|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:20 pm
Ure's icy blue eyes stared off into the sands, her tail flickling carefully behind her. Father slept in the cave with Kaanga and Uzulu, for he was her personal slave.
Mother and the rest of them fended for themselves on the clifftops from which falling would mean certain death. Ah yes, her sisters. Those little bundles of fur she so loved and adored, and would do anything for, if she just knew what to do. It seemed as though the wrath of Uzulu was uncalmable, but their mother was far worse.
Sisters took a beating, that's how it was, but Ure would still die for them. She would, for each one. They weren't threatened here. Not like that. Unless they ran and then she could do nothing.
There was love and then there was a fool. She was not the fool. She couldn't afford to be.
Sighing lightly she turned from her dangerous perch and worked her way back to where the water dripped from the rockface to pool in a small hole.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:27 pm
Tanana's mind was restless. Since she remembered being concious, it always had been. This time it was an outside factor that contributed to it, instead of the usual ones that it would be feeding off of any other time.
Give her away? Yes, it was horrible. What troubled her most, though, was that he had also said one of her sisters would be, too. One for each of his sons. She could only hope her sibling got the nicer of the two, if their was one. She was far more suited to serve under a harsh ruler, more tolerable and braced for it.
She knew she should be sleeping, since chances were the son she'd be thrown at the paws of tomorrow would be like his father, and she'd need all her energy, but she just couldn't, and it had nothing to do with how uncomfortable the sleeping place was.
After hours of turning and tossing, she'd, for once in her short life and probably one of the very few times in her life time, given up on something. That had led her out here, and it was no surprise that she wasn't alone.
"Ure?" she spoke up, quiet but meaningful. "You need to be careful, Ure."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:34 pm
Ure paused and turned, spotting her sister clamouring carefully up the sides of the cliffs. She smiled when she spotted her and went carefully down to see her, rubbing her head up against the other when they got close enough.
Tanana was such a worrier, but she supposed it was all for the better of them. Would it cost her as she got older? Ure shook her head, someone had to make the sacrafice, and as much as it guilted her, she knew Tanana was the leader of them all. She was certainly their moral. Without her, Ure would not have the will to continue most days.
"I know," she said with another smile and a whisper to match. She loved to smile, gently, just enough so that her sisters could know she loved them. Loved them so very much. She hoped they knew, but she felt no need to tell them.
They had to know.
"Your soul is weary?" she asked after a time of simply watching her sister. It seemed like the only explanation. Ure herself failed to sleep. Perhaps that was why she was so quiet, she was always too tired.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:42 pm
"Concerned," she corrected, gazing at the stars. They were so beautiful, Tanana couldn't help but believe there was something special about them. Maybe in death, lions became stars? Wouldn't that be something, all of them glowing equally? It'd teach these Firekin a thing or two. "Our sister is timid, for her to have a personal master worries me."
For cubs, they spoke so seriously, and Tanana was positive all of them knew it. It was wrong for them to talk this way. They were so young. It was wrong for anyone to talk this way, to talk about the things they had to.
"Why are you awake?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:47 pm
But what could they do about sister and her personal matter? Ure shook her head and settled unto her stomach, getting dangerously near that edge she didn't seem to mind as much as she should. The drop and the moonlit sands below were so beautiful.
"Father will watch her," Ure answered simply. Whether he'd do a good job of it, she didn't know. But she did know that all of Uzulu's sons were under Upendo'Mpaji's care every now and then. Whether Kaanga was there or not. A confusing lioness, that Kaanga. Best to stay away.
When Tanana asked her question, the smile alit on Ure's face once more, this time a broad grin. Something she rarely displayed.
"Sister, I could pluck hope from the stars tonight for they shine so brightly. They remind me of you. Light amidst a dark surrounding, but they always shine through." She wouldn't answer the question directly. She never did, it wasn't in her nature. For she didn't have any answers, and she didn't want to upset anyone by remaining voiceless.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:54 pm
Tanana snorted in amusement. In her eyes, Ure's weird ways were just a method of dealing with the chaos around them. They all had their own. Be it hiding, making answers far more complex than they needed to be, ignoring the things around you, or...
Or worrying yourself over those around you. Tanana was convinced part of her was so selfless because she was selfish. It was a never ending cycle she waged within her own mind already. Maybe she'd go insane like Ohahira one day, too.
"If the darkness wasn't there, they wouldn't shine at all, would they?" Yes, it was always Tanana's voice telling them there were better things out there. "They're shining over lands away from this one. Better places. Ohahira was free once. You haven't forgotten, have you?"
She settled down some. "What do you think they are, the stars?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:01 am
Ure frowned. It was true, they wouldn't need to shine if the darkness was not there. So did the darkness bring out the beauty, or was it the sin that made you fight and eventually lose to the overpowering heat of the sun? Was the sun, then, Uzulu and the Firekin. The members of The Blood as they called themselves.
