[PRP] Point of No Return (Msiba/Hisia) -FIN

[MoonRazor]

((Note to self: RP precedes I'll Have My Way, End of the Road, and Whatever the Boss Says. Comes after Severing Bonds.))

Msiba was on edge. It seemed to be becoming a pattern with him. He almost did not remember a time when it didn't feel like the entire world was crashing down on him. Everything bad that could possibly happen, was happening, or had happened. It was inconceivable how many holes had been punctured in a plan that, only weeks ago, had seemed so infallible.

It was the fault of these lands, these lions. There was no blame to be shifted onto his or Mchawi's shoulders, and the rest of them. Well, the rest of his band were only following orders, and in fact, they were doing better than he had expected.

Thus, he attributed the complications to the lions of the pride, to the valley itself. These lands were cursed. They had to be.

The lion padded along, tail lashing out behind him. Werevu, again, was away. Doing what Msiba had asked him to do - to track down the cub. Ufunuo. Now that Nondo had told him it was a different cub... Msiba didn't quite know how he was supposed to relay the message to the cape vulture. He would have to do it on his own, he concluded.

Perhaps he would recruit his brother into the hunt.

His mind whirled as his fleshed out a plan. It had to be quick. It didn't necessarily have to be foolproof - as he had learned, there really was no such thing - so fast his top priority now.  

[Sasu Cherry]

Hisia was exhausted, yet she still moved forward. Her entire ached from her wounds, and blood matted her pelt. She looked distant. The death of Samahani had caused the lioness to explode in a rage, and in her rage she killed Nondo... While Mchawi fled, that is. Now she felt empty, and though she was afraid of how Msiba's reaction would be, she still needed to see him.

Feeling weak all of the sudden- she couldn't help it. Her legs buckled, and with a gasp she fell. Her stomach was tense, growing more tense every day. She feared for the safety of her cubs. She feared for how everyone would react. That was one secret she didn't intend on telling Msiba. Especially Msiba. He was Mchawi's brother, he would defiantly report this to her. Even.. if she already knew.

Sniffing the air eagerly, she held in another gasp.

The scent was coming her way. A male scent, defiantly the male she was looking for. Her claws gripped into the ground angrily.

She waited.

Then her eyes caught sight of the green male, a snarl growing on her face. Her heart, however, was breaking. It broke once when Samahani had left this world, now it was breaking as the truth finally worked it's way into her.

"Msiba," Her call was sharp, low. Hisia wasn't going to be 'nice'- in a sense. He needed to see her rage, see what his sister had done. Though she growled to herself in frustration. Would he want to know why Mchawi had attacked her? She flicked her tail. He wouldn't know, not at all, even though the lie would shine in her eyes when she spoke to him.

"So I guess this is your sister's greeting to me, hm?" She snapped angrily, tail flicking to the wounds that decorated her body. Obviously she knew she would have to tell him she had eavesdropped on his sister. Though she could not have stopped herself; Mchawi had been talking about her cubs and Peke, then killing Unyevu... who was part of their little group.  

[MoonRazor]

So preoccupied was he that he hardly noticed the tone of her familiar voice, but the sound of it caused his eyes to search about for her. Then he froze. He could feel the alien feeling of a sinking stone within the pit of his stomach as he saw her. What in the...

In all his time with the pride, he had never once imagined that Hisia might get into a fight. And now, obviously, that was what she had just come from. It was such a strange sight, Hisia with wounds that for a moment he wondered how to react.

Then he saw her face. A snarl lurked there and he wondered what in the world had just happened. Who had she just spoken to that would have made her look so... so angry?

"I..." He shook his head, taking a step closer. A small frown creased his forehead. "Why... why would she do this?" And for the first time in his life, he felt he didn't understand. But it was the fact that he didn't understand Mchawi, didn't understand what she had done, why she had done it, that scared him.

