- Azima grumbled as he moved through the Kusini lands, near the edges of the forest. He didn't often go into the forest after a rather unlucky fall in the mud, he deemed the place disturbing and that had been that. He didn't really believe in good luck or bad luck... or else he would have to admit to himself of how much bad luck his life contained. He did believe in a lovely groomed pelt though, and mud was not on the list of things that he wanted coming in contact with his beautiful red fur.
He wouldn't have minded a hunky lion coming in contact with his fur though... arg, why were these lands so dull and void of unrelated eye candy? Sure his relatives were attractive, but not in the kind of attractive he wanted! He was good looking, why wouldn't his brothers and sisters and cousins... and aunts... and uncles... and well all of the damn lions in the pride be anything but attractive?
It was almost boring, all of the reds and the dusty browns... the charcoals and the warmer shades of browns, dark shades of black... that was mostly what everyone looked like. He wanted something more, and something unrelated. Twice he'd been scorned in love... but one day he would find his prince charming!
- The answer to Azima's wishes seemed to be on the wind, if only the Kusini lion would stop and actually test the air. Tareq had found himself helplessly lost, and was quite annoyed of this fact. Usually his sense of direction was without fail, and his instinct even better! His spotted paws would carry him all over the rogue lands, never once had he considered himself lost in the past! Simply, he hadn't gotten to his destination yet! But right now he would admit defeat. He would admit to anyone, if they'd just show up, that he was a lost b*****d and he wanted to just be out of this retched forest! It was dark and dreary and the trees seemed like they were as tall as three or four giraffes stacked one atop another! Was that even possible?
He honestly didn't care. He'd never seen trees that big anywhere on the savannah though.. maybe in the jungle they grew as large. He wasn't a big fan of the jungle, so he tried to avoid it as often as he could. If only he hadn't chased the damn rabbit this way and then got turned about in the process. It felt like forever since he'd entered the depressing place, and he still hadn't managed to make his way back! But what was this? His molten gold gaze lit up as he realized that it was getting quite a bit brighter ahead! That must have been the way out, it must have been where the trees broke into open land! He, he would kiss the first living thing he saw in thanks!
He rushed, not bothering to be careful or quiet any longer. He sprung passed the tree line with a joyful whoop, prancing in a circle. "Lost, as if!" He yelled out, laughing. It took him a moment to realize another male lion was staring at him, wide eyes and bewildered. He grinned and lunged, tackling the other in a playful pin before giving a big slobbering lick to his face. "You! Can you believe it! I've finally made it back out of that place! What a drag it was!"
He frowned though, suddenly looking up and around. "Wait... where am I?"
- Azima's ears perked and his bright eyes widened slightly when he suddenly heard something romping through the woods. It sounded large and reckless, not something Azima really wanted to run into. But while he was still staring at Kusini's forest, trying to puzzle out what it might be and where the best direction to flee from it was, another lion burst past the dark trees!
To say that he was surprised was an understatement. He was.. shocked, quite frankly. It was hard to navigate those forests even for him, and he'd been living there his whole life. He'd left on a few occasions in his younger years... but he'd also never spent time in his past to actually explore those woods. Azima could see right away that this lion was quite a bit larger than him, the stranger's stature more similar to his older brothers or some of his uncles, and definitely way more scarred. Scars were ugly, Azima didn't have even one little scar on his beautiful body. His body was a work of art, one he didn't want ruined by a hideous pink gash. He took a step back, maw slightly open.
Invaiders? No, that was just a panicked thought. There was only one of him and... well why would anyone want to invade the Kusini'Mwezi anyhow? Then the strange male blurted something about being lost, or maybe not being lost, and his orange-gold eyes were looking directly into Azima's! He took another step away, brain churning so he might say something of a warning or a threat but... oh gods above! This was an invader! "Wait!" He yelped, as the large male was suddenly flinging himself into the smaller, red male. Azima 'umfed' as he thudded against the ground, snarling in instinct and partly because now he would have to groom himself again.
Fear shot through him though, he'd never been in a fight in his life. Vocal confrontations, sure... but physical he avoided! He certainly didn't want bruises, or scars like he'd thought, and he wouldn't want his mane to get all messed up. His eyes shut tight and his paws came up in an attempt to shield himself from the beastly male before... before... his face was wet?
Had.. had the b*****d just licked him? His eyes flew open, once again feeling shocked, but he also felt angry! "The hell is your problem!" His tone came out in a mixture of surprise and fierce anger, barely taking in the words of the other. "G-get off of me!" He yelped, trying to figure out what was going on.
As the other looked away Azima started to squirm, his efforts to push the other off were in vain though. "Where are you? You idiot! You're in the Kusini'Mwezi! I see you are lost! Get OFF!" The last bit he shouted, taking a swat at the other's face.
