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 Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:40 am
 As the sun sunk slowly towards the horizon, it stretched great fingers of red, orange, and purple back across the great blanket of heavens above. Small sparkling dots of stars, like tiny diamonds dangling overhead, were slowly emerging from behind the multi-hued expanse of the velvety skies above the Pridelands. Though the sun was nearing its vanishing point, it still burned like a ball of molten gold, thrusting the lands into a deep heat. However, this heat would last only a little while longer, for once the sun had disappeared and the pale orb of the moon hung in its place, the land would again become a bearable paradise.
Lazing comfortably beneath a gnarled tree, Isithunzi watched the sunset with half a mind. Though he took in the beauty of the painted canvas of the sky above him, his mind wandered over the ceaseless thoughts that were particularly prudent in such a dreamer. With his dark form stretched out across a slab of granite, and the sun throwing golden shadows down over the deep gray of his pelt, he lazily let those emerald toned eyes lift upwards to the stubby, gangly branches of the old tree. The roots sprouted slightly from the hard packed earth around him, leaving the rock slab nestled among a dozen serpentine fingers. It was an odd site to see, but the scene of it enticed Issy's mind.
As he let his tail flick idly behind him, much like a snake by it's own right, his mind wandered back over all the things that he had ever thought before. Where were the rest of his relatives? They were the ones who had given him most of the blood running through his veins. He was more like a shadow than any creature of pridelander blood. Though his father matched his own body hue, it was hard to call his father a pridelander. His build, his frame, even his mind set were all too different from the those that had been born and raised in these lands. So who else shared his father's genes? He wished it were an easy answer, one that he did not have to go and find across hundreds of miles. Would the sister that had left so long ago ever come home to enlighten him?
With a sigh, he shut his eyes, though it didn't push the thoughts out of his mind. Sometimes, it felt like a sickness, that sunset dreaming.
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:57 am
The male hadn't been in these lands long, they were strange but beautiful. He still had problems trying to work out why males would be allowed to stay in a pride and why females were leading. It was so against everything he had ever been taught as a cub but he was willing to let it all slide for one female who had captivated him. He had found today to be a rather lazy one, he hadn't seen his love anywhere and he found himself rather bored. He still hadn't met any royalty so was still nothing more then a mere rouge.
He still found himself living in these lush lands though. He adored the place, it was wonderful. He hadn't expected to meet anyone though but the dark shape under a tree stood out somewhat in all the browns and greens. He seemed darker with a very red mane. He also looked strong but the thing that attracted Chipo to him was how relaxed he was. He hoped that the lion could teach him something about the pride.
"Excuse me!"
He called out while walking over to the male, he was cautious as always. He never wanted to do anything stupid, after all some males could be somewhat scary when woken up from a deep slumber, he was no exception. He loved sleep!
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 11:50 am
As the sound of another's voice reached his ears, Issy pried one unbelieving emerald eye open in search of the voice's owner. As he spotted the yellow lion a few yards away, he opened the other, convinced that his imagination was not indeed playing a trick on him. When he thought too hard and dreamed too much, he often heard things that weren't there and were simply a part of his over active imagination. He gave a little nod of his rust-encircled head in greeting, showing that he was not threatening in any way.
"Hello," he called back, a genuinely kind smile creeping over his maw. At first, he had thought that the lion was one of the pridelander members based on his yellow and gold coat, but at second glance, he realized he was shaped much differently from the other males of the pride. If he didn't know any better, he would have said the male was a rogue. Of course, he could have joined the pride by now, but Issy knew enough to know that he wasn't born here.
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:22 pm
Chipo was relieved to see a smile cross the males maw it made him relax a little. He got a little closer to the male and saw down a few yards from him so that they both had their individual space and wouldn't be able to intimidate each other.
