Ailes d'Asp trotted quietly through the grass, towards where the world gave way to smooth sand and pebbles. The sky was grey and cool, light slowly returning but the sun not ready to rise for another hour or so. Ailes loved this time the most, when it wasn't night and it wasn't day, as if the world couldn't make up its mind of what to be. It was like this in the evenings too, but the morning was quieter, and suited his pensive mood.
He came down this way in the mornings sometimes, when there was too much noise in the pride, to stare at the lake as it licked the land in steady rhythm. It was a soothing noise, constant and reassuring, and it helped him calm his mind. And the sheer vastness of water always fascinated him. It stretched on forever, and held depths with so many unknowns. Any trivial problem a cub could have seemed so insignificant in comparison. It was comforting, in a way.
Struggling in the wetness, his fur soaked so heavy that he had to flail just to keep close to the surface, Eiszapfen gasped and panted, then as soon as he'd caught his breath, dove back into the dark waters. He reached the shallow bottom quickly, and clawed at the mud and muck, desperately trying to feel with his toes for any solid objects, then drag them to the surface for a quick look. He'd found several rocks and even some bones, but none had satisfied, and he'd dropped them again only to keep looking.
Bringing a new find up to the sky in his teeth, he peered cross eyed as he wheezed through his nose. A stick. Frustrated, he let it sink, and paddled for a moment, peering at the shoreline. Was the beach moving? He was drifting away from the rock formations that had marked his swimming spot. He would never find anything if he wasn't in the right spot. Kicking with legs exhausted from long toil, he made for the shore to rest and move back to the right area.
Reaching the end of the foliage, Ailes paused to take in the view, and sniff at the wet breeze that was becoming as much a part of his life as his own heartbeat. The lake stretched out into forever, a smooth clean line, the far shore only something he'd been told about. He'd traveled here from far away, following his mother only to be handed over to his father and this new pride. He'd been told of his mother's pride as well, which he'd never seen, and had been told he'd have to choose between the two someday.
The lessons he and his siblings had been taught about the future, and the decisions they'd have to make, had left a more profound dent in his mind than most. He couldn't think about the present, couldn't laugh and play and gnaw innocently on bugs, when he knew adulthood was looming up ahead, waiting for him like a predator waiting to strike. His thoughts always turned to brooding, to darker... was there something swimming towards him in the water?
Now that he was thinking about rest, Eiszapfen felt as if his legs would give out at any moment. He hadn't realized how long he'd been toiling away. He touched sand again with relief, and dragged his dripping, shivering body back into the air, and collapsed onto the beach. He felt like rocks were pressing down on him, and he lay there for a long moment, recuperating, silt-crusted eyelids too heavy to lift.
Lion was not meant to swim, he thought miserably. What a cursed life he led, that he had to brave the nasty, bitter waters of this huge pond, to find a tiny thing buried who knows where. But things must be done, for the sake of the world, and if not done by him, it would be done by no one. Kicking himself mentally despite his misery, he slowly opened his eyes and prepared to get up and try again. Except, there was a cub looking at him.
Ailes watched the blue beast slinking up onto the sand with trepidation, terrified that it was a sea monster come to eat him. He'd seen the carcasses of lake animals before, great big hulking things. He'd wondered then what bigger monster in the deep black waters had killed them. But he'd never seen a living one before. Did they eat cubs? He crouched low in the grass and watched.
But he soon realized his mistake. It was just a lion afterall, having a morning swim. A little dissapointed that his solitude had been ruined, Ailes ambled down the slope without a trace of the previous fear he'd felt. He didn't recognize the adult, but that didn't matter. He'd never known anything but kindness from any adult in the pride, and it didn't even occur to him that danger was possible. He sat beside the larger head and peered into the bluegreen eyes, waiting to be spoken to.
