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 Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:21 pm
(( Another AIM RP Time Jump Thing
Maji
Ramses
Laana
Ithi ))
Maji looked slowly over the lioness' wounds, a gentle paw brushing away some of the fur from the largest of the cuts. First stop the bleeding, then worry about he inside wounds. The aloe plant leave he had were rather plump and would fit the bill for natural bandages just fine. Carefully he cut the end of one of the leaves off and began squeezing the inside gel out onto the wound, "This is a healing plant." he explained- if nothing else but to get the wounded lioness' mind away from the wounds themselves, "It'll create a thin film on the wound...to keep the blood in. Your body will heal right over it and you'll be good as new."
Laana winced slightly at his touch, looking up at Maji before giving a weak smile, only to sigvh heavily. Just her. Just her for for getting hurt. Her ear's perked up slightly at his words and smiled again, only to chuckle a little.
Ithi watched from a distacnce she wasn't good enough to say nor do anything, she just stayed in the shadows where the light would hide her. Only her eyes could be seen from where the light reflected off them. She just watched, there was nothing that the young lioness could do, she was to herself useless, she hadn't prevented Laana getting more hurt as ramses had so nicely pointed out, the femme felt useless.
"I...would never have...known that in a life time..." She mumbled weakly, only to remember to continue breathing.
"A good thing to learn...", he smiled softly, "If you wish to become a part of the pride I can always teach you these things. It's not common knowlege that plants are even good for those that eat meat."
Ithi's ears perked up as he spoke to Laana about joining the pride, well at least the stupid lion wouldn't be following her now but how was a lioness like her going to be accepted into a pride where, well, they are all so different.
Laana smiled warmly up at him, her body lifting up and down with her breathing as she sighed a little. "I...would love to finally settle down somewhere...especialy in a place...like this..." It became hard for her to talk, but she managed alright, she was a strong lioness and was able of talking.
Speaking of a knowledge of plants, Ramses, outside, continues his battle of trying to arrange a bundle of straight branches and vines, an easy enough task if you had hands...but a paw, even with thumbs, and a quadrepedal stance are not friendly to porting things, even if there's a bit too much to carry in your mouth.
Maji smiled a bit more, "Well you know you're welcome here. What I said as a cub still applies now- and since everyone's sort of put me in charge you don't need anyone else's approval."
Laana smiled warmly up at him once more. "Thank you..." She then rested her head on her good paw and sighed softly, only to notice Ithi and give a greatful smile her way. She had been a great friend to her, she'd have to thank her some way when she was better.
It had been her dream to stay, live here and find a mate who would love her, have cubs, be happy but now, as she looked at Laana, who had a mate in Ramses if she so wished, oh it hurt her. Laana now had what Ithi was dreaming of. She smiled back at Laana and then laid down sighing slightly as she rested her head on her paws. Maybe one day she would find somewhere else that she could settle down, they wouldn't want her here.
Ramses finally settles on draping his collection across a set of large leaves, whose thick stems he clutches in his teeth and drags back, grimacing in disgust at the 'green' taste it leaves in his mouth. He's collected quite a pile, an temporary vent for his frustrations, though he's not sure if its 'enough' or 'too much', but he'll find out as soon as he gets back to the cave, unaware of the goings on there.
Maji glanced back at the sigh, giving a questioning but sympathetic look before returning his attention to the wounds. He worked at sealing up the cuts first, quietly speaking in a strange language under his breath- the ancient mistweaver language that he somehow could recal, a charming sound uttered into what would be safe to assume was prayers over the wounds. He paused as the clatter of wood being dangled from a lion's mouth rang from outside, a bit of a smile crept back to his formally concentrated face. "Well that didn't take too long."
Laana watched Ithi' ears perking slightly at her behaviour, before giving a small wince or two at the attention her wounds where getting. At Maji's prayers she blunk softly, only to smile, that was very comforting somehow...she just didn't know why.
"Hfpth!" Is the sputtery answer from Ramses as he drops his leaf 'sled' and spits (in so much as a lion is capable of) to get the taste out of his mouth. "PFTHFH!!! ICK!"
Ithi just looked at Maji, he couldn't see her that well she knew that and was happy about it. She listened to the strange language he spoke and envied how he knew so much, how she wanted to learn, she wished to find out these things but it seemed less likely. She would just say goodbye to Laana and wish her well before going back to her old ways, her old self would be better then being stuck here. She did however chuckle at Ramses though was quiet quickly.
"Well thank you Ramses." He smiled with a bit of an apolgetic chuckle, reaching for one of the more straight sticks, "You did a good job."
Ramses, rubbing the sap off his muzzle with one great paw, raises an eyebrow at Ithi and then gestures at her. "Hey Maji I think she just offered to get s'more...."
He teases slightly, flicking his tail. He has to do something to ease his own tension. He's just so worried..."Thanks..." He adds a moment later, ducking his head.
He sat back for a moment and began scraping the bark of the sticks off, smoothing out the knots as best he could with his claws. He'd not used them for much else but it was obviously that carving wasn't something he was new to.
His shoulders twitch with nervous energy, and the repressed urge to pace, but he's not as skilled as Maji is in healing, and he doesn't know what else to do.
"Hand me a vine... I'll need your help in wrapping this leg, Ramses." He glanced up with a smile, "Your paws are the same as mine- just as capable with some work."
Laana's ears perked and she watched Ramses, her bright red eye's half open tiredly as she strained to stay awake. But she managed, barely. The lioness watched the two males as they talked to each other quietly.
He nodded mutely, padding forward, ears flicking. "Just tell me what to do..."
He motioned to the wounded paw, "I think it's broken... I'll need you to hold her leg while I put the bone back into place. Now listen carefully-this is very important."
Ithi just watched from the corner, occasionally licking at her paw.
He held Ramses' eyes with his own, stressing the seriousness of this, "I'll hold her leg in place, keeping the bone aligned properly... you'll have to place the stick along the bone and bind it to her... Wrap it tightly on both ends of the break. Not too tight or she'll lose blood flow and the leg all together, but if this isn't set right her leg will never walk the same again. As it is she might have a limp for the rest of her life."
Ramses eyes widen slightly at the vast responsibility involved here, ears pulling back slightly. He's broken bones in prey before, but never helped set one, and this is serious. "Yessir..."
Her brows furrowed slightly, in a worried form. Broken? It was broken? Oh great. She took a deep breath and looked up at Ramses.
He ducks his head down as Laana glances up to him, nudging a nose against her jaw. "She's tough. She'll be better than ever when you're done, Maji."
"Ithil." he looked back, "I need you to hold her down. This will hurt and her body will jerk- wheather she wants to or not. If she jerks she'll do more damage than good." He smiled back at Ramses, "With rest and proper care I've no doubt she'll be the cunning huntress she always was."
Ithi was small and wasn't too keen on doing anything but she moed from her hiding space walking into the light showing her silver pelt. She walked over to Laana and laid down on top of her. She was heavy enough to stop Laana moving.
Laana smiled a little up at Ramses and gave a weak purr, only to smirk a little as she looked up at Maji. "Hopefully, I don't want to stop walking and get old and fat" She said light heartedly, trying to make the best of this situation, she then gave an 'oof' as Ithi' lay ontop of her and waited for the next move.
Beside Maji, Ithi looked even more like some kind of Mistweaver kin, he considered, trying to figure out exactly where to put his paws to keep her leg where Maji needed it to be. "What you don't want to be spoiled and pampered?" He jokes, tensely
"Okay.... everyone knows what to do. Laana...", he looked down softly, "Please forgive me ahead of time." Quite suddenly his paws were on her broken leg and gave a sharp push to re-align the bone, he took a moment to run his tail along the bone to make sure he'd not gotten it wrong, thankfully, he'd gotten it right this time.
Ithi didn't watch the boys she saw no point. She just licked at Laana's head and ears as a mother would to her cub. She didn't know if it would do anything but it may calm Laana.. might help!
Laana stuck her tongue out at Ramses playfully, only to wince and growl a little at the sudden jab of pain in her leg. "Ohhh!!! That hurt Mmmmm!" She said, in a sudden outburst, the claws of her good foot scritching the cave floor. However as Ithi' licked her head, she blunk, still breathing heavily through gritted teeth, but more calmer as she sighed a little bit and clamped her eye's shut.
"Should I get the vines?" He glances to Maji, paws still placed to hold Laana's set leg.
"Quickly." He said, still holding the bone in place, "Line the straight sticks up- two of them... one for each side." He'd add two more later but for now two was all that Ramses could handle.
He doesn't nod this time just acts, grabbing the sticks and settling them to either side of her leg. He has the hard to correct habit of not using his dexterous paws to do things, a bad habit learned as a cub, but he uses those paws now, "Vines?" He asks, snatching one up in the crook of his toes.
Laana watched as one crimson eye cracked open, watching everything going on as she lay there, being pinned by some of her only friends.
Ramses dropped the vines into place, glancing questioningly over to Maji as he works, trying to make sure he's doing everything right as he tries to carefully tie the sticks to her leg, to keep them into place.
"Yes, bind the vines tightly around the bone and the sticks...Good good, make sure they're tight", he kept his hold on the bone, making sure to allow the sticks to pass right along the leg to keep it straight, "Good..."
"Is that tight enough?" He enquires, as he struggles briefly with the vines. "Too tight?"
Laana smiled a little and shook her head. "Aint no such thing Ramses as too tight for me..." She then winced a little bit before continuing to watch.
He nodded, "Just right. Now add two more on the other sides. Once they're in place we'll wrap the rest around it to make sure it stays stiff."
"I dunno, Laana, You got into a bit of a tight squeeze before you got here..." He jokes quietly, though he restrains from nuzzling her again, in favor of working to tie the second vine. "But you squeaked through."
Laana giggled a little, only to shudder as more vines where wrapped around her leg. She then smirked at him. "I'm no squeaker" She whispered back, a jokey little face on her.
"No but you can get out of a pinch like one..." He chuckles, as he cinches the vine. "You must have some kinda luck..."
Maji leg the paw down slowly and helped Ramses work the rest of the vines and sticks on, crossing some sticks over the main ones to help give support, weaving vines inbetween them and stashing a few leaves in to keep give at least a little comfort. "There."
