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 Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:58 pm
Sigh. There had been no action for daaays! You'd think prowling around the borders of some large pride you'd at least run into somebody, but noo. Hmph. It just wasn't fair. How was she supposed to crush male egos if she couldn't meet any of them?
Nsundu dragged her small claws down the side of a tree, too lost in her grumping to notice the sound it made. She had gotten bored of hanging around the Pridelands and so had started moving, hoping to run into somebody else on her journey. Now stopped at a watering hole, she used the time to sharpen her claws. After all, what else was there to do?
The young brown lioness took a swipe at one of the nearby branches, only to lose her balance and tumble backwards with a surprised noise. Hey! That wasn't what was supposed to happen!
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Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 2:13 pm
Banjoko was faring better the past few days than he had when he first started his journey a few weeks ago. His wounds from the crazy lion had closed entirely now, he had had some luck in hunting, and things seemed to be back on track. Feeling fine in all things, Banjoko was still traveling without any real aim or in any particular direction, just taking things as they came and treating all life he came across with civility and curiosity.
The days had been blissfully uneventful as of late, and as the young male wandered along in unfamiliar lands, he was thankful for the good day and generally feeling optimistic about life. His belly was full, his wounds had healed, and the day was still young.
Just as he was contemplating how quiet it had been of late, a strange sound put on him on alert. Though it was a short cry, Banjoko's ears swiveled and locked onto the source. The voice seemed female, possibly in distress? Hey, anything could happen. Banjoko's heart soared as he thought perhaps he could come to someone's rescue, to be a hero. That was all he really wanted.
The noble-hearted juvenile cautiously approached the source of the noise, not knowing what to expect. After all, his last two encounters had been of a decidedly unfriendly nature - Banjoko had learned to be on his guard.
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Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 2:45 pm
A damsel in distress eh? Too bad this female wasn't the type to be rescues, but the effort may be appreciated. You never know. Banjoko may very well be the first male she's stumbled upon that's her size. So, even though he might not get a chance to rescue a damsel in distress, there's a good chance he'll make it out of this one with no extra scratches or scars. This lioness generally doesn't attack lions she doesn't think she can beat.
Nsundu hit the ground with a dull thud, the impact sending her rolling towards the cautiously approaching Banjoko. When she finally stopped she was on her back, brown eyes staring up at the upside-down form of the male juvenile. She blinked owlishly up at him, head tilting to the side. Where had he come from? She was sure he hadn't been there a moment ago.
"Uh... heya?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 6:36 pm
"Good day, miss," Banjoko said cordially. He was glad to find that the source of the cry he had heard was no more than a female his own age - he hadn't met anyone his own age in a long time, and it was comforting to know he could handle this situation. He was still young, and perhaps could not always defend himself from the predators of the grasslands, but he was sure that this girl posed no threat.
She didn't appear to need rescuing, which was a shame. Still, he thought it polite to ask. "Are you in need of assistance?"
He peered down at her upside-down face as she lay on the ground in front of him. It was almost comical, but Banjoko took himself too seriously to laugh. "My name is Banjoko." His mother had taught him that good manners always included introducing yourself. But it wasn't polite to ask for the lady's name or current predicament unless she cared to give it.
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Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 6:52 pm
Good day miss? What was a miss? Maybe a title, kind of like hair. Wait, scratch that, heir. That was how Saffer had pronounced it, though the title meant very little to Nsundu. Still, apparently she was a "miss", and could only assume it was a good thing. Hold on, was she just going to assume he meant well? He was a male for pete sake! She wasn't going to assume, she was going to ask.
"I dunno what a 'miss' is, but I don't think I am one," she commented, adding as an afterthought, "Unless it's a good thing." Because really, she liked being called good things. Good attention, however mythical to her, was generally preferable over negative attention. But, of course, if none of the former could be found then she would easily settle for the latter. It was what she was used to, after all.
His question made her laugh, rolling over onto her front while still keeping her eyes on him. "Don't think so. Rolled over fine so I'm sure I'm good." This male was a bit strange – he was so serious – but company was company. Maybe she could harass him and get him to play fight. That would brighten her day quite a bit.
"Banjoko eh? 's a bit too long and formal for my tastes. How does Banny sound?" Yes, that would do nicely. Not waiting for his reply, she continued merrily onward, "I'm Nsundu. You hang around here?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:08 am
Banjoko looked curiously at the female. She didn't know what miss meant? He assumed that was a well-known word. Oh well, he thought, when meeting new people you can't just assume they know things you do. "It's simply a respectful term to call a lady," Banjoko said, having to search his memory to really find out the meaning of the term. He never thought about what it meant, he always just said it without thinking.
