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 Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 9:50 am
Mama Bwawa with Baku Meepfur The ram-horned goddess rested at the edge of the swamp she called home, laying as she was wont in a shallow, murky pool. The water came up to just under the bases of her feathered wings, which themselves lay spread to her sides, algaed pinions resting in the muddy liquid.
Mama regarded her domain through half-lidded, clear blue eyes, an idle purr finding its way up her throat. Kolina Baku found himself in the most disgusting of places he had ever seen. In fact, when he teleported there he found himself standing in a hole of muck and promptly flew to the nearest tree branch to get out of the foul smelling liquid. Why anoyone would wan tot live in such a place was beyond him but after spending a little while to see if anyone actually lived there he got sense of another God nearby. With a smirk he leapt from branch to branch using his wings to keep him balanced as he hurried in the direction the Goddess was. Finally upon arrival Baku couldn't help but cringe and wrinkle his nose in disgust at the sight of the Goddess. "What, pray tell, make you want to submerge yourself in that...muck!?" Meepfur If Mama was surprised to have her lazing interrupted, she didn't show it. Instead, she lifted that horned head to look up at her tree-leaping 'visitor.'
With a sly smile and a slow shrug of her wings, she said simply, in her husky purr of a voice, "It's very relaxing; perhaps you care to come and join me, little godling? You may find it is not what you first thought." Kolina Kimeti looked at the Goddess in disgust. "No thanks. My paws already experinced the muck and the rest of me has no desire to." Opening his bat-like wings the gentle rustle of jewelry broke the silence of theswamp as he use the appendages to balance himself as he laid in the crook of th ebranch he was standing on.
"So...You're the Goddes of Swamps I assume?" HE eyed the female deity unsure what to think about her Meepfur Her tail flicked in the water, the tuft of her tail rising above the surface, hung with some wispy plant. The goddess clucked her tongue, chuckling. "So lofty so young, you. Keep to your tree, then, if it pleases you so."
"I am she, called Mama Bwawa," she affirmed, wings lifting from the pool to flex and stretch before settling again in the coolness. "And you, child? I do not often have visitors here; I believe to my fellows I am largely forgotten, only to be stumbled over now and then." Kolina "I -will- stick to my tree's thankyou. It's much...cleaner up here." After balanced on his branch the Godling folded his wings up against his sides causing the chains to cling againt before silence settled over the swamps.
"I have heard of lands like this where the ground can swallow you up if you aren't careful and about a Goddess who watched over them." he drawled lazily as his tail dangled over the branch the tip moving calmly back and forth in a swing like fashion. "It's not surprising why you don't get visitors." He looked at the swamps as he stated this. "Anyway, I am Baku, the God of Nightmares." He spoke proudly of his titled and his chest swelled in the process. Meepfur "As you wish it, dark dreamer, but you have my word that mud would cause you no harm, here or elsewhere." Sharp eyes glinted, and she laughed, really quite amused by the young god. "Might I ask why it is that Nightmare clings so to the trees?"
"It is true, that those who step without caution here may find themselves sinking." Mama smiled darkly, giving a double meaning to her words. She would not deny that a drowning or too had been at her whim. "Few appreciate this home of mine, but it is their choice to ignore such charms." She shrugged, tail rising from the water again only to splash back down. Kolina Baku mused over how entertaining it would be to lure an unsuspecting mortal into these lands. That would be a hoot to watch! Storing that idea in the back of his mind for a later date Baku crossed his front paws and laid his head on them as he gazed down at Mama. "I stay where it's clean and that mud is far from clean."
Baku didn't want to think how long it took the Goddess to clean off her wings but then again, did she bother with such things if all she did was wallow in the muck? So maybe she's the origin of the horrid stench. A grin spread across his maw at such a thought. "So, Goddess of muck, what do you do to pass your time? Surely there are few mortals within this land for you to keep um....watch over." Meepfur Quietly, Mama entertained the idea of flinging some mud Baku's way for a bit of amusement, but for now she lay as she was, the very picture of calm, unconcerned by the baiting upstart.
The goddes raised an eyebrow at hsi twisting of her title, but didn't deign to correct him. "I do as I wish," she replied vaguely. "But yes, there are mortals here whom I call my own. What of you, little master? Do you do aught of worth to fill your time?" Kolina Baku casually flicked his tail. "The mortals fill my time for the time being. Their lives are a fun little game to play with." He yawned boredly. This Goddess was of no fun! She was far to passive and calm for Baku's liking, now, Finar-si on the other hand was much more entertaining and easy to bait. It was high time he paid the Goddess of Change a visit once again. Sometime soon. He needed to check in on his little slave anyway.
"I can only assume your mortals are just as...muck loving as you. I don't understand what you see in this land but it -is- your ruling." Meepfur "May your games never become grave, Baku, if they bring you such joy." For a moment there was a darkness behind Mama's eyes, but it soon passed. A faint smile touched her lips when he yawned; this was one individual she took pleasure in not entertaining, contrary creature that she was.
"It is their home, as it is mine. They are born to it, and long for it when they are away." She shrugged, copper-clasped ears flicking back and then forward again. "But, to each their own, as is said." Kolina Baku shrugged. He truly didn't care how his games turned out. If a mortal died oh well, all the better for the world. It would be one less mortal he had to worry about though it would mean the end of a game. Oh well.
"Yes, to each their own." He stretched his wings out as he rose. "As much as I enjoyed this visit I should be going. I am afraid if I linger any longer here I may permantly stink of rotting eggs." Meepfur "Would that be so bad?" she purred, laughing...and this time, there was a mocking undertone to it. "Something to remember me by, perhaps."
"Go and enjoy your games then, little godling, and wash your paws of my sweet mud." She gave him a fanged, feral grin as the purr rumbled to life again, dark and deep. Kolina Baku raised a brow at the lioness before shakin ghis head. Mama was certainly an odd one to say the least and Baku didn't count on ever running into her again. In fact he would prefer he didn't since he did not really want to visit the swamps again. They just weren't up to his standings.
"I will enjoy my fun. I hope you enjoy your land of stench and dirt." With a grin he dissapeared from the tree branch, teleporting to a far better land where the earth wasn't a foul smelling soup.
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Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 9:52 am
Seitaru'kai and Kikausha Meepfur Seitaru'kai settled herself on top of a large and sturdy skull in the lions' part of the Graveyard, cloaked in invisibility. Save for the brief brush of paws on bone, perhaps a faint 'ting' of jewelry, there was nothing to mark that she was even there.
The goddess held her black-tufted tail still and waited, watching for...something...someone, maybe. Of late she'd taken to watching the creatures who made their lives here, both lion and hyena, but it was an individual lion who had caught her specific attention.
And the more she had watched, and the more she had listened, the more she had begun to dislike him. It was a quiet welling of feeling in the back of her mind, a vague sense of detest.
And yet, it was nothing to be acted upon. So, for now at least, she would continue to observe. Baneful
Ausha had been busy lately, working on a project that he would divulge to no other living being. The materials were gathered and prepared mostly and all that really remained was the fine tunings of the garment. What he had concocted was an entire grisly ensemble made up of the skin, bones and mane of a old male lion he had found on the graveyard borders.
He remembered the conversation he had with the other lion, he had pleaded and begged with Ausha to be left alone to die with dignity in this place he had so loved as a cub. Ausha found this amusing but denyed the other the right, the longer he spent dying the more chance a hyena would take away his chance at getting an outfit. He didn't need tattered mane fragments and broken ribs, he needed it whole.
So, in a surprising turn of cruelty, Ausha had showed that he wad not all smiles, drama and campness and had slain the other in the name of fashion and vanity.
Today he was working on the central part of the outfit, the mane ruff. He himself only had a most meagre mane but with this grey-black piece, all groomed of blood by him, he didn't doubt he'd look stunning.
He made his way over to one of the hiding places he had kept ready for his outfit and tugged out the mane ruff, sweeping it around his shoulders and admiring it.
"Who'd have thought an old grump would make such /fabulous/ attire?"
He remained unaware of the godess' precence.Meepfur Sei's jeweled ears swung forward to catch the sound of Kikausha's approach, his speaking to himself. Beneath her blindfold, purple eyes blinked and narrowed, focusing her almost-sight, auras both sharp and hazy, colors and lights and shadows, the suggestions that made up her world.
Shifting just slightly, but remaining hidden, she called out almost conversationally, but with a hint of darker things in her voice, "What old grump would that be, Kikausha?" Baneful
Ausha froze mid-sentence, stunned into silence. He hadn't seen anyone else around and he was /sure/ he'd been meticulous in that aspect. However, he was not silent for long. He snapped his ears back along his head and swung round to face the speaker, indignant and peeved, still dressed in his morbid regalia.
But he saw nothing.
Not one easily intimidated, he let out a long low snarl of his own. "An old foolish lion who walked where he should not have. He's lucky I put his hideous agedness to the use of the younger generation." a jet black paw combed the mane around his neck and he grinned with a sort of vicious seduction.
"How about you show yourself too, darling? You are in /my/ territory and I don't much like intruders, especially hidden ones." his thoughts turned to his cubs, left in his care, currently safe in the den, guarded by the rest of the pride who felt inclined to do so.
Meepfur Where once they had swept forward, now Sei's ears swung back, flattening close to her skull in an expression of digust. Foreclaws came unsheathed, scraping the skull on which she rested, producing a most unpleasant sound.
But she laughed then, the sound clear, but scornful in its amusement. "I would not call myself an intruder, as I go nowhere I do not belong, and do nothing I should not. But since you have revealed..then I will return the favor."
