Mwale, played by Adona
Azria, played by MoonRazor.


Mzaaliwaale'mwale woke up early in the morning, troubled by the return of a haunting dream. In her heart she knew that it wasn't really a dream at all, that somehow... Somehow, she had seen the demise of her brother. The guiding spirit of her father had come to her to show her what happened. Normally, that'd be considered a dream, right? But... The more Mwale thought of it, the more she couldn't help the feeling of despair deep inside her stomach. She was in the rogue lands, utterly alone, and the last thread of family she had left had been severed. Shaking her fur as she rose, Mwale tried to shake the hopelessness she felt creeping up on her. She didn't want to be That Lioness. The one who, when she was faced with nothing but dark, turned and ran. She wanted to run right into that darkness, charge it head on, and come out the other side better for it. She had to. She owed it to her ancestry to be as strong as she knew they would be.

So she left the deserted cave she had huddled in for the night and began walking towards a watering hole nearby. It had been luck alone that she had found shelter and water so close. It was too early for anything edible to be stalking around, but that wasn't a problem; she would hunt later, after she put some distance between herself and the dream.


He had always been warned about the night; the darkness, it seemed, was home to evil things and troubles that lurked in waiting for innocent, helpless cubs, and if he was caught wandering about in the darkness, that would be the end of life as he knew it. Azria rolled his eyes at the thought. Helpless cub indeed! He was little still, he knew, but that would all change in a flash, and he wasn’t so much a cub anymore. He no longer lay mewling inside the den waiting for his mother to return; no, he was far beyond that unbearable vulnerability and haplessness.

He had woken with the sun, as he did most days, and had snuck away from the den to enjoy the world while the morning was still his. There was no time of day he loved so much as now, the first moments of the morning in which everything was still, and he could watch the light slowly steal over the land and envelop everything in its warmth. An inexplicable sense of peace seemed to lie there, as untouchable and unchangeable as the sky itself. It was wonderful.

Some distance away, by the water hole, he could make out a shape – the figure of a lioness, dark but brightly decorated, and for a heartbeat, Azria glanced down at his own dark paws, and wondered what it was like to be so… colorful. He made his way closer, scooting through the shadows that still littered the land in the early morning light. Hm.

“Lady,” He whispered, as if afraid to disturb something in the stillness around him. “Hey lady.”


Mwale hadn't heard the approach of another lion, and that would have troubled her at any other point. How could she keep herself safe if she couldn't focus? But as distracted as she was, she couldn't be helped. Her thoughts were miles away, back in the pride, wondering if it had all been a bad dream and if her brother was just waiting at home for her to come back. What was she thinking, leaving the pride lands? He could come back at any moment, any day-- She jerked when she realized someone was calling out to her, and lifted her head from the water. She had meant to take a drink, but her thoughts had been sidelined again.

She really needed to work on that if she wanted to live long out here. She couldn't return to the pride with her tail tucked between her legs, after all...

She sat back as her eyes landed on a dark colored juvenile. She smiled tiredly as he approached, barely keeping a yawn from escaping. She hadn't slept well and it showed; she would need to rest again if she wanted to be able to make any distance in the day. "Good morning." She greeted as he came closer, sitting upright as the younger lion approached.

"You're up early." For all she knew, the juvenile could have been awake all night, but typically this early morning was so still, so quiet, that Mwale had no hopes at all of meeting another. It was peaceful and troubling; she could have slept longer, gained more energy to cross a great distance today. Instead, unbidden, she woke early and found herself unable to return to her sleep. Not with the nightmares plaguing her. She didn't want to see it again.


“Mornin,” he returned, after a moment’s hesitation, as if he had been uncertain as to how he was expected to respond. Manners had never been Azria’s strong suit, and least of all when he was busy examining the lioness’ pelt. It was just, it was just so interesting, and if he had ever seen anything like it before... well he hadn’t so it didn’t matter anyway.

