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 Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:42 pm
 She was cleaning her paws after eating. The meal had been one of those by chance kind of things, since the rabbit had unexpectedly hopped around nearby, and since she was feeling rather snacky anyway, it just fit to go ahead and hunt.
Now feeling rather full and pleased with herself, Nesrine took care of the remains. The bones she left where they were, along with the rest of the mess she had made while eating. But the blood on her paws needed to be gone by the time she returned home. Mother and Father didn't need to see that; neither wanted to realize with good logic that their little girls were growing up fast.
It must be a parent thing, because Nessie couldn't wait until she was an adult so she could go out and explore.
She would find out all about her Father's mysterious past, somehow, and she would fix it. He always seemed so forlorn and torn when he mentioned something that pertained to the past, something that she asked about and his eyes became sad. She would learn, and then she would help him.
For now, however, she had to be content to simply wait a little while longer until she and her sisters grew up to their adult forms, and then they were free to go as they wished. Nessie would, of course, return home as often as possible; she loved her parents like every cub should. But not as often as she probably would have liked, and definitely not as often as her parents would like.
She put her right paw down and started cleaning the left one, her tail twitching softly side to side..
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:45 pm
 As a cub, the idea of his pilgrimage had always been something exciting. He had looked forward to the chance to leave the swamplands and explore the world beyond his muddy, murky, wet home. As he grew closer and closer to the age where he would seek out his true name in the world beyond, he grew more and more anxious. Then, the disaster happened.
Mere days before he was supposed to leave, his mother died. Suddenly, his pilgrimage became a trip to hell, tearing him away from everything and everyone he knew in his time of morning, but rituals must be upheld. At his brother's request, he left as all adolescents must.
Thus far, life had not been kind to him. He was in mourning, finding little happiness in things he had once looked forward to. He wandered aimlessly, hunted only when the pain in his stomach became too much to ignore. He was losing weight, becoming scruffy, and his growing mane was tangled from a lack of grooming. He knew that at this rate, he would never find his true name, he would never be able to return home, but he couldn't find it in himself to heal and move on - not when he was thrust away from everything he knew so quickly after it all happened.
He was currently walking across the open ground, his head down and staring at the dry, golden grass as he passed. His tail hung limp behind him, his paws moving almost of their own accord, and his head a tangle of thoughts mostly centered on self pity. It was only the scent of her that alerted him - and only in time for him to whip his head up and stop just short of her personal space.
"I, uh, sorry," he muttered, averting his eyes and hesitating before he began to head off in another direction, one that would take him away from where she was. He often passed others out in his travels, but he never bothered to stop and talk to any of them of his own accord.
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:09 am
Nesrine had to do a double-take for one moment, there wasn't a lion there, and yet the next, he had almost barreled right into her. She blinked and reared her upper half back instinctively, in surprise, but nodded at his apology.
"It's fine. It would help, though, to have your head up instead of down. There's only so much you can watch on the ground that can hint to where the rest of you is going," she offered with a smile. The little lioness was ready for a conversation, and then he just left.
She blinked in surprise and shock. Was he just being rude on purpose? Didn't you know that when you met someone new you needed to introduce yourself and all that? Nessie had been raised with many formalities instilled in her.
The brown lioness stood and walked quickly to catch up with the male, then padded along beside him. Not too close, as he had almost been to her, but close enough to hold a conversation should he choose to be more polite this time.
"I'm Nesrine," she said after a moment, deciding to take the first step.
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 10:32 am
It wasn't that he was rude by nature, or that he had ever been rude before he'd been shoved out of his pride and on his own at such a fragile point in his life, it was just that he was detached. Detached from the world, from the need to make friends, from nearly everything that would have given him joy before the misfortune of his mother's death.
He had only nodded at her advice before turning away, and given his general detachment, he only assumed she'd think him a jerk and let him walk away. Imagine his surprise when there she was, suddenly strutting along at his side. He'd never had anyone be that bold, not in the swamps, and certainly not out here in the roguelands. For a moment he tripped up as he turned to look at her, his feet scuffing on the ground as his attention reverted to her all at once.
"Uh, I'm.. Aatami." His brows furrowed at her, his tail whipping behind him, before his pace picked back up and he looked away. Was she planning on following him? It made him nervous, uncomfortable, for a stranger to attach herself to him so suddenly. He chanced a shy glance at her sideways, and hesitated before he finally spoke again. "Look, I'm sorry I almost ran into you." That had to be what she wanted, right? There was no other reason to bother him, was there?
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:14 pm
Of course, Nessie had no idea why this lion was acting the way he was. Or if this was normal behavior for him. Either way, grumpiness and such was not an excuse for impoliteness, in her mind. Call it a pet peeve, if you will, but she always made it a point to be kind to strangers no matter what.
