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 Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:34 pm
Lions weren't the only animals that could make pacts.
Elephants had such an intricate social system that they rarely needed outside help. They turned to each other when things went wrong and passed down age-old traditions. Elders helped younger elephants raise their offspring, and they grouped together during times of danger.
But, sometimes, they still did. And when an elephant spills blood, it spills a lot. The elephant in question had been in terrible shakes, fits and tears. She had retracted herself from the other elephants in shame, unwilling to admit that she had allowed her young son out of her sight. She'd been too afraid to ask for help, and then had been almost too full of nerves and guilt to spit out anything coherent.
Uuni hadn't taken the deal.
Unfortunately, she had taken something much worse: Pity.
"Stop screaming." The goddess had severely underestimated the problem. Her own paws were getting sucked into the mud. Already she had shape-shifted several times in attempt to trace her way through the muck. This only proceeded to further send the young elephant into a panic.
Thankfully, chest deep in mud, he was unable to injure himself. He pulled and wiggled, but remained mostly fixed. His small trunk flopped hopelessly against the muddy patch in front of him. Perhaps he would be Mwokoti's problem if he was actually lost. But he knew exactly where he was, he just couldn't move.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to dig you out of the mud."
The baby elephant apparently didn't trust a giant, off-white lioness with horns. In hindsight, Uuni didn't either, but it was the only form with enough force to dig the poor creature out of the muck. Another loud squeal moved across the ******** sake, shut up." They were going to attract a whole herd of elephants, and Uuni doubted they'd take her word, either.
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:06 pm
The world was only so big. Prides were staking claim everywhere from the most lucrative plains to the desolate deserts. Roka was pretty convinced she'd tread everywhere there was to go that wasn't breaking some kind of outrageous law or violating the practices of a likely violent religion. And when you could only go so many places, and her sister could only go so many places, it stood to reason that they'd end up in the same one sooner or later.
Roka and Ava the Valiant had more of a mother-daughter rapport. Roka had given Ava proof there were those out there who could tell her apart from her twin and the Avas had been the foundation on which Roka learned to really pay attention. She knew her sisters apart by their voice, the way they looked at others, the words they used; the list of differences were long, but those differences were dwarfed by their sameness.
Unless you were Roka.
"What is that?" Ava blurted out.
Neither were the type to ignore a sound like this, albeit for different reasons. Roka would want to inspect the situation for curiosity's sake. Ava only needed to know if someone was in need of her assistance. They hurried on together, one lioness that could be spared the details and another that wanted enough for the both of them.
Roka digested the onslaught of information quickly. She had more to reference than Ava did. Her sister didn't know this Goddess -- the one saving an elephant. Right, okay. Best to leave her to that.
"Where are you going?" Ava demanded.
Roka stopped, looked over her shoulder. "Trust me, she'll figure it out."
"We have to help!" Ava argued.
"No, we really -- "
But it was no good. Ava was running the rest of the way to the scene of the chaos.
"--don't," Roka finished.
Obviously, Ava got there first. She stayed outside the muddy parts for now. "Hey! What can I do?"
Roka had always had to hand it to her sister: she didn't ask dumb questions like Do you need help?
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:22 pm
Did she what?
After all the god-hate this month, an enthusiastic, undeterred young female offering help was the last sound Uuni thought she would hear. The goddess jerked her head over to the sound and squinted.
"Uh," she suavely managed. Had she heard right? The little helper was pretty, too. Uuni was about to open her mouth when another trumpet interrupted their intensive conversation.
The elephant was pointing its small trunk at the lions. Its ears were fanned out, and its tail rotated in a semi-circle. Uuni could feel the mud move as it tried to stamp its feet.
"See if you can calm it down!"
Easier said than done. Uuni had spent the first hour attempting. The damn elephant wouldn't calm for anything and it hadn't yet gotten exhausted and given up. If anything, it seemed more energetic than before. But if it attempted to escape prematurely, it had a high chance of breaking something. Game over.
Uuni was about to say something else, when the second of the two lionesses arrived. Speaking of useless help.
"Oh, great." She sucked in a breath. "Are you here to charm the elephant with your smile?" Because, really, the little brown lioness could do to smile more. Frowning that much could not have been healthy.
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:57 pm
The decline in Roka's health lately could be traced back to Uuni and that incident. In like manner, she was the cause of those grimaces, not a victim of them.
