Kizuka slunk through the ever re-growing shrubbery now hiding the main caves of the Mistweaver's pride. It had been many long months since the Storm King's favor had returned, and already the vegetation was looking much more inclined towards her childhood memories than not. The borders had yet to be reached by the water's touch, but that was a minority dissolving daily. The only thing that had yet to realign itself was the hunting... but even then, animals were being attracted from the shores of the nearby lake, and it would not be long before the living world had completely reclaimed their tiny valley. That was a good thing, though Kizuka was rather annoyed to realize that she'd lost a little of her skill in tracking and hunting through jungle, rather than wasteland. One might think, before one had made the transition, that tracking in a wasteland was infinitely harder, but in fact the two were at about the same level of difficulty. Whereas with a wasteland you had to concentrate on not being seen, in the jungle you had to try harder to pick up the trail your quarry left.
Yet, she broke back into the clearing before the pride's dens with confidence that she hadn't missed any intruders--at least not that day. It would have been hard to, with the amount of time she spent making certain her duty was done to the best of her abilities, and the burden of knowledge upon her shoulders that a single misstep from anyone could bring down the destruction of them all. The last time such a thing had been allowed to happen, after all...
Kizuka shook her head and refused to travel that well beaten path. Instead, she took a more physical one up the face of the cliff and to the cave she shared with her growing family. There she sprawled across the ledge, content in the silence of the momentarily vacant pridal dens, and watched the jungle with lazy eyes.
Females..., he growled mentally. What did they know? More trouble than they were worth...the lot of them. Or so the b*****d prince had convinced himself. It would do for the moment, anything to keep his mind off the conversation that he and the strange floral-pelted lioness had shared.
It was growing late, and as much as he liked the night time, it was no fun trying to pick one's day down the rocks when the mist started to gather. With the growing humidity in the valley, it wouldn't be long.
Still...he couldn't help but replay the conversation in his mind over and over again. Maybe she had a point..he'd never admit it out loud but perhaps she did. b*****d or not, it was his pride. And while every fiber in him longed to see his sister dearest fall on her oh-so-beautiful face, it was his job to keep the -pride- safe.
So distracted in thought was he that the blotch-pelted lioness had managed to get quite close to him before he even looked up to notice her. Upon doing so he simply froze, eyes wide and ears pressed back into his now wild and dusty mane.
A smirk drifted across Kizuka's dark face, eyebrows lifting as what could only be amusement sparkled in her eyes. The grey lion seemed to have not noticed her until he was almost passed her cave, though she'd noticed him.
"Good evening, Maji." She said as courteously as possible. Oh, she didn't like him--he'd given her little reason to--but nor did she hate him. At least... not any longer. Indeed there wasn't much of any emotion spared for the b*****d prince that seemed so intent on alienating the entire pride to him. He'd certainly succeeded on many accounts.
Yet she couldn't help but wonder at his self-prescribed isolation. And, in a wicked spot of her heart, find some deep amusement in it. "Have a wild night in the wilderness, have we?"
He cleared his throat and averted his eyes sharply. "Evening m'aam." Much as he wanted to vent his multiple frustrations at the moment, none of the offenses were truly this female's fault. She was aligned with -her-, but that was really the only thing he could hold against her. Even then, he didn't know under what circumstances she'd come under the seclusive...queen's service.
To her second question he only shot her a glare as he attempted to continue his walk downward. It wasn't a question he felt he needed to answer. So he wouldn't.
Kizuka's ears rose sharply at that look. Oh ho! Quite the attitude there. It rankled her at first, the fur on the back of her neck beginning to rise, but she clenched her jaw and kept her tongue. No, it would do no good to become angry with him. No good...
The lioness repeated those words as a mantra until the feeling subsided to be replaced by that same deep mirth. It was, after all, somewhat amusing at how easily he could rile her. Not even her own mate, who tested her daily with his very nature, could cause her to lose patience so quickly!
