|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 1:50 pm
Life had to continue as normal.
Or, atleast, that's what Kidondo kept telling himself. So why was it, then, that he wasn't listening to his own advice? Maybe he should have sought out Nuri or Kibela or maybe he should have just sat down and spoken about his feelings with No. It was more difficult nowadays, to speak with her without a cub listening in. He loved being a father, though it certainly had its challenges, but there was no 'peace and quiet time', not until they'd grown up enough anyway.
And that smile that was so readily available on his maw had now slipped from existance - except from the odd occasion where it was forced and didn't reach his eyes.
How could life continue on as normal?
His heart gave a twinge of grief and for a moment he haltered in his even pace to collect his emotions and keep them in line. He was Regent, he had to set an example. Ugh, how he wished he could just curl up in his den, cuddle tight to No and his children and go to sleep for a few days...or at least until this pain had gone away.
He wanted to see Azarax and the little golden cub too, but he hadn't managed to summon the courage enough to face them yet. Because in his heart he felt it was his fault that Ripuka was gone. He'd had the visions, he'd seen Ripuka's ghost, flitting and fading. He shouldn't have ignored them and then maybe she'd be here today.
He forced himself onwards, deciding to do some guard duty today just to keep his mind off of things. He couldn't bear to sit and do nothing and as there was nothing else for urgent attention it seemed the best idea to do something productive.
Besides, the ones who attacked Ripuka could come back.
He and a team of Firekin had gone into the desert in an attempt to find her killers and bring them to justice. They'd come across the scene of the fight and followed the fleeing pawprints, but then the wind had covered them and they'd been forced to return; bitter and angry.
They'd failed...
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:06 pm
Ny was well, not the happiest of females. Her family was split. One of her children had gone with the traditionalists and she wanted to go and see him, to make sure she was okay. Then there was her daughter who seemed to be having love issues and then Intuthu. The one who had actually fallen in love but with an outsider and he had left to live with her. Ny missed him, he had never been a true firekin, not at heart but he had always been around her and she missed his company.
She was aware of all the cubs running around at the moment, she saw them nearly everywhere she went. Some of them made her feel proud and others, well some of the cubs needed more fire in them. At least that was her own belief anyway. She still had strong firm beliefs and though she knew the new lions were needed for the pride she felt it had lost something. She missed Ripuka and hadn't heard of her death yet. The old lioness had a way of always finding the right words.
She allowed her paws to lead her over the desert allowing her mind and body to wonder, something she seemed to do more often these days. The last thing she expected was to see the King, no, Regent crossing the desert.
"Kidondo." She spoke her greeting. Lowering her head at the same time, whether or not he saw it, didn't matter.
"I wouldn't have expected to see you here with your youngsters running about." She always spoke freely around him. She didn't fear him and saw him more as a friend then anything else.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:14 pm
What? Who was this? Kidondo lifted his head to see the pale form of Ny. She was one of those firekin more white than red, but held an aura that made her unmistably firekin. He forced one of those empty smiles and bowed his head slightly in return.
"Ny."
Her words took him mildly by surprise. Yes, he supposed he should have been helping No with the children, but they had Kaanga and there was always Moja if need be. He knew, however, that he should have been close at hand, especially if the twins started acting up. He couldn't have them rushing off with the recent turn of events.
"I should probably be with them now." He admitted, pulling himself to a halt a couple of strides away from her. "To be honest, I needed to get away from manic chaos for a while." Things certainly had gotten rather noisy and stressful with all the little ones running around, especially Ea and Fia!
He looked at the lioness a moment longer, noting that she looked tired and perhaps a little sad. Seeing this, he assumed she must have heard about Ripuka. "You've heard the news then, I take it." The smile had left his face again, leaving his eyes tired and drained.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:29 pm
Ny took one look at him and laughed.
"Cubs do that to you. I can understand you wanting to escape, Ra was always the same." Ra, where was he? She really did miss him. He was someone she could have spoken to and would have challenged her views. She had grown up with Ra and he had been the bestest friend anyone could dream of and the best mate but he had left though she wondered and hoped he would return one day.
