SRP between Taj, Tahka, and Ta


Returning home was hard. It wasn't a matter of pride or confidence even, not at this point, no. Taj had just been away for so long a disconnect had started to build around him that he could not explain, maybe it inevitable though, maybe this was how things just needed to be, for him at least. This place, though it did house all his memories and his entire family, it didn't feel like his anymore. The red-eyed lion had spent time away from his homelands and in return had found peace outside of these metaphorical walls. Something had to change. Maybe meeting Bel had awoken something inside of himself he had never been aware of until now, something that longed for freedom, freedom from his father, from a life he was ready to let go. Slowly his paws brought him back home, back to the emptiness that once craved him so sweetly.

His eyes would narrow as a familiar shape moved into view. "Ta?" His words were a bit raspy. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? I could ask you that same question! You've been gone for months, what on earth were you thinking?" His sister spat as she snarled at him, frustrated by his lack of emotional response. It was like he hardly cared to see her at all. What was going on here? "You worried me so much. I hate you for that. You are my blood and you left me, you left me alone and now look at this, look at our family!"

"What are you talking about?" As his sister cried at him Taj stepped back, frowning at her. Yes, he had been gone for some time but... surely nothing that awful could have happened in such a short time?

"Our Queen is dead. Our Prince is gone, our family has been ripped apart."

"...What?" His eyes pinned as the lion searched his sisters face for the truth. Ta had never been a very truthful lioness but she would never have joked about something so closely related to the family, not like this. His stomach turned as he found himself pacing. "Where is mother?" He quickly asked with a deep cry.

"She is well-" another familiar voice called out as Tahka stepped out from behind Ta, standing tall and firm.

"Your mother and siblings are all still alive, though they are not without new battle scars." His tone was incredibly cold, it was like ice as Taj found himself struggling to look up, facing his father was so hard, Taj knew he had really messed things up by being gone for as long as he was.

"We all assumed you were dead." Tahka finished with a snarl. Ta slowly moved to stand back as he father took over the conversation.

"I see now that you are alive and well, fat from relaxing in the Pridelands." The older lion was fuming.

"Father, it's not that simple, I was helping Bel find-"

"Bel?" Tahka snarled loudly as he quickly interrupted his son's sentence.

"A female."

"No, not just a female. A friend." Taj quickly defended his relationship with the younger lioness.

"You left us for an outsider." His father made sure to let Taj know the true extent of his sins.

"No, stop, that's not what I meant-" Defending himself felt so raw as his father took another step forward, speaking over his son once again."

"You've let me down for the last time." As Tahka moved to stand in front of youngest son he frowned, speaking between his own emotional outbursts. "You are no longer welcome back to this family."

"Wh-hat?" Ta quickly rushed to her rather's side as she looked him over quickly flicking her tail in anger. "Please, father, don't say this, he didn't meant it, you can-"

"I can and I will, I am still the head of this family." The older lion used a paw to push his daughter back as his eyes moved back to Taj, who was now glaring at his father with burning red eyes.

"Don't you dare blame me for your lack of care. You want so badly to be away from this family? Fine, you are no longer apart of it. You are dead to me."

"You can't do that-" before Taj was able to finish his thought his father lifted a paw to slap him, pushing Taj back as the lion winched in pain. Blood trickled down his cheek as his eyes shifted from his father and back to his sister, who was now in tears over this whole conversation. When her father slapped Taj she cried even deeper, trying to move to her brother's side.

She was stopped by her father, who snarled as he glanced drown at Ta.

"Think very carefully, child. If you take his side on this I will abandon you, and you two can suffer together as exiles."

Ta could hardly believe what her father was saying, but she stopped dead in her tracks, she knew without her family she would be as good a dead, she needed them. Slowly the lioness moved back as her eyes found her brothers.

"I can't Taj, I can't do this." Tears were steaming down her cheeks as she turned to leave the two males, heading back to her den. She knew that this was the last time she would see her brothers face. This crushed her.

"Look what you did now, boy." Tahka's frown only seemed to grow deeper as he spoke. "You always hurt us, don't you?"

"That isn't true." the red-eyed lion cried out as he found his footing once more. "You're the reason I left in the first place!" Tahka stayed silent as Taj exploded, crying out as he flashed his fangs at his father. "You've never loved me, not for a single moment. I flew to close to your desires and was born out of your sins." Taj was referring to the fact that he looked a lot like Sarafina, who was his aunt and his father's once lover. "I have always been your cargo and never your true son."

"That isn't true." Tahka yelled as Taj continued on.

"But it is, isn't it? Why couldn't you love me? It's all I needed, now look at me? I'm a hollow husk of something that could have been and you wonder why I leave so often? You want to know the truth?" The lion found himself laughing against his own cries.

"I've always known, father, I knew then what I know now. I know you have no love for me. I know I am not your prized Kadaj, but I have spent my entire life trying to win your favor, your affections and I am done. Disown me, refute me, you do what you need to, to live on, just know that your son loved you, despite you." Taj could hardly see now that his tears had turned bitter, this was not what he expected to return to, but it felt like this was always meant to happen.

At first Tahka was taken back by his sons words, finding very little room to interject, but slowly his anger got the better of him, slowly his rage reared it's ugly head. It was misplaced, and in the end he would regret the words he spoke next. "You've always been and will always be a disappointment. You are dead to me, you will never be welcomed back into this family. Go, leave this place, never return."

His father was so thick headed and couldn't see where his son was coming from, but in the end it didn't matter, did it? This outcome was always lingering in the back of his mind and today the truth was finally set free, a truth Taj had always been aware of. He couldn't stand here and fight his father any longer, Tahka was right, this was no longer his home.

"You will die alone and afraid father, and in the end you will have nothing. We have all tried to love you, mother tired to for years and look at you, banishing your own son because you refuse to see past yourself and your own anger-" the younger lion paused for a moment as his eyes met his father's.

"Tell my mother I love her-" with that said Taj turned his back to his father as he left the place he was born, the pride he once called home and his entire family.

This was it, this was his goodbye.

As Taj turned his back on his family for the last time his sister called out, speaking words he would never be able to hear. She stood in silence as her father passed her, crying alone. She had just lost the only family member that really understood her, what was she going to do now? Nothing would ever be the same.
WC: 1,488