For once, Mio was spending some time with Zahi. The two had had a long way to go after the incident before the girls' birth, and though there were obvious reprocussions for what had happened, all the girls were growing up healthy. Mio was always a little nervous around Zahi, because as much as he promised to be better, it was hard for him to lose his habits.
"I wish you would stop doing that," he grumbled as she cleaned his mane for him. A Lord always needed to look proper, even if he had nothing courtly to wear like she did. Instead, she would spend her time making sure his mane was clean, and the braid well done. It was difficult at first, and though she had much help, she wanted to figure out how to do it with her own paws. Fumbling a little, she sighed and stopped what she was doing. "What now?" she asked, her voice light and soft.
"Stop just letting anyone in," he grumbled. "Never know what kind of baggage they're carrying into our House. I don't want any damn trouble, you make enough of it already." He shifted himself a little, laying on his stomache as she draped half of herself on his shoulders, pulling out the dead leaves and twigs that clung to his mane inceaseantly. She gave him quite a look, but as she was facing the back of his head he couldn't see it. "Oh, like you don't have enough baggage on you," she said, reaching over to poke his tummy. She only recieved a growl in response, and the Lady giggled.
"That poor girl had been abused by Akasha, what else was I to do?" She shook her head. "I can't believe that Akasha would even go that far. If Die hadn't been there to witness it, I might not have been able to give her the proper punishment." Grudgingly, Zahi agreed. "Outright attack isn't right, I admit. I just wish you'd turn more of these stragglers away; we've got a House full of nothing but misfits at this point."
Mio laughed. "Maybe. Can you believe how quickly she had that tryst with Prince Tyro?" No one was expecting that, that was certain. "Poor things will grow up without a father." She felt a little sad at that, but honestly, there was nothing she could do about it. SHe wasn't about to demand anything, and besides, there had been many cubs in their House with only one parent. Her heart stung as she remembered that litter that Zahi had fathered, with a goddess no less. It would always sting, especially that little girl that looked so much like him, that didn't come from her own womb. They certainly knew of their heritage, as Mio was aware of the power of Seers and how they most commonly got their powers. Regardless, no friciton had come of it, and Mio had to be sweet to them. It wasn't their fault how they were brought into the world.
"We are quite a House of misfits, huh? Cerativity almost doesn't fit, unless you coencide it with diversity." Her tail twitched as she pondered this, going back to plucking out the impurities of Zahi's deep violet mane.
"MIO!"
A voice broke through their content silence. Mio didn't turn around immediately. She could hear Nia's voice trying to calm the unexpected visitor. Her heart skipped. "Please, no..." she whispered, closing her eyes and wishing she was a million miles away from here.
Zahi snarled, displeased at the fact that someone disturbed their time together. He saw...no, that wasn't Nia, but it was very obviously a sibling of her's. His eyes narrowed at the lady-in-waiting, scrutinizing her. "Explain this," he demanded, Mio still trembling as she draped over his shoulders. She didn't want to move.
Nia bowed her head, ears flattened against her skull. "L-lord, this is my broth-"
Rhy cut in, amazed that someone had spoken to his sister in that manner. "How dare you talk down to my sister like that!" Nia tried to pull him down, to remind him of his manners, but as they grew up in a very open pride, all of this was foreign to him.
Zahi sneered, "And who do you think you are, to speak to a Lord of these lands like that? I can have you beheaded at once, and I've got just the one to do it, too." Akasha may be under discipline, but it would be quite a way for her to redeem herself in his eyes. He stood up, Mio slipping off of him and landing on the ground with a soft thump. This made everyone's attention move to her for a moment, and it was all that Rhy needed.
"Mio! Mio, it's me, Rhy! Please, please turn around and let me see you." He started towards her, and Mio could hear Zahi ready to attack him. Again, for a moment, Mio wondered if she was only a prize to Zahi, and not something he actually loved. Would she ever know that?
She slowly turned around, and it was apparent that she had been crying. Her eyes were glossy with unshed tears, and her cheeks were slightly damp with what tears had been shed.
It made everyone stop in their tracks.
She tried hard to gather up her voice, but again she felt all the emotional abuse and neglect she had endured for moons crash into her. She couldn't take this. Why? WHy did this have to happen? Her mind rushed through so many thoughts. Was she happy here? Would she be happy in her homeland? Why didn't Zahi just kill her when he had taken her?
"Why are you here?" she finally whispered, as it carried itself to Nia, Zahi, and Rhy. The most simple of questions, and yet the hardest answer to listen to.
Rhy was shocked for a moment. "Why?" he asked, a nervous laugh escaping his throat. "Why do you think? I've come to take you home. Mio..."
Zahi interjected. "She is home!" Mio cringed as she felt his anger grow. She was worried that she would recieve the brunt of it, but that was something to worry about later. "I am home," she replied. Her voice cracked, making it all the less believable than she wanted it to sound. It was her home, but doubts flooded her mind, not leaving her alone.
Rhy couldn't believe what he was hearing. "No! This isn't home, Mio! Home is with the grasslands, with the stuffy elders, our families. Our simple way of life! Home isn't this, where there's hierarcy and beheadings!" He rushed towards her, grunting and snarling when Zahi ran into him.
"Don't touch her," Zahi warned, putting his body in an offensive form, blocking Rhy from getting any closer to Mio. The noise had begun to stir the rest of the House that was around, but smartly none of them showed that they were aware of what was going on, somewhat.
"Mio! Why do you let this heathen do this? You know just as much as I how much I love you! Mio, please, let's return and forget this, start our lives together! I know you love me as much as I love you!" Rhy cried out to her, struggling against the violet male.
