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 Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 12:02 pm
Sarafina knew she wasn't supposed to be here, especially not alone. Tahka couldn't be bothered to come with her today, however, nor had she felt like bullying her sister into joining her. Ra Shou was no where to be found... and in all honesty, Sarafina knew herself to be better off alone. She was brave and strong and she didn't need anyone else. She steeled herself with that, eyes narrowing in challenge to the land before her, and began to make her way back down the rock again so she could jump into the dried stream bed below.
Supposedly there was another pride that lived out here; at least, that was what her mother had told her. A pride that kept the pride lands 'safe' from the hyenas beyond, and yet she knew that the so-called Queen of this land was constantly attempting to defend the land from their raids. Sarafina snorted. Some queen, she thought, indignation bristling down her spine and standing her fur on end, an usurping b*****d, like her father before her, more like.
As plodded her way slowly through the dwindling grassland, Sarafina's ears laid back and her thoughts turned down a trail long beaten by bedtime stories and 'history' lessons her mother had given her. How dare they? Those pride landers, how DARE they? Taka should have been given his throne; he was the careful one, the one that thought and planned... the one that would not have let himself be ripped to shreds in shouting distance of his pride. She smirked at that, a soft glory touching her heart for whomever the lion was that had killed this so-called "magnificent leader."
Though she had never known him, the old king still touched the pride in the whispers of adult members, and the legacy of the current royal family. There were still those who where upset over his death; neigh, his massacre. In a way, Sarafina wished he were yet alive. In her minds eye she fantasized that she were the one with him in that gorge, tearing into his flesh and staining the ground red with his blood. She hated that lion.
It would be naught but fantasy, however, and many a times she had given that a wistful sigh. Still, there was his daughter to deal with... the boorish, brainless Kamilika. That made the young one smile, and it was not a pleasant expression. Revenge for the unjustness and humiliation shown her family.
No, not revenge, a small voice at the back of her mind whispered. This thought was interesting and she pulled it forward, listening to what it had to say. Never revenge. The pride does not need revenge... it needs leadership. True leadership, not this brutish regime that Mufasa began.
The voice almost sounded like her brother, and indeed she knew it to be the sort of thing he had whispered many a night in the darkness while their siblings slept. He was right, of course, so often he was.
Still, her claws longed for blood.
That in itself was a queer sensation; Sarafina stopped in her tracks, looking down at the chocolate tips of her toes. She spread them, stretching them out and letting her claws free to scrape the dirt beneath them. A light smile touched her lips; perhaps she could find some dinner.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 12:30 pm
As time had gone on though and her legs became longer, her body sturdier, she knew she couldn't just hide behind her mothers 'apron' her whole life. Though she had no want to leave her family, no desperation to go out in to the world, the green eyed femme had slowly started to wander the pridelands carefully taking in the world around her. Each step had become an adventure as she had met the otehr pridelanders. She had travelled to the rock from which the lands had begotten their name, accross the grass lands where the beasts which she had eaten since juvenile grazed and rested in their swaying fronds.
Today her paws had braught her to the very edge of the pridelands, to the place she had heard her brotehrs mention. The elephant graveyard, even the simplest of glimpses at this shadowey place told her it was not some where she would want to be, a cool wind rustled past ehr ears the fur on the crest of her neck leaping on end as a shiver rolled down her ever lengthening spine. Taking a heavy swallow she contemplated turning back in to the sun, returning to the aviid heat of the pridelands,t he green grasses and ultimately her mother when she saw, not so far away, the shimmer of bronze fur against the black grey background of the world she was contemplating entering.
Blinking slowly, she tilted her head, a lioness, younger than herself was entering the graveyard. She looked well fed and fairly thoughtful. "Uhm..Hello?" Her voice echoed much louder than she had meant it to the cavernous rib cages that sprawled out before her seeming to amplify ehr voice beyond it's usual whispery pitch.She startled a little but calmed her self quickly so as not to seem overly cautious before the other female. After all, she was suppoosed to be an adolecent now, she was supposed to be stronger, much less frightened than she used to be. Supposed to be's were all well and good...
