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 Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:15 pm
(( This is an rp log between Polette [Mzuka] and Satsurashi [Madaha] ))
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:16 pm
Mada awoke to the brightness of dawn bleeding through her eyes; an annoying way to wake up. Light was streaming over the grasslands, and even in her sheltered nest under a leaning, wind-worried tree she couldn't quite escape it. She yawned sleepily and stretched laboriously, easing her stiff muscles into movement again. Finally, after as much procrastination as she could manage, she raised her head and scanned the horizons in all directions.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:18 pm
Pacing back and forth, something was eating away at Mzuka. She had left home, but was this really what she wanted? It all seemed so sudden to the adolescent, but it was what she had wanted for awhile now, wasn't it? She had been so afraid of telling her parents that she wanted to go out on her own, but now that it was actually happening...she was hairs away from a panic attack.
Staring down at her paws for a few moments, she thought that maybe some running would calm her nerves. She was, after all, half cheetah, so running would be such a bad thing right now. Starting out in a random direction, her paws pounded at the earth as she picked up speed, feeling the rush of the wind through her fur. Not too far in the distance she could see a tree, and it seemed like a nice place to stop in the hot sun.
Slowing herself gradually, she padded over closer to it, panting slightly. Her ears flicked up as she spotted a dark figure beneath it- her father had always told her to be wary of strangers, but she was too curious to care at this point. "I see you had the same idea that I did." She laughed a little, but kept her distance until she could hear the lioness' response.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:30 pm
Madaha was never a very cautious lioness. You might even say she was a little too trusting. Had she continued sleeping she might have missed the approach of the cheeton altogether, but in her alert state she caught the tattoo of feet drumming the earth, much faster, she thought, than a lion's running. Surprise came over her when the adolescent female finally came into view. Mada had never met one of those rare hybrids before, and at first she wasn't sure what to make of her.
"Oh... yes, I was just spending the night here." Madaha glanced around at the old tree she'd rested under. It had been a far from comfortable night. Looking back at the cheeton, she couldn't help but give her a curious, analyzing glance. "Where are you from?" Mada asked, keeping her tone very polite but unable to hide the wariness she also felt at coming upon a stranger while she was alone.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:37 pm
Flicking her tail back and forth behind her, Mzuka looked over the lioness. She didn't seem that bad, so Mzuka eased her tense muscles.
"It seems like a pretty good place to stay for awhile. Especially out in this...desolate area." Laughing as she looked around, her old home was surrounded by trees. It needed to be, since she had so many siblings and half-siblings running around, they needed the protection of the them.
"I'm kind of in-transit at the moment." Smiling down at her, even Mzuka couldn't really put a paw on where exactly she was from. She hadn't the slightest idea where her old home was from this point, and she couldn't really say that she was from the pride she was headed to.
"What about yourself? You just kinda hangin' out here for awhile until you find some place you want to be?" She was still smiling, but found a little humor in her own words.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:50 pm
When the cheeton relaxed, Madaha noted this and she too felt more at ease. Clearly she wasn't looking for a fight, and this made Mada infinitely more comfortable. Relaxing into a sitting position, she thought her response over a moment before giving it.
"Well, I... Yeah, that's pretty much right. Don't have a pride yet, but I've got to say this being out on my own business isn't what I want." She sighed and thought back to last night, where she'd made a shallow scrape in the grass to sleep in only to realize the soil was quite rocky there. She was plenty sore this morning, for sure.
"My name's Madaha." She announced suddenly, realizing she hadn't given it. "And you are?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 4:03 pm
"Story of my life..." Mumbling to herself, Mzuka glanced off to the side, a small grin on her face.
"I kind of like the freedom, and the dangers don't really scare me." Laughing a little, it could have just been that she was young for her thoughts, but her father had instilled in her a certain sense of fearlessness- something that she had always admired in him. "But to everyone his own."
