Lightning lit up the whole savannah, making Kali close her eyes in an effort to block out the brightness. Her fur was completely soaked from the rain, and the wind was starting to make her chill. Another boom of thunder shook the muddy ground beneath her paws, making her start a little. This thunderstorm was nothing like the monsoons she had experienced on the coast, but that didn’t mean it was safe to be out. Kali needed find shelter, and she needed to find it fast. But with the rain and wind and darkness of the clouds, the lioness could barely see. She squinted her eyes, trying to find a silhouette of anything that could possibly help her get out of the rain. Another strike of lightning showed her a glimpse of a cliffside, one that would hopefully have some small dens where she could wait out the rest of this squall. She took off as fast as she could, mud splattering up onto her fur. The cliffs were closer than they had originally appeared, and soon Kali was prowling along the edge looking for a place to hide. Finally she came across what looked to be a hole between the rocks. The lioness shook off and slipped inside, reveling the warmth of the cave. Kali sighed happily and collapsed onto the floor, happy that she finally had the chance to get dry.
”Uh, hello there!” Kali sprang up again, hissing in fright. There was someone else in the cave. And it sounded male. ”No, no, no need to be alarmed. There’s plenty of room in here for the both of us.” A lit bit of flash from lightning slightly lit up the cave, revealing a large, dark male lion with a brightly coloured mane. He was lying in the other corner, fur messy and frizzy from having recently been wet. ”Do have a seat, please.” Kali lowered herself back to the floor of the cave, eyes narrowed suspiciously. ”Nasty storm out there, isn’t it? I’m AJ. Guess we had the same idea, hiding out in here and whatnot.”
AJ chuckled a little bit. It was nice to have some company, even if it seemed his company didn’t exactly want him around. He waited for a reply, for any sort of noise from the lioness, but all he got was silence. It was very unnerving. She obviously was uncomfortable with being in here with him. The male sighed. He didn’t want to go out into the storm, but he had been raised with chivalry. If he was really making the female that uncomfortable, he would find somewhere else to seek shelter. AJ got to his feet, making the lioness start. ”What are you doing?” She demanded, a snarl behind her words. ”Leaving. I’ll seek shelter elsewhere so you can have the cave to yourself.”
Kali blinked at that, unable to comprehend what the lion was saying. He was giving the cave to her? But he had gotten here first! ”Why would you do that?” She was just so confused. ”Well, you seem to be uncomfortable with me being here, so you can go ahead and have the cave. You know, chivalry and all that.” Kali scowled. Chivalry. She didn’t know the meaning of that word. Maybe it had something to do with being nice to others? That would explain why none of the pirates knew about it. But even still. Movement in the shadow caught her eye. AJ had begun to paw towards the exit of cave. ”Wait!” The lion paused, glancing at Kali. ”You don’t have to do that. Stay. Please.” The female heard herself say. She couldn’t believe she was about to share a space with a male like this. But if he had been willing to something that nice for her, he couldn’t be all that bad. Of course, AJ could be tricking her. Kali considered the thought as AJ resumed his previous spot, his figure becoming easier to see as Kali’s eyes adjusted to the darkness. No, she didn’t think that he would risk his shelter like that, not in a situation like this. If there wasn’t a raging storm outside, Kali would be suspicious however. ”I’m Kali.” The female grunted. ”Nice to meet you, Kali.” Normally, the lioness would snort at something like that, but this time she resisted the urge for favour of her rarely indulged-in curiousity. ”What’s chivalry?”
It was AJ’s turn to blink. Certainly she was joking. Aj asked as much. ”You’ve really never heard of chivalry?” Kali shook her head, her ears flicked back in mild annoyance of the question. AJ frowned. How could someone not know what chivalry was? It was such a basic concept. It was manners! Pure and simple. The male couldn’t fathom what kind of life Kalu must have lived if she had never known chivalry. It could account for why she had reacted so strongly to his presence. ”Well, Kali, chivalry is when you look out for females.” He jumped at the growl that he received. ”And if females don’t need looking after?” AJ shrank a little bit. Perhaps that hadn’t been the best explanation. ”No! No! Not like that. It’s more like…ways you can honour them and respect them.” There was nothing but silence on the other end of the cave. AJ waited a little longer for a reply, and when he received none, he decided to elaborate. ”It’s mainly little stuff. Letting them eat first, letting them go first in a narrow passageway, giving up your spot to them if they want, things like that. It was just a basic part of how my pride operated, you know?”
No, she didn’t know. Kali had never heard of, or experienced anything like that. Sure, there were the few rogue males here and there who had been nice to her, but Kali wrote them off as exceptions to a general rule. A rule that she had learned as the basic part of how her pride had operated, so very different from the chivalry concept. The idea that there were males out there who were taught to respect females as a part of general manners was absolutely astounding. To hear that there was a whole pride out there like that was mind-blowing. Respect and honour females. Could there really be places like that? Maybe her dream of finding a new home, a place where males and females stood on equal standing wasn’t so much of a dream after all. Maybe her Land of Fire was like that. ”Can you tell me about it? Your pride?” Kali asked quietly. Those who knew her might even say timidly, if they weren’t afraid of getting their nose slashed open, of course.
AJ smiled. This storm hadn’t turned out to be the awful inconvenience that he had originally thought it to be. ”Most definitely. The pridewas based in a jungle, far away from here…” The male settled in to tell the female his story, politely not mentioning the fond glow of longing that had come into Kali’s eyes. And outside, the storm began to quiet down, the worst having finally passed.
Final Word Count: 1191
