Zamba hurried after the poor lioness that he had accidentally embarrassed thanks to his mothers interference. You'd think he would be used to such things from his mother by now - but no, Zamba always found himself surprised by the results of his mother meddling and he had no idea how in the world his father managed to put up with her. Stalking after the female Zamba tried his best to shake the ill temper his mother had left him with – it wouldn't be fair to meet the poor girl for the first time and take out his anger on her, it certainly wasn't her fault that her purple hide had garnered his mother's attention – although Zamba had to admit that she was quite attractive...and certainly capturing a mate with such coloring would make him look good on his path to being a member of the war council...a path he still wished to pursue.
But there he went thinking in the exact manner he had just berated his mother for – he didn't want to fall for a girl only because of her coat color..no he wanted something a bit deeper then that, something romantic and sweet....like the romances in the plays the player put on.
Phy was absolutely mortified..she had no idea why the two lions had been watching her but surely it had to have been something she had done, something she hadn't quite figured out yet but something that was none the less a faux pas in this particular pride. In any case she had decided that the best course of action was simply to put as much distance between herself and the other two lions as quickly as she could...and so as soon as she turned the corner she had picked up a trot and made a bee line for her den.
Taking a quick look behind her Phy was surprised to see the black ad purple hide of the male lion following her and letting out a quiet yelp she was sudden;y caught between the desire to run away even faster and the knowledge that doing so would almost certainly be considered rude now that she had noticed him. Phy couldn't be rude – it just wasn't right and so while every part of her body screamed at her to run away she reluctantly slowed her pace and turned about to face him – though she couldn’t quite bring herself to meet his gaze and found herself staring at his chest instead...and a very finely muscled chest it was she noticed, a thought which just make her ears warm in a blush. “D-did you need something sir?” she asked of the male meekly as he approached, perhaps he had come to berate her for whichever rule she had broken..or to make fun of her. Phy had dealt with such things before in the rogue lands and so she supposed she could handle them here as well...though she had left behind the rogue lands in the vain hope of leaving such horrible experiences behind as well.
Zamba was surprised when the lioness turned her head and noticed him following her, he was even more surprised when she didn't run off to hide away somewhere but stopped to see what he wanted – she looked shy and wouldn't really meet his eyes but that fact that she had stopped at all spoke volumes of her personality. “No, my Lady, I hope I didn't distress you – I merely wished to speak with you” He apologized, rather sure that she was worried about his reasoning for following her. “Can I walk you back to your home?” He offered after a few moments pause – that would give him enough time to speak with her and apologize as well as give them a reason to keep moving so that they weren't standing here in the middle of the path drawing attention to themselves – and in this Pride he was quite sure that someone, somewhere was watching. The nobles were always watching.
Phy was somewhat confused – he had neither laughed at her or seemed angry – in fact he seemed incredibly polite and gentlemanly and while Phy wasn't sure if it was a good idea to let him walk her to her den (what if he was some sort of creeper who would steal into it in the night?) she finally came to the conclusion that such thoughts were rather silly now that she lived in a Pride. If anyone wanted to know where she lived they had only to ask around – there were only so many dens in the Pride lands after all.
“I sup..I mean, thank-you that would be very kind” She finally answered and then when he didn't make a move to lead she realized that he didn't know which way to go and so shifted her paws a few times and finally took the lead herself while he fell into step beside her “It's just this way” She told him in an effort to break the awkward silence they had fallen into. “You said you wanted to talk with me?” She questioned, with a brief sideways glance towards him.
Zamba waited patiently while the lioness decided to show him the proper direction before falling into step beside her, they had only gone a few more paces when she spoke again. She had a lovely voice he noticed – soft spoken and melodic, almost musical really, “Right, yes” He started with an apologetic grin in her direction “I wanted to apologize for upsetting you back at the watering hole...my mother wanted me...well she was just telling me you were new to the Pride” He finished up lamely because it really didn't seem polite to tell her that his mother had been trying to get him to go date her.
“Oh” Phy remarked quietly – well that wasn't nearly as bad as she had been imagining the purple Lioness thought to herself “Yes...I've only been here for a short time” She confirmed with a slight nod of her head. “I'm Porphyra” She introduced herself quietly.
“Zambaru Kivuli” Zamba responded “But most call me Zamba..it's pleasure to have met you Porphyra” He added sincerely – because despite his mothers meddling he honestly couldn't find anything unbecoming about the purple lioness – though the gods knew he wanted too.
“Phy” She answered with another soft smile “Everyone calls me Phy” She added before falling silent again and pausing before the opening of a smaller den “This is me” She added almost pointless and gestured towards the den as her place of residence.
“Phy” Zamba repeated with a smile, ducking his head lightly in a small bow “I'll leave you to enjoy the rest o your day then” he told her before turning and padding off a few steps with the intention of leaving. However his brain seemed to have another idea for he had barely gone a few paces when he was suddenly stopping and turning back to her. “Phy...would you like to join me for one of the upcoming plays?” He invited her...what in the world was he doing?!? He was playing right into his mothers paws!
Phy had already started to enter his den when Zamba's parting words reached her an startled she took a few moments to answer “I-i think I would like that” She told him before bolting into her den so that he wouldn't see the way his invitation made her inner ears turn pink.
Zamba couldn't help but be just a little bit vain about the way she had reacted to his invitation – even if he was doing exactly what his mother wanted him to do and smiling to himself he turned about and headed off to the theatre to see when the next plays were to be.
Wc - 1330
