Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jeraha smiled faintly, his expression distant. The conk to his head had knocked his senses a bit loose, making it difficult for him to concentrate. He wanted to go back to sleep, really, though not before making certain that his Chikala was alright. And not just alright, but completely perfect. He didn’t nearly kill himself to loose her to something else. Watching her from his position on the ground, not yet attempting to even sit up, Jeraha chuckled.

“Worried?” he snorted, “you don’t have to worry about me. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” He wasn’t going to add onto that. It wasn’t her fault he had gotten hurt, and he knew it. That damn impulse was to blame.

His hero complex.

He allowed her to hide in his pelt, finally raising his head. Dizzy, he watched her, her spinning frame still pretty despite how fast it was moving around in his vision.

“I am. I’m fine,” he assured her, blinking a few times to get her to sit still, “just a bump to the head. It’s nothing, really. What about you? Be honest with me, are you unharmed?” He started looking her over, checking for open wounds. The slightest trace of blood.

His eyes moved away from her after a moment, scanning the cave around them. The light was gone. The entrance to the cavern. “Looks like we might have to find another way out of here,” he muttered.

“That’s not how it works, I’m afraid,” Jeraha replied with a gruff grunt, “I’m bigger than you are. Therefore, I get to do as I please. If I choose to worry about you, you can’t do anything about it. And if I say you can’t worry about me, well, you just have to listen to me.” He smiled at her, looking over her shoulder once more to see if it wasn’t too bad. Giving it a slight lick or two, he lowered his head against the floor of the cave, closing his eyes. Just for a moment, he told himself, he was very tired. Just a moment to rest then they could go off looking for an exit.

He didn’t get the chance to pass out, though, her voice stirring him from his agenda. Opening his eyes, a bit irritated to do so, he peered over at Chikala. “It’s a little blurry,” he admitted against his better judgment, “but it’s nothing to worry about, I promise you.”

Slowly, reluctantly, he started the process of getting to his feet, finally discovering that it hadn’t just been his head injured by all the falling rocks. His back, already damaged from his tragic past, screamed in pain as he got on all fours, his back legs buckling and caving in. He could do nothing but collapse back to the floor, another groan slipping from him.

“Let me… try that again…” he muttered lowly.

Jeraha looked up at the female, frowning. No one told him to do, not even the female lion he was growing more and more to love. Stubbornly resistant to orders, he made another attempt to stand, this time taking things a bit slower to accommodate the pain in his frame. He looked at the female, his eyes narrowing in the darkness as a coy smile spread over deep gray features.

“You really think you can stop me?” he asked lowly, though did his best to keep the threatening tones that would usually follow such words from his voice, “ha! You wish.” With that he gave he a light head bump, drawing his hind quarters up and standing. This time, he didn’t fall back down, despite the buckle of his back legs.

Pain coursed through his body like water through a pipe. No word of it, however, passed through his lips, his pain something never shared, only endured. To him there was no point in complaining or telling another what was wrong; tough it out and be made stronger for it.

A philosophy he carried with him since childhood.

“Anyway,” he continued after a moment, “we need to find a way out of here. What if there’s another shake? More of this place could fall on top of us, and I’m not pushing you out the way a second time.”

“I have no idea what’s around here,” he replied, unaware that he had just shattered her hopes. He gave the place a quick scan, though all he could see were rocks and more rocks, some uprooted and others still connected to the walls and ceiling as they were supposed to be. Looking back down at the female, his female as far as the large animal was concerned, Jeraha tried to smile.

Even when trying to be comforting he looked like he was half a second away from ripping the throat out of something.

“Let’s try to find some water,” he suggested after a moment, “if it’s running, it might lead us to an opening. Water has to leave somewhere, right?”

Now came another exciting benchmark in over-coming injury phase: walking. He shifted his legs about a little, trying to find a little bit of ability in them. Seemingly stable, he moved forward, glad to find he was able to support his own weight without a huge limp to try and cover up to Chikala. Inching forward, he peered over his shoulder at the smaller creature. “Come on, we don’t have a lot of options. I can’t think of anything better to do right now.”

