Sister? (Aruná, Udongo)

[Annchen]

The fight was over and the Stormborn had a new warleader, apparently. It would probably affect her in some way, but it wasn't the most important thing that had happened today. Aruná had finally seen her sister in the crowd when she was leaving. She bit her tongue until she tasted blood, but she didn't call out to her. Udongo looked all right from a distance, and Aruná had followed her, waiting for the right moment to talk to her.

It might not look right to approach a thrall, after all. Shouting her name, like she would have liked to, would have been even worse. Aruná didn't have much of a plan, but if she was going to help Udongo excape it would be better if no one suspected they might know each other.

When she was confident they were as alone as one could be in pride territory she dared to call out.

"Hallo there, thrall," she called, and it nearly killed her to use that word, but if anyone heard her... Oh, screw it! "Udongo!"  

[Pearlyblue]

Udongo plodded away from the scene of the old Warlord's defeat, not minding any bumps she got as the crowd dispersed around her. Some people seemed pretty devastated that the orange-striped one had been defeated, others seemed almost elated. Her ears picked up cries, whispers and heated arguments, but as the crowd grew thinner so did the noise.

Udongo wasn't sure what a new Warlord could mean for her, she was a thrall, after all, how much could her life change? But she was a little saddened to see the old Warlord fall. Not because she had known him or heard good things about him or anything, but mostly just because he reminded her of Aruna. Seeing him fall despite how well he had fought had touched a nerve inside her. Until now, she had been pretty sure that her resourceful sister would be okay out there, somewhere, but... What if she wasn't? Stuff could happen - even really sad stuff. Especially if Udongo wasn't there to help out.

She hung her head a little and studied the ground, so preoccupied by uncomfortable musings that she didn't react at first, when a familiar voice called out to a thrall. But only instants later she felt as though lightning struck her brain. Aruna? Was she thinking so hard about her sister that she was starting to imagine things?

She turned so quickly that she almost tripped over her own paws, and her eyes landed on the wonderfully familiar figure.

"Aruna? Aruna!" The huge, dark lioness started bouncing like a cub, she couldn't help herself, and she half ran, half stumbled towards her sister. "You're okay! You're okay! Oh, I've missed you!"  

[Annchen]

Aruná let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. It was Udongo, and she was all right! Many fearsome thoughts had haunted her lately. What if she was wrong in her assumption and Udongo wasn't here? What if she had been killed along the way? What if she hated her for not coming sooner?

She threw caution to the wind and ran to meet her sister. It was so good to be able to head butt her and feel her scent again. There was a new tone to it, perhaps from living in this new place, but there was no doubt that it was still her sister.

"Are you all right," she asked, "Did anyone hurt you? Where's that mangy lion that took you, do you know? I should kick his a**!"

Too many questions at once, but it had been so long and she couldn't force herself to speak slowly and ask questions one at a time. She'd heard things about how female thralls were treated. And while she was sure Udongo could hold her own if she wanted to, she knew that her sister could be too kind for her own good.

Pearlyblue

 

[Pearlyblue]

Udongo happily let her sister headbutt her, and rubbed her own face against any part of Aruná that she could reach. It was wonderful to be able to fill her nose with Arunás familiar scent.

"I'm fine, just fine! And you're okay! And you're here!" Udongo's paws trembled with the crazy urge to topple Aruná over and wrestle her just out of sheer happiness. It was probably better not to give in to that idea, at least not while Udongo was this excited.

"I don't know where he is," she said in reply to her sister's question. "And I don't really care. Don't think I've seen him since I got here. It doesn't matter. You're here, and you're okay! Did you find the kill I made? I really wanted to show you. Did you get to eat it?"

Annchen

 

[Annchen]

Aruná gave her sister a thorough sniff-over and licked down an errant tuft of fur while she was at it. Udungo was here, and she was okay. She was almost willing to forgive the viking-stormborn that had stolen her. She'd find out his name later, but right now she was just too happy and relieved to keep the spark of anger burning. No one messed with her "little" sister. No one!

"I found it," Aruná said, "And at first I thought you'd brought in a stray... There was this pathetic young thing of a lion eating from it."