Banjoko didn't know what he said to make her laugh, but it wasn't a laugh of malice, so he shrugged it off. He didn't think she was laughing at him, persay. But the simple fact that she had laughed had made the air more comfortable, and Banjoko felt himself relax. "Yes, you seemed fine - but I wanted to make sure, you know. Just in case."
Banjoko's eyes widened considerably at her next words and nearly fell over himself stuttering. "B-b...Banny?" That -hardly- seemed an appropriate alteration of his name. It sounded like something you would call a...a...rabbit, or something. His pride was wounded just a bit, enough to make his stiff shoulders slump. "Al...alright. I suppose you may call me that if it pleases you." But he surely didn't think his name was that long or complicated!
"It's nice to meet you, Nsundu. No, I don't frequent these lands. I'm a rogue, and I'm traveling the world at the moment. I go wherever I please," he hadn't planned to say that last bit, but he liked it at soon as it came out of his mouth.
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 11:11 am
Again with these foreign terms! Where exactly was this guy from anyways that he knew all these weird words to call people? Nsundu's nose scrunched as he told her it was a respectful term to call a lady. "Yeah but what's a lady?" She persisted, not entirely sure what this male was getting at. First he says miss, and now a lady. Either she needed to get out more, or males were starting to speak their own language. Urg. What a thought. Without a doubt, this male was one of those "intelligent" males. He was, after all, making up his own words.
Aaaw, did he just stutter over his new nickname? Nsundu grinned widely at him as she pulled herself up into a sitting position. She waited with almost bated breath for some kind of protest, however even though Banny's shoulders slumped he accepted the name. Oh man, this was definitely one of those thinking lions! He was taking cute nicknames even though he didn't like them! She couldn't believe her luck. This day was looking up already.
Her ears perked at his final comment, finding the slightly spunky undertone to his words interesting. So he was a thinking lion but he went where he pleased? Not bad at all. Plus one for Banny. "Traveling the world? You looking for something or just going around 'cause you want to?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:26 pm
Banjoko stifled a laugh, which would have been very unfriendly and probably offended the girl in front of him. He didn't mean to laugh, it's just that he had never heard of anyone who knew so little vocabulary. "Lady is simply a word that refers to a female," he explained patiently. "Being called lady is a good thing," he assured her. "A lady has...poise, and grace, and good manners, and it often means she is beautiful as well." He tried to explain further his definition of the word, but he could only think of more words that she probably didn't know the meaning of. "I call every girl lady unless she proves to me that she is not worth of the word."
Banjoko's yellow eyes watched as the young female sat up and began to wear a mischievous look. He wasn't sure what to make of her yet; his eyebrow cocked in amused curiosity.
He was pleased that she expressed interest in where he came from; he had not yet gotten to share his story with any outsiders except that crazy lion who had given him scars. "Well, both, actually. I have a desire to see the world, yes. The home that I was born into is a wonderful place, but it is - and I was also - very sheltered. I did not wish to live my life passively, without adventure or excitement, as my mother wished to do. Also," he changed topics, his voice becoming more earnest - softer and slower. "I am looking for my father. I have never met him, and I know nothing about him except his name and the fact that I take after him - so my mother says, anyway. My greatest dream is to meet him - to know him - this is what I strive for. Even if he does not care to meet me..." Banjoko had to pause here, and regain his strength. It would not due to show sadness in his voice to this stranger. "I have to know he exists."
For a moment he paused, reflecting, fighting back the tender feelings that the imagined image of his father provoked. When he had collected himself, he felt as though he had spoken far too much about himself, and then changed direction of the conversation to the girl. "What about you, though? Is your home near here?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 4:32 pm
A word that refers to a female. Got it. Nsundu frowned slightly. But why not call a female a female? Was there really any need to refer to them by another word? Her frown lifted, however, the moment Banny told her that it was a good thing, unable to help a giggle when he added on more qualities than just being a female. So that's why he was changing words. Why didn't he say it meant a pretty female in the first place? She didn't know what manners or grace were, but since the last two adjectives were good she'd assume the other two followed suit. The last part about proving otherwise was easily dismissed by Nsundu, who was still caught up in this new complimentary word she'd learned. "So if I'm a lady, what does that make you?"
