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Post by Kai on Jan 13, 2008 0:25:20 GMT -5
Continued From: "Through The Ol' Boneyard""Ugh....What the.. hell?" Shetani had looked for a while like she might not make it. Her wounds were grevious, she had lost so much blood. But death could not steal her away yet, she would not let it. She fought for her life. Fighting, always fighting. Now she was beginning to come to her senses. Her first emotion was anger, at herself for passing out. She immediately moved to stand up, but found that this was not a good idea. Pain shot through her body, every muscle was screaming. "Dammit!" She still felt a little groggy, but her mind was clearing quickly. The previous events of the day suddenly came back to her, and she looked for her hyena helpers.
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Post by Narifia on Jan 13, 2008 0:45:48 GMT -5
Kugongo and his two companions were watching carefully from a safe distance away. They knew still that even though Shetani was kind toward hyenas, other lions may not be. Especially if they were caught in lion land carrying around a half-dead lioness. Not cool.
Kugongo let out a small whine, and said, "She's already waking up. Why hasn't anyone spotted her yet? Don't they have scouts in this pride? Her wounds need desperate tending to."
"Speak for yourself, Kugo," his brown companion said calmly, "You need help as well. What will you do when this lioness has been healed, and we don't even know of any healer to go to for your wounds?"
"My mind will be at ease for her safety. I'll be just fine, my injuries are nowhere near as bad as hers. The body is an amazing thing, remember."
Kugo's female companion added, "Amazing, yes, but fallible. Maybe we should think about seeing that shaman that Scar used to bully around, the baboon. He seemed a reasonable enough fellow, and probably wouldn't hold a grudge against our kind."
The brown male nodded, seeming to accept this course of action. Kugongo nodded and said, "Fine, but only after Shetani is attended to. Look, I see someone coming!"
In the distance, a lion's form could be made out plodding along the land towards Shetani. The hyenas tensed, watching adamantly and ready just in case this was a hostile lion. They'd heard rumors of a kind queen in the Outlands, but rumors were just that: rumors. They could be true or false, and these three were taking no chances.
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Post by Kai on Jan 13, 2008 0:59:00 GMT -5
"Kugo, where the hell'd you go?" She called. She wasn't thinking clearly enough to realize that the approaching lion might be hostile, or that it was even there. All she could think of was that Kugo and his companions would definetly not be welcome in the elephant graveyard clan now. Where would they go? Who would heal them? She knew they could go to the Teikan Clan, but she couldn't tell them that if they weren't there for her to tell! The extremely stubborn lioness forced herself to stand, but her legs shook violently and she collapsed into a quiet fit of swearing and immense pain.
"Where the heck am I anyways?"
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Post by Narifia on Jan 13, 2008 21:45:11 GMT -5
"You're in the Outlands," came a feminine, concerned voice that was suddenly upon her. "Are you all right? What happened?"
The female came close enough to Shetani to lick at one of the wounds on her head. Whoever this female was, she obviously was not hostile. Quite contrary, she was nurturing if not motherly towards this shredded-up lioness she didn't even know.
"Well, look at that. She's going to be fine, Kugo. Let's go," the brown male said, urging Kugo away with a swipe of his paw against Kugo's head.
Reluctantly, Kugo agreed and followed his companions away from the Outlands. Their part in this was now done, and they could concentrate on taking care of themselves now.
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Post by Kai on Jan 13, 2008 22:03:52 GMT -5
"Well at least I got to where I was going."
Shetani probably would have recoiled from the touch of a stranger, even a friendly one. But she was not totally herself in this disoriented state. She was also worried for Kugongo, she had no idea where they would go. It frustrated her that they seemed to have dissapeared. Why would they leave? They had saved her.
"I got kinda roughed up. I dunno where my friends went..." She said in response to the lioness' question. "...I've been better." she summed it up. Shetani considered trying to get up again, feeling helpless. This was not a feeling Shetani enjoyed, it did rather little to improve her mood. "Who are you?"
