|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:29 pm
Her life was now wrapped around the jungle. Sure she wasn't a 'jungle queen' but she liked the feeling of the warmth that had enveloped her and wrapped it's steamy arms around her body the second she'd walked into it. There was no intention in the chocolate eyed lioness' mind of returning to the pride she'd left behind her so long ago.
However, there was a difference between watching silently in nostalgia and returning to a place one felt neglected and abandoned in. The wind ruffled her mane, a shiver coursing down her back at the memory of how little humidity managed to survive outside of the jungle. It was as if this world was completely different than her current one.
A soft sigh escaped from her muzzle and Aisu'kuriimu lifted her head to look out over the grove of the Kusini with shadowed eyes. So much of her life had been spent there, destroyed by the wafting discontent within her own family and the very pride itself. So much of her childhood was already being scarred over, forgotten as her mind learned new things and looved new things.
But she loved her family endlessly, loved her mother and her father, her siblings and the friends she'd had in the Kusini. The pride... that feeling left her almost hollow now that she had no pride to live amongst. There was no pride out there that she would consider living in, none that lived in the jungle that she lived in, or at least none that she knew of. Surely she couldn't leave her glade, but having lions around her once more, having that family feeling, the tight knit group working for the better of it's own. That was what Aisu missed more than anything.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 4:46 pm
A movement near the borders caught his attention, and Tiruan lifted his head attentively. "Hello?" He called in the direction of the shadow. Was that Ainra? Was she back already? "Ainra, is that you?" Tiruan tried not to sound too hopeful. After all, it probably wasn't her. She was young, and wanted to spend her youth traveling with her sister. It would be very unlikely for her to come back so early, especially since she seemed so happy about going. Still, the lion could hope. She was the closest thing he had to a daughter, and having her around would make his life much more enjoyable.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 5:15 pm
A pair of dark gray ears twitched at the sound of another lion's voice. The intent to trundle across another hadn't been what Aisu'd had in mind when she'd walked through the mist of the early morning to look out over her old pride. Still... what could it hurt to meet another?
Walking at the same slow pace, Aisu walked until she could easily see the other with her chocolate colored eyes. Narrowing them slightly when she found that he reminded her so greatly of her father, at least color wise, Aisu nodded her head.
"I'm sorry, Ainra isn't my name." Aisu said finally, watching him closely still, though her body relaxed a bit at seeing he wasn't as much like her father as she'd innitially thought. "My name is Aisu'kuriimu, yours?"
She was trying to be polite, she didn't know this lion. Who was to say that he was as bad as some of the others in the pride from before? Surely there were some kind lions, even in a cool place like this. Memory could be altered by emotions, Aisu was certain that things weren't as her young mind had made them out to be. Surely there were some lions out there that would be kind to a lioness like herself still.
The hope that had tinged this lion's voice told her at least that there was something kind in the world, as it seemed he was waiting for it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:53 pm
The lion had to try very hard to stop his sigh when the lioness came into view. It was, sadly, not Ainra. He could tell that just by looking at the colour of her fur. Even the days when Ainra was covered from head to toe in mud because they'd been playing tag, she was not quite the colour of this strange lioness. Tiruan almost regretted calling out, as though the fact he was looking for his "daughter" was somewhat pathetic. Still, he would get to meet this lioness now, and perhaps that would take his mind off the missing Ainra. The lioness looked almost as unsure about speaking to him as he was, which boosted his confidence a little. He could do this. Hadn't Ainra taught him anything?
"I'm sorry, I should have looked better before I called out. I can see now that you aren't Ainra." His smile was a little awkward despite the way his chest puffed out at the mention of his "daughter." "It is nice to meet you, Aisu'kuriimu, my mother called me Tiruan." How he wished she was here. His mother was an amazing lioness, and she could deal with anybody, no matter if she had met them once or fifty times before. He wasn't so lucky, though being with Ainra had helped. Tiruan didn't feel the need to puff up quite so much around this lioness. "Are you from around here? I can't say I've ever seen you in the pride lands…"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:09 pm
"Tiruan? I've never head that name before, though naturally I left when I was very young. I don't know everyone from the pride like I should have before I left." Aisu allowed after a moment's hesitation for the question he posed to her. Should she even allude to her life before it was now?
Taking the first step towards living her life the way she wanted to live it told her that she had no choice but to take that step, but Aisu was shy about it. What if someone she met knew one of her parents and knew about how she'd left? A sigh nearly came from deep within her but Aisu staunched it and cleared her dark eyes.
