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 Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:29 pm
The entire matter of Maji and Masika still weighed heavily on her mind. She wanted it to go away--OH how she wanted it to go away--and yet even as she skulked through the few shadows the withered jungle had to offer her mind continued to wander back towards the leadership of the pride. In the end, the reason was simple: She didn't wish to focus on the second disappearance of her mate. The problem of that over-ambitious lion she'd just met was a much more pleasant thing to think about, ironically, and Kizuka found herself weary of it. It'd be easier to stop thinking...
Or, she glanced at the sky for some clouds to think at, perhaps some GOOD events for once? I know you're rather busy, but a did you really have to throw a pretender to the throne into this pile of bones?
Thinking, rather than speaking, her thoughts towards the patron deity of the Mistweavers wasn't something she was prone to do, but as of late it had become more and more normal. Speaking would have alerted any prey to her presence and scaring off the prey beasts wasn't something anyone could afford any longer, even when they weren't hungry. Right now, Kizuka had at least two hungry mouths waiting on her, however, and so she was here on the lookout for one of the last remaining pigs or antelope.
As the trees became more and more thin, and the grass grew fainter, towards a clearing the drought had made Kizuka finally caught scent of a herd. It was small, she saw a moment later, only a few leathery beasts left among the group. Kizuka hated to take any of their number from them, but it had to be done. The sun was red on the horizon and none of them had been fed that day.
Briefly the lioness considered when she'd taken to hunting during the day--surely it was an odd thing for a lioness to do--and yet here she was. Regardless of the reasons, the lioness circled the herd from the safe vantage of the woods beyond. There was a smaller one near the back that had branched off from the rest. Still, the distance between them wasn't good enough, as they still had a buck in the group with him. Kizuka eyed the male, marking the tall, sharp horns upon his head. Was it worth it?
As she watched, the straggler suddenly picked up her pace and melded back into the group with the others. As they headed off in the opposite direction from the lioness, Kizuka sighed. When they had gone, the lioness wandered out into the field made mostly of dust, and climbed up onto a rock there. The sun felt fairly good on her hide, but didn't solve the gnawing knot in her stomach. She would just sit for a few moments, then head out; hunting would be easier at night anyway.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:05 am
Makadara was strangely restless. Finally, after so long away...he was drawing close to the homelands he'd left behind so long ago, and with the closing distance, he found himself wondering just what he could expect, when he finally arrived.
He was laying in the shade of some of the admittedly sparse brush that dotted the dusty, hot savannah, waiting for nightfall. With his dark pelt, and distinctive markings, it was difficult for the lean male to sneak up on prey during the full light of day. The herd of antelope had given him a wide berth as they'd passed his resting spot, making it clear that they knew exactly where the large predator was located.
Yawning, he got to his feet, stretching luxuriously. He was close enough to Mistweaver lands that he wasn't unduly worried about being spotted--however, the idea of actually meeting some of his old pride face-to-face...well, it had been a long time since he'd had any extended social contact with ANYTHING, let alone in a cohesive group.
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:39 am
Kizuka watched the antelope as they scurried away. Even through the trees she could see them--it was sad and very depressing. Not too long ago they would have been lost inside the green folds of the jungle. The lioness's head dropped down upon her paws and let her gaze muddle and cloud as dinner skirted around a particular area of the grassland. That was odd but not severely unusual until a shadow seemed to move itself from that area and head towards her.
No, not her, she corrected herself a moment later, but simply in her general direction. After a moment, as the shadow that was proving itself to be feline in the passing moments entered the stand of bare trees between them, Kizuka realized that it was heading in the direction of the pride behind her. Ever considerate of the fact that she no longer knew whom was tied to the pride and whom wasn't, it still rankled the lioness's hide to think of allowing a stranger to pass into their territory unchecked. After all, too many rogues had desecrated this land, and too many enemies had been allowed to walk among them.
It was with that in mind that Kizuka raised her head, brown fur turned a strange russet in the sunset light, and let her sharp golden eyes focus on this marked, dark stranger. As he drew closer, she recognized the tale-tell signs of Umande'mfuni blood--and once more her heart grew sad as that no longer truly meant anything.
