Meaning and Purpose [Closed to Julie_Skywalker]

[Carl]

Vitani stood there, looking slightly stunned. She'd known he wouldn't give up until he was forced to, but she hadn't expected this reaction. She didn't know how to help, and looking at the worried cub made her concerned herself. She just looked at the scene before her for a few moments trying to figure out how to handle this situation.

"Dikeledi, Masozi, get him into that skull out of the sight of anything that wanders along. Sauda, Shuja, you two get in there too. Sauda, take the rest of that carcass in there with you, and when he comes to you guys make sure he eats," she commanded.

The tears sisters nodded walking over to the rogue's body and working together to more safely move him into the darkness of the skull. Sauda, wounded though she was, and furious at being embarrassed, hoped that she might be able to help Baya and gain his favor in some other way, so she quickly rose to her paws and set about the task that had been assigned to her.

As the other lionesses did as she'd asked, Vitani turned to N'gora.

"Help me find a hollow bone, or one with a big dip in it," she barked. Her subordinate nodded but scowled while doing so.

"Why go to all this effort to help him?" she asked under her breath, "He's just gonna get himself in this shape again, and he's going to get himself killed eventually. It'll be better for the pride if he just dies."

"I don't care what's better for the pride. I've tried being like them and Kovu doesn't appreciate it. I'll do as I please from now on, and right now I want to help Baya."

N'gora snorted a short laugh, "So you're doing it to disobey Kovu's desires. That's reason enough for me."

Soon Vitani had found a hollowed out tusk. The two lionesses grabbed onto it with their jaws and carried it away. They took it back into the Pridelands and to the nearest body of water, a small waterhole with fish splashing about in it and birds bathing on its shore. As the lionesses approached, the birds scattered, their calls filling the air. N'gora didn't need to ask what they were doing and simply lowered the tusk alongside her leader until it filled with water.

The water made it twice as heavy as it had been, or perhaps more, but the duo didn't drop it. They carried it all the way back to the Elephant Graveyard and into the skull where Baya had been taken, gently placing it on the ground before him. Some water sloshed out and onto the face of the rogue and paws of the lionesses there. As Vitani pondered over the sight, she realized that they looked like a small pride, one male with five females attending him and a worried cubㅡ and she kind of liked the idea.

[Baya]

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[Carl]

"Because I can," Vitani snorted. She splashed water from the tusk onto his maw. "Drink up."

Then she took a few steps to the side and shoved the remnants of the morning's hunt in his direction, "And eat too. You'll need the energy if you want to recover quickly."

She wasn't sure why she bothered, especially considering how he'd acted when he'd seen the cub at the carcass, as she really didn't expect him to accept charity like this. If he didn't take it, well, then she'd done what she could do to keep her interesting little distraction alive, and that would just be that. But if he did take it, he'd prove to her that he had some sense, and wasn't as mad and set on his own death as she thought. This all went through her head in a second, and she continued with barely a pause in her speech.

"Of course, it's up to you if you take it or not. You can die if you want. There's really no need for you to live on if you're satisfied with your life. After all, I can teach Shuja to be strong. She'd rather it be you, and I'd rather not take care of a cub, but I've done my part in keeping you alive for the next fight. It's up to you to decide if you live or die."

With that, she turned and walked out of the skull in an instant, motioning with her head for her team to follow. She started to just return to Pride Rock, but considering Baya's state, how worried the cub had been, and how angry Kovu would be with her for what she'd done today, she instead marched over to another area in the graveyard not far from the skull where the rogue lay, in fact, close enough they could see one another from their positions, and here she stopped.

"We're sleeping here tonight. Anyone who wants to return to the Pridelands is free to, but I'm not going to look at that disgusting 'mightier-than-thou' look on Kovu's face tonight," she said, flopping to earth. And since she was the boss, the others shrugged and found places to lie as well.

[Baya]

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[Carl]

Her eyes stung and tried to close back again on their own, and she was going to let them until she heard the harsh voice speak to her. The lioness looked up groggily at Baya, then let out a yawn. She'd not been sleeping long enough for a battle and she saw fit to tell him so.

"You know you won't get any thrill out of fighting me on low sleep," she said bluntly, as she stretched and rose on her paws. It was still very dark, and glancing around, she realized this place really was very creepy, which caused her to remember Nuka, and her heart knotted. She wondered faintly if Kovu even missed their older brother.

When she had risen, the rogue had started walking, and so she trailed along behind him, somewhat more wakeful with the anger towards her surviving brother stewing within her and her sorrow for the departed one churning it into a froth. She realized vaguely that she truly missed the days before the final battle with the Pridelanders. Sure there was more food and water in her life now, but she'd lost something far more important. She'd lost her family.

And, she realized dully, she was starting to go mad. She was sleeping in the Elephant's Graveyard when she could be someplace welcoming and warm. Instead she slept surrounded by skeletons. Not only that, but she'd slept not far from the place where a rogue she knew to be dangerous was. A rogue she knew to be insane, a rogue she knew to live for violence, death and battle. Sure her squad was with her, but he could have offed them in their sleep too had he wanted.

There wasn't a recent or strong scent of blood in the air, so she knew they were fine, but she had been foolish, or mad, to spend the night here in the first place. Shaking aside the thoughts that had poured into her mind within a few moments, she spoke again to Baya.

"What is this about?"

[Baya]

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[Carl]

"Maybe you aren't. But I surely am mad!" she said, a cackle escaping her despite her efforts to hold it in. "Crazy or no, you are a killer, and it is madness for me to show you kindness and sleep not far from you. In that graveyard of all places."

She snorted and padded over to the water, splashing into it like a cub to jolt her senses and be more aware.

"You've seen the land I live in," she continued, "You've seen how lush and green and full of plentiful food and water. Yet I am not satisfied with it. I long for what my life used to beㅡ for what it was when we were cubs. I must be mad to desire such things, no?"

She licked some water out of her whiskers and off her lips as she rose from the water, facing him.

"And yet I am not crazy either. I have not had a happy day since my pride joined with the Pridelanders. No. I have not." She took a moment to figure out the wording of the next part.

"This... fighting you. You say I do it because I am like you. Maybe that is somewhat true. I do it because it is familiar. It's what I know. The harshness of battle and the barrenness of that graveyard remind me of times when I could find some happiness. Times that are gone. I do not do it for the battle itself, I do it for the memories," she said, looking up at the sky. She wondered vaguely if the silly rumor the Pridelanders had about dead lions watching over them from the stars was true. Wondered if her mother and Nuka were up there watching her.

"If I did not spare you, what would be the fun?" she asked, bemused, a smirk plastered onto her muzzle as she cast her gaze back in his direction.

[Baya]

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[Carl]

Vitani snickered.

"Like you'd kill me!" she barked in her laughter. She rolled over to look at him, feeling the dampness of the grass beneath herㅡ damp from the water and just a little, compared to their usual fights, bit of blood. Then she did something she'd never expected to do. She pawed him playfully. Not like she wanted a fight, but gentle, like she might have as a cub.

Knowing he wouldn't be amused, she whispered close to his ear, but not too close, "I won't tell. It's our little secret."

Then she did something that she knew was very risky even as she did it. She inched over closer to him, resting her head on his chest for a moment, their forelegs touching ever so slightly... and before giving him time to react, she was on all-fours again, a lion's length away from him. Her face wore a sly expression, almost as if she was daring him to do something about it.

She lowered her front half to the ground, taking on a playful stance that most grown lions and lionesses never took up. She was feeling feisty, and somehow energized. In fact, she couldn't hold back a grin as she watched Baya to see what he would do.

[Baya]

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