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 Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 12:03 am
He woke to the sound of water trickling softly against the rocks and rolled stiffly over onto his stomach, groaning at his aches. He had fallen asleep somewhat abruptly the night before but it had been restful atleast. He yawned wide, tongue curling between his jaws.
"Good morning." He said it mainly to himself, but of course if anyone else had been around, they would have heard it too.
Slowly he stood, arching his back into a long and pleasing stretch. The sun trickled upon his tattoos and seemed to make them glow. The abstract smiles on his pelt seemed to glitter, reflecting his mood.
Today would be a good day!
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:16 am
"'e Sleepin' in lots dese days." Malik yawned from where he was stretched out, his fur completely covered in dust and his maw in dried blood. He'd returned earlier that day with a small gazelle. Not much of a kill but it was the best he could do after a few day's hunt, "We saved somma da kill fer ya, dere Ona-won." He chuckled rolling himself back onto his back to cover his eyes with a paw.
"Good morning." Rehema yawned, running her tounge slowly over the top of her paw. Morning... this was taking some getting used to. Both she and Malik would rather spend all night awake and bask in the sunlight of the daytime... down in the pridelands it often got too hot to do anything else. "Ignore him. He's odd in the morning." She flicked her tail, thumping her companion with it. "Did you sleep well?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:25 am
"Not a morning lion?" Ona replied, beaming back at his friends. He sure had woken up on the right side of the den today. "I love the morning, it's so alive and fresh. The birds sing and the sun is just warm enough to be pleasant." He explained, stretching again.
He glanced towards the kill and his eyes brightened. "You two have already eaten then?" He moved towards it curiously, extending a paw to nudge it.
Though it may have been a small kill it was far more than Ona'raha had ever caught and the admiration was clear in the eyes. "Your work sure paid off after all Malik! Don't you think Rehema?"
Dozing in a tree was a young female avian. Her head had bene tucked neatly beneath one orange wing and she balanced neatly upon one leg. In fact whilst her companions sang away she preferred to doze, though apparently this wasn't correct.
After a few moments she stirred and extended her wings, blinking the sleep from her eyes.
"Oh. Morning already?" She chirped quietly. She remained on her branch only a moment longer before taking flight, swooping low over the ground. She had not seen her adopted lion for a while and it was due time for a catch up!
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 3:08 pm
"Yeah we ate our share. 'vided it up t'ree ways fer th' all o' us ya know." He yawned again, slowly pulling the paw off his eyes again. The sound of flapping wings roused him. Bird... he'd not had that since he was a young adolecent. Good meat, lots of bones, but decent enough in taste.
He smiled, licking his already blood stained maw as he rolled himself to his paws.
Rehema lifted her head up at the bird as well, ears rotating around. Her own instincts were kicking in. Malik had caught a bird before, she'd tried but only managed to get the tail feathers. Still, he was already up on his paws.
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Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:02 am
Her surprised trill filled the air with a pleasant sound and in moments the orange avian wheeled in the air, banking just in time to make a clumsy landing on the top of Ona's fuzzy head. She was unbalanced and kept her wings slightly spread, hopping down onto his shoulder where it was more stable.
"Ona!" She chirped, "you grew yourself a fine mane!" Then slowly she tilted her head towards the other lions and gulped slightly. She didn't like that hunter's look in their eyes.
"Your...friends?" She queried nervously.
Ona'raha gave a surprised gasp, his ears turning towards the familiar voice. It was his guide, his saviour! With a wide smile he turned to gaze down at his friend and prodded gently at her chest with his nose.
"Malik, Rehema, this is my friend. She saved my life." It was strange to think of such a small creature saving someone as large as Ona' but he had been a juvenile back then, desperately scared and alone.
"I call her, Auri'rubani, but she insists her name is Kucha."
"Kucha, this is Malik and Rehema. My friends." He announced this proudly and curled his tail upwards.
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:40 am
Malik grumbled in disappointment, glancing hard over towards Ona, "Yer friends wif yer lunch kid? Birds is for eatin' ya know? You don't go an' be friends wif stuff like zebra an' meerkat. Just ain't natural. They's fer fillin up bellies." He chuckled, glancing casually over towards the bird. He rolled his large self back over onto his side. If he wasn't gonna be able to hunt it no point in wasting his energy on his paws.
"Saved your life?" Rehema was equally confused on the matter, or how a lion befriended prey. It was a notion beyond her. She'd heard rumors of predators befriending other species of predators like, say, those horrid hyenas or the mouthy cheetahs. She herself never spared even a thought towards befriending anything other than a lion. If she could kill it, it was prey. That certainly didn't limit itself to wheather or not it was a predator or not.
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Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 12:04 am
Ona' nodded slowly, and blinked. He had never eaten or tried to eat a bird before. He had never even considered Kucha as prey! She was of the sky and it hurt him to think of breaking those pretty wings. "Kucha isn't prey!" He insisted, waving a paw determindly at his friends.