- Tareq did not notice the other's terror, or if he did he chose to ignore it. But when the red lion swatted at him he scowled and turned his attention back to him. He leaned down close to the other's face, brows drawn down. "Stop that! I'm not going to hurt you..." Oh. Oh! He started to laugh as he fluidly bounded off the other and shook off, spinning in a circle to take a look around. "The Kusini'Mwezi you say? Never heard of it." But because this was a pride, it only meant one thing. He was no longer in the rogue lands... and to get back to them he would need to go back through that distasteful forest again! That forest gave him the creeps, he'd decided.
He looked back to red and gave him a cheeky grin. "I'm not going to be executed or something for finding this place, right?" Some prides that were hard to get to were like that, or so the rumors went. He saw that red was still quiet upset looking, but that only seemed to increase Tareq's amusement. "So red, I see you have a short temper. Can you direct me to anyone a little more pleasant?" His tone was teasing, he really didn't mind lions who were in foul moods more often than not. They were a great source of humor, truth be told.
"I'm Tareq, rogue extraordinaire! I've traveled from the oceans to the mountains! I've lived in the plains and in deserts, very few places I've yet adventured!" At the end of his spiel he gave a little wink and chuckled again. "Now it seems I can add this Kusini'Mwezi to the list. Seriously though, are you guys friendly to outsiders? Or should I hightail it out of here? Clearly you're no guard... maybe you keep watch though? Are their others near by?" He did not realize how offensive his words were, he was simply stating what he saw as the facts.
- Azima did not like to be told what to do. Why should he stop? If anything the strange male should stop doing whatever it was that he was doing. It didn't come to Azima as a surprise that this male had never heard of his homelands, it was just one of those sort of prides. He wouldn't even be surprised if the relations that had branched out into other lands, if their decedents weren't even told about it. Azima slowly rolled over and then shook off, then immediately sat down so he could begin grooming his paws and such. This was disgusting, he hated getting dirty.
When the other spoke up, almost mockingly it seemed, Azima narrowed his eyes. "Tcht, unfortunately no." He spat, thinking that was the least the gray male deserved for pouncing him like that. Though his anger was fading, slightly, and as he looked over the other he was surprised to find that his coat was sort of attractive, but all of those scars littering his body decreased his attractiveness drastically. As he was examining the other for a second time he spoke up again, and Azima's eyes went wide. Was- was he insulting now?
His icy blue eyes flashed up to meet the other's, not quite catching the teasing tone. "Right, I forgot I should be overjoyed to have some stranger come flying from the woods and then tackle me to the ground, dirtying my fur and acting as though he owns the place. Even though he's too stupid to even know wh-eeeh?" He scrambled to his paws, backing up slightly as the other approached. The stranger had managed to effectively cut his little speech off, and was now introducing himself.
Tareq, what a weird name! It was like you had to spit it out, or so Azima imagined. He wouldn't say it, he wouldn't give the other male the pleasure. And what was with the self-important introduction? And the insulting again! And why was he so close? Damn, wasn't Azima's job to be the aggressor? He cleared his throat, backing up more.
"I... you.." s**t, where to even start? "I'm Azima." He said dumbly, frowning as though he didn't really know what to do with himself. "And no, our lands are very passive." He mumbled, eyes widening.
"W-wait! Where the hell are you going?" Because the other male had flashed him a grin, "Great!" and had bolted away! Azima was not running after the b*****d... but was this trouble for the lands or not? Crap. If it was something troublesome he didn not want his uncle Denahi knowing about it... he huffed, grumbled and then began to pad in the same direction as the Tareq character, going slightly faster than his normal walk.
- Tareq eyed the other skeptically and his smirk only increased. OCD cleaning? Maybe. His head cocked as he caught the other's answer and he gave another deep laugh. Oh, so Red wanted him to be executed, eh? For a little playful pounce? It just served to strengthen Tareq's first observation of Red. Touchy, very touchy.
His tail gave a slow and easy flick, moving about as if by itself. He got bored with Red's explanation on about the fifth word. Was he seriously that upset about it? Someone needed to lighten up- AH! Yes, this would be Tareq's new project, it seemed like it would be something fun to do. He suddenly moved forward, a half-grin on his features. It seemed to make Red a little nervous, because he shifted back and stopped speaking immediately. So not only was he a clean freak... maybe he didn't like physical contact as well? Excellent, this was an interesting project indeed. So he introduced himself, it was only proper. In fact, he felt he might have taken too long to tell Red who he was!
When Red stumbled over his words Tareq just beamed, mistaking this for the other being impressed with him. And why shouldn't he be? "Azima! Aaaazima! Azzzzima. Azimmmmma." He gave himself a few times to see how he liked Red's name, each utterance more comical to Tareq than the other. "Alright, Red it is!" His smile was devilishly mischievous, he was having fun. When he learned how easy going the lands were he just chuckled. "Great!"
And before mr. Red could say anymore he bounded to the left, racing off. Time to do a little exploring of his own, maybe find a few pretty females... maybe they had lovely red pelts like Red did? He could hear the other male shouting behind him, but it just served as further amusement for Tareq. Could he not run? Besides, he'd just said it was alright to go exploring.
Well, sort of!
END