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 Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 2:03 pm
 The pale, sky colored leopard made his way slowly up the mountain trail, his eyes not really seeing where his paws were leading him. It had been a long month traveling beside Silabh,and while the large lion had been a healing presence, once he had left the young healer here within the Shrine Keepers lands, Lihau had once more felt the despair and darkness fill his heart.
The few moons after the complete destruction of his Pride had been spent caring for the pawful of survivors, trying to save their lives and treat their injuries. He'd been the only healer left, and he'd only been an apprentice. Then Nevena had subcumed to her wounds and died, her daughter, Sadara, had left, and Liahu had been alone with nothing but time and his thoughts on his paws.
He couldn't remember a day that he'd not spent in mourning since then. Now he was here, with Silabh's words ringing in his ears, ' Rest little one, heal..regain what you've lost. This place, this Pride, will help you do that.'
Liahu looked up at the clear, flawless sky, then back down at the mountains and trees, he saw the beauty, he really did...but he could feel nothing in his heart, but loss and loneliness.
He missed his Pride, he missed Sadara, he missed Lani, his avain friend who'd gone with Sadara to keep an eye on her for a few weeks. Would Lani even be able to find him here? Would she look for Silabh and the large lion would tell her what had become of Liahu?
The tears welled up again, and he sat down to the side of the trail, tears falling to wet his paws, the seeds along his ear making a soft tinkling sound as he hung his head.
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Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 5:19 pm
 It was a rare day when Katashi was not needed to move stones about the mountainside. In truth he had been long over due for a day off, with the new pride finally getting under way, he had been kept busy from dawn till dusk, organizing and shifting the stones to their various shrines, and in the little downtime he and his lion friend had, he had been working on a harness to help him in his job. In fact he had been using it for a week now and it was a real help. He was even starting to regrow the fur on his shoulders which had been rubbed raw since the start of the shrine building but which his new invention had helped protect. It was not perfect yet and there were some adjustments he wanted to make, but for today, he was determined to just relax and rest his weary muscles.
With that goal in mind he had left the main hub of the pride and wandered down the mountainside, paws following the path while his attention wandered, paying attention to nothing in particular. It was only belatedly that he heard something up ahead and turned his attention towards it, ears pricking as his green eyes discovered the hunched shape of a pale blue leopard. The figure appeared to be in pain and concerned, the large Shifter hurried his step, arriving close to the stranger within moments.
"Greetings.. is everything alright?" His low, deep voice matched the rest of his heavily muscled body and intelligent yet calm eyes.
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Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:59 pm
Liahu blinked as the deep,warm, toned voice carried to his ears, pausing in mid-sniff. He'd thought he'd be alone in this out of the way trail and suddenly finding that he was not, and finding that he had been caught crying...again...made the little healer blush with embarrassment. He bit his lip and turned to look over his shoulder at the owner of the voice, causing his head band to slip a little, which only made his bangs fall over his pale blue eyes, making him look all the more lost then he already did.
At first he thought the other feline was a young lion, still awaiting his mane, but with a start, he realized it was another leopard like him...well not like him at all, a stronger, larger, more filled out male. The realization made his heart hurt even more, because the stranger could have been anyone of his brothers, who had always been bigger then him, the runt of the litter.
Sniffing, Liahu nodded, not trusting his voice to answer the stranger and his question. It wasn't a lie, he really was all right, he wasn't bleeding or sick. It was just that he couldn't...he couldn't handle the thought that he was truly all alone. There was no one left who knew him from before...even Silabh was gone and with the loss of the large male, it was as if his whole world had ended.
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Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:12 pm
Takashi saw the nod but he certainly didn't believe it. One did not need physical wounds to be wounded and from the looks of the small leopard, he was wounded somewhere deep within. Padding forwards he touched the stranger on the shoulder carefully, well aware of his abnormal strength and size and not wanting to add physical wounds to the young stranger's problems.
"Are you alone out here?" Something told Takashi that it was true.. this youth was lost somehow. His adornments were stunning in design and richness, which seemed to suggest he was someone important in a pride... but Takashi didn't know of a pride anywhere even close to his own, especially one that had as delicate a crafter as those items required.
Truly concerned about the youth he shifted round till he could bring the stranger into the lee of his body, shielding him from the mountain winds that could chill a leopard in minutes if they weren't used to it. "Why don't you come down to the valley.. I am sure there is some of the kill left over... you look like you could do with a meal."
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Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:51 pm
Lihau looked up at the stranger, meeting his gaze only for a second before his own slid away. He thought he looked kind, like someone you could trust, let them be your strength for a little while...but then when they left...and they always left...Silabh had, hadn't he...then you were all by yourself again. Bereft of that strength that you didn't know you needed until it wasn't there anymore. He knew he wasn't being fair to the large lion, or to Sadara..or even to Nevena....
When the leopard came around and pulled him nearer to his warm body, Liahu went still, as if he had been carved from the earth, barely breathing. Not because he was afraid, but because he knew that if he gave into the tempting warmth of the other male, if he let himself be comforted, he'd shatter into a thousand pieces, and he'd never put himself back together again.
The other's words were tempting, so very tempting, but Silabh had said he needed to find the mountain pride, not the valley pride. Swallowing, he shook his head, and touched a paw to his healer's bag. It was well worn, scuffed, torn and tattered...just like the little leopard who owned it.
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Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:59 pm
The youth was acting very strangely and Katashi was getting more and more worried. "Well, you need to stay warm and eat, my den is one of the higher ones up the mountain slope. Its warm enough but I don't have any food there... though if you stayed there I could go fetch something for you.."
