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 Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:52 am
Another evening was falling, but first the sun had to bleed across the savannah. It had been sometime now since Mbaya had announced to Hakan that he was to be the father of her children- and Kamal hadn’t yet managed to reciprocate. He certainly hoped that Hakan wasn’t starting to think he wasn’t a man. But it was precariously difficult to find ladies. In fact- it was almost impossible.
He’d met a white lioness with beautiful white fur and bright violet eyes- but she’d sooner claw marked him then bear his mighty offspring. A blue one too- she had just blushed and ran away. What was wrong with people? Didn’t they see his majesty? He was by far the most masculine male around. Even Hakan [who by now, Kamal hero worshipped], wasn’t as attractive as Kamal. But, Hakan was right beneath him. Between the two of them, they were just heart breakers.
Or so he liked to think. Hakan was out, and Kamal lay stretched on a rock, not far from the border of the gravelands. He was tired- a day of failing at hunting hadn’t done much for his ego either. Bitterly, the golden male scratched as his neck and bit his paw. What was mum doing now? He would have to make a note to go visit her soon. "Nuurr." He grumbled, and stretched out his paw to flick a clot of dirt from it. "...Kamal...is hungry." He remarked flatly, and shut his eyes in mock serious contemplation.
Mother hunted the best out of all of them, he remembered.
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:10 pm
Another day had passed and yet Salem hadn't met any new wild lions. How depressing! How was she to learn their ways if she couldn't even find them? Oh, she was such a failure! She couldn't even track down her own kind. How sad.
Shaking her head, she wandered about in the last hours of the day looking for a place to sleep. If there was one thing she had learned in her short time out here, it was that she didn't like sleeping out in the open when it was dark. It was far too scary and things crawled all over her if she just plopped down at any place. The only solution to her problem was to find some place to stay. Perferrably quickly, as dark was approaching fast.
"Hm.. let's see," she murmured to herself, flicking her round ears and glancing all around her. She couldn't really see anything that could act as a shelter for the night, and so she began to worry just a little. But, she told herself, there was nothing to worry about. Nobody was out here, and so nobody was going to bother her. Nevertheless, her lack of experience was making her a bit edgy.
Wandering further, she spotted something in the distance. Her sapphire eyes narrowed slightly as she attempted to get a better visual of whatever it was. Her eyes widened as she noticed that it was another lion.
"Oh!" she exclaimed to herself. Her paws scurrying over the ground, she quickly moved herself towards him. "Wild lion!" she called, sounded perhaps rather dumb. "You are a wild lion, yes?" she huffed, skidding to a halt beside him. She was naive and maybe stupid, thus it didn't occur to her that she had just ran up to a large male who could probably tear her to pieces if he wanted.
Nevertheless, she stood there, her bright eyes watching him intently. A real wild lion!
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:17 pm
Kamal balked and leaned back, his bright green eyes flashing against the dark light as the female suddenly materalized from the bowls of god knows where. “Argh!” His hackles rose, and he stumbled backwards, quickly regretting the motion. “I mean-!” He quickly fixed, settling himself up and fixing his fur so it was not standing on end. Damn woman! Making him look like she had scared him. Hah! “Argh...gh....goo...are you?” He sounded out, attempting to correct the words.
“What, wild lion?” Kamal quirked. “What joos talking about?” He asked, rubbing his chest. “What other kinda lion is there? Some kinda chained lion? You a chained lion? You look like a free lion.” He rambled, and rubbed his cheek as his heart settled. How infuriating. How was he supposed to be a great warlord when women were always popping all up...upons.
He supposed it couldn’t be helped. He was obviously a beacon of light to her. “Hrm. Ah! Well, I am a wild lion, if that’s what you mean.” He spoke in a more blatantly swave way. “Who are you pretty girl?”
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:33 pm
Salem merely stood there, blinking at Kamal, as he stumbled backwards and was scared by her sudden appearance. In truth, she didn't realize that she had scared him and she thought that what he did was just a normal thing among wild lions. Thus, she didn't intend to question it.
As he began talking to her, she at first couldn't understand him. She frowned, becoming a bit angry with herself that she hadn't learned all of the wild languages her cousins spoke. But then he seemed to correct his words, and she perked up when she realized that she could in fact understand him. Oh goody!
"Well there are wild lions and there are ones like me, who lived with humans," she stated matter-of-factly. She figured he knew about her kind, but maybe he hadn't realized she was one of them. After all, she didn't have traces of them left on her. Everything from her tribe had been burned in that ghastly fire.
"No, not chained," she laughed, although she wasn't quite sure what 'chained' meant. All she knew was, whatever it was, she hadn't been that.
