[PRP] Slave and Demon, Mother and Son (Chanoch and Mvua) FIN

[Mogami]

Chanoch was lying on the ground, chest heaving in a slow and steady rhythm and an unyielding blue gaze traveling from one passerby to the next. His narrowed eyes were mere slits as the cub craned his neck to look back at the white lioness behind him. His… mother. It was so strange, so very strange that this was the lioness that had given birth to him. Pure white, weak, demonless.

His sister had some of Mvua’s blue and they both had her eyes and nose. His brother had a white tuft of air on his head, her blue and, just like Chanoch, a cluster of spots on his hind leg. They were definitely related to her no doubt about it but he could feel no familial connection to the white female, a sense of rejection quickly growing in the young cub when he’d found about his own demon and what his mother was. He’d have to find a tutor on his own later in life, someone who could teach him about his inner demon. Mvua would be completely useless in that regard and that greatly annoyed the boy who always hated to take the initiative (though her master seemed like she would take an interest in the cubs). Chanoch sighed deeply which in his case consisted of exhaling most of the air in his little lungs while a low rumble echoed in his throat, almost like a quiet growl.  

[fuKurohane]

Mvua held herself stiffly at the back of the den, her light blue eyes glowing out from the shadows. Even in the shadows, her white pelt shone vividly with an obvious lack of any demonic power. Her skin was riddled with scars, invisible shackles of her slave-status. It had been a little while now, and the cubs had been almost weaned from her, but her belly was still slightly swollen with milk. The rest of her body was growing visibly thin, her eyes sinking into their sockets. She lived in constant terror now - and this is what that had done to her. Every waking moment was utter fear, utter disgrace, total horror at what she had done. She should have expected dark cubs from this litter, and she knew it. Tamana had such black, black fur. But she didn't think that there would be so many of them! It was perfectly halved: three dark, three light. Tama took the light ones away to his pride so that they wouldn't be born into slavery. So that they wouldn't be born like herself. She shuddered at that thought. She would never want anyone to live the life that she had lived. Cubnapped so young, cast aside as a plaything her entire life - she wished that on no one.

But instead, she was left with these. The only thing more horrible than slavery were these cubs. Darkness borne onto demon lands were born demons. She had given birth to demons. Dark creatures of the night, Hellfire Children, Aikanaro'hini. She still trembled at the thought. How could she have done this? How could she have borne so much evil to the world? How could she have created the very thing that she feared the most?

She lived in a nightmare. She longed for her beloved Tama's presence. How she wished that she could have run away with him. But that wasn't in the cards. So she sat there in the darkness, gazing with fearful eyes upon her own personal spawn of Satan.  

[Mogami]

Chanoch's upper lip pulled upwards revealing a tiny canine tooth in a displeased snarl. Look at her, he could practically taste the fear emanating from her offensively white coat. How was he supposed to believed that he had come from her body, that it had been her milk that sustained him until now…? He looked at his leg where he found “The Proof” once again and then back at the white lioness.

“Oi.” He called out to her, somewhat annoyed as he realized he didn’t know what to call her – because he most certainly wasn’t going to call that “mother”. “You” or “Hey you” would work for now, the cub figured but he needed something more clear if he needed to call her from a distance… something practical. “Slave”, maybe…? Or “Mvua”…? He did know her name, after all.  

[fuKurohane]

Mvua almost lost her balance when those piercing blue eyes hit her. They were exactly like her own. It was like she was looking at a darker version of herself - though her mind corrected itself: Kaiu was her darker clone. The resemblance was stunning. It was as if she had truly been reborn into demon skin. She feared how that cub would grow. This one - "Chanoch," she answered timidly, with a nod that seemed almost more like a twitch - hardly looked like either her or Tama. That was reassuring. She had not even named them herself - Hakuna had taken that responsibility as their adoptive mother. Now they lived in her master's den, where Mvua had already been living her entire life. She couldn't escape these monsters. It was as if some foreign demon had come in and birthed itself from her womb. She was mystified about the purple - it looked like rotten blood. Like poison. Perhaps he had inherited the color from some distant relative - Mvua knew little of her own family and even less of Tama's, so it was not unlikely. But still there were the golden shimmers. Those reminders.  

[Mogami]

He stood up slowly and deliberately and took a few steps towards the white lioness, plopping down at a comfortable distance so he wouldn’t have to shout across the den every time he wanted to say something. Belatedly, he chastised himself in silence. He should’ve told her to come to him not the other way around!

