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Aithne turned toward the male that mentioned that they all looked like Fia and Nyimak and she couldn't help but to laugh some at that comment she flicked her tail behind her and then shook her head. "most have big families in this pride, we share families." She said at the idea of her sisters and her niece. She wasn't a too well known child of Kidondo and No's she really stuck out some times. She had a firey temper like her sisters Ea and Fia but the major difference was that she really blended into the pride. She turned and started to look at the stuff in front of her. Checking out the remains of dead animals and other things. She was pretty plain but she didn't care as much as the others. honestly she thought that they shouldn't be seen at all. They needed to be sneaky.

She grabbed the first two things she saw broken antelope horn and some flexible root, skinny root something that she could easily get around her ankle and spend a few seconds tying it around her ankles as carefully as she could. This was really frustrating she found. But she managed, she really wasn't sure how secure it was but either way she stood back up and flicked her tail behind her and then turned to the others. "I say we move." She insisted as she stared at the snake she was starting to think that he was the smartest one out of all of the others. She flicked her tail and started to wander forward some. She was starting to get a little aggravated but she decided to keep her mouth shut.

Shrugging, Morag decided to let the rat live. She wasn't hungry enough to eat it and it wasn't worth the time to kill it. She scared it off with a hiss and a baring of fangs before she turned and walked among the others, deciding she was probably inconspicuous enough she probably didn't need anything to wear. It was time to get going, she'd agree to that much. Time to leave the graveyard behind.

Heading out, she did give her brother a look of askance though, at the bright gold thing he had on his forehead. It wasn't exactly what the rest had chosen, but to each their own, she guessed. Even if he looked strange...

"You seem to know a lot about the land we're passing through, Elcca, but everyone has been rather closed mouthed about what exactly these Nergui are like. They keep slaves, they act like monsters, they have strange markings and wear strange things... but is there more to it, that everyone speaks of them with such fear and loathing? I do not have experience in the war effort and I think I've been out of the loop... After all, not too long ago the Firekin had their own slaves, before the Regents came and outlawed the practice. That was... long before I was born though." She said as she walked, wondering again at their lack of a clear leader or even the one who had set them on this adventure.

Saoi of course, already decorated, now had the awareness to notice the snake's unease. He looked like he was about to strike even! Peri swooped down in warning, talons flashing and a screech behind his beak. He still remained just out of the snake's strike range though. "Back off, belly-crawler...They won't be long." The bird was clearly unhappy with the threat to the lions. After all, he liked the lions.

Saoi frowned at the bird, but was pleased it had leapt to defend him. Despite the snake's angry display, he leaned closer, peering at it. "Why? It's just another bird. There's plenty here. Like Yoan, and Peri. If there's danger about, you'd do better to tell of it, not just harry us to run for no reason. Though...we probably should press on." He shuffled a bit, and seemed to think. "But the disguises would help, if it's what the Nergui normally wear. We're just trying to be cautious. Not all of us can slip between two stones and vanish, coiled up."

Elcca's ears perked. While she might have been one of the more knowledgable members of the group, unfortunately, she wasn't anything near an expert. As someone who liked to consider herself knowledgable on anything and everything, it was a bit frustrating to say the least. "I'm afraid what I know is mostly second hand. When I traveled the northlands, they hadn't yet spread so far south. You could still walk in territory they occupied, so long as you gave them a wide berth."

She continued her slow stride up the rock face as she spoke. As she did, she recalled the last meeting held with the Hongshan. Had it been that long ago? "They are a large pride. They have a homeland, but bits and pieces of the group break off and spread according to the will of whomever leads them. Some Graos Oma. He must not travel with them, because the Hongshan don't remember anyone acting in charge. Or maybe they simply don't defer to leadership as most lions do."

"They seem to use disunity and confusion against their enemies. They spare some prides, attack the others for seemingly no purpose. They speak in bizarre, half dialects. All things to put you on the wrong foot," she mused. She was entering into her own hypothesis now. "They are searching for something, I think. They had the Hongshan spend hours digging for nothing, moving them errantly. Their pattern of attacks could mean that it has nothing to do with the size or power of the pride they're facing, but something that they want."

"What they want, of course, its hard to say. I doubt they're simply looking to spread chaos, or conquer for the sake of war. And why pick a fight with the firekin? Why go to such lengths to make sure the Motoujamii is well aware they are coming?" She mused.

Elcca nodded her head in the direction of the few Hongshan members with them. "As for their actual behaviors, only they would know. Like I said, I gave them a wide berth."

----

If a bird could smile, Yoan surely would have. He nodded his head appreciatively as the other bird chattered on. "It is no problem at all. If only all friends could be made so easily."

