((^ Crappy title. Because Moon is uncreative like that xDD))
The cubs were sleeping, and Yin was watching the sky from the mouth of the den. Out in the desert it was always littered with stars, bright and beautiful. It was perhaps the one benefit of rarely ever seeing a single cloud. The moon was shining brightly too, giving off plenty of light. It was late, and she wasn't sure what woke her, but she was restless and unwilling to leave without a word. She glanced past the pile of sleeping cubs and towards her sleeping mate with a small smile, tail lashing about calmly behind her across the den floor. If he'd wake up that would really be too perfect. Yin was feeling playful, and this was the best time for them to get some privacy.
--
Typical nights went smoothly for Azarax. He had learned long ago that being able to restore and conserve energy was the key to survival under any conditions, and it was rare that he didn’t shut his eyes for sleep and dream the night away until morning.
Always taking precautions, the tan lion had fallen asleep between the cubs and the den mouth. They were older now, and much more capable of taking care of themselves than they had been even a moon ago, but their size did little to convince him that they no longer needed protection. Where he slept ensured that, if any of the cubs woke up in the night and felt the need to break for freedom, they would have to first climb over him and wake him up.
As always, though, one of the cubs had gotten too close. In his sleep, it was difficult to tell which one as the little furry body squirmed against in a fitful dream. He suppressed the instinct to bat the child away, flattening his ears to reenter the zen-like state of sleep he had been in only moments before.
Another squirm.
This time, Azarax opened his eyes with a low huff, and peered down at the offending cub. A twitching pink nose and irregular stripes greeted him. Atesh. Of course.
--
"Looks like it's a restless night for all of us." Her voice came softly, given the hour, but also carried the sounds of a smile. She stood quietly and moved away from the mouth of the den again in the shadow of their den, leaning out to brush her head against his softly with a tender nuzzle. "Are they all still sleeping, love?" She purred quietly, dark eyes peering back at the familiar face framed by that halo of red.
--
A smile grew on his face at the sound of her voice. Reaching out to return the nuzzle, he rose gently to his feet, careful not to shift the sleeping cubs as he did so. “Yes,” he replied, his voice as hushed as hers as he cast his gaze down at the bundles of fur. With Azarax’s warmth suddenly gone, Atesh had found his way blindly back to his siblings, cuddling against them with a small satisfied grin plastered across his sleeping face. “Just a bad dream, I suppose.” He added after a moment’s pause. Sometimes, he worried about the boy, but Atesh always managed to dispel Azarax’s fears by throwing his heart and soul into his soldier training. He never hesitated, that boy. Somehow, he never felt the need to.
“Have you been up a while?” Satisfied that the cubs were all as sound asleep as he had thought, he returned his gaze to his mate, and at once found himself swimming in the depths of her hypnotic dark eyes.
--
Her purring continued softly, picking up and fading off a little, stepping closer to lean into her mate a bit as they took to watching the children for a moment. Even Korofi seemed to be deeply asleep, which was a miracle in and of itself. "Hmm..."
It didn't surprise her much that Atesh seemed past whatever it was that had been troubling his dreams, he was that type of lion, even at that young age. It made her proud, not that she wasn't already but, more so she supposed.
"For a bit, I've been watching the stars. The moon's had time to move a bit since I woke up."
She wasn't sure exactly how long for, but enough if the moon had moved positions already. She took a playful n** at his shoulder.
"It seems like this is the first time we've been really 'alone' like this in ages." Not that she complained, she loved her life there dearly, loved their family more than life itself, would protect it with tooth and claw until the last drop of her blood had been spilled, but none the less it had been a good while.
--
He chuckled, wondering how tired either of them would be come morning. The still night was enticing, but he knew well the stress of waking up halfway through the night. “You know, love, when they tell you sleep is good for you, they aren’t lying.” He grinned, brushing his nose gently across her face, eyes twinkling. As if either of them would consider going back to sleep, now that it had been established that they were alone. Or, at least, alone in their wakefulness.
--
"Oh, imagine that? And all this time I've been so sure that I'd wake up with green spots one day." Yin grinned, giggling shortly after as his breath tickled her a bit. Shutting her eyes with a purr, she brushed her head against his cheek and down against his neck-- well, over his mane --in return. "I don't think you're ready to go back to sleep either though... The world is ours for a while. Whatever should we do with the time?"
