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 Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 6:42 pm
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 A deep purr leaked from the maw of the dark male, the hue of his coat a perfect match to the lioness stalking through the high, golden grasses. Little did the beautiful, dark lioness know, but she would not be finding any prey for herself in this area. Issy and Ushu, two of her very own brothers, had taken to herding the large masses of prey groups around in odd migratory patterns. It was great fun to drive them from the water hole or a feeding ground, and then see the stooped look splattered across the faces of hunters and huntresses. Of course, the beasts always came back to their usual spots, but not until long after it had been quiet for some time.
It was an odd sort of bonding, this constant mischief, but it had left the wanderer a little more at peace. Before he and Ushu had taken to their mischievous ways, Issy spent most of his days sleeping off the exhaustion of his night wanderings. While he still found the time to travel the lands by the light of the moon, the trips had become fewer and shorter. He still wondered about the family whose blood ran so thickly in his veins, the family who had contributed to the dark pelt that he sported. He would never leave the lands to find them, but it was an idle fascination that he wondered over from time to time.
Lazily tossing his head in an attempt to clear the rusty mane from in front of his emerald eyes, Issy glanced around the rolling golden grasses of the savannah. He had picked a spot in the center, where the grasses had been worn thin and the earth was exposed. The cool dirt was a relief to his sun-beaten pelt, and he lay sprawled comfortably there. However, the noise of a large form brushing through the grasses drew his attention, and that was when he spotted the glimpses of a pelt so dark it could have been his own.
“Eusi!” he called after finally recognizing the lioness stalking the lands near him, pushing himself up with his paws so that he was instead in a sitting position. |
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:06 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:29 am
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Issy could not recall having seen Eusi almost at all lately. In fact, his last memories of his sister were when they were both very small, and even those seemed fuzzy and sort of short. He was alienated with a lot of his siblings, but unlike the situation with Eusi, it was typically because his habits were so different. He at least saw them from time to time – Eusi had seemed to completely disappear altogether. He wouldn’t hold that against her, though. Family was family, even if they were almost strangers.
“I’m quite alright, I suppose. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Ushu, and I’ve met this rather devilish lioness that hates my guts,” he said with a weak smile. Issy was not a slow lion, and his sister’s squeamish, itchy sort of response was enough to let him know that the situation was more than uncomfortable for her. Still, she was family, and he needed to get to know all of them better than he already did. It was odd to feel like a stranger among your own siblings.
“How’ve you been? I haven’t seen you.. in ages,” he said quietly, trying not to upset her attitude too badly. After all, she was already acting sort of odd – course, he couldn’t have known that his sister had a male on the brain. He had never seen that sort of attitude anyway.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:51 am
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She snorted. He always did pal around with Ushu, didn't he? At least that is what she figured and that was what she saw in the few glimpses of family she had gathered.
"So she hates your guts but you bring her up so nonchalant.." She muttered softly and rolled her eyes, smirking. "Have her on your mind a lot then?" She was no fool, she could be wrong but generally when you thought of someone a lot... the thought immediately stopped. No, it was just a comment of making an enemy. "Probably a lot of females hate your guts that you'll never even know about." She raised her brows, tail flicking.
"You haven't seen me in ages because I like it that way.." She said simply, not so meanly. She didn't intend it to sound so meanly, anyways. "I've been fine." She lied. She was fine, in a sense. But she was lonely, deep down. And now she was confused why it was no longer fun to be brash and hurtful. She needed something else in life, but she wasn't sure what. "Nothing of interest anyways. Alls I do is hunt.." She grinned at this and it truly made her the beauty she should have been (if not for that stern look all the time). "And I am rather good at it. Last night I ran into some dolt staring at the moon half the night. Like that is any respectable hobby.." She rolled her eyes again. Even if Kazi had said he didn't do it often...
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:01 pm
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“I’m sure there a lot of lions, both male and female, that hates yours, dear sister,” came his immediate response, his voice not unkind, but certainly beginning to take on an edge of apathy towards the sister he hadn’t seen in so long. Perhaps it had been all the time that they had spent apart, but he had deceived himself into believing this would be a happy conversation. He realized now, after her nasty little comment, that Eusi was still just as unkind as ever – and he had a feeling he knew full and well where she had inherited it. “But no, I can’t say I have her on my mind a lot, but I do think about her occasionally – she’s one of the few lions I’ve met lately, even if she did threaten my life so calmly.” He shrugged it off, glancing away to the horizon. Where was Ushu? He didn’t really want to be around mean old Eusi now.
“Well, I can’t say that I see why you wouldn’t want to see some of your family, but if that’s what you want, then I suppose you’re doing a very good job of it,” he said idly, his emerald eyes locked onto the horizon a few moments more before he turned them back on the sister that matched him so closely. Of course, this was only by pelt color. Why was it that his opposite in appearance was so similar to him, and yet, his match in appearance so opposite? Oh, but that would be a new question to wonder over. Her smile, such a rarity he supposed, was enough to make him forgive her momentarily. Of course, then she began talking again, and ruined the whole forgiveness thing.
