Nikon sighed, her dark ears laid back as she prowled through the burning pridelands, orange eyes narrowed with irritation. Why did the sun have to favor the pale-furred lionesses so? Yet again it was another nearly unbearably hot day, the celestial orb hanging low and smoldering in the sky. It was almost enough to make the lioness want to find a patch of shade to lay in out of a vain hope for a chance at cooling off.
But she’d done that for most of yesterday. It was incredibly dull. So she was going to do something else today instead. Besides, she was surely the best. And the best did not give in to a little heat! Tail flicking, she looked around idly, before her eyes fell on a somewhat larger figure in the near distance. Well well, at least he was a pretty boy, with that lovely dark fur. But, like other males, he probably didn’t do much. The lionesses did all the hunting after all, and for all he’d helped to take over the pride there was strength in numbers. Five was greater than the two that had ruled before. Perhaps that was the only thing truly ‘great’ about them then… only one way to find out.
“Lovely afternoon, wouldn’t you agree?” she asked pleasantly as she drew closer. But, as always, there was something of a promise in her tone, for all it seemed to be respectful, if a bit idle.
Whether or not the best gave into heat or not, Matifu had found himself a spot of shade. It seemed to be his greatest skill in life. The shade kept his dark coat from fading and the little white hairs around his muzzle invisible to the rest of the world. An ear flicked back when her heard footsteps, and there was a low rumble of warning from his throat before he turned his head to see who it was.
No Rogue males had come to disturb his slumber. No, it was one of the females - and there were quite a few in this group. Almost too many. It had been no wonder it had taken such a strong group to overthrow the previous two males. They had no doubt suffered many grievences from other young souls before this.
He greeted her with a smile when she arrived; the display of white teeth, big, matching the size of his body. "It's about the same as any of the rest of the afternoons," he answered her. Another flick of an ear and a glance off into the distance and Matifu was standing again. "Maybe a bit hotter." This time, the grin was a bit more lopsided.
"And what has made yours so nice?"
Pretty fur and impressive size. Maybe Nikon would be impressed. Maybe. But for now, she’d settle for ‘polite’. And maybe steal a little bit of his shade. It was nice to be out of the sun, though she wasn’t going to admit it! She could handle a little sun. Or a lot of sun, if that were the case. As it seemed to be today.
She grinned back at his smile, though her own expression seemed less friendly and more… perhaps devious would be the word to use. At least she didn’t look completely unhinged. No, for all he knew she was a perfectly normal young lioness. No hare-brained adventures, no absurdly risky ‘challenges’, no insane competitions with a certain pale-furred rogue-fathered lioness… nope. Just another Umzingeli. A particularly brave and clever and strong and skillful one, of course. But perhaps he didn’t know that.
“Oh, I don’t know…” she mused, stretching luxuriously now that she had subtley slipped into his shade. “It could be raining. Or there could be termites in the tree you’re laying under. But it’s not, and there don’t seem to be. I’d say that’s a nice thing, wouldn’t you?”
There went the women. Always with the 'I don't knows' and 'maybe it's not how it looks'.
Matifu chuckled, his ears turning back towards her as his eyes moved other places. He walked a few steps out, granting her the majority of the shade, and then returned to his belly, kneading his nails into the earth. "It is a nice thing," he agreed, placating her interests. Although, she likely wanted to turn it into a mind game. His eyes scanned her over. Young. They were always full of swoon when they were young, a little more naive, and certainly much more willing to go farther for whatever it was they believed they wanted.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm flattered you wandered all the way out here to see me, but what's on your mind?" He doubted it was simply to say hello. Perhaps she was stealing his shade, maybe she wanted something a little less. . . formal, and perhaps it was curiousity altogether. But, either way, he doubted chance made them stumble across one another's path.
"I hope it's not a question about hunting," he added with the edges of his teeth showing. "I'm no good at that."
He moved. He didn’t have to do that. Bug as he was, even if he did take up most of the shade, he’d probably make a bit more for her. Not that that was a bad thing. A big male like him… so long as it was muscle and not fat, and it didn’t really look to be fat, well, any cubs of his might grow fairly large too. Maybe larger than Simo’s would… oh yes.
“Oh no,” her grin broadened, taking on a slightly more dangerous look. Or well, it probably looked normal enough to those that did not yet know to associate it with the prospect of a little ‘fun’. Like catching the biggest, meanest water buffalo in the herd. Fishing in a river with crocodiles. Racing to see who could avoid the angry elephant. Fun challenges like that. Always accompanied by that same broad grin. “I’ve no troubles with hunting. I just thought I’d like to meet some of you boys,” Nikon purred, settling to sit in the shade he seemed to have offered her. Nice of him. Considerate. But she could handle the heat. No troubles there.
