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 Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:20 am
 Dhamisa had forgotten there was a world outside the oasis, a world where lions walked free and where food belonged to those who caught it. It boggled her mind to think it though, to think that now she was one of those lions now. With Nyek gone there was nothing tying her to the oasis, no one to come and hunt her down if she left. So she had, putting that place and it's memories as far from her mind as she could. It had left it's mark on her physically and mentally. On the outside she was a lean, muscled steely killer of a lioness, able to live on a small amount of food and an even smaller amount of water, her fur was perfectly groomed, whiter than a full moon and the scars all across her slender form were worn not with shame but with pride that seemed to spark from her every movement.
She had been born a princess, and stolen away only to emerge victorious and alive, a general of the pride that held her captive. The three v's carved into her shoulder would be an eternal reminder to her of how she survived what some others could not.
Padding alongside her mother was another reminder of the oasis she had left behind, her daughter, Maluuni. Born from the king of the pride, Dhamisa was incredibly proud of the girl. Irrespective of her father's faults, she came from a good bloodline, after all, it took a strong lion to hold a pride in his Thrall for so long. Maluuni was hers, her only child and her dearest responsibility in the whole world. Casting her blue eyes back, she caught the amber gaze of the girl and smiled warmly, she looked tired, though she wouldn't say, they would rest here for a short time, wherever here was.
Making her way over into the shade of one of the nearby trees, she motioned for Maluuni to take whatever rest she required. "You get some rest for now, I'll keep watch." she said matter-of-factly, always a lioness of very few words.
Maluuni gladly took the opportunity to lie down and watched as her mother trotted away back into the sunlight, blindingly white in the afternoon light.
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:51 am
Curse the sun. Curse his fur. Curse the bloody heat of the African Savanna. Now it was starting to become unbearable. He had just met a strange female, a wise, but strange, during his trip upriver, away from the beach and to the Pride Lands. His body grew tired as he had walked a few days from the home that his own kin had offered him. Through negotiation he was able to leave it and seek his own home. He had nothing left to his name but the fur he carried and the memories he carried.
The heat was starting to become almost unbearable. His fur was starting to heat up again due to the darkness of the fur. He cared not for wet fur (the the only problem was when sleeping in it), he carefully moved himself into the water, letting the coolness wash over his fur and muscle, his body cooling down. The large lion moved upriver via river. Shadows of the fish swam around and past him. One by one sometimes even schools of fishes going by. Urges....
Snarling out, he swiped a large paw across the bottom and out of the river, letting the fish land on the grass, waiting for it to sufficate and die. He did a few more times totaling about 6 of them. Had not eaten much in the last day, it was good enough. After eating his fill, Trigger snatched up the remaining 2 and headed to a nearby tree for some shelter for his fur to dry off and time to digest his food.
Little did he know, there was someone already there.
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 10:02 am
Dhamisa had scented the fish on the air before she even heard the male's approach, the very smell of it had turned her senses all the way up to eleven. Fish didn't tend to smell like much unless they were cut open so it implied another predator nearby. Motherly instincts had already begun to clash with her craving to meet another lion or lioness, she had been so so alone at the oasis, with only Nyek to speak to whenever he deemed it fit for her to do so and never on equal terms. The other females she had tolerated but only with a grudging acceptance that they went through everything she did. She had met a grand total of four males in her entire life, Nyek, his blue general Mrost, the strange brown wanderer Yua and her father.
Therefore when she did scent something nearby, decidedly masculine, she was at a bit of a loss to know what to do. She wasn't about to run away, not into that heat with a cub already too tired to flee. So she held her ground, knowing that Maluuni would have the intelligence to hide while she addressed the stranger.
"Hello?" she called out, her single blue eye frantically seeking out whoever was there.
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:10 am
A scent...now, two. Both of them female, one much stronger than the other...an adult and possibly something younger, a cub? Mother and daughter perhaps? or just two females that had the same idea to lounge under the sun. The large male moved closer, two fish in maw when a voice came from behind the tree. Defiantly an adult female. Boldly, he moved around the tree and placed down the two catches he had made earlier. Pale Green eyes gazed over the white lioness and what seemed to be a little cub. A mother. A daughter. Great.
"Is it just me or is it that ever tree I've decided to rest under, there is a female waiting for me. Here I thought I was rid of my demon-title when the Demon's Den was disbanded," he shrugged and sat himself down, his fur moving over his muscles as he took in a deep breath. "Name's Moto'Vianzio, Trigger if you so wish it. May I have yours and your...daughter's?"