"I'm Mzuka." Shaking her mane out, she repeated the other's name to herself, making sure to remember it. "So, Madaha, if you're so keen on prides, do you have one in mind that you'd want to go live in?" Winking at her, Mzuka had heard her fair share of of prides in her lifetime. Her father had cubs in so many of them, it was hard not to pick up some of the names. It's how she picked out the pride she was headed to, after all.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 4:17 pm
"The dangers don't scare you? They scare me. Everything is dangerous when you're on your own!" Madaha seemed restless, and that's exactly what she was. Tired from wandering, hungry from being an inadequate solo hunter, and most f all fed up with being solitary. This young cheeton's presence was a great relief to her, actually, even if they were strangers.
"Mzuka," Mada tried the name out, liking the way it rolled off her tongue when she it, "I guess I'm not completely sure. One where I don't have to hunt or fight a lot, certainly. I've never been much of a violent girl."
Getting up, she stretched again, limbering up her muscles that were still stiff from sleep. "I heard of a pride where the lions dance." Mada flicked her tail, obviously excited by the thought, "If they would have me, that's what I'd like best of all." She smiled dreamily, flexing her claws so that they dug tiny runnels in the ground.
"Are you going somewhere specific? Or do you like your freedom too much?" Mada's voice was full of sympathy, sure that the answer would be, like her, that Mzuka was looking for something else too.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 4:32 pm
"Even if there is danger, it doesn't mean you have to focus on it. The Savannah's a far kinder place than you'd think." Smiling, Mzuka looked over to Madaha. "Though I know how a pride can give you peace of mind, at least." She wasn't going to stand there and bash prides, especially since she was going to join one fairly soon. For her, a pride was a place to meet others and have consistent friends more than a place of protection.
"Haha, I can see that." Giggling at her comment, Mzuka thought it a bit odd that a lioness wouldn't like to hunt, at least. But maybe some pacifism was good for creatures to have, even if Mzuka herself didn't have too much of it. "I know some prides that you'd fit in well. I guess it just depends on what you like doing." She grinned, mulling over all the different prides in her mind.
"I'm actually headed to the Arba'Sehemu." Her smile shrinking, Mzuka wondered why exactly she wanted to go to a pride in the first place. "I think...I think I just want somewhere to protect the gift I've been given. A gift that my siblings don't have." Looking out towards the horizon, she had a distant look on her face. Since she found out that she could have cubs, Mzuka wanted to go to greater lengths to protect that gift, so she could make her father proud by continuing his line. "I'm still not too sure about the whole idea myself, but I might as well give it a try, right?" Laughing it off, she knew she'd be anxious in any pride, but she had to give it a shot.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 4:57 pm
Listening to Mzuka's words, Mada's mind went over all the prides shed heard of before herself. It was quite true that in most of them, lionesses did the hunting. Madaha wasn't so interested in that as she was living a carefree and proected life, but she also had to admit that in her time alone her life wasn't exactly threatened, either.
"It's just nice to belong somewhere, I guess. I've lost touch with my family long ago... So I guess I'm looking for a new one?" She smiled again, noting as her stomach growled that she was also ready to find some food. It'd be rabbits for sure, or any small game she could find.
"Arba'Sehemu... I've heard of it. Can't remember the specifics, at least. Is it close?" But Mzuka had said something Mada was more curious about, and knowing nothing about hybrids for having just met one today, she was ignorant enough to ask, "What gift are you talking about? Are you... one of those that see?" Mada's voice changed to awe, and also perhaps a little nervous. She didn't understajd the abilities of seers, and she was naturally a little shy of them.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:16 pm
"That sounds reasonable." A tad distracted by the leaves above her, Mzuka couldn't really sympathize with her. She had grown up with so much family it had made her sick at times. She had always been jealous of her pure-bred half-siblings, and defensive of her litter mates. She felt a little bad, though, leaving just as her parents had another litter.
"It's pretty close to here, yes." She had been on her way to the pride, but kept stopping and wandering off, too nervous to finally enter it. Her father had gone ahead and settled things with an old flame of his, so Mzuka could have a friend in the pride as well as some half-siblings, but it still scared her a little.