He was about to flutter back to Elcca's shoulder when the low caw of a raven practically sent a ruffle through the small crow's feathers. His bright eyes narrowed a bit as he glanced upwards, skeptically watching the other dark creature.

"Omen or not, I have yet to meet a trustworthy raven," he commented flatly.

"What could we have that they want if they are digging though?" they did not have land with flourishing water, at least, not now. Their numbers were great, yes, but the nergui seemed bent on destroying the pride, not taking it over. Beneath the sands was there something more? Mwako'damu looked to Kooka who was playing with the coin, and back to the others as they moved.

"What do they find worth in, trinkets? Gold, like the coins?" he pondered, "was the troop of baboons attacked because the nergui sought the coins here, or that they had found?" Mwako'damu knew some of the firekin had found marvelous things in the sand. Strange, this was becoming interesting.

They valued something in the ground.

Did they want to over power the firekin to get them all to dig?

Kooka looked up though, to the male who had found the feather, and Kooka fluttered over to him, coin in claw of course. Kooka would not drop it.

"Kooka help lion, though lion can't be bird, no, not bird, give to Kooka," Kooka took the feathers carefully and placed them within the male's mane in a manner that would make it darker from a distance away. Kooka also strung them into the male's tail fluff by moving around the fur to braid the feathers within it, almost. Kooka was not so neat always. "Do not have time for too much, but will help give darker from far away, give texture, yes. Hope Kooka helped," Kooka said with a smile to Mkazo and the bird went back to Mwako'damu to rest on the shoulder under the pelt.

They were making good distance, but they had to keep moving.

Elcca mentioned the slavery that the Nergui had the Hongshan do while in their hostage. Laugh as they watched on as the Hongshan dug through the ground looking for whatever it was that the monsters sought. By days end, nothing would turn up but scrapped, cut, dirty paws and a hot lion exhausted to even make the walk back to the camp. Yet, each day was the same for the Hongshan; dig, move, dig, move, dig, move, dig, move. Thabiti growled at the idea, even more so as he looked through the sockets of his helmet. Looking at it now, it was a disgusted idea that he wanted to appear as one!

"Nergui never worked. Hongshan died. Found nothing at all," With a snarl, he swiped the skull from his head as it shattered against a rock, the shrapnel falling to meet other bones. His chest heaved beneath the scrap hide upon his neck and shoulders.

"Why Nergui torture Hongshan? What worth finding?" His emotions were slowly taking over, but not of revenge but to seek answers why his brothers and sisters had perished.

"Did Fire kin find..." The dark Hongshan flicked a coin into the graveyard. "these?" Did the Firekin find something? Would that be of any indication of what the Nergui were looking for?

Elcca shook her head as Thabiti raged. If her face could show some sadness, it did for just a moment. "I don't know. I doubt it. I doubt any of these things have to do with Nergui. They're just the end of the line for generations of travelers. These little gold things I've seen before. If all the nergui were looking for was trinkets, they'd surely have them by now."

But what were they looking for? Was it even something tangible? Maybe they tortured the Hongshan just for the sake of breaking them. Maybe there was some religious significance in searching. Maybe they'd found an object blessed by the gods, and sought to find more. Without more information, Elcca had very little to suggest.

"I used to search for things myself, things that had power," she thought back, somewhat distantly. "But in my time in the Northlands, we never crossed paths. Although I crossed many other treasure hunters and thieves."

---

Yoan might have been a bit prejudicial against ravens, but what that raven said struck an uneasy cold in his heart. Almost immediately his wings began to burn with nerves. Had anyone else heard what that other bird had said? Of course not, they will still rambling!

"Elcca," he said in a low, warning voice. But as usual, she was chattering away and out of earshot. For a pair that had worked together as long as they had, one would think they would function together a bit more effectively. Alas.

Yoan suddenly spread his black wings and took to the air, wheeling around where the new bird had landed. "He's recognized us," he said sharply to anyone who was near.

And another bird came down to interfere?

Itzcoatl hissed wildly, snapping his head forwards to keep the talons away. "You ssstay out of the way." He bit out. And then to the lion, Saoi: "You know nothing. The black raven ssspellsss darknessss and trouble." And here it was, appearing shortly after them. Coincidence? No, certainly not.

And, how ironic that it was only the other dark avian of their group who would agree with them. But no one else seemed to be listening to the words the raven spoke. The raven was there declaring that he recognised the lions and yet everyone seemed to be focused on other far less important things.

Oh, oh, there we go. Yoan had gotten their attention.

He spat, enraged. "Oh yesss, jussst a bird. Jussst an ordinary bird." He mocked angrily. "You do not ussse your eyesss. Or your headsss." They were doomed. All of them.