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There was a rogue gazelle. It had found its way, unwisely, into the lush jungle of the Kizingo'Zaa pride lands, and stood grazing thoughtfully on a patch of graze. Lamya lurked nearby, accidentally downwind, and was preparing to leap out of the bushes at the thing.

She was hungry. If caught, it would feed her.

Hunting had never been her forte and poor Lamya was rather skinny because of it, but she improved everyday, and was hungry enough to put a very solid effort into acquiring this beast for herself today. She tested the ground with her claws, head low to the ground, and then exploded off of her hind feet. Into the grove she pounced, a flurry of black, lips curled backwards over her roaring mouth.

The gazelle was startled and its eyes widened with terror at the sight of the lion, but it hadn't a hope in the world of survival now. Lamya sank her teeth into the neck of the beast, used her weight to force it down. She yanked hard, and broke its neck in one fell swoop. Death was merciful in this insistence, and the creature twitched for only a moment before falling limp under her jaw.

Satisfied, proud of herself, the lioness sat down to eat.

Jua, or Mimi as he was once known, was out wandering across a pride he vaguely remembered the layout of looking for a specific lioness. He had a rather confusing couple of days, first meeting the dark colored lioness then a white lioness marked with blue. She had been really upset when he told her he didn't know her. But so had Lamya. He didn't understand. Who were these females and why was he so important to them?

He shook his head, he knew why he was important to Lamya, it was because she loved him. And he supposedly loved her. But he remembered none of it.

Still, he felt guilty for upsetting her. She seemed so upset by his statement and he wanted to apologize. And possibly start over, he was looking for her. Then he found her eating a kill. "Hey," he called almost nervously.

The voice made her start. Lamya looked up from her meal, with her ears folded back warily against her head. The Kizingo'Zaa lands were a peaceful place and Lamya was not actually a violent creature, but she was protective of her kill, and did not want to share with anyone she didn't like.

"Oh, its you," she observed coolly, still very much heartbroken over the things that had passed between them. With a sniff, Lamya turned away from Jua, and returned to her food.

When he did not go away, she sighed and looked up at him, muzzle rimmed with fresh blood; "What do you want?"

He found her attitude towards him very off-putting but he supposed that it couldn't be helped. It was natural to be upset when the person you loved rejected you. It wasn't something he had wanted to do but he didn't want her to keep believing in something he wasn't entirely sure was real or not. He sighed, his ears flattening against his skull. "Listen," he started with a frown. This wasn't going to be easy, he knew that much for sure. He wanted to apologize but he found it hard to even speak.

What were you supposed to say to the female who's heart you just broke? Or just someone you unintentionally hurt?

"I'm sorry," he blurted out quickly almost wincing as he spoke. "Look, I know I hurt you but I didn't mean to and I'm sorry and..." he spoke quickly, too quick in his hurry to get out all the words while he could. "And I didn't mean to hurt you, and I'm sorry and I wanna start over," he stated without taking a breath. He inhaled deeply. "Can we start over? Please?"

The frown on Jua's face did not help matters. Lamya, whose Muse often encouraged her to copy the actions and expressions of people she talked to, mirrored his expression with a scowl of her own.

"Listen," she mocked him in a sing-song voice, twittering like the birds in the trees.

Jua had just broken her heart and poor, skinny, crazy Lamya wasn't the sort of girl to just sit down and take it lightly. She was upset with him, and she wasn't co-operating.

But then he apologized, and her heart did a little backflip. Lamya stared at him for a very long time, breathing a little uneven, and she looked to be thinking very hard. And she was thinking very hard; about the things that he said, about the way that he wasn't her Mimi anymore, about the way that he had rejected her love.

When she spoke, her voice was an uncertain murmur; "We can… start over."

It was her turn to sound shy.

"My name is Lamya."

Apparently, they were starting over from scratch.

Lamya liked the way that Jua insisted on calling her 'Miss.' It made her feel like a lady. The smile on her face never faltered, and she smirked at him when he teased her.

"I am smart," she insisted stubbornly. The gazelle at their paws was largely forgotten about. Lamya found Jua ver distracting, when he was sitting so close and being so nice. He may not have been her Mimi, but he was almost the same. Almost was almost as good as the real thing.

"You are bright like the sun, dear Jua," she agreed softly, and then, because he was too modest, she bragged for him; "You are very beautiful, but not quite as beautiful as me, and I think that you like me rather a lot."

If she had not liked him a moment ago, it was very obvious that she was warming up. Starting over, it seemed, was a very good idea indeed.

Jua found Lamya's energy infectious and that he really enjoyed being around her. It was easy to forget that he had no recollection of his past and that his mind was often in a disarray. He was quite a mess really, far from insane (at least not on the levels that Lamya was) but he wasn't exactly sane either. Insanity's effects had quite reached his brain yet, not like before, but it touched him. He blushed at her comment and looked away. "Perhaps," he replied softly.

"I would not say that I am beautiful," he disagreed shaking his head. "I don't know how I feel," he admitted with a small frown. She probably wouldn't like that answer. But it was the truth and if they were to have a relationship, as friends or otherwise, then he needed to be completely honest with her.

At least that was how he saw it. "I do think that we will be great friends"

"I think that you are very handsome," Lamya, deciding she had better cater to his male sensibilities, amended with a little giggle. "And that you sometimes have trouble making up your mind, even when beautiful ladies like me are involved."

She tilted her head to the side, and considered him thoughtfully through eyes so grey, and so pale compared to her dark fur that they almost seemed to glow. It was a slightly eerie stare. Because, while pretty, Lamya had a slightly haunting way about her. This had become something of a second nature. How could it have been anything else? The shadows were her muse, and they called to her. She had no choice but to obey them.

"Yes," she agreed finally after a long time, with a soft nod of her head, "We can be great friends."

And then a thought struck her, and she hurried on, "But we can not be imaginary friends, or best friends. I am very sorry."

These were titles that belonged to Mimi. Jua had made it clear that he was not Mimi.

Jua was embarrassed by her compliments and it showed in the way he grinned sheepishly and averted her gaze. He had never been called handsome before, not to his knowledge at least. "T-thank you," he mumbled pawing at the ground nervously. "I have to admit Miss Lamya, that my mind is rather chaotic now and I'm not sure what I am supposed to think," he told her truthfully glancing up with his bright yellow eyes.

His eyes were opposite to hers, they two glowed but in a different way. His was not eerie compared to her startling gray against black but bright and soft like the glow of a firefly. Something he had once been compared to before his accident. His eyes were like tiny suns.

"Good," he replied cheerfully, a broad smile gracing his lips. It was very similar to the smile he had given her once as a child, when they had decided to be imaginary best friends. "Wait, what? Why?"

"I think that you should stop worrying about what you are supposed to think," Lamya waved away his concerns with a paw, and looked him very pointedly in the eye. "And just think, Jua. I am sorry that your mind is chaotic. I can't imagine what that is like."

She was being sympathetic now, and trying to comfort him with her words. If Jua would just relax, Lamya believed, everything would fall into place.

"Don't worry so much about the things you forgot, and make new memories. It is something that Mimi would do."

And then he sounded cheerful, and her face lit up like a torch to see him smile so. He reminded her of the first friend she had ever made, then. Lamya's heart twanged painfully at the memory of her first meeting with Mimi on the beach, and she looked away from Jua now.

"Because Mimi is my imaginary friend," she explained softly, eyes downcast, "And sometimes, I do not see him when I would like to. He is also my best friend, and I would like to be loyal to him."

"But you can be my greatest friend!"