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 Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:00 pm
Hasana's surrogate mother had told her things got easier with age: as one came to accept their life for what it was, as one had less days ahead of them than behind them, they felt at peace. This was the first lie she was ever told, and abiding by it was her final regret. She could not say it was her greatest, though. There were far too many to be compared.
Peace? Please. She spent her days hating her brother, hating herself, and her nights weeping for her children and their children. If only she hadn't squandered so much time believing she would come to terms with it all, if only she hadn't submissively deemed the effort futile out of fear (of what? Failure? Death?), she could have found them all, just maybe.
Maybe, maybe. Maybe haunted her and dragged her down worse than her sickness. Likely it was the cause of it.
Most of her sons and daughters, their sons and daughters, were living worthy lives. They thrived in prides across lands she had never seen, and undoubtedly ones she never knew were there. It was a testament to how wonderful a lion and father her mate had been that so few of her daughters had been irrevocably jaded by her poor decisions. But the guilt of her sins never relinquished its hold. Those many bright and happy lives she had helped bring into the world were not compensation for those she had ruined.
Hasana was simply not brave enough to die with things like this.
She had never been one to hide things from the family she had left, but they had not heard a word of her scheme. They'd think she was out sunbathing, chatting with a rogue cub, or maybe (maybe, maybe) they'd think she had fallen and died somewhere. The irony was, in going forth with this plan, she risked their resentment instead.
The difference, though, was they would lift their heads high and carry on. Ohahira she felt would not. The first time she'd been reunited with her daughter, she had screamed of plans to kill her own sister. How many of her Firekin brood were out there suffering the same?
The climb was steep and it hurt. Every muscle protested; bones cracked wickedly. Twice she felt sure she was going to die before she reached the top, but twice she rose. Rumor had it, location was not as important to the ritual as presentation.
Hasana disagreed. In her particular situation, this rocky hill -- not quite a mountain -- was vital. This had been the place she had run to as a cub when Banji was nowhere to be found. There were echoes here of her life when it had promise.
I'm gonna climb up there and see if I can see Banji from the top! Wait here!
She couldn't. Her brother had left. He stole her future and ran away, left her with some scraps she pieced together that led her here.
Hasana couldn't ask anyone to hunt for her without risking too many questions. They'd want to know why she suddenly had such a large appetite. All she could capture was two fat hares, and probably for the best: she hadn't accounted for the extra weight.
Hasana reached the top, plopped them down, and cut them open. She had encountered a God very young, and many more since then. They had lost her intimidation long ago, but not her respect -- except for one.
The hares bled well and bled much. Enough? She hoped so.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:41 pm
The rabbits themselves would not have been, but the location, the meaning, and the height all worked together to create a ritual where before there had just been blood. Someone had cared enough to go out of their way.
So she knew, even before her body was ripped from its location and cast into the beyond, that who she was about to see was serious. This was no unplanned, last cry of hopeless desperation. Usually, that meant something very bad.
The towering form, spiraling horns and rune-bloodied coat would appear before Hasana first.
"Wait." Uuni counted off the time in her own mind before the thunderous crack of splitting universes echoed across the mountaintop. Teleporting was always loud - as if the universe strained under the effort of moving her from location to location.
As the rumble faded, she settled her icy gaze on the only other being visible on the mountaintop. Old, frail, perhaps sick. Uuni felt her stomach churn. She never did like to be faced with mortality. It was real, everyone could die. Gods could become ill, and could become slain. She had a certain sort of admiration for mortals who went through old age time, and time again. There was no distinction that marked this one as a shaman, or an elder. The runes were not intricate enough, and she had not seen this face before.
She didn't like this one bit.
"Is it just you?" She did not recall any prides that lived so far up this particular mountain. But, those damn mortals moved around restlessly. They were harder to keep track of than her children.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:07 pm
Hasana mistakenly took her inquiry as a roundabout way of asking why someone was not with her on her journey as opposed to if there was a pride around. Either way, the answer was the same. She nodded, wheezed. "Yes," she replied. "Just me."