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 12:50 pm
Sarafina's ear twitched towards the sudden voice, her claws sinking into the dirt and tail twitching to the side, startled. The adolescent cursed herself for allowing anything to startle her--she wasn't paying attention properly--but tried to cover it as smoothly as she could. Turning her head slowly, she allowed one dark green eye to find the speaker, the rest of her body moving as little as she had to in order to see behind her.
The lioness cub's eyebrows shot up at the white and black creature making its way towards her. The stance the other had taken reminded Sarafina somewhat of her younger sister; Tufah had always been the quiet, shy sort of thing. The resemblance caused a half-smile to tug at Sarafina's mouth, though her eyes narrowed into little emerald slits. "Hellooo," She practically purred in response.
Yes, she'd thought to go on alone today... but taking this one with her could be fun. Sarafina's expression shifted to neutral once more, and she glanced at the pile of bones before re-sheathing her claws and prancing her way quite confidently over to where Radi stood. Stopping near her, she offered her a smile. "I didn't think I'd see anyone else around here today. You going in?" The tone was obviously a challenge and her smile turned wicked, like a child who knew it was doing something off limits--which she was.
Not waiting for much of an answer, Sarafina sidled up to the girl, pressing on her shoulder in a 'come on' fashion. Once more she began to made her way into the graveyard, slipping straight into the remains of a rib-cage without the slightest hesitance. "This place is so cool. I heard there are hyenas!" Her eyes seemed to light up and she glanced at Radi from the corner of her eye, "Have you ever met a Hyena?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:12 pm
Radi returned the smile shyly, her soft green eyes resting on the golden sandy female before her. She licked ehr lips swiftly and gave a little curt nod. It wasn't often that Radi spoke, she found it to be a slightly pointless exercise, used to being the quiet one in a large noisey litter she was used to using few words to get her point accross in the moments of quiet stollen when her siblings were silent.
"I don't know." She whispered a little quiter this time to prevent her whispery tones from echoeing back at her, once was lesson enough to teach ehr not to speak too loudly around these bones. She took a quick look at what she saw before her, bones bleached white with the sun, not a scrap of meat, no scent of blood, just shadows, dust and a slightly stiffling sence of forebodeing.
The pale lightning marked femme only dug her claws on for a second as Sarafina pressed her shoulder solidly against her own. Though the other female was ceratinly younger than her, she felt so much more confident having someone who wasn't afraid of this strange eerie world she almost wanted to enter.
Lowering her head slightly she presed her shoulder tightly against the bronze femmes shoulder shaking her head at the question of hyenas. Hyenas? She was sure her mother had told her of such a thing but she could not shake the information from her slightly befuddled brain. "I don't think so, I have hardly met any other creatures, except lions." She whispered now in sarafinas ear, her nose able to touch the soft curve while their shoulders were close together, at least this stopped the pl;ace from echoeing, though the slowly rising mist around her foot paws as they fell in to this strange land unnerved her, she felt almost immune to this fear walking beside the cocky young female whose name she didn't even know.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:32 pm
"I hear," Sara whispered in return, her voice low and rasping, just barely echoing off the bones around them, "That they're evil creatures who prowl the night. They'd just as soon rip your throat out as look at you, just 'cuz they hate lions." Death, of course, wasn't something that was unusual in Africa, though murder was an entirely different concept. Her grin was wicked, though her face was turned away so Radi probably wouldn't see, and a subtle purr ran along her side, vibrating into Radi's body.
Together they slipped through the forest of rib cages, and Sarafina steered Radi further in, under a spinal chord that still held the faintest stains of red along its underside. She peered at these in awe, more than a little excited at being in this glorious new world. "And my momma says," She lied, "that if you wander too far from home, the hyenas will grab you up and take you to this very place."
Her emerald gaze fell once more on Radi's ghost-marked form, and she leaned in to whisper, "They take you to the very middle, and skin you alive, burning your flesh on the heat-pits that radiate from the bowls of earth."
