[PRP] Lost (Lililimunia x Hroarr)

[Ovarian Paint]

She wasn't sure how long she'd been walking, she had finally decided to leave the den she'd known as her home as a cub, there was no longer any of the warmth in it that she remembered, she had passed so many empty dens, that had once been homes to the friends and life she had been raised in.

The night was starting to turn the sky dark, her eyes darted here and there. She did not enjoy the night now, alone and lost, scared of what lurked in the tall grasses, or behind the rocks as she passed them. It was pathetic and she scolded herself silently, she was a lioness! She could hunt with the best of them, but now...Now she was scared, confused and...lost. Though she didnt know where she was going anyways, she didnt have any set course to take so really she couldnt be lost.

But as the sky grew darker, and the stars that her own pelt mimicked began to twinkle, she started to look for somewhere to hide out until the sun rose once more, and then she'd start walking once more, where to she wasnt sure. The heavy scent of lions tickled her senses, her ears perked up, a pride must be close she thought, maybe she'd find a place close to its borders, and close her eyes for a minute and pretend, pretend her world hadnt disappeared on her.  

[Talencia]

Hroarr was... restless. It had been good to finally come home, but it wasn't without its difficulties. There were faces he didn't recognize. Cubs had been born while he had been gone. And some of the expected faces were still missing. His father. His mother. It all felt strange, and it felt wrong for it to feel strange. This was his home!

Another adjustment was that he was no longer the sole leader. He hadn't been aware of how accustomed he'd become to being the ultimate authority within a day's run. It wasn't that he envied Ru's position as Warlord... oh no, not that at all. He's rather go back to the outpost than take on that responsibility! Nor did he resent the other Captains. It was just... odd.

Most surprising of all, though, was that he was finding he missed some of the isolation and solitude his warband had had. He missed his evening walks, out beyond the confines of the camp, into the dusky shadows. It had been his time to think, to reflect, to make tough decisions.

This was why he was out now, as the sky darkened, and the western horizon flared with brilliant but transient color. He purposely strode beyond the pride's borders, escapnig the sound, scent, and press of the large pride's multitude of members. His pace slowed as he came to clear, unmarked territory. He breathed deep of the fresh air... and scented a female. Not far at all. Curious, he padded silently towards the smell. Yes, there!

He stared for a moment at the strikingly marked lioness before him. Her demeanor was dejected, but her coat flared with the colors of the sky. Even as that color faded swiftly from the heavens, the white specks on her coat flared to life beneath the stars above, and the colors remained beneath them, muted by the shadows. Well then. This was worth some investigating!

"This is not the safest of shelters for a beautiful lioness, all alone," he rumbled quietly, pacing out of the deepening shadows. He didn't mean it to sound like a threat, but his low voice might have put a note of foreboding in that he hadn't intended. Not a good way to start out with a pretty lade! He folded his ears apologetically and quickly added, "But you might be far enough out to avoid notice." He flicked a glance back the way he came. Another captain... almost any reaver... would have simply captured her then and there. That was not Hroarr's way at all, though, and he was devoutly hoping no-one else was about.  

[Ovarian Paint]

She jumped at the sound of his voice, she had been to lost in her thoughts to hear him approaching. Her ears swiveled back as she eyed him carefully with teal orbs, he was a much larger lion than she expected to see, maybe even larger than her once best friend Sarfraz, who had been blessed with his size and beautiful mane from his father, the god of manes but it had never made him snobby to come from such a line.

She missed her friend.

But at his words, she froze, almost shrinking back. Not safe, was he the reason she wouldnt be safe? She wasnt sure, he didnt seem to be threatening to her, but could that be a ploy? Far enough out? Was the pride she wandered close to dangerous? Did he come from that pride? She eyed him carefully once more. " I'm sorry.." Her tailed coiled around her back leg, she waited to be punished for being so foolish, it was clear on her features. "I was just looking for a spot for the night, I can continue on..I just dont like being alone at night." She confessed, she didnt know why she was telling him this, but it had been so long since she'd spoke to another and he truly didnt seem to want to harm her.  

[Talencia]

He frowned faintly as he watched her react. This was not the sort of response he had expected of a rogue female. In fact... she nearly cringed and cowered like a thrall might be expected to. One who had been beaten and cowed. He frowned further at the thought. Despite that, though, she clearly had no idea where she was, not to mention that he'd be certain to have noticed if some lovely lioness such as this had been wandering around the pride, thrall or no.

