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 Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:48 pm
Just when she was finally getting used to not being by herself all the time, her best friend decided to go off on her own to do something; something without her. Omoa had seemed excited about whatever she had thought up, so Ithemba was excited about it too. But it still left the adolescent alone. However, she was used to it. At least, she had been.
Ever since Omoa had shown up again, the two had gotten to know each other better. Ithemba was beginning to feel like they were similar to sisters. It was a good feeling. The only other female Ithemba ever really confided with was her own mother, but that wasn't the same as a close female friend.
And so Ithemba was left alone for a while, huddled beneath her favorite tree, paws busily working in gooey, wet clay. It was smeared on her paws and forelegs, and some was clinging to her cheek. She never payed much attention to when she got dirty with clay, though. She was always too busy having fun making things to notice her outer appearance, much less care about it.
Tail swaying slowly behind her where she lay on her stomach, the lioness hummed a child-like song as she worked with the clay, subconsciously wishing for someone to talk to.
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Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 8:50 pm
It just wasn't right. Although Msiba padded along with an air of nochalance and indifference, he almost fuming inside. Almost being the operative word, because he could never truly be angry with Mchawi. After all, she was and always had been the single most important thing in his life, and if he was angry with her as well, then he would have nothing in this world.
Still, it didn't quite feel right. After all they had been through, the two of them, she left him to find the relatives of some stupid bird that was dead and gone. Good riddance too, if he had anything to say about it, but obviously that was not the case with Mchawi. But he had chosen to let go. Let go of those who had lived and gone, because that was all there was to it. Once life was over, it was over, and remembering them didn't bring them back or do any good.
Despite his disapproval, though, he had little choice but to simply hang about the area and wait. Wait for Mchawi to come back, because she was his anchor in everything he did, and he needed her.
He paused, drawn from his thoughts by the sight of a young lioness crouched beneath a tree. A curious frown furrowed his brow as he took a closer look. Yes, there she was, lying there fiddling with something in her paws. He tilted his head. What was that? Mud? She had it smeared all over her coat and didn't seem to give it any thought, and she seemed utterly focused on what she was doing.
Hm. That was cute.
He wandered closer.
And a pretty girl, too. Now, that was an opportunity he wasn't about to let up. Besides, if Mchawi was going to leave him on his own, he might as well have some fun in his time alone.
"Why, hello there," he greeted her as he neared.
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:30 pm
Ithemba started, springing to her feet and whirring around to face whoever had greeted her. She slipped in the slick clay, gasping as her legs locked for a moment to catch herself. By this point, Ithemba's heart was racing with surprise and complete and utter embarrassment. That was what happened when she focused on her clay too long. Then her brother would make fun of her, and her father would glare. And she would feel stupid; just like they thought she was.
Finally recovering, she looked to the one who had called out to her.
"Who are you?" she said breathlessly, very unused to strangers in her father's homeland, and unaccustomed to greeting them politely, though she was a well-mannered lioness. But she realized her greeting folly and cleared her throat, pausing a moment to catch her startled breath.
Before she uttered another sound, her eyes locked with his.
She'd never seen such eyes before. They were...Indescribable.
Blue...
"...Hello," Ithemba said quietly, her expression almost bewildered. But she covered it quickly, raising her shoulders and head. It was just a lion, after all. Just a male lion. And her family wasn't that far away. If she was in danger, they would come for her.
...Wouldn't they...?
Ithemba swallowed dryly and silently wished Omoa would return soon. She wasn't good with...Well, males.
Let alone handsome ones.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:01 am
Ooh, well that was just perfect. Confusion was always very helpful to Msiba's cause. He himself never got confused, obviously, but whenever he sensed it in a lioness, he knew it would only make his life easier. After all, it was difficult to make the right decision when the mind was clouded and uncertain. Much more so, in any case, than it was when everything made sense.
In his experience, that was. But regardless, it didn't play an overly large part in his grand scheme. It was helpful, but it wasn't necessary. And besides, he seemed to have a knack for choosing the right girls. He was a blessed creature indeed.
