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 Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 7:05 am
 Uovu was tired.
He was tired of the sun (which was rather unforgiving this hour of the day), he was tired of knowing what to do with himself, he was tired of feeling unhappy, in fact, he was just tired of feeling, in all honesty. He was smart enough to know he couldn't go on like this; couldn't keep on going like he was, because soon enough, he would waste away.
And yet, day after day passed by, and the cheetah simply couldn't bring himself to care. He could barely bring himself to hunt for food and water every day, spending the rest of his free time either roaming up and down the Savannah, or laying here or there under the peaceful shades of random trees. Uovu was was quite sure Anana, his daughter, would have frowned at him for it, or then again, maybe she wouldn't have. At first, he'd entertained notion after notion about her; had even stopped to wonder if she'd like this or that place; if she'd have preferred this or that game to hunt down, until he'd realized that it really didn't matter what he though she thought.
Because Anana was dead.
Or gone, he tried to tell himself, lost somewhere. Alas, he was not naive enough to believe his own notions and briskly swept them under the metaphorical rug in his mind. It'd been a couple of moons since he'd parted ways with Nukapana, and many more moons still since he'd last seen his daughter or her children, and yet, they were still the foremost thoughts in his mind.
Grunting with disgust, mostly at himself, though also somewhat at the sun that filtered through the branches of the tree he was laying under, Uovu rearranged himself on the ground to better watch the horizon. After all, despite everything, he still wasn't in quite the mood to waste away... which meant he was in even less of a mood to be attacked. Specially not in the blasted heat; he really didn't want to have to defend himself in the midday sun, and thus, the solution was to try and keep an eye out for larger cats or predators that could see him as easy pickings.
Try being the keyword here, given he was doing a rather lousy job at it; he kept getting distracted by stray, unwanted thoughts he couldn't seem to bat away.
It seemed some days as if she'd been walking for years, and other times it seemed as if no time had passed at all. Curiosity had been what took her away from home, not any other particular thing like unhappiness or discontent. She hadn't been back in so long though, she was unaware of the current state of things in the Wolf clan, or any others for that matter. That was okay. The Ela had been living peacefully for quite some time and Kali Waya wasn't worried about that changing anytime soon.
Out in the rogue lands she found a freedom she had no idea she'd been searching for. She did love her family dearly, but there was so much to see out here, and do! It was no longer a matter of getting permission, when she saw something in the distance she wanted to explore she could simply go explore it. The only things hindering her in any way were her own physical limitations.
Kali was freshly fed from a very recent hunt, and just rousing from a nap to catch up with her weariness. The brown lioness gave a great stretch that accompanied her yawn. Lonely as traveling alone could be when she was aware of it the promise of the unknown was what had kept her going for months and months. She had no idea, honestly, what she would find today in her travels but that's what made it so fascinating! Life was just full of so many interesting things, she couldn't imagine what would have happened if she'd stayed back with her clan.
Actually she supposed she'd never have learned as much as she did of the world for starters.
Up onto her paws, one more full body stretch, front bowing and hind quarters planted firmly by her back paws- and with no further delay she picked an almost random direction and set off in it.
After some time Kali came within sight of Uovu's tree. She moved at a sedate enough pace, just looking this way and that with a sort of relaxed calm. Her coat was dusty from all the walking, in the last few hours since waking, and finally the idea of finding a watering hole to get a drink from sounded like a wise idea as thirst began to build up. A scent caught her attention first, up ahead. Another living creature. He- by the scent, cheetah at that -might be able to tell her where to find herself a drink. Naturally Kali's direction shifted to bring herself more in his direction. What must he think in his current mood, seeing a lioness heading straight towards him in this ridiculous heat? Or maybe he wouldn't even notice her yet with his mind wandering.
So far gone was Uovu, that he hardly noticed the lioness' approach. At least not until it was far too late to move his frame (lithe as it was) in some for of inconspicuous manner. Also, he wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't dehydrate entirely if he attempted to run away from the lioness, and thus, he stayed put.
Perhaps she hadn't noticed him, or perhaps (was it too much to ask?) she'd go away.
