Welcome to Gaia! ::

A lone, weary, and haggard straggler staggered along the savannah. Tichaona watched the lioness with cold and calculating light blue eyes. He had noticed an increasing number of lions and lionesses passing through this temporary patch of savannah that he was calling his home. Sometimes they would be in large numbers, sometimes a pair would go together or one individual. He had seen family groups, parents and children, he assumed, as well. None of them looked, well, especially good. Healthy or happy. As the solitary male was vastly outnumbered, he had declined any opportunity to speak to some of them and find out just exactly what was going on and where they were all coming from and headed to. A fly buzzed around his head and he flicked his ear to drive it away. But apart from that, he was still. A mahogany carving. Despite the great numbers of lions passing through his little spot of land, many had not dawdled to hunt, so his holdings of herds of prey animals were still largely intact. The lion was well-fed and fit.

Unlike the one he was watching.

This lioness seemed especially weak. Even from a distance he was able to discern that her eyes were unfocused and cast down to the ground. She stumbled now and then, and he could detect a faint limp. He suspected she had other injuries as well, but could not be fully certain as she was so filthy. He assumed she was supposed to be black and white, but he wasn't sure what ended where or if maybe she was naturally brown instead of just the caked on dirt. But the crowds had dwindled in recent days. She was alone. He was alone. And Tichaona considered that he had been that way for quite some time. Uncomfortably long? No, he did not need or thrive on the company of others. He had seldom had any meaningful relationships in his life. Nearly with his son, Bakari, but it seemed his son had inherited his mother's perceptiveness and was able to see the true darkness to Tichaona's soul. And so, his son had left him, too.

For the former ruler of a grand pride, it was quite a change of pace. As he heaved himself to his feet and trotted over to the lioness, he had relented that he did miss the feeling of a lioness' warm body.

"Stop, you. Don't you know you're trespassing in my territory?"

He had only managed to obtain a turtle that day, but it was better than nothing. He had to keep Gopala going. With all of their children missing (presumed dead), Gopala was all that he had left to hold onto. And he was not going to let her starve herself to death. He was clinging onto her with every claw, he would not just give up on her and let her go. Heck, he mused, that was a huge part of the foundation of their relationship. When she had accidentally poisoned herself (way to go, Gopala- he tried not to ever remind her of it), he had worked tirelessly and through many perils to get the curing herb to save her life. This would just be the next chapter of their story, he told himself sternly. Before meeting her in the mountains that the Jini-msemi had called home, the lion had had little to live for. Really he was only living for himself. He had joined the pride as an adult because he knew it was easier living in a pride and he could not out compete the huge pride. But Gopala made him invested in being truly a member, and their children exponentially so.

So when the avalanche displaced them... He shook his head at the thought. It was Gopala's time to be the sad and upset one. His turn would come eventually. Well, truly, he hoped never. She was not as resilient as he was and if he was in the same sorry state that she was, he figured it would probably kill them both for her to try and keep him alive.

With the turtle in his mouth, he trotted along the path of paw prints that he had told Gopala to follow. Hopefully he could convince her to eat all of the kill on her own, even as he was beginning to starve.

Gopala still did not give this male the satisfaction of her gaze. She just stared straight ahead with pink eyes gone dull. The wind blew some dust, and for a second she imagined that she was able to see some more lions in the distance. Jini-msemi members who had turned around for some reason? Backup for this stranger? Her own cubs? She was so weak that she could only wait, but then the dust faded away and there was nothing. She was not shocked.

"Rest assured, he is in far better condition than I am. It could be in partly in thanks to the meals along our journey, we have been lucky enough to get a few hares and a baby antelope here on "your" lands." Maybe, deep down, Gopala was hoping just a little bit to bother this male as much as he was bothering her. If that was true, it meant that maybe she did have a little bit of fight left in her yet.

As she held her gaze on the horizon, she believed that she could hear light footsteps approaching from behind.

Finally, she glanced at Tichaona.

"Good, now you'll see."

Gopala had watched the whole fight largely unperturbed. She had never seen Paropakari in a state like this, and she was sure he would win. He was beat up afterwards, but the lioness rose to her feet (albeit a bit shaky) and nuzzled him, grooming what were either wounds he sustained or splotches of blood from the other male. With renewed energy, she led the way after the others. She had to pull through. For Paro at least. She would see her children again in the afterlife, but she would not rush to it if it meant leaving Paropakari.