“You have to say something to him, Ryujin, you are not like us,” Kai spoke urgently, she was angry, it was evident in her voice. She was a guard, her twin, a soldier, her other brother, a hunter, but he was different, he was free in her eyes. “You told us what you saw, why can’t you just go and tell them? At least speak with Kidondo, he knows about Ka and I, he’ll guess it about you too if you keep acting this way.”
“Stop it!” he yelled. They were a great distance away from others so he felt like he could rasie his voice, could let go of his tension. “I don’t want it, Kai, I don’t.” His dreams, they told him something, somewhere to go, something that could help, but he was afraid, and didn’t know the answers. “I don’t want him to know, I don’t want to be-“
“Like us?” Kai growled. “Don’t be so weak, Ryujin!” she snarled. “You could help these lions, these families, don’t you understand that? Even if you think it means nothing, even if it does, it could offer hope, Ryujin, hope is better than nothing.” She sighed and sat back on her haunches, hunched over, looking at the sand. Her nightmares had faded a bit, as did Ka’s, but Ryujin was a clean slate, albeit black, but clean, free of the mark, their mother’s curse.
“Kai, don’t, look, I know it might help, but it might not. It probably means nothing, this has never happened before. I’ve never had dreams that were so, vivid, so real.” He sat beside her, leaning close. He was so much larger now, his mane fuller, his eyes still striking silver like their mother’s. He didn’t want to believe himself a seer, he denied the fact it could happen for a long time, but now, now just seemed like a really bad time to rely on something like that.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I just want you to have the best, offer the best you can. This could be your chance, Ryujin, to break away,” she looked to him, her crimson eyes meeting his own. “They could look to you in a different light than us, an if it was ever found out that we were all seers, you would be the one they would go to because you would offer hope in dreams. Dreams are just as important as reality, Ryujin, they can open opportunities for the future. Don’t you get that?”
“You want me to, separate from you, but Kai,” Ryujin looked at her with a confused expression. “We came here together, as a group, the four of us. Ka, you, me, and Ra’d. We came as a family, I’m not going to just disown the lot of you because I’m dreaming and the water is low.” Ryujin had to think for a minute that perhaps all of their talking wasn’t beneficial to the situation. “We have to do something, besides just dream, we have to act. We can help search for water, there was a pale lion I saw earlier who looked like he was trying to build some holding area for water if it rained.”
Kai’s eyes shot open and she looked to the sky. Rain, it needed to rain. “That’s it,” she said, and she looked to Ryujin. “What if we were able to contact her, them, one of them, and had them go look for rain?”
Ryujin looked at Kai and gulped and he shifted nervously. “You aren’t seriously. Kai, if she comes here, Ka will kill her, you’d kill her on sight, you said that, you told me you said that to her all black mate who came here. Do you really think they would help?”
“If your children, or surrogate children were in trouble, would you help?” Kai asked. She flicked her tail as Ryujin grew silent and considered the situation. She herself knew it was risky. The idea of seers, gods and goddesses was not taken lightly or calmly in the Firekin, she would not believe or rely in it if she was not of the blood. “We shouldn’t do anything yet though, you need to speak with Kidondo, and we need to see if we can help find water, even with that pale lion you said you saw. Buy some time. I don’t want to step on any toes, or paws for that matter.”
“Yea,” Ryujin said with a gulp. He looked to the sky and wondered how easy it would be if he had wings to spread and fly, go to another land, retrieve water and come back. Then again, he would have to keep flying for so long everyday to get enough water back and forth to keep the supply hardy, especially during these months where the sun was in the sky longer and made for hotter days. “I’ll think about talking to him, ok? I just, I want to see what he and the others wan us to do first. Last thing I want to do is annoy him with foolish thoughts and dreams he would see as a copout or some silly scheme. I don’t want to win favor here, Kai, I just want the pride to be safe and healthy.”
Kai leaned against Ryujin’s shoulder and nodded, “I understand. I agree. We need to try and do what we can. When I go along the borders later tonight, I’m going to check the usual pools to see if anything has gathered, or see if I can find some small prey, perhaps a bird that would tell me if they spotted water. They can fly afterall, and we can’t,” Kai said with a wink.
Ryujin laughed nervously, “Yea, they can fly and we can’t.” He shifted his paws in the sand and looked back to the center of the pride. He knew that soon tension would be high again if water wasn’t found. Something had to be done, solutions needed to happen, and this problem needed to be solved. But how, what could a couple lions do in the middle of dunes except wait and try their best?