“What did my father look like?” he said in his usual detached tone, growing even more annoyed as he (from his perspective, at least) openly admitted their blood connection – and his expression showed. But there were things he wanted to ask the lioness and whether he wanted to acknowledge his curiosity or not, he knew he wouldn’t be able to rest until he had settled some issues that troubled his mind.  

[fuKurohane]

The lioness pressed herself against the back of the den, visibly shrinking away from her son. She remembered how painful it had been when the three demons suckled from her - like they were drinking up her very soul. She had been cheerful once, and healthy - even an able fighter. Now she was a sack of shivering bones.

"Tamana is a beautiful lion," she said softly, allowing his name to flow like honey over her tongue. She savored it, in that brief moment. "But he is dark, with the pelt of a demon. But he is no demon!" she almost shouted, correcting herself, fearing the possibility that he was something other than the lion that she loved. "He had the lush green mane of the jungle, and rich hazel eyes." She could still feel the softness of that mane, her nose warmed by his fur. She had not seen him since he took the pale cubs back to his pride. She missed all of them - she could barely remember what those three white boys had looked like. She had known them for so little time. "He had lavender feet and ears, and a precious white nose."

Mvua's eyes lingered on her son's own white nose. "You are nothing like him."  

[Mogami]

Dark? Green mane? White nose. He sounded just like Chanoch’s sister. But demonless. Did demons only grow in lions near the volcano? No, the cub had heard of demons being brought from the outside to join the pride. Regardless of their parents, something had caused the three dark cubs to develop inner demons so Chanoch had to assume it was either the lands or the close proximity to all the demons that inhabited them.

And… Tamana. She spoke his name, which was more than the cub had expected to hear. Maybe it was because she described him as being “dark” but Chanoch couldn’t help but to feel some form of kinship with this lion he’d never seen as opposed to the repulsion he couldn’t keep from his expression right now as he stared at the lioness. Even if she’d made it sound as if he looked very little like his father. The cub stared at his mother’s markings, thinking about his siblings. None of the cubs had hazel eyes or lavender markings but perhaps the strangest thing was that none had inherited the lioness’ coat. Her blood was probably too weak in the cubs, Chanoch concluded, immediately deciding that was a good thing.

He couldn’t help but to get a sense of rejection from her last words. It wasn’t that her feelings for him bothered him, really – they seemed to rather mutual, after all – but he wasn’t happy that the white lioness had the nerve to say them aloud so openly. Then again, perhaps she was just talking about in terms of physical appearance. Blue slits remained fixed on the pale shape for what seemed like an eternity.

“Are you sure he didn’t have a demon?” he could’ve been pretending, after all, just to get some cubs out of the white lioness – not that Chanoch knew how that process worked but he knew it required a male and a female. If she was as fond of Tamana as she sounded, why hadn’t they stayed together if the male also cared for her in return…? “Why didn’t you just leave with him?”  

[fuKurohane]

Mvua had been with the Aikanaro'hini her whole life, and she had lived there almost since the pride's beginnings. That had been a long time. And with that time came knowledge and experience - and insight into dark demon secrets that neither the other slaves might know nor that she wanted to know. Dark powers that pervaded the lives of every single demon - even in her own offspring, her sons and daughter. There was this eerie way of sensing the darkness in an individual, a dead giveaway. Even the nicer demons had it - those Sparda-sided lions with "ethics and morals." If ever a demon could have such things. But Mvua had been around long enough to know a demon when she met one. "He is no demon," she repeated, her voice booming slightly in the depths of the den as she spoke with more force and determination than before. But even this small exertion exhausted her, and she collapsed inwardly even more, her fur sagging. How she wished that her Tama would never see her this way, in this wretched state. Even with a belly swollen with less than satisfactory milk, her weakness was obvious. She might as well be dead. She wanted to be, knowing what she had created. She stared fearfully into her son's eyes, those haunting echoes of her own. She sighed heavily, but she could not look away.

But then Chanoch reminded her that he was only a cub - what a fearsome demon he would grow to be, if he had such angry bitterness while only so young! Mvua hoped that she would be dead when that day came. Mkodi only knew if Tama could save her then. "You know that I cannot leave!" she spat bitterly at the dark cub, "My life belongs to Hakuna, your mother." The last word was emphasized, but not in the way that she had emphasized Tamana earlier. There was a kind of freedom in the word, a release from responsibility. There was no way that Mvua could birth these demonic creatures. They were Hakuna's.  

