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 Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:56 am
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Syeira sighed softly from within her den, relishing the silence that the empty space provided her. She loved her children, goddess knows, but she was well and truly glad that Uumi was out babysitting them somewhere. She supposed it was his job both as the Yaya and as a father, but she didn’t appreciate it any less just because he had to. Raising that many cubs was certainly a pain, though she was already growing sad at the thought they were growing so quickly. Her two elder litters had already fled the nest, and only a few of her older children had actually decided to stay at home. She knew they were out living good lives, and she had enough family to make up for their loss, but she missed them just the same.
Her eyes shifted towards the entrance as she heard someone approaching, and at the glimpse of a red pelt she immediately assumed it was her mate. However, as her icy eyes found a matching pair within the face of the other, she let out a soft laugh. It was Azima – son, not mate. Uumi and Azima were just as alike as they were different, and the fact that neither of them seemed capable of seeing that amused her. She had heard that he was back in the area, but she had yet to see him, so this really was a surprise. What was even more of one was the other male trailing along behind her son – she could guess who he was, if not by name, at least by his place in Azima’s heart. She knew her son, and she had likewise had conversations with Uumi about this.
With all of the grace that the lioness had crafted early in her life, she pushed herself to her paws and made her way out into the light of the day to meet her son at the entrance. Her eyes swept over him slowly, then towards the other male, before settling back onto her boy. As glad as she was to see him, her face was still set with a bit of hardness. He had been gone a long time. “What brings you all the way back home, Azima?” Oh, there was no iciness, not yet. A mother scorned was hard to face, especially if her name was Syeira.
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:01 am
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Roho abruptly stopped in his tracks. "Your mother?" He blinked rather stupidly for a few seconds, because this was something he'd never expected. He knew what Azima thought of his family, how he was even willing to leave them behind and live elsewhere, so he'd never thought he'd be taken to meet one of them. And even Roho knew meeting the parents of one's mate was a big step. He'd heard Mut talking about it often enough while she'd been pregnant to know. And they'd only just gotten together!
He had no time to figure out if he was really brave enough to meet Syeira before they were suddenly there - or so he assumed, as they approached a den. There was no time to back out of this meeting now; Azima's mother must have surely heard them and become aware of their presence, if she was in the den. He was proven right only mere moments later, and then all possible chances of fleeing really were gone. It wouldn't make a very good impression, and he really wanted Syeira to like him. And more than that, it would hurt Azima, and that he didn't want to do ever again.
Uncomfortable and nervous, the golden male smiled faintly as Syeira looked at him. He could tell she was upset about something, and his currently irrational mind made him think it was all to do with him. Azima having gone wandering away from home never factored into it. Roho shifted his paws almost guiltily as he listened to the exchange between mother and son, waiting for her displeasure to be directed toward him - and hoping fervently that it wouldn't be. |
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:09 am
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:27 pm
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The displeasure on Syeira’s face didn’t really seem to lessen (or increase for that matter) when Azima began to explain things. It probably would have been a good idea to apologize for being gone so long, but being that she knew he was Uumi’s son, she just forgave him for being irrational and slow-to-the-catch. Her eyebrow quirked, the cold stare settled on him in that matter she was so infamous for, like it was stripping him down and measuring him up all at the same time. Then, with a small shake to her head sending the little blonde tuft bobbing, she let that voice roll out once more with those eloquent tones, “glad to know it was worth the trouble to stop by and see me before you wandered off again.” The fact that she coupled the words with a smile was probably unsettling – though the smile didn’t have any warmth or iciness, it just was.
“You know I haven’t,” she said as she shifted her gaze upon the other male, her head tilted slightly as she examined him. The gaze reserved for him wasn’t the one she gave to Azima – it didn’t even hint towards the icy demeanor she used when dealing with the males in her family. No, it was calm and as normal as one could expect. “Now that I finally have, it is very nice to meet you, Roho. My name is Syeira.” She smiled gently at Roho and gave Azima another glance before she finally sat down, relaxing somewhat.
“I assume he’s the reason you haven’t been home,” she said finally after a few moments of silence, her eyes resting upon her son. There was no judgment really, but she had known. Uumi had come to her with news of her son and another male, and Syeira was always very good at putting two and two together.
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:02 pm
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More and more as this went on, Roho was uncomfortable. And they had only been here a few minutes. The golden male was seriously beginning to wonder if he would survive this meeting with Azima's rather... intimidating mother, and her attention wasn't even on him all that much. He really wasn't cut out for this kind of stress, and he almost wished Azima hadn't done something so uncharacteristic as decide to introduce him to a family member, though at the same time, he was happy to meet Syeira and know something, at least, of where his mate had come from, and what he was leaving behind.
He glanced to Azima as the smaller lion sat beside him, so close their fur was almost brushing together, and realised Azima was just as nervous as he was. He'd known Azima was uneasy (who wouldn't be?), but he'd thought he was the one who handled things badly. It was oddly comforting to know he wasn't overreacting.
