|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:12 am
Her cubs were all but weaned and Ripuka had not left their sides since birth. She was weakening and she knew, eventually, she would have to go and hunt, but these cubs were the hope for the future. She couldn't just leave them unguarded. She kept her nostrils to the entrance of the den incase Ny happened past. She was possibly one of the only other lions Ripuka trusted now.
She paused in throught of food and glanced to her side where the three cubs lay asleep. They were all so beautiful...even that brown one. But she knew she couldn't let herself get too attached, it would be impossible to let him go otherwise. No, she had to do what she had planned. She had to hand her middle-son to another and she knew just who that could be.
"Azarax." She whispered the name. She had been speaking to them incessantly and all of them had begun to understand their names now that their eyes and ears were open. She was just glad that at so young an age they still slept the days away, though they had also begun to show signs of wanting to leave the den.
"Azarax...today is the day." She nudged the brown with a paw.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:27 am
((Ohdear, I just came up with a new quirk for him xD))
The days of being a newborn - living in a world without sight, sound, or smell - had since given way to much clearer days of living, when his sense had all come. Fuzzy, at first, though within a day or two they had sharpened and everything was clear to him now. Though his memory had yet to stabilize, Azarax knew instinctively who his mother was. If he were to shut his eyes, he might not quite remember her face, but he had begun to know her voice, and who she was simply because she was the brightest thing in his world.
Though the cub had been snoozing peacefully with his two siblings, curled up in between them, the sound of his name, whispered like the hissing of wind outside the den that he would hear sometimes, drew him from his slumber. Azarax... Yes that was him, he knew it was him, just as he knew the red symbolized his mother. He felt a soft nudge, and blinked his eyes open, peering up sleepily into the familiar face that hovered above him. Red.
Today is the day... Though the words meant nothing to his young ears, he couldn't help but feel that something different was happening. It was new, it was blurry, just like the days before this had been. Blurry from all the sleep. But suddenly, this day was sharpening. Sleep retreated to the back of his mind and the little brown cub gaze about in wonder. Yes, he could tell something was going on, but what exactly, there was no way to know.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:09 am
With a heavy heart, Ripuka stood, uncurling herself from her young at her side. Hopefully the others would stay asleep long enough for the terrible deed to be done. Mother and father would have done the same, she thought. And that's how she justified her decision. It was how she justified every decision that didn't feel right in her heart.
"Your adventure begins today Azarax." She continued quietly. And slowly, she lifted him by the scruff of his neck and carried him out into the cool morning air.
Strangely, though the dessert was hot during the day, it cooled down to almost freezing at night. The early and late hours were often when lions stirred but not this early. The sun was just beginning to peek above the golden horizon, tinging the dark sky with grey.
Soon the others would be waking.
Firstly, she had to try and mask her scent on the cub as much as possible. She guessed that once his adopted family took him in their scent would rub off on him. Until that happened, she had to make sure the connection between them was faded, because she doubted it would ever be broken. Maybe the slave would always know what had happened, but she doubted he would have the guts to say anything.
She placed Azarax down at the bank of the pool and gave him a lick to smooth the ruffled fur. Then, she moved her forepaws into the shallows to dig up the soft mud she would use for her task.
"You shall be the finest slave ever seen." She continued happily.
((Yay quirks <3 !! I hope you didn't mind me have Ripuka pick him up. Just to move things along and such. ))
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 4:16 pm
((Sure xD
-scowls- Gaia ate my post... D<))
There was the familiar sensation of being lifted up and the little tan cub went limp. The chill of the morning made him shiver a little. It wasn't warm like it was in the den, and instinctively, Azarax wanted to go back. He squirmed slightly. It was not only the cold, it was also the anticipation of whatever was going on. He could feel his mother's mood when she was near, and he didn't like very much what he was picking up at the moment. The little cub lashed his tail and mewled lightly.
