(AIM RP between Thalion and Kimaria)
He hated the rain...
The grasslands had darkened overhead just two days prior. The previously clear blue skies had been replaced by dull grays and blacks, the sun hadn't shown itself beyond the occassional break in the weather. Rain pummeled the ground and anything that was unfortunate enough to trudge through it.
The grasslands had been converted quite suddenly into a swampy wetland. Hills rose and fell out of small, murkey puddles. Zebra and all mannor of preybeast gathered, huddled, on the hilltops or tromped through the puddles.
Jelani was soaked head to to, his scarred pelt coated in mud and his previously glorious mane hanging about him like a wet shawl. He blinked against the torrents of water flowing down his face, stinging his eyes and trailing down his chin.
---
Ugh... Mchawi grumbled. Is this what my life has come to? Trudging in the rain, alone, hungry...miserable. It was hard to believe, by looking at her, that she had a somewhat extravagent, but deeply pained and traumatic life. A mother who had been abandoned by their father, raising three children alone. Children who were looked down at by the rest of the pride for their father-less upbringing. Mchawi herself, rising to become a seer, falling in love but getting shunned. Three wild children who became uncontrollable when their mother died...
Ganging up on a deity of peace, the patron god of their old pride...striking him down. Killing a cub of the one she had loved and then dragging him and others out across the lands in an attempt to destroy and take over other prides.
And now look at her.
Alone. Wet. Pathless.
Mchawi paused and lifted her head, raindrops dripping from the ends of fine, silvery whiskers. Where was her brother now? Where was Msiba? He, the only one she loved and trusted. Her last remaining sibling after that pride killed her other brother...
She lowered her head, shaking it slowly in dismay at remembering him, his life taken from him. The past was so wretched and horrible...
---
Jelani eventually found a small tree with moderate leaf cover to sit down under and lick the fur from his scarred hide. The water had soaked clean through his fur and mane, sending violent shudders down his back. He'd never in his life experienced such a downpour. Their old homeland had been dry, fed only by a river and an occassional drizzle, nothing more. He had heard rumors of the sky opening up in such a way, but they'd been no more than that. Furthermore, he was to seek out a land on the edge of the sea. The 'big water' his ancestors had spoken of, thought only to exist in myths and stories to scare and intregue the young cubs.
All in the past.
He sighed and lifted his head, quite tired of the taste of mud, only to see a lonely spotted figure trudging forward. The male's shoulders tensed as he narrowed his good eye against the water that continued to drip steadily down his mane into his eyes.
A female? All alone out here? He flicked his tail and chuckled in amusement. Not the smartest creature, but a bold one. Perhaps she'd be able to point him in the right directon.
He let out a chuff, announcing himself through the rainfall.
---
She did not realise that she had been spotted until it was too late. And then, when she realised this, she turned to face him. Mchawi was a prideful creature. To proud to run and flee now, even if it was for the best. No. She would stand her ground and face him and she was confident in her abilities to survive any encounter.
She was still alive today, after all.
She turned and looked straight at him, her eyes narrowed slightly, ears pinned back.
It seemed he had found decent shelter from the rain. Lucky him. She was soaked through already, though, and was at the point now where she could not get any more drenched. Rain poured down her slick sides and clouded the air from her harsh breath.
She altered her direction, turning to face him fully. “Not much of a gentleman, are you?” She replied. Then again, she wasn’t exactly a young, pretty little thing. She was fully aware of that.
---
The male lifted a brow as the female addressed him, her posture tight and defensive but deprived of fear and anxiety. A gutsy one then. It was suprising, especially for a rogue. It must be a hostile area, he noted.
"I suppose you could make that assumption." He motioned to the place beside him and took a slow step sideways. "Care to share the shelter? I assure you I mean no harm. At the very least it would allow you to wash the mud from your paws."
Of course, she wasn't exactly looking very ladylike, but he'd keep that to himself. Her fur was soaked through, coated in mud, and peppered with scars. It was a little ironic to think she expected him to address her as anything other than a fellow muddy rogue.
---
She curled a lip with…well, what exactly? Amusement? Irritation? Perhaps a little of both? His response was not terribly unexpected, and it did prove her to be correct. Just a rude male rogue then, hogging the shelter all to himself.
But then, amazingly, he seemed to have a change of heart. But why? She looked him up and down, suspicious, and hesitated a little. She ought to keep going, really. There was probably more shelter up ahead and she wasn’t exactly the most social of cats, preferring to invoke fear rather than friendship.
She snorted and stepped a little closer.