“Hm, yea,” he bobbed his head in the affirmative as he snapped out of his reverie, and plopped his rear into the grass. “S’my time of day. Early in the morning, nobody’s up ragging on me or anything.” And he grinned that lopsided, roguish grin of his with an accompanying twinkle of cheekiness in his eyes well suited to a cub his age.

“It’s nice, yea?” He added, looking up at her. “You don’t look so good, though, so… maybe y’aren’t appreciating it like you should.” Sugar-coating things had never been his strong suit either.


She smiled wider, laughing a little as he grinned, and nodded in agreement. "It's peaceful." She agreed, though she would have preferred sleeping in. She blinked at his observation, and smirked a little. "You're smart for someone so young." She said idly, tilting her head as she examined the dark cub. He was too young to be without parents, it seemed. Where were his, then? She didn't ask, for fear of scaring off her new friend. It was hard to read on whether a rogue would run or not, and Mwale would have rathered play it safe than scare off someone to talk to.

She didn't run into people to talk too all that often, which was funny considering what she had come out here for, to begin with.

"I haven't slept well." She admitted. "My view of the morning is less... optimistic than it usually is." She often liked waking up early when she had enough sleep, because as groggy as she might be, she wasn't tired like she was now, and she could enjoy the warm sun as it rose and scared off the dark of night. "My name is Mwale." She said after a minute, smiling at him.

"What's yours?"


He almost agreed with the fact that he was smart, but caught himself when he realized that would perhaps have cast him in more arrogant a light than he might have wanted. By Azria’s reckoning, he didn’t have much call to be arrogant about anything. “But it’s okay,” he added after a moment’s pause. “The good part is that the morning doesn’t care if we appreciate it or not.” Or maybe it was the bad part, he couldn’t quite remember.

“My name’s Azria,” the juvenile said matter-of-factly. “S’nice to meet you, Mwale. And, you know, I heard, optimism is healthier for you. Keeps you young or sommat like that, so if’n you don’t mind me saying, I think you should remember to be more optimistic, Mwale.

“Cause I also heard that things get less pretty when they’re older, and, you’re not old or anything but, t’would be a shame if you had to get old, cause… you’re really pretty, see.” Another grin.


Mwale found herself blinking at the cub's compliment, and grinned a little, perking up. "Thank you, Azria." She said, amused. It wasn't the first compliment she'd received; her pelt was extraordinarily colored, and was often the subject of many lion's compliments. But it was different to hear from a young cub than a flirtacious lion. "I have to agree, though. Things aren't as nice as they were when I was a cub." She snorted a little. "Life gets complicated as you get older, believe me." She smiled at him.

"It's nice to meet you, too." She said belatedly, realizing she had forgotten to return the gesture. "I try to be optimistic, most days, but..." She laughed a little. "Sometimes even the worst nightmares shake a lion's optimism." She smiled at him, before looking around. There were no others around, and Mwale wondered if the cub really was alone. Though she would have never thought it before, if that were the case... she didn't think it was right, leaving a poor cub to fend for itself. Regardless of how old the cub was.

"Do you have parents nearby, Azria?" She asked after a moment of looking, frowning a little. It wasn't strange to see a young lion in the rogue lands, but typically the parent was not far off. She knew her aunt had always been a few paces behind her, always watching in case she and her brother needed help.


Oh, good, he was cheering her up. He knew how easy it was for adults to dismiss him as a raggedy cub that ran a little too wild for his own good – and that was okay, because it was, more or less, the truth – but what most of them failed to realize was that, on his own and without the false bravado that he tended to put on just for the sake of it, all it took to make his day was to see somebody else smile. And here he was, making this lioness he had only met moments before grin and seem happier already than when he had first met her.

“Well, a nightmare’s just a bad dream, innit?” He asked, tilting his head. Although to be honest, he could see where she was coming from. More than once, he had been rather shaken by a bad dream, but always, he’d had his mother to cuddle up next to and feel safe with afterward. Maybe, because Mwale was alone, she couldn’t do that. “Maybe you can wash it away; you can wash anything away with water.”

