[PRIVATE] A Rogue's Light

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

Though she was asleep, she could still feel herself being lifted and carried off to somewhere. The lioness opened her eyes and blinked, seeing the lions lined up in a row, herself in the middle of Tanga and Auni. "How did I..." she asked herself quietly, getting to her feet. Before she knew it, she could feel a soft wind almost pulling her head to look in a certain direction. When she obeyed it, she found her eyes landed on a pair of mates hovering over the water. She adjusted her eyes a little to see it was none other than her mother and father.

"Mom? Dad?" She questioned, not able to blink as she was so surprised. Her mother looked like Ra so much, and Imani looked like her father, possessing his fur and eyes, but the figure of her mother. Her mother, Ndidi, and her father, Oni, smiled before she blinked and they vanished.

[Nakisisa]

Ra ran back to the group, seeing Imani awake and looking toward the water she came to her side and spoke, "Imani... How much did you listen when mum was telling us about Injurys and how to treat them?" she said sounding exhausted

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

The younger sister stared at the water for a moment before she snapped back to reality and looked back at her sister. "Huh? Oh!" she exclaimed, looking over the males and then looking back at her, "I remember it all" she smiled.

[Nakisisa]

"Good, can you help me then?" she asked as she moved towards the herbs and leaves she had gathered. "Mufalfa is stable, but it's Tanga and..." she said as she tried to remeber his name, when it didn't come she finished her sentence "...What's his name, who do you want to look at sis?" Ra asked

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

"Yeah, of course" she replied, moving towards Tanga but she paused her body. Looking down at him, she felt her heart rate speeding up and her cheeks were burning up. What was happening to her?!

Realizing her sister would need a reply soon, she turned around to Auni and lost the feeling. "I'll take care of Auni. You take care of Tanga" she told her older sister. Sitting down beside her light colored friend, she took some of the leaves and treated his wounds. Once she was done, she snuck a peek behind her to see Tanga being taken care of and it gave her a sigh of mental relief.

[Nakisisa]

"Thats his name Auni!" Ra exclaimed as she went to work on Tanga. "Come on big guy" she said as she replaced the leaf bandages on his neck. "you gave me quite a scare!" she laughed, finishing her work, picking up a herb, and placing it in his mouth making him chew it, and swallow it she sighed. Now everything was down to him. "You did great, I just wish you could see what changes Imanis gone through." Ra whispered.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga watched his vision, completely unaware of his living self being taken care of as his sister appeared before him for the first time. She had her father's dark fur, although her belly was a pale creamy colour in direct contrast. Her eyes, were blue, but a much deeper, darker blue than Kali or Tanga's, but her tail tuft was golden like her father's mane. She was small...just a cub, but about the size she probably would have been were she alive that day. "Si-sister?" Tanga asked.

"Hi, brother," his sister replied simply. "I'm Uhuru."

"Uhuru..." Tanga repeated, his living form actually mumbling the name as well. "I...I'm so sorry, I made a stupid mistake, and I got you killed...before you were even born." He desperately wanted to dash forward and hug her, but wasn't sure whether that would be considered 'moving on'...he still had not made his choice.

Both Kali and Busara spoke in unison to that statement. "The fault is as much ours as yours, Tanga," their voices echoed. "It was your first solo hunt, and you still had not learned all the skills, we should have done more to stop this from happening."

Tanga did not break down, but he could feel the tears flowing from his eyes, and knew that his living form would be crying as well. "But I...I should have..." he finally dropped his head. He had been both awaiting and dreading this moment for over a year. "You must be so ashamed of me, for what I did."

Busara spoke up alone. "No, Tanga...far from it." Tanga's head lifted again. "We are proud of you. A lesser lion would have given up and ended it months and months ago...yet you have continued on, despite your guilt and grief, and looked for a new life...and now you have a chance for it."

Tanga turned at that, looking back at where Imani, Auni and Ra were, noticing that we was not being treated by Ra, while Auni, who was also out of it, was being treated by Imani. Mufalfa also lay nearby, unconscious. But what did he want? Did he want to stay in this new existance, with his parents...or did he want to go back to the others?

He decided to ask one, final question before making his choice. "If I go back...will I ever see you again?"

"Of course!" Uhuru replied, smiling warmly at him, before Kali took over. "I just hope it is many years from now before that happens." She, too, looked at the others. "You have friends back there who care for you, Tanga...we are happy watching over you. You have been through a lot this past day, but we are proud of how you handled yourself. Don't worry...we will always be watching over you, Tanga."

Tanga nodded, his mother's words effectively making the choice for him. He slowly started to back away from his parents, and their visions began to fade at long last. "I miss you!" he called out to them. "I'm near where you were killed...I'll find that place and put you to rest, I promise!"

With that, the three visions faded, the clouds receeded, but just before Tanga's spirit form faded completely, he saw and heard Mufalfa's latest vision. "You don't scare me!" he called to Mufalfa, the meeting with his late parents having given him a new inner strength. "I know what my parents think of me now, and nothing you say can ever change that...or take it away!"

And those were the last words of his spirit form before everything faded to black, and he was return to his real body, unconscious once more.

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

Imani rolled her eyes with a smile when her sister was reminded of her other friend's name and she got to work on Tanga by the time she was finished with Auni. She would let Auni have a little rest before she woke him up for him to eat something. She could hear her sister whispering something but she couldn't make out what it was, so she walked closer to her older sibling and listened to hear if there was anything she could make out.

When Ra finished, she drew her head back and resumed a normal standing position. "Well, when they wake up they're going to need some liquid before food". The creamy lioness looked out to the fields of Africa and remembered what had happened with them all. Thankfully, Neru was no where to be found and so she didn't think he was going to be much of a problem. Something deep inside her, told her and kept telling her there would be no issues with Neru for them all any time soon and that was keeping Imani calm for the time being.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga felt his senses returning to him...albeit slowly. He thought he heard familiar voices, but could not be sure. Groaning, he rolled over in his half-conscious state, his brain finally snapping into gear when he bumped into something...Imani's leg.

He tried to jump to his feet, surprised by the presence of something else near him, since he had lost consciousness when he was relatively distanced from his friends. But his mind and body were still learning to work together again, and all he managed to do was scramble uselessly against the ground as his eyes, and he looked up to find Ra and Imani standing over him.

"What?" he slurred groggily, his mind filled with mixed up images of both his adventures in the past day, and the vision of his parents he had recieved on the edge of death. For a brief moment, he mistook Imani for Uhuru, the two looked rather alike. "Wait, how?...oh, Imani..." he said as he finally registered who he was actually staring at. "And Ra," he added, looking over at the other lioness.

He tried to stand up, but was still disoriented from everything that had happened. He looked back up at Imani, fighting down his shy awkwardness he was starting towards her as he tried to make sense of his slightly confused thoughts. "What happened...where am I?" he finally asked, looking around a little curiously as his internal systems continued to recover.

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

The younger sister looked down to see Tanga was stirring. Well at least he's awake relatively quick, she thought. Her eyes tracked him as he got to his feet and tried to gain his balance, but he soon fell over and returned back to the uncomfortable-looking position he had on the floor like when he was unconcious. It brought a small smile to her face and a little giggle to see him like this, and she let her head drop as she did so but let it pass until she looked back over at him. That's when the butterflies started up again for her.

"We brought you here after you passed out" she replied to him. Poor guy. He must have been at a loss after the whole thing was over, and who knows what he dreamed of when he was sleep all that time. She let her paw slide a little in the ground to draw odd shapes, her eyes looking them over, "Ra took care of your wounds, and now you're going to need to drink some water".

She looked up and over to the water, gesturing for him to take a drink.