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 Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 7:58 pm
 Sefu squinted off into the distance and shook off a paw in annoyance. Today had been a long day, and her feet were starting to blister up. Even if she'd been going on this sort of adventure for some time now, new terrain could open up old wounds and chafe her paw-pads. It had been her fault for starting out so early.
Letting out a yawn, she settled onto her haunches. Eyes went scanning this way and that on the search for anything threatening. The sounds that came back to her were mostly benign. The prey, however, was on just as much alert as she was.
There were likely larger groups of lions in the area. Prey was never so alert otherwise.
The only real question was: friendly or not?
Stifling another yawn and the sound that came with it, Sefu was to her feet once more. Despite the pain, there was a chance for a respite not too far before continuing. A small outcropping of rocks with one, lonely, barren tree was beckoning to her.
Casting caution to the wind, Sefu half limped, half dragged her way over to it. She stopped only once to get rid of a nasty itch at the base of her belly.
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Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 8:34 am
 Mel was humming and dancing as she walked, her green eyes keeping a eye out for the plants her brother had sent her out for. The border she was at was the 'safe' one. Kaimelar had heard of the great lionesses o the other side of it...the powerful Amazons the Mwezi was frieds with.
What caught her eye, however, made her start. A lioness limping along, and then stopping. The sand-colored adolescent trotted forward more quickly. What was the warning the Mwezi used again...ah yes! She'd recite it AFTER she knew the lioness was okay.
"Ma'am? Are...are you alright?" Mel was genuinely worried. The larger lioness didn't look like a demon, and...well, Mel wasn't one to hate others. Not easily.
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Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:28 pm
Sefu paused mid-scratch and turned her head as she heard the footsteps quicken and head her way.
Alarm crossed her brow and her fur bristled up. It wasn't until the tan and brightly maned lioness started to speak that relief set back in. The previously worried Sefu gave a sigh and her whole body settled back into relaxation once more.
She'd met a great deal of unfriendly rogues, and even more unfriendly pridemembers, on this insane travel-hungry adventure of hers. Still, she couldn't stop now. Home was a long way away, and there was no sense in suddenly going back at this point.
She squinted and stretched as the lioness asked her worried question. "Fine, really. Just tired," she answered with a light smile and a glance in the tan-colored's direction. Sefu had learned that it helped to smile and be friendly, and at least try to have a conversation.
"Was just going to go catch some shut-eye at that rock grouping over there. It's not. . . forbidden, is it?" The idea suddenly occured to her that it just might be.
It was going to be another long walk to find another location that wasn't taken.
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:45 am
Mel shook her head. "It's not forbidden but..." She smiled sadly. "I'm afraid I do have to warn you." She quickly gathered up everything that was supposed to be in the warning in her mind. "These are the lands of the Mwako'bi'Giza, and though myself and the other pride members are a good lot, we were founded to fight the demons north of us. There is no telling when the safety of this pride might be breached." She chuckled nervously. "It's my first time giving the warning...so it's not as pretty as the pride's leader makes it."
Mel held a great deal of awe and respect for the Mwezi. It was hard not to admire the strong lioness. "But...I think...it's safe enough on this side of the pride. If something does happen, there's an allied pride not more than a half-day from here that is well protected by its pridal lands." The adolescent had never been there herself...but she'd heard the stories.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:33 pm
Well, good. She was going to pick herself up and head over to that rock right now.
"Huh?" she paused right before she went to get back to her feet again. Oh. A warning. Of course. Sefu let herself settle again. This would either be a really long warning, or a really short warning.
"I don't intend to stay long," Sefu defended, and then realized that it sounded a little stuck-up and unempathetic to the members here. "Ah, no, it was a good warning. It got the point across and didn't confuse me." She grinned. This one was easy to talk to, unlike a lot of other ones she'd come across. It was weird to be able to say so much with so much ease.
Sefu shrugged it off. "Allies, huh?" she said, looking off into some random direction that might not have led to the place at all. "I think we had some of those in the Pride Lands. Not that we needed any. It's practically a massive army by itself."