She stood, white-barred wings flaring out to their full span as she dropped the glamour that had kept her hidden. It revealed a female on the very brink of adulthood, intricate patterns twining around her white paws and up the back of her neck, face obscured by a blindfold of purple cloth. Baneful
Ausha didn't so much as step back as Sei revealed herself, his whole life had been spend in a state of constant self obsession, his ego would not allow cowardice. As he came to terms with what he was seeing, the beautifully unusual wings, the magnificence of her poise and the eyes that seemed to see without seeing, he realised what she was, and rather than ask forgiveness or cower in awe, he snarled again, this time curling his own lip in disgust.
"Well. If it isn't one of the pompous egoists that some of the more foolish lions call gods and godesses." his tail lashed behind him and he all but bristled with indignance. He was tempted to ask where her kind had been when he needed them but some sort of self-preservation instinct halted him. He looked down his muzzle at her (pretty damn difficult for someone of his stature) and spoke again.
"What do you want here? Surely there is nothing in this desolate land for a fragile little dove like yourself." all pleasantness and brightness about his words had dissapated like mist, what stood before Sei was the true Ausha, spiteful, arrogant and sarcastic.Meepfur Sei's tail lashed slowly but sharply behind her, it movements stilted and precise. And in time to it, she clucked her tongue in scorn and scolding. She shook her head, disappointed; there was little, if anything, to redeem this one.
"A pompous egoist?" The goddess chuckled darkly. "Oh, so you are a hypocrit too. Somehow, it doesn't surprise me."
With a graceful leap, she came down from the skull to stand before the bristling lion. "You, Kikausha. I have come for you."
So that wasn't exactly the truth, but he didn't need to know that. Baneful Ausha narrowed his icy blue eyes as Sei drew closer to him, taking only a single step back from her as though the air between them wasn't fit to share. He knew he was egotistic but he wasn't about to admit it. No way.
Meeting her gaze, if you could call it such, he simply shrugged. "What is your reason? Many have come to get me over the years, all with their own agenda."
He twined a paw in the mane about his neck "And all have met with the most varied degrees of success." Meepfur Justice smiled vaguely, dark-and-light wings folding against her sides. As he stepped back, she stepped forward, just one step.
"You piqued my interest," was the purred answer, noncommital.
"And what has your success been, Ausha? To take barren land from a ragged pack of hyenas, and life and mane from an old lion. Simple thievery, such triumphs...and yet you aspire to power? Such a start you have made!" Baneful As the godess spoke her words goaded Ausha to new levels of indignance. Of course those were his triumphs!
"Of course my success has been to seize these lands, carve out a life here, slay the old to feed the young." his fade to black tail swishing at the ground along with his fury. "And I did it all from nothing, left alone out in the southlands, scarred and mutilated. I didn't ask for pity, I asked for others to get the hell out of my way."
He let out a moody "hmph" and turned as if to walk away "But I don't have to justify myself to you, what may be theivery to you are merely the simple steps towards greatness. When I am an adult I will come after your kind with others. A god-killer."
It was madness what he contemplated, but so much exagerrated were his perceived strengths that in his head it looked feasible. Meepfur Sei let out a long and drawn-out hiss, the black tuft of her tail sweeping the ground and stirring up little dust demons.
"You wish for power so that you may use it to gain more; you scorn those who came before you, those who carved out life and succeeded before ever you dreamed of it." For the first time, there was clear emotion in her voice, a tightly-controlled anger that seethed just beneath the surface. "You will not kill us, Kikausha, because you cannot. We are too much for you to comprehend, let alone destroy; though you may slay the old and the weak, you will never have power or strength enough to challenge me or any others."
Her wings twitched, bristled, flared. And as her wings flared, so did what roiled inside, an unseen power that charged the air around the goddess. She hissed again, looking for all the world like an angry bird of prey. "You will never have that when! You belittled the age that earned the lion the stolen mane you wear, the adulthood that it came with."
Venom laced Justice's voice. "Wear it, then, and know that it will be the only one you ever wear." Baneful It was only in the face of the godesses full fury that Ausha gave way to the fear that had been threatening to rise up in him. He didn't show it too much outwardly but in his mind he was terrified beyond belief. It wasn't just her voice, her appearance, it was the sheer energy in the air, a force that seemed to fill his lungs and make him unable to breathe. It was immense compared to anything else he had experienced and truly, he did for a time reconsider his intents, but too late.
His mouth gaped as the magnitude of the sentence imposed upon him for his greed, disregard for others and selfishness had brought upon him. It seemed he would never be the voracious, ambitious killing machine he aspired to. He had mocked old age now he was to be cursed here suspended in this purgatory between weak cubhood and true power.
It was incomprehensible. Part of him wanted to deny her words, denounce the power that he felt. The other half of him felt it like a truth in his body, she wasn't messing around.
There were no words he could say, his arrogance had dissapated along with his self certainty. All that remained was to run, he thought, to see if he could outrun the sentence placed upon him. He turned, still wearing the mane stripped from the honourable wanderer and fled into the graveyard, not able to face any more of her words, the truth really did hurt too much to hear when you had denied it all your life.
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Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 9:53 am
Seitaru'kai and Kikausha Baneful Ausha woke from the chaos of the cubnapping with pain shooting through every nerve of his body. The force in Mrost's paws was beyond what should sanely have been there, the swipe, despite his claws being sheathed, feeling like he had been hit by a flying log. He had lain there for a long while, his eyes closed tight against the physical pain and the mental hopelessness of losing his precious daughter to that lunatic and his accomplice.
However, he couldn't lie around forever and after a time had no choice but to get to his aching paws, unable to even put weight on his bad shoulder.
With his mood less than it's usual joviality, he made his slow progress back towards the empty den. Meepfur Near that empty den perched Seitaru'kai, sitting back on her haunches while her tail swished patiently behind her. She'd dropped by with the intention of checking up on Kikausha, out of genuine curiosity to see if anything notable had occurred within him since she'd bestowed her curse. She doubted it, really, but it couldn't hurt to check and see every now and then.
But she'd arrived to see the bones about the den without their would-be king, much to her surprise...but finding she didn't care to put in the effort to look further, she simply settled in to wait. Baneful Ausha would probably have been heard before he was seen, gasping in pain every time he had to take a step up the spine rib ladder to the den.
When he stepped in, he paused to catch his breath for a time before looking up. He spotted Sei and his eyes went wide with surprise before narrowing in dislike.
"Come to mock my misfortune?" he snapped, angry at all gods after the actions of Mrost. "I suppose you are just another accomplice of that blue one."
He limped over to the pelts in the corner and eased himself into a lying position. Meepfur Sei's blindfolded face fell slightly at the sight of the pained lion, and she tilted her head, genuinely baffled.
"I was unaware there was misfortune here to be mocked." Bejeweled ears swept back, then forward again. "I am no one's accomplice, and I know no 'blue one.'"
Curiosity compelled her to ask, "Tell me of this new misfortune in the life of Kikausha, then, and this blue one you are so ready to believe me in league with." Baneful Ausha eyed the goddess critically for a bit, his blue eyes searching. He only spoke after a moment or two of silence, resigned to the fact that there was no one else here and now to whom he could relate his troubles.
"My daughter. I left her here while I went out to patrol the territory for intruders, I was sure she'd be safe, not many know the way to the den and I'd only be gone for a little bit." he looked at his forepaws as though they were the most interesting thing in the world as he went on. "But I was ambushed out on the border, by a massive blue lion, bluer than anything I've ever seen, he had odd bone wings and gleaming armour like polished shiny stone. I knew he was a god, he had one of your kind's vibes about him." He turned his attention to the clawmarks on his rump, still raw and red against the fur and frowned "He pinned me, I didn't have a chance, then told me to go try and save my daughter. I ran, ran as fast as I could, through all the paths I knew, but when I got there another lion had her and was running ahead. I almost gained on him when the blue one appeared again, I still don't know how he caught up with me but he smashed me into a wall, knocking me out cold."
He lay his head on the floor and covered his eyes with his forepaws.
"I couldn't save her against such a creature." Meepfur Sei listened quietly, attentive to the tale of his woe, while her tail swayed slowly behind her before coming forward to curl around her forepaws. She said nothing for long moments after he had finished, looking thoughtful.
"I have never met him myself, but I believe you speak of War. I do not know his name, but the lady of the Swamps spoke of him when last I saw her. The description fits the one she gave, at least." The goddess's wings shifted across her back, and she frowned. Kikausha, who had slain an old lion for vanity's sake, whom she thought despicable, was distraught...not over selfish dramas, but over the loss of a child.
Whom he had tried to save. Justice was becoming disquietingly confused, frowning at the niggling worry she now had for him, or at least for his daughter. "I am sorry," she murmurred, "But curious also. Were either of the pair familiar to you?" Baneful Ausha's frown took on a new depth of worry as Sei spoke of the blue lion being none other than War. Of all the gods that could have taken his daughter, he could think of few he would have feared more to have Dhamisa in their paws. Death perhaps, or Violent Axe Murders (if there WAS such a god) but War was pretty unfavourable.
"Damn." he stated darkly "If that is true then she's out of my reach, that lion has a swipe like a landslide, I'd be killed if he wanted to harm me."
He shook his head "No, neither of them were familiar, the pink and white one might have been a tiny bit but I cannot remember where or when I have seen him before."
His blue gaze once again lingered on Sei and he asked "Are gods allowed to meddle in our affairs directly?"
