[PRP] Quite the Opposite (Machafuko and Mchawi) FINISHED

[Kimaria]

She walked alone but that was not unusual for Mchawi.

Her raven, Nondo, had made himself scarce, most likely sleeping in a nook above Mchawi’s temporary accommodation. She’d already swiped at him once that day and he wasn’t going to risk another slap by sticking his beak where it wasn’t wanted.

So, there she was, irritated and fidgety and certainly not in the best of moods right now.

No one could really explain why she fell into these awkward moods, but they passed as mysteriously as they came. Even still, when she was feeling like this even Msiba couldn’t cheer her up. And if he couldn’t, then no one could and it was as simple as that.

Maybe it was the heat.

Or the stupid pride cats.

Or the hunger pains from the lack of a successful hunt that day.

Or perhaps it was the vultures constantly swarming above her head.

It was probably all these things and more.

Not even her recent vision could cheer her up. In fact it only frustrated her. The visions teased her, showed her only part of the story. It had always been that way. A section of the story revealed and the rest of it filled in by guesswork on her part.

Either way, right now she knew of only one thing that could help: terrorising some of the stupid, scared little pride cats. The cats who called her witch, the cats who thought she could curse them if they even so much as looked at her the wrong way. Oh, Mchawi wished that were the truth! She wished she could curse the lot of them in the way that she had been. But she couldn’t.

At least, whilst she was here, she could pretend that she had such powers.

It was amusing if nothing else.  

[Light Atago]

"Shut uuup!" Machafuko moaned at Mtalia. "You're annoying the crap outta me!" The skinny lion, who had been hanging out in the shade of a nearby tree shot a glare meant to kill up at the mocking lammergeier.

"Mach, c'mon, I mean you're being ridiculous. You know I can scavenge, but I can't bring you back an entire-" her eyes bulged at this word, as well as her head thrusting forward- "zebra leg! You've gotta go get it, I can only tell you where things are, and even that is limited." She shot a quick glare at the sky.

"But it's so hot..." the lion panted, not even bothering to get to his feet. No, not even a flick of his tail. "And I'm too hungry to be able to hunt anyway, I need my rest." He stated matter of factly, eyes closed as he said it. The lion rolled over onto his back and stretched out, belly up.

Meanwhile, Mtalia spotted her lion's sister nearby. Should she tell him? Or let her find him as he was... She undoubtedly heard all of the moaning from both of their sides. Mtalia's voice was pretty shrill, after all. She decided she'd get more complaints if she didn't tell him. "Mchawi's over there." she said simply, keeping her eyes on the female to indicate her direction. Machafuko opened only one eye to see where the bird was indicating, and then to aim it at his sister.

"MCHAWI!" He yelled, rolling over. Did he need to get up? Not yet... only if she ignored him or pretended not to hear.  

[Kimaria]

Mchawi had indeed heard the whining and despite herself the beginnings of an amused smile curved the edges of her mouth.

She was very different from both of her brothers and whilst she saw eye to eye with Msiba, she certainly didn't with Machafuko. They'd all been given their natural talents at birth. Msiba his charm, Mchawi her seer powers and Machafuko his ability to whine. Actually now that she thought about it, maybe the two brothers were more alike than she had expected.

Most lions wouldn't have been able to get away with laziness. They'd be shown what was what. But not Machafuko. Maybe, though he probably didn't realise, he had a little charm about him too.

Or maybe, she thought with a groan, he was just a lost cause and no one bothered to try and persuade him otherwise.

Her ear twitched in his direction as he called out to her and she wondered briefly whether she should carry on or stop and humour him for a while.

Since she had nothing better to do, humouring him sounded much more amusing and hell, she could do with some cheering up. It was a risk, though, her brother might just end up annoying her either more.

"You really don't need to shout, Machafuko. I'm not deaf." And she turned her head slowly towards him, pausing a few strides away. "What's wrong?" She snorted.  

