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 Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2017 12:26 pm
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 The dusty lioness wandered the edges of the pride's lands, far enough away that she had lost sight of her myriad 'sisters'. Adjusting to life in the pride was proving itself more challenging than Mokosh had expected. She was fairly certain that she had the basics down: she knew who the Abaholi were - at least by name - and was pretty sure she could tell the difference between the umholi and the inselelo. She knew the difference between lionesses like herself, a busisa, and the umzingeli, even if she hadn't gotten the courage to speak to any of them yet. She even had a tentative grasp on the position of the ahluke, although it was a conceptual one at best. Mo had a really hard time wrapping her head around the idea of any male vouching for voluntary celibacy - although here it was, so there must be something to it that she wasn't getting.
However, the newcomer had not found anyone as yet willing to tell her about these mysterious crocodiles. Whatever this creature was, Mo gathered that they had a significant effect on the pride as of late - enough to warrant them being 'foul, great and terrible' and dissuade anyone from discussing them all at once. The most she'd managed to get out of the (admittedly few) sources she'd spoken to thus far was a name; that of the lone, allegedly ghostly inselelo. Apparently, if you wanted to know about crocodiles, Kuhasa was the one to speak to.
Mo just wasn't sure why the lioness who'd said so laughed when she did. Hopefully, she wasn't wasting her time searching for this Kuhasa. Gods willing, he'd wouldn't be afraid to shed some light on this little mystery. Maybe then, she told herself sternly, she could put this all-consuming issue out of her mind and get on with ingratiating herself to the rest of the pride.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:12 am
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Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 6:04 am
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Whoever she was, she was friendly- and he returned the smile easily. He was surprised, though, when she asked his name-- and then said she had been searching for him. That pretty well narrowed down who she was, in general terms at least. A lioness from the pride, though not one he had personally met.
"I am," he answered, "What's your name? I have plenty of time."
Few lionesses went out of their way just for small talk and while his success in making assumptions was pretty good but his success with small talk was lacking. His approach, therefore, was to remain neutral until he knew what he was dealing with. If she didn't yell at him, it would be better than many of his recent encounters.
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Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 4:45 am
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"I'm Mokosh." Her smile widened at the sight of his. She didn't know what she expected him to be - lofty, maybe? Or smug. She might be, given the run of this many lionesses. All the better that he appeared to be perfectly friendly. "I haven't been a part of the pride for long, so I don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting. I was told that you could help me with a bit of a problem I've been having, however.
"See, I was welcomed into your pride by a lovely guide, who introduced me to a number of your ideas and concepts. She even set me on the path to learning your language - there were a great many words, at first, that went completely over my head." Mo's smile twitched into a smirk, suddenly self-conscious over admitting such a fault to anyone, much less a male of authority. He wasn't exactly hard on the eyes either. She was practical enough to admit that could be a factor, too. "One word she didn't want to explain, though, was 'crocodile'. I know that it's probably some sort of creature? And I know that they have some history with the pride. But other than that..." Mo shrugged, her smile wavering. Even though she was pretty sure a crocodile wasn't some sort of pridal insult, she was still a little sheepish about the word. It was the whole not-knowing thing, really.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 4:38 am
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Kuhasa nodded, withholding a 'nice to meet you' that was on the tip of his tongue. He was never sure how friendly was too friendly for some around here and it was becoming a strange habit to hold back just a bit. He'd have fun working on that when he eventually left.
He listened as she went on to explain the conundrum she had been faced with, and looked genuinely surprised when she came around to asking about crocodiles. Instinctively, he lifted his injured foreleg slightly as if considering showing off the wound but he put it back down.
"I suppose I am the pride expert on crocodiles," he said, smiling, "You must not have lived near any large rivers, I'm surprised you've never seen one before."
Of course, they were pretty good at hiding, too.
"They are a creature. Great scaly bastards with far too many teeth," he said, clearly embellishing the truth a tad, "When I first arrived, we were in the midst of a drought and the crocodiles had claimed most of the remaining water. I don't know what incidences there were before my arrival, but I do know one particularly stubborn crocodile easily stopped several lions from taking over it's waterhole."
Again, Kuhasa lifted his leg.
((I'm so sorry I dropped the ball on this! @@))
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Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 12:17 am
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Large rivers? Mo spent a moment or two blinking blankly at Kuhasa before she responded. "No, I can't say I did." Though she had to think about it for a moment. The mountain lake she had once called home was certainly fed from somewhere, but come to think of it, she had never thought to ask. One of the scouts mentioned something about underground caverns, once - maybe that had been the source.
Of course, it didn't matter much now. Whatever the source had been, it had dried up. Along with the lake. Along with everything.
"Sounds like I would be glad to avoid them, though." The lioness' eyes had widened at his description, completely baffled that the inselelo could be so nonchalant about such a thing. Huge creatures with scales, bristling with teeth! Sounded more like the stories nannies told disobedient cubs than a real beast. "How in the world did you all fight them off?" Especially if just one could hold off several full-grown lions! She couldn't imagine how the pride had triumphed over many.
The way the male favored his leg when crocodiles came up was not something that escaped Mokosh's notice. By the time he had done so for a second time, she couldn't resist saying something about it. "I'm going to go out on a limb-" Ouch! Terrible phrasing, Mo scolded herself with a grimace- "and assume it didn't go easily. Were you injured?" She at least had the grace to ask gently, nodding meaningfully at his paw.
Ecavi Apparently I am no better. gonk Terribly sorry!
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Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 4:58 am
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 5:57 pm
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His answer was so simple that Mo wanted to laugh. Which was odd, because it almost immediately made her think of the alternative - and that made her want to do anything but. Trapped in the water with some fanged, scaly beast; not only a match for her on all four paws, but fighting on its own turf...! She choked down the urge to shudder. Yes, staying on land probably was highly advisable! "From the sound of them, I can hardly believe those creatures can be negotiated with. Carried away or not, I'm glad you're here to tell the story."
The lioness looked over his injury with a critical eye, although she had tact enough not to bring it up again. It certainly looked like it had healed well enough at a glance. She had heard enough about the pride to know that herbal medicine was not unknown to them. Perhaps one of those herbalists - their title escaped her at the moment - had ministered to Kuhasa's recovery.
After a moment to compose herself, Mokosh matched his smile with one of her own, however shy and a touch lopsided it may have been. "Thank you, Kuhasa. You've filled an important gap in my knowledge, I think. Should I ever meet a crocodile, I'll now know to treat them with the proper respect." She'd also know to be careful when bringing them up to others in the pride. Should her other new sisters share Mazuri's outlook, they might not be so keen to recall the time crocodiles overran their water supply. Especially in light of worse casualties - imagine, a lioness without a tail!
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 8:39 pm
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Kuhasa maintained a sheepish smile while she gave him another critical once-over following his story. If he were truly lame, he probably wouldn't still be here.. but that didn't mean he was looking forward to when he did have to go. Good thing he had plenty of practice with ambush hunting, his stamina in a long chase wasn't going to get very good again.
"If you see a big green one with a blue stripe over his eye, that's Zahif," he added, "He's a friend of mine, and as long as he's around we don't have much to worry about from the crocodiles."
They had a simple enough hierarchy, and Zahif would let Kuhasa know if any larger males moved in nearby. And aside from that, since the drought had ended, it had been nice and quiet around the water. Hopefully it would stay that way for a good while yet.
Anderleit ((Good place to end, I think!))
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