[ORP] New Arrivals [Done]

[Meepfur]

Khazine cast a glance back in the older lioness' direction and snorted derisively. She was only just past the age where she would have stuck her tongue out for good measure. "Let her hear! I've told her before, anyway, and I bet she likes being like that."

"It's a strange concept," Nesf agreed with her sister, "Sharing a male and all that. Imagine all the siblings and half-siblings and aunts and cousins! How do they remember who's related to whom and how?"

Khazine had nothing to add on the subject, and merely pulled a 'that's gross' face.

--

"Soon, I think. A week, maybe? But that seems like foreeeever," she griped, rolling onto her back again to look at Intuthwane and Inkungu upside-down. It was still far from comfortable, but better than lying on her side. "I'm so tired of being huge. And hungry...hungrier." Ukulambile was never not hungry, but between their hunting woes and being pregnant, she was a whole new level of hungry she had never experienced before.

She blinked at the adolescent's revelation and paused to consider her own paws. "Does it?"

Andhaka had not anticipated acquiring a miniscule follower. He was a fairly traditional Umholi as far as his associations with his offspring went, finding that the females generally preferred it that way. He knew them all, of course, but while he was interested in their progress and welfare and suchlike, he was careful to keep it a distant interest so as not to risk irritating the lionesses or giving them that extra something to gossip about.

"Khethiwe," he acknowledged with a slight nod, shortening his stride just a touch. "Going somewhere?"

((Will begin collision in my next post!))

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Annchen

Tanakako

 

[Tanakako]

At her dad's greeting Khethiwe grinned up at him, forgetting for a moment to focus on walking like him and ran several steps to keep up with the large male. Bouncing a little at his side she giggle. "With you!" She agreed, beaming up at him in her most innocent and cute manner. It was the look that usually got her what she wanted from her mother, and from most other lionesses. She didn’t see why her papa would be different.
She didn't seem the least bit intimidated by Andhaka as she darted forwards and batted at his paws as he walked, bouncing and skittering this way and that as she laughingly avoided being stepped on.
"Where are we going?" She piped up, gazing up at him as she fell back into trying to walk like the stately male.

Meepfur

With her cubs almost fully grown, Ilanga had resumed her duties as Cinga. Indeed she hadn't been able to resist the lure of the wide open landscape, and had started going out even when the cubs were young, knowing they were safe with her friends and the very many babysitters who had volunteered. So it was that the wiry and fit Cinga had kept her lean figure fairly well and it hadn't taken long to resume her usual day-long sorties completely. She had been out since early that morning, seeking a fresh hunting ground but without much success. Up above Idla sored in high, wide circles, her wings slow and lazy in their movements. Suddenly the vulture did a dip and twist movement that Ilanga knew indicated she was near someting. This time it was one of their own pride members. Idla had come up with a variety of movements to indicate different things, it saved time as she didn't have to stoop down to tell Ilanga verbally every time she spotted something. Shifting her stride slightly she angled towards where Idla had indicated, and soon enough she saw the familiar shape of Liyana. Picking up her pace into a ground-eating trot she called out to the other female when she was close enough.
"Liyana."

AstoriaFallen

 

[Annchen]

Intuthwane was blissfully unaware of her sister trying to sneak up on her, she was busy chatting with the older female and experimenting with ways to keep cool while not moving around too much.

"Yeah, I think so," she said and waved one of her paws around, when her spit evaporated it took some of the heat from her paw pads. The young female had no idea why it felt nice, however. It just did. With that distraction out of the way, she continued asking questions, "Who will go with you? Maybe you'll find better prey to hunt when you're away!"

Having cubs felt incredibly far away, but it was kind of interesting. Sort of. And besides, it was kind of a big deal who went with you, right?

---

"Aww, poor thing," Inkungu cooed, "Do you want me to groom your back?"

She imained it would be hard for the other lioness to reach everywhere. Unfortunately she couldn't do much about the hunger at the moment. When the Cinga came back with some leads on where it would be best to hunt tonight she'd join up with a small group of females and see if they could catch anything, but until then they just had to keep their spirits up. It wouldn't be easy, but she was sure some of the hunting parties would be successful. They'd get by. She hoped it'd get better soon after the cubs arrived. Lack of food was a cub killer.

---

Marmar hadn't even considered the mess of relatives such a practice would produce... She shook her head. Sooner or later every female would be related to the males. That would be... gross. Yeah. If that was the case they might be welcomed after all.

