[PRIVATE] A Rogue's Light

[AustralianChaos]

As Imani talked, Tanga felt more and more horrible. This was what he had fought to get her to talk about, and now that he knew, he realised exactly why Imani had kept it to herself, and felt terrible for trying to get her to open up.

Tanga was about to open his mouth to apologise, when he heard her begin to sing. closing his muzzle once more, he simply lay back and closed his eyes, listening to her sweet voice. He wished he could join her, but since his knowledge of songs came from his parents, and neither of them had ever sung this one, he was left without the ability to join her.

When she was done, Tanga opened his eyes once more, looking up at her. He looked over at Kioja and Auni, smiling as he noticed the two of them talking to each other, before turning back to his mate. "I'm sorry," he whispered, before brushing her paw off his neck lightly, and reaching up, licking her softly across the cheek, the words coming out of his mouth instinctively. "I can't imagine what it must have been like. But I swear, Imani...I'll never leave you...never."

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

As Imani felt his touch grace her paw and his lick to her cheek, she took in his words and kept her eyes closed. "But I swear, Imani...I'll never leave you...never." The words rang in her head like a bell would echo in a hollow chamber. Don't tell me that..., she thought while fighting the urge to shake her head at him. We never know what the future holds for us...how can you be so sure Tanga that you're never going to leave me? Maybe not by choice you will abandon me but surely death will one day do us part, she thought solemnly.

Though she was a good actress, she cleaned up her mind and smiled down at him with a light sigh. "Thank you" she whispered back. Imani drew her head up to see the fire was completely put out...but the Pridelands were as well. Not a single spot of green, no food in sight. Trees were fragile and could easily fall over at the slightest wind, the soft grass was burn up into ashes and cinder, and the sky was gloomy and dark. This was not the Pridelands she knew as her home all this time. She couldn't imagine how it must have been for the king and queen, seeing as how they were to own this land and they were no longer ruling over much of a spec of what you would call 'land'. "It looks terrible..." she admitted, pulling her head back down.

Kioja looked it over and drew her eyes back to Imani, "we have to migrate".

"But migrate to where?"

"A place where there is food" she answered. It didn't matter to Kioja if there wasn't a suitable ray of sunshine, or if there was clean water around-- all they needed was food and they would survive in her eyes. Her seafoam eyes looked at Auni and then Tanga. She stared at him for a while before she voiced her next opinion, "living in the Outlands gives you much more experience than you think. All we need is food and we can make it until the Pridelands are fresh and green once more".

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga looked from Imani to Kioja to Auni, cycling his gaze across all of them. He smiled as his words were met with appreciation from his mate, before that smile frowned as Kioja suggested the Outlands as their place of residence from now on.

"I've never been there," Tanga said. "But I've heard it's not a pleasant place to live." He turned his gaze across their destroyed home, and the equally-destroyed Pridelands. "But by the looks of things, it'll be better than here for now, at least."

Tanga was stranger to living the hard life, having lost his parents, and been forced to live and survive for weeks in his early adolescence before he found the Pridelands. But he did not want his friends to endure that, either. He certainly believed they were all capable of surviving, but he would have preferred it if Imani and Auni, and Ra, too, wherever she was, had things a little easier. Ra's cubs were on the way as well, and he hated the idea of them being raised in such a hard environment.

He finally sighed. "I guess we have little choice, though, right?" he finally said. "But we have to find Ra and Kamau first."

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

Imani turned her head from Kioja to Tanga, getting even more uncomfortable with the subject of leaving. "Well hold on, I mean..." she trailed off, trying to find the words. Completely captured by Kioja's intense eyes, she was lost for words and reverted into her shell.

"You want this pride to starve?" She questioned.

"That's the last thing I want--"

"Then grow a backbone!" Kioja snarled, making Imani back away and curl her form into a ball as she sat. Once Kioja saw she had no competition for her proposal, her form reverted away from confrontation to relaxed and started to lick her paws.

-----

Kamau bolted through the flame-packed fields of the Pridelands...or what was left of it. Though it was difficult to see in the heat, as the air was waving in front of him, he still had his smell. Something seemed to be off when he scented a lioness when fire and smoke was overpowering. Kamau's eyes landed on a lioness, passed out and it appeared to be his younger sister. The lion rushed over to the dead-like lioness, but when her belly was spotted to be moving up and down, he heaved out a sigh and picked her up on his back. They rushed back to the pride of lions and lionesses where they were all settling down from a long day of fear and insecurity. Once Kamau walked in tall with his younger sister on his back, not a scratch on her, he saw Imani poke her head up and look at him, but her gaze was brought more towards her older sister. "Ra!"

Imani ran over to the two, and eagerly licked Ra's face, her ears folded and whimpers escaping her mouth whilst her tail wagged.