Roka may have secretly been Goddess of the Unblinking. My oh my could her eyes judge without interruption. (Had she been spending time with the Mwokoti line?)
Gods and Goddesses were not Ava's choice of company, but she knew well the burden of being blamed for something someone like you, but not you, did. The Other Ava got her in trouble more than once through a case of mistaken identity. It got to where their father just blamed them both to save time.
'Sides, this wasn't about them.
Ava got closer, but stayed cautious. If it felt like her paws were getting too heavy, sinking too far, she quickly backtracked. "Calm down, little one!" she urged. It was challenging to sound convincing and well-meaning when you had to shout to be heard.
Unless you were Roka. She had always been good at conveying her feelings no matter the volume. In this case, unamused. "Have you tried being an elephant?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:14 pm
Not. Helping.
The small elephant's little eyes went wide. Clearly, Ava was the most important threat in this area. Its ears could not have flapped any harder. It blared, and blared, and blared until Uuni felt her eyes would fall out.
Sighing heavily, she morphed progressively downwards until she could scramble onto solid ground and survey the situation. There was a bunch of muddy water and a stuck elephant: the same situation as when she'd arrived.
"He either really likes you, or really hates you," Uuni muttered out to Ava. "Hard to tell, really." She made her way over to Roka as if pulled by some magical force. Uuni let her legs buckle there, breathing heavily and coated in mud.
"Have you tried being an elephant?" she retorted. Easier said than done! Uuni dealt with lions, lions, the occassional cheetah, leopard, more lions. Elephants were not on her list of studied animals.
"It took one look at my impression and decided it didn't like the show." In fact, it had almost been more alarmed than when she was a giant thing with horns.
"Unless that pretty face is hiding a guide to elephants, that tactic is dead in the water."
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:26 pm
Ah, yes, the magical force of making Roka's life harder. She was a magnet Uuni's unruly ways couldn't resist, she supposed. Order and chaos, or something like it. The Avas had taught her about opposing forces very young. "I haven't," Roka replied curtly.
Meanwhile, Ava couldn't resist circling the elephant. Planning was not her strong point, action was. But just go, go, go wasn't going to solve this one. If she had to pick one, she'd wager the elephant was not a fan. Her lack of experience with them must have been showing.
Ava looked over to see her sister had got up and was now wandering off. "Roka!" she called to no avail. Bah! Forget her then. "Where are the other elephants?" Ava complained. "Shouldn't there be more?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:40 pm
Uuni was too busy panting on the shore to bother going where Roka was headed. Probably to go stomp her feet in frustration.
"Talking about the weather somewhere," Uuni informed her. Though, they'd probably notice the missing elephant soon whether its mother liked it or not. That was bound to be a bad situation. They might decide a pair of lions weren't actually helping the situation.
"Maybe we should wait him out. He's bound to get tired someday." What were parents feeding their children these days? Sugar-cane?
-
"What's that?"
The matriarch of the band raised her head and squinted. Though her hearing was flawless, her eyes had started to go.
"A lion. Just one."
She went wrapping her trunk around a tree branch in order to tug free the leaves.
"It's not stopping." A few of the other elephants banded together and stomped their feet. Apparently, it was not going to slow the lion down.
"Should we be concerned?"
The Matriarch paused, and glanced back at the younger elephants. "It's one lion." The tree then proceeded to meet its doom.
A young male took a step forwards. "You! Lion. Go away!" He hadn't perfected his scary-voice yet.
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:53 pm
Ava hated two things most in life: Ava (the other one) and waiting. Once, she'd had to wait for Ava, and this was almost as bad as that. Just leaving him... He could starve or break something! What if he already had? There was a scary thought. "If they're just talking, let's go get them!"
--
No one fully grasped the irony of Roka being the sister to just get up and do something -- that something being find the herd. Ava got flustered when emotions were running high. She was an adult, but a young one, with much to learn. Hadn't been blessed with the natural-born wisdom of her sister. And there was the matter of her being a follower (when someone was around to follow) where as Roka, on the other hand, neither followed nor led. She made never anticipating help seem like a lifestyle.
"Excuse me!" she called, beckoning the attention of each and every elephant. Close enough to see the color of her eyes. The farther away someone stood, the farther from the truth their words were. "Excuse me, elephants. Were you aware one of your young is trapped in the mud? If you'll just follow me, I'll lead you right to them and we can resolve this as quickly and safely as possible."
