[PRP] Family Secrets

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The grey lion frowned, raising an eyebrow at Ota. "Now what exactly do you mean by that?" he asked her. Well, okay, Avahk had a pretty good hunch as to what she meant. But he hadn't figured his friends for underground revolutionaries.

With anyone else, he might ask if they really understood what they were getting into. But Kamia and Ota always seemed to have good heads on their shoulders and they'd be ready to deal with whatever happened.

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"Shouldn't regicide disqualify someone?" Tseva asked weakly, but she knew it was a foolish question. He wouldn't be the first ruler in any pride to slaughter his way to the throne, and he certainly wouldn't be the last.

Still, this was getting heavier than the black lioness liked.  

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They had...what? Seen Shangyue's end? How was that even possible? Avahk's brow furrowed as he tried to puzzle out Ota's remark. The rest of what Kamia said made sense, but he wasn't sure about how they could have seen something...

"You two...haven't been talking to Nyeusi, have you?" the lion asked worriedly. The lioness in question seemed to have lost all contact with reality since the coup and was going around predicting the end of the pride. So far, he hadn't met anyone who really took her seriously, but if his friends were calmly accepting her words...that was very worrisome.

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The black lioness was quiet as she considered what she was hearing. The last thing she wanted to was to be involved in a rebellion, even if they were rebelling against a murderous King. But Ota and Kamia seemed so sure...

Then the sense of their words penetrated. "We've both Seen Shangyue's end." Of course!

"You two are Seers!" she exclaimed, eyes going wide with awe. Seers were uncommon at best, and the Jini-msemi valued them highly, especially those who were the children of gods. With the Mwezi'Johari's odd religion that seemed to deny the gods who walked the land, Tseva had never expected to find any Seers here.  

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"Wait...what? Seers?" Avahk did not know a great deal about such a thing. In fact, he didn't think he'd even heard the word before. But at least his mate, who'd been quiet and worried all through this conversation, seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. So he could always ask Tseva later what exactly was going on.

The grey lion was relieved to hear that poor Nyeusi with her broken mind did have people looking out for her. But it was somewhat disturbing to hear Ota talking so seriously about how long it would take for Shangyue to worry about her ravings.

"I'm...uh...glad that she'll be safe," he said finally.

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Seers. That made a world of difference. And a pair of them working together! Tseva was suddenly much more confident in a rebellion headed by this pair of lionesses. If they had foreseen the King's eventual fall, then they would succeed. There could be no doubt. She'd never heard of a Seer being wrong. Misinterpreting what they saw, sure. Choosing words that didn't describe their visions very well, definitely. But wrong? Never.

"That is very good to know," she replied. "And if you've seen his end, all to the better. What help I can give, I'll be happy to offer," she told them, committing herself to the surety of their visions.  

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At some point things had flip-flopped and suddenly it was Tseva who knew exactly what was going on and Avahk who was floundering. He really would have to get her to explain what a "seer" was later tonight. For the moment, Kamia had asked him a very serious question. Was he ready to rebel against Shangyue?

A smile slowly crossed the grey male's face. "Sounds like I get a chance to prove that Dad wasn't the only rebel in the family," he told his friends. True, the subject matter was totally different - Yareha's issues had been with class structure and superiority, one of the things that Shangyue had actually done positive work for - and Avahk would stand for not having a murderer on the throne. But maybe there was some good that could come out of evoking his father's choices.

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Tseva was intrigued by her mate's words. Avahk didn't often mention his father. She had been aware that the older male was not present in their lives, but had assumed that he was either dead or not on speaking terms. But really, daddy issues were not nearly as important in the face of rebellion. Unelss if your father was, like Kamia's poor cubs, the King himself.  

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The grey lion nodded. "That's true enough, though at this point I'd bet more of those ears are sympathetic to us than to a certain purple male," he observed, following his friends into the den. They'd probably said almost too much in the open already. The only things beside that were details, real actual details.

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Tseva smiled at the mention of the boys. "Perhaps we should wake them up when we're finished. I wouldn't mind a chance to meet and play with them," the black lioness suggested. Not to mention that it would help to muddy the trail if anyone was already spying on them.