|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:05 pm
The earthen-toned lion flailed wildly, not caring that he was hitting nothing, he just had to get away. The Others in his head were screaming at him, cursing, hissing. They shouted to kill, destroy, attack. Anything to get the other male off of their precious monstrosity. Anything to keep the original mind subdued. He cackled as he felt Njozi slip, tried to pull his muscular body away. But the other just hung on, made it impossible. He roared in pain as the ivory lion's claws dug into his shoulder - in pain and frustration and he just couldn't get away, dammit. Vulgar words leaked from his mouth in various tones and pitches - Stirika and the Others using Damu's tongue for their own purposes.
As he was slammed back into the ground, the breath left his body momentarily. It was in the moment, the smallest second, that his chocolate eyes connected with the ruby red of Njozi's and something clicked.
Njozi...?
"No!" he yelled, his head suddenly overwhelmed with pain. He clawed at his own face, his eyes.
Njozi! Help! Oh gods, please help me!
Those muddy eyes flickered back between rage and a desperate look that didn't belong to Stirika. The voices inside screamed, tried to push Damu away with their brittle, limb-like fingers.
And then his body seized up, trembled, convulsed beneath Njozi. He tossed his head back and forth in a flurry, ever muscle vibrating, scream after scream tearing the chords of his throat. He couldn't breath, he couldn't see. There was blackness everywhere, blackness and roaring thunder. The earth shook beneath him, and for a brief moment everything seemed to cease to exist. The lion's head flopped to the side, his body going into a state of limpess too close to death for comfort.
Yet, those muddy eyes opened slowly, and air was sucked into his lungs slowly. Everything was blurry. Everything ached, and his head was throbbing. And there was something so heavy on his chest. Turning his head slowly, Damu blinked blearily up at Njozi. "Njozi...what are you...what...happened?" He looked around him, up at the black velvet of the night sky. How had he ended up here? And then he saw her. A small lioness, much smaller than he, off to side and bloodied up beyond reason. His brows furrowing, he looked down at his own paws. There was blood on his claws. There was even the taste of blood in his mouth. His eyes widened, and his gaze shot back to Njozi, his mouth hanging open. "Please no..."
He wiggled out from underneath his nephew, stumbling to his feet unsteadily. No. No. This wasn't happening. He couldn't have...But he had, hadn't he? The way the lioness was looking at him. Oh gods, what had he done? Hot tears welled up in his eyes and rushed down his cheeks, mixing with the blood already on his fur. He shook his head back and forth, mumbling 'no' repeatedly under his breath. He couldn't stop looking at Baala. "What have I done? She didn't deserve this!" He screamed, the latter part aimed at no one in particular, or at least, no one visible to the other two present.
Chest heaving, he began backing up slowly. "I'm sorry," he said. His gaze went first to Baala, then to his nephew. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry..." Damu's voice broke. He couldn't stay here. No after this. He couldn't...gods, what had he done?
Not even thinking, he turned and ran, ran as fast his exhausted body could possibly take him in the opposite direction of his home - the place he'd lived all his life and thought he'd die in. He ran from everything and everyone. He simply...ran.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:31 pm
Death - it was certain to come any moment now. She felt his eagerness for her life to end, could feel his need for her death radiating off of his body. Baala herself was not eager for her own death, though she yearned for his. She yearned for him to die before he had the chance to kill her as well. Above all else Baala valued this life that had been given to her, was happy to have her greatest friend Kiuma, to be able to travel with her and build a friendship... There was too much to live for to die now, but there was nothing that she could do. Baala had done all she could to save her life, and in the end it amounted to nothing. Her will to live meant nothing in the face of Stirika's hunger.
Then she heard a familiar voice... a voice that had only been heard by her briefly before. She knew it was a lion that belonged to these lands, but she could not even remember his name. All she could remember was his pale coloration and the reds of his eyes. But everything else was indistinct... In a few moments, though, she could refer to him as her knight in shining armor, though she never would. She cried out in pain as sharp claws dug into her side, grappling for a hold on her - the victim. But those claws lost their grip, and she suddenly felt Stirika's heavy weight leave her body. Relief flooded through her body, just because she thought she would live a few moments more. That was all she needed... a few more moments to enjoy life, to gaze up at the sky and realize what a beautiful night it was to die on. How simply beautiful.
But she did not dwell on this for more then a few seconds, because her will to live said that laying around limply was a good way to get herself killed. Her curiosity also demanded that she figure out what had just happened, why Stirika's weight had left her body. Groaning softly, she raised herself onto her feet, legs trembling and blood dripping from her jaw down onto the dark earth. Each breath came out ragged, her chest heaving as she tried to calm herself down. No attack had came in this duration of her recovery... and it was leading her to believe that she had indeed been saved, that she was not going to die on this perfect night.