Ithi laid her head down on her paws while Lanna and Ramses joked around, she didn't seem to be doing much or even being noticed. She didn't mind too much, Ramses and Laana liked each other, it was obvious.
He sighed, sitting back on his haunches, "I don't think anything else is broken so much as bruised... best we can do for that is wait it out...Ithi," he looked to the lioness, "Thank you for your help."
"I think..." He ventures, pauses, then continues. "We might still be able to use her help..."
She looked at him and nodded, "Its fine." She got off Laana and then went back to where she had been in the back of the cave, she saw no real reason to do much else for the time being.
"That lion...." He growls, ears flattening to his head. This is the touchy subject, not sure how Laana will react to it, not after some of the things Ithi had mentioned about this "Nye" character....
She looked at Ramses though as he spoke, "how?" She asked curiously, softly but yet harshly, she wasn't feeling to happy at the moment. "hmmm?" was her answer..
Laana smiled before looking up at Ramses and looking over her bandaged paw, she then agreed with the dark lion. "He's right Ithi' you where such great help..."
She looked back at Laana and smiled, "You needed it."
Ramses lowers his ears slightly at Ithi's tone, but speaks anyway. "If you hadn't been in here, that b*****d son of a hyena turd might have done worse...But I still want to find him."
Laana purred and nuzzled the younger lioness sweetly, dark and cruel Laana may have been somtimes, but given some circumstances, she was very kind. However at Ramses word's her ear's perked up and she watched him.
Ithi rolled her eyes, "Don't be stupid Ramses. If anyone will kill that good for nothing idiotic piece of rubbish it will be me, I assure you." She yawned and moved away from Laana a little. "You don't know him and I assure you, he dont like talking!" She smiled her twisted little smile before licking her paws again.
He made a face at the obvious tension in Ramses' voice, more or less of amusement than anything, "Now now... we'll see if we can't send a hunting party after him and bring him here for questioning..."I'd rather not resort to violence before getting answers out of him."
"I'm not Maji, and I wasn't thinking about talking his ears off." Ramses points out, shaking his thick white mane. "What -did- happen here?" He frowns, drawing himself up again.
Ithi looked at him, "Why dont you just ask your love? She was the one the problem was with, I always hated him and trust me the feeling was mutal." She then got up to walk out the cave, she didn't feel like she belonged here anymore nor say what had happened, it didn't concern her.
Laana furrowed her brow as Ithi left, she wanted to get up, but she knew that would just be stupid. "Ithi'! Wait! where are you going?!"
Ramses growls, bristling again, just about fed up at this point with the insults this young female has been hurling at him for the past several minutes. When she first arrived she was thrilled, exited....Now she was suddenly angry, sullen and rude, what on earth had prompted the change? Laana's arrival?
Ithi turned and looked at Laana sighing, "You have found home, you can have a family and you are lucky. I obviously don't belong here." She looked at Ramses and sighed again, "Sorry." She then turned to go again head hung low.
"You only belong where you can accept that you do." Maji said with a hint of annoyance, taking himself to lay his back against one of the walls, his large paws curling over eachother, "If you do not wish to remain no one here will stop you... but if you wish to return that is also within your own choice."
"What bur glued it's self to your tail? You've been acting like an wasp ever since Laana got here...No one kicked you out. We just asked what happened with that Hyena plop Nyekundu!" He huffs throatily.
She wanted to turn and to snap at Maji instead she stopped and said what she would say to be her last words for now unless anyone else had much to say, "This was my dream home, it is not if i feel accepted. It is if I am accepted." She then turned to Ramses, "Maybe you should go find him, then maybe you would know why I am now like this. I can't stay here, if that lion wasn't lying when he said he loved Laana he will come back one day and was hoping to find some sort of security and home but now, I dont blame Laana, but that lion is out of his mind. You didn't hear him.. the words.. he is insane.." She tried to press the snarl in her throat back but found it too hard
Laana furrowed her brow, very worried for her friend, however as she told the story her ear's flattened back sadly, a very heavy sigh releasing itself from her throat.
"Oh I can tell how in love he is! He left his little love marks all over her!" He gestures with his tail toward Laana's clawmarks. "He's still ONE lion, and if he's insane, thats all the more reason to take care of the problem, especially before he decides to come back here and hurt someone!"
"He is wrong.. he will be a killer unless someone sorts him out, He treats females as "milkbars" that is all we are to him. He treated his mother like she was nothing but worshipped Laana."
"You don't MAIM the one you're in love with! you protect them! thats the way it works..."
Maji gave a low growl, his ears coming back slowly, "You will never be accepted if you act in a manner that you've already been rejected. No word of judgement your way was sent and yet you act as though you've already been exiled."
She looked at Maji and sighed, "I am sorry but I am not going to be allowed to stay while I know where that lion will probably go and Ramses wants to kill him. How would that work?" She calmed her voice down a little now and tried to block out Ramses yelling. He didn't know the lion like Laana and Ithi did.
Ramses settles down onto his haunches, clearly trying to keep his own temper as he settles near Laana, licking her ear as gently as he can manage, though this attention is alternated by soft, throaty growling.
"He is a danger...", he growled a bit, slowly getting himself to his paws. He didn't often show anger but when he did it wasn't something many would question, "And a danger to one lion or lioness of this pride is a danger to all. If you take his side- that is trechery."
Laana just watched from the back, ear's flattened before Ramses started licking one and smiled weakly at him. Only to watch Ithi' closely, she didn't know what to say.
"WOAH! You think I will take the side of that stupid lion? I don't think so but I will take the side of his mother. Let her deal with him. He will go home so let him, if he returns then deal with him but what else can you do? You all leave herer to find him and then how many would be left to look after Laana if he returned?" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before looking back at Maji, "I am sorry to have had such a bad start with you but, Rahima had been a great friend to me and more of a mother then my own had. I can't give you her son for what it would do to her. You must understand that, how would you feel if your child went mad and then got murdered?"
"He invaded our territory, and he attacked someone that means a great deal to me. You're telling too he's mad, and not in control of his actions. How are we supposed to just let that slide, Ithi? We're not going to abandon Laana...I'd never abandon her...but we can't just let him stay OUT there What if he does this to someone else? What would you do if he came after you, wherever you go for saftey...What if he attacks his own mother?"
"We have three male lions here... all nearly full grown. Just two of them would be enough to put justice to a trator and invador to these lands... if that." He looked to the lioness, the growl in his throat growing.
"He has attacked Rahima but how are you not going to leave Laana here and kill him? Realistically? I aint doing this for him, ask Laana, I hate him with a passion. You upset Rahima though, thats something else." She quietned down and looked at Laana now.
Laana watched them, only for a loud roar to erupt from her throat. "ENOUGH!!!!!! STOP IT!!!!" She breathed heavily, tears trailing down her cheeks, she was just getting confused and upset with all this.
He took a few slow steps towards the mouth of the cave, shaking out his mane so he appeared much larger, "...you have your choice... leave these lands or remain. But...", he lowered his tone, "If even his scent is upon you I will do nothing to stop any justice my pride decides to give to you and the lion you claim not to be defending."
Ramses flattens his ears to his head, staying silent for now. He feels he's made a potent mistake mistaking Ithi for anything like Maji, though he'd thought so earlier, but even for Laana's feelings, he's not comfortable leaving an insane killer loose. It's not his call though, but Maji's.
Ithi pratically had tears coming out of her own eyes, she wasn't that much older then a cub and this was too much. "Maji if there was his scent on me, ever i would return with scars. I will go find him. Then I will return to see my friend. If Ramses wishes to come then he can, as long as he promises not to kill the boy till I have sorted my part out first."
He growled at this, bearing his teeth slightly. It might not sound to her as though she was in legue with him... but to the ears of a lion who had just repaired an old friend from the claws of one that she refused to reveal to them- it sounded trecherous. "That... will be Ramses' choice.
"Ithi' wouldn't betray us Maji!" Laana said deffiantly. "The reason he came here was because I sent her to come and get him!"
He looked over to the dark lioness, flashing her an apologetic look before returning a blazing set of eyes to the silver-pelt. "You've heard our conditions. Leave... and remain there... or stay and remain here."
Laana watched Ithi' tears welling up in her eyes, what would happen if she left?? She watched Maji and sighed heavily, waiting for her friend's reaction.
Ithi had a snarl in her throat now, she wanted to stay here, her dream home but she had some unfinished buisness with the lion who had been born at the exact same time as she had. "Laana.." She just looked helpless now like the cub she really still was.
"You called for him and you didn't tell us?" Ramses sounds a little hurt, though it's been Nyekundu she was close to for some time, not him, though he's wanted to be closer. "Laana...he could have killed you..."
"Ithi...just do what your heart tells you...never listen to the voices in your head...they'll always decieve you...listen to your heart..." The dark lioness said, on the verge of tears. She then turned to Ramses, those tears trickling down her cheeks. "Ramses...he was my baby brother..."
He licks at her tears gently, trying to ease her pain and his own concern. "I'm sorry....I wish things weren't happening like this...."
Ithi wanted to curl up with Laana but was too scared to go near Ramses. She just laid where she was and buried her head in her paws letting the tears run out. "laana..." She cried out to her knowing she couldn't come.
Maji closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before quickly turning from the lioness, his great head lowering inbetween his shoulders giving him a more preditory look than he'd ever really carried. The situation enraged him. Twice he'd healed others that had come into his lands, twice he'd been betrayed... would there be a third time now? He'd not allow it, not any more.
Laana sobbed softly, clamping her eye's shut, she wanted to go and cuddle up with Ithi', but all she could do was talk to her and comfort her. "Just do what you feel is right..."
She just cried, curled up as a little cub would be, helpless, innocent and alone. She didn't want things like this, she hated Nyk but yet she couldn't say the words of where he would go. They just wouldn't leave her mouth and it made things worse. "He would have gone back to where we were born.." Thats all she could say now. She couldn't say where that was, Laana would have to.
Laana watched her, only to look at Ramses. "He's at Ngrongo Crater..." She said gently towards him.
He looked to Ramses, "I'll permit you a hunting party and the instructions how to get there if you would like, Ramses...Permitting directions are provided..." He said sharply, enough to imply that he was not to be questioned on this. The lion would pay...
