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 Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 4:02 pm
Well it didn't really feel like she'd grown up with the rest of them-- not in her eyes, anyway. As far as she was concerned, she'd done nothing but get bigger and more ragged and fall apart. In fact, it felt like the very opposite of growing up, deteriorating slowly in the sort of decline that only old lions in their last days should've experienced.
Hell, Lesedi felt old. She felt older than her old mother.
"I'm sorry..." Even if it wasn't accusing, she still felt a need to apologize for the 'worried sick' part, more than aware that, yes, it had by and large been her fault. "I'm--"
But wait-- waaaait a second, that last add-on had just clicked and her brain STOPPED dead in its tracks. Sure, a 'poor lost soul' was worthy of curiosity, but she'd just offered... could she really?... Was it alright to--
"P-please, yes, yes!" There was an unusual desperation to her tone as she burst out in agreement, finally making eye-contact... and oh, she looked just as desperate in the face, too. "I-I mean, I'd.. of course..." Her ears wilted back against her skull then with a twinge of guilt. "I won't stray this time..."
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:11 pm
Well that was a leaping bound of enthusiasm by all means. In fact, Leboya was rather surprised she wasn't blindsided by the girl in an attempt to smother mother with some sort of a 'YESYESYESYESYESYESYESSSSSSS'.
She could have handled it easily enough, seeing as her daughter was a little lightweight she needed to fix.
"Well, we might as well get something to drink while we're here before I take you back to our resting spot, mm?" Leboya suggested, giving her daughter a final lick along the top of her nose and forehead before moving from the younger lioness's side to settle by the pool of water to lap at it.
Mmmm, water.
Odd that there was no other company in the vicinity at the time being, however. Perhaps because prey didn't exactly like being in the next-door area of two female predators. Especially given that one of them looked hungry (or at least lacking in food).
"How long has it been since you've eaten, child?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:04 pm
Indeed, it was quite a change of pace (and pep) for Lesedi--but who could blame her for being eager? She'd just found her mother again-- her MOTHER-- and was being offered the chance to join up in some scraggly family group; it would've been foolish to let the opportunity slip through her paws! She couldn't stand to be alone much longer anyway!
It didn't quite feel 'like old times', but it was as close as she could ever possibly hope to get to it, mustering up her speaking voice again while she was getting the last licks of her grooming before forcing a nod.
"Yes, Mother..." Drinks. Drinks sounded good.
And with that, it was time to get back to her feet (she could still feel her paws quivering, dear lord) and start toddling after Mother Dearest like the good (fully grown) cub she was, heeling three steps behind and one right of Leboya's shoulder and never once lagging. Not for a second.
Nope, that was too scary a concept to allow.
"A while..." was all she could offer to the second question, and it was a rather lame answer at that, sighing and shaking her head a bit. "... I had something the other day, I think."
Yes, the carcass she'd CHASED A CHEETAH AWAY FROM and scavenged off of like a mean-spirited bum, but she wasn't about to mention that. Survival was hard.
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:29 pm
Leboya, finishing up with her own drink, waited on her child, the ever so faithfully following tyke to take one of her own (Lord knew the only thing Lebby couldn't live without was water. She was a fish, dammit!), before she nodded and turned to start heading back the way she'd come from.
"Well 'A while' is not a suitable time to have waited between meals! Perhaps when we get back, Tipwa will let you share the antelope I caught today."
Oooh, Antelope to eat and no effort on Lesedi's part! That sounded pretty decent by any means, Leboya would have to presume. Afterall, Leboya had been fortunate enough in her life to NOT have to scavenge... not even during BOTH of her lovely little pregnancies.
Then again, being a seer might have been part of her forthought into such.
"Oh yes, Tipwa is the lion I've been travelling with. I do warn you that he's a bit odd to take in off the top of the head.. I'm not sure how to put himinto words...
....
.....
Oh.. a child in an adult's body? But he's ever so nice a young man. I'm sure he'll like you."
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:59 am
To call Lesedi a fish was an understatement actually; in fact, the little tentacle-striped white lioness made a point of wading into the shallows 'til her BELLY was soaked before actually taking a drink-- and a ridiculously long one at that, too. When it was all over, she even made a point of just dunking herself COMPLETELY under the surface, seemingly for no reason at all, and came out of it soaked from tip to tail.
Probably just for the sake of feeling good.
... It was a ridiculously odd habit considering how most lions preferred to keep DRY and all, but no matter; she'd be dry again in a few minutes thanks to the hot sun anyway.
"Tipwa?..." Wait a minute, who was that aga-- oh! Oh, the other lion she'd taken to handling... except that apparently he wasn't half as young as she'd first assumed? (In fact, he was probably old enough to be her father or grandfather.) "I-I see... Well, I'll... try to get along with him, then..."
Which, oh god, just served to remind her that she'd be in a social group again, and that-- even small-- felt incredibly monumental. How long had it been since she'd last interacted properly with other creatures that DIDN'T involve running them off from food?
