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 Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:23 pm
[AIM RP: Kater & Ume] A tan lioness was stretched out in the grass of a plateau, staring up at the pinks and yellows of the dawn sky. Despite Khathelela's preferene to the nightscape, she had to admit sunrise painting a pretty picture. If she had to choose, she'd go for the stars and the moon any day, but for now she was content with warming up as it steadily got brighter. Soon enough she'd drift off into a nap, especially if she remained alone. Her sleeping habits were quite messed up from her job, so she never actually slept for long periods of time. Instead, she took naps every once in a while through out the day and the night. It helped her watch over any rogues that needed caring for, and she was never asleep when they awoke. Thankfully, she had Angani the gaurd with her on the more dangerous nights. Those were the times when she was really able to get some sleep.
Lela wiggled her toes, getting the blood flowing. As much as she loved the night, it was pretty darn clold sometimes. She didn't so much as mind the cooler temperatures, as she liked an occasional thawing out. After a loud yawn, she settled down to think for a while. So much had happened in such a short period of time, it seemed. She'd hardly had time to breathe, much less think, since even the beginning of the war. Now that the pride was settling down in their new home, it was like she finally had time to relax a bit. She had a great deal to think about, too.
Aureole had had a lot to think about also. But thinking was sometimes all she did ...which was quite sad when one thought about it. She was a logician at heart but she was beginning to feel like she had once been a fun person, but that fun persona had seemed to have melted away. Her hopes and dreams were relatively nonexistant because she had never stopped to think about herself. Really, the only time she had was when she had made the proposition to Unyezi that they be mates so that he can retain his position as heir and beccome king. But she had never been romantic or passionate about anything unless her family was counted, a prideful emotion strongly attached to them. But it had always been that way from infancy, always being told stories about her family's legacy as guards. Now, they were not among her and the Mwezi'Johari. So she rarely felt even those emotions any more.
Aurole walked over the tiny hill, the blue tint of night cast over the land, highlights sprinkled from the moon. The night was pretty and it was her comfort as she worried about how little of a lioness she must seem, how much of a hollow shell she must appear. Surely, this was not some horrible fate cursed upon her. She felt like surely this was some way to bring her down. But what was worse was the expectations she imagined the others had of her, the standards she was being held against. Was she meeting them? She could only wonder.
After a good round of toe wiggling, Lela let her head plop down on its side and her eyes close lightly. She sighed,trying to come up with something to think about. Everything was swirling around together, to the point where she couldn't even pin one topic down with her paw. This whole 'relax and think' thing just wasn't working out. She squeezed her white eyelids tightly, trying to make the spinning stop. It only worsened the more she tried, though. And to make things worse, the more she tried to STOP thinking about everything, the more she had to think about everything. It was like a bad joke. Finally, she settled on her brother. It was an innocent enough subject, wasn't it? At least, at face it was. With her brother, came the thought that there was a new little cub in the pride. Nerit had gotten herself pregnant on the journey here. Lela found the slave girl to be rude in a sense for daring to have a baby.
Opening her eyes, the lioness pulled he head back up. This topic wasn't making her happy at all. So much for thinking and relaxing. She took a sweeping glance over her slowly ligthening surroundings. The more the sun came up, the more the landscape changed. Things were so different in the dark. It was safer, more hidden then. As she swept her view around, she spotted a very familiar brown lioness coming over a hill. How ironic that she had been just thinking about her brother, when his mate showed up. "Aureole!" She called out in her normally subdued voice. Everything about Lela was always subdued.
Aureole smiled at the sight of what might as well be her sister-in-law. "Hey," she called and changed direction so that she approached her. Lela was always someone she could trust. But then again, so could everyone else. She was good at what she did and seemed to have all the qualities that went with it. Maybe Lela would be able to cheer her up ...or at least distract her long enough.
Though Lela was just a priestess, she had felt during the entire journey here that her unofficial job was to help keep up the motivation. Within her traveling party, she'd done her best to keep up the morale. She was known to lock away her own emotions, but that didn't mean she couldn't help other pride members with their own. Nearly everything she did in public was carfeully considered to make her family look good, but one on one she was a tad bit looser with what she said and did. Especially with family, and in Lela's mind, Aure was practically family. The brown lioness seemed to be looking out for what was best for Unyezi, which was more than that other brown lioness was doing. So, Lela liked her.
"What do y'think of the new home?" She smiled warmly at her friend. There were few who Lela felt close enough to to really call friends, but Aure was definitly one of them.
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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:38 pm
She smiled warmly. "Our new home is a relief." They both knew how long they'd been searching and it had certainly felt like forever. The herb while they may have found a few here and there along the way, none was plentiful enough to start a new life. It was the new beginning they so desperately needed. And the group she had met not too long ago, a lion, lioness, and adopted cheetah cub, had been exactly as she imagined: a family. The female was pregnant. Maybe even had given birth by now. Aureole should probably check up on that later. "It is the perfect place for us to start anew," she added finally.
"You're not alone all the time, are you?" she asked, looking around as though expecting to see someone nearby. "I worry about you sometimes." It was only right that she did, no? Wasn't that the job of a queen?
