[PRP] Familial Chains (Pur x Kifuani)

[hibi-tea]

Now knowing that her sister and her niece were slaves in her pride, and that her mother was stalking out and about it, Pur decided now was the best time to seek out her sister or niece and see how they were doing. She had pondered this for some time now, and with the wrenching in her gut she knew she needed to openly claim the two as family in order to pull them from a fate she would not wish on anyone.

With Ru's overtaking of the pride through challenge, and her family's exile halted, Pur could once again walk into the pride without risk to herself. Her children were free from their slavery and exile as well, and now she just needed to free Chayah and Kifuani. As far as she knew of pride customs, all she needed to do was claim the two publicly as family for them to be set free. Of course, this was before it had been taken over by Aesir, and again by Ru. She was not certain if he was going to uphold what Aesir once did. Ru was not Aesir, after all.

Wandering hesitantly through the inner workings of the pride, Pur looked for where most of the Thralls wandered and were kept so seek out her sister and niece. If they were not claimed, they should be there, and even if they were they'd probably be nearby.

With a wavering voice, she called out into the fray, "Chayah! Sister, where are you? Kifuani? Are either of you here?"

Pur was not comfortable in the inner pride itself. There was no darkness and thick foliage to obscure her, and no trees to hide in. But she needed to be brave in this moment. Despite her petiteness, she needed to be brave.  

[Puhterodactyl]

Kifuani's red ears flicked towards the direction of her name. It was an unfamiliar voice, and why was it also calling for her mother? She looked warily in its direction and shrunk back into the shadows, hugging a stone face of one of the great cliffs in the wall. She watched as the figure walked closer.

The lioness narrowed her white eyes as she saw the same pale ones in a white lioness. Her sight then fell to the marking on her chest. It was like she was bleeding black, where her mother was bleeding red. Chayah had told her daughter that her sister was in the pride, and this lioness calling for them seemed to fit the description.

Warily, Kifuani heaved herself to her feet and walked towards the lioness. "Why are you looking for those thralls?"  

[hibi-tea]

Pur was startled for a moment when the gray and tan lionnes came out from behind one of the stone wall faces and spoke to her. She shrunk slightly, and her ears pinned back as she smiled out of nervousness. Pur was not used to these nervous feelings. She was usually much more confident, but then again she was also much more protect and in a place of utter familiarity. This was not utter familiarity.

"Ah... Well," She began before stopping and taking a deep breath. No hesitation. If she gave off hesitation, she may be attacked. After all, she rarely stepped foot here, and up until recently she was exiled from here. Practically no one knew her, specifically. Only her children.

Unpinning her ears and standing as big as her petite frame could possible make her look, Pur look to the gray and tan lioness with determination before responding, "One is my sister. The other is my niece. I am looking for them. Do you know them?"  

[Puhterodactyl]

Kifuani had just wanted to hear it confirmed before revealing herself. She nodded and said, "I do, your sister is my mother. I'm Kifuani. It's nice to meet you, Aunt Pur."

She tilted her head. "My mother is in a different part of the pride at the moment. We aren't together frequently. What do you need us for?" Her aunt still had not answered. She had not been a suspicious lioness before joining the pride, but her time in the Stormborn had changed her.

Chayah had taught her daughter that Pur and her family stayed in the forests of the pride, hidden away. That's why she'd never met her. It must have taken something grave to bring her aunt out of hiding like this.  

[hibi-tea]

Pur starred for a moment at the lioness before her in stunned silence. This was her niece? She looked so different than Chayah and Lajos, but the white eyes they shared were unmistakable. Pur supposed it was for the best that Kifuani did not resemble, Chayah or herself. Any children she had would be safer from Coeur than her own. The farther away they looked from that woman, the better off they'd be.

Pur allowed herself to smile at the meeting of her niece, but stopped herself from rushing up to her to hug her. She was a slave here, and she did not know how she was treated by the rest of the pride. She would not want to scare her, or do something that may get her into trouble. She slowly began to trot towards her, still smiling but a little sadder now that she realized the extent of the situation before her.

"I came to find you and your mother, because I may be able to free you both," She said quietly, not wanting to alert others nearby. After all, she was still wary of everyone here herself. If any other Thralls overheard, or another Freeborn or Reaver and took this to Ru without her getting to him first then there might be obstacles in her way. Unnecessary, painful obstacles.  

