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 Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:28 pm
She only half listened to the conversation that now went on around her. Her icy eyes were settled on the distant horizon she knew to conceal pride rock and the lands it towered over. She imagined her son waiting there, in her mind still the small cub she had always looked out for, hoping that his parents would come to bring him back home. She would not, and could not, think anything else - she could not believe that he wasn't there, or that fate had turned worse for him and that he was, in all actuality, no where at all.
It was with her half hearing that she took in Kiuma's words. Cubs? She smiled in her mind, though outwardly there was not even the smallest glimmer for such, and with such a smile hidden - so were the words. Congradulations, Kiuma, both of you, I bet they'll be beautiful. Not only was that not like Syeira to say in the slightest, but right now she couldn't even begin to find her voice, not even the cold, apathetic tone that never seemed to fail her. She could only find silence. A mother whose cub was lost was not even a mother at all. She was nothing.
That's when it hit Syeira, her eyes shining bright as they flickered back towards Kiuma - a mother to be, and though she was not one yet, perhaps in her heart she would find at least the realization of what it would be like to lose your cub. Her tail flickered, watching the great red lioness for a moment, considering and weighing the possibilities of what she could say. After all, if Kiuma had been travelling, then there was a good chance that she could have come across the little Kusini noble, right?
"Kiuma?" came the rather sudden voice, Syeira having not even the slightest regard for what conversation their had been before she spoke - considering the fact that she could feel Uumi's uneasiness with it anyway, "have you seen Taabu?" It wasn't unkind, or hopeful, just a question - but her eyes, those beautiful eyes, they gave it all away.
The longer she went without knowing he was safe, the more it tore her apart. Even Syeira could not disregard the fact that her child was the world to her.
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 10:49 am
Uumi's eyes flicked over Kiuma, slowly moving to Tanaka. If anything traveling had dumped a heap more of confidence and strength on his twin sister. "I.." He trailed off as suddenly Syeira's voice was heard from his side, and his head jerked toward her, gaze taking her in.
He fell silent, he wasn't going to give Kiuma a chance to ignore his mate this time. His mouth shut and he didn't say anything, those were the only words Kiuma could respond to. His stare went back to Kiuma, fixed pointedly on her with one eyebrow arched. Well? He too wanted to know if Taabu had been seen.
No doubt Kiuma would come to the conclusion just from Sye's facial look, and probably critisize her for 'losing' their son. Which Sye had done no such thing, and Uumi wouldn't have Kiuma saying such a thing.
His ears flicked back against his skull and he took a slow breath. Why wouldn't these thoughts go away? He didn't like thinking ahead about such silly matters.
But his family was less and less silly every day to him, wasn't it?
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 10:13 pm
Kiuma's brows rose as her steps slowed to a pause. "Why would I have seen Taabu?" She laughed, her head tilting as she narrowed her eyes. "If you're asking if I've seen him, then you don't know where he is..." Another laugh slipped from her as she turned to look at her brother, her expression gleeful. "Oh, this is rich. That cub, so precious that you'd abandon me for him, and you've gone and lost him! Or he ran away." Laughter rolled from her mouth, harsh and sharp, as she looked back and forth between the pair. The red lioness settled back on her haunches as she shook her head, her sides shaking as her laughter trailed off. When she looked up again, her smirk had returned.
"And if you hadn't guessed, no, I havn't seen sweet little Taabu." She'd reacted just as her brother had predicted, and it seemed that even after all this time, he still knew her inside and out. She hadn't changed that much mentally, only grown more into it. If anything, Tanaka had only helped bring out what she'd been as a child, aging it into adult terms. Kiuma's eyes flicked to sweep over Sye again, but this time something in those icey eyes stopped her, cooling her derisive attitude. That something she saw touched something in her she didn't know she had, though she couldn't have said what it was. The end result was meerly a faint unease, and the lioness dropped her attack on the two, turning ubruptly away. "I suppose that's why the two of you are so far from your home. You wouldn't have come unless it were important, but I personally think you're wasting your time. A sickly cub wouldn't have travelled this far on his own."