Lela laughed lightly. It was not only well known that she gaurded herself, but it was also well known that her social life wasn't exactly up and about. When her job was in full swing, she hardly had time for anything anyway. In the lighter periods like this, however, she just wanted to do what she was doing now. She wanted to stretch out and take little cat naps, talk to her few close friends, and keep to herself when possible for some down time. Her constant act when she was in public was really very tiring. The lioness cared far too much what the public's perception of her was, but she felt the need to do it anyway. Her connections with the king, after all, made it bad for her to do anything unexpected or what might be seen as 'not good'. So she liked to be alone.
"Not ALL the time, no." She pulled herself up into a sloppy sitting position as she said it, still chuckling. "Why, since finding this place, I've had a wonderful conversation with Angani, and now you're here!" She knew full well that her social interactions in the given time frame weren't exactly up to par, but she tried to play it off as a joke. She really should interact with pride members more often. Maybe go meet one of those new cubs? She hadn't seen them yet, but she had heard that the only lord and lady pair had given birth to quite the large litter. "Don't worry about me, Aure. I'm fine." She smiled as sweetly as she could.
Aureole smiled and shook her head. Sounded like Lela hadn't really been doing much of anything in terms of what Aureole thought she really needed. But Aureole knew better than that. No one liked being told what others thought they should do. And of course, the natural reaction was to turn around and point out the other's flaws as a method to keep them from pointing out other's and thus back off. She knew perfectly well her own and wasn't comfortable with having them flung at her. However she couldn't help but say "you don't seem fine to me." What she really meant was Lela didn't seem happy. She knew Lela had a lot of energy but she didn't know if it was just a shield or the real her.
Aureole tried to switch her attention to the more positive aspect. "A wonderful conversation with Angani?" she raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "What sort of conversation?"
Lela sighed lightly and rolled her eyes as playfully as possible, though she was just a tinge annoyed by the statement. "It's just that I need some getting used to this place is all." She did her best to smile at her friend. Really, that was part of her problem. Lela didn't take kindly to change, especially big change. She was the type to like normalacy, tradition and schedule more than spontaneousness and excitement. So moving to an entirely knew home was a bit rough on her. Sure, the pride members were still there. Or at least, what was left of them. And their beliefs and their ways were still strong. It was just... she needed to settle in.
She was quick to jump on the subject change, not really wanting to talk about the move or her social life for now. "Oh, y'know. Just a nice little chat." She grinned wildly. Angani was another good friend of hers. They worked together frequently, and spent many a moonlit night getting to know him. Over the time that they had traveled, they hadn't really talked much. It was over that time, that she relized she missed him. A lot. And who wouldn't? He was handsome and charming. Lela was beginning to think there might be more than a friendship possible between the two.
Lela's quick jump on the new topic prevented Aureole from politely going back to the old one but oh well. After all, she could only assume that what Lela said was true. They had indeed only just come here. Both had been born and raised in a different place and had never imagined this would happen to them. Aureole adjusted quite easily to things she saw the logic behind so she hadn't been plagued like Lela. She did, she admitted, sometimes feel odd or uncomfortable but usually she was able to dissuade herself of it.
But then she noticed the smile Lela flashed that certainly caught her attention. It couldn't have been just any chat. No normal chat could make her smile that wide. ....could it? Surely not. Aureole smiled almost slyly, amused by Lela. "Oh really? What'd you guys talk about?" she asked innocently.
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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:09 pm
"Oh, y'know. The move, the new home, life in general. Just catching up. We haven't had any work in a little while, as you know." She grinned again, figuring that Aureole was forming ideas that probably weren't too far from the truth. She wiggled her front toes some, swaying a little as she did so. Lela had never had any major crushes as a cub. She'd found some boys to be cute when she was a juve, sure. When she was an adol, the war was raging, so there wasn't even time to think about crushes. Then they had to move here. Now, finally, she was having time to think about other things. More positive things. More... relatonship oriented things. She was out of her element for certain here.
"He's an attractive guy, that's for certain." She winked at the other lioness, knowing what she said would only fuel whatever could be going through her mind. "Don't you think?"
Aureole smiled and shook her head. Having never really experienced any relatively romantic feelings or passions, she could not relate or sympathize. Her understanding of it came from what she had heard. But to her it still sounded like more than what Lela was telling her. Surely there was something going on. But she couldn't just straight out ask. She didn't have the personality for it, used to being relatively polite.
She smiled. "Anything I should prepare myself for?" So far a new place meant a mini-baby boom. Did that mean Lela was jumping on the wagon.
Lela wasn't sure what she was feeling. Mostly, it was attraction to both personality and looks. Lela wasn't entirely shallow. She definitly liked Angani's personality, and she enjoyed working with him and talking about life in general. As far as this attraction went, she had trouble getting. Her limited experience in anything of this nature was handicapping her for certain. "No, no. Nothing like that." Her eyes widened slightly when she realized what Aureole meant. The two lionesses who had given birth so far seemed to not be the only ones itching for some new life. Lela couldn't say she minded seeing new babies running around. Not that she'd actually seen any of said babies, since she'd been keeping to herself for the most part.
