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 Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:43 am
He normally wasn't out by himself nowadays. Not with his new friend Ruia and their even newer friend Tizona. But with Tizona back home and Ruia off scouting, the golden lion found himself stranded. And he didn't like being alone, either. He hated the worry and the fear it inspired in him and hated to think of how disappointed his Firekin brethren would be if they could see him now; hunched up close to the foliage so as to avoid being seen by any mean rogues who might be passing by.
He just didn't want to fight in any shape or form and, unfortunately, being born in a warrior pride made him feel as if every lion was out for a fight. It would take him time to realise that this just wasn't the case at all.
Anyway, it wasn't all bad. The sun was delightfully warm; balanced out by a fresh breeze that blew the mane up and out of his eyes. As far as days went, this one was pretty pleasant and Ruia would be back shortly. He'd promised! So, until then, he'd just try and relax for a while.
Maybe he could even have a nap!
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:47 am
It was so strange, the rest of the world. She still couldn't get used to the lack of sand. For the time she was in the Dawnwalker pride, it was all right. At least that had been within the sand, but it didn't feel like home. Those sands were of the sun and strange dieties she wasn't sure she could hope to understand. The firekin sands were that of home, strength, fire, the fire in her heart and blood. If only the fire red heat that was in her heart were on her pelt, she could have stayed.
Was there anyway she could return?
Would they allow her?
It was all she ever wanted. She had continued to train herself, be firekin even outside the lands. She just wanted to be with her pridemates, what did she have to do to prove herself that the fire within her was greater than that which shone on her pelt?
Sighing, Nakama walked, eyes down, paws lightly touching the ground.
She wanted a piece of home.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:52 am
The difference between them was this: Nakama saw the Motoujamii as home and Uddhava...
Uddhava had not.
He had loved his family dearly, of course, and did miss them a lot. But to him, the desert had not been for him. He was not fierce on the outside or on the inside and he had stood out amongst a crowd. He'd never felt like he had been at home there, as if he was living in some strange dream land from which he would wake.
But the sad fact was that he had not found a home since leaving the lands either. He'd made a couple of attempts. In fact he'd even followed a group to the Dawnwalkers only to find it some strange mockery of the Firekin and said a quick farewell. He'd almost considered during Ruia's pride, too. In fact he was still considering it. From what he had seen of the Kusini, it was a nice safe place. But Ruia's parents didn't seem to like him much and he was sure he'd soon feel unwelcome there, too.
Was there ever going to be a place for him in this land? He hated the rogue life so much and yet...he seemed cursed to wander the lands as a nomad.
He drew in a deep breath and expelled it again in a huge sigh.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:56 am
As she walked she suddenly heard his out source of breath and stopped. Turning her silver eyes she peered about, trying to find the source, and a scent came onto the wind. Unfamiliar, as she would be to this other, but they were close. Scanning the area, her eyes fell onto something...golden, and she quirked a brow and crouched down slightly. It was almost like herself but...richer, clean, and alone?
"Why are you hiding?" she said suddenly, not meaning to say it aloud, as she had been contemplating it.
Male, she thought, by the sheer size of what she believed was a male, but it was hard to tell from where she was standing. He seemed to try and be removing himself.
"I don't bite," she said, trying to give a laugh, but something about this gold was interesting to her. But she couldn't yet place it. She felt like she had seen it before, so she wanted to see this stranger's face.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:03 pm
Her voice frightened him.
Jerking to his paws, he whipped around to see who had snuck up on him, terrified to see that it wasn't someone he knew and yet partially gladdened that it was a female. Girls were less likely to be mean, right? And then she laughed, telling him that she didn't bite, and he stuttered as he tried to back away.
"Um, ah...I'm..." He winced. "Sorry."
For a moment he looked rather pitiful, standing there with his head low and his tail curling around a hind leg. "Y-you startled me."
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:16 pm
As he seemed to be completely turned upside down by her being there she shrunk to the ground immediately, lowering herself down crouching so that perhaps he would be less likely to freak out even more. He was male, a rogue, why was he so afraid? On top of that, from where she was standing, he was large as well, well built...she was confused to say the least.
When she looked at him, head to toe, something was beginning to connect. THe color of his pelt, the mane...those eyes, and as she watched him and blinked, she was brought back into her cubhood as her mother had once taken her around the stone slates.
Whose that mama? Nakama had asked, and Mzaa said with ease it was one of those like her, huria. Why do we have to leave? and her mother had had no answer then, and they went to walk away. She had spoken his name, but she could barely remember.
"You're firekin...aren't you? Your mother, she was the bright orange one?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:24 pm
To say that Uddhava was shocked to hear those words come out of her mouth would be an understatement. He was floored. Completely floored. The Firekin? She knew of the Firekin and yet she had no speck of red about her at all? How could she possibly know that! He'd not even told his dearest friends the name of his pride and yet this stranger suddenly appeared and started speaking truths within moments. About his pride. About his mother.
Unless...
Unless she was a Firekin, too. Or had been.
He got over his shock a moment later, still staring at her dumbfounded. "Y-you are a huria?" He gasped, taking another small step back. "How do you know me? How could you even guess?" He blinked back a sudden burst of tears. It wasn't possible that this lioness could have met his mother.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:43 pm
As he went to back away from her, she was still crouched down but inched forward slightly. Why was he upset, why was he scared, confused? She inched towards him still and stopped. She had never met another huria before, besides her brother, but he was firekin by color, just not by name. He was like her, like the sun's fiery glow, just not red hot.
"Don't go away...please? Wait," she didn't want him to run. This was amazing, what were the chances?
"My mother, she told me stories, she's a historian, recorded images of all firekin, including those who left, or passed, your mother, I remember her image, and you, you were the only gold one like me."