“Such a shame to hear you’re no good at hunting though…” she added, in a mildly idle, musing sort of tone. But it might have been a trap. Possibly. This was, after all, Nikon speaking. “A big strong lion like you…”
That was a relief. Had it really been a question about hunting, he would have been in a sore spot of trouble. Of course, he would have directed her back to the Umama of several of the other groups, but she would have left him dissapointed in his lack of knowledge. Granted, there were moments in his life when he had been forced to hunt, but he had usually teamed up with other males or stolen food from other, helpless rogues. It was survival. It hadn't been designed to be pretty.
He nodded at her words and his tail drummed idly behind him as she spoke. His eyes were on the movement of her mouth now, listening to the sound of her voice as she continued.
"A shame?" he asked, the surprise in his voice strikingly honest. "I might manage, but in the wake of a females grace, I'm an ambling log." Again, his claws dug into the earth, bits of dirt pulled from the drying earth. "I can't run fast enough to catch prey." He wasn't going to try to brag above himself. There was simply no reason for it. Around the other males, perhaps, but with females, honesty and straight-forwardness was always the best policy. "If you need me to knock someone out, that's a different story."
He had a guess that she'd been hoping for some sort of challenge. "There isn't anyone, is there? If Kouga's been bothering you, I'll kindly give him a thing or two to remember."
Surprised? Nikon blinked, though that tone in his voice could hardly have been faked. Still… well, she supposed he had a point. After all, females like her were quite unparalleled at hunting. But anyone could learn the basic skills. Surely. An ‘ambling log’ seemed a bit unfair though, with another glance at his size, perhaps a bit appropriate.
She’d not really considered size to come with its own set of disadvantages. Perhaps bigger wasn’t always better. At least he was honest enough about it though. He got a few points there, in her book at least. In fact, she almost felt bad about causing him to have to admit such things. She might have died of shame to have to explain she wasn’t quick enough to catch prey.
But she was. Fast, agile, clever, all the things any great huntress needed to be. And anyplace she was lacking…she improved. Somehow never enough to best Simo…but certainly better than she’d been before. If she kept on getting better, she would indeed outdo her pale-furred rival. Someday. Perhaps someday soon.
“Kouga? Oh, no, no one’s been bothering me…” Not that she wasn’t perfectly capable of looking after herself. She could give a pest a good smack too, though she wasn’t really likely to knock someone out. Her paws suddenly seemed so small in comparison to his. “As I said… I just felt like getting to know you a bit better.” And if she had a minor ulterior motive to it, well, it wasn’t going to harm him now was it? “So, tell me,” Nikon let herself sprawl out on her belly beside him, eyeing the gouges his claws had dug out of the earth with mild interest, “Before you were one of our Abaholi…who were you?”
Now that was an interesting question. For just a moment, both his ears were on her and his usually distracted facade vanished for that meriad of time.
His tongue clicked against the roof of his mouth as he considered it, and he shifted, lying farther onto his right side as he gave her another look over. "My name is Matifu," he explained, but he doubted that's what she was asking, no. His eyes narrowed just a bit and then he shrugged it off, deciding there was no harm in telling her. It wasn't as though it were an obscure past, or one that shouldn't have been said.
"A travelling, scraggly young rogue, more or less." The brief explanation was followed with a yawn and a few squinting blinks. It was certainly a hot day, and he wouldn't deny that the sun had begun to melt his thoughts into one large mess. "Those two gents here before me knew my sight very well. I ran off with, oh. . . " he closed his eyes, numbering off the ladies in his head and opened them again. "Maybe four of their lioness before they managed to chase me off for good. There might be a few left romping around that I'm related to." He grimaced and dropped his voice. "I was plagued with sons."
As if he were going to make this a life lesson, he added. "Don't go running off with Rogues. If they're anything like me when I was young, they're just in it for the thrill, and they'll dump you faster than you can say 'cubs'."
Nikon glanced at him out of the corner of her eye before turning to face him fully. For a moment there, it had loked like his expression had changed… suddenly he seemed more alert than he had before. The ‘ambling log’ comment seemed even less appropriate now, and her own ears came forward with interest as he spoke.
She’d not been asking his name, though it was nice to know for sure that the big dark one was Matifu, and not ‘Sorin’ or ‘Kamal’ or one of the other names floating around. Obviously he wasn’t ‘Kouga’, no one she knew would offer to knock themselves about a bit. Not even for a charming girl, though Nikon wasn’t trying to charm him. Not at the moment, perhaps some other time. When she’d made up her mind about which Abaholi. Maybe it would be him.
“Ah,” she said, somewhat sympathetically as he claimed he was plagued with sons. Sons wouldn’t be all bad, but daughters were definitely much, much better. They, at least, would become a part of the pride. Boys would have to leave eventually. Nikon nodded as he seemed to expect her to when he finished, though she certainly wasn’t a complete fool. Never would she have fallen for some upstart young rogue. Words of love wouldn’t sway her… now if he’d been insanely powerful or something…maybe. But even then, romance was never going to be a part of it. Just cubs. The best cubs. Better than Si’s. Much, much better.
“Interesting. You must have been good indeed to steal so many of the lionesses...and then their position,” she added. Because if he really had been chased off for good…well. They wouldn’t be having this conversation now would they?
