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 Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 8:37 am
Night had fallen. The sky was dotted with stars, and the moon hung high against the darkness, washing the land with its silver light. The Great Lion.
Farvardin sat and shifted his gaze upward to fix upon the silver disk. What was it about it that made it able to determine what he was or was not? How powerful was it, really? Questions that had entered his mind in the months since the Ilanga'izwe's arrival at the Mwezi'johari rolled through again, and not for the first time, he wondered how it was that his life had been flipped so thoroughly and so swiftly.
Everything was different, and although he was beginning to grow accustomed to the changes, it still felt as though something was slightly off. Something was undeniably different about this place, and Farvardin wondered if the feeling would ever fade.
He imagined that, one day, he might grow to like his name home. Maybe even love it, but even in light of that love, it would feel different. Foreign, somehow, in a way that was neither good nor bad. It simply was.
Like everything else. None of it was within his control, he knew that, and he had long since made his peace with that. But that wasn't to say he could simply force himself to get used to everything. This, perhaps, was one of those things but only time would tell.
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Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 1:06 pm
The former king Kobe'gumu came lumbering through the darkness. Today he had cleaned out several dens, gathered rocks and bones and plants for a Lady whose favorite hobby was crafting pretty jewelery, and used his great size to aid the hunters in taking down a wildebeast. As he made his way back into the interior of the pride, his muscles pleasently aching from a job well done, he paused and licked the blood from his white paws. His mane was tussled and full of twigs and grass from wrestling the beast to the ground.
He stopped suddenly and looked up, squinting. "Farvardin?" The green lion sat so still Kobe at first thought he was a rock. He plodded up to him with a broad smile. "It's been a long time. I haven't seen you since the ceremony. How have you been?"
Even as a slave there was something distinctly king-like about Kobe. He carried himself with pride and grace, yet now it seemed all the more sincere. When he was king his walk was stiff, his brow perminently tense. Though the day's work made his back a little stiff his attitude was much more at ease. The adrenaline rush from the hunt was still with him.
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Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:16 pm
The young lion's head turned at the sound of the familiar voice, and his bright eyes caught sight of the other lion. Though he knew Kobe was no longer King, there was that conservative part of him that resisted change and that Farvardin knew would consider him royalty for as long as the green lion lived. And there was nothing wrong with that, as far as Farvardin could tell. Even now, Kobe looked every inch like royalty, and it didn't matter to the green lion what they called him. A slave, a king, a lion... A rose by any other name.
"It has, sire," He agreed with a small nod. Old habits didn't die so easily. "I've been..." His first instinct was to say he had been doing fine, to bury his feelings because it would have been selfish otherwise. It was never about him and always about the creatures around him, whether they were safe, whether he could help keep them safe. But to say that he was fine would have been lying, and Farvardin had little doubts that a lie as transparent as that would have been seen through in a second. "Adjusting, would be the right word, I suppose."
He shifted his gaze back to the moon for a brief second, regarding it with a small, ponderous frown. "I was just thinking about... that. How much faith they seem to have in it." He had said he was adjusting, and adjust he would. He would come to accept the Mwezi's practices, and had begun to already, but he doubted that he would ever stop wondering. As with Kobe, he found it difficult to see any sort of change in the moon. No matter how prestigious a name it was given, it still seemed to him that it was a round disk in the sky and nothing more, but nothing less than that either.
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 3:50 pm
Recalling his experience with Ukoa, Kobe decided to allow his former subjects to continue calling him sire if they wished, at least for now. One of these days he would have to put his paw down on the subject. The last thing he wanted was for Alcmene to think he was starting a coo.
"Ah." He nodded understandingly, listening intently. He followed Farvardin's gaze. He supposed Farvardin wanted him to say something illuminating. Kobe was never any good at being profound. All his wisdom came from his late mate. Given a day or two he might be able to come up with something satisfactory, but when pressed for deep sayings on the spot he slipped into a ponderous and uncomfortable silence. After some thought he decided he should simply say what was on his mind.
"There are many gods. I'm not surprised that a pride would worship the moon as a god, or that such a good might exist, but they do have a strange way of showing devotion. We should try to accept their ways. Without them we wouldn't have a home."
He supposed that sounded submissive. It was certainly something a slave would say and certainly not something one would expect from a king, but then again Kobe had never been known for decisiveness. He knew the pride would be a more peaceful place if the Ilanga embranced the Mwezi's ways. For Kobe, peace was all that mattered.
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Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 1:43 am
"Well, I can do that," he said, nodding pensively. It wasn't so difficult, he imagined, growing accustomed to something. Indeed, that was the beauty of living creatures; most could adapt even to the harshest conditions for the sake of survival. "I can do anything, so long as we're all the better for it." But that wasn't to say it wouldn't take a little bit of time.
Still, knowing that joining the Mwezi had given them a place to call home, had given Masa a place to safely raise her cubs was enough for Farvardin. His grandfather had been right to follow Kobe's lead, and that the green lion had never doubted. The results of the old king's decisions had only made it all the clearer. This was the best place for them now, and if Farvardin was being completely honest with himself, he didn't suppose he would have traded it for any other place. The risks simply weren't worth it.
"How did you deal with it, sire?" He meant, chiefly, the sudden change from being king to slave, but there might also have been hidden within the simple question an inquiry as to how Kobe was coping with Dusana's actions and fate. Farvardin had never been one to pry, but if his king needed an open ear, the green lion would always have one at the ready.
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