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 Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 3:19 pm
There were few emotions more uncommon upon Kaanga's face then rage. It was often thought that the delicate, strange princess was a soft one. Perhaps, not even truly a firekin. And, maybe some of these accusations were true- she'd always been strange. And she'd always smiled.
But when she was mad, she was very much an angry ball of flame.
"Koka!" She thought to herself as she stormed across the dens, and out into the dunes. After all this! After all this, their bitter, horrible sister dare return to give them grief! Had she returned for the daughter she'd left? No! She doubted that very much. If Koka had come here for any purpose, she didn't doubt it was simply to see if her brother had failed in his rule.
She hoped she was painfully mistaken.
"Mom! Mommy- wait," A voice called from behind her. For a moment, Kaanga was so set in her anger that she hadn't even heard An trying to catch her attention.
When she turned, the child was all but upon her. "Where are you going mom?" An said, her little blue eyes [so much like Mpaji's!] flashing in the bright light. She looked determined, and her tiny little pinprick claws were drawn. "Are we fighting? Let me go with you!"
Kaanga frowned, and pushed her child away with the blunt of her large paw. "An stays. This one has things to do, not for little children. Go back to your father and stay. She will be back in time enough."
"But mom, I can help!" An gasped. "You can't just go off into the desert and-"
"Just as An does!" Kaanga half roared. "When her mother has told her not to! No, An will go home and stay in the den, or she shall be very angry with her! This is not play, daughter."
An frowned, slinking down. She wibbled, and stared at her paws. "But I..."
For a moment, Kaanga's face fell soft. She lightly patted her cub on the side, but firmly redirected her back towards their home. "She is sorry. But if you do this, Kaanga will trust An more to go on her own. That is a fair trade, she thinks."
"But I still want to help..." An squeaked.
"Kaanga does not need help." She reminded firmly, and pointed. "To your father now, and tell him you are to stay there until I'm home."
An nodded, and started to walk back. But as she did, she kept one eye turned onto her mom- a bit regretful that this was one adventure she was not about to be apart of.
Once Kaanga had been sure she had seen the last of the little blonde cub- she wasn't about to have any tricks!, she returned back to her mission. It wasn't hard to find Koka. In a way, she felt she even might have dreamed this meeting. A long time ago.
"Koka!" She called. "She comes home again for all the wrong reasons!"
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Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 3:53 pm
Her tail thumped the soft sand relentlessly as these memories resurface. Useless, every last one of them! The only thing Nyek had been good for was honing her skills. His lineage certainly didn't give her any aid when producing his spawns. Worthles... The lioness growled.
Now, here she was forced to pay homage to Kidondo, her good-too-shoes brother who could do no harm when younger. HA! The lion didn't deserve the throne he sat upon. To think he'd allow outsiders into the land. The blood of the Firekin watered down. Oh yes, she saw the problems with how the pride had been run and agreed that new blood needed to be introduced to keep the pride a live, but it seemed that almost any rogue could enter the pride. There were more pridal members than she could count who would have been almost useless as a slave let alone full fledged members of the pride. What good would their blood do besides ruin the proud Firekin?
It was during her musings that Koka heard her name called over the sands. Pulled from her thoughts, Koka's tail stopped it's frustrated movement as she turned her attention back towards the pridal dens. She didn't see anything besides the visible heat rising from the hot desert. Knowing she had not imagined the ovice, Koka continued to watch and finally the form of a pale lioness appeared over a dune. "Who could it be now?" She muttered to herself. Not truly worried about the visitor Koka didn't bother to rise from her lounged position. Instead she waited patiently for the lion to approach her.
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Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:31 pm
The lack of recognition in Koka's eyes infuriated Kaanga all the more. The sister, who as cubs she had so adored. Her face knit, and she strode as boldly as any queen. Well. She was no child anymore.
"She sits so still," Kaanga curtly remarked as she approached. "Do you not even stand to see your own sister?"
The sister who had remained! At least Kidondo had half the reason. Koka had betrayed her pride long before Kidondo had ever started to plant the seeds for rebellion. And just what cruelty did she design, Kaanga wondered? She snorted as she came to a stop and adjusted her posture. She was angry, but not about to tempt her sister into a conflict. She was well aware that it would be an easy task for Koka to squarely deface her.
But that wasn't the sort of conflict she was seeking. "Here I am, so long she is gone." Kaanga breathed. "What business does she seek here? To cause more trouble and then... simply run off? How unfortunate!"
