|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 3:22 am
Run in opposite directions? Get real. Since he was so generous, Sema would call what he had "a feeling" rather than a certainty.
Ahem.
Sema had ~a feeling~ that Absai hoped he would agree to the plan and that he just-so-happened to run slower. His brother could be such a... such a... such a whatever the nice way of calling someone a lazy coward was.
None the less, family was family, and Sema would not allow them to perish on his watch. "I'll go," he volunteered.
Roka was ready to keel over by time she met Sema in the middle. Why was the desert so hot and humid? Where was the God for this place so she could complain?
--Oh, s**t. What if it was one of these two? What if she'd just barged in the middle of some God-on-God war?
"I..." she panted. "My friend -- no, this... this stupid Goddess... I'm not -- I'm not with her if she tries anything, just --" Cough. Hack. Gag. "--Just so you know."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:20 am
"That doesn't seem like a good idea, Sema." Go what? Get mauled. Abasi wasn't about to leave his brother behind, however. And, it seemed that there was no choice in the matter. His brother was decidedly marching out.
"Sema," Abasi whispered after him, looking the other direction and back. Couldn't they just leave well enough alone. Abasi was all for being valiant, but not when it was just dumb. Meeting a charging lioness was dumb.
"Sema come on!" Shaking his head, Abasi broke into a jog, and then into a run to catch up to his unruly brother. There was no way he was going to let him do this alone. That would have been a betrayal of trust, and an a*****e move. Abasi was no jerk!
Uuni, meanwhile, had, through more use of ego than she'd cared to spend, caught up to Roka. The goddess could feel the sun, hot on her black hair, and she eyed the two males with a pursed muzzle that no one could see.
"Friend?" she blurted out. Well, that blew her cover, didn't it? Not that Roka hadn't already. The goddess materialized then, slowly letting the illusion of not being there waver and fall into nothing.
"Damn it, Roka," she sighed. Oh well.
Abasi blinked once, then hit the dirt. Unlike his brother, he had never met a goddess in his life, and the moment was more than overwhelming.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:59 pm
"It was an accident," Roka insisted. She meant the friend thing, not the other part. "Don't blame me because you can't keep your mouth shut!" She turned to apologize for any stress their strange situation had caused these two, but instead, her jaw dropped and for all the zebras in the world she couldn't get her upper and lower teeth to stick back together.
"Oooh, no," Roka said adamantly. She marched around the pair of brothers and nudged at their side. "No, no, no. Do not do that."
To her dismay, Sema had joined his brother on the sand, and was yielding out of respect -- the lion version of kneeling, as it were.
"Up, up!" Roka ordered. "She doesn't deserve that, I assure you. My grandmother could beat her up. I'm not just saying that."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:12 pm
Bowing wasn't her favorite thing, but it was sure a whole lot better than violence, derision and--hey!
"You're charming, today," Uuni cast in Roka's direction. "You really shouldn't lock up sexual tension, Roka. It's not good for you." Though it was probably true. If Ohahira and Uuni engaged in mortal combat--like hell that would ever happen--Ohahira would be wearing Uuni's eyes as a necklace and sucking the marrow out of her leftover bones.
Thankfully, there were hundreds of ways to run away, and Uuni had made a habit of mastering all of them.
Still, the kneeling bothered her. It was an obsessive behavior, and it led to expectations. Lions blamed all their problems on gods, on her. The more they prayed, the more upset they were when their god did not take care of them. It did give her a power kick, however, and she could feel the prickle of energy from a renewed set of believers.
"Right, well, up then," she finally said. "I can't talk to you with your noses on the ground."
Abasi swallowed, completely uncertain about what to do. He glanced over at his brother nervously, holding in a sneeze at the dust that had been kicked up in his immediate drop.
Then, carefully he rose. If a goddess told you to get on your feet, he supposed you did. He had a hard time meeting her eyes, however, and stared down at her pale toes. Abasi's mouth was going dry, and he slowly shuffled closer to Sema.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 12:51 pm
Sema gave his brother the most subtle of nods when his eyes came looking for help. They would have reached the same conclusion together or alone: Goddess told you to rise to your paws, you did so, even if it felt wrong (or like treason, if you were Sema's kind of dedicated).
Roka watched them both stare at the same spot and to keep her sanity in tact determined they had some kind of paw fetish. That was easier to live with than them respecting or being afraid of Uuni. The white one even edged toward the other one, and the "other one" smiled at him like you would a skittish cub -- as a gargantuan skyrock barreled toward the Earth.
Dooooom.
Roka noticed something very interesting when the grey one tossed his head to get the mane out of his eyes.
"Hold on, wait." She marched up to them and instructed Sema to bow his head, which he did. Roka lifted a paw and pushed the mane out of the way.
She knew that marking! Come to think of it...
"He looks just like my mom," Roka said, dumbfounded. Could luck be trying to compensate for having her meet Uuni? "--The colors are off, but aside from that. What are your parents names? What do they look like?"
Now it was Sema's turn to stare at his sibling.
Help! said his eyes. Help, a female is close to me and I don't know what to do!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:12 pm
Abasi stared right back, and then shifted his gaze towards Roka. Anything was better than having too look towards the goddess. Was it okay to look away?