Alas, as the seconds ticked by and the lioness not only did not go away, but instead seemed to approach, Uovu felt fairly certain the gods simply didn't like him. Either that or they mocked him. Probably the later, given his recent winning streak when it came to catastrophe. His ears swiveled back even from his position, head still on the floor, "Go away!" the call was grunted loud enough at the lioness for her to hear when she was only a few feet away, "Ain't got any food anyhow! You can go scavenge elsewhere, sweetheart. Ain't go jack s**t here, move along. The shade's mine," he attempted his very best to sound threatening; even managed to slip in a phantom of his old growl into his voice, but... this was probably all for naught, taking into account the cheetah still lay on the floor, attempt to glare up at the small female.
Small as the lioness was, she was still larger and stronger than he was, and if she told him to get going, he was going to have to comply, because when push came to shove... she could probably easily overpower him. The notion made him glare petulantly even harder at the lioness, whom had by then, approached enough that the situation probably looked silly to anyone else watching, "What'd you want," he grunted up at her, attempting his best to not sound like an overground, petulant child and only really succeeding part way, really.
The first call was enough to give Kali pause, or at least to slow her pace a bit. He might see her ears rock upwards, processing his words. Still she pressed onward, resuming her pace. When she finally reached him she gave the cheetah a perplexed look. She knew that life in the rogue lands was certainly tougher than life with a pride, but he seemed to go through a list of possible reasons for her arrival, and seeing as she wanted none of the things he listed or implied-
"Water would be nice." She replied in a simple enough tone, as if he'd merely asked her how she was feeling rather than demanding to know why she was bothering him. "I was hoping you could tell me if there was some nearby. But company would be nice, too. It's been a while since I've had someone to speak with who wasn't convinced I planned to eat them."
That last part was said with some mirth and a grin, tail ticking back and forth more for the fact that she had some energy to burn than anything.
Well, at least he'd given her pause. Points for him, because quite honestly, had he been in her place, he wouldn't have been stopped at all. Still, A for effort, apparently; he wasn't entirely too far gone if he'd managed that much.
After giving himself a small, mental pat on the back, Uovu refocused his attention the (s**t!) still approaching lioness, and swiftly pondered over his two or three options. On one hand, he could get up and get the hell out of there as fast as possible, and on the other hand... he could probably attempt a preemptive strike before getting out of there as fast as his feet could carry him. Option number three entailed staying right where he was and hoping to the gods she wasn't looking for any sort of fight. After looking her up and down from his position on the ground, Uovu when went with option number three and hoped for the best.
Her words were unexpected, and it showed; his face went from utterly disgruntled to perplexed and caught off guard. So much so, in fact, that his head lifted off the ground where he'd been laying for most of the day already, "Water?" a pause, and slowly, his features melted into a vaguely amused look, "S'that what you want?" another pause, during which his head moved from right to left, as if mock-looking around his form, "Yeah, no. Sorry, sweetheart. None of of that here, as you see," if he'd been caught off guard before, he was utterly stumped by her next set of words, "Company?" he glared at her, narrowing his eyes for a beat, two, and then the anger melted back into confusion, when she looked back innocently at him, tail twitching "You're actually serious, aren't you?"
Well, that was... sweet? Nice...ish? New? Er... something?
It was obvious the cheetah was utterly gobsmacked, because he lifted a paw and pointed off somewhere towards his right, "There's, uhm... a stream. Kinda tiny. A lil down that way. Not enough to bathe, but enough to quench your thirst and... yer really not from around here, are you?"
His dumbstruck surprise was enough to draw out a laugh from the lioness, not cruel, but genuinely amused. He just seemed so confused, and though she could imagine why his response was rather comical all the same.
"Is it really so strange in these parts, wanting companionship? Seeking it from strangers? Maybe I've traveled further than I first thought."
She took a moment to step in the direction of the stream so that when she shook herself off she wouldn't get dust on him as a result, not wanting to be rude. Before going for a drink, though, she turned back and gave him a wry smile.
"That's how friends are made though, right? Talking to someone you haven't met before. Have you already had your thirst taken care of or would you care to join me?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:23 am
Had Uovu actually had his wits about him, he'd likely be making much less of a fool out of himself. Alas, unfortunately, the fact half his brain was still pondering over Anana, while the other half was comically trying to figure out what was going on at that very instance... was making it hard for him, "I uh... yeah, actually yeah, it really is. Because you're a..." he waved his paw in her general direction, gesturing towards her, "And I'm a..." he vaguely gestured towards himself then, and stopped, snapping his mouth shut, "Your kind usually lords their size. Bunch of thieves," he seemed about to snort in derision but stopped and paused mid way, glancing up at her, ears flopping down, as if only just realizing that perhaps pissing her off when she didn't seem violent was a bad idea.