“I’m sure you’re quite harmless.” Sarcasm, perhaps? “Fine, I’ll stay a little while.” If only to prove that I’m not afraid of you, she thought to herself, though that seemed to be a clear message in her eyes. And she moved slowly towards him, joining him in the shelter he had found.
“Rain will bring the herds, at least.” She replied, imagining those empty basins filling with water, attracting the antelope…wildebeest, zebra. Her stomach growled in response to such thoughts.
---
"Well I will not stay around much after the rain lets up. I am a little pressed for time." He sat himself down at a respectful distance and went back to licking at the mud that had gathered inbetween his toes. He hated the feeling, mushy, grainy, dirty muck clinging to his fur, rubbing against his skin, and weighing down his paws. Not to mention getting into his claws and rubbing at his scars. It was one of the worst feelings he could possibly imagine.
Herds? Oh yes, he supposed all the water would bring prey around. With a perminant source of water in his homeland the food was more or less a steady resource. On occassion a migration would force the warriors to walk farther to supply for the pride or a migration inward would bring a bounty of food. It was interesting to see how other lions depended on the elements.
Foolish really.
"This is your homeland?" He inquired with dull interest. "A little damp for my taste, though it must mean I am coming close to the big-water."
---
“Pressed for time indeed.” What did rogues have anything to rush about for? Nothing. Rogues were endless wanderers, undecided in their path. She had once been so set on hers, but somehow she had lost it along the way. Now she did not know which way to turn.
She watched him groom for a moment before tending to her own wet and muddy fur. Rain. Such a nuisance for something that was so essential for all life.
She paused at his question and wrinkled her nose, looking amused. “Homeland? I have no such place. I merely pass through. That is all.” A tattered ear lifted, curious. “Big water? You mean the ocean? Why do you seek that? You mean to cross? There is nothing on the other side, you know.”
---
Jelani chuckled knowingly and narrowed his good eye. The other laid hidden behind a cracked skull. It hid the hideous, furless cluster of scarring about his face and muzzle. His remaining eye had a milky white pupil visible under a hideous scar. "Well... yes in fact I am. You see I am....a bit of a seeker you might say."
He chuckled and shook his head again. "Oh heavens, no. Whyever would anyone want to cross the big water? If it ends, you very well may wind up back where you started. Besides, I am not made for the water. It just, unfortunately, is one of the obsticles along my path."
He glanced sideways again. Perhaps she knew.... "I hear there is a pride near the sea. Prides tend to house a god or goddess, sometimes multiple from what I hear. Or serve them, whatever the case. If this is true of the bigwater's pride, I seek to... seek out the god there that dominates them."
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She tipped her head a little. “From my experience there are many prides that worship the gods. Most, in fact, serve more than one, as you say. I was born in such a pride myself. He was a God of Peace, too. Useless, pathetic creature. Well, he did not live as long as most deities do, that is all I can say.” She smiled to think of it. That day had brought much anger and pain to her pride and much joy and satisfaction to herself and her brothers.
“A pride by the ocean…I do not tend to stray near prides, for obvious reasons. Besides, most lions tend to look the other way when I come by.” She smiled again at that, almost as if thinking of some amusing tale of her past.
“There are few I know of by name, but the ocean is indeed close by. All you would need is to follow it and you’ll come across one sooner or later.” She paused. “In fact, I’m certain there is one not too far away.”
---
"Is that so? Interesting... I nearly killed him just a few months back. I was unaware that there were others who sought to take the life of the gods. Though.... I cannot say I am overly suprised. Who wouldn't want their own fate back in their paws?"
He glanced back over and chuckled. "Then ew have a lot in common. Any pride I have encountered foolishly devotes themselves to impossibility, they hand over their lives to a diety to be toyed with. I cannot be associated with such rabble."
He glanced out into the open grassland, a gray haze had fallen over the distance, veiling the surrounding land behind it. It didn't seem to be letting up very soon. "Ah... I see. Well that is encouraging."
---
She wasn’t sure what shocked her more. That this male shared similar values as herself. Or that the damn creature was back; alive and kicking!! All of their planning and hard work…what was the point of it if they just kept popping back like the weeds that they were!?
She was bristling, even growling a little, at the realisation of this.
“Your news displeases me, but I suppose I should not have been so short-sighted as to think we had seen the last of him…It matters little, now. My old pride has seen the last of him, what we set out to do continues as planned unless he journeys back there.” And then she’d have to take his life again, to watch them suffer a second time. Maybe it would be worth it…to see the expressions on their faces as their loved one was stolen from them again.