Lowering his head he studied the worn youth then made a swift decision. The boy looked like he was about to keel over, but was going to be stubborn about accepting help, so Katashi decided he wouldn't give the pale leopard the choice. Standing he swiftly caught the far smaller male by the scruff of his neck and with a deft twist of his body, set the youth across his back. Instantly he let go and flowed forwards into a ground eating lope, preventing the youth getting off his back without hurting himself, and he hoped the stranger wasn't that obstinate.
It wasn't long till they had crossed the ridge and moved higher up the mountain side before slipping into a low point between two bluffs and finally coming to a halt outside the shifter's den. Dipping his shoulder he carefully slid the youth from his back then stood up, studying the blue male intently, still concerned. "This is my quarters... feel free to make yourself at home."
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Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 11:56 pm
Liahu made an undignified squeaking sound as he was grabbed by the scruff and flipped onto the broad back of the stranger. Whatever he had been expecting, it hadn't been this. When the large leopard broke into the ground eating lope, he made another squeaking noise and ended up digging his claws into the harness around the other's shoulders just to keep from falling off. Sheer terror gave him the strength he lacked physically to keep himself more or less in the saddle until they blissfully stopped.
Still sorta shell shocked, Liahu slipped from the stranger's tall back and onto the ground, his paws shaking so much they held him for only a few seconds before they gave out and he sank to the den's floor, landing hard on his rump.
Blinking owlishly, the small pale blue leopard looked around, not noticing that he was clutching his healer's bag tight to his chest or that his head band had fallen nearly all the way forward, giving him a waifish, lost look.
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Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:04 am
The startled look on the youngster's expression made Takashi have to hide a smile that wanted to creep across his muzzle, not that he thought the situation amusing, but that the blue male looked so cute sat in his den all disheveled and lost. The strength of his interest in the younger was a surprise to him and he took a moment to study the leopard. After a moment he stepped forwards and gently placed his large, scared paw on the youth's shoulder.
"Feel free to rest. I have a grass nest in the back and there is a small catcher-bowl of water close to it." Nodding towards the dimmed area beyond the youth, where his bed sat and the catcher-bowl, which was an old worked tortoise shell that caught the slow drip of a water-vein in the roof of his den. It made an excellent emergency supply though it was small and wouldn't even be able to sustain a leopard on its own, it was handy of a night when it was rather too cold to go out and down to the river.
"I wont be long, and then you can eat."
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Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:22 am
Liahu looked over his shoulder at where the other leopard pointed, the grip on his bag tightening. He really was worn out, and thirsty, and if he really thought about, hungry too. He hadn't eaten well while traveling with Silbha, and he had only himself to blame for that. Still, he didn't know this leopard from any other and he wasn't sure he could trust him. Though...what was the worst he could do to him...kill him?
Liahu almost snorted, he didn't see how that could be a bad thing, not over all. Then he could be with the rest of his Pride, and with his family. The thought of his family made tears come to his eyes again, and he choked back some sniffles just as the large paw came to rest on his shoulder.
He knew he was blinking at it like an idiot, but he couldn't help himself. It was such a solid looking paw, with large pads and rough claws. A paw used to working, and nearly as big as his own head, it was, as Alayiah would have said, a paw you could relie on to keep you safe.
Kienan, her mate, had such paws....
Liahu sniffed again, his tears falling without him even noticing, to wet the fur of the paw he looked at so intently as a delicate tremble ran through him.
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Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:30 am
Katashi almost withdrew his touch, at first misunderstanding the stare, but then the youth started to shake and before he could even consider his own instinct, he had drawn the pale leopard against his chest, one foreleg wrapped round the frail body as he arched his powerful neck over the younger male, warm tongue dragging gently through the newcomer's fur tuft over his head and ear.
"Easy there... its alright. You are safe here. We are the Ulili-Mlindaji, the Shrine-keepers. I won't let anyone hurt you."
Keeping the youngster tucked close against his muscular body, Katashi was surprised by just how tiny the blue male was, he was barely bigger than some of the juve cubs he had seen around the pride. He couldn't be much older than adolescent himself, with how timid he was. The large shifter couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the youth, but he was hardly going to pry, that was the last thing the stranger needed. No, Katashi was determined he would rest and eat, and soon.
Holding the youth close he waited, letting the boy cry himself out.
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Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:45 am
It was all it took, that gentle embrace and reassuring lick to his forelock, to make the crumbling damn inside Liahu beak away. Sobbing silently, the little leopard broke down, crying so hard his whole body shook with the force of it.
A part of his mind recognized the name as the name that Silbha had given him, that this was the Pride he had been told to find, but it seemed unimportant at the moment in his worn out physical and emotional state.
The delicate little healer ended up clinging to the fur of the male who held him as he cried himself sick, not stopping until his body couldn't handle anymore of the abuse he had put it through and he passed out from sheer exhaustion, becoming dead weight in the large leopard's embrace.
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Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:51 am
Katashi gathered the younger close as he broken down, wrapping Lihau up in his large, muscular strength. The scent of his fur was that of the mountain, fresh and slightly windblown with an undercurrent of stone dust.
All the while that the younger clung to him, Katashi returned the embrace carefully, holding the youth close, licking the pale ear and nuzzling his hair and cheek gently, trying to bring some small measure of comfort.
Eventually the sobs died down as the blue male fell into a deep slumber. Katashi studied him a long time before gently gathering him up and padding into the back of the den where he placed Lihau down on the large nest of dried sweetgrass and moss the shifter had collected to make his bed. Once the younger was settled, Katashi stepped onto the bedding and curled up around the frail figure, his thick tail curling up and over the pale blue body as he stretched his head down on the moss, green eyes watching the youth quietly.
Katashi watched over his charge all night, his large body wrapped protectively round the younger leopard, blocking the slight breeze that managed to find its way in from the entrance. He would hunt in the morning, after his guest had woken and he had made sure the stranger was stable.
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