[Mogami]

“Tsss!” the little cub made an irritated sound and clicked his tongue, turning his head abruptly to break the eye contact, trying to ignore just how much the white lioness was annoying him right now. Couldn’t leave? She was meeting a male at the border and couldn’t leave? Or was she implying that his father was so weak he couldn’t even RUN with her until they reached a safe place? No, Chanoch wouldn’t admit that. His father was dark, strong, the cub had decided. Demonless (maybe) but definitely not so pathetic that he wouldn’t be able to take Mvua with him. Chanoch had enough weakness from one side of his family already. It was much easier to believe his father simply refused to keep such a disgusting coward around him. But he wouldn’t bother himself by saying any of those things out loud.

And while he didn’t really considered Hakuna his mother either, it did annoy the cub greatly that Mvua would say her name so carelessly without showing proper deference. He owned Hakuna a debt for taking the three cubs and raising them, after all.

“You speak very lightly of Hakuna.” He said quietly after a long silence, his tone dangerous and his eyes searching for Mvua’s again, taking in the emotions written on her face. Yes I hate you, too. “Were you thinking of her when you decided to burden her with cubs?” He felt like biting her markings off that very instant.  

[fuKurohane]

Mvua couldn't handle his words. Her eyes burned beneath his gaze. How could such a young thing be so vicious? Of course, he was a demon. She had seen many demons born and grow within the pride - it was indeed flourishing, a haven of evil. The volcano growled in the distance, that birthplace of hell, where the souls of Mvua's dark cubs had been awoken. Her trembling broke down to a horrible shudder, and she collapsed on the cold floor with a pathetic whimper. Her weakness was so contrasted by Chanoch's repulsed strength - she was continually proving her wretchedness in his eyes, and it was unbearable to her. She longed for her beloved Tama and the cubs she might never see again.

But she couldn't answer him. He knew the correct answer already, but she couldn't tell him that they had been a mistake. That Hakuna was never supposed to know. That he and the others shouldn't even exist. Mvua screamed unintelligible words at him, despair and hopelessnes flowing off her heaving shoulders, embodying patheticness.  

[Mogami]

Chanoch watched his mother shudder and whimper through his narrowed gaze, repulsion being the easiest emotion to identify in his harsh expression. He’d leave her be for now. Even though he hadn’t even touched her she was broken in mind and body – not that a cub like him could deal much damage even if he’d wanted to. It seemed his presence alone was enough to drain her.

When Mvua started screaming, however, there was a hint of innocence in his surprised expression, like in a child who is unsure of what to say or do when facing an unexpected situation. Wide eyes closed in an instant as soon as he realized her actions had somehow affected him. It looked like a demon had suddenly possessed her but she couldn’t handle its presence. Though it was unlikely that any demon would ever choose his moth-…Mvua to control. No point, really.

“So weak. It makes sense that no white cubs were born. Even your blood is weak.” He stood up slowly and paced away back to the entrance of the den, plopping down just outside. There was a small cluster of uneasiness in his chest that he was heavily trying to suppress by taking notice of the sights, sounds and scents around him. “If there had been any they would’ve died at birth, most likely.”  

[fuKurohane]

Mvua trembled on the ground, curled in a tight ball, peeking out at her spawn, which so freely denounced her. She was so fragile now, and this confrontation had broken her. Her eyes glowed weakly out at him as he turned his back on her. His dark, unfamiliar back was so different from the white of the other cubs. He would likely never know. She had to protect them. But if only he knew, if only he could know that he was not so great, that he shared blood with three white brothers, stricken with the sign of slavery. But they were out there, somewhere, with Tamana. They, unlike Chanoch, bound by his future demon in a horrible irony, were free.  

[Mogami]

Chanoch ignored the sound of soft rustling behind him as he silently fought to control his breathing and heart beat at the mouth of the den. His light eyes searched for interesting targets that could keep his attention as far away from the lioness that birthed him as possible. He didn’t need anything else from her. He didn’t have any more questions and she had nothing that could hold his interest. And her obvious rejection of him only served to further increase his own. As all hints of a bond, of emotional connection got the final snip, Chanoch thought Mvua might as well be dead. In the cub’s mind, the pathetic excuse for a lioness was already little more than his stepmother’s weak slave.

- FIN! -