Eiszapfen blinked away the silt, staring at the cub in puzzlement. Was this an apparition? No, usually they were much less mundane. This was just a little brown cub, sitting on the beach. They stared at each other for a long moment, neither taking the initiative, as Eiszapfen built back his strength and pondered what to do. His eyes flicked up the slope, but he didn't spot any parents or guardians for the creature.
Normally when he met other lions he'd try to preach to them his message, and simultaneously try to talk them out of kicking him out of their territory as a bloody, beaten up mess. He hated getting into fights, but his work took him wherever it chose to, and sometimes that meant braving angry prides, or sneaking into the heart of their lands. A cub was much safer. And maybe it could offer him help. "Hello," he coughed.
"Hello," Ailes responded politely, and stepped back out of coughing range. Now that he was close enough to look carefully, he knew he'd never seen this lion before. And that probably meant he wasn't from the Ardhi'Mrvingo'Patano, and wasn't that a moutful, but from some other pride. Ailes wondered curiously if he was from the Simbafutaji of his mother. Or from somewhere else entirely?
Well, best to make himself a good representation of his people, even if he'd only been with them a short while so far. "Welcome to," he took a deep breath, "the Ardhi'Mrvingo'Patano, in the Sanq Kingdom." He hoped he'd gotten the inflection right this time. "I am Ailes d'Asp, son of Nuit le'Croix by Pwani'wingu." That sort of thing seemed to mean alot to his new pride, so he was trying to adapt. "What pride are you from?"
Well, that was a lot better than a warning to get lost. Keeping an eye out for other larger lions, Eiszapfen smiled benignly at the cub. Wasn't a cub really, more like a juvenile. But whatever it was, it was greeting him pleasantly and very formally, and that was swell. "Nice to meet you, Eldasp. I am Eiszapfen, son of Nachahmer, of no pride. Thank you for welcoming me to your lands, but I'm just passing through."
Feeling a little more rested, he stood and shook the water out of his fur. He was still cold, but the sun would be up soon. "I hope you don't mind, Eldasp, but I'm looking for something very important." He nodded out to the water where he'd been swimming. "It's out there somewhere, I don't know where, I don't even know what it looks like. But I have to find it, or terrible things will happen." The Apocalypse, for one.
No pride? That was interesting. Ailes hadn't even realized that was an option. He'd only known that he'd have to choose his father's or mother's pride, not that he could choose 'none of the above'. He felt a bit of comfort at getting his greeting correct. Though he still hadn't memorized his entire geneology, all four generations of it, so he'd just gone with the short version. Gosh, his new pride put alot of stock into who was whose father.
This thing the adult was looking for sounded interesting. Terrible things could happen? How exciting! He padded over to the water's edge and peered out, but didn't see anything. He didn't put a toe in, though; he wasn't supposed to swim without supervision. "If you don't know what it looks like, how will you know when you find it? What sort of terrible things will happen? Things like storms and rain?"
Following the cub, Eiszapfen weighed how much to tell him about the horrible events that would unfold in the future. He wasn't sure when it would happen, but there was a good chance the catastrophes would start occuring within this cub's lifetime, possibly before he even got too old. And many lions were going to die, and no mercy for the young. Didn't he deserve to have some idea of his future, to know what to prepare for?
But then again, even adults had a hard time swallowing it when Eiszapfen explained. And it just seemed wrong to lay such heavy burdens of a child. "Just... bad things," he finally answered. "Kinda like storms, yeah. Look, has your pride ever seen any usual objects? Maybe like large stones with strange colors or patterns on them? They might've washed up onto the shore, or been exposed during the dry season?"
There was something in the adult's tone that bothered him, but Ailes tried not to let it trouble him. It sounded like it was stuff he wasn't supposed to know about, being a cub. He'd heard that tone before, and always wondered how old he'd have to be before the adults would tell him what was going on. He said nothing about it, playing along and letting the adult keep his secrets, whatever they might be.
