[SRP] Walking Away (Mirsajadi, Khozar, Isarmaq)

[Princess_Feylin]

Mirsajadi

Mirsajadi had not told either of his banu that this would be the night he left them. He had not wanted to create a scene. Instead he waited to return to the den until after everyone ought to have been asleep and finished the preparations he had been making in secret.

There wasn't much for him to do at this point except to wake the cub from Arezoo's litter that he'd decided to take with him and pick up the daughter he would keep from Aylin's. Leaving Aylin's litter was harder because he knew they were his cubs and would be raised by another pad, but honor demanded that he follow through on his threat to Arezoo by leaving and taking at least one of her cubs, even though the cub wasn't his.

First he woke Khozar, the cub from Arezoo's litter he had decided would probably pass the best for his own cub in the rogue lands, where no one knew his brother Akram'raja, and thus could not make the comparison between Khozar and the lion who was truly his father. After that he had gone to fetch Isarmaq, his beautiful daughter.

Khozar

A large paw pressing on his shoulder woke Khozar mere moments after he had finally gotten to sleep, or so it seemed to the sleepy cub. When he opened his bright golden eyes they fixed on a face both familiar and strange to him. Except for the ruby red eyes it was as if Khozar was looking into his own face, and the sight made him gasp softly.

"You're my father," he guessed, speaking in a whisper.

The lion with his face spoke with an unusual inflection as he answered, "I suppose they will call me that, and so you might as well do the same. Now be quiet and wait for me by the mouth of the den."

There were so many other questions Khozar wanted to ask this lion who was his father, whose name he had only heard because it had been spoken around him and never to him, but he knew that he would have to wait to ask them. Right now was the time for stealth. It didn't occur to him that there might be something strange going on here. He was too excited by the mystery of it all.

Isarmaq

Isarmaq, unlike many of her sibs and all of her half-sibs, had actually seen her father before. Her darker gold eyes had been open and observing him when he came into the den a few weeks ago, and he had seen that. From that point on when he returned to the den in the evenings after everyone was asleep, her father had taken a few minutes to murmur interesting things in her ear as she drifted off to sleep.

This was the first time he had ever actually woken her up to say anything to her though, and so when she became peripherally aware of him crouching over her as he usually did she did not expect him to nuzzle her gently awake and murmur, "We're going now, and you must be very quiet until I say otherwise."

Sleepy, Isarmaq nodded, yawning. As soon as she had done so her father's teeth captured her by the nape of her neck and he lifted her up and carried her out of the den. She was almost asleep again by the time he nodded to one of her brothers, who had been waiting for them there.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Mirsajadi

So far so good. The cubs had obeyed him in keeping silent and had not put up any sort of fuss. Not that he had expected much of a fuss from Isa, who was mostly asleep and accustomed to seeing him while she was in that state. Khozar's acquiescence, on the other hand, was both a surprise and a disappointment. Mirsajadi had always been careful not to let Arezoo's litter see him, which meant that it should have been like being approached by a stranger. His willingness to go with a stranger didn't speak highly for his intelligence. Well. Mirsajadi knew he shouldn't expect too much intelligence out of any of Raja's spawn. Neither Raja nor Arezoo was what Mirsajadi would really call clever.

With his mouth full of slumbering cub, Mirsajadi couldn't do more than nod in the direction he wanted Khozar to go. Fortunately it seemed that Raja's son was at least capable of following nonverbal cues. At some point, Mirsajadi knew, he would have to offer some sort of explanation for their departure, but he planned to forestall it until they were beyond the pride's borders if at all possible. Having Isa in his mouth would make for a convenient excuse at least.

Khoz

Contrary to what Mirsajadi might think, Khozar wasn't stupid. He had simply recognized that an older lion who looked almost exactly like him and who smelled like the den was probably his father. It seemed elementary to him. And as for following directions, well, he wasn't about to ruin what could be his only chance to impress his father by disobeying him. As far as he knew, none of his sibs or half-sibs had ever seen their father because of something to do with his mum. He wanted this encounter to last as long as possible so that he could tell everyone about it later on.