--
“I beg to differ,” he sniffed in feigned indignation, enjoying the caress as he let his eyelids flutter halfway shut lazily. “I am all for going back to sleep, but I imagine sleep would come slowly when a beautiful lioness stares me right in the eyes.” He inhaled her familiar scent, breathing deep and taking comfort in the feeling of home and belonging that Yin’s presence inspired in him. There were times, like this, when he wished he knew enough words to properly describe how beautiful she was to him, and how much he loved her. “Mm,” He chuckled, opening his eyes. “Whatever, indeed.”
--
His mate would grant him a slow grin at that. "Oh it will, hm?" She replied to the compliment, kissing his cheek, moving to lean into him. "I think they'll be alright for a little bit if we leave Chacha to watch them..."
Her little messenger bird that slept outside on a ledge, she'd met him on one of her preliminary journeys around the territory, half dead, and after nursing him to health again (She took pity on the poor eagle, perhaps more so because he almost resembled her.) he chose to stay with her. He was a good ally in the desert, more than capable of dealing with the local snakes, being born to the Dawnwalker pride, she'd been delighted to learn.
--
“A walk, then?” He suggested with a nod. He wasn’t worried about the cubs, as long as there was someone to watch over them. So far into the pridelands, it was unlikely that any outsiders would have managed to come close, and although he was always on the lookout due both to common practice and suspicion, he trusted the Firekin. Not to mention the ungodly hour of night. He doubted that many lions were as foolish as he and Yin, to be up and about at this time.
Oh, but to be a fool. He had no complaints about that.
--
"Hm, yes, that sounds like a good idea." She purred, leaning against him again briefly before glancing over the cubs once more to be sure that none were secretly awake. Only steady breathing met both her eyes and her ears in the darkness. She slipped out ahead, moving to the left of the den entrance to gently rouse Chacha, asking him to keep watch on the den for them. She didn't worry about lions, simply snakes, which were the only other real threat this far into the lands. She looked back to her mate then, seeking his familiar sand colored coat and striking red mane in the light of the moon with a soft smile.
--
He followed closely after her, smiling thankfully at Chacha as he passed. The dunes were awash with the pale glow of the moonlight, the entire landscape rendered vivid hues of grays and blacks to Azarax’s eyes. What he couldn’t see in color, he made up for in night vision and motion detection, and the slightest movement in the dark caught his attention.
He angled toward one of his preferred spots, a sand dune that rose higher than most others. From there, they would be able to see the vast expanse of the desert, and the sky would only seem that much closer. “Look at the stars, love,” he said, tilting his head up. They were as they always were, gently blinking pinpoints of light against the dark night. And yet, they never seemed any less breathtaking.
--
She followed once Azarax took the lead, eyes on his form in the light for a bit as they went. She only slowed to a stop as they reached their destination, one she recognized as a place he was clearly well familiar with. So, coming to stand beside him Yin-li directed her gaze skyward as well. "Hmm... They seem so bright tonight...!"
They did every night really, but they truly did seem more luminous than usual, maybe her present company was to thank for that. Yin smiled, staring at them all, trying to take them all in.
"It's beautiful... you could never see the stars this well in the jungle." She sighed softly.
--
It always made him wonder when she mentioned the jungle. His limited – nonexistent, rather – experience with the world outside of the desert lent him great difficulty in imagining a world without sand, one in which trees stood in abundance with ample shade to block the heat of the sun, but although he did pause to contemplate the world beyond the pride, there was little in the world that might ever have persuaded him to leave, even just for a little bit.
“Hm. Tell me about the jungle?” He gazed toward the distant border of the pridelands, that thin line between desert and the world beyond, where he knew others had gone before and others to come would go. Where Uddhava had gone. His ears flattened of their own accord, briefly, at the thought of the golden lion, and Azarax wondered where his adventures had brought him.
--
Yin considered this request carefully, how to explain? The first thought that came to mind with the jungle was green, but you couldn't describe colors to someone that had never seen them (Which made her feel guilty for a moment in turn.). Luckily there was one such place in their expanse of territory that she could explain.
"It's just like the oasis, only it's much larger. The ground is darker, packed, hard, like... soft rock. They have snakes too, like here, but they're enourmous! Then there's the weather..." She smiled. "The air is heavy... thick..."
