[Closed] Little Stranger (Taraji Chapter 1)

[Lodrill]

Rahina got up as Kopy left the den and passed the gazelle. 'As if you don't know that I will wait for you with the meal!' Rahina thought and chuckled as Kopa splashed into the water. Would he ever change? But Rahina indeed remembered their excited baths together back in the jungle.

Rahina sighed. She missed the jungle. But at least they got of alive and she was together with her beloved Kopa. What could she want more? "Maybe a place for us to stay and ..." Rahina blushed a bit even if Kopa could neither see nor hear her. "...a cub or two?"

Rahina watched Kopa bathing and cleaned herself at the same time. With their food on the line she would not join him but guarding the meal. Still she watched over him so that nothing would harm him ever.

After some time she noticed two lions closing in to the waterhole. Rahina perked her ears and got up in one instant. Potential danger. She kept in the shadows of the entry of the den and observed the strange lions. There was no daubt about them heading towards the water.

Kopa got out of the water and faced them The two intruder did not really act agressive but they also did not really look very friendly either. It looked like they were just trying to check up if they should beat Kopa up. That was the impression Rahina got for her position at least because they sure did look at him with sceptical faces. Rahina slowly sneaked closer. Her tail was swaying right and left like it always was when she was on the hunt or pursuit of a prey. She got closer without Kiara or Kovu noticing her because they were focused on Kopa. But she still did not do any move to attack. She just closed in for the case Kopa needed her help. Kopa's eyes met hers for one moment. Rahina nodded very faint to signalize him that she would be ready any time he needed her and got ready right in the shadow of a rock.

[hr][/hr]

Taraji proudly rode on the neck of Kovu. She had to fight with the mane to get to see something but she enjoyed her high 'horse'.

They got closer to the waterhole and Taraji got the scent of the water already. It was a nice scent. Taraji sighed happily.

As she notices Kopa she crawled deep into the mane of Kovu so that she was nearly not visible. Her shyness kicked in again and even harder than it had been for Kovu or Kiara. Due she was snuggled in so deeply into Kovus mane his head blocked her sight to the strange lion. So she just peeked to the other directions. Her eyes were the only thing that was clear visible between the thick mane. Then she got a very short glimpse on Rahina and she winced back. This lioness was sneeking apon them and just hid herself in a shadow but Taraji had seen her for a second and the big scar on her leg even made this picture more teriffic for Taraji. She wanted to crawl deeper into the mane to hide from this lioness - both because of fear and because she was shy - but her hind paw got entangled by one strong streak of Kovus mane and she moved to hastily to go on against the holding streak so that she tumbled off Kovu and landed directly in the cold water of the waterhole.

Panicking because of the shock of tumbling off, the strange lioness and the cold water she hastily began to pedal with her paws that exhausted her very fast in her still weak state.

[Mike]

Kovu felt Taraji slipping off his back, and twisted around to catch her as she fell. He was too late however, and she slipped off before his aws closed around the air where she had been. She tumbled into the water and began to flail around. Forgetting Kopa and the new lioness for a moment he lunged down to snag Taraji by the nape of her neck and gently raised her back onto his back.

"Are you okay Taraji? Did you swallow any water?" Kovu lay down so he was able to reach her comfortably with his mouth, and began to lick her dry. "Don't worry, it's just a bit of water."

He was about to apologise to Kopa about the disturbance in their conversation, but following Taraji's frightened gaze Kovu saw a rock, and noticed the hints of a lioness sulking behind it. Concerned by the fact that whoever it was was trying to hide from them, Kovu raised his voice.

"Who's there? Come out from behind that rock! Why are you stalking us?"

Kovu wished he could get up and confront the stealthy unknown face to face, but he didn't want to disturb poor Taraji any more than she must already be. He nudged her deep into his mane for the time being, trying to protect her from any potential conflict.

[Lodrill]

Taraji was caughing a lot due she had indeed got some water into her lungs. While Kovu already was talking to the strange lioness Taraji did not stop to caugh and it seemed to get even worse.

