[SRP] The Tempter (Nkemdilim x Pokonya)

[hibi-tea]

Nkemdilim found herself escaping today. She had been naughty and told Tichaona she was feeling very ill, and as soon as he left her den she bolted. She did not want another round with the bright blue-eyed, seductive male. Her feelings were so down in the gutter lately with her inability to produce heirs, and the fact he kept showing up out of nowhere kept her so edgy she felt her heart may stop beating.

After having run for an hour, far from their little pridal home, Nkemdilim fell down into a grassy patch, so green and vibrant it seemed almost dream-like. She sighed heavily, panting as she finally broke down and big tears lowed down her cheeks, "I don't know if I can do this anymore. I don't know if I can stay there anymore."

Honor. Honor for her family, honor for her pride, none of it mattered at this very moment. She was so tired, emotionally, physically. She did not want to feel him on her again. She didn't want to hear his meaningless words and praise. She wanted something true. None of this was true.  

[hibi-tea]

Pokonya had been sleeping soundly under the cool shade of a nearby rock when he felt the ground shake beneath him. His eyes darted open and he gave a hiss, thinking he had been discovered by some giant prey beast or hunter. When he didn't noticed someone immediately around him, he slowly slithered out from his comfortable spot, a little grouchy at the fact he had been disturbed.

"What is with all this racket?" He hissed, allowing his annoyance to show brightly until he heard the loud sobbing of a woman nearby. Slithering about, it didn't take him long to find who was making such unsavory noises. She was the color of sand and seemed greatly upset.

"Why are you crying?" He demanded, finding no reason for her to be upset. She was the one had bothered him from his nap, after all.  

[hibi-tea]

Nkemdilim looked up to locate the voice of the one who demanded to know why she wept. It wasn't their place to demand anything of her, and she would weep in her sorrow wherever she wanted. When she noticed it was a serpent who had addressed her she seemed a little confused for a moment. It must think it was far bigger than it truly is, because no other snake she had encountered had the gaul to be so snarky to a full grown lion, male or female.

"Who're you?" Nkemdilim asked, rubbing her paws to her eyes, attempting to dry the tears that flooded her sandy colored face. "I-I have the right to cry wherever and whenever I please."

Her voice shook as she said that and it was apparent she didn't believe her own words most of them time. The poor thing, she lacked so much confidence that she had to feign illness and hide just to get some time for herself.  

[hibi-tea]

"Sure," Pokonya said, flicking his tongue at her, "Your attempts at faking confidence are pitiful. You should go back to crying, frail woman. It's what you're best at."

Pokonya approached the lioness close, not feeling an ounce of danger in her presence. She looked docile and depressed. He doubted she had it in her to harm him, let alone something that was not purposed solely for food and even that was iffy.

"Your sobbing is loud and annoying, either tell me why you're crying or I shall bite you," Pokonya demanded, slithering his way next to the lioness and hiding underneath one of her legs.  

[hibi-tea]

Nkemdilim looked at the snake with an annoyed look. She knew his words were true and it pained her. Sighing, she resigned herself to answering the annoying snake's questions to save herself from being bitten. She wasn't sure whether or not he was serious about biting her for not answering his question, but she did not wish to find out either way.

"I am crying because I don't know if I can accept my lot in life anymore," She said, rubbing at her eyes once again. "I am the consort of two Kings. My job is to please whatever whims they may have and produce heirs. It's no going so well..."

She sighed, her loneliness seeping through her words. Strangers were the only ones she could confide in. Confiding in the rest of the pride would gain her looks of displeasure, and possibly result in either Mwenye or Tichaona hearing of her complaints.  

[hibi-tea]

"I don't see what's so wrong with your lot in life. Things could be worse after all," Pokonya said, rolling his eyes and moving out from underneath Nkemdilim's shadow. Despite being shadowed and in cooler dirt, the lioness's body was giving off enough heat to conflict his delicate temperature balance. He needed to be one or the other, not both at once.

"If you're really unhappy, why don't you just leave?" He suggested, slithering in circles back and forth to crack the little bones in his scaled back. "Abandon everything you know and take off for lands uncharted."  

[hibi-tea]

Nkemdilim looked as if the unthinkable had been uttered to her. There was no way she could leave her family and her pride behind. Miserable or not, they were both important to her and it was simply not an option. She shook her head to the snake and gave him a saddened look.

"I could never do something like that. My family would be so disappointed in me, I could never show my face to any of them again," She explained, although she didn't think the snake really gave a damn about her problems. He simply wanted her to stop sobbing so he could go back to sleep.  

[hibi-tea]

"Than why are you blubbering?" He hissed, moving away father away from her, growing overly tired of the pointless conversation he was having with someone who wasn't going to bother to change their own stars.

"You've clearly made up your mind about things. If you would never leave, than why complain? Deal with it like so many others do who don't get to choose in life," He said, finding her to be so childish for someone who is to be a consort. Couldn't they have been gifted with something better?  

[hibi-tea]

Nkemdilim stared as the snake as it left her presence slowly. How could anything in life ever be as cruel as that snake had just been to her? Even Tichaona was not bad to her, but this snake. This serpentine creature whose life she could easily end with her jaw or paw... he was black in his soul. She wondered if he even had a soul.

"Y-you... You are an evil little thing! There is not a shred of decency in you anywhere!" She hissed, tears returning to her eyes but for different reasons.

She knew the snake would not care about what she said, after all he just wanted her to shut up so he could be in peace. So why would he care what she said at all? He didn't.  

[hibi-tea]

Pokonya slithered further on, scoffing at the lioness's attempts to upset him. He had been called worse in his day and had done worse in his day. No silly little lioness without the gaul to run off from circumstances that made her truly unhappy was going to sway his mood or hurt his feelings. Perhaps somewhere else he could find someone else worth the effort to berate.