As they walked toward the border of the pride a feeling of foreboding came over the cub. He began to suspect that this was more than just a quick walk, but he didn't know what else it might be. His half-sister's presence kept throwing his guesses off. He just couldn't figure out why she had been included and he wanted desperately to ask. But his father had told him to be quiet, and so quiet was what he would be. For now.

Isa

It was true that Isa was more or less asleep for most of the journey to the border of the pride. Her father walked with a very smooth gait that was too dignified to be called a slink, but pretty close to it. There was no bouncing or jarring in his motion, and so she was able to quickly doze off once things got under way.

Unlike Khozar, it did not occur to Isa to question where they were going or what they were doing. She was with her father and brother, and so she was safe. That was all she needed to know about the matter. Khozar wasn't her favorite brother, but he wasn't mean or a bully or anything. He just asked a lot of questions and confused her. She assumed that her father knew best though, and so if he wanted to bring Khozar along, Isa was fine with that.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Mirsajadi

Now that they were near the border of the pride Mirsajadi thought about changing his gait from walking stealthily to actually slinking. However, common sense told him that it would do more harm than good for him to do so. There may or may not be sentries in this area, although he was reasonably certain there shouldn't be. Just in case there were, it would look significantly less suspicious for him to be seen walking silently, as opposed to sneaking. Sneaking was suspicious. Silent was just his usual way of moving around.

He put Isa down and told Khozar to stay with her. Then he went on ahead a short distance, scouting for the presence of sentries. As far as he could tell there were none, but that didn't mean that his departure would be a piece of cake even so. The land surrounding the pride was largely flat and easily surveyed from any sort of elevated point, so he would have to make sure that he and the cubs were well away from the pride before sun-up.

Khozar

Khozar's feeling of foreboding grew stronger when his father went ahead without him and his half-sister for a moment. He didn't know the reasoning behind it, but the cub knew by now that his father was taking him and Isa out of the pride, and that he didn't want anyone to see him doing it. That was interesting. And worrisome.

During their father's absence Khozar's imagination began to conjure up all sorts of reasons why their father might be doing this, and although something as innocent as a surprise hunting trip did cross his mind, it couldn't really hold up against the possibility that there were more sinister motives behind all this. The worst thing he could come up with, because of his limited experiences in life, was that he and Isa were going to be killed. The only things keeping him from panicking and fleeing at the thought were that he knew there was no way Isa would be able to keep up with him and he couldn't think why their father would kill them.

Isarmaq

Isa began to wake up when she felt her father set her down on the ground, despite how gently he had executed the maneuver. There was a noticeable difference between being carried and not. She also heard the low murmur of her father's voice, presumably speaking to Khozar, since their father had referred to her in the third person.

Soon she sensed their father's departure, which prompted her to open her eyes and turn to question her half-brother: "Where did he go?"

How she expected Khozar to know the answer was not the point. He had been awake for this whole thing, after all, and so he probably had a better idea of what was going on than she did, though at this point she doubted she would get back to sleep. Particularly after Khozar looked worried and told her that he didn't know.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Mirsajadi

Mirsajadi returned from his brief scouting expedition to find the two cubs curled around each other into a fluffy pile of stripes and wide eyes. Internally he sighed, thinking that it had really been too much to hope that Isa would stay asleep for the entirety of their departure. Maybe it was for the best though. He would have to make one more trip in and out of the pride to fetch Aara, and if Isa woke up while he was off doing that there was no telling what might come to pass. He didn't want to spend the early morning hours rounding up panicked cubs.

"Let's go," he said to his cubs. Belatedly he added the reassurance, "Everything's fine."

