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 Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:46 pm
 Any day without Kibi was going to be a long day for Uchanjaa. Not that he blamed his beloved mate for her duties, but it was a bit hard to go days on end without seeing her, and he knew she felt the same. Still, duty was duty and they would both fulfill their roles.
As it so happened, the brown lion wasn't on duty at the moment, and was relaxing in the warm sunshine, thinking. There were the usual thoughts - what the Guards had done today, what the plans were for tomorrow, when he would see Kibi again, the list went on. Then there were the deeper thoughts, encompassing things such as Dusana's evils and Alcmene's death.
In addition Uchanjaa dared think of the future, of how he and Kibi would one day have cubs of their own, and how could he best raise them if their mother was going to spend most of her time away? The only way he could think of at the moment was to give up his position as a Guard and accept that he could be a (lazy) Lord. He didn't really want to do that, but his future children deserved the best he could give them, regardless of whatever rank they were born to.
Such were his thoughts as the warm sun teased him and tried to persuade him to fall asleep.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:04 pm
Born shortly after a tumultuous and tragic time for the pride and into a rank of great significance, Selene was used to having many eyes on her. Someone was always watching, keeping an eye on her- trying to keep her safe, trying to figure her out, looking at what was and thinking about what might have been.. but that part was something she was oblivious to.
Thinking back, she wouldn't be able to remember exactly how she got away with it but she had managed to sneak away from her parents. Interrogation and more watchful eyes waited for her when she was found but for now she was wandering curiously. She didn't intend to go far, in fact she was still rather close to home.
Humming quietly to herself, she wandered through the grass, not always able to see above the grass and to where she was headed. She happened to be headed toward Uchanjaa, but where he was so quiet she had no idea at all.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:10 pm
There may have been a time when Uchanjaa was not so alert to his surroundings that he wouldn't have heard the movement in the grass. Certainly now, as a Guard, he must be alert for such things. Before, as a wary traveler, that awareness made the difference between life and death. So if he'd never needed to be so wary, it must have been when he was a small cub, no larger than the one he could just barely see through the grass.
Cubs were just one of the things he'd had to get used to when the group rejoined the Mwezi'Johari. He found them cute, but...well...soft. Not spoiled, but possessing an innocence that was only possible in a strong pride.
Intrigued by the cub, he sat quietly, no longer lost in thought but watching her as she made her way towards him, all unknowing. He'd wait to see how she reacted before doing anything.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:20 pm
Selene's ears twitched as she felt Uchanjaa's eyes on her- or perhaps it was some other, true sense that she was not yet aware of that gave him away. She was very nearly under his shadow when she paused and lifted her head way up to get a good look- and she squeaked in surprise when suddenly there was someone right in front of her.
"Oh!" she said, shuffling her feet shyly, "I didn't see you."
She hadn't really met many lions personally, not outside the necessary introductions, though she knew she was known to more than she knew. Was she in trouble? He didn't really look angry.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:26 pm
Interesting. Perhaps this cub might have what it took to survive outside the pride after all. Then he got a good look at her. Blinking, Uchanjaa had to wonder how Selene, the Heiress, had gotten away from her parents and anyone else. But the brown lion shrugged off the question. Kids would be kids, after all.
"I can see that," he told the cub. "What were you doing?"
He wondered if he should, in good conscience, take her back to her family. But that seemed cruel and restrictive. Ah well, he could at least see to it that she caused no trouble and didn't get hurt. A little experience was good for a cub anyway.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:31 pm
"Oh, I dunno," she said, pawing at the ground idly. She should have been expecting that question but she didn't have an answer ready for it. She just liked that she was off on her own for once, maybe she could learn something by herself.
She looked up at him with curious brown eyes, wondering if she was going to be turned back in to her parents. It was hard to judge what he was thinking, he seemed more indifferent than anything- it was kind of unsettling, at least for a cub who didn't have nearly enough social experience.
"Who are you?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:35 pm
The older lion fought to keep a smile off his face. The cub was cute enough, that was for sure. But if she didn't think of a way to answer that simple question, her future excursions could end up curtailed.
He wasn't really surprised at her question. He recognized her of course, and had seen her before at a distance, but they'd never been introduced in any way, and there was no real reason for anyone to be talking about him to her - Selene just wasn't old enough for that.