Last the lioness had seen of him, he'd been a tiny scrap of a thing, his lungs as weak as her twins. Surely he'd have gone no farther than the southlands on his own. Needing something else to fix her attention to, she looked back at Tanaka, only realizing now that he'd been pretty much excluded from the exchange so far. She offered him a softer smile, a smile she'd once saved for her brother, but now only gave to him.
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 11:32 pm
 The white lion had barely paid attention to the conversation, his thoughts occupied elsewhere, tail flicking behind him to stir the sand and dust. However his interest was soon perked as Kiuma spoke, a small smirk crossing his maw at the tauntings of his mate, a barely audible purr in his throat at the thought of the anguish the pair must have felt at those words.
For a moment he thought of toying with their emotions, to plant some thought that would tear into their minds. But some thought stopped him, and he decided that any suffering inflicted on them would come from his mate. Perhaps fatherhood had changed him and he sympathized with their plight, they were family after all...or perhaps he simply enjoyed watching Kiuma tormenting them, revelling in the skills of his other half.
Kiuma's look was not lost, and he returned it with a faint smile of his own, a soft purr audible to her ears only as his tail flicked to brush against hers.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 5:27 am
(-breaks turn because she can-)
"You might have seen him because you've been traveling, just like he. Now you shut your mouth." He growled out, his voice low and full of something not usually there. Perhaps pride for him family? His eyes were narrowed and glued to his twin, his tail flicking slightly. Kiuma probably didn't know that Sye thought so highly of her, Uumi didn't really know that for true even. But if Tanaka wasn't there and that comment set Sye off... he was sure there might have been a fight.
"You haven't a clue about him. Nothing, you only have seen him since he was a cub. So don't you dare judge him." He snarled out, moving to his feet, stalking to move around them. Clearly he was ready to leave. "Syeira we're leaving." He hissed out.
He wasn't so sure why he was so angry, he'd never really had need to stick up for anyone but himself before. He was angry enough to be upset he could do nothing about his anger except throw a fit. His gaze flicked toward Kiuma and Tanaka. "The only one who's wasting my time these days is you, Ki. I don't know what I've done to make you such a little priss, but I supose not even your own other half matters much to you any longer. Only this.." He eyed Tanaka. "Only this one." His voice dyed down to mutterings.
Uumi was so blind when it came to certain things.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 8:29 am
Syeira simply stared back into the firey eyes that reminded her so of her child and mate, watching the blaze that bruned beneath their surface. Syeira knew the thrill of argument - she knew what it felt like to be tied up and mock your enemies. After all, Syeira spent most of her hcildhood bringing shame on others through the very same manner. However, despite Kiuma's words, Syeira could find no shame in this.
"He's not so sickly as you might think now," she said quietly, her eyes tearing away slowly, to look at Tanaka, then back again as if he held little interest to her - even as a god. "When you teach your child to think for themselves, there comes the day when they outwit you," she said calmly, pushing herself up onto her paws, stance sturdy and prideful as always, "and it just so happens, I taught my son a little too well too quickly." She nodded her head to the red lioness and her mate, turning to follow Uumi.
She didn't even argue with Uumi's decision to leave, amazingly. Mostly because, for once, Uumi was taking up for their family - he was standing up for himself, for her, for the child that they had thus far raised together. She just calmly let him take the lead, strangely pleased with it for once, and gave a soft, "until we meet again, Kiuma," on the tip of her tongue - eyes drifting after the red prince walking on before her.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 10:41 pm
Rage, hot and deadly, flushed through Kiuma when Uumi told her to shut her mouth. Sye's words barely registered as the sleek red body sprung forward. In a few long strides, the lioness had passed her twin and spun to face him, forcing him to stop or run full into her. Drawing herself up, Kiuma thrust her face into her twin's with fangs bared, red eyes flashing.
