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 Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 9:59 am
 Bidu was to be found without her mask this evening. The jungle was darker than usual, only snatches of sunset filtering through. What light there was managed to catch her white pelt every now and then, making it glitter slightly in the darkness. The light also caught the gorilla skull she had preciously nestled in her front paws, it also shining bright in the light every now and then. She looked down to it, smiling with great contentment. It was truly a great find, could only have been a gift from higher spirits and it was treasured to her. A link to that spirit world. Her mind occasionally flickered to the idea of the future. She'd played a part, however big or small, in the raising of her newest siblings, and pondered on what part she'd then play when they were all grown up. She could only wield her power as an older sister for so long...
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:05 am
Red eyes oddly wide open, showing rings around the irises, she moved in a little zigzag sort of of path, as though unable to decide just which direction she wanted to take, or as though following the path of some demented butterfly only she could see. Whatever she was thinking, it so distracted her that she walked right past the white lioness without even noticing she was there.
"Come little children, don't fear... the darkness has open arms for all of you... Follow the path etched in your veins... to find the home where shadows lay their heads..." The words were soft, almost under her breath, sung in a voice that was strained and brittle. Ever since her cubs had been taken from her, behavior like this had become more and more common, though only those who really knew the crazed lioness would be able to pick out the common thread in her rambling.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:44 pm
As if seeing the somewhat stilted movements of Shaitani as she walked past wasn't enough, her murmurings and ethereal rhyme seemed to put a momentary chill through Bidu. She prided herself on this vicious persona she had crafted. But that was to be 'vicious', to be intimidating and an embodiment of her inner spirituality.
Shaitani however was just plain disturbing. Bidu couldn't shake that chill that seemed to cling to her spine. Shuffling until the skull was comfortable on her head once more, she got up and tentatively started to follow the lioness.
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 5:41 pm
It could not be denied that Shaitani was 'other'... something strange and not quite apart of the landscape she seemed to know without looking. Her steps never hesitated, for all their wandering, and she never seemed to trip on the roots and brush littering the jungle floor.
If she was aware of a presence behind her now, she gave no sign of it and continued on her way, her voice warbling up into the lower canopy. The words themselves seemed unimportant and range from loving croons to her missing cubs, to blood washing the night in shades of red and green. Parts of the song seemed to have a put-together feel to them, like snippets of things she'd heard once and, like a magpie, collected for her own little store of songs.
It was a good distance, wandering back and forth, before she finally came to a stop and fell silent, the jungle night feeling heavy without her voice to cut the darkness. Before her paws was a sort of hole in the ground, wider and longer than the lioness herself, and shallow enough the sides would only come to her stomach if she stood inside. Which is what she did, after staring into the distance for a moment. White paws, already stained with dirt, landed lightly on the floor of the hole and immediately started scrabbling in it, tossing earth to earth to either side as she struggled to uncover something.
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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 1:35 pm
Bidu followed, quietly at first, but after a while, after Shaitani seemed to make no indication of noticing her, she stopped creeping. She stopped watching every foot-fall for twigs and leaves that might make a sound. And simply followed her, resembling some hideous demon plaguing the demented red and white lioness.
Nothing actually sank in, the words seemed to float through her and she listened to them but didn't dare take them to heart. Perhaps Bidu had been too sheltered in her upbringing, nothing seemed to quell that jittery feeling inside.
And then it hit her - it was the lack of control. Bidu lived for control, and here was a lioness she had no power over.
When they finally arrived to this shallow 'grave' and Shaitani began her frenzied digging, Bidu could not stay silent any longer.
"Are you alright? What are you looking for?" she asked, more bluntly and less dramatic than normal but she wanted answers.
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:17 am
"What?"
The sound of a voice pulled Shaitani from her digging and she turned to blink up dazedly at the lioness standing outside the hole. Distracted, the reason for what she'd been so intently doing fled her mind and she glanced from Bidu to the hole and back in confusion.