"I see. It must have been truly amazing to have exhausted you so much that you seek your cave so soon. Perhaps you'll give us the story of it later, when you're rested."
Females... did any of them have manners!? Or were they all just overcome with a sense of curiosity that boardered on dangerous? He couldn't help but reflect on how other prides must be... perhaps females never spoke out of turn. Had he been a proper male, his paw might have flown out to silence her.
Hell if you're a proper lion... much less a proper male.
"And why would I do that?" He raised a brow slowly, "Are you growing homesick so soon?"
She lifted a brow, "Homesick?"
Only then did Kizuka raise her head. The sharp golden eyes did not narrow, as some may have found excuse to glare in return, but rather regarded him with a solemn sort of look. The amusement faded, "Maji, this is my home, for what reason would I be homesick, here? Indeed, it isn't the pride I knew in my youth, but... well. There is little one can do to change the past, however much one may wish to."
She gestured broadly with one paw, a dismissive gesture to the thought, then folded it before her. "I was merely suggesting that perhaps the pride may wish to know more of you. Not your every day comings and goings, perhaps, but you do keep to yourself a good deal. It wouldn't hurt for you to take interest in the group."
He looked over dully, his blue eyes seemed to have aged far beyond his body had. Then again, he hadn't been sleeping well. "That makes two of us." He countered to her first comment, his tone and expression deadpan.
"If the pride was so interested in my story they might have given me more time to speak when you all decided Masika had more right to this place than I.' He smirked a bit, though it was full of poison, "But then again, what right does a b*****d have? I've spoken out of turn."
He turned once more and took a few more careful steps forward.
"No rights," Kizuka said curtly, her posture gone rigid. Now she remembered why she had had a problem with this one before. "Less, for that he acts as a child with a toy. There is an old saying that one who wishes to be a ruler is the least suited to the job."
"And one raised by savages has more of a right?" He raised an eyebrow. He'd not go into it. He hadn't want to become a ruler, that was beside the point. He didn't trust the pride to a -queen-. He had once...and it had led to disaster. Had Masika been his brother, perhaps, had she not lived her life with the -firekin- of all things. Be it her fault or not, he could care less.
"Watch your tongue!" Kizuka warned with a snarl. Her eyes narrowed, but other than her warning she hadn't tensed or made a move for him. "You speak of things you have no knowledge of!"
After a pause, she continued in a much more mild manner, though no less intense for all that she barely whispered it. "She did not bring the red plague into these borders, the monsters that came in the night to slay and maim. Those who died that night were the lucky ones; those that taken, worse than dead, and those who bore witness to it, were wrapped in chains more restrictive than physical ones. She was raised as a slave, Maji, and never forget what that means. To be beaten and tortured and misused, and to be taught that that is the sole purpose for ones existence is not something many survive... but she did. She survived, and won her freedom, and fought her way across the desert of the fire kin to seek a home that she had never known..."
Kizuka sneered at his back, "Can you even fathom how much bravery that took? How much pain she endured, physically, mentally and emotionally?"
There was a pause, and then Kizuka snorted. "No, I don't think you can. You sit and sulk like a child in your cave, and never think to wonder why, if we hated you so much, we haven't merely thrown you out? It wouldn't be hard--I could do it by myself, if I had a mind to. Unlike you, I spent my life fighting for my existence. Life isn't easy to an orphaned cub without a wit of knowledge for the hunt, and imagined red devils chasing at her heels. It wasn't easy, but I survived, and I did not discard any food that was given me, no matter its state of intelligence before it died. My body is not starved, and much stronger than yours."
Her voice lost some of its acid tone. She wasn't bragging, though one may have said she had the right to; instead she only spoke the pure, unpadded truth. "So why, oh sulking one, oh tormented one, oh so put-upon would-be ruler of this land, why have I not tossed you out upon your nose? We could easily do without you."
