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 Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:39 am
 As the sun climbed higher and higher into the sky, throwing down rays of light across the land, Njozi lay sheltered beneath the giant sweeping arms of a great tree. The sun shone slightly through the leaves of the towering giant, showering him in a cool haze of dark green light. Beneath the outstretched boughs it was slightly cooler, as the leafy mass overhead gave protection from the searing sun that had already dipped far past it's zenith. Even though it was late afternoon, the lands were still scorching with heat; it wouldn't be cooler until nightfall, though that was only a little while away. Njozi had actually taken to the large tree once he returned home, finding it hard to sleep at home with the mass of children that his mother had accumulated in their absence - he had more adopted siblings than real ones, now. It was for his sanity that he slept out of the den, though he was never too far away.
As he rolled onto his side, he let his mind wander over everything that had happened since he had come home. He had met back up with his mother and his family, exchanged all the loving hellos and greetings that had been due ages ago. He had gone through the teary, bleary-eyed 'welcome backs' from his sisters, and then he had been ushered away by his grandmother for a little more Usare'Wasii information. He half expected this was to give his mother and father alone time, but it had helped his knowledge of the lands in the end. She had shown him where her brother generally stayed, even pointed Tamu out from a distance - and she had shown him the places Damu frequented most when not at home.
With a sigh, he shook his head in an attempt to get that responsibility and duty off his mind. He loved his land, but at times, he just wanted to enjoy being young. With a smile, at the thought of being young, he let himself think back to the day of cloud-gazing with Ihlo. Older than him, true, but still willing to spend time with him and give him the time of day when he asked for it. Not to mention, she was beautiful by every right of the word. She was the breath of fresh air that he needed at times like this.
With a small smile attached to his maw, he pushed himself up on his feet and began a lazy walk away from his shelter. He intended to find the pretty lioness and spend a few hours talking with her; maybe he would take her to see something pretty, one of the secret marvels of the Kusini lands. As he walked along, he began to hum to himself (a humming that Buu claimed was fairly dreadful), wondering to himself: Where is that fallen angel now?
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:05 am
 An impromptu hunt hadn't been successful for Ihlo, and eventhough she wasn't exactly hungry, she just couldn't resist trying to catch a bird that was so big! Maybe just a bit too big for her, and the only thing she managed was to give it a mild fright and snatch some of its brightly coloured tail-feathers. Which she carried in her mouth. No sense letting them go to waste, now was there? They'd make playthings for her cub-sisters or even a nice adornment.
But the heat had gotten the best of Ihlo, and she needed to cool off a bit. So, she headed towards the shallower end of the great river, close to where she'd met Njozi actually, and as she dipped her paws and laid the feathers down carefully, her mind also wandered.
"I bet Njozi woulda been able to catch that bird," she muttered to herself, swooshing her front legs about in the cooling waters before dipping her head into the waters.
She shook off the excess, which gave her legs and head a distinctive wet-curly look, scooped up her feathers and hopped across the shallows on rocks. She stopped when she heard a peculiar humming, her tail flicking straight up in the air almost like a periscope.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 1:06 pm
As Njozi walked around a river bend clouded slightly by an extended tree line from the forest, he was a little surprised to the see the very white, red-stroked female he was looking for to be sitting in his line of sight. He knew she must frequent the area from time to time, but to find her in nearly the same exact spot as he had before was a little unlikely. Unless, of course, she had come here in search of him as well? He liked to think she had enjoyed their day together, and his large go certainly allowed him to think she wanted a bit more of him.
With a grin plastered to his white and cream mug, he stalked out calmly towards the place where Ihlo had chosen to make her place. As he got closer, he couldn't help noticing the brightly colored feathers that were laying at her feet. Thus, his first words as he got close enough to speak were, "have you been chasing down birds today?"
He chuckled as he got up to her, sitting down slowly and reaching out one paw to push around the feathers that she had gathered. There were only a few, from the looks of it, and not enough for them to have covered a whole bird. Maybe she just found them while she was scavenging around? That was very possible - he had done that as a cub.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 1:58 pm
The phrase 'speak of the devil and he shall appear' immediately sprang to her mind as that familiar voice cut through the humid air, followed by that light pelt and emblazoned eye. She couldn't help smile a little at seeing the lion she had just been thinking about. Could she have a touch of magic about her - maybe she'd summoned him at the very mention of his name? Yeah right.
"Bird. Just the one...which was maybe a bit too big for me," she said, a little embarrassed. Any lion worth their weight should be sheepish about not being able to catch something.
Ihlo watched him spread the feathers, obviously taking a better look at them. She imagined her sisters might react in much the same way. To her knowledge they hadn't sene featehrs before, least of all ones so colourful.
"I leaped for the pesky thing, after chasing it up and down these plains, and all I came away with were these," she laughed.
