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 Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 1:33 pm
 "I love the evenings," Nyota'Visima, visitor to the pridelands along with his adopted charges, sighed to himself from the rock he'd chosen to lounge upon that day. The sun was just dotting towards the horizon and the air was beginning to cool. The lion himself was lazing about, allowing the two females to sleep off the travel of the night before in a hidden spot elsewhere. He had slept the little he needed to start them once more upon their journey, and so waited amusing himself with the sights of this land. "passionless and fair.
"I love the evens, whether old manor-fronts their ray with golden fulgence leavens in numerous leafage bosomed close;" He continued on to himself, allowing the words to drip like droplets of gems into the pool of antiquity. His eyes lowered half lidded to the horizon, pondering more the way the day was passed that caring what any who heard him might think of the lion talking to himself. "whether the mist in reefs of fire extend its reaches sheer, or a hundred sunbeams splinter in an azure atmosphere on cloudy archipelagos."
The lion gave pause to chuckle lightly as if there were a joke there. Perhaps there was, for he certainly thought it amusing as he rolled the words about in his head and assigned them to the seen upon the Savannah. A meercat, he noticed, had stopped to stare at him and was edging ever closer to his position to see or hear whatever it was this oddity of a lion was doing. Nyota gave him a touch of a smile, and gestured towards the horizon line. "Oh, gaze ye on the firmament!"
The gesture almost sent the meercat running, and certainly the critter cringed away. Yet, he did not run and for this Nyota gave him credit. The lion continued without pause, for all this had taken but a second, and slowly closed his paw upon itself as he relaxed once more into is monologue, "A hundred clouds in motion, up-piled in the immense sublime beneath the winds' commotion, their unimagined shapes accord: under their waves at intervals flame a pale levin through... as if some giant of the air amid the vapors drew a sudden elemental sword..."
Nyota sliced his paw slowly across the cloud, then brought it down once more upon the rock he was lounging across on lapsed into a moment's silence. The meercat stared at him, not daring to speak in the presence of a lion, but scared all the more for the insanity he was certain was there than either tooth or claw Nyota may posses.
Slowly, softly and yet perfectly audible, the orator lion continued, his voice a homage to some splendid wonder he stood in awe of, "The sun at bay with splendid thrusts still keeps the sullen fold... and momently at distance sets, as a cupuloa of gold, the thatched roof of a cot... a-glance." He gave pause once more, looking off into the distance and his eyes were a moment unfocused. This spell drew the meercat's eyes, too, towards this spot, but he saw nothing but distant mountain and sky. The confusion on his face was apparent when Nyota come back to reality and grinned once more upon him. The lion pointed to the horizon with a widespread paw, his pace once more increasing, "Or, on the blurred horizon joins his battle with the haze! Or pools the blooming fields about with inter-isolate blaze, great moveless meres of radiance."
Nyota's paw closed in upon itself once more as he held it upward. Slowing it drifted down once more, and he lapsed into a strange silence. Carefully he leaned down towards the meercat, eyes never on him so as not to startle the confused fellow. From the side of his mouth, as if to tell a secret, he continued, "Then mark you how there hangs athwart the firmament's swept track yonder, a mighty crocodile with a vast, irradiant back, a triple row of pointed teeth?" The meercat nodded slowly in response, eyes drawn to the watering hole down below. "Under its burnished belly slips a ray of eventide, the flickerings of a hundred glowing clouds in tenebrous side with scales of golden mail ensheathe."
Nyota smiled and gave a nod at the meercat's seeming understanding. he righted himself and looked up towards the sky. "Then mounts a palace, then the air vibrates--the vision flees." He singsonged sadly with a sigh. "Confounded to its base, the fearful, cloudy edifice ruins immense in mounded wrack. Afar, the fragments strew the sky and each envermeiled cone hangeth, peak downward, overhead like mountains overthrown when the earthquakes heaves its hugy back."
The lion shook his head, great mane stirring with the motion as well as the breeze that played about them. His tone took that of a teacher's now, and he glanced at his small 'pupil', "These vapors, with their leaden, golden, iron, bronzed glows, where the hurricane, the waterspout, thunder and hell repose muttering hoarse dreams of destined harms--tis God who hangs their multitude amid the skiev deep as a warrior that suspendeth from the roof-tree of his keep his dreadful and resounding arms!
"All vanishes!" He laughed, "The Sun, from topmost heaven precipitated, like a globe of iron which is tossed back firey red into the furnace stirred to fume, shocking the cloudy surges, plashed from its impetuous ire, even to the zenith spattereth in a flecking scud of fire the vaporous and inflamed spaume."
Another pause, this time slow and held as he let the tension slide. His lesson was coming to an end and he wondered if his 'pupil' understood a word he'd said. "O contemplate the heavens!" he whispered reverantly, "Whenas the vein-drawn day dies pale in every season, every place, gaze through their every veil? With love that has not speech for need! Beneath their solemn beauty is a mystery infinite: If winter hue them like a pall, or if the summer night fantasy them starre brede."
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Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 3:04 am
Kiuma was a princess in every line of her sleek body. Even when she wasn't trying, she carried herself in a way that cried out confidence and dominance. She was 'lord' of all she surveyed, and the small smile that curled over her maw said that she knew it. It had been so long since her paws had felt the grass and dirt of her homeland... her heavy heart lifting as she paced step by step further into it till it surrounded her, soaking into her pores and the very shafts of her fur. A black-tufted tail flicked, swinging lazily behind her with each pace.
