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 Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 5:20 pm
The sun had long risen over the sands, and Upendo'Mpaji had fled the the shade. He was sure he had this task and that task to do, but the sweltering heat kept him from doing any of it until Uzulu hissed upon his return.
An overhanging rock shaded his figure, and he lay there, a panting mess, his eyes scanning for any sign of trouble. There was none, for now. That was always the word, wasn't it? For now.
He was suprised with Uzulu's reaction the cub when he'd brought it home so long ago. (Well if felt like a long time to him, anyway). Uzulu had grunted good-naturedly (as good naturedly as he got) and allowed the thing to stay. However, he didn't treat it as an equal, but he didn't tell it what to do either.
Mpaji was forced with the task of raising it, not that he minded. Now, it had grown, the it being a he, and was turning into somewhat of what Mpaji considered a Firekin. He briefly wondered where the little tyke had gone off to, and if his fathering skills were better than for his own children.
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Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:58 am
It was not an easy thing for him to do, to try and figure out what Ripuka had told him. Though it could not have been more than a few days since that chance meeting, it felt to him as if he had been pondering her words all his life. He couldn't decide whether or not to believe her. She had no reason to lie to him, really, and there was nothing in her words that had led him to think that she was being dishonest in any way. And Azarax was not a bad judge of character, words, or actions. The fact that his sight allowed him to see such limited colors had meant that the rest of his senses, his instincts included, had to be heightened at least a little so he didn't fall behind everyone else.
So she must have been telling him the truth. But try as he may, he had plenty of trouble trying to understand and accept what she had told him. So despite what he had grown up knowing, he was a Firekin. And he had spent his life amongst slaves and treated much like a lesser being because of her beliefs. He didn't mind that he had grown up with Mpaji, but the very fact that he wasn't what he thought he was had led to his world suddenly seeming very flimsy and unstable.
Something then posessed him to look up as he moped along in the heat of the bright day, completely unaware of just how hot it was. And there was Mpaji. Azarax brightened. Perhaps he could get some answers from him.
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Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:57 am
Mpaji yawned, stretched, and upon opening and eye, caught the sight of the little Firekin himself.
"Azarax, little boetie, there you are," he grinned, spreading full out and then relaxing. It was good to see the child's face, and even better that the creature appeared pleased to see him.
"What's new on the slave front, eh?" Mpaji joked, knowing full well that Azarax never was and never would be considered one of them, but he was almost his bridge across the void. The bridge that wasn't Kaanga.
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Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:27 pm
He didn't quite know to to put it. It was such a strange question that he wanted answers to, and one that he wasn't particularly sure was completely answerable. Perhaps it was, but only by Ripuka, and that wasn't really a possibility.
"Mpaji," He said slowly, as if he was trying to form the words as he spoke. "I have a question."
As if it was anything special. But Azarax didn't really ask questions. He took things as they came, and he processed them, and if he didn't really understand it, most of the time he was willing to just let that go. If it came back to him, then perhaps he could puzzle it out and if he couldn't, that was all okay too.
So the phrase sounded so foreign to him. He had a question. Why yes, he did, but it was probably one of few that he had asked in his short lifetime.
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:35 pm
Mpaji's ears perked forwards, and he frowned a little bit. Not because he hd to answer the question, but because of the mere factor that he'd never heard the creature ask one.
Upendo himself would have asked several questions if he were in the current state Azarax had been in. Then again, he was in a way. The difference was, he'd put himself here.
"By all means, ask it," Mpaji said, flapping his tail against the ground. "Unless its about girls," he mused after a moment. "I'm no good with those."
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 12:38 am
Mpaji's added comment ellicited a small smile from Azarax, amidst all the other thoughts that crowded his mind. He would always have time to pause and take a moment to listen to Mpaji, no matter how much was happening, simply because Mpaji had always listened to him, and it was only natural that he reacted the exact same way.
"I'm... not a slave, am I?" He said finally, after having reworded the question multiple times in his mind. He didn't know if he had ever really been considered one, but he certainly had grown up with that kind of thought. There were two kinds of lions, so far as Azarax knew - Firekin and slaves. And since he certainly couldn't fall under Firekin, he had to be a slave. He couldn't be simple gray matter.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 8:43 am
Mpaji chuckled lightly. It really wasn't that funny, but hearing it adressed so bluntly was rather interesting. Especially since the answer was so obvious, but for a child, maybe not so much.
"Well, no ones a slave if they don't want to be. Its mental you see." It was entirely this way, but if one wanted they could simply toss themselves from this world, or make bad choices and get beaten. Slaves were slaves because they listened and knew nothing else. That was why, as a rule, education in slaves was a bad idea.
"Aside from that," he explained with a sigh. "No." It was a plain and simple answer, and he felt the need to elaborate. "The Blood, as you folk call it, have a distinct look. I wasn't quite sure when I found you, but Uzulu knew it. Not quite sure what he made of you, coat color and all." The look on his face had been priceless. The horrible Firekin had found no answer suddenly faced with a combination of outsiders and Firekin in the same creature.
