The unlikely duo padded together silently. Chizoba in the front as she normally was and Celestyn tailing her, more closely than usual today. Anyone could tell that something was bothering him, it just wasn't obvious what was the issue yet. After their argument in the jungle things had been a little tense, but nothing had changed... yet. They continued traveling and Celestyn had yet to bring it up again that he disliked their constant change in location. The tension was there though, they both knew it. Celestyn especially, as he was unsure Chizoba understood what he meant at all, before.

Chizoba almost couldn't take it any longer -- the silence, the lack of laughter, was this really how their travels would end? A cold shoulder and a lack luster goodbye? She wondered why things were happening in quite this way. She was curious if it was because of the lion she had met recently, and his handy butler. She rolled her eyes at the thought of the two of them and their antics. It was funny, the way they interacted, his disdain for her at first because she was a rogue but the butlers insistence that she stay. She wondered if that meeting, that chance meeting, was the catalyst that caused her and Celestyn to be wedged apart. Was he jealous? She was unsure. Her thoughts were cut short by his words.

"I think we should go our separate paths, Zo" he said. There they were, the words she knew she would hear sooner or later. She just didn't expect it to happen now. She stopped dead in her tracks and swallowed hard, closing her eyes and holding back emotion. She was the leader, she couldn't appear weak, especially now.

"I knew you would bring it up someday. I didn't think it would be now." She sat down, eyes still shut tight, refusing to turn around and look at him. It was too much. The leopard she had known for as long as she can remember, in fact her first memories involved the two of them, was telling her they were going in different directions.

Celestyn stayed behind her a few feet, refusing to move forward by her side. He didn't want to separate from her, but it was clear she was on a search for Gods know what; his desire was to settle down. His paws were weary from the many places they had been. He had plenty of stories, he wanted to tell them to someone, not continue to make them without any outlet for these experiences. "I want to have a home. I know you don't really get it. I'm not asking you to. But I'm asking that you understand that this is what I want and that this is what would be best for me. Traveling is not best for me. I need to do things for me for once..." He wasn't sure where he was going with all that, in all honesty. But it is what he wanted to say, and that's what mattered. "For the sake of our friendship, we need to part ways."

"Whose sake?" was all Chizoba could muster at first, still attempting to hold in her emotions as they bubbled over inside of her. "I know I don't need you to travel around, and you don't need me to survive, but it's lonely out here with no one else! Why would you choose that over a companion?" Her voice was small and almost confused. She was always the strong one, Celestyn wasn't sure the last time her saw her in such a way. She was vulnerable and it was a strange air to both of them. They both knew that they could make it alone, but that wasn't the point.

"For my sake," he began. "And my options aren't being weighed like that. If it was be alone versus be with a friend, obviously we both know the answer." Friend? That's interesting, you don't leave your friends behind. Chizoba thought to herself. "But my options are continue traveling and feel empty or try to settle down and find happiness." Celestyn looked to the sky for answers, stars shimmering lightly on the dark back drop, similar to his own fur. "I'm not meant to travel like this, you are. I can't follow you to the end, it's not my meaning."

Chizoba tried to take it all in, tried to look through the first layer of what it felt like -- betrayal -- to what it really was -- growth. "It's fine." She sputtered out. "It's fine that you need to leave." Her eyes were finally open and her head was turned slightly so she could see him. "I understand."

Celestyn knew that she did not, in fact, understand at all. There was no way, she was too stubborn and hard headed to realize what this was. He sighed slightly, most likely inaudible to her. He had only one way to try and calm her nerves. "This isn't the end of us, Zo." He said as calmly as he could and in a tone that was very familiar to them both, a tone he hadn't used since before the incident in the jungle.

Chizoba turned completely toward him now, after hearing his words, some fear gone from her face. The tension between them was less now, there was some hope. She was reassured now that this wasn't her fault and this wasn't a final goodbye. She was still sad, and visibly upset about it, but less so. "It's not?"

"No. It's not." He responded quickly. "I cannot tell you exactly when our paths will cross again or where it will happen... But I promise you, by the light of the stars and the moon, we will see each other again."

She nodded, almost happily, at him. "Do.. do we go in different directions now?" She wasn't sure how to word what she wanted to know, but he understood.

"No, we can wait until morning." He smiled at her. His feet needed one last sleepless night of traveling before he called it quits.

"Only if you lead!" Chizoba responded, a chipper attitude returning to her for the first time in almost a moon's cycle.

Celestyn laughed for a moment. "I was never the leader you are, Zo, but I will try. For our sake." He stepped next to her as he spoke, before taking a deep breath and starting forward. He felt unsure being in the front, he didn't know where to go or why they were going there, but he knew that this was probably how Chizoba felt all the time. Similarly, Chizoba felt strange following. They were only walking a short distance before she had meandered off several paces and almost lost Celestyn in the darkness. She trotted back over, giggling to herself about losing the leader in the first 15 minutes of being a follower.

It was a strange new beginning, and it would have to suffice, but at least it wasn't an ending.

((1171))