She seemed tense, he realized, and instantly, he relaxed and sat down, all the more to seem friendly and absolutely harmless, just in case there was anyone nearby. He might have been a good enough fighter, but he wasn't spoiling for bloodshed, and it was better to keep things clean. Better for him.
"My name is Msiba," he said, in answer to her question. He had abandoned the idea of coming up with a different name in favor of the truth. It was just so much more convincing, and even though he was sure he could have made a lie sound just like the truth, sometimes authenticity did pay off. Well, it always paid off. The trick was to tell the truth while lying. It was a difficult art to master, but he had a handle on that one.
"I was just passing through the area, and I couldn't help but notice what you were doing. Something about the joy that seemed to surround you made me stop, it was a wondrous sight, it really was." He let the smile filter into his marine blue eyes and across his face. It was important to look genuine, even when he wasn't completely. So she couldn't see through the act.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:15 pm
Ithemba's heart skipped a beat and her eyes wavered over the male's smiling face. She was unused to males; unused to their charm, their wit, their boyish faces and strangely alluring manes. Yes, there were more males in her family than there were females, but she was used to them. They were family. They were not strangers. They were not...Not...Potential...
Ithemba lowered her gaze to her dirtied paws, somehow no longer daring to stare the male in the eyes. And as she did so, she was aware for the first time of the clay smeared on her paws. She felt unclean; not pretty. Didn't males like pretty females? What did this one think of her?
Mind racing with strange, unfamiliar thoughts, Ithemba chanced a glance at the male, musing over his name. She swallowed, feeling more at ease that he was sitting, seeming nonthreatening.
Mulling over the current situation for a bit, and thinking of what to say next, Ithemba knew she was probably appearing to be slow just like most people thought she was. So, ears perking, the adolescent cleared her throat and introduced herself.
"Hello, Msiba. My name is Ithemba." she said, her tone surprisingly soft for a lioness of rather large stature. Which was just one more thing to be self-conscious about in front of the male...
"I was just..." she murmured, glancing over her shoulder at her deformed, unfinished clay creations. She was afraid of being looked at as stupid and childish, but from what the male said, it almost sounded as if he didn't mind her playing with clay. He almost sounded as if he enjoyed it. What did that mean?
"I was just making things," she explained simply enough, her smile somehow apologetic-looking. Then her mind locked-down and began thinking up something else to say. What to say next? Shouldn't she explain herself more; where they were, what she was doing?
Why was she getting so flustered?!
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Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:49 am
He waited patiently as she drifted into silence, and her gaze shifted from him to her clay-smeared paws. A ponderous look had crossed over her face, one that told him she was thinking. Of what, he wasn't sure. Perhaps it was for a way to get out of staying and talking to him, or an excuse to get back to her activities.
Then, after such a long while that it almost seemed out of the blue, her ears perked and she launched into speech again. A small smile flitted across his face at the sudden gesture. Well, that was endearing.
"Ithemba," he echoed softly as his eyes took in her features. The bewildered eyes, the mask, the bands patterned into her coat. She was larger than he would have expected an adolescent lioness to be, but given that he had never spent all too much time with them except as an adolescent with Mchawi, he wasn't too surprised.
"Making things?" He glanced down at the ground, at what he had first thought was mud. It wasn't quite the same as mud. It seemed to glue together nicely and it was certainly more compact than mud, if she had been using it to make things. Clay, then, perhaps. He leaned closer for a better look. Yes, clay.
He straightened up, a look of interest on his face. "That's definitely an interesting thing to be doing," he mused. "Making things from clay, it's such a creative way to express your feelings and thoughts. You looked like you were having the time of your life."
His eyes shone with approval for her artistry. "But tell me, what happens to these little figures you were making, once they've been... perfected?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:04 am
Ithemba's ears flattened when the male said her name. She almost felt sad at the sound of it. It was a soft, kind voice. The only one who ever really called her by her name was her mother, and her best friend used her nickname "Ithie". The rest of the family merely addressed her as, "Hey, you" and "girl".
