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The white lion ranged through a drier land than he'd grown up in, with sparser vegetation than he'd ever seen. It was a different sort of place, harsher. But not bad at all. Scenes like this had become familiar in the many moons since he had left home - the Mwezi'Johari.

Yareha stopped walking. He couldn't go back, he'd been banished, exiled, and could not return on pain of death. And yet, it seemed he still thought of the place as home.

Blue eyes filled with liquid as he realized how pathetic his life was, and how much he hadn't learned since leaving.

Yareha raised his eyes to the sky, trying not to shed his tears. Though it was midmorning, the moon was still high in the sky and it was to this celestial body that the white lion looked. A crescent, less than half full. The same moon Yareha and his siblings had been born under, marking them as being destined for the lower middle class, Hunters for all their lives.

Well, that was one thing that hadn't changed in all this time. Being a rogue meant he had to worry even more about hunting than he ever had within a pride.

The lion sighed gustily, unaware of anyone behind him.

"Great Lion...what am I meant to do?" he begged of the moon above.

He nearly choked at the sudden, unexpected answer. Whirling around, Yareha came face to face with a big red lion he'd never seen before. The white lion was awash with conflicting emotions, making it near-impossible for him to react to what was happening. Sorrow, confusion, embarrassment, hopelessness, fear, and anger flew through him in uncontrollable waves.

He had no idea what the red lion was talking about, however. They were merely words.

"Who are you? What are you talking about?" he demanded of the lion who was so bold as to interrupt him at prayer.

Though the black wings were clearly visible, it was obvious that if Yareha noticed them, he wasn't recognizing them for what they were.

It took a few moments, but the red lion's meaning finally penetrated through Yareha's thick skull.

This stranger was claiming to be a god. But that couldn't be. The only god he knew of was the Great Lion, whose eye was the crescent moon above their heads. Yareha's gaze narrowed, and he remembered that he'd met a lioness who had claimed to have a god for a father. He'd never met a bigger liar in his life...until now.

"The only god is the Great Lion," the white lion refuted the red male's claim. "You're just touched in the head."

The red lion's attitude, his every word was just annoying Yareha further. As the strange male spoke, the blue eyes narrowed further, and his upper lip curled in an unspoken snarl. He'd been about to retort further when two massive black wings appeared out of nowhere and shielded the other lion from view. When they withdrew, Yareha found himself looking upon...himself.

The white lion gaped in startlement at the unexpected sight. But then his jaw hardened once more. "I'm no trickster, to know how you've accomplished this illusion," he countered. "But I'm sure that it's no more than that - a hoax to try and convince me that you're some celestial being, even though you're obviously flesh and blood just like me."

He couldn't help it, a low growl escaped Yareha's throat as the other male proved how much of a bully he was. But the fact that he was shoved by the stranger proved that, despite whatever tricks the red male played with his appearance, he was still physically real.

The white lion had no idea how these strange illusions of appearance were being accomplished, but he was convinced of the fact that they were simply false seemings.

"Eyes can be deceived, particularly by experts, such as you appear to be," Yareha replied. This time, he took a couple steps towards the other. A hyena, or at least the appearance of a hyena, was smaller than a lion...perhaps he could...

Well, that red lion had been pretty big before he made himself look like a hyena. Maybe he shouldn't.

Yareha glared back at the other male as he changed his appearance back to the big red lion that he'd been originally. Obviously that was his natural form, and the rest were just deceptions created to fool anyone he came across. Not that Yareha was deceived in the least.

"I don't run from liars like you," the white lion spat. Just because the red lion was bigger didn't mean Yareha would just roll over and die! To prove his nerve, he took another step forward, bringing himself nearly nose to nose with the false god.

He'd never met a lion who'd thought they were divine before, but he seriously doubted this crazy idiot could be any worse than those bizarre Seers who somehow knew what he'd done in the past.

The red lion's claws in his shoulder were not totally unexpected. Granted, no one else had done something quite like that to him, but given the tone of their "conversation", Yareha had been braced and ready for an attack. The sudden pain caused the leg connected to his shoulder to collapse in sudden pain, but the white lion refused to go down so easily.

"Don't boast until you've done your deed," he growled back, before extending his neck as far as it would go towards his opponent, and snapping his teeth decisively.

Maybe that would get the red male to remove claws from shoulder.