It was hot. Too hot, but then again it was always hot. He hated it. Durin groaned as he rolled from one side to the other, his eyes shut as he desperately tried to go back to sleep. To just sleep through the worst of it. To no great success though. The heavy lion moved himself to a sitting position, looking over the female forms that surrounded him and the few cubs that lay with them as well. A sort of proud smile started to spread over his face.
As Durin's eyes moved over the lionesses that called their home in his small pride he noticed that two of them were missing from the cluster of bodies. Quickly his gold eyes turned back to the horizon, looking for them. It was Kujali and another that had seemingly left. Worry began to fill him but it soon vanished as he saw the two lionesses in the distant, both helping drag what looked to be a zebra.
Kujali's maw was clamped firmly around what she could grab of the front leg of the African equine, helping drag the body back. While a capable huntress, she was getting too old to do this herself and had thus asked a younger, more energetic lioness to help her haul the kill back. Finally they had brought it close enough that they could rest and not have the imminent threat of thieving hyenas or possibly a desperate, starving leopard trying to steal their kill from them.
The leg dropped from her mouth just as Durin had padded over, giving the pale lioness a caring lick on the cheek before seizing the haunch in his mouth, doing the rest of the work of pulling it back to the shade for the small pride to feast.
As they ate in silence with only small growls coming up every now and then when one mouth went into the territory of another, Durin's eyes were kept on the ever graceful form that had done most of the work in retrieving the meat the filled his belly. More often the not, despite her age, Kujali was one of the only lionesses who consistently hunted in any weather. That was something he admired about her.
With bellies full, they laid together, all four lionesses, both little boys and their father, Durin. The carcass laid in the colossus male's field of vision, just to make sure that they would have food for later. Wordlessly, he laid beside Kujali, cleaning her head while her eyes stayed shut.
She was happy here, or at least that's what she kept telling herself over and over even with the dreams of her old home, her old mate and old friends. Kujali's head suddenly shook, startling the lion behind her slightly with her rapid movement.
"Is everything alright, Kujali?" Durin asked, nudging the side of her neck gently with worry.
Blue eyes looked back at him, emotions mixing within them. Nostalgia, happiness, misery, all in one. "Yes, everything is fine, Durin." She paused for a moment before continuing, thinking on her words before actually speaking to try and change the subject away from herself, "Did you enjoy your fill for the next few dawns?"
"Yes, but you already knew that. You know that striped beast is my favorite. Now, you seem troubled, what is it?" It was something Kujali already knew, but it wasn't something she had actually used to her advantage at all. It wouldn't have been a bad plan though had she actually have needed to gain something from it.
"Home."
"Home?"
"Yes, home." Kujali said once more, becoming slightly annoyed needing to repeat herself. "Before I came here with you. I was in another pride, with another mate. He..." It was hard to speak of the black and brown mate that she missed, but she did. "He vanished during a hunting expedition. None of the hunting group returning. I went looking for him and that was when I found you."
"Are you not happy here?"
That question brought up so many others within Kujali's mind. Was she truly happy here? Was this the right place for her? Could she see herself spending the rest of her days with this hulking brown male? "I am, but...I'm not sure if I should spend the last of the days here or in search of my mate of mine that is still missing from me." Her eyes changed from a mixture of many emotions to just a few; pain and sorrow. She missed and as such, she missed him dearly. The two had been together since cubhood and had only been parted when they were they were young adults.
"I understand." A pang in his chest seeing her in mourning still caused him to say.
"It's alright, but I truly do not know. Perhaps I will look for him when these young lionesses no longer need me to aid them in all their hunts. They are all seemingly hopeless at their duties."
That got a sort of chuckle from the lion, acknowledging that it was likely true. "Yes, yes, they are a rather inexperienced lot, but with you to guide them I'm sure they will become fine mothers and hunters." These was almost a sound of admiration in there as he spoke of Kujali teaching them. It was only followed up with a lick on her cheek. "I would like to have cubs with you, Kujali. You would be a fine mother. The others could learn from seeing an experienced lioness go through it."
That took her by surprise. Cubs? With her? The pale lioness had always thought of herself as a sort of grandmother to the other lionesses and almost to Durin himself. "I..I don't know. I'm afraid that I may be too old for such a thing now, Durin. I'm sure one of the others would be much better suited to your tas-"
"Do you deny me?"
His voice was stern and that was something that terrified Kujali. "Yes, Durin, I'm denying you. If you wish for me to remain here by your side, you'll do well to remember that I am old. A litter with the strength of you as their sire would surely be my death."
As much as the large, brown male wished to continue on, to ask her if it would not be a worthy death, the thought of losing the lioness beside him almost terrified him. Silently the two continued to lay there with Durin picking up on grooming the top of her head.
[Word count: 1094]
