She was very far from 'home', or what would have been the remains of her home. She wasn't sure what had happened to it and to this day she still had little memory of it. Every now and then she'd experience flashbacks, but to date what had occured during that period was a mystery to her and well... At this point in her life she wasn't sure if she wanted to find out. Fate had intervened in her home for a reason and whatever fate awaited it was now far from her view. Now she was in a region entirely unfamiliar to her and to be perfectly honest, she had been enjoying it.
...So far the creatures she had met had looked unusual, but they had all been friendly, and she had embraced the opportunity to share what little she recalled of her world with them, while they educated her about their's. Unsurprisingly it had been their stories that had resulted in her moving further and further away from her home until she had found herself on the borders of the Mwezi. It was a pride that she was entirely unaware of, and had it not been for Khumba's intervention then she wouldn't have even realised she was on their land.
"Hey hey hey!" the pale lion had called out as he trotted briskly towards the blue lioness. She was striking in the sunlight and against the backdrop she currently stood in, she stuck out like a sore thumb. "Careful where you step, you're not on open land anymore," he pointed out. He'd left his companions behind for the timing being, but they would no doubt follow in time... For now it was his duty to assess and ward her away if need be.
"Sorry!" She had the decency to sound alarmed as she took several steps back and regarded the lion who had approached her. Beyond his initial 'greeting' he didn't seem to be dangerous and after a quick look at the other two approaching males, she was reasonably confident she would be all right.
"It's fine," Cruithne spoke over Khumba, who had just been about to speak, and offered a wry smile. "Not exactly the finest greeting," Cruithne pointed out as he nudged the paler male and chuckled. "But what he says is right, you are on land that belongs to a pride so if it hadn't been your intention to visit it might be advantageous to turn around."
"You are hostile...?" She was getting rather mixed signals from both males, each seemed pleasant enough and for the most part, the land didn't seem to exhibit warning signs. There were no corpses, no blood, no symbols that would warn her to turn tail and run; in fact, this region was fairly normal in every sense of the word.
"No," Khumba spoke before Cruithne had the chance again. "But we can be cautious as to the intentions of outsiders," he pointed out and glanced briefly at Qoba. The striped male was hanging back and seemed wholey uncomfortable. It seemed that he wasn't quite ready to extend a greeting to the lioness. Given her body language and overall demeanour, Khumba was satisfied that the lioness was probably safe. To be entirely honest if she'd been hostile he sincerely doubted she could have taken them all at once anyway.
"Oh, a little like home then," she conceded and shook her head. "My old home was like that, we were quite shy," she confessed. She was softly spoken, quiet enough that both lions who were closest to her were required to lean in slightly. "But there was no harm in us, I assume you are the same then... But the world out here doesn't seem unkind," she added.
"Generally it's not," Cruithne agreed. "Just depends on where you go," he mused. He spoke from experience of course, having wandered extensively himself. "Where are you from?"
"Mmmm, a long way from here," she turned a number of times and then seemed to settle on a direction in which to point her paw. "Somewhere over there in a very dense forest," she explained. "I don't think it's there anymore though, there was an accident," she added.
"An accident?" Qoba had finally gained the courage to step forward and though he kept his distance, he was at least in earshot.
"I don't remember it very well," she replied smoothly, failing to note his discomfort. Fortunately she didn't seem to have much interest in closing the gap between herself or any of the lions in question. "I know it happened and I know it hurt lots of us, but I can't really piece it together," she raised her paw to give her head a gentle tap. "I think it might have broken me a little bit too."
Qoba afforded a quick glance towards Khumba and Cruithne, Khumba didn't really seemed to know how best to respond to something that felt like an understated tragedy and neither did he. Fortunately it seemed that Cruithne could still conduct himself beautifully and he had decided to take it upon himself to lead the conversation. This was probably for the best given the current musings running through the striped lion's mind.
