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 Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 12:00 pm
But cubs were a female's business, and they clearly did their job well. Surtak had heard the rumors. They bustled like wildfire when Wodi had returned. Cubs were always a celebration, especially four healthy females (and one healthy male). Surtak was uncertain about how he felt over strengthening their already boisterous numbers, but no one else seemed upset.
For a bad omen from an unproven father, they were certainly showing up the skeptics.
Thankfully, by now, Surtak had grown used to the jabbering chops and the eyes following him wherever he went. He imagined they must have been saying better things now, as he moved his way in through the groups of females. He didn't even have to open his mouth to ask -- they were directing him toward's Wodi both physically and with words.
She'd know he was coming. The other females wouldn't be able to keep it to themselves. He wanted to see his children. It didn't seem like a real thing.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 12:36 pm
Wodi was, privately and in a word, relieved. All daughters but one, and none in any of her family's more...vibrant colors. It was good to look at them and see all browns and whites and a little black, and know that no insidious pinks or greens or purples had found their way in. With a healthy, predominantly female litter in acceptable colors, they could skirt around the whole 'bad omen' thing. Even the male, for all that he was male, wasn't so bad. It was looking like his mane would grow in dark, at least. The only negative thing one might be able to say about them was that they were small, but that was hardly a surprise, given their parentage.
Pride, as always, came easily to Wodi, but most other aspects of motherhood would take some getting used to. There was something disconcerting about the sheer strength of the feelings involved for the tough little lioness; she would need to find a balance there, between this sudden, unconditional love and...well, Wodi. Currently, she was working on reminding herself that there was no reason whatsoever to rearrange and groom them every ten minutes - something the cubs probably appreciated when they were trying to sleep.
This went by the wayside, however, when she heard that Surtak was on his way, and she quickly fussed at them to ensure that they were to her liking before pretending that she had done no such thing. After all, it wasn't like she was actively trying to impress him.
Although there was plenty to be impressed with. If he didn't agree, he'd have something else coming.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 2:33 pm
His footsteps slowed for a few moments when he saw her. They dwindled to nothing as he came to a stop and he surveyed her entire body as though looking for some sign of weakness.
"Are they healthy?"
Straight to business. There would be time for excitement later. Or dread. Or perhaps both. "May I see them?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 5:54 pm
Wodi raised her head when he finally neared, taking care to make it clear that while she had been expecting him, she had not been waiting for him. She didn't miss his appraising look, which prompted her to hold her head higher still. He would find no weakness here. She was a little tired, perhaps, but he didn't need to know.
"Of course they are," she replied. They were hers, after all. What else did he expect?
At his request, she uncurled herself from the little mass of cubs - nevermind that it was hot, there was apparently some instinct that compelled them to bunch up together - and stood.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 8:44 pm
His eyes moved instantly from her to the small bundles of fluff all squished together. Pausing on each one, he counted until he had reached the full five.
There was no mistaking his offspring. The dark coats with earthy highlights. Most of them were as mismatched as Wodi. Perhaps he had been too concerned with his own failure to actually believe they would look like him.
"Which one is the boy?" Young, without distinctive scents, Surtak had no knowledge of how to distinguish one cub from another. "Do you have plans for him?" Surtak was already brimming with ideas. The cub would have to leave; he was not blind to this. But it would still be his blood, and he still had trouble shaking ideals that male offspring were more desirable.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:30 pm
She watched him count them, her attention on Surtak while his was on the cubs. This was new territory for the both of them, and his origins were at least as foreign as hers. She wondered what he was thinking, and even what he would have thought if the litter hadn't been as...acceptable, whether in gender or color. Wodi wasn't fully accustomed to valuing or devaluing such traits, but the fact that these things mattered in her new home was not lost on her.
"The white one," she answered, "With the little spots." Deftly, she separated him out from the group to no small amount of protest from the displaced cub and those nearest him. They had been comfortable, and now they were being messed with, and this was simply not fair.
"No, I don't. He's a bit young to have plans for." Maybe when he was older, when there was more than the mere hint of personality evidenced by a wriggling little cub to go on.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:56 pm
Surtak's head tilted to the side. His tail swayed and his ears went forwards. For a moment, all of his attention was focused on its small white teeth and the pink tongue it showed him in defiance of having been moved.
A smile, then, toyed at the edges of his muzzle and he let it grow.
"He is good." His gravelly accent had the better of his tone. It had weakened since his time in the Boneland's, but it was strong and apparent now.
Wodi's voice brought him back to attention. "Maybe," he answered. His eyes strayed once again. "They are all good." And would continue to be so if they kept such energy and continued to be vocal. They would be the jabbering, sneering lionesses of the pride in no time.