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:47 am
He chuckled at the way she spoke of hunting down birds and knew immediately that things hadn't exactly gone according to plan. He could remember the few times that he had tried to hunt when he was younger, thinking he could do it without his father of Bibi's help. Of course, those had never resulted in him catching a thing. One must know first, the land that one is hunting in, and secondly, one must know the tendencies and traits of what one is hunting. His Bibi had spent a good deal telling him this, and he nearly always spent a good many minute studying the layout of the land and the prey that was so unlucky as to be picked now. He didn't let many things get by him - he was just lucky his Bibi was there to teach him that lesson.
"Well, you have to understand," he said with a reassuring smile, "that birds are tricky things. They can turn on hell (at least in a manner of speaking) in little more than a second, and you have to be watching them closely to be able to tell when they're going to do it." This talk was in order to make her feel better about not catching the bird - but it was truth, none-the-less. "It's much easier to hunt mammals because they're so much bigger and tend to be slower - understand what I mean?" he tilted his head sideways, watching for her reaction.
"Ah, but these are beautiful feathers, regardless!" he said happily, spreading them out into a row, "you could make a really pretty necklace out of these, I think," he said in a low tone, eyes sparkling as the thought hit him.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:55 am
"Oh I know, but it was a case of an opportunity not to be missed sorta thing," she tried to explain with a smile. "I'd never purposely set out to hunt a bird, they tend to be far too skinny to get a good meal out of them. Unless they're big. Like this one was."
She sat back on her bum and outstretched her front legs to show him how supposedly big this bird was, almost like the 'I once caught a fish this big' gesture. It was exaggerated a bit, of course, but it was all in fun.
"And yes, at least the 'hunt' wasn't in vain. I won't deny I hadn't thought about using them as a necklace or bracelet or something...but I should see if my sisters want them first," she replied, thinking of her family first. It was rare that Ihlo actually treated herself to things.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 7:10 pm
He nodded as she explained about the opportunity that was just too good to give up. He had encountered a few of those, and since it was an opportunity to do a little bragging, he would tell her about one of his favorites. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I saw an albino deer once and I simply couldn't pass that up. I think that was one of my best hunts ever." He smirked to himself as he replayed the thoughts back in his head, his tail swishing in time to the pace his body was running in his memory.
Brought back by the talk of good meals, he nodded again. "No, I don't think birds would make a very good meal. I've never bothered with them, since they're so small and barely enough to satiate a cub. I usually have to hunt for a sister too, sometimes more than one, so I never bother if the thing isn't relatively my size."
"Well, I'd say give your sister a necklace or something, but I highly doubt that it would be fair to give one something and not give the rest. Little cubs get really touchy about favoritism and stuff like that," he said, remembering his sisters as cubs.
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Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:48 am
"An albino deer?" she looked at him in disbelief for a moment, wondering if this was a show of bravado from Njozi.
In terms of males, she had little to work with really, having only grown up with her brothers mostly. And of course they'd treat her differently to any other male. Was Njozi...trying to impress her? Her mind whirred a little bit at the thought, and she smiled inside.
"Did it...taste any better than a normal deer?" she asked with a chuckle.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 9:45 am
He smirked at the way she looked at him, disbelief written across her face as if it had been drawn there. He really had taken down an albino deer one time but what she wasn't aware of was that it was done with his father. Of course, he'd never tell her that - that would be ruining the entire effect that the story had.
"Yes, an albino deer," he said with a little sparkle in his deep red eyes, "and no. It really didn't taste any different at all, but a patch of it's fur made for a really cool souvenir." He said with a little chuckle, his tail wavering back and forth behind him. "I still have it at home, if you ever want to see it."
Idly, he glanced towards the horizon, where the last glimmer of the actual sun was sinking below the line. Soon, the light would begin to fade and they would be in a cool darkness. He smiled to himself, glancing back towards her. He had something he wanted to show her once night fell.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 12:51 pm
Ihlo laughed.
"Well, sounds like a date then. You've seen my feathery souvenirs, only sounds fair that I should see this patch of fur from an albino deer," she said with a wide smile.
A part of her had still wondered whether he was making it all up, right down to having a piece of hide from this beast. But when she thought about it...she was almost white all-over, it amde sense that there might be other beasts out there that were white too.
Absorbed in this entertainment, Ihlo just caught sight of Njozi's smile.
"What you smiling about?" she asked with a smile, wondering if he had another story for her.
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Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 9:31 am
He smirked at her, suddenly realizing that she had made another excuse to see him yet again. Don't get him wrong, it's not that he didn't want to see her, but was today's meeting merely a coincidence? Of course, it far from bothered him - he actually enjoyed thinking that she wanted to spend time with him. After all, she was beautiful, he was beautiful - it all worked out alright in the end, didn't it? Oh, if he only knew what the stars held in store for his future with Ihlo.