"Unfortunate," Cruithne murmured as he followed her paw and shook his head. "But you are rather far from home if this is the case. That's quite the adventure," he pointed out diplomatically. It was the most appropriate sentence he could string together in light of the rather concerning news that she had drifted this far from where she lived. More importantly she'd been injured to the point she couldn't recall what had happened properly, so he did have to wonder if such an issue would persist.
"It felt...right," she replied with a small smile. "My head hurt when I went to try and go home, so I knew that I didn't want to," she took a breath. "It was all I'd ever really known and then poof, it was all gone. In the end my paws felt better moving away from it," she confessed.
"And you ended up here?" Khumba gave a small nod, stranger things had happened and he'd heard stories of how rogues would blow in without warnings and then disappear as quickly.
"Yep, one thing led to another and I ended up here," she confirmed. "Lots of stories you see, you meet a lot of interesting folks outside and none of them are the same. There's some scary stories and then there's some magical ones," she explained. "I tried to stay away from the scary ones and moved towards the more magical ones," she motioned further afield. "Haven't got to where the next one was supposed to have happened but I'm getting there!"
"Magical..." Qoba repeated.
Ni'it provided him with a warm smile. "Mhm. But sometimes the magical stories are just something they made up, it felt magical to them but it seems normal to me. I've seen some things that look magical, but I think I figured out their tricks!" she grinned. "Like the one time I saw the circular rainbow. Turns out you can touch rainbows when you know where to look."
"Eh?" It was Khumba's turn to speak. He knew what a rainbow was but generally speaking they were so far away that he couldn't quite fathom how you would get close to something that big.
"Yep, there's places you can go. You can't touch them all but you can touch some," she confirmed. "So...where am I anyway?"
"The Mwezi'Johari," Khumba offered gently. "We live here, or rather we live further in but these are the grounds we hunt on so..."
"By extension they are ours," Qoba gave his cheek a small rub to give himself a small measure of encouragement in the face of a genuine stranger, though much to his relief she didn't appear to be divine!
"Ah, the moon lions?" She seemed to have heard of them and when Cruithne gave her a nod of support she smiled more deeply. "I don't know much about you, but at least I know of you, right?"
"Depends, is it for good or bad reasons?" Cruithne asked with a chuckle.
"Mmm...good I think, are there bad things?"
"Depends on who you ask," he gave a non-committal shrug. "I'm Cruithne by the way, this is Ukunqoba -"
"Just Qoba," Qoba offered.
"And this is Khumba."
"Hey," the paler male offered, reminding himself that he really should have had the manners to do that first, he was the guard here after all!
"Oh, well I'm Ni'it Nimway," she eyed Qoba. "Or just Ni'it," she added in an attempt to extend the same courtesy he had. It seemed to be appreciated as it received a rare smile from the otherwise edgy lion.
"Great, now that we've all remembered our manners," Cruithne cleared his throat and gave a wave of his paw. "How long are you in the area for, is this magical tale time sensitive or..." he paused thoughtfully. "Do you at least have the time to tell us a little about it before you leave?" he asked curiously. "At the very least give us a hint so that if you come back this way you can tell us what happened, hm?"
She seemed to consider this; while the lioness hadn't been walking for a long time, she'd found that she thoroughly enjoyed her experiences more when she didn't hurry herself. A little time out to talk to the trio wouldn't hurt her at all, so i they were genuinely curious...
"I suppose I could do that," she agreed as she took a seat and curled her tail around her hindlegs. "And then maybe you can tell me one of your stories?" she asked.
Cruithne nodded without consulting the pair of lions beside him, though at the very least Khumba appeared curious about what this so-called magic was and whether or not he could logically explain it. Qoba remained wary, but he did at least slip forward to humour the lioness.
What story they would tell to her after remained a mystery, but it seemed all three were probably in agreement that they should avoid talking about the rebellion. Maybe the history of their society, where they come from and the divine intervention that was said to have taken place on their soil? That made for a good story and based on Cruithne's descriptions of outsiders it would sound like magic; she'd probably find it fascinating for that reason alone...
Word Count: 1,758