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 Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 8:23 am
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It had been many, many moons since Kimi had found herself in the company of the other strong-willed, beautiful women that had raised her. They had scattered to the four corners of the world like they were blown by the winds and it had left the demi-goddess with a hollow at the center of her chest. It wasn't that she felt unsafe - she was a strong female, trained well, and never went without food. It was only that she missed the companionship. A loyal, loving family was a lot harder to find than some easy game.
With a sigh on her maw and her head in the clouds, she found herself wandering through lands that smelled faintly like other lions. She had to be close to a pride but not so close, she thought, that they would be upon her before she could make a getaway. Besides, she meant no harm tonight - her heart was heavy and her sorrows too hard to shake. They would forgive her a bit of aimless wandering, right?
It wasn't long before she heard the rustle of paws in dry grass and, alarmed at her own distraction, her eyes snapped down from where they were studying the streaks of red and yellow overhead. A quick pulse of caution shot through her as she settled her rosy gaze on the dark male - he seemed lack luster himself, not a brave and angry warrior by any stretch of the imagination.
Of course, looks could always be deceiving..
"Good Evening!" she called, choosing to make herself known before he thought she was sneaking up on him. A few pleasantries, a fake smile, and maybe she could be on her way without a challenge if this pride was feistier than she had reckoned.
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 7:03 am
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He was a far cry from a brave, angry warrior most were used to. But he wasn't some push over. Kaala'Dil's head was hanging when he heard some unknown female's voice, making his ears perk and his fur stand on end. Who was that? Glancing around he spotted her and wasn't quite as alarmed as he probably should have been.
Before him was a soft yellow lioness with what looked like butterfly wing markings on her back. It was quite striking, if he was being completely honest with himself.
"Good evening," he replied with a bob of his head. "You're close to Mwezi'Johari lands." It wasn't a warning, just a fact, but he offered her a bit of a smile anyway. "I don't recognize you." And she didn't smell like the pride, from what he could tell. She smelled of the wild lands he'd never known. That made him itch to know more. The depression of failing his job as a hunter was pretty much gone now as he took her appearance in and let his mind come up with questions he would love for her to answer.
He gave his head a shake, his slightly more coarse and wavy mane moving with him. Somehow it was sea-blown without being by the ocean. "I'm Kaala'Dil... What's your name, pretty Wild One?"
Seemed like he didn't want to start proper conversations without knowing her name. Maaaaybe giving her a nickname wasn't the right approach.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 8:41 am
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Oh, what a charmer. Back in the lands of the Kunanda'Nakhun he very likely would have been snapped at for such brash, open attempts at flirting with a lioness so far above his station but here, she supposed, it was she that was at the disadvantage. The brightness of her coat no longer afforded her the honors it once did and she didn't belong to the safety provided by the strong females that protected borders - no, she was the wandering trespasser and he could have been much, much less kind than giving her a silly pet name.
With that in mind, she offered him a tight smile that was not altogether forced.
"As well you shouldn't, I was born very, very far from here," Mwezi'Johari he had called it, right? She wondered, idly, what they were about. She was not a lioness that cared overly much about history or knowledge but it seemed to her that he could be a decent distraction from the weight that was dragging down her heart.
"I rather like Wild One," she admitted, flicking her tail and letting the tight smile turn a bit more playful, "but my name is Kimimela."
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 3:04 pm
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The darker male just oozed excitement. It made her smile despite herself and she found that, at least for the moment, she was content enough with his enthusiasm to take a seat. Her haunches relaxed and she curled her tail around her toes, settling in.
"The desert?" she laughed and shook her head, sending her mane tuft tossing, "hardly. I'm from the jungle lands, they are quite far from here but it has been a very, very long time since I left my homelands. There were a lot of us born there but we've all drifted to the corners of the world by now."
Her shoulders rolled in a gentle shrug, dismissing it. The time for mourning the loss of her culture had passed. Instead she found herself looking forward, ever curious, and now was no exception.
"What are your lands like, Kaala'Dil? I'm afraid I never know much about the prides I get near to - not all of them are particularly talkative."