But at Syeira's words, Roho's ears flattened into his mane and a guilty look washed over his face. "I-I-I... I think I am..." He didn't know if Azima had been elsewhere other than the Pridelands, but Azima had still come to visit him often. He was the reason Syeira was upset, he was sure. And he was taking her son away from her yet again - this time for good. To say he was feeling guilty would be an understatement. "I... I'm sorry...?" |
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:41 am
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Azima frowned as he listened between Roho and his mother, not really responding to his mother's words because he didn't want to fan the fire, so to speak.
His tail flicked after a minute and lightly brushed against Roho's, curling around it as he began to stutter a response to his mother, and finally Azima had some of his 'bravery' back. "Mum, you're going to make him have heart failure or something, usually you're a lot nicer." He said bluntly, sitting passively. But his eyes were smoldering, he was upset at how poorly she was taking this.
He realized she'd be mad at him for not really being around... but that was simply what you did while in life, right? But seriously, he respected his mother and thought she'd be happy he was at least trying to make a life for himself... instead of becoming something like his father, a cranky b*****d who did nothing at all.
After a minute he looked away, staring moodily at the earth under his paws. "Anyways, I'm going back to the pridelands, and if you're going to keep being sour at me then we're just leaving. I thought it might be nice to introduce you to Roho but I see it was clearly the wrong choice, I should have just snuck off. Tell me, where is everyone else now?" He glanced at her, wondering if they told her of all the places they went and how long they'd be gone and stupid things like that. He hadn't seen any of his siblings in ages.
Ah, where had that nervousness gone? Perhaps he felt more bold sitting so clsoe to Roho. It was unwise to match wits with Syeira, he knew how strong of a lioness she was; how smart. But he couldn't help himself, this wasn't what he'd planned and it sucked when things didn't go as planned!
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Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:23 pm
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“Don’t be sorry,” she said slowly, icy eyes settled upon Roho and ignoring her son for the moment. “If you are what makes him happy, then I am glad he has found you. Unlike his father, I don’t have any issues with this situation.” She didn’t elaborate, but she was sure Azima knew what his father thought. She tried to accept all the quirks in her children, and beside Damu, most of those paled in comparison. She was sure she had made some improvements since her cubhood. At least now she was tolerant, whereas she was nothing of the sort in her youth. Her trials had demanded it of her.
She noticed the stuttering, the hesitance, but she didn’t really bother to acknowledge either of them. As far as she was concerned, she was being nice to Roho. Sure, she was intimidating, but when wasn’t she? She had smiled at him, accepted him on a level that Azima’s father never would, and still Azima had the gall to say what he did? She supposed she could not erase all traces of his father from him. Those icy eyes, however, shifted to him immediately and that one eyebrow rose, “if he has heart failure it will not be because I tried to make it so. If you looked with your eyes instead of your clouded thoughts, perhaps you would have seen what I meant for you to.” As far as she was concerned, Roho was just too excitable. Hell, she had smiled for him!
It was Azima’s next words that caused her eyes to turn truly icy, for her face to become a mask of cold stone. Her heart wrenched lightly at the thought of her children. Damu, running away from his sins. Haba, running after him as she had since they were small. Who even knew where Keaira had gone? She settled her gaze on her son, and for all she cared, Roho could have faded from existence that moment and she wouldn’t have cared in the slightest.
“You are more like your father than you can ever begin to imagine, Azima,” she said softly, her voice slowly growing as devoid of emotion as possible. It was a defense mechanism she had developed early in her life. When faced with pain, grow detached. She’d never had to use it in the face of one of her children, however. Was this how her mother had felt so long ago? “Low blows and heartbreak are weapons he learned to yield well. If you’re going to bother imitating him, you will have to do better than that. You’ve still got a ways to go before you can hope to match his once damned, crooked glory.”
She stared at him, long and hard, trying to wrap her heart with something that might separate it from her body as it ached. He brought on the pain she felt when she thought of Damu and how she had failed him, and all the thoughts that plagued her when she wondered if some of her children were alive. “Fly from the nest if that is what your heart asks of you, but you do not have to break my wings to do it.”
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Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:29 am
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Honestly, Roho was close to heart failure. This was the most uncomfortable and intimidated he had ever felt before, and even though though proverbial spotlight wasn't actually on him, he probably felt more nervous than Azima did. Add that to the fact that he still felt guilty despite Syeira's assurances, and you got a very, very timid lion - which was rather painfully and pathetically amusing, considering he was so big and strong, a lion to be respected and perhaps even feared if he had an ounce of backbone.
But backbone was severely lacking in Roho, and he showed it even more with how he was actually starting to hunch a little bit, as though to make himself a smaller target for Syeira's unhappiness. By this point, he was about the same height as Azima, who was quite a bit shorter than him by normal standards. |
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