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 Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 12:51 am
He stood and followed almost without considering his actions. It didn't matter, in any case. She was in a hurry; he was not. It took time to change the habits of a lifetime, and if she wasn't inclined to sit still and let the quiet of the world wash over her, then that was alright too.
"Because," he said rather matter-of-factly. "My family is here." For the young lion, family was far and beyond the most important thing he had, or could ever have, in his life, and if it meant disregarding the passing urge to discover the world, then he would do it.
He shrugged after a moment's pause. "I just, couldn't do that to my parents, you know?" His expression tightened for a moment as he scuffed at the passing ground with a paw while he contemplated still further what she had said. "Besides, if I left, who would keep all their secrets?" He added as an afterthought, and when he looked up again, the studiousness had cleared from his face and once again he greeted the world with a smile.
"Heh, and you thought my secret was bad," he chuckled, shaking his head as he lengthened his stride to make up the ground he had lost to his earlier thoughts. "Well, why do you hate toads?"
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 6:01 pm
"So you would give up a chance to see the unknown and possibly have an adventure because your family is here? Sounds a bit stupid to me, it's not like if you left you could never go back." Those words slipped out before she realized that her thoughts had turned to into a voiced sentence. She had abandoned her family, but for the reasons she didn't talk about. She could go back, but then that looming cloud of guilt that she had been avoiding all these years would surely catch up to her and dump it's contents on her. No, best to just keep walking she told herself.
Glancing at him as she continued to walk, changing her course slightly to angle away from the center of the pride lands because she didn't want to waste more time being stuck talking to even more lions she huffed. "You think your parents want to stay here forever, to hold onto their precious secrets?" Tawi didn't really understand close bound families all that much, sure she had been close with her family at one time, but it would seem no where near as close as this young male was with his.
As for his question as to why she hated toads, the hell if she knew, that so called secret had been made up on the spot. "Well...have you seen a toad lately? Ugly little critters they are."
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 8:52 pm
Taqa shrugged, considering her words. "Like you said, it's all unknown. If I leave, I might never come back, and I wouldn't realize until it was too late." He wasn't willing to take the chance. Even if he left with every intention of returning to the pride, he knew enough to know that there was no such thing as planning a path to wander. Incidents incited other incidents, and he could already imagine the myriad circumstances that might take him away from his family forever.
He gathered from her attitude towards his unwillingness to leave that she didn't completely understand what it was to have a close family. It was hard to imagine that she would be asking him such questions if she did, and perhaps, he mused, that was her secret - that she didn't have a family to really call her own. "Maybe not just to keep their secrets," he said finally. "Whether or not they do tell me things is their choice, but I suppose they do want me to stay here just because they're my parents and I'm their son." Nothing else to it; it was that family bond that kept them all together.
"But they can't help being ugly," he mused. Besides, beauty was in the eye of the beholder, and much as he would have liked to joke and suggest that a toad could easily say the same thing about Tawi, or any lion for that matter, he suspected that such a comment would only annoy the hasty lioness. "I think I would just feel sorry for them. They're always so lonely-looking."
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:49 pm
"And if you stay you will never know what is out there." Her voice was filled with frustration. She just didn't see what the big deal was about leaving ones family behind to go explore the world. If he wanted to go then he should go, why let family and secrets keep one from fulfilling their desires. Of course Tawi didn't start her wandering ways because she wanted to explore the world, no she had a reason for leaving and that reason kept her walking, kept her from thinking those thoughts.
"Secrets, parents, family. That's all you seem to talk about." Giving her head a shake she adjusted her course once more. "All things that can be lost." It was true, one minute you could have a home and family and the next you have nothing. But that as life, so why sit back and cherish what you have now and then be lost when it is gone? Best to take chances and let loose, but clearly he couldn't understand that.
"You'd be lonely too if you were as ugly as a toad." She commented quietly. But by now Tawi was done with being nice, she was done with talking with this young male. What she wanted was to make up for lost time. If he followed her to the border of his prides lands then so be it, but honestly she didn't think he would go beyond that. "I have to go." She said and gathered her legs under her breaking into a quick run. Though she was certain that some of the things this male said would stick in her mind for a while - but that would be better than those other thoughts.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:50 pm
"I guess I'm okay with that," he said, hearing her irritation. But she didn't understand, so he supposed he couldn't expect her to act any different than she was. He was alright with sacrificing the dim possibility that there would be something better for him out there to remain where he was already happy. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him; he couldn't miss something he had never known, but he could miss his family.
She was right. Family, secrets - all material things that could disappear in the blink of an eye. And yet. The mere idea of losing them hurt him, but he recognized that pain as a result of the love that surrounded him. He hurt because he had them, the secrets and the family, and he knew how wonderful it all was. But what did she have, if not family, parents, secrets? If not material things that she could lose, what did she have? Loneliness? A form of freedom in her wandering, perhaps, but what else?
And he wished he could change her mind, because he knew somehow that he could, if only she gave him the chance. He could show her that she was wrong, though Taqa himself had never been one to judge another's values, and he could show her why it was that he was the way he was. He wished it all, if only just to let her know that whatever she was running from would not stop following her if she had to face it all alone.
"Look, please don't leave," he burst out after a moment's hesitation. In the blink of an eye, he made up his mind. He wanted to show her that whatever it was, it wasn't worth being all alone, because she was wrong. She was so wrong, and though Taqa would never be one to call himself wise, he could feel it. She was wrong. "You should... you should see for yourself. Having company, it's not so bad. Really, it isn't."
For a few strides, he broke into a run after her, but then, realizing that if she did, in fact, want to leave, she would leave even if he chased her to the edges of the pridelands, he slowed and stood, watching desolately as she ran. "What's your name?" He called after her. He could almost feel her hurt, though for the life of him, he didn't know what it was that drove her to her lonely way of life. "Please stay..."
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 7:29 pm
Tawi wasn't really willing to listen to anything else the young male had to say. She had wasted far too much time talking with him and would be hard pressed to make that up. She had tried to play nice, to chat while she walked but somehow all that did was delay her more than she had expected and her tail flicked in frustration at that thought.
Please don't leave. Those words rang through her mind as she ran, and although she could tell by the tone of his voice that he did mean it - or at least was very good at faking that tone, she just couldn't bring herself to do so. Tawi had struggled for years to return to a normal life and even now she wondered if she would ever see that.
She could hear him run after her for a short time, not thats he really expected him to do otherwise. He clearly wised for her to stay, even if for a little while longer, but she really wished to be alone, to think on many things now. Ears flicked as she heard his foot steps come to a stop. When he asked for her name she thought for a moment. The likelihood of ever seeing this male again was slim especially since he said himself he would likely never leave his prides lands, so telling him her name couldn't hurt.
"Tawi." She yelled back without glancing over her shoulder. Those last words his spoke drifted to her ears, they were faint but she could hear them as clearly as if he were standing next to her. "I can't." She whispered, though she knew that he would never hear it. And so she continued to run, where to she didn't know, just away from here, from him and from her thoughts.
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