"It was quite the sight," he added with a wink.
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Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 2:08 am
So she had been telling the truth...
Azarax hadn't doubted it, but he hadn't been able to accept it until he was sure that it was true. He was a Firekin...? But he didn't have the right coat color. He knew that. He could see, more clearly than anyone else, the different between a Firekin and a slave. Firekin were bright, bright red or black or white. Those were the three colors he could see and know were true colors. Everything else existed to him in shades of gray. Even himself, so that there was no way for him to know what color he as. Just that he wasn't red, or black, or white.
But Ripuka had been red. Slightly orange, like true fire, but that he had seen fine. But somehow, he wasn't. Save for his hair, and he had always wondered about that, but never had he thought that perhaps he was Firekin.
It made even less sense, then.
"So... why didn't he tell me?" He managed to say as he tried to properly arrange his thoughts. Now he understood what he saw when he went to sleep and dreamed at night. It was a picture from the past, one his mind had captured and held on to and refused to let go of. And all along it had been telling him who he was.
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:53 am
Upendo'Mpaji remained silent, waiting for the cub to speak again. No doubt he was thinking long and hard about the subject. Mpaji himself had never had any trouble placing himself in the world. He'd clung to Motomilia's side like a bur, expecting full well to get what was coming.
She was his mother figure, and he was heartbroken when he'd had to leave. No, when she'd left. Motomilia rather faded away. It didn't matter that she couldn't protect him, but not being around left him heartbroken. He realized now, that this was when he lost his rebellion. When he had nothing left to fight for.
Great, now he was musing.
He smiled lightly as Azarax spoke. "It's a good question, little master. Uzulu, I think, was struggling with the little factor of your creme coat. He didn't want to admit that there was mixing in The Blood. No, I definately think that's it. He is afraid. Afraid of foreigners coming in to taint them." Mpaji stretched and dug his claws into the ground. He needed to elaborate.
"You see, The Blood are a nation of warriors. They rest all their standing on the battle and strengths flowing in their veins. Their slaves, naturally, are trained and bred for fighting. However, this has changed, and that is something that nations feel will bring them down." He chuckled. "Uzulu was worried you could bring him down." Which, he may very well have.
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:46 pm
It was all confusing him. More so than it had before.
There was mixing in The Blood... But somehow he had gotten the sense that Ripuka would not have been one to mix this... Blood thing. She was so devoted to Finar-si and her pride. She wouldn't have just... mixed. It baffled him how much she clung on to the thought of the goddess, and yet she had managed to do something that would weaken the existence of her kind. How ironic.
"But I might have done anyway," Azarax said sulkily, thinking angrily of Uzulu and the secret that had been kept from him all his life. "Even if I didn't know."
Then somehow his mind went back to what Mpaji had said and landed on something else. "Little master...?" He echoed, shaking his head. Well that sounded just wrong to him. How had he ever done anything to deserve to be called anything like that?
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:31 am
But the way he'd done it had given Uzulu an option. He could have claimed 'slave' or simply rid the cub of his life if the pride turned sour on him for housing a 'half-breed'.
"Might, to a Firekin, is a very big difference from won't." He shifted uncomfortably, wiggling back under the shade that had begun to creep away from him. It was still blasted hot.
"Habit," Upendo'Mpaji answered to Azarax. "Slaves address their overseers respectfully." He made a shrugging motion with his front shoulders. "You're The Blood, are you not?"
It the end, it would likely be up to this cub. He wasn't sure how the actual nation would feel about it, or if they'd let him stay, but so long as their was doubt in their minds, the choice was his.
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Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:50 pm
Azarax shook his head. He might be of The Blood, or whatever this strange thing was, but he hadn't grown up with others who thought themselves pure and above all else. So he wasn't the same as them. And he never would be, because he could never see how the thought of a goddess he had never before seen could ever make him sacrifice as much as Ripuka seemed to have.
"That doesn't make any difference," He said finally. He wasn't an overseer of anyone. Perhaps if he hadn't been abandoned, perhaps if he'd grown up with Ripuka and been taught her ways, he would have thought himself higher up than Mpaji. But he hadn't, and the truth was, he hadn't been taught much of anything, belief wise. He had grown up believing whatever he might, and now that he thought about it, he didn't quite believe in... anything. Reason and logic, perhaps, but both of those had left with the revelation that he was a Firekin.
Then he felt something within him that didn't want to know any more. He didn't really want to care about it all, and perhaps he would want to talk about it again sometime. But right now, he would rather not think about it.
"There's something going on," He said, changing the subject. "About Kidondo."
He didn't know really who he was talking about, didn't know much about this Kidondo, but that didn't stop him. All he had heard was that Kidondo was coming back, although why he had gone in the first place, Azarax didn't know.
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