Post by Arazia on Apr 14, 2008 15:56:57 GMT -5
Characters:
Elimnyama - Adult Male Lion (King of Tyne)
Arazia - Barbary Lioness
That's a slight weight off of his mind. Elimnyama replaces himself to the spot next to Waset where he's been sleeping lately, partially curled around her still figure. With tired eyes he watches Kamau depart, and hopes his young brother will arrive in time with Amahl and a healer in tow. He doesn't know how much longer Waset might have. Sweat has begun to roll slowly down the lioness' furred forehead. The lion sighs and rests his head on the cool stone floor. Now he just waits.
Kamau is not the only one who has followed the dark King into the Tyne cavern. Arazia, still a relative newcomer here, has only peeked in on rare occassions, preferring still to sleep in the outdoors as she has most of her life. Still, the shaggy lioness enters with quiet pawsteps, her fur making a slight rustling sound as it moves along the floor. In her mouth, is what appears to be a broken zebra leg bone, somewhat smoothed off on the broken end. She carries it at a slight angle, setting it down to lean against her foreleg as she bows her head faintly. It isn't so much a gesture of bowing to a king, but her reacting to the solemn mood in the cavern. "Elimn?" She asks, her voice very quiet in the shadowed places. "I... brought something for you and Waset."
He barely notices when another shadow slides into the mouth of the cavern, and Arazia's paws are so quiet and sleep is so inviting that Elimnyama has almost drifted off in the time it takes her to cross the distance. Just before she speaks he becomes aware of her. Opening eyes which seem yellow in the half-light, he lifts his head and surveys the lioness and her strange burden. "Hnn?" he replies bemusedly, gaze sliding from her face to rest solely on the bone. He takes in its shape, the odd way it has been shaped at the one end. After a long pause, not really knowing what else to say to this bizarre object but not wanting to come off as impolite, Elim' answers, ".. Thank you...?" with just the slightest questioning lift of his tone on the very last syllable.
Certainly, Zia should have expected such a response, but her ears fold back slightly, shaking her head as if she were trying to shake off some odd feeling. "Umm..." Right, words. Words are good. But her eyes just keep looking at the form of Waset, seeming as if she were only now understanding just how bad things were. Then, with a small effort, she looks back at Elimnyama, putting her mouth down around the bone again and dragging it slightly forward. As she moves... there is a sound of water from within the cavity of the leg-bone. When she stops once more, a bit closer than the last time, she releases the bone to rest on her leg again, and speak. "It's hollowed out. You can carry water from the river in it." She tips the bone back and forth between her paws, the sloshing sound following. "I thought... well, I thought it might help a little."
It takes a long, long time before Elimnyama says anything after that. It's a lot for an animal whose life is largely too primitive to conceive of anything that could be called a 'tool' - to wrap his head around. He understands the basic concepts of the bone of a herd animal, water, and how having a water supply at hand would be beneficial to Waset, but it's deciphering how all of these abstract ideas could possibly come together in the physical object Arazia has brought that takes a good portion of thought on Elimnyama's part. The bone... the bone is hollow... water... water flows into spaces... water... bone.... The king looks up suddenly, looking as though an electric charge has just spasmed through his brain. "That's.. that's /brilliant/," he murmurs, staring at Arazia like she's some kind of ghostly vision. "It's.. hard for me to understand.. but I /think/ I do now. There's water from the river in there. We can bring Waset water /in/ that." LIGHT BULB!
Primitive though her life may be, Zia has always had some sort of spark that lead her to interesting ideas. Of course, she is by no means as creative and dexterous as the primate healers and shamans, but it doesn't mean she can't take a page out of their book when it comes to figuring out ways of helping out. She watches as Elimnyama comes slowly to the conclusion she had figured out, nodding her head. "Right. I know she's been too ill to leave the cavern for water, so I thought if we had a way to get the water to her..." She trails off slightly at that, lowering her head to take the bone once more and drag it up towards the reclining king. She lowers it towards him, offering it out for him to take.