Maji's maw pulled back into a almost twisted smirk. She fought... just as he had, she'd been orphaned, just as he had. No hunting, no knowledge that other lions even existed until his man had begun to come in. A pity. A few others, brave others, had kept the land safe- even after the last dried leaf had fallen to the cracked ground. Few of those others remained. There was far more history here than they realized. As nice as it would have been to have sat on his duff all those years.
He lifted his head and tossed the mane out of his face, she may be able to fight him, true. He was hardly a fighter, and he was hardly a fool, he knew he'd lose against the newcomers. Suli would be a different story, but the brute wasn't around.
"Because." He said lightly. "I can read and write the language of our kin. But..." he shrugged dismissively, "What need is there for it anymore? Such a luxury and an art is hardly befitting of a warring race such as the pride we have become."
She snorted, "So can I, fool. That is hardly a gift, here, as I've taught my eldest and am teaching the new ones."
"Fascinating." He hardly sounded impressed. Though...he was curious how she came to learn it. "Then you can teach our dear, poor, neglected, and scarcely seen queen a thing or two of our history."
"She knows what she needs of our history, for she lived it, cub," Kizuka replied, though the acid had left her voice. It had broken across her how young he was, in that moment--an epiphany, really. No matter that his body the same age as hers, he was but a child; a boy in a man's body.
The realization tempered her almost immediately, and she softened her edge in accordance. "And perhaps I could teach you a thing or two, if you'd let me. We're about as willing to listen to you, as you are to us. As for the Queen, if you were around the main caves more often, you would see her. Staying away from the others limits your point of view, you realize... then again, you've always limited it to what you wanted to see, rather than the truth of matters."
He gave a snort and continued down the rocks, his shoulder had tensed up dramatically, not the smartest way to go about a climb downwards, but he didn't feel compelled to remain behind and have yet another female finish the job that Mishka had started.
"I don't want anything to do with her." He answered quietly, "Blood is the only thing that binds us together, weak as it apparently is. The family I cared to keep has long left this place."
Kizuka watched him go, considering, calculating. There wasn't much she could say without following him... and she didn't care to. Perhaps she should just give up trying. It wasn't as if she had any reason to, in the first place.
A parting shot came to her lips, but she fought it back down her throat before it could be said. No, sharp, heavy-handed comments would only make matters worse. Instead, she turned her head and laid it back upon her paws.
He paused a few steps away. Mishka's words gnawed still. He was pushing them away...not the other way around, but at the same time what if they were like the others? Another false queen, another pride that would leave once more.
Damnit...
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "...I fell in love...with a lioness who claimed to be the rightful queen here. I thought...I was just a cub there. Abandoned perhaps...I fell in love, a pride gathered...." He glanced back, "...she took the cubs and left."
One ear swiveled back to listen to him as he spoke, but other than that the splotched lioness did not move a single muscle. When he seemed to have finished, she still did not move, and instead thought.
Eventually, in the same sort of tone, she replied, "... I watched my father and siblings die of a plague that, for some reason, did not, would not, touch me... My mother grew ill, but she lived to be slaughtered before my eyes... I ran, and there is not a day goes by that I do not think myself a coward for running."
"I am sorry for your loss." He looked away again. It was easier to talk with his back turned, and perhaps it showed a bit of trust. Who knew if she'd take it that way or not. It was hard to say.
"Everyone shows a different form of strength. Be it strength of paw, strength of heart, or strength of mind...none should be ashamed that they are unable to posses all three. You lived. You have a family. If she hadn't died, you may never have arrived at that end."
"As I am for yours," She responded and surprised herself that she actually meant it. It would have killed her to lose her cubs, and she could not help but pity him the pain it must have caused.