"Soo..." She trailed off, starting to wiggle her toes again. On the topic of Angani, she almost wanted to ask Aure how her brother was doing. She knew their relationship wasn't exactly the normal one, of course. She didn't know how the lioness felt about it, though. It wasn't something she wanted to really test. "So how has your life been going?" Safe, very safe.
"Oh ok, my mistake," she said. Of course she had assumed that maybe it was leading down that track ...or that she wanted it to go down that track. But maybe not. She would be happy for Lela, though, when she finally found someone. If she hadn't been with Unyezi she doubted she would have been with anyone. Unless maybe someone asked her. She wasn't very romantic. She didn't expect anything like that to be able to happen to her. To the point that she felt bad that their tradition had sort of forced Unyezi to be with her. He probably felt trapped sometimes, wishing he didn't have to be with her. Perhaps Aureole was a bit of a curse.
"My life?" she asked. "My life has... gone no where." It really hadn't but that was her fault? Could be because of who she was. Yet again, what could one expect from her?
Lela smiled more warmly this time. "Well, I guess you never know what could happen." She winked and moved over to bump Aureole in the shoulder playfully. Lela's mood wasn't always at a high, but she still thought Aure was more glum than she was. Maybe it was just that she liked to believe she wasn't as brooding. She certainly didn't put as much logic into what she did as her friend, but she did put some in, and rarely did things based on raw emotion.
She didn't like the tone of Aure's voice when they started discussing life in general. This girl definitely needed some cheering up. Later on, she'd have to have a little chat with her brother. "It'll go somewhere if you let it." She was going straight into motivational buddy mode. "Just hang in there. Things'll start picking up now that the pride is settling." She bumped shoulders again, but this time much softer and more for comfort.
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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:01 pm
Aureole let out a laugh at Lela's comment. "You never know. But you do that, okay? Let me know if something does, that is. Ok?" She wouldn't mind to see some little Lelas scurrying about. Goodness knows she wouldn't mind seeing her friends happy. Which of course meant she needed to figure out how she could make Unyezi happy. There had to be something. And she was sure it couldn't be that hard to figure out. But what if it was that he wanted someone else. How would she accomplish giving him that?
"I suppose," she said. "But where would I push it?" Really, she didn't spend too much time wondering what she wanted to do with her life, mostly her effect on the current one. she smiled for Lela, feeling that was what she wanted. No reason to think that any thing was wrong with Aureole. Nothing should be wrong with her. She should be happy with what she has. And she was. Nothing more to want.
"Don't worry, Aure. You'll be the first to know." Lela smiled, meaning what she said. Unyezi'd be the second, for certain. It was just the sort of thing that you told a girlfriend before you told any guys. Then, she might tell Dinaledi. That seemed weird, and it was weird that it seemed weird, but she didn't pay it too much attention. Right now, she was focused on Aureole, and less and less on herself. Even if they had been talking about her only a few moments ago. "I promise."
"I dunno where, Aure. You'll know where to push it when it needs pushing." She wasn't too certain if that was true. In fact, she was thinking that her friend might need some help pushing it. There was no way she wasn't going to track down her brother for help now. In fact, as soon as she was done talking to Aure, her plan was to go find him. It shouldn't be too difficult. "Why don't you do something relaxing for the rest of the day? Nap or take a walk?" Hopefully that'd help at least a little bit.
Aureole sighed, barely realizing that the focus had been turned on her as though all along it was she who needed this talk, this comfort. Not that it was very comforting to now feel that it needed direction and she didn't know what one to give it.
She nodded because she didn't know what else to do. "Yes... yes, maybe I should," she mumbled.
Lela stood up slowly. She shook off her fur and wiggled her muscles out to get ready for the oncomming walk. "Why don't you take a nap? It's been such a long journey for all of us." She realized they'd been here for a little while now, but she wasn't talking about resting for physical fatigue. Everything that had happened in the past little while had been emotionally and mentally draining, to the point where even Lela was overwhelmed by it all. "There's gotta be a nice spot for resting that you've found by now, right?" Lela had yet to find her own little comfort spot, but she hoped Aure had.
She took a step forward and gentley nudged the other lioness with her head in a lion-hug sort of way. "I think it'll do you some good, Aure. I'm gunna do the same soon. Just have to... talk to somebody first. I haven't seen my brother in a good little while. I think I'll track him down and then nap." She smiled, hoping that she was coming off as friendly as possible.
Hopefully her talk had nothing to do with what had gone on here. That might have worried her a bit. But successfully distracted by other things, she didn't take it as a possibly negative/concerning thing. "Yes, a nap..." She didn't have a good place to rest but she supposed she'd find one soon enough. Most of the time, she just wandered around thinking to herself about whatever was bugging her or needed to be thought about in her opinion. "Well I guess that means I'll talk to you later ....oh and you must tell me," she said. Aureole didn't exactly like surprises when she was the last to know. But whatever came to pass would come and there wasn't much she could do about it ...for now. So with that, she hung her head a little and turned away to find exactly what Lela had told her she should be getting.
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