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 Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:48 pm
Even if the Mteo had only been his home for a short while, he had truly felt like he belonged. Perhaps it had little to do with the fact that it was the pride - in fact, most of the pride viewed him with wary eyes, considering he was an outsider - and more to do with the fact that he had found a family he belonged in. He supposed his saving grace had always been his coat, the dark fur that Mteo so prized. Where as, in his own lands, it had marked him as mixed blood, here it was something grand. He had even passed it onto his daughter, who could claim Mteo blood, and was thus treasured.
However, he had also born a son that was so close to true Pridelander colors that the irony almost made Issy laugh. It was that son he was searching for, his restless offspring who found as little peace her as Issy had once in the Pridelands. He was trying to find him, to tell him that he was leaving.
"Dior?" he called, a frown upon him maw as he followed the scent. It was a shady area, and the sun was nearly down to boot. He really hadn't meant to spend so long talking to Usa, but then, when did one ever not get wrapped up in that little ray of sunshine?
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:53 pm
Dior had heard all the stories his father had once told him, and at this age, he wasn't sure what to feel about the grand old Pridelands. On the one paw, he would fit in. With his golden coat, he could sport the heritage that lay dormant in his father's form. On the other, he had to question any land that made his father feel outcast because of his coat. This was often the dilemma that swirled inside Dior's mind - go to the Pridelands and fit in, more so than a half-rogue does in the Mteo, or stay behind and be simply 'content'.
The urge to travel, to know, had only grown stronger when his mother disappeared and his father began to talk all this nonsense about finding her. He was convinced she was gone, long dead, as her health had never been grand. It was sad, and it had hurt, but he had coped where his father had never been able to.
It was his name that drew his attention, drew him out of the shadows of both the trees and his mind. He pushed himself to his feet and walked out into the shine of the sun, dreading whatever it was his mildly insane father had come to talk to him about. "Right here, dad."
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:08 pm
Issy's bright eyes swiveled around at the sound of the voice, and finally the brute turned around, realizing that at some point he had walked right past his bright son. "Ah, there you are, I didn't see you." Well, he supposed he'd at least be decent at hiding if anything were to ever happen to him.
The only concern Issy really had was the fact that Dior looked.. well, he looked deeply depressed. He recognized himself in the younger lion and that was nothing to be taken lightly. He almost began to rethink his decision, but the thoughts of Emba in his head were too strong to ignore. He had to find her, and the only way he was going to do that was if he left the pride and went searching.
"I need to talk to you about something," he said, sitting down slowly and motioning with a paw that he wanted Dior to do the same.
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:14 pm
A light sigh escape his maw as his father motioned for him to sit down, his tail flicking lightly behind him. He had just been sitting down, hadn't he? Why did he go through all the damn trouble of getting up if his dad was just going to make him sit down again? The motioning of his paw was pretty irritating besides that - it was just like his father to go and make some dramatic to-do over something that was probably nothing.
"Alright," he said with a bit of an eyeroll, sitting down slowly at his father's side and glancing at him with those deep, brown eyes. "What is it?" he asked, not particularly one that liked to beat around the bush about anything. Maybe his father was just going to finally tell him that he thought mom was dead - it certainly looked like Issy had taken up until quite recently to grasp onto the fact that she was gone and wasn't coming back. Dior wasn't heartless, just one to see the facts, and his father.. well, his father wasn't.
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:26 pm
Issy frowned lightly at Dior's antics, wondering if perhaps this attitude of his had something to do with his mother's disappearance. If so, well, the sooner he found her the sooner he could go back to being good old Dior, right?
"Look, I know it's been really hard since your mother was lost, how you and your brother and sisters have been so worried," he began, setting his face to stone, his eyes grave. It was a saddened, paler version of Isithunzi that sat there talking to his son, that was for certain. "I know that things haven't been so great, that I haven't been around for you guys as much as I should have been because I was too caught up grieving."
He could never really apologize for not being there to support his cubs enough, but he had always thought they had been old enough by the time she had disappeared that they didn't need him so much. They didn't any really seem to blame him, but Dior.. he thought Dior might be in trouble. He was on a hard, long road if he didn't change.
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:28 pm
Goddess, but Dior wanted to scream out loud! Why couldn't his father ever just get to the bloody point? He had to draw things out, make them dramatic, fill his words with meaningless things meant to keep the harsh truth from coming out. He really wished that his father would just hurry this conversation along because, frankly, Dior didn't really want to be sitting right here having it.
"It's alright, Dad," he managed, even provoking a smile for his old man. It wasn't that he didn't love him, not at all, it was just that the way he did things grated his everlasting nerve, especially since mother was gone and he had only gotten worse about it. "Just so long as you've come to terms with the fact that she's gone, then we can start to move on and become a family again. A little broken maybe, but we're still here for each other, aren't we?"
Oh, but how could he know that he was so far off the mark of what his father's intentions were?
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:35 pm
Issy had simply been bobbing his head along to Dior's words, thinking that he had changed his tune and wasn't going to be so sore about what he was about to tell him. Then he actually heard what was coming out of Dior's mouth in that oh-so-cooperative tone. Once he heard it, he couldn't believe his ears. Had his son actually given up hope on his mother that quickly? Had Dior actually convinced himself that Emba could possibly just be gone? That's what it sounded like!
