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 Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 8:34 pm
Karana'Mzaana attempted to stay in the shade as much as possible near the slate stones that lay silent. So many had gone in search for water, so many had grown tired now in search for what lay beyond their paws. Looking to the paintings, the markings, Mzaa bit at her lip and then looked to where the images of her eldest son and golden daughter lay, their images were faded now, the sand trying to wash them away.
They would never be washed from her heart.
It pained her still, but she loved all her children dearly and thought in her heart, to lose another, might draw her last breath. She was trying to conserve water so the young could drink. She was old, that she knew, but she did not want the young to suffer when she could hold out a little, just a little longer.
"Oh my children," she spoke aloud, "I would run to the sun for you, even now, to make it rain, and to see all your faces together again."
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Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 3:19 pm
One of those children was Naar-ehuka, who - at current time - was not doing so well. Her paws were sore from the digging and travelling and she walked with a slow, pained gait that seemed like it would never go away.
On the way back to the lands from her pitiful attempt at finding Zii, she had almost decided to turn back the other way and disappear. To just leave and never return. Somehow she believed she might be more useful out there in the world, that she might find some purpose that she struggled to find here. But, tired and in pain, even Naar was not stupid enough to take the risk of truding out alone. The desert was a harsh place and it was likely that any venture made in her condition would end up in death.
And as depressed as she was feeling now, Naar certainly didn't want to die.
Her limping pace had taken her across the sand to the stones her mother often haunted and, by chance, she paused to look around for her, giving a low, calling chuff as she had once done as a cub; calling for her mother when she'd walked out of sight.
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 6:14 pm
Her ears twitched when she heard the low noise, and immediately her eyes drew to one side, her shoulders moving to push herself in that direction. She was sore, aching, tired, but the call would leave her tired boned and muscles to wait.
Her family was more important.
Her family's lives were more important.
Mzaa returned the call and saw Naar, and her eyes softened. She remembered when Nakama asked why she couldn't have been the shade of her sister, and Mzaa had to try and explain the sun had other plans for her pale pelted daughter.
As she drew closer Karana'Mzaana looked to Naar's paws and her face held worry, "what have you been doing? To dig so much, even now, it will not work, please," Mzaa said pushing lightly on Naar's shoulder, "sit with me, rest."
She knew something was wrong, something felt off, but Mzaa did not want to pry too much, but she was a mother after all.
"What bothers you, besides the sand?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 4:48 am
Her mother was here. Already Naar felt better for knowing that and she paused to turn her head in the expected direction, her grieving eyes softening at the sight of her.
When Naar-ehuka saw her mother, she did not see an aged lioness; tired and worn and aching. She saw, instead, comfort and love and safety. She felt small again, back to a time when she could curl hidden against her mother's side and block out all the horrible things in the world. Things like siblings leaving, constant failures, the feeling of uselessness. In her mother's presence, however, she was merely a daughter.
It felt good.
Without a word, she dipped her head and moved across to sit beside her mother, pausing to rest her chin across the top of her mother's shoulders. Her whiskers twitched as she sniffed back her sadness and then she pressed her head against her mother's side in an attempt to hide from the world. When she spoke, her voice was muffled.
"Digging. Searching. Nothing I do brings any good to the pride. Good lions...good lions might die soon." And what bothered her the most? "I...I am not a good lion, Mother." She pressed a little firmer against the older lioness. "I think...I think I shall leave and no one will even notice."
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 9:46 pm
Karana'Mzaana let herself get lost in the silent moments, looking at her daughter's eyes, feeling her close, feeling her presence atop her shoulder. Mzaa closed her silver eyes and sighed. Her ears twitched when she listened to Naar, and she opened her eyes slightly to look at her daughter's paws.
She touched them gently with her own, her toes acting softly, rubbing soothingly against Naar's to bring some comfort.
When Mzaa heard Naar's words, it broke her heart.
"None will pass if I can help it," Mzaa said. She looked out to the sands, grit her teeth, "We will find I way, we will, and what you are is everything to me," Mzaa said pullnig from Naar, pressing her nose to her daughter's.
"You are a good lion, and I won't loose you to this, I won't lose my fire."
Unknown to them, a small firey hearted avian was making her way to the Firekin lands. Kessek had been sent on a message from a different sanded land by a lioness who hailed from the fires of the desert originally.
"Go to the slates," she repeated aloud, the directions her friend had given her, "look for the one with red wings, and a pelt as orange as the setting sun's fire."
She saw stone slates, the first signal, and began to descend, her shadow casting down.
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 12:24 pm
She sniffled against her mother's fur; shaking her head softly from side to side. "I...I think that I should have been the one to leave. That I should have had the sandy pelt. I have...I have this fur. This orange fur. But...it's only skin deep. There's no fire in here." She tapped a paw to her chest.
"None at all."
The same paw reached up to scrub at her eyes, ridding them of the pitiful tears that had escaped. "I...I..." But no words came and she cast a sideways glance, a desperate and engulfing shame flooding through her. "I wish there was something I could do to--"
And then the bird.
