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 Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:21 am
To say that Farvardin was feeling somewhat at a loss would have been putting it kindly. Everything had happened in what seemed like such a short period of time... so much had happened that wrapping his mind around it all was still a rather exacting task.
In a flash, their little band had melded into the Mwezi'Johari, and no longer was his King a King. Quite the opposite, in fact, and Farvardin had joined him in the lowly position of a slave.
Granted, it wasn't such a terrible thing to be, all things considered. He didn't feel mistreated or overly looked down upon. The only thing that really marked him as a slave was his apparent birth in the wrong part of the moon's cycle, and it wasn't something he particularly doubted. That, perhaps, was the one factor in all this change that Farvardin felt he could accept. His birth was his birth, no matter how he looked at it, and that it could be interpreted as whatever it had been interpreted as was but a fact of life.
The implications of that interpretation, however, was another story. Because now... now, everything that had defined him since his childhood was being taken away from him, and that did not make any sense at all. He was the protector, not one to be protected, but that had all changed. In an instant, he had become someone else and this new, bizarre identity had him reeling.
The tall lion withdrew from his reverie, only to realize with a jolt that he wasn't... particularly sure where he had managed to wander off to. Darn. His golden eyes searched his surroundings, seeking a clue, but in vain, and he realized that he had managed to get himself somewhat lost. Well, that was embarrassing. Although by all intents and purposes, it seemed as though he was fitting into his rank of helpless lion with ease.
He shook his head and sighed. Already, his mind was working, thinking back on his every move to spot the mistake, the wrong turn, analyzing both his thoughts and his route. Now, there was a mistake he would never make again.
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:59 pm
 Sa'ibabaw was running around, having a grand old time. It was what she did, pretty much constantly, even when she was having lessons or working. She always tried to have a grand old time. Old people were too serious.
Especially her mom. Yeah, her dad disappeared, never to be heard from again, but her mom could get a new husband and a new dad for her cubs. The Great Lion would take care of things. There wasn't much point in worrying about it.
On the track ahead of her, she saw a green lion. He was awfully far away from everyone else! What was he doing out here, all alone? She had to find out.
Sa'ibabaw fairly bounced up to him in her eagerness to be helpful like her brother was.
"Hello, there! What are you doing out here all alone? Did you get lost? I never get lost except when I was very little and then Ojore found me and he helped me not get lost anymore so now I can help you not be lost. I'm Sa'ibabaw, who're you?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:10 am
And all of a sudden, even before he had managed to comprehend what was happening, he found himself pelted with questions. He heard the stream of words long before he turned around and caught sight of the little lioness, bouncing about gleefully. And she had figured out that he was lost. Oh dear, how embarrassing.
He considered, briefly, denying everything and pretending like he was doing perfectly fine on his own. But he didn't suppose bravado would help him any here. Not only did she seem eager to help, she was also but a little thing, and who was she going to tell about this?
Everyone...? The little voice mused in his head, but he shut it out with a brief frown. Better to have the news spread than be stuck here for days. Then the news would really spread.
"I'm uh... yea." He said finally, without bothering to come up with any excuses. In any case, the best he might have come up with wasn't likely to have convinced even the most gullible of children, and he wasn't quite in the mood to test the waters with this one. "My name's Farvardin. I'm kind of new here."
Yea, he was pretty damn new, so he supposed that was.. excuse enough for now. "What are you doing out here?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 2:31 pm
"Hi Farvardin! I was playing and now I'm talking to you. How did you get all the way out here?"
He had said he was kind of new here, and Sa'ibabaw didn't recognize him. Then again, she didn't recognize many people aside from her siblings and her mom. It was only a bit ago that her mom started letting her run around, and soon she would have to go into training or something. But for now she was having fun.
"I thought all of the grown ups were supposed to have jobs! Don't you have a job? I didn't know you could just wander around like I do. You have nice eyes! They're like the sun. Do you want me to take you back to where you belong?"
As Sa'ibabaw talked, she kept bouncing around and around, so he would have to move if he wanted to keep an eye on her. She didn't seem to be able to sit still.
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Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 6:51 pm
"I just... wandered out," he said, glancing back the way he had come. "Kind of didn't pay attention." Which he knew was a bad idea, always had, considering the fact that his sense of direction had never been wonderful. Still, he supposed he had a bit of a tendency to do things that he knew would not bode entirely well for him.
"Uhm..." He considered her next question. Did he have a job? Not really. His job was really just to do the jobs that everybody else told him to do, which he was okay with, if he was being completely honest. He just didn't particularly like the title he had been given for that job. It was more a mental chafing than anything, then he supposed he would grow used to it in time.
Now was not that time, however, and it still gnawed at him somewhat to think that he had suddenly been placed under the rule and protection of creatures that he would otherwise have been doing his best to keep safe and happy.
"Well, apparently I was born during the wrong time of the month." He said with a small shrug, and left it at that. Already, he was doing his best not to seem too blunt to the happy, bouncing cub, but it had never really been his nature to... talk. He certainly hadn't done much of that in his childhood.
"But thank you," he said, somewhat surprised by the off-hand way with which Sa'ibabaw had given the compliment. "Your eyes are beautiful too." He said after a moment's scrutiny, and not simply for the sake of returning a compliment. He quite liked that bright amber-orange of her eyes.
"That would be good," He added, doing his best to follow her erratic movements. Yes, becoming unlost would certainly be a good idea.
