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 Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 2:49 pm
A large red body was traipsing down the surf, letting the brisk waves crash against her ankles, now strong enough to hold them. The fur had grown back thick on her pelt, thicker than it had been before and shinier than it had been since she was a cub. Even the scars that had littered her body seemed to have faded a touch, though they still riddled and marred her entire frame.
Khepri was a living testament to survival all by one's self. Her tarnished golden eyes had seen more than she cared to speak of, her paws had walked over more ground than many would in a lifetime of travles. Yet through all the walking, through all the inadvertant fights and crushing loneliness, Khepri had walked with the only knowledge that she would one day be rid of the voices in her mind.
Three years had come and gone on the savannah, the voices were not gone. In fact they weren't even quieter, merely forgotten and ignored. Her life had taken on a new meaning and she was more than happy to forget the voices that awashed in her memories, horrendous and glib.
Now her mate and her children were her life, were her fondest moments and memories. They were the reason she got up in the morning, the reason she fell asleep at night so swiftly. It was because of her three men that she was so happy.
Yet that happiness came at a price. All three were members of the pride they lived in.... but Khepri was not. At least not yet.
Since she'd come to the pride she'd not seen the one lion that could allow her to become a member. Now she was walking down the surf with this one purpose. She would ask any lion she saw where he was, but she had to see the King again. It was horrible, but Khepri had been in such a horrible state when she'd come that she couldn't remember the name of her own king, but she asked anyway.
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 8:39 am
 Khepri's searching would not be in vain. Tambuzi was patrolling the lands he called home, even though he had made efforts to get guards. They were the first positions in the pride he had wanted to fill. And yet...there was always something satisfying in doing it himself as well. Part of it was the almost constant admiration for where they, his family, had chosen as home. It never ceased to make him smile, bring to him a sense of peace and pride.
It was from atop a small boulder that Tambuzi saw Khepri's blazing form wandering the beach. Of course, with the occurence of flame-pelted lions on his shores, he couldn't be sure who it was actually. It greatly amused him that such lions found the sea attractive.
He hopped down from his boulder and took a few steps on the sands, making himself visible to the other.
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 7:48 pm
The large lioness had stopped in her tracks just as Tambuzi walked out into the open, but her eyes weren't on him. Her tarnished golden eyes were roaming out across the crashing waves of the ocean and her mind on memories of making walks in search of something, though that had been different. Now she found what it was she wanted and she wasn't going to let someone say she was less of a lioness and couldn't join because of her fur.
Slowly the fur on the back of her neck and shoulders rose in the memory of how she'd been turned away from the Ela for her red fur. Kota had explained Tambuzi's reservations to her when she'd begun to feel better and though she'd had two healthy cubs, though she had a mate who was loyal, Khepri was the only one in her family that wasn't a member.
It grated her beyond reason. Once more she was going through it and her greatest fear was to be turned away with an apology and the explination that her fur was just too 'red' for her to be accepted into a pride.
Would she have to leave Kota? Would she have to leave her sons?
Every one of her thoughts hinged on her finding Tambuzi and putting them to rest, either in her leaving or in a new life in the pride. A second chance. They were so rare that to even have the thought of having a second chance at life was a blessing to her, even if Khepri was forbidden from it once again.
Closing her eyes for a breif moment, the red lioness eased the beating of her insistant heart and let the water lap at her ankles, the wind at her sides. She would be fine, Khepri had been through far worse, had lived through many fights she hadn't wanted and many lonely, cold nights when another lion would have broken and gone back home. Except that her home didn't want her either.
Finally her eyes opened once more and she began to put one strong paw before the other. Yet as her gaze scanned the beach around her those strong paws froze. Another lion had come into view, though his intentions were unknown to her. It didn't appear as if he were a threat, not with the size or with his body language, yet she'd grown up by herself and wary of others. Naturally she was welcoming, but welcoming and reserved could sometimes go hand in hand.
"'ow goes it cousin?" Khepri called out after a moments hesitation, "Enjoyin' yo'r day?"
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 9:42 am
"Indeed I am. Yourself ma'am?" he returned politely, nodding his head in greeting.
