Ataullah had spent hours catching up with her parents, from her wandering into the unclaimed lands to her ordeal at the paws of a hostile party of 'warriors' intent on taking her and others back to wherever they were from to serve as something they called 'wretched' - what she could only assume to be equivalent to slaves. Just another name for a terrible thing. Her father had been especially distressed, and soothing his concerns had been difficult, even with the obvious proof that she had, ultimately, made it away unharmed. It made him even less comfortable with the idea that she would be leaving, but at the same time, he did find some reasurance in the fact that she would be travelling and eventually settling with the ones who had rescued her, and that she had family among them. Still, it was obvious that letting her go was going to be difficult for him, and that was almost enough to make her reconsider going at all. She didn't want to worry him, but...but she needed to make her own way. She had spent her whole life just drifting, listening to and looking for stories, and it was past time that she started living her life and making her own stories. Hopefully not quite as dramatic or traumatic as this most recent chapter had been, but regardless, she needed to go. But maybe she didn't have to go into the relative unknown alone, with nothing or no one familair beside her. She would have to speak to her siblings before she left, not jsut to say farewell but to see if any might want to come along with her.
And beyond her family, she had other friends as well - perhaps one among them might find the prospect of a new pride appealing? Though it was late, with the sun having set some time ago, Ataullah set out to find a good friend from her youth, one who'd always been happy to sit with her and listen to stories and speculate about the world and what lay beyond the borders of the Pridelands. He'd been entirely less inclined to actually go out and see for himself, being a rather...sedentary sort, but that particular trait of his was one that caused her to suspect he might find the Te'a-Nakhun appealing. It took some doing to find him, as was typical when looking for anyone in the Pridelands, but she did finally find him. Quite predictably, he was sleeping.
Thoguh she was not normally one to disturb someone's rest, she didn't exactly have time to wait around for him to wake on his own in the morning, as that was when she intended to leave. The intricately-marked lioness nudged him gently once, twice, then a third time. No response. She rolled her eyes, cleared her throat, and nudged him again, this time accompanying the action with a harsh whisper, "Ijuba. Hey, Ijuba! Wake up. We need to talk, come on."
The white-maned male twitched, snuffled, snorted, and finally started awake, furrowing his brow and squinting purple eyes at the lioness who'd disturbed his sleep. That was- hey, wait! "Taullah?" He sat bolt upright and shook his head, then focused his gaze on her again. "You're back! Your parents have been worried sick about you, you know."
"I know, I know," Ataullah said, sitting back on her haunches. "I already saw them and talked to them, it's fine. I'm fine."
"...Good. I'm glad." He blinked more sleep from his eyes and settled his posture back into something a bit more comfortable. "Very glad. But, uh, what's so important you had to wake me up in the middle of the night? I mean, I'm happy you're back and you're okay, definitely, but what couldn't wait until morning?"
Taullah chuckled. Good old Ijuba, little was more important than sleep. "Because I wanted to talk to you, and I'm leaving in the morning."
"What? Again? Why?" Confusion was clear on his face. It probably didn't help that he was still half-awake at best, poor guy. Not that he'd ever been especially quick on the uptake, but that was one of his charms.
"I found a pride. Or, well, it found me, I guess. Yeah, that's probably a better way to put it," she decided. "So I'm saying goodbye to everyone, but I also- well, I wanted to see if maybe you wanted to come with me."
"Oh, uh." Blink, blink, blink. Fish for words and a possible answer. "Well. Uh. I dunno, I kind of like it here, but...what's it like, where you're going?"
"Okay, so, you remember all those stories my mom used to tell, the ones we liked so much, about the pride she came from?"
"Yeah, the- the Kunanda...Kunanda'Nakhun, right? What about it?"
"Well, someone from another branch of my family is bringing it back," she explained, "And it's going to be a little different - better, I think. That's where I'm going."
The Hunter thought for a moment. "I, uh, I'm flattered you'd ask me, and they were cool stories, but are you sure that's really the kind of place for me? I mean, are they still the way they were about males?"
"Pretty much," she answered, "But they're not mean or anything, you know. If you came, you wouldn't have to do anything - anything. Not hunting, nothing. I mean, maybe if someone asked you for cubs, but you wouldn't even have to do that, if you didn't want to." Taullah coughed and looked down, studying her paws for a moment. "And you've got a lot of white, anyway, so they might not even want...that."
"So, let me get this straight: I get to do nothing - except for, uh, 'that' maybe - for the rest of my life? And that's okay?" Stars help him, was he actually considering this? It was a very attractive prospect for someone as unmotivated as himself, a Hunter who didn't even like to hunt. And Ataullah was his friend, and she shouldn't have to leave alone...
"Yeah, that's okay. Males aren't expected to do anything, really." To put it more accurately, there wasn't much that they were trusted to do, but she knew that wouldn't bother Ijuba. Aside from all the walking that would be required to get there, this life would basically be his dream come true.
"I...I think I'd like that. Sure. I'll do it."
