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 Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:29 pm
 It was hot under the midday sun, and the black lioness was far from her den and her mate, but that didn't deter her at all. Her red eyes scanned every crevice, every shadow, every hump of sandy earth around her, looking. Almost every day she, or her mate, had done this in the hopes of finding some trace of their missing children. Not all of them had vanished, but some had, during a powerful sandstorm. Along with their friends, Xerxes and Bunikee, and their children. It had been long enough that Spina had gotten past the frantic searching, past the eyes so full of tears she couldn't see. And every night she and Antallian exchanged silent looks, but neither one had yet gotten up the courage to propose that they stop looking.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 6:12 pm
 The sand under her paws was a strangely welcome feeling. Jua'taka dug her toes into it, feeling it sift through her fur and between her toes. She closed her eyes, smiling to herself for a moment, before one ear twitched. The smile vanished as her eyes opened, pupils dilated. She let out a huff, before turning and walking. "If you say so, Finar-si..."
As she crossed a dune, she spied another black lioness, though her markings were different, and no red graced her anywhere. Jua tilted her head for a moment, letting out a hm, before approaching the lioness. "You seem to be looking for something..." She almost looked... Firekin. Perhaps it was the black and white.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 6:15 pm
At the sound of another's voice, the lioness' head whipped around, red eyes wide open. She hadn't heard or scented the stranger at all! Had she been so focused on her search...? She couldn't be certain. But this was a disturbing development all the same.
"I...am looking for my children. Some of them were separated from us in a sandstorm several moons ago," she admitted simply. Inatarni had no reason to trust this random stranger, but there was no reason to be less than truthful.
She had no doubts about her ability to evade the other lioness, should things turn sour.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 6:50 pm
Jua thought about the lioness' words, ears flicking. She'd lost her children... In a sandstorm... The ex Firekin looked around, letting out a low hm. "If it's been several moons.. I'm afraid you may not find them here. I'd head to where the grasses grow. You're more likely to find their scent there than here... The sand moves, hides tracks and smells... Even if one of them marked a rare bush, that bush could likely have been covered already by the sand. The dunes walk across the land.. And don't care what's in their path." One didn't grow up in the desert and not know that.
"Where were you heading when the sandstorm hit? Maybe they went there already." She thought, for a moment, of her own children. Over two litters, there'd been three girls and five boys. Did her older children, who knew her, miss her?
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 6:54 pm
"We live in the area," Inatarni replied. She thought herself a good judge of character - a necessity when one lived outside a pride's protection - and the black and white lioness was unsure she could trust this stranger. For a lioness, the other was very, very big. And her words were short, not particularly forthcoming.
"My hope is that they find their way back to the home they remember." Yes, she knew the dunes were treacherous, but they weren't in the dunes yet. And Spina and her mate had made their home in a more bountiful land than where they stood now - it was a marginal place, true, but there was water and game, if you knew where to look.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:52 pm
"I see..." Locals... Were they trying to start a pride near here? That'd be an interesting place to have a pride... The fringes of society, as it were. "I'm sure they'll find their way home... Ah... Ma'am. I didn't get your name, so..." She gave an impassive shrug, and then regretted it, lifting a front paw as she grimaced in pain. Though the scars were old now, her shoulder twinged from the ones her brother had left so long ago. She'd given up hiding the pain a long time ago, as well. Others were bound to see it eventually, and so be it if they did. Some didn't acknowledge it, some did. It didn't matter to her, really, how they reacted.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:56 pm
Hmmm. This was an interesting turn. And she couldn't very well "forget" to introduce herself now that the other had inquired so politely.
"My name is Inatarni," she answered. "And yours?" Might as well find out who this other black lioness was. She wasn't as sure as the other lioness claimed to be that her children would return to them. They were, after all, grown adults by now and there was no guarantee they would even feel the need to return. It was a part of growing up.
She did note the other lioness' expression of pain. She'd seen the scars, they were part of why she was so cautious, but the fact that this female was willing to admit, even nonverbally, that they hurt was surprising. She'd seen large lions like that one out this way before, but they had been proud folk, who refused to show weakness.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:25 pm
When the pain subsided, Jua inclined her head. "Jua'taka." Want the sun... It was a strange irony to her, almost twisted and dark. For a name that seemed so optimistic for a Firekin, it had proven strangely improper. She'd left the Firekin, the land of the sun and fire, for the life of a rogue. No land spoke to her, not even truly home. There was no home now, something she hoped her last four children would find. "So... Why would you settle so close to the desert, that you could get swept in a sand storm...?" She knew why the Firekin lived in the desert - It was who they were. Finar-si had created them there, in her image, lions of the desert and its fire. They lived there because they were proud and fierce like the dunes.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:29 pm
Inatarni nodded as the other lioness introduced herself. The name meant nothing to her, but she wouldn't be surprised if the syllables that sounded like nonsense had some meaning for the big lioness.
"It was the home we chose," she responded simply. The smaller lioness did not feel the need to explain that it had taken her most of the day to get here from that home, that this was far beyond where she normally ranged. Jua'taka already knew that she sought her children.
"If you'll excuse me though, I must be going," she added.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:43 pm
She gave a nod. "Alright. I wish you luck in finding your children, Inatarni." She rolled her shoulder, making sure the muscle wouldn't cause her undue pain. As she started to walk, pain spread across her shoulder. But the more she moved, the more it faded until it was nothing more than a dull ache.
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