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 Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:30 am
Slaves... They'd always been something of a touchy subject for Savitri. With such a bland coat, she'd never felt much higher than them. Sure, there were other white Firekin, but they had markings. She had none. Bodaway had told her it was a test from Finar-si, to prove she was a ture Firekin... But she wasn't sure.
Despite her upbringing, though, she found herself sneaking to the slave dens to see what it was like down there. If lions thought her a slave at first glance... She may as well see about spending time amid them, right?
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Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:49 am
The fact that there was so much on the minds of the Firekin connected to the rumored return of Kidondo certainly worked in favor of Azarax. He had found, recently, that there was slightly less to do and though Uzulu was as harsh as he always was, the consequences of not doing something absolutely right no longer frightened him qutie as much as it had used to.
Which meant that he would occasionally gather up the courage to take the liberty of allowing himself a short break every once in a while. Although, really, being what he was was not the worst fate he could imagine.
All the work he did for Uzulu had meant he got the chance to grow up strong, and he had long since noticed that he was larger than most of those he had grown up with. What that meant he wasn't quite sure, but he quite liked it.
((I'm setting this before he met Ripuka and realized she's his mother. A little simpler that way xD;; ))
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Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:08 pm
The first slave she saw was, thankfully, near her age. Rather another youth than an adult. As she went over, she wondered how she'd explain herself.
Was she captured from another land? No, she didn't think that'd work well... Ah, she was the offspring of her mother's new slave! That was believable. VERY believable. She glanced at her pelt. Yup, anybody'd believe that. What WAS her mother's name, though? She didn't actually know that.
Shrugging it off, she went padding over. Being young, though, she had no idea what to say.
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:06 am
Azarax had realized long ago that, somehow, he found himself wanting to be identified with the Firekin and be freed from his bonds of being slave. Why that was he had no idea. He knew his was not the worst existence possible, and so had made his peace with being what he was, but there was always that small part of him.
And perhaps because of this, he had learned that he could tell a member of the Firekin apart from any of the slaves quite easily. For one, most of them were bigger. And there was also the way they carried themselves. Something to do with the pride that riddled the members of the Firekin that meant they carried themselves somewhat differently than any of the slaves. Azarax himself could take up that stance if he wanted to, but there would really never be much of a reason to do so.
But this white cub. Much as he paused and frowned and peered at her as she came closer, he couldn't quite tell what she was. It almost seemed like she was purposely lingering over the side to be a slave, though what for he had no idea.
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:33 am
Savitri always made a note to not carry herself like her sisters. It was part of her mentality, that she was less of a Firekin than them. So she'd always walked life, even so young, somewhere in stance between the Firekin she was and the slave she felt she was no better than. If she'd ever thought about it and played her cards right, she'd pass for a very bold rogue.
A rock hidden by the sand gave the perfect cover for stumbling on sand a rogue-born slave wouldn't be used to. Not that she actually enjoyed it, though. But it created the desired effect - Struggling to walk in the shifting granules, something a Firekin or slave born within the lands would be able to avoid.
She looked up, blinking at the other lion. "H-hullo..." Another hidden object, this time a bone, sent her tumbling. When she saw it... There was no faking the shock and horror that sent her scrambling. That was no prey bone, that was for sure!
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:22 pm
He watched as she neared and then stumbled slightly. She must not have been born on the sands, he decided, though he found that strange, given her pure white coat which reminded him only of the Firekin.
He was about to return her greeting cautiously, wondering what she wanted, when she suddenly stumbled again and scrambled for footing in the shifting sands. For him, walking on sand was only natural, and he took a wide leap to cover the remaining distance between them and help her regain her footing. There was a look of shock on her face that, upon coming closer to her, he realized was a bone. He peered at it. It wasn't prey. He shuddered, but he had been around this kind of thing all his life, so there was a limit to how much it affected him.
"Maybe the bone isn't the best place to talk," He said softly, more to himself than anything, but he was sure she would be able to hear it if she had been listening.
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Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:47 am
The pale cub nodded, crawling away from the bones in the sand. Firekin or rogue, she'd never actually encountered the bones of a lion before. Age had yet to make her immune to the sight of the dead.
Savitri glanced at him, finally 'finding' her footing in the sand, though she continued to allow it to shift her around with it. "I'm Savitri... Who're you?" Did lions outside the desert have names that dealt with fire...? She could assume so.