“Those gods…if we can call them such…are more pitiful and weak than any mortal. For it is with our mortality that we stand and fight with all that we have.” And she was set in this way of thinking.
“So you seek this pride to rid them of their patron god?”
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"Oh? Do they truely rebirth then?" He tipped his head slightly. "I would have thought you finished off the work I started... I did manage to kill one god, though she requested my services in doing so and assured me she would be back. I am...doubtful that they return to life but in all honesty, I am not nearly as learned in their ways as I would like. Know thy enemy they say." He smirked and gave a short flex of his paws, extending and withdrawing his claws.
He made a quiet sound of approval at her statement. He'd not seen things in that light, but now that it had been said it did make a good deal of sense. "Very true...nor do we have the ability to call on the elements to defend ourselves. We must fight with only our resolve and our own two paws."
He smirked and offered a short nod. "To begin with... if they are freed perhaps they will join me in ridding us of the immortals. You see... they toy with us. Bend our fates to fit their means, they change our weather, they give and take life carelessly, with no respect or thought for those they enslave... they must be stopped...we must be the ones ruling over them if we are ever to find true freedom."
---
It was odd, but Mchawi – who had not been expecting to enjoy any sort of interaction with this lion – was actually quite interested in what he had to say. After all, it wasn’t every day that one came across another who saw the world in a similar way as she.
“They must do. But…perhaps when they are reborn they are not the same as they once were? I do not think this Peace God could be with the pride I knew, as they are nomadic and small. Hard to locate. Even I, who used to travel with them, would not be able to find them so easily. Perhaps they forget. Perhaps they are new beings who take over the domain from the old? Who knows. All I know is that I would rather die than bow down to any of those worthless creatures.”
She nodded. “For we are more cunning than they could ever be.”
She moved to continue grooming for a moment, ear tilted towards him so that she could still hear what he had to say.
“Wisely spoken. It makes a change for me to cross the path of someone who thinks and sees so clearly. I wish you well in that venture, in any case. May I have a name? Mine is Mchawi.”
---
"...hm... must be a rebirth. If he was as pitiful and small as you say, it must be the same creature. I could have crushed his head in my jaws if not for the interference from one of his...immortal friends." He snorted and wrinkled up his maw.
The encounter had been an interesting one, none the less. It seemed the gods looked after their own, or were beginning to. Perhaps peace had rebirthed into the womb of another female? It was hard to say. One more answer and a dozen more questions.
he nodded his agreement to her statement and drew in a deep breath. "My name is Jelani. Former prince of the Ti-Hin. Unfortunately... a little mis-hap led to their dispursal."
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She shook her head. “A pity. If he must be reborn, he should die a thousand deaths.” Peace..,.hah, what a joke! There was no such thing as peace in this world. She didn’t believe it. All she had known was chaos and despair and anger…if there was any peace, there was none for her.
“Nice to meet you, Jelani.” She replied, wondering whether this little ‘mis-hap’ he spoke of had anything to do with him. She wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been.
“A terrible shame I am sure.” She replied, shaking her head and peering outside once more. “It seems as if the cloud is breaking. I think I may continue on my way. It has been…an interesting conversation, I must say. Perhaps we will meet again, someday. If we do, I would be curious as to whether you succeeded in this task of yours.” She liked him. She hated to admit it, but she did. This one was ambitious and unafraid of taking on the impossible. A good trait in a lion if there ever was one.
“Thank you for the shelter.”
---
"If only." He sighed distantly and shrugged one of his shoulders. "Perhaps we will find a way yet to bend them to our will for a change... if only there was a way we could ensnare them perminantly, even that would settle things. Until then, allowing them to know that there are some, yet, who will defy them will only be a step in the right direction."
He rolled his good eye upwards, noting the short break in the storm. Perhaps he'd rest a little yet... afterall, the rain would start up again and he wasn't certain he'd be so lucky next time. He could at least get some rest so he had the energy to confront any hostility.
"And good luck in finding your own." He offered with a pleasant smile.
---
She nodded towards him. “If I ever come across something, I’ll attempt to find you and let you know.” And, with that, she moved out into the wet world, the earth soft beneath her paws, the grey clouds parting a little to make room for a slither of bright sky. It would probably rain again, soon, but Mchawi couldn’t stay put for too long.
There was nomadic blood in her, after all, and, more importantly, she had to try and find her brother. She always felt a little lost without him close by.
Even still, she was glad that she’d spent the time talking to this Jelani. Good to know she and her brother weren’t the only ones out in the world who thought the same.
/Fin~