"See?" For a moment, she was confused. But she soon realized what the lioness was talking about. "No no, though one of my sisters is." She hadn't even considered that when she mentioned 'gift' that would be the first thing that popped into others' heads. "No, my gift is a little...different. Unlike most of my litter mates, I can have cubs." She felt her face turn a little red as she said it- she was still young, after all. Her brother shared her gift as well, and she saw it as a good omen on the whole litter. "I can see why you wouldn't have thought of that as a gift for me at first. It's something that many take for granted." Her smile was small, but her eyes were kind as she looked at the lioness.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:39 pm
Maybe Mada could sense her hesitation, or it seemed like a sensitive topic to question her on further. Either way Madaha didn't keep after her about the prides, knowing full well that she herself probably felt the same trepidation about joining a new pride.
But the last thing Mzuka said was what really surprised Madaha. For a moment, she even felt a little embarrassed for bring it up, before she realized she might have nothing to be embarrassed about; after all, Mzuka had just said she COULD have cubs, not that she wasn't able to. But still, the comment about taking it for granted made Mada feel for a moment like a fool.
"Sorry, I didn't know. I suppose it is one of those things." Madaha wanted to apologize again, but felt a little sheepish about it. Instead, she offered, "I'm glad for you? Is this something you want soon? Cubs, I mean?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:48 pm
"Haha, don't be." Smiling at the lioness, there was nothing to apologize for. She was being kind, something that Mzuka hadn't gotten too often from lions. For some reason or another, many pure-breds didn't like hybrids at all, and it really baffled Mzuka.
"It's not so much that I'm like, yearning for cubs. Because that's a little weird for a girl my age." She laughed, thinking of why any adolescent would want cubs. They seemed like such downers for someone so young. "But I want to at least have a safety net, so I don't go and throw away my gift because of my fearlessness." With all the stunts she pulled, she was lucky that she was still in one piece at this age. Her father had never discouraged her from doing what she pleased, and her mother would never go against anything her father said.
"I wonder when I should actually head to my future pride..." She had already delayed herself so much, she wondered if they were getting impatient waiting for her.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:48 pm
Madaha felt much more at ease when Mzuka laughed, and realized with a strange realization that it had been a while since she'd been able to speak with someone like this since she'd been on her own. It was nice, and it made her feel a little more sorry that she'd missed out on friendships with others so much before.
Mada laughed a little to herself, replying, "Oh, good. Yeah, cubs sort of... hold you in place. I'll be ready for them when the time is right but for now, I've got enough to worry about." Like food, came that nagging thought again. Her stomach responded with another low growl.
"You should, uhh..." Realizing suddenly that she was a poor advisor to the young cheeton, being in the exact same position herself, Madaha had to re-route the words she'd started to form. "When it feels right? I don't know what that pride will be like, but I'm willing to bet there will be more responsibility tied to you there. Is it for sure they'll accept you?" This Mada was truly interested in, because with her lack of experience she truly had no idea what joining a pride would be like. Mzuka probably had more idea than she did.
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Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 5:05 pm
"I don't think it'll ever feel right, but...I'll do what I have to do." Smiling at the lioness, Mzuka knew very well that she would never feel right going to a pride. After all, she had grown up with a father that had always said that prides were things that tied down your spirit, which is why he never wanted to be near one for too long. "But my father has already set things up, so they're expecting me."
"I think I'll..." Staring down at her paws for a few moments, the words she wanted seemed to be out of reach. "...go." Nodding slowly to reassure herself, she brought her head back up, looking off towards the horizon.
"Madaha, it was nice talking to you. I think this was the perfect conversation to have to settle my nerves." Closing her eyes in a grin, she swished her tail to the side behind her. "Good luck on your own journey. Goodbye!" Turning to head back the way she came, she was riding on this one feeling of confidence- and hopefully it'd be enough to get her past the borders of the Arba.
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