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The devastation of her pride by plague had been the most traumatic, terrifying thing to happen to Hari in her life. She had watched friends and their family members sicken and die with horrifying alacrity, some of them falling down in the mists and going missing completely. Other Ghosts like herself had been blamed partially for the blight that struck the pride, but Hari didn't think they were really to blame. No one had listened to her though because they said her mother was a goddess and she would be safe no matter what, so what had she to worry about?

Actually, Hari's mother did swoop in and rescue her offspring from the plague, taking them away from the cursed mists and bringing them beyond the spread of the illness, but that meant that Hari had to learn to live in a completely new environment, and that was proving challenging for her. For one thing there was all that sunlight!

Kurys was also adapting to a life away from his family. They had gone off in search of a particular sign that they had read in the clouds and left him behind with the instruction to guard their lands until they returned. They hadn't left all that long ago, and so he was still getting used to waking up alone, and then going about his daily tasks alone. Hunting was the worst. He was not much good at hunting without help and it was beginning to show in his physique.

Still, he had not become grouchy or unhappy about his lot. It wasn't horrible and he knew he would adapt in time. It was just that period of adaptation that worried him somewhat. He could get very hungry between now and then, after all.

Hari had really never realized how hot the sun could be until it turned out that the sun was visible nearly every day in the rogue lands for hours and hours and hours at a time. It tired her to be out in the heat for so long, and yet she tried to make herself walk a certain distance every day toward the direction of a vast, sandy piece of land called a desert. It would be hotter there, she knew, and so all this suffering she went through now was only preparing her for worse to come.

Today she had not reached her goal distance. Instead she lay panting in the minimal shade provided by the tall grasses around her and missing the mists and their cool caresses horribly.

Sukurys was surprised to find a lioness lying very still in the grass a short distance from the pool his family had laid claim to when he was but a cub. He wondered, looking at her, if perhaps she was ill. She certainly didn't seem well and he couldn't spot any obvious injuries on her body. She just didn't seem as if she was up to being mobile.

His family would tell him to kill her or drive her off or leave her there to die, but they weren't here, and that left it up to him. Sukurys felt sorry for the striped lioness who looked so tired and pitiful lying there. He wasn't even sure she had noticed him spying on her.

Hari had noticed all right. She was doing her very best to muster up enough energy to do something about the person observing her. There just wasn't much energy for her to muster unfortunately. Perhaps she could bluff her way out of a confrontation, she mused. The thought was so ludicrous she began to laugh. How awful would it be for her mother to save her from the plague only to leave her to die at the hands of some stupid rogue because she was too tired from being overheated to defend herself?

"You had better come out and quit staring at me," she warned her unseen [voyeur. The next part was pure fabrication since Hari didn't happen to believe in curses, but it definitely sounded good. "Or else I'll put a curse on you and your family. My mother's a goddess, so I can do that."

Kurys wasn't fooled by Hari's claim to be able to put a curse on him because of her divine heritage. He wasn't even sure he believed her claim to be the child of a god, although that sort of thing was more difficult to tell and he would not like to be wrong if her god parent actually cared about her well-being. Not that there was much evidence to support that theory, given the lioness's current state. He was more unsettled by her laughter than anything else.

"Oh, no. Not a curse!" he exclaimed with mock horror as he tried to place himself so that she would be able to see him. He was smirking. "Anything but that!"

Okay so he hadn't fallen for her ruse. It had been a long shot at best. At least, Hari thought, he didn't sound like the sort of lion who was going to do something horrible to her just because he'd found her alone and helpless. Maybe he didn't know she was alone and helpless. And maybe she could convince him that no, really, she could put a curse on him. Right.

"I'll spare you," she told him with great magnanimity and dignity. "But you must lead me to water and bring me food."

It was an even longer shot than the curse idea, but now that Hari had gotten a look at the lion she was interacting with she had an idea that he was not going to be a danger to her and if she played her cards right she might even be able to make a friend of him. Preferably before she died from heatstroke.

Hearing her imperious tone Kurys found himself much more inclined to believe her claim to have a goddess for a mother. She certainly made herself sound as if she ought to be obeyed. Except when he looked at her expression he saw a twinkle in her eye that told him she was teasing him.

Or maybe not. Looking at her dusty coat and her nearly perfect stillness he got the impression that she was not doing much better than he was when it came to bringing down kills, and the tip of her tongue protruding from her teeth told him she was astonishingly hot. She probably needed that water badly.

"All right," he agreed. "Can you walk?"

Hari was now truly affronted even though she knew his question was a perfectly legitimate one. She wasn't sure she knew the answer though, and that upset her more than she cared to admit. The best way to find out was, of course, to try. So she called up all her reserves and dragged herself to her feet.

"I can stand, can't I?" she insisted. That didn't necessarily mean she could walk, but she was just going to have to hope it did because she hated to be touched and might actually prefer to die from heat and exhaustion than be dragged anywhere by this scrawny blue and black lion with the endearing smirk.

"Will you tell me your name? Mine's Harimau'tapi. Hari for short."

"Silly question," Sukurys murmured. Louder he told the lioness, "Not more than an hour's walk from here there's a pool my family has lived around for quite some time. I expect that will suit your purposes as far as liquid refreshment. I fear I don't have a stockade of meat laid aside for feeding visitors however."

It was not until the two of them began walking, Sukurys taking slow and measured steps so that he wouldn't lose Hari and Hari pushing herself as hard as she could, that Sukurys introduced himself. He also told her about his family and their talent for scrying in the clouds, and anything else he could think of until they reached water, just to get her there.

Hari was frustrated with the pace she forced them to keep, but she was equally frustrated with the breathless weariness that forced her to keep silent while Sukurys, or Kurys as he preferred to be called, talked about his family. She wanted on one paw to let him know that scrying in the clouds didn't work as far as she knew, but on the other paw just to thank him for his kindness even though expressions of gratitude did not come naturally to her.

When they finally reached his family's pool she drank long and deep and then had the bad manners to fall asleep right on the shore, which bothered Kurys a great deal but he let it go. They could talk more later.