The cold was getting to him through his light coat. He felt the ground beneath his paws, and cuddled up to the red paw that belonged to his mother, curling his tail around himself for more warmth. His gaze wandered along the floor, and eventually reach the horizon far off in the distance. He stared up at the sky. Little streaks of light were beginning to show through the dark canvas, chasing away the night and the cold. As if this were the most beautiful thing in the world, Azarax gazed up at it, watching as it filtered through the darkness.
Gradually, with the slowly rising sun, the tan cub uncurled from the ball he had been in, all the while watch the light coming slowly to flood the world. Sunrise out in the desert sure was a wonderous sight.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:02 am
It didn't take her long to dig up enough of the wet, soft soil and when she paused in her work to find her cub gazing up at the sky, her heart melted.
Could she really do this?
Her heart shivered with pain and she looked away, closing her tear-filled eyes. Mother... She thought to herself. Is this what you would have wanted me to do? Does it matter about my son's brown pelt when he is a fullblood? She didn't know! And she doubted she would ever know. Not until she had joined them in death and was able to ask them for herself.
"Forgive me little one." She whispered to her cub and she reached out a paw, scooping up the mud to spread on him. "This is the only way I can think of."
Maybe she wasn't thinking hard enough. Maybe she just wasn't trying. But the more she thought about it the more she panicked. If she spent anymore time thinking about it her little one would be too old. He'd know what she had done, even when he grew up.
"Soon you'll be with someone who can care for you better than I ever could."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 2:16 am
Azarax glanced at the pawful of mud. Against the bright red of his mother's coat, it looked unbelievably dull. He blinked his sharp yellow eyes, watching as the mud oozed along. Ew. He stuck out his tongue to symbolize his disapproval of the sludgey material, wondering why his mother would be touching it in the first place. It didn't look fun to be near, let alone touch. Although later on in life, he would most certainly learn otherwise.
Then he turned his gaze back onto the slowly brightening sky, tucking his paws in underneath him to create a cushion between himself and the ground. No questions asked. Sometimes he wondered why it was that the world was dull and gray apart from the burning red that was his mother's coat. Now, as he watched the light filtering through the darkness, he could see occasionally a splash of flaming orange against an otherwise dull sky, varying shades of gray.
The orange and red streaks boomed out at him against the rest of the gray backdrop, bold and colorful. That was strange. His world existed in no other color, though he couldn't have known. It was simply dull save for certain parts, and he knew no other world. So he would live it with.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 1:57 pm
"Now hold still a moment." Ripuka warned. She gave her cub a final, affectionate nudge with her nose. "This will be cold." She doubted the child understood any of her babbling but it felt better to talk to him. It soothed her, made her feel more calm about abandoning her baby.
Her beautiful baby boy.
She sniffled and then moved to rub the mud in his fur, starting with the biggest place along his back and sides. After this mud bath was done she'd take him to the slave den and set him down.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:54 pm
The cub shivered at the touch of the mud, turning his head to glance back at it with a tiny frown. Ew. He leaned forward and nosed at the sludge, shaking his head slightly.
Oh dear, now he had it on his nose. He went almost cross-eyed trying to see it. He could feel it though, and he jammed his nose into the ground, rubbing it off. The mud was cold and it smelled like the earth, which didn't seem to bad to Azarax. Still, touching it made him shiver.
It made him wonder why he was getting all covered in mud. Who would want to be sludgy when they could be clean and dry?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:03 am
(( omgod he is just so cute ;o; ))
When Ripuka was finished with her little artwork she stood and reached down, lifting the cub again. Tears beaded painfully at the corners of her eyes as she headed back towards the dens. This time, however, it wasn't her den she was headed too. It was another den, the den of slaves.
The sky was lightening above her head but she paid no attention to that. This was something that would take a little time and she wasn't going to rush the goodbye with her son.
She set him down again a couple of strides from the den entrance and slowly eased herself down to look into his beautiful, clear eyes. "Azarax." She whispered. "Most mother's pray that their children will never forget them but I hope you forget me. You must if you are to live in relative safety. You must if you are to move on with your life." She turned her head. "I am sorry, son, that it had to come to this, but Finar-si would look down on it unkindly and I cannot displease her. She is already so angry at the rebels, but for one of her obedient followers to disobey...it could be devastating."