[hr][/hr]

Rahina was surprised. She did not have see that a cub had been with the two of them. Because of the cub she had been discovered.

With the cub in the middle Rahina did not plan to attack. At least not as long as they would not. Being discovered already it was pointless to hide anymore. She lost the moment of surprise already. Rahina took the one step into the sun so that the strange lions could see her. But still her tail was swaying back and forth and her black eyes pierced into Kovus eyes and made clear that Rahina was ready to attack any time. Due she still was not sure what to think of these two and because of the cub she did not anwer Kovu. She waited for Kopa or them to make the first move.

[Mike]

Kovu was concerned that Taraji was still coughing, but decided that the strange lioness was by far the bigger threat. It was no use telling Taraji to cough up the water if they were all torn to shreds in the meantime. The stranger had adopted a very agressive pose, seemingly one step away from launching herself at him or Kiara. Kovu made a split-second decision to put Taraji on the ground for a moment so he could defend his family more easily if it came to a fight. He knew that Kiara wouldn't leave the cub on the ground.

Kovu took several steps towards the strange lioness, but stayed far enough back that he would still have time to react if she suddenly charged him. The lioness' only answer to his words was to remain in her provocative pose. He adopted a correspondingly aggressive stance and growled, his tone making it clear that he was serious.

"Don't make me ask you again. Why were you stalking us, and what are you doing in the pridelands?"

[Lodrill]

Rahina did not flinch an inch. She looked straight into the face of Kovu. Even his growl did not impress her. Now that he put down the cub there was also no reason why she should hold back as he would start to attack. She was a fighter and a taugh one too. Not even Kopa had been able to beat her once so far. Even if she was not in her normal fighting grounds - the jungle - she was not unprepared. With her skilled eyes she already had grasped the suroundings. Even ths slightest small stone on the way did not go unnoticed by her.

Even if her paws still hurt a bit and she sure did not have her best condition, counting in that Kopa and she had been on a very long journey, the short sleep got at least enough energy and power back for this battle. Not only did she have a very strong body built - bigger than any other lioness - but also she was agile and fast on her paws. She could even take on more than just one lion. But her rich experience of fighting all the time since she was a cub had taught her two things. The first was that the attacker was in advantage that even could match out twice and more the power difference if ambushing. The second was that if someone attacked front on without any ambush and this attack failed the attacker was unstable for at least one second.

Rahina ever fought equal fights that way. Letting the oponent attack and dodge the attack with 100 percent accuracy just to counterattack in a split second. Thats how she beat Kopa a lot of times. She was a wise and intelligent fighter as well as over average strong. The wild life and defending her home alone until Kopa came made her this strong.
He fighting experience was far above her age.

And on top of all this she knew that Kopa was there too. He would not watch her being attacked silently. This all were reasons for Rahina to be not a bit afraid of Kovu and faced him with full confidence.

Alone that he faced her, leaving his back wide open to Kopa showed the difference in fighting experience between them. Even with equal powers and experiences Rahina and Kopa would be still be at advantage because they got both of them surounded and Kovu and Kiara were not even close to a perfect defensive circle.

Rahina opened her muzzle and her voice did not fit with her appearance. She looked taugh and hard but her voice was rather soft and melodic. "My, my! What do we have here... " she smiled a bit. "... thinking I am an easier target than Kopa, aren't we?" Rahina bared her fangs just a small bit to show how ready she was to await his attack. It was more a gesture to warn Kovu of any mistake he would try to make.

"And I do not really stalk you. I just made sure you do not gang up on my partner. And for your other question..." Rahina's tail swayed towards the den and kept pointed into this direction. "We got invited to rest in the den there. What brings me to the question who you are threatening Kopa. I have to warn you that not much creatures ever survived doing this to my loved one." Rahina chuckled a bit thinking about that Kopa was as strong as she and that even he would have probably no problems with fighting Kovu. Her tail began to sway back and forth again. "One way or another..."

Her voice still was rather sweet and did not really fit to the words that clearly were a last warning and threat.
Rahina was a bit tense due to the long journey, the danger she thought Kopa in and the unfamiliar surounding. This all made her extremly short-tempered. She waited for either the response or the attack of Kovu ready to deal with it right away.