His eyes shot right back towards her feet again. Abasi chanced another look towards his brother. Then, he cleared his throat and addressed Roka. "I think, uh, you're making him uncomfortable." Leave it to Sema to be tongue-tied with the ladies. After that uh, however, Abasi wasn't faring much better.
"Our dad is Kucha'kunge, and our mom is called Sikittika," he explained. There was a shrug of his shoulders as he looked at Sema. Abasi had a brief, strong feeling of wondering why she wanted to know.
Any questioning that Abasi wasn't going to give a goddess was quickly cut short.
"Ah, s**t."
Were goddesses supposed to curse? As far as Uuni was concerned, they could do whatever they darn well pleased. Right now, she was more wrapped up in whether or not great-grandchildren counted as "children and their children". No. Thank heavens. She could leave them to die all on their own.
"Why aren't you lounging in the sand and lapping up coconut juice in the Tuait'teken lands?" was Uuni's immediate concern. They didn't exactly look like the kind that ran away from home for long. "Please don't tell me the whole place was ransacked." Uuni was going to curse all the Stormborn, Nergui, and Firekin to infertility. One of them had to be the cause. Well, if it had been, maybe their mother had died. Then she'd be permanently off the list. Maybe she'd gotten really lucky, and two were off the list. What a nasty way to die. Best not to think about it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:35 am
"The Dawnwalkers are no more," Sema said. Near the end, Roka's outburst overlapped his voice and he finished on a unsettled note.
"Will you shut up, you lunatic?" Roka snapped at Uuni. She no longer had a paw on his face, but she stayed close to Sema. He was putting things together piece by piece and had just started to suspect what she outright told them: "I think we're cousins," Roka said, looking him in the eye. "My mother, Tanana, looks look you. Even in the eyes."
Sema's eyes, blue and kind as Tanana's were, couldn't believe what they were seeing. A cousin? Out here? But with as many siblings as mother had... "That's one of our aunts," he confirmed, "but we haven't met her."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 7:27 am
Ransacked, then, likely. Were there any survivors? Perhaps their leaders had taken them all off a cliff. Had they pissed off one of their many gods? Uuni took a second look at Abasi and Sema and decided that was not likely.
The long pause would have given Roka great satisfaction for her snapping command. Uuni was glancing between the lions as if looking for a piece of information that would trigger a revelry.
Then, she was gone.
Abasi stared at the place she had been. Stared until the thunder rolled in the distance of a cloudless sky and he could finally stare at Roka instead.
"Cousins?" The look he gave her was not one that was impressed. They were nothing alike. This Roka, he gathered from what the goddess had called her, was rude, had no sense of personal space, and looked absolutely nothing like them. Still, she was family, and that meant something, didn't it? If she was related to their mother, she couldn't be completely like this, could she?
"So, you were born in the rogue lands?" May as well try something of conversation. "How do you know a--"
Any answer and continued questioning were cut off by the sound of the cracking universe. "He's telling the truth. There's nothing there," Uuni's voice was startlingly close to Roka's ear. "Manage your cousins. I'm going to find their mother."
Before anyone else could retort, the goddess was gone again. Abasi was left thinking that the stories of gods were far underplayed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 2:53 pm
And Sema was left not thinking anything at all. His brain had ceased all function but that which was mandatory for him to continue to live and breathe -- oh, but he was holding his breath.
Sema breathed.
Roka, miraculously, didn't seem to need to. "Of course I was born in the rogue lands. My mother dragged us all over looking for yours -- and for the rest of them. Are they with her? Do you know about them?"
"One of them is," Sema confirmed, thinking of their aunt Fatia. Where was she now, though? The Dawnwalkers were scattered. He shared a glance with his brother.
"Where is it you're heading?" Roka asked.
Good question.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 4:33 pm
Abasi had started to feel sorry for Roka. A dangerous mindset, but he had anyway.
Here, this cousin that did not respect her Gods. That had lost her family, and acted like time was running in twice the speed.
"Hey, hey, slow down," he tried. Sema saved the conversation from becoming a complete disaster.
Or not.
The pair of males exchanged a glance again. Abasi's shoulders rolled and his mouth grew into a long line.
"That way," he decided, pushing his nose against the direction he meant. "That's where the herds are going." A small grin pulled across his face, which he lazily displayed to Sema.
You couldn't live in a desert without the huge quantities of lions to keep food rotating through, water circulating in ditches.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 2:25 pm
Roka had always been one to marvel at how few family units stayed together when the rough terrain made it the most sensible course of action. Who knew when Uuni would find her way back, if ever? She was not going to be left alone out here, thank you very much.
"I'll go with you," she told them.
Sema couldn't really argue. Her decisive tone didn't leave much room for it. Once more, he looked askance at his sibling and shrugged.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 2:47 pm
Abasi felt he might be able to argue. Having this Roka along was bound to carve off hours of time from the day. She might be able to hunt, but she'd also eat, and then there was the whole issue of her personality.
Still, Sema was looking at him. As if he was supposed to make a decision. Could they really tell this girl no? She was family after all.
The white lion shrugged as well.
"Alright."
What harm could possibly come of this? Abasi tried not to think about the possibilities.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