"Good memory," she suggested, "I hope... I guess it would be most important to keep track of your father and grandfather and so on. "

Meepfur

 

[Mogami]

"Bangizwe is in a foul mood." Baie said as she raised her head from her resting spot, one eye lazily following the cubs. The lack of water was worrisome but at least there weren't too many little ones around. Well, Andhaka was a fine male with a nice mane so that was bound to change soon. Hopefully, the Cinga would return, bearing news of herds and new water sources. Water had once united them with their allies but Baie didn't believe they'd have the same luck twice.

"I wonder what they're talking about..." There was a lingering tension in the air and she was pretty certain that it wasn't because - or at least, not just because - of their dwindling water supply.



"Isn't he always?" Thuli said by the older lioness' side, looking a little annoyed that Baie had a better resting spot in the shade. She wasn't being fair towards the male, she knew, but Thuli was still waiting for the perfect lion to be the father of her cubs and Bangizwe's mane was just a little too light at the top for her to seek him out. "I heard he sent some silly rogue on his way recently. The scars look nice on him... aaaaahah, but maybe the other male had a nice darker mane..."

She plopped down dramatically, perfectly unaware that the challenging rogue had been her nephew.  

[Meepfur]

"I haven't decided who I'll ask yet," Ukulambile admitted, brows furrowing as she thought about it for the thousandth time. Every time she considered the options, she missed her mother sorely. The choice would have been easy, had Nahmba still been alive.

Her impending decision and the traces of sadness were quick to slip away, however, when Inkungu offered to groom her back, and Uku rolled back onto her belly with a grunt. "Would you really? I've had such an itch going, it's awful!"

Andhaka glanced down at the little cub, who by far looked more like him than any of his others. The cute-and-innocent look didn't have much affect on him, but he shrugged and offered no objections to her following - it wasn't like he was atually going on patrol or anything. If he had been, he'd have sent her back to Sobala, unwilling to risk the lionesses' ire by allowing a youngster -especially a female one - to accompany him. The paw-batting was mildly irritating, he had to keep looking down to make sure he didn't step on her, but he wasn't about to scold her with everyone present.

"We're-" he started to answer, but cut himself off and squinted into the distance. Someone was coming, and it wasn't the Cinga. It was too large a group. "We're not going anywhere. You're going back to your mother. Now."

---

"They should use their parents' names, like we do. That would make it easier." In the Qyrhyeshti, everyone had a lineage they could recite, some longer than others...some so long that bits sometimes got forgotten, but by the time those particular relations found themselves omitted, they were so far back that lines crossing again wouldn't be worrisome. Theoretically, Nesf should have been able to trace her father's line all the way back to Qyrhy himself, but she always got lost somewhere along the way. The female side was much easier, since they knew little of her grandmother's family aside from her mother's name.

Movement overhead drew Nesf's attention upwards. Tala circled and dipped, indicating that she had found what they were looking for. "Well then. Shall we?" The one-eyed lioness broke into a jog, following the falcon's course toward the meeting that would determine their fate. "Come on, let's pick up the pace a little!"

"And remember, no picking any fights!" This was directed primarily toward the younger, more hot-headed members of their party; she trusted the full-grown ones to have sense in their heads.

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Annchen

Tanakako

Quaji

 

[SilverLutz]

The shifting and shuffling of the lionesses gathered kept Tawa moving around, avoiding one lioness and nodding at another and generally trying to keep out of the way while being a comforting presence. He kept clear of the other two males for the time being before he noticed that Andhaka was also starting to become a bit alert. He followed the other lion's gaze to the horizon where he could just make out what appeared to be a bunch of lions heading their way. They were still too far to make out just how many there were or who they were, but he could tell from the Abaholi's stance that it wasn't anyone they were expecting.

He moved a bit to stand behind the other male and off to the side a bit - if these newcomers meant to cause trouble, he'd be there to put a stop to it before it even started.

---

Nur rolled her eyes a bit as the other lionesses chatted back and forth. At the call to not pick fights she sneered, her scarred mouth a rather scary sight. "We'll see if they're worth a fight first," she commented, tail swishing a few flies away. This place didn't seem to be very plentiful...she didn't mind the idea of fighting over the last resources of the area. Then it would feel just like home.  

[Meepfur]

"From the sound of it, they may faint at the very thought of fighting," Nesf said with a low chuckle. Assuming the two Abaholi were the only males, and knowing that they were the only ones trained and experienced, she wagered it would be an easy fight; even if there were one or two of those Inse-somethings as well, she'd still happily side with their band of six warriors and six adolescent warrior-wannabes. Ideally, however, there would be no fighting, and they would be smoothly accepted into the pride. Ha. Right. Because everything had gone how it was supposed to so far. Though she didn't let it show, Nesf was uneasy. Theirs was not a culture of diplomacy, of questions first and claws later, but of fighting tooth and nail for survival, with no room for mercy. If they were denied, she knew that they would ultimately muscle their way through the problem. Out of respect for their Bey, they would try the nice way, but if that failed, the hard way would do.

