[PRV] Falling behind (Pata'chasi wenzi/Varod)

[Andranis]

The rest of the pride was some distance ahead, but Pata had lost sight of them. Even her brother-by-adoption was ahead, helping usher the cubs of the pride along. The gray and white lioness was thankful they left a clear enough trail to follow, at least. She sat down under a tree, needing a moment of rest as she lifted one paw up. The gray-dipped limb had been struck by a branch as she'd gone into the smouldering remains of the swamp looking for any stragglers, and the wound was still scabbed over. While it was slow to heal, she was confident it would heal fine in the end - It just hurt for now, was all. She licked at the area around it, paw shaking just a bit. Limping wasn't great to a fast trip...  

[mouselet]

It was, the pink lion thought, an unusual thing to see such a large group of lions travelling together. He knew that there were prides who ranged within a specific territory they claimed, but from what he knew, those tended to be smaller, or broken up into smaller groups.

Here was a pride larger than any he'd ever seen before.

Oddly enough, it seemed that several of these were injured. One of this group had stopped, was now resting, or getting her breath back. She seemed like someone who might slake his curiosity.

"It isn't often such a large number of lions are seen travelling," he observed, coming up near the white and grey lioness.  

[Andranis]

Pata'chasi looked up from her careful grooming, before turning her gaze to the lion. So many stripes... "Oh... We're kind of... Migrating to a new home... Our queen knows where she's going, most of us don't, but we trust her..." She looked at her limb, then the male again. "We came from the Swamplands, but there was a drought, and then when it looked like rain was coming... Lightning struck and lit the swamp on fire. So we had to flee..." A lot of lions had, indeed, not left unscathed. Even cubs hadn't left unscathed, some sporting their own injuries. It was heartbreaking.  

[mouselet]

Well. That was certainly more information than Varod had expected to get out of her. This lioness spoke of the pride trusting their Queen...well, she must be a very trusting sort to just spill so many words over him like the river overflowing its banks after monsoon.

So. These were the semi-mythical lions of the Swamplands. And there had been a fire, which resulted in them leaving their homelands and going to a new one. A place the Queen knew of, but the rest of the pride was ignorant.

"I am sorry for the loss of your home," the pink lion replied at last, uncertain what to say in the face of so much information.  

[Andranis]

Pata'chasi could only let out a hm, looking down again. Only one of her five cubs had returned from their name quest before the fire... Her only son and other three daughters were still out there, somewhere.. And she didn't know if they would even return. So many cubs never returned home from their quests... Even her sister, Mimi, had children still out. Atlas had returned, now named Sustinet'mundi, with word that at least one of his own brothers, Moshi, had gone on to join the lions of the desert. She let out a sigh, before glancing back at the male. "I suppose... Every loss can be an opportunity... To try and make things better than they were before..." Some losses weren't, of course, but this loss of their home was a chance to try something new.  

[mouselet]

Well, she didn't look that enamored of this journey, that was for certain. Varod wasn't particularly good at judging ages, and would never suspect that she worried for her children. It simply seemed to him that she missed her swamps. He'd heard that in that place, there was so much water that the lions looked for ways to avoid it, as opposed to being just enough for their needs or worse...not enough at all.

"So I have heard," the pink lion replied uncertainly. It was true that some lions chose to try and find lives utterly unlike what they'd done up until that point, thinking to change things utterly. He'd never been tempted to do so, but then again, his had been a fairly simple life thus far.

Watching this migration was probably the most interesting thing that had ever happened to him.  

[Andranis]

The lioness gave a light shrug. "I think it might be too much on us right now, though... Many of us are still sporting injuries from the fire.." She cringed, then looked at her paw. "We're all paw-sore from so much walking... So far... In so short a time... We go on name quests when we reach adolescence, but I'm pretty sure not one of us walks this hard every day. I can't begin to imagine what it's like if someone's got a broken bone or something, traveling like this..." And it seemed like the mountain never got any closer. It was always so far away, no matter what time of day it was or how far they'd walked.  

[mouselet]

Varod frowned. This quest for a new home must be quite urgent, if their Queen would not stop long enough for the injured to recover. True, there was a philosophy that what didn't kill a lion would strengthen them, but he had never heard that ideal in conjunction with this pride. Not that he had heard too much about them. But from the way the white and grey lioness spoke, it didn't seem to be a usual part of their beliefs.

"I know so little of your pride, and less of your Queen. I suppose she must have some reason for pushing you all so hard," the pink lion offered at last.

A sliver of fear touched his spine. What if their Queen was trying to kill off the weak and the injured?  

[Andranis]

She licked her lips. "We need a place to live, is all... We have cubs, so we need to reach a new home before they reach adolescence, so they know where to return to after their name quests. We can't stay too long with another pride... That's where we just were, staying with the Ela'wadiyi. Many of the members of our pride have relatives there, so they let us relax for a few days. But who's to say every pride would be like that? And we can't just stop and rest a few days... We could get too comfortable, before we reach our destination..." And then there was the matter of... What if any of the lionesses in the pride were pregnant? They'd need somewhere safe to birth their cubs, and traveling on the road to a new home was no place for new life to come along.  

[mouselet]

Not being a parent himself, Varod could only nod when the lioness spoke of cubs. He wasn't certain what she meant by name quests, but decided not to ask. It was probably something pride-y, that he'd thus have no way of knowing.

"It must be hard on the children," he said instead. He wasn't entirely certain that this pace would help the cubs-to-be, but there were good points and bad points, to the pink lion's point of view.

"I hope that your journey ends soon," the pink lion offered.  

[Andranis]

"So do I..." She sat back, rubbing her good paw. Her own paws were so sore from all this walking... She shook her head, then got up. "I'm getting left behind, I'm afraid..." She offered the male a smile. "Maybe if you happen by the mountain at a later time, we'll meet again... I suppose the secret's out that the Jini-misemi are out of their swamp again..." She suspected there'd be all kinds of lions looking to join them... Which if they could help compensate for those injured, Pata'chasi was happy. "I'll see you around... Um... Pinkie." On her paws again, she began to limp away.  

[mouselet]

Varod watched the lioness go, somewhat bemused. Pinkie? That wasn't at all his...oh. He'd forgotten to introduce himself. Well, he didn't know the lioness' name either, so he supposed that was fair.

Mountain, huh? There were some mountains not too far off from here, that must be where they were going. He didn't see any relationship between swamp or mountain, but he wasn't the Queen leading her pride there.

Oh well, none of this was getting him fed today. Varod shook his head and headed off to find something to hunt.