"My name is Uchanjaa," he answered. "I am a Guard of the pride." He made a small gesture in the cub's direction. "And you?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:44 pm
"Uchanjaa," she repeated thoughtfully. It was a nice name, different from those in her family- unless you counted her mother, everybody else had different feeling names. If names could feel different. Maybe it didn't make any sense.
"I'm Selene," she introduced herself, shuffling her paws around more like she couldn't decide if she ought to offer some polite gesture with it- and she obviously needed to work on her fidgeting, but she was still a cub.
"Guards keep the pride safe," she recited, seemingly at random. It was one of two main things she had learned about guards so far- the other being that her daddy used to be one.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:49 pm
Uchanjaa nodded. He wasn't going to respond to her introduction with the obvious fact that he already knew who she was. The kid didn't need that. He had to smile though as she repeated what was obviously a lesson.
"Yes, that's our main function," he admitted. But now what to say? He could quiz her on what else she knew, but no cub wanted to be treated like everything was schoolwork. He could ask what she wanted to be...but her path was already laid out.
"Do you know any other Guards?" the lion asked instead, choosing to have a conversation with the child, instead of treating her as if life itself was a lesson to be learned.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:00 pm
She beamed when he supported her statement. It was different, talking about this with a stranger- she could show off, he'd never know if she had had trouble learning it, just that she had learned it. And mom and dad had to be harder to impress, they were the teachers. Right? Something like that.
"My daddy was a guard," she said first, though she knew that wasn't quite the same, "Uhhh, I met Baba'nyota, he's the head guard. And Atlas and Hecate are guards, too."
She hadn't met many lions outside of the necessary heads and priests-- and, of course, those in her family.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:12 pm
Uchanjaa managed to keep himself from chuckling as the cub's face lit up with pride. It seemed the girl was happy to show off what she knew to someone who showed no signs of judging her. Well, that was all right. He had no obligation to teach her anything, just to keep an eye on her, as any Guard would do.
As for the Guards she knew, well, he hadn't known Thoth well before the lion became King, though it was entirely possible that that would change in the future. Baba'nyota he knew, of course, and he'd met Atlas and Hecate as well and knew them a bit better than the King.
"That's a fair number of Guards," the brown lion reflected. "Though it seems most of the ones you know are kin to you." He wasn't pointing that fact out to encourage the child to meet others necessarily, but he did want to make her aware that there was a whole pride out there, beyond her family.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:15 pm
Blinking, the little princess couldn't hide her confusion at what the older lion said. She didn't know what it meant and couldn't work it out based on what she had said- Nyota, Atlas and Hecate did not seem to homogeneous a mix to her.
"What does that mean?" she asked, not at all worried about how it looked to ask. That was part of how she learned, asking questions.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:19 pm
This time Uchanjaa did laugh out loud, at himself for confusing the poor kid. Ah well, better he learn now, before he had cubs of his own to raise.
"It means that you do know a lot of Guards. But that most of the Guards you know are part of your family. Isn't that true?" He tried to make his words and phrasing simpler, but he didn't want to treat Selene like a newborn who couldn't understand a thing.
This was harder than it looked.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:23 pm
"Oh, yeah," she agreed, unphased by the laugh but intrigued by the comment. She really hadn't met anybody outside her family yet, not counting the priests and heads. But it was hard to do, she would learn more of them when she was bigger.
"I know you now," she said, "Uchanjaa. You're a guard and you're not in my family." She smiled, looking him up and down thoughtfully. It was a bold statement, assuming he was not family- she knew she had plenty of family around the pride, she hadn't met all of them. But he just didn't look right to fit into that mental category.
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 5:15 am
The lion had to chuckle again. The cub was smart and a bit cheeky, but that wasn't a bad thing. "No, I'm not in your family," he admitted. Well, it was possible that if one went back far enough, he was, but no one had told him about such a connection, so he was free to ignore that possibility.
It was a shame though, that the young Heiress had so far led a fairly sheltered life. Uchanjaa thought that she should be out and about like this more, meeting all the people of the pride.
"There's a lot more lions that aren't in your family," he pointed out to the cub, curious to see where she would take such a statement.
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