As she drew out the last word, her eyes shining with a nearly fanatical, eerie light a great hiss erupted near them, a cloud of steam shooting into the air from a steam-pocket not too far away. Sarafina startled, body tensing and fur fluffing as she whipped around to look behind her. Her body shoved towards Radi's in its movement, the force enough to potentially knock the girl over the edge of a short hill.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:51 pm
And there was where she had heard the name Hyena, ravaging beats that lived in the graveyard, fear them avoid them. Radi's mint green eyes widened as she stared at Sarafina, she seemed unafraid, unabashed at the words that came from her own maw, like they were things to simply be pushed to oneside as none truths. Perhaps thats what they were, the puur that echoed through the smaller lioneses side acctually made her feel less frightened, she thought the girl must be telling a fairy tale.
As they paused at the creaking bones and her ice green eyes fled upwards towards the stale scent of blood, she listened carefully to the tale the other wove, a great tapestry of death and fear, something akin to the stories her brothers told her to scare her. She was not a cub any longer though, these stories no longer made her shiver and shake, though she truely couldn't surpress her neck fur from jumping on end at the mention of the skin getting peeled from her bones. "Stories" She whispers, watching the bronze lioness carefully waiting for the truth to whisper forth.
Of course, what happened next far from banished the tale from her mind, rather it simply made it roll forth over her glassy green eyes, the weight of sarafina as she startled pushed the pale, ghost like form of the young lioness right over the edge, her paws though grappled at the shingled slope, but unable to grip anything but paws full of dust she rolled in an ungainly fashion down the hill to land in a heap at the bottom.
As the dust cleard, seh blinked rappidly to clear her gaze of dust and debree which marred her vision. Her ears lifted and she shook her head causing another small puff of smoke to rise around her. "Hello..." She whispered, regretting doing it as her voice echoed from the bones above her head causing a slight down pour from the shingle heavy slope above them.
Lookign around frantically, she tried to find the younger femme, her tail swooping around behind her in a manic fashion. The last thing she wanted to be in here, was alone...
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:15 pm
The shingle Radi had brought down with her effected Sarafina's own footing. No sooner had she gotten a look at the steam billowing up from the ground did she, too, begin to tumble backward down the slope with her newfound 'friend.' Unable to help it, the girl gave a short yowl at the first roll she took,shingle and bone digging into her skin and littering her body with cuts. It was a short hill, though, and soon she'd rolled to a stop with Radi, only to have a few more bits of shale tumble down upon her head when the other female spoke.
Slowly, Sarafina opened her eyes and stumbled to her feet. She was hurt, but it wasn't bad; while bruising would be definite, and there were a few scrapes and cuts that were a bit deeper than the rest something about them sent a pleasant thrill to her heart. Indeed, she seemed to revel in the blood oozing and scabbing along her form. A low chuckle echoed about the area, "That was awesome!"
Turning to look at Radi, Sarafina made her way over and pushed her via shoulder to her feet once more. "You sure do know how to party, Mzuka," She laughed lightly and looked back up the slope they'd come down. "Well! There's no WAY we're getting back up there!"
Indeed, Sarafina was glad of that. There was no turning back now; indeed, they were going to have to figure out some way of getting home without any way of really telling what direction they were going in. She grinned at Radi, positively giddy now. "lets keep going! We don't want those Hyenas to catch us!"
Breaking away from her, Sarafina trotted out of the little, shale filled clearing and rounded one of the giant sculls that dotted the area. This place was defiantly the kind of area she could get used to. It was gorgeous, she though, and a lot more fun than the predictable savannah. "Are you coming?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:33 pm
Radi looked almost longingly back up the slope from which she had toppled, her pale green eyes searching above for the breif though familiar sight of the blood stained carcass. Shaking her smooth head she turned those ice green eyes upon the emereald ones that looked back at her. A smile creapt upon ehr maw. "Yes" A simple reply once again, she had acctually found the fall rather thrilling, she had never been so frighetend in ehr life, ehr heart was still beating it's drums in ehr ears, her paws were trembling and her whole body shivered, but she had found the fall, exciting? Yes, exciting.
