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 Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:07 pm
Harm's way was within reach of anything lurking in the muddy water. Lakisa moved herself, the cub, and Yaariq back until she was satisfied this was no longer the case. She stood in front of both of them, not as a protector, but as a shield. Little else could someone so grey around the muzzle realistically hope for.
"Wait," she said again. This time she did mean Ahlsen, and she was so convinced of herself, she repeated it. "Wait." Her eyes were then on the surface of the river, staring, waiting.
After what water had taken from them she always knew to be wary of it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:26 pm
Despite his best efforts to remain relaxed for the two lionesses, Ahlsen's legs were shaking. His tongue was pressed against his lower teeth, mouth open as he panted. Adrenaline shot through his veins, willing him to move.
His head raised towards Lakisa and his mouth smacked, ready to protest. The shift in body language was a fatal mistake.
The water to the left of Ahlsen broke, pouring off a scaly, orange back. The black lion jumped, an alarmed squeal flooding out of his mouth when he found he could not go back further.
The crocodile's jaw had closed around his left paw. Ahlsen tugged, and then his remaining feet gave way in the mud underneath his footing. The crocodile made it the few crucial steps back into the deep of the water and spun its body, pulling Ahlsen down with it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 1:58 pm
Lakisa heard herself scream; loudly, and in tandem with Yaariq. The first time was the most deafening, the second the longest. In fact it seemed to go on forever.
"STOP!" she'd demanded, but her asperity and anger did nothing. The crocodile refused to relinquish his hold. Just before he'd dragged the unfortunate lion down, Lakisa took the water again, making it over in time to take one clumsy swing at his assailant.
"Ahlsen! Ahlsen!" She braved the mud and muck to submerge herself. She never made it far from shore or all that deep, though not for lack of trying. Besmirched waters hindered her efforts, and soon she pulled her head back up and into the blessed air.
"I can't find him!" Lakisa screeched hysterically.
Elsewhere, across the plains, above the desert, far beyond the realm any of them had ever known, Mwokoti watched another mortal soul pass through the gates. A cheetah this time, young and commendably brave from the start.
She'd made a habit of to lying to them as of late. When they asked what awaited them, she offered, "A better life."
But she didn't know. No one did.
Immortality made it less frightening, yet all the more infuriating for her. Three lifetimes squandered before Mwokoti fully comprehended the dangers of knowing too much, the sense of entitlement that it could wrought on ones self. Knowing was half the battle... the other half was accepting it.
The mystery of what, if anything, was beyond the beyond would have to wait. Of the many tendrils in her mind attached to every creature she had reason to know the whereabouts of below, of the voices that were a faint hum when joined together, one was loudest, brightest, and most desperate.
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:19 pm
Though she yelled Ahlsen's name, throat going raw and mind reeling, Yaariq had never been, and would likely never be, a savior. While Lakisa rushed into the water, Yaariq picked up the tiny cub and moved him further from shore. A straining glance over her shoulder showed Lakisa disappearing from view. "No!"
Yaariq's stomach churned. The poor cub was nearly dropped at her jaw clacked on her way to set him on the ground. She turned, darting to the water's edge.
The relief at the sight of the old female's head only lasted a fraction of a second. "Ahlsen!" she cried out, as if expecting him to have re-emerged simply because Lakisa was screeching at her.
Yaariq waded out into the water, teeth grasping the nape of Lakisa's neck to help haul her into the shallows. Desperate eyes searched the murk, even more cloudy from the stirring of their paws.
"Let him go!" She shouted, as if the water was the cause. Yaariq slapped the water with her paw, almost without purpose and paced to the left. The motion was repeated. The water furled and bubbled. Again, the black lion's name was yelled.
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:46 pm
The soft white of Lakisa's coat was concealed beneath a layer of filth. Her legs were covered with mud and everything else stained a sallow, sickly shade not unlike her eyes, which dashed to the right when she heard Mwokoti land.
The Goddess' massive wings drew in and she bowed her head. An act not meant to greet them, only to shake off the lantern. Lakisa relayed the situation to her, gasping and sobbing. Unnecessary, every word of it; Mwokoti knew who was missing, of course. Her limbs were the first to change, followed by her tail, her head, then her body. For those few seconds she resembled a grotesque beast with disparate parts and dead eyes. Then a crocodile, solid black and much larger than the other stood in place of the deity. It slithered off land and vanished beneath the eerily calm waters.
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:56 pm
The thump startled Yaariq forwards in the water. Perhaps to Lakisa, Mwokoti was as she often was--a normal-sized lion with white wings and power.
For Yaariq, Mwokoti was salvation. As they folded, the huge wings caught the sun. The dawnwalker stilled, water dripping from the lower half of her muzzle. Even distraught, she remembered her manners. She dropped her body to the ground, until her mouth and belly touched the muddy waters.
"Please." Yaariq's eyes stare at Mwokoti's feet, refusing to meet her eyes. "Please help him." To Yaariq, this goddess had answered her internal prayer. As Mwokoti slithered by her, Yaariq's breath halted and she quietly shifted out of the way.
Hope worked its way into her body. "It's okay, Lakisa," she whispered. "Sobek's here. He'll be fine."
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 3:17 pm
Lakisa frowned at her, so taken aback by the tranquil demeanor and bizarre moniker she could do little else. Helpless. An emotion she was becoming too accustomed to. Her quavering breath grew louder as she paced, bobbing her head up and down, tail swishing.
Finally, a sound.
