[Event] Introduction of the Heir

[Lithiasaur]

Rekhet and Jicho sat quietly, watching the event for a long moment before either decided to make a move forward. It was Rekhet that took the first step, and Jicho regarded him with a questioning expression before she moved to walk beside him. They had traveled this far together, after all, so she had no real reason to abandon him now.

She padded along slowly, though, and fell behind him a few paces. She was nervous, shy. She had grown up thinking she was some sort of a curse, driven out of her own home though she had never understood just what she'd done wrong.

Nothing, as it turned out, but that was fine.

He moved toward the crowd but remained at the edges, not a new member yet and not sure just how welcome they were in a place like this. He saw a lioness nearer to him that any of the larger groups, and he padded over to her to start a conversation. He kept his head down respectfully, while Jicho stood behind him at a short distance, looking timid and largely confused. She shuffled her paws as Rekhet spoke.

"Hello, miss," he said to Calypso, his voice low and quiet, nonthreatening. "We are new to this area... and now quiet sure what is going on... is it okay for us to be here?"

Painted Moose

 

[Lithiasaur]

Inuka and Potewa had not lost their enthusiasm. When they saw the couple they had been stalking for the last few days moving into the pride they took it as their cue to do the same. The others were immediately forgotten, unimportant now that there were such wondrous new things ahead of them now.

A new pride, a new goal! They had to get some status, and fast. Were there ranks here? Could they get themselves a slave, a servant of some kind? Could they be taken care of as they dreamed? It was all so exciting and new, and Inuka could only see success and their own brand of wealth ahead of them. The upper class, that was all they had ever wanted to be. Even in places where such a concept had no place.

They just needed to know they were better than other people: not the lowest rung. That was all they needed. They just needed it in excess.

Potewa padded his way proudly toward the larger groups, spotting two lions that seemed to be discussing something of some import, though he had no real way of knowing just what it was until he got close enough to eavesdrop on some of the other members of the pride. Something about a king?

Well, he would figure it out.

"Hello there!" Inuka said, surprising Potewa as she pranced by him, tail high, eyes bright. She approached Matumaini and Hviske, smiling at the male and mostly pretending the female wasn't there. Potewa took the opposite tactic. He smiled at Hviske and bowed his head gallantly in greeting.

Princess_Feylin

 

[Painted Moose]

"Hmm?" Calypso turned her attention to a pair of seemingly foreign lions with the same smile that she'd given to the Prince himself. The large lioness shifted her paws around so as to give them her full attention, as her training dictated. "Hello to you as well," The male's stance confused her, as she had never known others to bow to her, and the female had her pity. The poor girl looked lost in the tide. "As long as you are welcome within the pride, you are welcome here." She said softly. "This is the presentation of a long awaited heir; our own King's grandson, Prince Tau."

Calypso motioned her paw to the lighter juve who stood upon Pride Rock. "...I just hope they give him the chance he deserves." Which was something she was trying to do for the pair beside her. His words had her guard up, but it wouldn't be fit to judge him as a suspicious character when he had yet to do anything truly suspicious.

Lithia_Brandon

 

[Cajanic]

Shujaa smiled, speaking to Kiek and Gliri as her boys moved to talk to the others. "It's nice to meet you all," she said, nodding a polite hello. There had been a time where she probably wouldn't have told them her real name, for fear of her secret identity being revealed. But that was before she had grown up and had kids of her own. She didn't feel the need to be that into her hero role anymore, even if she did still like to help others when it was possible to do so. She was the type to completely tune out the world, of course.

She looked from Kiek to Gliri, smiling faintly. "Oh, well, I believe there were a couple litters before that got passed over or something like that? I'm afraid I'm not really up on all the information, unfortunately. For me, being a hybrid in the pride makes it difficult, sometimes, to gather all the information. But I know that this cub was not the first in line for the kingship, yet somehow he is now the one named as heir." She didn't mind- she liked him being there. She thought having someone different was a good step for the pride.

Hopefully he liked hybrids a little more than most of the pride liked hyenas, or she and her son would be in big trouble.

Ermey smiled at Maral, amused that he had been very quick to announce that he wasn't related to the rest of the pack of lions. Maybe he didn't even want to be there- he didn't look entirely thrilled.

"It's nice to meet you, Maral," he chuckled, "I guess I could probably say I'm not related to these two, but happily I am, even if I don't look like I am. Are you a friend, then?" he asked lightly, just wanting to have some simple conversation. Maybe he just needed some other company.