His eyes roamed the cream lioness's pelt as he counted the wounds, feeling with a sense of dread as if his world was beginning to crack open, and more time here would only serve to make it break all the more. He knew that to say he and Mchawi had never planned on hurting the innocents would be a lie. They hadn't exactly planned to do it, but they had never been concerned about having to do what they needed to in order to achieve their goals. But this. What could Hisia possibly have done?  

[Sasu Cherry]

No hatred-

No anger-

She almost choked.

Msiba; the charmer. Msiba, the sweet talker... And she still loved him, even if he managed to make her fall for him. She hadn't expected his worry, though, at first; she had expected it. That had been his first reaction whenever she seemed troubled about something. This time, however, he seemed more worried than normal. His voice pained her, she heard confusion in his voice. She heard too much, too much.

Hisia shock her head, feeling tears form. She wasn't ready, wasn't ready to the see the true side of him. Yet, "I overheard her," For once she sounded stable. No sobs in between, she wasn't going to cry now. "Talking, speaking..." She trailed off, unsure how to state the stream of information she had heard from the foul winch. Telling him would be too much, and she had already promised she wouldn't speak of anything.

"Tell me."

She shifted upwards, feeling the terrible ache of her wounds. She gritted her teeth in pain while she sat up, narrowing her eyes at Msiba. "Tell me, did you have fun charming me?" Hisia knew the truth, and she wasn't afraid to ask him the question. Msiba should have seen the coming, should have. Even if she hadn't seen it coming, she surely had an impact when Mchawi spat at her. Those words, they still hurt her.

Letting an angry sigh, her claws dug once more towards the ground. She was tired, sorrow drenched from every corner of her mind, and then... He was playing at her, pulling strings.

It was disgusting. She had been played. Anger flowed through her veins, and she was tempted to launch herself at him, if only... the cubs. She wanted to keep the cubs safe, and she had already come close to losing them. Thanks to Mchawi.

"Yes, I eavesdropped on her. Though a price was paid," She closed her eyes, once more holding back tears. "Samahani is dead, and so is Nondo."

She wondered if he would be joyful that his sister had survived. Injured though, Hisia wished she hadn't escaped.  

[MoonRazor]

Never before had he felt even a shred of worry for his sister. That didn't change now. Because somehow, strange as it was, and though somewhere he knew it wasn't true, he always felt that she would be with him forever. They would always be together, and the thought of either of them dying before the other had never crossed his mind. It wasn't about to.

"No, I- Hisia, it wasn't like that," He said, feeling himself falter for the first time in a very long while. Being unsteady, being vulnerable, those were two things he was not used to. He wasn't ready - perhaps never would be - to face that feeling. Vulnerability. That was his greatest fear in life. Seeming to have a weakness... That made him weak.

He frowned, shaking his head once more. What in the...

The two lionesses. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. One that had been dominant in his life since before he could remember, and forever after. The other that had come so close in the past weeks. He knew what would be the logical move. Hisia had overheard, she knew what they were up to, and at the moment she was weak from a fight. The logical move would have been to kill the lioness and keep her silent.

But how could he do that?

He couldn't. There was just something about her, behind the venom she was displaying at the moment. A purity, an innocence about the lioness that almost hurt him, because he knew she had never expected any of this. And it wasn't her fault she had wound up in the wrond place at the wrong time.  

[Sasu Cherry]

Why was continuing with that? Her eyes closed. She shook her head, and bite her lip. Then he faltered with his own words, and she started to wonder. Was he really that shocked, or was that part of his sticky little plan? She looked up at him, and for the first time, she looked regretful, guilty.

"I've lost my bonded," She met his eyes, and knew she was speaking defiant truth. "I've lost my sister," Hisia felt tears come to her eyes once more. She turned her gaze from him, shaking her head again. "And now... I'm losing you." She sounded completely sure of himself. If he didn't flee soon, she expected that the pride would kill him, or drive him out themselves.

Feeling stronger than her wounds would allowed her, she stood up, and limped over to Msiba.