Her train of thought back into the current, she glanced back over at her newfound companion. Manners found her once more. Man, she was really bad at them. Her grammar and speech-patterns had gone to s**t, too. Too many rogues, she realized with a grin.
"So what's with these demons?" she asked and finally got to her feet. She started to walk and then paused. "Did you want to come with me? I aint got anyone else to talk to."
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Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:06 am
Mel smiled, a soft expression. She rather liked this rogue...not that she'd really met many, and they'd ended up joining the pride..."I can accompany you. I'm not an Asikari, so I don't need to stay on the borders." Asikari...now that Mel thought about it, they needed more of them. Or did they even have any? She'd talk with the Mwezi about it later.
"Our allies are the Antianeira...they're all female, and most of their male cubs get fostered here. And if one of our girls chooses to, they can go there." Moto had told the story many times to the young ones...the Mwezi believed that even after she and Kiuma passed on, the string that bound the prides together should stay strong.
Mel frowned when the stranger asked about the demons. "They...they are mostly a cruel lot. They hurt and kill, steal cubs, enslave others..." She shivered. "But some are redeemable. We...we have a few redeemed ones in our midst. The pride...it was created to fight those demons who are beyond redemption, and help those who can be redeemed."
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 9:05 pm
Sefu was left wondering just was an Asikari was. By the way that the lioness spoke of them, it seemed that they were border guards of some sort. When you had a devil-pride ready to sink its teeth into your hide, Sefu thought it was a might good idea they had border guards.
She kept her footsteps slow. Partly because she was tired, and partly because she felt no reason to make a contest out of walking to a rock where she was to merely sit anyway. "An all female group?" Sefu asked quizically looking towards the direction Mel had looked off earlier. She was about to ask about the males when the lioness went off explaining once more.
She didn't even have to ask questions; it was nice. Feeling the need, Sefu offered a smile as her companion started to fill her in.
As she talked, however, Sefu's features slowly distorted into a frown and a bit of disbelief. Redemption. . . it sounded like such a beautiful thing. She felt like she needed redeeming, but for what she could not discern.
"They sound strange," she said as it was the first thing that came to her mind. With a half-confused and almost pitied look back towards Mel, she added, "And terrifying."
How noble of them to work for redemption. It was a trait she'd never had: To look for the good in everyone no matter the cause. "What causes them to be that way?" Growing up in a crazy, but still loving family of five other siblings, she had known nothing but love even if it had been distant at times. This idea. . . was unfathomable.
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 9:32 pm
Mel shivered. "They are. It...it makes me glad the Mwezi teaches that not all in the pride are suited for the roles that directly fight or redeem." She smiled, a bit nervously. "I'm going to be a Mlisha, a caretaker, when I'm an adult. So those with young needn't worry about their little ones." A little peace of mind went a long way. "And my brother Kai is going to be a Mfuma, a healer, so those who can't fight know their loved ones will be okay." She and Kai had figured it out when they were still very young.
She saddened a bit at Sefu's question. "The Mwezi says there is another voice, another soul inside them. One that whispers bad, dark things. I think...maybe it's something that's grown over generations. A...a pain in the blood, and a knowledge of nothing else."
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 9:48 pm
That's right. They were both young, weren't they? From the looks of this young lioness, she did not seem entirely as though she were as young as she claimed to be. When you lived in a world of stress and demonds, age would come quickly.
Sefu vaguely wondered how well she'd aged. She imagined herself to have toned out with sleek muscle and maybe a kind smile. She would have liked a kind smile. If this pride had a large body of water, she'd ask to stop and see her reflection.
"A healer, really?" Sefu's eyes brightened. The rock was closer now. There would soon be respite for her tired, aching paws. "It sounds like such a weird thing for a lion to do since we spend so much time hunting things to stay alive." Her voice was a bit distant as she settled on the rock and its gorgeous, beautiful, wonderful tree towered above her. This was going to be a nice night.
The voice bit jerked her attention. Hard. "Voices. I know about voices. I haven't heard them, but. . . it's happened a few times. With a huge pride, you see things. A few lions would go insane saying they'd heard 'voices'. Sometimes it would just be screaming and yelling, and you could do nothing but cry for them at night. Other times it would send them into murdering their own cubs. I don't know what we did with them. I've seen a rogue like it, too. He'd gone passed the voices and into the the path of 'understanding'. I tried not to stay long."