Ramses silently rests his head agaisnt Laana, an small gesture of consolation against everything he has in mind for the small, mad lion. If he can't be brought back to sanity, it's unsafe not only for them but for any other pride he goes near for him to live. "Thank you Maji...."
For all he knew, the rogue could have been one of many from a hostile pride, testing the strength of this pride for their own means. He nodded, laying himself down on one of the shelfs of the cave that stood just a few feet higher than the floor, his paws hanging off the front and his face wrinkled into a frown. He was indeed very angry.
Ithi looked up tears still in her eyes, "Please.. dont hurt mother, or my brother or sister, or Saburi she will try to fight but she can't she loves her brother." They aren't strong, just a group of friends, but please, my family.." This would be the only time anyone would have ever heard her show any sort of love towards her family.
Laana rubbed her head back against Ramses', watching Ithi' before a weak smile laced her lips. "Don't worry Ithi, Laini will be alright...I suspect we'd be able to catch him before he gets that far...if not...we'll do our best to make sure they aren't hurt. I'd be more worried about -HIM- hurting them."
(( I'll add the rest later when I'm not so lazy xd only five pages more to add lol ))
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Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:23 am
((that was one long rp....))
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:52 am
((*nods* Deffinatly >_O))
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:20 am
((Would it be okay if Rahima travel's to the Mistweaver lands? She's worried about Ithi and Laana, besides needing advice from the 'magical lions who live in paradise' about her offspring. >.>; ))
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 4:38 pm
[[ Posted from AIM once more! :3]]
Kinyamkela
Arumoa
Taruma
Kinyamkela stretched luxuriantly in the late afternoon sun, awkward body enjoying the heat of the rocks that rippled with reflected light from the waterfall pools below. She blinked sleepy golden eyes as she turned her muzzle towards the jungle once more; Enki preferred hunting in the afternoon, and it took a while to get far enough out that any game was not a friend of Maji's. Oh, the lioness could continue eating fish, but both she and her mate agreed it was not enough. So the pale lioness sunned herself, and thought of her mate, and their family's future, all the while her senses alert for his homecoming.
Lands bereft of rain, abandoned by their god for long, oh, too long.
Vague memories swam in Arumoa's mind of great jungles, the luxuriant greens of healthy ferns, vines, leaves in the high branches. Memories before his mother took them away from it all.
Was this what remained? Was this from whence he and his siblings hailed?
The leaves were losing their plump edges now, curling gently with the heat. The ground held the tales of many that had lost their struggle and fallen from their proud perch. Oh, what trick was this?
The sadness of the place seemed lost on his sister however. Not surprisingly, not the smallest memory of such places rested in her mind.
Instead of marvelling at the turning of a leaf in absence of rain, she merely rejoiced in their fall, hooking a few on her claw as they danced on the air, making their last journey.
It was with an easy smile she faced her elder brother. Adulthood sat on his shoulders, though his form was not ready. She did not understand his need to protect her, his unstoppable need to keep her out of harm.
"Shall we stop soon, Aru? Ngaio must be near," she chided, the sound of falling water alerting her senses.
"Let's have a drink. I'm so tiiired."
Her voice took on that whining quality she was wont to use, and chuckling, Arumoa nodded.
"Yes, Taruma, we may drink ahead."
The pair were white as snow, their bodies covered in tattoos as black as night, though Arumoa, as the eldest, was blessed with gold. His mother had said the sun would smile on him, would bless him.
It seemed, however, the sun meant only to glint on it and give away his whereabouts.
She nearly missed it. Sleepy eyes suddenly widened, and then narrowed again. A shape, or two, moving in the edge of the thirsty trees. Preybeasts? Certainly not her beloved. She could recognise his form in an instant. Scrambling to her paws, the lioness heaved her heavy bulk down the roks ahead of her, nervous and senses heightened, ready to flee or fight. But she ust first see who it was...
Padding forward cautiously, the snow-and-silver pelt of the lioness did not hide her against the dusty riverbank and rocks. "Who's there?" she called, an edge to her voice as she fixed her eyes on the shapes ahead.
The larger of the pair stopped suddenly, paws freezing mid-stride. Widened eyes turning on his siter, the inward conflict of a protector began.
He had heard the voice of another, no doubt could play there. But was this other a threat, a foe, or one who could help them?
The scent wafting on a muted breeze plainly spoke that it was not their brother, as did the fact there was no laughter, and no large blue-tattooed figure eagerly gnawing on his ear.
Perhaps they were not in the territory they saught, and instead of a one-time home, they had found some strange place, and were intruding.
Weighing up his options, the lion found it best to respond, make his apologies if they were out of place, and defend his sister whatever the outcome.
"We look for that to which once we belonged," he answered at last, deep voice a tad shaky.
They were clearer now, two stranger lions. A little younger than herself, though the male seemed more self possessed. And such markings! The lioness tried to keep from gaping at the fabulous swirls and zigzags, somehow reminding her of the markings in the caves... but also a little of zebras. She shook her head firmly and paid attention to the words. Eyeing him frankly she addressed her reply carefully.
"You.. are searching for your history?" It did not surprise her. Surely the Storm King himself had a hand in this; not only she, but her mate, and Ramses too, had been searching for their past amongst this land of jungle and waterfall. She kept her guard up however; the pregnant lioness would allow no harm to herself or her unborn children.
For his history? No, enough of that had been made. He searched for his father.
Their mother had refused them only that, though indulging the whims of her darlings, she refused to speak of he who had given them life.
Memory, and her inability to keep their pleasure at bay forever had led them to this place. Before retiring into the desert, before asking that ill-grown lion to show her to her deathbed, she had shared with him alone her secret. The pride to whence they were born.
"Something akin," came the response of the large adolescent, watery blue eyes glistening.
"I look for a group of lions, my family should be amongst them."
Unknowing of the illness to sweep through the place, Arumoa held false hopes that he could introduce to his father the only of his children he did not know- his little daughter, Taruma, who now stood half-hidden by her elder brother, though eagerly trying to get a glimpse of the stranger.
"A group of lions, in this place?" Kinyamkela glanced involuntarily up to where the caves lay hidden, the secrets quiet and unread. She sighed, and looked at this new gaudily marked lion, the younger female hovering behind him. His sister, his mate? She looked similar so the lioness guessed the former. Matching the riverblue gaze with her own veiled sunlit one, she replied slowly.
"Any... any lions you seek here had long departed when we few who live her now first gathered. A great illness... " She looked away for a fraction of a second. "We sought our heritage, the pride who once lived here. I... am sorry for your loss, for none of the last king of the Mistweavers now live."
Mistweavers? Yes, that was what his mother had spoken of. Dead? His father dead before shown his youngest child?
Arumoa's gaze fell, his breath caught in his throat. He could not yet vouch for any answer, for no words could fall from his mind.
In truth, he remembered little of his father, only his smell, his eyes. They matched Taruma's. But even with so little memory, the sense of grief was real.
At last, his voice escaped the cage of his throat, trembling as it blinked at the now unfamiliar sunlight.
"Dead? All dead? Are you sure?"
Behind him, Taruma cocked her head. Exactly why was her brother reacting so. It was not as if it mattered. After all, he had given no reason for their sudden trip, why should he care so if the place was deserted, save for pregnant lionesses?
The lioness was filled with a brief stab of empathic pain for the young yet self-possessed lion. It had been easier for her; the ancestors she sought were so far in the past she knew they had to be gone. But for Enki, who had only know his father through the dark shape daubed on the pride history wall, it must have been similar. And her own visions... she struggled to remember that fever dream as a juvenile, the shadowy last proud king who had fallen to illness, his daughter stolen, or so she thought. She shook her head, and the memories dispelled. No, the old Mistweavers had gone. But wait, wasn't Maji supposedly the son of the old king? She opened her mouth, hesitantly.
"Perhaps... I should introduce myself. My name is Kinyamkela; my mate, who has gone hunting, is Enki. But we are both in debt to the lion we first met here, Maji... it is most likely he is the son of the old king, lost in the plague. But for him... we think no others survived." She took a deep breath. "May I know the names of you two travellers to this land where the Storm King rules?" For once she addressed the younger female also, who obviously was more puzzled than upset by this news.
Perhaps she had earned some piece of his trust, perhaps the information was received well, or perhaps it was simply the fact she wasn't a male that led Arumoa to smile upon this stranger, nodding low in his own form of a bow.
He felt she posed no harm to his sister, thus manners were in order.
"I am Arumoa, and this my sister Taruma."
A second thought caused him to continue.
"And should you happen upon a foolish lion, tattooed in blue as clear as the sky, that is Ngaio, our brother. Should you meet him, hold his words in no stock, he is young and playful."
Here the younger of the pair grinned, for many were the tricks she and Ngaio had played, many the jokes they had shared.
In truth, she believed him to have run ahead in hopes of setting up a joke for Aru. It was his way.
Silently giving way to her mirth, she simply flashed the lioness a grin.
"This Maji, where would I find him," queried Arumoa, desperate to be informed of what had passed.
'Kela smiled slightly at this Arumoa's words. Certainly his courtly yet humourous manner reminded her of what she knew of these Mistweavers, and of the semblence of manners she had learnt with her brother under the Steward's instruction. "I am afraid I have not met this Ngaio, though now as I am warned, I will be able to greet him more politely, Arumoa, Taruma," and she dipped her grey head with a smile. "And Maji..." A thought struck her. She had not met Maji since she had told both him and Enki of her condition; even before that, she had been lost in her own little world with her beloved. She knew little of what was going on in the rest of the lands, and for that she felt guilty.
"I have not seen Maji for several... for a while now." She continued. "I believe he likes to roam the lands every so often, to check all is well.. I would try the left of the river," she indicated with a snowy tailtip, the other side of the river that curled away from the waterfalls clear at least here, breaking away into small er clearing as the jungle crept closer, and receded back. "I have not moved far from here for days now," she admitted, shifting her uncomfortable weight on her paws. "But perhaps stay a little while, drink where the water is coldest and clenaest, here at the waterfall base. I do not think Maji would begrudge you some fish either..."
Fish? By no means a meal, but it would satiate a small hunger, for now.
Arumoa would hunt for a more filling piece in time.
"And this Maji, in which way is it I am to address him? Is he new King? Or was he not heir to the throne? Is there even a present King?"
It was no secret to his mind that Arumoa knew little of the history of his own lineage, of the pride to which he was born and taken from.
