[PRP] Hold to the Earth (Adala/Moto'Seide)

[Meepfur]

The sun was beginning to set over the gravel-plain as Adala bint Attila began her patrol of the Qyrhyeshti's current northern border. She sloshed through the 'river' that was their border, but in its current state, it was hardly worth the term. The Hareket, like the Helak down to the south, was inconsistent - sometimes a true river, sometimes completely dry, but usually somewhere in between. At the moment, it was barely enough to cover her paws, but some water was always better than none. Shallower water also had the advantage of not concealing any crocodiles; if it had been deep, she would not have taken the risk of crossing.

Crossing over put her just inside rogue territory, if one was being technical, but it certainly wasn't any more dangerous over here than it was twenty feet over there. As far as patrols went, the northern one was the least dangerous, with the lowest likelihood of any run-ins with the Burkuteshti, which was why it was considered safe enough for a lone lion to cover. This also made the northern border patrols some of the least desirable, because the chances of a fight and glorious victory were very, very low.

Really, as long as she got the night patrol, Adala didn't give a damn. The rotations would come back around eventually, and someone else would have the boring rounds instead. A little quiet time wasn't so bad, anyway.  

[Kaelyndra]

Seide let out a long, chilled breath and shook the cold from where it crept under her skin. Glancing above her, the Legate found the sky clear, aglow in the light of the stars. The moon was not yet out, and the world before her existed in shifting shades of brilliant grey.

If she raised her nose, she could just catch the inward trickling scent of wet mud. Behind her, the restless group of sentinels stretched out, glad to feel some sand upon their paws once again. No matter how much it grew on Veru's nerves, Seide simply could not stop herself from working. The Legate found herself trying to look after her pride even when she had told her ownself to take a day off. She could not help herself. It was more than a job, it was a passion.

The river was far closer than she had thought it to be. The way the edge of a bank gave way under her front paws was instantaneous. For a moment she watched it slowly slide into the moist riverbottom, and then she began her traverse along the water's side.

The white pelt was obvious the darkness. Seide came to a halt, her muscles stilling and her eyes narrowing in the direction. "Night greetings!" she called out to the shape, her voice even, strong, and easily carried to other ears.

Despite the assumed friendly-nature to the words, Moto'Seide kept her distance. Their was a constant swivel in her ears as she prepared for a potential ambush. Any lion could be Nergui.  

[Meepfur]

The flash of white markings caught Adala's eye even as the other called out. Immediately alert, muscles tensing, she froze mid-step and focused on the form of the larger lioness. She stayed so for a long moment, assessing the situation before reacting to it. The stranger was almost certainly a rogue - the likelihood of one of the Burkuteshti being up here, having circled around Qyrhy territory to come to the other side of it, was low.

Still, it wasn't impossible, and she would have to be foolish to rule it out completely. The greeting could even be an uncharacteristically clever ploy to get her to lower her guard. Again, unlikely, but caution was merited nonetheless. Adala was a high-value, recognizable target, and well aware. A Bey's life was the greatest prize, but a Hatun was not far behind.

Letting her raised paw fall, she stood straight and called back, "Who goes?"  

[Kaelyndra]

After taking a strong breath of the air, Seide could still smell no others. Even the Firekin group was hard to pick out in the still winds. The sense of security from this, she reminded herself, was false. Muscles tight, she took a careful few steps away from the riverbed. If she needed to run, and she would if that was the most logical solution, she needed to do so on ground that would not keep her down.

"Moto'Seide," she answered. Her claws unsheathed and sunk deep into the earth beneath her. "Of the Firekin."

The hair on her back rose, trailing all the way to her ears. But no other movement came from the corner of her eyes. Her ears were pointed backwards, but no sound came from behind. "And who are you?" she finished without skipping a beat.  

[Meepfur]

The name had a foreign sound, and the declaration of pride provided no additional clue. What groups existed beyond her homeland were almost entirely unknown to Adala, save for the name of the pride her mother had come from and, presumably, returned to and died in. Her ears, barely darker than the rest of her coat, flicked back as she considered the not-rogue's answer, and finally flicked forward again.

She watched Moto'Seide step back from the riverbed, and could guess well enough why. The footing was better...but to run, or to fight?

"Adala bint Attila, of the Qyrhyeshti," she replied. "What brings you here?"  

[Kaelyndra]

"Water," was the simple answer. The Legate motioned with her head towards the water. She began to feel her body loosen and relax. Danger was becoming less feasible with the passage of time.

"And, to spread the name of the Firekin. It is time the outside world hears of us again." They had remained secluded far too long, walled up in what was once slavery and then obsession with a closure from the outside world. Now, they were forced to deal with other lions, other prides, and perhaps war. Peace had made them grow complacent.

"Are these your lands?"  

[Meepfur]

Water. It was an answer the white lioness could understand; though the warring prides fought over the territory as a whole, it was the water sources that were the most valuable. It was not over sand and rock that they bled, but water and food. The precious resources that allowed them to carve out an existence here.

"Water, I understand. But what do you gain from spreading your name? What is so important about being known to the world?" Adala, too, began to let some of the tension leave her. This seemed less and less like a possible trick from an enemy, and more like the chance encounter it was.

"The river and the lands behind me are ours, yes." Moto'Seide was not trespassing...yet. "I would not advise passing into them."  

[Kaelyndra]

"We would have respect." Her eyes narrowed and then moved, taking the time to work their way over the way muscles attached to Adala's body. They moved back up to a face that was perhaps more hardened from scarcity of resource. "The world need not know us. Only those who once knew us, and have, in error, grown to think we are weak, distant history."

While Seide did not worry about the fall of the Firekin, she did fret over the loss of its members. The Nergui were no simple foe, felled easily. But every lion can be defeated, and a lion has a greater chance of success with those he calls friend.