"She's fine" he told Imani, letting Ra down gently. She didn't stir-- she must have been either knocked out pretty hard or she was still sleeping...and they wouldn't put it past Ra to be that heavy of a sleeper.

"I wonder how she's going to react when she finds out Mulfalfa is gone for good..." Imani thought aloud. Kioja had the urge to say something, but she kept silent and continued to clean her paws.

"What else did I miss then?" Kamau asked. Imani looked at Kioja, then to her paws, and then up into her brother's cold and yet, somehow warm, eyes.

"We're migrating to the Outlands..." she said, walking over to Tanga and slumping over.

Kamau looked at Kioja, seeing her look at him but give no real heed to him, before he got to thinking about the whole situation. When he perked his head up from thought, Kioja followed and knew he had something that would no doubt probably be good news to his sister and the pride before him. "Kioja how far did this fire reach?"

"Hard to say, but no where close to the others" she told him, which helped him gain a smile.

"Perfect," he turned his head to his sister's back, "what if you came to live with Kioja and I with our pride? Only until the Pridelands are restored".

[Nakisisa]

(( Well 9 pages, in just over an hour, whilst RPing elsewhere, not bad, thanks for building up the suspense for me and I thought Imani/Tanga were split forever, Butterfly, keep Kamu for a while if you want, it seems we need to talk about him, and VM, we could also do with a chat. And, It's great to be back! ))

To cover the already stated, Ra had been sleeping when the fire started, and the ash had knocked her out cold as ice. She was unaware of what had happened, even that her brother had saved her, carrying her back across the savahana.

Before Ra stirred, she mentally sang the song Imani used to sing to her, using it as a comfert thig, and when the song finnished, she began to stir. Yet, she didn't listen to anything but her own heart beat. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw everything as it should have been, green and full of life, without Kamau and Kioja. Yet she did notice Tanga on his back, obviously bleeding from the same wound.

Silently she got to her feet, and walked over to Tanga, not feeling the heat underfoot, nor the destroyed land, she did manage to find a small amount of necessary herb, spared by the fire. "Move" she commanded to her sister, as she approached placing the herbs by Tanga. "You need to stand, let the blood drain out." she half snapped half used her bedside manner.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga sighed as he saw Imani rush over to Ra, and was relieved when Kamau declared she was fine. When Ra awake and order him to stand, he obeyed, pulling himself to his feet, wincing as his neck protested painfully, but ignoring it as he waited for Ra to administer the herbs, feeling the blood starting to drain away from his wounds as he turned to Kamau, listening as the lion offered to let them come to his pride for a time.

"What?" he said, staggered by the enormity, at least in his eyes, of what Kamau was proposing. Aside from his time in the Pridelands, he had been a rogue, and his general view was that pride were very reluctant to accept outsiders into their lands. "But, I..." he struggled to figure out what to say, his mind still processing Kamau's request. "You would really do that...for us?" he finally asked, looking to Imani, Auni and Ra for help.

[Nakisisa]

"Quiet" Ra snapped as she lay on her back underneath Tanga. "This is going to hurt." she said coldly, as she started to lick the wound. After the blood, ra could taste her sister, she knew how happy she would be, especially after Ra had her cubs... Her mind began to wander as Tanga flinched slightly. "Stay still" she commanded, placing the herbs in her mouth, wetting them before sticking them on Tangas Neck, seeking the wound with a paste like substance. "Don't strain yourself to much..." she said, still sounding weak.

[VitanisMate]

Mufalfa continued onward feeling alone and hungry. He couldn't catch anything, not with he being blind. He couldn't even see any water and he knew if he did not drink in 3 days he would die immediately. It would have been better for Kioja to kill him but he knew that his crimes against her made her want to make him suffer for the rest of his life, how very short it was. He knew that no one would help him out here. Again he felt alone and he just collapsed in the sand and felt unable to move, unable to die. He knew this torture of exile would be too much. He was exiled from his own land!

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga winced, hissing lightly as Ra tended to his wounds. It was painful, but he knew it was also necessarry, and so endured it. "I just wish Mufalfa's dark side would stay hidden," he said sadly, before growling as Ra added the herbs to his wounds, the paste stinging ferociously as Ra told him not to strain himself. "Don't worry...I don't intend on straining myself. I'm sure we've all had quite enough stress for one day."

Looking over the destroyed plains, he sighed, whispering to himself as thought of Mufalfa. "Why? Why did you do it...did my refusal really anger you that much?" He remembered the way Mufalfa had said he would regret not helping him get revenge on Kioja and Kamau...but struggled to believe that would have caused Mufalfa to light the wildfire. Not only did it seem extreme, even by Mufalfa's standards, but that also left some responsibility for the destruction on his shoulders...and he hated that guilty feeling.

[Nakisisa]

"Look, Tanga, I haven't the faintest clue at what you're talking about, but who... Are they?" Ra whispered motioning towards Kamau and Kiojo