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 Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:49 am
A trickle of blood stained his normally perfect white coat, standing out as a constant reminder of the close encounter he had with the lioness. He didn't bother cleaning it, not yet. He had to get back to the others first. The huge lion walked with a slight limp from the bite he had gotten on his foreleg, but he did his best to keep the pain from getting to him.
He saw a flash of blue in the distance; it must be Raza! Angu continued forward for a short while, making sure he was close enough so that he could still protect her if something happened, and sat down to clean his wounds.
'Why didn't Raza tell me someone had threatened her?' Angu though to himself, licking his foreleg and doing his best to clean out the deep gash on his cheek, 'I could have done something about it.' He sighed, and tried not to think about it. Raza probably just didn't want him to worry, that was all.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:39 am
Barazahi glanced over her shoulder one last time, checking to make sure she hadn't been followed. Angu had told her and everyone else to stay in due to a violent storm, which was coming quickly, but she didn't care. She had more important things to worry about.
She raced, looking for that pink and white figure that she loved so much, her red eyes dashing desperately across the horizon. He was somewhere, probably just taking a long time to find a kill, she hoped.
She peeped her head through particularly tall grass and found him. Immediately, a great weight was lifted from her- he was safe. She hadn't yet noticed the cuts, but she raced for him.
"Angu!" She shouted as she approached, immediately snuggling into his mane, taking in his scent. Something was wrong, though, he smelled of blood. Blood and a familiar scent that she couldn't quite place. She drew back, and saw that he had a gash on his cheek and a bite wound on his foreleg. "Oh, Angu, what happened?" She asked, knowing that this couldn't have been a preybeast. Her face was one of absolute concern, she couldn't believe it- he'd been attacked. Thunder rolled in the near distance.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:51 am
Angu licked her face affectionately as she ran over, "It's nothing Raza, I'm fine." He said simply, shrugging a bit. "I had a bit of a conflict with an old friend of yours." He chuckled, sitting up.
He glanced toward the storm, it was approaching more quickly now... "Come, let's find shelter. It's not safe here." He hesitated, then stood up, doing his best to keep from leaning on his injured leg, and started toward the area where the rest of their group was staying. They wouldn't go inside just yet, but if things got bad at least they would be near shelter.
"I'll tell you about it while we walk."
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:44 am
"Let me help you," she offered, switching sides to the side with his injured leg. If he needed, she could support some of his weight.
"A friend of mine?" She asked, confused. The smell, whoever it was, that was their smell. It had been female... That brown one! At the water hole long ago!
"She was brown, wasn't she? She never gave me her name, but she was brown and black, and had a scar under her right eye, right?" Raza asked. "She cornered me a while back, I didn't imagine she'd ever run into us again!" She said her mind working fast. She didn't tell Angu about it, she knew she hadn't, frankly, because she was scared that news would reach her father's worried ears. It had happened before she really fell for Angu, too, so she was sure she didn't trust him with it.
But still, she hadn't told him since. Was it because she didn't want to scare him? Or was it for the same reason as before, or maybe even because she forgot? She kicked herself mentally, waiting for him to tell her exactly what happened as they walked.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:50 am
"Yes, the brown one." Angu grunted, "She said she had met you, and that you had run away. She called you cowardly and stupid, and that's what pushed me over the edge." He sighed, wishing he hadn't lost his temper like that. Still, she had gone after him first, there could have been no avoiding the conflict.
"Obviously, we ended up fighting each other. In the end, we had both taken our share of damage, but I came out on top. I nearly killed her." He shook his head, getting a bit of mane out of his face, "But I let her go."
As they approached the safety of some large rocks, he sat down, glad to have taken the stress off of his leg.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:09 am
Barazahi nodded as he told his tale, that sounded like the lion she'd met. A desperate frown creased her face. "I don't imagine we'll be seeing this lioness again, will we? If you had her at the point of death, I'd think she'd steer clear of you," Raza said.
She was proud of her mate, there was a look in her eyes that said it all. Not only proud that he could beat the lioness that had been so swift, so much more powerful than Raza, but that he wouldn't tarnish his soul with murder, that he had been merciful. She was still pretty scared, but she seriously doubted that the brown female would be back.
"When I met her," she began, "I wasn't far from camp. Our campsite was in a small valley, there as a water hole up on a nearby plateau, and I went to get a drink," she told him. "A lioness, the brown one showed up while I was drinking and got a drink from the other side. I kept an eye on her, trying to figure out if she was a threat from across the small pond. It wasn't long before she started mouthing off to me, and I just wanted to get out of there, but she trapped me. I was under the impression that she wanted to kidnap me, she kept asking me weird questions like whether or not I'd killed anything before. I gave her some phony answers and dashed off as quick as I could." And that was the truth of how Raza knew the lioness, Sukari, who had indeed been planning on taking her as a slave. Of course, she hadn't said it, and Raza only had implications to run on. It had certainly been terrifying.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:21 am
"I agree." Angu nodded, trying to remember if she had sworn revenge or any of the usual things as she ran off, but she didn't. Even she, who had been so keen to try to beat him down with her words, had nothing to say to him after he had spared her and allowed her to run off. "She knows I had her beat, and it will take some time for her wounds to heal." He said simply before listening patiently to her story, smiling at the look in her eyes. She was glad he hadn't killed her, he could tell.
