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 Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:23 pm
Leboya rather liked having someone to take care of again. While the lion she had come across was by no means her child or even young enough to be from her womb, the dark male was refreshing to her.
Not in a romantic manner by any means, but in a way that he was someone who needed her to take care of him. So she had been. Certainly stretching her legs and getting out and away from the pridelands hadn't been a horrible thing, as she hadn't headed towards the ocean in some time...
....
But somewhere back behind her she knew that her dark colored daughter was trailing along behind her to make sure that she wasn't about to fall over.
Really.. sometimes Marty just treated her mother as though she was old as dirt. Not horrible, but still amusing on a very special note.
However, there was still something nagging in her saying she should have stayed back in her den.. the only reason she'd really stayed there as long as she had: What if her wayward child, by some chance still alive, wandered back towards the 'home' that she had known before vanishing to find her?
Oh the worry that lingered in the brightly colored lioness's heart as she sat out in the sun, enjoying it's rays as her cublike companion slept on.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:44 pm
... She was growing weary of this life.
Not life in general, per se, but the way things were now: the loneliness, the solitude, the scraping by from day to day. It was exhausting and disheartening, and to be perfectly honest Lesedi was on the urge of just... giving up, for lack of anything better to do.
To a point she'd cursed her survival instincts; juveniles wandering on their own shouldn't have been able to make it like she had... but no, she'd been lucky enough to wander into the territory of a charitable pride who payed no mind to the little straggler fishing lobsters out of their coastal rock pools, and somehow in her clumsiness she'd even fished enough to live on, growing into the skin of a weathered, beaten mess of bird bones and wiry muscle as the months passed.
... Thinking back on it as she sat in the border's grass-- not quite as lush as she longed for, but not stabbingly crunchy either-- and watching a herd of antelope straggle by, the lioness seemed to be off in a daze. She could see a few potential targets-- a couple of newborns, some old thing with a broken horn and a limp-- but the drive to hunt just wasn't really there anymore, either.
So she just rested her chin on her paws instead and watched them all go by.
Sigh.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:54 pm
Leboya too had noticed the herdbeast romping out in the grass, her eyes half-lidded in thought of 'To go hunt one down for Tipwa when he wakes up or not to'. But eventually the blinding lioness had risen to her feet and slowly made her way out into grasses, ducking down into the semi-dried stalks to settle.
Certainly while she didn't blend in, Leboya hadn't lived as long as she had for no reason!
Nope.. she'd set her sights right on that old boy with the limp. Longer life meant there was more to the muscle and the limp meant that a brightly colored lioness such as herself could catch up with him. She wasn't old and bonesey yet!
And here was to hoping she would never be.
A moment's pause in the grass, and then Leboya was out in the grass, scattering the herd (here was to hoping Lesedi wasn't trampled) with a loud noise of distress following several minutes after.
And then silence, the lioness sitting with the dead best before she took a hold on it and started to drag it off.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:15 pm
Considering was a SORE THUMB Lebby was, sticking out in the grass with all her blinding purpleness, it was rather impressive that she could still hunt so well... Hell, even Lesedi had suffered more than one spoiled hunt over her bright back tentacles being seen, though at least the rest of her was a bit more workably neutral...
Funny, though, that she really should have noticed that creeping silhouette in the grass... except that she didn't, so lost in whatever milky-eyed reverie that it wasn't until the THUNDERING OF HOOVES started up that she came to, just in time to see-- O SHI!!--
Once again it was the wretched survival instincts that kicked in to save her from getting trampled, reeling to her feet and letting loose a god-awful ROAR to split the antelope in either direction of herself. There, crisis (and injury) averted, but what in the world had driven them into th-- ...
...................
Okay, she was hallucinating. Sadly it wasn't even a 'new' concept to her either, but the sight of a blurry four-legged purple something dragging its kill across the grass ground her brain to a dead halt. She'd only ever seen one lion-- nay, one ANIMAL-- that color in her entire life, but it still couldn't... it wasn't... No no no, she was LOSING HER MIND.
But at the same time, she couldn't look away from the hallucination either, just STARED at it in a state of complete transfixion and waiting for it to vanish somehow.
... Why wasn't it vanishing, though?
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:35 pm
Now was that how one reacted to seeing their own mother? Well, if they were Lesedi, apparently so. But Lebby was more than happy to find herself a tree to stash her kill in until her companion would wake (as hyena's eating her efforts would have been a waste), before scrambling back down the tree and stretching.
Okay...well...
HMMMM. Seemed that Lebby now had rid herself of anything to get done. She certainly wasn't hungry at the time being, as she could go several days without feeding (a way for all lions who weren't horribly pregnant or young), but perhaps some water would have been a go.
Yes, actually, that did sound like a mighty fine idea to Leboya who was already up and crossing through the same hunting grounds once again, holding herself up as proudly as ever.