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Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 12:51 pm
Safi'gamba and Weupe Meepfur In the midst of the grasslands, Safi'gamba had coiled herself on top of a small, flat-topped rock to drink in the sun and warm herself. The snake was a very bright, very pink spot in the dry browns and greens of the savannah, and was also a very wary pink spot - she'd probably be dead obvious to any airborne predator, a fact which she was well aware of.
She needed her sun, though...she'd just have to make it quick. Remove The mainly white hare hated the sun with a passion, she avioded it as much as possible and darted from tree to tree, lake to lake avoiding the sun patches, anything with shade was a perfect place for her. Her next resting place happened to be in the shade of the rock that the snake had coiled herself onto. The femme panted a little and laid down to rest, she was feeling tired. Meepfur Aware as she was, the hare darting underneath her sunning rock didn't escape Safi's notice. Tail twitching with interest, she hissed out amiably, "Hello there, sssweety." Remove She looked up tilting her head slightly so it wasn't the blind eye looking at the snake, after all snakes could be dangerous. "Hello." She spoke with some sort of bravery, she was terrified of the snake but wouldn't show it. Meepfur "Pleassant afternoon," Safi ventured, very much uninterested in harming the rabbit. She wasn't a particularly dangerous sort of snake, besides...not very large, and not poisonous either. Remove She tilted her head a little more and looked somewhat confused, "Too hot for me!" She stayed in the shade panting a little more, she really was hot and not even the colour of her pelt kept her cool. Meepfur The snake gave a rasping chuckle. "True enough. I like the ssun, but I've about finisshed with it for jusst now, I think." Remove The hare watched her, tensing her body to run if need be, that snake was going to move! "Wher you going to go?" Her brown eye flicked over the snakes body, her blind eye pretty useless and this made her somewhat sceptical about what to do! Meepfur "Ssomewhere not sso hot asss a rock. I meant to get warm, but now I've gone and gotten too warm." She flicked her tail as a sort of shrug. "Sso, nothing to be done but go ssomewhere cool."
"That sshade down there lookss likely, if you don't mind the company." Remove Her ears twitched a little, "If you promise not to try and eat me!" Her eye watching him quickly and carefully. Meepfur "Nothing to worry about, dear," she assured the hare as she slithered down to join her under the rock. "My jaw doesn't get big enough for something like you, anyway." Remove "Your still a snake and we are warned against them as youngsters. Curse of some of your species maybe?" She watched the snake still a little worried about all of this. She was a Hare so related to a rabbit and aren't they known for panicing? Meepfur "Could be, but you've got nothing to worry about from me." To demonstrate, she opened her jaw as wide as she could - and it definitely wasn't wide enough to get the hare down. There were no fangs to indicate she was venomous, either. Closing it again, she said, "See?" Remove The Hare just watched curiously, and then relaxed a little. "Fine but you snakes do all sorts to your prey..." She watched still ready to run but a little more relaxed. Meepfur "Just swallow it, is all. My kind of snake, anyway. Bugs and little birds and things." Maybe baby hares, but that didn't need to be said. Safi coiled herself comfortable in the shade. "So, what's your name, anyway? I'm Safi'gamba." Remove "Weupe" She didn't say much else, still a little sceptical about this strange snake. It could still eat her if it wanted and that would not leave this Hares mind. She had been far too curious once and it ended up making her blind! Meepfur "Nice to meet you, Weupe," Safi said, sounding quite sincere - and she really was. "But...I think perhaps I ought to go. I have a friend waiting for me, you see. Perhaps I'll see you again one day!"
Safi was feelign guilty for making the hare nervous, and so decided it best to make a polite and strategic exit.
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Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 1:03 pm
Nyoe and Kinamasi Syrius Lionwing If she lay, really, really....REALLY still, she wouldn't be seen. The marshy ground of the swamps was perfect for her colouring. Her coat was such a strange colour, her mother always said she was a real swampie lioness. Able to vanish in an instant. Of course those big, some what watery red eyes gave her away. There was nothing planty in the swamps that could desguise those ruby orbs.
Of course, staying still, with your eyes closed, wasn't really too much fun. What was the point in wanting to play when you were feining sleep. Getting to her claws, she stumbled a bit, only pouting a little bit as she caught her left foreleg in an unusual manner which made her flinch. She was getting used to wandering about and not hurting her leg by doing it. She could hold it up for a short time until the mucle ached for her to put her foot down. With a slightly exasperated sigh Kinamasi started to plod along. Her game leg made her limp all the time, she always fell quite heavily upon that leg, swiftly pulling it back in to a more comfortable possition. Still, she could just get on with it. Where was everyone? She was longing for some fun, a game perhaps, but everyone seemed to be sleeping in the shade. Her mother was fast asleep not too far away and her 'green guardien angel' dozed next to her though Kinamasi occasionally glimpsed one of his eyes opening. He was always watching her. Giggling softly, she supposed it was a good chance to use her imagination. After all, there were adventures to be had around here. the reeds looked like a good place to start. Flickering her stubby tail she made for the bull rushes, her imagination leading the way. Meepfur As it turned out, the bullrushes were currently 'home' to something other than possible imaginative pursuits; Nyoe found them to be quite the spot for some comfortable napping. Just now, the older cub was waking from one such nap, stretching and yawning hugely before he shook himself of the remnants of sleep.
He was just about to move on elsewhere when something caught his eye: he had company, in the form of a little frog. Tail waving eagerly, he did the only thing a cub could do presented with such an option, and pounced.
He missed entirely of course, and was left with his paws empty, but he had made a fantastic rustling in the process. Syrius Lionwing The younger swampies ears flickered at the sound of movements. She wasn't very good at stalking or pouncing, but she made a little run belly flop in to the rushes Landing with the loudest and cutest rawar right on top of Nyao.
"OOps" She grinned, realising whom it was. "I thought maybe you were a hippopottamus or a crocodile..or maybe an elephant." she stated, rolling off him with a grin before she sat on her hind quarters lifting her forleg ever so slightly. She shouldn't have pounced it probably hurt her more than him. Still, maybe he wouldn't bee too mad about her fubled attack upon the imaginary hippo.
"I'm goin' on an adventure you wanna come?" she asked simply with a tilt of her small furry head an a curious look in that deep ruby gaze. Despite her limp, Kinamasi wanted to see everything. she wanted to explore the whole swamp and have lots of adventures. She had a mighty wonderlust for a little cub. Meepfur "Ooof!" Nyoe was caught off-balance and bowled right over by the other cub's pounce, but once he realized who it was, he giggled. "Kina! Hey!"
Standing and giving himself a good shake once she let him up, he giggled again. "Me, a hippotamus? Never! Maybe a crocodile, tho'!" With that, he crouched down and rarr'd, lashing his tail and making a great show of flashing his white fangs.
"An adventure?" he then inquired, clearly curious. "You bet! Where we goin'?" Syrius Lionwing Kinamasi giggled uncontrolably seeing him impersonate a crocodile. Nodding sagely she looked perfectly serious with her next reply "oh yeash, i betcha you could scare off a crocodile looking like that" she grinned broadly, her stubby tufted tail wiggling delightedly. she was pleased to have found a willing adveturer at least.
Where were they going though? Good question! She looked thoughtful,deeply thoughtful, lost in her own little world though a grin soon formed on her pretty little maw and she flashed those white milky teeth. "Lets go over the bridge" she looked at him in a keen and agre manner getting to her paws without another thought and scrambling up the bank making the reeds rustle and shake, some evn cast off white fluff from their brown tops because of all this activity between their fronds but Kina didn't notice, she was far too intent upon leading an adventure in to the unknown. Meepfur "'Course I could! All I gots to do is roar, and SPLASH they'll be right back in th' water." His body wriggled with cubbish enthusiasm, and his eyes were alight with conviction. "Nothin' to worry about Nyoe around, no ma'am!"
"Whee, let's go then!" Nyoe scrambled after her, paws keeping easy purchase on the narrow strip of land that he'd gotten so used to crossing. Syrius Lionwing Kinamasi giggled happily watching the older boy. She knew all the other cubs in the pride were older than her but she hadn't really played with any of them. With her stubby tail in the air she followed after her adveturing buddy her deep red eyes searching for their next port of call. "Hehe maybe we'll find a crocodile and you can scare it away, oh or a hippo, moma says hippos are even scarier than crocodiles" She gave another of those extremely sage nods. She took everything her mother said as fact. They usually prooved to be truths in the end.
"Ohoh! Do you think we can go to the watering hole? I reacon I can go that far" She grinned, feeling excited, that was a big adventure for the little cub she had never been as far as the watering hole but she had heard about it and had heard that there were 'wilder beasts, and 'antilopes' creatures she had never seen and could only imagine what they acctually were. Meepfur "I'll be ready if we do," he asserted, nodding confidently. "Dunno about a hippo, since I've never seen one, but I'm sure I could take one of those, too. Maybe even both at once!"
"Ooh, the watering hole? I've only been there once, mama took me. Wasn't much there, but," he brightened considerably, "Maybe there will be this time!" Syrius Lionwing "Yay!" The strangely marked femme did a little cockeyed dance on her front paws, smiling brightly. "I betthere will be lots of crocodiles and hippos an..uhm..scary things you can scare away." Doing a sort of wobbly hop skip she gave a little wiggle of her tail and looked at the older cub with bright, trusting eyes.