She brought with her two hares that the world could see and on her back two crosses that it couldn't. One was her own, and one was Banji's. He had made her carry his things since they were cubs. She'd have to keep loyal to that responsibility for the time she had left. The Heavens knew responsibility was not something her brother would understand. To ask for that... No God had that kind of power.
Her legs shook from the weariness, but she stayed standing. She didn't dare ask what Uuni did or didn't know. She was a Goddess; Hasana would trust her to know enough. "My children..."
This conversation had played a thousand times in her mind, all for null.
"My daughters and sons," she tried again, "and theirs... I want to know if they're all okay -- and I want to help the ones that aren't, if I can."
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:29 pm
Of course.
The old lady lioness was wishing for something she could not do after she died. Uuni frowned.
She hadn't signed up for babysitting. She did not want to manage however many sons and daughters this lioness had. There were at least four. There could have been twenty.
"You have got to be--" Uuni took in a deep breath. There was no sense in taking it out on old lionesses. Uuni watched her own kids - not that it was fun - why shouldn't someone else have that opportunity? Because it was a pain in the ******** a**.
"Both are possible." In theory, anyway. She wrinkled her nose. "It will take time. I'll need names. . . well, a name. Yours."
A pause, as she looked over matted fur and listened to wheezing lungs. "Be prepared to give as much as you're asking for." Though, the solution was easy. There had never been an easier price.
"Should they not be okay, I'll help them in the way I see fit. That would be price enough." Whether that be good, or bad. Really, it was a really good deal. It wasn't like she was going to kill them or anything. Not that the old lioness knew that.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:57 pm
Hasana never got the full impact of Uuni's exasperation. Her eyes were not as quick to yield to willpower as her legs, and when they fell, they didn't get back up. What was one more failure? Try as she might, she couldn't look.
"Both are possible."
Instead of relieved, she appeared exhausted. Not without reason. She gave her name. Hasana, meaning first born. The world was cruel to make her part of a set when the other half had never been interested in living up to his end. "I'll do anything it takes."
"Should they not be okay, I'll help them in the way I see fit. That would be price enough."
The tears started after that. She bowed her head out of respect -- respect that Uuni should help her and respect to the belief no Goddess would want to tolerant a sobbing mortal. Surprisingly, her voice was steady. "Whatever must be done is fine."
In her darkest hour, Hasana had thought it. It made her sick and left cripplingly sense of self-loathing few experienced to that degree. She'd tucked it neatly away somewhere dark and dusty where she didn't have to pay it any mind unless absolutely necessary.
Would it best if Ohahira just died? Would she find peace then?
"My daughter Ohahira and her daughters -- and her son -- they'll need the most help."
Meanwhile, Mwokoti was watching.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:05 pm
If there was one thing Uuni could claim to have trouble with, it was tears. Excessive gratitude, and tears.
She didn't know what it was, and didn't really care. All she knew was that they were awkward as hell, made her feel guilty, and were usually impossible to get rid of unless being spewed by premature lions.
"You should eat those hares," she offered. "They're of no use to me." And you look like you need them.
Uuni wondered, idly, how long this Hasana had left to live. It made the back of her throat tickle.
"You're not allowed to die until the pact is closed, or its forfeit. I have to bring you back news of your sons and daughters, first." It was a weak sense of empathy at best. But it was as close to caring as Uuni could choke out.
Uuni knew two gods which could easily help her with this problem. Once she located them, the rest of her task would be easy. If she was exceptionally lucky, they would find her.
"I can come to you, disguised, if you'd prefer. Three days, at most." But if she was any good at her job, it might be mere hours.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:34 pm
Hasana didn't react to Uuni's misguided sentimentality. She kept still and quiet discounting an erratic pattern of wheezes. Eventually, she shook her head again. It made her dizzy. "Come as you are."