[Puhterodactyl]

Kifuani's eyes opened wide and she tilted her head, before ducking and leaning in close to her aunt. "...Free... us?" She'd only known slavery for but a fraction of her life, but it was longer than any lion should have to know. She threw looks over her shoulders and past her aunt. If Pur was worried about being overheard, then the thrall definitely have reason to fear.

She whispered, "...How?"

How could her small, timid white aunt free them. Would she have to do one of those ...asoukar things? Her newly raised hopes sank. That was more than just a little unlikely. Her ears drooped and her eyes fell to the ground.

"I-I don't understand. It's can't really be possible. Or else there would be no thralls, right?"  

[hibi-tea]

Puhterodactyl

"Claim." Pur said abruptly in a hushed tone, "In front of everyone. I must claim you publicly as family."

She felt a large pang of guilt in her stomach knowing that she kept this from Chayah, and in turn from Kifuani. She had done it to protect them in the only way she knew how at the time, though. The pride was still under that lion's rule. Her son's and daughter's stilled exiled or thralled themselves. She could not come out into the open to claim them without risking herself, and even if she could she did not know if Chayah had the mind to stay as someone who was free or go back to her first form of slavery. And as for Kifuani, she did not know her at all.

"I...I could not do it before," She explained, glancing about to make sure she was not overheard. "Before... I was exiled, Kifuani. Me, my children, my husband, our whole family. We are the family of the old Warlord, Aesir. All of us were banished. There was nothing I could do."

She was still uncertain if Ru upheld the laws that Aesir did, but from the whispers she knew at the edge of the forest he was close to Aesir and some of Aesir's kin. Hopefully he was like him and would allow her to claim her family and free them. She would have to ask one of her sons, they knew more about the pride's inner workings than she did. The less time she spent in here, the better off she would be.

"Kifuani, you tell your mother this and only your mother, ok?" She pressed, looking around a little more nervously once again, "I... I need to make sure that our current Warlord is like Aesir and will uphold this. No one else but you and her can know, understand? I don't know what would happen if they interfered. I am... not exactly a fighter, after all."  

[Puhterodactyl]

Kifuani shied away from her aunt. Coeur had claimed them as family and that had gone poorly. Very poorly. Would she and her mother then be her aunt's thralls?? She looked at Pur suspiciously. And she confessed to waiting, withholding this information. No, Kifuani did not feel like she could trust her aunt at all. What had they been exiled for, anyway?

The black and tan lioness nodded her head. She would pass this message on to Chayah, but her fears and reservations as well. She still thought this could be some kind of trick.

"I will, aunt Pur. I'm glad your circumstances have improved to help change ours."

Her white eyes bored holes into Pur's.  

[hibi-tea]

Pur nodded solemnly to Kifuani. She felt guilty for not coming sooner, just as she felt guilty for not being able to free her son from his thralldom. At least she was able to rectify one of the situations, unlike the other. He probably resented her for not coming for him. Sometimes she was sure of that.

Shaking her head suddenly in attempts to whisk away the thought, Pur looked around and then back to Kifuani with a sad smile, "I wish I could stay longer, but... I-I don't like this place. Not after what they did to Burzum. Er, Burzum... He's your cousin. Looks like me, but with eye markings and very wild hair."

She looked at the ground, smiling sadly again. This was getting too painful for her, "Anyway... I need to go. It was... It was good to finally meet you Kifuani. I will do my best to free you, because this.... this is not what you deserve. It's not what any of us deserve..."

With that, Pur took off from the inner sanctum of the pride. She could be seen clear as day until the treeline that began her forest home. From there she quickly disappeared, either into a tree or simply shrouded by the thicket of the trees. Like her namesake, she had ghosted herself away.  

[Puhterodactyl]

Kifuani only became all the more rigid. So Pur had chosen her niece and sister over her son? What had happened to her cousin, anyway? Suddenly she felt very cold, a shiver ran down back. Stiffly, she nodded.

"It was good to finally meet you, too, Pur."

She watched her aunt disappear into the forest, and shuddered again. Ghosts always had a way of creeping you out, right?