"Lead the way!" she peeped, her tail curling up over her backin a jaunty manner. Meepfur "Woohoo~!" he whooped, giving an excited hop of his own, brown eyes sparkling. "I'll scare 'em all away, and we can have the place all to ourselves! How's that sound, eh?"
"On we go!" he announced with a giggle, setting off at a decent clip, but careful not to make it too fast, especially with tree roots to be clambered over and a pool here and there to swim. Syrius Lionwing Kinamasi followed at the best pace she could. she was smaller than the male, and ehr fore leg was prooving to be a hinderance. She refused to give up though! She wanted so baddly to see thw whole wide swamp, the water hole would be a good start. Wriggling ehr tiny tail she hopped closer to Nyao flicking at his tail with her game leg, it was easier to lft this paw instead of leaning on it to bat with her right. "hehe you're big and stron nyao, I'm sure you'll frighten allthe mean things away" She grinned, she really beleived he would and could, why would she think other wise?
"Do you think we'll see a wilder beast, or an antilope or a warthog? Moma says they come to the watering hole all the time, I dunno what they are" she giggles, she was still purely fed on milk as her teeth hadn't quite developed for chewing meat yet, she was completely oblivious to what these creatures were. Meepfur "Hehe!" Nyoe giggled, swishing his tail as she swatted at it. He was being careful to go slow enough for her, though, he was really trying, but also trying not to make it obvious. "'Course I will! And someday, I'll be as big and strong as my da! Maybe even bigger!"
"I hope so," Nyoe said sincerely. "Mama said they weren't there when we went 'cause they smelled lion and ran off. But maybe if we're reeeal careful, they won't know we're coming! And then once we get a get a good look, whoosh! We can scare 'em all off and the waterhole'll be ours." Syrius Lionwing Kinamasi giggled "we better be really really quiet when we get close then. I wonder what they are? mama says they are big hairy beasts. she wasn't too specific." The little femme looked thoughtful, limoping on in a brave happy manner. Herleg was starting to hurt already but she wouldn't say anything. she wanted to be big and brave like Nyao "Yeah ibetcha you'll be bigger'n every one when you grows up. moma says you have to drink lotsa milk and you'll grow up big 'n' strong with big sharp teeths" her motehr was full of random knowlege that the little femme like to splurge out quite often, of course it stemmed from asking lots of questions to her sometimes despairing mother.
"Ibetcha we can make the waterin' hole ours for ever n ever an' no big hairy scary fings will come cause they'll know you're there" She beamed, Nyao's confidence was rubbing off on her, she was feeling very brave, like she could face a whole herd of elephants and come out on top. Meepfur "Tasty, that's what!" Nyoe put in. He'd only just started on having meat instead of his mother's milk. "They are awfully hairy, though, and hair doesn't taste very good." For emphasis, he gave Kina a great big lick, only to make a terrible face. He soon recovered, though, and bounded onward. "Oh yeah! I'll be the biggest one of all! I don't think Mng'll be harder to be big than, though. But I'll be bigger than Juu too, just you wait and see!"
The 'competition' was friendly, though - Nyoe was very fond of both of his brothers, and they were all good at different things. Still, he was SO gonna be the biggest! "Yeah, it'll totally be ours, always and always! And we can drink and swim in it whenever we want, and there won't be any crocodiles to worry about ever!" Syrius Lionwing "Eww" Kinamasi made a disgusted face at the thought of licking all that hair "it sounds yukky" she giggled bounding back after him as best she could. "are we nearlly there? I don't wanna scare the wildebeasts away" she grinned, she still couldn't imagine what a wilderbeast could possibly look like, let alone taste like. She knew she would have to eat meat one day but at the moment, as young cubs always were, she was staed with her mothers milk.
"what do you think a crocodile tastes like?" she mused, the question sort of given to the air just as much as to Nyao "I bet it's lots of fun to swim in a big water instead of a little stream. ohh I hope you scares all the crocodiles away, I wanna swim, it's so hot out here" she made an exasperatred silly face just to emphesise her point. Meepfur "It is yucky," Nyoe agreed, "Gets all stuck to your tongue all gross-like. But yeah, we're almost there. See? Not as much water around here, and not so many trees, either. Well, it's still wet, and squishy," he wiggled in place to get a good squidgy sound before continuing, "But it's not as many pools and stuff."
"I dunno," he mused thoughtfully, considering. "Maybe it tastes like a great big frog? One day when I'm bigger, I'll catch one and try it, and I'll save some for you, too!" Syrius Lionwing She was just about to ask what a frog tasted like when she realised they were getting close. She limped along catching up to him with a quiet little giggle "hehe I'd like to taste crocodile." She grins, Nyao would undoubtedly save her some crocodile one day. They had to get bigger first though. She supposed she had to eat meat too if she wanted to taste one.
The glimmer of water caught her ruby eyes gaze and she grinned widely, it looked so, well, shiney, compared to the normal water she was around, and big, really really big. She couldn't see any animals yet, but they had to be heer right? Her mother had said this was wheer they came. Meepfur "You and I both will, promise," he whispered, before finally falling quiet. His steps even got more careful, alothough there wasn't much need to crouch and stalk...they were both rather small already, after all.
Sharp eyes scanned the distance, as well as their destination as they crossed that distance, looking for any signs of life. There, was that..? It had to be! Some of those tall, thin anterlope-things. Stifling an excited squeal, he crept on, looking to make sure Kina was still with him. Syrius Lionwing Though obviously more clumbsy because of her lame foreleg she managed to pad along on the squishy ground rather quietly, her ruby orbs fixed on the long legged, seemingly gangly creatures at the pool "ohh..is that them?" she whispered, her voice brimming with excitement but managing to stay low and barely above a whisper.
Kinamasi pressed close to the larger cub, facinated, how could things be so very..tall, she felt daunted and tiny standing even at this didtance from the long legged beasts. She put on a brave smile though, sneaking on still, waiting to see what would happen, Nyao would scare them no doubt! He was big and brave and not scared of anything! Meepfur "Uh-huh," he whispered back furtively, his own excitement clear, "Aren't they cool? I'd love to have horns like that, wouldn't you?"
His tail batted against Kina's as they stood watching, and he waited until she'd had a chance to get a good look at him...then, then it would be time to scare them off! Syrius Lionwing "Hehe yeah you could head butt things, it would be so cool" she grinned her own stubby tail wriggling. She was facinated, but sitting still for too long, even observing soemthing new was boreing. "hehe ready to scare them off?" she grinned, that childish mischeviousness showing through in reams.
She stood, lifting her left paw, it was really starting to give ehr pain now, the mucle tight from all the walking but she surpressed a grimace.She didn't want to look like she was chickening out, she weanted to scare the gangly creatures too! Meepfur "So cool. You could run into trees and everything, and it prob'ly wouldn't hurt a bit!" Yep, he definitely wanted horns now, even if he couldn't have them. "Yeah, let's do it! One...two..."
"THREE!" Nyoe leapt forward as he cried the final number, running towards the tall creatures as fast his his young paws would carry him. He even gave his very best 'roar' as he charged, a raging ball of cubbish fury and fluff. Syrius Lionwing Kinamasi was as close behind the brown male as possibly, running and giving her best, most frightening mew rawar. She stumbled and fell furry tail over head, feeling a little daze she sat for a long minuite watching the scene and waitin for the beasts to flee. They would run away from Nyao she was pretty sure, he was really big and brave and had a big bad roar.
Moving her left leg in an uncomfortable manner she stumbled to her feet and continued ehr onward stumbling run, she didn't want to miss roaring at the creatures. Meepfur At first, the small group seemed pretty disinterested in the antics and ruckus of the cubs, although at first they had started some, shying a little. But as it turned out to be nothing but a pair of little lions, there seemed to be no immediate danger. Still, where there were little lions, there were bound to big ones, and maybe it would be safer head off. The antelope wavered indecisively, tails lashing and eyes darting this way and that.
Frustrated, annoyed that they hadn't run away yet, Nyoe let loose another of his cub-weak roars, trying to look and sound as fierce ands cary as he possibly could. He did pause when Kina stumble, though, hesitating in his run until he saw her get up and run on. Figuring she must be alright, he charged forward again, now getting very close indeed to their target.
"RaraarrrarRARR~" he yowled, making it as clear as he could that he was not to be messed with. When that failed, he settled for yelling at them instead, "Get outta here, you!! This is OUR watering hole!"
The herdbeasts hesitated again, eyeing the determined cubs with what could have been a mixture of suspicion and amusement. But finally, they did go...at a measured trot instead of a panicked run, but hey, at least they went. Syrius Lionwing Kinamasi soon caught up to Nyao she eyed the herd beasts waching them mill away quietly. "Yeah get lost" she called after them pulling a little pink tongue at their back sides.
As the last antilope went over the rise she turned to Nyao and did a little, excited jug though soon came to a stop and sat "hehe! You did great! You were like, rawar and they were like eek!" she grinned and sat looking at the older cub with wide admireing eyes. He was like, a hero in the ruby eyed femmes eyes, he'd scared off a whole herd of antilopes all on his own and they had gone too, and all from his mighty mighty roar. She could never do that. He was so brave.
Setting her left foot on the ground she lifted it quickly trying not to cringe. She wanted to play some more..but what if she couldn't make it back to the pride? Would her mother be mad for wandering so far? She hadn't been alone after all. Meepfur "Really, you think so?" Nyoe's small body puffed with pride at the praise, before he flopped to a sit next to Kina. "Haha, this place is so ours now! That was totally an awesome adventure, Kina. You have great ideas!"