Fentara, meanwhile, was smiling at the cub, highly amused by her outburst of questions. "Oh?" he wiggled his tail around, turning in a circle as though he were trying to catch it. "Well, I guess it does look different, doesn't it? That's because I'm not fully a lion like you are. I have a little bit of leopard in me, too. That's because my mom is half leopard, half lion." He smiled sitting down in front of the cub.

"I like your tail a lot more than mind," he told her lightly, "that little fluff on the end of it must be very helpful in swatting bugs away!"

Princess_Feylin

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Lithia_Brandon

Talencia

Matumaini

"Yah!" Matu exclaimed as suddenly he was greeted by a pale purple and white lioness. He had been about to turn around and say something to Hviske in response to her remark about there being ears everywhere and the widespread nature of the royal line, but all thoughts of that left his head at once. Instead he sort of stumbled backwards, bumping into someone behind him. Oops.

"Hello there," he echoed faintly when he regained control of his speech faculties

He glanced warily at the lion that followed the lioness and was making a gallant bow to Hviske. Were these some of the ears his younger friend had been referring to, or were they simply friendly strangers? The lioness, at least, looked much too pleasant to be any sort of a spy, but what did he know about that sort of thing.

Hviske

Hviske, somewhat more aware of her surroundings than Matu, was not quite so startled. She was, however, amused by Matu's reaction, and it showed in her smirk and the sidelong glance she flashed toward him. Really, Matu?

"So what do you think of all this?" she asked the strangers. The regal-looking lion was sort of intriguing. She'd never had anyone bow to her, even just his head. After all, she wasn't really important in the grand scheme of things. Just a huntress, like about a million other lionesses in the pride.

"I've never heard much about the heir one way or another, so it's interesting that they brought in someone from another pride to lead next." She had no idea she was talking to a pair of lions who were brand new to the pride. It happened, living in a pride as large as this one.

 

[Talencia]

It was rather unnerving, watching how the rest of the growing crowd was reacting to the announcement. Some dissent was expected, of course, but the muttering, growling, and thinly veiled hostility was startling to the adolescent. He looked around himself a little uneasily. Being as young as he was, he wondered if it had been very wise to speak out in support of the new prince. Not that he'd change his mind, but in this large a crowd, tempers could get hot and spread quickly.

Even so, he wasn't about to leave. This was too important an occasion, and might not ever happen again in his lifetime, if things went smoothly for the future king. Still, the turmoil of voices around him, disagreements, discussions, and denouncements, left him feeling vaguely vulnerable. It wasn't a sensation he savored, preferring to feel himself nigh on immortal, in the way of all young males. So with fleeing an unacceptable option, but not wishing to make a target of himself either, he simply continued to sit quietly, watching the crowd and casting glances up at the King and Prince, high above them all.

In this delicate balance of courage and vulnerability, Samiel had to swallow a startled squeak when someone bumped into him unexpectedly. He spun around, eyes wide, only to discover it was another male, an adult who seemed to almost completely ignore his misstep, his attention on a lioness. A dark lioness who also seemed part of the group was inquiring of another male about the heir. Feeling like an sneak, he tucked his tail closer, to prevent any further accidents hopefully, and leaned closer to hear what the adults were going to say.

Lithia_Brandon

Princess_Feylin

 

[Lithiasaur]

Inuka watched the white lion with a keen eye, smiling pleasantly. It was a full and eager expression, and she was certainly not shy or lacking any confidence. She smiled and chuckled at his awkward reaction to her.

"I am sorry if I surprised you! I was just so excited to meet someone from this pride, and you looked like a very nice lion to start with. Hopefully you didn't hurt yourself. Or you, over there."

She glanced behind him to see who he had bumped into, but she returned her attention back to him almost immediately. She swished her tail behind her in excitement.

"We are new to this pride, if that was not readily apparent." She glanced at Potewa, who nodded his head. He was not paying much attention to her conversation, though.

"This new heir hopefully won't shake things up too much," he said to Hviske, thoughtfully, trying to gauge her feelings on it so he could echo them. "We are still too new to know what it could mean, but I hope we're not coming in at an inopportune time. This place looked so nice..." he tilted his head to the side, watching the dark lioness mournfully, and it seemed he wasn't talking about the pridelands when he said things looked nice.

He did notice the other male, but for now couldn't think of how to use him for anything beneficial. He looked shy and awkward, and that was not what Potewa needed. At least, not at the moment. There was always a plan with these two, and they rarely needed to speak to each other to form it.

Princess_Feylin

Rekhet glanced toward the direction everyone else seemed to be focusing their attention. The King's grandson, was it? In his mind, that seemed reasonable enough, as family lines were often those entitled to the throne. He did not quite understand why there seemed to be a lot of tension in the air. Was this young cub not that much well liked?