Still, the lioness must have been a ghastly sight upon her perch. Where once she might have been marked as beautiful, a hard life here in these dying lands had torn that beauty from every aspect of her physical form. Practically skeletal, her fur clung wearily to bones that were far too visible, and muscles denounced her tense moments were once healthy fat may have given lie to them. "You're far off the path, stranger," She warned when he was close enough to hear her, her voice rumbling like gravel down a hillside in the still evening air. "And this lands hold no solstice from the desert. I'd turn back, where I you."
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Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 7:24 am
Makadara froze, ears flicking to and fro cautiously, zeroing in on where the voice was coming from. The voice was rough, and the words distinctly unfriendly. "I'm no stranger, although I've been away long enough that it certainly feels it, at times." he replied, not yet having spotted the lioness who'd spoken. It never even occurred to him that the pride he'd left behind may no longer even exist. Moving forward again, he took another few steps towards the voice.
Something in her words had puzzled him. "What do you mean, this land holds no solstice from the desert? Surely the rains have returned by now..." Concern underlaid his words, and his tail lashed from side to side in agitation. How was his mother...how had the pride survived, if the rains still had not returned?
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Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 11:31 am
"Returned?" She wasn't one to miss such important words as that, and a brow raised. Now that she had a good look at this male there was something.. familiar. The yellow on his coat nearly sent up a warning flag, but his distinctively umande'mfuni features countered it. There had been yellow in the pride many times, it wasn't unknown as red or orange was. Soothed a little more, Kizuka concentrated more on the fact that he seemed to know about the drought--most lions had no idea about that, save those who had returned to the pride during Maji's reign.
Which argued for his knowing something of them. She shook her head, relaxing her features somewhat. Kizuka didn't mean to threated this familiar seeming stranger, but nor was she going to allow him to go on for no reason. "No, they have not. There's some water left, a few murky springs, nearby here. You might take a drink before you're on your way--the herds have long since left us here."
Kizuka wondered how much she could say without breaking their pride's long traditional secrecy. However.. he claimed to have come here and marked himself as no stranger. Kizuka's ears flickered in uncertainty. Something was trying to click in the back of her mind though it seemed to be failing miserably. ...I've been away long enough...
Her own conversation with Maji came back to her and she frowned in thought. "... are you perhaps one of those who followed a lion named Maji?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:51 am
Makadara shook his head. Surely the lioness was mistaken...how had their lands supported a pride such as theirs for so long with no rain?
"I...have been away since I was a juvenile, and am only now returning--but I don't even think I remember even hearing about a leader named Maji, when I was last here..." He trailed off, thinking for a moment longer, before shaking his head. "No, the king and his mate had had a daughter, who was in line to take over..." It was hard, to try to remember all that he'd known, since he'd been so young when he'd left.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:04 am
Kizuka's ears perked as he said that, her curiosity beginning to win over her caution. Again the feeling that she should recognize him ticked to her mind. The wall in the cave.. was there anything? But if he had left when she was now placing him, he wouldn't have... he wouldn't have known about the plague. The female was silent for a long time, her honey eyes staring at him in a way most unnatural for any cat, but in truth she looked more through him than anything else.
A dark shape skittered through her mind--several actually. Older members of the pride before the plague had hit. She barely remembered them, but the cave helped, with looks if not with names. "... I remember you," She said faintly, then shook her head, growing confused as her eyes snapped back into focus on the present rather than memories that refused to stay still. "I do remember you.. or someone like you."
There was a pause, before she began to explain in her dirty, broken voice, "... that is no longer usual anymore. I hope you'll forgive my attitude the pride is... not what it once was." There was something dark in her voice as she said that, glancing to the side to see whom was near them. "If you're looking for your family... I'll save you the trouble. I'm sorry, but you will not find them here, or anywhere."
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:10 pm
Makadara's ears flicked to and fro, as the tried to imagine the lioness before him, smaller...and less...worn. Perhaps...it was too vague to be certain. With a small, almost sad smile, he shook his head. "I wasn't hard to miss, with this dark pelt of mine." he said.
When she continued, he froze. He'd suspected as much, when she'd hinted that there had still been no rain, but...in all of his wanderings, while he may have thought, briefly, on whether or not his mother, or anyone he would have considered a friend before he'd left, yet lived...it was difficult to accept that they weren't just possibly gone...