As he mentioned that he was in fact a wild lion, she nearly jumped out of her skin because she was so excited. "Oh, a wild lion! Finally!" she cried. She had met one another, but that had been a couple of days ago and she hadn't heard from him since. She supposed he just went off with his mother and that was that. But now she had another wild lion to talk to!
"I'm Salem!" she said, her voice cheery and chipper. It was obvious this encounter brought her some form of amusement. "And what is your name Mr. Wild Lion?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:53 pm
“Humans?” Kamal asked, leaning downwards and stretching his long, blatantly unmuscular arms forward to dig into the rock. It was an attempt to show himself off- but with his skinny form, it really did just the opposite. If anything could be said for Kamal- he was freakishly tall. It served only to make him look all the thinner- but he was taller then even some brutes. That was perhaps the largest reason why Kamal had such delusions about himself. If he was so tall- surely he was great. These things were paired. It was impossible, nay, incredulous to even suggest that a tall lion would not also be a muscular feast of a man.
In Kamal’s mind, he certainly was.
“I’ve never seen a humans before.” Kamal remarked absently. He had, actually, seen one once- a small child climbing a boboa. But he had mistaken it for a baboon with a case of mange. “What they doing taking you for? Didn’t think ‘anything could take anything and make it not free. Except maybe a pride.”
Maybe there was a scarcity of wild lions in places elsewhere? Kamal licked his lips. “Well. I suppose I am a wild lion.” He remarked wistfully. “My name is Kamal.” He introduced, and took this time to scratch at his half mane. “Yous? Salem? Never heard of a name like that before. Sounds nice though. So you ain’t from around here?”
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:12 pm
Salem watched the wild lion intently. And, she noticed, he was indeed tall. Though he was laying down, she noticed that he seemed a bit larger than she was used to seeing. Were all wild lions tall like that? Why wasn't she tall? Would she be made fun of because she wasn't tall?
While worrying all about that, she hadn't the slightest clue that he was attempting to show himself off. Even if she hadn't been distracted by her thoughts, the concept of him wanting to impress her was far from ever being part of her train of thought. And when she had finally noticed him moving, she only thought he was stretching out his sore limbs or some such thing like that. Again, she was completely clueless.
"Oh, you haven't?" she wondered, letting her ears fall back slightly. "Well... they walk upright and they have no fur, really. They are very strange. Oh! And they do weird stuff to their food before they eat it. They are very strange," she concluded.
"They didn't take me," she blinked, tilting her head. "Well, I guess they must have at some point but.. I have only ever lived with them, I think. They treated me nice, they did." She nodded her head, remembering how the humans had treated her much like a goddess. It had been nice, but still not as nice as being out here in the wild with those of her own kind.
"Kamal," she mused, playing with his name a little in her head. "I like that name," she nodded, smiling at him.
Shaking her head, she frowned slightly. "No, I've actually never been here before," she admitted. "I don't even know how to hunt!" she laughed. Silly, silly.
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:28 pm
Kamal pulled back, thinking. Doing things to their food? “What...kind of things? Do they eat their brains first?” He asked dramatically. “I did that once. It was sort of unfufilling. They sound like baboons. Baboons eat the brains first too- I ate a baboon once. Well. It was already dead, but that still counts, it does.” Kamal noted, nodding seriously. “Hakan said I shouldn’t eat it, but-“ He trailed off.
“But because I did, I’m now as smart as a baboon. Did you know?” He remarked. “Did you eat one of those ‘humans’?” The idea that they could have eaten a lion did not even go into the picture. Nothing ate lions. Except maybe vultures. And hyenas. And maybe other lions. And crocodiles. And-
“Really?” He asked. “I’ve been here all my life. Born not too far from here. My brother and I, this is where we base operations.” He said slyly. Actually- said base encompensated most of the graveyard and surrounding area to the pridelands. “I didn’t even think a lion could not be from around this place. But hunting- good place to learn hunting. I’m a good hunter myself.” He boasted idly, and scratched at his fleas.
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 2:03 pm
Salem thought for a moment. "Well, they always put the meat on these sticks and then they would keep it over this bright thing... it was very hot. But, oh, it would make the meat thick and not very juicy. It always tasted weird. I don't know why they liked their food like that. I think it is because they are not used to the meat wild lions--we eat." She nodded, finding this a very logical explanation for the humans' weird behavior.
"Brain?" she echoed, finding the concept rather disgusting. "Ew, no, I don't think they ate the brains. Why would anyone want to do something like that?" she questioned, completely curious and naive. She became even more disgusted when he told her that he had eaten a baboon brain once. That couldn't have been very tastey. Sticking out her tongue, she merely shook her head and focused her attention on something else.
"Eat the humans? No! Why would I do something like that?" she asked, seemingly genuinely surprised that he would ask such a thing. The humans were her friends!