She watched him, ears folding back, "She told me your name once, my mother, and your mother's too, but it was a while ago, I haven't been home in so long," she wanted to go home, so badly, did he want to also? But he was afraid...even now. Strange.
"I'm Mwako'Nakama."
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:01 am
After a moment the golden lion seemed to relax somewhat. She seemed so earnest in her words and there was a gentleness and a relief in her eyes that made him feel that she was not about to go for his throat. Very, very slowly he seated himself on the ground and gave her a small, short nod.
"I am Uddhava." He replied. "My mother gave me that name before she departed for the afterlife." The memory was bitter-sweet. He had gone so long without a name and yet she had uttered it with her last breath. There had been so much love shared between them in that final moment that he had forgiven how she had ignored him until that day. "Her name was Ripuka."
He blinked. "You are...truly a huria? I...I...well, have you been out here for very long?"
He felt like he'd been wandering for an eternity. "Sorry if I...I was rude. It's just...I'm not a very good rogue."
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 9:36 am
"Uddhava, yes, that does sound familiar, as does Ripuka, my mother, I think, was the first to put both your images on the slates, I believe her apprentice has since taken over by now, I suspect anyway," Nakama said with a wave of her paw. As he questioned her being a huria, her ears fell back and she nodded, "Yes," she did not like it, did not want it, never asked for it, but she was.
"I wish I could change it, I've tried, but nothing seems to be permanent, the golden color of the sands and sun remain eternal it seems," she said with a soft laugh, but in that laugh was also sorrow and a yearning to go home.
She nodded, "a while, but not as long as you, I don't remember you from when I was young, so you've got more time and wisdom than I it seems," she said offering a smile, trying to get him to relax.
Shaking her head she dismissed his silliness, "do not worry, rogues act differently, just not what to expect from a firekin, so it took me by surprise, sorry if I intruded upon your territory."
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 9:50 am
He was quiet for a long moment, happy to let her speak and happy to listen to it. She had a calming voice, though she seemed pained by her fate as a huria. He both understood and didn't understand. It had been hard to leave, sad to have been different. But he didn't want to go back. Even if his pelt magically changed overnight, he would not go to the desert.
"I...we, were just passing through. This is no more my territory than yours."
And then he was quiet a long moment, though it was clear he was thinking something through very carefully. When he spoke, it was with a slow, gentle voice: "You...want to change who you are?" The thought was very sad. "You should not wish for that." They had not been red, black or white, but they were their colour for a reason. He believed that. They had a destiny elsewhere, though he had yet to find his.
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:19 am
She nodded at his response. Perhaps this was just an open territory for passing, and she was glad for that truly. That way she would not have to have her guard up so severely while traveling through, she could let her mind and muscles at slight ease for once.
As he was quiet, she watched him carefully, and as he spoke, she was taken aback.
It was hard to explain really.
But she could try.
"I don't want to change who I am, but perhaps how I appear. A change of color would do nothing drastic to who I am on the inside, nor has this golden pelt changed the fire in my heart. But, it keeps me from the firekin...my family there, they are all I know. My brother who had to leave with me, might try to go back, and he maybe could because he has the right colors, but not the right name...I just...don't fit anywhere."
Her ears fell flat against her head and she sighed.
"I can't seem to find anywhere that feels like home, I don't feel like I'm truly accepted anywhere..."
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:31 am
They had their differences but they also had their similarities, it appeared. She didn't fit in anywhere, just like he didn't. Had any huria ever found another land in which they could call home? Was it even possible? He couldn't help the horrible, cold sweep of dread from rushing through his body.
"I can't help but think that I'll never find a place to call home." He wasn't sure he wanted to admit to her that he didn't consider the Firekin home, either. "But I don't want to go back to the desert. I...I didn't belong their either." He looked ashamed as he said the next part. "No fight in me. No want to change that, either."
He sighed, thinking of how helpless everything seemed. "I'm sorry. I can't give you any good news. Perhaps you'll meet a huria who has had some better luck, some day. But it seems to hurt you to think of a home you can't have. That's a sad thought."
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:38 am
She wondered the same thing, all the time.
Was she destined to continue to wander without ever finding a home truly to call her own? Would she never be truly accepted for who she was?
"Perhaps someday, somewhere, both of us will find happiness," she said with a hopefully smile, her eyes meeting his.
"Regardless if there is no fight in you, there is a flame in you and your heart which brings warmth and kindness to those around you, like me," her silver eyes watched him, blinked and then met the ground.
"I just miss my family, it is hard for others to accept me, it seems, wherever I go, others are hesitant," perhaps of her size, demeanor, build, of background. She wanted to feel like she had something to hold onto.
"You will find a place, I know it. My mother once said you looked like those that lived in a land of true green," what had that place been called? "I can't quite remember the whole story, my mother passed through there once, she said. Maybe you should head there? Maybe your journey will take you there."
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:45 am
He nodded slowly. "It is...different for you in that way. My family is...spread across the lands. I don't know where they are. Not my father or my siblings. Only a couple remain in the Firekin, my brother, Azarax being one of them." He loved that brother in particular. Azarax had been the only lion who had made the Firekin home during his time there. "My mother is dead and the others are lost to me. I doubt I'll ever see them again." And he thought of his sister Zapaliti, who had stayed within the Firekin for a time.
And then she had left, too.
"Maybe you could...find a pride close by and...visit?" He questioned. That seemed like her best shot at being happy if she truly couldn't forgo the desert.
"A land of true green?" He seemed interest in that. "Maybe it will. I hope it will. I'm not meant to be a rogue. I want a pride. I want to feel safe." It had been a long time since he had ever felt safe.
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