"The news? Of your cubs, hasn't everyone?" She replied, amused by the question. She couldn't think of anything else that could possibly have happened. The pride seemed so well, happy at the moment. It was growing with all the new cubs.
"Whats wrong?" She watched him and it had clicked, something else had made him look so miserable. She knew cubs made one tired but he didn't look just tired something else was bothering him, though she didn't know what.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:37 pm
He tried to smile again, nodding briefly. "Yes, they're rather lively, I'll admit that now." The smile died a moment later and he lowered his eyes, unable to look her in the face. She didn't know. How was he going to break the news to her? It was hard enough thinking it, let alone speaking it aloud.
Saying it was making it real. It made his heart quake with grief and his throat tightened, making it difficult to breath. Difficult to speak. But he pushed through the grief and forced himself to look at her. He couldn't do this the cowardly way.
"You don't know, do you? I...I'm sorry, Ny. I thought maybe you'd heard...maybe someone had a-already told you." He drew in a shallow breath, forcing away a spell of giddiness.
"It's Ripuka." And as he spoke it he could feel the bite of tears in his eyes. He choked them back. "She's dead."
There. It was out. But it did nothing but enhance the grief, bringing it all back up like breaking the scab on a wound...bleeding again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:41 pm
Ny just stared, she got worried as he started to choke up but then he mentioned Ripuka's name and she was frozen to the spot. Her eyes on Kidondo.
Dead.
No.
Ny just stared, the word floating around in her head, then questions. Why? when? How?
She let out a snarl, her eyes seeming to burn with anger.
"How?" It came out as a growl. Ripuka had been like a mother to Ny. Ny had loved her and how it had broken her heart to be seperated from the old lioness. She can't be dead. She was getting on, sure but she had cubs, she wasn't that old. how could she be dead. Why was she dead?
She let out a snarl again and looked straight at Kidondo. She wanted an answer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:47 pm
He clenched his jaw for a moment, waiting for Ny's reaction and feeling the strength of her grief and anger. It was so much like his own that he found comfort in it, though only briefly. However, he was touched by Ny's reaction, too, for it showed the extent of her love for Ripuka and proved how much of an effect the old lioness had had on others.
Himself included.
"I...don't know all the details, only what I saw. She was travelling to our lands and must have been attacked on the way. Whether it was Safi or rogue, we cannot say, though I think it the latter, for if it were the Safi we would have heard something by now, or recognised the scent at the scene..." He closed his eyes, pained, and looked away. "By the time help arrived...it was too late. Her wounds were too greivous to heal, her body too old. By the time I arrived...she was already gone." He paused a moment to gather himself. "She had a cub with her, a little golden cub. I...I can only assume she was bringing him here to keep him safe from the Safi."
A pause. "I'm...sorry Ny. Truly."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:59 pm
Ny didn't know what to say, he was sure it wasn't one of the safi, otherwise she would be on her way over there. It might have ended up being suicide for her but she wanted to get whoever killed Ripuka.
She let the mix of angers she was feeling wash over her. She could hardly stand but she stood her ground. She was strong and so she took control of her body and emotions.
"What became of the cub?" she kept her voice level and emotionless. She needed to keep herself together for now.
"And what of the attackers." She wanted revenge.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 3:08 pm
"The cub, Uddhava..." He winced at the name, it's meaning so appropriate but one that didn't bring much hope for the little one's future. "He is under the care of his older brother, Azarax. He'll also be taught by Moja until he's an adolescent." He hesitated. "After that he'll...have to leave the pride. It's not something I want to do, but his colours give me little choice in the matter. Besides...I don't think he'll want to stay here where he stands out so much."
He paused and cast her another look. "As for the attackers...they got away." He hated saying it, but it was true. "We went in search of them but the wind had stolen their pawprints away."
He swallowed back the grief, letting his head hang sadly. "She...saw change in the end."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 2:04 pm
Ny listened though she wasn't really listening. She was far from impressed that he was going to throw the cub out, she would do her best to look after the youngster no matter what. She owed it to Ripuka.
