[PRIVATE] A Rogue's Light

[Skittakallista]

Auni looked at Kioja in confusion as she insisted that he 'saw nothing' hen she had momentarily shown concern for the mouse she had nearly squashed. In that instant he had seen the dark lioness show more emotion in a second than she had shown all day. He had never met anyone like her. He smiled , shaking his head.

"Okay... But there''s nothing wrong with letting your guard down."

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

"For you, of course not. For me," she looked to the side and over the water, "it has everything wrong to do with it". Her eyes looked distant for a moment, but then she regained her emotionless and yet fierce expression and got to her feet, looking slightly upwards to his face, "tell anyone, and you're going to have your tongue ripped straight out of your mouth".

Tongue ripped out of his mouth? She was losing her touch of being scary. Usually she was able to come up with something dramatic and could put the fear of Great Kings in their hearts. She knew she had already done that for Mulfalfa, so she wasn't concerned about him.

-----

"I left the family when Ra and Imani were cubs and mother and father were sick" Kamau answered his questioning expression. Though he hadn't asked Kamau directly, he knew that was the answer he was looking for from anyone who could offer the information he sought. "I don't know if that's what you wanted to know or not, but there you go". He walked over to where Tanga laid down and sat a little ways away from the gold male.

[AustralianChaos]

Now Tanga was just plain confused. When he had asked earlier, Kamau had gone off at him...but now, without any prompting, he had told him the answer to his unspoken question. In the end, he simply sighed. "Now Imani's going to be even angrier with me," he said, cursing his curiosity.

Gathering his courage, he decided to ask a tentative question. "But...why are you telling me this now? You were all but ready to rip my throat out before...I just...I'm confused." He heaved another sigh. "Two months in Imani's company, and still don't know anything about conversing with other lions...I'm useless."

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

"Imani was ahead of me. Like I could tell you what really happened without her coming after me first" he explained. The lion looked like he was having a pity party to himself over this one little thing. Surely he must have known that Imani's temper was short-lasting and she would soon come back to him. And since he appoligized, all she had to do was take her time before she was good and ready to talk to him once more.

"Well I'm not arguing that you're useless or not," he spoke before walking away from him and looking over his shoulder as he stepped, "but if Ra keeps you around as long as she has and you have others who love you, you can't be as useless as you think you are". He stopped for a moment and looked over the young male, "and why would you be useless to Imani if she loves you and enjoys your company?" With that, he left the lion to think about it and went to find himself something to munch on for the night.

[Skittakallista]

"Charming." Auni muttered, then he started to lick his paw, mulling over her words. Why should she need to be on her gaurd all the time? If she did elsewhere, then why here? She was safe and welcome here and there was no need for her to be so... Standoffish. He stayed were he was though, incase she said anything else, licking his paws.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga watched as Kamau left, before turning his gaze back towards the Pridelands, sighing as he thought over everything.

He now had the information he had been seeking...or at least the basic story...but he almost regretted it. His mind was no longer plaguing him with the problem of why Imani was uneasy...but he knew she would be angry that he found out something she did not want him to know.

But why did she want to keep this a secret? That was the one part Tanga did not understand. Realising that he would not find out on his own, and that Imani was not likely to tell him, he settled back onto his belly. He would have to tell Imani when he apologised that he knew the basics of the story...but was determined to remind both himself and her that he would not pry any more. Today had been a troubling day to say the least, and Tanga had no intention of straining his relationship with the love of his life like this again...ever.

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

Imani walked through the lands, attempting to clear her head. She was mixed between anger and sadness and confusion and betrayl. Sometimes, emotions were not the lioness's friend. She was far enough away from the pride to know that they couldn't see her now and she was in no way ready for them to start asking questions about her mood. No doubt, they knew something had gone wrong by now-- it was a small group, so of course word would travel faster than usual.