"My parents are Tamu'jitu and Masuka. I don't know if you know them, I'd rather you didn't. At one time my father was the would be king... but that doesn't matter anymore. He's gone and I left that life behind when I was very young. That's why you've never seen me and why it doesn't matter that I've been here." She nodded a bit and sat herself down with a heavy thump, having spat all that out at a very quick motion and now she was worn weary from having gotten all of that off her chest.
One other creature in the world knew that she'd once been a princess. Not that she cared anymore, it was just getting harder to keep it a secret. More a secret that she hated it and didn't acknowledge herself as one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:40 am
"If you were here when you were younger, you wouldn't have known me. I didn't grow up here." It felt a little strange to be so honest with a stranger, but since she was being so open with him it was only polite to be with her. Ainra would have wanted him to speak plainly to this lioness. After all, he had nothing to hide. No one in his family had ever done anything bizarre or cruel. The only thing that made him different from the other pride members was that he was born elsewhere, and then returned here when he was an adult. It appeared that this lioness was quite the opposite. She had been born here and then left when she was older. How peculiar.
Tiruan listened as she spoke, head tilted a little as he tried to understand. The names meant very little to him, however the fact that she was once a princess startled him. He had never met with the Kusini royalty, though he knew of some of the elders. Perhaps he should have paid more attention when his father would tell him stories of his old home. That might had made things a little more clear. "I've never heard of either of them. They might have been here when my father was here, but he left before the plague. I was born outside the pride and returned at my mother's request when I was older. She wished she could return, but she was too old to travel. You may have met her, but she was a rather quiet lioness." He paused, before figuring it was safe to ask, "So you left here when you were very young? Where to?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 7:38 pm
"Many that come here are from other prides." Aisu said after a long moment of debating her response to his story and his question for her. She wasn't sure if she wanted to answer the question but she decided that since he was being honest she might as well attempt it as well.
Looking out over into the pride, head lifted and letting the wind blow at her puff of grayish mane so it was tangled and knotted. It felt cold and heartless around here now that she'd been with Amile in the jungle.
"Yes, I left when I was only a juvenile, looking for my family. Or... well my father who left after my grandmother passed away. I was close to him and he left, I suppose forever. In the end I wound up in the jungle with a cheetah as a friend and found a lovely little glade deep within the heart of the jungle. It's my home now with that same cheetah, but I still miss what it feels like to be in a pride and safe, even if this place is cold compared to the jungle."
For the first time since she'd been in front of Tiruan she gave him a toothy and gentle smile, true as the markings on her body were. The bubbly lioness hidden beneath the pain of being here near her old pride was threatening to burst through the seams that were holding her at bay.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 1:20 pm
The lion couldn't help but be curious about this lionesses' story. He felt he had been raised in a fairly normal, if not traditional, family with no great stories to tell. His father had been a proud warrior who would defend their home from anyone who got to close. His mother was a huntress, and a wonderful caregiver. He had no siblings, being the only son of his parents. The strain of the plague and living outside of a pride would have made it difficult for them to raise more than a few cubs. By the sounds of it, Aisu had had a much more dramatic life than he had.
"The jungle?" Tiruan repeated, sounded thoughtful, "I've never lived there before. I've always been told it's hotter in some ways than the savannah. What's it like?" Her mention of a cheetah made him blink, momentarily unsure how to approach the subject. He'd never lived alongside anything than other lions. "You live with a cheetah? Doesn't that make it harder to hunt? Or are cheetahs better at hunting in the jungle?" So many things he didn't know! He had a feeling he was starting to sound like Ainra, who always asked him questions about life. Still, he couldn't help it. His mother would have wanted to know, and her curiousity had encouraged his when he was younger.
At the smile, the lion blinked, and answered it with a rather lop-sided one of his own. It felt nice being able to talk to another lioness. A lot easier than he remembered it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:41 pm
A ghostly smile passed over Aisu's muzzle for the memories of her grandmother on her mother's side, for her older brother Cor, and for her father. She felt as if these would be the last she would remember them in this manner, it felt right for her to stand here in the lands with a male that reminded her faintly of her beloved father; for this to be the last time she thought of them with any real purpose other than to be drifting in gentle memories in sleep.
She had a life now, she needed to live it.
"The savannah is cool at night and very hot during the day. Because of all the trees, the jungle is different. It's steamy and warm all the time, never getting unberable other than the insects. It wraps itself around you like a blanket and keeps you warm when you're cold or sick. Keeps you feeling well and loved despite the oddness of the whole place. Everything is so lively as well, you really are never alone, nothing's alone in the jungle." Aisu explained happily, a gentle smile spreading over her face at the thought that she could explain something to someone else. "As for Amile, no he's not as good at hunting but he's very adept. You learn to adapt to your surroundings, no matter what they are. Amile's very good at adapting no matter what the situation."