He then mentioned the attackers and that they had got away. She snarled again. They could have done more to find them, that is all that went through her head. She wanted to rip the throat out of whoever caused her dear friends death. Ripuka didn't deserve to die, never, not once.
The last thing he said made her laugh.
Yes she saw change alright. It was change that meant she was now dead. If the change hadn't happened she wouldn't have been where she was when whatever it was happened. She shook her head, she couldn't blame Kidondo, there were many things she disagreed with and there always would be but she couldn't blame him though everything screamed at her to.
"You can't send him away." She stared at him. There had been a long pause before she had spoken at all. Her voice was stern and stubborn.
"He is a son of Ripuka, she died getting him here. To send him away, would make that trip of hers pointless." She knew it really wouldn't have and that he would have been chucked out as a cub but still. They couldn't throw him out, if he chose to leave it was different.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:18 am
He tried to read her expression, seeing anger there, shock too. It must be hard to take all of this in at once, try to make sense of it when there was no sense to make. Her death had been senseless, a cruel act, perhaps a rogue seeking honour by killing a firekin. Whether that firekin was old and with a cub made no different. And yet if that was the case, they had taken no token of proof.
Nothing.
He shook his head dismally. "I'm sorry, Ny, truly I am." The words were bitter in his mouth. "But I cannot, as much as I would like to. He is not red nor black nor white. He is more golden than the desert, shines brighter even Azarax. I have taken many rules that the traditionalists live by and thrown them to the wind, but this is one rule I cannot." He looked away. "To look at him you would think him an outsider. All we can do is raise him, teach him and prepare for what lies ahead. I think Ripuka would understand better than anyone."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:30 am
Ny just stared at him.
"How can you be so cruel." She spat the words at him. The child was Ripukas, she had died trying to save him and yet they were only going to throw him out in the end anyway. What a waste. How wrong.
She snarled, her eyes showed nothing but disgust and anger, at the killers and now at Kidondo and now she said the things, maybe once she would never had dared to say.
"It's your fault anyway. If you hadn't have fought with your own father, Ripuka would have been here, she would still be alive." She narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. Everything about her, showed how angry she was. Maybe she would regret those words later but right now she didn't.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:06 am
Cruel. Was he cruel? Could Kidondo ever b considered another cruel king of the Firekin? Cruely and injustice was something he wanted to stamp into the dust so that a better life could form. Yet here he was being told he was exactly that. And it hurt. It hurt his pride and it hurt his confidence - though he didn't show it in his eyes.
"You are angry, Ny, and in shock, so I will overlook this sudden outburst. But do it again and there will be punishment. I am Regent here and I will not be spoken to by anyone in that manner. Ever." He could feel the fire of his own temper igniting within him - reminding him that he was indeed a Firekin. It was good to remember that on occassion.
"You can say what you want. You can say this is my fault. You can blame the change that came from the war. If you think it a mistake then turn and leave, Ny. There is no barrier to stop you if you wish it." He tamed the anger in his voice and it was cold and rough as stone. "If the change had not come, Ripuka might not have been dead, but eventually the pride would have fallen into collapse and Uddhava would be thrown into the unknown anyway. Think about that."
And, deciding that this conversation needed to be put on hold until grief and tempers had eased, he turned and padded onwards to carry out his guard duty.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:55 am
Ny stared at him. She wouldn't leave, she knew where she belonged though whether she believed in Kidondo anymore, well that was another thing completely. He may think it was an angry outburst but was it? Or was it something that had been inside her waiting to come out.
She continued to snarl at him as he spoke to her. She didn't care if he attacked her or punished her then, it would only prove her point. She however watched him leave and turned to go back to her den. She wanted the pride back to how it was, when everyone knew what was what and when she could have gone to Ripuka and spoken to her, let everything out. Now she could never do that, she would always partially blame Kidondo for Ripuka's death. The pride didn't have to loose its beliefs to allow newcommers in, those worthy.
She was angry now, maybe more angry then she had been in her life and it was probably lucky that she had been let off as he believed the words to just be out of anger. Whether that was true or not, well only time would tell.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