Jeraha looked at the female, his large head tilting to one side. Green and black hair slipped over his shoulder, more of it falling into his eyes as he turned them onto Chikala once more. She sounded like she was about to tell him something pretty damn important, so he didn’t want her to think that he was only half listening to her.

He needed to pay attention.

“Twice?” he shook his head, disregarding the notion completely, “nah. You saved me first when we first met. I’d be dead now if not for you. So that first time I saved you shouldn’t even count. I was just evening out the score,” he smiled at that, nudging her gently, “you only owe me for one thing.”

He could see she was thinking a lot about what had happened. The male wouldn’t have changed anything- he was happy to have saved her, even if it meant getting hurt in the process. At least he was used to pain.

“I would do anything for you,” he heard himself mutter before there was time to stop the words.

Jeraha was no longer making jokes. His dark sarcasm was out of the way for a moment as he watched Chikala. Hearing himself say it had been a surprise for him as well. It wasn't like he had ever loved another before. Now, all of a sudden, he wanted to be around her all the time. Protect her. Make sure that, should he happen to have to leave her side, it would only be because he was making sure she didn't die.

All things he had at one point felt impossible to have in his life.

"I feel the same," he replied, "only... without the family bit. I don't have a family so you really... well... top the list." This was getting awkward for him. He felt the need to say something snarky and ruin everything burning in the back of his throat. His tongue was itching with the urge.

But he swallowed the sensation, not about to let his usual darkness cloud this one moment for him to be really happy. No, he needed to be open and honest no matter how difficult it was for him. Or he could just change the subject now that the important bits had been said and save the rest for later.

He went with the latter.

"Let's focus on getting out of here," he told her softly, "then we can talk about all of this, alright?"

Jeraha limped beside Chikala, keeping himself close just in case something else happened. As much as he didn’t like the thought of shoving her out from under any more painfully heavy rocks, he knew he wouldn’t think twice about it should it happen again. He knew earthquakes were often subsequent by after shocks. That meant he wasn’t allowed to get comfortable just yet.

Which was fine, since his emotions had him wound up like bug in a spider’s web anyway.

Upon coming to the exit of the cave, Jeraha found his anxious feelings mounting quickly. Now he would have to talk more about his feelings with the pretty little female. Which, really, he was want to avoid. Then again, seeing daylight was fantastic. So was the ability to lie down. After such an adventure, his body was aching him. Nothing sounded better to him at that moment than a nice long nap and perhaps a plant to numb the pain. A plant he wouldn’t eat, he noted.

“Yeah,” he replied, peering about the devastated area. It could have been worse, but not by much, he reckoned. “This place is a mess. Shame. It was so beautiful before. Now it’ll take a while to restore the grace that once shimmered over this area.” He sighed at that, the thought leaving him as his eyes came to rest on his partner. Invitation received, he took a moment to return the nuzzle, rubbing her fondly.

They could talk in a moment. For now, he was happy to embrace the tender moment.

The male got himself against the ground carefully, peering down his body at the wounds that clung to it. None of them seemed too serious in the sunlight, the bruises invisible in the fur and the cuts more bloody than anything else. He knew he would be sore for a little while, but there would be nothing left to linger once all was said and done.

Not on his body, anyway.

Jeraha couldn’t help but feel like she was about to tell him something soul-shattering. ‘Buts’ never worked out for him whenever they popped up in serious conversations. Sighing, he braced himself, as though anticipating some kind of physical blow. Her following words, however, had him taken for a loop. Not what he had been expecting at all. She actually wanted to hang around someone like him?

He was silent for a moment, his eyes never leaving hers. In them sat no concern. No uncertainly. The only thing the shown in their reflective expression was a deep consideration as he mused over his situation.

“I’ll go,” he said after what felt like an eternity, “where ever you want me to. I don’t want to be parted from you if I can help it.” Lay it all out on the table. Why not? He had already saved her life and put off the conversation in the cavern. This was the only thing left to do.