"Dior, what are you saying!" he exclaimed, fear and anger rolling into his voice all at once, though he didn't exactly mean to direct them at his son. His eyes were widened, settling into a shocked expression that was echoed across the mask of his face. He sat up straighter, leaning back and away from his son slightly as if he were repulsed by what he was saying.
"I came here to tell you that I'm going out to find her, that I'm leaving the Mteo to go find your mother, not that I've finally given up hope!" He was still talking too loudly, and he was still having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that his very own son would give up hope so fast. Maybe Dior was less like him than he thought.
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:46 pm
For a moment, Dior simply stared at his father as if he didn't quite believe him. For a moment, he was sure that he must have been hearing things. He had been so convinced that the sudden change in his father's attitude over the past few days had been acceptance, finally, after all this time when in reality it was really just that he had made up his mind to leave. He couldn't believe his ears!
"Am I really hearing this?" he exclaimed, countering his fathers loud words with his own as he pushed himself to his feet. He towered over his father where he stood, pale mane shaking around his face as he moved. "You're going to ruin our already broken family by leaving us here? You're going to go out on an impossible hunt to find our mother when she's probably long gone by now?" If the situation hadn't been so deeply painful, he probably would have laughed at his misinterpretations.
He turned his back on his father, staring down at his paws, his head shaking in complete and utter disbelief. Sometimes, he wondered how he put his faith in this lion at all.
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:53 pm
Shock spread through the older lion at his son's reaction, though at this point he wondered why he was even surprised at all. Dior seemed to have made up his decision on this subject already.
As Dior stood, especially when he yelled, Issy too pushed himself to his feet to put himself back on more equal footing with his son. In fact, when standing, Issy was taller than his golden boy. His green eyes found the brown, boring into them with a passion he couldn't hide. "I'm not ruining our family, Dior!" His voice was elevated now, beyond a talking level, and it was surprise he was even managing to sound rational. "I'm going to fix it, do you hear me? I'm going to bring her back so that we can be a family again!"
As Dior turned his back on him, he clenched his jaws shut tightly, letting his eyes fall to the ground. "Your sister is coming with me," he said softly, "you could come to, you know. We could go as a family."
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:02 pm
He couldn't help it, he honestly couldn't help it. As soon as his father spoke again, he began to laugh. He laughed, and he laughed. It was a cold sound, not full of mirth by any means, the sort of laughter that one associates with someone at their breaking point. Perhaps his mother's loss had affected him more than he had given it credit for, perhaps it was still affecting him despite his best attempts to say otherwise.
"You're hopeless," he said, finally, the laughter tainting his voice despite the fact that he had more or less controlled it at this point. He turned around to look at his father, but only partially, so that he still had to look somewhat over his shoulder at him. "You've filled your head with dreams and hopes of things that won't ever happen, because you'll never find her. She was weak when you found her, she was weak when she raised us, and it's a silly thing to think that she could survive out there on her own." Oh, it was hurtful, he knew it was hurtful, but he wanted to put some sense into his father's head.
"And now you're filling Usa's head with silly ideas and dreams, too," he whispered, a frown on his maw at the thought of his sister being swept up into this. "I won't go, and I won't be here when you finally give up and come back."
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:06 pm
With each word, each sentence, the pain in Issy's heart spread further and further. He felt it deeper, felt it stronger. How on earth could his own flesh and blood be saying something like this to him? Did Dior care so little about his mother that he'd ask his father not to go and search for her? No, no. He was convinced that something else was wrong, that something else was bothering him. His own son could not be this way.
"Dior, you don't know what you're saying. There is always hope, this isn't just a silly dream," he began, trying to find some way to convince his son that this was right, that this is what he had to do. "I need to go and find her. I've done it before, I was there to save her, and I'll do it again," he wasn't going to give up, not on finding Emba, and not on making his son see that this was the right thing to do by her.
"Please, Dior, just come with us?" His family was already so broken, to lose Dior to would be.. it would be more pain.
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:22 pm
It would have been so easy, so very easy to just put aside everything he had convinced himself of at this point and instead picked up the beliefs of his father. It would have been so easy to just say no to his hard kept composure, because hope was such an easy thing to get swept up in, it truly was. Instead, he steeled himself against his father's words, and shook his head fiercely.
"No, father, I'm afraid that this is where our fates part ways," he said, his tail lashing behind him as he fought to control his words. He would not yell, his last words to his father, he was determined, would not be anything said out of anger or rage.
"I hope you realize that this is a fruitless quest soon, rather than waste your time," he said with a deep frown, his head turning away with the rest of his body as he began to trot off to.. well, who knew? He was leaving the Mteo, right now, to head off to a bigger, unknown world. "Keep Usa safe." That was it, he wouldn't turn back again.
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:25 pm
"No, Dior wait!" he called after his son, even going so far as to take a few steps after him. However, he quickly realized that Dior wasn't going to acknowledge him anymore, he might as well have been a ghost for all that his son cared right at that moment.
What had he done to push him away? What had he done to make his son become so estranged to him? He honestly had no idea, but he hoped that one day Dior woke up and realized that he belonged with his family, and that he would come back home. He was sure he would find Emba out there, and she would be waiting with them right here for the day that Dior came home.
Now, however, he was going to return to Usa and head out with her, into the great beyond, to find a long-lost mate and mother and bring her back home safely. She was out there, he knew it.
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