She turned her head, briefly, to examine the river once more and then nodded. Crossing the river gained her nothing but gloating.

"Do you have news of the region to share?" Moto'seide was not one for small talk, and it seemed this white lioness was in agreement.  

[Meepfur]

Adala was small even for one of the Namib prides, courtesy of her mother, but she had lived her life fighting, and she had the muscles and scars to prove it. She blinked impassively as she was studied, her tail skimming the ground behind her. This 'Firekin' had size on her, a build that she had to admit, objectively, was impressive, but size would never be everything.

"It would be unwise to let an enemy forget your strength, unless you can control the perception of its loss to your advantage." The Hatun nodded approvingly, seeing the sense in the explanation given. The Qyrhyeshti themselves needed to play this game, though perhaps on a smaller scale.

"News? It is as it has always been. We are at war. For time beyond memory, we have been at war." She cast a brief glance back over the river. "Perhaps one day we will win, but in the meantime, we survive."  

[Kaelyndra]

The red pelted lioness followed the other's glance across the river. Winding its way through the sand at no more than a forceful trickle, the river, and the empty land beyond had an air of peace. One that was clearly a lie.

"Perhaps. Someday." She was reminded, briefly, of the large pride of brown-pelts which they had left behind. They, too, had been survivors. Neither them, nor this pride, would be likely or able to help in the case of invasion. But they also did not provide a sense of worry.

The Legate reminded herself that though she had battled, trained, and chased off unruly rogues, she had never seen war. The one standing before her had a knowledge of a life which Seide's blood pulsed to see. She was caught between her desire to fight and the loss of her people. Had she listened more closely, perhaps she would have better understood the lesson of war she was being taught.

"The Firekin may soon be at war," she conceded. She was uncertain as to the reason for the slip from her tongue. Perhaps it was a chance to connect, or find information on a topic which she knew so little about. They had all heard stories of war, and the Regents themselves, her father even, had lived through the last. Quiet, as if she debated not saying the words, Seide asked, "What is your war like?"  

[Meepfur]

When she realized what Seide had said without saying it, Adala smiled, though it was a grim and humorless ghost of one. Though she might be built for war, the red lioness had not seen one. She didn't have the scars, she didn't know war.

"It is like a war," she answered, finally. "There is honor and glory, but just as much pain and death, even in victory. In defeat...I do not know that I cannot adequately convey how much worse the suffering is. When you have won, it is easier to mourn the fallen, to hold up your head and say that their bravery will be remembered, that the sacrifice was not in vain. When you have lost, you hang your head and vow that they will not be forgotten, that you will have vengeance. In defeat, that is all you have."

War was desperate, and terrible, and glorious. The love for battle would never leave her, but neither would the ghosts of war.  

[Kaelyndra]

Adal may well have told Seide that war was like the sun, or the bottom of the ocean. They were descriptions which tickled the imagination, but were frustrating in their lack of information. Only the smile told the soldier anything pertinent, and it caused her hair to bristle once again. It was a passing moment, as if she were aware of her own naivety and the world's wish that she stayed this way.

Gradually, the Legate's ears moved forwards. Even a cub would be able to see that she listened carefully to what the white lioness spoke. Defeat. Her tail swished. Once, young, she Firekin would not suffer this. But Ea had suffered this. Saliva had built in her mouth, and so she swallowed it.

"And what is it you fight for?" Survival, land, love? Seide itched to ask these reasons of the Nergui. What do you kill for? The red-lioness knew her own, and felt no shame in her reasons. But, perhaps the ways of this warring land would provide introspective into an enemy of which the Firekin knew nothing.  

[Meepfur]

"We fight because it is our way. We fight for the land that they have tried for generations to steal from us, we fight to avenge the lost, we fight because there can never be peace between us, because there has been too much blood. War is all we know. We could cross over this river if we chose and never look back. We could leave this war behind us, and yet we have not. In the end, land is only land, is it not? That is what a logical mind would say." Adala's gaze was distant. "But war is never logical. War is conviction, passion, and violence."

"Land, honor, revenge, love. Is anything worth a life, a dozen lives, the lives of half of every generation? What you fight for is nothing, and it is everything."  

[Kaelyndra]

Moto'Seide would feel no hesitation in fighting for her homeland. It was the promise of keeping memories, to hold a homeland that they knew in and out and had served them well. The Firekin desert was where the great warriors were born and raised. It was where a civil war had divided them. But, if face with this, she found herself realizing she would leave that land behind. The Firekin were a people, connected to a place, but they were not that place. Her heart would ache, but she doubted her sons and daughters would ever know the difference.

"A logical mind would leave, yes," Seide answered her. Perhaps, someday, this one would leave. Maybe it was better that warring lions with half-a-purpose died together with their pride. This would not be the fate of the Firekin. Their Regents had lived through a purposeful war, and if they had nothing other than temper, it was the ability to logic.

"I will go, now." For a brief moment, she debated wishing Adal well in the tides of war. It passed as a pause in her footsteps as she turned, and slipped away as she began the walk back.

The Firekin would move on, first thing in the morning, and be careful to avoid the other side of the river.  

[Meepfur]

Adala knew, objectively and well, how pointless their war seemed. How wasteful it was. Countless lions dead, and one day she might be one of them, probably would be one of them, and yet...she could not leave it behind her. Though it wasn't hers by blood, it had taken root in her soul. She didn't want another life. Perhaps one day, if she lived long enough to become old, or if she was too injured to continue fighting...

But that was not today. The white lioness watched the red pass into the growing darkness, then turned to resume her patrol.

One day, perhaps, the Firekin would understand war better than she liked.