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 Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:14 pm
Aza was improving every day, her injuries healing nicely. There was no doubt she would carry the scars for the rest of her life, but she would be proud to do so. If nothing else, they would toughen her appearance further and make her a more intimidating sight to behold than ever. For now, however, she still had to be careful not to strain and break the healing skin.
Moving from the shade of the dens into the evening sun, the huntress stretched and sighed with wonder at the sight of the desert at sunset.
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:27 pm
Shetani lay draped over the long since fallen trunk of a desert tree, shfiting between sharpening his claws against the delightfully hard and dry bark, and staring at his paws, emblazoned with flames, almost wishing he could set things on fire with them or wishing he could make the flames dance upon his very pelt.
The silhouette of Aza moved in the corner of his eye and he turned briefly to see her then resumed the scratching of his claws.
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:33 pm
Seeing the cub and hearing the scratch of his claws on the dead wood, the lioness approached, coming to a comfortable distance before voicing a greeting to the cub with the flame-touched fur. A stunning coat, to be sure!
"Good evening," she said cordially. Aza was not one to speak down to cubs, ordinarily - they were Blood, just as she was.
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:45 pm
He was just in the middle of a good long rake of his claws, so he appeared a bit impolite as he wanted to finish before replying to the adult.
"Good...evening," he echoed her greeting, feeling all too grown-up to be using such words.
Shetani wiggled about on the dead tree so that he could sit comfortably and face her,and try to show her the respect she deserved as an adult. But it was then that his eyes drifted over the scars and wounds and his mouth moved before he thought.
"What happened?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:10 pm
Aza didn't mind his finishing up in the least - she well knew how good it felt to dig your claws into something and drag them down it. She preferred prey, but lately that same dead tree was the best she could do, too.
"Rogues on the border," she answered. "I drove them off and earned myself a few scars for the job."
"What's your name?" she inquired, giving hers even as she asked for his, "I'm Azachamorel, daughter of Xamach and Fiametta."
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:21 pm
Rogues? He didn't think they dared come out here, let alone launch an attack. But he thought she was awfully brave to have fought them off, and whilst the scars were difficult to look at for someone so young, already deep inside there was the flicker of pride. The blank expression disappeared from his face and replaced by a boyish smile.
"I'm Shetani'tuka," he said, bowing his little head. "Son of err...mum and dad."
Shetani wiggled again, battling with the appropriateness of what he wanted to ask. Then childish curiosity took over.
"What were they like? The rogues?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:45 pm
"Pleasure to meet you, Shetani'tuke." She smiled, suppressing amusement when he revealed that he didn't know his parents' 'real' names. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
"Filthy," she answered readily, "Just like every rogue. Filthy and weak-willed, with a crybaby weakling of a child. Nothing like you, I'm sure. We are Blood, after all."
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:41 am
"Oh yeah, I have three brothers and a sister," he said in a droll way. His siblings were mostly playmates at this age, he wouldn't start to appreciate them until later in life. "Do you have any family here?" he sounded quite excited actually, maybe meet some new playmates away from his family.
"Yeah...I thought so. They must be terrible to have brave lions like you chase them away. Maybe they have fleas and diseases too," he said with a dark pleasure.
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 9:22 am
"What are their names? Perhaps I've met one of them." Aza wasn't being nosy, strictly speaking, she just sought to connect this cub to someone she knew or knew of. Things like that could be rather important in a pride.
"I wouldn't be surprised," she mused, nodding after a moment in agreement. "Though fortunately, I don't seem to have contracted anything from my encounters just yet." Thanks to the robust Firekin lineage, to be sure!
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:24 pm
"My sister is Ilahle and there's Tekua, they're dark like me, and then there's Spaki and Intuthu, they're white, and then there's Maatui who's red," he replied, saying it all in one breath, an amazing ability that only children seem to have.
"I'm just like my dad, dark fur with fire...only I have more fire," he said with pride. "Mum is pretty though. Never met my grandparents. Not yet anyway."
Shetani eyed the wounds on Aza again, looking at them a bit skeptically. Of course, a child's imagination might turn such horrific injuries into any theory, even one as far-fetched as harbourng some kind of 'rogue-disease' that would slowly turn poor Aza into an ugly, flea-bitten rogue. And then pass it onto the rest of them.
But surely, something like that didn't exist.
"Illness is for the weak, we're not allowed to get sick."
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 4:06 pm
"Why, I've met Ilahle and Spaki!" Aza looked quite thrilled to be meeting another member of the family - she'd very much liked Ilahle and Spaki when she'd met them!
At his claim that Firekin could not fall ill, the huntress shook her head. "I'm afraid that some illnesses fell even the strong, Shetani. When I was a child, many lions of this pride fell sick with plague - and many died. I took ill as well, though I survived, unlike my parents."
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 4:17 am
"Hehe, won't be long until you've met us all then," he chuckled. He was almost tempted at that point to ask if he was better than his siblings, because he had fire on him, but he shoved that to the back of his mind for now.
But when Aza spoke of the Plague, Shetani looked crushed. Despite his parents differing views, there was always one thing he could believe in and that was the Firekin's strength. And now, even that was shaken to its foundations.
"The-the Plague? It can't...come back, can it?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:12 pm
"Well, I look forward to it," Aza said, chuckling along with the cub. It was true, too - the three cubs she'd met so far had all left wonderful impressions.
I"m afraid I don't know," she admitted. "We can only have faith in Finar-si's power and our own strength, and hope that it's enough to drive off a foe fought once before."
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Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:11 pm
The fear welling up in his little body was enough to focus his thoughts onto something that his parents actually spoke little of. He couldn't recall them ever talking about surviving the Plague, and he wondered - were they even there? He could ask Aza if she was, but was that assuming she was old? In fact, just how long ago WAS the Plague? Shentani's little head swam with questions now and made him physically grimace for a moment.
"Have you ever seen Finar-si?" was the first of the long line of questions to come from his mouth.
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Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:41 pm
Aza smiled gently, shaking her head. "I've seen no more of her than any other Firekin; she is evident in all of us. But no, I have never seen the Goddess herself. It would be an honor indeed, don't you think?"
"Well, or perhaps not," she added as an afterthought, "Depending on whether or not you'd displeased her somehow! I imagine that would be a fearsome thing, but so long as we stay true to he Blood, I don't think we have anything to worry about."
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