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There really wasn't much Chosimba was finding in words to express him self during this situation. To put it blank the lion was numb to the entire situation having no real alliance with the now former king. It was disturbing to hear he'd been murdered but the lion assumed the king must have had enemies being approached about something to do with new leader ship.

But to be honest the two just didn't click in the lions head that they'd have anything to do with each other. Chosimba suspected nothing. Kings were bound to have many enemies after all. At least the lion assumed as much. How else where they to come to power with out stepping on a few heads?

Chosimba hadn't grown up fully in a pride setting. He'd been a wander from far and wide most of his life and thus had a wide spectrum of characters he'd come across. Not all of them favorable. One could say that Chosimba was jaded and thus he looked at this situation with jaded eyes.

All he could do was carry a frown.

The white lioness nodded in turn to Fuu as he waded into the crowd. It occurred to her that she didn't know either of the pair particularly well, and perhaps she should try to know them better, given the likelihood of their working together in the future. Still, common sense reminded her that she couldnl't force a relationship, especially not while they were in mourning.

"That is what makes peace so special when we can find it," she observed with a small smile. "So I will pray for you to find and savor those moments of peace in your every day." You could also call it meditation, but that sounded more religious in nature and that wasn't at all what Lailah wished to convey. Rather...an appreciation of life. A concept that, sadly, Selene should have no problem with for the time being.

Having said her piece, the white female took a step back, allowing others to approach the royal lioness.

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The slave turned her attention from the royal lions to the beloved male standing by her side as he spoke. Then his question penetrated and she frowned. Those were...rather pertinent questions. Even given the fact that Orion was from an offshoot of the royal family, they were still blood kin and thus more directly affected by tonight's events than most of the pride.

"No," she replied just as softly. "I don't often talk to your father, remember, and I haven't seen Unyezi in many days." Which was worth noting. Not totally unusual, of course, but interesting in light of what had happened. Certainly enough to make her wonder.

Which reminded the lioness. Halili turned her head just enough to lay an eye over her offspring. "If you have any ideas about how that happened, do tell the Guards," she reminded Nyeusi.

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The younger lioness made a face at her mother. Trust her mom to be so...so...conscientious of what should be done. The Huntress attributed this to the mindset of one who had been born a slave, but that didn't keep the "advice" from grating on her.

"I was only wondering," she replied primly, at a normal volume. "Is there anything wrong with that? I mean, what if the killer decides to go after someone else?" It was a valid fear, and there were a few key individuals whose deaths could strike total terror into the heart of the pride, not to mention doing severe damage to its organization. Oh yes, there were always seconds and backups and people who supposedly could step into the empty roles, but would they really have the ability to make up for their lack of experience? She knew she couldn't do much if those who organized and assigned the pride's Hunters were killed.

A pity to hear about the murder of the king. Lion blood shed was still lions blood. Was it possible that this had something to do with Shangyue's approach? The lioness wondered. It was a bit curious that he'd recruited her and now this convenient death of a king. She chewed her lip as she mused over the mystery. Though this could have also been a complete convenience as well.

The lioness did her best to look sad but the expression didn't translate well on her features. She was actually quite curious and not sad or disturbed at all. This was a who done it and boy was she, as sick as it was, excited to find out more.

Akahana's low class status kept her maw shut though. Though her curiosity kept her ears up to the whispering. This was actually exciting for her.

Cream-tipped gold paws moved slowly as Najisi walked up to the crowd. Red eyes seem to glint with a bit of mischief, his mind moving fast. Oh, he had a pretty good idea of who it might be... He knew a part of him should be alarmed at how fun he found the idea, but the black-maned gold lion couldn't help it. He could have laughed and gone to ask if the prince needed some congratulations, but that wouldn't be a good idea. Not now. He melted into the crowd again, not really slinking, but simply waiting.

Najisi wasn't the only one moving around. Gyps had felt a suspicion about the gold lion when he'd woken up and NOT been alarmed about his class. He was far too at ease being a slave, and the wing-marked male found that... Suspicious. Though he kept an eye on the lion, he found himself gravitating to Fuu and Selene, keeping his voice low so nobody could hear him and become alarmed. "Do you think one of the slaves did it...?" He glanced off to the side. "I'm suspicious of that gold one... Something isn't right about him."

Nina, too, had been amid the crowd, but she wasn't nearly as active as Najisi. She found the black-haired lion strange and not worth her time. He knew full-well that he could have an opportunity to get out of the slave class. Any lioness in the upper classes would be glad to have a lion of his looks and lack of relation as a mate, after all, but he professed no desires for a mate. She wondered for a moment if he liked male lions, then opted with the notion that the Great Lion had simply cursed him to have NO attractions. The scale-backed slave found a spot to sit down, grouching a bit to herself. It was far too early for her to be up, preferring the daylight hours over the night as she didn't have to worry about looking at the moon in the daylight. She let out a wide yawn, though she tried to hide it.

Suddenly, her heterochromatic eyes fell on the strange gold-coated slave. Was he up to something?

Much like the others, Kin had appeared for the news. And much like his distant cousin, he was a lion more suited to the daylight. Or at least... He preferred that time between midnight and noon. He noticed Nina yawning and elbowed her, frowning. "Stop doing that, it's rude!" He turned his attention to the heiress and her mate going around, offering quiet words of consolation to them. He knew there was a distant relation somewhere - It was hard to NOT be related to anyone in the Mwezi'johari, and even some of the rogues who'd joined had their suspicions - but it was hardly enough worth mentioning or caring much about beyond if a cub would be born with three eyes, a missing limb, half a tail, and buck teeth or not. He noticed the look on Nina's face, blinking at her. "What are you watching?"