"Is that so? I don't know why she'd want to bother you... She seemed to think that I posed a threat to her, but perhaps she just enjoys pestering everybody." He said with a shrug, wincing slightly from a sudden pain in his leg.
"Either way, I'm just glad that she didn't hurt you."
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:35 am
Raza carefully snuggled up besides him, keeping in mind where he had been hurt, and taking a quick lick at the deep cut at his cheek, keeping it clean. She couldn't stand the sight of blood on her mate- it hurt her as if she had been cut too.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Angu," she said truthfully. "It happened before we got together, I didn't want dad to worry... If he'd have heard I know he would've flipped out," She confided. "Why I haven't told you since then, I'm not sure. Honestly I never thought we'd run into her again," She said looking back up into his eyes.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:40 am
Angu enjoyed feeling close to his mate again, laying his head down beside hers. He loved everything about her, her beauty, her kindness, how understanding she was... The list could go on forever.
"It's alright," Angu smiled, "Telling me would not have changed the outcome of what happened today. It is understandable why you wouldn't want anybody to find out. I forgive you." He glanced up at the sky; the storm seemed to be calming down.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:48 am
"How cool is it that you could beat her, huh?" Raza said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. She had a smug, "nobody-could-beat-you-if-they-tried" look on her face as she chuckled. "I don't think I could ever fight anything other than prey, I'm not quick enough. I can chase-trip-bite fast enough, but I'm sure there's not too much chasing in a fight with another lion." What would she do? She'd run, the answer came to her mind quick enough. She wouldn't last long in a head-on fight.
"Were you scared?" She asked, part of her wanting to know what it was like in a fight.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:00 pm
Angu chuckled slightly, "Thank you." He said with a smile, "Oh, I'm sure you could with practice. I hope that you will never have to face anything alone again though. I'll do my best to always be there to protect you." He nuzzled her gently.
"Only for a minute." He shrugged, "She tossed sand into my eyes and I couldn't see... That was the only time I was truly afraid for my life." He thought for a moment, "Though there was always the thought in my mind, 'what if I don't make it?' I was worried that if she killed me, you might come looking for me and she'd get you too."
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:13 pm
"Well that's no fair," she said about the sand. "You would've been right, I had come looking for you," she said, looking up at him. She knew she should've stayed back at the camp, but she could help it, back at home she was so fidgety, worried sick like her father was all the time.
"I'm lucky to have you, Angu," she said, nestling deeper into his mane. She was glad he would protect her, she felt helpless if she was alone, with good reason, too, in her mind. The fact that he would die protecting her... She didn't know quite how to describe the feeling. It made her feel closer to him. She went back to cleaning his cheek cut- he had been taking good care of his leg, but he certainly couldn't get his cheek on his own. "These aren't light cuts either, love," she said, looking at how deep they truly were. "You'd better take it easy for a day or two, at the very least," she said, going back to cleaning it.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:25 pm
"And I, you." Angu responded, allowing her to clean his face wound. She could probably tell that he couldn't reach it very well, and he was glad to know that it wouldn't get dirty or infected now. Just as Raza felt safer around him, he felt safe and happy around her as well.
Angu glanced down at his paw, seeing how deep the puncture wounds really were. He sighed, reasoning that the cut on his face must be equally deep. "All right, I'll try to stay out of trouble," He teased, "And let you and the others do the hunting from now on. Even if you don't catch anything, you girls seem to manage to stay out of trouble." He laughed.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:38 pm
"You're just too dangerous to be out and about, Angu," she joked, chuckling. "And Ata, Chuguu and I can hunt just fine too, we feed you more often than you feed us," she said sweetly with a smile. "Just take it easy, that's all. I don't suppose we can hide you having gotten beat up from the others," she said. "We're going to have to tell them that you got in a fight, unless you can think of something else that could've hurt you this badly," she said looking at the cuts that, no doubt, would form scars.
"We ought to be getting back, storm or not, they'll be worrying about us. I left under the excuse of getting a drink from a pool nearby, so they'll be wondering about me too." She told him, hoping he'd understand.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:46 pm
"Well I guess the lesson here is that I'm a better fighter than hunter." He smiled, laying his head back down on the ground, enjoying the feeling of the grass beneath him. "Yes, they won't question me getting into a fight with a rogue, especially one like her. I am a Shujaa after all. This way we don't need to lie to them, but we don't need to tell them that she knew you either."
"You're right, we've been gone a long time." He got up, grunting slightly, "I doubt anybody will be surprised that I didn't catch anything. Food will have to wait until the storm is gone." He started toward the shelter where the family was, with Raza by his side.
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