"That's really amazing. I would /NEVER/ have thought of that," Elim' declares emphatically, now having moved his total attention to the water-bone and gazing at it in awe. As Arazia moves closer with it, a slightly nervous expression crosses the king's face but nevertheless he stretches out his neck to carefully and extremely awkwardly take over possession of the bone. "Wnuht do I dno wif it now?" he askes muffledly, looking comical as he hunches over, letting the bone rest on the ground as his grip keeps it upright.
As she releases the bone to the care of the King, the lioness stretches her jaw out a little bit. She's been carrying the thing all the way from the savannah down to the river delta and then back up to the cavern. "When I was young, I used to come up with odd little things to entertain my brother. My sisters were going to bring flowers to the king's coronation, but Undine didn't want to. They weren't manly enough." She manages a faint smile, but it doesn't last too long in these gloomy surroundings. "I showed him how to make sticks turn colors by rubbing flower petals on them." And that -is- how her imagination got it's start. "Well, you can tilt it down near her mouth so she can drink. If you hold it right, it'll come out real slow."
Elimnyama watches Arazia talk from under his dark brows, his thoughts about this annecdote from her past a complete mystery as he is too afraid of either damaging the bone or spilling the water prematurely to do much other than give her his attention. It's an amusing little story, though, and does a lot to expand upon the lioness' strange way with objects. He chances a slow nod when she gives him instructions, and after a lot of awkward shifting about, during which time it's clear that he believes the bone to be made of something more like delicate glass, Elim' has finally reached Waset's face. He nudges her side gently with one paw until she blearly opens one eye. He can't explain himself just now, not with the bone hanging out of his mouth, but very slowly he lowers the end of the bone toward Waset's mouth. Anxious about deluging her, Elim' is very careful only to let a small amount of water flow out. Waset, amazingly, swallows even as she seems to recede back into a dreamless state of unconsciousness. Well, that's more water than she's had in a day or two, and even that small thing makes a great deal of difference to Elim'. No lion can survive without water for long, so thirst might've killed her long before the fever could.
Realizing how desperate and awkward this situation is, Arazia steps backwards slightly, giving Elimnyama room to maneuver. She doesn't say anything at first, even about his careful way of holding it, as if she were worried that her voice would somehow cause some sort of distress to the ailing huntmistress. But, when she does finally drink, the Zia lets out a little sigh, seeing that her idea at least had some small margin of success. While it probably wasn't enough alone to save Waset, at least she tried. "The bone is pretty sturdy, as long as no one steps on it, it shouldn't break." She says in a soft voice, regarding the king with worried eyes. She steps back a few more paces, giving the pair room. "If there's anything else I can do... for you, or Waset..." She trails off, but the offer is certainly put out there for the taking.
He struggles a few more moments with the bone, his eyes darting around as though in search of a specially designed water-bone-holder in which he could place it for safe-keeping. Bereft of such a convenience, Elim' sidles over to the nearest cavern wall and very delicately rests the bone up against it, once again keeping it upright to preserve the precious water inside. Now he turns back to Arazia, a small smile on his face that seems to take years off his appearance. A thing like a bone with water in it, which might seem trivial to others, really seems to have lifted his mood considerably. He nods his understanding that the tool is not as breakable as he had thought. "You've done a /lot/, just with that, Arazia. Thank you so, so much, from both of us. This will really help out. I didn't know what I was going to do about getting her water, so this.. water-bone is really great." He sinks onto his haunches, still smiling a little. "Kamau's agreed to go to Kivuli to see if they can spare a healer and to bring back our son, Amahl, who's over there learning diplomacy." IF that really IS what he's doing there. "You mentioned to me before that you lived in Kivuli. Do you know the pride very well?"