She blinked and fell silent. What else, what else was there to say to her beautiful son? She blinked back tears.
"I will watch over you from afar, just as Finar-si will." She licked a clean patch of fur between his eyes. "I love you." And she stood, turned, and left him, not looking back.
If she looked back she wouldn't be able to leave him.
(( I'll send a PM to Kae with the link <3 ))
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:52 am
(( xDD!
D'aww, this is so sad. If this were a book I probably would have cried by now xD
Ooh, also, is it alright if, when he gets older, he starts having dreams of a blurry red lioness that looks like Ripuka but he has no idea who it is?))
They say that cubs are most intuitive, and obviously this seemed to be the case with Azarax. With touch, it seemed, he could pick up the other's feelings and mood. With a gesture like being picked up, Ripuka's feelings almost radiated into the tan cub through her teeth. Her grip on the scruff of his neck, the very way he was being carried, it all confused him. Shouldn't it be a happy day? They were watching the gorgeous sun rising up from out of nowhere. And yet, he could feel sadness coming at him from all directions, dampening his mood.
Where were they going? Azarax blinked curiously, his ears twitching this way and that uncertainly as he took in the unfamiliar sights. Before today, his world had been restricted to the den in which he had been born, and now, he was seeing unfamiliar terrain all around him. This wasn't the way back to the den. He didn't recognize it. Although he wouldn't have recognized the way back to the den either, he could feel instinctively that home was not where they were headed. Then where were they headed?
Then there it was. A den. Azarax pricked his ears. Wait... It wasn't the right one. His ears flattened again as he frowned mightily, unimaginably confused. What was going on? Once he felt the ground again, he turned to face his mother, his eyes saying more than he could have communicated with words. What were they doing here? Why weren't they going home? What was with all the mud? And why, oh why, was she crying? He gazed into her eyes, hating all the strangeness of the day, and imploring her to take him home, where he could snuggle up to his siblings and go back to sleep like nothing had happened. Why couldn't they go home?
Though his ears were trained forward to catch her words, his puzzled mind didn't take them in or try to process them. He simply looked at her with all of his confusion all too obvious on his face.
For a cub his age, perhaps the most terrible thing that could happen was for his mother to turn her back and leave him all alone in the wide world. And his did exactly that. She stood, turned, and left, and didn't look back. Azarax mewled pitifully behind her. Why wasn't she taking him back? What had he done? But fear of being out alone had frozen his paws, and much as he wanted to get to his feet and run back after her, he couldn't move, and all he could do was watch her leave.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 3:56 pm
 So, what?
Upendo'Mpaji had escaped, rather valiantly so, without a scratch once again. Lucky for him, the arrival of Kaanga had cause Uzulu to falter, and none of the children had been touched for his 'insolence' as it were. The huge yellow lion hardly found ducking from a blow a crime. He was just one lucky b*****d, he thought, a sly grin spreading over his features.
Sucking his tongue to the roof of his mouth he caused a vibration to occur in his throat. He traveled like this, humming and purring loudly, as if he had a reason to be happy. It would be a dark taste if any of the Firekin caught him at it. Slaves weren't supposed to be happy.
He found that unbearably funny, and hummed louder to keep from spitting into the sand and rolling in it.
It was about this time, or perhaps shortly before, the distinct sound of mewing reached his ears. A frown came to his head, but it definately wasn't one of the slave children. Someone else, then?
Clucking that rough pink tongue against the roof of his mouth he directed his movements towards the sound, his ears pricked forwards against a tickling white mane. It didn't take long for the soft eyes to spot the creme standing in the sound a distance away. It was more likely he spotted the red first, but it was the distinct sand color that snapped his attention.