Tragedy plus time equals comedy, and now when she knew Udongo was ok Aruná found her encounter with the lion and vulture kind of funny. She wondered what the little lion thought about it.

"I nearly kicked his butt before he told me he'd just found the kill abandoned like that," she chuckled, "But in the end he gave me some clues as to what I should look for and I let him take some of the kill as a thank you. Taking down that wildebeest was impressive!"

She punctuated her statement with another headbutt.

Pearlyblue

 

[Pearlyblue]

Udongo laughed at Aruná's story, and glowed at the praise.

"I'm so glad it didn't go to waste. I worked real hard at bringing it down and it fought back and I was all sore all over. And then that little kid..." Her face fell and her ears started drooping as she remembered the other thing that she had to tell Aruná.

"I'm really sorry that I just went away like that. You must've been so worried. But I just couldn't fight him. The little Viking. He was so young and so much smaller than me, and so angry that I think there might have been something wrong in his head. I mean, he didn't even want the wildebeest in the end, he just left it there. But he said that if I didn't want to fight him, and I really didn't, then I had to come with him and be a 'thrall'. I just didn't know what to do. I'm really, really sorry."

She hung her head, to emphazise her apology - and also because she really felt ashamed when she remembered what she must have put her sister through.  

[Annchen]

Aruná listened to her sister's story, head tilting slightly to the side as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing. If anyone else had told her this, she would have a hard time understanding or even believing it. But this was Udongo, and it made sense, somehow. The viking hadn't overpowered her, there had been no struggle. She'd just gone with him since he was small and weak? Yeah, that actually sounded like something that could happen.

"Udongo..." Aruná said and rubbed her head against Udongo's, "It's okay now. I'm here and we can start figuring out how to get away."

Finding Udongo and rescuing her had always been the end goal, but her plan got a lot sketchier after 'find Udongo'. There had to be some way to slip away from here, right? Maybe pretend they were both new freeborn going on a hunting trip, or something... Her sister might have ideas, since she'd been here longer.

Pearlyblue

 

[Pearlyblue]

Udongo responded in kind to her sister's headrubs, and cracked a small smile. Aruná had forgiven her. That felt good, even though the whole thing still felt pretty embarrassing.

Then she straightened up, and gave Aruná a slightly confused smile.

"Okay... But where do we go? And why do we have to get away? This place isn't so bad, you know. Everybody's healthy, there's plenty of food, and a lot of the creatures here are really decent. They're a bit weird 'cause they don't think pelt colors mean anything, but they're strong and... Decent. And wouldn't we be safer in a pride than on our own?"

She absolutely didn't mean to question Aruná's judgement or anything. Udongo was quite convinced that her sister was "the smart one" out of the two of them. It's just that she had had time to get to know the pride, and time to think about the future, and now she just honestly wanted to know if Aruná had any new input, information or ideas that maybe Udongo herself hadn't considered yet.  

[Annchen]

Aruná inhaled as if to speak, but she couldn't really come up with anything to say and just stood for a while with her mouth slightly open. She suddenly remembered one of their old Minders and what the elderly lioness used to say 'don't stand there catching flies'. She shut her mouth. Udongo had some compelling arguments to stay, but Aruná didn't have many in favor of leaving. However, her gut feeling said it was right to try to skip this pride and sooner or later she'd be able to come up with a good reason why.

"Let's not worry about it for now," she decided, "Would you like to show me around? "

She wondered if Cy would wait for her, and how long... Would Janja'Nafsi try to follow them or find some other place to call home? She sighed. There was no use dwelling on that right now. She smiled as she looked back at Udongo. If her sister said this was a decent place with decent people she'd at least give it the benefit of the doubt.

Pearlyblue

 

[Pearlyblue]

Udongo waited patiently while Aruná thought about it. At least it seemed like her sister didn't have an immediate plan, or any particular other place in mind. When she said they'd worry about it later, Udongo nodded happily. Whatever came next, leave ir stay, they'd do it together - and that was all that mattered.

"Yes, sure! I'll show you everything I know!"

(I think this scene is pretty much done now?)