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 Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:16 pm
The petite female was sitting on a rock not too far from the mouth of the den, staring at nothing in particular. Since the disappearance of her youngest daughter, she had somehow found an inner strength to pull through that she had previously thought beyond her. Somehow, since Tapanga went missing, she had returned to something similar to her previous self; her short-temper was back, and she had returned to being simply over-protective of her children, rather than afraid to let them go out on their own in case another of them vanished without a trace.
All in all, she was making something of a recovery, slow though it may be.
Her tail flicked behind her, and she wondered where the rest of her family was. She was the only one near the den, so far as she could tell. She always was. It was force of habit for her to always be in one place in case someone needed to find her. She could wander all over the Kusini if she wanted, but it wouldn't help if one of her kids was hurt and dragging themselves home and she was wandering around aimlessly, trying to keep an eye on each and every one of them. She would let Taabu be the one to constantly wander. He was the one, after all, who needed to occupy his mind. Njozi had recovered from his sister's abduction, disapearance, or what have you much quicker than his parents had. He still looked for her ever day, just as his father did, but as it was only his sister and not his cub - he didn't feel it quite so deeply. His father was affected painfully by this, his mother too, and they were recovering much slowly.
Today, however, was not about his sister or her disappearance or trying to comfort his parents. Today was about himself, about letting his mother know something important to him.
As he saw her ahead of him, a soft smile spread across his handsome features, and he made his loping way towards her. "Morning, mum," he called softly, slowing his pace as he approached the much smaller female.
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:45 pm
Nyunya's head turned as she heard her son's voice, and she smiled - something that had seemed quite impossible closer to Tapanga's disappearance. The first genuine smile, not the hollow ones she gave her sons and remaining daughters to comfort them when they needed it, after the news had taken a vast effort on her part. There had been relief in the back of her mind, though; relief that the numbing pain was starting to ease.
She stood up and hopped off her rock, moving over to the large figure of her son and pushing a nuzzle into his mane. "Good morning, baby," she murmured, surprised that he was here and not doing as Taabu usually did every day, patrolling the lands, but she couldn't deny she was happy to see him. He spent too much time away from home now, in her opinion. He smiled as his mother hopped down to see him immediately, leaning into her with a small smile as she nuzzled against him. He was glad to see her happier, glad to see that she no longer moped, that she could smile again. It was upsetting to have seen her so disoriented, so distraught. His parents were his supports, and for either of them to act so had been hard to bear.
"I have something to talk to you about," he said quietly, with a smile, his tail flickering behind him happily as he nodded back towards the rock. "Want to sit back down?" She'd want to sit on the rock, so he didn't tower so much over her, he was sure.
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:55 am
Nyunya had to smile again. Her son knew her well, addressing her minor issues with his height compared against her own without actually mentioning it, avoiding any chance of irritating her. Or perhaps she was just that predictable to everyone around her. Either way, she took the cue to climb back onto her rock again, successfully putting her eye level at just above his.
Once she was settled comfortably, she turned back to him and asked, with one eyebrow slightly raised, "So what is it you wanted to tell me?" With her kids, she was more used to them bringing her bad news rather than good, even the more trustworthy ones, so she couldn't help but be a bit suspicious even before Njozi began. Njozi took a relieved breath as she simply sat down without questioning him first, or forcing him to tell her right then and there. She was notorious for her bad temper, and he really wanted it to be the right moment, an easy moment, when he told his mother this good news. She never liked the thought of him growing up, perhaps partially because it meant she was growing older, and he wasn't sure quite how she was going to take this latest news.
"Well, uhm," he said slowly, staring at his paws for a moment, his dark mane flopping across his paler face. Then, with a deep breath, he simply nodded and brought his red eyes up to meet those that nearly matched them in hue. "Me and my mate, we're uhm, we're gonna be having cubs soon."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 6:51 am
Having two grown up boys in her life, such an announcement was something she did expect to hear eventually. Especially after Rengo. And she didn't really mind them having families of their own, not really; it was more having to admit they weren't her babies any longer that got to her. That, and being called "grandma" had never really been all that appealing to Nyunya, even though she more than appreciated the little cubs.
She fixed her son with her trademark hard stare, the one that so often reduced them to cringing cubs again, and asked tartly, "Oh? And when were we going to hear about this mate of yours, Njozi? Were we ever going to get to meet her?" Njozi hesitated at his mother's stare, and frowned slightly at her words. It was hard to face her when she was so hellbent on being stubborn, but he did realize that once he got this over with she was more than likely to just simply be happy for him. It was just having to try and get past it to begin with that made him hesitate, but he was a big boy now, and his mommy couldn't make him tuck his tail forever.
"Well, I've been busy with a lot of stuff mum, doing my duty to the pride and everything. I meant to introduce you to her and dad, I just didn't find the right moment, and this came on a little sooner than we anticipated."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 12:40 pm
Sure, Njozi's arguments were reasonable, if only at best, but Nyunya was notorious for being unreasonably stubborn. She had quite the talent for making the smallest indiscrepencies into full-blown outrages, and it was difficult to make her back down from her point of view. In fact, only Taabu had managed to find a knack for it that worked consistently. And even then it might only have been because she let him get away with it because... well, because he was Taabu.