[Mike]

[OOC: I'm a bit unsure about the relative strength of our characters. Kovu's stronger than Simba (in Zira and Kovu's own opinion at least) and Simba had no problem holding his own against several outlanders in the final battle of TLKII, and then was still perfectly willing to duel Zira one on one. That would make Rhahina worth the strength of about five toughened outsiders, who were stronger than the pridelanders, and were winning that battle. Unless she's overestimating herself. Am I right in thinking this?]

The lioness responded with a very condescending tone, but then mentioned Kopa. Now Kovu didn't know much about Kopa, but he did know that the lion had been invited to the pridelands, and so shouldn't be a threat. If this newcomer was also a guest then he had nothing to fear from her.

"You know Kopa?" Kovu demanded in surprise, but the lioness' next words explained further. His lip twisted at her pretentious air, but he was not so blinded by his instinctive dislike of her attitude that he missed the fact that she thought she was defending her mate. Given that, he was willing to forgive her words, not that he meant to let them slip by completely.

"For invited guests you have a funny way of greeting the royal family that allowed you to stay here. Sneaking up behind us and then threatening us." he said, relaxing and shaking his head. "Let's go over the introductions again. I'm Kovu, this is Kiara, she's Simba's daughter and my mate. I guess you know Kopa, though we just met him. So you were invited to stay here? Whoever it was seems to have forgotten to tell you what it means to be in the pridelands, and the first rule is that we don't fight among ourselves." Kovu paused for a moment to let that sink in, then he continued with a much lighter voice. "So, all that's left now is for me to welcome you to the pridelands. Where are you from, and I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

[Lodrill]

[OOC: To cut this short here I sent you a few background information about Rahina via PM]

Rahina losened up a bit. And her face looked a lot more friendly - more fiting with her soft voice - in an instant. But her eyes still showed cautious and awareness. She looked to Kopa as if she was waiting for a sign. As she raised her body up - from the previous tensed up stance of readiness to jump - her full body hight became visible. She could look Kovu into the eyes without even looking up. For a lioness she was pretty tall.

With another look towards Kopa she rolled to the side. She did this mainly to show her will to make peace because she now was not in any fighting stance anymore. In addition to show that she had no intention of attacking (as least at the moment) also the wound paws now became clearly visible.

She blinked her eyes to look at Kovu a bit closer. After a short while of silence with only Taraji's caughing to hear Rahina raised her voice again.

"Erm... Kovu? That's right? Well, as protective as you seem to be about your mate I am of mine. And for me it looked like you were really threatening Kopa." Rahina noded with her head to Kopa who was still standing behind Kovu. But then her noding became slower and she seemed to think about something. More to herself she was repeating the names. "hmmm... Kovu...?... wasn't this.. and Simba...?" something rang inside her. She still had her memories of her childhood but she did not yet remember the names from back then. She suppressed the names due Kovu and Simba both were linked to bad memories of Rahina about the death of her mother and brother as well as the wrong acting of her own father. She did not remember where she had heard this names and so continued to address Kovu.
"My name is Rahina. And this lion is Kopa, my mate. Up to a few weeks ago our rign was a big jungle very far away from here. You will probably never have heard from it." Rahinas voice had something wistful. She really missed her and Kopas jungle. But she knew that they would not be able to return there.

[KiarasMate]

Kiara held her ground next to her mate as the events unfolded before her. She kept an eye on Kopa and was only thrown off guard with the sudden splash that happened to be Taraji falling off of Kovu’s shoulders and into the cold waters below. Luckily, her mate hoisted their daughter out before she had swallowed too much of the chilly substance. Watching as her mate placed Taraji behind him, realizing that there was another lioness present, one who seemed to be a potential threat towards both her mate, herself and most importantly, their little cub, Kiara acted accordingly, moving in to shield Taraji with the full length of her golden body as she leaned down to help ease the frightened cub, lightly licking over her saturated belly and face to clear off as much of the excess water as she could to try and help the little cub to stop her coughing. Watching closely, knowing that if a fight were to break out, she would do whatever it took to defend both Taraji’s and her mate’s lives, even at the cost of her own, Kiara prepared herself for whatever might happen.

