[PRP] Empty Spaces [Aberforth x Mapatano]

[wooga Paes]

It was pretty empty lately. Mapatano perked his ears, looking around. This was like some sort of ghost town. The black lion kept on moving. It was dusk, and Hisa wasn't so pleased with being up this late. She was no owl, and slept fairly early. Birds usually slept early. but because of how restless her bonded was, she was being forced to follow him.

"Mapa, lets go home. " She said, swooping closer to him. Her sight wasn't good, and the little light that remained was just enough for her to get to the cave they shared in the valley's walls. Normally she'd perch on his back, but his injuries weren't still so well, and she feared she could damage them. Especially the one that was, in fact, on his back.

Unlike Hisa, Mapatano had no problem staying up late, and flicked his ear dismissively. "You can go. I'm going to go drink water. I'll join you soon. " The red kite eyed him suspiciously; she couldn't trust him. Mapatano had been a little strange since everything had happened, but she supposed it was expected. Another reason for her hesitance was Mapatano had killed Machafuko, Msiba and Mchawi's younger sibling. To her it didn't seem half unlikely that they'd lurk aorund and wait for a chance to avenge him. "Fine. " She mumbled, then veered off, making her quick way towards home, using the sky as a shortcut.

Alone, the black lion continued his way towards the lake. Yes, the lands did seem quite empty around here. But then again, this was a place most lions went to relax or drink water.. everyone was probably busier. And it was dusk.

With a sigh, the dark lion flopped next to the water, on top of a stone and let a paw fall into it, wiggling his toes slightly. He hadn't truly wanted to drink, he simply wanted to think a bit.  

[Cajanic]

Good God, what the hell had he been thinking?

Whimpering, the small male looked about the darkened lands, suddenly feeling much like a stranger in a foreign place. Everything looked so different in the eerie setting, the male still too busy getting used to things to fully know which way he was supposed to go to get back to his den. He must have taken a wrong turn; it was the only reason as to why it was taking him so long to get back. Normally the trip was short. Maybe he was walking in circles?

Wouldn’t surprise him; he was a completely hopeless creature when it came down to, well, just about anything he needed to do on his own.

Uchungu had flown ahead, feeling tired and wanting to just settle in for the night. She had been confident that Aberforth remembered enough to drag his own butt home unsupervised. A confidence, unfortunately, the white male did not share in himself. He had known all along that he would get himself lost. The only reason he had kept himself from begging her to stay was because he knew she wanted to rest and felt guilty trying to keep her from it.

Now he wished he had forced her to lead him.

Whimpering to himself, he found he was not heading towards his den at all. Rather, he had stumbled upon the lake he had visited just the other day. And, to make matters worse, there was another lion there. At least, he thought it was a lion. It looked large and black and seemed to be breathing. Moving carefully towards the water, he started to tremble, worried that getting a drink might get him jumped. Thinking the other to be sleeping, he tried not to make a sound as he moved.  

[wooga Paes]

Mapatano turned his eyes at the movement, focusing on the white lion, tensing slightly. At first, the white had brought the clear image of Msiba, and he went into a short alarm for a moment. However, the stature of the lion wasn't like what he imagines Msiba would be. No, it was shaky, uneasy, and the mane.. was all wrong. In the dark, it took a few moments to in fact realize most of the lions mane was missing, but once he did, he was quick to identify him. "Aberforth. " Mapatano sat up.

"So you found your way back as well. " The dark lions tail flicked to settle on his paws. In the light, any feature besides his outline was unidentifiable, save, perhaps, his violet eyes. He'd always been good with names; it was likely he knew everyone in the pride by them.  

[Cajanic]

“Eep!” whooped the male in shock, the large breathing mass’ voice startling him just enough to make him lose balance and topple over sideways into the water. Now, Aberforth had been expecting that the body had speech capabilities, but that thought alone apparently hadn’t been enough to keep him from getting surprised by the voice.

Sitting up in the water, the male could only imagined how he looked, half a mane stringy and dripping with water as it hung in front of his face. Peering through the gray, Aberforth offered a weak smile at the other lion, sheepish and ashamed.

“Y-yes,” he replied once he found the means to do so, getting up and moving out of the shallow portion of the lake, “I got back just the other day… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to disturb you… uh… you. I couldn’t find my way home and ended up coming here instead…”

The more he spoke, the more he felt more embarrassed.
 

[wooga Paes]

He tilted his head slightly, wrinkling his nose. Were you always this jumpy? " He grumbled, flicking his tail. He frowned slightly. He... couldn't.. find... his way... home. Woa. That was.. pleasant.

"Not disturbing at all. " He shrugged. The lake belonged to everyone, after all. "Nice that you're back, though. Have you started hunting yet? " He asked calmly, crossing his front paws. He couldn't imagine this white lion to be too good a hunter, but.. well, Mapatano could pick up his slack, much to Hisa's dismay. Since everything happened, Mapatano had really been overworking himself, despite injuries, and he didn't care.  

[Cajanic]

“I don’t remember,” admitted Aberforth thoughtfully, taking a step from the male. He didn’t seem like the friendliest guy in the world. He maybe needed to haul his a** out of there before something bad happened.

