It had been a few days since Adaness’kali had met with Kanti, and had seen the pride from a member’s eyes. Since then, she hadn’t really taken the time to explore too much. After all, she didn’t want to overstep her boundaries and make a fool out of herself. Ignore someone, or insult someone, or something like that. Something that would make her life a living hell for as long as she stayed in this pride.That kind of something was not what she wanted, especially since she hoped to spend the rest of her days here in the jungle.
So today, Kali figured it would be alright to have a bigger look around the area. She had been sleeping under a smaller tree, the perfect size for her to curl up in and be sheltered from any storm or weather issues that could float by.
Her feet led her to the edge of the jungle that she had entered in before, when she had met Kanti and they had talked about many things. And Kanti had shared a ton of information Kali now found invaluable to her new life.
Soft paws ran the length of a tree limb in relaxation, of a kind anyway. The gentle blue eyes that opened beneath the powdery puff of white mane took in the surrounding jungle around her like globes that had long been asleep. Now that she was ready to leave and experience her life in the arms of the lion that had shown her she wasn't useless, Shusui wasn't suprised that she was feeling anxious and altogether unready.
Was anyone ever ready to leave their home, their mother and their pride?
To Shu it seemed that the world around her was changing, and most lions balked from change amidst their life and their pride, she was certain that her mother did anyway. Kawarimono was in every way a strong warrior lion, as was Melusine anymore.
Shusui was not, she was a gentle little maid that was meant to clean and do as she saw fit for those around her. Anyone that needed help she was there for and more.
A slow smile spread over her white muzzle. She would be there for Wakhakwi just like he was there for her. Now she had a reason to live for someone again.
Nodding her head, the small koi-marked lioness leapt out of the tree and down onto the ground at the edge of her known life. The edge of the jungle was always thought to be a frightening place, a place only lionesses that wanted to find a male for a fling went. It was here that she met Kwi, so she was certain that the outside world was hardly a bad place.
Chuckling in her ghostly voice, the lioness stretched her scaled spine and started slowly walking towards the edge.
The sound of a small, quiet ‘thud’ echoed over to Kali’s ears from the east, and she curiously peeked through some leaves to see what had made the sound. At first she didn’t see anything, but spotted a white form slowly walking towards the border of the roguelands, where it met with the jun—her pride, now. She had to remember that from now on. It wasn’t just a jungle pride. She was a member.
The young lioness wasn’t too sure if the other had fallen, or jumped. And if the latter, from where? Lions surely couldn’t climb trees. Although that one looked safe enough, who knew how hard it was to get up and down that trunk? There was no way. Only leopards were tree-masters. Kali had never seen one of her kind up in the limbs before, tail twitching and eyes grinning behind many leaves like that of their light-on-their-feet cousins. The ones who did, in fact, live in the trees.
Curiosity now actively catching her attention, Kali moved forward through the bushes and made a good bit of noise. On purpose, she supposed, though half of it was on accident. She also needed to learn how to walk more silently. In the roguelands, there wasn’t much one could step on and break and announce one’s presence to the rest of the world. But here, there were leaves and twigs and small plants –everywhere-. It was impossible not to step on something you didn’t mean to touch in the first place.
While Shu wasn't exactly trying to stay silent, she was out of habit used to walking across leaves and sticks, having grown up doing so. Through the natural order of things she'd learned how to use stealth to keep herself safe from predators in the jungle. Leopards had no qualms in snatching up a perfectly good baby lion cub if the situation and the inkling arose. Thanks to this and many of her mothers drilling, along with an innate need to be as quiet as she possibly could, Shusui was naturally a silent ghost.
Except for the red/orange and black coloring her otherwise white pelt. She was a ghost with those great exceptions.
Twisting her head at the first crack of a stick, Shu glared an uncharacteristic glare in the direction it came from. Lions from her pride certainly weren't that noisy unless it was a cub that was wrestling one of it's siblings or a new hunter. They were always clumbsy and could be forgiven to a certain degree.
Even though she was leaving her pride behind, Shu still felt the burning desire to inform the newcomer of the rules that came with the hunt. How could they ever catch anything if they were this noisy?
Flicking an ear lazily Shusui caught sight of the offender, a young brown and cream colored lioness with the barest hint of light green to her otherwise mundane pelt. She had to be a Shikar-i, though it was unfortunate that her colors made her so, as she'd be persecuted by those her own age. The lioness was a younger thing, not yet an adult.
Instantly in her mind Shusui forgave her the noise.
"Hello little one." Shusui called out in her ghostly soft voice, almost afraid that it wouldn't reach the other's ears in time for her to hear it before it dissipated. Her voice was never all that strong, it was something she'd been insulted and picked on for all throughout her cub-hood.
One of these days she would have to work on it, but today certainly wasn't that particular day.
Now, closer up to the older lioness, Kali noticed the great big splotches of red and black strewn across the white pelt before her. How she had managed to not notice those, she had no idea.
“Hello,” she greeted in return with a small nod. Little one, hm? Maybe that was the common name of her rank in the pride, or maybe because she was just younger than this female. Kali knew it as a term of endearment, but it was still slightly insulting. She wasn’t as small as a cub, thank you.
