With the heavy rains of winter brought a misery that Zephyr couldn't hope to contend with. When she looked up at the darkened sky she heard the raging waters slam into the shore so close to her. The storm made her eyesocket ache for the eye the Gods had taken from her in the tsunami. It was as if it were calling for another so that it may gain it back, but she knew none would come from such a storm. It simply wasn't strong enough.
Still, it was harsh enough to seep through her thick fur and freeze her bones. The larger lioness crept across the thick grasses into the jungle where she knew her mate worked. Unlike the others he would work through hellfire if she allowed it. "Koukakala!" She called out, but her voice was taken as a swell of wind nearly knocked her from her paws. "Kou, where are you?"
As Bumani the larger members of the pride worked tirelessly to create an area where their family could call home. Those that didn't mind the rains were out gathering materials to make sure the dens would hold in the swell. Koukakala for one wouldn't rest until he knew every family was accounted for, and well taken care of. It wasn't in him to leave cubs, and their mothers unprotected.
A paw touched his shoulder and a lion said something to him, though it was lost. "Huh?" He leaned in, but thankfully it didn't need to be repeated. He saw the figure of his dear mate trying to pick her way towards them. Kou moved around a pile of stones and made his way gingerly to her side. Nuzzling her head, he looked at Zephyr with a tired smile. "What is it, love? You shouldn't be out here."
"But wasn't this what I was named for? A raging storm?" She leaned in close to him and sighed despite her teasing. There had been a part of her that worried he would be taken away by the storms. "When are you coming home, Kou? You've been gone all day, I think it's time you rested for the evening. You're so cold-"
When he pulled away, she frowned. "If you're going to argue against me, I'll tan that hide of yours! It's just a storm! Everyone is already taken care of and you are not the only Bumani, you know.
Koukakala looked over his shoulder to his brothers in arms and watched as they began to take their finds back to the dens. "I know that." Looking back at her, he repeated it with more force. "I know that, Zephyr. But didn't you all say the tsunami was just a storm as well?" He let the question hang heavy between them before walking away from her to his stones. As he bent to lift up the first one he saw her approach. "I'm not backing away to hide safe in my den. There are families that need these to hold their dens together."
He wouldn't be able to sleep knowing they were in danger. Or cold. What if it was his own, and they needed the help? What kind of monster would he be if he left them alone?
A worried rage was building up in her. Didn't he understand what she was saying? She stalked after him, aware that the others were leaving not only to get back to work, but to give them much needed space. Though her mate was calm and reserved, she was a firecracker waiting to explode.
"I know? Is that all you have to say? We've learned from our mistakes and the debt has been paid. We paid in blood for upsetting the ocean, and it gave us nothing in return! Nothing, but pain." She was so bi-polar in her affections to the water. It was both her life, and yet her greatest foe. "It took my baby brother, my father, and it took you...Don't you think I know what it can do?" Zephyr was shrieking at this point. Still he worked, moving stones until she slapped them out of his paws. "What is wrong with you?! Don't you see how worried I am for you? Say something, Koukakala!
"What is it that you want me to say, Zephyr?" Koukakala snapped. He turned, shocking her with a side of him she had rarely seen. He was at his limit with her this evening. There was so much to do, so many families to protect and she was holding him back. "I'm not a pearl you can hide away in a clam shell until all of this blows over. Do not think you are the only one who has lost family members. I know you aren't that selfish, and I understand your pain, but I'm trying to make sure what happened to you doesn't happen to anyone else."
Without so much as another word he turned away from her to walk back down the beach, then pause, tilted his head and looked at her from the corner of his eye. "Can you not trust me to come back to you? I'm not a reckless fool like you; I won't be taking risks I know I can't stop. I can't stand to have you chastise me like this, and not even listen to yourself when I tell you the same thing." Kou looked up at her. "Go home, Zephyr."
There was sand slipping through her paws as Zephyr struggled for a counter attack. Everything she said hit a brick wall to his logical response, and it infuriated her. "You said you would give me the world, but you won't even listen to me." Zephyr shook her head, tears of frustration slipping out. "I took a risk in mating with you! Do you think I'm such a fool, then? Some cub you need to keep tabs on? D-don't come back tonight, then, since you seem so fond of staying out late. You can sleep in the rain for all I care!"
Koukakala inhaled sharply. His teeth scrapped against one another as he watched her. She was grasping at sand, he knew it, but it stung never the less. "Maybe you are a fool, if you don't even know enough about your mate to know when to trust him. I have never thought of you as anything other than what you are, but if that's how you see things I pity you."
He walked up to her then, his heart aching even in his heated moment when she took a step back. Zephyr never backed away from anything, so he knew just how vulnerable she was then. It didn't make him want to coddle her any less when he knew he had to tell her the truth. "I love you, but I'm going. I will see if Zaid and Talise will let me stay with them for the night."
Zephyr held her chin up high. It quivered and shook, though not because of the cold. This was the first time he had put her in her place, and it hurt more than she thought it would. "Get away from me, Koukakala. Go do your job until you drop of exhaustion and go crawl into someone elses den because you aren't welcome in mine."
She wanted him to hold her, to say things were alright, but she knew he wouldn't. So Zephyr turned on her heel and ran back off through the stormy woods, cutting through the familiar route to get back to her home.
Heaving a great sigh, Koukakala angrily scooped up the rest of his equipment and starting back down towards the beach. There was a lot he wanted to say to her, but it would only have turned uglier than it already was.
She had once threatened him in jest that if he didn't behave she would leave and join the K'Z. He only hoped she wouldn't after all of this.
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