A warm spot developed in her heart as she spoke of the pale cheetah she lived with. His voice seemed to whisper in her head as she spoke of him as well, explaining things and babbling happily about all his discoveries. The weak spot Aisu had for him was growing with every day it seemed.
Sometimes she wondered what it was, but she figured she'd find out eventually when it was time.
Turning her attention, which was too easily divided, back to Tiruan, Aisu smiled kindly. "Where do you come from? I only know what it's like in the jungle and here in the Kusini'mwezi. Is it very different out in the rest of the savannah?" It was Aisu's turn to ask a few questions of a lion she'd met under a good sun.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 3:43 pm
The lion listened intently as Aisu described the jungle. Though he knew Ainra was traveling, he wasn't sure if she would make it as far as the jungle. If she didn't, he had to remember what this lioness was saying about it so he could tell her stories. He was content enough in these pride lands that he felt no inclination to leave, not to mention he wasn't much of an explorer. Thus, he enjoyed listening to other people's renditions of the outside world. It let him know about whatever else was going on in the world without actually having to do it himself. Definitely a rewarding experience.
"So it's sort of like a hot stream then? Hmmm... and it really doesn't get hotter than the Savannah? I'm not sure I'd like being warm all the time. At least when it's hot you can escape to the shade." A thought crossed his mind, and he asked, "Do you swim then, to cool down?" He'd seen a couple of cubs wade in a stream to cool down once. Perhaps that was how they dealt with the heat in the jungle.
"I've never lived with a cheetah," he admitted, and he had to stop himself from crinkling his nose at the idea. Cheetahs were much too fragile to be living or hunting with. "I've only ever seen them from afar. Adaptability is good though. I'm sure being a smaller cat has helped him with that." Smaller things seemed to adapt better, he found. Lions, like himself, preferred pride life and consistency. He didn't like having to keep changing his routine over and over again.
Tiruan seemed quite surprised when Aisu turned her questions on him, but he supposed it was only fair. He couldn't keep questioning her without giving a little back. "Well, not really I suppose. Not so much water out there in the savannah. We used to have to look for it, but not here." He nodded to the Kusini lands. "But for the most part, it's pretty much the same. Wide spaces with the occasional tree and lots and lots of grass. Not very exciting."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 1:12 am
Chocolate colored eyes watched the lion before her and Aisu understood his words about wanting to find a cool place in the shade. Sometimes when she'd first wandered into the jungle, she'd wished that it wasn't so steamy, wasn't so dense and hard to breath. That was part of what made it nice though, after a while that warmth steeped into her fur and Aisu hadn't wanted to leave it, now she was cold outside of the jungle, out where the wind could touch her.
"I can see why you wouldn't like the jungle heat, what with all that fur around your neck and head, it's much warmer than the savannah but it's a steamy hotness that makes you comfortable with time." Aisu giggled a bit at this, her tail swishing back and forth in the grass pleasantly, "I'd imagine it would make you sweat all over, however yes, I live next to a glade in the jungle so I swim every day all the time. There are even fish in the stream to catch that runs off towards the heart of the jungle somewhere. It's nice and cold but not too cool."
Her heart smiled just as her face did, her body wanting to wiggle and bound about with her happiness. Aisu in general was a cheery sort of lioness, always happy about something and always enjoying her life. There had been a time where she hadn't, however that had been quickly rectified when she'd found the jungle, the bad part of it cut away.
"Not much water and hardly any trees? I suppose it's very different from where I come from then." Aisu said finally, listening to him raptly in the hopes of finding new information about the savannah she didn't know, the lack of water was news. "I couldn't imagine living without water close to me, how ever did you manage to survive if you had to hunt it down?" Her eyes watched him. A sort of sadness for all the creatures out there on the savannah that searched for water every day of their lives.
Were the other prides like that? Did they not have water like the Kusini's river?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:55 pm
"I could definitely see a mane being a problem in the jungle," Tiruan agreed, with a small chuckle. Though he definitely enjoyed his mane – it was perhaps his pride and joy next to Ainra – it would have only made him hotter in the jungle. It would have probably got him stuck too, what with all the low hanging trees and very prickly bushes. Aisu was lucky that she was a lioness living in the jungle and not a lion. He could only imagine how much of a hassle it would have been if she had had to try and hunt not only with a cheetah, but also with a mane. A disaster, for certain.
