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 Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 8:58 pm
Habu laughed at her reaction to the number he threw out there, he was sure it had to be true- there were just so many lions around, and then a lot of them had cubs. His grandmother just had five, even. That brought just his family in the area up to 8, and there were a lot of families and a lot of royalty.
"That's how I know I've probably been spotted around, even if I've not met everyone," he replied brightly, not even realizing how the news might effect her plans. He was used to it, and he'd not been far for too long- being more secluded than he was already had just never been imagined.
"You'd think so," he agreed with her when she suggested others must be around, "I bet they come around, even if they aren't in the Pride itself. I don't know what would happen if a leopard tried to join, I don't think it would matter much.."
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Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 2:51 pm
She giggled a little when he laughed, even though she was a little confused. Perhaps that many lions in one area was normal? Maybe the life Intombi had been leading was out of the norm? She didn't know what the other prides were like. Only her little section of the rogue lands and a bit about the Pridelands. Just enough that she was happy; she didn't need to know about the whole savannah. There was so much out there, it seemed impossible to know. Ignorance, as they say, is sweet bliss.
letting her head plop comfortabley back on the ground, she decided to not worry about joining for a while. The topic was looming on her future, sure, but today she didn't need to think about it. When the time came, she'd hunt down the queen and ask for permission to join. Until then, she was fine with waiting in limbo of sorts. "Y'know, it's really nice here. But what's all this talk about the Queen? I've heard she had quite the large litter." Intombi didn't understand this loyalty all the lions in the Pridelands had to the royalty. It would come with time, though. She didn't even know she had already met two members of the royalty in the form of Kamilika's latest litter. The eldest, and jilted heiress, of the bunch and one of the other princesses. Without understanding the basics of royalty, however, she wouldn't have even understood the signifigance if she had known. "What's the whole deal with royalty, anyway?" Habu would know, she assumed. He was raised here, after all.
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Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 7:06 pm
Wahabu wasn't sure how things were outside of the Pridelands, and he was quite comfortable here. There was no reason for him to feel unsafe, really, unless he got too far from the central lands. The late king had been murdered by a passing rogue, but... he prefered to not think about that. He wasn't very surprised when Intombi asked about the royalty.
"I guess so, I heard like eight or nine?" he muttered thoughtfully, "Not usual size for a litter, but I guess when you have the ressources available it becomes safer and more possible. What do you mean 'the deal' with royalty?"
Would he have to explain why they were there? Did he even know that answer?
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 3:40 pm
Intombi still had trouble swallowing that number. Eight or nine cubs was a huge deal for anyone, most especially those who were used to small families. Intombi, her brother and her mother were all the members of her family. It must be nice to have that many siblings to romp around with ... Hey wait a minute! The connection finally flared for the juve. Those two cubs she had met days ago, they were royals. The pair of sisters hadn't mentioned the fact, and probablly for good reasons. Intombi would've surely asked a million questions about the basics of royalty. But they had seemed like regular little Pridelanders! Well, with the exception of that incredibley large amount of littermates, of course.
"Well... What do they do? I mean, they're just lions." In the rogue's eyes, the royalty held no special power. She hadn't a clue why the entire pride, some one hunder lions according to Habu, would follow just that single leader. Were they afraid of the Queen for some reason? Was that how it worked? Suposedly, she wasn't an awfully strict creature. From what Inombi had heard, she was actually quite nice.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 10:17 pm
Habu himself was part of a small litter, and his family was fairly small until his grandmother had a litter of five cubs and the cubs' father stuck around. He was mostly used to the numbers because of the pride and not his own family. He listened carefully to her explain her questions about royalty, wondering himself why he'd never really asked such detailed question. Mostly, he'd just accepted the royals as fact.
"I guess the family would have had something to do with forming the pride," he guessed, shrugging. He sounded more certain when he continued with facts he was sure of, "The King and Queen are in charge, they're who you talk to about joining, assign and keep track of jobs you can do to help out.. um.. mediate in disputes.."