After the group had followed the falcon's flight aways, the pride they sought came into view. A quick scan revealed two additional shapes approaching from another direction, presumably also members of the pride. Once they were in full view, and she could tell from the shifts in movement that they had been seen, Nesf came to a halt and sat, expecting the rest of the party to stop with her.

Khazine hesitated, looking impatiently from her aunt to the pride and back again. Really? They were just going to stop right here, when they were so close? The adolescent huffed her disapproval, but ceased forward movement and settled for shifting her weight from paw to paw, even when she caught a disapproving look from Sabit, ever-watchful over the dappled youth and her cousins: and even moreso now, as precarious as their situation was at the moment.

---

Andhaka remained still for a moment, ears swiveled forward and tail twitching from side to side as the approaching party neared and came into focus. Mentally, he counted the number of forms. Twelve, all lionesses. These had to be Umkhombo's, then. He wondered, not for the first time, if it would have been wise to inform anyone else of the impending arrival of such a group, but he still had to agree with Bangizwe that it had been best not to. This way, they had avoided the Abazingeli spreading rumors and tales and forming opinions prematurely...though there had also been the possibility of the two of them going out to find the newcomers themselves and make the decision entirely on their own, but that would also have been likely to lead to unhappy lionesses. On the other hand, doing it this way meant that they would have less control of the situation, which was never something Andhaka liked.

Be that as it may, this was the course that they had chosen, and it was far too late to choose another one. Looking to Bangizwe, and then to Tawa'shilah - a male he still knew far too little about, a concern to be addressed later - he trotted out to meet the waiting gathering of females. He didn't even bother trying to tell the rest of the pride to stay put, as he knew full well that most of them wouldn't bother to listen.

"So. You must be Umkhombo's." Not a question, just a simple statement as he looked them over and waited for them to make their move.

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AstoriaFallen

It will be a little easier if they just get plonked into meeting the main group, so that we can get to the meat of things and everyone can jump in! And it's absolutely fine for her to be showing, of course :3.

SilverLutz

Quaji

 

[Mogami]

Thuli watched as Bangizwe, Andhaka and Tawa moved, following the males' actions with a curious gaze that quickly turned alert when she spotted the unknown lionesses. An invasion? She'd been too young during the last one but this time she was older, bigger, trained by Firekin at the Outpost. She wasn't a cub to be protected but an adult whose duty was to protect the young cubs present.

"Who are they? Do you think they want to fight?" Thuli's head lowered at once, dropping into a defensive stance. It wasn't her place to fight, she knew, but with the way Thuli had been so tense lately, she wouldn't really mind putting the Firekin lessons to good use.

-----------

"What I'd like to know... is why it seems some of us aren't quite as surprised as they should be." Baie said as she glared at the males briefly. If any of them had invited this group without telling the Abazingeli, there would be hell to pay.

She hadn't spent as much time at the Firekin Outpost as some of the other Abazingeli but she left her very nice sunning spot and stood next to the Lusizi, ready to fight if it proved at all necessary. She doubted it, the current males were competent enough.

"Pull the cubs back." She said aloud to no one in particular.
 

[Meepfur]

Ever-alert and always eager to be in the midst of anything interesting happening (which didn't seem nearly as often with their current Abaholi, or maybe that was simply because she didn't find either of them as interesting as Surtak), Wodi was one who wasted no time in following the males out to see what was going on. She came right up behind them without hesitation, just in time to overhear what Andhaka said. Her ears swept forward, and she sidled up right next to the red and gold males.

"Umkhombo? What's this about Umkhombo?" She was, naturally, very interested in news of her grandson, and searched the group intently. They were all lionesses, but...but one was a very familiar color with fetching dapples across her pelt.

The tiny lioness barged forward for an even closer look, not the least bit concerned that anything might happen to her.

Khazine pulled back slightly when the splotchy older lioness marched up to her, glancing at Sabit and her aunts for some cue about what she was supposed to do with this stranger suddenly up in her business. Sabit and Nesf, however, only watched, leaving her to her own devices.

"I, uh...who the hell are you?" she asked suspiciously, gold eyes narrowing to stare at the adult who was no bigger than she was. The adult with pink eyes. Like her father's.

Wodi barked out a laugh and boxed the adolescent in the head, earning a look of open-mouthed surprise. "Pretty sure I'm your great-grandmother, you disrespectful little git."  

[Annchen]

AstoriaFallen

"Yeah, whatever," Jasirku said, not interested in being polite.

