[FIN] New Dawn (Nire & Solomon)

[mouselet]

Pain. Light. Hunger.

The sensations penetrated deeply enough to rouse the leopard whose body felt them. Wincing, his purple eyes opened, slowly, allowing him to gradually become accustomed to the unfamiliar light. It was, he could tell by the quality of light and the scent in the air, not long past dawn. The air was cool, and the smell of the sea was heavier than it would be later in the day.

The sea! The leopard tensed to leap to his feet as memory returned with a jolt. He managed to get halfway up before abused muscles and joints screamed at him and he collapsed on the floor of the den, gasping for breath, tears in his eyes as the pain overtook him momentarily.

But he was alive. And that was far more than Nire had expected to be.  

[Epine de Rose]

"I wouldn't move if I were you," the white lion mused, watching as the leopard regained consciousness, only to be overwhelmed by the assault upon his senses. When they had found the leopard he hadn't been well at all, in fact some of the healers had even surmised that it was highly likely he would have been dead within a few short days. Alas, the leopard was fortunate and the gods had favoured him, as they had elected to deposit him rather unceremoniously onto Bahari'mtoto shores.

...He had caused quite the stir!

"No idea what you went through but you took a couple of big hits if your bruises are anything to go by," he shook his head, and with a wry smile lifted up the driftwood with his paws. Sat on his haunches, he balanced what had been the leopard's life raft carefully. "Not the sturdiest of rafts, but I suppose it did the job," he continued.

"Either way, probably for the best you take it easy mate, at least until you've had a bit to eat and gained your strength back."  

[mouselet]

The leopard in question twitched again, sending more pain through his battered body, at the totally unexpected voice. His vision blurred and he had to force himself to focus through the pain on the stranger before him. His first impression was of something big and white. Sounded male.

Then his vision cleared as the pain subsided to a dull roar. Only his total frozen shock at the sight before him kept Nire from attempting to bolt yet again.

This could only be a lion.

He'd heard the elders describe lions before, and it was the mane that gave it away. After all, no leopard bore such an accoutrement, and they said cheetahs didn't either. But they did say how very big lions were. And Nire, no large leopard himself, found himself to be maybe the size of an adolescent in comparison to this stranger.

The lion was still talking. He'd totally missed what was being said until he saw a vaguely familiar piece of wood in the white male's paws. Rafts? What was he...

...oh. Nire could just barely remember being hit with the thing while he was flailing around in the ocean, trying to keep his head above water. He remembered grabbing onto the driftwood, knowing that if he let go, he would drown.

He closed his eyes, trying to clear the frightful images from behind his lids while the white lion spoke some more. Something about taking it easy and...food? Nire's stomach rumbled hungrily and the leopard looked downwards in embarrassment.  

[Epine de Rose]

Solomon wasn't naive enough to assume that the leopard would be overly chatty, especially when he had probably swallowed more than a pint of sea water during his escapades. The healers had been very specific in their instructions to the Bumani though and given the fact that healing was not his forte, he deemed it imperative that he follow them - i.e. make sure the leopard had food and water, and if he relapsed into any form of shock then he had to call them immediately... Granted that meant him finding them in the arse end of nowhere in the jungle, so he was rather hoping that Nire didn't relapse.

Nevertheless, the lion couldn't help the ripple of laughter that escaped from his mouth as Nire's stomach spoke for him. Solomon shouldn't have been surprised by that, by the looks of it, Nire was in need of some food and he'd assumed that before the stomach had spoken. It was just as well that the hunters had supplied food for that day then, even more good news that they had brought in additional supplies for their visitor here.

Unfortunately for Nire, fish was off the menu for now as the healers had instructed that he have red meat - thus, once Solomon had ceased his laughter he dropped the driftwood and padded towards the seaweed. Nudging it to one side he then retrieved the haunch of antelope and nudged it towards Nire.

"Eat up short stuff, before the inner you eats you from the inside out."  

[mouselet]

It was the laughter that got the leopard to look back at the lion, and not in utter fear. Rather, he was amazed. The white male's laughter was...warm. Welcoming, even. Not at all like the vicious and cruel laughter of his siblings who simply would have taunted and tormented him further in the same situation.

