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 Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:02 pm
Moto couldn't help but be angry as well as sad. Why had he left?! Why had he gone off without telling anyone?! Maybe he'd 'just gone hunting'...but with their foes so close, to go without telling another was...was SUICIDE. The large golden lioness flopped in the grass, tail thrashing behind her. She had followed the river that flowed from their pride lands to just outside the borders. After telling her son and daughter where she'd been headed.
Tara had offered to go with...but Moto had declined. She needed to be alone for a bit. She needed to be away from what THEY'D built together...she would go back, because they were her family and friends...But right now, she couldn't bear to look at any of them too long.
In skirting the volcano to the north, Hak'Zhakuu had once again found himself nearing the lands of a pride. Daring to sniff at the wind, his hopes swelled...and then faded. Another pride that was not his, another false hope dashed. What had once been sorrow at losing his way had become to be tempered with anger and frustration. Still, he would not let himself despair. No, no. Adding the influence of yet another culture to his own would help him in the long run.
As it was, he was simply glad to have found a source of water. It'd been a while since he'd properly drank and bathed...Without a hint of the distaste for water most cats showed, he slipped into the moving current and began to dunk himself. While the flow of the water was not overpowering, eventually he did drift downstream a bit.
Moto blinked, her anger disappated a bit as she caught sight of a blue shape in the waters of the river nearby. Curious, she raised a brow, then crept forward. Ah...a lion. Not a demon, she hoped. If he was...well, Moto could hold her own until someone answered her roar, if needed. Though...well, she didn't see many lions willingly in water, as this one was. Her pride was one story, as being a healer had taught of her the dangers of not staying clean the way water made one clean...but others...She couldn't instill such values in everyone.
Smiling past her loss, she stood. "It's nice to see another lion with sense outside my home."
Hak looked up, wet mane sending droplets flying everywhere. Had someone been watching the whole time? "Sense enough to bathe, I take it you mean?" he chuckled. "Where I am from it is not so uncommon. Many of the great cats enjoy it even." His time in the far north east had left him with many habits he'd found the locals saw as either inane or exotic, depending. His style of bathing was one such behavior.
"Forgive my rudeness," He took a step closer, thoug h he made no move to leave the water yet. "I'm a Hak'Zhakuu...a simple bumpkin from the east. I trust I haven't disturbed you unnecessarily?"
Moto chuckled. "Around here, sadly, it is not so common. I've encouraged it among my own pride to help ensure their health." She wrinkled her nose. "I've seen far too many wounds go septic because a cat refused to bathe."
She bowed, her smile returning. "It is good to meet you, Hak'Zhakuu. I am Moto'nyota, of the Mwako'bi'Giza." As she rose from her bow, she chuckled. "No...I'm the one who should apologize. My curiosity tends to get the better of me at times."
"Cleanlinest is important in such a dry land. There is much more dirt and dust here than I am used to, I admit. Where I'm from it all stays firmly on the ground, none of this blowing through the wind." He resuming a sort of casual bathing, sitting in a shallow spot of water to lick his front paws delicately.
"Aaah, I would assume the pride nearest here is your Mwako'bi'Giza then. I apologize, I don't mean to trespass."
Moto nodded in agreement. "That it is. Dust gets everywhere too." She sighed. "But...I have learned to live with it. Better dust than sand." She sat on the bank, tail occasionally twitching at her side.
"That it is. And you aren't trespassing. we are outside the borders. Even if you were, we would only give a warning to be more careful in the future." She laughed softly. "We would offer a night's stay...but our pride is no place for innocent outsiders."
"Mmm," The lion agreed. "There was a desert I passed through long ago. I understand your sentiments." Sand was worst by far, he felt. The tiny grains were hard to walk on, and got in every nook and cranny of the body. They could gouge eyes and flesh as well as any claw.
"A kindly thing for you to do. Some prides are much more vicious." He ceased his licking and switched to the other paw, flexing claws out to clean the sensitive skin around them. "Pity about the night's offer though. I would relish a chance to socialize for once. I'm sure you understand, the life of the wanderer is a lonely one."
Moto nodded in sympathy. "It is. Twas all I knew before this pride, and truthfully...I am glad I discovered companionship." Serithi...oh how she wanted to damn him right now, for opening her heart and washing away her fear. "But as I said...this pride is not a good place for visitors. We...we fight against another pride, not far from us, and they can be a vicious lot. We...do not wish to risk the lives of those who are not part of our fight."
It was a noble intention, and it was one Moto held firm to. Just as she insisted each and every pride member knew what they were getting themselves into, and that every one of them had a chance to leave.
"Of course. No one desires to be alone. Not even those that say they do." He would know if anyone did. "Once you really are alone...truly alone with no one left, you realize just how terrifying a thing it is. But enough of this morbid talk." He stood and shook himself, sliding up from the river to perch on the opposite bank as Moto. "You say you have a quarrel with your neighbors? Forgive my insatiable curiosity but might I ask why?" A charming smile. "Perhaps then I will be able to say for myself if I would feel safe spending some time in the area." Nevermind that if their neighbors were familiar he'd have a clue as to his direction.
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:32 pm
Moto knew what he meant all too well. Her greatest fear at this point was loosing her pride. Depsite the fight they must fight...it scared her, the possibility they might get wiped out...and she left to mourn them.
