Kima was drifting on a wash of full bellies and kindly hearts, her mind clear for the first time in a long while. Her body was accepting of the movement toward the sun, though she could not remember why she had made the decision to go that way. Something about the warmth, she thought. Everything would be alright if she just made it a little further toward the warmth. Maybe there she'd find her family.
While a lot of heat could get to him, Saba did enjoy spending some time in the warmth of the day. It reminded him of home, back on the coast. There was a limit to how much he could take, but a bit of shade and a dip in water could take care of any discomfort. He stretched himself out, feeling the draw of his muscles as he shifted. It was nice to have his basic needs taken care of. Things were looking good for him lately.
The ruddy lioness stretched herself as best she could, joints crackling their dismay as she leaned first forward then back. Wake up, she thought, there's life to be lived. Her eyes sparkling she began her journey once more, focused solely on the horizon. What lay between it and her, she felt, did not matter so much. If she stopped she believed there was a good chance she wouldn't be able to start up again. "To home," she toasted herself with a playful laugh, curious almost what her mind might derive as a proper home when and if she found one.
Having settled into a comfortable position, the thoroughly striped male had been ready to let himself slip into a bit of a doze in the warmth of the sun. But, what was that, a laugh? It came from somewhere within earshot, so somewhere not too far off. Shifting himself up into a sitting position, he shook himself to rid his coat of any grass or excess dust that might have clung to him. The laugh had sounded decidedly feminine. Giving a thoughtful hum, he pushed himself to his feet. Where there was cause for laughter there was cause for interest. Saba scanned his surrounding area, narrowing his golden eyes slightly. “Mm…” Where had it come from? “Ah.” There, a lone lioness seemed to be keenly going somewhere with a little skip in her step. Somewhere nice, perhaps. A slight grin pulled at his features as he moved to follow, not so close as to cause alarm, but maybe be noticed if she were paying attention to her surroundings.
Kima, it seemed, was not. She simply continued her leisurely pace, pausing every now and then to examine some thing or another that caught her eye. The world was vibrant today, and on some level that scared her. Had her brother not experienced this just before his death? Curious. No, it was not that sort of abandoned happiness, this was something altogether different. She wanted to live, to experience the things she had missed in her youth. It was a shame none of those who had made her feel this way were here to see it now. They would know, surely, somewhere in their hearts, that they had done a good thing. She paused now, longer, to inspect a spot of moss growing on a rock. Had someone not told her a trick of moss? She couldn't remember now, it must have been long ago.
Hm. She certainly seemed preoccupied. Of course, he wasn’t exactly being extremely forward with his advancing. Saba abandoned his attempt at stealth for it seemed it wasn’t really needed. When the female paused, he slowed his pace to an easy stroll. Was she staring at a stone? Drawing a little closer, he cleared his throat so that maybe now he could draw her attention. Saba made it a habit to not unintentionally creep up on the unsuspecting. There had been a few instances where he accidentally startled some youngsters which, in addition to causing him distress, drew their parents over to see who had upset their cubs. That had been an interesting afternoon to say the least. “Seeing something interesting there?”
Her back stiffened and she nearly jumped, gathering herself before she slowly turned to face him. "I did, I thought, but I can't seem to remember what it meant," she explained, her voice rather calm given the situation. He seemed odd, but nothing in her recent travels had predisposed her to being cautious in this area, so she would give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being. Unless, of course, he proved her wrong. But she would deal with that if need be. For now, it was company again. She sat beside the wrong, casting it one more sullen glance, "Something about moss."
He kept himself a few good paces away, giving the female room to react and face him. Shifting his attention from her to the rock that had held her gaze, he gave a thoughtful nod. There was a saying about that. Not being something he normally thought about, Saba had to mull through his memory to find it. “Yes. I believe that the saying is something along the lines of ‘Moss always grows to the north side of whatever it grows upon.” The male dipped his head and looked back to the lioness. “I think that’s what it said anyway. Does it seem familiar now?”
Her eyes clouded over for a moment and she seemed to go into a trance. When it broke, she jerked her head suddenly and turned a smile to him, "That was it, I think. Thank you." She realized that this was perhaps not the most normal sort of greeting and nodded her head, "Kimatuli, though I suppose the moss has made more of an impression." She did not laugh, but the amusement and embarrassment at herself sparkled in her emerald eyes. "I wanted to know which way I was going, though it doesn't really matter too much."