The Goddess Hasana was most familiar with had never hidden herself. Mwokoti had been so open about her status, and such a constant presence, her eldest son had once come home flabbergasted he'd made a friend out of a non-believer. Hasana had to admit, with Mwokoti as reference, she hadn't known Gods could change their shape.
Neither one of them was in a position to expect the little black bird not six feet away was anything but. In hindsight, normal birds didn't sit motionless in one place, staring; somehow looming in defiance of such a small body.
Mwokoti's transformation back went smoothly and swiftly for someone with so little experience in it. (Fate had to take pity on her once in a while.) She spared not a second afterward. Her paws literally touched the ground and she was immediately setting up camp between the mortal and her fellow God. How long had it been since they'd last bickered?
"Uuni, this one is not to be trifled with," she stated firmly.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:45 pm
s**t.
Uuni took two, three, four, and five quick steps backwards as the bird grew in front of them. It was impossible to gather just which god was interrupting this quaint meeting. The last thing Uuni wanted was to loose her head.
As the bright yellow coat and the hollowed eyes materialized, the hair on Uuni's back lowered. The goddess took in a long breath and let the shiver pass as a quake through her skin.
"Nice trick." The goddess was hard pressed not to roll her eyes and continue on. Somehow, she held her composure.
Probably because gods were scary.
"I'm not trifling." She clicked her tongue. "I don't have time for that bullshit." Her eyes flicked to Hasana. If she'd even had the desire to trifle, it was certainly gone now.
"Does this one mean something to you?" Technically, she sorta kinda owed Mwokoti a debt. Not a big one, but they both knew. They'd helped each other out. Mwokoti had kept several less-than-desirable pacts from ever having to see the light of day. Maybe it was a pretty big debt. It was immeasurable, either way, and that made it dangerous.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:59 pm
Gods were scary indeed, but Mwokoti had fallen from grace in Hasana's eyes the day she learned what she'd done to her daughter. And it wasn't just about Ohahira in the long run. Those actions taken against just her had damned Hasana's grandchildren to that kind of upbringing. They were freed, and the ones she'd met lovely and functional, but getting that time back was impossible.
"No, we don't mean anything to her," Hasana said pointedly. The use of "we" instead of "I" was intentional. Those mismatched eyes of hers bravely confronted the pair. In a way, Mwokoti was not the only one to transform.
Mwokoti had taken up shapeshifting, but still found time for her favorite hobby: staring. She stared at Uuni -- then Hasana snapped out of her daze and spoke up, and she... still stared at Uuni. "Just what do you do when you encounter savages these days? You don't know the promise you're making. Not really."
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:08 pm
Oh. Oh.
Well, that was. . . not the news she had expected.
"You're worried about me." If Uuni had a journal, she would certainly have inscribed this day in the stone of a cave.
"Usually I'm the one giving out warnings." And she was nice enough to usually give a full warning. One that included fine print, which she craftily enhanced by using her voice.
As for savages, well. . .
"That's a really good question." Typically, they ruined themselves. That was how pacts worked - everything came with a consequence, and people got what they deserved. It wasn't something she caused. Uuni was more like a catalyst.
It had been a long time since someone had been out for her blood.
"Usually I run," she admitted. Mortals died sooner or later, and she was very good at hiding. "You could have said something earlier. I'm rather stuck now." A pact, well, was a pact. And mutually binding. "So, an explanation would be nice." Her eyes moved from Mwokoti to Hasana.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:32 pm
A split second before Hasana was ready to jump into the verbal fray, the confirmation her pact was final soothed her. Unlike Mwokoti, she didn't have years of experience to know letting Uuni's mouth run its course was often the wise choice.
Mwokoti spoke from fact, not malice -- well, some. They had a peculiar respect-despise relationship that warranted it. "You're mistaken," she said. Worried that a mortal would kill her? Nonsense. Being a God, any God, afforded at least a smidgen of arrogance. Not once had she feared for her own life. It had all been for Nishan. And this, here, was for Hasana's own good.
"This isn't any of your business," Hasana snapped.