"All males leave," he said, "At least all the real ones. But I'm going because I want to, not because I have to."

He had half brothers that had stayed, but Jasirku had a hard time wrapping his head around why anyone would want to be Ahluke. Sure, they were treated better than lusizi, but they weren't really males anymore, right? They were... What was that? There was some kind of commotion near the other edge of the group, and a female had called to pull the cubs back. Whatever it was this little snot shouldn't hang around this far out.

"You should get back to the females," he said, "NOW"

If she didn't move he was fully prepared to give her a shove in the right direction, but he was going to give her the chance to move before trying to herd her back.

---

Whatever it was that happened over there was interesting enough to make Intuthwane sit up properly and crane her neck to get a better view. The males were approaching a group of strangers, and many of the Abazingeli were moving in too. The young lioness wasn't curious enough to rush over there, bet her ears pointed forward and her nostrils moved as she tried to take in as much as she could from her comfy spot.

---

Inkungu was mid-grooming when the males started to move, and since she was focusing on taking care of Ukulambile's itch, she didn't catch what was happening. It must be uncomfortable not being able to groom out the infernal dust that seemed to get in everywhere. However, when the rest of the pride started to stir she looked up, tounge tip still out. What on earth?

---

Marmar sat down beside Nesf, and just nodded when the red male uttered his not-quite-question. She had to force herself to keep her claws sheated as a female marched up to her niece. The lioness didn't look hostile, so it was a surprise when she suddenly whacked Khazine over the head. Marmar rose, but then quickly sat down again. She wasn't sure if she should laugh or growl, but the look on Khazine's face was priceless. The corners of her mouth turned up, and she couldn't do much about it.

"Khazine," she said, "Better introduce yourself before your great-grandmother cuffs you again."

Perhaps she should too...

"I'm Marmar, daughter of Adala," she said with a small nod to the female, "The little git is my niece."

Meepfur

 

[Syrius Lionwing]

The dark lioness chuckled as her other sister squeezed herself between them. Shaking her head she locked her sisters cheek. "Your children seem to be having fun causing havoc." She chided watching as the Cubs raced around like little whirling dervishes.

"How have you been?" She queries, it had worried her endlessly when one of her little sisters had become pregnant, but it did at least seem that she and her babies here doing well.

Tanakoko

[

astoriafallen

 

[SilverLutz]

Tawa caught the look from Andhaka and moved with him, granted at a slight distance. He wanted to be there to back up the older lion with a physical presence and he was sure his size would make anyone think quite about simply attacking. As Andhaka paused Tawa did as well, tail flicking back and forth as he allowed himself to hang back just enough to let them know that he was here for muscle if need be.

---

Nur paused with the group of females that she had arrived with, sizing up the males that came to approach them. Red...both of them. Not bad. They both looked decently strong as well. That was more what she was concerned with rather than appearances. They both had their fair share of scars, the large pale maned one in the back with some fresher ones.  

[belloblossom]

Nomvula still didn't quite feel as though she belonged in the pride, having made no permanent friends, at least to her knowledge. Determined as ever to make others like her, she had started to volunteer to hunt, at least she did in the beginning. Now, between the ever-present heat and the lack of water in the air or on the ground, even her spirits were starting to dwindle.

She had been spending her time relaxing in the minimal shade of a tree with sparse parts of foliage, when she started to notice some unrest within the pride. She was just getting to her paws when another Busisa, Safura, brushed by her with excitement in her eyes.

"Someone's coming." She said as she passed and went to stand with others of the pride. Nomvula followed behind. Coming? Coming to the Bonelands? In this heat? While she did so love the bonelands and the lions within, Nomvula couldn't help but think these newcomers must be some brand of loony to be coming to the dry, barren lands at this time. Still... If any of them were those who wanted to come and stay, perhaps it would mean for more lionesses to help with hunting.

---

While others were gathering about to watch the crowd approach, Mazuri was too busy looking for her family. Primarily, her sisters. She was trying to keep within shaded areas, for the ground burned her paws. Despite not being the darkest of her siblings as far as fur coats went, she had decided that she did not like the sun very much. At the very least, she didn't like it when it was this horribly hot and made all the water go away.

Of course, she only ever complained to her sisters and even then she didn't do it very much. She tried to be on her best manners, after all both her mother and father were very respectable lions, so she had to make them proud. Speaking of her mother, she suddenly found her sitting among her aunts and looking immensely pleased. Drawn in by the smiles, Mazuri wandered over to her mother and walked around to her front.

"Mother!" She purred. "You know where your sisters are, but do you know where mine are? I can't find a single one anywhere!" She said, looking hopeful.

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Tanakoko