Increasing his paceto a lumber, he made his way effortlessly to the site of trouble, pushing his muzzle into the young cub's fur. "There," he told it, as if something he had done solved all problems. "What's wrong small baas?" he asked it, for no other lion he knew carried the blood fire of the Firekin in their manes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 4:38 pm
All the while that he stood there and simply waited for her to come back, he watched in the direction in which Ripuka had disappeared, waiting with his ears and his eyes in that one direction, waiting for the spark of bright red to reappear again against the grey that was the rest of his world. He wished she would come back, that image of fiery red. He found that, in his panick and confusion, he was already forgetting who she was. No, he knew who she was instinctively, but it no longer filled his mind. He didn't know what to call her. He didn't know the word for her, but he recognized the redness, and he only knew that he wanted her to come back.
Then he felt a reassuring touch. It was something he had grown used to, but it wasn't quite the same. He dropped and rolled over onto his back to see properly who it was. He had learned that he would never be able to fully see who it was that was behind him unless he dropped and rolled, so he was farther away from them. What he saw was a big, unfamiliar face, but it was friendly and had eyes that twinkled. Happiness, perhaps. But for what? It wasn't a good day to be happy, that much he knew, although with this new discovery, he was already beginning to forget why it was such an unhapy day.
Touch was reassuring to Azarax, traumatized as he was, and he reached out with his paws and gave the big muzzle a hug, rubbing his cheek against it. While he still clung onto the memories of Ripuka and his two siblings, he wanted to speak out his troubles before he forgot them all. Perhaps if he did they would stay with him. But he couldn't find the words. All he could remember was 'Azarax'.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:15 pm
Mpaji watched the thing roll before him and he smiled at it gently. It didn't seem to bad, it didn't bite him, or growl at him. It just seemed like a sad young Firekin without a purpose in the world. "You forget your troubles, little 'un, Uncle Mpaji will make it better." He gave the small cub a pat on the belly. His own children, who were not his children, did not accept him for the most part. It was a sad and gloomy thought. Dear Tanana kept them at bay with her preachings and her dark talks. The yellow lion shook his head with a sigh.
"Come on," he told it. "You can't stay out here by yourself." He'd go on a lookout for the mother later, right now he needed to get this belly fed, he was sure that Kaanga wouldn't mind. Good, kind Kaanga. He felt sorry for her, she seemed crushed by the slave children. Destroyed by Uzulu, that slimey b*****d.
Pushing the cub with his nose, he attempted to roll it over onto its feet. It was time to start walking, it made Mpaji nervous to stay in one spot for so long.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:54 am
The gentle pat on the cub's belly tickled, and he burst into a fit of giggles. A wide smile stretched across his cheeky face as he wriggled about. Oh, this was great fun. Already the day was looking much brighter, and though he knew that something was wrong with it, he could only barely remember it. It couldn't matter all that much, anyway.
He seemed to understand more or less what this big yellow lion was telling him, or at least wanted him to do, and he complied without bothering to complain. He couldn't see how it could be bad for him in any case. So he rolled onto his paws and stood up, shaking out his fur and the tufty beginnings of a mane. That done, he turned his gaze upwards, almost asking what he was supposed to do with his eyes.
((Eee, sorry for the crappy late post. Just got back from that trip. Such a gorgeous place. But having not RPed for five days, I'm a little short on muse xD
It'll come back soon, though))
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:15 pm
Mpaji had never remembered a time when he could not talk, and he'd been unable to visit his own until they could. It was a strange and fascinating thing to see this one so quiet. One of Uzulu's sons, at least, was talking the day it was born - as though it were to take command of the situation.
"You have a name little thing?" he asked it, starting forwards in the sand. He seemed contented enough to follow his every move. Then again, it probably couldn't give him a name. Frowning he thought over the situation. How was he going to present this to Uzulu?
To Kaanga first, then. He had to find Kaanga first.
Fear clenched is gut and he gave a worried look back at the cub. A sigh managed to release that tension for a time, and he simply looked forwards to what was up ahead.
(( No worries, we all have those moments. XD ))
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