His tail swished behind him as he panted out the last of his exertion. "You okay? We can stay here and rest awhile, if you want." Syrius Lionwing Kinamasi grinned broadly. "hehe, well you did all the scareing" she stated "this was a great adventure though." She smiled gently laying next to him , relaxing so ehr aching arm lay at a rather odd angle "My arms hurting a little but it will be okay if we rest a little" She hated to say it was sore. She felt weak for telling her older friend that it was hurting her. He was so strong, she just wanted to be as strong and brave as he was but her leg was making it a chore.
"I really enjoyed our adventure" she whispers resting her chin accross his shoulders "next time, we should go in to the boggy marsh, I hear it's really dangerous and you can sink in to no wheer" she giggles, the adventure sounded amazing the factthat it was dangerous didn't phase her though. Nyoe would be able to get them all the way through without any trouble. He was a great adventurer. Meepfur "That's okay, we'll stay here fore awhile. 'Sides, all that scaring really wore me out!" Okay, so he was exaggerating, but she didn't need to know that. To emphasize his point, he flopped right over, tongue lolling comically from his mouth.
"To nowhere?" he composed himself enough to ask, incredulous. "To nowhere, really? I wonder what nowhere's like...doesn't sound like somewhere you can come back from, though. I wouldn't like that, I'd want to come back home again." Syrius Lionwing Kinamasi nodded some Yeah i don't wanna vanish forever. I like t being in a some wheer" She giggled and licked his cheek "you did roar really really loud though." she smiledin a cheeky manner her tail swaying back and forthas she watched the swamp.
"One day i wanna see the whole wide swamp an maybe even whats out side of it. would you like that Nyoe?" she asked, tilting ehr head curiously her bright red eyes fixed on the resting young male. Meepfur "Hey, that tickles," he giggled as he was licked. "I guess so. Wasn't as loud as mama, though. But someday, mine'll be even louder!" Nyoe was full of somedays, and he fully expected every one of them to come his way. Someday.
"We've definitely gotta see more of the swamp, all of it! Maybe even a real cave. Not the tree caves, a real cave. Y'know, under the ground and all. D'you think there are any in the swamp? I hope so." His tail beat against the ground in his excitement. "I think I miiight like that. Only if I could come back, though. I don't ever wanna leave anywhere else, not ever. We belong here, don't we? We're swamp lions, after all. Spirit-talkers." He was very much proud of what he was, cherishing everything his mother taught him and holding it close, because it was his. It was theirs. Syrius Lionwing Kinamasi looked thoughtful "yeah, mama said she used to listen to the spirits until I was born, she said they had guided her as far as me and she could go the rest of the way with only an occasional whisper" She grins. "I love the swamp, it's purty..but I wanna see every where then come home to the swamp again. I think it would be great" She breathed happily, listening to the talk of caves. "I bet there are, ask your mama and I'll ask mine I betcha we could explore a really deep dark cave"
Her ruby eyes glimmered her smile never fading though she was looking very tired "Maybe we should get home now. mama will be wonderin' where i am. Plus, I'm kinda hungry" she grinned showing those white, milky baby teeth, she was ready for her meal and a nice long restful nap. Meepfur "They're soo great," he surmised, in the oversimplified way of cubs. Not that he'd ever actually talked to one, but he heard so much about them, and they did so many things. He was pretty sure he'd seen one once, a long time ago (in his memory, anyway), way back when he'd first heard mama roar. He wondered, for a moment, if he should tell Kiza, but the thought was banished as she spoke again.
"Alright, let's go then." Nyoe nodded and stood, stretching. "Whenever you're ready." Syrius Lionwing Kinamasi stood slowly, holding the weight off her left leg she nodded "I''m ready" she whispered her ears flickering a bit,s he gave a big wide yawn as she did so. She was ready for her mothers side and a nice long drink of milk before sleeping th rest of the day away.
"I hope I can talk to a spirit one day. Mama always says they help you when you're in really big need, but you have to beleive in them, or they will just ignore you." She grins. "I guess i can wait though, come on, my tummys rumblin'" she grins in a childish sleepy manner and padded off in the direction they had come from. There was so much onher mind, would she ever see a spirit? She hoped so. Meepfur "I'm sure you will, if you really want to." Then he giggled, poking at her shoulder teasingly. "I know it is, 'cause I can hear it."
"Right, let's go then," he set off beside her, feeling accomplished and quite pleased with himself. Now, it was time to go home. Syrius Lionwing The road back felt longer than the road going but the bridge soon rolled in to sight and Kinamasi doggedly ran accross to meet her somewhat worried looking mother.
Greeting kika she ran back quickly to speak to Nyoe "I'll see you tomorrow, we gotta find a cave" she whispers, grinning before she high tailed it back to her mother happily snuggling in to the worried looking lioness.
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Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 9:21 am
Maluuni'samio and Kizuka Kisoni
Even the water was hot. Kizuka sighed a little, dealing with it as she lapped up a little more from the drying river bed of Umande'mfuni. Dark, half damp soil left ghosts of pawprints as she moved further down the river bed afterward. Once more she searched for the pride that was supposed to be there, moving even further across the valley from where she'd left her little 'clan' that morning. Her fur was damp with sweat, but for once it was no relief as not a breath of wind stirred the valley that day. The browning foliage crunched underfoot as Kizuka finally returned to the shelter of the shade the trees offered. While it might have been easier to move by the river, it was a good deal hotter--too hot to deal with right now. If she could have gone at night, it would be easier.
As the thought struck her, Kizuka paused and turned once more to look out of the trees and check the position of the sun. It was still high above, and she ducked back into trees with a relieved sigh. Despite the ease in temperature the night brought, she wasn't the type to be away from her family for too long. While she trusted Triv'an to no end, she didn't want to leave either of the cubs out in the dark with only one male for protection. Who knew, this new Mistweaver's tribe was apparantly so secretive, they might not be welcoming either. Shaking the thoughts from her head, Kizuka continued on through the thick foliage the trees still offered. The brown on the leaves made her heart hurt and once more a silent prayer was issued to the Storm God. Why, WHY had he deserted them so? A lesser lion would have been angry or unfaithful after so long of a struggle against the would-be fate of her people.. the seeming fate of her people.
The lioness sighed to herself and stopped in her tracks, head hung low. What were all these depressing thoughts? Yes, her old home had never been far from her mind but she'd never obsessed over its fate until they'd started back home those moons ago. Now it ate at her, like a fire in her belly and there was no water to quench it as there was no water to properly feed the forest nad river. A small part of her wondered why she still bothered with this place. It was dying, and there were no Mistweavers.. not anymore.
Faces flashed upon her mind's eye as Kizuka found a moss covered rock to lay upon. Kimaji, Triv'an, Usu.. as much as the latter wouldn't admit it; all of these needed her, depended on her. Was she really so selfish as to stay here when the land around them died? It wasn't that bad yet, but... If no rains came soon, the herds were lost. Most had all ready moved on, in fact. Perhaps it was time for them to move on as well? "My lord, help us," Kizuka whispered softly. Her voice grew louder as she turned her attention skyward where a fallen tree had left a hole in the canopy above. "Please, send me a sign? I have spent my life doing what is your will, my lord.. but I am lost. I cannot figure out this riddle of yours. What did your Mistweavers do to dissapoint you? what must we do to appease you...?"
Only the shriek of distant birds answered her plea, however, and Kizuka's ears turned back. Maybe she was a fool to keep believing.Meepfur Hot. Everything was hot here. Even to a leopard who had been born and raised in the jungle, this heat was oppressive; in fact, he could hardly be bothered to stir himself enough from his drowse to go to what was left of the river. Perhaps he would lie in it awhile - just long enough for night to fall. Then he'd slip away from this accursed place, maybe even find his brother and see what Mkosaji was up to these days.
Maluuni'samio roused himself with a shake, pink tongue already lolling from his mouth in a pant. The pads of his paws were slick with sweat as his body released heat from the only places it could. The browning leaves that littered the ground stuck to his dampened paws as he made his way towards water, unable to decide what would be better: to get there quickly, or to go slowly. Ultimately, he settled on slow; he would rather spend more time walking in the heat than less time running in it.
Yes, he would leave these lands, and soon. They were dying, and he had no intention of dying with them, despite how fascinating it would be to watch. It was why he had stayed so long already, mesmerized by the drying waterbeds and the gasping fish left behind as the river shrank. As a matter of fact, just the other day he'd found a ripe carcass decaying in the heat, attended by flies and maggots.
He would have loved to stay, but he did not want to be the one burrowed through by worms. There were other places to watch such processes, without so much risk of becoming part of one.
To distract himself from the stifling temperature, he sang. His voice was surprisingly good, lending a bizarre melodious quality to the song.
"The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out,
The worms play 't huntin' in your snout.
They eat your eyes, they eat your nose,
They eat the jelly between your toes." Kisoni The obnoxious, vaguely disturbing music woke Kizuka though she hadn't quite realized she'd drifted off. It must have been the heat, she realized with a frown.. it wasn't good to let yourself get too lethargic, especially in this kind of weather. Kizuka rose to her paws again, shaking her fur out to displace some of the moss sticking to her damp fur, when the song came back to her again just in time to hear the end. What WAS that?
Her nose wrinkled a little as the lyrics truly hit home. It sounded like something Ushuafu would have sung when she'd first met him. Indeed, it sounded like a fairly good description of what he'd looked like. Shaking the webs from her mind, she perked her ears to listen for more clues as to what was making it.
