The sun was unusually hot today, and it helped the old lioness's condition little. She was tired, and that usually made her mind weaker. It was getting worse each day too, she had noticed. Each day a little more slipped away, it was unnerving. Even on her clear days now she was listless. Maybe she was going to die soon. The thought didn't frighten her as much as it should, and that itself began to frighten her. She wanted to get up, to move around, to do something to reassure herself that she was still alive and kicking.
The striped end of a tail was all that was seen hanging from a tree not far in the distance. Ever so often the tail tip would twitch, then go motionless again as if the owner of said tail was either asleep or deep in thought.
The flashing motion caught her eye as she glanced up to look at the sun, somehow unsettling in its random nature. She pulled herself to her feet and began to start toward it, telling herself that surely this, unlike her other recent interactions, was exactly what she thought it was, the tail of something restless. "Hello up there?" she called softly, her voice sounding as if it came from somewhere deep inside. She settled beside the tree and looked upward, green eyes flashing as they searched for some face.
Red eyes slowly opened as the blue and white leopardess looked down at her sleepily and smiled, " Well hello old mother." From some it might sound like an insult, but from Neeja it was a term of deep respect to a female other than herself. She smiled sweetly as she streched then sat up, " What can I do for you?"
"I'm not quite sure you can, some company perhaps," Kima suggested, offering a friendly smile to the other. Company always seemed to stave off the worse of the condition, unless they brought up her past. Still she felt her mind beginning to slip from her and she fought it as best she could. Despite her best efforts a few tells slipped through, "Am I alone?" The question sounded almost philosophical in nature, as if she were asking the sun or the moon and not a leopardess she had just now met.
Neeja frowned faintly before rolling off her branch to land beside the older lioness. "No old mother you are not alone. I am called Neeja, this is my home." She nodded up at the massive tree that gave them both shade. "Come rest a spell in the shade here. It will do you good to be out of the heat." Neeja was by nature a nuturing creature, and something in the lioness called out to her for care.
The old lioness blinked, as if she did not understand the request, but complacently she moved and laid beneath the tree with a great deal of effort. Her skin pooled over her joints in a pleasing sort of insulation, protecting them from whatever harm might be cause from the outside. It was amusing, in a way, since all the harm that was done to her seemed to come from within. "Thank you.. Neeja, it's a lovely name. I am Kima, and I don't believe I have a home."
"When did you last eat Kima?" Neeja's voice was soft as if worried for the elderly lioness, and truely she was. Elders were not suppose to be abandonded to fend for themselves, they were suppose to be cared for and respected for the widsome they knew. "You are welcome to stay here as long as you like Kima."
Eat? She had eaten some dirt here and there, some bugs that had happened to cross her path, but she was not a hunter anymore. Her energy was focused on other things, like finding a family to support her through what this sickness would become, what her siblings had gone through. Her eyes glassed over and she forgot to respond, staring blankly at the ground beside Neeja's paws. After a while she spoke again, rising her head in a lolling way, "I might, I might stay here until I can't any longer."
It broke Neeja's heart hearing the desolation and despair in the lioness's voice. "Rest Kima, I will take care of you for as long as is needed." With a soft croon, she urged the lioness to close her eyes, " Just rest for awhile Old Mother, it will be ok." She knew she would need to hunt and get some food into Kima soon, but she worried that the lioness would accidently wander off if she left her alone and awake.
Kima offered a soft smile as she rested her head on her paws, feeling a sort of warmth she hadn't in a while. It was enough to clear her mind, though her legs began to shake much harder. They didn't used to do that so much, maybe it was getting worse much faster that her brother's had. Curious, but hardly something she could fix. "Did your mother teach you to be so kind Neeja?" she asked barely above a whisper, casting one lazy eye toward her new keeper, "Or are you simply a god sent heart?"
"My mother never had any use for me, I was born the wrong sex for that." Whatever bitterness she might have felt once, had long since burned away leaving behind only a faint regret. "No one taught me to care for others Old Mother, it is just something I do."
Kima hummed an apologetic agreement, rocking slightly back and forth. "I suppose my family didn't have any use either, for me or for life. We're all doomed." Her speech was different now, lost and somehow more aged than it had seemed before. "Doomed to walk, then to stumble, and finally to fall down and crawl," she told the other, her voice trilling. Her eyes clouded over once more, "It's not so bad really, once the mind begins to go."
"Shhhh Old mother, no one is dying today." It unnerved Neeja slightly, but it was not the true drawlings of the mad or even the insane sayings of a prophet. Leaping back up into her tree, Neeja snatched the remains of a rabbit from her ealier meal, and dropped in back down to Kima's feet. "Eat this and I will get more. Will you stay?"
The old lioness bit into the rabbit as if it were the finest gazelle on the plains, greatful for any small token. She did not directly answer the question, but it was obvious that she had settled for now and did not plan of getting up to leave. At least, not while there was a possibility of food. Dying was the least of her worries, it would be soft and quiet if she had her way, it was the end of life that terrified her. The getting there. There was still much of that to come, possibly even years given how long it had taken her brother.
Neeja watched her for a moment before hurrying towards the warrens where the local rabbits lived. They were quick prey, but with so many so close, she knew she could easily feed herself and Kima in a short amount of time.
By the time Kima had finished off the rabbit half, Neeja would have returned with two more rabbits held firmly by their ears in her jaws. Dropping one that was still twitching in it death throes, she laid the other down gently by Kima's feet so she wouldn't have to move ot get it.
Kima nuzzled the warm corpse in a peculiar fashion, as if it held some grace that she lacked. She pulled it in toward her close to her chest and looked to Neeja with apologetic eyes, "Thank you, I think it would have taken me much longer to get even one of these." She wished desperately to not be so dependent, but it was getting to the point where she feared that she would be wandering one day and suddenly not be able to remember what she was wandering for. Maybe she would find someone then. She wished to herself that she had had a family in her youth, instead of spending it at her brother's side.
"It is not a problem at all." Neeja smiled as she laid herself down in the cool grass then laughed softly " Truely it is nice to have company for a change. I live here alone for the most part. True some wander in and out of my home, but none have stayed for any lenght of time. It is nice to have someone to take care of again."
"Did someone live with you before?" she asked curiously, not feeling it a sort of intrusion, "Your family?" The leopardess was younger than she herself was, but old enough and nurturing enough to be the mother sort. She hoped she was, they were always so much happier later on, when things got tiring. "You would make a good mother, I would have, long ago." Her mind was clearer in the discussion, being a subject she had thought on quite a bit in the past few years. She was past that point though.
"I took care of my sister when we were younger." She smiled at Kima gently. " I hope to be a mother some day, but I have not had the chance yet. " Looking out into the sun, Neeja shook her head with a gentle smile, " We should rest now. Nothing will be stirring in this heat, come sun down I will catch us a bigger meal."
Kima nodded, her eyes heavy as the warm meat began to make its way to her stomach. She began to take another bite, but the weight of the sun and Neeja's words pushed her down. Despite fighting to keep herself awake she began to drift in and out, muttering only incoherent bits and pieces as her mind took over itself. "Thank you," she managed, before drifting into the dream state that was her solace.
(Dulcea and Keantha)