If he decided to kill her, he had his chance. Though she wouldn't allow it - and somehow she wondered if he would do it. "Msiba, your not going to succeed." She spat, glaring at him. "We are stronger than you can imagine." It hurt her to speak like this, telling the one that she loved a verbal way of speaking, 'fleeing'. Hisia turned away once more.  

[MoonRazor]

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Hisia," He said softly. "I never meant to hurt you, I didn't." Somehow, he found himself seeking her understanding. It pained him to realize that, even after everything he had done, everything his sister had done, she could still find it in herself to love him.

Where it was she found the ability, he was certain he would never be able to find out. And strangely, he found himself wondering what it would have been like. What if they hadn't ruined everything to grab a cub? What would life be like if he were to spend the rest of his days with her?

Because he knew she was right. She was losing him, one way or another. Either he was going to end up dead, or he and his interlopers would fail. And they would flee. Either way, the story ended with his never being able to see Hisia again.

Tentatively, he stuck his nose out to nuzzle her, if she would let him. He couldn't blame her if she wouldn't. He had done enough damage to her pride, to her family.

"You don't understand," He said, his voice still soft, feeling a dull ache somewhere in his chest. "We never came here with the intent of destroying everything. All we wanted..." He didn't continue. She probably knew anyway. "I never actually thought we'd get this far," He added, though he could have been talking about both what he and Mchawi had done, or the relationship that had somehow blossomed between Hisia and himself.  

[Sasu Cherry]

At his touch, she backed away. Her eyes blazing with more anger, and hateful words screeched in her head. "What are you doing?" She spat. Like she was going to allow him to try comforting her. After what he had done, and after what his sister had tried to do, she wasn't going to allow his touch to reach her. No, not anymore. This was the end of road for him, and he needed to know it.

She continued to stare at him, feeling the heat of his gaze, hearing the truth of his words. Yet, how did she know they were true? How could she trust him, after what he did? Curiosity was getting to her, but she wasn't going to ask a question, speak a word. Not yet.

That was the interlopers business. Even though it would be vital information to the pride, whatever they were after, Hisia didn't care about. Though part of her was concerned about what they could be after, wanted. "Well you destroyed a lot of things," She spoke finally, keeping the same tone like before.

"You destroyed the relationship we had, now you are trying to destroy the pride." And she wondered how far he was getting, were they being successful? Well, she thought not. Her memory went back to when Mchawi had started screaming both Machafuko and Kitisho's names. She sounded shocked, and it seemed her visions included the two... dead? Who knows.

Hisia backed away, her paws turning, as if she was about to leave. It didn't like a half bad idea, actually, even though she felt like she was breaking once more. "Msiba, things do change. When one ends up in the wrong place, a fragile string can be pulled, and the bonds with another could be broken." And what she meant by that was that because of what she overheard from Mchawi, and then what the lioness had said, then attacking her; Hisia had lost hope in the relationship. If Mchawi had been that vicious, that could make Msiba the same.  

[MoonRazor]

At that moment, he felt that perhaps if she had just asked, he might tell her everything, if only to prove that he wasn't simply the lion would had worked his way into the pride and torn in apart from inside out. But no... Whatever it was, he couldn't let his resolve crumble. He couldn't tell her, because no matter what he felt or what she said, he knew that if he was forced to pick one of the two lionesses to save from death, it would be his sister. Every time.

Because with Hisia... he knew that even if they were to spend the rest of their lives together - which, he knew too, they wouldn't - he would never be able to bring himself to tell her everything, the way he told Mchawi. Because of that quality she had. That purity in her heart that shone so brightly in times like these, a beacon screaming out to him, telling him that here was a lioness and she was something damn special. And he would never have it in him to be able to tell her anything and taint that beautiful innocence that surrounded her.

It wasn't meant to be. That was what. And yet somehow, despite all his attempts to rid his life of the thing called fate, it kept coming back to bite in the behind. This was fate. This was that feeling of being completely out of control. Because no matter how much he wished it were different, the universe had something else entirely planned for the both of them.

