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 Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:50 pm
((Set after the war, when the rebels are resting/celebrating))
They may have won, but Ilahle'Wamuhu didn't feel like it yet. Shetani had gone with the rebels, one of her beloved brothers gone. Vuvimoto too was gone, an old friend, and she didn't want to think how that might affect her friend Saburi. So much had been lost and broken by the sundering of the rebels and traditionalists. Battle would have been fine, she thought, but not civil war.
Both and loss and a gain, Huang was gone. Her 'slave', her confident, her pupil. Ilahle had spent so much time with the youngster and he'd sneaked into her heart, only showing himself there when he said his goodbyes. Huang's simple crush, his cubhood love had been something so unexpected and so innocent after all the wretched fighting. She missed him now. Even though, she knew, he was far better off free and with his family.
She sat alone at the edge of the rebels home, looking out over the desert, wishing she could turn and see him sitting silently next to her as he used to. But he was free now and with his family. As it should be...which didn't mean Ilahle didn't care.
Ilahle sat in stony dignified silence and brooded.
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Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 2:42 pm
"You're thinking about Huang."
The voice was knowing, just the slightest bit... not belittling, because he cared about her feelings more than he'd ever let on to anyone else but her or himself, but there was something in his tone. It almost sounded like jealousy, but he couldn't possibly have been jealous of a child, a mere cub, could he? No, don't be ridiculous...
Maybe it was because, unlike with himself, Kadogo was sure that Ilahle cared about that former slave child (If you could have ever called him by such a title, truly). She cared for him as a friend, he knew, but he resented the fact that he could read her feelings for Huang much more easily than he could decipher her feelings for him, let alone his own. Why was he so frustrated by it? He cared about her. He couldn't help but feel just the slightest bit jealous.
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Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 2:54 pm
Ilahle didn't answer, she didn't need to. They both knew she had been. She simply turned her head silently and smiled at him. Her eyes were still sad it was true, but her relief and her happiness at seeing Kadogo shone through soon enough. That in itself caused another brief wave of confusion. He was her best friend, and her dear cousin, but his presence shouldn't have chased away thoughts of Huang and the others so easily...?
"Careful. You almost sound jealous." She tried to joke, picking up on that slight tone in his voice. It was an attempt to lift the mood. Besides that, she tried to sit up properly and be strong, not moody and weak. Hide the moon, hide the stars - hide her feelings. She had some pride left and she didn't want anyone to see her in such a state. Especially Kadogo. His opinion meant the most to her, she had to admit to herself.
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Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:12 pm
As she turned, though he kept his eyes on her face Kadogo's paws carried him forward anyways, closer to the lioness.
"Maybe I am..." He admitted with an air of what could almost have sounded like defeat but not for the proud blood racing through his veins on both sides of his family. He'd had the pleasure of knowing his father, and the male, and knew him to be as proud as the Firekin themselves.
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:16 am
"Oh Kado...you know you're my best friend. It was just that Huang needed me - " and I needed him, she didn't add, though it had been true " - like I was an older sister. No one's ever actually needed me before."
She was trying to defuse the odd spike of happiness and nerves his answer had caused even as she got to her paws and fully to face him properly. He hadn't sounded like he was joking back. So she reassured him he was the most important of her friends even though...that didn't quite...seem right.
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Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:44 pm
Kadogo's response was to growl impatiently, glowering. "Damn it, I don't want to just be your best friend, Ilahle! Why do you think...!"
No, no, that wasn't fair was it? To her, to all around them, they were cousins, related by her uncle, who of course shared a blood bond with her mother. No one knew yet outside of their family that Kadogo and his siblings were half gods.
Half outsider.
With victory apparent now, however, did it truly matter anymore if that was a kept secret...?
He turned away, facing the desert and the blowing sands, the direction the traditionlists had fled. He saw his mother on the dunes with his sister, joining the rebel group. He and Ilahle would be alone for a bit still.
"... I have feelings for you that I know you, and the others, would think wrong and perverse. I know that you all believe us to be cousins... but there's a truth that you should know."
He took a deep steadying breath, face still stern, but Ilahle had always been so good at seeing through that mask.