Ure gave her sister a funny grin. It meant something halfway between how could I have forgotten when you jam it down my throat every eight seconds and we aren't there.
"Perhaps we serve our cost of slavery early," she mused, mostly to herself, though she took no mind of Tanana commenting on it.
She gave her sister a awed look as she asked the question. Stars seemed something that Ure would muse over, not her sisters.
"Love," she answered, a faint curl hinting the edges of her lips. "Large burning passions between friends, lovers and," she turned to look at her sister now, "Siblings."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:08 am
Tanana chuckled, but it wasn't out of humor. Love, was it? So, love had taken a shape in the sky? Her eyes captured a falling star in the distance, and again not with joy, she burst out laughing.
"Maybe it is," she agreed. It seemed logically bright shining lights of love would be falling down when forced to overlook this place. She wondered where else these shined over, what those places were like.
"You know, Ure, if we just listen to them, I'm sure one day we can see other places. I'm going to let you all see them, no matter what. You can wait, can't you?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:16 am
Ure did not turn when her sister started laughing. She knew that laugh, hell, she didn't have to know that laugh. The only laughter that echoed here was that which meant the demise of some creature or another. It wasn't a laugh to go along with. At least not for them.
If she had been able to read Tanana's thoughts, she would have said. 'Shooting stars fall'. She wondered if you caught this light that fell to the earth, you would be catching love itself? What a miracle to have!
"Oh, Tana," she said with and exasperated sigh. "I can wait, but can you?" From here, she could see the whole world. As marvelous as her sister was, as inspiring, and wonderful, she was a fool. They were not leaving here and never would be.
Sometimes Ure wished she'd just accept that fact. Just settle, and not worry. She'd injure herself worrying like that.
With a shake of her head she got up from her position and ambled lightly towards the water not far away. It was initially what she came for. Yet as she stared into her dark reflection staring back she found she was no longer thirsty. Biting back the choke of worry that formed in her throat she quickly made her way back and pushed herself up against Tanana's side, so glad that she had sisters.
For in that second, Ure had been terrified. Just what would happen.
"Don't do anything foolish," she whispered lightly, her head buried into her sisters neck, but her eyes watching the ground slip away below.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:25 am
Though, in some aspects Tanana was the most mighty of them, in the literal one she was the smallest. In comparison to her sisters (and perhaps her brother, though she noticed boys tended to be bigger by nature), she could almost be considered a runt of the litter.
But if they wanted to lean on her, like Ure did, even in the literal way, Tanana never said a word about it. Never moved, shifted or edged away. Always her, she would beg the stars every night, because they had just felt like things to wish on. Let them always come to her.
Could she wait? Yes, Tanana could wait forever. But, truthfully, she wasn't speaking on her behalf. Ure may have known that. The 'don't be foolish' was laugh-worthy, too, but she'd run out of them for the night. Even the bad king.
"Ure, I'll get you all out one day." A part of her thought she may not be with them, should that happen, because in order to obtain it she may have to risk something. "You just have to wait."
Because she didn't know enough yet, even though it felt like she'd lived for years.
"What do you think of Ohahira?" She had called her 'mother' once, and been hurt for it. Never again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:32 am
Ure sighed and closed her eyes, listening to the sound of her sisters breathing. She didn't want to think about all the crazy stunts that Tanana would use to get them out. To save them from the fate they would sooner or later hit.
She expected an early death. Perhaps that was why she didn't fear like the others did. Reality, not pessimism. Just reality. Or that's what she told herself.
'Never lose your dreams, Tanana,' she told her sibling in her head, though kept the opinion to herself. Tanana would say something along the lines of refusal to admit she could actually lose them. Pluck them out of the stars, or something.
She lifted her head and did her best shrug. "She hurts inside, but we don't have the love to cure her." It was a solid fact. Ohahira did not want them. She wanted something else entirely, and any attempt to love her would result in pain. Stay away from mother, too.
She rose and idly waved one paw over that death-fall, then turned and walked back to where her sisters and brother lay. She knew Tanana would follow when she needed to and no sooner.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:36 am
"I see..." Tanana didn't move from where she was, and didn't plan to for some time, come what may the next day. Her own voice of reason was telling her to sleep now, but it was so easy to ignore when she targeted it at herself.
"I may want to kill like she does, one day," she whispered, but by then Ure was too far to hear it, and it wasn't so much intended for her anyway. Tanana was young, but she already hated Ohahira for what she was doing. Mpaji, too. All the Firekin.
Would she lust for bloodshed like Ohahira did one day? Wouldn't it be ironic if it was the blood of their mother she came to crave? She would deserve it...
Finally, Tanana did get up and go back to join her siblings.
If nothing else, tomorrow would teach her things she would need to know.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