The black cub nodded. “Yup,” he glanced back the way he had come. “I live with my mama and my uncle. Just there.” He indicated vaguely into the distance. To be completely honest, he didn’t quite live ‘just there’ as he had put it, but a little ways back – but that was okay. He figured it would be fine, because it was the nearest water hole anyway.


Mwale nodded, frowning a little as she thought back to her dream. "Sometimes, though... They're vivid enough to feel real. That's how this one was. It... it felt real, you know?" She said, though even if he didn't, she wouldn't blame him. She couldn't write it off as a simple dream, because that's not how it felt. Though she knew certain lions had... abilities, she didn't want to accept that that's what it was. Some divine gift from a God, giving her sight into such horrors. She'd rather be normal, blind, than have dreams like that again.

"I'll try." She said after a minute. Washing up would have been nice anyway; she hated the feel of dirt and grit in her fur, especially beneath her paw pads, and washing had become a daily ritual if she had the watering hole to bathe in. She smiled as he spoke of his guardians, her eyes flicking to where he had indicated. "And let me guess; you're the first one up every day." She smirked a little. Her brother had been the same way, often nudging her and her aunt awake at the crack of dawn as soon as he was conscious.

"My brother used to wake up first." She said idly, tail flicking to and fro as she spoke of him. It made it less painful, to speak of him as though he were still alive. For all she knew, he was. It could have been a horrific dream. She hoped it was, anyway. Dreams, she could forget.


“I think I know,” he said. “Like when you wake up, and you just know something’s gonna happen.” He was thinking of the morning he’d woken up and just known that he was going to catch something that day, like the wildebeest he had stalked in his dream the night before. And he suspected that maybe it wasn’t exactly that, but it was as close as he could come to sympathizing, and he figured it must be better than not understanding at all.

“Yea,” he bobbed his head encouragingly. Yes, a bath made everything better – or, for a cub like Azria, more like a happy romp in the water. “But you gotta…” He rose and hopped over to the water’s edge, slapping his paw into the water so that a small wave rose and went splashing toward Mwale. “Have fun with it, y’know?”

He leaned over to peer at his reflection briefly. “Mhm, up with the dawn,” he said, rather proudly. If there was absolutely nothing that Azria could lay claim to, there was this: waking up to greet the day with the sun. “I just figure, the sunrise and the early morning? It was made for somebody, so it might’s well be me.”

The cub pulled back from peering into the water to fix his attention back to the lioness. “He doesn’t anymore?”

"Exactly." Mwale nodded in agreement, sighing a little. "It's... disconcerting." Especially when one saw what she had seen, the poor dear. She was terrified of even closing her eyes, fearing that black oozing smoke would come and swallow her whole again. She smiled a little at him. "It gets better, though." She said after a minute. The more distance she put between herself and the dream, the better she would feel. That's what she believed, that's what she hoped anyway. If not, would she be stuck running forever from some phantom version of her father?

No. She wouldn't run forever. She blinked as the cub slapped water at her, and laughed a little. "Oh, of course." She smirked, and splashed water back at him, bemused with the cub's explanation. Having fun in the water did sound like a nice cure for her case of woe. She quite enjoyed playing in the water when she was younger. It would no doubt make her think less on the wrong things in the world and more on the good.

She grinned a little, nodding as he spoke. Her grin shrunk a little at his question. "No..." She shook her head, smiling sadly. "He doesn't. Not that I know of, anyway. We lost each other." It was easier to believe that he was only lost, not dead. It made her actually want to get up in the morning, and not just hide in her den until she grew old and faded away with time. "But he used to; first one up every morning, last one in bed. He was quite the rambunctious cub." She snorted a little, amused. She was hardly any better, but it was always Mtoto who got the headsmack for it.