The moment that the lioness faded into the trance-like state caused him to pause for a moment. Well, to each their own and everyone remembered things differently. When she came to and thanked him, he smiled and dipped his head to her. “My pleasure, Kimatuli, I assure you. My name is Saba’Minhaj, or simply Saba, if that is what you prefer. Don’t worry about the moss. I leave the impression making to those who can converse back and forth with me.” He grinned. “Oh? You’re traveling with no set destination in mind, or simply waiting for some place to sing with you?”
She seemed to think about the question for a moment, before answering with a laugh, "I don't think I've even decided that far, I just wanted to walk." It seemed insane to some, to wander with no path, not even a vague idea. She wasn't even sure that home would be a place she recognized, or what was meant by it. Her mind berated her with images of her past in a sudden rush, and she sucked in air to stifle them out. "And you?" Her voice was almost mocking, "Where is simply Saba headed?"
He rolled his shoulders, giving a little laugh of his own. “Decisions or no, it’s still a plan. A plan that I had myself a long while ago, in fact,” He paused, brows knitting together for a moment. “Essentially, anyway.” Shaking himself, he blinked and offered a bit of a crooked grin at her half mocking tone. “My plans haven’t changed much. I’ve been pretty much going where my paws have been carrying me since adolescence. They haven’t failed me yet and, even if they carried me somewhere less than savory, I’ve been able to make it out fine.”
Kima nodded pondering her new companion’s age. At her own, that would have been a long time wandering, but one could never make assumptions. She flipped an ear back, her eyes giving her face an intoxicated appearance, "The world is full of wonder isn't it? Shame they're rarely the sort you're looking for." Her eyes lulled shut and she gave a little rocking motion, "I'm looking for family, but I think I may have waited too long."
For a brief moment, Saba’s own attention drifted skyward, thinking back to the pride he left on the coast. Weird bunch, they were, but his mother was there, or at least had been there. He didn’t know if she was still living. It had been so long since that brief goodbye. He huffed a sigh and looked back to Kima. Quite a dreamy expression had settled onto her features and it made him wonder if she were recalling something again. His ears pricked forward at the little rocking motion she was making. Would he have to catch her? He blinked and took a step closer, just in case he had to act fast. “It is. Wonder, I suppose, is in the eye of the beholder, like beauty and the like.” He snorted. “Nonsense. Family can come at any time, I think. One can never really predict a blessing or miracles. They come in their own time. Of course, sometimes it’s a handy thing to make your own miracles without having to pray and languish over things.”
She noticed him getting closer and strangely it did not unnerve her. There was something she like about him, a sort of mutual wandering that drew her to him. "It would be a miracle, I think, at this point in my life," she admitted with a touch of sourness in her tone. Too long, too many other things took precedence, a shame. "How does one make miracles?" Her wondering seemed to take a life of its own outside her mind, and for a moment she didn't even realize she had said it. It made no sense to her though; she was not the miraculous sort.
Well, she didn’t seem like she was going to drop. Giving another little sigh, Saba took a seat near her. He gave a thoughtful grunt at her slightly sour statement. “Sometimes, one can never know. Surprises can happen at any time, no matter who they may be directed at.” At her question, a broad grin drew itself across his features. “Oh ho. I know the answer to that. In order to make miracles all one needs is effort, and perhaps a little luck. Luck can be made too, but it’s made of the same stuff miracles are.”
Kima seemed confused by his explanation, but she didn't attempt to question it again. "I think I've put in about all the effort I can manage." There was only so much her mind could handle before the bad days would come on again. Instead, she turned her attention to his smile. There was something about it that unnerved her in a way that made her feel both afraid and revived, he wasn't pitying her. "Do you have a family then? Have you made your own little miracles?"
“Really?” Saba asked with a little incline of his head. “Hm. Well, there is a lazy, lucky, doesn’t feel like you’re really trying sort of effort too. That’s the one I usually use.” He blinked at her question and bowed his head, a soft chuckle escaping him. “Nah, not yet, anyway. I certainly could stand for one. I could handle a brood. I may be a wandering fool, but I would take it easy for cubs of my own.”
She scoffed, an oddly abrupt sound for her usual slow pattern of speaking, and it slowed turned into a low laugh. "I'm sorry, you don't seem like the brooding type." And there she went mocking him, perhaps not the best course of action. Maybe they could come to an arrangement, if he was so sure that miracles were still possible. He'd want to be around though, shame. She wasn't sure she would want him in her family, a wanderer, she'd seen too much of that. Sighing she pressed her head against his side in a teasing gesture, "You give me too much hope, I'll get ideas in my head that don't belong there."