Unfortunately, among the list of odd ideas within the head of the barbary lioness, a water-bone-holder simply wasn't there. So, the wall is as good a place as any. She seems a little relieved at the smile that returns to Elimnyama's face, her ears perking just slightly, but seeming to hold there, as if something else might change the mood of things just as quickly. "I'm glad I could help. It's the least I could do for what you've done for me. I never thought I'd get a second chance..." Again, she trails off, learning in her own time what's appropriote to talk about and what is best left to the sidelines. "Kivuli?" She tilts her head slightly, thinking both of the king's son, whom she hadn't met as of yet, and of her former homeland. "I did know the Kivuli, long ago. My mother was a guard under king Kiet. Mizuka took the throne just before I left for the last time." She pauses, regarding him quietly, "What do you need to know?"
Elimnyama curls his tail around his forepaws, feeling relatively at ease at the present moment, much moreso than he's felt for a while and so the difference is all the more pronounced. "I was just curious about what might've changed since I was last there. They had a very able healer whom I met called Tumbuiza. She saved our cubs' lives when Waset went into premature labor. I was hoping I could find out whether Tumbuiza was still living with them, but that was well after Mizuka was king, I believe, so I'll understand if you have no idea."
For a moment, Arazia seems to look out into space, or perhaps she's looking back in time. She had left Kivuli the first time in her early adolescence, so much of her time there is fogged by the passage of seasons. "We didn't live near the pridal caverns, my family. We only saw the king and his court at pridal functions." She frowns slightly, ears folding back apologetically. "I'm afraid I don't have any idea if they still have a healer. The last I saw of the Kivuli was parched lands hit hard by the dry." She pauses, and then shakes her head. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help." She seems to leave it at that, wishing she had better news to give on that particular front. "I should go. I'm sure you and Waset need your rest."
Elimnyama nods his head slowly to this information although he keeps his small smile. It would seem his good mood is buoyant enough to withstand a little bad news. "It's alright, you've been a lot of help." He casts a small glance over his shoulder at Waset and at last his grin fades away. "More than you know, actually," he adds in a quieter voice. Then he looks back to her, hoisting a now less convincing smile onto his features as she prepares to go. "Thanks again, Arazia. I really do appreciate what you've done."
Elimnyama - Adult Male Lion (King of Tyne)
Arazia - Barbary Lioness
That's a slight weight off of his mind. Elimnyama replaces himself to the spot next to Waset where he's been sleeping lately, partially curled around her still figure. With tired eyes he watches Kamau depart, and hopes his young brother will arrive in time with Amahl and a healer in tow. He doesn't know how much longer Waset might have. Sweat has begun to roll slowly down the lioness' furred forehead. The lion sighs and rests his head on the cool stone floor. Now he just waits.
Kamau is not the only one who has followed the dark King into the Tyne cavern. Arazia, still a relative newcomer here, has only peeked in on rare occassions, preferring still to sleep in the outdoors as she has most of her life. Still, the shaggy lioness enters with quiet pawsteps, her fur making a slight rustling sound as it moves along the floor. In her mouth, is what appears to be a broken zebra leg bone, somewhat smoothed off on the broken end. She carries it at a slight angle, setting it down to lean against her foreleg as she bows her head faintly. It isn't so much a gesture of bowing to a king, but her reacting to the solemn mood in the cavern. "Elimn?" She asks, her voice very quiet in the shadowed places. "I... brought something for you and Waset."
He barely notices when another shadow slides into the mouth of the cavern, and Arazia's paws are so quiet and sleep is so inviting that Elimnyama has almost drifted off in the time it takes her to cross the distance. Just before she speaks he becomes aware of her. Opening eyes which seem yellow in the half-light, he lifts his head and surveys the lioness and her strange burden. "Hnn?" he replies bemusedly, gaze sliding from her face to rest solely on the bone. He takes in its shape, the odd way it has been shaped at the one end. After a long pause, not really knowing what else to say to this bizarre object but not wanting to come off as impolite, Elim' answers, ".. Thank you...?" with just the slightest questioning lift of his tone on the very last syllable.
