She was growing up. While this didn't really frighten Heltyr, it did mean she needed to find her place within the pride, and find it soon. But it was so hard to decide what she was going to do! Sure, she could become a pleasure-seeker, which would allow her to flirt to her heart's content (and more!), but somehow that sounded boring, and dull, and just... not sport enough. She didn't particularly want to go out and search the roguelands for other demons, and she definitely didn't want to do something soft like teach and mind cubs... but what was there that she could do? Wher ecould she spend her talents? Where could she get the chance to croon and flirt, but draw pain as well as pleasure? She was missing something, she just knew it.
From a cave nearby the small one, she could hear the scream of something small. A prey beast? Perhaps. As the young one got closer, she would see a flash of bright pink, as a lioness turned on her paw, laughing happily. The laugh was far from cheery, however. There was something sinister, smooth, about the way this femme laughed...it made her seem very....VERY odd. Her claws were long, and sharpened to fine points, and they were barely visible over the blood that stained the white. A small hare was beneath her paws, since no lion had come the Ra'alme's way for quite some time, and it screamed as she carved intricate patterns into fur and flesh, carefully exacting the methods she'd been taught as a cub, to create the most pain possible. The screams sent a shiver down her spine, and Kuchanganyikiwa laughed again, "Yes. Scream little beast. You'll be screaming until you can no longer. You won't have a voice by the time I'm done with you~"
What was that? Heltyr's ears twitched in the direction of the noise, and the young adolescent padded that way, drawn in by the siren song of screaming. That was the sound of complete terror and agony - it was a beautiful sound, one that Heltyr had heard distressingly few times in her life, and it sent a shiver of pure delight singing through her body. What was the source of that scream? And more importantly, how would she get to hear more of it?
When the sound of small paws met the pink and black femme's ears, she paused in her torture of the hair, pinning its neck between her claws. Those bright blues turned to the little one, and her tail flicked back and forth, slightly irritably, "....I was busy. Can I help you?" The femme had yet to have cubs of her own, let alone take on any apprentices...and so, as she stared at little Heltyr, the rabbit wriggling beneath her claws and letting out high pitched squeals of terror.
Heltyr's mint-green eyes locked onto the blue gaze of the older lioness for a moment, before her attention was drawn to the hare instead, and she smiled at it. "How are you making it scream like that?" She asked, regarding the small beast as one would a curious toy rather than a living, breathing creature. Living or dead, it was a toy, after all. "It's beautiful...” More beautiful than anything she had seen before, more… elegant, somehow.
Her ear flicked slightly, and a slow smile curled her maw. It hadn't been long ago, when Kiwa herself had been taken in by Tiis and Amashen. "Have you never seen pain, little one? It is really a beautiful thing~" Her claws pressed into its neck slightly, and it screeched louder. "I've been trained how to keep this thing alive for days, while it bleeds and screams~. Do you want to learn, DEAR little cub~? Perhaps I could show you~" Stepping slightly to the side, she showed the cub the bleeding hare, who had elegant designs scarred into its flesh.
"Not so elegantly inflicted," Heltyr said honestly, peering at the hare in admiration of the older lioness' talents. There was little that she had seen in her short life which held as much beauty as this - the blood and the wounds were, to her eyes, more appealing than anything she had seen before. "This is an art... can such a thing truly be taught?"
Kiwa giggled in delight, smirking wickedly at little Heltyr. Pinning the hare with a few sharp, thin rock spikes to its arms, the femme trotted towards the little one, circling her in a very elegant, slow movement, "My name is Kuchanganyikiwa.....I am a Ra'alme for our beloved pride." This was cooed into Heltyr's ear, her nose pressed closely to the cub's fur, "And if you would like to do what I do, dear cub, I could teach you to be a Ra'alme as well~. We learn the ways of pain....how to contorol a life....and inflict the most pain, with the least amount of fatality. You would enjoy it, believe me. It is quite the beautiful thing. You can have anything you like...get information that no one else could....and enjoy the screams of your victims...."
"A Ra'alme," Heltyr echoed, sounding the rank out on her tongue. It seemed to roll right off, sounding right in a way that nothing else had thus far when she was considering what direction to take her future. "It sounds... positively delightful," she said, smiling at the older lioness in a way that bore hope and a sort of sadistic joy. "Teach me everything.” And when she said everything, Heltyr meant everything – if she was going to learn this, she didn’t want to learn it halfway!
The femme's lips curved into a seductive, wicked smile, her tail flicking back and forth as she wrapped a paw around the little one's back, "I think...You will make a very good pupil, little one. I will teach you how to make every incision....bring about any kind of pain you can imagine, and how to keep your...toys alive~ And we'll begin today." This was the start of a beautiful day for 'Kiwa....An apprentice....one so eager to learn....this...this was what she'd wanted for such a long time...