"Sorry to disturb you, I am rather new here. My name is Chipo and I was wondering whether you are part of the pride?" He wanted to talk to someone who might know something. It was rather amusing that the lion he picked had royal blood running through him but Chipo didn't know that. He had just picked a lion that looked relaxed and at home, this lion looked perfectly peaceful. Chipo couldn't believe a rouge would look that peaceful in another's pride.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:24 pm
He chuckled as the brute sat down a little way away from him, though didn't say anything. He didn't mind people sitting next to him or in front of him - he was usually a very talkative person and liked them as close as they could get without it becoming awkward, just so that he could talk to them all the better. If the male wanted to have his own space though, who was Issy to tell him he should do otherwise? He didn't mind either way, just as long as he didn't have to strain his voice to be heard.
"Part of the Pridelanders?" he said with a little quirk of his eyebrow, watching the yellow brute before him. True, Issy was not at all colored like the rest of his golden family, but he did have the pure Pridelander build. Yet, if this male truly was a rogue, then he may not have been able to recognize Pridelanders by their body forms just yet. "Yes, nephew to the Queen herself. What can I do for you, mate?" He was cheery, more so than usual. After all, he didn't want to run the male off; what would his aunt and mother think of him if he did that?
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:59 pm
Chipo listened and was a little surprised when he said he was related to the queen. From what he had heard the queen was a golden colour and he was as far from golden as you could get! Though the relation would be useful, it would mean he could answer some questions.
"I would like to know more about the pride, I met a beautiful girl but she is more playful and not all that informative. I have been here for a while but yet to encounter someone who could explain the pride to me. It is very different to the pride that I came from." He hoped that the male wouldn't mind explaining it to him. Like why was a female ruling? It seemed very wrong.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 4:00 pm
Issy was pretty used to people thinking he wasn't part of the royal blood. After all, the royal blood used to consist of only that beautiful golden color that his brothers and sisters sported around. Many lions, especially from other lands, didn't realize that the royal line (and many lines as well) had rogues bred into them. Isithunzi was one of the offspring that sported more of his rogue heritage than his Pridelander. He did, however, have a full beautiful rust-red mane that was not too unlike his grandfather Mufasa's in hue.
"Different from your pride?" he said questioningly, wondering what sort of pride he was from. He had heard all kinds of crazy things from travelers and people from distant lands, but he knew that most of the prides operated on the same basic hierarchy. How was he supposed to know the male had never heard of a Queen?
"I suppose there's not really that much to tell, though what I think is basic information is probably new to you, especially if you're from somewhere else," he said calmly, his emerald eyes flickering back behind them and towards pride rock. It was a distant peak on the horizon, but possible to see from here. "The Queen lives at the top of Pride rock, up there, and the royal family occupies various dens close to her. Other families live in and around it," he said, giving a little nod. "Most of the pridelanders are a bright golden color, from what I'm sure you've seen, but recently we've had quite a few rogues and travelers breeding into the bloodlines. I myself am one of those mix-blood offspring," he said with a gentle smile on his face. What issy didn't know was that his father was a prince of another land, not just a mere rogue. "With all of the mixing, you're likely to find not only the golds, but darker colors like me, or bright green, blue, even some red - though there was red that popped up rarely in the original bloodline."
As he talked, he never realized that he never explained the one thing that Chipo wanted to hear: Why was there a female ruling? Being that it was so natural to Issy, he never thought about anyone else finding it odd. It seemed like the male was just going to have to come right out and ask.
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:09 am
He listened intently to what the male had to say. Things were rather confusing really and not much of it made sense to him. He listened while looking at Pride Rock occasionally it was an odd looking rock, he had always thought that.
"Why do you have a Queen? How is she suppose to protect the pride from a takeover?" He didn't want to seem rude but females were naturally weaker when it came to fighting. They were amazing for hunting but fighting, that was for the males. If a male came along to attack for the throne, how could she defend it?
He then thought over what it was the male said and seemed to accept it. It was a strange pride there was no doubt about that but they seemed to be okay, they were just so different.