Certainly, Zia should have expected such a response, but her ears fold back slightly, shaking her head as if she were trying to shake off some odd feeling. "Umm..." Right, words. Words are good. But her eyes just keep looking at the form of Waset, seeming as if she were only now understanding just how bad things were. Then, with a small effort, she looks back at Elimnyama, putting her mouth down around the bone again and dragging it slightly forward. As she moves... there is a sound of water from within the cavity of the leg-bone. When she stops once more, a bit closer than the last time, she releases the bone to rest on her leg again, and speak. "It's hollowed out. You can carry water from the river in it." She tips the bone back and forth between her paws, the sloshing sound following. "I thought... well, I thought it might help a little."
It takes a long, long time before Elimnyama says anything after that. It's a lot for an animal whose life is largely too primitive to conceive of anything that could be called a 'tool' - to wrap his head around. He understands the basic concepts of the bone of a herd animal, water, and how having a water supply at hand would be beneficial to Waset, but it's deciphering how all of these abstract ideas could possibly come together in the physical object Arazia has brought that takes a good portion of thought on Elimnyama's part. The bone... the bone is hollow... water... water flows into spaces... water... bone.... The king looks up suddenly, looking as though an electric charge has just spasmed through his brain. "That's.. that's /brilliant/," he murmurs, staring at Arazia like she's some kind of ghostly vision. "It's.. hard for me to understand.. but I /think/ I do now. There's water from the river in there. We can bring Waset water /in/ that." LIGHT BULB!
Primitive though her life may be, Zia has always had some sort of spark that lead her to interesting ideas. Of course, she is by no means as creative and dexterous as the primate healers and shamans, but it doesn't mean she can't take a page out of their book when it comes to figuring out ways of helping out. She watches as Elimnyama comes slowly to the conclusion she had figured out, nodding her head. "Right. I know she's been too ill to leave the cavern for water, so I thought if we had a way to get the water to her..." She trails off slightly at that, lowering her head to take the bone once more and drag it up towards the reclining king. She lowers it towards him, offering it out for him to take.
"That's really amazing. I would /NEVER/ have thought of that," Elim' declares emphatically, now having moved his total attention to the water-bone and gazing at it in awe. As Arazia moves closer with it, a slightly nervous expression crosses the king's face but nevertheless he stretches out his neck to carefully and extremely awkwardly take over possession of the bone. "Wnuht do I dno wif it now?" he askes muffledly, looking comical as he hunches over, letting the bone rest on the ground as his grip keeps it upright.
As she releases the bone to the care of the King, the lioness stretches her jaw out a little bit. She's been carrying the thing all the way from the savannah down to the river delta and then back up to the cavern. "When I was young, I used to come up with odd little things to entertain my brother. My sisters were going to bring flowers to the king's coronation, but Undine didn't want to. They weren't manly enough." She manages a faint smile, but it doesn't last too long in these gloomy surroundings. "I showed him how to make sticks turn colors by rubbing flower petals on them." And that -is- how her imagination got it's start. "Well, you can tilt it down near her mouth so she can drink. If you hold it right, it'll come out real slow."
Elimnyama watches Arazia talk from under his dark brows, his thoughts about this annecdote from her past a complete mystery as he is too afraid of either damaging the bone or spilling the water prematurely to do much other than give her his attention. It's an amusing little story, though, and does a lot to expand upon the lioness' strange way with objects. He chances a slow nod when she gives him instructions, and after a lot of awkward shifting about, during which time it's clear that he believes the bone to be made of something more like delicate glass, Elim' has finally reached Waset's face. He nudges her side gently with one paw until she blearly opens one eye. He can't explain himself just now, not with the bone hanging out of his mouth, but very slowly he lowers the end of the bone toward Waset's mouth. Anxious about deluging her, Elim' is very careful only to let a small amount of water flow out. Waset, amazingly, swallows even as she seems to recede back into a dreamless state of unconsciousness. Well, that's more water than she's had in a day or two, and even that small thing makes a great deal of difference to Elim'. No lion can survive without water for long, so thirst might've killed her long before the fever could.
