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 Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 10:53 pm
 Kali stopped at the small, burbling stream to quench her thirst. The heat of the day had just passed, the female having just woken up from a nap to escape the suffocating temperatures in its worst hours. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon, and would disappear into the dark blanket of night in a few short hours. Kali liked traveling in the dark. The world around her always seemed more calm, more at ease. If day was the world holding its breath, then nighttime was a gentle sigh of relief. More so, the day was filled with haunting memories of spending afternoons frolicking in the ocean's caressing waves, scuffling about with her brothers and sisters in her youth, and fighting off jeering males when she had come of age. In some ways, she missed home. In other ways, she was glad to have left. Regardless, the sun held too many reminders of her old life. The female straightened with a sigh, toes squishing into the sandy banks of the stream.
Sand. Kali missed sand the most. She missed the way it warmed her belly on a cold day, the way it clung to her wet paws after a swim, as if begging her not to leave the shore. Sand was home. It had been a few weeks since Kali and taken off to find a place to settle down. But the lioness had yet to find somewhere she could call home. Kali was beginning to doubt that such a place even existed. For starters, she didn't even know where to look. As a cub, she had heard many tales of different prides and coalition scattered throughout the savannah, beyond the lands of the Pirates. But being a female, she had never been able to go out and search for those lands. The lioness really had no idea where she was going, no idea how to find the right path. Kali was lost, both literally and figuratively.
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Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 12:59 pm
 Mto was lost only figuratively.
She'd spent years traipsing about these lands on her pilgrimage, getting to know every stream, tree, and stone. There was only so much unclaimed territory to memorize, and these days it felt as if you couldn't turn around without stepping paw over the borders of a new pride. On behalf of safety, she opted to loiter in the same mile wide stretch of earth.
There was enough water to sustain her, but herds passed through on a now-and-again basis. If not for her companion bird scouting from above, Mto would have spent many days trying to sleep through her hunger.
Company was rare and she assumed the lack of resources were to blame.
Like Kali, she had only recently stirred from her slumber. Unlike Kali, she was a full-grown lioness. Her heart did dare to dream this was a youth out on her pilgrimage, that the Swampland lions had migrated safely elsewhere.
Mto stopped in front of the stream. Out of reach of Kali, but close enough to hear: "What are you doing out here alone?" she queried softly.
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:35 pm
She tensed momentarily at the sound of a voice, claws out and ready for action if need be. But the voice was female, certainly not a threat. Kali retracted her claws and looked up, violet eyes assessing the full grown lioness at the stream with her. A fighter? No, Kali didn't think so. She was much too skinny, and lacked the certain aura fighters tended to carry with them. This lioness wasn't a threat at all. She reminded Kali of her friends, the ladies she had hunted with and complained about males with. Oh Kali missed them. The warmth of having friends at your side in the cold night, warmed by each other's fur, the gentle chattering and bantering that could always be heard around the dens of the corsairs.
"I'm lost." Kali answered truthfully, ears flickering back slightly. Normally she wasn't as open with others like this, but it had been so long since she had last talked to someone. The fight with that disgusting hybrid the other day didn't count. "I'm looking for a new home...but I'm not sure where to look." Maybe she wasn't ever going to find a home. Maybe she was going to be doomed to wander the roguelands forever.
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Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 11:14 am
Lost, hm? Not a problem without remedy. Mto wasn't quite sure where that boisterous bird of hers had gone to, but it was only a matter of time until she returned. Sending her off again just to scout for the lands of a stranger was sure to earn a n** or two at the ear. Already Mto had several nicks that hadn't yet healed.
"I'm looking for a new home."
So Mto's plan was not only unnecessary but an exercise in futility as well. No one could find a place that didn't exist. Once she would have of spoken of hope. The charred trees and desolate wasteland that had once been her home had taken that from her. "I've been out here for some time now." Mto had stopped counting the days. She only knew they were many. "I've passed by many prides. Heard of many more. What kind of place do you seek?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 2:27 pm
Kali snorted. What kind of place? A place with no males, that was for sure. Kali wouldn't care if she never saw another male ever again.
No, that wasn't true. Coexistence was necessary. A healthy pride had both males and females. It wouldn't be possible for a pride to survive in the long-term otherwise. Kali wanted a place where she wouldn't be harassed by males, a place where her position in the pride wasn't determined by her gender. "I wanna fight. I want a place I can serve with the skills that I have, a place that won't tell me no just cause I'm female. I want a place far from where I was, a place where I fit in." She shrugged, shuffling her paws uncomfortably. She usually wasn't this...open or emotional. But Kali was simply so fed up with not knowing where she was going. She needed a destination, a goal. Something she could strive for and remember when the going got tough. Kind of like right now. The lioness didn't want to be wandering around forever, and turning back certainly wasn't an option.
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Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:32 am
Requirements:
1. Violent
2. No gender bias.
Mto did her best to be unassuming, but she had lived long enough to know no one would specify the latter without reason. This lioness must have been downtrodden in her place of birth. Misogyny was rampant throughout many groups, so Mto was not surprised by this. Prides had come and gone, most with some kind of restriction on gender, color, species. She couldn't claim to know them all by name anymore -- there were far, far too many and it seemed like every other day her bird reported back with word of another congregation she'd spotted from the sky.
She looked upon the youngster with more sympathy than pity. It didn't feel right, sending her off to battle without encouraging an alternative. "You're young yet. There's more than claws and bared teeth worth seeing."
Kali's response fell on deaf ears. Before Mto's eyes flashed sand, sun, and lions. Their coats offered little in the way of variety -- black, white, reds. She recognized them enough to form a theory: Firekin.
Anyone her age had likely heard of or met one of them at least once. They had freed slaves and outcast members living on every inch of the savannah. Mto had encountered several of them throughout her life. Little did she know her bird would be returning with tale of another.
Mto sighed through her nose. Her gaze fixated on Kali. "What's your name?"
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