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Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 6:59 am
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Amakhaza struggled to control the shakes that threatened to take over her limbs. Not now! She begged, forcing one paw to release its grip on the ground, claws leaving perfect divots in the dry and cracked earth as she tugged free. Pushing forwards through the terror that squeezed down on her chest like a buffollo sitting on it, she placed the newly liberated paw back down in front of her, instantly feeling her traitorous claws sink deep into the ground once again. Gingerly putting her weight on it she sucked in a sharp, ragged breath. She didn't look back, knowing that if she let herself catch sight of the ride behind her, she would loose her nerve and rush back over to them.
No! She would not break! She had to overcome her fear! Gritting her teeth she peeled another paw off the gruond and pushed forwards. One more step. Flicking her gaze up she spotted the boulder she had managed to reach yesterday so with a lashing tail she forced her legs to move again.
Eventually, shaking and sweating she reached the rock. Fear was like a cold fire ni her limbs, stealing away all of her strength even as it set her skin burning and created a ringing in her ears that was painful. But she refused to be beaten. The irrational terror that had gripped her ever since she was a cub was her own personal demon and she refused to let it win! With her body shaking so hard it almost tipped her off her paws, she forced herself three more steps, until her tail tip slapped against the rock that was now behind her.
Finally her strength gave out and she collapsed in heap, trembling so bad she wondered if she was raising her own personal dust cloud with the shaking of her body. Everything within her screamed for her to race back to her pride sisters as fast as she could go. But this was the second part of her daily trial. She forced herself to stay where she was as the terror ebbed and flowed, seizing her chest and stealing her breath only to ease off and instead attack her skin, making her alternate between a firey heat and a freezing chill.
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Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 2:52 pm
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Kuhasa was still adjusting to pride life but everything seemed to be going pretty well for him and he was enjoying it. He was out and about, feeling rather social even, when he caught sight of the struggling lioness. Unfortunately, he had no idea what was going on and he simply stared in confused concern as she slowly but surely pushed herself forward before finally collapsing.
She looked like she was ill but, contagious or not, he couldn't just let her die there or anything.. or was that the right thing to do if she really was sick? If he weren't in a pride still, this would be easy.. but not by much. He, naturally, worried about his own survival but he wasn't a selfish monster.
Cautiously, he walked closer to the lioness.
"Are you OK?" he called.
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Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 5:13 pm
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In all of his time in this pride, which was admittedly very little in the grand scheme of things so far, nothing even close to this had happened. The lionesses here were all so .. proud. Something was very clearly wrong with this lioness clinging to his legs and the contrast with the rest of the lionesses made him incapable of reacting quickly to what was happening. In the end, he did the only thing he could think of: he looked around to make sure nothing was chasing her, attempted to look her over to make sure she wasn't bleeding to death or anything.. and then he sat down and waited for her to calm down.
"It's alright," he said, "Take your time, calm down."
Awkward as it seemed, and with absolutely no idea what was happening exactly, Kuhasa felt quite important in that moment.
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Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2016 5:04 am
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She was completely unaware of his surprise, being as she had her head buried in her front paws. But eventually his gentle voice cut through her fear and tugged on the fractured bits of her still-whirling thoughts. He sounded so.... sure and certain, so steady that she felt safe for the first time in weeks. Shaking still she pressed even closer to him, her emotions a raging mess. Upset at her own weakness, fright from her irrational fears, embarrassment tainting the swirling mass of it. She could feel where tars started to wet her fur and she sniffed heavily, refusing to give into the emotional turmoil that was threatening to incapacitate her.
After several minutes of deep breathing to try and steady her racing heart and regain her composure, she finally lifted her head to nervously look up at him. "Can you pretend this didn't happen?" She asked him, her voice unsteady. If she couldn’t erase the last few hours from existence, then denial was the next best thing.
Ecavi Sorry, I've been sick and it killed my rp mojo.
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Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2016 2:58 am
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Her plea only made him more curious- but then, provided with the answer, he only blinked. It took him a moment to figure the word out. He was quick enough to figure out that she was irrationally afraid of something, but what the something was came to him more slowly.
Lucky for them both, he could tell by her behavior that making light of this was definitely not the way to go. He glanced around them and mentally tried to triangulate their location with respect to their current camp and the busier areas of the pride.
"Why are you all the way out there, then?" he asked finally, "And all alone!" There was little judgement in Kuhasa's tone, he primarily spoke with curiosity- and a little bit of concern. If she was afraid of being out in the wide open spaces.. and, clearly, having a companion helped her..
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 2:23 am
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Relief that he wasn't going to push her for a more through explanation surged through her. She generally didn’t like others knowing of her issue, it was embarrassing and stupid and no one else seemed to have a problem just being away from the pride. Yet she turned into a shaking, drooling mess any time she was out of sight of her pridemates. Scowling at herself she didn’t even bother lying in her own head and resisting his offer. Usually, her trips out to which ever landmark she had picked that day ended with her bolting full speed back home, and then she would spend an hour shaking and shivering as she tried to get over both the panic attack she had put herself through, and the adrenaline laced race back to the pride.
This outcome, while far more mortifying socially, was far preferable to the usual mess. Finally peeling herself away from where she had clung to his forelegs, she gathered herself and stood. "I'd rather not." She replied, able to bring herself to look him in the eye. She of course meant that she would prefer not to pretend he wasn't there, not that she didn’t want to go back with him. And besides, pretending wouldn't work. Phobias were far from logical and now that she had a companion, the fear wouldn't return.
"I'm Amakhaza." She offered as she shifted round to his side, facing back towards the direction the pride lay, remembering that she hadn't actually introduced herself during the mayhem.
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Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 2:21 am
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The pale lioness looked up at the big male for a long moment, but then nodded and moved towards the rock. She did take a moment to look around it once they got there, fear tripping down her spine as she stood where she had been earlier, and yesterday, and the day before that. Taking a slow, careful breath she pushed the ghost-fear back down deep inside her and turned her back on that most hated spot.
"Lets go." She said quietly, surprising herself with how small her own voice sounded. But she didn't repeat herself, simply took another breath and set off back towards the pride. She honestly couldn't get away from the stone fast enough, but she never moved more than three paces away from Kuhasa. She couldn't, not after the terror she had felt so recently. It would be at least several hours before she started to come down off that tormented precipice of scrambled emotions and reverted to her more usual self.
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