This was her homeland... her hunting grounds... her family's home.... Hers, and Kiuma fiercely adored what was hers. Feeling it rise up in her, she flickered her red eyes around the area, seeking out intruders to -her- lands. Daring something to appear before her.
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Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 1:34 pm
The Meercat's eyes were wide as he was torn between believing this lion to be insane or wise. He seemed to decide that it was a little bit of both, and he nodded--a slow motion made slower as he concentrated on backing away. Nyota let him go with a chuckle. The lion wasn't interested in a hunt this day, or in ever eating something so small unless he had no other choice. Of course, the tiny mammal could have made a wonderful snack for his young charge...
Oh well. It had already gone and he didn't quite feel like chasing it down. Beyond that, the sunlight had embodied itself and he thought that a much more interesting. As he watched, the brilliant blaze of sunset light gave itself edges and curves. Its end grow dark, like ashes from a fire, and its swaying walk mimicked that of the flame itself. Female, then, he decided before she'd gotten close enough to be definite. He wasn't disappointed either, for female it proved to be.
All this time, the male had stayed as still as was possible for any living creature. His dark eyes watched the female approach, and his lips held their usual, contented half-smirk. Pridelander? Could be. Thus far the only one he'd met on this lands, other than his new daughter, was overly violent--irrationally so. He wondered if all pride landers were so boring.
"A Goddess?" He asked, when she was nearly passed him. Though he kept his gaze directly off the lady herself for a few moments, it was obvious whom he referred to. "To see the light take form as it did would seem to indicate so, and thus the element does seem perfectly embodied. Yet, as perfectly poetic as the form doth appear, perhaps she is mortal yet and sub servant to the whims of such a base existence."
Nyota smiled to show he meant only well, for in this case he did, and gave a polite nod of his head. "Mortal or Goddess, I am yet lucky--nae, blessed--to witness such a rare and powerful sight as this incorporeal beauty."
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Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 10:12 pm
The earth tones of the male, married to his stillness, kept Kiuma from sensing him, and she was nearly passed him before she realized it. When his voice rolled out, she froze, a crimson statue, save for ears that flickered in his direction, followed by the turn of a red gaze.
It took her a moment to find him in the grass, and when she did, a frown gathered on her face. Who was this now? So many of her pride were new, lions that she'd never seen or met before, and it pained her to know that. Eyes narrowing, she turned to face him fully, fine head rising as her tail swayed. "Goddess? Hardly... I find myself unsure if I should take your words as a compliment or an insult. I've never found anything good in the goddesses I've met. Who are you? I've never met you before, or seen you here. Are you a member of the Pridelands?" Her voice, though it had a sort of rythmn, was a rough growl. She never pretended to be any great beauty... Pain lanced through her chest at the thought that if she had been, would it have kept Tanaka by her side? That pain pulled her lips back in a silent snarl, though her eyes were unfocused, the expression not directed at the stranger.
She was sleek, deadly perfection, but she wasn't beautiful or dainty or elegant like her sisters... Stupid male, to jest about her like that. A body lean with muscle tensed, her soft fur rippling over the mass. Huffing a soft breath, she pulled her attention to him, closing off her emotions behind her expression of fierce, but un-threatening attention.
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Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 10:27 pm
"An insult?" He seemed truly surprised, the tip of his tail stilling in a curled up position for a moment before it resumed its quiet crunches. A hint of laughter later then male shook his head in a slow, graceful fashion. Scholar practically reeked from her person, if such persons could be said to exist in a beastial fashion, and he offered her a slow, calculated smile. "Why never, My Lady; if the Lady has met Goddesses that gave her offense I wouldn't have known--I have never been graced with such august a presence and thus have only the word of priest and poet to colour my meaning of the term 'Goddess.'"
He tilted his head slightly to the left, seemingly at ease for all the tenseness the female portrayed. One might have said that a wiser beast might have feared this female before him whom was obviously a trained warrior. Nyota, however, did not. Or, if he did, he made no move or gave a word that belied a tremor of is courage. Instead, he continued to look upon and treat her as if she were any other lady that he might speak with; even flirt with, to a fine degree. "Nae to your second question as well, I'm afraid. I, and my young ward not seen in the present, are but passers through these fine lands. You might call me Nyota'visima, though certainly Nyota would do in a pinch. Might I have the pleasure of your name, or shall I simply refer to you as the sunset you outshine?"
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Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 10:43 pm
The red lioness gave an inelegant snort as her ears pressed back to her skull, expression turning annoyed. "You talk like a serpent, Nyota, all slick, but full of twistings that could confuse the listener."
Her head rose a bit as black claws shot from velvet paws and cut into the dirt, burning off a little of her anger in the violence of it. "My name is Kiuma, and unlike you, and I am part of the pride. If you're passing through, I suggest you keep going...." The growl in her voice grew, a hint of threat in it. "We don't need more rogues swelling the ranks with their useless selves, just another mouth to feed..." Tail flicked again, another sign of the tension in her, almost a perfect reverse of his calmness. It was a little disconcerting too, to have him compliment her like that. No one had ever truly done so, not even her former mate... and it brought more tension to her lean body.
She huffed again as she struggled to release the tension that had built up inside her. It wasn't doing her any good, and if anything, it would inhibit her reactions to this stranger.
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