Listening to what Kovu had spoken, hearing the name Simba being stated, causing a slight pain in his head to suddenly take over as he stood rather motionless and silent, Kopa merely observed the events that unfolded before him. Unable to think clearly, the large male stood rigid, an odd look plastered on his face as his mate’s presence was discovered. Under normal circumstances, Kopa would have been at her side in a flash, defending her with every last ounce of strength he had, but the words spoken by Kovu had triggered something deep within his recollection, rendering the male completely useless for the moment. It wasn’t until the situation had all but died down, did Kopa finally get a hold of himself, moving over towards his beloved lioness, who had casually rolled herself onto her side as to show that she didn’t have any malicious intents towards the three new faces. Speaking up finally, Kopa addressed the small group, shaking his head to try and rid himself of the strange feelings that insisted on tormenting him.

”Please, take it easy. My mate here was just looking out for me. Like she said, we’ve lived a hard life and have always had to watch out for one another, so she must have thought you two were going to attack me.”

Leaning down to give his precious Rahina a loving nuzzle as to thank her for her undying watchfulness over his wellbeing, Kopa murmured something softly into her ear before he resumed his focus back towards Kovu and company.

”I’m sorry for the confusion and hopefully we can put this behind us and start out fresh. Yes, this is my mate Rahina and yes, we were given permission by a lioness named Nala to let us both rest here for as long as we needed. We don’t have any intent on staying as permanent members of your Pride, we just needed a place to recover from our long journey thus far. As you can tell already, we are not used to the lifestyle that you and your mate, I’m assuming there, share, so you will have to please forgive us if we’ve offended you in any way. I assure you though, we mean you no trouble and will be gone as soon as we’re well enough to leave.”

Turning back to gaze at Rahina, Kopa started to fuss over her, leaning in to gently lick over her sore looking paws as he spoke quietly to her.

”You shouldn’t be stalking with those sore paws of yours Hina. Besides, your going to get us in trouble with that spirit of yours my precious.” Kopa stated, giving his special lioness a wink as to indicate that he was joking.

Now that things had settled down a bit, Kiara began to relax slightly as she uncurled herself from around Taraji, still not leaving her daughter’s side as she spoke up towards the new pair.

”Like my mate has stated, accidents can happen and we’re both more than willing to look past this little incident. It’s nice to meet you both once again and please don’t take this to be us not wanting you two to stay. You may of course, stay as long as you need to if that was my mother’s wishes.”

Looking up at her mate with a loving stare, Kiara couldn’t help but feel as if she was in the presence of someone who cared so deeply for her and her safety. She knew that Kovu was only doing what came natural to him but knowing that he was doing it for Taraji and her sake just made her swoon over how brave at heart he truly was.

[Lodrill]

Taraji finally stopped to caugh after a while and snuggled snuggled against the paw of Kiara behind that she hid herself from the strangers. Near Kiara she felt safe. Slowly but surely she began to breath normally and come over the shock of falling into the water.

[hr][/hr]

Rahina looked dreamy at Kopa. He was so caring and ... well so lovely... she just could not do anything else than love him.
She felt safe in near him and so she let him handle the talk with Kovu and Kiara and just leaned against the stone and watched the cub of the two. She chuckled a bit. It was funny how this cub tried to hide from her eyesight.

[Mike]

"Would you like to share a meal then, so we can get to know each other?" Kovu said, noticing a pause in their conversation, then remembered that Taraji had been a little hungry earlier. "No actually, I'm sorry. You said Nala welcomed you to the pridelands? Kiara and I have been looking for her. Would you know where she's gone?"

Kovu was happy to see that Kiara had indeed taken up the responsibility of cleaning off poor Taraji. He was sorry to have to leave the cub alone for those crucial seconds. Now though, the diffused tension of the situation allowed him to return to Kiara's side and nuzzle Taraji reassuringly, trying to let her know that everything was all right again.