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 Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:39 pm
While Scheherazade waited for her father's decision as to whether she would be Behnam's or not, she decided to carol around the lake with her sisters. Even then, she was detached, laying with her lower half in the water, head on paws, yawning to the sun.
She never expected it to be this nerve wracking. The young Banu hardly, if ever, became nervous, but now...she couldn't stop herself form running over every scenario, and every possible outcome. What were they discussing? Was her father surprised? Shocked? Outraged? She doubted the last. Unlike her adoptive grandfather, her mother's Pad wasn't known for cruelty.
And still, she worried. What else could she do?
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:59 pm
Being beybanu was a very important job, but with the banu of her Pad's harem so well trained, she often had time to herself. It was a bit... sad, Amani admitted. Soon she would be old, her position handed over to another as she gently faded away--
But now was not the time to think of such things, she told herself firmly. She was still quite young and extremely healthy. Why just the other day she had caught an antelope easily!
Her eyes were drawn to the leopardess that she had just passed and she pulled to a stop, sensing that this female was more worried than she was about something.
"Hello, sweetheart," she said, approaching her. "Is there something you need to talk about?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:43 pm
Scheherazade slowly turned her head to gaze up at passing lioness. She wasn't prepared to spare her a passing thought until she started speaking, in which she had to actually pay attention.
"Not really," she said wistfully, rolling onto her side to see the female better. She looked so familiar, but wh- "Are you Behnam's mother, by any chance?" After just a split second, it hit her. Would his mother know who she was then? Did he talk about her? Would she be nice?
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:51 pm
"Why yes, yes I am!" Amani said, her mind quickly putting one and one together. "Would you happen to be Behnam's future banu?" she asked. Oh, her son really did have an eye for them, didn't he? First a lovely silver lioness, now this beautiful little leopardess. "Or am I being too presumptuous?" she added.
She smiled, her tail flicking. "Is he the reason you look so worried, perhaps?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:07 pm
Scheherazade didn't grin, blush, or smile. She simply nodded, and rolled her lithe body up into a sitting position, forelegs stuck next to each other while her left hindleg jutted out in her signature style. "If fate favors me, then yes, that would be I."
Then she looked down at her paws. "Do I really look worried? I'm not even sure I am...maybe a little bit. He's the first that I've become attached to in the pride, and I fear losing him. He's my best friend, after all." She wasn't going to lie and say she loved him because, right now, she didn't, but in the future...
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:11 pm
"Is there a reason you might lose him?" Amani asked curiously, not one to gossip, of course, but this was a very important matter to her. Leopon grandchildren in white, pink purple--oh, they would be so adorable! "Has he said something along the lines of not wanting you?"
She highly doubted that. If this little leopard was Behnam's best friend, he would go to all sorts of lengths to get her as his banu. Her son was a very stubborn fellow like that.
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Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 8:09 pm
"Well, no." Scheherazade pouted, trying to reword her thoughts. How was it that her inner dialogue made sense to her, and no one else? "Then again...My only real concern is my father, Pad Obadias. I'm scared that he'll deny Behnam's request, and then-" She made a 'poof!' motion with her paws, then sighed, and laid her head down.
"I'm worrying too much." She mused aloud. "I have a million-and-one things in my head, so why not one of them?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 8:27 pm
"Hmmm," Amani said. "It wouldn't be because of his breeding," she decided. "Being the son of a god and the sultan's half sister should make him a very appealing pad to have. And it wouldn't be because of his personality, I don't believe. Behnam is a very kind lion, and almost too honest," she said. "Well, most of the time," she added, thinking of how he had kept Fara in the dark.
"I think you shouldn't worry too much, sweetie," she finally decided. "If you care for Behnam, which you obviously do, and he cares for you, then this is a perfectly acceptable match! And just imagine how beautiful my grandbabies will be!" she added happily.
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:40 pm
Scheherazade waved her paw in the air apathetically. "Oh, I know all of that. There isn't a doubt in my mind that he isn't of quality, but still I wonder..." The young leopardess trailed off, her head flopping uselessly back onto the ground. If the older lioness thought her son would be gaining a skilled huntress in a banu, or even a hard worker, she was dead wrong.
She looked up into Amani's eyes, her own slightly widened with her mouth agape. "I hadn't even...little leopons, just like the one's in Pad Achal's den." She'd seen the hybrids on more than one occasion, and thought him freakishly weird, more so than Benham. "Eunuchs. I suppose it's better that way, really. Less competition for Banu."
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:19 am
Amani was silent, and laid down crossing her paws as she thought about it. "There is... often differences in this life, especially in this pride," she said quietly. "My pad is a god. My cubs and the cubs of my fellow banu, are all seers. They wake in the middle of the night, seeing things that no one should, because they aren't full blooded lions, in a way."
For a moment she wondered how to go on. "It isn't easy, being part one thing and part another, but if we didn't let it happen, Behnam wouldn't be here. Would you be happier if Behnam wasn't here?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 11:52 am
"No, I wouldn't. Maybe if I had never known him, but now..." The young leopardess shook her head, displaying her stretched paws in front of her. "I can't think of a better father for my future little freaks." She smiled teasingly. Oh, and what freaks they would be. A quarter God, half leopard, with the Sultan's own blood to top it off. Still, they would be hers and regardless of what the pride would think, Scheherazade would love them all the same.
"What is like, being a Beybanu? I don't aspire for the position myself, but I am curious."
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 10:04 am
"Hmmm," Amani said, thinking it over. "It's very... hectic, especially when there's more than one litter. You have to make sure the mother's eating enough and the cubs are eating as well, and there's always got to be one adult, or older female in the den taking care of the little ones," she said. "It's a very impressive title, but..." She gave the leopard a little smile. "It isn't one that's suited for everyone," she admitted. "Has Behnam announced who his beybanu will be, yet?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 6:38 am
"Not that I'm aware of yet." A part of her was curious as to who he would pick, and the other was fine with where she was. Scheherazade's own mother wasn't a Beybanu, and yet, she was still as happy as anyone else, so why worry?
"Regardless of who chooses, I may still do those duties, and then...maybe I won't. Whose to say?" She mused, lolling her head back onto the ground apathetically. "I'm sure he'll do what he thinks is right for our family." The one thing she was sure on was her faith in her Pad. That unwavering trust had shifted form her father to Behnam, and would never faid so long as she breathed.
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:15 am
"Oh, you're such a good girl!" Amani said, touched by that statement. "My Behnam is a very, very lucky boy," she added happily. "But I'm sure that by now he's gotten permission to have you as his banu and is looking for you even as we speak, so why don't you go find him? I'll be telling his father just how lucky he is while you two celebrate!"
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 6:50 pm
Scheherazade smiled. While she had been at war with her worries this evening, she hadn't realized that she also worried over whether his family would accept her. To feel both chapters coming to a glorious close was a glorious relief.
"Alright, let's go. I'm eager to see where my new den will be, and to see Behnam, I suppose." She teased with a light laugh. Of course she was excited to see him! Why else would her eyes be sparkling with unshed tears? Not only did she have a Pad to call her own, but with him came the comfort only a second family could provide.
(Fin)
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