"But, troubling you with old news is pointless." She spat. "This one is here on a different matter. You are here, my sister. Tell me it is to retrieve the daughter you left!"
She scowled, and her gold eyes flicked to the side. "Although, such a face. She doubts it very much. I am sure our brother has spoken to you, and now shall I. Since it is only we three who seem to remain."
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Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:51 pm
Ah. The white rat, now fully grown. Yes, Koka remembered Kaanga. The strange sister who never seemed to fit in and seemed to baffle their father as much as her siblings. "Why, dear sister, would I need to rise to meet a sibling. I wouldn't even rise to greet Kidondo if giventhe choice, I surely will not bother myself for you."
Looking cooly upon her sibling, the tip of Koka's tail flicked gently in pleasure. Koka never grew tired of the game of wits and wills. Each lion from her past only brought up more pleasure with each outburst from them. Did they not see how pleased she was that she bothered them so? Koka adored being the center of attention, even if it wasn't positive. "No, old news has come and gone dear sister. I'd rather not waste my time with it as I am sure I know enough of it to come to my own conclusions."
At the mention of a daughter, Koka's gleeful flicks of her tail ceased all movement and a flash of anger crossed her face before she quickly recovered. "Ah, so one of the runts stayed? Not that I'd call her a daughter. No. Whether it be Uriah and Tanwen, I can assure you I did not come to retrieve my remaining...spawn."
Koka quirked a brow. "Kaanga, there is nothing you could say to me that I would truly care to hear. I didn't take Kidondo's words to heart and yours will reach no further than his."
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Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:02 pm
"Such cold words she says!" Kaanga spat. "She, who has not known what it is to lose a child. You abandon her so freely. So freely after you sent them to die- to murder our father!" She balked at the very thought of it. What had Koka thought she would do? Steal the throne out from under Kidondo? To proclaim herself the true Queen- when Kimeti's blood stained the paws of another? Although Kaanga knew only from the bitter ramblings of Uriah- she could only imagine that their survival had been only because of their father. Their father...
Her heart hurt, but she steeled it against Koka. Kidondo had done what he had to. Koka, on the other hand. "So inept was she. Careless as she may, this one will say what she came to! I do not know what our brother has said. But I doubt it is the same."
She fixed her posture, and stared at Koka more furiously. "She is sorry for her if it is true, that your heart is so false. Even a rat cares for its young. She wonders, perhaps, what that says of Koka."
"So, I come to convince you. She should do what is right and take her daughter. Why must she ruin a life more then she already has? What does Koka have to gain from this?" Kaanga snapped. "Or are you not only inept at taking the throne, but inept at even feeling? She cares not why you come to harass your brother. Surely you can see he has won. Any bitterness from you is like sour grapes."
"It is only on her behalf that I come to see you. Because I am a mother, and I cannot think such a creature exists. And tainting my blood, for she does not know where such cruelty has emerged from."
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Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:41 am
Koka growled. How -dare- her sister speak such things! This naive lioness knew nothing, NOTHING of what Koka had done in her time outside the pride. Kaanga would never be able to grasp the true devotion Koka had to the pride, that Koka was positive about. Not to mention this nonesense stuff about her daughter. For all Koka cared, Uriah could drop dead at the next mention of her.
Rising from her lounge, Koka squared herself off to Kaanga, head high. Indigo eyes just stared at the female. Oh how she wished to just sink her claws into her sister. "I can assure that, should I ever have the desire to go to Uriah that girl would want nothing to do with me. I won't deny that I was not the most...loving mother. In fact, Uriah and her sister Tanwen were nothing but mere pawns to me and I treated them as such." She shrugged. "It would be no surprise to me if the two of them wouldn't wish for my own death."
Koka stepped towards Kaanga. Her face mere inches from her sister's. "Do not speak about things you know nothing off, Kaanga." She spat her sister's name. "Not all families are perfect. Uriah is old enough to take care of herself. Let her do it." She glared at her sister before turning herself away moving back to the spot which she had risen from quite done with the conversation. She did not need any more lectures from Kaanga the Runt.
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Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:14 am
"But that isn't true at all!" Kaanga gaped. "Children are the most brutally resilient creatures. Perhaps if Kaanga or Koka was your child, they would feel that way! And to be sure, Kaanga would! But how does a child know her mother is cruel when all she has ever known is a cruel mother? Doesn't that child still love her? And at least one of your cubs still do."