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Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 7:20 pm
Sa'ibabaw knew what he meant.
"It's ok, that's why you have pride members. You should marry one of the fancy ladies and then you can have a real job! And then it wouldn't matter. I bet you know my mom, that's how my mom is. She knows a lot of lions that the Great Lion didn't see. She says it's cause they were outsiders."
Sa'ibabaw didn't quite understand why the Great Lion didn't just keep his eye open all of the time, but she was sure she would when she was older.
"You have such nice eyes so one of them will fall for you. But if you follow me now, I can get you back to where you want to be! I know how. Where do you want to be?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 8:27 am
Farvardin couldn't help but smile. She made it sound so simple - and maybe it was. Maybe he was just over-complicating things, making them seem like insurmountable obstacles by stewing over them without pause. But at the moment, it didn't seem like everything was as easily fixed as Sa'ibabaw imagined.
The whole... marriage part was difficult enough in and of itself. He had never been particularly gifted with the ladies, had never really known what to say to them. And he had the sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't quite notice a lioness' interest in him even if she spelled it out for him.
But such was life.
"Who's your mother?" He asked, curious. Now that she mentioned it, it felt as though he recognized her from somewhere. Although if he was being completely honest with himself, Farvardin had to admit that he wasn't the most social of lions, and he hadn't managed to make all too many new friends within the Mwezi'johari. But he chalked that up to the new life situation he found himself in, and nothing more. That was, at least, he wasn't to blame.
He chuckled at her comment, a rarity for the usually somewhat surly lion. "That's the hope, I suppose," he said, shaking his head. "But if the eyes alone don't do it, I doubt I'd know what to do."
But he didn't suppose he should be lamenting his romantic failures to a child. "I can be anywhere, I think. Just... somewhere closer to the rest of the lions so I can be a little less lost."
((SO sorry for the lag! D8 ))
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 6:50 pm
"My mom's name is Ukali'Masa, and she wasn't born in the pride either, so you probably know each other. She seems to know everyone who wasn't born in the pride but she's all grumpy so she says we can't bother anyone cause we're too young and we talk to much and people don't like to be pestered even though no one tells me that I'm pestering them."
Sa'ibabaw turned around and looked back the way she had come.
"The rest of the pride is this way so you should follow me and I can get you back to where you're supposed to be. Mom says that the way to a lion's heart is through his stomach, though, so I think that the way to a lioness's heart is probably through her stomach too so you could bring her something to eat if she didn't notice your eyes. That would probably work, I think".
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Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 7:15 pm
"Ah, you're one of Masa's daughters," he nodded. Now that she had pointed it out, he could see the resemblance. It was a shame that he hadn't recognized it sooner. The fact that Sa'ibabaw was related to another lion originally from the Ilanga'izwe already made him feel more comfortable and less like he was at home with strangers, as he was apt to feel now with the Mwezi'Johari. It would take some getting used to, he knew, but perhaps... part of it was simply that he didn't really want to adjust.
"Well, you can come talk to me anytime you want," he offered. Not only did her mere presence remind him a little bit of home, she was also Masa's daughter, which by default made her somebody that Farvardin ought to look after and protect. That was what he would have done, had they still been seeking the Mwezi, and it was certainly what he would do now.
He glanced at her thoughtfully, considering her logic. It certainly seemed to make sense... It was so beautifully simple, in fact, that he wondered why he hadn't thought of it before. "You're pretty smart, aren't you..." he mused.
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Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 8:30 pm
"Mommy doesn't think so," she said, leading the way back to the inhabited parts of the Mwezi lands. "Mommy thinks I'm not very smart cause I never ever stop talking, but Ojore says that it's because we both look more like daddy then we look like her and that makes her sad so she isn't as nice to us. But Mommy had a hard life so it isn't fair to judge her about that, we just need to all do our best."
Sa'ibabaw didn't like to speak ill of her mother. But that was the way it was. No point in being gloomy about it, though; the pride and Ojore looked after her and Sa'ibabaw could be happy even if her mom never would be.
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Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 8:21 pm
"Oh... well, your daddy... had his reasons..." he said haltingly. Not that held anything against Masa. She was a kind lioness, and a living reminder to their ties to the past. Farvardin hadn't a mean word to say about her, but neither did he have anything against Sa'ibabaw's father. It hadn't been ideal, the situation that he had left behind him, but Farvardin had always thought to each his own, and Masa's mate had had every right not to follow Kobe to the Mwezi'Johari.
"Yea, it's complicated... and difficult. He's right, just need to do your best," he shook his head, feeling flustered by the sudden reminder of the past. The times had been harder, but he had felt less troubled back then. There hadn't been as many emotional obstacles, no matter how difficult the situation had been.
Now, everything was different. There were cubs, and moons, and people that he couldn't protect - lions that, in turn, thought they protected him. None of it was anything he had ever been used to, and none of it seemed like anything he would grow used to in a jiffy. So perhaps they all had it hard. Perhaps they all just needed to do their best.
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:12 am
"It's ok, whereever daddy is, he's probably happier and we're safe here and soon I'll get to move into a den of my own and be a grown up and then mommy won't matter. But we're almost back now - you can make it the rest of the way yourself, if you don't want everyone to know you got lost."
Sa'ibabaw sat down and looked down the rough path toward the rest of the pride. "I won't tell that you got lost."
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