Which is why she smiled and nodded at him again, easily keeping pace with him. "Nice to meet you, Aatami! Where are you from? Where are you headed?" He seemed to have a place to go in mind, which must be why he didn't stop and talk to her.
Maybe it was an emergency, or something. Someone was hurt? He had a mission to accomplish?
"Are you in a pride?" she added that question to her little interrogation, intent on learning all that she could from this lion. Maybe if he was in a pride that wasn't too far away, she could visit it once she left home. What a surprise that would be! She giggled at the thought.
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Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:17 pm
He frowned as he looked sideways at her, wondering how much longer she was planning to walk along beside him. How antisocial did he have to be before she realized he didn't want to talk? Then, he sighed, because her questions started to pour out and he knew deep down that even though he didn't want to talk, he didn't have it in him to be blatantly rude and ignore her. His mother would be severely disappointed in him for doing something like that to a perfectly nice girl.
"I was in a pride, I mean I am.. or I will be, once I'm done with what I have to do," his brows knit a little as he tripped over his words to describe his odd relationship with the pride he'd been born in. "I belong to a pride, but at the moment, I'm on a pilgrimage." He let his tail flicker as he looked away from her, sighing beneath his breath. "I don't know where I'm headed, though." Funny thing, that. On a pilgrimage for the most important thing in his life, and he had no idea where to start looking for it. It probably wouldn't make anymore sense to her either.
"My pride is back that way," he motioned behind him with a jerk of his head, "I've been heading this way for days, weeks, I lose count." There, he'd told her what she wanted to know. Somehow, he didn't think it was going to make her leave him alone though.
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Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 3:27 pm
Sure enough, the answers to her questions only made her more curious. And she wasn't really one to leave before those were answered, so she kept on padding along beside him.
"A pilgrimage? To what? How can you find it if you don't where you're going or where it is?" That seemed like a silly thing to do, but maybe it was part of the pride. "Are you doing it because of your pride? What is it for?" Nessie didn't know too much about many of the prides that were around, or even far away.
She wasn't in one, of course. Her father used to be, but he didn't talk too much about it. At all.
So Nesrine didn't know much about prides other than that they were usually a close-knit group (although some had lots of lions) that worked together. Instead of a family (like hers) just living on their own in the middle of the savannah.
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Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:39 am
Her string of questions made his brow furrow, finding that he really couldn't get a word in edge wise. He couldn't answer a solitary question before she was hounding him with another, and it was all very tiring. So much so, in fact, that he stopped walking and turned to look at her instead. There was no way he was going to be able to keep walking and have this kind of conversation with her at the same time, and since he wasn't really the kind of male to be outright rude on purpose, he chose to stop and talk instead.
"It's not a pilgrimage to anywhere," he said with a sigh, shaking his head as he spoke, "that's why I don't know where it is. It's.." He trailed off, frowning, not sure how much of this he should explain to an outsider. Would she laugh at him for his beliefs? She seemed genuinely curious, though. "It's part of pride tradition. We leave when we hit adolescence to go in search of our true name, but it's in a different place for everyone. Sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes years."
He frowned at her for a moment, looking back the way they had come, then to her again. "Does that make sense?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 1:12 pm
It surprised her when he stopped, but she did as well. Her easy-going smile was still on her face and she stood in front of him, head tilted slightly to the side as she quietly awaited the answers to her questions.
She thought a bit more about his answer. "So you leave home when you're old enough in search of your true name," Nesrine repeated slowly, thinking through the whole idea. So did that mean that the names they had as cubs weren't really their names? Maybe nicknames. That made more sense. Nicknames because they didn't have a real name yet.
Although it sounded a bit awkward to live like that, she accepted it.
"Is it just your pride that does that? That sends you out to find your real name?" It was a curious feeling to think that the name she had now could very well be just a nickname. Not her true name.
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Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:54 pm
"Yes, when we're old enough, we leave home and go out into the rogue world without anyone or anything we've ever known, to search for our true name," he said with a sigh, his eyes looking up at the horizon. "Even if we have no bloody idea where we're supposed to find it and all we want to do is go home to our family." His last words sounded extremely irritated, though not really at her - just the situation in general. If it had been any other time, any other time, this whole pilgrimage would have been a beautiful opportunity. Damn spirits and their timing.
"I guess so?" he said, turning his gaze back to her with a jerk of his head. "We don't really mingle with other prides, so I wouldn't know if any others did this." He shrugged his shoulders and a small frown started to form over his maw. "But it's the Queen that sends us out, when it's time. Or King now, I guess." He was silent a moment after he said that, his eyes taking on a far away look as he let them slide down to the ground and stare at his dusty paws.
