The cubs she'd ended up bringing into the world were about old enough now... They didn't know her as their mother, she'd made sure of that. She'd seen it in her dream-visions, the other dark lioness, the gray-blue skull marking... She didn't treat them as a full litter, either. Only the two who'd come out looking Firekin, and their purple-haired brother, were treated as brothers. The other... She knew he had a different place to go. She'd seen it in her dream-visions. It was very unlike their single sister that had been born, a shock of blue and purple against her more natural looking brothers, even with one having dark purple hair. Sadly... She hadn't made it, and Jua'taka had felt a rather deep pain, despite not being fond of the odd coloring. While the four living cubs slept, huddled together, she went outside the den they slept in, staring at the horizon. Soon... Soon the one who'd take them away would arive....
While Xavier and Yutu slept, Ni'andama had gone out looking for a bit of food for herself. She couldn't bring herself to eat a hare - After all, Mr. Yutu was a hare, and it felt wrong now that she knew one. The dusty-brown lioness now carried with her a baboon, thankfully an old loner male. She couldn't imagine facing a full troop of them. Over the scent of the dead animal and its blood, she caught the scent of another lion. Blue eyes danced with mirth when she saw the shadow of a lioness ahead, standing out against the sky. Her direction changed, heading towards her. The food she carried could easily be considered a sign of well-wishing.
When she saw the other lioness, Jua'taka remembered part of her dream-vision. A fleeting glimpse of shock-blue following a dusty-brown color, with shock-blue orbs amid the dust-brown color... And with every pass of that shock blue, a cub would vanish, before three were then taken by the skull-marked lioness. The black lioness showed no aggression as the other approached, no signs of being hungry. She'd stopped feeling hunger not long ago. When the other got closer, Jua'taka simply... Stared, gold eyes reflecting silence.
Setting the baboon down, Ni'andama stared at the lioness. After some time of silence, she offered a smile, "Hello there! Lovely day, isn't it?" When she was met with silence and a stare, her dark ears went back a bit. "Um... are you okay...?" She stepped closer, circling just a bit. "Baboon got your tongue or somethin'...?" It was starting to bother her how quiet the other lioness was. Then she heard the sound of a cub yawning somewhere near by. "Oh! I'm sorry, am I too close? I can leave if I am..."
She suddenly snapped out of her thoughts, blinking a bit. "No... You're not..." She looked back at the den, then then lioness. "They're... Not mine..." She looked up at the sky, then the lioness. "And yes... It's a nice day..." She felt distracted, her mind unable to focus on much. Maybe it was the lack of eating, or the knowledge of her cubs going elsewhere in life. "Would you care to rest here...?" Having that Ying-tai girl around for a while had made her feel more... Welcoming of others. While her wounds had healed and were no longer fresh, nor festering, she still felt ache in her body.
Ni'andama bowed her head, smiling. "Oh, of course!" She found a spot to lay down with her kill, enjoying some of it. When she offered some to the other lioness, she received a shake of the head, going back to eating. It was only when she finished that she thought about the other's words. "If they're not yours, then who do they belong to...? Where's their mother?" Maybe this lioness was cubsitting or something.
Jua'taka let out a light hum, sitting down. "She's out there somewhere... I found them here in this den not long ago, and I've been watching for a while... Feeding them... But nobody came by..." Really, their 'mother' wasn't here yet... Or rather, paths hadn't intersected at ALL the right places. After a moment, she looked over. "Perhaps you can find her... Only three of them belong to her... She'll know them on sight... The other was a straggler I found elsewhere... Perhaps from some pride migrating..." How much could she lie to this lioness about, anyway? She looked... Niave.
Ni'andama looked back at the den, where she heard cubs waking. Her gaze lingered for a bit, before returning to the lioness. "Do they have names? Do you know what they might be...?" She paused, tilting her head. "And what's your name? So I know who to tell their mother to thank for them being okay..." She offered the dark lioness a smile. "Me, I'm Ni'andama le'maluuni! Because the God of the Cursed named me, on account of my old pride never naming me because of my tail."
The lioness let out a grunt. "I'd rather not divulge my name... It's not important..." She paused. "God of the... Cursed? Why would you follow a god like THAT?" She could understand... Change, or... Time... Maybe the Hunt, or even HOPE, but the CURSED? "What benifit could following a God of the Cursed bring you?" Was she seriously going to leave her cubs with this lioness...? Then again, she HAD seen a strange lion... Thing... In her dream-visions, with a thick tail, long ears, and a mane running down the spine. Maybe this was that... Thing...
"Oh, he's better than he sounds!" Ni'andama's face lit up in a happy smile, as her tail danced a bit. "Though back home in the pride I grew up in, he would have just been called Mkodi... Because they only believe in Mkodi, and if any others looking like and claiming to be gods were to show up, they'd all be called Mkodi. Are you from a pride with a god or goddess you worship?" Ni'andama couldn't stop asking questions, it was just so fascinating to learn about others!
A dark look passed over Jua'taka's face. "Yes, I come from a pride that worshipped a goddess...." At the confused look, the dark lioness clarrified, "The heir to the throne ran off to a pride we weren't fond of, returned with a lioness supposedly as a slave, got caught with her, run out of the pride and his title stripped, and then returned with a mess of rogues and took the pride by storm, abandoning the pride's long-time beliefs and pretty much stripping Finar-si of her followers." Anger glowed in the lioness' eyes, a sign she didn't like that change.
Ni'andama's ears went back. "Oh, that sounds AWFUL! No deity should be stripped of followers!" She sat up, suddenly smiling. "Why don't you come with me and follow Master Xavier instead? He's a great god, he doesn't frown on any pelt coloring or anything! He doesn't care that my tail's all blue! He even keeps a green hare with him! Though I think it's because their ears look so alike... It makes him look like a big fluffy bunny of doom!"
A giant doom-bunny... Wonderful... Jua'taka had managed to find the most deranged lion in the savannah. Though... A lion god, with hare-like ears... Yeah, this was the one. "I can't, I have other things to do." She got up, staring at Ni'andama. "So, tell you what, you stay here with these four, and I'll go see if I can find their mother... If I don't come back... Round the runts up and take them with you, maybe they can be followers, too." The dark lioness then started to walk, heading for... She didn't know where.
The dust-brown lioness got up, surprise on her face. "Wait, what if their mother comes back? What do I do then? What do I tell them?" What if Master Xavier came to find her? Though she imagined that if he did, Mister Yutu was the one responsible for that. The hare seemed to have better ideas than the god did about what to do, and when to do it. She started after the dark lioness, who moved at a slower and what looked like more pained pace. "You never even told me what their names are!"
Jua stopped, glaring back at Ni'andama. "Stay with them. And so far, I've only been calling two of them by something..." At the curious look, she frowned. "The one with purple hair I've been calling Mistake, the gold one Dirty. Do what you want with that." She then turned, walking away. She had no intention of coming back, and gods help Ni'andama if she went looking for the black lioness. Hanging around a god or not, she'd do that lioness harm.
Ni'andama sighed, watching the strange lioness leave. After a bit, she looked back at the den, going to make sure the cubs were okay. She remained there for several hours, into the night, and into the next day, when, indeed, Xavier showed up with Yutu on his head, and they left with the four cubs in their company. Ni'andama just wished there was a way to permanently capture the sight of the god covered in cubs...