"I apologise for my ignorance but we, my siblings and mother, have been away from the time of my sister's birth."
"Beneath a baobab tree," piped up Taruma at last, eliciting an odd look from her brother.
She was proud of her birthplace, though no one knew why, and she shrugged at Arumoa's glance.
"It's true," she stated with youthful simplicity.
Kinyamkela smiled inwardly with surprise once more. A baobab tree had been the Tufani'wana's 'cave' in which to write history; she and her brother had crept there to ogle at the writings and pictures inscribed within. So! These two... another pair that had their roots here, and yet had lived outside.
"The Storm King decrees mysterious things," the pale lioness said thoughtfully, finally sitting down with a small grunt of felief. These two were no longer dangers.
"I know a few others that were conceived, even born here... then lived their childhood outside the lands, not knowing of the plague that passed through. Perhaps you are all related even? I do not know the precisities of it... so much history was lost, that we must piece together now. But now you come searching for what became of these lands... yes, mysterious indeed," she pondered.
"In any case you are welcome here, and Enki and Maji would be glad to know of you and meet some time." Kinyamkela smiled again, trying to stop feeling motherly. Good grief, she was barely older than them....
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:00 am
Obi watched as Maji left them. The tears begun to swell up in his eyes again. He trotted over to Layla, trying to supress the tears.
"Obi ma'am." He sniffeld.
The air here was nice, it was strange. Everything was so green too! Obi had always thought grass was gold like his prides fur and the trees mostely brown. He coulden't help but look arround and not keep eye contact with the other lioness.
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:11 am
That night Maji hadn't found much sleep, waking multiple times as guilt throbbed at the pit of his gut and gnawed at the back of his mind. He could just see the two lionesses, their faces streaked with tears from fear from him. In one of his waking moment he simply decided to give up the notion of sleeping that night, his large body sitting upright in the back of the cave silently watching the other sleep. The guilt and disappointment in himself could not be hidden... he should have at least tried to control his temper.
Ithi wasn't sleeping, she couldn't. She was now a little paranoid about the big lion, she knew he wouldn't hurt her but untill he trusted her she wouldn't trust him and she thought that was perfectly fair. She started to lick at her paw not knowing that Maji was also awake. She wouldn't leave the cave though, she wanted to but it wouldn't be doing her any favours at all. She would just fidget and clean herself. She was getting older, she would act like a cub but she was nearing adolescence.
Maji hadn't noticed her away, distracted by his thoughts and blinded by his guilt. Slowly and quietly, as not to wake the rest of the lions, he made his way from the cave out to the ledge that ran along the cliff face, finding one of the larger areas to seat himself down and look over the lands. He took a moment to shake his mane out, it had grown fully in, laying handsomely along his powerful frame, sculpted by a life of traveling up and down the face of the caves. Still his face had the same gentleness that he had as a cub though for the moment it was lost in self-disappointment.
Ithi watched him go and raised her head slightly. She slowly got up and followed him, her ears were flat on her head as she feared him but her curiousity. She couldn't help but follow him. It could get her in trouble but as she saw him sit down she lowered her body a little, ears flat on her head she looked up at the adult lion, "Maji, sir..." She soke quietly but not so quietly he couldn't hear. She didn't want to be loud, that might get her in trouble too.
He didn't look back, the voice was obviously that of Ithi. His large body heaved as he took a deep breath, his eyes averting to the side slightly, "I didn't mean to wake you."
"you didn't. I was already awake." She sat down behind him, her eyes looking at her paws like a disgraced cub. "I am sorry for ringing problems to your lands. I.. I.. didn't mean to." She then decided that saying more was also not a good idea. What would be ok to say? She didn't know. She would just find her paws interesting.
Tigryph: "You're just a cub." He said softly, turning over a shoulder to eye her a bit, "I'm a full grown lion- I should have known better and controlled my temper. I didn't mean to frighten you and for that I'm sorry."
"Just realize this place, the lions here- they are all I have."
She didn't raise her eyes, just watched as she moved her paws in the dirt. "I am more then just a cub, though in most ways, I am. I left my mother, brother and sister for lack of.. well.. a home." She stopped, her family life was't what he wanted to hear, nope he didn't want to hear it. "I am sorry Maji. I don't want harm to come to this place, it is beautiful. I don't want any harm to come to your family either. I just wanted a home, where I would maybe find someone who would.. love me.. care for me.. and not...leave." She silenced again, she was talking too much about herself. Maybe she should just stick to saying sorry.
"By the way things sound... you left them." He turned to face her fully, "Ithi... the moment you arrived you behaved as if we had already cast you out, that doesn't make well for a good impression. For one you defeat yourself without anyone else having even spoken to you. Perhaps you should try to keep more positive."
Ithi sighed, "I am sorry. Rejection is all I have ever felt. I wasn't expecting to let you have me here, why would you? It was my fault Nyk attacked Laana. I went and got him, I didn't have to, I didn't think he would be like that.. and.. I was expecting you to reject me, that is why I acted like I did. I apologize..." She sighed and held back the tears that were crawling to her eyes again, "...For everything"
He growled a bit at the mention of the lion. He would be punished for what he'd done to Laana, no matter how much the lionesses protested. "You are treated the way you act, Ithi... it's a common observation. I knew a lioness that came into these lands with her head held high, a squire at her side. She claimed to be the queen and carried herself like one." He took a deep breath, tensing his shoulders a bit, "All here served her as the queen she claimed to be, with me as her knight." Looking away once more he continued, "If you behave like a queen... so you'll be treated, if you behave like an exile...." he would alow her to finish that thought.
She looked at him and something hit her, "If I had acted like a queen you would have rejected me." She stood up and stretched. "I deserved everything I got earlier and I just came to apologize for the way I acted and what I said." She looked up at the night sky and then back at the floor, "I care not what you do to the salmon lion. I don't want to see him ever again." She licked at her paw and looked at the sky. Maybe she should return to the cave now? She wanted to go off and walk but she wasn't trusted. She had to stay around another.
He sighed, getting to his paws, "Follow me if you will." With that he turned and began down the side of the cliff with ease, his great shoulders rolling from under his mane as he picked his way down the rocks.
She looked up at him and then watched him go down, that seemed a little difficult but she followed, just, uneasily.
He was patiant and waited for her at the base of the rocks, turning to watch her make her way down. It was a bit of a climb but he had managed it from the time he was a cub.
She managed to get down, slipping a couple of times. The crater had been pretty solid and even though she had climbed like this before it seemed more slippery here but she made it to the bottom where she looked up at Maji. She didn't say anything just tilted her head curiously.
He began walking quietly, the land was fairly silent save for the occassional hum of a cricket, still save for the flicks of fireflies in the air and the swirling mist about the grass that seemed typical this time of night, "Your first impression is always the most important...I assume that you didn't know this as well as you might think you did."
She could keep up with him well, she wasn't a cub and was growing with every passing day. She found the night time walk quite interesting, it was all so beautiful. Maji's voice suddenly made her look up and she looked towards Maji, "I thought I did quite well with Ramses.. then... Laana appeared all hurt and I changed, I was upset angry.. it wasn't suppose to be like that, I wasn't me." She looked back down at the ground as she walked along, waiting for him to say soemthing else.
(( I'll finish fixing it up after work gonk ))
Tigryph: "You came off as a cub....", he said simply, "And not a very bold one at that. I raised Ramses from a cub, I found him on the border of his lands. He too had lost his family... but he never cried for himself, he accepted that there was a reason for what had happened, a reason that he had been found where he was and a reason I brought him here. He's grown into a strong and proud lion." He looked down at her, "You need to show that you can accept life as it comes, not a one of us here has had what you might think is an easy life- but we manage together and trust that in the end it was for the best."
Tigryph: "We worship the rains... they fall from the sky." He looked up slowly, "And In falling they join with others in the river, the river may be rough, it may take them many dangerous places but in the end they flow into the great water- together forever..."
FallenCatAngel: She listened but didn't say anything. She was such an idiot, she had accepted life, she had accepted that she wasn't suppose to be with her family, the pride, well group of lions she had been born into wasn't what she was, she didn't belong there but now, oh how things had changed. She didn't know what to do, but listen.
Tigryph: He grimmaced at the face she had, turning away once more, "When I was a cub...I woke up alone in these lands. All I knew- was the ways of the pride. The history, the language, how to write and navigate in the ancient caves... the gods had gifted me with the knowlege but at a price." He paused at the side of the river that was constantly being fed from the waterfall, looking into it distantly, "I had no memory of myself... of my family. All I knew was my name."
Tigryph: "I didn't even know if there were any other lions alive. I gret up with animals that you'd consider to be prey."
FallenCatAngel: Her ears perked up as he said the last sentance but soon they were flat on her head again. "Rahima is like you on that part. She considers prey to be friends. She taught me to hunt, only hunt the ones that cause trouble, or the ill and to always give them an easy death." She paused for a second and looked up at him before looking away. "I have never gone to kill a strong animal, one that is well or could be of use in a pack. Always killed the ones that tried to hurt others. Things like that." She stopped now, sounding stupid, oh well it was true. Rahima had taught her alot.
Tigryph: "Unfortunately... as you grow you can't afford to think that way." He hadn't looked away from his distorted reflection, "I hunt far from these lands, but I do hunt now for the red meat... I have to provide for the others and keep myself strong...for obvious reasons."
FallenCatAngel: She looked up, "but.. that... would kill the ones who could survive.." She couldn't quite understand that. She probably would but she had only ever hunted weak rabbits and other small creatures. She hadn't done much in the way of hunting being as she was quite young. She would though, she would hunt for this pride if they needed to.
Tigryph: "No... it wouldn't. The ones that would survive would escape my claws and fangs would they not?" He raised an eyebrow, "Sometimes...the strong perrish... my father- from what very little I've heard- was a strong lion, and... well.' His tone softened a bit, "He's not standing with me here now."
Tigryph: "But one must believe there's a cause. The storm king would not abandon those under him."
FallenCatAngel: Ithi listened as he spoke, he made sense that was true. "Yeah, that makes sense." She sighed. "My father died.. he died trying to save his pride from what I heard." If she had ever wanted something it was to meet her father though it was impossible, she could dream.