As she turned and began to head off towards the stream, the cheetah's head turned and followed her with his gaze, his paws crossed on the ground as he watched her go, still looking mildly perplexed. Her invitation still came as a surprise, as was obvious by the ridiculous head tilt he offered her, making him look like a dog that wasn't quite sure what he was being told.
Despite his perplexity however, the cheetah turned his head, squinted up at the sun and swiftly decided that following the girl was as good a thing to do as any. Much better than laying there, allowing himself to be haunted by thoughts and memories, at any rate. As such, he got up, shook himself free of dust and trotted up to her, eyeing her with a mix of curiosity and wariness, "You're kinda weird, you know that?" he began walking alongside her, and snorted, "Then again, m'kinda awkard. So I guess it's okay," he narrowed his eyes on her as they padded towards the stream, as if evaluating her, or otherwise judging something or other, "Well, I guess. But you might need m'name first, don'tcha thing? I'm Uovu. Rogue. You?"
The lioness, for her part, was perfectly content going about as they were. If she thought he was being foolish she didn't show it aside from finding herself amused by his reactions. To his comment about their species (or so she thought that's what he was leading up to) she only tilted her head, considered filling in the blanks with something ridiculous like female and male, or traveler and rogue, decided against it, and settled on tilting her head the other way at the thieves comment. In the next moment, without having answered, she was heading for the stream and sort of felt him following along.
For a bit Kali was seemingly content to let him fill the silence, curious what he'd say when she wasn't speaking up. She wasn't disappointed, either. He had an interesting way of looking at things, to say the least. Weird and awkward. How could that NOT be an interesting pair?
"Kali Waya. Traveler. Nice to meet you, Uovu, rogue." She grinned. Up ahead she was then able to make out the sounds of the stream. "Weird and awkward? I bet that kind of duo would have all kinds of great stories to tell... or about them, misadventures and things like that. Good stories to tell cubs, I think."
Should she ever have any, that was, or stumble across any, or cubsit any.
For a long moment, the cheetah was rather silent, his head turned towards her, eyes wide, somewhere between (still) surprised, amused and... something else on the darker scale of emotions. Then, he snorted and laughed out loud, mostly because out of the possible reactions he'd been juggling, it seemed like the least prone to have her running for the hills. As the laughter died down, he tossed his head back, looked at the heavens for a moment, and then rolled his eyes, "I don't even know where to start," he said out loud. Inside his head, he couldn't help but laugh silently again.
Of course I have stories! He found himself thinking, Oh so many of them! Would you like to hear about the times I would have been more ******** likely to jump you and and attack? Or the times where I used to hunt cubs? How about the time when I almost burned to death? Good times!!
Oh boy.
Turning his head to look at the lioness, he was actually surprised the girl hadn't already run for the hills after such a display, "You really don't want cubs near me," he told her frankly, deciding to leave it at that for now. Time had made him decide that it'd been Karma raked up through his notorious actions that had brought upon his own demise; his daughter was gone, his grandchildren were gone, and Uovu was quite sure he was to blame for it, some way or another. He'd decided to change himself when it'd been far too late. Not that he could do anything about it now, "Nice to meet me, eh? Cheeky. She even jokes at me. Will wonders ever cease. You're probably the first person that's said that. Nice to met'cha too," he shook his head and turned to look at her, "And what bring yah, Kali Waya of the long and unusual name, to these parts of the rogue lands. I noticed you said traveler, an' not rogue, so.... what's up?"
He paused briefly and shook his head again. Look at him, making small talk, like a normal creature. Would wonders ever cease indeed. Letting out a sigh, he motioned in front of them, "River's there, sweetheart. Just beyond those bushes."
The laughter was a little surprising if only because she didn't realize what she'd said was funny, and because it seemed to punctuate that long silence with no warning.
And that certainly seemed an odd thing to say following such laughter. Interesting...
"Well, you've hardly given me a reason to say it's TERRIBLE to meet you." Was her response, logical and to the point. "So, yep. Nice."