Mio cringed at those words, and felt herself curling up in a ball, sobbing. "No, no!" she screamed, not wanting to hear this anymore. Nia rushed over to her, to try and calm her down. Nia glared up at her brother with anger, "I warned you. I told you!!"
Zahi sneered at the stupid boy. "You have nothing," he said, which only angered Rhy. They scuffled for a while, and Mio couldn't bear it. She couldn't take this. Why did this have to happen?
"Why did you come here?" she yelled, feeling anger mixing in with her despair. "WHy did you have to interrupt my life?" She sobbed. "I know you never came looking for me, Nia told me. You just ignored it all, ignored her. You neglected me! You never came to find me, and oh how I hoped. I hoped for so long, and yet you never came!" Her voice became shrill at the end, and this made the two males fight again.
Mio curled into Nia's chest, shaking her head. "I don't love him any more, Nia. I don't, I swear I don't." Nia only licked the top of Mio's head, cooing words of understanding as the chaos erupted around them. The attendants had managed to keep everyone away, but the royal guards couldn't be controlled by them. They onyl listen to the Lord.
Mio cried out, "Stop!"
The lions stopped for a while, both of them bloody from teeth and claws marks, their chests heaving as they filled their lungs with air. Rhy was worse for wear, and Zahi had been a fighter and murderer in the years before he had taken Mio.
The silence grew as the tension mounted. Mio was still crying, and no one noticed when another face appeared in the clearing.
"Mother?" Ria asked quietly, not sure how to take this scene. No one was blind to how her father treated her mother sometimes. But why was there a male that looked like Aunt Nia? "Mother?" she called again, and all eyes turned to the adolescent as she made her way to her crying mother. Nia's skin crawled at the appearance of Mio's daughter. This was going to get worse, fast.
Rhy was stunned, and disgusted. "What?" he asked flatly, glarind at the petite thin adolescent as she only cared about her mother's predicament than her father's. "What?!" he asked again as silence grew. Zahi wasn't sure what to say, and worried that if he did say something Rhy would take that moment to get past him.
Nia felt ashamed that she didn't tell him of Mio's children, and looked away from her brother.
"Why won't anyone tell me anything?!" he roared out of frustration. Silence still was his only reply.
Finally, Ria raised from her mother's side, glaring down at the male that was so much like Aunt Nia. "You've destroyed our peace, my mother's happiness, and my father's authority." She raised her chin in defiance against his blatant disregard for authority. What a b*****d.
Rhy stumbled through his words, his attention returning to Mio. SHe had begun to calm down a little, but still couldn't look at him. SHe had her face buried in Nia's fluffy chest, all cried out, her breathing irregular. "You? You had...children?" Ria was a blended mix of her parents, and there was no denying it. He felt his skin grow cold as he looked at Ria's glare. "With him?!" he stammered, in denial. "What that b*****d?" he backed up a few steps, disgusted. "I can tell what he's done to you, Mio. You know I would have never treated you like that, and yet you still deny that we were ever to become mates?" What the hell had happened here?
Mio clung to Nia, and Nia could only say "I warned you." Ria on the other had, had quite a mouthful for this stupid stranger that was obviously still living in the past. Ria didn't know everything about her parents, but she didn't care. She was going to defend them. She stopped up next to her father, daring that stupid male to go any closer to her.
"You're the one who's obviously stupid here," she exclaimed, anger seething out of her words. "Mother has never spoken of you before, and it's obvious that Father doesn't know a single thing about you. All this crap must have been when you were my age, a stupid little boy who thought that he knew what love was. Things change, but you're still living in the past!" She snarled at him, and it was quite unladylike for the Heir to the West House. "You dare come here and disrupt our lives, traumatize my mother and attack my father. You aren't wanted here, Mother wouldn't leave here for anything.
Mio still didn't look up. "Please, Rhy. We were so much younger than. Things happened, and I changed with it. You need to accept this.." and her voice trailed off, her head feeling too heavy to raise again.
Rhy couldn't believe it. "Things changed because he took advantage of you! You would never have done any of this willingly. You're too sweet to have to deal with all of this..."
Zahi cut in again, angry that someone was trying to confront him in a round-about way. "If you've got a damn problem, you can just suck it up. Mio is mine, and she's not going anywhere."
Mio only swallowed his words as more doubt to their relationship, but she didn't say anything. She wasn't going to return to her homeland again, and she knew it. She wouldn't be able to face her parents regardless. Not with how her relationship with Zahi developed and what it turned into.
"Rhy, please.." she said desperately. "You've been hiding for too long. It's not going to work."
Ria snorted at him, lingering near her father as she had never really gotten the chance to do so before. SHe didn't dare try and treat and of his wounds, but she felt that much more loved just being near him.
Nia didn't know what to say. She bent down close to Mio's ear, whispering that she was so sorry for this. She didn't think that her brother would turn this desperate, this angry, or this horrible. She was ashamed.
Rhy didn't know wha to think. He couldn't believe that she had just thrown her love away like that. What they had was pure, soemthing special. So a little bump had popped up along the way. That didn't mean that they were going to throw everything away for it?
He looked again at Ria, reminding himself that she was gone. There was no going back after she had bore someone else's child. Bitterness swept over his heart. He took one more long look at Mio, only able to see her back curled, her face hidden by Nia.
Taking a couple more steps back, Rhy turned around, disappearing into the jungle as quickly as he could, his heart shattered.
After it was obvious that he wasn't coming back, Zahi ordered his guards. "Kill him if you see him!"
Mio only sobbed when she heard his order.