"Mzuka?" Her soft head tilted a little as she followed closely int he others foot steps, her teeth nipping out at the younger femmes tail tip to slow her down. he could feel the bruises forming beneath her pale, though now dust ridden coat. "I'm Radi, for this" She tapped a claw at the lightning mark upon ehr cheek as she leapt to catch up with the golden pelted female.
She refused to be left alone in here, prefarreing much to continue travelling on in to the unknown than be left shrvering amongst the debree from their fall. "Which way?" She whispers, soon catching up to Sarafina, her longer stride bringing her back in to that comfort zone she had found upon entering this dark place. A place she had no real wont to explore, simply following because her companio wished her to.
Though she had to silently admit, that this was the most fun she had ever had, she had never been upon an adventure before, an adventure with a stranger, in to a world wheer ehr confidence would usually falter, it was really a big leap for the Sweetly shy Radi.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:57 pm
"You look more like a Mzuka to me," Sarafina shrugged. She slowed at the n**, but not by much. Her legs were shorter, but she was used to moving at a fast pace for her. Even the heat of the bruises upon her body didn't slow her, in fact it was an encouragement. She eyed the other girl as Radi got near again. Now that she mentioned it, those markings did look something like lightning, almost like a nearing storm... maybe Mzuka wasn't so fine a name after all, but Sarafina prefered it.
Keeping an eye about on their surroundings, she stopped once more to consider. "Hmmm..." Should they go back, or keep pressing forward? Sarafina's ears tipped back, her eyes narrowing in consideration as she mulled it over. Not bothering to ask Radi's opinion, the younger cub turned instead further into the graveyard. There was an interesting looking skull over there that looked promising. "This way."
Leading on, Sara jumped up onto its massive tusks to walk for a few moments, perfectly confident as always. "This place is so much better than the pride lands," She decided. Though a part of her wished her siblings, at least Ru Shou and Tahka, were with her, the other part was simply relieved to be away from the addle-brained, dim witted lot she felt she had to put up with on a daily basis. "We don't have cool stuff like this there." Jumping down near the hole were the jaw would have been hinged once before, Sara slipped down under the top of the mouth and into the darkness underneat.
"Neat," She whispered. Perhaps some long distant thought of manners found her there, though, and as she waited for Radi to join her. "I'm Sarafina."
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:59 am
Radi, or should she say the newly dubbed Masuka, couldn't really aggree with Sarafinas idea of beauty. This place was dark, dence and quite cold compared to the bright beautiful lands of the pride she had been born in to. Still, this little adventure was shaping up interestingly enough to be alot of fun and as long as they didn't run in to any hyenas this could be the most interesting fun she had ever had. Radi the adventurer? It didn't really have a ring to it and certainly she would be glad to be back home cuddled up beside her mother safe in the pridelands.
Allowing her mind to come back to the present again though, her icey green eyes searched ahead for what they were about to walk in to now. Radi followed silently as ever in to the skull of the large bull elephant. Looking upwards she couldn't help but feel a grim facination at the beast that must have owned this skull at one time. A collosus of a creature it certainly must have been in it's day.
Turning to sarafina as she finally revealed her name, the pale femme smiled lightly and flickered her rather dust coloured tail."pretty" she puurred, looking past the skull and off in tot he vast graveyard, how were they supposed to get out of here? Shrugging a little, she supposed she would have to leave it to the fates and her cocky cohort to get them outof here safe. Still, she couldn't quite surpress a shiver, she definately would see the pridelands and her motehr again right? Her brow creased momentarily only to be replaced by that serene trusting smile once again. Certainly she would, she had to, she couldn't stay in this dark cold place forever, it just didn't feel like home.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:47 pm
Going to the side of the skull, Sara reared back on her hind legs and raked her claws down the side of the skull. The noise was tearing, but it left a set of scrapes down the ivory. The juvinile admired her work for a moment, then offered her companion a grin. "Marked it," She explained, eyes going once more to the cavernous seeming dome they were under. "I can't believe I'm in someone's head." Truthfully, she sounded positively giddy about it.
