[PRP] New Life in Old Lands

[MoonRazor]

Revolution had changed him, though for better or worse, he didn't know. The war had propelled him into adulthood from adolescence. Though he had always been a slow maturing lion, and was still stretching to full size, what he had gone through and everything he had learned in that short span of time had taken his youth away from him. In the depths of his eyes lurked the sorrow he held close in his heart, the sorrow of one whose family is forever lost to him, whose desire to know battled with the knowledge that he never would know.

Azarax padded slowly down the side of a dune, feeling the sand slide out from under his paws, as it had every other day of his life. He had grown up in these lands, under the oppression of the Traditional ways. Yet these lands, though now stained with the blood of those lost to battle, were still the same as ever before. The only difference was that the rebels had seized control, and driven the Traditionalists out.

The Traditionalists... The burly tan lion's gaze wandered toward the horizon, toward the spot where he had last caught sight of his mother and sister, fleeing from the victors of war. He wondered, then, how they could still be so steadfast in their belief. How they could still be so blindly faithful to Finar-si.

He remembered the murmurs of war and rebellion even before Kidondo had returned, and he remembered too how they all said Finar-si would aid them. Or that it was simply a test of faith. And how had she aided them? They lost, had they not? She hadn't magically appeared to save the day, and now the Firekin as the world had known it was destroyed.

How he wished that his family had seen the error of their ways, as he had. They didn't understand, didn't see how ridiculous it all was. But he did. He was a victim of it, and though he had long since gotten past the bitterness of knowing his mother had chosen religion over him, he so hated her for what she had done. And at the same time, all he wanted was to help her and his siblings see change.

"When those involved are blind, the bystanders can see..." He muttered to himself, his golden eyes staring blankly over to the horizon.  

[DragonsRage24]

Home. This was home. A smile was upon her maw as she slowly found her way to a flat stone amongst the dunes that, on certain times when the wind blew harshly, would disappear beneath the dunes. She walked slowly, for the ache in her shoulder, her leg, were constant now, not terrible, but bothersome to the degree of an annoyance. True, she could still hunt well enough, though whether or not she would be able to keep herself kept fine in the midst of another battle was to be determined.

She tried to hide her weakness.

Karana'Mzaana did not want to seem weak.

"Change is good," she said aloud, smiling as the sun beat down on her dark pelt, a pelt resembling that of the pride, her pride, her home, her family.

Climbing upon the slate she lay herself upon it basking in the sun. Such a place, it made her smile.

Change is good.  

[MoonRazor]

The wind brought the sound of a voice to his ears. He turned his head to catch the words.

Change is good.

He smiled inwardly. Yes, she was right. Change was good, and finally there was change throughout these desert lands. Change for the good.

The tan lion's gaze wandered the sands, seeking the lion that had spoken the words. He saw a lioness, not too far off, approach a flat rock and lie down. With what little color his eyes could perceive, he could see most of her pelt was black, though what other colors she might possess, his eyes had filled with gray.

That, he figured, meant she did not have that flaming red in her pelt that the Firekin of old, the ones who claimed themselves to be of the Blood, did. A rogue who had joined Kidondo, perhaps. It was more than likely. He had not seen or met her before.

The lion made his way toward her. Perhaps some sort of conversation could arise, given their similar feelings for change. Though Azarax was not one to particularly enjoy conversation. He had always been a rather quiet and reserved creature, rarely speaking unless someone else initiated the conversation.

Perhaps that would change someday. Somehow, he doubted it would, but given the recent turn of events, he had to believe that the unexpected could possibly still happen. No one had thought before the rebellion that there would ever be one. But there had.

Stranger things had happened than a mere change in personality.  

[DragonsRage24]

Her head was still filled with musings, wondering of how she would be accepted here. True, the female Ohanna she had met did not take to her lightly at first, but in the midst of battle, they had become a pair to be reckoned with. Mzaa wondered if the others that were under No and Kindondo might act the same towards her at first, and then have their minds changed at their own discretion. True, she was not of the blood of the firekin, she had been a rogue before falling into the company of No and Kidondo, but now, now, she felt as if she were of firekin blood.

Yes, the Simo.

Change was good.

But would everyone accept her the same? Would she have to prove herself to anyone? Thoughts and musings still caught her attention until a slow moving figure caught her gray eyes. Turning her head, she blinked, eyes falling on the massive tan pelted male before her. She wished to stand, but the ache was too great for her now. She gave him a nod, or a slight bow some would take it as. True, she bore black and gray on her pelt, though the red upon her was scarce, but there.