The lion nodded when Aisu said she sway every day, glad that he had been able to guess that. It made him sound a little smarter, which was something he tried to strive for. Sometimes it was hard to determine whether or not he actually knew something or was just repeating what someone else said, but Tiruan didn't mind. He could pretend he had been a great explorer in his youth. Nobody needed to know he was really just a mama's boy and had only left home when he'd been told to go to the Kusini pride. Some things were better left as secrets.
"Well... you sort of have to know what to look for, sort of like signs. Things grow better around water, for example, and prey beasts will flock near water because of that. So you just have to keep your eyes up and always remember that you need to find water. I'm not used to having so much water freely available. I was only allowed to play in it when I was small, but once I got bigger I just had to drink it. Otherwise there wouldn't have been enough to go around."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 3:23 pm
"It would be, yes." Aisu admitted, a soft smile spreading over her muzzle as she peered at the mane of the other. It wasn't extremely fluffy or extremely thin like other lions had the occaision to be. Some had manes that looked as though they could grow legs and walk off on their own. Others had manes that looked as though they needed a few more months of growing before they were true adults.
Males were odd with that. Some were fluffy balls of cotton that seemed to roll over the grasslands and others were scrawny and skinny and had thin fur. Sure she'd met a Firekin once before who's fur was actually hollow and thin. Despite it being red Aisu had been able to see her skin beneath it, a deep brownish color that was much different than her own pale white color. Maybe the Firekin lioness's skin had been brown because the sun had scorched it that color over time? Surely she hadn't been born that way when Aisu and even Amile both had nice pale skin underneath all the fur.
Or maybe she was just odd for everything she thought.
"Ooooh. So you all followed the herdbeasts around the savannah to see where they went? It's almost like nomads." That at least Aisu could relate to, having wandered for so long on her own. "At least now you don't have to walk for days without it right? The Kusini has it's own little river. I remember that much at least."
She laughed, it was a bubbly and almost infectious laugh that came from deep in her chest, much to the annoyance of any that didn't like hearing others laugh. But she was a naturally happy creature that couldn't help it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:39 am
Tiruan considered himself to be fairly average in terms of fluffiness, having only ever really compared himself to his father. Sure there were other males in the pride, but he didn’t exactly spend that much time with them. Other males tended to make him feel rather threatened, as though he had to prove his masculinity even more than he did when he was with girls. It must have been a fairly primitive behaviour, he’d decided, or at the very least something he’d learned from his father. His father had been a very traditional lion, in the sense that every lioness should have a mate before she had cubs. By that same notion, it was the male’s job to protect and guard the pair from harm, and the female’s job to hunt and raise cubs. Males could babysit, however they were not the primary caregivers. That was up to the lionesses.
“I guess we could have been called nomads. We stayed wherever there was food and water, so if everything stayed in one place then we didn’t move all that much.” His mother didn’t like having to move, he remembered. She liked having her own den and her own home to return to. How she missed the pride that Tiruan now lived in. He wished she could have come back, but that would have been asking too much of her. Still, he missed her. “Nope! There’s more than enough water to go around now. I know many cubs who spend their time playing and hunting in the rushes.” Her laugh was infectious, and he couldn’t help but chuckle along with her. “It’s a nice place to raise a family, I must admit. My mother would have loved to raise me here.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 5:25 pm
All the thoughts of fluffiness and the thickness of fur were lost on Aisu, who tended to not have very much fur. Even for a lioness of the cool Kusini she had decently thin fur. All the life she'd lived she had considered it to be her mother's fault, as her mother was from a different pride. But in reality her other siblings had nice thick fur. So Aisu lived with thin fur and got chilled easily.
All the better to live in the jungle she supposed and grinned despite herself.
"Surely the monsoons that hit during the rainy season kept you in one place, though nomadic season seems to be during the dry season on the savannah every year. I'm sure that makes it hard on lions even, having a secure life one day and then knowing that soon you would have to leave even the very next day." A sad look pulled from Aisu for a moment before she lightened back up again and giggled. "Maybe someday she can come and see how well you fare in this pride. I'm sure even if she hadn't raised you here she'd be overjoyed to see how well you're doing."
This comment was said as a blanket statement, given that Tiruan didn't appear to be suffering a sickness and wasn't overly thin as she'd seen some lions who came to join the pride before she'd left. All in all she figured that he was healthy and strong, meaning he probably was very well looked at as he could serve the pride well as a hunter.
Skills meaning nothing to a lioness who was used to them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
