“Dau is…lost…” The brown adult said as he looked around the desert land. “and Dau doesn’t know what to do…” His ears lowered as his whole body shifted itself down to the sands. “Dau should find helpful lions to help Dau…” The lion was use to the weather in the roguelands, but this one was different. “Dau is hot too…” His tongue lolled out of his mouth as if he were a dog. He was panting, trying anything to keep cool.
“Hey…Hey you!” a voice called out, her feet quickly scurrying over the desert sands for some shade. “You’re going to die out here, if you stay in the sun. Hurry, follow me to shelter,” she was quick as she spoke, but even quicker on her feet. Her white pelt would burn easily if she moved slowly.
Dau looked up at the female, frowning but moving up to follow her. “Dau…trusts you.” She was a pretty female, why shouldn’t he.
It didn’t take long for Ru and Dau to get to a small den just on the outskirts of the sandy desert. “What were you doing out there lying in the sand? Lions die out there you know. Not to mention the pride of red lions that’ll probably kill a stranger on sight.” The female scolded the adult male. Even though he wasn’t much younger than she was (or so she assumed), something about him was…childlike.
“Dau is sorry…Dau wandered that way not knowing hot rogue lands would be there.”
“…Dau huh? I take it that is your name?”
The adult male had nodded. “Yes, Dau is Dau. Daddy named Dau because Dau’s mommy did not like Dau. Dau traveled with Daddy until one morning Daddy was gone…” Another frown graced the innocent adult’s lion maw. “Dau very much misses Daddy.” While some would find an adult lion still calling their father Daddy, or mother Mommy, the rogue lion thought it was normal. He didn’t know any better; his father never taught him the difference between what would be considered ‘normal’ speech or not.
“Do you not know where your father went, Dau?” Ru asked quietly. This adult was just like a kid. A lost child.
“Dau does not know…Dau wishes that one day Dau would wake up and Daddy was there, but many gold balls have left the sky and come back, and still no Daddy.” His chocolate brown eyes looked into Ru’s bright blue ones. “What is pretty girl lion’s name?”
“My name? It’s Ru.” She kept it short, knowing the little adult may not fully comprehend or remember a large name like her full one: Rukopa-eupe.
“Girl Lion Ru, Dau thanks you for saving Dau from hot rogue lands. Dau didn’t want to die out there.” A smile caressed his maw as he purred quietly. The cave, though not exactly cold, was much colder than actually being out in the sun. “Why was Girl Lion Ru out in hot rogue lands anyways? Dau got lost out there…Did Girl Lion Ru did too?”
Ru shook her head. “I’ve been wandering around, just looking for a place to call home. Sometimes one has to travel across places that they don’t like to find what they are looking for.”
“Oh…Maybe Dau should travel cross places to find Daddy!” he said. “Will Girl Lion Ru help Dau do that? Dau doesn’t think Dau can make it on own.”
“…Where is it that you want to go, Dau?” She wasn’t really up to traveling with another, but something about this lion brought out some sort of motherly instinct in her.
“Dau…just wants to not have to be in the hot rogue lands anymore…Dau doesn’t like it.” He stated.
“.Okay then, Dau. Once night hits we will travel across the desert. Until them, perhaps you should get some rest. We’ll have a long trip to make. At least when darkness rolls around, the land is much colder, and manageable for travel.” She knew about traveling in the direct sunlight, and how much her skin ached until the burn would dissipate.
“…Dau isn’t tired though.” It was true; Dau had spent the whole night sleeping and well into the morning. He had only started traveling just a few hours ago. Unlucky for him, he decided to start his journey on the hottest part of the day. He learned his lesson and would not do that again.
“It’s a long journey, and the sun isn’t halfway into the sky. You might just try?”
“…Dau can try…” The lion lied on the ground, his cheek rubbing the cool ground. He wasn’t tired though, so he knew sleeping would be hard. “…Maybe Girl Lion Ru can tell Dau a story? Daddy use to tell Dau stories all the time to help Dau fall asleep.”
A story? Dau really was like a child. She remembered back when she was a cub, her mother told her stories. One she loved the most---the story of the lions that lived in the jungle. She remembered it just vaguely as it had been years since her white ears last heard it. “Um…Okay… Have you ever heard of the jungle lions, Dau?” At the shake of his head, Ru continued.
Well, my mother use to tell me this story when I was younger. There is a pride in the jungle where lions call home. The forest is like magic, holding several creatures that one had never seen in the rogue lands before. They lived in harmony with everything around them, and used the trees as their transportation system. You see, the tree branches intermingled with each other, creating intricate pathways that only the pride lions knew how to use.”
“But with peace always comes those who want to destroy it. A war broke out, destroying most of the life the pride had worked so hard to establish. What took decades to form was cut down in less than a few days. The large, lanky lions were dispersed into the rogue lands, where slowly they would begin to rebuild their once successive pride. Until this day, no one knows exactly where the pride is, or whatever happened to the remaining members that have yet to return.”
Ru loved this story when she was a kid. She always told her mother she would one day find the pride, and become one of their members. Her mother turned down this dream rather quickly after a few too many sayings. She looked sheepishly at Dau. “I’m sorry, I’m not the best story teller there is…”
When the lioness looked over to the male lion, she was pleased to see him resting. “…Well, maybe I am not terrible…but I could’ve bored him to sleep too,” she smirked jokingly, lying just away from the male to take a nice afternoon nap.
[[FIN -- 1133]]