"Hello," friend, stranger, sir? What shall she address him as? "A wonderful day, don't you think?" true, she was awkward in conversation with those she did not know, but that would change, it would all change.  

[MoonRazor]

"As good as a day can get, only days after a rebellion," Azarax nodded his head in agreement. Now that he was closer to the lioness, her size became yet another hint to him that she was one of those that Kidondo and No had gathered to their cause outside of the Firekin lands.

It was what mattered the most to Azarax, the fact that nobody looked down on those who were not "true" Firekin. Perhaps there were those who had grown up in these lands, and had yet to truly come around to the way a lion was supposed to be judged now. For the desert pelted lion, though, it was no matter. He had grown up all his life being considered a slave, simply because of his coat color. It had never mattered to them that he had as much heart, or perhaps even more, as any lion that dared call themselves Firekin.

To him, heart was what mattered, and always had. He was rather skilled at reading others, due very much to the fact that he himself tended to convey much of his feelings with body language. He had something of a knack for recognizing potential and spirit in another.

"Change is in the air," He said after a moment's paused. Or rather, change was still in the air. It had been hanging about even since before Kidondo and his rebel army had arrived, and it had lingered up until now. He didn't anticipate that changing.  

[DragonsRage24]

"Its strange," she said gazing out at the sand dunes, watching as the gentle wind shaped the dunes how it wished by force as if mimicking the rebellion that had just taken place. Everything could change with determination and strength either of mind or heart. "A lot has changed for me, and yet, no matter what may have happened before, in light of recent situations, I would not have changed it for anything" true, she had woken up one morn to find that all of her memories past had long been forgotten, only her name lingered by a thread in her conscious, then she found Afu, a cousin, and now she was here.

Yes, change was good, it was wonderful inf act.

She gave a smile to him, sat up to lean back on her haunches and lowered her head in respect in introducing herself, "I am Karana'Mzaana, though yo may call me Mzaa if you wish, may I ask your name?" she was going to add Sir, but would he like that type of title?

"Truth be told, yo are the first I have met on an occassion such as this in these lands," a sincere smile on her maw.

This was nice.  

[MoonRazor]

Azarax nodded his head in silent agreement, his gaze following hers out toward the sand dunes. He could only agree with everything she had just said. For a while, in his late juvenile moments, he had felt as if the world had all but abandoned him. His mother had, so why shouldn't everything else?

But had he come to realize that, in fact, his life had played out exactly as he wished it. There was no way he could ever imagine himself living with the Traditionalists. Their beliefs, their ways, their traditions. Even if his mother had taken him back as a son, he would not have been able to live under such an oppressive lifestyle.

Their version of elitism made life difficult, for everyone. Breeding, after all, was not everything.

The lion smiled a little half smile, as he did much of the time. Though he was grateful for how he was, he rarely found much that would make him genuinely smile, that smile that radiated from the soul. He simply wasn't that lion. "Then I am honored to be the first, Mzaa," He said with a small dip of his head.

"My name," He added. "Is Azarax."  

[DragonsRage24]

Karana'Mzaana smiled at his gesture, his words. His voice was claiming, low, but not in a demeaning manner which was what meant the most, it was..conversational, and her ears perked forward allowing her to hear every word spoken. "It is a pleasure to meet you Azarax," she said with a smile, moved herself to a side of the slate in case he wish to join her on the cool stone underneath the sun's rays.

His pelt was different from what she would have expected other the have, a cream...tan color, though the red, white and black also adorned his pelt and mane quite nicely as well. So his pelt..hmm, a throwback, something of ancient ancestry? A possibility, was he a hunter from the old pride perhaps?

"Azarax, if you don't mind my asking, your pelt, it is, lighter, different, nic, though, is it something from your ancestry?" her voice made it obvious that she did not think ill of the color, she was merely curious as to its roots.  

[MoonRazor]

"I... suppose the color is from my father," He said with a small nod, recalling Ripuka's image. She did not have a spot of tan in her coat, and he suspected that if she did, she would never have abandoned him. Or perhaps she would have anyway, he didn't know. He couldn't put himself into a Traditionalist's head. He didn't understand them.

Then he remembered what Jua had told him about their father, before the Rebels had won and Traditionalists had fled. Jua was a seer, and Jua had seen. Their father was not a Firekin. Having had little time to consider it, the desert pelted lion had forgotten it completely, until now. It made little sense to him, but Jua had told him that Ripuka knew nothing of what he had been told. So they all thought he was a Firekin...