"How dare you!" She snarled, tail lashing behind her as she crowded him. "How dare you still take that title. My 'other half'.... you don't deserve the love I held for you as a cub." Her hackles rose down her spine as she began to vent, letting out all the pent up anger she'd felt for so long. "Other halves don't lie to each other, they don't manipulate till they have what they want, then abandon without a second thought! You never loved me, only pretended to so I'd do what you want. Then, when you had your little whore and b*****d son, you cast me off like I was nothing, like I hadn't walked by your side our entire lives and given everything I had to make sure you were safe and cared for!" She bit out each word, her claws unsheathing to dig into the sand.
"I would have died for you, and you couldn't even tell me you'd fathered a son on some tramp passing through. No, you had pretend you wanted to travel and see the world with me, using my own desires to keep me bound to you. You were too weak to do it on your own, I see now. I'm the only reason you survived till then... 'Oh, you go on ahead, Kiuma, I know how much you want this. I'm going to stay here and play Daddy.' You didn't even care that I only wanted to travel because you were at my side, because we were together. You didn't care that you ripped out my heart and tossed me aside without a second thought."
Each word made her body tremble a little more, her eyes shine a little brighter, till she was all but in tears, and shaking like a leaf. Torn apart by emotion, she wish only to hurt him, and hurt him bad... Her paw with its razor claws lashing out to strike him hard acrossed the face with the strength she had never dared use with him. She'd never used her full strength with him, never struck him as she did now.
"You are not my other half, and you never were. I found it somewhere else, in someone else. I see you for what you are now, and you're nothing. Nothing but an empty reflection." Her tirade winding to a close, she spat to the side and turned, casting one burning look of hatred at her brother and his mate before slinking back towards Tanaka, head slung low. She felt... spent, and tired. Empty of everything but an ache somewhere in the middle of her chest.
She'd most likely lost the respect Sye had held for her, and most definitly any love her brother had, but she couldn't find it in her to care anymore. Tanaka's solid white body beckoned her to bury her head against him, and she wanted nothing more than to curl up against his warmth like a small cub and cry out her pain, but she couldn't. She'd already shed tears for Uumi, she refused to do it again.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 11:46 pm
The white lion's tail flicked with a sharp snap, his gaze narrowed into a malicious glare, a snarl lingering at the back of his throat as he stood to four paws. Up until now he had sat silently, allowing Kiuma to face her own brother as she chose. But now the smaller lion had crossed the line, Tanaka did not care for the runt's tone and he would not tolerate it.
But it seemed this time Kiuma was ahead of him, and had unleashed her anger before the white demon could speak. Oh how magnifescent is was, how firery she was in her fury, her wrath swelling from the depths of hell as if she had been holding it back and saving it for right now against this lion. It was glorious, spectacular.
Knowing better than to get into the red lioness' path in her rage, Tanaka stood where he was, watching, on guard should he be needed. At Kiuma's strike, a growl left the great lion's throat and he took a warning step forward, a protetiveness in his posture as Kiuma returned to his side. He had no concern over the red lion, he was physically no threat to either of them, nor he seem to possess the courage to strike back. But the other lioness was a different matter. It was possible she felt as protective over her mate as Tanaka did for Kiuma, and he would not allow an attack against his mate.
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:34 am
It was predictable that Uumi had stopped, and not continued to walk into Kiuma. When she began to have a little hissy fit his eyes narrowed, his own anger building. She was right. How could he be her other half when she didn't understand a damn thing? Most of her words flooded over him, key words stood out. b*****d? Tramp? Suddenly he felt both a weight and sharpness hit him across the face and he stumbled a few steps sideways, face snapping in the direction with the momentum behind the swing. He sucked in a large breath, eyes wide.
Warm, sticky liquid... pooling in lines until they filled and began to slide down his slightly less crimson face. Blood. Uumi's body was shaking, his heart racing. Kiuma had just hit him. Hurt him. It was safe to say he was in quite a shock, no one had ever hurt him that badly. Except for Denahi of course, but that was... different.
