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 Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 12:40 pm
 The god touched down, his paws cushioned instantly by dust and ashes that floated into the breeze once his toes came into contact with the grasses beneath them. Somber red eyes watched as ash coated the ground, a black snow that steadily wafted from his wings and that withered from his touch. The god sighed, smoke sent out on the wind, and he glanced around, his gaze bored, like he'd seen it all a thousand times before. And it was probably close to that. Fleance had lost count of his lives, and really, that was because he didn't remember any of them. The skies were as grey and overcast as he felt, his smoky wings blending endlessly into the clouds above. His head felt heavy, as though he had woken from a deep, deep slumber, and that feeling was probably a leftover effect from his suspension before rebirth. He hated the sensation, and shook his lumbering head, bead beating against his skull.
Looking around, he was confident no others were in sight, mortals or gods, yet from his permanent paranoia, he took on the guise of a normal lion, his godly form a contradiction for how long he had really existed. The feeling of paranoia were shared with a small, brown lion, though his were not decades old and firmly rooted in an ancient battle. Kamau's fears were of predation from fellow lions. His green eyes flicked nervously over the seemingly barren lands, and he was deeply unnerved by the state of the region. He knew not where he wandered to, only that it was foreign, and in all likelihood, unsafe. Thistles and acacia were thick, and the grass was sparse and dead. He didn't know how any living thing could survive, but he had reason to be so worried about attack.
You see, he was a smaller lion, maybe the size of an adolescent, but what really worried him were the colors of his pelt. He shared his markings with prey animals, and although he had the face and mane of a lion, a lion's roar and a lion's tail, he had been mistaken as lion's food on more than one occasion. The happenings left him bitter towards large lions, and equally skittish. So it was with trepidation he stepped into the open gorge, exposed to whatever starving lions lurked around the area, more than eager to take down an antelope, or whatever could be mistaken as one. Luckily for Kamau, Fleance didn't eat at all. But his senses were much keener. As soon as he heard the stirrings of the lion, his head snapped to, one would think he suffered from whiplash, but if he did, it was impossible to tell. He stood as still as a statue, his eyes frozen wide like a suspicious water buck or gazelle ripped from oblivious grazings by a snapping twig. His dull red eyes scanned the earth frantically, and with hesitation, he considered casting invisibility around himself, but then he could almost feel it... This wasn't who he was afraid of. He took a step forward, ignoring the black ashen footprints that trailed him, and lowered his head, more like a hunter now, than the hunted. Slinking forward, he closed in on the mortal before the lion even had a chance to catch a whiff of that burning scent on the wind.
He stopped short of him only a few meters away, but from behind of the male.
He straightened himself and spoke, his voice hushed from what booming authority it could have had.
"You there! Who are you?" Kamau flinched and stopped dead in his tracks, his ears pinned flat on his skull as they tried to reach behind him for the source of the voice. Slowly, he turned his head over his shoulder to see just who had called to him. His fluttering heart was not assuaged by the fact he had first been spoken to rather than attacked, instead, his fears only turned from a mistaken identity to being assaulted for trespassing on a pride's lands. He hadn't even heard footsteps from behind him, but when he turned just enough to catch a glimpse of the speaker from one of his bright green eyes, his heart sank. The lion was huge. Well, when compared to him, at least. The tan lion struggled to understand how he could have missed such a massive creature's approach.
He turned on his heels, wheeling around to face him, as though he would do better in a head-on confrontation. Most likely, he'd be better off running, and hoping the mass of this lion would slow him down.
"I, uhm" He cleared his throat. "My name is Kamau! Who're you?" Fleance tilted his head, not understanding why this lion could be so jittery and jumpy. He bobbed his head, a sign of courtesy. "I'm Fleance..." The dry wind blew around the grey dirt and black ash together, signs of the god blending in with the scenery. His body tensed, then relaxed, and he gave a great exhale, ashes from his nose also being mixed in with the breeze. This lion looked more nervous than he. The god cracked a smile, though it looked almost out of place, and definitely out of practice.
"So, Kamau, what are you doing out here?" Fleance brushed his tail lightly on the ground, and his eyes were drawn to the rabbit pouch hanging around the lion's neck, and passingly, he wondered if he should trade in his feathers for such a lush adornment. But just as quickly, he thought not to.