Finally she got a good idea which direction it was coming from, and began to follow, slinking through the underbrush like her namesake. Perhaps this was the sign she was looking for, a part of her mind whispered, but was it a sign she wanted? Songs of death from unknown sources... generally, one wouldn't consider that a good sign.
Even so, Kizuka continued to follow the sound back towards the streambed. It wasn't until he'd stepped out of the brush and into the river that she saw him. A purple cheeta male, it seemed, looking a little off kilter if his song gave anything away. Perhaps it was due to the amount of sweat dripping from his fur, a form of dehydrated delirium... or perhaps he was simply mad, or as morbid as her dear friend.
Either way, Kizuka felt no fear of him as she padded back out into the sunlight towards him. "Ho, there," She greeted him in a low, heat muffled voice. Meepfur "The worms that crawl in are lean and thin,"
The leopard's song went on, distracting him from the heat - and from most everything else, as well. His pawsteps lifted a little higher as he concentrated on the music instead of where he was, lending him an almost jovial air that didn't fit the song very well at all.
"The worms that crawl out," The speaker's greeting broke through his words, a hiccup in his song as he whirled to face the painted lioness with orange eyes set in a face masked with purple.
"...are fat and stout," he finished with a flourish, ringed tail settling still and calm behind him. Kisoni Kizuka's eyebrows widened a little as the creature faced her yet continued to sing. Strange little thing, he was, a deep unnatural colour with even more unnatural eyes. That didn't bother her so much as the relish he sang his song did. Still, she wasn't one that was about to be intimidated by that and tilted her head. Her eyes went to the river for a moment, seeing as he was obviously headed there.. likely to lay in it, which wasn't too bad an idea right now, so long as there weren't any crocodiles still alive in its depths... not that she cared of his welfare, of course.
"Excuse the interruption," She continued when he seemed to have finished. "You wouldn't happen to know of a lion pride in this area, would you? I've been looking for those that call themselves Mistweavers or Umande'mfuni."
The thought that this could be a godsent guide was less now that she'd seen him. Then again, who said it couldn't be one more example of the bad sense of humor their God seemed to display more and more often lately. She wouldn't know until he spoke again. Meepfur Samio couldn't have left his song without its end just because someone else had showed up, oh no. How could anyone sing a song and not finish it? It made perfect sense to keep singing until you were done singing. But he was, so there was no unfinished song hanging over and ringing through his head.
"Lions?" he asked, that one word short and quick. With a tilt of his head, he considered the lioness' question with seeming gravity.
Several moments past a 'too long' pause, a brief chortle passed his lips, followed by his unhelpful answer, "I might. I suppose...it depends." Kisoni And so it was proven that this was not a sign; or if it was, Kizuka was far lacking in basic comprehension skills. She had waited patiently for him to answer, even stuck out in the oppressive heat as they were. A brow lifted right before he finally decided to answer, but when it came it wasn't helpful at all. Though she wasn't entirely certain that she wanted to know, the Lioness tentitavly asked, "What does it depend on, for curosity's sake?" Meepfur "I have your answer..." The leopard paced forward, sweat-damp paws landing firmly but softly, with a rustling of leaf litter. An untempered grin spread across his maw as he drew closer to the lioness, with no regard to personal space. "What do you have?" Kisoni So that was how this was going to go, hm? The lioness didn't flinch as he came closer, holding his eyes instead. Heat mingled with the stress of her situation and she had to fight herself to keep from becoming too snappish with him. It was a hard struggle, but in the end she won over the urge to attempt using force on him. Instead, she calmly nodded slightly and let her nose come within a mere hair's breath of his. "the locations of a few rotting corspes, and some fresher meat scraps you might be interested in." Meepfur Ooh, this was a good one! Almost worth putting up with this damned heat. He leaned forward that one extra touch, pressing his nose against hers before drawing back just a little, exhaling his answer in a drag of stinking breath, "I like fresh." Kisoni
"Then the fresh you'll get," Kizuka retored while a part of her wanted to retch. She somehow could drag around rotting corpses and deal with messy things that cubs got into, and yet the smell of his breath was almost too much for her. Funny how things sometimes worked, but Kizuka managed to control herself this time and met his eyes with her own, serious ones. "Tell me what you know, and I'll tell you where it lays."Meepfur "Now then, how do I know you'll hold up your end of the deal?" Samio queried, eyebrow quirking skeptically. "I might tell you, and then you could run off...or you could lie about where it is."
Those were the sort of tricks he would pull...and would quite willingly, if she would just cooperate and be less clever. Kisoni
"How do I know you will?" She countedered with a raised brow and smirk. The time she'd spent with the God of Deception was time well used, she decided, but kept that comment to herself. Instead, the lioness offered a treaty, "tell me your information, and then i will take you personally to where the meat is hidden."Meepfur The leopard considered this with gravity, mulling the possiblities in his head. Did he really know anything that might be useful to her? No. But that didn't mean he couldn't come up with something.
"Two weeks ago, I ran into a cub to the north and east of here, who mentioned family, sounded like a large one." Samio spoke frankly, ending in a shrug. "I didn't pay him more attention than I had to." Kisoni "North east?" She repeated to herself. It wasn't much information, and really not worth anything, but she had made a promise. Besides, the optimistic side of her decided, it was a lead. Kizuka nodded a little, "Alright then. A deal's a deal... any idea of what it looked like, though? Anything else you can remember at all?" As she spoke the liones turned to plow back through the water to the otherside of the river, leading him as she promised she would. The water, even hot, was a nice respite from the heat. Meepfur "What'd it look like?" The less details he was cornered into giving - making up, as it were - the better. But maybe, just maybe, he'd get lucky...and if he could string it out long enough without getting caught lying, Maluuni'samio just might have himself a decent meal; it would be nice not to have to travel on an empty stomach.
"It was a scrawny thing, not worth the effort of eating. Might not've bothered talking, otherwise." The leopard allowed himself a toothy grin as he followed after the lioness. "He was just kinda brown, nothing special."
Brown was a normal lion color after all, right? Even this one had brown patches. It was a marginally safe bet.
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Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:47 pm
Seitaru'kai and Dathcharu'kai Meepfur Seitaru'kai had hunkered herself down in the shallows of a waterhole, just enough of her underneath the water to keep a good bit cooler. Her dark, barred wings were spread to either side of her, mostly hidden under the pool's surface.
Her tail flickered in and out of the water, scattering ripples and droplets every which way. The goddess wasn't doing much of anything today, just a little thinking, mostly about her encounter with Loneliness.
It still bothered her. Safaia There was always rumored to be a tug between sibilings, twins at that. And when one was bothered, the other one would be. One felt pain, the other would. In the case of Dath though, this was hardly the truth. Except today.
The God of Chaos wandered towards where this tug was pulling him, assuming it was his sister. While he didn't hate his sister, they were opposites of sorts, and opposites don't make good company. But sometimes opposites attract and right now...damn it, he couldn't pull that invisible rope off of his heart.
Hearing the irritation of water, Dathcharu'kai assumed that he was at least close to his destination. If she wasn't here, then she'd be close. Meepfur Her twin wasn't who she was expecting to see today...it had been so very long since she'd seen him at all. But as he made his approach, she felt that tug too, forcing her to open her eyes and look.
Fundamentally opposed to what she was, Dath usually rubbed her the wrong way, and that was a sensation she preferred to avoid, siblings or not. Besides, it was easier to get along with someone you didn't see all the time.
Theoretically. Tempered by the memory of Griffith's words ringing through her mind, she lifted her head and focused her blindfolded gaze on Chaos. He hadn't had nearly so much mane the last time she'd seen him.
"Hello, brother." Safaia Indeed, Justice herself looked much more...mature since Dath had last laid eyes on her. Though she was residing in the shallow waters, he could see her lithe form, one of a definite grown female. They both had grown, though Dath still felt somewhat behind her in everything. Another irrtation that he disliked about her.
"Hello, dear sister." His voice had a slight acidic tone to it, that was more of an awkward feeling then one of resentment. Meepfur It was strange to see him so physically mature, when in many ways she had always considered him immature...almost a little brother instead of a twin, but there was really no escaping that they were a pair.
Sei rose smoothly up from the water in a cascade of shedding droplets and came to the shore. After a careful flick of her wings, she shook herself, seeing no need to look especially dignified before her brother...or to spare him a little shower.
"Long time no see," she returned carefully, expression hidden by the purple cloth across her face. Safaia Dath grumbled a bit as a light shower of water rained down on him. Though not enjoying what his sister did to him, he didn't motion about it agitating him, only the light growl escaping his throat. He drew his own black wings closer to his body, the water slipping off his raven-dark mane. THe sun would dry it up sometime, no point in worrying about it. He rested himself down in a sitting position, his black flame-licked legs firmly placed on the ground, as if he belonged where he was. The little tufts of grass that grew around the watering hole were just enough to tickle his paws if he kept himself at a light, ready-to-flee stature.
"A very long time. Seems you have grown into that mind of yours, beloved." He let out a lot purr, humored as to what he said to her. She indeed had grown into her big head, but that didn't mean that Dath would not poke fun at her, either. Meepfur Ignoring his grumbling, Sei settled herself on the warm ground, spreading her wings out so that they could dry better in the sun. It boded well for her brother, that maybe she was more inclined to relax than squabble...and lying down, she wasn't likely to take a swipe at his nose for some crack comment.