"I'd like to help teach him." As if the gender modifier was not enough to make it clear, he added. "The boy." He felt guilty for asking. To Crovrems Rurda, raising was a lioness' business. But, rules were different here. He'd seen the evicted males, Matifu's old brood. They could hunt, but they were not fighters. He did not want his only son to be torn to shreds the moment he encountered another male as a rogue.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:24 pm
"His name is Icashazi," she supplied, after watching Surtak's smile and the pronouncement that the little male, and his sisters, were 'good.' They were the best. They would be the best, and at far more than gossiping. They would be strong and fierce, and worthy of both their parents' blood and spirit. Wodi would see to that.
The other lionesses would discover soon enough that her cubs had sharp teeth and an increasingly firm grasp on how to use them. It would likely not come as a surprise.
She nodded in acknowledgement of his desire to teach the boy. It was not traditional, perhaps, but Wodi knew what it was like to be a rogue, and to learn the hard way. "It would be good if you did."
And, because she simply couldn't resist: "Perhaps his sisters would benefit as well."
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 11:44 am
Surtak's mouth grew into a thin line. The male did not move his eyes to look at her, but his ears moved back briefly.
"There is always the outpost." They could train their, with the Firekin's wild lioness and sloppy, large fighting technique. "They can learn there."
Despite their small differences, he did agree with her. A lioness should also know how to use her teeth. "If they are strong, it will help. They can watch, and perhaps I will teach them, too. I still do not trust the red-pelts." Mostly, for reasons he was not keen on sharing. "I do not want them to bring us their war."
And was what it would be, if they could not set aside stubborn pride. "You have a history with them?" Surtak recalled a mention of rumors and stories Wodi had heard, but very little further information. They had been, he assumed, just stories, but now curiosity found him. Wodi was responsible, after all, for the well-being of his children and attempting to develop some sort of kinship could not hurt.
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:07 pm
Though her comment had been partly to see if she could get a rise from the dappled male, it had been sincerely meant as well. "They must be strong. They must know how to survive, all of them. There is no telling where life will take them, and they should be prepared."
The unlike me that could have been added went unspoken. It was possible that they would live their lives in peace, as huntresses and sisters and mothers, but it was also possible that fate had something different in store for them. Possible that the red-pelts would bring their war, or that something else entirely would come to pass. Regardless, they would need to be ready for whatever their futures held.
The lioness was quiet for a moment when he asked of her history, but once she had gathered her thoughts, nodded and answered. "I am - was - a Mistweaver. One of the last born, so much of what I know is only what was told to me. We shared a border with the Firekin, before they...became as they are now. There was never true war between us, but only, I think, because there would have been no point. We had nothing but barren land, nothing anyone would have wanted. But they killed us if they saw us, and stole our princess to make her a slave." Wodi snorted dismissively. "Not that she turned out to be good for much, in the end. Her or her b*****d brother. Still, maybe things would have been different, if it weren't for the Firekin. "
"Or maybe not. But I don't trust them, either."
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 4:59 pm
"Hm." It came as a gutteral sound from the back of his throat as he mused over Mistweaver.
The god-killers had their own history to spread and to tell. In no fable had he heard about mist, or those that weaved it. "Seems a pointless grudge," he commented. Why not simply destroy the pride in its entirety? Perhaps they could not. Perhaps they had been acting off a grudge of a single-leader.
"You did not like them?" There was honest surprise in his voice, curiosity brimming his brow.
In his homeland, a Visionary and a High Warlord were the closest sight to a prince or a princess. They, like Gakere, earned their place in bloodshed, talent, and wisdom. Like here, they were often revered. Not always liked, but respected. "If they were not proper leaders, why were they not simply replaced?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 8:12 pm
"Masika was the rightful heir, but Maji couldn't stand it. Their rivalry made them useless, though I suspect neither was terribly competent in the first place." Wdoi's expression twisted in distaste. Looking back from where she was now, there were some aspects of the past were infuriating.
"They were. Most of what was left of the pride abandoned them both, but it was too late. It wasn't long before it just fell apart." The lioness didn't seem particularly nostalgic, or sad. Just annoyed. "With or without them, the pride wasn't strong enough. It was inevitable."
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Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:55 am
"It is better here," he assured her. It was a practiced line, spoken from a mouth that had repeated it constantly when he had first entered the Ithambo'hlabathi.
"I will be back when he is old enough to start." Surtak nodded his head to indicate he was going.
The Umholi and Wodi would certainly see each other many times before that point, but Surtak would not make an effort of it when his son was strong. They had a mother with proper ideals. It was good enough.
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