Wow. A rather intimidating lioness, if only because she loomed over poor Tambuzi. He smiled at her, but it was slightly tight - he never knew how to handle larger lions. Still, aside from the firey pelt seen on many other lions here, there was something familiar about her...oh that was it!
"...do you know Kota by any chance?" he asked with careful pauses.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 7:44 pm
Both of her ears pricked forward. So this was a male that knew her mate? Maybe it was one of his friends within the pride he boasted of so often. Relief and relaxation enveloped Khepri's form and she sat down on the ground before the other lion, her white toes curling in the sand. A friend of her mate was at least someone she could trust in this pride where she was unsure of anything else.
"Well now, are yo' one o' 'is frien's?" Khepri said, an easy smile spreading over her gentle muzzle. "Kota's mah mate."
Maybe the smaller male before her was a good friend of his? Maybe one of the first he made when he came to this place? The idea of Kota making a good friend like this right after the two of them split up that first time made her heart spring up a little. Maybe he hadn't been so lonely then?
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 1:21 pm
It lightened his heart to see Khepri sit before him, it was a sign she was a little more relaxed. Although, he could see why she would feel a little unsettled. He couldn't imagine what it was like to be burdened with a reputation based solely on pelt colour.
"Well, I should hope so. I met him when he came here, he's a good member of the pride. And if I'm not mistaken...I do think I've met you before as well. I think you were very ill at the time though, you might not remember me," he spoke in soft, fatherly tones.
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Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 6:03 am
Searching the other with tarnished eyes, Khepri tried to imagine where she might have seen him before in her life. Had they met up in her travels? She'd met so many lions while her paws had strayed across the savannah looking, searching in vain for something that wasn't to be.
Crossing and uncrossing her eyes as she thought, Khepri wracked her brain. She'd seen so many faces while she'd traveled that they'd all started to meld together and become a mass of faces, of voices, of memories. Of course a few stood out, like Pona and Kota, others like Terror and Bodaway stuck out because of what they'd done to and for her. Terror had scarred her beyond what a normal lioness was scarred, a mesh of thin silver lines that stood out beneath too short fur; Bodaway had brought her home after she'd helped him find his own.
Memories filtered through the part of her brain that had closed them off one by one, keeping her sane mind from having to deal with them for the pain they brought her.
"Tambuzi." She said at last, her tarnished golden eyes settling back on him and the edges of them crinkling in an amused smile. "Ah was 'opin' Ah'd be able ta fin' yo' today."
Was she supposed to bow? Was she supposed to lay down? Kota hadn't explained any of this to her and her mind couldn't remember what she'd done in the presence of others in the Firekin. She'd been too young when she'd left to have any customs stamped into her mind and body, though the Firekin were far beyond any of that. Theirs was brutal, savage. Surely this place, so close to the peaceful sea that she could swim whenever she wished, could wash the blood of the past from her fur, had to be far more kind than what it was like on the sand so far away.
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:10 am
The king smiled, and appreciated how difficult it might be for the lioness to be made to remember an obscure face. He probably wouldn't be able to. He bowed his head to her in a formal greeting.
"Well, you've found me. I'm not hard to spot these days though," he chuckled.
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:51 pm
Smiling gently, Khepri returned the bowed head, making sure to bow hers deeper than Tambuzi's own. It wasn't like her to imply anything by her actions, though she was desperately lacking in formal code and manners. Afraid that she would come across unlearned, Khepri trained her body to do the same sorts of things his did, except furthering them as she did.
She had to learn some time.
"'s a shame righ'. Life gets i'self up in o'r ways." She smiled the same gentle smile, the same smile that had seen too much, had been too stressed and used in her life. It was paired with the eyes that were almost haunted in the ways they peered ahead.
Eyes that had seen more than they'd bargained for.
"Truth be told... Ah was 'opin' ta talk to yo' abou' yo're pride."
Shyness moved into her voice at last.
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Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 6:49 am
"Well, feel free to talk," he offered a smile, aware o the great weight she must have carried with her. The fatigue in her smile, the torment in her eyes...these weren't ignored by Tamba but instead passed over for her better qualities.
He liked to think he'd never been prejudiced to any lion for their pelt colour, especially here. And he wasn't about to start now.