The grin this time was a little bit cheeky, but still genuine.
"I'm not really sure if I'll stay a rogue, or if I count as one. My birth pride was known for our nomad lifestyle. I've just chosen to leave my clan, that's all. I'm sort of looking for someone. Two actually."
She reached out a paw to push aside some of the bush, then moved to step through- clearly expecting he'd follow for clarification.
"Yeah, you're just lucky you've stumbled upon me now. Should've seen me year ago," Uovu snorted, as if to some sort of private joke only he knew about, "A blast, I was," his gaze slid towards her as she continued talking, and even through narrowed eyes, his smile twitched into life again; just a ghost of a smile, a smirk, really, and not that nice looking at all, but still there, "Nice, huh?" he shook his head after a bit, "Kay then. Won't go 'round burstin' your bubble. At least not yet."
As she shoved apart the bush, the cheetah tilted his head, arched a brow, and then jumped over it himself, landing gracefully on the other side, just a foot away from the clear, rushing water of the stream. There were, thankfully, no crocodiles nearby, nor any hippos; the water being too swallow for anything other than drinking, and after taking a quick look around to satisfy his paranoia, Uovu turned back towards the strange lioness.
"Sooo... what. You're like, on vacation or something? Pretty sure there's no prides 'round here. So you must be far from home. And those markings on you; the tattoos..." after a beat, he allowed himself to sit down on the ground and began to groom himself, taking care to keep the scarred skin and pelt around his face as healthy as possible, "Who you lookin' for, anyhow? Doubt I've seen 'em but... might as well point you in a general direction," another beat followed, and then he lowered the paw he'd been grooming, "I'm looking for someone too. Looked a lot like me. Only... prettier. And female. Smaller and teal stripes on her legs. You've not... seen 'er, have you?"
Because when one was desperate enough... it didn't really matter if one chose to roll the dice. There was nothing to lose, given he'd already lost hope.
He was being both sort of cryptic and sort of open, a bit more cryptic than open but then they had just met. Kali was considering asking what he meant but the smirk did give her pause. Was it meant to put her off? Possibly. More for his sake than for hers she decided not to ask- yet. Besides, the conversation was moving along at a good clip as it was. Too many topics at once would get difficult to keep up with.
The lioness released the branches and followed his example when the opening wasn't taken, also landing with some grace, though not as much as her lithe companion, illustrated by her taking a step or two to slow her momentum afterwards. She was relieved to see that it wasn't very large, too. A nasty close call with some crocs had thus far been the only thing to make her leery of anything in the rougher rogue lands. Uovu's question caused Kali's ears to rock forward with attention but didn't stop her from padding closer to the water's edge for a drink first. A few laps partially quenched her thirst, and her head lifted up again, tongue swiping away a few stray droplets. A sideways glance followed (Like him, but prettier, smaller... family?) before answering.
"I haven't, I'm sorry. I'll keep my eyes open, though."
She took a few more laps of water before feeling satisfied, then settled down next to the stream to sit while he groomed. She couldn't help looking over his scars- she'd encountered one rogue from her homelands with similar severe burns over his left eye. He'd been a bit snappish about her asking too many questions about it and as she recalled that she decided not to press the matter with Uovu. Part of that "blast" and maybe part of the reason he'd been reacting the way he had with talks about his past, she'd guess.
"A white lioness with red tattoos all over her body, kind of like mine, but different. She's my mother. We were separated a while ago."
So a father looking for his daughter (unknown to her) and a daughter looking for her mother. What a duo indeed. Then there was still the matter of the other she was looking for.
A long sigh rocked the cheetah's body as he shook his head from side to side, almost as if reprimanding himself for having asked, "Nah. Don't bother. Don't even know why I keep fighting what I'm sure's the truth," he lifted his head back to look at her, and gave her another smile, this one having lost the edge and looking quite bitter, "Stubborn, me," he told her, "Got a nasty habit of learning s**t when it's kinda too late to do anything about it," he lifted a paw and waved it, as if dismissing his own words, wanting to give more importance to what she was saying and doing instead.
Kali, however, had grown silent and was quenching her thirst; just from the sheer amount of water she drank, the cheetah calculated it'd probably been a long trip indeed. His head turned and looked off towards the distant horizon, his eyes narrowing; he liked to keep track of where prides usually were, and he'd only really ever seen lions like Kali once or twice. From memory... he seemed to recall them being from the mountains. Or was it some place else?