Which wasn't so much, actually. Nope, she was a good humble mother-lioness who didn't need to show off her pretty and BRIGHT to the world. They saw it already.
Now... which way towards water?
Nope.... She still wasn't vanishing!
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:52 pm
She couldn't hold back the urge to blink any longer as her eyes started to sting, briefly doing so and opening them back up with every expectation to find that the image had vanished, except...
... except that it didn't. No, somehow, the hallucination had withstood a blink intact, and so Lesedi gingerly tried another, then another, and even a fourth-- stunned and shocked to discover that the color was still there. God, she just had to be losing her mind... or maybe it was some side-effect of her pitiful eating habits? Starvation cannibalizing her brain?
But now the image of her mother was starting to move away off in some direction (was it seeking water?) and the lioness, in a moment of overwhelming panic that dragged her right back to childhood, began to pursue, lagging along in the not-so-crunchy grass to try and keep sight of it.
Even if it was nothing but a figment of her imagination, she didn't want to lose her again! Not before she dissolved or vanished the same way everything else did, anyway...
In fact, the desperation had forced her to into a near run, paws and tail all quivering with excitement and nervousness and horror.
Was this Momm--- ... Mother? Really? Was there any possible way?...
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:16 pm
And like any good animal of the savannah, her ears rolled back towards the sound of paws following along after her. Nope, too light to be Tipwa's, nor was there any calling for 'mom' (as she had found herself taking the role of), so she had to presume that it was a stranger.
The antelope returning to their grazing grounds, perhaps.
Yes, she'd attribute it to that for now, as she was fully aware that there were no lions she'd pissed off in the last MONTH, at least as far as she knew (Oh what if she had?), just meandering on slowly before she finally found what it was she was seeking out:
Water.
Which it was only once she was there she stole a glance behind her, pausing mid-thought before she'd fully looked back behind her and indeed took in who it was following along behind her: Leboya would never forget the face of one of her own, afterall. Not even the name.
Such a good mother.
"Lesedi..."
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:12 pm
Ohgod. Ohgod ohgod ohgodohgodithadactuallyspoken. The hallucination that looked like her mother had opened its mouth and actually spoken something intelligible and that intelligible thing was her NAME and...
Lesedi's heart almost stopped right then. Her steps certainly did, freezing with one paw already raised off the ground-- which dropped back onto the dirt as if in slow motion-- and just continuing to stare at the thing in disbelief. So it wasn't a trick of her own mind? This was really really real?
"M..." Dammit, work, voice, WORK. Why was it cracking when she'd just gotten off a good ROAR minutes ago? "... Mother? I-Is that... I mean... a-are you..."
In a perfect happy display of 'OMG WE'RE REUNITED AT LAAAST' she probably should've been racing forward to BLINDSIDE Leboya with love, but for some reason the younger lioness couldn't bring herself to move...
... Or keep her ears from pressing against her skull.
....... Or hold eye-contact any longer because they'd started STINGING and something told her to hide it.
"Are you really there?..."
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:37 pm
OGOD, OGOD HER BABY WAS BROKEN!
Okay, so Leboya wasn't exactly panicked over Lesedi's lack of proper response at the given time, but the brightly colored lioness was more than happy to sidle over next to the younger lioness and purr, starting on the one task that no child liked to suffer:
Grooming.
The side and back of her neck and cheek to be exact. Oh her poor little baby girl! She looked all scraggly and like she hadn't eaten properly in a good amount of time!
No matter, mother would be fixing that little problem in a jiffy. No child under Leboya's den would be malnourished while she was taking care of them! Lord, she was such a mother hen, having to make sure her little darlings were well taken care of.
"Come now, child, is that how you apologize to your mother for worrying her sick and distressed?"
To the point of making it so Marty had to feed HER less Leboya never eat? Truely, Marty had been a big pain in the butt, what with 'YOU EAT OR I DON'T EAT :
But thank god for that.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:53 pm
And now the hallucination that apparently wasn't hallucinogenic at all had sat down and started grooming her... just like a mother-- no, just like her mother-- would.
God, it was so hard for her brain to wrap around. She wanted nothing more than to give in to the obvious evidence that, yes, this WAS something reality and yet... it still seemed so ridiculously farfetched and impossible and she just couldn't STAND the thought of giving in only to find that it had all been a wistful dream leading her on... again...
So she just sat there for the better part of a good two minutes, still as a statue, and let herself be groomed. No reciprocation, no speaking, no eye contact as the feeling slowly sunk in until--
Click!
... Until it all suddenly snapped together and some magic switch flipped in her brain, prompting the veritable statue of a lioness to shudder and burst into tears, shoving her face into Leboya's shoulder and practically BAWLING like a frightened cub. Which was exactly how it felt.
"I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I-I didn't--" ... And that was about as much of it was coherent, too. Probably the same thing over and over again.