[Light Atago]

Machafuko was more than glad that his sister had heard his overly-loud yell. That meant he wouldn't have to get up. His avian compainion had winced at his call (yes, it was indeed far too loud for someone right next to him,) and rolled in the shade to move himself over. Only one roll, two would waste energy, and who needed to get up for that anyway? It was a rare gesture, any lion would notice that for anyone else, he wouldn't budge, but for a sibling, he'd roll over and give some shade. "Oh, nothing's wrong. Just saw ya walking by..." Mind you, if Mchawi had been the one calling from the shade to Machafuko... Whining would ensue. He never placed himself in anyone's shoes but his own. Perhaps he was oblivious to his own slothfulness, in that way.

Mchawi always seemed a bit busy, and Mach knew with what, though it wasn't as nice to work on that when there was snoozing in the shade to be done. In Mach's eyes, he knew how to liiiiiive! "So whatcha up to?" He asked, closing the one eye he'd opened since he knew where his sister was.  

[Kimaria]

With a grateful snort, the witch of the interlopers moved slowly over to dwell in the shade with her brother. There were a lot of fools she wouldn't put up with, but Mach wasn't just any fool. He was her fool of a brother and family was family no matter what.

With a groan, she slumped beside him and glanced out across the land; wavering with the heat.

"At this moment of time, I'm sitting with my idiot brother in the shade." She replied cooly. "What I was going to do was none of your concern. It wouldn't interest you anyway Machafuko. It'd take far too much effort." Her words sounded cold but she didn't mean them to insult.

It was her way. The gentle insults were her way of showing affection towards her younger sibling. Perhaps to onlookers it would appear that the two didn't get on but in truth she did hold affection for him.

She could insult and shout at her brother as much as she wanted, but if someone else tried to, she'd be at their throats in an instant.

"For once, I'd say you've got the right idea. This heat makes doing anything an incredible challenge." Her tail flicked with irritation. "I can barely even think straight."  

[Light Atago]

"Ah yes, sitting here with your dearest idio-- WAIT A MINUTE!" He said with mock insult, once again only bothering to open one eye. He knew his sister was only joking, he knew her pretty well. Overhead in the tree Mach could hear Mtalia chuckling at Mchawi's words. "Oh shut up, Mtali," he sneered at the bird.

"Hmph." He grunted at the mention of effort. He'd sure enjoy helping her out with things if only they weren't so hard. "Can't you do the things you were going to do a bit... easier? That way you can relax more. I'll bet" he was getting set up for a small rant, "that I'll live longer than you, and here's why- I sleep more. I'll bet that sleeping is better for the body than being awake." He said as if it was perfect, undeniable logic. "I mean, think about it. If everyone slept more, we'd all have an easier time of things." The male didn't really have that great of a grasp on how much effort it takes to keep a rogue alive, let alone a pride. He had a few rare, fleeting moments of purposefulness, his siblings knew better than anyone else, but in general Machafuko only liked to simply exist.

He was happy when she was enjoying herself. For Mach, whenever he laid down for a nap or munched on some meat from the pride's most recent kill he could let all of the thoughts about what needed to happen go away. An out-of-sight, out-of-mind kind of occurrence. He could easily forget anything he wanted, which probably greatly contributed to his laziness.

"Oh, don't even get me started on this heat!" he said, almost as a warning, but it was too late. "I can't even see straight, seriously! The ground over there, it's all wavy-like. Sometimes in this heat I get stomach aches too, oh, those are the worst! It makes me need to lie down just to get them to pretend like they're going away. It makes me less hungry like that, which is bad because I LOVE food. I wish I had a bone right now... Something to chew on. With a few bits of flesh left on it..." He held his front paws up as if he was receiving said bone from the gods. "MMMmmmm! Wouldn't that be nice, sister?"  

[Kimaria]

She smiled at his reaction to her teasing and stayed silent as he entered into his ranting. Who was she to stop her poor little brother from justifying his way of life? May as well let him explain so that she could get a good insight onto why he was a lazy, good-for-nothing male.