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Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 6:39 am
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Jungle lands? That sounded far more reasonable than the desert. He listened to her, his ears perked forward, eyes trained on the female before giving her a bit of a serious nod when she said they were scattered all over.
"Yes. I hear prides fall apart from time to time. Sometimes illness, sometimes fire.. I keep praying that doesn't happen to us."
Then he was asked what his lands were like and Kaala'Dil stopped to think about it. "There are mountains on one boarder. We don't really go to those mountains. When the earth shakes it's really, really dangerous. It's a pretty land, with clear view of the sky! We can see the moon almost all the time, which we love." He wasn't going to go into too many details, but his tail thumped against the ground quite happily as he talked.
"It's really beautiful where I live. The members are really friendly and accepting. Even the slaves are taken very, very good care of. My grandmother's a slave. She's very sweet, and very happy with her position in the pride." His chest seemed to puff up as he talked.
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Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:32 pm
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Happy slaves? Now that did make Kimimela curious. It was not very often that the lower class members of a pride were pleased with their lot, or even accepting of it, and as he said such it reminded her of the lower ranking females and even the males of her homelands. Things were the way that they were for a reason and the sooner one accepted that, the better it was for everyone.
"Well, it sounds to me like you all get along fairly well here, then. You can't ask for much more than pretty skies and compliant pride members."
Of course, the earthquakes were an entirely different matter altogether.
"Ahh, it was the earth shaking that brought our brave pride to its knees. I was scarcely grown when we had to flee - jungle trees are tall and heavy. It's definitely not where you should be when the earth decides to uproot them all." Though her voice seemed fairly nonchalant, she looked away as she recalled the past and her fleeing from the lands of her birth. She managed to cover the shift in comfort by inspecting the lands that sprawled out around him, the Mwezi'Johari.
"I envy you a little, Kaala'Dil.."
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 6:12 pm
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The brightly colored female seemed skeptical until that damnable wink. It caught her off guard and made her laugh gently beneath her breath, lightening her mood and banishing all thoughts of the home she had left behind. The only thing left to consider was his offer..
"I don't know," she admitted quietly, "where I grew up is very.. different than most places."
And yet, she couldn't say it wasn't an appealing offer? Even if all she did was hang around and talk to the lions of his lands. She didn't know if there was a place like the Kunanda nor, really, did she know if she wanted to be in that place again. It all seemed so normal when she had been raised among the strong, powerful females that ruled the jungle with iron paws but as she was thrust out into the real world she had realized how strange they must have seemed by comparison. It was an odd wake up call that she had still not entirely recovered from.
"I guess it couldn't hurt to stick around and chat for a while though, right?"
There weren't any binding contracts that said she could not leave if she decided her heart was not in it yet. Maybe a little socialization would put her at ease for a time? With a defeated but not entirely negative sigh, she offered him a nod and a weak smile.
"A few days, I can stay that long at least."
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Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:56 am
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When she laughed at his wink, Kaala'Dil felt pride swell in him. Well, at least they got her into a brighter mood. No one needed to be in that dark of a place, in his opinion.
Different than most places...
"Different might not always be bad," he ventured slowly, as if testing the words on his tongue. "There's different kinds of lions on the pride, some born here, some from other prides." He didn't want to push her into doing something she wasn't ready for, but he did kind of want to sell it to her. Kaala'Dil loved his pride and it was something he wanted to share with others, especially those that wanted a home.
And then she agreed, and the dark male practically pranced around her. "Excellent! I can bring you breakfast every morning," he was already getting excited.
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 6:34 pm
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Well, at least she could get behind a male bringing her breakfast every morning - that was not so different from how she had been raised even if his free choice in such a matter was. Still, it made her smile linger, and that was enough to tell her that she should pursue a vacation here among these lions if they would let her. So few things ever made her smile anymore.
"I'm going to hold you to that," she murmured as she took a long stretch in her front legs and then a few steps forward in the direction of what, she assumed, were the lands he was speaking of.
Was it too much to hope that there might be other lions of the Kunanda safe within the borders here? So many of them had scattered to the wind; friends, siblings, her mother..
"Let's go then, ambassador, lead the way before I change my mind."
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