"You speak these words, and I hear that you believe them.. no matter that your actions these days say otherwise." Kizuka sighed, "No one here, at least of those come to this land recently, want an enemy of you or with you.... You were betrayed by one false queen, true.. but profess to being able to read the writings, as I can, as.. as all the old blood can. She is written upon that wall, and her lineage clear and unmuddled. I, and others, who have memory of those days know her... how is this not proof enough that she is as she claims to be?"
He shook his head, "A cub is written there...the writings are old and faded. Ciyari looked quite similar to the records as well. Even if it is her...I cannot swear my loyalty to another queen. Blood means little to me. It is not blood that defines a right or a wrong, nor is it blood that rules a pride."
He shook his head, "I do not trust her with this pride. Nor will I ever... Kisulisuli and Obi are in the same mentality. Despite our hate for -her-, the love for this land remains true. That is why we remain as we do..."
Kizuka shook her head, "I want to argue with you, but that would be as futile as attempting to move a mountain. Your pain blinds you to what is best for the pride... but I forgot. You view us all as heathens and barbarians, do you not? You implied as much, at least, and your previous actions do little to correct that assumption."
"I could argue that she has no idea what is 'best for the pride' as well..." He rolled his eyes. No queen would know... "My hatred is for her. My anger for you and the others that followed her is only because you accompanied her into these lands. Childish, I admit, but these lands have seen their fair share of invaders. Traitors and wolves in sheep's clothing. My distrust is not without cause, just as her ideal that she was 'meant' for this place."
Kizuka snorted, "You still assume too much. I came to this place long before she arrived. Me and mine lived on the borders, searching for any remains of the pride, but afraid to go in deeper to the drought."
Kizuka shook her head, "The storm king left his mark upon her when she took the throne. There was no sign of rain up until that moment, and I think now that it is quite obvious that he meant for her to lead us. Granted, it is a fool that guesses at the Gods' games... but I always was that sort of fool."
She tried not to snicker. She was also, incidentally, right about those games 90% of the time.. but how would he know that? Only one other of the pride shared in her mate's secret.
"Storm king..." Maji rolled his eyes and continued his downward climb. The title turned his gut in ways even Masika's name couldn't. Some god... letting the pride die like that, drying them up when those loyal to him remained in the face of starvation and drought, defended his lands. Some god.
Of course, Taban had made some sense on that grounds. It could all be a god's joke, no one could guess. He didn't care to. He'd dirtied his paws in devotion to them to last a life time.
That got her attention again, and she turned to look at him with a disgusted sneer. The tone in his voice.. it was revolting. Fine! Let him rot, alone in his cave.. if he was too stubborn to accept the way the world worked, to accept his own God, then there was no point to trying to save him.
He was of a similar mentality. Let them lick the paws of their slave queen, let them pray to a god that would turn his back on his own land. Let them become as ignorant as he and the others had been. He wanted none of the blissful adoration... cubs sitting wide-eyed at the notion of gods and heros.
"Don't let it get under your skin." Taban cooed from just above where Maji had been climbing down. Lucia had tipped him off that the dusty old mistweaver had been slipping out. It was almost too much to resist. Perhaps he'd found himself something...interesting beyond the borders.
"How are the cubs? Last I saw they were still splashing in puddles."
Kizuka's golden brown eyes, still glowing with a bed of religious rage, stared up at the cheetah in the dark. Something about him still set her on edge, especially his habit of simple.. appearing. That he spent a good deal of time with Maji also worked against his favour, especially after that incident. "They do well, thank you, Taban. They've progressed to swimming."
"Swimming!" He laughed and stepped smoothly down to another rocky shelf, "Well good show. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it's a skill I myself am wary to learn."
"Not a smart move in a place with so much water," Kizuka replied slowly. "Especially once that water returns in full."
"I'd like to think I'm careful enough." He chuckled and simply flopped himself down to rest on the rock. "I don't plan on living here indefinitely. A member of my troupe has brought a cub into our ranks. We cannot travel until the lad has found his paws, you see. I'm sure the pride is glad for the extra eyes on their boarders."