"That's hardly an excuse, Njozi," she countered. "You should have made time to introduce her to your family if you planned on making her a part of it, shouldn't you? It only makes sense." She glanced away, knowing privately she was being somewhat hypocritical, then back to him. "Are you going to bring her now? I, for one, definitely want to meet her." Which wasn't technically a good thing. He snorted at her question, almost wanting to roll his eyes, and he might have had she been anyone but his mother. Of course, doing that to her would have caused quite a problem - the last thing he needed was to give her another reason to moody with him. She was already being unreasonably stubborn and he certainly didn't want to add fuel to the fire so to speak. He wished, for a minute, that he had gone to talk to his dad first so that he could have been here with him to help cushion the seat, but he was trying to prove to himself that he could be a grown man and facing his mom on his own was one of those things he needed to do to prove that to himself. After all, what kind of father would he be to his cubs if he still tuck tail every time his own mum gave him a glare?
"Of course I'm going to bring her to meet you, but she has to go and talk to her parents too, we've got to find the time to get everything sorted out." He frowned, shrugging, "besides, I don't want to stress Ihlo out right now with the cubs and everything so it can wait. I know that might upset you, but her health is important."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 1:27 pm
Whatever Nyunya might have said to Njozi - be it a lashing for snorting so derisively at her, a commendation for thinking of his mate's health, a telling-off for disagreeing with her - it all vanished from her mind as he sensitive ears picked one tiny bit of information out of all her son said. The name Ihlo. She paused with her mouth open, staring at her son suspiciously.
"Wait one minute... Ihlo? Did you say Ihlo?" Surely, he couldn't mean the Ihlo she knew... could he? Though, if it was, a lot of the things would make even more sense than they had at the time, she had to admit. He frowned at his mother's rather sudden change of attitude, for a moment quite confused as to what she was possibly doing. It wasn't often that she seemed to have a sudden change of heart in the middle of having an attitude problem, and he was surprised and a little confused he had to admit.
"Yes.." he said slowly, frowning at his mother with a slight tilt of his head. "Ihlosenka, that is her name."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:10 pm
'Ihlosenka' threw her off a bit. But she reasoned it could still be the same lioness; Ihlo could have failed to mention the longer version of her name. 'Ihlo' seemed to be what she usually went by. Still, there was no harm in making certain that Ihlo she was thinking of was the same Ihlo her son had taken as his mate.
She pursed her lips slightly as she watched him in silence for a few moments. "Describe her for me. What does she look like? Is she pale? Dark?" He narrowed his eyes slightly in confusion at his mother, still wondering what was with the third degree. Sure, his mother could be quite bothersome when she got something in her mind to be bothersome about, but this was about as strange as he'd seen her get. What did it matter what his mate looked like? Was she going to start fussing at him for having a mate that would give him ugly cubs or something?
With a bit of a shrug, he glanced down at his paws. "She's as pale as you are, as I am, paler even. She's all white, except for a red marking on her shoulder, and another one next to her eye."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:33 pm
Nyunya sighed. So. It was the same Ihlo she'd met not so long ago, just shortly before Tapanga went missing, and all the gushing Ihlo had done about this love of her life suddenly made perfect sense. Njozi had always been like his father - but apparently he was more like Taabu than Nyunya had ever noticed. The thought made her want to cry and laugh at the same time, but she managed to stop herself.
"So it was you she was talking about," she mused, as much to herself as to Njozi. "The lion she talked about sounded far too much like your father for them not to be related to each other. I just didn't expect it to be such a close relation." He frowned at his mother for a long moment, totally and utterly confused. Poor fellow, he truly was slow sometimes, and he hadn't been prepared for this at all. Then, all of a sudden, realization seemed to dawn on him. "Wait, you've met her before?" he said with widening eyes. Well, his mother's question quite suddenly made sense.
"Wait, so she was talking about me to you?" The fact that that was a little creepy made him tilt his head a bit, although Ihlo had no way of knowing that. Then, he smirked, tail flickering lightly. "She say good things about me, then? Had to be good, if you think I'm like dad and all." His grin was wickedly teasing, but he was amused with the situation.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:02 pm
She nodded her head. "Yeah... I met her. Not too long ago. She was... she was in a... tree. I never really found out why." Tilting her head slightly, she gave Njozi the first smile since his announcement. "But I like her. I really do. She's a very nice girl. You have my blessings with her."
She rolled her eyes at her son, but she couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, tes, they were all nice things. But I'm not going to repeat them, because your head would then swell to an impossible size. It's the reason I don't tell your father I think the same things of him." Njozi chuckled at his mother's words, as to why Ihlo was in a tree. The thought of it made him smile, though he'd never mention it to Ihlo. He was sure that if she had wanted him to know that she had attempted what she had once seem him doing, she would have told him. "I don't think my head would get all that big," he said stubbornly, but he did give her a grin, "but dad's would be another thing."
With a soft sigh, he pushed himself to his feet, and moved to lean down and give her a nuzzle. "I need to get back to her, check on her, see how she's doing right now. Thank you for the blessing, I'll tell her you sent it, she'll be most pleased. Well, of course, after the shock." He chuckled, gave her another nuzzle, and nodded his head to her before he turned to go.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:13 pm
With a smile and a quiet laugh, Nyunya watched Njozi go. Idly, she wondered if Taabu had been this way when they first got together, when he went to tell his parents about the two of them, all gleeful and happy and proud of himself for getting the girl he wanted at the end. Somehow, she couldn't really imagine it as being true, but the picture was entertaining nonetheless.
Shaking her head, she hopped off her rock and headed back to the den to await the return of her mate. She couldn't wait to proudly tell him that she had been the first to meet Njozi's mate, even if it had been an accident. Of course, she wouldn't tell him that last part.
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