“Staring at the moon is a very calming hobby, actually,” he said, flicking his tail behind him. “It helps me sleep sometimes, and it certainly helps me clear my thoughts when they’re troubled – which they usually are,” he shrugged, though, knowing that he wouldn’t change Eusi’s stubborn little mind one way or another. Why was she so damn mean?
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:06 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:22 pm
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It wasn’t really true to say that Issy hated his sister’s guts. Of course, he really disliked the attitude she threw around most of the time. If she could have been nice to him for at least five minutes before beginning to shun him, perhaps he would have felt differently. However, the meager bond between them only left him with a sort of distaste for her. He loved her, like he loved all of the members of his family, but he certainly wouldn’t call it an affectionate love. It was more of an idle, automatic bond that one felt with siblings.
“Some lionesses like romantic prats,” he said with a little shrug, turning his eyes back onto her. He couldn’t help but furrow his brows at her, picking up on the slight differences in her demeanor. It was nothing to do with him, of course, but he couldn’t understand the slight changes and contradictions he was seeing in her at the moment. Maybe she was sick. Yeah, that sounded good.
“And lions stare at the moon because it reminds them that they’re not the only thing that’s lonely in this world,” he muttered, eyes narrowing slightly as he stared down at his own dark paws. He had had tried to answer that question multiple times in his head when he was in the midst of his midnight wandering. Of course, this was the only plausible answer he had come up with so far, and it was the only answer he could offer her, even if she didn’t seem to be asking him directly.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:14 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:02 pm
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“No, it’s not a cure for loneliness by any means,” he said quietly, his brows furrowed as he spoke, thinking on what she had said. “But I do think that it helps to know that you’re not the only one feeling alone. Perhaps, in a way, it unites all us helpless souls?” He smiled softly, shaking his head at the thought. He had never voiced his opinions out loud, and he had never even thought about discussing them with someone else. It was odd, this conversation, but it was in a way lifting a weight off his shoulders. It really did help to know that he wasn’t the only one that felt this way.
“You’re better for the spirit than you think you are,” he said with a shrug, an amused smile lingering on his maw. “I’ve never talked about my thoughts with anyone else before, and in a way, you seem to think a little like I do,” the last part was said quietly, presenting another thought in his mind. Did their likeness, that rogue difference from their golden relatives, alienate them? Did their minds automatically set them apart from everyone else? In a way, that would make them their own enemies.
He laughed as she asked the question, and even harder as she immediately tried to take it back. It wasn’t an unkind laugh, but it was certainly mirthful. “To a male, Eusi? What would you want in a male?” he smirked, tilting his head at her. He hadn’t answered the question, just like she asked, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t ask one of his own.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:08 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 9:01 pm
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“If that’s what you want to believe, then keep right on telling yourself that. I, of course, won’t say any different on the matter,” he said through a little chuckle, eyeing his sister rather amusedly. Someone had certainly gotten her mind all upside down, and if he didn’t know any better, he’d say that it was a male – and one that she had probably met recently. It was certainly a side of Eusi he had never seen before (not that he had ever really seen much of her at all) and it was hard to keep a straight face when she was flashing so quickly between emotions and moods. She was almost more tolerable when she was this unpredictable, mostly because her attitude was much more easily influenced.
“It really is nice,” he said quietly, glancing up at the small sliver of moon that showed like a pale ghost against the sun-lit sky. It was odd how it could still seem to lonely when the sun was so close to it. Perhaps it was because it seemed to be outdone by the glory of the daylight. He glanced back down at her with a little smile, glancing over her dark coat and then turning those emerald eyes onto his own paws. It was almost like the pair of them, beautiful by every right, but outshone by the golden, pretty lions of their family. Were they like little moons?
“Do you ever wonder about Dad’s family, Eusi?” he said quite suddenly, glancing off at the horizon, in the direction he knew the rogue lands to be in. He wondered about them all the time, about who they were, where they came from, and most importantly, did they look like him?
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Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 5:15 am
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Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 10:57 am
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He nodded as she said those words, his eyes drifting off and away from her, “yes, the Kusini’Mwezi,” he said quietly. He knew that his dad hated them, but his dad hated a lot of things, including some of his own children. It really wouldn’t surprise him if the entire pride was actually very nice and very sweet. His father seemed to be the trouble making, grumpy sort. They were probably glad he was gone. Did they ever think about him and what family he might have?
“I know I’ll never leave the pridelands,” he said quietly, glancing back towards her with a weak smile, “they’re my home. But when I was little, I always wanted to go to this other pride and see if maybe I wouldn’t be the one that’s so different there.” He laughed and shook his head, pushing his torso upwards so that he was sitting now instead of laying down. “A cub’s dream, I guess.”
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Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:17 pm
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