Makaa had decided to stay with his father. Kenna had told them what the goddess had said, and he knew, deep down, what his father would want to do. He was excited, but he kept it under control. He would get to go see a new land, meet the lioness his father deeply loved, and spend it with the one female he felt he could care about. Now all he needed to do was find her and tell her.
Zapa felt anxious. Kenna had come to them all, told them they would have to leave this place. At once she was excited, her youthful spirit thrilled to think of all the new things she'd get to see and friends she could make...but something about how her father had looked that night, how he'd lay awake rather than sleep with them...that worried her. He looked how Momma had before she'd gone...All evening he'd kept her and her siblings close, as if something very important were going to happen. Long past when he should have been asleep, a faint whispering had woken her. Her father was talking, whispering words of comfort to her and her sleeping siblings. And she had become afraid. Her father wasn't going with Kenna, she understood as much...but with a sickening jolt she realized that leaving the desert would mean abandoning her Sun-brother, were he still alive. That was why, early the next morning while the air was stil heavy and cool, she'd slipped out of the den. Makaa could help. Surely he'd go with her and Kenna and the rest, he'd help her find her brother.
Makaa sat on top of a dune just outside of his family's den. He turned at the sound of another and smiled a bit upon seeing that it was Zapa, greeting her only with that small expression. He couldn't wait to tell her of the great adventure they would have, traveling to another land and seeing what was beyond the sands. And it would be more time to spend with her. Much as he hated to do it, he really did care for her and he didn't... think he felt weak for admitting that to himself. Maybe he had been wrong.
Zapa couldn't help but brighten a bit at the sight of Makaa waiting. It was almost like he'd known she was coming to talk to him. Any other day his small token of affection owuld have sent her running to him, but today she only returned his smile with one of her own. Knowing her family had given up on her brother, were leaving without him, and soon enough without her was a sobering moment, and one not even she could overcome with laughs and grins alone. Still, she would have Makaa, and she had long begun to realize that she treasured him just as much as her siblings, if not more in a way. "Makaa..." She reached him and butted her head to his, taking comfort in the contact. "Can you believe it's really going to happen? The pride...that it won't be here any more?"
Makaa grinned as Zapa butted her head against his and he reached up, pawing a bit at her cheek.
"Not really, but I guess when I think about it, it was kinda bound to happen," he replied with a small shrug. He noticed something different in her manner, as if part of her was sad or worried, but he trusted her to tell him.
Zapa tugged at Makaa's ear playfully. He seemed to have taken it well. which calmed some of her woes. She'd been a bit afraid he'd be sad, or angry, having to leave this place they'd lived in, played in each day. She knew she'd miss some things, like the stones where they'd met, and the watering hole...But things were how they were. And now was as good a time as ever. "Makaa," She took a breath and went on. "My dad...isn't going to stay here. I don't know where he wants to go, but I think he's leaving the desert. We're all going..." Her smile faltered, and became a frown, one of concern and anger at her father, a very strange look on her usually happy face. "But he forgot my brother! I promised I'd go find him, and now that the pride's breaking up..." Her eyes met Makaa's full of hope and certainty. "I want to go with the others, to the other side. I think my brother might be there. And Makaa...I want you to go with me!"
Makaa chuckled at her tugging and frowned a bit at her statement about her family. She didn't seem to want to leave the sands. He was about to explain to her how it might be fun to leave the sands and see new places, especially if she came with him. He planned to go with his father to the Pridelands. He was curious about the place, and he thought about saying so. But, any happy or even pleasant thought in Makaa's mind was chased away by her last sentence.
"Go to the... Simo? Zapa, I can't leave my father..." he replied and his frown deepened further.
"And all the gods in all the lands couldn't get me to go there. I don't care what Kenna thinks, they're still traitors."
She'd known Makaa would resist leaving his father. There was little she could do to reassure him, other than offer that she was leaving her father too. "We can go back to your father after we go to the Simo, Makaa. I just need to see if my brother is there. I can't leave him out there alone, with strangers, or worse, no one..." She shuffled a bit, and lashed her tail. "We don't have to stay with them long, just long enough to see if he's there...if he is, we can save him and run. They'll be too busy dealing with all the others joining them to notice if we get away. And if he's not there we can go right away again...Please Makaa, I need your help!"