Aberforth couldn’t fight his way out of a bush.

“I haven’t,” he again said in honesty, “I’ve been… trying to settle in again. I was away after the quake. Though I guess you already know that…” the name was still not coming to him. Then, seemingly out of no where, he remembered it; Mapatano. He recalled this black male to be a hunter, though most of the facts were still fuzzy to him. It didn’t matter. He had remembered a name! Finally. “Mapatano!” he said with more delight than he had intended, “that’s your name, right?” Please be right.
 

[wooga Paes]

Mapatano watched the white male, and had to make an effort to hide amusement. Was he.. afraid? He shook his head, concealing a smirk and making an effort so that, when he spoke again, there was no hint of a chuckle in his voice. "One figures. " He said, twitching his tailtip.

He didn't mind the hunting bit, though it certainly would be best if everyone tried hunting for now, he couldn't blame the poor fool. Besides, he wasn't the all-powerful boss, who was he to judge?

"Yes, Mapatano. You don't look like you remember anything. " His name was probably somewhat known through the pride. Mapatano was hardly a hero, but he was royalty by bloodline, and his father certainly would have gained him some reputation. The dark lion was used to being recognized by anyone in the pride.  

[Cajanic]

“No,” Aberforth admitted with a little bit of shame in his tone, “Well, I remember some things… now… but before, just after the disaster, I couldn’t remember anything at all. I wandered around until Uchungu found me and was able to help me remember some things about this place and about my past. But… I’m getting better!” he offered, not wanting Mapatano to think him a complete waste of time. Just because he had some memory issues didn’t mean he was useless.

The fact that he couldn’t hunt very well, had half a man and had very little idea how to function in a pride were reasons enough.

“Your name is the first one I’ve been able to remember off the top of my head,” he said with a faint, nervous smile, “so that had to be a good thing. For me, anyway. I guess it wouldn’t mean much to you… sir.” He didn’t know why, but he felt he should probably be more respectful to this lion than some of the others.

Just in case.
 

[wooga Paes]

He twitched an ear, considering this for a moment. "Before the earthquake, you say. " He tilted his head. "Huh. I've heard about memory loss. Funny to actually see it. " he didn't know whether it looked particularly dumb on this lion or if it looked dumb in general.

Well, perhaps it had to be confusing.

At the mention of remembering him, Mapatano didn't know whether he should praise this kid or mock him. Being remembered wasn't always a good thing, in his case. and even when it was a good thing, he didn't like it. Mapatano was hardly an attention-seeker when it came to good things, he was simply not used to them.

"I see. " His tail tip curled slightly. "You were alone, then. Besides Uchungu. "  

[Cajanic]

“Funny?” repeated the awkward lion with a thoughtful frown, “I’m not sure that’s the word I would use to describe it… but I guess.” Eyeing the floor for a moment, he mused over the content of the remark. Maybe it wasn’t anything more than a passing comment and he was reading too much into it. Wouldn’t be the first time. Then again, wouldn’t be the first time someone was subtly mocking him, either.

Deciding to give it no further attention, Aberforth drew his eyes back to Mapatano. This lion was certainly an intimidating one, but he didn’t outright fear the creature. Maybe that was because he had no reason to- after all, they were in the same pride together. It would be silly to be frightened of a brother.

Being nervous, however, seemed perfectly normal to the white wimp.

“Yes,” he replied, “I was alone. I sort of… hid myself for the most part, because I didn’t know who to trust and who was an enemy. It was all very… strange. And terrifying. I’m glad to be here again, where it’s at least familiar.”  

[wooga Paes]

"I say funny as in strange-funn. Not ha-ha funny. " He snorted. Defensive little guy, wasn't he? To mock.. Well, Mapatano could do worse. Much, much worse.

Hiding away. That was a simple way to solve things; at one point he'd done it himself, jsut after his father had been banished. He hadn't so much hid as kept quiet, sulking about in the corners for a while. Like he'd had a choice in the matter, though. Oh, the shunning, it was great. He did not miss it. "Whatever suits you, I suppose. " He shrugged. He wasn't really interested in hearing about this fool's life and insecurities.

In most part, he was somewhat curious about the whole memory-losing bit. After all, he'd never seen it.

"How much has come back, then?  

[Cajanic]

“I see, I’m sorry,” the male hummed in reply to the curt reply, “I was just… nevermind. It’s not important. I hadn’t meant it in a bad way.”

Aberforth couldn’t help but smile. It was a strange thing to ask him how much had returned- considering he had no idea what hadn’t come back to him so there really was no way of knowing just how much of his memory was still lost to him, and what was just the normal vanquishing of memories to time.

Still, he could at least attempt to answer based off what he assumed to be unnatural spans of lost moments in his life.

“Well… I don’t really remember anything about my childhood. Most of the knowledge I have comes from my companion, and not from actual memory. So, I know things that happened, but I can’t recall the moments. Sometimes I think she’s just making up parts of my past to mess with me, because she knows I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anyway until I remember on my own. As far as what I do remember, a lot about the pride… about my later life. Certain figures and names… everything just before the accident is pretty clear to me now. Mostly, it’s just fragments of a life I’m not sure I want to remember anyway.”