"If I told you the legend then you'd understand why!" He loved the opportunity to tell a story. "Do you want to hear it? The legend of Subiani!" He beamed. It was not unusual to talk about ones family in such a way. In fact he had been telling tales of his ancestors for a long time.
Kucha chirped and shifted uncomfortably. Lions were strange creatures and she had never feared any animal before...not really. She said nothing, but kept her beady eyes on these others in case they pounced.
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Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:20 pm
Malik groaned a bit and rolled his eyes. He'd never heard of any lion making friends with anything other than a predator. Even then it was odd... lions should talk only to lions. Anything else was just odd. To him, a brute, even cheetahs looked like something that could be considered as dinner if he managed to get his claws into it. Hyenas? Fair game as far as he was concerned. Most especially if they decided it was a good idea to prance their way into the pride lands...not that any of that really mattered anymore. "Too much tah be gettin' used tah 'round 'ere. Never been picky with what I eat, I jus' eat ya know? Now I gotta learn what not fer eatin', what not for eatin'...."
"It's just that one." Rehema assumed, shrugging a bit. "Just leave it be. If we were cubs it might make a meal, it's hardly a mouthful anyway. Too many feathers to pick through and the bones are so britle they're hardly good for chewing on. You get mouthfuls of the horrid things just trying to get to the meat." She nodded a bit, that was reason enough for her to keep away from bird meat.
"I don't mind nothin' crunchy. Jus' means ya got more time tah chew till they is safe tah swallow." He flashed a wide toothy grin to which Rehema only rolled her eyes to once more. "Story time?" He snorted at Ona's offer. "Never much believed in nothin' else out there. When ya dead, ya dead. When ya not, ya not." He waved a paw.
"Malik." Rehema shot him a sharp glare, settling herself in a more attentive lounge before looking back over to Ona, "We'd love to hear it."
"Bu-AACK!"
Malik jumped a bit as the chocolate lioness slammed a paw down on his tail, "-BOTH- of us." She nodded over to Ona.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:24 am
"Just don't eat Kucha." Ona'raha protested in good jest, waving a big over-szied paw in Mailk's direction. "I owe her my life so I'll protect her."
Seemingly unphased by Malik's words the male sat down and prepared himself to remember. He was known as a story teller in his past and sometimes it was hard to conjure up that ability again. He imagined himself a cub with his parents around him and began.
It was long ago, before I was born, when the world knew no war, no disease or suffering. The Ela'wadiyians lived in their peaceful clans, a tribe unknown to all lions. They were secretive, wary and suspicious of outsiders, perhaps more than we are now. For what we didn't know we feared. We looked to our spirits and ancestors for our protection and tried to keep our heads down.
Then one day the skies darkened with storm clouds and a pride of rogues slipped into the lands. They were scraggly lions, hugely set with strongly developed muscle. There were six of them in all but because our Pride is seperated into clans, they began to pick us off one by one. They wanted our lands. Then, they would slip away, undetected, leaving us to find the bodies of the poor dead Ela'wadiyian.
Then the clans were gathered and we decided to remain together until the danger had been located. Perhaps by chance, our miracle came in the shape of a brilliant red-feathered bird. She twirled down on her wings and declared that she would aid us. And so, becoming a scout, our eyes from the sky, she darted above the trees, calling out the locations of the rogues.
Let's just say, that the rogues took no other life after that day." He smiled. It was rusty, but it was also a good story.
Kucha chirped. "Birds are honourable creatures to those we like. I have pledged to stay here to watch over your clans until they are large enough to care for themselves again." She twitched her wings.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:42 am
Both Malik and Rehema settled down to listen to the story, laying comfortably back to back with their paws stretched out opposite to each other. It was strange how they behaved. It was obvious that they weren't related but anyone would have thought otherwise. They behaved like siblings, remained together, and even snerked at the same time during the tale. A bird? Helping lions? It seemed a bit far fetched.
"Well every tribe has its legends I suppose." Rehema shrugged, "Unfortunately, within the pride lands we only heard babble of our kings becoming stars. Even then as far as culture goes...." Her ears flattened back a bit, "Well... the pride lands just isn't what it used to be. I'm not sure if there was any depths to us other than the tales of our nobility passing on."
"A lotta nonsense all that was." Malik chuckled though it almost sounded like a growl. "Becoming stars? Mum bought into it more than Pa did. 'e never talked 'bout no stories. Firekin 'r warriors. Dey don't got th' time for sittin' round tellin' stories. Pa said it makes a lion weak. Like th' Mistweavers. Ooh Pa hated them." He chuckled, getting himself to his paws and stalking himself over towards Ona.