He snarled out and turned, but she'd already gone back to that stupid, filthy god's side. The only reason she could get away with this s**t right now. Well Uumi didn't care! She needed to be set straight, and he was possibly as pissed as she was.
"How dare you... how dare you you selfish little ******** brat!" He spat out, staying where she'd left him but just watching the pair. "You don't even know the half of it!" He was screaming out at her. "Oh-ho! Yep, Uumi just shacked up with some random female that came by once. Does that even sound like me, Ki?" It was an odd time to shorten her name, but shorten it he had.
"I wanted to explore this world just as much as you had! Why do you ******** think I put the idea in your mind since we were little? Since before I ever met Syeira!" How could he even get his full point across? "Well let me let you in on a little secret... mr. great manipulater was ******** manipulated.." He didn't hold it against Sye. Part of him was happy for it.
"And I am sorry that for once in my pathetic ******** life I wanted to take responsability for something." The anger had clean dropped from his voice, just heartache remained. It stayed on his face, though. "How was I to know I was actually going to get her pregnant, Ki? I did what I thought was right... I knew you would never stay with me.." He swallowed.
"And I'm sorry. I really am.. you resent my mate because she took me away from you, you couldn't handle that. You're selfish and you should know that... But what do I have to say for myself? Yes... I did take you away from myself." Well at least he was admitting it, right? "But don't you dare let me ever catch you saying such dirty things about the people I love.. ever again.." He was breathing hard and probably on the verge of an attack, he couldn't actually get what he wanted to get accross to Kiuma any more. His head was spinning.
He began to cough, and turned away. He'd worked himself up too much. The coughing increased and worsened, and he stay there hunched over. Pathetic. The word that rang out so often in his own mind, Kiuma could never understand how much he hated himself. How much he was atconflict with himself.
Each small break in the coughing and wheezing he moved himself forward again, back toward leaving. "Sye.." He breathed out. "Sye.. go.." He ment that they were... again, leaving.
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:35 am
For all of Syeira's calmness, for all the ways she could make herself appear careless fo anything anyone said to her, for entire life there had been a little demon in her heart. No doubt it was the same demon that infested both her brothers; the demon that had won over Denahi and pushed him to his limits every chance it got, the demon that possessed Tamu and plagued his heart in the utmost inappropriate times. For all of the times she tried to fight this, for all the times she ignored it was there, it was moments like these that Syeira knew full heartedly what she was capable of in her sudden moments of anger.
The instant Uumi had been struck, Syeira was nearly instantly at his side - and gladly, Kiuma was gone. Though, it was hardly Kiuma that she was worried about, it was that jump-the-gun God lingering just off the edge of the corner of her vision. She turned, jaws set tight with a growl, ears flattened against her skull and her paws on edge - a stance that, in her life, Syeira had probably never taken fully. It was no attack that she sprung though, just hard edged words that filled her cold eyes with a poison. Those words, in fact, were not even first directed to Kiuma. It was to Tanaka she spoke first.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to attack her. Unlike Kiuma, I have respect for things weaker than I - and while she may feel it's in her right to attack something far below her in strength and health, I would never dare to harm her. Not for her sake," she hissed out, eyes narrowed, "but for the sake of the innocents she carries in her womb." She gritted her teeth, turning her back on the pair - though her bodice was no less calm, and her attention was instantly on Uumi. A brief nuzzle to his side, a kind purr (however strained from her anger) for his ear.
That's when the frown creased her maw, and her words echoed out as she helped Uumi along with his slow trod, "I don't ever want to see your face in the Kusini lands, Kiuma, not that you'd ever want to visit something so lowly." She gritted her teeth, throwing a glance over her shoulder, tail flicking hard behind her, "desrespect for me and my son when we have held nothing but utter and complete respect for you will earn you many enemies, most of all with my family. Farewell, Kiuma, Tanaka." Something about those words sounded final, ending, and her gaze flickered back ahead of her - moving to Uumi in an attempt to let him put some weight on her if need be.
