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 Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 1:44 pm
 Try as she might, Inkungu had been unable to entice her sister into joining her current endeavor. She was simply not as enthusiastic about the comparative abundance of males around these parts. That was okay, the Busisa was prepared to be enthusiastic enough for two!
She had tried hard to understand the rules of the pride, both spoken and unspoken ones, and had already picked up some of the language. A stern but patient old female had explained the ways of the pride and why she was called Busisa. There were surely much more to learn, but she was sure it would come in time.
It was truly a blessing to be a Busisa. The females had been a bit stand offish at first, but the males were friendly enough. The competition around the newest one, Bangizwe, was more than she cared to deal with today however. And since he was so new there was no particular advantage to being a Busisa. Until he sired some litters every female was new to him.
In fact, of the three leading males only one had actually sired cubs if she wasn't misinformed. She'd met a lioness waddling around talking about carrying Andhakas cubs, but until there were actual cubs and they'd survived for a while it didn't really count... Not that she wished ill happenings on anyone. Not at all!
"Greetings Inselele!"---  Jasiri had seen the female approach with purpose. What purpose that could be was a mystery, but if he waited long enough he would find out. He smiled and nodded as she greeted him clumsily. Had he sounded like that when he came here? He liked to think that he had a good grasp on the language in the pride, even if he didn't sound like those born here.
"Inselelo," Jasiri corrected, without thinking, "Inselele is the word for many Inselelo. Is that bird following you?"
He had not intended to blurt the last part out, but he couldn't help but notice that a bird on stilt like legs was marching a few leaps behind the female. It wasn't as ugly as the vultures that lived with the pride but it sure looked silly. As he watched it the bird eyeballed him and fluffed up a ridiculous array of head feathers.---  Inyoka'dla had indeed taken a shine to the grey lioness. Not chasing her away was a huge bonus, and actually feeding the bird had sealed the deal. She was not too sure about the male however, and stayed back to observe.
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 2:09 am
Inkungu wasn't too upset by the casual correction. She'd used the right word, sort of, and she wasn't here for a language lesson. That did give her an idea, however... What if she could talk one of the males into giving her language lessons? If she decided she liked Jasiri she might try to talk him into it.
"Oh, yes," she said, leaving the linguistics for now, "She's a darling, isn't she? It's Inyoka'dla, the bird that saved that lioness! She ate the snake, and I've seen her catch snakes around here too!"--- Jasiri wasn't aware of any lioness-saving birds and he gave the bird a questioning look. It was large for a bird, but he'd guess that it'd use the size and height to peck out eyes and not to save lives. Well, what did you know? He hadn't even noticed that they had a non-vulture around.
"When did it do that?" he asked, not completely convinced that the grey lioness wasn't playing some kind of prank. This one was new, and he didn't know what kind of lioness she was just yet. She had joined with her sister not long ago.--- Inyoka'dla heard her name and the feathery plumes on her head rose in interest. She opened her beak and fluffed out her head feathers as the lion looked at her. Only a really stupid lion would try to hurt a large, healthy and beautiful bird, but he might be a stupid one.
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 2:30 am
"Oh, you know that group that went to look for a cub," Inkungu explained, "Inyoka'dla came back with them. One of the lionesses was nearly killed by a snake!"
The lioness had only met that group when they came back with Bangizwe, but she had heard the stories by now. It sounded like such excitement! Snakes and thunder strikes and hostile hyenas! She was pleased that the hero-bird called snake-eater wanted to hang out with her. It was such a darling little creature! She smiled at the bird.--- "Right," Jasiri said, still not looking entirely convinced as he turned her head from the weird bird to the smitten lioness. "The rescue party. Good thing they found the cub at least."
It was just a male cub, but it would have been even more stupid to go on this big rescue party where several pride members were hurt, only to find a dead cub. Besides, females tended to care for cubs even if they weren't their own, and he had no interest in getting on their bad side by careless speaking.
He hadn't heard anything about a snake eating bird being involved in the rescue, but he wasn't going to argue about that. He gave the staring bird a sidelong glance and then decided that ignoring it would be the best course of action.--- Inyoka'dla slowly lowered her head feathers as the lion focused elsewhere. When the bird was satisfied that the large predator had lost interest she looked around and then started preening. She was fairly confident that no one would mess with her here. Neat feathers were important, and if there should be trouble she wanted every sinlge one in place.
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 2:51 am
"It must have been horrible for the little dear," Inkungu said, "He must have been so scared out there among the elephants! Oh, and the mother must have been absolutely distraught!"
The Busisa had no cubs of her own, but she desperately wanted some. It was easy for her to relate to the near tragedy. If she lost a cub she was pretty sure she'd throw herself from a cliff or something like that. The horror! She wasn't sure it was as bad for the father since she imagined they wouldn't share the same bond, but she shouldn't assume.
"The father too," she added, and then asked, stepping closer to Jasiri. "Was it one of yours?" --- "Uh, no," Jasiri said, "Not one of mine. My latest litter is nearly fully grown."
His sons had already started to leave, Thanda being the first one to fly the nest, so to speak. Jasiri glanced at the bird, but it was currently bent in an awkward angle doing something to its tail feathers. He wondered how Igazi felt about their sons leaving, but he couldn't think of a way to ask her that. She'd be fine. They'd all be fine. And with some luck Han would give him more cubs... --- Inyoka'dla lifted her head just as the lion looked away again. The bird watched him for a while, but when the yellow lion didn't do anything interesting she fluffed up all her feathers, shook them out and then continued to arrange them to her liking.
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 3:07 am
Inkungu took one more step closer to Jasiri and smiled up at him. He was kind of handsome up close... The fact that he had cubs somehow made him more appealing too, and she'd seen him with a lioness a few days ago. Yeah, this one wasn't bad at all... Definitely a contender.
"That's nice," she cooed, standing very close to him now, "Say, do you stick to only one female, or could you handle more?"Jasiri blinked. This female moved quickly from excited talking to distress to flirting... He smiled back, hoping that she wouldn't bounce to a new set of emotions without warning.
"Well," Jasiri said, "I'm sure I could handle more.""That's good to know," Inkungu said and smiled over her shoulder as she turned her back to him and started to walk away, tail wagging teasingly. "I might have to try your simultaneous capacity later..."
She still had every intention to try out the other two males before deciding, but this one wasn't looking half bad...Jasiri blinked again. Right... Very quick to change her mind, or whatever it was that she was doing.
"Uh, you do that." he called, and then wished he could have come up with something better to say. He watched as the lioness and the bird walked away, wondering if she was just teasing or if she'd come back at a later time.--- Inyoka'dla stopped mid-preen. Time to leave already? She cocked her head at the confused looking male and then started walking after the grey lioness, flicking her tail feathers at Jasiri.-fin-
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