Slipping out an age-torn hole in the back, Sarafina ran down the chest of the massive animal to slip through the pelvic bone. Stopping where the tail might have once been, she turned to wait for Radi. "HAHAHA, and now I've been DIGESTED!"
Her tail twitched a little and the girl looked behind her at the massive graveyard stretching out behind them. A world full of adventure and wonder in her mind... a world of possibilities. Sara didn't want to turn back to the happy, and incorrect 'bliss' of the pride lands... but she knew they'd have to. At least, she would have to return for Tahka.... and possibly Ru Shou. "So where are you from, Radi? I've never seen you at the water hole before."
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:38 pm
The pale lioness gave a slow chuckle as she listened to Saras words. he grinned and followed down the spine of the beast before she jumped down beside Sara her icey green eyes resting on the other femme, he rslender tail swishing back and forth as she looked out accross the bartren wasteland before her. the fiur on the back oif her neck stood on end as she watched the land before her. it was dead, quiet, frightening. She was starting to think that maybe she'd bitten off more than she could chew here.
alloiwing her mind to return to the present and the4 female before her she gave a little smile. "I was born in the pridelands, but my siblings and I mostly grew up on the outskirts with our mother and grand mother. I'v never really gone very far without her." she flushes slightly at this statement fully realiseing how silly it sounded that even now she didn't wnat to be away from her mother figure. That she was afraid that she miught loose her, that an adventure such as the one they were on was far beyond her usual thoiught pattern. Even now she was starting to wonder if she would ever see her mother again.
"I don't get out much. I guess ypu're the first friend I have made outside of my family." she whispered her soft rounded ears flickering in an embarressed manner.
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:27 am
Friend, huh? Sarafina grinned at that; friends were things she didn't have beyond her brother. That wasn't something she would tell this girl, however. Instead she nodded as she began to climb up something's backbone. "I was born there too. We usually stay near the waterhole, though... Don't care too much for 'Pride' rock." There was something unusal in her tone when she said the name of the place, but Sarafina didn't elaborate too much on it. Instead she reached the 'top' of the arch the backbone made and looked out over the graveyard. "This place is HUGE!"
Sara truly grinned then, excited. Looking down at Radi she exclaimed, "We could get lost in here FOREVER! Wouldn't that be great?" To Sara, it honestly would have.
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 11:43 am
Saras words far from made Radi feel happy, lost? Forever? No she didn't like the sound of that at all! She suddenly longed to get out of here and her cool gaze searched around to find the direction of the pridelands, of home, of her mother and siblings, of safty. The fur all down her spine now shot up as the shiver rolled down her spine. "I'd much prefare to spend my life with my family." It was rather strange for Radi to have an oppinion not of somone elses. She was a follower not a leader, she liked to be told what to do not to tell another what she wished to do.
She swallowed hard and nugdged Sarafinas shoulder. "Maybe we should start heading back....I really don't want to be out after dark." Her ears flattened tightly against her head then, fear was something that she usually had no need for, after all her family protected her within the confines of the pridelands. It was only now that she realised she was no longer within the safe arms of the lands hse had been born in to that the cold touch of fear froze her young nieve body.
Her long tail swished as she looked to Sarafina hopefully. She was truely feeling the pull of home.
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 1:35 pm
"Huh?" Sarafina turned from where she'd been about to scramble down the other side of the spinal column, ears lifting in surprise at her "friend's" request. The juvi raised a brow, giving a half smirk as she narrowed her emerald eyes, "What's the matter, Radi? Chicken?"
The girl seemed honestly afraid of being out so long and Sarafina rolled her eyes. What was so scary about a pile of old bones? Still, she had a thought to the lecture she might get for leaving Radi out here to find her own way back. Looking up, from her high position Sarafina could just see the border of the pridelands going off in one direction. "Come on." She hopped off the spine and into the pit below where Radi stood.
Her feet hit shale, sending her sliding about the place, but rather than be afraid the cub howled with laughter as she slipped right over to the other side and bounded up another tightly packed pile of bones, "Its up this way, I saw it."
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