His reasons, however, were pathetic at best and she arched a brow as if expecting more. There wasn't any and she had to force herself to keep a stern expression though on the inside she was greatly amused. "Oh, Mach, really. What way is that to talk? What is the point of living when you do nothing but eat and sleep all day long? You're lucky you have us here to look out for you. If you were all alone you'd have no choice but to work. It's that or die."

She rolled her eyes. "And my plots and schemes are never easy. They're always too complicated, sometimes more complicated than I would wish them. You could help but it would require effort and I'd feel awful if helping me interrupted your sleep-eat routine."

And then his second rant of the day. Apparently she shouldn't have mentioned the heat. It seemed to be a subject of irritation and bitterness to him in far greater quantities than it was to her own.

She was therefore surprised when the subject of heat lurked into the subject of food and inwardly her stomach grumbled. She frowned and reached out a paw with the intent of giving him a gentle slap across the nose.

"If you're that hungry, go look for something." Her whiskers flinched. "You're not the only one whose going hungry. We're all in the same situation, Machafuko."  

[Light Atago]

Mach let out a heavy sigh. "I like my routine, thank you very much, it suits me. And besides, it makes me happy, don't most try to be happy as much as they can?" Once again, the the slow lion, it made perfect sense. "Yes- point of living if all I do is eat and sleep: Being happy. I mean, c'mon, what's better than sleeping and eating?" He felt he had a good point there, there wasn't much that felt near as good as a juicy flank or passing the time away behind your eyelids.

"And I, for one, am glad that my sister doesn't want to disturb my delicate balance," he said gleefully. At least someone cared enough for him... "I'd hug you sister, but it's WAY too hot. Here, have an invisible one," he remained on his back and hugged the air as if his sister was there.

When he got a whap on the muzzle, he actually opened both eyes and turned towards his sister, the most exertion he'd put forth since he rolled over to give his sister some shade. "Oooooh, Mchawi, do I have to??" He asked in that high-pitched whiny voice that was more annoying than claws on rocks. "It's so hot, I'll get a stomach ache and I won't even be hungry anymore! Besides, I'm so noisy when I hunt that I can't catch anything, I'll just chase more prey away, and those stupid vultures that are around, they'll swoop down at me!" He moaned. Mtalia decided it was time for a little intervention, she swooped down and perched on one of his paws, digging claws into it in a hope of getting some action.

"Your sister's absolutely correc-" at this point, Mach was swinging his paw every which way to get the scraggly bird off. "What do you know, Mtalia!?" Mach didn't really like her, she was always trying to "motivate" him to do something other than what he liked to do. Mtalia landed on the ground and ruffled her messy feathers, disgruntled. She muttered to herself before taking a few steps away from the lion in the case that he decided to roll over.

"Anyway, and there's bugs! Bugs because of the heat, stupid bees that can sting through your fur! Why would I want to go hunt? I could go back to the other lions and get one of the lionesses to hunt, maybe..." he pondered. He was, in all honesty, quite ridiculous.  

[Kimaria]

Once, Mchawi might have said that there were other things that could make you happy. Thinking about it, she couldn't come up with anything much more substantial. She'd turned away from love long ago and the thought of having a family brought her nothing but emptiness. The only things that tended to make her happy now-a-days was intimidating others, but she didn't think it worth mentioning.

"Maybe you have a point there." She admitted. "Being happy is important. If lazing around is your thing then go ahead and do it. Just don't come whining to me if everyone deserts you and that belly of yours goes empty."

And when he hugged the air she laughed aloud. She couldn't help it. Machafuko was a lazy, good-for-nothing, irritating, stubborn, childish, useless, poor excuse for a lion, but he had managed to do something that few ever had.

He'd brought laughter to his sister.

And then he started complaining again and she was almost tempted to put her paws over her ears and droan him out. Thankfully, his bonded came to intervene.