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Post by Narifia on Jan 13, 2008 22:13:23 GMT -5
"I'm Narifia, the queen here," she said as she attempted to pull Shetani onto her back to carry her to the rest of the pride. Narifia saw that there was little sense in Shetani trying to get up with injuries so bad.
"Who are you, and your friends too if I may ask?"
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Post by Kai on Jan 13, 2008 22:26:20 GMT -5
There was little the fiery lioness disliked more then feeling dependent on a stranger. Especially for something that should be so simple as walking. But she wasn't really in a position to resist.
Great, now I feel like a royal weakling. she thought.
"Qu...een?" Shetani tried to pronounce the unfamiliar word. "Is that something like a Khan?" She paused as she realized this slight language barrier might go both ways, so she chose a more common word. "Like, the ruler of the land?"
Well, this would probably make her goal a bit easier. Surely this lioness would know where Scar was. Maybe she was his mate? Akida had said this was the land of Scar.
"My name is Shetani. And my friend's name is Kugongo, but he's not here. Jerk."
She used her favourite describing word for Kugo. Shetani was a strange lioness, she meant jerk in a good way. Which didn't really make any sense. Shetani snapped to attention as she smelled the scent of the lioness carrying her and the scent of the other lions that lived here. She had never smelled other lions before. She wondered how many others there were. She didn't particularly want to meet a crowd of lions while being in what she believed to be an undignified position. Shetani always wanted others to know not to mess with her. How was she supposed to give a proper first impression being carried in on the back of their Khan?
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Post by Narifia on Jan 13, 2008 22:47:40 GMT -5
"Yes, that's exactly it," Narifia said, sounding a little bit baffled. This stranger must have come from a land very far away to not know what a queen is. And the language, her accent, was quite odd as well. It had a vaguely familiar sound to it, but Narifia couldn't for the life of her place it.
Nevertheless, "It's nice to meet you, Shetani. Where are you from? Your language sounds like nothing I've ever heard before, no offense," Narifia quickly added the last part, hoping she hadn't sounded rude in saying that.
She kept rather quiet about Kugongo. She didn't want to sound even more rude by insinuating that he may not be a very good friend if he were willing to leave her like this all alone, but then again Narifia didn't know the full story. It would be best to get details later, after this lioness had gotten some of her wounds attended to.
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Post by Kai on Jan 13, 2008 23:04:52 GMT -5
"I came from across the elephant graveyard. From the Teikan Clan's territory. I came in search for someone named Kingscar."
Shetani obviously didn't recognize the word King either. She assumed that that Scar was some kind of short form, so she said it as one word. This was going to be a slightly harder part of the language barrier as her clan didn't even have a word for male leader. Hyenas were lead mainly by the females, although the Khan's mate did play a role they had never really been given a title.
"Yer language sounds sorta strange to me too. But I guess thats kinda to be expected."
She tried to wipe some blood off of her nose, but even a movement so small hurt her. She inhaled sharply.
"Damn."
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Post by Narifia on Jan 13, 2008 23:39:56 GMT -5
"Teikan...?"
Narifia stopped in her tracks. The Teikan clan was...
"Isn't that hyena territory? You came through TWO hyena territories to get here? No wonder you're more than a little beat up! Poor dear, I thought you smelled heavily of hyena!"
Narifia continued along at a faster pace. The faster she got them home, the faster she could send Mikalli to fetch Rafiki to heal poor Shetani.
"How important could a mission BE for you to go such a suicide route in search of... oh, I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that, what was the lion's name again?" Narifia asked, not completely understanding Shetani through that odd accent of hers.
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Post by Kai on Jan 13, 2008 23:55:46 GMT -5
Shetani began to chuckle as Narifia identified her home as part of a 'suicide route.' This caused her to go into a short, painful coughing fit. When she recovered, she continued speaking.
"O' course it's hyena territory. Teikan is my home. I smell like hyenas because I live with them. And I was mobbed by over five of 'em. Those sneaky..." she mumbled a curse under her breath.
"The Graveyard Clan doesn't like my home clan, or lions. So when I tried to cross they attacked me. I came here searching for my lion parents. My maka told me to find the land ruled by Kingscar." She took time on the lion's name to try and pronounce it the way she had heard her mother say it.