He trailed off as he became less sure. It was hard to explain how he saw it, but they were just a family who kept the peace in one way or another.
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Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 3:25 pm
"So are they like... really smart, or something?" Intombi was trying to get a mental image of royalty. Maybe they ruled with kindness? Either way, this whole idea of following one family was foriegn to her. She could show enough respect to ask the queen for entry some day, of course, but she wasn't sure how long it would take her to get used to the idea of being lead by royals. Maybe it was a better way to go about things? Maybe there was more protection with a family leading such a large group of lions? Intombi certainly didn't know, and was positive she'd never know. She was okay with it, however. As long as there were lions like Habu in the pride, kind and all that stuff, she was fine with it. "Ah, whatever. You don't have to explain it if you don't want to. I'll get it some day, I guess. I just need to remember to hunt down the Queen some day soon and ask to join. Am I supposed to go to that rock over there or something?" She tilted her nose up to point behind Habu's shoulder towards Pride Rock.
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Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 3:55 pm
"I wouldn't say they're stupid, but I don't think they're extra intelligent or anything," he answered, shrugging a bit, "I've never really thought about some of these things. It just seems natural to me, having been here so long. They don't really boss us around, it's more like... parents, kind of."
Ok, might be a bad comparison when she wasn't so close to her family.
"Well, it's not easy to explain," he said finally, sighing, "The Queen usually is up at Pride Rock, and if you wait there you should be able to find her even if she isn't around right at the moment you arrive."
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Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 11:58 am
Intombi packed the little piece of information away in her mind for later use. When she did finally do the whole joining formally thing, that's where she had to go. It was a little bit frightening, but at the same time exciting. Habu had made it clear that most lions were accepted, so she didn't have much to worry about. Talking to this Queen figure, though... That seemed a bit on the nerve racking side. Sure, she was just an ordinary lion, but a lion with respect. That said at least something for royalty.
Letting her head flop back on the cool dirt, the young lioness sighed contently. "You must've had lots of cubs to play with as a little tike, Habu." She closed her eyes and imagined it. Thre were so many here, it had to have been a blast. She didn't regret having lived in the roguelands all this time or anything like that, but she wouldn't have minded growing up within the pride. It sounded like a lot of fun. If she hadher own cubs, this is where she'd raise them.
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 11:36 am
Habu got to his feet, stretched out a bit and then settled into a laying position on the grass comfortably. There was no point keeping up formality, for he was quite sure he'd made a new friend. He couldn't help but snort when she mentioned how he must have had a lot of cubs to play with when he was little himself, shaking his head.
"Not really, I only had one friend my age. My sister was rather.. mean, so I had a hard time playing with cubs, especially girls," he answered, lifting and turning his head to show off the scars on his neck, "Only one of my friends even lived around here. But now I've made more friends just recently than I ever had when I was little, like you for example."
Habu beamed at Intombi.
"You must meet a lot of interesting characters being a rogue," he offered curiously, meaning it to be a return of the question, really.
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 4:40 pm
The juve was more than happy to see him relax. Formalities were completely unnecessary in her mind. That was why she had yet to lift herself from her very comfortable position in the cool dirt. Now that Habu was in a similar casual position, however, she felt a bit less odd about it. She listened intently, up until the showing of scars. At that, her face grew sad. Who would be so cruel as to do that to such a nice male? And when he was younger? It disgusted her. This 'sister' was not one she wanted to meet anytime soon, and if she ever did, it wouldn't be a very kindly event. "That's awful, Habu. I'm sorry you had to go through that." She moved one of her front paws out to tap his own in a comforting gesture.
She chuckled a little at his mention of meeting interesting characters. It was true enough. The leopardess and the wild dog topped the list of most interesting, though. All of the lions she had met in her life were, for the most part, just like any other lion in some shape or form. "Well... there was that leopardess I told you about. She pulled an entire zebra up a tree. It was incredible." There was still a touch of awe in the young lioness's voice when she spoke of that dark brown leopard. It had been an... educational visit, as well. It was then she had learned the darker side of lions, and that some go as far to steal a hunt from leopards and cheetahs purely because they are stronger. "Then there was the wild dog. Funniest looking thing you'll ever see. She was a sweet one, though. Real nice, and had wanted to meet a lion real bad before returning to her pack. That's what dogs live in. Not prides, but 'packs'."