"No," He said forcefully, feeling his eyes widen. "No, I didn't destroy this relationship. She did." And even as he said it, he knew wouldn't blame Mchawi for breaking his heart. He wouldn't blame her for whatever she had done. It wasn't so much blindly putting trust in her decisions, it was simply the knowledge that whatever his sister had done, he knew he had been on her mind when she decided to do it.

"Hisia, just... wait." He took a step, as if to follow, because the last thing he wanted was for her to walk away and not hear what he had to say. "Look, I get it. After everything we've done, right? And I can't blame you for it, or... anything." He paused, wondering if those had been the right words to use. "And when all this is over, I'll walk away and you'll never hear from me again, and all I can do is leave and hope that for all I did, I didn't hurt you too bad. And I'll just have spend the rest of my life looking back and wondering what might have been, because I know this is my fault, but Hisia. You weren't just that pretty, naive girl to me, you actually meant something, and that's saying a lot for me.

"And I know you don't have to believe me. I know you probably won't believe me. That's not something I can change. I just hope that when I leave, you won't just remember the bad things about me."  

[Sasu Cherry]

She flinched, turning her gaze towards the ground. He was right, and this time she knew he was right. There was a part of her that wanted him to stay, face the pride, show the goodness that was in him, somewhere. She sighed, he had already done too much. And the interlopers were still alive, causing trouble. If they made it out alive, he was right, she thought. No matter how much their tried they could never be together. That was one thing sealed by fate.

If only they had averted their plans. If only they had backed down, before the trouble really started-

No, there had been a something vicious when they had first arrived. Hisia, happy to have more hunters enter the pride, and the arrival of Msiba... She had overlooked that anger, the blood that, invisibly, clung to their pelts. All she saw was the kindness they were offering. They had even brought their own bonded, even though some of the interlopers had vultures, some lions befriended the vicious-like birds.

She shook her head, looking back Msiba. "I won't remember the side you never showed me, but I will remember the side Mchawi did reveal to me." And she added to herself; the cubs. Hisia would never tell him, she couldn't.

Her teal gaze remained on his face, absorbing one last image of those eyes, before she turned around. She was aiming to pad away... This was the end, and as much as she wanted to turn around, she didn't.

And she started walking, her vocal cords working, lowly; "Our cubs will be remember their father as a strong, caring, male." She murmured, almost loud enough for him to hear, before she started padding away quickly. Hisia felt tears come to her eyes, but she didn't allow them to trickle down her cheeks. Not now, not anymore.

She wouldn't cry for him, not him.  

[MoonRazor]

"We're not so different, you and I," He said as she turned back to him. "You have your pride. I have my family." And he couldn't, or wouldn't, say no to his family. Because he knew that any relationship he could ever have, anyway, anytime, could burn out just as easily as perhaps this one had. But there was no severing the bonds between the pale lion and his sister. Mchawi, she was more than just his sister. She was his confidante, his very very best friend, his co-conspirator. By far, she was the single most important thing in Msiba's life, and that wasn't going to change any time soon. Much as he wished things could have turned out differently, if only for Hisia's sake, he knew that sooner or later, he would grow tired and weary of life as it was in the valley. And before he knew it, he and Mchawi would be gone from this place, to find more adventure to share in their lifetime.

So either way. What he and Hisia had shared in the past weeks. It was doomed to end, pleasantly or not. It wouldn't have been so different from this.

He could tell, though he realized it only vaguely, that she was keeping something from him as she gazed into his sapphire eyes. Something hidden deep inside, that perhaps she was determined not to tell him, and it was only by locking their gazes that he saw. What was it... Yet he stood where he was and simply watched, even as he knew she was about to turn away. And she would leave, and most likely, he would never see her again.

As she left, he recognized the sound of her voice, low and muffled, floating on the wind, and he strained to catch what it was. But the words drifted right by his ears and he couldn't quite make out what she had said.

He wanted to be able to apologize in a better way than he knew how. Or that he could have done something to ease whatever pain he and his sister had wrought on the pride, on her. But he couldn't have, and he knew. This was where it would end.

There was no turning back now.