Tigryph: "Then do not dishonor his sacrifice by giving in so easily." He hadn't looked down at her in saying that, his eyes seemed to be lost in the distance.
FallenCatAngel: She looked up at him looking confused slightly. Giving in? She had to ask even if she would sound stupid, "Giving in to what?" Death? Maybe that was it. She didn't know and even though she kept glancing up at the adult she would always end up with her eyes on the ground
Tigryph: "You came into these lands with a very defeated attitude. Saying all was lost, that you would never fit in... and that was long before you had any attempt at it.'
Tigryph: "To me, that seems like giving in rather than fighting for what your father sacrificed himself for."
Tigryph: "He wanted you to live- and there is a difference between life and meerely existing."
FallenCatAngel: She sighed, "I guess.." She hadn't heard things like this before, once all she wanted was to have some sort of power, bend others to her own will but now, she cared not for much. She just was existing. "i never thought of life like that before.."
Tigryph: "It's not an easy lesson to learn." Maji sat himself down quietly then reclined to lay himself in the grass, his paws draiping over the edge of the river, "To exist is living but without purpose or cause, defeated but by yourself and giving into the despair that comes of it."
Tigryph: "To live... well... that is overcoming all that stands around you. Others may try to defeat you, you might try to defeat you, fate itself might have a hand in your demise but you stand firm and fight for your right to truely live."
Tigryph: "And in doing that you become something greater..."
FallenCatAngel: She walked upto the waters edge and put her paw into the cool water. Letting the water hit her paw felt nice but she backed away and laid down sighing. "I have only thought of life from what I learnt from traveling, life hits ya and you hit it back. Ignore anything else. Someone told me not to love for it was a weakness. That was my dream, to love and live. I dont know anymore."
FallenCatAngel: ((Brb))
Tigryph: "Love is difficult." He had to admit, he himself had been burnt by it and it would be a wound he'd be licking for quite a time afterwards, but for the purpose of getting the lioness to understand he'd have to accept it, "I'm told it's more wonderful than anything... the love for a mate, a brother, a sister." He smiled a bit, thinking of his family, "Knowing they love you in return, that they'll stand with you no matter what- I don't see how that is weak."
FallenCatAngel: ((i will reply in a sec.. just gotta eat dinner ^_^))
Tigryph: (( kk )))
FallenCatAngel: She looked at him and sighed, "I never felt love from my family. Maybe that is why I have wished for a mate for such a ong time.." She trailed off sighing again. She knew love was hard, she had heard several times but now, now she didn't know what she wanted, a mate? Would be nice.. one day. A family would be lovely but her family, they had never got on.
Tigryph: "Then perhaps you should give others a reason to love you rather than grow frusterated with your constant defeat of yourself." He quirked a brow to her, "Part of being strong is being strong for yourself. Everyone has their demons, and everyone faces them differently."
FallenCatAngel: She sighed and looked at her reflection in the water. "I don't think I would allow anyone to love me. I would dream of it for days, seeing Ramses and Laana together, I know they aren't mates.. but its only a matter of time. They are so happy. I would love that but how can I? I am scared that if it came to it, I would be foolish and do something stupid, hurt someone. I don't want to cause pain to others. I.. I just...want a family. One of my own, cubs I can bring up." She looked up to the dark sky, the stars, so pretty. "Maji. I don't know how I can change theview that I created. How can I? When I am scared that you will just see me as a liar." She closed her eyes for a long time, sitting up straight she looked straight ahead.
Tigryph: "First you must care for the cub inside you." He looked a bit annoied, such pitiful feelings were below any creature her age, "You must realize that you're the only one downing yourself, the only one keeping love at bay, the only one casting you aside. Your attitude towards yourself can influence the attitude others present you with."
FallenCatAngel: She wantred to snarl at herself but didn't. It was the cub inside of her she wanted to get rid of, it was that thing that brought her down. She looked at Maji and sighed, "Its only you and Ramses who have a problem with me. I have not met others but if I did I could be different, be myself. I just want to be accepted by you as your the leader here." She scratched at her ear, random itches.
Tigryph: "In some respect I suppose I am." He looked down to her, "But it was never self-imposed. You need to show your worth, Ithi. Ramses and I are very close to the others... Enki is mated with my sworn sister and she is heavy with cub- he will be very defensive.:
FallenCatAngel: She sighed and decided what she wanted to say would be a bad idea. "He has a reason to be defensive as would she." She thought that was ok. "I would respect them, as I do you and Ramses. If Ramses does in deed love Laana and from what he knew of me before Nyk appeared I hope would show to him who I really am. I don't know what worth has to do with it, unless I have missed something out. I thought it was that you didn't like me. Maybe I was wrong.." She didn't raise her voice, she kept it soft and didn't say alot she wanted to.
Tigryph: "I've told you all I can in respect to your situation." He got to his paws slowly and shook out his mane, "My aplogy in my temper and my thoughts as far as you are concerned. It's up to you weather or not you heed them- or go on with your meerly existing."
FallenCatAngel: She looked at him a little sternness in her voice, "If I merely exist or not, for you to think more of me I can't see happening. I don't know why your so unwilling to like me but I don't ever expect you to care for me, so do not worry. I shall live, here, with Laana. My only sister as far as I have known. If you wish me gone then that is upto you. You are the leader, if you don't I shall stay, I will respect you all though I don't expect the same back from you. Thank you for all you have said tonight I have learnt alot." She licked at her paw briefly before walking to the waters edge and laping up some water, all the talking was making her thirsty.
Tigryph: He rolled his eyes a bit, never once had he said that he didn't like her... nor would he be unwilling to try if that had been the case. He wanted to express it but it seemed much of what he said,or tried to express, was simply lost. Perhaps she was still too young to understand, "Once again, you have defeated yourself long before any here could."
Tigryph: With that he began back to his cave, slowly picking his way back up the face of the rocks. Another night of unrest it seemed, but at least he could lay without guilt.
FallenCatAngel: She didn't know what he meant. He had shown no signs of liking her as far as she had seen. He had told her of life and yelled at her and scared the life out of her. She couldn't see how that was defeating herself. She stayed by the lake, he left her there. He couldn't have ago at her for staying there.
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Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 4:03 pm
[[ AIM rp. ]]
Ramses
Kinyamkela
Enki
Kinyamkela stared discontentedly out across the jungle from her little viewpoint on the rocks by the waterfall. She could not see far, or much above the trees, but the sky above was still murky yellow-blue and there were no clouds on the horizon. How she longed for rain... She turned her head and licked at her now prominent belly slowly, rough tongue feeling for signs of life and rewarded with a feeble kick. Perhaps Enki was right, and the rains would come with the children. The snow-and-silver lioness retrnd to her vigil, curious golden eyes combing the jungle edge waiting for her beloved to return.
Ramses shakes his white mane as he pads toward the place where Maji said he might best stand some chance of finding Enki. The massive adult would be invaluable in all this, without question. His own dark shape is almost storm colored, and if not for his white mane, he might become almost invisible in the darker places of the territory.
"Enki?" He calls out, as he walks, if he can find him without looking too long, thats something. He doesn't know how much time they have, and besides these efforts might stir up another of the Mistweavers willing to putting their paws to stifling a threat to the pride before it gets stronger.
At the sound of another voice calling her beloved's name, Kinyamkela hauled herself awkwardly to her feet and carefully put one paw down on the rock below, heavily jumping to it's safety and padding out a few stps further.
"Who's there?" She called in a light voice, grey ears flicking backwards. Of course it would be someone she knew, but nevertheless new, strange instincts made her cautious.
"It's Ramses!" He calls back, approaching slowly. "Is Enki there? I need to talk to him..." Of course talking to Kinyamkela couldn't hurt either, she needed to know what had been going on.
"Ramses?" The lioness's face lit up, sunlit eyes smiling. "I haven't seen you in so long..." She descended another rock carefully, and then pattered down the dusty earth towards the edge of the flat land by the jungle, where the river curled away to her left. She ran appraising eyes over his larger, maned form. "You've grown, a lot! But why do you need Enki? He is out, hunting..." She inidcated with a tailflick the jungle to the right, a puzzled tone in her voice.
He straightens with pride at her commentary, sitting back on his haunches to display his growing mane to best effect, then sobers again, his red eyes growing serious. "Thats..actually what I need him for." He says, eyeing her growing form. "Are you..." He blinks as he takes her in... "Pregnant??" This is both wonderful and terrible news. Wonderful to have new cubs, especially Enki's and Kela's...but terribly because of...that THING...her pregnancy suddenly makes the threat more dire. "I'll tell you everything...A lot's happened already..."
Kinyamkela could not help but give a doting absent smile at his pronouncement before continuing. "Yes, mine and Enki's children! Is it not a wonderful thing?" Her eyes are shining but she sobers a little more at his more urgent tone. "And you need Enki for hunting? Why, are so many hungry? What's going on that you must tell me?" She flicks her ears nervously, looking around as she picked up on the young lion's tenseness.
Oh wildebeest dung...this is going to be a tough one. "Well...Laana...got...attacked..." He fumbles to start, not nearly so eloquent a speaker as Enki or Maji. "While she was on our land. We brought her here because she was badly hurt, and when I went to get Maji, this other lion, he's young but...not right in the head...came and tore her up more. She's alright but from what we can tell he's absoloutely mad...and very dangerous. Ithi...um...she's a freind of Laana's...says he'll er...kill......cubs...." He almost mutters the last part, picturing her reaction before continuing a bit more loudly. "But we're gonna put a hunting party together and go make sure he doesn't come and hurt anyone...."
The snowy lioness's eyes opened wider as she listened, and yowled with surprise and fear as he concluded his news. Various emotions flickered across her face; she knew her time was near, and this mad young lion could go after HER CUBS, and she would KILL him if he got too close! She reared back slightly, eyes going flat, before finally replaying the last bit in her head and calming down slightly. It didn't stop her outburst however.
"WHAT?? Oh Ramses, you'd better get that mad thing, is Laana alright? And Enki.. ENKI!" She yelled across the jungle, ears flat to her head in anger and fear.