"Looking for? Shaitani looks for everything, and nothing, and the things that lie between." She said, summoning up words to express her sheer un-knowing of why she did things. The fierce looking decorations on the lioness told her it was one of her own kind, and perhaps one highly ranked, which in turn brought out her more submissive side, the one less prone to violence and more to groveling.
While she struggled to think and order the disjointed jumble in her head, the red and white lioness stared unblinking at the younger female, her head tilted ever so slightly in question.
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:11 pm
Bidu continued to watch the lioness with a morbid curiosity, like a child watching ants drown in a cup of water. Her cryptic statement made her all the more interesting, and challenging, to decipher.
"So you're looking for everything and nothing?" she said, slowly at first, trying to comprehend what this lioness might be saying. Bidu hated to sound stupid, she liked to sound intelligent and all-knowing when she could.
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:44 pm
Shai opened her mouth to reply and paused for a moment, before uttering a simple; "Yes." She closed her mouth again as she bent back to her task, tossing dirt side to side behind her before shoving her nose into the hole and breathing deeply of the damp earth.
That done, she jumped up and turned to cast around absent-mindedly, startled when her eyes fell on the other lioness again. "Oh... Hello." She said, at a loss. "My name is Shaitani, Lady. I was not... disturbing you, was I?" Sounding surprisingly sane for once, she even looked embarrassed, scuffing a paw against the ground.
Shai was starting to get the feeling that this someone was someone important, though she didn't know why. She'd hardly have associated this ghostly white lioness with the dark terror that had been the last shaman... they were as different as night and... a moonlit night.
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Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 2:39 pm
Bidu also prided herself on being prepared for anything and everything that was thrown at her. But this lioness was throwing everything that could not have been imagined by any being. She analysed Shaitani further, but kept up the polite interchange of words.
"Pleasure...to meet you Shaitani," she said, straightening herself up a bit. "I'm Mahwibidu, daughter to Moses and Afritti."
She'd started to add this little bit at the end following the meeting with the earthen blood-letter, knowing it could bring added reverence.
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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:37 am
The pale lioness tilted her head as she mulled that over, looking as though her thoughts had a hard time moving, like they were sliding through thick mud. She licked over her maw before she yawned, turning her head away with apparent lack of awe. The names meant little to her, really. Moses was Drakkul to her, Afritti was Valile. Their real names did not describe them and their relationship to her.
"Shaitani is child of the night..." She murmured lazily. "Born of shadows and blood and pain... Her parents are the Coven and the Jungle..." Pacing forward, she slid like a snake over the ground, displaying one of her lightning shifts of mood. She felt... hungry. Oh, she was no danger to Bidu, but that hunger translated itself into a predatory stance and fluid movements.
A soft little hum rolled from her throat as she turned to train her ruby eyes on the other female with an unnerving intensity. "Are you lost, child?" She murmured, her voice sing-song. "Children should not wander the night... things lurk in the shadows here."
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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:21 pm
Although Bidu had expected more of a reaction, it didn't bother her all that much when she didn't receive one. Already she had could to expect the abnormal of Shaitani, so if a normal reaction was reverence, she would certainly throw out an abnormal reaction.
But that mood swing, that predatory approach...well, to say it alarmed Bidu might be an under-statement. For a moment, she was genuinely startled, but locked her legs and her stance regardless. Bravado was as much as part of this strange ritual as anything else.
She listened carefully to the musical words and knew in an instant that Shaitani was of the 'old blood.' Bidu was 'new blood.' They'd both been born to the pride, only Shaitani knew much more than Bidu did, she'd embraced the pride, lived the pride. She'd done more than Bidu could ever hope to.
And that actually made hr a little jealous. And embarrassed. She wanted to make her parents proud and truly live to the spirit of the pride. Bidu felt her introduction might have let her down. She'd let herself down...
With eyes as ruby-red as Shaitani's, she stared back through her skull.
"I know...I lurk in these shadows..."