Another pause as she thought about it. "So, you can get rid of the voice through redemption? Or do they always have that other soul living inside of them that they have to tame?" It would have been awful to live like that. She swallowed the bile that had grown in her throat and mixed with the dust.
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 10:01 pm
The sandy lioness settled beside the rock. "Well...perhaps it is not so weird? After all, everything has to balance out somehow." She smiled now. "We harm...but we also heal. We destroy...but we also create. An endless circle where we go through each part...and if we stay in just on part, the circle breaks and we aren't quite...whole." Perhaps that's why Miss Dogo was so attached to Miss Luta and Mister Nima'baha both. They completed her. And her mother to her father. They couldn't be whole alone...but together they were.
"I'm not sure, about the voices. I think it can go both ways. For some, the voices disappear. For others, they are always fighting against them." The stories Sefu told, of the insane ones in her pride...they made Mel think. What if someone in the Mwako'bi'Giza fell?
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Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 3:02 pm
Sefu wrinkled her nose. She wouldn't have called it 'creating'. It was more like a mad sex run that lions confused for 'love' half the time. Not that she had any idea what love was, either, but she was sure it wasn't doing that and running around with huge litters of half cared for cubs. Then again, it could be that she was still bitter.
Not bothering a vocal retort, she let out a sigh instead and nodded in absence. Regardless of the reasons, this lion's brother was a healer and there was some reasoning for it. Perhaps the female's word had some truth.
"I wonder what it's like to never get lonely, but always hate your company," she said. Her voice was distant and trailed off at the end.
So distracted was she with all of this pestering, she'd completely forgotten the first rule her mother had told her when meeting someone new. "Uh. . ." she said with a nervous smile and a glance towards the companion. "I'm Sefu, by the way."
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:52 pm
Sefu's words jolted Mel from her rather dark thoughts. "I...suppose it may get...well, more lonely than being alone. Because you wouldn't be able to trust your company. And...trust is what makes us not alone when we're with others." The sandy lioness trusted her pride. So there...she was never lonely. And something about this lioness was trustworthy too.
And at the introduction, Mel realized she'd never given her name. A slight pink tinge crossed her fur. "I'm Kaimelar...but most just call me Mel." She smiled calmly, the embarrassment fading away.
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Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:40 pm
Sefu thought about this for a moment. They were big words coming from a little lion. Had she made them up herself, was it something she truly believed in, or had she heard it from another?
The pink tinge on the other lioness' fur was new. To be quite honest, Sefu had never seen a lion blush before. It caused her to grin in a bit of a nervous fashion.
"Nice to meet you, then, Kaimelar," she answered. For a while, at least, she would prefer to use the lioness' full name. It felt much more proper, and since she had been so hospitable, Sefu felt it necessary to remain proper.
After a while she looked out into the dimming sunlight and stretched her paws. "Is it very lonely right now?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:55 pm
It felt a little weird, being called by her full name. But Mel didn't mind. Better the other was comfortable, rather than awkward. Or...more awkward.
"Right now? No. You see, I have you to keep me company! And later...I have my family. And my brother Kaimel...no matter where I am, he is in my heart." Her dear little brother, that she had watched over as they grew, and now watched over her when she hurt herself. Her look to Sefu changed a little, becoming questioning.
"What of you, Sefu? Are you lonely?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 8:12 pm
At the sound of brothers, she wrinkled her nose. She'd left those behind at home, and frankly, good riddance. They weren't bad people, but of course they weren't. Still, every child would have their rebel.
"Me?" she asked with a very strange look.
"No." But she'd never found somewhere she wanted to stay, all the same.
And why should she be lonely? There were more than enough hospitable lions on her travels, and more than enough mean ones to go around as well.
The funny thing was? She never missed one. Not one. She thought about her family from time to time, but she never missed them. Perhaps it was odd, and she wondered if when she left this lioness after a day or two of resting, if she'd miss her. Logically, the answer was probably not.
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