"She's ok! She's as ok as we can get anyway, we had to splint her leg...and Maji treated her cuts." He stands up hastily. "We know he left the territory, but we want to get a party together before he comes back. We're not leaving the lands unprotected though. But Ithi's staying here, with Laana, though...well honestly Maji doesn't trust her yet. Not Laana, Ithi I mean..." He shakes his mane, half angry at himself for not being there to protect Laana when she needed him, half in embarrassment at his attempts to explain. "Ithi thinks he might try and go to the Firekin territory, she suggested giving him to -them-." He snarls at this. "Thats part of the reason she's on watch."
Kinyamkela was clueless as to who Ithi was, and so reserved her judgement. It seemed she'd spent the last month in blissful unawareness here with Enki... she should have been checking up on her friends. She'd met Laana.. once? But these others... and if this 'Ithi' suggested handing him over to the Firekin... she wasn't sure what to make of that. Personally she'd rather mete out their won justice rather than hand it over to the ruthless and proud redfurred ones...
"Where was this?" She suddenly demanded. She needed to know how far away this mad lion might be... and she should really go and see if she could help the injured lioness. But she needed to be safe for the cubs...
"Down at the caves, some of the further ones, I didn't want to make Laana walk too far..." He flicks his ears. "I feel like a fool, I could have just called for Maji from there...If I had he wouldn't have gotten this far..."
Kinyamkela had grown used to the sweet and uncaring life of this sojourn with Enki. But perhaps it was time to return to the rest of the lands, and put herself to helping... as a traveller cub and a cautious juvenile, she had been bluff, forward, honest. She had to help out... but nevertheless care for her coming family. At least if she knew where this villain was she might be able to defend herself better, instead of cowering, waiting for an attack. But it would have to wait until her Enki came back. Abruptly she was worried. What if her mate, burdened down carrying food back for her, had run into this mad young lion? She took a few confused steps around, shifting her awkward weight from paw to paw as she tried to decide what to do.
"We must find Enki... he should not be much longer..." Her voice was anxious as she made her decision. "For now I guess we can trust in Maji's herbs..."
He nods mutely at this. "I'm sure he's fine, but we should...do you know who else we should seek out? He's not big...younger than me, but I don't know if he has allies or not, or if his madness has given him strength..."
The lioness turned round slightly, sighing. Her golden eyes were deep in thought as she turned away from Ramses and padded down to the river's edge, now so much further from the bank. She hoped he did not think her rude as she drank the sweet mountain water, mind hard at work; she was always thirsty now, and so hungry. Finally lifting her muzzle from the flowing water she shook rainbow droplets into the air and came slowly back towards him.
"I know few on this side of the mountain... I do not know where the so alled squire of that Ciyari went, but he might help, unless he has fled with his cowardly queen... Perhaps Enki has met some more help." SHe shook her head slowly, upset that she could not be more help.
Ramses gives her a reassuring look as he pads down next to her. "We can keep our ears open, the others are sure to turn up. If not, I'll ask Maji to help me call them, and we can tell everyone what's going on, so that they know what to expect, and who not to trust. This is a bad time for us to have such a threat about...isn't it?" He sighs, shaking his mane. "We'll work it out though, I have confidence..."
Kinyamkela nodded slightly, sitting down as her paws ache uncomfortably from the extra weight. "It's sucha bad omen... I mean, there are no rains even to show us the Storm King's favour..." She looked to the side. "I hope they will return soon. The land is dry, and drives animals crazy." A brief fight/flee urge rose up in her again as she thought of the possible cub killer roaming the lands, and her unborn cubs. She wished desperately for Enki to return again, and slowly her confidence rose again. He, and Maji and Ramses, would be more than enough protection. And she could still fight...
"We can talk with Maji when we get everyone together, and figure out what we're going to do, I don't know how far he's gotten by now...but surely a group of grown lions can catch up to one cub..."
Kinyamkela nodded firmly, looking from the black and white young male to the jungle behind him. "I believe you. And I thank you for the warnings... I had forgotten almost that others could have been in danger." She laughed whimsically, still floating on the happy memories. "It is good to see you once more. And... you are are a Mistweaver, yes?" She remembered having Ramses introduced as a vague cousin to Maji. "As is Enki... that makes you family now."
Ramses ducks his head slightly. "Not closely but I guess we are...it was so strange, realizing I had other family..."
Kinyamkela smiled softly. "I can realise... Enki was so taken back, the first time I met him and he saw his father painted on the cave walls. I am not so lucky to have close family... but I know they are safe on the other side of the mountains... and I ahve new family now." She tilted her head and grinned at the red-eyed lion. "Indeed, my children will be related to you...."
Ramses beamed with pride, strutting slightly as he walked. "Really? Oh yeah! That'll really be something else..." He says, looking somewhat in better temperament at this news.
"I was thinking...about asking Laana if she wanted to...bemymate..." He mutters the last bit, ears drooping again slightly. "But after all this, I think I won't for a while....Nye was...well supposedly in LOVE with her...can you imagine?"
Kinyamkela blinked a little, but smiled too, happy that Ramses too may have found love. But it was so sudden with her and Enki, they'd known each other all of an hour or so.... she hoped it might be smoother than it sounded for the male beside her now. She frowned slightly. But Enki and her had been so mutual. How could some young upstart throw himself at a lioness and claim love all of a sudden? She guessed Nye was the name of this rogue... there was obviously somethign wrong.
"It.. may be a wise thing," the lioness said gently. "Wait, and care for her as she gets better, and hope she will reciprocate. I mean, I'm really not good with advice, but..."
"Yeah..." He sighs slightly. "If I asked her now, I think she'd say no...just because Nyekundu, that...insane cub...attacked her because she said no to him....he's...he's too YOUNG to even be thinking about that...and look at all the harm..."
Kinyamkela nodded silently. "Come on, let's go up the rocks a little way. We'll be able to see all who come this way then, be it my Enki or... anything else..." She paused slightly, and smiled encouragingly. "Laana will be fine for just a while longer. Come sit with me, and put the thoughts away for a while. I haven't seen you in a long time, as I said." She laughed lightly, a took a few steps forward, the grace marred only a little by her bulk.
He nodded in agreement to the sentiment, though he glanced once back in the direction where Laana was. She's a strong lioness however, and they'd certainly know quickly if there was trouble.
"I hope he's back soon..." He notes, hoping not to sound too peevish, but he's worried about letting the little horror get too far from their lands.
The snow and silver lioness nodded silently in agreement before scanning the jungle once more. She almost missed it before her face suddenly creased into a smile.
There, a pale and earth shape at the jungle's edge! What was he carrying? "Enki!" She called gladly, bounding a few steps forwards, not heeding Ramses for a moment.
His ears p***k up with interest and he straightens, peering toward the notable colors of Enki as the larger lion returns.
From below his tail tip flicks up in a greeting...apparently his has his mouth full.. As he makes his way up the rocks...
More ponderously than his normal great leaps...it becomes more clear...the Antelope blends in well his his great mane... He's grasped its Leg's in his teeth and rested it's body over his own shoulders in order to carry the whole of it to his hungry mate.
He Rolls it off his shoulders and drops the legs from his jaws working them to ease out the stiffness, eyeing Ramses.
Ramses ducks his head slightly as Enki emerges. "Nice Trick..." He notes, nodding to the Antelope. "I need to talk to you if I can..."
"It helps...." He says curiously trying to check in his head that he has this younger lions name correct... "Ramses wasn't it? How can I help you?"
"We had an invader on pride lands...he came after Laana...who had just taken refuge with us. She was already hurt and he made it worse. It's a juvenile called Nyekundu..."
Kinyamkela padded over to her mate and rubbed her head under his chin in appreciation, her mouth already watering despite the fact that she must be polite while Ramses was here.
"Such a kill, beloved!" She said admiringly before nudging his chin again. "But do listen to Ramses, such news..." Her golden eyes were troubled as she looked between the males.
Enki Leaned over and nuzzled her.. "You eat...I'm sure he can talk while you do...better that then you eat us" He teases lightly licking her cheek.
When he turns back to Ramses though his green eyes have taken on a hard look, from the days when he still wandered alone on the savana. "Define came after her...and what are his intentions?"
"He sought her out, apparently out of jealousy because she came here. He asked her to be his mate, and when she refused, he tore into her.
Laana and a lioness she was traveling with say he's mad, and I believe them. We think he may be a threat if left alone."
"Laana and Ithi both beleive he might go so far as to seek out cubs..."
His time in the land of his ansestors has been more than good to him...he's still the well muscled traveling -machine- that he was when he was alone...but now hes bigger and better fed...even his mane has grown thicker and longer.
But its done nothing to quell the not so subtle temper he learned on his own...with none of the temperance of Mistweaver teachers or teachings.
He stands, his ears folded back and his eyes glittering darkly.. "He'll not touch my Kinya or my Clanmates again!" He snarls. "Would that I had been there!"
The lioness hovered anxiously, still not wanting to eat while the males talked, and feeling useless. Normally she would have jumped at the chance of helping rout this terrible newcomer, but she had to protect her unborn young... Kinyamkela had been brought up to be peaceful by her old Steward, but would do anything to protect.
"Would that I had." Ramses own ears fold back slightly. "I had no idea the creature was following her, or I would have found another way to call Maji to treat her injuries...And maybe we wouldn't have this problem."
Enki turned to face his mate. "Kinya...forgive me...I can not let this Madlion run free on our lands...what if he comes for you... I don't doubt the soundness of your skills...but your still with children...our children...forgive me if I ask to go with this young weaver and hunt the mad lion down."
Kinyamkela dipped her head worriedly, before letting her face become set. "Even so, I will protect them, and this area. Enki, beloved... I ask only that you are careful..."
She let her plea extend to the black lion also, gold eyes darting between them. "Will Maji be going also?"
"We're debating which of us should stay..." He admits, flicking an ear slightly. "Much as I very much want to put my claws into that...THING....I'm debating weather or not I shouldn't stay..."
"Maji wants to question him...and I'd be sore tempted just to kill him...."
"I fear I side with your opinion of what to do with him Ramses...at least be sure that if he does anything rash while Maji is questioning him ...I'll beat him within an INCH of his sorry life.."
"I do promce to be careful though " - He licks her cheek again.. "Ive been so long without you...yet now I found you I hardly know how I did without...it would be too crewl to alow any one the chance to take you away again."
"I think you should stay with your wounded Friend Ramses...she'll need someone who can fight to guard her...just as Maji will need someone who's not afraid to strike another down... are you alright with that?"