He looked down at the female cub with a wary eye. She was lucky...she had a relationship with her mother, something he had lost since birth. Every day his father would take him far into the desert sands, away from his mother, and train and train. When it was nightfall, his father would dump him off to the den or take him on his masculine escapades, to be honest, he saw little of his mother and more of the actions of a virile male. Sometimes...he sees a lot of his father in him.
Looking back up to the female, he noticed the scars on her body and the weariness that seemed to have taken her. He knew little but it was best to be helpful...when he felt like it.
Trigger pushed forth the two corpse of fishes and looked back at the mother.
"Take them."
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:39 am
Dhamisa stayed where she was as Moto came nearer, awed by the male's sheer size and build. He reminded her in sheer latent strength of that terrible blue lion she had spotted around the oasis, the one who had apparently slew her father with a casual flick of one of his massive paws. He was bigger even than Nyek who by leonine standards was small but in the minds of those he terrorised, a giant. However, other than the faintest flicker of anxiety in her good eye, she showed nothing of her apprehension. She lowered her head deferentially as he spoke, somehow feeling that she was to blame for being here under the tree when such a male should happen along. It took a mental reminder that she was no longer a captive to halt her instinct to apologise to him and offer to leave. No, she would not leave so simply, not any more and not with Maluuni so tired.
However, her mind's racing seemed to slow as it turned out he didn't seem to mind her being there as much as she anticipated. A smile, one of the first in weeks, crept across her pale features and a flicker of brightness danced once more in the blue depths of her good eye. "A pleasure to meet you sir." she said, trying to supress the excitement in her tone at meeting another lion, free and without restrictions. She only half succeeded. "My..,y name?" she frowned thoughtfully, actually having to recall something usually so innate as a name. It came to her along with echoes of her father who had chosen it. "Dhamisa. And this -" she tilted her head towards the curious amber eyes half-hidden by the scrub-like bush she stood behind "is indeed my daughter. Maluuni. Say hello." The amber-eyed girl spoke up "Hu-low"
It was Trigger's next action that took Dhamisa by surprise however, he offered her the fish he'd caught nearby, and action which most likely seemed simple and irrelevant to him but to the pale female was a world shattering thing. No one had ever given her anything, she'd had to fight for it all, scrape up every little leftover, fight for what she had. To have such a gift bestowed on her and her daughter's famished frames was more than her fragile mind and body could take. She slunk into her most grateful bow, fighting back tears of joy that things had changed so earth-shatteringly. "Th-thank you. So much. So very much."
She picked up both fish gently in her mouth and carried them over to her daughter, allowing her to eat first until she was full, content to eat whatever was left behind. Looking back at Trigger, her expression intent, she spoke again, stilling the shakiness brought on by the unshod tears. "No one has ever given me anything before. Ever."
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:49 am
Trigger sighed and pulled away from them, disappearing once again behind the tree. He already had enough of that female for the time being. It was quick, but it still happened.
.:. ~ * ~ .:.
The large male returned with a few more catches and placed them down for the female. Alright, he could not help but pity the famished female and her cub. Without the mother, the cub would surely die. No one deserved to live a life without their mother, it was a harsh feeling to know that someone who loved you was gone forever.
"Let your daughter have the two, you may have these, Dhamisa. Keep thanking me again and I will leave."
Trigger did not do well with so many thank yous, one would suffice enough. Sure, he could understand someone who appreciated it, but the way she was earlier was new to him...and bothered him. He laid himself down again and watched her carefully. This was his routine now, walk a day and rest under a tree. It just so happens that both trees he had rested under had a female under it.
Rolling onto his side, he looked up at her.
"Before I go to sleep, tell me more about you and your daughter. There must've been a male in order to breed that cub. And if so, where the hell is he and why the hell isn't he here feeding you?"
The growl in his body was rolling again. Her situation, to him, reminded him of his own family...late-family. A distant father and a suffering cub and mother....
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:11 pm
She watched him go, wondering if it was something she had said.
She hadn't even been sure if he would deem it necessary to come back again, maybe he had been put off by the sight of her and her child, she had no idea. But when he did come back, she was where she had been on his departure, Maluuni still chewing on the fish given to her studiously. She nodded mutely as he placed down the other fish, she wouldn't thank him again, it wasn't in her nature to disobey an order like that. Besides, she mused, perhaps the way she'd been led to behave by Nyek was not the way other lions did. Either way, the spark of earlier was dulled in her gaze as she ate her fill of the fish, tail curled around her hind paws. She wolfed it down, none of the typical hesitancy and daintiness present in her actions. She knew food was worth eating before someone else did.