"Oh, you have a brother?" she asked, tilting her head. Gharadi, the other lion she had met, had had a mother he was living with. Did all wild lions live with relatives? If so, then she was doomed. She didn't have any realtives to speak of. She didn't even know if she had any siblings like this Kamal here.
As he boasted that he was a rather good hunter, her eyes went wide with awe. "Really? Oh, maybe you could teach me? I'm no good at it, though I've tried many times. I think I need someone to teach me exactly how it works."
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:26 am
Kamal arched his eyebrows. “Made the meat thick? Why’d they want to be doin that for?” He scoffed. “Only way to eat meat is barely before life leaves the body. That’s how you do it. Can’t stand food that’s old.” Although consequently- it was largely what he lived off of. Another irregularity- a tall, lanky lion who was not a brute was also not fast. He had big paws and they made him trip. Besides, hunting was a woman’s work anyways.
He sucked on his tongue and shifted his jaw, shaking his head. “Nope. Can’t understand that. Humans... yeah, they must be baboons. There ain’t nothing odder then a baboon. They’ll do all sorts of strange things to their food too, but I’ve never seen them totally naked with just hair on tops. They’d probably taste good. Can’t see how they’d be good friends, but if you say so then they must have done something worthy of not eatin.”
“Brother? Yeah- I’ve got my brother Hakan and my sister, Kimya. Also, my mum- she’s gettin old now though. Her name is Kinja. A fire lion, or something like that. We don’t look much like her, so it must of been the dad.” He mused. Father. That was an odd word. He didn’t spend much time thinking about the idea of ‘father.’ For him, the only other man in his life had been his brother. “You got a family?” He asked.
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:06 pm
Salem shrugged, or at least shrugged as much as a lion physically could. She didn't quite understand it either, but she didn't question it really. Something that was strange to her might not have been strange to someone else. "I don't know," she replied, looking at him funny. "I can't understand them." Despite living with them all her life, she seriously didn't understand them one bit. "Maybe they don't like the taste of fresh meat like we do," she suggested, finding that the only logical reason.
When he commented that he couldn't quite understand what they were, she gave up. She didn't really care about the humans anyways. Not anymore at least, although she would be forever grateful to them for raising her.
"Maybe they are just baboons," she pondered, not really talking to him. "But, oh, don't eat them!" she protested. But then she realized that humans might have been eaten by wild lions all the time. Attempting to cover up her possible mistake, she hesitated. "Aah, I mean.. they don't look tastey anyways. They're too skinny." She nodded firmly.
"Oh," she murmured, thinking that she really needed to get some family or something. She shouldn't be alone when all other wild lions lived with family! "No, I don't have any. Or.. at least that I know of."
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:11 pm
Kamal frowned and flattened his ears. It was probably one of the more honest expressions he’d ever actually had cross about his face. He was a bit of trash and debris, but he loved his family. It seemed impossible to imagine life without them. They’d practically forged themselves upon staying together. “Oh-...” Kamal remarked slowly. “Well, everyone has families. I’m sure you got one too. You just got to look for ‘em. And sometimes you just have to make ‘em. Yeah?”
He grinned toothily and rose up on the rock. He seemed awkward on top of it- although he was still tall even when he hopped down. “Ah, skinny. Skinny things are not good for eatings anyways. Could be sick. Come, I can’t teach yous anythin about hunting but I can tell you how other women folk are doing it. I think it’s natural, you know. Like males and fighting. I’m an awesome fighter. This one time- I took on this monster green lion, when I wasn’t nothing but a juvi.” He rambled. “I was all alone- No, wait, Hakan was there. But we took him down.” Actually, they’d stopped midway of drowning one another. It wasn’t an experience any of the other two lions probably liked to recount upon, but Kamal had embellished up the story so much he almost forgot what actually happened.
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:58 pm
Salem wasn't so troubled by her lack of family. She had never really had one to begin with--aside from the humans, of course--and so she didn't realize what she was missing exactly. "I probably do, but they probably aren't anywhere around here. I traveled a long ways to get here, ya know." It was true. Her paws were nearly crying out for her to just lay down somewhere and give them a good rest.
"Make a family?" she echoed, tilting her head slightly, like a small cub. She didn't quite understand what he meant by that. It was her background with the humans that kept her from knowing that particular part of lion society. It was amazing, seeing as how she had made a family before. Though, they had quickly died due to her inability to understand her situation.
As Kamal went babbling on about hunting and males and fighting, she merely resigned herself to listening. She didn't really mind, however, being as she found him incredibly fascinating.
"Oh, so the females do the hunting and the males fight?" she asked, trying to set everything straight. She was attempting to figure out wild lion society and keep it all in order in her brain. But everything she had learned within the past couple of days--both with Gharadi and this lion here--was giving her a major headache.
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