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:11 pm
Oh, Roka got their attention alright. The elephants looked amongst each other, baffled at the approaching lion.
Only a few had flared ears, the rest of the group peered down at Roka with an intelligent, studying mind. They remained quiet, their tails moving to and fro and their trunks swaying as they assessed the danger.
"Who's missing!" Like a well-practiced march, the elephants broke into a specific formation, babies in the middle.
It was readily apparent whose child had vanished in a matter of seconds. The mother of the child had her head low, was shy, and her trunk touched the ground. She opened her mouth to attempt to explain but was shushed by a several trunks at once. There was time for apology and guilt later - for now they were on a mission!
The Matriarch made no comment, instead turning to the small, squash-able form of the lion.
"Very well. Lead."
-
"I'd prefer to avoid trampling."
Uuni was about to rest her head on her paws when the ground began to vibrate. She shifted, scowling, as the rumble continued. It did not shake enough to be an earthquake.
Turning, she witnessed the appearance of a lioness at the head of what could have been a deadly war-force.
Wow.
The goddess was mouthing the word subconsciously. When she figured out she was staring, she cleared her throat and planted her feet. From behind her, the baby elephant let loose a much more pleasant trumpeting sound.
"Maybe you're slightly useful," Uuni told Roka. Elephant Whisperer.
"While you're saving the day, keep them out of the mud. I don't want to dig more than one elephant out."
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:31 pm
"You'd prefer --" Ava bristled and bared her teeth. Maybe all Gods were useless jerks after all. Instead of pacing with her attention on the elephant, she directed her eyes outward, trying to determine which way to go. Ava was not one to take long to decide, but wasting time going too far the wrong way could mean death for the calf. The threat of having her efforts rendered pointless was enough to quell her impatience. Temporarily.
Ava was about to rush headlong one way -- not the right way, either -- when the ground rumbled. Startled, she comically clung to the dirt with her claws. Could it be?
The elephants!
--and a lioness?
Roka sat beside Uuni and hummed something meant to be affirmation. Smug. Very smug. "Simple is best," she told her. A cub couldn't have sounded more know-it-all. Ava rolled her eyes.
"I saw that," said Roka. She spared a "Be careful to keep from sinking!" to the elephants, but nothing further. They were more impressive a species than she had thought. Hearing about them was one thing. To see -- no, experience their order was something else. The coordination, the strict organization! It made her giddy to be in the presence of.
Ava was not so content to remain a spectator no matter how many (supposedly) gentle giants were around. She approached the herd and called "Hey, elephants! I want to help!"
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:50 pm
The elephants had quickly formed a ring. They wasted no time in senseless comments and the hum of their quiet voices filled the quiet air.
"I like her," Uuni commented as Ava rolled her eyes.
"Where'd you find her?" A glance to Roka. They were both young, so it was doubtful that one or the other was a mother. Cousins, siblings, lovers? Who knew.
The elephants were moving. They moved to the edge of the hard earth, feet testing the mud. From the side, one of the large elephants locked on Ava. "Watch our feet. Warn us if we are in too far." Two others kept a wary eye on Roka and Uuni. They remained on hard ground, in case of emergency.
A few, careful footfalls was all it took for the elephants to assess the mud was deeper than it looked. Still, they stepped in further, trunks holding onto one another's tails. The mother of the baby elephant had made it up to her knees, but she could reach her trunk out and touch her baby, and that was good enough.
"Pull!" It looked as though it would have an effect, and then the line of elephants went slack. With all his stomping, the baby was just too stuck.
"Don't go away, sweetheart, I'll be right back." Uuni hauled herself onto her feet, grimacing at the way the drying mud was cracking from where it stuck to her. She shrunk herself down until she became no more heavy than a bug skittling its way easily over the mud's surface.
With his mother reassuring him, the baby elephant was now calm enough to remain still when the scary thing with horns reappeared.
The Matriarch gave a nod towards Ava as the elephants began to reorganize. Though they couldn't move a lot of mud with their trunks, they could move enough all-together.
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 5:16 pm
Roka's natural reticence with Uuni didn't just up and leave because an opportunity to talk about her family came up. Had she, her mother would have been proud. Her stupid, foolish mother who meant well but was more afraid of Gods than righteously angry with them. Roka felt it only rational to be both. Less they forget, she was the wise sister.
