The crimson lion still continued to ask himself, just exactly why he was still in the lands? Vikali had been ignoring him, and there was really no other reason to stay. But yet, here he was, moping about. He wanted to find his golden love, express his true feelings to the female, but he couldn’t. Every time he would get near her, he’d lapse into his jerk-face kind of attitude. If Vikali could just see that his attitude towards her was just something that was of a loving nature, then maybe, just maybe they could make it work. But for now, he would just leave it alone.
Ukir strolled towards the water hole. It was early in the morning, a light hazy mist lingering over the main watering hole. The crimson lion believed no one would be up at this time, but was he wrong. Already at the watering hole was a dark female, even darker than himself, yet with bright, intriguing eye markings, sitting there, talking. Near her, another lioness lay, not even acknowledging the other. Intrigued, the lion sat back from the lioness, listening to her conversation all the while watching the other female's reaction.
“I still don’t understand why you won’t talk to me. You always talked to me before! Is it because I left the other lands? But you stopped talking to me there too! This isn’t fair.” Ohtli said with a sigh.
Ukir figured this was his time to intervene. “Need any help miss?”
"She's been doing that all morning," The dark lioness said from the ground, equally dark eyes gazing to the stranger. "I probably wouldn't try."
“What?” The lioness stood up quickly, turning around, leaving the dancing mist to skate across the water hole, slowly to disappear with the rising sun. “Oh…no…I just…” she peered over her shoulder, watching the evaporating mist. It was gone again. Even if her old friends wouldn’t talk to her, she still enjoyed their company. A very silent company.
“…Nothing.” She sighed again. “Nothing anymore.” Though, Ohtli wasn’t one to stay sad for a while, she began to perk up at the concerned look that the large red lion gave her. "I have not Kami." Ohlti gazed at her friend, lying on the ground. Her bright eyes focused back on the male.
“I’m Ohtli! and this, this is my friend Kami!” the dark red lioness introduced. Even though that was not the name she was born with, she kept it. For some reason, it just fit. Sometimes she would refer to herself as her cub-hood name, but more and more and was becoming something of the past. “And…you are? I haven’t seen you hear before…not that I would really know…I am practically new here myself!”
"Kamili, actually," Kami corrected, rising to her feet. No need to have this
“Oh…er…I’m…Ukir…Ukir’mtima-kasa.”
“Pleasure to meet you then, Ukir!” The once sad look on the lionesses face was gone, overtaken by her joyfulness. “So…have you been here long? It wasn’t like she had really asked the question if he was a part of the pride or not, but she just assured he would answer it. When he was silent, she decided to continue her own talking.
“You see! I had friends in my old pride…but they stopped talking to me, so here I went on a journey to find them again!”
Ukir stared at the lioness.
"You heard her right..." Kamili confirmed Ukir's thoughts.
Ohtli continued, ignoring the other. “But, I couldn’t find them…I met this one lion named Arun! He led me here…and well, the both of us joined! It’s a great pride I think. I miss my friends but I think I will make a lot of new ones here.” The dark pelted lioness waited for the lion to express his story. Still, at his silence, the female shook her head, speaking once more. “And, your story?”
Kamili's ears flicked. Arun? Her Arun? She had not heard Ohtli speak that name before. Maybe it was a different lion...
That got his attention. The crimson lion stared with his chocolate eyes into deep red ones before sighing. “I came here long ago, but never made this land my home. Found the girl of my dreams, but left her when she didn’t express the same feelings for me.” If only Ukir had known how much the two idiots loved each other, he wouldn’t be in this mess!
“That’s awful!” Ohtli interjected, quieting herself down once again before Ukir continued.
“But I recently came back. You know that feeling of when something just tugs at you, and you have to go until it stops?”
Ohtli nodded as did Kamili.
“Well, I followed it, and here I landed back in the Pridelands.”
“How romantic! You’re like a knight in shining armor!” She swooned. Kamili snorted in the background at Ohtli's actions. “I wish one day a lion would follow his heart to me. Oh, think of a happy ending that would be!”
Happy ending. Ukir’s relationship with Vikali was far from a happy ending. It was like a horror movie where the victims would keep taking wrong turns until they were eventually picked off one by one. Romantic was far from the choice of words he would have used in that situation.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” the lioness apologized. “Here I am ranting and raving. I…should let you go! You probably just came here to get a drink or something. I will see you around, right Ukir? Ready to go, Kamili?”
The lioness began to bound off, not really waiting for an answer from the crimson male or her own traveling partner. He gave a nod to the female. He would have to see her around. Her constant energetic-ness amused him, and it was definitely something he would need when times would get him down. Even after fighting with Vikali, hearing that bubbly voice would make a whole realm of difference.
Kamili, deciding she should follow Ohtli, waved a brief goodbye to Ukir. "Pleasure, Ukir. We will see you around, you can't miss Ohtli." The dark lioness chuckled, trotting after the female.
The lion watched until both of the lioness were no longer in sight, before heading over to the water hole. He hadn’t actually come out here to get a drink of water. He just merely came to investigate the sounds of the talking lioness to the waters. He still hadn’t figured out why she was doing what she was doing, but it would likely all be answered another day.
Right now, Ukir ducked his head near the water, lapping up the cool liquid before raising his head once more to stare at the sun rising in the air. Today was another day. Ukir was having such a string of bad luck with every other day, he only hoped today would be better. Who knew, maybe, just maybe, was the day the lion would confront his golden kitten about his feelings.
Then again, tomorrow was another day.
.
[1163 words]