"And yours must be rattling around in that great big space," she retorted, even sticking out her tongue. "Bet it gets distracting." Safaia With seeing his sister stick her tongue out at him, Dath's metal age shrank a bit. Well, maybe more then that. His tail flicked behind him in annoyance, and he couldn't help but keep his mouth shut, even if it made him look like an idiot.
"Being your brother is distracting enough. Don't even know why I felt like looking for you in the first place." His tail swished on the ground now, fluffing up bits of dead grass and dirt, his posture that of one who was pouting about not getting what he wanted in life. Meepfur "Because you missed me?" she teased, tail flicking behind her and gathering bits of dirt with its damp black tuft. "Or maybe because you want something?"
"Although I can't imagine what you could want from me," Any more than I can imagine something I would actively want from you. "I'm sure there's company you find much more pleasant." Sei chuckled with acknowledgement. Safaia "Oh yes, I terribly miss my dear sister, whom has always treated me like the little one." He spoke just like a little brother, with a twinge of resentment against that. She always seemed to know just what to say, perfectly keeping in tune. As much as he could tell. Chaos was, well...chaos. He never quite new what he should do, or even how he was feeling.
"No, I just assumed that perhaps you had wanted to see me, beloved. The twinge that I felt told me that, at least." Chaos knew that he was more-or-less playing with her on that, as she most likely would never need him, unless she became so bored that she actually did want to see him.
"And the best sort of company is a meal, fresh for the taking." Dath gave of a small grin, hiding the fact that he did enjoy mortal company, but by spending too much time with them, he was picking up their emotions. Definately deadly for one that wanted to ruin the lives of said mortals. Meepfur "Well, you do act that way," she justified, "So how else do you expect me to act in return?" Sei yawned pointedly, as put-together as ever, always refusing to yield some things to her brother.
"Oh, did it? Fancy that," she said noncommitally. He could be fibbing, could be telling the truth, but either way, it was better to deflect somehow. Besides, she hadn't necessarily wanted to see him, she'd just been thinking about him lately. There was a difference...really.
"Not terribly responsive company." The goddess sniffed and wrinkled her nose, prodding, "Or maybe not so fresh, judging by your breath, my dear, fragrant brother." Safaia Frusterating. The one word that was perfect to describe how he felt when speaking with his sister. He never won.
Perhaps he had wanted to see his sister himself, but only when he was alone. There was always a piece of him that wanted to have someone to confide to, but once he was face to face with Justice, he realised he could never do that. Another aspect of being who he was that just wasn't something that he wanted.
"Oh? Well, I find the odor quite pleseant, my pure-hearted sister. And the flesh qas quite fresh once it was in my mouth, but perhaps I should wash myself before visiting you again." He gave her a little bow with his head, more mocking then anything. She was the white, and he was the black. And he lliked being a bit 'dirty'. Meepfur "Perhaps you should," she agreed, half-folding her dark wings and psuhing herself to her paws. The motion of standing, turning, and the brevity of her words might have made it seem as though she was taking her leave.
...but in actuality, she was only getting in position. Sei dipped one wing in the water and swept it up and forward, sending a splash her brother's way. Safaia
And obviously Dath was being taught that he should clean himself after every meal, regardless of how long ago he took the last bath.
Not quite drenched, but soaked in some parts, Dath gave off a light growl, none-too-please with what his sister had done to him. She must be enjoying this moment immensely.
"Obviously I should take that as a 'clean yourself right now' lesson, dear sister?" Chaos was playing up his anger more then it really was, just to see if she'd catch it or not. Though in every brawl that they had that he could remember, he lost, he was definately bigger then he used to be.Meepfur Flicking the last of the water from her wing, casting the droplets back into the pool, Sei gave a light laugh to see that thick mane dripping. Dath was terribly funny when he was grumpy...which seemed to be most of the time.
"I don't know, dear brother...I suppose that's up to you." Safaia And Sei was not far from the truth.
Dath grumbled at her laughter, and shook himself, none-too-gracefully, and got bits of the water off of him. Sadly, none seemed to quite reach his sister, now that she was a bit further off from him then before, but now he wasn't a dripping, soppy mess.
"Well, I'll count this as my bath for today, then." Fluffing out his feathers so they would dry a bit faster, he gave a glare over to his sister, wondering if he could get away with doing something to her. But instead, maybe some idle chit-chat. Women seemed to let things slip out if they talked enough.
"If I may so ask, what's on your mind, sister? You seemed quite deep in thought when I stumbled across you." Meepfur "I suppose it'll do for today," she conceded, seeming to consider another splash, but she simply settled back on her haunches, tail curling around herself.
"Just a couple of someones I met awhile ago." Sei's answer was a little vague, guarded. "Balance and Loneliness." Safaia Giving his mane another good shake, he gave her a swift reply to the mentioning of these two. "Ooh? I'm sure you presented yourself like a lady, as always." He wanted to press for more details, but maybe that would be too prying....or maybe not.
"Loneliness, though? I am suprised to hear of such a god. What are they like?" He swished his tail, clueless, but wanting to know more about this god. Always better to know more about others before they even knew you existed. Meepfur "Of course," she confirmed easily, tensing her forelegs in a bit of a stretch while she sat.
"Athrun is...odd. Maybe different would be the better word." Sei tipped her head, thinking. "He has strange marks on his body that somehow keep him from growing past his adolesence." Safaia "Athrun, mmn?" He took in her words carefully, especially as they both seemed to be ignoring their irritation towards one another. "So one that is stunted in growth. I would find that odd, but I guess if he would enjoy being smaller then most of his counterparts..."
Milling on his own words for a moment, he rose anougher question into the air. "Does his domain affect him in any certain way, that you know of?" Swishing his tail, thinking that his question was quite an innocent one.
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Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:30 am
Lemaa'sheshe and Kizamaji Meepfur Lemaa'sheshe had limped her way from the den into the heat of the day, walking herself through her thoughts. She'd finally stopped for a rest, though, curling up in a bit of shade with a sigh and a long look at her right leg.
The young lioness was alternately annoyed by and in acceptance of her lameness, but lately she annoyed more often than not. It wasn't the look of her game leg that bothered her, but rather how it limited her activity. She was growing into a lioness, and lionesses were supposed to hunt, weren't they? But Sheshe knew she'd never be able to.
She'd be dependent on other for the rest of her life, just as she had been so far. From what she could gather, being in the Pridelands with Mama Miamba and her family was the best place for someone like her, but she'd never met anyone outside of the family. As bright and cheerful as she was, she was also shy, with a tendency to be reclusive and remain in safety. [ ipod ] A blue hued male emerged from the den, as well, keeping an eye on his injured friend. Afraid that she might hurt herself, Kizamaji padded over swiftly and helped her to the shade. He smiled and then sat down beside Sheshe. "You alright?" He looked to the female happily, before looking back towards their home. "I'm sure i've asked that to you more than enough times, but you can never be careful." He grinned, and chuckled a bit.
Meepfur Trailed and then helped by her blue friend, Sheshe couldn't help but smile. Kiza was her first friend, her best friend, and at times another body to lean on.
"I'm just fine, promise," she assured him, reaching a paw up to tease the mane he was growing. "Thanks for asking, though." [ ipod ] Kizamaji just smiled more, as she teased him. "Alright, if you say so." He stuck his tounge out, and then stood back up.
"Are you hungry yet, Sheshe?" He looked over the horizon, spotting what looked like a small herd of antelope, or another creature. "Well, if you are, i'll go fetch us some breakfast." He grinned, and extended his claws, excitingly.
It was always fun to go hunt for him and his friend, since he usually had to do it often, everyday. This never troubled Kizamaji, though. He loved to help out a friend in need.
Meepfur Giggling, Sheshe made a paw-swipe at his tongue, but deliberately missed. Not that she would have hit it if she tried, since her aim wasn't all that great, but she hadn't wanted to really hit it in the first place. So, a deliberate miss...maybe.
As he stood and she raised her head, an almost startled look flashed through her eyes for a moment. That was exactly the thing she'd been thinking about. Hunting, dependence...very often dependence on Kiza. She didn't mind, but she did worry. Would he ever get tired of it? What if he did, what if he left?
The adolescent kept her thoughts to herself, however, and smiled. "Breakfast sounds good. Would you...mind if I came along? I won't get in the way, I promise. I just want to watch." [ ipod ] Kizamaji's eyes lit up, as he nodded. "Of course you can come along with me! Its always wonderful to have the company of a good friend around to hunt." The male padded slowly back over to Sheshe, and helped her a little bit to get up, than he walked alongside her.
"Don't worry, we can take our time walking there. I'm in no rush to eat, or even hunt yet." The male never seemed to stop smiling. It was like an infinate smile. He led her down the small dirt path, that led almost directly to their target.
Meepfur "Really? Great!" Sheshe's smile lit brightly up again, and she rose to her feet with her friend's help. As she limped beside and a little behind him, her tail lashed behind her in betrayal of her growing excitement. She was too slow and ungainly to ever be able to hunt, but she wanted to watch. She wanted to understand.
After a moment of thoughtful silence, she ventured to speak her mind, "You'll always be here, won't you Kiza? You won't leave me behind?" [ ipod ] Kizamaji watched her walk behind him slowly, and he really didn't mind at all. He wasn't a rushed lion. He paused as Sheshe asked a difficult question.
"Well, thats a tough one." He giggled a bit, and continued on. "Sheshe, your one of my only friends. Honestly, I would never leave you behind, even if I ever did leave the Pridelands for some reason. I'll always be here for you, to help you out. Its a lot more fun than sitting around and doing nothing all day." He grinned, and padded on farther. He looked back ahead as he spotted the herd of antelope eating their own breakfast. The male instantly licked his chops in hunger.