Or perhaps he came from an unsavory family, on his mother's side.

Jicho stood beside Rekhet, thinking he was being a bit too tense and awkward for the situation at hand. They were supposed to just be meeting others, and talking to them, and seeing if they could live there happily. Or if they were even welcome. She could not blame the poor lion, though. He was quiet and raised to be respectful of others. To a degree that stretched a bit too far.

Jicho, a very small lioness, smiled feebly at Calypso.

"My name is Jicho, and this is Rekhet. We have both... lost our homes, and thought we might... come looking for a new one, if that doesn't sound too weird. I mean... we..." the confidence she had mustered to speak had faded rather quickly and she watched the stranger quietly for a moment. Rekhet looked at her and blinked.

Was she going to finish her sentence?

Painted Moose

 

[Andranis]

The male let out a surprised sound, looking between multiple lions. Half-siblings! His face lit up before he turned to Hadaya. "Dad, hearing about you being a fail-face.. You succeeded in one thing, and that's siring children!" And all very happy children, to boot! Well, mostly happy. As he turned back to his brother and new-found half-siblings, Kushindwa ended up turning a little TOO fast and fell over. He blinked on the ground, one paw up in the air. "I turned too fast again, Madaha..." He could just HEAR her paw hitting her face. He waved his paw. "I got this, I got this!" As he tried to push himself up, he showed off how much of a spectacular failure he could be and fell the other way instead.

Madaha could only cover her face with both her paws. "Oh, Kushindwa..." She reached over, helping him back up to a sitting position. "I'd tie rocks to your paws so you won't fall over, but you might still do that..." She then looked to his family, taking it all in. "Okay, yeah... He's right..." She looked over to Hadaya. "You are REALLY good at siring kids!" And to boot, she didn't see a single one that was hard on the eyes. "You should talk to my dad, he's apparently good at that, too..." She hadn't missed out on being told about her half-siblings. There were... A lot... Quite a lot... Her mother tended to remain curiously silent on the matter of children, preferring to not talk about her own past. Madaha may well never know how many half-siblings she had on her mother's side.

Lithia_Brandon

Cajanic

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Lithia_Brandon

Talencia

Matumaini

Only belatedly did Matu realize that the lion he had bumped into was still hovering around them. He hadn't demanded an apology or anything like that, but Matu was willing to offer one.

"Excuse me," he murmured, turning briefly away from the lioness and addressing himself to the grey-furred youth. "My apologies are you all right?" He wasn't quite asking him to join in the conversation, but he shifted so that there would be room to include him if he felt like joining in. Matu was not so old that he did not remember being young. In fact, he was barely into adulthood.

"I hadn't noticed, actually. You fit in quite nicely," he replied, not really sure how else to answer Inuka. It was a little bit awkward to have been told that he looked like a nice lion to start meeting people with. There were always unfamiliar faces in this pride. The young lion he'd bumped into wasn't familiar to him. Neither were most of the lions around him. It didn't really bother him all that much.

"Do you plan to make your home here?" he asked her.

Hviske

Hviske was dividing her attention between the pleasant purple lion and his companion, who was being a little more complimentary of Matu than Hviske was really comfortable with. Not that she and Matu were together or anything, but she had plans dammit!

"It is nice," she replied, utterly oblivious to any secondary meaning Potewa might have intended to include in his remark. "Lots of nice people here. The two of you could do a lot worse than to settle down and have cubs here."

It wasn't accidentally that she implied Potewa and Inuka were together. She was sort of working on the hope that if she treated them as if they were, the world would conform to suit her. It sometimes worked.

 

[Annchen]

"They're good," she said, "As far as I know at least... I have more contact with my siblings my age than with our older siblings."

Dayo looked around, she was sure her family must be around. They wouldn't miss this, but she couldn't see if any of the traditionally coloured lions in the crowd were family. Perhaps she'd run into some of her siblings, or her parents, later. She was sure they'd talk about this later in any case. A new heir... That didn't happen every day!

She beamed back at Hadaya, and then watched the rest of the interaction with ears curiously tilted forward. Were all these lions his kin? His kids even? Her parents had two rather large litters, but Hadaya seemed to have had his children with different lionesses. And even more were coming... Dayo wasn't aware of the trail of cubs her father had left in his wake before he settled down in the Pridelands, but she was raised to have an open mind. This family union amused her. Some of the lions seemed alarmingly clumsy but they were all happy and nice.

"I don't think it's supposed to be an easy job," she mused when Hadaya offered his opinion about the new prince.

She snorted as Janga suggested their family should be in charge on acount of their numbers.

"I didn't know you had this many siblings, Janga," she said, amused. "Hello Kushindwa! I know you at least..."

