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The green lioness lay next to the water hole, meticulously cleaning her fur, as she thought. This pride, the Mwezi'Johari, seemed a rather peaceful sort. In the few hours since she'd been permitted in and guided to the water, she had seen relaxed adults, happy youths and carefree cubs. All the signs were there for a relatively peaceful and prosperous pride. A good place to settle.

And Eshkohl had been looking for such a place for most of her life. She might not be that old - she had seen lions here younger than herself ushering children around - but her life had been a relatively unpleasant one overall.

Despite the careful attention she was devoting to it, Eshkohl's fur remained lackluster and would not lie entirely flat in some places, particularly where it had grown over and around old scars. In other places, bare skin shone through, testament to other injuries. Beneath the lank fur, she was thin, with her ribs pronounced though not totally obvious yet. There was a hardness in her brown eyes that matched her ragged appearance. Yet despite all that, the Guards had permitted her to come and rest her. She wondered how they would react if she were to ask to stay longer...more permanently.

Eshkohl started. She must have been lost in thought, to miss the lion coming up to her. Then she had to stop and stare. Why...his fur was much like hers! The color differed, but that didn't change the fact that they both had pelts like the starry sky.

Aside from that, this lion looked to be even older than she was, and veteran of many battles. One eye was scarred over, and he wore metal tokens, likely rewards for valor. She was intrigued, given that most of the lions she'd seen in this place were hale and whole, unscarred and somewhat young.

"Ah...yes," she answered belatedly, realizing he'd spoken to her and she owed him an answer. "I was hoping I might...be able to stay."

The green lioness nodded. "Yes...this seems a good place to live, better than many I've seen in my travels." She had been almost everywhere, or so it seemed, and had discovered that there were many prides, some better and some worse. Prides that valued martial strength. Prides that venerated the gods. Prides that prized certain customs. Prides that rejected certain pelt colors.

There were those that had appeared to be as peaceful and content as the Mwezi'Johari. But even so they still had problems of other sorts, or Eshkohl had simply not liked them enough.

"Calmed? I suppose. But I've learned better than to let my emotions get the better of me," she explained.

Ah, so he hadn't been born here either? That did explain a lot...though she wondered if his scars and adornments had been acquired before or after he'd made this pride his home. Eshkohl smiled and nodded her agreement.

"Yes, I'd say so," she answered his first two questions with one statement before moving onto the third, and perhaps most immediately relevant. "My name is Eshkohl...and who are you, to know at least one King of this pride so well?" She was curious, since in many prides, though clearly not this one, those of outside birth were kept away from the ruling class so that their past might not taint those of value. But it sounded like this lion had known the King on a fairly personal level. Suprising, but welcome news. If he could find such acceptance here, then no doubt she could as well.

The Head Guard? She wondered if that was a courtesy on the part of the pride, or an unspoken sign that they weren't completely certain of her. The way Nyota spoke, it seemed the former, but she couldn't shake the fear that it could be the latter. She might have been a cub the last time she trusted another blindly, and she still bore the scars from it.

"I see," she replied politely. "I think I should like to stay in a pride that can command the loyalty of one such as you." He wasn't the handsomest lion around by a long shot, but Baba'Nyota was a solid presence, and she wanted to trust him. But Eshkohl had lived in a harsh school, and would need time to be able to trust anyone completely.