No, something was off here, and he wanted to know what exactly. "You don't know where you are?" he asked, softening his voice so that it didn't vibrate so deeply. His mind was beginning to turn, to imagine what would become of her should another of the Stormborn happen upon her. Even within two days travel of here, she'd be at risk of being taken as a thrall. Somehow this idea disturbed him greatly.

"Where is it you come from?" he asked a second question almost on the heels of the first, sitting down and then lowering himself to the ground. Perhaps he'd look less intimidating from here. It wasn't as if he worried about her attacking him, after all. Even if she should try something so foolish, it was highly unlikely she could do him any more damage than he'd suffered at the teeth and claws of reavers.  

[Ovarian Paint]

As she watched him, she slowly relaxed, her tail released its grip on her hind leg and she settled into a sitting position, but still she looked as if she'd spring into a run at any moment, not quiet as relaxed as she could be.

At his question, her head lowered, "No, I do not...none of these lands are familiar to me but Ive no choice but to wander them." She felt foolish, what lioness did not know these lands. She didnt, she had never been required to walk them. The last time she had been this far out from her pride is when she had been left to her father and her mother had returned to the swamp-lands.

"Ukuucha'Wafalme though, its no longer there." She said in hushed tones, it pained her greatly to know that the only life she'd known had disappeared around her without a cause or reason. Her friends, the family unit she had been apart of, it was all she knew. "Where am I?" She asked him, she was curious of where she was, what lurked out there. "Oh my, please forgive me for my rude behavior, Im Lililamunia." She offered her name, it was the one thing she had left, though the title of Banu was no longer needed, nor did she have to give the name of the male that owned her.  

[Talencia]

He listened somberly to her answers. The name of the pride was vaguely familiar, but he couldn't pin down where he knew it from. Either they had raided the place, for which he couldn't suppress a twinge of guilt, or there were former members of that pride in the Stormborn. Or both, for that matter. However, to his knowledge, they were not responsible for the collapse of any prides, or if they had, it was not while he was in contact with the main pride. He supposed it was possible, though unlikely. A scattered pride did not present much profit, save perhaps in the accumulation of thralls. He masked a grimace at that thought just in time to catch her introduction.

His ears flickered in surprise at the mix of subservient manner and eager politeness. She was a puzzle that very much intrigued him. He cleared his throat as he realized he'd let the silence hang after her introduction, and that good manners his mother had taught him required him to give a return introduction. Expression a bit sheepish, he finally spoke up. "I am Hroarr, a captain in the Stormborn, and it is their... our... lands that you are getting near." He flickered his ears again, trying to decide how much to tell her, how much to warn her. He couldn't just leave her to her fate, but what to do with her? He certainly didn't want to make her a lowly thrall. Somehow that seemed beneath her, in his opinion.

To buy himself some time to think, he asked another question. "If you are from a pride, why are you wandering alone?" He glanced into the distance, gears turning in his head. "Wasn't there anyone there you were close to?" He turned his inquiring eyes back to her, attempting to not look as taken with her as he was becoming.

Ovarian Paint

 

[Ovarian Paint]

She bowed her head to him, "Hroarr, it is a great pleasure to meet you." She kept her gaze lowered while her head was, she knew better than to show any signs of disrespect and knew what would happen if she did, but she had been trained all her life to be subservant to males.

Her gaze lifted up to his, she let out a soft shy smile for a moment before it flickered away and his words sunk in. Her friends. Her family..It tore away at her heart strings.

"I had a male..owner I guess you could say. He took me from my fathers den as soon as I was of age, and I joined his den with the others he had collected but he disappeared long before the pride did. Bore him cubs as it was what he demanded, but their all gone.." Her voice was a shushed, sorrow-filled whisper. "I was traveling with my cub-hood friend Sarfraz but he left to find the girls from his own harem, concerned for their welfare..The pride just suddenly became a ghost pride, everyone just...disappeared." She shivered at the memory of walking past all the empty dens, most of them still holding the belongings of its owner. She had searched, hunted to find them and all she had found was Sarfraz who was as baffled as she.

"I have no one."