"He's not-" Azarax paused. Perhaps it was not the best idea to divulge such information. He had promised Jua, after all, that he would never tell Ripuka. It was best, perhaps, not to throw the information around. "I never met him. I grew up in the slave dens."  

[DragonsRage24]

Slave dens? She understood now, though she felt a sort of sympathy for him, but not in a pity-type manner, sympathy that even when Azarax carried the traditional firekin colors, that they had not accepted him even when his very own pelt reflected that of the color of the dunes that had made up the pride. The traditionalists truly had been so blind to everything hadn't they?

"You had a home though, even if not a decent one, you had a den yes," she looked at the sands as they changed, smiled, closed her eyes, "I don't remember having a home before this place, I don't remember a lot of things," she turned to him, her eyes seeking his, "I don't remember if I knew my mother or father, or had siblings, just my name but, this is now, we both have a home now, a place in which we can call our own," she said with a nod.

She hoped she had not downed his spirits.

"They were truly blind to see you as a slave, a child born around sand, resembling their very home AND one that held the colors of their beliefs to be treated in such a manner...terrible, I am glad to see you as you are now, breaking the mold, resembling that which was the whole idea behind everything here...change, that change is good."  

[MoonRazor]

"It was a home," He agreed with a nod, remembering just how he and Mpaji's children had grown up. Perhaps they did not truly see him as a sibling, but it was enough for him. They, at least, were more family to him than his real family had been. He wondered how they were, if they had managed to flee, hoping that at least they had not followed the Traditionalists away.

This was the freedom that they had talked about. He dearly hoped they had managed to seize it.

"You don't remember?" He asked, surprised. What would it be like, to not remember a thing about his past? He wouldn't remember Ripuka, to say the least. Or Mpaji. He shook his head. "That sounds terrible. But you're right. This is our home now."

He glanced out across the deserts for a moment, with a small, almost triumphant smile on his face. How ironic, he mused, that those who had deemed him unfit to be a Firekin were how elsewhere nursing their wounds, while he and the others they had deemed lesser creatures resided in their homeland of old.

"Perhaps they did know, though," He murmured, thinking back. Uzulu had never really ordered him around, and he had never beat on him like those he had grown up with. He must have known... "They treated me a little better than the others. I couldn't figure out why for the longest time. Until I met my mother."  

[DragonsRage24]

Mzaa listened and at his response to her own...misfortune, if one would call it such a thing, she merely shrugged, a smile on her maw, "I woke up, and my head hurt, and I wasn't sure where I was or anything, since I woke up that day, everything from before, except my name, has always been in a haze. Terrible, I suppose, though one could wonder what a past could hold, the good and the bad, but what I have here is wonderful, and I would never trade it away for something I have already lost," she said proudly, holding her head high, smiling at how she connected to this place already.

Her ears flickered forward at his words of how they treated him, that of his mother, she quirked a brow, intrigued, but did not want to press onto thoughts or memories that would make her new found friend go away, "Well, that is good to hear at least, I'm glad you were not treated so harshly as others might have been."

Mzaa could not think of how it would ahve been to live a life such as that.  

[MoonRazor]

"That's a good way to see the world," Azarax said with a small contemplative nod. "Finding the good instead of the bad." He himself had learned how to do that with his situation. His sandy pelt was simply a blessing in disguise. Anything he had had to go through before these recent events had simply strengthened him both physically and mentally. It was, after all, a harder life to lead in the slave dens than with Mother watching over everything and protecting and teaching all that one needed to know.

"I suppose it is," He said with a slow shrug, as his mind returned to his childhood. "It didn't quite feel right, you know? Everyone else was being worked into the ground and I just... wasn't. At all."

For a while after he had noticed it, he had felt a sort of guilt whenever he was around Mpaji and the burly yellow lion's children. There were days when they had come home exhausted and others when they came home sore from being beaten. Azarax had never truly experienced either. It was a strange way of life, being a slave, but not quite.  

[DragonsRage24]

Karana'Mzaana smiled listening to his words, his voice, peered out towards the dunes, watched as the wind shaped the sand as it wished. Sand, just like Azarax it was a symbol of their new home, their beginning, their strength and victory. Their home. "Its now in the past, many things, for both of us, and for others here. The ast is gone, but never forgotten, its what makes us stronger, we learn from it, grow from it, and now change has happened, change for the better."

Change for the good.

No matter what any would say to her, whether she was of pure descended firekin blood or not, for all she knew she could be descended from dispersed members though she would never know for sure. All she knew was that here, with Azarax and the others, she was home.

She was, of the Simo.