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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 4:49 pm
She giggled at his irritation, or what slipped out and made known to her. Nesrine would have loved such a journey, but at the same time, being away from home for so long didn't seem like a good idea. Just like he said. And who knew how long it would take for her to find her real name. Or him; after all, he'd been out far longer than she could imagine and so far he hadn't found his real name yet.
It was...disheartening, but she felt that she needed to encourage him on a bit. "You can do it," she said with a grin. "I couldn't, but I know you can." Even if she didn't know him. She felt like he would be just fine.
"What's your pride like?" she added after a moment, instead of continuing to question him about his 'true name' quest or journey or whatever it was. He had to be tired. He sounded tired. He looked tired.
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:10 am
He frowned up at her as she suddenly displayed that random faith in him, someone she had only just met and knew next to nothing about. With a sigh, he sat down slowly, suddenly realizing just how weary he did feel. It was funny how one could go for days on end, and only realize that every part of the body had been exhausted when one stopped to take a breath. He should have taken a rest long, long before this.
"I'm glad someone has faith in me, I guess. I'm not sure I'll ever find it." Not believing in himself probably had more to do with the fruitlessness of his search than anything - it certainly wouldn't look good to the spirits at least.
"My pride?" he asked, glancing back up at her with a confused look. Was she really this curious about a total stranger? Was she like this every time she saw someone random? "Well, I live in the swamps, where the spirits lurk." He sounded like a fool, telling her these things. Not because he thought they were silly, but because they were just so common to him, such basic parts of reality, that repeating them was like telling her how the sun turned.
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:43 pm
She remained standing, her smile gentling out as he sat down with a weary sigh. Nessie just happened to realize what her bounding, endless energy must have seemed to him: exhausting. So she was trying to tone it down a little bit, intent on making a simple conversation instead of her the only one asking questions and him giving answers.
Although for the most part, it hadn't changed much.
"You will!" she nodded again, with the very faith he mentioned. "Everyone can. It just takes some longer than others." What did she know about this? She didn't. She was just trying to make him feel better.
Nesrine frowned in confusion. "Spirits?" she repeated. "What spirits?" If spirits (whatever they were) lived in a swamp, wouldn't they get stuck in the mud an awful lot? She would. She didn't really like the mud, but it helped to cool her off it was a particularly hot day outside. Her parents hadn't really told her much about other prides, just that Father came from one, Mother came from another, and once both had left they had met each other and it was all history.
"My mother used to live in the pridelands," she added. "I've never been there, but she looks a lot different than some of the other females I've seen. She doesn't have a lot of hair on her head, like me." Nessie flipped her head up at her words, feeling the hair tuft bounce at the jostling.
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Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:57 pm
He quirked a brow at her and stared up at her from where he was sitting, shifting his paws as she assured him that he could do it. How on earth did she know that everyone could? The way she was speaking sounded like she was almost familiar with the pilgrimage, when he knew she wasn't. It was confusing him, and for the first time, he began to wonder if this girl was perhaps part of his naming quest.
"Ahh.. spirits." He frowned and flicked his tail, trying to think of a way to explain this to an outsider. "Spirits are in everything. They cause the wind to blow, the flames to dance, the grass to grow.." he trailed off and shrugged. Their belief was often time an odd one to outsiders, especially when they admitted to also believing in gods. He didn't understand why it was so hard to grasp, but he had seen more than one frown at the idea in confusion.
"I've never been to the pridelands, but I've heard of it from some of the older members, or the new rogues that joined," he shrugged again and looked up at her. He thought he'd seen at least one lioness like she'd described - without the fluffy hair atop their heads.
"So uhm," he frowned, rubbing his paw at the dirt, trying to think of a way to be more sociable, "do you just live in the rogue lands then?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:18 pm
Nessie cocked her head to one side and gave the confused frown, sure enough, like he usually got. She didn't know that but what else could she do? The whole concept of 'spirits' being in...well, everything, was pretty new to her.
"So...there are spirits in the sun, too? The water? The plants? Earth itself? Do they each have...little jobs, too?" What if spirits could be thought of as like, little organisms? Little creatures? Ones that helped do their little job to make whatever thing they lived in (a plant, the sun, etc) work?
"I'd love to see your pride, one day!" she added excitedly. "It sounds so interesting. I've never heard of some of the things you've told me." And she wanted to explore outside her home, too, after all.
The lioness nodded at his question. "Yep! Lived all my life out here. I like it. We're not very close to other family members, but it's still nice to have a good place to ourselves. I do want to see other parts of the world, though."
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