Regardless of all that knowledge that he had and didn't, he would eventually show her the souvenir of one of his first hunts outside the Kusini lands. It had been a tricky one, with father and son having to corner the dear all by their lonesome, but it had been worthwhile in the end. He wasn't lying about this one, and considering he never said he did it all on his own, he was only fudging a little.
"Smiling, me?" he said in a rather confused tone, but immediately ruined it by actually smiling again. With a chuckle, he pushed his large form to his paws, shaking off the dust that had collected on his fur from the ground beneath them. "Well, follow me, and you might find out?" He quirked his brow, turning himself in the direction of the forest.
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Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 10:14 am
Ihlo looked almost surprised that he got up, then followed suit, obviously quite willing to trust Njozi.
"Yes. You were smiling like you had a little secret," she teased. "I thought maybe you had more adventures for me."
She had to stretch a little after being sat down for a while, her muscles aching and flaming after bounding about so much earlier in pursuit of the large bird. Her last thing to do was to scoop up her feathers.
"So...where you going to take me?" she asked, her mouth full of feathers.
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Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:58 pm
"Well, maybe I do have another fun adventure for you," he said with a little chuckle as he glanced off at the horizon. If they went now, they should arrive just in time for the great spectacle to bloom out beautifully. He couldn't help the little grin that spread over his mug, nor could he help shifting his paws in anticipation for her to quit stretching.
Finally glancing back to her, he couldn't help a little chuckle. She looked silly with those brightly toned feathers sticking out of her mouth that way, but undoubtedly cute at the same time. He shook his head and nodded in the direction that he immediately began to walk. "I think you'll like this surprise," he said softly, within hearing range, but more gentle than what he normally spoke in. Talking too loudly would just ruin the entire mood of the surprise.
As they walked along, he began heading for a dense section of the woods. Glancing back at her, he gave her a reassuring smile, and slowly slunk through the foliage and brush that lay beneath his feet. Being so large, of course, he simply trudged through it, which meant it was clearer for her to walk through behind him.
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Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 5:29 am
An adventure? Well, she was always eager for something new to be seen or done. She imagined it was because she'd grown up in these lands, the only thing she had ever seen. But obviously, she hadn't seen everything or she might have known where Njozi was going to take her.
"Well, lead on intrepid explorer!" she said excitedly, quite exuberant despite the sinking light. Her cub-sister might be turning in for the night by now.
Ihlo followed him closely at first, keeping within reaching distance of his tail should she get lost or suddenly feel startled. Of course, a mouthful of feathers would make a grab for safety more difficult. As they travelled further and further, approaching the great forest, she began to slow a little, uncertain of this journey. She trusted Njozi, but could she trust whatever else was out there?
She hovered in the gap of foliage that Njozi had created, shifting her paws a little. Her eyes gazed about as she tried to take everything in and know what she was going to face. And then she took a few tentative steps in his wake, and trotted to keep up.
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Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:28 pm
As he slunk along through the foliage of the great forest, he suddenly realized that he could no longer hear her quieter, more graceful footsteps behind him. He paused, turning himself around partially to glance back in her direction. As he saw her standing there, shifting from paw to paw and so unsure of what he was leading her into, he couldn't help the slight frown that grazed over his maw momentarily. However, he knew he would never lead that beautiful angel into danger, and he meant to let her know it. "Come on, Ihlo, I wouldn't let anything hurt you and I know this place like the back of my paw," he said, his voice as soothing as he could manage, a gentle little caress that was meant to give her back part of her confidence.
With a smile, he turned and trudged on a little farther, leading her to a part of the forest that showed signs of being far older. Vines draped over the branches of trees, crawlers wound their leafy lengths around the chunks of trees and bloomed in various colors. The air was tainted with the scent of greenery and an underlying scent of a small water source, creating a combination of smells that one could only identify as nature and earth. The scent was enough to warm the heart, the kind of scent that made one feel comfortable, safe from the danger many lions associated with the darkness of the forest.
"In here," he said with a little grin, leaping suddenly through a mass of foliage that had grown up to make a barrier of sorts. Landing on the other side, a smile spreading across his pale mug. Before him lay a shallow pool in the center of a small clearing, not much more than a couple of feet deep, and the source for the thicker vegetation in this area of the forest. Willow-type trees surrounded the small clearing, the guardians of the tranquil area, with their long dangling strings of leaves bushing the ground. Over the pool and in the depths of the thick curtain of the willows glittered hundreds of fireflies. They sparkled and reflected in the tranquil water, dancing like little pixies throughout the area and oblivious to the visitors that had just now come upon him.
"Surprise," he said quietly, his tale flickering as he glanced back in Ihlo's direction, waiting to see her reaction.
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