"Is he your mate or somethin'? I dunno what else he could be, I never heard of a land ruled by just a male."
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Post by Narifia on Jan 17, 2008 23:57:49 GMT -5
"You... live with them?"
Narifia of course took this as quite unexpected news. Of course, Narifia wasn't one to be prejudice at all. It was just rather odd to hear of such a thing as all her life she'd never once heard of any peaceful encounter between a lion and a hyena, much less a lion living among hyenas! But upon thinking about it silently for a minute, she quickly came to the conclusion that it wasn't impossible at all if one really thought about it.
She smiled and said wistfully and absently, "I wish it were always that easy for such peacefulness." She chuckled, then came back to reality and remembered that she needed to answer Shetani's inquiry.
"Now, Kingscar... Kingscar..." She muttered a few times, mulling over the strange accent until it finally dawned on her what she meant, "Oh, OH! King Scar! King is the word for a male leader in our language, you see. Scar is, was, his name."
Narifia grew silent, as if retreating into her own memories for a minute. She seemed rather down suddenly, and finally she voiced why, "No, he's not my mate at all. What a controversy it would be if he WAS. No, Scar was my father. I'm afraid, if he's who you were searching for, that you're quite too late. Scar died several moons ago. I am his heir."
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Post by Kai on Jan 18, 2008 16:40:02 GMT -5
"Aye, my Maka told me that outside the clan others find it unusual. The hyenas in the elephant graveyard tried to rattle me by mocking me for it, right before I put the first few in their place. It doesn't seem unsual to me, cause it's just kinda always been that way, ya know? My Maka said she found me as a little cub, nearly got eaten by a jaguar. She saved me, the filthy.." There was another mumble under her breath "...got my ear though."
She growled at the thought, and then continued.
"This is really the first time I've been around another lion."
She paused to listen to Narifia explain about the former King. And she saw the other lioness' expression change as she explained that Shetani was here too late.
"Ah, I'm sorry."
She didn't know the word father, she did however know the word heir and just put two and two together. She seemed to stop to think for a minute, and then continued.
"I really wish my parents woulda given me a little more information. But I think they wanted me to find out things for myself. Plus, they probably believed Scar was still alive."
Shetani sighed.
"But, Damn. I'm not sure what to do, now. My Maka told me to come here to find him. I got nothin' to go on."
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Post by Narifia on Feb 2, 2008 23:46:06 GMT -5
"What you need to do first," Narifia said, "Is rest and heal. Once Rafiki sees you and tends to your wounds, I'm afraid that I'll have to insist that you stay until you're well enough again to travel."
Narifia was especially sensitive to Shetani's story. After all, she herself had gone through nearly the same thing. She remembered her own journey well. "It must be very dissapointing for her," she thought, "to come to a dead end. How can I help her...?"
Narifia continued, "If you like, I can sent Mikali to Teikan to let your family know what's going on. Mikali is a hornbill, he can fly right over the dreadful Graveyard Clan without being bothered. I could also get him to keep an eye out for your friend, if you give him a good description."
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Post by Kai on Feb 3, 2008 0:03:25 GMT -5
"Rafiki?"
Shetani did know that name. Her father had spoken highly of the old mandrill. Boko had healing abilities, though they were limited, which was why he admired Rafiki for his much more advanced skills. It was dangerous for an old creature like Rafiki to cross the Elephant Graveyard, and Boko provided healing just fine, so Shetani had never seen him.
"He always seems to know everything. Maybe he could help with more then fixin' me up."
She said, thinking. Then, nodded at Narifia's suggestion.
"If he's not bothered by hyenas, that'd be nice. It'd put my parent's minds at ease to know I've found someone helpful for one. We'll have to tell Mikalli to describe my injuries... in a toned down sorta way. If ya know what I mean."
The lioness paused and thought about her family.
"My brother Kio is liable to go and do something stupid, if he gets riled up hearing what happened. And my friend Kugo is probably as beat up as I am."
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