It cast a shadow across her eyes and drew her attention up. She stared at it somewhat distantly, her tail waving slowly mid-air.
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 7:49 pm
Karana'Mzaana let her eyes grow a little stern, but not too much, and she drew an inward breath and breathed out with a little bit of harshness. "It was of the pride's means she had to leave us," she spoke softly, holding back the pain, "but you area hear to engulf the lands with your fire where hers cannot. Let your fire burn for her, if anything, my Naar."
She stopped, paused, and spoke again.
"No child of mine, near or far, will ever lose the fire within themselves," she looked to Naar's eyes, touched her chest with her own paw, and offered a smile, "you just need to find it within you."
Mzaa went to speak but stopped when she looked to Naar's eyes wander, and she too saw the dark shadow, the bird, and she tilted her head in question. She hadn't seen one that was colored in that way ever before in this area.
Kessek hovered above the two near the stone slates, and her eyes narrowed as she looked down.
There was an orange one, dark and burning like the setting sun.
And one had red wings.
A shrill escaped her beak in happiness as she swirled down. She fluttered a bit, hovering, testing the waters before settling too close to the two of them.
"Are you Mzaa and Naar?" she called in a soft, soothing voice, "forgive me, but my mind is tired, my friend told me your full names but my mind has grown tired as well as my wings."
She stopped, fluttered and came to settle on the sand, unable to keep herself afloat any longer, "Mwako'Nakama, I've a message from her to those two, you, if you are them."
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 12:53 pm
She wanted to believe her mother. She truly did. But if she had fire, she did not know it existed and she had no idea about how to find it. How did one find the flame and nurture it into an inferno? She yearned for it. But...whilst she could be quick to temper, it always seemed to fizzle out prematurely, her anger half-hearted, her resolve wavering.
But if her mother believed in her perhaps...perhaps she was worth saving after all.
Thankfully the bird saw fit to hover close and interrupt her miserable thoughts. And what was this? It was...talking? She was so surprised that it took her a moment to realise exactly what it had said. It was addressing them? How did it know their names?
Naar cast a confused glance across at her mother before turning her eyes back towards the avian. "Yes."
And then the name. The name that Naar loved and grieved. A name she had not dared to speak aloud. A name that conjured an image of a beautiful, fiery, sandy-pelted female in her mind's eye. She almost burst into tears on the spot, her whole body shaking with disbelief.
She couldn't speak.
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 3:44 pm
Karana'Mzaana stood and then sat in silence, close to Naar, her side touching her daughter's. How could the Firekin's pale sun have known to send word now? Better yet, Nakama, she was all right, she was alive.
She had made it.
"What message, do you carry stranger? What words? Can you answer questions as well?"
"I have many words from my friend, daresay my master. I am Kessek," the avian said with a dip of her head, "and I've flown from the pride called the Dawnwalkers, another settled in te sands, but not of warriors, but one devoted to a deep threaded culture. Nakama, she is there, with Gaddith," she said, smiling, "they are doing well."
Least, that was what Nakama told Kessek to say.
"She wanted to tell you where she now hailed from, and that I can relay message for you, the distance is a bit, but I can make it readily," she chirped. She looked to Naar, and Naar seemed to be on the brink of..shaking? "Is there something you wish to know? She speaks of you fondly, always, and when the sunsets, she says its you smiling to her, she says."
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:46 pm
Her heart was pounding in her chest but the words would not come easily and she was glad her mother was there to speak where she had no voice. Her eyes stared at the avian and she inhaled deeply, perhaps to see if some faint trace of Nakama's scent remained on those feathers. If it had once, it no longer did now. Perhaps the journey had swept all trace from her.
Still reeling, it took her a moment to catch up with Kessek's message, drawing in a shaky breath which almost released as a sob. They were alive and doing well. And, best of all, she had not forgotten them, just as they had not forgotten her. The desire to run across the desert to reach her was strangely overwhelming and Naar was on her paws, body tense, staring up in the direction the bird had come from.
If only she had wings she could spread and take off after her sister.
And then she asked the question she had always wanted answers and when she spoke, her voice was hoarse and choked with emotion. "Is she happy at this place?"
If she knew Nakama was happy...well...that was all she could ever ask for.
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:33 pm
"They're all right," Mzaa said softly, letting her claws tense and then relax. Her eyes shining, she bit her lip as her ears plastered against her head, "they're all right."
She couldn't believe it, was it too good to be true? They were alive, safe, and most of all, together.
They had not forgotten their home, or family, and were well.
The dry taste on Mzaa's tongue hoped that the drought had not spread as far as Nakama's new pride, she wasn't sure if she could take the heartache.
She had so many questions, but, looking to Naar who seemed to be rekindled strength, she stayed quiet for now.
Kessek preened her feather's some, removing bits, odds and ends. She wished she had brought something not, but it would have been too heavy to carry.
She blinked, looking to Naar, and smiled.