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:43 am
Annnnnnnd there it went! Leboya was pondering how long it would take her child to register 'OHAE, THIS CAN HAS BE MOM AND NOT SOMETHING ELSE' and start responding as she would have suspected. Though it seemed first off she'd have to fix the sobbing little lioness.
Only after some more grooming of course. Lesedi just hadn't taken proper care of her fur! Then again, she'd probably been focusing on keeping her little booty alive. Which mother was ever so grateful for. Afterall, Leboya was perfectly capable of repairing all the other ailments that had struck the girl.
Like the coat, and the underfed, and the 'I MISS MOMMY'.
"Child, the only thing you need to let your mother know is that you're still alive. I lost a lot of hope after you and Mtembei left..." Certainly Mtembei had gone off with his father, a topic that would probably be skirted around in a bit, "But first Mtembei returns to me, and then you.
There is nothing more I could ask for."
And no little litter of guppies while she was away! Good she wasn't just replacing her little ones until she got their general snapshot back.
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 1:55 pm
"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm s..." The garbled apologies went on and on for a good two of three minutes into Leboya's shoulder, her distressed daughter listening as best she could with one ear... but really, how much could any lion pick up on through that kind of wibbling and hysteria?
It was like trying to hear a radio announcement over a choking car engine with no muffler. Oy.
Buuut it seemed that all distressing things had to come to an end eventually, and Lesedi's pathetic sobbing finally trickled off to a more feeble whimper, then a choked silence. Good, good, she was sobering up again at last... and now it seemed like she could speak coherently too, clearing her throat and giving one last half-congested sniff.
"I'm sorry... It was stupid and regrettable..." What, thinking she was such hot stuff that she could go out on solitary adventures? Getting lost? Conceding to scrape by on the coast so damned long instead of trying to find her way back again once her starvation had been abated? "A-and Mtembei-- did he-- ... what of the others? And you?... I-- ... I'm so sorry..."
Aaand it was back to tears again. A lot quieter and more controlled, sure, but tears none the less.
Months of stress just had a way of building up like that.
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 2:29 pm
And mom just continued on purring as Lesedi sobbed into her shoulder, seeming to finally have gotten that one spot of fur all nice and cleaned up to her satisfaction. She'd have her daughter back to a beautiful shade of white yet! Who knew how soon 'yet' was, but still!
"Well, if you see Akasha in the future, you could always ask her about her son.. he's been growing into quite the little man."
The fact her GRANDSON was almost fully grown was actually saying something. Lordy lordy. Leboya was certainly an old lioness by all and any means. Not horribly so, but still on the older side. Two full grown litters and an almost fully grown grandchild by her second litter?
What was the world coming to?
"And Marty... well, she's been Marty.." she said vaguely, not exactly the king of mother to label her child a 'PSYCHO FREAK OF NATURE WHO WILL KEEK YER a** OR TRY', as she loved all of her children far too much to do that.
Besides, not like Marty was around to be anything more than what she was labelled.
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:01 pm
Aaand there went any fragile semblance of composure Lesedi had mustered once again, just sitting there stiffly and trying not to gape at the new information she'd just obtained on her siblings.
Okay, so Mtembei ran off with their father for some reason (god, that just brought her back to all the childhood antics of harassing the big lion, biting his tail, boasting she was stronger than him and so forth), and now Akasha was... good gods, she had cubs? Or a cub? Who was almost fully grown already? ... It wasn't a surprise that Marty had just been herself or anything, but...
It seemed more time had passed than even she realized.
"I-I can hardly believe that..." And yet she did. On that note... Lesedi was at the age where most lionesses would've already been settled down, cubs of their own, content in a pride or at least possessing the company of a mate or brethren... But no. "They've all grown up, h-haven't they..."
And she'd just been desperately scraping by and surviving by the skin of her teeth while they did.
"And what about you? ... Mother, how have you been?... What have I--" Missed, she wanted to say, but her voice crack first. No, too much in that word. It was too heavy.
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:31 pm
Well it was hard to imagine someone who in your mind was still a cub to be toting around a child that was soon to be old enough to go and romp in the world with whatever semblance of a mate they desired.
"You all have grown up." Leboya corrected. While she had no expectation of her children having to go and rough it in the wild for however long, one of them had done so and actually done rather well for themself.
Not AMAZINGLY. But well enough.
"Child, I've been worried sick. Between missing two of my children, one unexplicably, and Marty having to take over to make sure I took care of myself as well as her and Akasha, it's a surprise I've recovered myself in the least."
A gentle tone, as to not accuse poor little sobby Lesedi of anything, but to still enforce that yes, she had lost her disposition over worrying about her child.
"And now I have taken a poor lost soul under my paw and am taking the poor boy home. You would be more than welcome to come with us, Lesedi."
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