"I dunno about what the pride has found, I haven't been here long." He stared carefully into the water, but couldn't pick out anything in the murk. "I came here with my mother just a little while ago, and before that I lived very far away, near a swamp." He missed it sometimes, the insect noises of the wetlands. At least there was lots of water here too, but it smelled different. "Can I help you find it?"
Hm, it seemed his cub informant wasn't that helpful afterall. Figures he'd meet someone willing to help them out, and yet they'd be completely useless. He wondered at what sort of pride owned this area, that a cub so new to them still could recite at will a lengthy formal greeting. Did they drill it into them? He best be moving on as soon as he'd found his goal, in case they also had a bunch of crazy rules to punish him for breaking.
"Swamps are dangerous, you shouldn't go back there again," he warned. He could say that much at least... the ghosts had made it clear to him that wetlands were trouble, and to be avoided. "Seriously, stay away from swamps. You know, if you want to be helpful, when you go back to your pride, ask around about special stones, especially blue ones with a sort of circular pattern. If you find it, you could maybe drag it back to this beach, and I could find it."
Surprised at the the sudden decrying of swamps, Ailes only nodded obediently and filed it away for reference. He'd loved his previous home and its muddy wetness, even all the bugs. But this adult seemed to be pretty darn sure about this. And he hadn't been intending to go back there, anyway. The swamps was his aunt's pride, not his parents. It wasn't on the list of options offered to him. But then again, now he might consider it.
"Yes, I'll do that," he agreed. "A blue stone with a circle." He hadn't seen anything like that, but now he'd be looking for it carefully. "What's it for, anyway?" Now that he knew the shape of it, he was examining every pebble that had a round shape. They were all kind of grey, not blue. The adult had been searching in the water. People of the pride swam sometimes, maybe they'd found it and taken it home.
"It's... hard to explain," Eiszapfen replied. He stared across the water, gnawing on his jowls in frustration. To be questioned on this by a child was different. More likely to believe him, probably, but also likely to get upset at it. Lord knows he himself was upset plenty for everyone. He had to live with it everyday, the knowledge and responsibility... it was intense, driving, and sometimes very painful.
"Have you ever..." he paused, then decided to just go with it. "Sometimes in life you learn that you have an obligation, a duty that only you can do, you must do. And not doing it has such intense consequences that you don't dare think about failing. But it weighs you down, even as it drags you along." He sighed, and glanced at the small form by the water's edge. "I suppose you're a bit too young to know that feeling."
Ailes felt like he'd been punched in the chest. He knew all too well just what the lion was talking about. It seemed all he ever felt was that weight. He didn't know the dragging he mentioned, but maybe that was because he wasn't supposed to make his decision until he was older. It was a horrible thought, to think that it was just waiting for him on the horizon, waiting for him to grow up and take on his place in a pride.
Suddenly he felt trapped, and wanted away from this place as fast as possible. Forget stones, he just wanted to go hide somewhere and be alone for awhile. That's why he'd come to the water's edge in the first place, to be alone, and that hadn't worked out. Sniffling to fight by nonsensical tears, he blurted out "If I see that stone, I'll bring it here!", then raced away into the grass, running nowhere in particular, just away.
Eiszapfen watched the cub leave in surprise, not sure what to make of the poor child's reaction. Maybe he'd spoken too soon, to assume the cub wouldn't know this feeling. Heck, considering the formal nature of the pride, the cub probably ate responsibility for every meal. Poor thing. He'd only been given his duties in adulthood after a bump on the head, he couldn't imagine having to grow up with it.
"I hope he finds his place in the world," he mused to himself, feeling a sympathy for the lion the cub would become someday. "Assuming he manages to survive long enough to grow up," he muttered to remind himself. Well, he'd rested long enough. Marching resolute back to the water, he plowed in determinedly. He'd wouldn't give up until he found the blue stone and put it into the volcano on the day of the eclipse. Because the alternative was the end of the world.