But even her words failed to encourage him and his ranting continued relentlessly.

"Good idea, Machafuko, brilliant." Sarcasm dripped from every word. "All you need to do is find yourself a girl who has no backbone and you'll be sorted for life."  

[Light Atago]

The male was quite satisfied when Mchawi admitted that he'd had a point. He rarely had a good strong point, it was one of those moments where the male allowed his ego to boost a little bit, and perhaps rightfully so. He was mighty proud of himself right then. Besides, he always thought of his sister as the smartest of their trio, if she deemed something he'd said as a good point, it undoubtedly was.

Machafuko gave a little smirk when his sister laughed. It was a clumsy smirk, and not at all charming like Msiba's smirks were, but it was a toothy, weird smirk nonetheless. Thick as he was, he knew making someone laugh was always a good thing. Almost as good as that bone he'd been imagining. Mmm, that would be sooo good.

He listened to his sister's sarcasm-laced words and pondered. While he knew she wasn't serious... "You know, Mchawi, that idea has merit." She was such a genius, he was glad that every now and then he could get some good ideas out of her. "Although... that would require me to get up, which I'm not doing right now." And that was that. "But if I could, like you said, I'd be set for life!" he himself laughed at that idea. Or, he could just hang around his siblings. That would always do too. "But then you've gotta deal with someone all. the. time! And it wouldn't be like you and Msiba, it'd be different. I mean, I know you guys, we've been together a long time," as if she didn't know that already. "But it'd be like..." he tried to draw some good comparison... it almost hurt. Something came to mind and he moved his head towards his sister, covered his mouth with his paw and whispered in her ear, "it'd be like living with Mtalia all the time," he said, pulling away again. "Wouldn't it?" His whisper voice hadn't been too quiet, and the Lammergeier next to him tilted her head side to side mouthing the words he'd just said with a rather ugly look on her face.  

[Kimaria]

Now she was thankful she had stayed to talk with him. Listening to his mindless banter was good fun. Surprisingly good fun, in fact. He was so unbelievable at times and now more than ever. He actually didn't seem to realise how infuriating he could be.

She was in the right mind to bop him again when he leaned in close. "Of course my idea has merit. Every idea of mine is worth heeding. You'd do well to remember that, brother of mine." She thwapped him with her tail and leaned towards him to listen to his whisper.

Mtalia?

She cleared her throat and drew away. It took all her effort to keep a straight expression on her face, but she did...just about. "That's the problem with females, Machafuko, they're very set in their ways. We may have different pelts but we are all alike in some respect." She eyed the bird for a moment. "Come to think of it. I doubt you'll ever find a girl who'll put up with you. Even I'd feel sorry for her if you managed it." Was that a challenge? Quite possibly.

"Anyway, you had better rest up. You'll need your strength for what Msiba and I have planned. Since I'm here I might as well give you the news." She hovered on the words and glanced teasingly at her sibling.  

[Light Atago]

"You're absolutely correct, sister-of-mine. Your ideas have a tendency to be pure genius." Mach took in what his sister said about females- advice that he was sure would come in handy in the future. "It's worth a look around. Not to go out of my way to find a female like that, but worth a look around as I go. I'm sure there's someone out there for me..." he said in a mock-dreamy tone, as if he was a female from a fairy tale dreaming of her prince charming.

"I couldn't agree more. Rest is always needed when it comes to preparing for the antics that Msiba and you have planned..." It took a moment for it to click that there was something new being planned, but when it did, he perked up and rolled himself onto his side to face his sister. THIS would be worth listening to, he was sure! She always came up with the most interesting stuff, from her skills he supposed. "Oooo news!" He said in a whisper, though a very excited one. Mtalia seemed to pick up on this change, but flapped higher into the tree, below the vulture-ceiling, but in the tree. She knew if she didn't she'd get whapped at by Macha anyway.