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:13 am
Responding as always to the other creature, Shai sensed the core of rock in Bidu and her tide of madness parted and washed around her, the lioness herself swerving to circle the other. Her pose eased some, shifting from dominating and dangerous to more submissive. Always, Shaitani worshiped power, her very being bending and shaping itself to a strong figure like vines clinging to a tree for support. Standing her ground and replying as she had was probably the best thing the pale lioness could have done, in regards to her crazy pride mate.
"You speak as one of the coven, Sister." She purred as she slunk back to Bidu's front, an ingratiating smile on her face. "No shadows are to be feared like those that cloak us. They contain nothing so fearsome."
There was truly little for Bidu to envy in the twisted creature she conversed with now. She was truly a leech, clinging to and feeding off others, depending on them for her very survival. Whether she had heard the story or not, Shaitani had been the one to bring the king and queen into the failing pride, had taught them the ways as she'd been able to pull out of her broken mind. She was but a tool to recreate the world that supported her, a thing that did nothing of worth, yet was suffered to live. It had been her good fortune to have been the first the pair had met, because with the loss of Drakkul and her loss of status as harem female, she had needed a new reason to be kept in the pride, which 'teacher' and 'elder' seemed to fill quite well.
Unconsciously seeking to strengthen her acceptance and position in the pride, she fawned over the princess now, sliding down to lay on her belly and roll over onto her back in the dirt.
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Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:19 pm
Again, the slightly attention-seeking and proud side of Bidu clamoured for more compliments, for more statements that confirmed her belonging in this place. This dank, dark, humid jungle, where only the most twisted of beings resided and could make truly horrifying for those of the outside.
Outside. She had but glimpsed it once or twice in her childhood. She looked to Shaitani, now back to some kind of subservient role, acting like something small and pathetic seeking glorification. She wondered if she had seen the outside.
She still saw that predatory creature from mere moments ago, the one who had so much teach yet. She was unaware that this lioness was the start of her family even being here, let alone ruling here.
Bidu moved close to Shaitani, looming over here, bright red eyes peering through her mask.
"Teach me what you don't teach the others, tell me the secrets so that I might truly be of the Coven. To guide you, to help you. Teach me the old ways," she asked, but demanded also.
She had seen how unstable Shaitani could be but somehow she just felt that there was more to be learned, that she yearned to impart everything so that she might see the pride return to its former glory.
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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:23 am
A tremble shook the bloodied body as the other female loomed close, her gaze intense. Shaitani stilled as her eyes widened and she stared raptly up.
"Teach? Teach the ways of the fangs and the claws and the herbs? Of the blood and pain and fear..." She rambled a little, intimidated now that she had fallen into as subservient role. "What has been taught was taught to the Drakkul and Valile... what was taught was what was important to be known to those who must know it..." Whether or not she truly knew what she was talking about, if she even remembered imparting what she knew of the pride's systems and beliefs, was a question that couldn't be answered, but she struggled to be what Bidu wanted of her and it settled her mind into something more amiable, something easier to pull the needed information from.
"What was not taught is what is most important... is what is known by only one of the pride and shown to the others at times of importance..." She said, her voice wavering a little in uncertainty. The duties of the shaman, the rituals that were the core of the pride... she knew of them, if not the why or how of it. She had not taught that to Moses and Afritti, some part of her knowing that it was the right of only the Nosferatae to know... and in truth? Shaitani was terrified of that mystic personage. Not having one in the pride right now suited her just fine.
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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:54 pm
Bidu felt dissatisfied with this answer. And made it known. She gave a short, sharp growl-sigh. Perhaps it wasn't Shaitani's fault. Bidu was unaware of the lioness' trepidation over the instatement of a new shaman, so thought her hesitance to reveal more was simply failing memory.
"Very well...it was improper of me to expect you to know and recall everything," she said, still a little annoyed but showing great reverence for the elder female.
Despite Bidu holding a higher status in the pride, she always had respect for those older than her because they had more knowledge and life-experience to impart. Although, looking at Shaitani, she wondered how much of that knowledge had been corrupted or lost.
"And it is as you say, if I am truly one of the Coven...everything will come to me in due time...I will know everything I need eventually," she said, the confidence returning to her voice.
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