She turned, managing to be partially surprised when her assumption of who had came to her rescue was right. Njozi. That was his name, a simple name for such a simply large lion... large enough to handle Stirika. In fact, Njozi had managed to pin the male to the ground, and was yelling some foreign name to the creature. It was all beyond her comprehension at this moment. Her gaze was still blurry from the adreniline rush. She heard names, but they were meaningless to her. Obviously they weren't so for Stirika.. Damu. Damu was his name now, wasn't it? He had fed her a lie as she had fed him one.
As she came to the conclusion that his name was Damu, her gaze swivelled to the large lion pinned on the ground. In those few moments she saw a change, and no longer did Damu become the snarling, struggling beast... but instead seemed to die briefly to come alive again as someone entirely new. He was looking at her in horror of what he had done, and all she could do was stare back at him with blank eyes. Lifeless. She felt nothing for this creature, would give him no forgiveness if he saught any. Damu had gone too far, had nearly killed her, and so she thought he deserved nothing to ease his pain. Njozi clearly cared for him, but she, she did not. Don't look at me.. Stop, stop! Her mind screamed suddenly, for she could not stand it, could not stand looking on this clearly mental creature!
With a whip of her head, she looked away... and when she looked back he was gone into the distance. She saw his form briefly, fleeing, running from the insanity that had consumed him. Baala doubted he would succeed in keeping the insanity under control. It would come back one day, to do more harm to some unfortunate soul.
"Thank you," she murmured softly, and that was all that Njozi would get. She didn't even look at him. She felt too weak, her brush with death having truly set her off of her feet. She couldn't give him anything else but those two words.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:57 pm
As his uncle wiggled out from underneath his form, Njozi stared at him with sadness written deep into those crimson eyes. It was almost worse, seeing this side of Damu, seeing him recognize what he had done, than it was to see that side that didn’t recognize anything except his own taste for blood. He knew Damu was facing the fact that he had just lost control of his body, lost it to those voices that Bibi had predicted so easily. Syeira really had learned a lot from her brother’s condition. He sighed as Damu finally scrambled off, letting his head droop against his chest with shut eyes.
“I told you to get out,” he said quietly, shaking his head as he pushed himself up onto his forepaws. His belly ached, his head was pounding, and his heart was a little down after having to force his own blood and kin to recognize him, honestly, and to break through one of the most horrifying personas Njozi had seen in quite a while. “I told you to leave for a reason, Nuksani. The lions here, some of them are sick..” he said quietly, teeth gritting as he opened his mouth. “Like Damu. There’s only a couple of them, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous, especially when you’re alone and in the dark.”
He sighed, turning his eyes down at the ground – just in time to see the moonlight glimmer over something small and shiny. With a frown, he walked closer and leaned down. He sighed immediately, however, and reached out to touch it with a paw. The necklace he had gotten for Haba – he must have been looking for the vines in the forest. He had already noticed that Damu got worse near the forest. He frowned, scooping it up with his paw before glancing back at her.
“I suggest you get out, I can’t always be here when he gets like that, no matter how hard we try to watch him,” he muttered, staring in the direction Damu had gone. He really wasn’t headed in the direction of home – no, he looked like he was heading for the borders. He needed to find Haba, and quickly. “Please, for my sake and yours, don’t come back next time, either,” he muttered, turning his eyes away from her and picking the necklace up with his teeth. With a simple nod, almost as if she hadn’t nearly died and he saved her life, he trotted off and into the woods.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:08 pm
Njozi's words did not seem to have any effect on her. They washed over her in a bland wave of sound, mute and unimportant. What was more important that she had just survived certain death. She could not have done it withotu Njozi's aid, but she survived. When she had nearly lost all hope, had given up on living she had been rescued. This was no simple thing, and she could never take such a brush with death lightly. It had happened before once in her life, but that was because she was young and an inadequate hunter. Now her near-death had not been caused by herself, but by someone else, and she had survived! She had conquered! And she was so... grateful to Njozi, more then she could express. His words now she didn't bother paying attention to, for it would only lessen her gratitude towards him.
She did understand the words 'get out', though, and it sounded more like a demand then a request. Right now she was sure she would listen to whatever Njozi said, and she had no desire to linger in these lands anyways. So dully she turned her head towards him, glancing at him out of the corners of her eyes, and then she nodded slowly. He had no reason to worry that she would ever come back to the Kusini'Mwezi. They were a diseased pride... and so long as that gene got passed down from generation to generation she would not be safe here. No one was safe here, even if Njozi and more protectors were there to try and keep the pride stable.
Distantly she watched Njozi disappear into the thicket of the woods, and without so much of a glance back... she left as well. She turned in the opposite direction from whence she had came from, dragging her weakened body with the last vestiges of her will power. Rest would come when she reunited with Kiuma... but until then she could not sleep, could not eat nor drink until she was back into the safety of Kiuma's watchful gaze. It was time to go home, to where she belonged, not this foreign pride that had nearly brought her a death.
It had been... too close.
She had looked death in the face, and had came out alive after it.
It didn't feel like too much of an accomplishment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