Who was this male; this Msiba? Ithemba found herself being pulled in, questioning everything about him, and wanting to know the answers to those questions. Where had he come from? Why was he there? Why was he speaking with her? Why did he take an interest in what she was doing?
The adolescent was cautious by nature, and by upbringing. She couldn't believe someone had taken an interest in what she was doing. Her artistic side was all but snuffed out by her disapproving family. How could this male be intrigued? She was confused. But at the same time, she was relieved that there was someone whom she could potentially befriend. Because one of the things about Ithemba that she never let anyone know, not even herself, was that she was very, very lonely most of the time.
But perhaps that fact would lead to her demise.
Clearing her throat softly, olive eyes looking down at her unfinished figures, she thought about the male's words for a few moments and summed up an answer. "I put them out in the sun to harden," Ithemba explained, still looking at her figurines, as if checking them for flaws while she spoke; or perhaps she was merely avoiding Msiba's blue eyes. "And then sometimes, uhh..." her mind blanked and her eyes widened, not wanting to look stupid. She felt that she was under so much pressure, and it was not aiding her "smartness factor". She shook her head violently and lashed her tail, collecting her thoughts.
"I put most of the ones I make in the hollow of this tree," She glanced back to it, and then back at the male, catching his gaze. Her stomach did a flip-flop, and she ground her teeth, angry with herself for getting so flustered. But could she help it? No. She had practically no experience with males unrelated to her. "Most of them, I put in there, but s--" she stopped herself short, not wanting to air dirty laundry. It would've been too embarrassing for her if the male found out her brothers picked on her and hated her clay creations, breaking them whenever they got the chance...
Was she...Talking too much about herself? Maybe she should've asked Msiba something about himself? Was she being rude? Ughhhh...Her stomach...
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Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:17 am
She wouldn't be so easy to convince. Not as easy as he had prevoiusly thought, that was. But by watching the way she reacted to him, it wasn't difficult to tell she was cautious. She might require some extra effort.
As usual, his lazy, uncommitted self surfaced. Was it really worth it? He turned the thought over in his mind, contemplating it while Ithemba came up with an answer to his question. Perhaps it would be more worth his time to simply move on and keep searching for ways to entertain himself while Mchawi wasn't around.
Then again, they had been in the area for a while now, and they hadn't met all too many lions coming or going. That could easily have been their own bad luck - that was what you got when you purposely went out to find seers - but it still didn't sasy much about the population of the territory. There weren't that many lions around, and he wasn't about to go snooping about for a cheetah or a leopard.
The thought made him cringe mentally. A cheetah or a leopard indeed. If he hadn't been in the middle of a conversation with Ithemba, he might have scoffed and shook his head. Foul, barbaric little creatures those. Still, he knew that if the opportunity came along, he would be hard pressed to let up.
The young lioness's words drew him out of his thoughts, and immediately he returned to the present. His dark eyes dropped do the half finished figures of clay, staring at them contemplatively as Ithemba told him what happened to the finished products.
He glanced up, ears pricked interestedly at the mention of the tree, and he held the gaze that caught between them for a moment. "That's a smart place to put them," he said with a small nod, mind turning as he did his best to read between the lines. He wasn't too bad at doing that. Even though he preferred to leave any scheming up to his sister, he had been with his fair share of lionesses, and in order to do something like that, a sharp mind was required. At least, it made life much easier, and knowing how to fill in the blanks for himself more often than not served to help him even more. "To keep them safe from... harm, maybe?" He watched for a reaction that would tell him whether or not he had gotten it right.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 6:28 am
Ithemba's heart felt lodged in her throat.
Did he just say..."Smart" while referring to her? That was...impossible. No one had ever said that. And then...
Her face blanked out, mouth open as she stared at Msiba.
How could he have guessed right? She did keep them there to protect them from her brothers. She hadn't said--well, not really. She'd--...