So saying he bent once more to pick Isa up. Yes. He was absolutely using his daughter as an excuse not to answer the dozens of questions he could see blazing behind Khozar's golden eyes. Questions would be answered later, when they had made sufficient progress away from the pride.

Khozar

As soon as his father returned Khozar was on his feet, ready to demand answers to at least some of the questions that had been coming to the forefront of his mind most often, even if asking them meant jeopardizing his chances of ever getting to spend time with his father again.

Unfortunately, his father preempted any questions by speaking first and with great finality, and then made it impossible to answer any questions Khozar might ask by picking up Isa again. Khozar suspected all of this had been done to forestall his son's inquisition, and he resented it, but not enough to break the onus of silence which had been placed on him. Instead he cast a scowl at his father and began to trot along once more at his father's side. He was not reassured by his father's assertion that everything was fine.

Isa

"I can walk," Isa protested softly when her father picked her up. "Then we could maybe talk, or sing. It's really quiet."

She could feel her father shake his head, No. Oh well. It would have been nice to have some sounds. All this silence and darkness made her a little scared. But! She reminded herself that she had her brother and her father were with her, and she was safe with them, and that helped her to relax. The rumbling approximation of a purr that came briefly from his throat and chest helped, too.

Soon she was aware that her father had relaxed somewhat, too, although she could not see why. Everything around them looked more or less the same as the scenery she'd been watching for the past hour or so, but now her father's footsteps were slower and he was holding her less tightly between his teeth. Something had changed, and obviously for the better.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Mirsajadi

As soon as they crossed out of the pride's lands Mirsajadi actually did relax, though he would have been surprised to learn that both of his cubs had noticed it. He had not failed to notice that the cubs, too, had undergone several changes of demeanor over the course of the evening so far. Right now, though, he knew both of them were more tired than anything else, especially Khozar, who had been walking briskly to keep up with him for more than two hours at this point. Despite himself, Mirsajadi was impressed by the cub's stoicism.

At last they reached the hollow tangle of roots Mirsajadi had spent the past two weeks scouting out and making ready to act as a temporary shelter for himself and some cubs. He set Isa down a short distance from it and realized from the way her body settled limply on the ground that she had fallen asleep again, which was kind of cute and endearing of her, really. It didn't stop him from nudging her awake. Khozar stood beside her, swaying slightly on his paws and looking at the den with an obvious combination of longing and distaste.

"I know," Mirsajadi said wryly. "It's only temporary."

Khozar

After a while Khozar had lost any urge he may have had to ask questions. His mother was very protective of him and his litter, and so they rarely got to do as much running around and rough-housing as any of them would have liked. This meant that tonight's expedition had taken a huge toll on him, and he was simply too tired to demand answers right now.

It was true that the place didn't look anything like the nice, neat den his mother and Aylin kept, and that didn't appeal to his somewhat fastidious nature, but for the last half hour he had been wishing that his father would set Isa down to walk and pick him up to carry him instead, so all he did was nod wearily in response to his father's assurances regarding the temporary nature of this den. As long as it wasn't so temporary that he wouldn't be allowed to sleep there, he honestly didn't care for the time being.

Isa

Once again Isa woke up to the sensation of being put down. She must have fallen asleep again. Well, that was what happened when a cub didn't have to walk and had no one to talk to for hours at a time. And yet she was still sleepy. Perhaps even unconscious her body had been running in Exciting Adventure Mode. Rather like her mother, Isa wasn't inclined to over-thinking things. At least not when she was tired.

"We're sleeping here, right?" she asked.

"You two are," her father agreed. "I'm going to go fetch Aara, and then the two of us will join you. In the meantime, you and Khozar should sleep. You are completely safe here."

That was all Isa needed to hear. She marshaled her energy for a quick sprint to the tree's underbelly and called out imperiously for Khozar to join her. He zombied his way to her side and then curled up. Isa settled down with her forequarters resting across his ribs and watched their father leave. Before he was out of sight she was asleep.