"They are...all dead?" What had happened to the pride? He would still stay, since, distant though his memories might seem, he remembered loyalty, and what it meant. One didn't abandon one's pride simply because times were hard, after all.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:19 pm
"Maka," She said suddenly, blinking. Kizuka frowned and shook her head. That didn't make sense. She sighed and answered his question then, rather than explaining her suddenly word. "Dead, yes, and long since." She was sad to have to report this but it was the truth. The lioness gave him a few moments to process this.
Then, perhaps out of kindness, perhaps out of relating to his situation, she continued as softly as she could. "If you've been travelling you may have heard of the plague that hit many, if not all, the prides. It killed many... and that was no exception here. Most of the pride was gone in the first wave of that, only a few travelers, a handful of young, and two lionesses survived. .... I wish that was all there was to it, I do.. but another plague came soon after. The Firekin, another pride you may have heard of again... Two of their lionesses came to our lands and murdered our queen... they took all of we children they could find and left. Our land has never been the same since."
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:25 pm
It had been awhile since he'd heard that nickname. "Makadara, yes." he said, not seeing any reason to explain more.
The news hit him like a blow. he'd heard fearful whisperings of the plague as he'd travelled through other prides, but had not realized that the impact would be so...severe, especially in a pride as isolated as their own. "How...did the plague come? We rarely received outsiders..."
He closed his eyes, not even wanting to think upon what would have happened to any cubs rounded up in such a fashion.
"News of the firekin travels a long way." was all he said, with a small nod.
Sitting back on his haunches, looking far older than he had moments before, Makadara signed, head hanging low. "How many are there now?" he finally asked.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:33 pm
His name was it? That was helpful. It also proved, in her mind, that she wasn't fabricating the memory of him--not that she had any reason to do so. Kizuka gave another little sigh; none of this was news she liked to give anyone, nor things she even cared to remember, but he would have had to find out one way or another. "One of the outsiders," She said softly, "Rare, yes, but they still came.. I even think she was out running the plague."
Kizuka shook her head, trying to keep herself from the chills of thought associated with the Firekin. They weren't all shivers of fear, either; a great wealth of anger still lay dormant under her pelt for the things she had seen and heard of their doing. It wasn't here or now, however. "I estimate at about eleven or twelve, though there may be more or less by a few digits." Kizuka shook her head, "They are rarely gathered and me and mine stay on the outskirts for now, taking guard of the border... for now."
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 3:47 pm
Makadara sighed as well. "Thank you, for letting me know." He inclined his head, vestiges of the manners that had once come easily showing through.
Cocking his head to the side, he considered the rest. It was both better than he'd feared, and worse than he'd hoped. At least a pride that small was more mobile, and so more capable of surviving, if it was given the chance. "Why do you only stay on the outskirts? Even with the drought, would it not be preferable to reside in the heart of our territory?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:03 pm
"There were ties that kept us here for awhile..." She said, though wasn't sure how much she could explain. Momo's pregnancy was something they were keeping underwraps, at least until they could tell Masika about it AND the goddess's presence at all. "Right now we have a sick member in our midst and... well, I prefer not to have a repeat of what happened previously."
She held up a paw, "No, it isn't the plague. I know the signs of that like... well lets just say that i know them. And while none of us have gotten sick... there's no reason to take any chance. Beyond that, we have a problem with rogues attempting to poach the game that remains here. Its easier to just turn them away when they first come than to lose a meal to one you didn't realize was there."
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:01 pm
Makadara nodded. It was a grim explanation, but a fair one. "How bad is the poaching...and how ill is your sick member?"
His brow furrowed in concern. He'd noticed the scarcity of prey, since crossing the border...and worse yet, what prey he had seen was thin, with dry, brittle coats.
"If there is anything I can do..." he trailed off, tilting his head to the side. even if it meant poaching from another's territory, it was nothing he hadn't been doing on his own while he'd been travelling, anyway.
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:12 am
"Not as bad as it used to be," She informed him. "We've caught and extracted most outsiders. As far as the pride is concerned trespassers are not tolerated in this time...." She eyed him then offered him the closest thing to a smile, "Though you are no trespasser, and we could honestly use help; fresh strength is much needed in these times. That is assuming you plan to stay."
The lioness shrugged lightly, much less on edge now that he was a known being and not a potentially hostile or plague carrying rogue. "And she's starting to do better. Thank you for the offer but.. I believe she'll pull through her very soon." Indeed, Momo should be ready to pop any day now.
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