, where males went when they weren't sure where to go. I don't understand how they do what they do, with each other and how they treat females. That's not how I was raised. No female should be treated like they were. Females are not just breeding whores that you toss aside when the cubs are weened. That's just disgusting and wrong!"

Zuberi's blue eyes flashed darkly. Now that his head was clear and thinking right, he hated those males. He wanted to wipe them out, that whole entire pride. "Your language is fine. I've heard worse. That was actually very mild compared to some," he murmured, sighing as he tried to smooth down his ruffled fur. There were just too many hurt feelings right now.

"I don't know anything about this blood sucking pride. But I suppose I'll have to learn." His words were quieter now, as if he were thinking about something. "What do I do now? I suppose I want to turn my life around. Get it going in a good direction instead of wandering aimlessly unless I end up in another warped minded pride, strung in by pretty words and lies."  

[Thalion]

Tancho:

"It's a word some of the boys around here use to describe it. Flik would rather say 'insane' than dandy but it all boils down to the same thing." She shrugged. Much of her hostility had drained away as the male continued on. It was something her own mother would have loved to hear given her background. There were groups of females that lived together in fear of being treated like that... the irony that they turned themselves into the monsters they so feared was too obvious to give them any sort of credibility, however.

"Well you won't have to worry about that here. There's males and females standing shoulder to shoulder and most pairs here are pretty solid together. My parents are among them." Nevermind Viktor... he had a love for pretty faces and adored being a father. He was just too thick to keep everything together in one spot.

"I suppose so. We've been on our guard lately." She nodded towards the sea. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the members here. In a few weeks, you'll wonder how you did without this bunch of idiots."

Zuberi:
He nodded when she spoke and then sighed softly. Flik sounded like a male with a good head on his shoulders. The opposite of Zuberi. He was embarassed he'd let that happen to him. Shaking his gray mane out of his face, he looked in the direction she nodded and nodded himself. This was the place he was going to call home. The place that was going to get his life sorted. He would make his own sort of family here, be it in a band of brothers with no mate or cubs, or just finding himself a nice girl and settling down.

Zuberi wanted all of the negative things behind him in his life. His failure at returning to his mother, the stupid way he was lured in. He had to get smart. He had to get stronger than that. Perhaps, in time, he would become desensitized to pretty words and poems.

"Then let's go."