He considered this carefully weighing his own wounded pride of Nyekundu's attack against the need to pit the most capable lions possible against this creature...and then nods. "I'm alright with it..."
"Though I think Maji might suggest an third to join you, if not more if we can...just in case."
"Someone might be insane enough to offer it shelter..."
Enki nodded... "Well thought... " He says glancing Ramses over again... and then shook his head as though to clear it..
The lioness nodded, but she did ask one thing, her eyes glittering. "Only... please do not kill him. Then we would be no better than the Firekin... beat him as you may, just send him away, never to return to these lands." She found herself feeling strongly about this, even though she knew guiltily in her heart that if there was any danger to her cubs she would kill in an instant.
Enki flinches slightly at the words...he's left a few lions for dead in the past...if only in the name of self defence.. "This time...I swear to you I'll not kill him...but If he returns again."
"He's mad though...thats what I'm afraid of..." Ramses notes hesitantly. "What would work on a sane lion might not make an impression on him."
She turned her head to the side with a sigh. "Well then... do not go with the intention to kill. I.. understand it may be difficult to treat with him..."
"If He comes back after this warning of ours I'll break his neck and pin his skin to the great stones for the Storm god to Judge!" Enki declares in a moment of terrible fatherly fury.
Ramses perks his ears slightly at this. Although he grew up largely under the dictate of Maji and some of the other creatures of the Mistweaver lands, perhaps it's a trait he shares with Enki that this mental image satisfys some dark angry part of him.
"Careful, or you're going to make me wish for him to do something stupid, just so I can watch you present that hide..."
Enki pauses to try and bring his temper back to bear...not a good thing to let it fly so free before his mate and beloved.. "I's it funny Kinya?" He says after a pause.. "The boy looks much like the painting of my father..."
Startled by the change of track but very glad, Kinyamkela blinked away her scared frown and then looked at Ramses again. She remembered the painting clearly; the whole day was etched in her memory, and now he mentioned it...
Ramses, about to turn and go, paused and blinked at the conversation between the two adult lions, head tilted curiously.
"You... are right, beloved," and she tilted her head with a small smile. "Ramses... have you been to the caves?"
"Some of them..." he notes hesitantly, eyeing the two of them as though waiting for some joke to be played at his expense...
"Don't sound so nervous!" laughs Enki suddenly.. "There's nothing wrong with having marks that are close to Mistweavers before you!"
"But I'm....Maji found me on the Rogue lands..."He protests with a frown.
Enki sweeps up one of his fore paws tapping your 'thumb' lightly with one claw.. "No....your not.
"None but the myst weavers have this long dew claw... it makes us crafters and gives us the skill of writing."
"Sort of pushing it a lot to call what I do 'crafting'...he mutters, looking flustered by things that had never occured to him. It puts far too many things into a new light... like his mothers stories...some of which may have been saner than he imagined.
Kinyamkela peered at her own paws with surprise. She had never known of that! And indeed, the dew claw was a little longer, but not as long as either of the males.
She smiled ruefully. "I think the Tufani-wana are too far detached from the original traveller Jaha... but is it that which may show us Mistweaver ancestry?" She was glad of the change of subject.
"I think your right..." Enki says curling his whiskers forward.."I should take him up to see the caves...would you like to come with us? or might it be too hard now that..." He indicates her taught belly.
She tossed her head lightly. "Of course I can manage!" She grinned, not showing that she knew it was a difficult climb. But there was no way she would not be there also.
Ramses chuckles slightly, ears blushing a bit from having been the topic of conversation, but amused at Kinyamkela's enthusiasm. She was a little like Laana that way.
"Follow me then...there is enough time to track down mad lions...and little enough time to find your own histories for the first time" He says and moves to leap up the rocks towards their destination.
Ramses hesitates for a moment, then follows, springing after the larger lion. Curiosity has a stronger pull than what trepidation he has.
Kinyamkela hesitated after her mate, then quickly darted down to his kill and took a huge mouthful before following, chewing as she went. No other scavengers would appear for a while yet, not this close to the waterfall, so she paused to swallow, and followed the males eagerly. Though she was hungry, that would tide her over for a a little while more.
Enki leads the way down into the cool dry depths of the high cavern...the sent of stones crushed for paste and the faded smell of berry inks that linger on the walls with the dusty smell of generatios passed.. It's near the end of the older writings that he stops.
He lifts his paw and points towards a pair of lions...a lioness with a soft myst grey body like Enki and white hair...and a Black bodied male with redish mane like Enki...and a single white key-like sidgel on his great dark chest.
After hauling herself up to the caves, Kinyamkela was glad she had been behind the males as she grunted with exertion. Eventually she jumped heavily to the final ledge and padded into the coolness of the interior, the snowy mane of Ramses and the misty colour of her mate making the way easy to find.
Ramses stands in silence, staring at the picture, as though trying to get his head around what he's seeing.
"You see? Enki says a little wistfuly...My mother and father...Im not as good as Kinya at reading the tradional writings...Im afraid my time away led me to write in my own way.. Im still re-learning the traditional writings... but this is the history of us...to the plague....and now it begins again. My mother left with me...I believe she and by unborn siblings died out there..." He sighs.
"She wasn't dead when I was a cub...." Ramses says slowly. "Not unless my eyes are pulling a trick on me...."
The pale lioness padded up behind her mate and rested her chin on his shoulder as all three stared at the paintings. It was true, they did remind her of Ramses. She narrowed her golden eyes, mind working fast. Could it be...? She kept her thoughts to herself however as she listened to Ramses words, hoping for confirmation with an excited inner smile.
The tip of Enki's tail resembles for a moment...a rather cubling -bush- of shock- He stares mutely at Ramses... his jaw hanging for a moment... disbelieving that his mind is telling him must be so.
"I mean...it looks like her..." He glances at the shellshocked lion, uncertain how to handle this. "I think..."
"W....wh....Her name....what was her name?!" He demands hastily.
There's an question that needs some digging...as a cub it was always "Ma"...but it had to be something..."Inana."
"Y...y....Your...." Enki blinked for a second, then turned and pounced on the younger male,"MY BROTHER!!! MY BROTHER!!!"
Ramses almost gives an very cubbish squall of surprise as he's pounced on, his eyes certainly go saucer large as everything sinks in.
Enki looks up excitedly to Kinya "Hesmybrother!!! They have an uncle!!"
Kinyamkela let her secret smile come into the open as she stepped backwards delightedly. So, they truly would be all related... she is not quite so overcome with joy as the males, but instead kept the happiness bubbling out in her laughter as she watches them.
"We are? I mean...I am? I am! He can't help but grin, an large change from the serious mood earlier. "This is...this is too bizarre. I mean in all of africa what were the chances?" He chuckles, shoving at Enki with a paw, lightly, to try and get out from his tackled position.
"Almost as slim as my finding my way back to the pride's lands..." Says Enki, shaking his great head in wonder.
Kinyamkela just laughed aloud again. "There we were saying how the little ones will be related to you also, Ramses... just how much was not yet realised." She closed her eyes happily and rubbed sisterly against his shoulder. "Now you will be a true uncle to them."
"I can't believe it...It's like something out of a dream..." He shakes his head in amazement, rubbing his head against them both in cautious affection. "I have a brother and I'm going to be an uncle....It's too unreal."
"Our numbers are so slim...the Storm Lord -must- me watching out for us to bring us together so.. "
"Now all we need are his rains...." Kinyamkela turned longing towards the entrance, as if by willing it would start to pour. "But I have so much hope for us now, and this beleaugred Mistweaver pride..." She turned back to the two newly-discovered brothers, and fixed them with a serious gaze. "And I am glad you are so willing to protect it from this new threat."
"We protect it, you, and the promises of the future my love....too much promise to let it slide from our grasp now." Enki smiled warmly.
"I would do my best even if Enki wasn't my brother...you're my -pride-..." And Laana was...Laana he hoped to make his mate...someday.
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Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:09 pm
((I suppose I'll just start the RP in here then...and Thalion, if I disappear it means I've been kicked off for the night (though it's unlikely this early) and I'll just pick back up tomorrow.))
Layla 's ears perked at the gentle rustling of several birds far above her landing in their nest. Her ears lay back and she caught herself in a moment of jeolousy, how she wished to simply climb to the thick lower branches and sleep within a nook like she used to. She'd grown larger and was now nearly the size of her late mentor, though that was not what kept her from climbing. She'd grown slightly sloath in the past few weeks, and though she could find no physical difference in herself, she could not make it up a tree but a foot or two. She also found herself quite famished and though her hunting skills were sharp she found herself needing just a bit more than she could catch.
She rose from her resting position, as she'd slept the better part of a day away and her stomach reminded her with a twist that she'd barely gotten by with what she'd caught the night before. She stood steadily though sleep echoed in the back of her mind and looked out toward the outside lands she'd came from so long ago that her only memory was one recited to her by Montsho.
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 1:34 am
Maji shook out his mane as he moved out from the trees, restoring the brilliance to it that sleeping had momentarily deprived it of. The silvery white fluff relaxed along his shoulders and about his face, decorated by curled leaves and small feathers braided into it. He had a lot on his mind, more than he cared to have this early in the day. The situation with Ithil lingered hard in his mind. She was one that he'd have a hard time accepting... there was no respect to be had towards someone that couldn't even respect themselves. A pathetic way to live- loathing one's self and assuming the world felt the same way. The lion that had attacked Laana was next... a threat to her, a threat to the cubs that his sister bore within her... next was the shortage of water during a season that normally was plentiful.
His thoughts were disrupted by a rustling overhead. His ears rotated free from the silvery mane for a moment, his nose flicked a bit to remove a leaf that had drifted onto it as a result of the scattering birds. A flick of black ahead caught his attention. For a moment he went on guard, lifting his head and rolling his shoulders to make himself larger- then the form registered in his mind.
"Layla...", he said softly, relazing a bit. She looked larger too- had she... already found a mate? If so who, none he knew or he'd hav e been informed of it already.
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 6:56 pm
Layla sunk low to the ground, body tense, in responce to hearing her name, however the familiar tone calmed her slightly. Relaxing her body slightly she looked up, ears perked and eyes narrowed to see the silver figure through the foliage. However, she immediately recognized the large figure as her childhood friend and relaxed, rising back to a comfortable position and striding forward. It had been sometime since she'd last seen him and she nodded her head in greeting.