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:31 am
Looking at her large white paws, Khepri debated what she should say, what she should ask. Should she walk around it for a bit?
No. That wasn't how Khepri approached things at all. She knew herself better than anyone of course, though sometimes she wished she didn't know herself quite that well. No, she didn't dance around her questions, she always spoke bluntly even if it was cruel.
"Mah mate an' mah cubs belon' 'ere... Ah was 'opin' maybe.... maybe Ah coul' join as well? Ah don' kno' all tha' Ah'd 'ave t' do, bu' if yo' needed meh t' prove myself some'ow? Ah'd be willin' t' give it mah best shot. Ah 'aven' belonged anywhere in... years. It's abou' time Ah finally settled mahself down rather than walk anymore. 'specially wit' two boys now." Khepri said bluntly, closing her eyes at the last statement.
Her sons could run her ragged sometimes, especially Vuai with his pirate aspirations. She was proud of them, but if they calmed down some it would do her good as well.
Slowly she watched Tambuzi, careful of any reactions that he might have that would tell her of his thoughts... that would tell her if he was even willing to have a lioness like herself in his pride.
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:15 am
Tambuzi almost found it painful to watch the poor lioness struggle with her request. It shouldn't be this hard to approach him, although he supposed that it happened with any lion who had to ascend to a leader position.
"You'd be welcome here, your family have already shown great compassion for this land. I can't see any reason why you;d be any different," he smiled at her. "You'll have to do your part for the pride, in order to enjoy this land's bounty, but I doubt you're afraid of pridal living."
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Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 5:10 pm
Khepri's heart leapt in her large white chest and a smile settled over her weary face, even her toes seemed to wriggle in the sand with her joy for the whole situation. She was accepted someplace at last. Not only that but told she would be welcomed by the king himself, something that left her at peace for the first time in years.
"Thank yo' so much. Yo' 'ave no idea wha' this means t' meh." Her tarnished golden eyes welled up a bit as she spoke, making her voice thicker than normal. The large red lioness rubbed at her eyes almost agitatedly with a large paw and smiled at him once again. "Ah promise Ah'll work as 'ard a' wha'ever yo' wan' meh to do as Ah can."
Finally she had a place where she could lay her head down and know that she was not only accepted but welcomed. It was the first place in years that she could say was willing to have such an outlook towards her and suddenly the tears welled over in her eyes and spilled down her face from the simple happiness that she was welcome somewhere at last.
Wait until she told 'Kota, he'd be excstatic that she'd been brought in.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:41 pm
Wow, he'd seen some lions be happy for acceptance before, but this was new. His heart truly felt for Khepri, and even though he couldn't possibly understand her troubles and strife and evertyhing she had come through to get here, he just somehow KNEW how much it meant to her.
"You're welcome," he nodded his shaggy head. "I'll have a word with my daughter, but you'll most likely be a huntress, you look very experienced."
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:29 am
It felt like every muscle in her large body wanted to run down through the waves until she found Kota so she could tell him and let him be as happy as she was. So that he could feel just how fast her heart was beating at that moment and understand as only he did at times.
However the lioness forced herself to watch Kota carefully so she wouldn't miss a word that he said, though her face was threatening to split in half with the smile that had spread over her usually gruff face. Huntress? Of course she could do that, it was how she'd fed herself for so many years by herself.
Bowing her head so deeply that her ears nearly touched the ground, Khepri allowed her chest to swell up under his praise and tried to tell her giddy mind that it may not last. She was just too happy to listen to that sensible part of herself that may or may not have been right.
"Ah'll hunt mah 'eart ou' for yo' if yo'd like meh to." Khepri told him in as serious a voice as her overflowing heart could manage at the moment. "Ah know Ah was lookin' fo' yo' Mah Lord, bu'... Ah need t' speak with Kota... 'e 'as t' kno'." Her heart fluttered quickly and heavily in her chest. "If yo'll forgive meh for one disrespec'ful move..."
Standing quickly and bowing deeply once more, Khepri took off down the shoreline at a pace most lions would never reach. Even over the sand she ran as fast as her huge heart would allow her towards her mate, a whoop of joy escaping from the gruff lioness' muzzle.
She was so happy she could dissipate into the wind.
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