There was no chance Mwokoti was going to have a conversation like this under these circumstances. Not that she felt she owed Uuni an explanation to begin with. "I would have had I gotten here sooner." Not all of them were so lucky to be summoned to their destinations and finish their work quickly. Some of them had to walk, slowly, so the eighteenth cub they took home that day could keep up.
Coming here for only two hares... Weren't there better sacrifices elsewhere?
But Mwokoti knew why. It was unlike her to be snarky, to not think like this, but grief didn't spare anyone the side effects.
"That lioness cannot be returned to any other member of her family, whether or not it is for her own good," Mwokoti said. Ohahira was not okay. She would never, ever be okay, and the risks to try and make it so... She wasn't sure to what lengths Uuni would go.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:59 pm
"Well, damn," Uuni deadpanned, the sarcastic tones oozing from her tongue. "Whatever will I do with my day without your love and blessing?"
Probably go on vacation. Hell would be a better break than this. The only thing worse than mortals were gods, and now she had to contend with both.
"I see you two have a history." Great. No one was being very forthcoming with any information, so she was on her own. The last thing she wanted to do was piss of Mwokoti. While she may not have had any powers that particularly alarmed her, she could still teleport, and could still hunt her down. And while Uuni may have been an expert hider, Mwokoti was an expert finder.
Those were not odds stacked in her favor. Those odds were a good sign to run away now.
"Then she won't. And you'll owe me a favor." Uuni's eyes moved back to Hasana. The old lioness looked more vicious now, in a desperate sort of way.
"I don't know what sort of crap you two have gotten into, but try and keep me out of it. I'm not your mental-counsel. I'm not solving extraneous problems." Though, no matter how many times she said that, there were always extraneous problems. And she always ended up solving them.
A deep breath, and she turned her eyes first to the sky and then back to Mwokoti. "You. If you're particular about how that lioness does whatever, then you'd better come with me. I'm not doing that whole business where you give me a list that I somehow mess up. If things go wrong, it's on your head." Her funny, yellow-tufted head.
"I'd really like to be done here, now."
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Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:58 am
Uuni hadn't done much to expand her capacity in good-decision making since Mwokoti had last seen her. With most other Gods, Mwokoti kept things professional, kept her distance in more ways than one. Uuni, on the other hand, was on the receiving end of judgmental stares bordering motherly. "You'd do well to not disparage the severity of this, Uuni."
But they agreed on one thing: Leaving was good.
"Hasana..." Mwokoti sighed. What could one say?
Hasana felt "Don't." was appropriate. She clenched her jaw and looked so spitefully at her Mwokoti braced herself for the worst. Words could would, and Hasana had an arsenal of weapons. She had raised her children poorly, but she had raised them, not left them to strangers. Ohahira had not turned out any worse than Mwokoti's daughter either.
In the end, Hasana proved to be of better character than either Goddess for all the things she could have and didn't say. "If you want forgiveness, help my daughter. Her, not you."
Another thing Mwokoti was not known for was pulling a vanishing act, but she flickered out of existence without a word. No instructions on where to meet and no suggestion of where she might go.
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Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 11:05 am
"Yes, mother," was definitely the appropriate response for Mwokoti. The stuffy-nosed goddess could claim her innocence all she liked, but she was a big, caring fool. And, while it made her feel like she was being smothered, Uuni secretly enjoyed that responsible, adult behavior.
Except when Mwokoti was being a scary overprotective type. Then she'd sooner just leave everything in the dust.
Beyond the quip, Uuni quickly fell silent. There was bleedable tension between these lionesses. Uuni found herself swallowing, eyes flicking between one mother to the other. Man, she was really in for s**t this time.
And in a blink, Mwokoti was gone. Uuni swiveled an ear and did a quick, momentary survey to make sure nothing else was present, before she pulled in a deep breath.
"I don't want to know," she told Hasana before anymore words could be shared between them. "I'll be back when I have news of the others. The last. . . sounds complicated."
And then, she too, disappeared.
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