"Hello..." her voice had been worn from lack of use and was even softer than it had been in her childhood. She put forward a calm expression, though her features had grown slightly rigid and worn.
The lioness had gone sometime without interaction with others of her own kind; the group of rogues that had passed through sometime ago had kept her some company, but had left quickly. She appreiciated her space since they'd left, her loneliness carrying little worries beyond survival, but she'd grown slowly starved for companionship since.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 6:21 pm
An IM RP conducted between Kel and myself, to be continued.
In a land once verdant, once full of water and life, Arumoa had found his homeland, but not as he remembered. The great Storm God slumbered too much, the waters had lowered, the vegetation felt the strain of a land bereft of that which had for so long given it life. Some springs remained, and towards one he made his way, for once without his sister, allowing her protection to their sibling. A waterfall he made for, where in the twinkling of the drops he could quench the thirst toying at his throat, think over what was to become of his little family. A wish to rejoin that to which they had been born was strong, but strong too was a knowledge that much had passed in their absence. The King and Queen had died, and now in their place stood a child of the King and another. Confusion reigned in his mind, for how was he to approach those that now called this place home? A sigh escaped that heavily tattooed maw, a few golden pieces of his pelt catching sunlight, toyed with by the ray.
Kinyamkela knew she probably shouldn't go far from the waterfall, in case Enki returned; but she yearned for the jungle's shade for once, instead of cooling her heavy body on waterfall-splashed rocks and shadowy caves.
As she picked her way through the foliage, grey forepaws crunching dry leaf litter and twigs underfoot, she became more and more aware of how the jungle had suffered while the Storm God slept. A faint look of dismay was painted on her face as she roamed the edge of the jungle, and her senses were dulled by her loud thoughts and her own bemusingly ponderous movements. Why could she only move so clumsily?
And thus she did not realise when she came in close proximity to another, a dangerous thing to happen.
Ears ever alert, the sound of another's steps caught the lion's attention, even before the scent caught at his nose, filtered by a dull breeze. His head turned, an attempt to catch a glimpse of this other first priority. He was ill-built for camouflage, thus hiding was hardly a viable option, and instead he scrambled to make it on top of the rocks before the other's form was too close for comfort, at least some height would provide him some comfort, some semblance of safety in a place at once his home, at once entirely strange.
The sound of paws locking onto rock finally brought the snow-and-silver lioness out of her reverie and she cowered back slightly, whole form tensed to fight or flee. But as she peered in the right direction, the scent passed by softly on the breeze. A male, but not her Enki? Or Ramses or Maji. But not entirly unfamiliar...
She stepped slowly forward, circling the area, making her steps as light as possible. "Who's there?" She called in a strong voice, neither agressive or entriely welcoming.
Eyes turning, turning to keep up with the sounds of the other, the male's form relaxed slightly as a voice entered his mind. Though by no means instantly recognisable, as those he knew as well as himself, it did hold some edge of familiarity, some inkling of a former meeting. "I could ask the same," he responded, not yet willing to give in.
The lioness stepped forward cautiously. The voice was familiar as well, and as she stepped out of the trees' cover, the tattoed fur gave no mistake that she had seen this one before.
"Tar - No, Arumoa?" She said with surprise, racking her brain to remember the names. The little shadow that had been his sister had been the one that started with 'T'.
"You came back here?" A smile crossed her muzzle.
Eyes passing over the lioness' form briefly, a smile answered her own. She was truly full with cub, hardly a threat to his safety, quite the opposite. "Kinyakamela?" he attempted, blessed with enough memory, but still not entirely sure of himself. To her question, that smile broadened, a nod of the head proved it. "This was once my home, shall be again, one should not leave their home."
His words caused a brief flash of regret to appear on her face, but she smiled, stepping closer and looking around. "I'm glad you returned, Arumoa... I told my mate of you and your sister, and he was most interested that you had been born here, as he had. Is.. your sister here?" Golden eyes were curious, and she leapt heavily up to another part of the rocks, not gaining all the height, but not retaining the unnerving height difference.
At mention of his sibling, the male beamed. He was, in truth, more like a father to the girl, the eldest male in her life from her birth, and viewed her protection as his duty, his necessity. "Taruma is with my brother, we found him playing in a half-dried stream not too far off." Curiosity then took over his mind, and even his own wish for impeccable manners was overthrown. "I see your mate and yourself will soon be parents, I congratulate you. It seems he, and my brother and myself, are not the only ones to call this their birthplace."
Kinyamkela could not help the beam that brightened her entire face. "I thank you! I myself was not born here, but was descended from those that were... It is such a beautiful and restful place, I think all that were born here would be proud to name such a land their home." She smiled again, and sat down on the warm rock, letting her hind legs rest for a while. "But are you staying for good this time? It would be so good to have this land know a thriving pride once more..."
Taking her laying down as a cue, Arumoa seated himself, dropping his hind legs, encircling them tightly within his tail. "Indeed, and indeed we intend to stay, I wish to make myself known to those who now populate the lands, to rejoin the pride into which I was born, to take my father's place, I should like to know his ways continued."
"Did you ever find Maji? I remember I told you of him before..." Kinyamkela flickered her tail lightly against the flies, closing her eyes briefly from the sunlight's brightness on this little outcrop. "And I believe a few other lionesses have found their way to this land to stay as well, but they do not have the history that you do. Ah, I was glad to travel here over the mountains! All the legends of our ancestors were true... I love this land. And I'm sure you will too..."
"I have not yet found him, though I desire to speak with him, and ask that my siblings and I be allowed a place in the pride of our birth. I should be pleased to see Taruma in a place where she would have more than myself to protect her, to see where her father once lived, for she has no memories of him, a curse which myself and my brother are spared." To say that Arumoa suffered from the knowledge his sister would never meet one he held in such high esteem, the memories of whom struggled through at last despite a lifetime having to deny them, such was an understatement. He grieved for her. "Already do I love it, though I mourn it's life, for it is falling away, or so it would seem. The streams are slow, the jungle not as lush as it seems it should be."
Kinyamkela looked away for a moment, her eyes also sad. "The Storm God has not visited us in so long... I'm starting to dream of the sound of rain... but he will return to bless us, I know it." Strong convistion carried in her voice. "The pride will become strong once more... it is already beginning! And we will welcome your siblings..." She smiled softly. "When one is part of the pride, you are then family, are you not? I am sure your little sister will find plenty of willing protectors."
A bowed head met her talk of the god whose blessings should have allowed the area verdant greenery, streams that rushed along, rather than crawled, and life to rival any plain. "His blessings would be well appreciated by the soils, I am sure." He did, however, attempt to meet her eyes as she continued, small smile perking on his features. "I should be glad of such, to bring strength, and be brought such."
"And soon our little valley will have a pride that can truly care for it!" Kinyamkela smiled, and tilted her head. "If I was not so heavy with cub, I would take you to see Maji today... perhaps if you remain in the area, my mate will take you?" She thought for a moment. "And it would be nice to meet your sister again, and this brother whom I have only heard of. Perhaps you will bring them back here, and Enki can take you all..."
At the suggestion of her taking him anywhere, the male resisted a chuckle, smiling instead. "In truth, ma'am, I should feel exceedingly rude to put you to any trouble, for fear your children should arrive and punish me soundly." A chirrup of laughter here escaped him, but on her next suggestion, was replaced with gratitude. "Of your mate's services, so long as it does not steal time from your young family, I should be exceedingly grateful."
"However imminent they may be, they won't be today," Kinyamkela said cheerfully. "Or they had better not be!" She shifted unconsciously. "I'm sure Enki would love to help out. He is out hunting for us at the moment..." A faint frustrated scowl crossed her face. "I am useless to hunt for myself at the moment. Ha." The frown remained on her face, and she seemed lost in thought for a moment.
The image of her bursting into labour in his presence was, in truth, a worrying one for the adolescent, for though knowing enough of birth's facts, the idea of witnessing it gave him rather a feeling of worry. A stroke of luck he was not a father, indeed! "Should you not be enjoying the joys of having a mate almost a servant?" he chuckled, in response to her comments.
The wry comment brought her head up and she let out a short laugh before smiling. "Well of course, there is that!" Her grey capped face smiled cheekily, traces of the former expression vanished. "Don't worry, Arumoa. I'm sure he'll come back soon... I won't burden myself on you too much."
"I should think, ma'am," he continued, "one of the bright sides of bearing children would be the inevitable servitude of your mate, for what father can deny the demands of children, even before their birth?" he laughed again, before nodding at the promise of her mate's return. "I should like to meet your mate, and any others to have been born in this place."
Kinyamkela bounced, as much as she could, to her feet once more. "Well then, if we seek shade by the waterfall, we can wait for Enki there, and then you can go together to meet the others. Oh, and your siblings..." She looked anxious. "Are they far from here? You should all come." She smiled. "THe more the merrier..."
Padding after the lioness' movements, Arumoa nodded gratefully at her mention of waiting for her mate, before nodding in a rather more absent manner at her question. "They are not too far off, no doubt up to mischief."
"What else are siblings for, than to make mischief?" A grin escaped the lioness, and she tilted her head to catch the scent of water again. "The waterfall is that way... which is the direction they are?"
"In the case of mine, to create mischief on a grand scale." A grin echoed her own, before he nodded his head to the left. "That way, I believe, last seen attempting to coat the other in the most water, before being drenched themself."
To be continued.
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:56 am
[ *snuffles Nai* Sankyuuuu!! ^____________^ ]
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:22 am
Maji broke free of the plantlife around him gracefully, stepping smothely out into the small clearing and sat himself down. He had grown dramatically since he had last seen the dark lioness. A thick, silken mane of silvern lay about his head, neck, shoulders, and part of his chest, each strand moving delicately in the faint breeze that hissed through the jungle. He was much larger as well- he'd always had a muscular upper body from the constant climbing of the cliffs to and from his home, but now as a young adult it seemed more defined, more powerful. His fur had a healthy glow to it, obviously the fish diet had its benefits though recently he wasn't able to live off of the gradually declining population of fish.
"Layla, it's been too long." He said pleasently with a slight tilt of his head, "How have you been? My deepist sympathies to the loss of your mother... Baba told me all about it."
(( sorry that took so long crying ))
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