Talencia

 

[Talencia]

He stared at her in shock. The longer she went on, the more shocked he felt. This... this seemed like a bard's tale of woe! "You... you were... a slave?" he asked, unable to hide the incredulity in his voice. Oh yes, this seemed very wrong to him! "Why? Was your father a th--slave too?" He caught himself before using the pride's term for slaves. It would make no sense to her, and just mentioning it seemed like it was setting her up to end up as one. The more time passed, the less he wanted to see her made a thrall.

She had had a litter, grown and left the den apparently, and yet they had not sought her out. She had traveled with a childhood friend, but even he had abandoned her. Not to mention her owner! He frowned, brows lowering in a simmering anger. Everyone in her life had betrayed her. And now here she stood, on the brink of landing herself in another bad situation. He simply could not stand by and let it happen.

But even as he opened his mouth to warn her away, he stopped. If he simply sent her on her way, directed her away from the Stormborn, would he be any better than those who had left her to her fate? The logical side of him argued that he had no ties to her, that he was not obligated to keep her safe from whatever life threw at her. It was not his job, and he should not be expected to take it on as such. But the suppressed, softer side of him spoke louder. It argued that if he sent her away, he'd be responsible for every bad thing that might happen to her thereafter. That he would be just as guilty as any other soul she'd relied on who had let her down.

He snapped his mouth shut with a soft growl and paced back and forth a few times. The wind shifted briefly carrying with it the scent of the pride. He had two choices, as far as he could tell, that would let him live with himself. Either he found a way to take her into the pride safely, or he would have to escort her to a pride he would be assured she would be safe in. Agonized, he sat down and gazed at her. "What am I going to do with you?" he murmured quietly, his shoulders sagging with despair.

Ovarian Paint

 

[Ovarian Paint]

"No no, my father was not...He was a pad, no male would be a banu..or..um..Slave. It simply was not allowed, only females held such ranks, Banu was a more..common word for us, unless you were specially enough to be a Beybanu and then you held some power over the other females in your den, and was deemed your Pad's favorite." She had only heard such things from those forced into the pride, and she'd always thought those lioness ungrateful for the home and protection they were getting but now, now she wasnt sure if they hadnt been correct.

Had she grown up a slave?? Her ears flicked back as she questioned everything in her life, her father had loved her, there would be no doubt in that, his mates had all been good doting mothers and she had loved them...but the rest..she closed her eyes and sighed as her heart broke into a thousand pieces, she had been nothing more than someone elses property.

Her eyes fell on him when she heard the soft murmur, her heart sank. Here she was making his life unhappy, she moved closer to him and nosed his shoulder gently. "Im sorry..I dont mean to be a burden to anyone..I think I may just head back to the dead pride.." She glanced back over her shoulder. "Thank you for opening my eyes to the truth of my life though.." She nosed his shoulder once more. She was an affectionate lioness, it was something she'd never been able to shake, regardless of all the lessons.

Talencia

 

[Talencia]

The look on his face as she described her previous pride could have been comical. One ear twisted one direction, the other ear flattened at a different angle. One brow was quirked, then other drawn low in bafflement. His whiskers were also half-spread, with one lip drawn back in astonishment. All females were slaves?! He was so surprised, he blurted, "I've got female warriors in my warband! How could so many females be made... allow... be kept... why?" He was so shocked, he had no idea how best to ask the question that there probably was no answer for in the first place.

But as she apologized and nosed his shoulder, he snapped out of his astonishment. "No no, I couldn't let you go back to that!" He was sincerely alarmed, pupils dialated with concern. "One of those... Pads?... could come back and take you captive again." His mane bristled at the idea. She would never be a slave again, if he had any say in it! But what could he do about it?

He ruminated quietly for a time, rubbing his chin with one paw. There was only one thing that he could think of, but it depended on her willingness. Even if she didn't stay and take a place in the pride, he could at least feel better about letting her go off on her own again. "What you need is to know how to fight," he told her decisively. "I'm right in guessing you've never learned to defend yourself, aren't I?" He gave her an almost playfully inquisitive look. Of course she hadn't! She didn't have the look of a fighter. She was sleek and beautiful, yes, but not muscled. She had no scars, and there was no hard edge in her eyes that those who knew how to fight for their life tended to have. She was vulnerable and innocent as a cub. Time to change that, if she'd allow him.

Ovarian Paint