He was even more surprised when a haunch of meat was dropped in front of him. It was...red. And it bore fur! He knew that some of the elders had talked about big prey animals that were similar to the leopards themselves in that they lived on the land and wore fur, but he'd never seen such a thing. The only nonleopards on the island were small beasts not worth the effort to hunt and birds. Their meals came from the sea, and while there were some fish that were so large they bore red meat inside, those were few and far between, and generally resulted in great celebration for the island.

Nire looked up at the lion, but there was everything in the other's expression to make him believe that yes, this meat was meant for him and him alone. Tentatively, he took a bite.

...the elders certainly knew what they were talking about! This was...this was amazing! Oh sure, he loved fish, but this was absolutely delicious! The leopard eagerly devoured the entire haunch while the white lion stayed quiet and watched.

It wasn't until after he'd devoured the meat down to the bone and was considering cracking it open for the marrow that the leopard finally spoke aloud.

"My thanks," he told the lion who seemed to be waiting for something.  

[Epine de Rose]

Solomon was momentarily stunned, his mouth opened just a touch into a small 'o' - he'd never been around patients before and as such he had never seen anyone eat something as if they hadn't seen food for a decade. Frankly, the lion hadn't even been aware that you could eat something that fast, Nire had positively decimated the haunch before him and Solomon was left to wonder if it had been enough. With this in mind he padded back over to the seaweed and rifled through it, hoping that perhaps there was more to eat...

"Huh?" he finally snapped out of his reverie, his paw pausing over the seaweed as he looked round at Nire. "Oh, that -" he gave his paw a dismissive wave and shook his head. "Don't mention it, you looked like you needed something to eat and we're having a pretty good year," he finally located another haunch, held it up for inspection and then tossed it over to Nire. As the meat tumbled towards the leopard, Solomon sat down again and gave a warm smile.

"Seems that the Bahari lands are on the preybeasts migration path this year, makes sense to make the most of it," he pointed out and tilted his head to the side. "Name's Solomon by the way, I'm one of the Bumani here," he offered at last.  

[mouselet]

...don't mention it? Don't mention the fact that someone had clearly fished him out of the water and given him a place to sleep that was dry and sheltered and then they fed him and look, here was even more food, and the lion said not to mention it?

Was it the mainlanders or the lions who were crazy? Nire didn't know enough about either to figure it out.

But he wasn't about to object to a bit more to eat. This time the leopard ate more slowly, a mouthful at a time, as he listened to what the lion was saying. Unfortunately, most of it didn't make a lot of sense. Oh, he understood preybeats, and migrations, given that there were fish of that sort that routinely came near the island. But what was a Bahari? Or a Bumani? At least "name" meant what he thought it should.

"My name is Nire," he replied, swallowing another mouthful. "But...what is a Bahari? And a Bumani?" If the lion was being so...so chatty, he might as well answer questions...right?  

[Epine de Rose]

Get a bit of meat into someone and they immediately began to recover, Solomon had to give credit where it was due and mentally applauded the healers for their instructions. They might be out pursuing herbs and other peculiar ingredients for their uh... potions, but they had known what the leopard needed all the same. Solomon afforded another smile as he was reassured the leopard would make a recovery and for a while he simply watched Nire eat. It was only when the leopard introduced himself and then ask questions of his own that Solomon spoke again.

"Ah," he tilted his head to the other side and pursed his lips. "Well the Bahari are the name of the lions, leopards, cheetahs and other creatures that live in this particular area. This is pride territory and since that pride is called the Bahari'mtoto..." he figured that he had clarified that bit fairly well, it was simple as he could have made it. While he occasionally disagreed with the idea that the monkeys were Bahari (since they always threw stuff at his head), he rather enjoyed embracing the other creatures.

"As for Bumani - that's my job," he continued. "A Bumani builds things, whether they be walls, dens or..." he shrugged loosely. "Let's just say we build everything you see and move all the big objects that the smaller folks can't manage."  