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 6:16 pm
Habu smiled at Intombi but shook his head when she apologized for what had happened. He could have been more defensive but he'd not really thought there was need to protect himself until after the fact. His parents had done their best, he'd seen the way his mother reacted to it. None of that mattered now, Kilango was gone away- and Habu was still ignorant to the visit she'd made when she discovered their mother's true nature.
"It's alright, she ran away after she did it and hasn't come back since," he answered, then grinned a bit, "Looks like neither of us had much luck with siblings." Of course, not talking much to your brother was a lot different than having your sister try to kill you. Still, he knew Kubwa had a good brother, and his uncles and aunt had each other.
As Intombi explained her meetings with a leopardess and a wild dog, Habu listened with great interest. He knew there were other creatures out there, but he didn't know much about them- though he knew his fair share about gods. It came from having a best friend and mother who were gods, though. "Wow, why would she want a whole zebra up in a tree?" he asked curiously, tilting his head. When she mentioned that wild dogs were funny looking, he did his best to imagine it but didn't come up with anything reasonable. Something of a deformed looking hyena, maybe..
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 7:26 pm
Intombi gave a sort of sad smile and dropped the topic of scars. It was apparently something Habu had gotten over in his life, and she didn't want to trudge up topics that were put behind someone. She wasn't exactly a true follower of the Hakuna Matata movement, but she did believe that if a lion was strong enough to put something so vicious behind them, they didn't need to be bothered about it. She pulled her paw back a little and tried to brighten up her smile for Habu, moving her gaze away from his neck.
If Intombi had ever met a hyena, she would've used one to explain the looks of a wild dog. Unfortunatley, she had yet to be so lucky, so all she could do was say that they 'looked weird'. "Uhh... I'm not really sure why she wants to eat in a tree. She said something about hiding her food from my ma, though. Some lions steal food from leopards and cheetahs. She said rogues do it a lot more, and if I was around, Ma was probablly near by." Really, the logic didn't click with the juve. Though she had been a young cub at the time of meeting the leopardess, her mom was rarely near by.
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 7:34 pm
Habu tilted his head at her explanation of why the leopardess had taken the food into the tree, and hiding it sounded somewhat logical. "I'd never steal food from someone else unless I really needed it," he said, not liking that anyone really would, "Of course, I don't think I'd have to worry too much since there's the whole pride.."
Again, his ignorance to rogue life played a part in the reaction. It made sense that it'd be harder to hunt when you were a rogue, without a big group of hunters to help out.
Maybe it wasn't so surprising.
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 7:40 pm
Even though she herself was a rogue, Intombi wouldn't have blaimed the male for being a bit shocked. When she had learned this fact, she herself was disgusted. It had yet to register that it was just the way things worked out sometimes, and that the need to live often outways curtousy. Her own hunger had never been painful enough to drive her to something like that, so she was really quite naive on the matter. She didn't know that, however, and so she had already formed a rather strong opinion, as she always did. Stealing was wrong, and there was no circumstance in which it was right. At least, that was the way she saw it.
"I'd never do it, either. The leopardess was so annoyed with me, too. She doesn't like lions. Said most leopards don't like us, 'cause we're stronger or something silly like that." She sighed heavily. "I'm not really all that strong. You look like you are, though." She smiled a little. "I bet you could give other guys your age a run for their hunt if you needed to."
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 7:52 pm
"That seems kind of ridiculous to hate a whole species because of some trait they might bear," he answered, considering the idea when she admitted to not being very strong and said he looked it.
"Pfft, I'm sure you're stronger than you give yourself credit for," he answered shaking his head, "And I don't like fighting, not outside of play anyway. I've never liked it, but I know better than to not defend myself." If nothing else, he'd at least discovered that much from the episode with his sister.
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