Realizing how desperate and awkward this situation is, Arazia steps backwards slightly, giving Elimnyama room to maneuver. She doesn't say anything at first, even about his careful way of holding it, as if she were worried that her voice would somehow cause some sort of distress to the ailing huntmistress. But, when she does finally drink, the Zia lets out a little sigh, seeing that her idea at least had some small margin of success. While it probably wasn't enough alone to save Waset, at least she tried. "The bone is pretty sturdy, as long as no one steps on it, it shouldn't break." She says in a soft voice, regarding the king with worried eyes. She steps back a few more paces, giving the pair room. "If there's anything else I can do... for you, or Waset..." She trails off, but the offer is certainly put out there for the taking.
He struggles a few more moments with the bone, his eyes darting around as though in search of a specially designed water-bone-holder in which he could place it for safe-keeping. Bereft of such a convenience, Elim' sidles over to the nearest cavern wall and very delicately rests the bone up against it, once again keeping it upright to preserve the precious water inside. Now he turns back to Arazia, a small smile on his face that seems to take years off his appearance. A thing like a bone with water in it, which might seem trivial to others, really seems to have lifted his mood considerably. He nods his understanding that the tool is not as breakable as he had thought. "You've done a /lot/, just with that, Arazia. Thank you so, so much, from both of us. This will really help out. I didn't know what I was going to do about getting her water, so this.. water-bone is really great." He sinks onto his haunches, still smiling a little. "Kamau's agreed to go to Kivuli to see if they can spare a healer and to bring back our son, Amahl, who's over there learning diplomacy." IF that really IS what he's doing there. "You mentioned to me before that you lived in Kivuli. Do you know the pride very well?"
Unfortunately, among the list of odd ideas within the head of the barbary lioness, a water-bone-holder simply wasn't there. So, the wall is as good a place as any. She seems a little relieved at the smile that returns to Elimnyama's face, her ears perking just slightly, but seeming to hold there, as if something else might change the mood of things just as quickly. "I'm glad I could help. It's the least I could do for what you've done for me. I never thought I'd get a second chance..." Again, she trails off, learning in her own time what's appropriote to talk about and what is best left to the sidelines. "Kivuli?" She tilts her head slightly, thinking both of the king's son, whom she hadn't met as of yet, and of her former homeland. "I did know the Kivuli, long ago. My mother was a guard under king Kiet. Mizuka took the throne just before I left for the last time." She pauses, regarding him quietly, "What do you need to know?"
Elimnyama curls his tail around his forepaws, feeling relatively at ease at the present moment, much moreso than he's felt for a while and so the difference is all the more pronounced. "I was just curious about what might've changed since I was last there. They had a very able healer whom I met called Tumbuiza. She saved our cubs' lives when Waset went into premature labor. I was hoping I could find out whether Tumbuiza was still living with them, but that was well after Mizuka was king, I believe, so I'll understand if you have no idea."
For a moment, Arazia seems to look out into space, or perhaps she's looking back in time. She had left Kivuli the first time in her early adolescence, so much of her time there is fogged by the passage of seasons. "We didn't live near the pridal caverns, my family. We only saw the king and his court at pridal functions." She frowns slightly, ears folding back apologetically. "I'm afraid I don't have any idea if they still have a healer. The last I saw of the Kivuli was parched lands hit hard by the dry." She pauses, and then shakes her head. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help." She seems to leave it at that, wishing she had better news to give on that particular front. "I should go. I'm sure you and Waset need your rest."
Elimnyama nods his head slowly to this information although he keeps his small smile. It would seem his good mood is buoyant enough to withstand a little bad news. "It's alright, you've been a lot of help." He casts a small glance over his shoulder at Waset and at last his grin fades away. "More than you know, actually," he adds in a quieter voice. Then he looks back to her, hoisting a now less convincing smile onto his features as she prepares to go. "Thanks again, Arazia. I really do appreciate what you've done."