Mwokoti, a Goddess once again, broke the water close to its shallow point. With her she pulled the cumbersome, still form of their missing lion. Her usual refined grace eluded her when it came time to drag him out entirely.
"Ahlsen!" Lakisa rushed to his side, more than likely joined by Yaariq.
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:46 pm
Quote: Yaariq's heart leapt up, into her throat and mouth. In her eyes, she could see Ahlsen, gripped by that a large muzzle, the scaly head of the god no more. In her brain, the oddity of the situation began to register. Lakisa's voice sounded numb in her ears and she stared at Ahlsen. Stared at the way his legs drug, that he did not cough, struggle, or shake.
Then, with one slow step, Yaariq dropped her head down low and crept forwards. "Ahlsen?" she whispered, as though the force of her breath would tear Ahlsen's soul from his body and leave her there for eternity. He did not stir for Lakisa, and he would not stir for his mate. The latter's joints went weak.
A noise escaped the back of Yaariq's throat. It mirrored those she and Ahlsen had greeted each other with in mornings. Now, however, its tone was strained with a call for help; deep, from the base of her gut. Her eyes pleaded towards Mwokoti. Yaariq behind Ahlsen, his drenched back facing her, so she did not have to see his eyes. As long as she could remember them full of life in her mind, then anything contrary would not be reality. Quote: Of Sen's children, whose numbers were nearing thirty, it was Ahlsen and his immediate brothers Mwokoti paid the least attention to. Courtesy of their father, the majority bared no distinct markings, if any at all; she may have well overlooked his identity if circumstances permitted. But the two mortals chanted his name in their piteous cries. The one she had never seen before stared at her with impotent hope that was evidence enough she had never been amongst those displaced by the flood.
Lakisa knew what a drowned lion looked like. Crestfallen, she collapsed into a heap of greying fur and tears. She sobbed into the darker coat of her lifeless son, not of her blood but her kin just the same, pressing her face against his shoulder. The scent of muddled water, wet fur, and the stench of failure was around him.
The smell of death had not yet seeped in. By time it did, Mwokoti would have long ago fetched the cub and brought him to rest beside her lantern. She kept her eyes on the water, gaze steady as her heartbeat. And she waited. Quote: Lakisa's broken sobs took Yaariq the rest of the way to her stomach. The pale lioness curled up by her old companion, tucking her shoulder against Lakisa's. Her stomach churned, flipped, constantly reminding her that she was alive. Yaariq look towards the water, where Mwokoti stared, and briefly wondered how much it would take to repeat Ahlsen's fate.
Instead, she turned her nose to the drying fuzz of ear poking out of his matted mane. "Anubis, please watch over him," she begins to say. "He is good." Though he had never believed in the egyptian gods, having his own. Having the one who now watched the water near them. Yaariq glanced towards her, taking in a long, shuddering breath.
The presence of a god, especially one serene, still, like a rock, pushed energy into her bones. There was still a task. "We have to bury him." Yaariq's voice sounded far more sure than her splayed feet and heavy body when she tried to pull back onto all fours. Quote: Lakisa was too weary to defy her. She could only nod, her face still buried in fur.
"Leave him," Mwokoti said. No explanation, no comforting words to ease the burden. No justification of the wait they'd endured and no guilt over having taken "too long."
"Leave —?" Lakisa gasped, sniffed, and gasped again. "We can't leave him."
This should never have happened. His murderer would pay dearly, Mwokoti was sure of that. But revenge wouldn't be the only thing to come from this... Sen would see the corpse of her son and learn once and for all that she need care properly for her children.
"Is that his cub?" she asked, reminding herself to keep her eyes ahead of her. Quote: All of the blood in Yaariq's body moved to her heart. She could feel it escape her toes, make her pupils turn small. Her insides screamed. Had Mwokoti not been a goddess, Yaariq would have put up a true fight. For Ahlsen's body, she would scream out her lungs, beat back the unfairness in life.
But Mwokoti had spoken.
There was hesitation in her blood. No small part due to the fact that Ahlsen was dead. His corpse left doubt in her mind. Of all the gods to come, it was the one who spoke to crocodiles. Why would Ahlsen's body be wanted, be needed?
"I ... " Yaariq began, words drying up. She took a step towards Mwokoti to reach her resolve. "Please see his body to the afterlife." Yaariq had nothing to offer the goddess, and she was painstakingly aware. She had nothing; not even Ahlsen's dead body to bury now. Her ears lay flat on her skull, body wavering. "Please, just this thing."
No doubt in the future, as any god knows, it will be more than 'just this thing'. But one cannot blame mortals for lacking forethought or clinging to desperation. Quote: "I will," Mwokoti agreed. There wasn't much someone like her couldn't say with a straight face. Truth, lies, and things in between. She once looked the enslaved dead in the eye, and would have done the same for Yaariq had the crocodile's whereabouts not been at stake. Curious, her reasoning in contrast to her domain. "Is the cub his?"
"It's not his," Lakisa replied. For a moment she felt dizzy, her grief was so palpable. She gave the Goddess a long doubtful look, then told Yaariq, "Fetch him," with the same tone of voice she used when speaking to a young Ahlsen and his brothers. Only it shook now, slight but noticeable, like her paws. She was standing on them again, though the gravity of it all threatened to pull her back down. She wanted to stay here, and had Yaariq and the cub not been with her, perhaps she'd have laid down to die beside him.
They must stay safe. Both of them. Ahlsen's passing would not be in vain, no matter what it took.
Fortunately, she was an old lioness. Her best days were behind her...
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