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:59 pm
And Leboya was more than happy to watch her fish-child wade about in the water and gulp it down, sitting prim and proper as she went about drenching herself in it. Mmmm, if she wasn't dry by the time they stopped again, Leboya was bound to be cleaning Lesedi further.
Who knew if she would be impartial to motherly cleanings, though?
But once they were on their way again, it seemed that Leboya would have two lions attached at her hip to keep her company for the next while. But wasn't it just that which Leboya practically lived for? Taking care of her 'children'?
Certainly one wasn't hers and they were both rather big to be children, but she'd probably end up treating them both like children anyways. Because one had significantly lost some time to wandering instead of being doted upon by their mother, so all was well there.
"That would serve me well... and I would hope that your sister doesn't seethe too horribly at you from wherever it is she has taken up hiding to keep an eye on me."
Which meant, yes, Lesedi could meet up with her sister at any time the dark lioness felt (how something so dark could hide so well was another mystery...)
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:15 pm
For the record, Lesedi was probably more partial to the thought of motherly cleanings than Lebby could imagine; in fact, the thought of anything mother or family related seemed like a hopeless delight. Her brain was just so ridiculously starved of company..
And then there was Marty too; she'd be getting to see her again soon, wouldn't she? It had been hinted at that the other lioness was still lurking somewhere nearby (which seemed oddly appropriate for her somehow), so... she'd be coming out, right?
Maybe?
... And even if she didn't turn up for a while, just the fact that a sibling was around seemed so ridiculously lovely.
"Sounds like Marty..." So nostalgic to get that out, flattening her ears back in a brief look of contemplation, "she doesn't seem to have changed much, huh..."
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:23 pm
Leboya wasn't quite sure how that 'sounded like Marty', seeing as she'd suffered more of the girl's moodswings than not. But she wasn't about to point that out at the given time.
Or rather she would have liked to skirt around that particular topic, but Lesedi had most definitely asked.
"I would hardly say that, child. Your sister, while I hate to admit it may be my fault as I did do a less than part job taking care of her and Akasha while I worried myself into the ground, has turned a level of violent with strangers.
It's not something any mother likes to do, you know, put a child back into her place when she tries to smother an associate's significant other."
Yes, put the mental image of the black lioness sitting on top of some little helpless female and squishing her paws down on the girl's throat into Lesedi's head. LOOK. YOUR SISTER IS PSYCHO, LESEDI! WHEEE!
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:42 pm
Wait, wait, what? Sure, skulking around and seething whiny threats seemed 'just like Marty' enough in Lesedi's brain, but... just... what? Seriously? Trying to SMOTHER someone?
"R-Really..."
When had her sibling turned violent and manic like that? It didn't seem right or natural or... or...
Now her ears were pressed against her skull for an entirely different reason, eyes narrowed with with a kind of brooding distaste that seemed entirely foreign to the once cocky and bright-eyed cub she'd been. No, the cruel elements had weathered her even past the exterior, and this didn't sit well with her in the slightest.
Just in the hell was that girl's problem, anyway? Sure she couldn't judge until she'd seen her, but... hell, Marty hadn't been the one who went out and got stranded from her mother for months on end! Marty hadn't had to cry herself to sleep at night and spend her days floundering in rock pools, hopelessly alone every damn SECOND of it! She had no reason to turn sour!
... She had no right to.
"That's petty." Wait, what? And what all of a sudden with the flat tone of voice and the frown? "... She should know better than that by now."
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:05 am
And in turn, Leboya made a very.... disappointed sounding noise at Lesedi's response to hearing how her sister had fared while she'd been gone. While yes, Marty's behaviour wasn't anything to smile about, that didn't give Lesedi the right to speak ill of her sister.
"I said this to your sister when she said that you were guilty of ruining me:
Do not judge her, while things may seem one way, you never know."
AKA, Leboya was hinting at her daughter that perhaps there was something to scratch at beneath the surface of everything. Certainly Marty's life had been a little more... spoiled, seeing as she did have mother in tow for it, but maybe there was something else that had set her off?
For all Lesedi knew, something bad could have happened to Marty that she hadn't recovered from!
"So please.. do try to play nice with her. She's rough to handle, but as long as you keep your head level she's managable."
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:13 pm
Oh, Lesedi knew that things were rarely as they 'seemed' at first, but that didn't improve her newly fouled mood in the slightest. Honestly... she'd gone through hell and back and still managed not only to keep from getting eaten, but (mostly) spare her sanity-- or at least her passive tendencies!
Violence just for the sake of being a self-centered, world-hating, spiteful fool wasn't tolerable in her book.
... No matter what the reasons.
Her displeased expression just crinkled up even more at her Mother's advice, but the lioness, still dripping water from the tips of her belly fur and tail, somehow managed to swallow it down, just keeping her ears pressed flat back and her cloudy eyes narrowed to dull slits.
"I'll... do my best, Mother." For YOU alone, Mother, she wanted to add-- but restrained herself.
It... would be a very interesting reunion.
...... Maybe. If the other lion ever showed up.
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