"That gold lion..." She settled down, then flopped over. "Ugh... Wake me later..." Preferably in an instance where she could properly show her support for Shangyue. She wanted the Great Lion's favor already!

[I've mostly skimmed the RP and I decided to just jump in! Feel free to have your character interact with mine

Also note for Cavi, Currently in the thread it says they weren't approached yet but in this RP it sounds like they were so if they haven't been correct me and I'll fix up my post. biggrin ]

The lionesses came in a pair. Taini and Nazani. Both were raised in the pride and both were slaves, both were actually the only slaves born into their litters, it normally wouldn't be a stretched idea to think of the two as friends. But this pair was an odd one, white and black, loud and quiet. It was an interesting friendship The lionesses were opposites but their friendship was strong and at this point they were nearly inseparable. Wherever one would go, the other would go as well. They were up at this time, they normally stayed up all night (this was mostly Nazani's choice and Taini just followed)

They two approached the scene and paused listening to the news. A weird feeling brewed in both of their bellies. Recently both were approached by Shangyue about things recently and both had a reason to be suspicious. Nazani a little more interested and Taini a little more reluctant about what the male had to offer. As the two listened then turned toward each other and Nazani automatically started to speak.

"Do you think-?" Nazani's eyes were bright with curiosity she was extremely interested on what was going on, this was exciting in an odd way! Sure it sucked that the king was dead but at the same time how often does something like this happen?!

"Hush! Taini interupted, she didn't want to hear what her friend had to say about this situation. She had a horribly bad feeling about this and as she nervously looked around she could already feel word of salves being the cause for this. It made her a little angry, two of her sister and even her mother were given higher ranks then she got and she couldn't help but to feel nervous. Why couldn't she just be born like her sister. "Don't get all excited about this Nazani, they'll think we're suspicious, I can already hear the blame." Tai's voice was quiet but harsh, she was a little annoyed and extremely nervous about friend's excitement.

"But Tai!" The lioness protested a little louder, but still tried to make sure her voice was at a hush. There were standing a little further than the rest of the lions. "Remember what he told us we could have a better life. This is all so exciting Tai we may know something they don't!"

A big difference between Taini and her friend was that for Taini without the pride she wouldn't have safety, this talk that her friend was saying scared her more because what if she was to be blamed and then kicked out of the pride! A normally unreasonable though but not for the lioness who was already unsure of many things. "Zani hush! Really! You're going to attract attention." The two bickering lionesses must have been a sight to see.

Ithil couldn't believe what she had just heard. The king had been killed? It was sad enough to think that he had passed on for some natural reason, but something so like that... she just didn't like to think something like that could happen to someone so powerful in her pride. Though, she supposed it was the higher classes who made more appealing targets. Things to gain and all that. Particularly the royalty.

But she was just a low class female, with nothing of any importance. She didn't really understand what it meant to have things that others would be willing to kill for. Was it his title? The reputation of killing the king? She had no idea, but it scared her immensely. Sighing, she looked down at her paws, keeping to herself for the most part. She didn't want to- she wanted to talk to her pride members- but she was a shy creature by nature, and tended not to get involved just because she felt she was not important enough to.

She was very used to her standing.

That was another thing- she had never wanted more. She didn't have a bad life. She was happy and she loved her pride. How could someone kill to get ahead? Was it really that important? If that's what had happened. Maybe it was just something with a rogue who had come into the wrong area. Whatever the reason, she found she would not be able to sleep for some time, especially with them asking for suspicious characters. It meant no one knew what had happened.

Truly frightening.

Somebody was watching him... Najisi paused in his slow wanderings, noticing just how close he was starting to get to the royal dens. He lifted his head up, not in a manner he imagined a slave would do, and looked around. It didn't take him long to spy the purple lion. Ah... That had to be Shangyue's father... He did his best to make it look like he wasn't looking directly at the lion, keeping his gaze moving, before he slowly closed his eyes, dropped his front end down, and stretched out, letting out the wide yawn of a lion who didn't look happy to be up so early in the morning... Or late into the night, perhaps. Anything to not look suspicious... He hadn't missed the black-eyed brown lion watching him, too. Let them be suspicious... He'd happily be a scapegoat for the time being.

Gyps' eyes narrowed, a frown on his face as he sat down. "I'm not sure... How much attention IS paid to the slaves...? Does anybody know what they do when they're not assisting someone...?" Gyps had no real opinion on the slaves - They were simply there, part of the pride. He didn't have much opinion on many lions, really, other than other males he didn't want to get TOO close to Haggy. This one, though... It was an entirely different suspicion. "He was too compliant about being a slave... I don't like him..."

Nina let out a yelp as someone crashed into her, before sitting up and spying Orion. "Watch where you're going, Orion!" She let out a huff, ears back, then relaxed a little. "No, not recently... Only the plethora of other relatives everywhere." She motioned around the wide expanse of lions, including Kin. "Both close and distant..." She'd have a fun time finding someone to be her mate. The heterochromatic-eyed lioness was related to WAY too many lions for her liking here. She'd have to look OUTSIDE the pride! And even THAT wouldn't be a guarantee!

He had the distinct feeling he was being ignored... Kin simply shook his head, before looking around. He noticed Fuu moving through the crowd, heading for a gold lion. "Well look at that... They're heading right for him now..." Maybe he was up to something... But then he yawned, and the cloud-legged lion decided he was simply looking for a better spot to sleep. What concern did a new slave about the death of the king, after all?