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:15 pm
He had never really thought about Pride rock in any really serious form. He supposed, however, that if one did look long enough, it was a rather odd shape for such a natural structure. That was probably the original appeal in such a thing - that and the fact that it was enormously tall compared with the surrounding, mostly empty planes around it.
"Why do we have a Queen?" he said with a little quirk of his brow. "We have a Queen because she was the first born of our previous King, Mufasa." However, as the male made his expressions over the fear of the Queen being unable to protect her throne, he simply chuckled. "I'm sure she's more than capable of protecting her throne, considering she has been trained to be a Queen since the day she was born." He shrugged, then, and glanced back towards Pride rock, "and she also has a mate, who the King, but not ultimately in charge of the decisions. Between them, I'm sure her throne is secure." He had never thought of females as ultimately being weaker - smaller, perhaps, but never weaker. That was just how he was raised.
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 3:43 am
Chipo listened to him and nodded. It was strange thing this pride but yet he was curious and wished to stay if only for Mchengo, she was a beautiful girl and he would sacrifice his own beliefs for her. Then again that was odd in itself. Life really was a strange thing.
"Where can I find this Queen? I ask because a female in this pride has captured my heart and if it is allowed I wish to stay. I have much to learn though obviously!" He decided to just accept the strangeness of everything after all it seemed that anything out side his pride was very strange, maybe it wasn't this pride that was strange but his own was? He would accept that theory for now as it seemed the most likely.
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Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:23 pm
Idly, Issy wondered what kind of pride the male had come from. The basis of his questions had made it very obvious that he had obviously been born somewhere else, within a pride very unlike this one. However, this one was one of the oldest and most normal by every right, and he knew many that were similar. That meant, of course, that this male was a stranger to the customs of the Pridelands - but that had never stopped his grandparents from admitting lions before, and he was sure it wouldn't stop this one either.
"She will probably be at Pride rock," he said with a little smile on his maw, nodding in the general direction of that great mass again. "If she's not, her mate probably will be, since they have young cubs. Either way, she'll be there at some point today." He said with a little nod, the rusty mane wavering back and forth as he did so.
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Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:53 am
He continued to listen intently to everything the male said, even if it was just to say where she might be. Chipo wanted to know as much as he possibly could.
"Is her mate the king then?" He would leave the dark male soon enough but he wanted to know as much as he could before he met the queen, after all he didn't want to sound like a complete idiot! He was going to do all this for Mchengo and he hoped she would appreciate it.
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Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:27 pm
"The King? Well, yes, just like the mate to a king would be his queen. However, our Queen controls most of the decisions, albeit consulting him, I'm sure, over some of the major problems." He shrugged it off, as if anyone would know that, and simply looked back up to Pride Rock. "I'm sure if you go up there now, you should find one or the other, and I'll bet that they'd either one be willing to give you a talk about entering the pride."
He flickered his tail lazily as he glanced back towards the sun, his paws already itching to begin his nightly wandering. He was a night prowler, and the longer he sat here and talked, the less time he had to explore and wander the lands he loved so much. Of course, he'd never be rude - he would talk as long as this male wanted. However, he did hope that the male just hurried up and let him be on his way.
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Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:39 am
Chipo listened and nodded. He felt a little foolish asking these questions which probably seemed so silly for someone who had lived here for a long time but he was thankful for the answer anyway.
"Thank you, I shall go and see if I can find her then. Thanks for your help!" He smiled and nodded his head as a finality before turning towards the rock and with a deep breath started to head in that direction. The things he did for love.
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Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 7:09 am
As Issy watched the other male meander off in the direction of the pride, he couldn't help the grin that slowly spread across his maw. Dragging his lazy form up from the position it had inhabited for the past couple of hours, he stretched out each leg in turn. Then, finally, he himself started off in the direction of the sun - to the boundaries of the pridelands, where he would spend most of his night thinking and traveling until the sun and need for slumber brought him back home.
[End]
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