[mouselet]

While food wasn't exactly a cure for bruises, strained muscles, and general aches, it definitely helped to put things in perspective. And the fact that Solomon the Bumani was feeding him and generally being nice made Nire less worried that he was going to be kicked out of this nice den and off of the...Bahari'mtoto lands. He supposed. This pride thing was kind of a new idea for the leopard, and he wasn't entirely certain he understood it. But he didn't want to sound like a complete and utter idiot, so he simply nodded.

Of course...he could ask more questions such as why a Bumani would be here with him, when he wasn't exactly in need of having something built, but the leopard suspected he didn't want to know the answer to that question.

He could ask where they were, but given the meat (oh how delicious it was!) he suspected they were on the mainland. Oh sure, Solomon could probably tell him more about where on said land they were, but it would mean nothing to the island-born leopard. His elders had never given him much in the way of geography lessons, and he'd known every inch of the island. The two didn't have much to do with each other.

There was, however, one question worth asking. Nire pushed aside the half-eaten haunch, having had enough to fill his belly by now.

"Why am I here?"  

[Epine de Rose]

"Well, I'm not going to lie to you," Solomon lifted up his tail and flicked the dust out of the tip with his claws. Lifting a brow, he leaned forward a touch and grinned. "We needed a new sacrifice and you look like the sort we could use, just got to plump you up!" he replied and then shook his head. Another warm chuckle and he dropped his tail, promptly waving his paw dismissively. It was probably unwise to jest at a time like this but Solomon had never been good at that, sometimes the air just needed to be lightened.

"Actually you're here because you washed up on our beach," he replied with a small shrug. "We don't know what you were doing out in the water, especially on a flimsy raft, but you came to us," he motioned to the driftwood and then back to Nire, his expression somewhat bemused as he recalled the moment when the scouts had hauled the unconscious male into the dens. There had been a general ruckus on his rival and oh so much curiosity!

"You weren't exactly uh...awake, when we found you," he confessed and released a sigh. "So the scouts picked you up and hauled your fluffy backside to a safer spot so you didn't get sucked back into the ocean by the tide," he added. Popping his lips he lapsed into silence for a few moments before shaking his head. "I've no doubt you probably had somewhere else in mind and you're more than welcome to head on that way once you're feeling better... But it's not in our nature to leave someone to die on our own doorstep."  

[mouselet]

As the lion leaned forward, Nire found himself leaving backward. And as he began talking about a sacrifice, the leopard wondered if he could flee without agonizing pain. About the time he decided to try it, Solomon changed tacks. And Nire realized he'd been tricked. Though the lion wasn't nearly as cruel about it as his siblings would be, it still hurt. Here he was just beginning to trust the other male...and he had to pull this stunt.

So they'd found him. And, strangely enough, decided to take him in and take care of him. That was incredibly unexpected. Between the unexpected prank and this revelation, Nire had absolutely no idea what to think and stayed quiet, considering this information.

There was something, besides Solomon's little "joke", that was a blatant lie. Nire had had no place in mind at all when he'd left the island. Truth be told, he had nowhere to go, since he sure as all hells wasn't going back.  

[Epine de Rose]

His joke had gone down about as well as a led balloon.

And to think, Solomon was a sociable and approachable kind of guy! He had a knack for making folks uncomfortable when it came to his jokes, or maybe it was simply because he kept springing them on strangers? He made a mental note to keep his sense of humour to himself until they started to get used to him in the future... Ah, the joys of being out in the rogue lands for quite some time, he rather forgot himself sometimes.

Nevertheless it seemed Nire had no further questions and Solomon was under strict instructions not to exhaust the leopard, that also meant refraining from talking him into oblivion. Chatty as Solomon was, he was intelligent enough to step back and after a few moments of silence he offered a smile and stood up. Nire still had more of his food to eat and probably needed some time to himself...

"Well, if you don't have any more questions I'll leave you to rest," he offered and pointed outside with his paw. "If you need me I'll be right out there," he added and padded out, footsteps surprisingly quiet for one so large.  

[mouselet]

The leopard nodded quietly, accepting the lion's word and turning his attention back to considering the food in front of him. He got the feeling that maybe the other male hadn't meant to be quite so...cruel. But it was still hard, given the life that Nire had led up until this point.

So he'd sit and eat and think very hard about this Bahari'mtoto and Solomon the Bumani and other things like that before making any decisions.