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 Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:06 pm
Hot. Hot.
It was hot!
Gzifa whined and rolled onto her stomach. Then on her side. Then on her other side. The sun was brutal no matter what position she was in, and lounging in the shade provided a barely noticeable change in temperature.
Hot, hot, hot.
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:19 pm
The weather wasn't exactly something that Banji was pleased with either. He knew the sun bared down as hot as it wanted regardless of the price the beings below it would pay. What a selfish creature. Still, his woes didn't come near matching that of the wild dog he came across, from the looks of it. She looked about ready to die. "Are you alright?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:23 pm
Sleeping was not something she could do in such a heat stroke. It was more of an issue of being dazed that had her 'out-of-it' enough to not notice something as big as a full grown lion approaching, and to jump when said lion speak.
"I'm fine!" she squeaked automatically. Taking the time to look at the questioner, her eyes widened in awe. A lion! She'd never seen one up close before, though she faintly remembered murmurs from her pack mates back home about them being dangerous.
Faint enough they could be ignored, and they were. Gzifa hurried up and circled around the newcomer. He hardly looked dangerous. He looked like food, like a zebra. She almost laughed, and would have if she'd known he'd take no offense to it.
"I've never seen one of you up close," she offered, realizing her actions may be taken as strange.
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:25 pm
Banji's eyes followed Gzifa walking around him as far as they could. When she got far enough behind him he couldn't see her, he blinked. What in the world...?
Oooh!
"Oh," he acknowledged with a light laugh, and then admitted sheepishly, "I've never seen one of your kind so closely, either. I thought you generally traveled in packs?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:27 pm
To Gzifa's knowledge, he was right. Albeit, that knowledge was limited. The only wild dogs she knew were a) in her old pack or b) Khima, who had been in a pack, too. She couldn't imagine meeting one that wasn't.
"I left it," she mumbled, sounding just a tad distressed at the revelation. She tried not to think about all she had fled from; her pack, her mother, the rest of her family, including a brother she had promised to come back to. Would she be able to keep it now? It had seemed possible before, but...
On that note, "I thought lions mostly were in prides?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:30 pm
"I left one," Banji echoed her. "I'm not quite sure how true that is, however. I was alone for a long time. Outside of that pride and my family, I haven't met many other lions." It was sad, really. He wished he could turn back time, relive his days as a youth, and stop being as anti-social as he had been. Maybe he wouldn't have left Hasana, and things would have turned out differently. "All the ones I've come across out here are rogue also."
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:40 pm
There were that many rogue lions? It was true, she and Khima had passed many lions, but she had simply thought they were out for a walk, not prideless.
Gzifa had been told once she was too nosy, and that it would get her in trouble. She had yet to learn her lesson about it, because the words of warning had yet to come true. "Is your family with you?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:43 pm
Banji shook his head and his fluffy mane brushed from side to side. It was getting a bit unmanaged, he noted, but didn't feel the need to take extra precautions when dealing with it. He'd jump in that pool of water back there and--
Aha! "There's water over that way, if you're interested. I can take you." She looked thirsty to him.
Her question hadn't caught him off guard. Nothing really would at this point. "I'm afraid they're upset me." Or, the one that mattered most to him was, anyway, and that was enough.
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:52 pm
It had always bothered Gzifa to see others act out of their normal ways. Not that she really knew this lion, because she didn't, but he had been cheerful up until this point, and suddenly he wasn't.
"Don't feel bad, my mother is probably upset with me, too." She might hate me, the wild dog mentally added. Who knew anymore? She could have never predicted her mother would refuse her the right to leave, so she didn't claim to be able to guess anything else about her either. Not correctly, anyway. "She didn't want me to go."
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:53 pm
Banji listened, nodding when appropriate. Would his mother have been like that? Like Gzifa with her mother, he could only take a shot in the dark, never knowing if his guess was correct or not. "Many mothers don't wish for their children to leave," he said, hoping to offer some comfort. Once again his thoughts trailed to his sister, who's daughters had left, too.
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:57 pm
Gzifa was staring sorrowfully at the ground now, and told him quietly, "It wasn't like that, not really. She didn't even consider what I wanted or what was really good for me, her choice was only based on that my sister had left, too. So she didn't trust me. I wasn't me to her, I was just another child of hers, one among many who she clumped all together."
After her miniature ramble, she realized how depressing the conversation was becoming. "But I'm not all alone. I have Khima. He's my best friend!" She had always gotten along with her siblings, but none had connected with her like Khima had. They were born to explore together. "What about you?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:59 pm
He smiled gently, and slightly uninsured, as well. Her mother hadn't wanted her to leave because of the actions of her sister. It sounded like all mothers were that way. He could only assume Hasana was, too, and that what he'd been told of Ohahira couldn't be true.
No mother would willing shoo her daughter away. If only he knew...
"Hm? Me? I have a sister--a twin, but she's far away. I'm on my own entirely, I'm afraid."
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:01 pm
The words of the lion made Gzifa sad. Everyone needed their own Khima! "That's sad," she thought aloud, not being the type to see voicing such an opinion as insulting or embarrassing as another type of wild dog might. "I feel lucky I have Khima."
It took her a while. She had realized it, finally. Her name! She'd forgotten to even tell him it! "Oh! I'm Gzifa, by the way!"
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:07 pm
"Well, Gzifa, you sound very fond of this Khima." It made him somewhat happy to know even if some relationships had to be, so to speak, sacrificed, at least others could blossom while they wilted away. It was some comfort.
"I'm Banji," introduced the male accordingly, mentally scolding himself for not doing so early. One would think with all the badgering his sister had given him as a cub it ("Always introduce yourself first, Banji!") it would have sunk in by now.
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:10 pm
Usually, Gzifa would have a heartfelt, 'Nice to meet you!' Not this time. His words before had left her flustered. She shuffled her feet and was again focused on the ground, as if there was something there to see aside from dirt and that annoying little pebble she'd stepped on before. "Yeah, he's... Like a brother," she finished, speaking more to herself than him.
"Oh! I should get back to him!" Gzifa realized. "It was nice meeting you! I hope we see each other again!"
The odds weren't entirely unrealistic if they both kept moving around like this. After all, they'd found each other once before.
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