Meepfur "Good, I...I'm glad. I guess it was a silly question," she admitted, purple eyes flicking downward for a moment, "But I wanted to know. I wish I wasn't a burden, but I guess if you don't mind, it's alright."
The herd coming into view distracted her somewhat, drawing her eyes up and making her tail lash in a different way. Some instinct made her want to crouch down, creep closer, chase, but she couldn't give into it. She'd only spoil Kiza's hunt. Instead, she grinned. "Looks like breakfast."
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 7:56 pm
Lemaa'sheshe, Maistema, and Ahai Meepfur Lemaa'sheshe limped towards the waterhole at her own steady pace, one that had been hers for as long as she'd walked at all. Growing had changed it a little, made it into something just a little smoother than the bumbling of youthful steps, but it would always be stilted, always somehow wrong, just as she would always be small for whatever age she was.
The young lioness had long since accepted her deformity, but it didn't keep her from wishing she'd been born normal. Useful. It had been driving her to distraction lately, leaving her to pine for some sort of purpose, an existence beyond life as a burden. Bluefire Dragonz Matsai led the way to the watering hole, nose to the ground and golden-tufted tail trailing along behind. Mother and Father were back at the den with the other cubs, suposedly, but the twins had slunk off for a little alone time. Well... as alone as the two could get, since they were for the most part always in each other's company.
No emotion moved on Mastailema's face, nor flickered in his eyes. Many delicious smells teased at his sensitive nose, interesting movements in the grass around him caught his emerald green eyes, and his black ears tracked even the slightest noise around him, yet what he thought of this information from his senses... No one could tell, save maybe the nearly identical form somewhere nearby. Iris_virus -Ahai followed behind a few steps, and while Matsai's attention on the surroundings were all in the senses, his were more in the physical, young claws slashing through the grasses, pausing shortly to watch the small driplets of moisture seep from the wound of the grass. All of which simply brought a smirk to the white and blue maw, before he quickly picked up the pace to fall behind his brother.
Not long into this world and already it was apparent that the elder twin would grow to be something of a brute, young muscles already beginning to form hidden beneath the baby fat. But for now that was forgotten, the young cub taking his brother's side with a wide smirk. He didn't know where they were going, but he was bored anyway. And who knew what you could find when you slipped away from the den.- Meepfur Sheshe's way was slow-going, as it always was, by necessity, but it was the only pace she knew, so she didn't really know to be impatient with it; and Miamba's family had always been kind about not leaving her behind.
So, to see a blue pair of cubs making their way through the grass with more alacrity than she could manage was little humbling, not that the adolescent was lacking any in the humility department. Still, their color caught her eye; Kiza and his father were blue, and Maziwa was even a little blue, too. Who'd ever known there could be so much blue! And here she was just dull grays, nothing bright about her but her eyes.
"Hello there," she called to the pair in a voice still soft with a certain childishness.
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Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:48 am
Ataullah's Backstory
[For sakekeeping.] Ataullah hails from a desert far to the north, where the lions are broken up into nomadic and often warring tribes, who believe in a single god and keep slaves (though they're not treated so harshly as the Firekin treat their slaves). She's royalty, a princess and the first child of her father; her mother, first of his lionesses, was small and young for cubs, and died from blood loss shortly after giving birth. This made Ataullah her father's jewel, though he would have other children with others of his lionesses, several sons among them. She was indulged, and taught things not proper for a princess to do - hunting, even fighting. And as a princess, her body was left unmarked by the tattoos that other lionesses would bear. But as she grew, and grew into adolescence with her father refusing suitors, the princes - the heirs - began to distrust their father and her. They started to suspect the unthinkable, that he would allow a lioness to succeed him; or at the very least he sought a male who would take her and gain inheritance through her. Ataullah became dangerous to them, and so two of them plotted to kill her - sibling murder not an uncommon practice amongst the tribes with inheritances at stake. But she caught wind of the plot through a chain of slaves, and set out to do something about it... she would kill them before they got their chance. And this she did, but not without grave injury; the wound on her neck that is now a scar was very nearly the end of her. The murders, also, came at a steep price - caught and shamed, she should have been killed herself. Her father, however, couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, he allowed her to be treated and healed, and then exiled her, marking her as anathema to the desert tribes with the cross-shaped scar under her eye.
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Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:53 am
Attila's Backstory
[For safekeeping.] Attila was the firstborn of a litter of three, consisting of herself and two brothers. From birth, she was the larger than Almuradi and Atlasi, and this held true as the cubs grew. It was a sore point for the brothers, who didn't like having a sister who was bigger - and therefore stronger - than they were. The siblings never hated each other, however, they simply had a strong sibling rivalry that nonetheless never went very far. Until one day, when the juveniles played a game of truth or dare that quickly turned risky, and then dangerous. Dared by Atlasi to sneak close to the Firekin lands and bring back a particular flower than only grew at the desert's edge, Attila had no choice but to accept - to back out so far into the game would have lost her brothers' respect for her, and also her own for herself. She prided herself on her strength, her untested fearlessness, and so she went without even looking back. The foolhardy youth never returned, however; by a stroke of cruel luck, she was caught on the border, only pawsteps away from the necessary flower. A pair of mated Firekin hunters, Xamach and Fiametta, found her in a far-flung hunt. Faced with a hated Mistweaver, they attacked her with no mercy, mauling the lone juvenile who stood no chance in the face of their fury. When they were done with her, they dragged her to the southern border and disposed of her in the thorns, leaving her for dead. But Attila, largest and strongest child of Ramsa, did not die. She clung stubbornly to the life that was left in her, and she was soon found by a jackal who had recently lost her pups to a leopard. The kindly canine, having found someone in need of her, cleaned her wounds and fed her as best she could, nursing the pale lion back to health. When she had recovered, although the meager meals brought to her by her jackal-mother were never enough to keep her ribs from being prominent beneath her fur, Attila thanked the creature and took her leave with a fond farewell, intent on returning home. However, there was a small problem: she had absolutely no idea what direction home was in. Also, in her efforts to stay as far away from the Firekin territory as she possibly could, she strayed even farther from her goal. The other problem was her physical state; she'd been left blind in one eye. Eventually, she found herself north of Ela'wadiyi territory, where the exhausted, starving adolescent collapsed at the edge of a vast scrubland. Here, fortune again favored her, as though atoning for its past treatment of her, and she was found by a tribe of lions skirting the edges of their lands. The nomadic tribe was part of a greater whole, all of which wandered in cycles through a vast, shared territory, now and then meeting or convening for celebrations or matters of importance. These very bedouin-like lions, who tattooed their daughters and worshipped a single, all-powerful god, took in the scarred young lioness - as a slave. They did not keep their slaves as the Firekin do, however; they were well-treated, for all that they remained on the outskirts of life in the tribe, quiet and largely ignored unless they were required. There was a twist to these slaves, as well: almost all were taken as smallest children, who were brought up to know nothing other than their life in the tribes. They were taught the same religion, the same lore, the same respect for the tribes as a whole. On the outskirts or no, they were a genuine part of the tribe. Others, like Attila, were strangers who owed their life to the tribe, or to a member in particular. Strangers who remained loyal and willing out of gratitude or a debt of honor. In this way, the tribes ensured that there would be no uprisings, and next to no runaways. This also made it safe for some to be trained as warriors, who could even, through dedicated service, earn their freedom; interestingly, most who did chose to say with the tribe as a fully-functioning member. This was the life that Attila was taken into - the life of a slave-soldier, a Mamluk. Driven by her gratitude and personal honor, and though she longed for home, she served the tribe willingly and well. Fed and cared for in her service, she continued to grow, as large and strong as ever despite her scars. One day, the tribe was attacked by human hunters, intent on capturing what cubs they could. In the chaotic fight that ensued, Attila saved the tribe head's most precious jewel - his daughter. In so doing, she was rendered lame in one leg by a tamed leopard unleashed by the hunters. In return for her deed and sacrifice, Attila was given her freedom. Now, at last, she is slowly making her way home.
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Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:55 am
Azachamorel's Backstory
[For safekeeping.] Aza (hunter Xamach x huntress Fiametta) was born into the typical Firekin life, with the typical upbringing and mindset to go with it. She also, however, had a keen interest in the world around her, and was particularly fascinated by the movement of things, from the sun across the sky, to the play of heatwaves over the dunes, to the simple flicking of another's tail. Such things never failed to catch her notice, making the cub a fantastic observer who never forgot what she saw, right down to the details. It was this same trait that gave her great promise as a future huntress. The slightest abnormality in movement of a prey animal that might indicate injury or sickness would not escape her discerning eyes, nor would the ripple of muscle that betrayed the move a chased animal was about to make. But as fate would have it, her parents would never see their only child bring down more than a rabbit. Her mother died in a hunting accident, fatally kicked in the head; shortly thereafter, plague took her father, before striking Azach as well. Then a juvenile, she crawled away from the pride in delusional fits and starts, following hallucinations of her dead parents day after day until the sickness left her, weakened but alive. In such a state she wandered still longer, free of sickness but left reeling from it, surviving on mere stength of instinct until finally, little by little, she became truly aware again. But by then, she was far from home, with cool, foreign grasses beneath her paws, and the rushing waters of a river (the Amanzim'tsetse) behind her. Since then, the lost huntress has wandered, but with a purpose - to find the desert that was her cradle and home, and the lions with pelts as bright as a fire sweeping through the grasslands.
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