Ru'yah squinted her eyes and looked at Haki with a slight glare. "Please." The small blue jackal had his head upon her paws, his butt high and the air and his tail wagging like a pup. Begging was not something he did often, certainly not often when it came to Ru'.
The lioness seemed to mauled over his suggestion for a few seconds, letting it sink it while biting her bottom lip. "But I don't want to." She informed him plainly. Ru'yah was nor subtle or plain in her manner of speech, her thoughts accumulated and she hesitated not in speaking them as they did.
"Ru'yah..." The jackal pried. Ever since she had awoken here in the kingdom of quite literately their dreams, Ru'yah had been on an non-stop campaign to run away.
It wasn't as if she was mistreated, all seers here were that, seers. Some, like her, had their own personalities shaped and grooved by their visions alone; some revered only good visions while others experienced terrible tales. Ru'yah had both. The only blessing was her visions came as dreams, and she had suffered long for that.
"Please help! She's sick, she needs food!" The lioness could remember hearing Haki say faintly, when she was at the pinnacle of losing herself to her dreams. Many weeks had been spent laboring over her, ensuring she didn't succumb to the dreams and perish.
She was grateful, mighty grateful. One could say she was constantly reminding others of her gratefulness, particularly of Haki's help. But Ru'yah liked being independent, her worse fear was becoming a burden.
"Ru'yah..." Her familiar moaned, preventing her from taking yet another step further. "You can't swim, how do you think you're going to make it to the other side?"
They were standing at the edge of the Kasai kingdom, where the land touched the lake of the island. It had been a trip that had accumulated many nights to complete. Upon reaching the shores they were exhausted and famished, and in no shape to be having this argument.
"Ru', let's turn back now okay? We've wandered far enough, the Nyosen are probably worried sick about you."
"I don't want to. " Ru'yah told her small friend. "They always want to do things for me, they won't even let me groom myself!"
"Would you have actually groomed yourself if they hadn't?" Haki muttered under his breath. He then coughed and spoke louder. "Ru'yah, listen to yourself, this is ridiculous. This place is good! And have you had a bad vision since we got here? Hmm?!"
That was true, no bad dreams taunted the lioness since her arrival in the kingdom of fire. "But I feel useless..."
"Ru." Haki brushed up against her. "Your not useless, they're only taking care of you so that you can do things you want to do. Not have to."
Ru'yah sighed heavily, "But I don't know what I want to do! I'm used to taking care of others, not others taking care of me!"
"Exactly, that's why you should enjoy this." Haki told her, and with that the lioness sat upon the ground alongside her familiar. Her friend.
"Why don't you tell me a story." Haki suggested, "It might make you feel better."
"You mean like one of my visions?" Ru'yah asked, "Alright. I uh, had a vision of a vision once."
"Really?" Haki blinked, then turned his head away, "I don't believe you."
"No, no, it's true! See because I was a cheetah and his name was.. um..."
"What? What was his name?"
"Er... It's fuzzy just hold on a second... Okay... Oh right! His name was...
Lindani.
He remembered it well because his mother had given it to him. She had said it was almost a family tradition to name children with letters beginning with an 'L'.
The cheetah carried a hare in his mouth, slinking across the tall grass while the reeds brushed along his shoulders. The area was calm, cool and relaxing. It was also out of reach of many travelers, as it required taking a detour through a swamp and then climbing a mountain of hills to come by. The area was easily overlooked, a paradise that hid from all society.
He was thankful for that, because Lindani preferred to hide from society too.
His scarred and ugly body made him the sight of a victim each day he lived and breathed. Frightening was his appearance and he was quite embarrassed at this fact. Hiding was the only was to escape the stares and glares. Here, alone he was finally at peace and tranquility with his haunted thoughts. Only the disruption of Damu as she occasionally licked by and requested his help was ruin to his serenity.
His family had perished, his mate, their children. All gone. All having lovingly been named after Lindani's own family heritage. Names that began with L.
It was as he thought these thoughts, and lowered himself to the forest floor that a swift yet gentle breeze washed over him. A breeze that seemed to lift his mind up into the sky and-
He was having a vision. He didn't know what made him think of such but he knew he was. It was like this when he had visions sometimes. They felt like he was being carried elsewhere. Elsewhere where he looked at something as it happened. Like... Like a ghost. That was how he viewed his visions. He was but a ghost. Yes. A ghost of a cheetah. Now, here, where his mind had traveled to was new and fuzzy. It was blurry, like many other visions began like. Lindani, he blinked a few times before allowing himself to come to focus on the area.
He saw his daughter. No... That was... That was impossible, all of them had died in the flames. Yet somehow he was pulled towards her, her spots looked like his. The red upon her face was passed down from her mother. She was...
"Leilani." His daughter turned her head to face another stranger. A creature who looked to be frail as himself, yet boasted a lion mane, and a fluffy tail much more lion-like than his own. A... Cheeton. That was as hybrids were called yes? Cheetah lion. Cheeton.
"Leilani, let's play!" The cheeton grinned and looked to his daughter joyfully. He seemed grown. Leilani was too. She looked at this cheeton with a grin and Lindani watched as she did so. No... It was. Not possible...
"I'm the best goalie their is now Aka!" She swung her head back and laughed. "You really think you'll be able to stop me? I'm not a cub anymore you know."
"Yeah, and it makes me feel old!" Aka and her laughed together. "How have you and Pipa been doing anyways? Not so brave anymore, monster hunters."
Leilani rolled her eyes, "Monsters are real, Pipa and me hunted them."
Aka snorted, "Yeah, real fake!"
"Hey, you're the one that when along with us when we were kids you know!" The duo laughed some more.
All the while Lindani struggled to breathe. The impossibility. No, he never viewed the past, only the present or rare moments of the future. This was happening. Or to happen soon. Either way it stared him and choke him up. He felt rushed to breath, and his mind seemed to blur out. "No!" He yelled. "No! I want to see more!" He angrily slurred.
His daughter was alive. His daughter was alive!!
1248 words
606 - Ru'yah
642 - Lindani