The day was milder than the previous ones, which was an improvement and immensely helpful for the captain of the guard. Having been cooped up in the dens for the last two days due to poor weather conditions, he definitely needed to stretch his legs. Setting off early in the morning, he had managed to make good time, even though he had stopped to help several members of the colony clean the ramps that acted as the main way to traverse the harsh terrain they all called home. At least the mountain was secure from the lion threat that always loomed when anyone left the mountain.
A few hours had passed since he had woken and by now he was off of the mountain now and in the plains that surrounded Umsindisi. Even the grasses seemed to be chilled by the morning air. Perhaps it was the colder mountain air moving down the side of it, but he was no scholar. No, patrolling was his daily mission and he had been without it for several day which had caused him to snap on more than one occasion to those attending queen Elisheba and even Noir had been a victim of his foul mood.
As he moved through the grasses, the captain paused, his tail twitching as it curled slightly. His nose had caught an unfamiliar marking scent and his ears heard what was...chattering? In the distance, yes, there was at least one voice...no, two. Lowering himself, belly to the ground, he crept along hoping to listen in. Hopefully they were with the pride that usurped the colony's homeland. Fights between it and the colony were uncommon, but they did happen when prowlers were not wary while dragging kills home or guards who let their guard down while out on patrol. Maybe this would give them an edge of some sort.
"Brother, when will we find him?" A pure black lioness groaned, her voice thick with an accent Barafu-taji did not recognize. It sounded something akin to those who came from the north possessed but he could not place it. Obviously irritated though, her pale golden eyes stared down what could now only be assumed was her brother.
This large black male lion seemed...unamused. Simply biding his time, sitting among the body of a kill. The stench was everywhere in the air, seeping into all three feline's fur. It wasn't until the grass moved just right that Barafu-taji caught a glimpse of what the kill specifically was. It was a prowler, a survivor who had recently returned home and a kill that likely had been going back to the colony who desperately needed to replenish their supplies.
Swallowing hard, the captain attempted to scoot backwards. As Barafu-taji retreated, his rear leg touched something. All of his blood ran cold as he hesitantly turned his head to just barely look over his shoulder.
When had she moved?
Pale golden eyes stared down at him as the monstrous lioness roughly grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. Rearing up she threw the captain's body towards her brother.
Landing beside the fallen prowler, Barafu-taji finally got a good look at him. This pride had killed members of the colony before, but never in the fashion he had just seen...not with the head completely separated from the body. It was unlike anything they had learned about them. It was horrifying, causing him to completely forget the two lions that surrounded him now as his body shook and heaved. If he had eaten anything, he likely would have lost it right then.
"What are you doing here?" It was a smooth, deep voice that also possessed the same accent as the lioness that broke through to Barafu-taji. The male's tail swept just underneath the leopard's chin while he circled him. "My sister has excellent hearing, oh but you didn't know that. Now you do."
"This...this is our land and you...you're trespassing." Standing his ground, hopefully he could intimidate these two, somehow, and get them to let their guard down for even a moment to allow him a chance to escape. He knew these plains better than most of the prowlers in the colony. If he could find his chance, he could get away, he knew it.
"Us, trespassing?" The black lioness' voice broke into laughter as she spoke. Cackling, she circling Barafu-taji in the opposite direction of her brother. "Come on, seriously, what are you doing here? I assume you were probably sent to come find us by Odin or something so really, just spill the truth before we spill your guts."
"Ragna!" The much larger male stopped abruptly. He was tense, anyone could see that as he stood with an eerie stillness except for the occasional twitch. Suddenly he rushed towards his sister, pushing her to the ground with the brute force of his large forelegs. Leaning close to her face, he snapped his jaws in her face. "Watch your tongue! Should this mongrel be a spy, you could have just jeopardized us all!"
A name, finally. At least he was learning something. But how much of this would he remember when it was all over, if he even managed to get out of this alive? Wide silver eyes watched the two as the captain planned his escape. While that had been an opportune time, a better one was likely fast approaching, one with a higher survival chance. Perhaps it was shock or the pain that was just starting to radiate on the back of his neck that caused him to be unable to act.
"Oh just look at him, Rök! There's no way this scrawny thing was sent after us? He hardly knew how to sneak, I knew he was there before he was probably even aware we were here. Now relaaax, why not have some fun with this one before we make him dinner?" Pushing her older brother off, Ragna continued her circling of what she considered to be another easy meal. Settling down beside the leopard, she placed a leg over the dip of his back. "Come on fuzzy, what's your name?"
"Why don't you just kill me, like you did him?" Barafu-taji shook his head in the direction of the decapitated prowler that laid only a little over a yard away from the three of them.
"Because there's no fun in that any my sister enjoys the thrill more than anything." The large lion interjected as he finally stopped to sit in front of Barafu-taji. "So we have established you are more certainly not who I thought you are, but still leaves the question of who are you?"
Anyone from that forest pride would have known him, that was for sure. They weren't from here. They were from another pride or no pride at all, but they seemed to be scared of something, or someone, probably that Odin they mentioned, for some reason. "I'm no one, a passing rogue. I smelled food and..."
"You were right you smelled food, but I'm surprised you didn't smell your cousin here with it or either of us." Ragna interrupted as her paw moved up his back to have it come to rest upon the leopard's ear. "I kind of like this one. Can we keep him?"
"No, Ragna. We have a hard enough time feeding ourselves, besides...he knows too much already." With teeth bared and red eyes set on him, Barafu-taji offered a small prayer to Shan Furen that he figured would be his last as he stared death in the face. In the midst of resulted with the two siblings arguing again, this time over his life, ravens appeared and began clawing, pecking and harassing the two much larger felines. One stopped, flying a tight circle above the leopard, cawing out, "Run, run, run as fast as you can, do not look back!" Another chimed in, "Stay from sight, in the shadows, stay from sight!"
It was a small flock that had appeared out of the blue.
Barafu-taji scrambled onto his paws and bolted from the scene, with the last thing he saw being a mass of black. The ordeal was not something he would report, for now. It was an...odd encounter, one that could be seen as miraculous he survived but could raise unneeded worry in the citizens of the Mlima Tuokoa. It was odd though. Ravens were not normally seen in these lands, not in such numbers anyways. They were farther south, in warmer lands. And the scholars had not informed him of any migrations, nor had he ever seen ravens flock in such a way. As he had learned, only the young flock and the adults form pairs so...no, it couldn't be. Shaking the thought from his head, he made it his goal to get home before the sun set and even at a jog, he would be hardpressed to make it.
Still, he had to make sure the colony would be safe. This meant having his scent go through a large amount of grass mud, water and moree, hopefully if they tried to pursue him, they would be thrown off. Of course he did this all while looking over his shoulder, hoping they were nowhere to be seen and that they were long gone by now. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally lead them back to the colony.
Home. Umsindisi was safe.
[word count: 1575]
