|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 12:01 pm
 |
|
|
 |
It was midday, but she could not shake off the thick tendrils of her dreams from the night before. They had been swift and almost violent from their intensity. Kat had to wonder if it was sensory overload that had caused her dreams to jump around without purpose. For so long she had been nearly alone in the Outlands, her mind fastened to only one goal... the revival of her Queen's pride. Now that her goal had been realized and the Outlands were flourishing with health and vitality, she had so many other missions to tackle. There were so many members of the pride now, so many futures to track.
Too many.
She had been focused on them all. It was that hunger, that need to know and see all that made her crave for everyone's future. There was no mystery now that her dreams simply reflected her desires. Her mind had tried to track too many, see too much. Kat wanted her power to seem limitless, but that was not the case. She needed to clear her mind, refine her desires. A vision like the one she had was fruitless. The images so jumbled and blurry that she could not make out anything except a feeling. Change.
The Monarch's Soul brought herself to the borders of the pride, away from the climbing termite mounds and red sands. That was the territory that defined the Outlands, but that was not all there was to it. She looked over sprawling savannah, full of life that only a few years back had been nearly nonexistant. Her blue eyes had watched over these lands, witnessed the changing seasons and its slow revival.
A deep breath was taken, filling her nostrils with the scent of fresh air. The cloud in her mind was carried away by the breeze. Finally, she could think again.
The red lioness sat underneath an old tree, and in that position she dozed off. It was almost instantaneous, the rapid movements of her eyes behind closed lids, the quickening of her breath as her claws scraped into the dirt. Her eyes swept over the lands, travelling miles in what seemed to be seconds. They landed upon a land that was not unfamiliar to her. She had been born there, raised there within a loving family. Even if that family had been loving, she had always been an odd one. Her place had never been there, but her sight carried her to it now... and it was dark. Troubling. She could feel more than she could see that something was changing in the Pridelands, something dark had occurred. The taste of blood was thick upon her tongue - life lost?
She woke, and the cloud was clear and the sun was bright and she felt good. How strange, to witness something so terrible but wake up feeling a sense of clarity. Did that make her bad? It was a question to ponder over another time. She had more pressing things to come to terms with. Something had happened in the Pridelands, though she wasn't quite sure what. Her vision came to her with much more clarity, but no real answers. All she knew was that despite the Pridelands troubles, the Outlands in comparison had been... prosperous. As one kingdom rose, another would surely fall.
Looking over the border, she thought she caught the glimmer of something... gold. If it was important, she was sure her visions would have been of that instead of some vague prophecy. That was the usual turn her sight took. Still, she waited, curiosity captured by even the slightest glimpse of something exquisite. What her sleeping self could not see, her waking eyes would.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 1:30 pm
|
|
|
|
There were many things that had drawn Tabani to these lands. Often, his visions followed his bloodline, pulling him like strings in a spiders web as they branched out and unfolded across the Earth. He could see his children the clearest of all and then their children, so on it went until some generations were just glimmers that dotted the landscape of his dreams.
This place, though, was tugging at him.
He knew at once that none of his direct children were within the lands but he knew without question that many of his descendants settled here, flourishing within a pride that had, when he first dreamed of it, seemed peaceful and prosperous. Since the days he left that leopon and the moon pride behind, however, his dreams had grown more and more troubling. The lands felt tainted and dark in a way that made him both curious and wary. So he had come in the direction he knew it to lay but did not head for it directly. Instead he skirted the lands, looking for anyone that he could barter with for information, seeking to know as much as he might before he made the decision to go and pester his descendants. It was only a curiosity, really, but that was what drove him to everything he ever did.
It was mostly just luck that he saw the female in the distance - her pelt was red, it was true, but it was mostly her bright white skull that struck him as his bright eyes drifted across her. Uncertain if she were rogue or an inhabitant of the pride he was seeking, he altered his direction and approached her slowly. At close inspection, she was a large female, though not quite as big as himself. It was still enough to spur caution within the old fiery male and he stopped short, dipping his head in what he hoped she would consider a polite greeting.
"Sorry to disturb you, lady, but I was hoping you might tell me somewhat about the lands nearby?"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 1:47 pm
|
|
|
|
She sat there, expectant as Tabani approached her. The moment her eyes had realized it was a lion, she knew she could not leave. Gold markings adorned his pelt like fine jewelry, too soft and delicate to be worn by any other means. Kat herself was in gold, thick pieces of jewelry hung from just about every possible place upon the lioness. It was too much, but none had ever dared to tell Kat that in a long while.
