A yawn emitted from the throat of the male lion. It was dark, the moon had started to glow, casting a silver light upon the land. The patrol had started a few hours ago, yet the blue male found himself quite tired. “How much longer do we have?” Inzi complained, his lighter color eyes shifting towards his partner.

Next to him, a dark pelted lioness shook her head. “We just started.” She had stated. Some days, Kgwedi would be on patrol by herself, while other days she would get pair with others. Tonight, she was with Inzi. She did not mind the male for the most part, but some patrols he was just lazy. She really could not blame him, he was a hunter of the pride, not a guard..
“Did you not sleep before your shift?” She inquired, pausing her steps as her dark eyes gazed toward him. “You knew you would be out late tonight.” Kgwedi preferred the night patrols, after all, it was the one time you could see the moon in all it’s glory.

Inzi shrugged. “I took a brief nap…” he offered as an answer, but both of them knew that a brief nap meant nothing for the male. Inzi needed much more than a ‘brief’ sleep to function properly. He preferred the day shifts for his hunts, mainly because after the hunt, there were lions to socialize with. A night, a normal lion would be sleeping.

“Once we have a replacement for Nteo, I think you will head back to your hunts.” Kgwedi offered. Nteo’leru had married out of his class, following his mate to the lower-middle class. He was unable to be a guard anymore, so someone needed to take his place. “We have had an influx of rogues come in. Maybe some will wake and chose the guard role?” She offered the male.

Inzi returned a shrug. “Hopefully.” He commented, sighing. “How many rogues do you normally find near the borders at night?” The blue lion asked. “Ever get one that causes a threat?” His hair stood on edge as he said that. He did not want to fight anyone. He was more of a lover, not a fighter.

“One…maybe two depending on the day as of recent.” Kgwedi thought for a moment. The last few rogues she had spotted during her patrol were Maisha and his mate, Upepo. One was born in the swamplands, the other born in the desert. Both were intriguing characters, just from hearing where they were from and how they ended up together.
“None have been hostile though,” she saw Inzi begin to get flustered at the thought. Kgwedi could never understand how someone of hostility would try to attack a pride that had many in numbers. Then again, there were some that tried. She shook her head at the thought. She didn’t expect to encounter anyone like that.

“Good.” Inzi stated. “After this, I may go visit my father again.” It had been years since Inzi had last seen his father. He was identical to him, with the exception of his pelt was blue and his father’s bright red. Inzi had visited Azima when he was an adolescent, to find who he was. He had learned he had ‘half-siblings’, although they were not his father’s biological children. More so, they were his cousins, but Sarakaji, Qi and Inzi did not know the difference at the time.

“Your father?” Kgwedi asked. She hadn’t heard the male speak of him previously. “Where does he live?” She asked, every now and then glancing at Inzi before looking ahead of her. Although the two were chatting, she still had a job to do.

Inzi paused, thinking of the land names. “Hmm…It’s a really grassy place…” He started. “Ku….Kusini’mwezi?” He knew the mwezi part was correct, after all, he was born in the Mwezi lands. He would never forget anything with any part of his homeland in it. “It’s a very grassy pride.” He remembered playing hide and seek with Qi and Sarakaji during his last visit.

It was Kgwedi’s turn to shrug. “I don’t know if I have heard of it.” She would have to ask the next rogue she met if they had heard of the lands. Although Kgwedi had not been born in the pride, she had been in here long enough to not remember half the prides she had once visited. But then a thought dawned on her.
“Wait.” She paused. “Koki came from the Kusini’mwezi, didn’t he?” Koki was another hunter of the pride, more intrigued with plants then the actual hunt. He, too, was a former rogue. “Why don’t you take him with you next time? Poor guy is always scrutinizing about plants, he’d probably like to visit his family too?”

Inzi knew Koki. The charcoal male with white paws was much older than he was, though he didn’t speak with him often. “Think he would want to go?” He asked Kgwedi. “…Think he could make the trip…?” The trek to the Kusini lands wasn’t that difficult, but the last time Inzi had visited the land w as pretty barren. Inzi did not even know if his father still resided there, but at least he had spring in his step. If Koki was older than him, it was less likely his family wasn’t around either.

“It wouldn’t hurt to ask him.” Kgwedi said. “All he could say is no, right?”

The blue lion nodded in agreement. “I guess.” He shifted on his paws. Inzi had been thinking about his family lately, more so on his father’s side. He just wanted to touch base with them. He had grown close to his cousins in the visit as well. “It is always better to have traveling companions anyways…right?” Not only did it provide safety in numbers, it provided relief from boredom to have someone to talk to.

‘Exactly!” Kgwedi agreed. She would offer to go with the male, but she was a lion that wanted to make sure her position was covered. “Let’s get going. One more round and the shift should be done.” She told the male with a smile.

“Yes!” Inzi would have jumped for joy, but held in much of his physical excitement. “Not that I don’t appreciate your company, Kgwedi, but I am more of a day time lion.”

The lioness snorted. “I could tell.” And with that, the two continued the patrol until the next set of felines released them.

(WC - 1078 )