Makaa's temper started to rise. He wanted to care about Zapa, but she was asking of him the unthinkable. She KNEW his feelings about the Simo and she was asking... He grit his teeth as his anger rose.
"No, Zapa! I won't leave my father and I'll NEVER go to the Simo. Nothing you say can change my mind about that," he growled back at her. What was the matter with her family?? First they let her run around all on her own and then her father just leaves her brother... Wherever! Why did it have to be Zapa, the only one of them that he even remotely cared about, why did it have to be HER that cared so damned much??
Zapa knew by now the signs that Makaa was angry, but for once she wasn't backing off. This was important to her, just as important as Makaa's father could be to him. Her fur bristled and stood on end, and a growl ran through her, from her toes to her bared teeth. "Why not? What's so wrong with just going to see? I said we didn't have to stay, is it that you're scared, or that my brother doesn't matter enough to you? I guess if you just don't care then I can go by myself!" She was nearly shouting now, and she backed up a step, angry and more, hurt that the one person she'd thought she could count on was abandoning her. He knew how she felt about her brother, she'd told him before. So why, after all the comfort he'd given her, was he leaving her now? Maybe he wasn't the friend, the lion she'd thought he was.
Makaa was too angry to really explain it to her. His mother was dead, no like Zapa's. His mother died from being old. His father was old. If he left for even a little bit of time, he may not see his father again. And he downright refused to ever set paw in the Simo's lands. In his mind, it was a tainted place he never wanted to go to. Couldn't Zapa see that? His fur bristled over her shots. But her last one was too much.
"I. Am. Afraid. Of. NOTHING!" he shouted back, claws digging into the sands.
Zapaliti pressed her ears back to her skull against Makaa's shouts. Her teeth bared and her muscles tensed. So he wasn't afraid. He must not just care then. That hurt her far more than she'd hoped it would, and it the pain made her anger burn stronger. To her there was no reason to avoid the Simo. Sure they were the other side, and had been their enemies, but they weren't now. And she needed to see if they had her brother. If Makaa was right, and they were as bad as all that, then he was in no uncertain terms condemning her brother to his fate among them. That was something she could not stand, especially from someone who claimed to want to be a great 'protector'. Puh. Some protector! She might have been sweet and gentle most days, but she was a firekin through and through, and before she could stop herself she lashed out, claws raking through the air mere hairs away from Makaa's face. With a pained look, she'd managed to divert her anger at the last moment. "Then why won't you help...?" She seethed, muscles still tense, her whole body throbbing with rage and frustration.
When her claws flashed past his face, Makaa's temper flared. His roar was still a young lion's, but it was a roar nonetheless, and his paw rose, ready to swipe at her, teach her to better control her tongue. And then he realized what he was about to do and a wave of shame washed over him. But he only allowed his anger to show as he shoved him paw back into the sand.
"Fine! Do whatever you want! I don't care!" he yelled at her before brushing past her angrily and stomped back towards the den. He really felt the need to trounce something, so maybe he would want to go somewhere else. Ali would just be a nuisance if he was still there.
Zapaliti cringed at the roar but held her ground until Makaa raised his paw in return. Her eyes pinched shut and she turned her head to the side, braced to feel the blow on the side of her face, and at least not head on...She remained frozen as the claws never came. Instead Makaa's words burned her to the core. She held firm when he shoved past, and remained as he stormed back the way he'd come. Her fire had extinguished when the fight had ended, and without its heat supporting her, she nearly crumpled into the sand as Makaa slipped out of sight. She wouldn't look back, she couldn't...Even if it hurt just as badly to know she'd lost him as it had to find out her mother had been taken.
Head low, she dragged herself home, though she diverted from her den at the last moment. They were leaving her too. Mother. Father. Her siblings. Now Makaa too...Terrified to find she was alone, she fled to a nearby stony outcropping and huddled beneath it. "Sun-brother..." She mewled. He was all she had left now, and not even that was certain.