Her thoughts were vanished when she tore her head up from the ground to look at the vast amount of animals coming towards her. Zebras, antelope, elephants, giraffes-- they were all coming at her and not even seeming to notice that their natural predator was right in front of them. They all zoomed past her making her look at them all rush away, but when she looked forward, she saw a zebra come at her, knocking her out of its way and onto the ground. The lioness let out a roar before she hit the ground in pain, trying to shake off the pain and wonky vision before she landed her violet hues on the growing heat and harsh colors of a fire.

Imani tried to get to her feet as best she could but she was hit off pretty hard, and could barely adjust her line of vision well enough to see how close the flames were licking the grass towards her direction. She growled before joining the amount of animals in their run while she stuck close to the antelope, not even the thought of taking a bite out of them crossing her mind. She broke off from them as she headed to a large rock to let out a warning roar for the whole lands to hear, "fire in the east! Get away quickly!" With that, she headed off to find the pride and get them to safety.

-----

"Imani" Kioja perked her head and listened to the message. Once it was obvious that it was urgent and there was a lot of fear in her voice, she turned her head to Auni, getting back up to her feet. "Come on" she ordered, walking past him and picking up pace towards the pride den to see what life she could see there or scents she could sniff out as to where they could be.

-----

"What the...?" Kamau questioned, running back to see if Kioja was alright. Better yet-- was she the cause of commotion? The past didn't help her in this questioning process, as he knew the female was nothing short of fairly evil in her own way, but he had to make sure she wasn't the one to do it.

[AustralianChaos]

When Tanga heard Imani's powerful roar, he was on his feet in an instant, his eyes scanning the lands until he came across a cloud of black smoke, and saw the flames. He also saw Imani running amongst a group of fleeing animals, and his eyes widened in horror. "Imani..."

All thought of their issues today vanishing from his mind, he sprinted off, roaring his own dire warning as well. "Fire! Fire in the lands! Get away, now!" he boomed, hoping the others would hear his call and retreat from the deadly flames as he charged straight for Imani, ignoring the danger he was throwing himself in...Imani mattered more.

Rushing up to her side, Tanga noticed that Imani seemed a little dazed and out of sorts, like she had just taken a bad fall or something. "Imani, what happened, are you alright?" he asked, looking back at the flames, which appeared to be trying to chase them down.

[Skittakallista]

Auni's head jerked round as Imani went running past. "Fire in the east! Move quickly!" When Kioja got up and told him to move he did, gladly. He had been faced with fire once before and had no wish whatsoever to meet with it again.

He kept Kioja in his eyesight incase she found this oppounity to run off. Smitten with her though he was, he had a suspician that her motives for coming here were not alltogether savoury. So when he spotted her nosing around their den (a comfortablle spot under a large overhang of rock) he naturally followed her, but she only appeared to be seeing whether anyone was still there. "Kioja! There's no one in there, I don't think! We were all outside today. Come on!" He ran out, hoping she was behind him.

As he got out he looked around wildly for the others. Mufalfa and Ra were no where to be seen, the smoke only betraying the presence of the herd of frightened animals running from the flames. "Tanga! Imani! Guys! Anyone!" He bellowed, panicked. He ran towards the animal herd, hoping to find his friends with them.

Then he saw them! Relief flushed through him as he saw Tanga and Imani, trying desperatly not to be trampled by various animals.

Looking behind him to check that Kioja was there (she was, apparently deciding that her life was more important than whatever she was doing) he ran over to them. "I'm so glad I found you!"

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

"I'm fine, just come on" she weakly replied, running off slow enough for her to keep the same pace as his fastest, and soon enough ran into Auni and Kioja. Thank goodness they're safe, the lioness said inside her head as she tried to keep her balance.

Kioja scanned around them to find any glimpse of who could have caused it, or where Kamau could be. If he wasn't there...was he the one starting the fire? No, he couldn't have. Not even Kamau was that much of an idiot. But just to be on the safe side..., she darted away from the group to attempt at find her leader.