But Koka was turning now. She balked and raised her voice. "Don't know of! You are lucky to be able to turn away daughters! My own sons are gone. Gone because of this war. So she has watched after yours, despite her resistance. She does not know what Uriah wants, or that such a thing is any good for her. But you would be a fool to reject it."
Her white tail flicked. She couldn't deny that Uriah was old enough to take care of herself. But Kaanga was getting the feeling that taking care of herself wasn't the issue. Koka had made her daughters reliant upon her. And now that she was gone, at least one was still crushed under the weight of her mother's expectations.
"And don't tell her not all families are perfect." She spat. "Of this, she is quite aware."
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Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:42 am
"I don't care!" Koka whipped around again to face Kaanga, this time forc ing herself upon the other lioness with all intentions of making her sister back away. "Get that through your skull Kaanga. I -Do-not-care- what happens to Uriah. I never have and I never will." Her voice continuelly grew softer until it was nothing but an angry, hateful growl. "Just because you are having issues with having lost cubs does not mean that I am missing my daughter."
She licked her maw, eyes never wavering from Kaanga's. "I don't want anything to do with her. Nothing..." She pushed herself towards Kaanga again. "It's you're own business if you want to care for her. Uriah is grown. If she needs another lioness to lean on at this point in her life than she is hardly a daughter of mine."
Unexpectantly Koka whipped her paw out, and pushed at Kaanga's shoulder to knock the female to the ground. As much as she wished it, Koka dared not do more, nor put a mark on her 'dear' sisters body. "If you know that all aren't perfect, than accept that mine isn't and never will be and let me do what I wish with my own daughters."
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Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:14 am
Kaanga took a few cautious steps back as Koka moved towards her with such force. It hadn't occured to her that Koka might attack. Or maybe, on some level, it had. But she steeled herself for the moment, and let Koka yell in her face. "Then you are a fool," Kaanga muttered. "What good have you ever done? Those children could be the only thing, and you throw them away like garbage!"
But while Kaanga might have been able to hold her own in her strange way, she was nothing when it came to fighting. The force from Koka's paw sent her down against the hot sand in a small puff of dust. Bitterly, she hissed, but did nothing more to retaliate. She wasn't the fighting sort- and simply, she did not believe Koka would attack further. Not so close to the pridelands, anyways.
"There is not perfect," Kaanga winced. "And then there is what Koka has created. And the gap between them is like the Motoujamii itself."
Once Koka had backed off, she slowly rose back up, rubbing a smudge of dust from her face. "...She only wishes they could hear such words. And maybe then, they'd be free of you."
But for now, Kaanga had said her peace. She wasn't about to instigate Koka into a fight. Even though she felt as strong as she did- she had her own children to look after. And an injury would not suffice them. "But I have said what I will. Now that I am sure. She hopes you do not stay much longer. Motoujamii does not welcome such... princesses."
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:20 pm
Koka glared after her sister. The words spoken by Kaanga fell on deaf ears. The black lioness wanted nothing to do with Uriah and had decided on that back when she abandoned her two daughters. The lioness was not the motherly type, let alone the type to even want to have any sort of family. No, Koka's heart was already set on something else and, because of it, she had steeled her heart against anything else that could possibly get in her way.
"Welcomed or not Kaanga I am here." She smirked.
With that said, Koka turned and moved back to the dune she had been lounging upon. Without even a backward glance to her sister, Koka settled back down upon the warm sands.
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:40 pm
"So you are," Kaanga said, mostly to herself. But for what purpose then, if not for her daughters? She winced slightly as she started to walk back, shaking the sand off from her body. And furthermore- what was she to do now?
Koka had not come for her daughters. Uriah was still out living in the wilds. The only way to rectify this situation, Kaanga thought, was to bring her niece back into the family. To break her away from this ridiculous hold Koka had over her. But so far, the girl had been unreceptive to her. She found Kaanga strange, foreign, and even dumb. She did not respond to love like a normal child.
And now, she was pretty sure she knew why.
Kaanga gave one last look towards her sister and narrowed her golden eyes. Koka. Well, she'd find a way to fix this, one way or another. There had to be a way to undo the damage she had caused. To reunite the family- as it should be!
But where to start... even Kaanga wasn't sure. For now, she contented herself to returning to her own family.
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