All she wanted was Kiuma to stay there and let them walk away. She was no match for a god, and she knew it - but any further provoking of Uumi, and more attacks on the weak mate she loved regardless, and she would die to save him. Too bad that Kiuma only thought she was a silly whore, she'd never know what kind of love bound them to one another. If she did, perhaps she could have understood.
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:35 pm
Kiuma stood tall by Tanaka's side, her head held high as she kept her back turned to the pair. Selfish... he was one to talk. When had he ever thought of what his own actions, don't for his own reasons, would do to those around him? She shut herself off as her brother's barrage washed over her, pretending to ignore it as she absorbed each work like a spike into her heart, till she could feel nothing but pain and anger. She hardened then, withdrawing into herself.
Hearing the coffing start upbehind her, the red lioness flinched. It was a horrid sound that had always plagued her as a cub. Now though, it was truly no concern of hers. He wasn't her responsablity anymore. Not even Sye's words bothered her as much as that. Why should she ever return to those lands? There was nothing there for her, not anymore. Loosing the respect of this lioness wasn't high on her list of important things. If anything, it pleased her to have caused Sye and Uumi a little pain, a little payback of the pain the pair had caused her. She had all she needed in the towering bulk that stood so protectively beside her.
Her voice was a tad shaky when she spoke again, clearing her throat to steady it. "Are you ready to go, Tanaka? I'm tired, and hungry." She butted her head against his side for comfort before she pulled away and stalked off in the opposite direction the other pair were headed.
The world felt... different now. Something in her life had ended for sure today, and they'd probably never be able to make things go back to the way they were. The twins were twins in nothing but name now, the thought filling Kiuma with both pain... and a sort of relief. Her steps were light, as if a weight had been lifted from the sleek body. It was time to get the hell out of this desert.
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:30 pm
Tanaka stood to his full height, his form imposing, his eye burning with a fire from the depths of the abyss. He could feel it, the pain of the sibblings, the sorrow and anger than must have coursed through them. Another time he would have revelled in such pain, drinking it in, allowing it to intoxicate him. But this time it was his compainion, his mate, the other half of his soul that was feeling that pain; and that could only bring him pain as well.
A low growl rumbled in his throat, his gaze narrowed, tail flicking in anger. A part of him wanted to surge forward, to take that scraggly lion by the neck, rip out his throat, and silence him forever, certainly he'd tolerated far less from others. But the demon resisted that temptation, this lion would be spared. He would not strike down Kiuma's brother, what little sense of honor he had would not allow it.
And so he stood firm, unwavering at his mate's side until there was silence. Lowering his head at her touch, he nuzzled her gently in what he hoped was a comforting gesture, a small reassuring smile on his maw that was easily missed. With a final growl and a firery glare, Tanaka turned away from the pair, broad paws following after his mate without another thought or look back. Yes, it was time to leave the desert, time to go home.
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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:12 am
Uumi's coughing slowly died down to a wheezing breath, shallow and raw sounding. He felt... a little emptier than before, but at the same time fuller. Empty of his other half... and full with love for his family?
He didn't want to think about it. They had to get to the pridelands, anyways.
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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:33 am
Chapter Four - Damage Control
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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:40 am
It was the gentle lands of the southlands that next met Syeira's eyes, the pair having trod on in silence for this section of their journey. Not that she could blame her mate for such; she didn't much feel up to conversation, and the pair never talked that often regardless. Still, at this point, she couldn't let him keep on in a foul mood - and neither could she let him go on, knowing he needed to rest.
"We're stopping here," she said calmly, her movements pausing instantly as she glanced up to him. "We'll rest here and get to the pridelands in the morning," she murmured, not incenuating that it was for him that she stopped. She knew he wasn't proud of his sickness - and she would never pick it out as a problem to him.
She slowly let herself relax, falling into a sphinx-ish position as she glanced up to him, expecting him to lay down where he was, opposite her.
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