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Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:01 pm
By the time he'd turned back again, taken that deep breath, she was upon him. She'd taken the first step forward as soon as he'd said he had feelings for her. She heard his last couple of sentences, just about registering them, and testing the notion that this was 'wrong' - but she was busy feeling just how much that felt right. See, this was what had felt off. This was what had seemed slightly amiss. This was why she'd never clicked with any other other young males, because he had got there first regardless of (seemingly) being her kin. Ilahle had never recognised it for that because she'd always brushed it off as cousinly affection.
"Kado..."
She stepped forward and licked his muzzle, letting her cheek brush his before drawing back, in the intimate fashion that couldn't be mistaken. It was swift, expressing her surprise but how much she cared now she realised. Ilahle had always been a passionate creature. Between Huang and Kadogo, she'd surpressed it much. Now to address the later part of his confession.
"By which you imply we aren't cousins, despite those beliefs? I should hope so and I do - I hope so."
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Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:49 pm
He was stunned for just a moment, just long enough to realize she was moving and what he thought she intended to do. He'd thought for sure she'd smack him across the face with a paw for even suggesting such a thing, so he was dually shocked.
It took a moment for his brain to play catch up, but afterwards, staring at here with his red eyes, he saw for the first time not just what he wanted to see, but what he WANTED to see.
"We're... we're not." He recovered, heart thumping loud in his chest, but he stubbornly recovered his confidence. "My father isn't your uncle... as the pride has been led to believe. It's part of the reason that my family and I are fighting for the rebels. If the traditionalists ever found out the truth we would have been killed at birth, maybe outcast if we were fortunate." He spoke low, so as not to chance being overheard. Somehow after all this time, keeping his voice down still felt natural, but as he realized he was doing it he stopped. Instead Kadogo took a step back to stand more proudly, speaking up and out, not shouting, but not whispering anymore. It was doubtful if anyone would overhear, still, since they were sitting away from the group itself, but Ilahle would know he was not ashamed. He'd been itching to share this secret with her for ages.
"My father, my sire is Mrost... god of war."
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Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:17 pm
God of War? Ilahle turned the idea over in her head a few times - Finar-si was said to have created the very world after all. Surely the gods were alike to other gods, the same race as it were and way back the blood of Finar-si was in every Firekin. So she couldn't see anything to be ashamed of in having one of the gods as a sire. And besides, she was a rebel off her own back, her blood was pure Firekin. So she just smiled and agreed.
"As proud a linage as anyone could ask for."
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Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:35 pm
Kadogo finally relaxed, slowly, but surely, his fur settling completely at ease against his form and his muscles losing their tension. He had been a bit concerned that she'd look at him differently, in a negative way that is, after learning he had outsider's blood in him, but in his eyes the god of war was no one to scoff at. No one here still worshipped Finar-si, she no longer held any more importance to them than the other gods of the world, so there was no longer a need to feel as if it was something to hide. Mrost and Finar-si, in his pride's eyes now, were equals. Maybe equally unneeded, but equals all the same.
"And I've never been more glad to be able to boast it than I am now."
To prove this he moved forward, brushing his head against hers with unwavering affection and claim.
"So... now that you know the 'family' secret..."
He couldn't bring himself to ask it. Maybe if he was still somewhat the lion he'd been as a cub, but that innocence and gentle demeanour had been long since chased off. Emotions were harder for him to express now, and... though he wanted to simply claim her as his he also thought Ilahle would slap him stupid for trying to simply posess her, so instead he took another approach, tried a compromise now as he met her eyes to hold with his own.
"Be mine...?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:03 pm
"Don't be stupid..." Ilahle stepped back and met his eyes, her own slightly crinkled with pleasure. "Don't you know I've been yours all this time?"
It was true. For so long she'd been by Kadogo's side and spent most of her days with the great red lion, ever since she'd met him as a small playful cub. Her heart had been his even when she hadn't realised why she was so happy to see him and why she was so very mad when he was in a bad mood. She'd always been happy to think her own dear cousin was also her best friend, but it turned out he could be something better. Now it was out in the open, it was plain to see to Ilahle he was meant for her, and she could only rejoice they weren't kin.
"I'm yours already. And you're mine."
END
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