"Yes," she piped, with a nod of her head, "she is happy. But," she began, "she still misses her home. Although she is now of the dawn, she always tells me the fire in her will never fade, as will the love of her family forever be burning in her heart."
Kessek tilted her head, and offered a smile to Naar. "You appear to fret, too much, for the flame she spoke to me of, if it is not too bold to say of course. But, perhaps, your bond between one another lies more than in blood, but there," she pointed with a wing to Naar's shoulder.
"It appears like a wing, but also of the sun, where now your sister is, but not too far from home, yes?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:30 am
"We miss her." Naar trailed. "Wanted to find her, to see if she was okay..." to stay with her, she added silently, casting her mother a longing look. And maybe she would, someday, when there was no one here who would miss her.
"Our pride is not well at the moment." She seemed slightly chattier now that she knew her sister was well and happy. "No water. Worried that she might be suffering too. Knowing she isn't...it makes it easier. I can...be happy, too." She craned her head to look at the mark emblazoned on her shoulder and gave a soft sniff. "And she has Gaddith. She has family, too." It would have been a lot worse, perhaps, if she had been heading out into that world along.
Had that been the case, Naar wasn't sure whether she would have been able to stay behind.
"But...don't tell her about the pride. She might worry and...that would ruin her happiness." She leaned against her mother and drew her eyes across the land. "Maybe...maybe one day we will visit her and Gaddith in their new home."
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 8:44 pm
Mzaa leaned against Naar and held in the joyful tears that wished to escape her eyes, but she wouldn't let herself waste it, even if her tears were the only water she could muster in the pride.
"I am glad she is happy, and safe," and that she remembered. "That they are both happy," she missed her eldest son, his eyes and strong form, she remembered watching him walk away too.
It was hard loosing them both.
"I agree, we should not tell her, you are right," she said softly, looking to Naar. "Please," Mzaa said, "do not say a word."
"But, if there is something wrong," Kessek began, quirking her head, "perhaps she can find aid at home?" She ruffled her feathers and found it strange.
"Are you sure, the both of you? I can tell her, she herself I think, would run water here at first notice if she knew you were without."
Mzaa shook her head, "we do not know what the pride wishes to do. So no, not yet."
Kessek shivered, and flapped her wings. "I will not, but, I will visit again soon. She wishes for me to start relaying messages. But I alone cannot bring water myself. Perhaps a small plant, or fruit of some kind."
She was too small, but Nakama never was hard on her for that.
To Naar's statement, Kessek smiled, "I'm sure she would love to see you, both of you, perhaps, if she is allowed, she might be able to visit here to? But, I do not know everything, she keeps some things secret, especially about the father," Kessek said trailing off. "There is love, I can see, but not much info. But, I do not know everything about your culture I'm afraid, the dawn has me preoccupied learning."
She clicked her beak, and looked to the sun, "Is there anything else, you wish for me to tell her when I return?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 10:44 am
"Yes, yes, she shouldn't be told. Shouldn't. This is her past and she has her new life. We wouldn't want her to worry or be sad. We wait for rains. Only grey clouds can help now." And as awful as things were, Naar could not imagine that they would be felled by such a thing. There had been lions living here for generations and she could not imagine these lands void of life.
"We...do not know. No Huria has visited these lands after they have left." Naar glanced to her mother as if for confirmation on this. "It...might hurt...to come back to a place you were forced to leave...to know that you will have to leave all over again." She wasn't sure whether her heart would bear it. Perhaps it would be too hard for her siblings, too.
"Tell her...tell her that..." That she wished that they never had need to part, that she could have left in Nakama's stead. That she thought about her every day. That she yearned to leave this lands and be with her. That she was on her mind with each passing day. That she could remember the day that Nakama left, her fading desert-pelted form moving out into the distance...never to return.
She felt the emotion choke her and she jerked her head away. "I love her."
And really, that was all that needed to be said.
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Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 7:25 pm
Karana'Mzaana went to speak but let her daughter's words come first. She watched, letting her tail flick and eyes settle on her orange pelted daughter. Naar was so distant at times, ever since Nakama had left, but now, perhaps, knowing her sister was well, a fire would rekindle.
Her heart warmed when she heard Naar's message, and she smiled.
"Yes, tell her the same for me, and that someday, somehow, I do wish to see her shining eyes again."
Mzaa knew she would have to ask Kidondo about that matter, if it would be allowed.
"I understand, and do not fear, I will," Kessek said with a nod and a click of her beak. She flapped her wings, stretching them and tilted her neck a few times and sighed.
She looked to the sky, to where she had come and felt the temperature drop some.
"I will head back, with your messages in tow, I will return soon, I promise," Kessek knew also Nakama would not let Kessek come empty taloned next time. Nakama liked giving gifts.
"Whatever is happening hear, find out by my next arrival if you need her help, I will not say a word yet, but I want to be sure my friend's family is indeed safe."
She gave a smile and nod and took to the sky once more and flew back into teh desert sands, this time bound for the dawn instead of fire.
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