Swallowing, she bowed her head, not wanting to meet his eyes again. She tried to cover up her emotions; tried to mask what she was feeling. It was hard, though. No one had ever talked about her personal life before. She was used to being shut up. For someone to draw out her thoughts was...Strange. But...
She didn't dislike it.
However, that frightened her. She wanted him to leave. But at the same time, she desperately wanted him to stay.
"Y..." she began, wanting to tell him he was right. But the word was cut short. She inclined her head, turning it away. Her claws scraped the ground nervously, eyes darting left and right. Great, now she was looking stupid again. But she had to stop and think. She had to think. What would she say next? What would he say next? Would it all fall to pieces because of her? Would he go away? Did he like her? Did she like him? She had to say something to fill the silence. She had to give some kind of answer.
She felt sick...
"Not everybody...Likes clay." she said quietly after a while. She hoped that answer was okay, and didn't make her seem stupid.
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 3:26 am
He could tell she was confused. She did a decent job of hiding her feelings, but it only took a split second for him to read confusion. It came under many guises, took many forms, and it was not difficult to recognize.
She had mixed feelings. What about, he didn't know, but he worried that it was something he had done. The quick bow of the head, the averted gaze. It was clear that she didn't want to dwell too much on the subject, but if she wanted to stop talking altogether, she didn't show it.
There was something about her that told him she wasn't like most lions that he had met before. There was an air of intrigue that surrounded her shy, self-conscious attitude.
It had to be something to do with the way her life was led. Msiba prided himself on being an observer. He watched, he noticed, he analyzed, and he reached conclusions that otherwise would have remained hidden. What he saw in Ithemba, he imagined had to have stemmed from something that influenced her night and day. What it could have been other than her lifestyle itself that might have molded her into the lioness she was now.
His eyes widened, concerned, as signs of anxiety began to surface in the young lioness. The fidgeting and the quick glances from side to side.
Much as he hated to admit it, Ithemba had a hook in him. He was intrigued by her very being, and though he had vowed long ago that he would never fall for anyone ever again, he still found himself interested and wanting to find out more from time to time. And Ithemba, she had a certain air about her that held his attention, left him wanting to know more.
"Hey," he said gently, seeing her bowed head and the gaze that flitted from here to there and landed everywhere but on him. "You're right, not everybody likes clay." He shifted closer, so he was next to her and close enough that he could almost hear her breathing. Almost, but not quite. He wanted to be closer, but not enough that he might crowd her. "Look," he added, dropping his voice even more now that he had shortened the distance between the two of them. "We don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to."
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 5:45 am
Relief flushed through Ithemba's face and she suddenly felt cool instead of hot. She sighed sharply, only to suck in a surprised breath at how unintentionally-loud said sigh had been. She twitched her ears, glancing away from Msiba in embarrassment.
But he hadn't laughed at her so far, right? He didn't think she was stupid. Why should she be embarrassed? She didn't know. Normally, she wasn't embarrassed about anything. She was used to her family treating her differently, and she was used to her brothers making fun of how cub-like she was to still be playing with clay. So she wasn't embarrassed about that. But for some reason, no matter what she did, she was walking on eggshells around Msiba, and she didn't know why. Her heart kept fluttering and she kept fidgeting so nervously...Why? She didn't understand. But no matter how uncomfortable she kept feeling...
She didn't want him to go away.
"Um..." she murmured, glancing up at him through her bangs. She was feeling a tad braver after he had shifted subjects and had been so understanding. He was kinder than he first seemed, not that she had any reason to doubt him. It was just in her nature to guess people's motives; their second faces. But it didn't seem like Msiba had one all of a sudden. Now it just seemed that he was...What was he...? A...friend?
Did she have another friend?
A small smile flickered across her maw, and Ithemba straightened a bit, feeling more comfortable.
"Yes," she said. "I don't want to...I don't want it...I'm talking too much about myself, maybe." she stammered, mentally scolding herself for loosing her cool again. Well, now would be a good time to talk about him. So she stood there silently for a few moments, debating what to ask. And she asked the question that was pulling at her mind the hardest.