The voice that had greeted her was strange. Light, almost airy in tone, and not strong at all. Her ears perked forward to catch anything else that might have been said, or will be said in the future conversation (that she was bound to participate in, of course, as was wont to happen in these kinds of meetings).
“I’m sorry if I’m intruding or anything,” Kali began to apologize, though she didn’t really mean it. It was a formality, a necessity. “I’m afraid I don’t really know my way around quite yet and I heard a thump on the ground not too long ago. Was that you?”
Her white eyebrows snapped together in a slight frown. This female had willingly joined a pride of fighters, as if life wasn't hard enough she would be pitted in battles against other females. Maybe that was how she got her jollies, but Shusui certainly wouldn't have joined up with this maniac pride on her own. The desire to tell the cub of her own folly was stilled in Shu's muzzle though, the choices that lead this adolescent to this pride were her own and no one elses certainly.
Despite how Shu wanted to tell her to flee from this place, she couldn't. At least she could offer help in the little female's dillema though.
Actually... calling the female little one was even bad because she was nearly the same size as Shusui was herself. Despite that Shu was tiny she knew that the other must inherently have larger genes running through her than she had herself. A smile was called to her snowy muzzle.
"I appologize, I was very rude. My name is Shusui and I didn't mean to call you small as you're very near my own height." Shu chuckled at this, she didn't mean to groom the other's vanity but she had done the same with her mother and sister so it was habit rather than more insult. "Yes that was me, I jumped out of a tree not far back, headed for the rougelands. Do you need some help finding your way around this area?"
She was close to the edge of the pride's lands if she'd just joined. Shusui was actually making an assumption in the fact that this female had joined the pride, it could be that she was some sort of intruder, a nice one, but an intruder.
The thought made Shu's eyes hard for a moment before it passed and her normal peaceful look returned. She couldn't leap to conclusions about others and this female had given her no reason to react in such a rude manner.
Kali didn’t like the look on the other’s face when she revealed her newcomer status. It seemed like a challenge, and the young brown lioness didn’t take kindly to those, no matter how polite she was trying to be right now.
Although her hackles were smoothed down when the other spoke again, this time with an apology. Kali hesitantly smiled back and nodded her understanding.
“Of course. I am Adaness’kali, or Kali for short. I figured you meant in age, anyway; I’m just big for my own age.” She shrugged harmlessly.
“You climb trees? How? Why?” Her slight frown was one mostly of curiosity, and mostly of her last query. Why would a lion bother to climb a tree? For a den? No, the rocks on the ground were perfect enough dens for a lion. For food? Perhaps, but why go through all that trouble? There were zebra and gazelle and rabbit all over the place here. “I would appreciate some help. I’ve never been in a jungle before; I keep getting lost and going around in circles. “ She chuckled in slight embarrassment.
This Shusui must have been born here, or joined early on if she had no trouble whatsoever at living in the jungle. Either that or it was taking Kali a ridiculously long time to get a handle on living in the new surroundings.
Again, Shusui found herself on the verge of laughter and had to hold herself back. The lioness before her seemed to have gotten offended by her reaction to the admittance that she was new. While Shu would have had this reaction even for a male or anyone else that chose to join the pride she was leaving, she couldn't half admit why she'd had it.
Rudeness was not one of Shusui's strong points and she often was considered vastly of the opposite effect. It seemed though that she was rubbing the poor adolescent before her in the worst way.
"I appologize again." She said in a voice that held a gentle sadness to the ghostlyness. "Well... I was born and grew up in this pride, when you're a young cub your mother teaches you many ways to keep out of reach of leopards. Walking silently and playing loudly only when adults are around are just a few ways. Climbing is another safety tip that the adults teach their cubs in such a way that if they do get caught they can climb away. Plus we live in a jungle and a tree limb is just a very easy way to relax in the shade."
At this Shusui winked at Kali kindly and peered around them. Her memory of her own pride was vast and she was completely adept at finding her way around. Her flits into the jungle when she was cleaning the area around her had often lead her to different clan lands.
"I was born into the Tarka clan, which is nearby to us. Their colors are very molded to oranges and reds though. What clan is it you joined Kali? I can point you back to them or if you wanted to another clan, if you were exploring." Shu had often made maps in her younger years to remember places.
As much as Shusui was not one to be rude, Kali seemed to notice this and relaxed a bit more. She didn’t want her elder to feel too guilty and to continue apologizing for the littlest things since they had first met only moments ago; it could make things awkward.
It was actually very smart of mothers to teach their cubs how to climb trees. A trait that was not unheard of, of course, but extremely rare for a rogue lion to encounter. And, apparently, this pride had no problem teaching such a skill, especially if it ended up saving the life—or lives—of cubs. Kali half-wished that her own mother had been that smart. And resourceful.
“I actually have not chosen a clan,” she replied sheepishly, her smile growing but with an apologetic undertone. “I was hoping to meet someone else that could share some more information about the clans. The other female I met, Kanti, told me about the pride itself and the Queens, but she didn’t know too much about the clans themselves. Would you mind terribly if you told me a few things?”
She didn’t even know how many clans there were, or what their names were. And obviously the Takra clan was not for her, if they were shaped around the colors of amber and the like. Her brown and light green would stick out like a sore thumb and even draw more attention to her low status.
