The yellow and black male missed Tera something awful. As the sun set on yet another day without her he took to reminiscing about his time as a youth. A time before the sands, a time before Tera when he was a youngster learning how to catch hares...

His mane wasn’t in yet, his scraggly tuft of white was slowly growing and it gave him constant irritation. The scratch made it harder to hunt, as just when he thought he was still enough something would irritate him and he had to move to scratch it. It was a constant, irksome irritation and he truly wished his mane would just stop growing or be there already.

He had been on his own for as long as he could remember. Although he wasn’t an old lion he had always been alone. Always felt like a long time and it made him rather anti social. He had been raised by no one in particular, though a passing cheetah had took pity on him as a juvenile and taught him how to hunt hares. He found he liked the gamy tough meat more than anything else in the world and had decided just to be a hare connoisseur.

It was during one of his less successful hunts, promptly caused by his itchy head, that a lioness had traipsed in to his world.

Kuimba had been travelling alone for a few days. She had been brought up amongst lions who loved to sing and dance and simply enjoy themselves. This wasn’t a bad life but she had decided she needed more and so had taken to her paws and struck out alone.

It hadn’t been a bad plan, she and her companion were doing pretty well for themselves following nothing in particular. They had crossed a few miles and passed some prides and groups and coalitions. None of them had yet to keep her attention though so they kept moving.

“Are we there yet?” The waterbuck sighed, she had really had enough of travelling but it seemed her friend wasn’t willing to just stop yet.

“Oh Hato, why would we stop yet? The world is fascinating don’t you think?”

In all honesty the waterbuck did not think the world was fascinating but she didn’t want to abandon her life long friend. “Yehyeh traveltravel.” She sighed an exasperated sigh.

Hachi lifted his head from his paws as he heard the arguing duo. Tilting his scratchy head he got to his feet and carefully approached the lioness and her herbivorous companion. He had never seen such an unusual duo. Sure they looked similar in colouring, perhaps that was something to do with the region they were from, but they were definitely two different beasts.

Usually he would have turned around and walked away, he wasn’t interested in talking to others, he wasn’t in fact interested in being social at all, but curiosity got the better of him so he trotted from the shadows, head tilted and brow furrowed. “You two, are strange.” He stated without so much as a how do you do.

Kuimba blinked in surprise as the young yellow and black male appeared from the undergrowth nearby with such a statement. She couldn’t help but laugh at his words though, a smile lifted her maw and she replied without hesitation “I suppose we are.” She chuckled.

The waterbuck on the other hand did not react as kindly, she huffed and stamped her fore hooves “Who are you calling weird shaggy head!” She grunted glaring quite noticeably at the black and yellow male lion.

“Oh Hato, don’t be so grumpy. We are an odd couple. You know in other places waterbuck are breakfast.” She rolled her eyes and mouthed an apologetic sorry at the young male. “are you okay? Are you lost?” She was certainly older than the young male before her, by how much she wasn’t sure but she had left her adolescence behind some time ago. This young male was clearly still in the throws of it.

“Oh..” He looked surprised that they had replied to him, he looked almost terrified when the waterbuck challenged but the midnight blue and white lioness brought him back with a few kind words. “Oh..uh no, I live here, with the cheetahs.” He stated, it was a strange thing to say, it wasn’t untrue, he lived out here alone though he occasionally hunted with a passing cheetah when they roamed through. It was a good place to hunt hares after all. The thought of hares made his stomach rumble audibly, he frowned though his frown was sent to his stomach rather than to the two odd companions.

Kuimba heart went out to the young male when his belly rubbed so loudly. When you were young, you were always hungry, growing was hard work after all. She smiled softly and walked towards him. “Do you want to help me hunt for something a little larger? Just to keep you going of course?”

Hato Rolled her eyes, another charity case for the female to take on. He seemed perfectly happy here she thought but as usual Kuimba had to stick her nose in.

The young male had seemed confused for a moment when she offered to help him hunt. He had rarely eaten anything that wasn’t a hare, they were his staple diet, they kept him lean and slender like the cheetahs he so often hunted with. Still her offer wasn’t unwelcome and he agreed to assist her in her hunt.

The dark lioness had hunted with him for a few days after that, she had filled his belly and he had learned how to hunt bigger things. He of course chose to return to hunting hares after she left. She was travelling and he wanted to stay. It was a long time between Kuimba leaving and Tera showing up in his life but when she had he was ready to have a companion, ready to leave and start a life. He had followed Tera diligently to the firekin and now he waited for her to return. Though it was nice to think about the past, no matter how strange it had been, he was looking forward to the future when his lady would return and they would live together on the pale hot sands of the Motoujamii.

((W/C 1059 ))