She listened quietly as he started to tell his story, interested the moment he said he didn't want to live a passive life. Not bad for an intelligent lion. And what kind of mother told their child to stay back instead of going out to find their rhythm? Oh well. Banny had enough smarts in him to venture out on his own, so he couldn't be all that bad. Nsundu's ears perked when Banjoko lowered her voice, leaning forward to better catch what he was saying. A quest to find his father? She didn't know why someone would want to find their father – hers hadn't been around and she was born and she didn't want to look for him – but the young male made the quest sound almost noble. Perhaps it was a boy thing.
The young lioness nodded after his story, before grinning when he turned the question back on her. "I have no home. My mum let me go when I was little to find my rhythm, and I've been hanging around here ever since." She stared at Banjoko thoughtfully for a moment, before adding, "Is finding your father helping you find your rhythm?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:42 am
What did that make him? Banjoko was taken aback. He didn't know if there was a male counterpart to the word "lady." Now that there was a question he didn't know the answer to, Banjoko began to feel somewhat panicked to be put on the spot. He didn't want to say that he didn't know, so his mind raced to find a good answer. "Well, I am..." he really didn't have any kind of answer planned. "I am simply...me."
He realized how lame that sounded and shook his head, for once letting go of the prideful tone that was meant to impress her. He became himself again, if just for a moment - nothing more than a male juvenile. He gave her a sheepish, if still cocky, grin. "To be honest, I don't know. My mother only told me to call girls ladies, to be nice to them. She didn't ever say if I had my own word." He shrugged, realizing that perhaps that sounded silly - but at least it was the truth.
He listened in turn to her story; short as it was, it still was interesting to Banjoko, who had a curiosity for everything and everyone who was different. "It is sad that you have no home. Knowing I have a good place to go back to at the end of my journey is very comforting."
He looked at her curiously. Now she was using words he didn't know - but that was okay, because he assumed it was a local word he wasn't supposed to already know. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let on that he didn't know. He tends to act like he knows everything.
"Rhythm?" he asked. "What is...rhythm? How do you find it?" This was getting interesting.
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:02 am
"You're… simply you?" Nsundu repeated, unable to keep the teasing tone from her voice. It really was a lame answer. A little bit of showing off was all fine and dandy, but covering up not knowing with a lame answer wasn't very cool. Even so, the fact that Banny realized that got him brownie points in her book. She grinned back at him, waiting for the real answer to her question. "Your mum told you to be nice to girls? Not a bad lioness. But still… if there's a word for females there's gotta be one for males." It was just the way things worked. "Well if I'm a lady, you can be a laddie. How does that sound? You can tell everyone it means clever, cool male." There. That settled it.
She simply shrugged when he said that it was sad not to have a home. When you've never had one it's hard to imagine one, much less miss it. It was her turn to stare when Banjoko confessed he didn't know what Rhythm was. And he was supposed to be a smart male! "Rhythm is… well, rhythm is in everything. Think of walking. You walk to four beats. Now, if you wanted to, you could walk to more or less, and the beats you make on the ground are the rhythm. I guess it's almost how you live, in a way, since you experience it in other people. At some point in your life you find your own rhythm. It's supposed to just come to you. You just know." It was hard to explain a concept she didn't really understand herself, but that was the best she could come up with. "We call our own rhythm Moyo'mahadhi. It means it was born in your heart."
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:41 pm
Banjoko was able to take the teasing tone of Nsundu's voice because he understood that it was earned. Prideful, perhaps even arrogant as he may be, he knew when he had messed up. "Yes, my mother had been a very....feminist female before she had cubs. She instilled in me the values she held dear." Thinking about his strong mother made him wistful for just a moment, but he had already accepted the fact that he would not see her for some time.
"A laddie, hm?" It didn't sound too bad. He nodded his acceptance of the word, but still thought in his mind that he wasn't going to ever use it, much less tell other people about it.
When she began her speech about rhythm, Banjoko was truly lost. All of that stuff just went over his head - still, he nodded along and appeared interested. It was interesting - after all, part of the reason he left his home was to experience new people and places and their ideas. It just wasn't his type of thing. "I'm not sure if I have my own rythm," Banjoko said, trying to make conversation on a topic he didn't understand. "What if your rhythm never comes to you?
Who do you mean by 'we'?" He made an act of looking around. "I only see one of you." Then he cocked his head and smiled at her in a playful teasing way.