On the matter of being a sister, Uuni would have to come to that conclusion herself or do without. Roka wasn't talking. Instead she closely watched Ava closely watching the elephants.
Ava ran around and around, making sure to keep an eye on every angle. She felt the words of warning at the back of her throat, ready. Every second counted. The elephants knew to stop without her guidance the first time, so her opportunity was lost.
"Don't go away, sweetheart, I'll be right back."
Don't roll your eyes. Don't roll your eyes. Roka wasn't sure if sense or spite was giving her orders, but she obeyed them.
Ava mimicked the elephant's nod and started her rounds again. Left, right. Left, right. She didn't know it, but Roka was proud of her. Pride didn't puppeteer her noble sister. This was, truly, just her wanting to help.
In the presence of it Roka felt... like a jerk. There was no more eloquent way to say it.
The remedy was simple as getting up and keeping watch on one side. She ended up on the right; Ava kept to the left.
"Careful, careful!" Ava said. "Almost!"
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 5:34 pm
With Ava and Roka's help, the elephants successfully avoided a sticky situation.
The baby began to wriggle as the excitement increased. The elephants pushed and pulled harder. He had one foot up, and free!
The elephants took a few organized steps backwards and then resumed their act. In the end, it took a few short minutes to resolve the entire situation. The young elephant stumbled onto the dirt with little more than a few scratches and a sore body.
In his excitement of being free, he attempted to jog a slow lap around the grassless ground. His overworried mother, however, put a quick stop to that.
Pleased with their success, the elephants were sharing slaps of gratitude all around. There was even one for Roka and Ava. Though, perhaps the pat of a large, heavy trunk was not as welcome as the elephants thought. Their task done, they shuffled away from the muddy pit.
The Matriarch counted them as they passed, but kept her eyes on Roka. "Find me if you need help." Her eyes glanced to Uuni, who was rolling hopelessly in a patch of grass in an attempt to scrape some of the mud from her body. "You will know, or she will. But leave your business behind. We don't trust gods." She then turned, voice rumbling, as she followed the rest of the herd back to the savannah.
Having knocked off the worst of the mud, Uuni padded her way over in the body of a normal-sized lion, eyes watching the elephants go. "Elephants give me the creeps." Being able to smash her to pieces regardless of her form probably had something to do with it.
"What'd she say to you?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:02 pm
A straightforward thank you would have appeased any inclination for praise. Roka could have certainly done without the hard whack from a trunk and the resulting faceplant. The wise one, but the unlucky one: Ava learned from her sister's mistake and had time to brace herself for the jolly "pat" and playfully retaliated with a trio of speedy slaps.
Roka managed to shake most of the mud off her face on the way to the Matriarch. Sitting beside her just felt the right thing to do. One need not be a follower to feel a sense of belonging in the company of one so responsible. They were so few in the lion world she had to seize the opportunity.
She felt herself being watched, but didn't look until she was spoken to.
"Find me if you need help."
Having an elephant owe you a favor might come in handy. One that preferred to disassociate themselves from Gods was even better.
On the other hand... Uuni had helped, so that wasn't completely fair. Unless there was a catch.
"Stay safe," Roka said.
"What'd she say to you?"
"She said --"
Mud: It's what's for dinner. Roka got another face full of the stuff when Ava sneaked behind her and gave her a good shove. "Nice thinking there. Guess you did get the brains."
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:17 pm
Uuni caught the snort in her throat. It then turned into a laugh.
It bubbled out of her throat, and she let herself chuckle out the humour. "At least you're already brown." She grinned. It was probably a good thing Roka had a faceful of mud; she wouldn't have to resist the urge to roll her eyes at one of Uuni's winks.
The goddess stretched herself out, all smiles as she gave both lionesses a good once-over. Roka's sister -- and it must have been, after that line -- was more cute than the brown lioness. As in, 'let me take you home to my mother' sort of cute. Uuni wouldn't take Roka to anyone's mother. Unfortunately, while that adorable sister was present, she wasn't going to get anything out of sour and muddy.
"Well, pretty mortals, I'd love to stay and chat, but you know how it goes." They probably didn't, but it apparently didn't stop them from making wild assumptions.
"Try not to miss me."
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