“I’m looking for someone, someone I’ve got to find!” Hewa shouted. Because at that moment he felt just like adolescent Hewa, naïve, out of control,“I have to find her, it’s too important that I do!” at the moment Gebali’moyo was sleep walking, screaming into the face of an unseen adversary. His physical body was walking through the swamp, his pale form becoming covered in mud and scum from the shallow pools he drudged through. In his mind he was charging an enemy, someone had one of his kids-or was it someone else’s kids, he couldn’t know for sure. It was someone he loved, like he loved Baridi and the children.
“Stop! Give her back, where is she?” he shouted, both in his nightmare, and aloud. He stopped, foot caught underneath a root and tangling him up. He fought against the root struggling and pulling at his paw. But in his dream he wasn’t in the swamps, he was in the plains, there were strange herbs and plants, the moon was hanging in the sky, and the thing around him was another lion trying to pin him down.
“Let me go! You wont take me, I wont stop, you can’t make me!”
Zalika’obi was a tan lioness, her shoulder adorned with brown hearts. Just like it physical form, Zalika mentally held her heart on her sleeve, she couldn’t withhold any of her emotions and was wishy-washy at best when trying to do so. She shook frightened in the swamps, unsure exactly where she was, and worst still there was a lion shouting and screaming. The young lioness wasn’t sure exactly what the male was hollering over, but there was quite the commotion.
She quaked in place trying to peer out into the swamps, unfamiliar territory, to see what was going on. Zalika was sure she wouldn’t be able to help and in her mind worst case scenario she would be harmed in trying. But she couldn’t sit around in the mud while someone sounded so..so anguished over something.
She stepped out from the tangled mass of trees.
“Don’t take her! Don’t touch me,” Hewa tried to jerk his paw away from the root and only managed to twist his ankle around and howl in pain. Agony, and all from what appears to be in his mind, an unseen assailant, someone trying to harm him, and succeeding.
"Please," he was crying, tears streaming down his fur, matting it and clearing away some of the mud and dust.
Zalika'obi was bewildered at the sight she beheld there was a lion with his eyes closed in the moonlight, screaming at absolutely nothing. She stepped forward slowly, putting one paw deliberately in front of the other.
Oh, you're being stupid, Zalika, what if he's some crazy lion. He must be cazy to scream at thin air!
"Umm, sir," She started, her voice shaking as badly as her body, "Sir, you seem to be distressed. I know I'm probably being dumb by trying to help, and if you'd like me to go away I will."
A female's voice broke through, Hewa shook his head looking around for the source of the voice.
"Is that you?" Whoever he was looking for in the dream, he was hoping to find her in that voice. "Let me go, I can hear her, she's right here!"
He yanked his paw backwards and stumbled falling to the ground. Hewa let out a lamentable wail. This entire experience totally unlike him, he didn't sleep walk, or day dream, he led a peaceful little life as a hunter and family lion.
"No, no sir," she replied softly, "I don't believe anyone has you, I think, that you are dreaming." it made sense, his eyes were closed, he was crying. And he thought that she was someone that he'd been looking for.
Testing her luck, and acting very stupid, she stepped forward and poke him in the side with her paw.
"Wake up, Sir!" She took two hops backward quickly after speaking and touching him. He was covered in mud and gunk from the swamps. She wasn't a scared, and wasn't thinking rationally, the stranger could obviously hurt her, but she wasn't concerned about that. She was concerned about him.
"Wake up, wake up!"
There was that voice again! He turned back and forth, eyes still closed look out on his dreamscape. This wasn't her. Who was she? He shifted his weight looking.
At her touch and voice, Gebali'moyo jolted forward, his eyes moist with tears, he had to blink many times before the world came into focus around him. His eyes set on the tan colored female, he watched her bewildered.
"Wh-who're you?" He asked startled to find she was there at all. He'd never walked around in his sleep before, although he'd seen odder things. "Was I..dreaming? Sleeping?"
"Dreaming, I think, horrible dreams by the sound of them. I felt very bad for you and tried to wake you." She paused before explaining who she was, "I am Zalika'obi, I'm a traveler, and I stumbled upon you while walking through the swamps." She was curious about him, and it showed, her brows were furrowed together as she watched him.
"Are you alright? You look almost frightened, what's your name?"
"Dreaming," he murmured looking at her. Like it had happened many times before the voices in his head spoke, he knew them as the spirits, but they were also his gift of sight.
She's a friend, and telling the truth, trust this one.
"Thank you, Zalika'obi," he bowed his head stumbling to his feet, for some reason his front paw was tender to step on.
"My name is H-" he almost gave her his baby name and then corrected himself, "I am Gebali'moyo. I live here in the swamps. Thank you so very much for waking me, this has never happened to me before."
"I don't think it's quite a pleasure to meet you, Gebali'moyo, but I am happy that you woke up and are alright...you are alright, aren't you?" she looked at his paw curiously, it wasn't swollen, she'd seen lions twist their paws.
"It doesn't look bad, you were caught on a root, screaming about letting someone go."
"Am..I in pridal lands?" This seemed a queer question to ask, but she was assuming that seeing one lion meant there would possibly be more, particularly if he let his guard down enough to sleep. She sat near, but not too close to intrude on his space.
"I am fine, and very grateful to you for waking me." He smiled looking at her, she didn't look familiar, but the color of her eyes for some reason rang a bell.
You've never met her, we assure you. She's a traveler. The voices spoke and he shook his head trying to get their odd tones out of his mind.
"You are in the Jini-msemi Lands, there are many of us that live in these swamps. They wont drive you out with claws and teeth." He bobbed his head in rhythm that he spoke. "We're a sort of religious pride with...queer traditions." He knew that some of their traditions seemed out to the outside, and he also knew it was hard to convince Lala to believe and have faith in their religion.
Zalika listened intently, wondering about just how odd their traditions were. She'd seen religious prides before, and many times the natives were restless.
"Then I am glad you are alright," she nodded mimmicking his bobbing head, "Even so, I don't think I should stay long..I've mistakenly walked into a pride's territory..it did not end well." Zalika's caramel eyes blinked watching him.
Gebali frowned, he knew that they were not an all together friendly pride to outsiders - well only to other species, and hybrids, he nearly spit on the ground just thinking the word. They were just suspicious.
"I'll escort you out of our territory, if you'd like." He stood, gingerly putting weight on his foot. "It's the least I could do, I might've been hurt or wandered farther if you did not wake me." He was afraid of the dreams, what little he remembered, and afraid that his visions were seeping into them. He always thought himself crazy, although he knew that the spirits talked to others in the pride.
"Deal, you show me the way out," She stood, took a few steps back and waited for him to show the way.