Well. Azria couldn’t imagine life getting any less complicated than this – splashing in the water and exchanging stories and anecdotes – but by his reckoning, it was about as complicated as life deserved to get. Maybe it was just that youngster’s optimism that he seemed to have, but life, it seemed to him, was just the canvas and it was what he decided to do with it that made it what it was or would be. Everyone made their own destinies, and if that was in fact the case, then nobody should make it any more difficult than he so desired, and most certainly, he shouldn’t let it go spinning out of control.

He skittered sideways in an unsuccessful attempt to dodge the water that came splashing toward him, and laughed as he blinked the droplets from his eyes and shook himself. “That’s better,” he said brightly. Everything was better when it was fun.

“Oh.” He said, the laughter fading slightly from his eyes at the news. Well, that had to suck, and darn it if he wasn’t going to make it – what else – better. Although he was half drenched, he made his way over to hug on Mwale’s foreleg. Forget that they were mere acquaintances. A hug was a hug, and when the situation called for one, who was he not to respond? “Well, I hope you find him again.” He added. “I mean, sometimes my sisters and them annoy me, but I wouldn’t want to lose them either. I’m sure you will though,” he decided. “S’not so big a world out there.” Didn’t seem like it, anyway.

Mwale laughed as the cub tried to dodge her attack in vain, smirking a little at him. It was nice, playing with a cub. She hadn't had many to play with in the Fire Nation, most of the younger members were already juveniles or adolescents, and they acted like adults. It was the Fire Nation way, she supposed, to make children grow up quickly to fulfill their roles. She hoped that her own cubs wouldn't become so... grown at such a young age.

The hug actually threw Mwale off, though she wouldn't admit to it. She lowered her eyes to the cub hugging her foreleg, and smiled weakly, blinking away the feeling of tears prickling up at the corners of her eyes. He was such a sweet cub. "I hope to, some day." She said after a minute, rather lamely. "I remember when we were younger, he'd irritate me quite a bit." She laughed a little. "Bane of having siblings, I guess." But she'd give her own life if it meant seeing Mtoto one last time. Even if it were just long enough to cuff him in the head for being an idiot and not going home when they were supposed to.

She looked towards the sky, the sun already making its ascent to the highest point in the sky. It was growing brighter. "Your mother might be awake by now." She said quietly, lowering her eyes back to Azria. "It's getting brighter out." It wasn't necessarily late by any means but Mwale couldn't help the concern she felt. If she'd woken to one of her cubs having disappeared, she knew she'd be in a panic.

“I think the gods will unnerstand,” he said, somewhat ponderously because he had but a limited understanding of what gods were other than the fact that they had powers of some sort. “They’ll help you find him, you’ll see!” And he was absolutely convinced of that. Good creatures deserved to have good things happen to them, and when those things had to do with family… well, Azria couldn’t see how any god could not understand just how important that all was. Everybody needed somebody to love and cherish, even the gods.

He glanced up at the sky at Mwale’s words, and watched the sun for a second before untangling himself from the lioness’s leg and scooting back out of her personal space. “Yea, I guess I should go back,” he said somewhat reluctantly. There was something about the moments he had just shared with Mwale that he didn’t quite want to give up. Azria suspected that if she was, indeed, going to go look for her brother, or even do anything else, the likelihood that he was going to see her again was slim; but then again, maybe that was okay. He imagined that the memory of their brief encounter would be a long time in fading, though for what reasons he wasn’t quite sure (not the least of which would be her intricately patterned coat).

“Jus’ remember what I said: the world can’t be that big.” And even if it was, the forces that be would be on her side, and everything would be okay. “And also, the water. Don’t forget the water, it’s got healing powers.” He got up to leave. “You’ll see.” The cub said again, and once more flashed that lopsided grin of his, standing there half-turned for a second as if to solidify the image he had of her in his mind, and then he was gone, scrambling to get back home before his mother found herself panicking in his absence.