Born in your heart, huh? Banjoko wasn't sure he got the whole idea of rhythm, but he liked the sound of those four words.
Banjoko's internal time clock was beginning to poke at him insistently. He always felt guilty about staying still for too long unless he was sleeping; he did have a lot of ground to cover if he was going to find one lion among thousands before he got old and died.
He had really enjoyed conversing with the lioness, but he simply couldn't spend the whole day chatting. "Well, it was very nice speaking with you, Miss Nsundu. I did enjoy it very much. However, my journey does not like to be delayed very long. I hear the world calling me." He just made that up on the spot, but it sure sounded good. I'll need to use that more often, he thought. It made him sound like such an...adventurer. "Good bye, lady," he said, purposely using the word. "Good luck finding your rhythm."
He bowed his head in a polite way, and took a few steps past her. But a thought had occured to him then, and he stopped and turned around to face her. "Unless," he said, the idea just forming in his mind. "Unless you'd like to come with me? You said you had no home and you seem to have no one with you. We could keep each other company, for as long as you would like to travel with me. Perhaps you could find your rhythm somewhere else?"
He liked Nsundu in the way that she wasn't abrasive, she was intelligent, and she kept him on his toes - enough to keep him guessing but not enough to anger him. He liked that he could teach her things, and she could teach him things. That's all. He offered friendship to her, and while he would enjoy having someone to talk to - the savannah can be an awfully boring place for lion on his own - if she turned him down, it would not break his heart. He could still walk away without any care.
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 6:22 pm
Nsundu could only blink thoughtfully at Banjoko's question about the rhythm. "I... didn't even think of that. I guess you're just lost your entire life. I can't imagine it happens that often." The thought of not finding her rhythm was a little frightening. She'd been brought up to believe that she'd had to find it, and that one day she would. The young lioness didn't much like the thought of spending her whole life looking for her rhythm, however she would do what needed to be done. She believed that it would come to her one day, and then she would be whole.
"Oh, we? Weeelll, my mother used to tell me stories of her old pride, and they used to call it that. So I guess by bloodline I'm part of that old pride, and so we call each person's individual rhythm that," she replied, hoping that it wouldn't confuse Banjoko. She didn't know enough about the pride to tell him any details, only that it was rhythm centred and he mother used to live there.
Her ears perked when he began what she recognized as an ending to the conversation. She only nodded when he said that he would have to start on his journey again, knowing the feeling. Banjoko was probably eager to go on his quest, his goal almost as his finger tips. Nsundu had felt the same way when she'd set out on her quest to find her rhythm. The more time progressed, however, the harder it was to maintain the optimism. Still, Banjoko seemed to be in good spirits, and she hoped that he would finish his journey. "Good luck finding your father as well!"
The young lioness hesitated at his question, turning to look at him over her shoulder. Come with him? She'd never traveled together with another lion, having only barely spent time with her own mother. But this lion had a purpose and she... well, she was almost worried she'd slow him down. With a sort of sad smile, Nsundu shook her head.
"I'd slow you down. You got a real purpose and places to go. It's not good to take the lost on a journey when you know what you're looking for."
Her smile turned cheeky as she swatted playfully at him. "But we'll see each other again, and you'll have lots of stories to tell me, won't you?" She gave him a final friendly shoulder rub, before turning and heading back to the watering hole.
Nsundu had a definite feeling she would meet the lion again, and she found herself rather anticipating the meeting.
[ I would send her with him, but I've just started her pride plot so I'm trying to tie up all RP with her as a juvenile. XD But they'll have to meet again sometime. <3333 ]
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 12:32 pm
((Oh I understand, I pretty much figured she couldn't go with him. But it was IC of Banjoko to at least ask wink He intends to pick up a few fellow travelers along the way, make a little band of friends to keep him company smile ))
"As you wish," said the young male. It didn't hurt his feelings that she couldn't go with him - her reasons made sense, and that was it. "When my journey is over and I come through these lands to return home, I am sure we will meet again - and then you can tell me all about your rhythm, and I can regale you with the many tales of my adventure!" Oh, that sounded good.
He grinned at her with the excitement of his adventure coursing through his veins. "Fare you well until that day, my lady Nsundu."
And with a deep, somewhat over-the-top bow, Banjoko turned and headed into the horizon.
((Ahh so cheesy. xD They will definitely have to meet again <3))
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