"Are you from around here?" she asked hesitantly.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:16 pm
He saw the smile and knew that she was letting herself relax. That was good. It was important for her to trust him and see that he meant no harm. She was so cautious and withdrawn that otherwise there was clearly no way anything would get done.
"I'm not," he shook his head as he answered the question. "I'm from quite far away, actually. I was really just passing by with a friend, but now I've gone and lost her. It's unfortunate, but at least now I can stay around here for a little longer. I've actually come to quite like this place."
Actually, he had not come to like the place in question. He didn't exactly dislike it, but there was nothing especially attractive to him. Still, lies poured forth from him as if they were truths, and that was all part of the gift he had been given from birth. Lying was second nature to him, and where it might have taken another lion a while to think things through with a lie, he found it easy to simply let things come and figure them out afterwards.
He was good like that.
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Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 4:52 am
"Her"?
Ahh, he was...With a girl...Ha, of COURSE he was with a girl.
...But he said she was a "friend"; not anything else. Right?
What did it matter, anyway?!
Ithemba wet her lips and swallowed, and glanced up at Msiba. She felt a weird feeling of happiness when he said he'd come to like her homeland. She smiled, tail tuft twitching. She liked her homeland, too, and was happy to share it with someone. It was mostly a wide surrounding of savanna with a river not too far away, a watering hole about a mile off, and some great, big trees here and there. Her family's dens were located behind her in a wall of rocks, visible from where she stood, but quite far away. While she didn't enjoy most of her family, she did dearly love the place she'd grown up in...She couldn't imagine leaving.
Ithemba narrowed her eyes.
She had told a lie to herself...
Shaking off those chilling thoughts, she looked back to Msiba, smiling. She wanted to ask him something else, but was hesitant; frightened, almost, to ask, and even more frightened of the answer the male would give. But she had to ask...If she didn't, nothing would come of it; nothing could come from nothing. She had to tell herself that over and over again in order to push herself onward, in order to step out of her inner-safe haven.
"...So I'll...See you again?" she asked, heart rate escalating with each word that left her lips.
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Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 1:22 am
That was hard for her, what she had just done. He could tell. He didn't need to be a mind-reader to realize, and as it was, he wasn't too shabby at figuring out what was under the surface. It came with all the lies he told, all the roles he played - working his way into another's mindset wasn't anything of a challenge for him anymore. He had grown so used to tossing out old masks and donning new ones, assuming new personalities to suit whatever part he was to play, that it came as second nature to him.
And it told him that it was hard for her.
He was glad, then, that he didn't have to let her down. Even if it was for his own benefit, he was pleased that his answer would not send her back into the shell she was so cautiously trying to come out of. Because even if he didn't specifically care about her, he cared about what he affected in the world, and if - for once - that turned out to be something good, then he was fine with it.
"I'm sure you will," he assured her with a small smile. "But the thing is, I don't know how long I'll still be around here, and if we want to see each other again, it's probably best to do it soon. I'd really like that, in any case."
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:50 am
His face, his smile, his tone, his words.
Ithemba's heart leapt to her throat and she felt a flush of heat to her face, eyes widening, disbelieving his words at first.
She felt almost deaf. So many times she had questioned his words...Questioned if she had heard him correctly, or if he had meant what he said. She was suspicious by upbringing and nature, and she couldn't help that, but now she desperately wanted to believe this male; wanted to trust him. And so she did the unthinkable.
She let go.
And she let herself like him.
"You..." she started, ears flinching. But she cut off that word and started her sentence with another. "Tomorrow?" she asked quickly, blurting out the word, trying to mask her embarrassment. And then she smiled. And then she laughed, fidgeting her paws.
She felt so stupid. But along with that feeling where many other feelings; feelings she embraced for the first time. She felt light, happy and free. It was the first time she had ever had a "crush" before. Even though she didn't fully realize that that was what she had towards the male then, she did know that she regarded him in a different way than she did anyone else.
He was Msiba, her new friend. And maybe, something...more.
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