Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sometimes, a foul mood gripped Akono...a throwback perhaps to his quite troubled cubhood. Slowly but surely he'd been meeting Bahari lions and steeling himself to ask to join. He'd always wished to, growing up, his family sort of lurking on the border ever since his youth. But yesterday he'd become sullen and in his angst had wandered into the roguelands.

Today he lay on a rock so he could see a ways and watch others going about their business. Must be nice to be so sure of where you were going. Akono was still so nervous of the pride his wished to join - rather pathetic really.

*

He had been wandering for a while with no recollection of any of his past. From the mountains were he met an equally crimson lion, he learned he was not adept for a snowy climate. In fact, he had traveled from the peaks through the forest, and nothing seemed to jog his memory at all. Once he was in the jungle, the sound of the waterfall brought back a single memory. A memory of warmth, of gritty sand in between his toes. The lion knew where he needed to go now, but to find it, he hadn’t a clue. He settled for going in a direction, and off her went.

It was only until his spotted another lounging on a rock when his eyes shot up curiously. He wasn’t your typical male though, Quidytch knew when to ask for direction. He slowed his pace, walking towards the other.

“Hello good sir,” even at his age, the male was quite polite. “Do you think you could help me?”

*

Akono lifted his head off his paws and tried to get rid of his overcast expression. It was never a good impression he gave those he met. Too gruff a manner and no matter how nice he tried to be he just had a voice that made everything easily sound sarcastic or mocking or angry. Why he even bothered anymore was beyond him.

"I might be able to." See? Said kindly enough but he didn't think it sounded so. "What do you want?"

*

Quidytch wasn’t fazed by the initial look of the lion. He blinked, his golden eyes watching the male carefully. He sat down, preparing to speak.

“I am looking for something. Somewhere, actually. You see, I am trying to remember my past, and something in my mind is telling me go to a place where there is warm sand,” he paused. “I don’t know where there is a place like this. Do you if there is one, by any chance?”

Even if the male were going in the wrong direction, it would’ve been nice to find out. The crimson lioness he had met up in the mountains didn’t seem to know of a land as Quidtych spoke of. She talked about a land covered in tall dry grass. This was the opposite of what the male wanted.

*

"Warm sand? That could be found at both beach and desert... or even certain river banks. The drier areas of savannah too." Akono mused, huffing his breath and he tried to think. He knew the basic lay of the lands well, having talked to various rogues over the seasons. Including that purple nutter who'd been obsessed with drawing maps in the sand. So starting with the Bahari'mtoto and fanning out from there he could figure out where various prides and landscapes were if he tried.

"Have you got anything else to go on? I live by the sea normally but I know some basics about the many lands."

*

“I don’t think it was the desert. I passed through the edges of one a few moons ago. It’s…wasn’t like how I remember you know?” He frowned. “The dunes had a…heat to it that was dry. I remember something moist,” his gaze shifted towards the ground, “and that’s about it.” Quidytch gave a small snort in feigned laughter. “It’s horrible to know something, but not know about something. Aggrivating, really,” The crimson male’s tail coiled ground his lanky

“The beach? I think I’ve heard of that before.” This was all he said on that subject until…

“Could you show me this…beach? Or point out a direction to go?” The lion was more intrigued then anything.

*

"I can do whichever you'd rather. I've nothing to keep me here and will head back sooner or later - but if you want a guide, would be company I guess."
Akono stretched and got down from his rock at any rate. He wasn't sure he liked looking down from a rock at the person he was talking to. Better to be on the same level.

"I'm called Akono"

*

“Well, if you are heading in that direction, I don’t see a problem of traveling together?” He gave the other a smile, but it faltered ever so slightly. “Unless you would rather no company, then directions are just fine.” Quidtych was good with directions, but he much rather prefer the company of another. Species, gender it didn’t matter. Traveling on your own was very…lonely.

“My name is Quidytch.” A strange name for a lion, different then most. “I guess my parents were of some…foreign land to name me so,” he joked, watching the male move from his perch.

*

"Oh I don't know. Hear all kinds of names these days. Interesting sound to it though." Akono offered, trying to sound less like the Grinch at Christmas (my turn of phrase, not his, though the green is rather fitting). He hadn't wanted to sound pushy about going with the red lion, that was all, and now worried he'd come off too gruff again.

"Come then. We can walk and talk. You're a traveller then? All your life or just recently looking for the warm sands?"

*

Quidtych nodded, following after the male. “Well, I guess you could call me that.” He shook his head. “I know for a fact I’ve been traveling for a while now, but whatever I was doing before then is a mystery. I met this lioness, the same color pelt as I but it differed in such a way. She…helped me? I guess I was sick, and she and healer had helped me.” The lion frowned, he hadn’t wanted to display a story, but the words kind of just blurted it.

“When I left her, I passed through the jungle. I saw this magnificent waterfall, and that’s when this memory of warm sand came too me,” the male explained. “So just recently I guess I’ve been looking for this warm sand.

“What about you Akono. I told you my story, what’s yours?” He grinned.

*

"Not a happy one. My mother seduced the brother of the lion she really desired and tried to use the litter I was born in to win him away from his mate. Never got really close to my family after finding that out - don't hate them or anything, but not close you know? But I've always watched the Bahari pride by the sea, it's next door to where I was born..." He trailed off. He wasn't shy about where he was from and the less than happy circumstances of his birth. Hell, it was easier to blurt it out pretty soon into an acquaintance so they could get over it faster if they were the pitying kind. It also, he hoped, helped to explain his abrasive nature just a bit. Besides, Quidtych had been open enough about his own story, if he'd been telling the truth.
Least Akono could do was do the same.

*

Quidytch winced as Akono’s story unfolded. He didn’t know whether or not to apologize for his rough childhood, or just say nothing about it. Switching the subject was a good idea too.

“Bahari pride?” His ears perked. “What’s that? Well…” his voice drifted, that was a stupid question. Obviously it was a pride by the sea, seeing as that was how Akono had just described it. “Nevermind, I retract my last question.

I meant to same, what are the customs there?” Quidytch was always interested in prides, but out of the ones he had passed in the last few weeks, none seemed to suit him for it.

*

"Mostly they're based on the ocean and the creatures and objects it brings to the shore. It's a wonderful pride, it'd take a while to explain." A hint of warmth came to Akono's voice as he spoke of it. He did love the Bahari and knew quite a bit about his long time neighbours. If he could get up the courage to join one day, that'd be thebest thing ever to happen to the green lion.

*