Cajanic

Lithia_Brandon

Andranis

 

[Talencia]

Samiel momentarily pricked his ears with interest as the pretty female addressed him, then angled them backwards as she dismissed him in favor of the red-speckled male. He began to bristle with indignation, but before he could think of anything to say, the male himself turned and apologized. Surprised, his body language smoothed out into the manners he'd been taught. "I'm fine, it's alright. No harm done," he replied politely, sitting up straighter. The purpley female might not count him worthy of notice, but at least this was someone who didn't mind including him!

Feeling more grown up due to the male's courtesy, Samiel straightened himself up and moved closer by a step or two. His ears swiveled attentively, feeling vaguely vindicated when he learned the dismissive female wasn't even from the pride at all. Strangers could be that way, he guessed silently. However, most of the subtle sub-context of the adult conversation was lost on him. He glanced frome one to another, noticing nuances he didn't understand.

Princess_Feylin

Lithia_Brandon

 

[Tara de Draiocht]

Guarin peeked around curiously and in wonder. There were so many lions around and look! Some of his friends were here too! Guar had gotten separated from his family in the beginning but he was fine with that. Pride interactions were fun and there wasn't really much to fear as everyone pretty much looked out for each other. This was exciting apparently a new king was coming to the Pridelands!! "I wonder if I'll ever get to meet him." He thought out loud to no one in particular.



Guaire looked around cautiously and shyly from his moms legs. There were so...many around and this was the first big event he had happened to come across in his short little life. Gathering courage he wandered out from his mothers legs and took in those in front, behind, and next to him.


Pandra came out of her current home and gathered her little ones close to her in order to keep them from running around. It was almost time. Soon they would get to meet the new ruler of the Pridelands. She had heard of his young age, it truly be a large responsibility for someone his age. Peering around she hoped to run into another she knew, it would be boring if there was no one to chat with while waiting for the moment to come.  

[Hopefolly]

NovaCracker

Andranis

Hari had one oblivious sister, that was for certain. She'd tackled him in the midst of his heckling and asked if their new prince was exciting? Psh! It was answer enough to give her a harmless, meaningful shove away from him, yet Hari grumbled a response just the same.

"He doesn't look all that exciting to me."

Kopano was grateful for the distraction, both from the adults and the young female he knew to be one of Hari's sisters. He shuffled closer to Alake, who by then was finding her tolerance for the mouthy Eris hitting rock bottom.

"Come here, cubs," Alake beckoned sternly.

"Where are your parents?" Amira wondered. They looked nothing like the adolescent instigator, but more importantly, Eris didn't seem to know them. There was no chance she was their mother.

"Their mom is back there." Kopano nodded in the indicated direction, back toward the middle of the crowd.

Amira turned to Konja, the massive lion standing at her side. "Can you take them back to her?"

Judging by the anxious nod, Konja was more than happy to oblige, should the group of juveniles gather as instructed.

In the mean time, Alake shook her head at Eris. "Don't drag the cubs into this," she hissed. "You'll get them in trouble."


As Kopano had said, Chyou was near the middle of the gathering, trying to find some sort of break in the crowd to get her wits about her and proceed from there.
 

[Cajanic]

Rasha noticed the female and her son not too far from him, and had to storm over. Since they were the closest ones, he imagined they were the best bet to let out some steam on. After all, they had to have been as outraged about the whole thing as he was, right? Of course! Everyone would have been annoyed by some random cub coming in and getting named heir when he hadn't even been raised in the pride up until that point.

"Can you believe it?" he huffed, looking directly at Yakujo, "an heir from somewhere else! Of all the nerve. I bet this is all part of some take over and we're all going to end up slaves!" He knew such a thing wasn't possible, but he was intentionally being dramatic to make his point more... punchy.

He was angry! He didn't know why, really, but he was!

"Oh, uh, my name's Rasha."

Alpaca Chobi

Rai spotted a lion lounging on a rock not too far from him. Boy, he looked comfortable. A good place to relax and stretch out was just what she needed. And because she cared nothing about personal space or whether or not she was bothering someone, she imagined he wouldn't mind if she shared the spot with him. So she leaped up onto the rock without a word, lying down beside him on what little remained of the stone.

"seems like there's a lot of fuss going on over this," Rai commented once she was comfortable, apparently still immune to the whole concept of making someone else uneasy, "if you ask me, they're getting up in arms about something that doesn't even matter that much- who cares who the heir is and where he came from? As long as we have someone who'll be there to take the throne, I don't see the big deal."

She sighed and rested her head on her paws, just lying beside the stranger male.

ChaosTheories