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 Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:06 pm
The word's wrung in Upendo'Mpaji's ears over and over again. 'You will win her heart over, or suffer the consequences.' It seemed rather sick to taint what was sacred simply for the sake of greed. What if he succeeded, and well? He didn't love Ohahira, could never love her.
Perhaps liked her, well, duh. She was company he was allowed to say anything around. Now he was being forced to go out of his way to ruin her. For the first time in his life, Mpaji felt utter loathing for the task at hand and everything to do with the Firekin.
He felt distant, apart. As if he didn't belong here where fire met sky.
With a sigh he slipped up beside her.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked without thinking. What if she felt awful, what was he going to do then?
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:13 pm
"Absolutely wonderful," came the snark and sarcastic response. What kind of an idiot would even ask that? Not that either of them knew it. Because Ohahira didn't know what his 'task' was and Mpaji didn't know how Ohahira used to be, but...
In another time, another place, the thought of them together for the sake of being together might not have been so ridiculous and farfetched in the end.
Ohahira was reguarding him seriously, her expression stern. "Why haven't you run yet?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:21 pm
Mpaji laughed at her sarcasm, even though it was meant to drive bitterness into his heart. It only half succeeded. Mostly the bitterness was a loathing, towards Uzulu.
Still, inwardly he winced and watched her carefully. He didn't like the look of those claws. They were so . . . more dangerous than any of the Firekin. They were easy to predict, easy to flow with. She was not. He couldn't dip his head and submit to her every will.
Especially not now. This would be so much easier if she was crawling at his feet or something. He wrinkled his nose, then again. ..
"Uh. . . " he backed up a few steps and eyed her suspiciously. "I live here?" He offered as an answer. Why in hell would he run? He couldn't hunt, he wouldn't strike another living critter if he had the chance. He ate whatever food Uzulu threw at him and that was about it. Other than that, he chewed on spring grass.
"Besides," he added. "I'd be dead if I tried." For more reasons than one.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:24 pm
"Your home?" Ohahira gawked. "You're a slave!" Normally, she wouldn't point out something so stupidly obvious, but sometimes stupid things had to be pointed out to stupid lions. Only a moron would see this as a home. This was a prison.
"Could they catch you?" Meaning, could they catch her? "I don't see many of them."
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:30 pm
Upendo'Mpaji laughed long and sweet. It was his turn for sarcasm.
"And you sleep back in the nice cosy Pridelands, I suppose," he answered. He knew what she'd meant, but it didn't matter to him. She was from a different place, he'd grown up here. It wasn't so bad if you knew how to survive. He supposed size had something to do with it.
"I'm not a slave," he retorted. He wasn't. Slaves were. .. well, like her. He wasn't a slave around Motomilia, Kwanga, or Kaanga. He felt nothing like one, then. Plus, he wandered anywhere he chose. Who was there to stop him? No one dared. He blended in, besides. Truthfully, he felt like a king.
"Oh yes," he answered. "Catch you and strip you down. If they were bored of watching you bleed, they might let you live." Yes, he'd seen it done, so very often. It was a wonderfully horific site.
If only they knew to wait. Rebellion was night quite upon them.
"They're there, love, oh, they're there." He'd seen them, watching, carefully, as though they merely liked to laugh. Most of them, they let you be, but for now the customs were all like they once were.
"Not planning of running are we?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:34 pm
Truth be told, Ohahira wasn't scared of these lions. She was, however, very much in the area of knowledge to know she should be, and that was pretty much the same thing.
"I'm from the Unity Walkers, not the Pridelands," she spat. It was true she hadn't been born into it. It had been her that had brought them there, and that's why she considered it her home, proudly declared it her pride. She'd done it all for the good of the family. Her ruined family.
"I can't stay here," she hissed, mostly to herself, sounding the verge of a breakdown prompted by rage and not stress or sadness. "I have something I need to do. I have to."
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:42 pm
Upendo'Mpaji couldn't care less where she was from, the point was they were drifting very much off the subject that he'd never even planted them on. Oh boy this was going to be awkward. Maybe to let slip away for a little while, just a little.
This was awful.
"Don't know them," he told her, which was truthful. Hell, he only knew of the pridelanders for they were No's homelands. He had liked that female, though she asked for strange things.
"What's that? Save the world or something?" he couldn't see anything else more important.
With a small smile he let his legs slide out from under him so he could lay for a nap in the warm sand.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:45 pm
"Save my family," she corrected. He didn't need to know anything other than that, and in Ohahira's mind, she wasn't lying. Not entirely. A large portion of her, most of her being in fact, had come to believe killing Tara would do nothing to restore her family, rather just avenge it's downfall. Hence her earlier thoughts of allowing the Firekin to enslave her.
But she had to do that one thing. There had to be a way.
"Hasn't anyone ever left here after they came?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:47 pm
Mpaji perked up his ears, watching her carefully. His gut churned. He could relate, to saving family. Surely, he'd never had one, but he knew that if he had them, he'd do anything for them. Like Motomilia, he'd remain loyal to her always, and to no one else. Save Uzulu, for he had to.
He wanted to help her, he really did.
"How much time do you have?" he asked her carefully, shaking his head at her question. No one that he knew.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:52 pm
"I don't know." Also not a lie. Ohahira didn't even realize she was misleading him. Not that she'd have really cared. There were other things to worry about. What was she going to do? "What do you know about this...'revolution', or whatever they're calling it?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:55 pm
He kept asking her questions. He hated it, like she was just.
UGH!
"It doesn't exist. Kindono has been banned. Its over." Unless the prince came back, but there was no point in giving her hope that wasn't there. They'd discovered the plot of the young creature, and that was the finality that wa to occur.
He sighed and squirmed uncomfortably. "Uzulu has uh. .. ." How to word this? He shut up for a second, trying to gather his thoughts. He didn't want to outrage her, though from the looks, it was already to late.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:58 pm
Damn! It figured!
Anyone who had known her inner thoughts would have been amazed, if not applaud, she didn't regret following Mwokoti into what she was almost certain was a trap. There had still been a chance.
If she had known that one lioness, No, that was so involved in the uprising that she'd just been told failed, was a sister to that cub she'd saved, Sen, and hell, her own aunt, she'd have been even angrier.
"Uzulu has what?" Sharp teeth. Big claws. She knew all that already. What thing could he possibly tell her she didn't know?
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:01 pm
Mpaji stared at the sand for a little while longer. He really, really, didn't want to say this. His tail twitched, the wind stirred, and still her remained silent.
Alright, be tough, brave Mpaji.
So he was.
"He has requested cubs," and he rose, giving her a forlorn look and shaking his head, a sigh escaping his lips. Requested wasn't the word for it.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:06 pm
If Ohahira had gotten what he was implying at the beginning, she'd have had something mouthy like, 'What are you, gay?' That was if she had understood what he was saying at first, and she wasn't.
"Uh, alright," she began unsurely. "I don't know where any are."
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:10 pm
Oh, could he choke her? Could he seriously just choke her right then and there.
Now Mpaji was always very much an antiviolence kind of lion, but seriously? Seriously?!
Holy hell.
"No, Ohahira, he means, cubs from us. Don't you get it? You're a slave. Rights. Gone." He shook his head and bit his tongue, staring at her vehemently. God he really hated to say it, but he wasn't letting the either of them get beaten for it. Besides, how hard could cubs be?
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