It hadn't been more than a couple days since Bunikee had left the safety of the den of her new and unlikely friends, Inatarni and Antallian. Her mind was no less foggy for having taken a break in the company of two lions who did their best to listen- though she had tried to keep babbling to a minimum. She knew when there was a point at which everybody would just smile and nod to her, there was no easy answer to her quest or she would have found it by now.
While her mind was no less difficult to follow, somehow she had managed to make it some distance from the den without ending up in another large circle. She followed her heart but she was slowly losing patience with it. There was nothing here and she doubted she would ever find whatever it was that told her she ought to come out here.
She had just finished having a confusing argument with a bird she wouldn't recognize if it came by again and was feeling particularly agitated with herself and everything around her. Sitting in the shade of the tree the avian had once occupied, she stared up at the branches grouchily.
Amalahle was having a fairly standard day in her rogue life. It had been some time since she left the Firekin and she had no regrets. She had two strong daughters that were far better for their parentage and upbringing than they would have been back in the pride, or so Amalahle would argue stubbornly.
Now that the girls were getting older, she was testing them a bit more- and wondering if and how they might leave her now that they were old enough to take care of themselves. She'd sent them off hunting on their own to see what they did and so she was on her own for a while, she decided to take a look around.. and perhaps see if she could find a distant spot to watch the hunt. When she happened by the strange, staring lioness, she barely seemed to notice her at first but after a doubletake, Amalahle came to a stop and looking on with mild confusion.
What was her problem?
Half-expecting the avian to return for a second go at their disagreement, Bunikee was aware of the rustling sound of an approaching lion. Her ears twitched and at first she determinedly kept staring at the branch.. until the sound stopped and she realized that it could not be the bird making such a racket in the grasses. The sound was from something larger.. and red, she noticed from her peripheral vision.
Still, Bunikee wasn't prepared for what she saw when she finally looked down. She was not unfamiliar with the color red, some of her siblings had red markings.. but the most red she knew was on Xerxes and, to a lesser extent in her mind, his mother. Both came to mind immediately upon meeting eyes with the stranger staring at her. Her expression was even reminiscent of Xerxes.
Suddenly thinking of her old friend, she stayed silent and stared at Amalahle in confusion.
Amalahle had very low expectations from the lioness who seemed intent on spending her time staring at a tree but the confused look of recognition she got surprised her. She had no idea what was going on in Buni's mind, just as she had no real grasp on how large her family really was.. her first thought was that her fur gave her away as a firekin. Well, former firekin since they were nowhere near the desert.
"D'you do anything but stare?" she asked, offering a small, self-important smile.
Yes, the similarities were uncanny. Even the attitude matched the expectation. Buni had no idea how large Xerxes family was but it was impossible for them not to be related, she decided. There were many differences but she would have been willing to bet the red was the same.. and then there was the fact the mark on her forehead was similar to that on one of Xerxes' sisters.
"Are you anything but rude?" she shot back after pausing to gather her thoughts.
"Depends on who you ask."
Amalahle was surprised that the stranger had some bite to her, she didn't much look it. She was so much the opposite of what a firekin was supposed to look like. That little detail combined with the strange behavior, of course Amalahle had decided she had to be a helpless idiot.
"Staring is rude," she added, "And dangerous."
Her tail swayed behind her. She had no real intention of actually starting a fight but it was true that being rude to the wrong lion could be trouble. Whether or not Buni's attitude surprised her, Amalahle was still quite certain she could take the smaller lioness in a fight.
"True," Buni agreed. She was familiar with these kinds of attitudes when making small talk but she was hardly in the mood to fight back properly. It was easy enough to agree with the truth, at least.
"You startled me," she confessed, looking Amalahle up and down, "You look very much like an old friend of mine, I'd guess you were a relative of his." She didn't know why she bothered explaining, perhaps she just wanted to talk about him.
"Xerxes," she added.
Hmph. That was a let down. The lioness had enough in her to snap back at the comment about staring but just folded under the threat of a fight? That was uninteresting.. and unworthy of actually starting a fight over. She was about ready to just move on until Bunikee spoke up.
"All my relatives are in the Motoujamii," she said, her tone mixed between pride and dislike as she left out the part of the name indicating the rebel side of the old war. She was proud of her origins but she was unhappy with the pride as it was.
"I don't know anybody by that name," she added, her nose wrinkling. Xerxes was not a Firekin appropriate name, it didn't seem likely to her. Perhaps the strange lioness was an idiot. Though.. perhaps it was also small minded to say she could have no relatives outside the pride. The Safi were all about pure blood but who knew how messed up everything truly was.
"No, I am quite sure," she responded, her confidence seeming to improve as she was argued with about it. It seemed such a coincidence, to run into a relative of someone from home out here, but not impossible. It would be far greater a coincidence, she decided, for it to turn out their were not related.
"He is from the Awatupa'viwanja, the Outlands," Buni added, "Though his mother, who also resembles you, came from the Pridelands."
It was a fact for many of the Outlands members and nothing to be particularly ashamed of.
Bunikee might not have thought it was something to be ashamed of, but the suggestion was not particularly thrilling to the red lioness. She would have preferred to ignore any and all personal connection to the Pridelands if one existed.. and she did not realize one did.
"No, absolutely not," Amalahle said, her tail's movement indicating her agitation on this topic. She was scowling and now intent on ending this conversation as it was.
"I have somewhere I must be."
She said nothing more and moved swiftly to continue on her way. She ought not to have stopped to wonder what the stranger was up to.
Hmmmm.
Bunikee watched Amalahle go, making no effort to stop her. She didn't like the idea of having family from outside the Motoujamii, that was fine The strange thing was that she herself was not in the Motoujamii's territory while she argued that it was absolutely impossible for any connection outside of it to exist.
When the red lioness was no longer visible, she glanced back up to the tree above her and then to her paws. It was time to move on again, but now she had something else- and someone else- on her mind.
Fin.
