The golden lioness' mind was already made up. She was going to leave the Pridelands. While her mother didn't agree with her sentiments towards the roguelands, she had done what she could to prepare her daughter. They had spent week upon week studying herbs, learning how to read the stars and how to track small herds. The last lesson had been one of combat training, though that one had been with her father. Teary-eyed goodbyes and hugs had already been exchanged and now she was heading towards the borders of the Pridelands.
"Wait!"
The desperate call to wait came from behind her and caused Aru to give pause, her dual-colored eyes looking back in the morning sunlight to see a dark red lioness sprinting after her. As she approached, she knew the lioness to be Otrera. She was a trouble-maker and one that had caused problems for her sister-in-law, but she also knew that she had been in rough times currently.
As Otrera's all-out sprint slowed to a jog and then to a stop, she paused to catch her breath only momentarily. "You're...leaving...right?" She asked between heavy pants.
Blue and gold eyes looked down at her, wondering how to answer and if it was truly any of this other lioness' business, but she saw the look in those ruby-red eyes as Otrera looked up at her. Desperation.
"Yes, I'm leaving. Why do you ask?" Aru asked with a raise of a brow.
"If...if you see my children, please tell them that I miss them. That I...want them to come home." Otrera diverted her eyes shamefully. She hadn't been the best mother and so she couldn't blame her son or daughter if they had run away, but they had both left so quickly. "And my mate...she..she's red and black. You'll know her from her amber eyes and the golden sun marking around her neck. She...might still have her snakes, I don't know. One was white and the other black with no visible markings on their scales. If you find her in your travels, could you tell her where I am and that..." There was a break in the normally confident lioness' voice. "That I'm sorry and that I still love her."
Of course Aru was surprised by the requests, but at the same time..not. She was a mother, one that had lose not just one cub, but two and there had never been a true investigation conducted or any sort of reasoning found. One of her children had just been a cub when she went missing, the other was an adolescent, or close to. Most assumed something had happened to them both, but Otrera's foul temper hadn't earned her any friends to help look for them...
Despite all the tales she had heard of the red huntress, Aru nodded. "If I see them," She began, emphasizing the fact that she might not even be able to find them. "I'll pass on your messages."
"Thank you!" The gratitude was repeating time and time again by the distraught mother whose eyes welled up as tears threatened to pour over. Enough so that Aru began to glance around nervously, wondering if anyone would suddenly walk up on the seen that was scene that was unfolding. "I'm sure you know my name...my reputation typically precedes me and not..in a good way." The last few words were hesitant, cautious and a little fearful. "But it's Otrera. I..I hope you see them."
"I have to ask," Aru quickly started as it was apparent that Otrera was going to end the conversation and head back to Pride Rock. The words caused the red huntress to pause and look at the golden lioness with a quizzical look. "Why don't you look for them yourself?"
"I have!" The reply was loud, angry even. "I..I've looked wherever I thought they might be."
"I mean, why don't you leave and try and find them yourself?"
"I have other children." Blood-red eyes narrowed at the soon to be ex-Pridelander. "They have already lost their sister and then their brother. Their father is a wandering rogue, though he visits, he is distant from us all. What would they think if they lost their mother too?" Otrera spat, her tail whipping angrily. "Do not think me a bad mother. I just cannot afford to lose more children than I already have, but you, you have the opportunity to do something I cannot..." She paused again before correcting herself, "Will not."
Any rational lion would have likely disregarded this strange lioness' request, but it was heartfelt and sincere and despite everything she had heard of Otrera, Aru had never been wronged by her. "That seems fair." She rose from her sitting position and bounced slightly once she was back on all four of her pale-tipped paws. "I'll let them know if I find them." Turning, she began her walk to the border and out into the roguelands.
As she watched the golden lioness leave, Otrera's hope left with her. Hopefully her children would return to her and so would Ares...While she thought on what a happy day that day would be, it hit her like a charging rhino. She didn't even know that fading golden form's name. She had entrusted the possible future of her family to this now rogue lioness that she didn't even know.