He grinned to her at her laugh, seeming to either not mind the mocking or not notice it. “Not by broody mother hen, standards, but I’ll settle to take care of any kids that may be mine. It isn’t a good idea to drag young ones all over creation until they’re older. They need stability and certainty when they’re little things. Wandering around without any idea as to when dinner might be isn’t something I’d want to subject them to. I may be a ramblin’ rogue, but even I had a stationary youth. I am not driven forward by some force or mission. I drift along, but I am fully capable of laying down some roots.” Saba blinked down at her when she pressed her head against his side, a little quirk in his smile forming. “Meh, ideas are always open for change. Its belief that gets tricky and stuck in folks heads. Ideas can be scraped or forgotten if they need to be. They’re handy that way.”
"What are your ideas then if you've got any? I know where I'm headed and what's waiting for me but you're something else entirely I think," she asked curiously, her eyes going to her own paws that were beginning to shake as she relaxed. There wasn't any stopping the progression of her problems, simply to hope for good days and a quick end, but she liked the thought that she might have something before that. "And I'll have you know I was drug all over creation, till my mother couldn't drag us anymore, don't think I'm any worse for the wear."
“Ideas about what specifically? I have many. Ideas for myself, ideas for what I’d like to see happen, ideas for down the road, family, eventually someplace that just sings for me. While I do enjoy seeing what I can see and experiencing as much as life wants to throw at me, I do see myself finding a home somewhere, sometime. Maybe a mate somewhere along the line, but if that isn’t in store for me, well, there are other forms of happiness to be enjoyed.” He gave a slow nod, his eyes appearing distant for a moment as if mulling over his own statement. “I don’t think you’re worse for wear from what I’m seeing of you. If any offense was taken, I do apologize. A little dragging around may be good for youngsters. Let’s them learn early.”
"You're smart for your age, you know that?" She laughed, eyes sparkling with a sort of amusement she had pushed to the back of her mind for a long while. Was she flirting with him? Stop that. Suddenly she felt a bit sheepish again and shifted uncomfortably next to him. This wasn't the sort of behavior someone like her should be doing, but she wanted to push just a little futher, see what she could coax out. "No offense, honestly, I suppose it has detracted from my realization of all those things." She seemed to drift into her mind for a moment, remembering the years and then last agonizing weeks she had spent with her brother, always moving him so he might see something different while he lay. She would need someone to fill that role eventually. As if the thought were a tangible thing she shook her head to be rid of it, glancing sidelong at him, "I hope you find that place."
Saba laughed in turn, a rich, hearty laugh, eyes nearly closing for a moment in his amusement. “Heh, thanks, Kima, I do manage.” He sighed and looked to her, noting her shifting with a brief little incline of his head. “Oh, good. I would have hated to offend some of the finest company I’ve had in quite a while. Color me lucky.” The lioness got an inward sort of look on her face for a moment. She was recalling something, if his early reading of her was any indication for her usual behavior. He offered an easy smile when she glanced his way. “Ah, I know I will, someday. I may not find it until the very end, the place where I lay down my weary bones, but it’d be home, even in those last moments.” He was quiet for a minute, looking skyward. “Although, I would certainly hope to find it before then, but that is a matter of preference.” His briefly serious expression melting into a little grin as he shifted his gaze back to her. “What are your plans? Are you looking for something too?”
"A family, I think." No, not think. "A family." She wasn't sure what that would entail in the future but she felt it was something she would need to find that final home. As she spoke she was staring off into the distance, a faint shine to her eyes. "I'd like a daughter I think, to take care of me when I will need it, that seems selfish." She glanced at him for a moment as if to read his expression, though she could grasp nothing, "I'd make sure she was taken care of for the future when I'm not around." She gave a soft laugh again, this one catching in her throat. Waited too long.
His smile softened a degree. “Family is always something to aspire for. And no, that’s not selfish. At least, I don’t think so. It isn’t so much to ask to have someone there in times of need, all the better if it is a dear and close loved one.” He thought of what he would want of his cubs. “While I wouldn’t mind either a son or a daughter, I think the opportunity to raise a son up to be a fine fellow when he grew up would be something I’d like to experience. Yeah...” An ear pricked at the sound of her laugh catching. Saba looked to her fully. “Any daughter of yours is sure to be a lucky little gal.”
Kima let her eyes drift closed as she listened to his thoughts. He seemed to be like minded to her and the ideas began to return. Stupid. No, maybe it wasn't. She fought herself inwardly, feeling herself draw a bit closer to him despite her confusion. "You know, there is something we both want, perhaps..." Her voice trailed off as she looked up at him for a reaction. If he was like minded enough he might have come to the same conclusion and if not, what was she truly risking? There wasn't much left in this world that scared her, the least of it being an offended young lion. But at this point that seemed doubtful.
(Dulcea and Avid)
