|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 5:52 pm
Shomoro lay comfortable half-inside the opening of her den, gnawing idolently on the picked-clean femur of a gazelle. Once more, her sons were out and about, and even Sheshe had gone off somewhere, leaving her all to her lonesome. Not that she minded, of course, what with all the fussing Sheshe was doing over her!
She was pregnant again, her belly once more swollen with cubs. Privately, she was hoping for some girls this time. She loved her boys unconditionally, but a daughter would be such a delight...
Sighing as she mused, she left off her chewing to yawn.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:23 pm
 A dark form approached the lioness' den, white tipped paws picking through the grass and rocks that lined his path, ears flicking against a buzzing insect. Unknowingly he had drawn near the nearby den, perhaps something he would not have done had he been more alert, something he would curse himself for later.
Lifting his head, he opened his mouth to apologize for invading, but quickly closed it again when blue eyes fell on golden pelt. Something familiar tugged at his senses, a memory that told him he knew that gold, that he should know this lioness.
Curiosity getting the better of him for once, he altered his path not to avoid the den, but to carry him a few steps closer until he was near enough to speak to her.
"Good afternoon."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:28 pm
Not expecting any visitors, Shomoro was surprised when a cordial greeting touched her black-tipped ears. She raised her head, green eyes curious and welcoming. A dark lion with a pale mane and touches of gold was what she found before her, and slowly she rose to greet him.
"Hello, sir. I...don't believe we've met before?" The huntress was not suspicious, however; the Pridelands were full of lions, and she could probably never hope to really know them all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:50 pm
He paused, suddenly uncertain, had he been mistaken? He was sure he had not met this lioness before since his return to the pride, but the more he looked at her, the more she seemed familiar. Did she only remind him of someone he had once seen?
"No, I don't think we have, but you seem familiar, perhaps we met as cubs?"
She was older like him, unlike the majority of the pride, perhaps she too had spent her cubhood in these lands in the dark days of the brother kings, before Mufasa had returned to claim his rightful place. Did she know the darkness that he had?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:55 pm
Shomoro tilted her head to the side, looking him over once more. No, he didn't seem familiar at all...no more so than any other Pridelander. Well, perhaps a little more so, since there was gold to his coat; still, she was positive she'd never seen him before in my life.
"I'm afraid not," she answered slowly, "I didn't meet anyone at all when I was little. My...my mother raised me alone."
"Did you grow up here, then?" He did seem about her age.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:20 pm
He shook his head, strands of white mane drifting through his vision. Perhaps he had been mistaken after all, his senses deceived by a brief desire to reach out to the past and find something more than darkness there.
"No, I was born here, but left with my mother the night Mufasa returned."
He did not speak further on the subject or offer any hints to the meaning of his words. Information of his past beyond that, or his relation to the dark kings was not so easily shared.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:28 pm
Shomoro raised her eyes, the color her mother has so hated, surprise evident within them. 'The night Mufasa returned,' that meant...he was her age. And if he was from then, and he was dark...now it was perfectly normal, and Pridelanders could be found in all colors, but back then, according to her mother at least, it had been all lovely golds and creams and beautiful things, until the rogues...
She didn't say it outright though, instead sharing, "My mother left before that. She..didn't believe it would...end."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:48 pm
A soft smile crossed his maw, not a happy smile, but perhaps one of understanding. There was a look in her eyes, as she she was searching her own past for something familiar, finding her own conclusions, and maybe she too had found the unknown familiarity he had seen.
"The land seems to have thrived under the wise king, a far cry from the darkness of the rouge kings. Certainly a wondrous day for the pridelands, I suppose that is why my mother chose to leave."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:57 pm
"It's just so sad that he's gone..." Shomoro had never met Mufasa, only Sarabi, but had been saddened by his loss nonetheless. He'd turned the Pridelands into something far brighter than her mother's sad stories.
"Why...why would she leave, then?" The huntress seemed confused, and yet...perhaps it made sense. Perhaps she'd feared for her cub, if...
"One of them...was one of them your father?" Ordinarily it would be a prying sort of question, but given the situation, he could be her cousin, even half-brother! Still, he hadn't necessarily drawn that conclusion - she was mostly golden, after all.
Eyes cast down and to the side, she confessed, "Kamambe was my father."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:12 pm
His ears flattened, blue eyes averted at the conclusion she had drawn. The lioness was of course right, and though he did not begrudge her words or the realization he had hoped she'd find, it was still a truth that was difficult to hear, one that still haunted his dreams.
He answered with a nod, speaking the words he had never told another, words he was unsure he'd ever share again. But as they both knew now, this lioness was the last family he had, perhaps a light among the darkness of his past, she had a right to know.
"He was Kaimetsu, and my mother loved him, or perhaps she loved the power he offered."
The smile returned, but it was warmer this time, kind and friendly.
"That must be why you seemed so familiar, we are cousins."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:24 pm
Though she saw his ears fall back and his expression change, Shomoro didn't regret her question for an instant. Dark though her origins might be, she was possessed of a desperate need to understand them after being raised in the constant paranoia of Dini, forbidden to seek beyond the empty lands she'd grown up in. Completely ignorant of the existence of this, her cousin.
Cousin. Family. She had family. Family she'd never had a chance to know or grow up alongside. A faint quiver ran through her body. So much lost, more than she'd known.
"I...I'm Shomoro," she offered, raising her head to return the male's smile. They'd been so caught up, they'd never even exchanged names.
A cousin. She had a cousin!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:59 pm
He stepped closer, settling on his haunches a few steps a way, a more comfortable distance for their conversation. He now understood why this lioness had seemed so familiar, he understood what had drawn him to approach her, and perhaps even why he had trod this way in the first place.
"I am Bushido, I am happy to meet you."
His words were genuine, warm. Before him was something he had never expected to find, a cousin, a kind creature that seemed to eclipse the darkness of the past that he had tried so hard to escape. And for a moment he thought that perhaps, the past wasn't as dark as he'd thought it was.
Blue eyes drifted, and he noticed what he had not seen before, too caught up in finding the family he had never known he'd had. He would have asked, but thought better of it, it would have been impolite to ask a lioness if she was carrying cubs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 9:11 pm
"Bushido," she repeated his name with all the warmth of her smile. "I'm so glad you came this way."
Shomoro could hardly take her eyes off of him, never wanting this newfound joy she was still taking in to ever end. It was a different kind of feeling from any she'd experienced before; perhaps the closest to it had been when she'd come home. Yes, that was it...that's what it was. Like coming home.
Though she hardly knew him, he was family. "You have second cousins, too," she shared after a moment, the warmth in her smile joined by pride, "Four of them, although they've gone and run off again...they're always doing that, now."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 9:47 pm
"I see, you must be very proud of them."
He did not have to assume as such, the look in her eyes was more than enough to tell him she must have been. And as he stretched his paws before, allowing himself to recline comfortably against the earth, he wondered what those children were like, did they share Shomoro's golden pelt? Or did they bear the darker hide of the two rogues?
"It is a wonderful land to raise children, I made a wise choice in returning home, for more reasons than one it would seem."
The smile crossed his maw again. He had returned to this land in the hopes of finding the wise old king, to atone for the acts of his parents and satisfy his debt of honor, a debt he would fulfill instead to the king's daughter. But in his journey, he had found more, and for today at least, the old warrior was happy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 6:03 am
"I am," she affirmed with head held high, before settling back on her haunches.
"Do you have children, then?" It sounded like it, from the way he spoke...commenting on how wise it had been to return home just after noting how wonderful a place it was for children.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
