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Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 2:43 am
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N'Seka had probably managed to hang on longer than the healers would have thought, and at any rate longer than he himself would have guessed. He had finally stopped guessing, and perhaps that was the lesson Lady Pestilence had tried to teach him this time. He wasn't exactly better, but he hadn't been called yet. He was very sick, but he was still among the living. The constant aches reminded him that he was still alive.
At first he had just hoped that he'd see his children grow up. He celebrated their every milestone, and he was happy that he'd been able to watch them take up their chosen apprenticeship. Before he knew it they were all considered adults with their own lives and duties. He didn't dare to think about the possibility of grandcubs. Few lions got to see that happen, and he had been sitting on the Grey Lady's doorstep for a long time now. But apparently she still found use for him...
A small but beautiful lioness approached him, and he smiled at her. How had he managed to father so beautiful lions and lionesses? There was a lot of Malaya in them, perhaps that was the key...
"Do you remember," he asked. He also meant to say what we talked about yesterday, but his daughter nodded quickly and saved him some words. He was grateful.
---
"Yes dad," she said, "Cor Oxidat, dark fur, brown heart shaped spot here."
She indicated a place on her own foreleg.
"I'll check up on her for you," she said and smiled. Isifo had never seen her father not affected by the disease, but recently he seemed to have gone from bad to worse. There had always been days that were better and days that were worse, but she could see a declining trend. He looked old and worn... But he still smiled, and he still took his duties seriously. He just preached from home, most days. Hopefully he'd recover from this too, but she knew that he'd die from the disease one day. Mom and dad had never told them lies about that so she'd known from a fairly young age that daddy would leave whenever Lady Pestilence wanted him to. Older kitlings told her more about what it meant, and she knew he'd die eventually.
She wasn't sure why he wanted to see the lioness she had promised to check up on. He had told her that she used to play in their den when he was little, and it was hard for her to imagine her own father being a small playful cub. He looked old, frail and sage, not small and bouncy. She wondered if the lioness was sick too.
She nussled her father and set out on her little mission. It shouldn't be too hard to find Cor... As a matchmaker she had learned ways to find information. Her mind started to wander and she wondered if the lioness was in need of a partner. Nah, maybe not if she was old like daddy. She didn't know the lineage and mate status of everyone in the pride. Yet. The matchmakers divided the burden of tracking lineage since it was hard for a single lion to memorize it all. But Isifo was determined to try to cram as much in as possible, it could only make her better at finding matches.
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Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 12:17 pm
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Finding Cor was one of those tasks which could be very difficult or very easy depending on which direction you started walking in. Since she spent much of her time near the borders of the pride doing the best impression of a hermit that she could manage, it could be a very long walk until you saw her if you started toward the wrong border in your search. On the other hand, she wasn't terrifically difficult to spot if you went in the correct direction. She never made any actual attempts to conceal herself.
Cor was a dark-furred lioness whose body was just beginning to show the wasting that came with a loss of appetite. Her coat was still groomed as meticulously as her stiff joints would allow, but more than any other feature that marked her a a lioness who was succumbing to the pride's disease was the utter lack of hope in her eyes. She lived with a great deal of fear and regret that she didn't dare articulate, and had done so for many seasons. Combined with illness, it was beginning to take its toll on her body.
Still, she was perfectly capable of pleasant and polite conversation when the occasion arose, and although she tried to isolate herself as much as possible, she couldn't help being delighted in even brief interactions with others in the pride. So when she saw a white lioness whose markings looked like a delicate veil draped across her shoulders, she was simultaneously dismayed and hopeful by the prospect of someone to talk to.
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Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:18 pm
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Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:59 pm
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Annchen Augh. I am horrible at this. I'm sorry! "Hello," Cor replied automatically, a spark of life gleaming in her eyes momentarily as she greeted the younger lioness. "You're N'Seka's daughter, aren't you?"
She was no matchmaker, to commit to memory the family lines of the entire pride, but she could recognize familiar markings like the ones borne by this lioness. It would have been more unlikely for her to have failed to recognize the lioness, really.
An awful thought occurred to her, but it did not upset her a great deal. People died quite frequently in this pride, and as she recalled N'Seka had never been among the healthy. She would be saddened if the girl had come to tell her that her father had died, of course, but she wasn't about to beat her chest and keen with misery. For one thing, she simply hadn't the energy.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 3:28 pm
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Isifo smiled in response. She wasn't surprised to be recognized. Cor had probably visited at some point when she was younger. Many of dad's friends did, and she knew she couldn't possibly remember every meeting.
"I am," she confirmed, "I'm Isifo'intombi. Dad told me you used to play together when you were small."
With 5 daughters to pick from, she figured it'd be more polite to tell Cor right away which one she was talking to.
"He'd like to see you," she said, "If you want to meet him, of course."
Dad hadn't said that he wanted to meet Cor, just asked if Isi could check up on her. However, the young matchmaker had a mind of her own, and she figured that it'd make N'Seka happy to see for himself how his old friend was doing.
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Posted: Sun May 04, 2014 8:10 am
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 11:37 am
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If Isifo noticed any of Cor's discomfort, she made no comment. She'd been around sick people for all her life, and it was more or less normal for a lioness Cor's age to be afflicted to some degree. Many carriers had a second outbreak once they got old enough, and the truly immune were few and far between.
"Oh, no," she said and grinned, not bothering to try to hide her excitement, "We can go now."
Isifo led the way, but she adjusted her pace to match what seemed comfortable for the older lioness. Dad would scold her if she brought Cor there all winded and tired...
---
N'Seka opened his eyes. Something had made him stir from his trance, but he wasn't sure what it was yet. He couldn't see or hear anyone, but he assumed the grey lady wanted him to see something, so he didn't resume his meditation right away. She usually had her reasons for waking him, and he wasn't about to question them.
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Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 10:37 am
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When they were close enough, Cor spotted N'Seka readily. It had been fairly clear where they were headed, after all. That is, which lion they were going to see. So when she saw him, she could pretty well guess that they were nearing their destination. Thank goodness. She had no intention of admitting it, but all those days and weeks of inactivity had left her in no fit shape for exercise, and being ill made it that much worse. Not that she was panting or gasping or anything, but she was definitely not going to start dancing around either.
"N'Seka," she called when they were still too far away for her to tell whether his eyes were open or closed. She had once been a bard. Her voice was good for carrying over distances, even though she was shorter of breath than she had once been.
"I'm told that you've reached the decision you cannot possibly go on without my company." To make it clear she was joking, she smiled, glancing over at Isifo to include her in the joke. Cor didn't think of herself as delusional, and would have laughed if anyone told her they thought she believed what she was saying now. This was just teasing.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 3:25 am
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:18 am
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Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 1:40 pm
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Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:08 am
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