"Imagine an entire pride o' lions dat make these...these... things on th' walls... like clawmarks only dey each mean somethin'. Pa says they was doin' weird magics in their valley. Prayin' tah evil gods an' makin' all th' rains come tah dem. Pa said it just wasn't natural an' his pride wiped 'em out clean an' gone."
"A load of rubbish." The lioness wrinkled up her nose, shaking her head towards Malik the way her mother would towards them as cubs if they were babbling nonsense. "They were enemy prides. That's all. There's no such thing as magic. I'm not entirely convinced that gods exist..." She admitted after a beat, glancing with a ping of guilt towards Ona, "I did like the story. It would explain why you're in so few number."
Malik snorted, tossing his head up, "Yeah! An' if them rogues come back I'll show 'em how I deal wif 'em. Maybe man ya up a bit so you's can take care of yourself." He chuckled, reaching out with a paw to jab at one of the smaller lion's shoulders, "Male bondin'. Teach ya tah be a right lion."
Rehema only rolled her eyes.
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Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:54 am
"Kings that go to the stars? But what about the rest? The queens? The cubs? Where do they go when they die? We have faith here, faaith in spirits of our ancestors. I can't prove their existance but I can't put it aside either. It's what kept me going."
He paused to listen to the rest of the conversation. It was obviously one of the reasons this pair had left.
"That sounds...scary." Ona'raha agreed, curling his tail up against his stomach. Magic and Gods seemed ever so evil to him. Then Rehema cut in with her voice of reason. She was obviously the down-to-earth one of the pair.
"Well the main reason was the plague. It took all of my friends, my parents and my grandpa. Then it chased the survivors out and killed many on the way. I was a lucky one. A miracle child. My mother always thought so." He couldn't help but glance up towards the pale clouds at that.
Was she there?
He was brought back by Malik's exclamation and laughed. "Right lion?"
Kucha just sat and listened to the chatter of the lions quietly. In her heart she knew that Ona'raha was growing up. His shyness was slinking away and truly, he was a lion again. The lion he had lost in himself with the death of his kin.
She would have smiled if her beak had allowed.
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Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 2:11 am
"Yeah. A right lion." He grinned, flashing his dangerous teeth over at Ona. "Ya see, no one ever took out no firekin pride. Or none of th' pridelanders 'cause we're not scared o' nothin'. Believin' in dead things floatin' 'round won't do ya no lick o' good when rogues come tah take over yer territory." He snorted, prowling his way closer to the smaller male, "I've seen what dey can do, kiddo.... dey came right intah our land...took my little bruddah...never saw 'em again. No one chased 'em but me and Rehema dere...never caught 'em...but th' lot o' dem were scared."
Rehema sighed, shaking her head, "And shortly after, our king was murdered in the middle of our own lands." The lioness' eyes blazed with an unspoken rage. Her jaw was set and her claws scraping against the ground. "...I do believe there is evil... curses....the way Mwali turned on us when we went to seek out Azize."
"Das right." He nodded sharply, "Yer th' last here, Ona. Dat means you gotta live so dere'll be more o' ya later on down th' line. Yer a decent kinda guy an' dis seems a decent kinda place. Not my pride. Never will be. But ya and Reh are my friends ya know? An' if some serious s**t comes down I wanna know dat I ain't gonna be savin' yer a**." He smirked a bit, "Ya gotta learn tah be what ya are. Lions ain't meant fer sittin' round hopin' nuthin' bad happens...dey make sure nothin' bad does by their own teeth n' claws."
"And their wit and courage." She added in, "If you're nothing but a moving muscle you're no better than a rock rolling down a hill. Damned dangerous but you'll be done as soon as you hit a larger rock or fall."
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Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 2:28 am
"Learn to...fight? Oh no, no I don't think I could be brave enough too..." He paused, his eyes flickering between the brown and golden lions. It was true. He did want to help protect his new friends, they meant a lot to him. Especially Rehema. There was something powerful and wise about her and though it should have been the other way around, he felt safe with her beside him. She could talk herself out of danger with that sharp tongue of hers and Malik could fight off anyone else. They made a great team, but what role could he take in it?
Could he really be a part of this team too? He was neither brains nor fighter. He was just a pacifistic lion who knew nothing about protecting his clan's lands.
"Maybe I can just...um...try to...talk them round? Or..." He faltered. Was he really this hopeless?
He needed an excuse to leave. He needed to think. "Um...I'm going to go hunting." He was on his paws and dashing away, tears beading in his eyes. He couldn't even hunt that well. Was he really so useless that he could do nothing?
Kucha started as her lion-child got to his paws and headed off. She fluffed her feathers, glanced to the other two lions then took to the air, spreading her orange wings wide. "Ona! Ona! Wait up!" It took her a couple of seconds to catch up and when she did she lowered to fly alongside him.
"Oh...Ona..." She whispered. What had upset him so much?
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