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Auri lay rather desolately in her cage, staring out over the waving grasses of the savannah. She didn't even know for sure... anymore ... how long they'd been traveling. Or why they had stopped in this place. There were no -walls- ... and there was nothing to hunt. Just dead meat that got thrown into the cages every few days. No one liked it... and some had gotten sick, or died from eating meat that had been sitting out too long and rotted. One of those had been her friend... another leopardess... and Auri was starting to wonder how long she would last in this horrible place.

The lion had spent many a week travelling far away from the heart of pride territories... so long he couldn't remember the way back and had long lost sight of any familiar landmarks or scent trails. He'd taken to traveling north, keeping the sun on his right, in the hopes of finding some way around that massive wasteland he'd accidentally stumbled through. Shaggy and parched for most of that trip, he'd thought he'd die there.... a dried out husk of a lion.

Carrion birds, however, had caught his attention and drawn him forward - where the birds were, there was meat and where there was meat, there was some hope of escape. True enough, several days after that meager meal, he'd finally spotted trees and an honest to goodness watering hole, not just a mud pot.

In the lands of Egypt and Sudan, where many colonies had sprung up. So far out of native territory, he was alone and weak, vulnerable.

Vulnerable indeed, for he'd been spotted by the locals a few days prior - a rare find in the area - and reported to the local collector in the hopes of being paid. Gold and gems held much weight and soon enough, he'd be hunted and captured, thrown in a cage with a wounded paw and left to roar in confusion and anger at the strange creatures that had caught him.

When his wildness only scared the creatures and not the bars away, he rumbled and growled and hissed and curled up, tail flicking angrily. He didn't like these walls... and it seemed he wasn't the only to have been eaten by them.

Auri noticed the new arrival rather quickly ... who didn't? He was loud for one thing, and defiant - which none of them really were anymore. She seen lions before, back 'home', but they had been small things, and definitely not that color ... they'd been some of the first to die on the trip, actually.

Still... something in her stirred at the way he roared and flew at the bars for several hours. So ... once it got dark, she called to him softly, "What's your name..? "

He'd be gnawing angrily on a haunch of meat they'd thrown /at/ him, pretending the flesh was their scrawny limbs. "Hmph." He growled, eyes flashing a reflective gold in the starlight as he glanced at her, "Why?"

Auri blinked slightly and shrunk back a little. It wasn't -her- fault he was in here... "Because... I ... I'm curious?" she tried, hesitantly. He seemed very violent, yet somehow, she knew that he wasn't angry at the rest of them... just the two-legs.

"Shouldn't be." He grumbled, turning about to face her, "Does my name matter? Why are you here? They catch you in a hidden hole too?" He glanced around, ears laid back.

Auri flinched slightly. "N-no... I've always lived in walls... but they were bigger, back ...home. Then they took us all away. A lot of the others died... "

He shifted, frowning, "Always lived in walls? Died? A plague? Famine?" It wasn't unheard of for many a creature to fall prey to the harshness of the savannah, only the strong survived, "You're a survivor then. Why'd they need me?" He growled, tail lashing. He'd been minding his own business!

"No... not really..." Auri said slowly. "Just... they got sick, from bad meat." Encouraged a little bit, she sat up, and tilted ears toward him. "Don't eat anything if it smells bad!"

Taonga's expression flattened and he arched a brow, "Why thank-you. I've hunted for myself nearly all my life, I think I know that by now." Quirking his lips, he simply shook his head and settled back down as if to sleep, "Didn't you know that already?"

Auri's ears flattened back at that and she glared at him a bit. "Well. I was only trying to help, but if you're going to be that way, forget it," she said - tone gone haughty. Then she turned her back on him and lay down as well.

"Be that way?" He rumbled, tossing head, "You said you live in these walls... that your kin died from bad meat. I've never been inside bars, or been forced to eat rotting meat. I came from out there." He pointed at he horizon, gaze hard, "Didn't you? Don't you miss it?"

"I don't remember it if I did," Auri replied, obviously still mad at the other. "What's so great about it anyway? Isn't it hard to live like that?"

"Only if you can't find food." He replied, tossing his head and turning away from her with a huff, "There are no walls. I can go whever I want... and these stupid two-legs are prey, not predator. Freedom."

Auri huffed softly at that. "I -know- that they're prey... sometimes the ones in charge send others ones inside the walls so we can eat them. Or... they used to anyway."

"They're barely a meal!" He replied, astounded by her claim, "A waterbuck... a gazelle, even an elephant if you can bring a young one down. Good meals. Last for a few days. You hunt those? They're much better then them."

She turned at that, frowning. "A what..?" Auri asked, obviously confused. She didn't exactly know the -names- of the creatures they let go inside the walls for them to hunt, but she didn't think it was any of those things. "Deer... they called them. That's what we usually eat."

"Deer?" He wrinkled his nose at that. Didn't sound very good, "What's that?" And then his mouth caught up to his mind, "Wait. What? You've never had a gazelle? But... the hunt... running them down! The thump thump thump of your heart and theirs.... You /have/ hunted right?"

: "Of course!" she replied, glaring at him again. "The deer run! They have four feet... they just can't go outside the walls or anything...."

"But it's given to you. You don't go to it." He grumbled. "Such a boring life... have you wandered as far as you can see? To where the great light disappears and back? Seen an elephant graveyard? Pah. No walls for me." Sourly, he pawed at the bars, hoping they'd open.

Auri sighed and laid her head back down on her paws. "I don't even know what you're talking about," she muttered. "And they won't let you out now anyway so you better get used to not doing those things anymore."

He shook his head, "As soon as I can, I'm leaving. They'll screw up... somehow. And then I'm /gone/." He spoke with such vehemence it was hard to not believe him. Taonga would not be tamed and would not be caged, the wild thrummed in his blood too fiercely.

"But they don't ... screw up," she replied with a little shake of her head. "The only way out of one of these things is to be dead... then they take you and throw you ... o-over there," she murmured, tilting head toward a sort of pit off to one side. There were carrion birds of all sorts flocking around it, and a few hyenas sniffing around the edges.

"Really?" He perked, obviously intrigued by that. "They don't let you out any other time?" Taonga frowned, all he needed was an opening... that was all.

Auri shook her head at that. "No... " Then noticed the expression on the other's face. "What are you thinking...? You look... strange."

"I'm going to get out, that's what I'm thinking." He replied as he sighed and curled up, tail over nose. "I'll figure something out."

Auri frowned at that and eyed the other for a minute or two. Then she said, "Take me with you. When you go ... "

He blinked at that, taken totally by surprise, "W-what? Why?" Taonga shook his head as if to clear his ears, "You want come with /me/? Thought... thought you lived here."

"That doesn't mean that I like it..." she replied softly, ears flattening back for a moment. "I want to get out... I ... I want to see where the light disappears... and ... all the rest."

"Mmn. I'll think about it." He murmured as he sought sleep. She was an odd one, this leopard. "What's your name?"

"Auri'chanua..." she replied quietly. "It's...the only thing I really remember from before. What my mother named me..."

"Auri'chanua. Got it." He nodded absently as he drifted off into sleep. "'m Taonga."