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:50 pm
 Kamau's wary expression was still worn, and he eyed the god with anxiety. "I-I don't know, Fleance. Why're you here? Are these your pride's lands?" Something about this larger lion did not sit well on his tan back, he scrutinized and scrunched his nose while staring. While although staring was rude, Kamau's manners were obviously lacking.
A crack of thunder broke the sky above, and he flinched, more than he normally would have, and enough to make him feel more than embarrassed, and his jade eyes turned to the sky, which seemed lower now than he last remembered it. The breeze too, chilled him to the bone, and everything around him filled his frame with foreboding. His eyes darted back to Fleance, making sure he'd not taken another step in his direction. Fleance's ears pinned back on his head as thunder roared across the plains, hearing the echo far longer than Kamau did, and hid dull red eyes looking distant as he watched birds scatter into the air from the same fright. His mind wandering back to the conversation at hand, he shook his head.
"No, I don't belong to any lands, really."
Except for the God Haven.
But Kamau probably wouldn't be privy to that information at any time soon.
"I'm a wanderer, like yourself, I presume?" He shook his mane, bead beating against his brain. The air had become charged, and Fleance could feel it in his follicles. He shrugged, looking at the ground as drops began to soak and disappear in the grey soil. "I'm not sure that I'll ever be a part of a pride, myself. I've got too much to do in I don't know how much time. He lifted his head to the heavens.
And felt a drop land right between his eyes. Kamau's eyes would not follow Fleance's gaze. He was still too unnerved, though he didn't know why. Maybe it was just the atmosphere getting to him. He sighed, though it did nothing to relax him. The rain was coming now with consistency, and he shook himself.
"Yes... I'm a rogue. I came close to joining a pride once... But it turns out it wasn't there anymore." He thought back to a hot and misty jungle. This was far from the same place, and the lion's heart wished silently that he'd gotten there a little bit sooner. But no such luck. Fleance's following words were a sort of unintended morbid that bothered the lion still. Did that mean he had some sort of secret vendetta? Maybe it was against a pride that had dismissed him.
The lion had no idea just how little he knew about the individual before him.Fleance nodded. "Mortals tend to phase in and out..." He realized what he'd said just after it had left his mouth, and his eyes sharpened and focused to see how, if at all, Kamau would react. His toes tensed, clawing at the ash beneath them, and he took a step backwards. He couldn't allow for a mortal to even wonder of his origins. Word could get spread to ears that didn't need to hear. His back flexed, as though stretching a wing to take off in flight at any second.
The rains were a little harder now, the distance once visible to the earth's curves was now blotted out in gray rain and dark mists. The sun was long since hidden by the clouds, and time seemed suspended by it's absence. The god took another step back, wanting to retreat, and nervous about where the urge had first come from. Kamau tilted his head, quizzical, but then nodded. "I suppose you're right..." He watched the lion's new behavior, turning his head further as he tried to figure the sudden change in his body language.
"Do you have someplace to be, Fleance?" Not that he really minded, of course. Kamau was just as ready to get out of the rain. Alone.
But what he was really asking, or wanting to know, was if Fleance knew something he didn't. Had he lied? Was he really a part of this pride and an ambush was planned, and his fading footsteps were a signal? His hair stood on end, though it was weighed down by the water.
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:53 pm
Fleance shook his head. "No, I just have to go. I'm not a fan of the rain, is all. You could join me, I suppose."
But I really hope not.
He watched the tan lion again before taking a step backwards. Kamau seemed to be looking at him in a strange manner, and it made him uneasy, though in the back of his mind, he was sure this was how the lion had felt earlier.
It wasn't a foreign feeling to him in the least, he was almost used to paranoia, but that never made the feeling alright.
His red eyes met Kamau's green ones, and again, he bobbed his head.
"I've really got to be going now, Kamau. It was nice meeting you."
The god turned and took off, a slow walk in the now pouring rain that would surely translate into a teleport once he was out of the mortal's sight.The lion's lips pursed as the god disappeared, but he didn't ask questions. Instead, he too took off, but in the opposite direction, a light run in the heavy rain. He wasn't sure he cared to even think about Fleance and his strange behavior. His safety was first and foremost in his mind, and though his green eyes saw, he didn't mind the black foot prints that followed the god before they were washed away in the rain.End
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