He was an older lion, but his pelt burned and kindled as if it were in its youth. There was no reason to fear him, because if there had been a reason... she would have known. Instead, she looked him over calmly, as if estimating where it was he had come from and what his purpose was for approaching her. Thankfully, he did not make her wait long. She did not have the patience of a lioness her age. "It's Kat," she offered, brief and simple.
To him she was likely nothing. How was he to know she was the Monarch's Soul? He knew not of her influence here, nor of her abilities. She may as well be some wandering, lost rogue herself. "I assume you're talking of the Pridelands?" Normally she would not have bothered with a rogue, but she found himself intrigued, swayed by something she did not understand but obeyed regardless.
"Pretty lands, ruled by a King whose bloodline is tarnished by lies and deceit." Though her words seemed biased, they were spoken with clarity. There were no emotions there, just facts. "They are not bad lions, I suppose... just not the right ones to rule those lands."
Her head tilted, her gold earrings sparkling underneath the light that filtered down through the leaves of the tree. "I would not go there, if that is your purpose. Darkness is closing in, and I cannot see clearly what it entails yet."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 5:15 pm
|
|
|
|
At her words, surprise shocked his features and then slowly melted to an easy, inquisitive smile. He rarely gave rogues a thought lest provoked to reason, even ones decked out in more jewelry than he had ever seen in one place, but now he had settled his bright eyes on her with a newfound curiosity.
"That's why I was asking," the words were amused with the slightest tinge of awe, only faking part of his enthusiasm. He was a curios cat by nature and she was one of only a handful of those with the sight he had ever encountered. They were always different, as unique in comparison with one another as they could be despite their shared connection with the powers that be.
His tail flicked, restless.
"I have come a long way to seek out whatever this darkness is here. It is the most peculiar thing I have ever seen." Uninvited, he plopped down on the earth where he stood near to her and turned his head out in the direction of the pride he sought. "It's fascinating."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 5:34 pm
|
|
|
|
"You are not far from your destination, then," Kat mused. Her gaze shifted up towards the sky as the male settled down to the side of her. They were empty, and all but a few clouds passed overhead. In a way, she could understand that desire and curiosity. Little bothered her more than knowing nothing when she needed to know everything. The seer had developed a vast wealth of knowledge, but even that wouldn't be good enough for her in the end. She had these lands to protect, and with darkness so close by it was... worrisome.
Kat could share her thoughts with her Queen, yet she saw no reason to bring it up when she did not know the entirety of what was happening. For now, that energy clung to the Pridelands alone. Her eyes would be on it, and if things started to shift she would act upon it. It was why most of her crows were now stationed among those lands.
They would return soon with information.
"Many would turn away from it," she spoke again to the male. His presence did not bother her nearly as much as it should have. His curiosity seemed to be just as insatiable as her own - but she had these lands to ground her, to focus her skills. She smiled then, a brief flicker of amusement upon her features. "I am interested to know all of what it is, but I don't have the luxury of witnessing it for myself.
I hope you do, so that I may find out as well." Her gaze focused back on him, the cool confidence in her own abilities returning to her. She hid her cockiness poorly, but that attribute was not without justification. Her abilities were strong enough that perhaps she really could see and know what he would know.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 6:03 pm
|
|
|
|
"Yes," Kat agreed simply, which was rather unlike the lioness who tended to talk until there were no words left to say, "they are."
She laughed then, amused by his question when she thought the answer was obvious. The male clearly had no idea what boundaries he walked upon - his attention was so focused on something ahead of him that he had failed to see where it was he landed. "Here," she answered, sweeping a paw out in front of her to gesture to the vast lands ahead of her. The bracelets that hung from her wrists threatened to slide off, bouncing into one another to create a soft melody.
"I was born there, though, in that land covered by darkness." It mattered little what she told him. If he was important enough, she would have seen him long before she actually met him. Perhaps he had no great role to play in the territories here. There was something liberating about it, to have no need to worry about one individual who was likely just passing through. "Here I reside, with a fancy title and all the respect I never thought I would earn. Though, trust me, I certainly believed I deserved it."