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Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:43 pm
Savitri? He wondered. Firekin name? It was hard to tell. It could easily be otherwise. Because, to be truthful, his own name had to do with fire, and he was hardly a Firekin. As he thought, all of a sudden the image of the red lioness who appeared whenever he closed his eyes came to mind, and stayed for a moment. And then disappeared. Who was she...?
He jolted back to the present, finally remembering he was supposed to offer his own name. "I'm Azarax," He said hastily, not wanting her to think he lacked manners. It wasn't often that he came across someone he didn't live with that could stay and talk too.
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:49 am
She offered a small, meek smile to Azarax. "So I'm not the only slave with a fire-based name...?"
Wait, slaves had fire-based names? Bodaway'd always told her that slaves weren't deserving of the flame-based names. Maybe this one's parents had hoped for something better for him.
She glanced towards the distant dunes, hoping somebody didn't come upon them and berate her for befriending slaves. Assured nobody came, she looked back at Azarax. "I came here with my mother, Kimiko. What about you?" Oh, her mother would not like her saying that...
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Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:18 am
Azarax took her words into consideration. Perhaps in was true. Although he wondered if he could truly call himself a slave. There was a sort of pride in that, in knowing he wasn't as cruel as the Firekin in their keeping of slaves. But he didn't do nearly as much for Uzulu as the lions he had grown up with. So... what was he really? He had always had a bit of an identity crisis.
Kimiko? He had no idea who that was. The name didn't ring a bell. Although, much of his time he spent with his family, with Mpaji and them, so the chances that there was a slave called Kimiko that he did not know did not strike him as odd.
"I was born here, I guess," He told her, for he really had no idea. Mpaji had never told him, but he knew that the yellow lion had been in the desert since before Azarax's birth. So he could only assume that this was his birthplace.
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:31 am
The white cub could only nod, processing the information. After a moment, she glanced at him, fully taking in his looks. Suddenly she blurted "You look like Jua'taka's brother!" She the realised her slip and moved to correct herself. "I-I only say that because Mom's masters gave me to Jua'taka to be her family's slave." Oh she hoped he didn't catch that slip-up.
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:40 pm
His eyes widened. Jua'taka? Who was that...? He had never heard of her before, and that didn't surprise him. Fire names. He didn't know a lot of lions with fire names. But it was what she said after that made him freeze.
"H-her... family's slave?" He echoed faintly. "I look like a Firekin's brother?" He felt himself shiver, even under the hot desert sun. But he wasn't a Firekin, so... how could he look like the brother of one?
"But that's not possible," He muttered softly under his breath.
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:18 am
Savitri shrugged a bit, almost nochalantly. "There's slaves that look Firekin... I've seen them. Momma and I look Firekin, but we're not..." Rogues could look Firekin, too, she realised. Watching a desert reptile scurry by, she mulled this thought. After a moment, she looked back at Azarax. "What do you think of this Finar-si they believe in...? How are the Firekin better, just because they supposedly came from a goddess?" She sneered just a bit at the words, glaring at the lizard. If she came from Finar-si, why did she look like a rogue?
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:45 pm
"Finar-si?" He echoed. Now what did he think about her? He didn't understand their beliefs, really, so he had never really formed an opinion about it.
"I think... they're all dreamers." He said finally. "They've never seen her before, but they seem to give up a lot for her. She's a waste of time." He huffed as he finished. It was just so much simpler to believe in something you could see or hear or at least smell. But none of the Firekin had done any of that in regards to Finar-si. So who was to say that she actually existed? At least in terms of this desert, she was pretty much dead.
"But that's just me." He said after a while. Then he glanced over at her, his piercing yellow eyes asking of her the same question she had asked him. He wasn't quite used to putting questions into words, as he never really asked any questions.
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:54 pm
Savitri listened, then shrugged, as if reading the question in his eyes. "I don't believe in her... Like you said, they're just dreamers. Finar-si's probably nothing more than a story passed down to pacify curious cubs." She shook her head, laying down.
"Maybe lions just believe in stuff that's not real so they have something to grasp, to find some meaning." She looked back, tail flicking. "Maybe Finar-si's no god at all, but some lion that just... Led a pride into the desert, and set up ideals of what should and shouldn't be." The pale cub looked back at the sand, watching a lizard scurry by.
After a moment, she sat back up. "Maybe... Maybe everything we're told, taught to believe... Is just a lie." Blue eyes turned towards yellow, watching Azarax. "Who knows... Maybe slavery is a lie."
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