"Sometimes," Kizuka replied. She couldn't help but wonder if they needed more eyes inside the borders, rather than looking without. "Take your friend with you, when you leave. He needs a dose of the real world."
Taban chuckled and flicked the end of his long tail, "Which friend would that be?"
"You know full well who I mean, you scamp." Kizuka replied in a playfully harsh tone. She didn't believe for one second that he hadn't heard the conversation prior to this one.
"Now now, let's not loose our temper. I've only come to talk, any complaints I have lay far from here." He flicked an ear and lifted his head enough to watch the silver lion move into the jungle. He'd like to have another lion in the troupe... even one as small as that one. "And really... I could not pull him from these lands if I tried. The only way that one'll be leaving is in spirit."
Kizuka considered that for a moment, tipping her head to the side as her expression grew thoughtful. She flexed her claws.
"Don't be hasty." He lifted a brow at the flexing of her claws. "This valley has seen enough blood spill to last a century, wouldn't you say? And besides..." he tipped his head a bit, "There are plenty of rouges out there with a band at their back that would love to sink their claws into a place like this... best keep our numbers growing."
She chuckled, "You're right in that, though I question your motives for being so. He is, after all, your friend. ... but no. I could not, in cold blood, do such a thing to him. His blood is of this place, however much I wish to deny it." She shuddered, "But such blasphemy...."
"Well I do have a question to ask. Friend or not- you both have points in your arguments. For one-" He lifted a claw, "Blood should never be a factor in judging someone. In each of us there is a heart. Sometimes our mouths make it hard to hear it...but I believe that deep down your heart and his beat to the same rhythm."
"Just as those in my troupe have the same rhythm in ours... be them cheetah, lion, hyena, or otherwise." He shrugged. "Blood and flesh are disposable."
"Blood does matter on some levels," Kizuka replied with a shake of her head. "It is blood that ties us with our God, and Blood that ties the Firekin to their ways. Of course, I believe you're thinking of blood in a more literal fashion than I."
"I don't know about that." He shook his head, "Though... you would know about the roles of gods personally." He winked before continuing, "I believe gods are the same as we are in many respects. They play favorites, they test mortals, and play games. Blood is a part of the game, an illusion to some. I have seen great leaders rise out of the most humble of places...and tyrants rise out of noble birth."
"True, but that one," She pointed over her shoulder, "Is no leader. He is far too obsessed with his own importance, and with sexism than he is the actual good of this pride--no matter what he says his reasoning is. He sulks as a child that the pride chose a leader for our ourselves, rather than stick him on the throne because 'he was here first.'" Kizuka shook her head, "We've extended friendly paws to him, and he refuses to take them, instead choosing to call us barbarians for reclaiming a home that is ours, no matter who has stayed here in the midterm."
"He isn't all that hard to figure out really." He rolled onto his back and stretched his paws out over his head. "One that has not been socialized properly will...fall into extremes. Even those with a harsh bringing up will learn to cope. I will not make excuses for him, don't get me wrong, he's received a verbal lashing from me as well... but give it time. And concerning the rule here." He inspecting one of his paws. "I think it's more or less a matter of trust. I myself do not know how this fledgling queen will do. I'm more interested in watching and see what story comes of this. It's quite interesting already wouldn't you say?"
"mm... I suppose." Kizuka sighed and shook her head, "I'm rather tired of the drama."
"Give it time." He rolled back to his belly, "I'm sure in a year you'll all either be laughing about this...or killing each other."
"Either way... what bliss." She replied lightly, though she didn't really feel so jovial about it. The female waved a paw dismissively, then settled down on the stone to bath in the last rays of the sun.
"Well keep me informed. If you need a laugh or out of the company of wet blankets come visit my troupe. I think you and Lucia...if you can tolerate a hyena would get along quite well." He got to his paws and stretched out. "Tell your family I wish them well...and I'll want to see some swimming when I make it into the valley."