It was hard to keep track of all the bigger prides, but survival depended on it; that was the reason he stayed well away from the dessert, where the big red brutes lived. Not to mention the coastal line in the upper northern section; another band of brutes lived near the mists, and though he'd not crossed paths with them, he'd seen more than one party of members from far, far away to know they were trouble.
The lioness' voice redirected his attention to the here and now, ad Uovu found his smile twitching downward as she spoke. His brow knitted as he looked at her, and then let out a sigh, "Aye," he said, "I have, actually. Didn't quite make the connection; she looked kinda small, and I was... a distance away," he turned his head and motioned towards the distance again, his paw extending in to point at the distant horizon, "I saw her.... days ago. Maybe a week or two. She was white and small, and she was with a huge lion. Golden pelt," she decided to skip why he knew this; it'd actually been the lions cries and screams at night that had made him approach enough to see the lioness.
He hadn't waited to see what was going on, having swiftly decided that despite the screams being interesting... he was quite outnumbered, "Kinda a strange pair, those two... I saw them head down east from here. It was a while back, but I recall their scent," his gaze fixed on her and he finally offered her a smirk; the scars made it look almost deadly in a way or perhaps, just perhaps... he simply didn't know any other way to smile, "You've been nice to me. Kinda more than I can say about most the rest of the bloody Savannah. You were sweet even though I snapped at you. Soooo.... I'll help you," he told her, "If you want me to."
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:25 am
Stubborn, nasty habits, denial. More clues. Kali wasn't particularly swayed either way by the temptation behind mysteries, but Uovu was turning out to be an interesting fellow. While it was sad to hear that he'd had a hard time of his past Kali believed that the past was exactly that. He was still alive and healthy, so there was still something he could do, in her eyes. Still, it would have helped to know exactly what he was talking about, rather than having just part of the whole to work with.
Kali's ears rocked forward on alert once again, surprised that he had in fact seen her mother recently, and she couldn't mask her surprise. If she was put off at all by the smirk it didn't show. One could blame her excitement over his offer, but in truth she just didn't think that he would cause her any harm. His expressions differed too much from his actions and his words- it kept her at ease, even if she had been the sort to be wary of strangers.
"I'd really appreciate it." She smiled brightly back at him, all sincerity and genuine gratitude, not to mention- "Honestly I've missed having someone to talk to out here. It'll be nice having a friend along for a change."
Yes, she really had just declared that they were already friends. In her mind that was the gospel truth.
Alas, telling the whole story... was a bad idea. Uovu wanted too, deep down. Not only because it would be liberating to say, 'Hey! This is the whole me!' and have someone actually know, but because on some baser level, he wanted to see her reaction. He wasn't meant to have company; that's just not how things worked in his world. He was meant to be alone, and giving her all the details would probably send her for the hills (rightfully so!), rendering him back to square one, in which he was all alone. Yet... on the other hand, despite knowing he didn't really deserve company, Uovu was still a creature of habit.
He'd spent so much time being followed around first by Anana, and later by her and her mate, (not to mention children) that now... he wasn't sure he liked the idea of being alone.
Being alone was boring. He was loath to admit he'd missed having someone to bounce words off of, and he missed waking up in the middle of the night and having other warm bodies around him; people that cared. Once upon a time, he'd have laughed at the thought; he had thought he wanted freedom, and the ability to stalk others, bathe in their blood, take revenge and yet now that the opportunity presented itself before him... it had lost all it's appeal. He'd realized much too late what it was he actually really cared about and what he truly wanted from life. Karma had come to bite him right in the rear end.
And yet... here was life, tossing a little bread crumb at him in the oddest of ways, in the form of one of the strangest individuals or souls he'd ever happened upon, "R-right," he lifted a paw and coughed into it, if only but to hide the fact he was unexpectedly charmed by her sincere gratitude and the honesty that shined in her eyes, "Yeah. Well, anyhow. Might as well get a move on then. Cause... we really don't wanna be anywhere near the water when night falls; that's when the monsters come out," he stood up from where he'd been sitting down and began to pad along, pausing to wait for her to catch up to him.
Friends.
The notion sounded both appealing and strange.
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