Hehewuti took a breath deep into her chest. She held it there for a few thoughtful moments before it was released. Against the dark sky of the cool and early morning it disappeared in a white whisp. The pale, red-marked lioness thought of the air. Of how humid it had been in comparison to that of the desert. It felt heavy, like a weight in the pit of her chest.

The Motoujamii guard squinted towards the distant but nearing mountains and wiped her forehead with the back of her paw. The cold night had left the smallest droplets of dew on her pelt. It was like the way the most powdery sand settled on your fur, except quite nearly the opposite. It was refreshing.

But she couldn't get too comfortable. Too distracted with taking in the sights. They were out here to do t a job. To stay alert. Hehewuti squinted towards the distant mountains again. The Mwezi'johari. The pride that had become their new… what, alliance? And, on top of that, the home of her daughters…

The lioness gave a brief look over her shoulder to where the rest of the traveling Firekin had stopped to rest not far away. She wasn't surprised that Buvalu had chosen to come as well. How long had it been, now, since they had seen their daughters? Long enough. Two huria lionesses that remained loyal to their first home and a Magistrate son. Hehewuti sometimes mused how they could have done worse in raising children, but the prideful thoughts were quickly ushered from her mind. They weren't, after all, going to the Mwezi'johari on a social trip. The Nergui. The threat that had become suspiciously quiet as of late. Unnervingly so. Hehewuti wrinkled her nose and turned her head back towards the mountains.

It was as if on cue that the pale blue lioness made her way into Hehewuti's line of sight. Na'an walked always with a slow thoughtfulness. Not sluggish but not dainty, either. It was like the slow slithering of a snake that was trying to creep through the grass. Fluid and with the sense that she was anticipating a moment to strike.

Na'an had found herself unable to sleep these past few days. Every time, when weariness overcame her and her eyes lulled shut, she found herself awoken by vivid dreams. She couldn't say whether or not they were visions. There was nothing notable about them. In fact they just seemed to be memories. Distant images from what seemed like lifetimes ago. It was from when she was a child, before her mother came to sweep her and her brother away. Before Uuni had finished her deal with Mkhai and left him with just Rapha. From the lands of the Nergui.

Again, it was nothing particularly exciting. Just the normal things cubs and adolescents did, with some extra Nergui flare. Hunting lizards and rodents. She would decapitate them while Minkah protested. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep her from sleep with an unsettling feeling in her stomach. So she had just stopped trying to sleep. Instead she walked. She walked, that is, until a pale white figure stepped in her way.

"I wouldn't go that way," Hehewuti said. The white lioness had this way about her where she spoke almost entirely through a smile, even when those words weren't necessarily friendly. It was eerie. "There's a group out by the river over that ridge that is the entirely wrong sort of a company for a beautiful morning like this."

"Mm," Na'an started, narrowing her eyes at the stranger. She looked her up and down in a languid and unimpressed motion. "And you've experienced this first hand, I'm guessing?"

A laugh left her and Hehewuti sat directly in Na'an's path. "Nah," she started, her tail swishing once behind her. "I'm one of 'em. And let me tell ya', It's much nicer out here in the quiet."

Na'an exhaled, a quick short breath that came out of her nostrils. She sat. The blue lioness wasn't really in the mood for any sort of difficult interaction this morning—not with the lack of sleep—so she would indulge this stranger. "Oh?" she asked with a quirk of the brow. Her hair fell delicately to frame her face as she sat, her paws neatly together before her. Delicate fragility, Na'an had long since learned, was a useful image to maintain. "And who might you be that you would instill such discomfort?"

Hehewuti paused, then, looking the blue lioness over in a motion that she made no effort to disguise. Sweet-looking and alone, certainly less muscularly built than her kin. The guard wondered what her story was. "We're the Motoujamii. The Firekin, of the desert." Her head motioned over her shoulder in the direction from which they had come. "A party of 'em, anyway."

The slender lioness stiffened and did her best to do so discretely. Though the surprise didn't help her in her efforts. The Motoujamii. The fire-pelted lions of the desert. The last she had heard of them was when she had last crossed paths with her brother. He had been on their way to find them. Her had spoken of atrocities committed by their sister and the Nergui. Sweet Minkah spoke of taking a stance for what was right, against their father and sister and the rest of the Nergui. He spoke of atrocities, and he spoke of war.

"The Firekin, you say," Na'an started, following Hehewuti's nod of the head with her eyes. She looked out over the distant desert. "I don't… I don't suppose you know a lion by the name of Minkah, do you? Minkah-tzvi? He's marked like I am, but with a pelt like a dark storm."

Hehewuti had noticed the stiffening and had squinted in response. "Can't say I do," she started, her head tilting to the side as she took another moment to look the stranger over. "Though our numbers have grown past what I can keep track of lately. Certainly don't know everyone's names, and there are too many new markings out there for me to even hope to keep track of."

The lioness's eyes had lingered on the distant horizon. Her head shook and she met Hehewuti's eyes again. "No, maybe he just didn't manage to find his way there." Na'an's face was generally flat, like the surface of a still pool. Now, the smallest of wry smiles hinted at the corners of her eyes and mouth. "Mind if I ask what desert lions are doing all the way out here?"

"Not if you don't mind my asking you the same. Guard's duties, after all." She shrugged, but the smile didn't leave her face. "But, to be honest, not doing much. Just some business."

Na'an could roll her eyes at the vagueness of the answer, but she didn't. She instead thought of what Minkah had said. His words about atrocities and war. The blue lioness shook her head. "The same, except for business. I don't have much of that. I just," she motioned from one horizon to the other, "just go where the world takes me."

"Mm," Hehewuti acknowledged, getting to her feet. The lioness wouldn't be a threat. She was just curious, it seemed. "Well, stranger, may the world take you to well-deserving places. As for me," a stretch, "the pack calls~"

Na'an vocalized a wordless reply and watched her go. She remained motionless until the pale figure disappeared over the ridge. Then she turned away and continued to walk, sparing a glance once in a while towards the distant desert she knew must exist. An exasperated breath left her. She was tired, but thoughts of her siblings swirled in her mind. Damned dreams.

(WC: 1286)