--
He imagined the land covered with trees, the land solid and unmoving. He thought of the snakes, wondered about the air. Heavy air, that was quite unlike anything he had ever experienced. Indeed, everything she had described was foreign, as he had expected, and try as he might to imagine living in such a place, he couldn’t. It didn’t come as a surprise that he couldn’t quite picture himself – or anyone, for that matter – living anywhere outside of the desert.
But a land dominated by the oasis… the thought was an interesting one, to say the least, and he supposed that it only made sense that creatures could live in such a place and thrive. The mere mention of the oasis alone made it seem as if the world outside was much less harsh than the desert itself.
“Did you like there?” He wondered aloud.
--
"It was different... Our mother was born to a place like it, but we were born here. It was hard to adjust even just temporarily.... I suppose, there were aspects of it I enjoyed, the flowers were nice, and the abundance of water, but not particularly, no." Yin-li answered truthfully, leaning over to brush her head against her mate's again, purring quietly. "I missed the sand and the dry heat too much. If we hadn't gone to live with the Dawnwalkers then I likely would have left on my own. The desert is the only place for me now."
With you is the only place for me now.
Was added silently.
--
Though Azarax himself had never felt the urge to leave the desert or explore, it reassured him to know that his choices had been the right ones. If Yin had found it difficult, if she hadn’t particularly enjoyed being away, then he couldn’t imagine that he would have thought any differently. The desert was where he belonged.
“But you know that if you ever had to leave, I would leave with you,” He nuzzled back at her, his own purr, deeper than hers, joining in. It didn’t matter that he would have hated to leave the desert. It would have been meaningless without her.
--
Somehow this did manage to surprise her. Azarax and the desert just seemed so much a part of one another, she couldn't picture one without the other, and she certainly couldn't picture him making home anywhere else. The depth of the meaning in such a statement took her off guard just a little bit.
It wasn't surprising because she doubted his feelings, but to hear him say it so easily...
"Oh, Azarax..." She replied softly, giving into his touch just as he had already given into hers, keeping it going once she recovered from her slight shock. "I love you, too... I'd follow you anywhere as well."
--
He smiled, and though he meant his words with all his heart, he was still glad to know that the chances of the two of them ever having to leave were slim at best, almost nonexistent. He couldn’t foretell what would happen in the years to come for the rest of their lives, but he could say with reasonable conviction that they would be remaining in the desert where they had both been born. It wouldn’t have been easy to leave behind the few memories he had of his family – the one that had existed, if he could have called it that, before Yin. His mother, his sister, his brother, none of whom he had known well at all, but who still resided in a special place in his memory.
“You needn’t follow me anywhere,” he said with a light laugh. “I would stand in this spot forever, if only so you wouldn’t have to wander far to find me.”
--
The plainly decorated lioness giggled a bit, feeling light hearted with their easy going back and forth, but found that he seemed to have "won" their little round of romantic banter. She concluded the topic of home, at least, with: "Then we're definitely in agreement... this is our home, now and forever, where our hearts are."
Her gaze then drifted back up to the stars. With Chacha looking after the little ones back at the den and just the two of them to stare up into the quiet expanse of sand and stars she couldn't help wondering. Years from now would they still be able to return to this spot?
"... You know... the thing that I missed the most about the desert when we were living in the jungle, we couldn't see the stars... Too much green... too many leaves, they blocked out the view of the stars and the moon. Such a sight is much too beautiful to hide away like that. A sin."
Her weight pressed gently against him then, eyes closing.
"I never want to lose sight of my stars..."
--
Again, it occurred to him what a strange world it must be outside of the desert. Too much green? Too many leaves? He didn’t doubt in the slightest that Yin’s impression of the jungle was accurate, but it still struck him as a bizarre way to feel, after having spent his life feeling joy at the mere sight of trees. They had always symbolized water and a certain serenity that seemed to enclose the oases.
But she was right, as she always was. A life without stars was not such a great life. Stars were one of those wonders that never ceased to amaze the tan lion, and he couldn’t help but feel pity for any creature that couldn’t simply lift its head and be able to watch the stars dancing in the night sky.
He felt the light press of her body as she leaned against him, and held himself still to bear the weight, leaning his muzzle down to brush the tip of her ear as she closed her eyes. “You won’t, love,” he promised. He would make sure of that.