As soon as she was finished, she answered his question, her voice clear and cold, different from the scared earnestness of earlier. Maluuni was asleep, having eaten enough to fill her belly and bored by the conversation of the adults.
"There was a male. Nyekundu. He took me from my home when I was very very small, him and his insane blue accomplice and took me away to a place he called the oasis. I was a princess once, destined to rule my father's land, but no longer. I grew up there, refusing to die, always having to show him I could kill things without mercy, that I could fight to survive. I lost my eye for not coming to be marked when he called me." she smirked defiantly, as though losing an eye was nothing. "but still he could not break me, I earned the title of general in his ranks, a rank with power attached to it, it gave me worth." she didn't speak of the infatuation she had carried for her captor at one point, a sort of stockholm syndrome where she would do anything he said. She had loved him with all her frail being and he hadn't even cared. "When we were adolecent he sired many many cubs from the many females he had gathered to himself. Maluuni is his daughter though she is mine, not his, and always will be."
She shrugged "As for him, last I heard, he had left the oasis and not returned, with rumours of death dogging his steps. I left as soon as I heard, knowing there might not be a second chance."
Stretching casually she lay down "Now all that remains is to learn how to behave the way the free lions do and to find another place where me and Maluuni can settle down until she is old enough to choose her own path."
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:29 pm
A growl grew a bit louder in his chest. That story...it reminded him a lot of Dumiku, Fuku, and Suzuko....all into slavery under that damned Firekin....a mother taken into slavery as a trade for hyena pups....slaved in the hot sun while the male went along with any passing female to his own pleasures, sleeze. When the mother came into heat, she was offered to any male that passed by....that male deserved to die for that alone but he took it further. Aftering rearing his cub, he still went on his male escapades while she slaved even more to hunt and do her orders. Now with a son to train. When the mother had died, he was placed into her duties and still carried on his training....but that soon ended when he himself and another killed that monster of a father. But telling it again was not something he had wanted....no, it was just too daunting and painful for him. It would probably trigger another rage....the mere thought of his father, a mention of his mother, anything that could relate to the monsters that were known as the Firekin always set him off.
"I understand where you are coming from, Dhamisa. A free life is much better than being captivated by someone. You are able to live how you choose. Now with a cub under your wing, I suggest you take her life into consideration before your own. Find a place that would keep you safe and happy...for I am seeking the same. A place to call home where I am safe from....." he paused. He was always safe, the only thing that wasn't...was everyone else. "Forget I mentioned it. I am going to get some rest and leave in the morning. You may stay here if you like."
With that, he turned his head and gave a loud, powerful yawn before resting his head back down. His eyes slowly close, trying to trick the body into a state of sleep. His fur moved over his body with every breath, his growl turning into a sort of...purr.
He was gone.
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:45 pm
Dhamisa took the advice he offered to heart, she already placed the needs of Maluuni before her own, it was just seeking out a place that was safe and secure that seemed impossible. Her world until recently had been no wider than the oasis and now lands sprawled out in every direction. She pretended she knew where she was going for the sake of her daughter but each day she just got more and more lost.
"I will."
Her ears perked at his slip, a mention of being safe from someone or something. Perhaps she was not alone, perhaps even the free lions had their demons, maybe there was no land that was ever truly safe. She didn't care though, she would take on those dangers when they came, one step at a time, that was always the way.
She watched him silently as he slept, he was a confusing lion, like no one she'd ever met, temperamental but with just a hint of something more warm and gentle under the harsh exterior and mood swings. She wanted to find out what it was he ran from but daren't ask. She wanted to ask him if he'd let her come with him, lead the way to a safe place for her and her daughter, she didn't know how to do it all on her own, she'd been a mother too young, fighting she understood, being harsh and cold, she understood that too, but a cub just made things so much more complicated.
Edging over to Maluuni, she swept the cub up gently between her forepaws and snuggled up close to her, safe. To Trigger she was probably just a random female, a creature to be forgotten along the way but to her, he was another pair of eyes, a strong lion who, for the first time since leaving the oasis meant that she could sleep properly, without being on edge all the time that things would take her daughter away from her.
As she closed her eyes, she just hoped that she was awake before he was next morning.
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:48 pm
Trigger propped one eye open and saw her motherly actions take place. She moved to her daughter and pulled her close. With a soft sigh, he crept to her side and lied down beside her. She was safe while he was there until he had to go again. She was a nice female at least. Somewhere, he wanted to meet her again but under different circumstances.
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