This had to be of utmost secrecy, as was all news that his sister gave him. He understood the importance of "news," and it also typically implied that he'd be involved in some way or another. Which, oddly enough, made him excited. Get up and hunt, not exciting. Help your siblings, definitely exciting, the only thing he'd get up for. If nothing else, their family's story was most interesting.

"Tell tell!" He asked in a cub-like fashion, eyes glimmering happily. He knew how Mchawi liked to tell her tales, slowly and agonizingly suspenseful, but he could always hope that it'd be faster this time.  

[Kimaria]

She grinned and tried to imagine what sort of girl might put up with her brother. Certainly not a stubborn creature. She'd have to be the innocent, easily-led type. Someone who was motherly and wouldn't mind taking care of her mate alone with any cubs they might have in the future. If there was such a female she'd have her work cut out for her if she ever paired up with Mach.

This was just as much fun as teasing Msiba with knowledge! It seemed she had found something that made her happy. Knowing things that others didn't and then taunting them with that knowledge.

She turned her head to glance towards the direction of the pride. "Since you asked so nicely..." She trailed, eyes sparkling. "I had a vision of the One." The 'One' had been the nickname that Msiba and she had adopted for the subject of their desire, the very reason they were here. "As we thought, it's a member of this pride. You'll laugh when I tell you who it is." She paused for a long moment before continuing. "It's the heir to the throne, ironically." She gave a twisted smile. "This does make things slightly more tricky than we had first hoped but it won't put us off. We're too close to back down now and then everything would have gone to waste." She lowered her voice. "We're going to kidnap it as soon as possible. Msiba thinks that as soon as we take it, we should get moving. So be prepared for a hasty retreat. We wouldn't want to leave you behind." The last was said with a teasing note, but actually she was deadly serious.

She would never leave Machafuko behind.  

[Light Atago]

Machafuko's eyes glanced over at the Pride when his sisters' did, just in case someone was coming, Mach would like to know too. Nobody, coast was clear, and he turned his attention back on Mchawi just as soon as she turned back to him. His ears couldn't be pointed more forward than they were right then. Machafuko knew that this "One" as they called it was important to the plan, he knew it would be like Unyevu, but then, he didn't really know that much about Unyevu. He doubted he would understand what the One was capable of, but he was sure that his sister had some idea.

"It's good to know we're in the right place, then," Machafuko interjected before she told him who it was.

"The heir to the throne!?" He kept his voice down, understanding the importance of secrecy, but he included his tone of shock in the whisper. "Grabbing it and getting out seems like a good idea," Mach said quietly and thoughtfully. He knew that this meant he'd have to keep a close eye on this One, and he knew he'd also need to keep in close contact with both siblings so he knew when to make the move. He glanced up at his avian counterpart before returning his gaze to his sister.

"Right, a quick escape." The last thing he wanted was to be left behind. That was THE last thing. "It sounds like a good plan. So tell me, what's the One look like?" He asked. He was sure he could get someone in the pride to point the heir to the throne out, but even as dumb as he was, he knew that that would only bring attention to it. He should like, though, to know what he (Or she, as it might be) looks like.  

[Kimaria]

She nodded grimly. It was a difficult situation. A very difficult situation. She just hoped all would go well otherwise they could be in a very difficult situation.

However, at her brother's question, Mchawi hesitated. She remembered her vision well, but as usual it had involved a lot of guesswork. One of the guesses had been which cub it was. She wasn't even one hundred percent sure that the heir was the one they wanted and she wriggled uncomfortably. Damn her inability to control her visions! Damn it all.

"It's a boy, that's all I know." She admitted reluctantly. There was no point lying just in case. "His name is Ufunuo. We're going to be posting someone to watch out for him, learn his haunts. I was going to offer myself, but I'd probably just scare the little pipsqueak." She curled her lip. "I must say I won't be sorry to leave this place behind."

She shook her head and glanced across the heated lands. "Our avian companions may come in handy too. They can't fly high but their small and inconspicious."