At his curiosity she chuckled sadly. "The Aikanaro'hini. They are a pride only slightly older than mine...and they are full of demons. Demons who do not understand that they can live beside normal lions. Instead, they seek to hurt and destroy even those who have done them no wrong." She sighed. "My pride fights those, and we try to teach those not fully delved into that way how to live beside others." Her orange-amber eyes closed.
"Most of those who founded the pride alongside me...lost something to the Aikanaro'hini. We even have a few redeemed demons in our midst." She would know...she was one of them.
"Oh? Demons..." A strange smile lit onto his lips, coupled with a glint in his eyes, just barely hidden. "That sounds quite fearful." He pondered on her further talk a moment before swishing his tail. "A noble cause indeed. By your words I sense there is more though." That smile again. "Revenge perhaps? For something wrongly taken from you?" Oh how wonderfully, terribly they were alike.
"If so, then I can understand your plight, madame. Bringing justice to those who do hard to others...Providence, if you would. Am I right?"
Moto's eyes widened a bit...then went back to normal as she nodded. "One of my cubs was taken from me...and I was almost killed defending my litter." Her eyes lost their kindness. "I intend to get him back, one way or another." It was all she could do to keep from baring her teeth, but her claws kneaded the ground beneath her front paws. "And I intend to kill the demon who committed the crime personally."
Ahh, a cub taken, and not a dear mate-to-be...the only discrepancy to his eyes in their stories. Well, save that this lion had found a band of warriors to back her, fight with her. He was alone yet, though he feared not for his life. Seeing her anger he slid back int othe water before mounting the bank to lower his head at her feet. "My apologies. It isn't like me to direct suc a conversation with a noble lady. I fear I've brought up a sensitive issue, my apologies."
"We are more alike than any I have met in my travels, I find." A grim laugh tugged itself from him as he stood again. "Pity. I'd hoped it was only myself who'd seen such cruel and unwarranted behavior."
Moto shook her head...as much to clear the anger from her as to answer the lion. "No...I'm normally a bit more in control than this but...life has not been easy. It's why I came outside the borders for a bit...to hopefully soothe my nerves before I say something foolish inside the borders." She, of all the pride, could not afford to be foolish.
The Mwezi gave a sad smile to Hak'Zhakuu. "There are many out there who have lost a cub or a mate or a dear friend to creatures who do not wish to see them happy or creatures who do it just because they can." She sighed. "Sometimes I wish I could fight all of them...but I cannot. So my pride and I focus on a small part of their number, the demons. Small steps..."
A dark look came over the stranger's face. "Ahh, but you forget...there are also those who do it for greed. They see what another has, and desire it. That was what-" He shuddered and for a brief moment the strange marks over his body seemed to glow more violently. "To fight them all would take beyond a lifetime I fear. That is why you must pick and chose those that deserve to meet the fates on wings most swift." It might sound cold or cruel, but it was true. "Your cause is true, and the effort is great...you must be a strong people."
The healer in Moto pained to see the other shudder. She moved to pat one of his shoulders with a black paw. "There are so many things...so many reasons others do what they do." She sighed. "But when the reason is as vile as greed or envy or 'just because'...that is when it is not right. That is when they have done wrong, and must be punished." She gave him a sad smile. "We do our best to be strong...to give a light within the darkness the demons create. Perhaps it will take generations...but we must perservere. To strive so that others might not know the same pain at the demons' claws that my pride feels." Moto sighed. "Our pain as we fight is a small price...for revenge and for the future."
Hak nodded grimly. "You speak truth, madame. But enough of talk so foul. I shouldn't want to upset you further. Nor myself." What else was there though? Hmm..."Perhaps instead you would tell me more about your pride? Surely there is more to it than the hunting and slaying of such foul demons." His tail had begun to swish about curiously, and he tugged it back when it fell across hers momentarily. "My apologies."
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:49 pm
Moto blinked and laughed. "That there is." Her smile returned, not a mask this time. It was good to talk to another. "We're still small, but we're all rather close. We even have young ones about. And they help to keep our spirits up. Even in darkness, cubs will be cubs and make even the saddest spirit grin with them." It was a magic that Moto knew rarely lasted into adulthood...but sometimes, she'd met creatures who'd kept it. "And there is love...we have one pair in particular that I rather admire. They are so in love with one another that their good mood tends to be infectious when they're around others." Ah! She'd almost forgotten one thing!
"And we have a celebration once a year, at the Summer Solstice." She was looking forward to it..."For that is the longest day of the year."Hak's good mood returned soon enough, outwardly at least. The talk of cubs caused his heart to twinge (would he have cubs by now, had things not gone how they had?) but he smiled nonetheless. "Indeed. They say to know the truth of a people you need only look at their youth. The kindly prides have children that play and bring joy.
Ahh love...he could understand that. He'd loved once, long long ago. But he knew the truth. She hadn't waited for him. Still to know such love existed unfettered by the world brought him some comfort. "Ahh, I know many prides that celebrate the Summer's Height. Would that it were closer...I might think to pass the holiday in the company of such a pride as yours."The Mwezi flushed a bit, under her fur. It was nice, talking to this male. And to get such high praises for the pride she worked to build...it made her very happy. "I thank you. Though we know our cause is just..." She chuckled. "It is...a relief, almost, to hear from another that they would not mind our company." Company...a strange thing the word was. And it made her realize she...really did not want to be alone as much as she though she had.Fin.
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