She placed her paw back down on the ground, her gaze flickering back towards the center of her own pride. "This is the Ukulhwa'izwe - the Outlands. We've been plagued by worse luck before, so I am sure that we will be able to face whatever next comes our way."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 6:18 pm
|
|
|
|
The laugh caught him off guard and he found himself smiling, suddenly as amused as she seemed over his ignorance. He couldn't deny her - it was terribly odd that he had known precisely how to find the Pridelands but had not once seen the faintest glimmer of their neighbor. From the sound of it, too, they were not exactly on the friendliest of terms with one another either.
"Well, I guess it's safe to say that my sight has its boundaries," there was humor in his voice as he spoke. His eyes followed her tinkling bracelets as she raised a paw, studying them as they gleamed brightly against her fur. The soft melody settled an itch between his shoulder blades that prickled like static, a feeling he was all too familiar with. There was history here, a story that had shifted the world. This was a place that had moved their little corner of the world so deeply that every corner of the world had shifted with their threads.
"I am Tabani," he offered at last, nodding his head to her politely even if his next words were oddly playful. "Am I in trouble being here uninvited or would you do me the honor of enlightening me to the lands I've so clumsily discovered?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 6:31 pm
|
|
|
|
"You are in no trouble," she assured him easily. "If you were, you would know." He was clearly no threat to the Outlands, and it wasn't as if they attacked every rogue who stumbled upon their lands. They were not nearly so cruel or villainous as others would paint them to be. The Outlands had as rich of a history as the Pridelands, and their pasts were almost tragically intertwined with one another. She had to wonder if their futures would be as well.
Her gaze flickered back to him, revealing how much interest she had taken in the stranger. "I am curious, Tabani, as to why I did not see you coming. I am not quite certain it is because you are unimportant to these lands, or if there is fault in my sight." It was unlike her to admit to any such weakness, but her curiosity got the better of her. She wanted to know more of the fiery male, adorned by what looked like melted gold upon his pelt.
A smirk was offered as her eyes glinted with amusement. "I do think it would be a fair trade for me to tell you of these lands in exchange for information of yourself." Curiosity truly had gotten the better of her and she couldn't help but indulge herself now. Kat had spent so much of her time keeping her sight honed onto the future that she hardly gave herself time to enjoy the 'now'.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 21, 2018 6:02 pm
|
|
|
|
It surprised him, a little, that she admitted to her faults. She seemed a proud lioness but as he stared at her through his bright, golden eyes, he had to wonder if that self-same curiosity he felt did not dampen her pride in the face of a kindred spirit.
"That's a fair trade," he said quietly, pulling a too-charming smirk across his maw. The history of these lands must have held her story too and the promise of that was enough. It wasn't as if his own story was something so grandeur. Well, apart from his mother, of course.
A pleasant laugh tumbled from his throat, deep and charming, though considerably less purposeful than the curled, impish smirk that pulled his visage taut. He had been following the trail of a disaster simply for the hope of watching it consume those that stood before it and here, instead, he found himself in the company of one of the most intriguing females he had met in his lifetime.
"Perhaps your gift was not to see me coming this time, hm?" His tail flickered and he settled easily upon his belly though his eyes remained, steadfast, upon her. "We see only what they will and, honestly, perhaps they thought you deserved a little surprise for once."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 21, 2018 7:15 pm
|
|
|
|
For a moment, Kat grew silent as Tabani's words reached her ear. It was a thoughtful silence, mulling over what he had said and what he believed. What an interesting thought that perhaps someone else had gifted her with the sight and had fashioned it so to please her. But, she preferred to think that her sight was controlled by her own will. After all, it had always been influenced heavily by her own desires. When she was younger she had always been so focused on achieving material wealth and her sight had always guided her to it. Of course, Kat really hadn't grown out of that desire yet after all these years.
"I do hope that it's a pleasant surprise, or I will have to have words with someone," Kat answered with a laugh. She could indulge his beliefs for the time being, after all she really couldn't contest it.
The red lioness had duties to return to, but for some reason she could not see herself attending to them just yet. Kat had her end of the bargain to uphold, and she direly wanted to see him come through with his side of the deal. He was an absolute mystery to her, a foreign male that she could have never seen coming. How strange it was that he had slipped underneath her radar... and it did not even bother her.
The Monarch's Soul lowered herself down onto the ground, settling in to tell a story that she knew by heart. Her tail laid out behind her with a lazy flop, her paws crossing almost idly in front of her. Blue eyes met his own, holding his gaze because she could not imagine herself looking away now. With a permanent coy smile playing upon her features, she shared with him the history of the Outlands and her future hopes for her pride.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
