Post by Sinyaa on Sept 22, 2007 16:04:01 GMT -5
Characters Involved:
Zira, Mbaamwezi Queen
Ausikifa, vengeful son
-- [Mbaamwezi] Kame Desert --
Zira is no longer the lioness she once was. Her children are almost fully matured, and her age is beginning to show as well - her bones creak after long periods of standing or lying down, she can no longer run as fast during hunts, she has to rest more often. Her lanky form and scrawny pelt are looking worse for the wear as well - her tan fur seems to be a duller grey-brown than it was a year ago, and her skeleton looks even more sharp against her thin skin than usual. And yet she still continues to religiously patrol her lands like a dragon hovering over his hoarde of gold, panting and pacing in the heat that is all the worse as a result of the intense dry season.
And while age has not been kind to one, it has been more than kind to another. The son of Seth and Suki has matured in the way that all young males do, and has grown bigger and stronger over the past few seasons that have turned him into a fine adult. In stark contrast to the Mbaamwezi Queen, this upstart youth is in excellent condition, with and illustrious pelt and always a full belly; it happens when you have a lioness to hunt for you, and you've been shacking down in lands with good game. The drought hasn't affected Ausikifa much yet, and the male can be seen prowling over the wavering horizon in the no-man's-land between the rich Kivuli and the barren Mbaamwezi. His head down, ears back, and shoulders slumped low as he stalks closer to the border, the male's keen eyes have in them a look of solid determination and his muzzle harbors a sick, twisted sneer. Today... he has a mission.
Despite the intense heat burning the sands, making the desert almost painfully bright and causing the hotness to rise back into the sky in mirage-inducing heat waves, Zira has not known many male lions in her life, and so it is not difficult for her to recognize the one lurking at the barren borders. "Have you come to return the lioness you stole from me?" she calls out to the younger male, "Or perhaps to apologize for wrongfully accusing me of your father's murder?" Her taunts are inflammatory - perhaps the aging Queen does not realize the potential danger of her words to this adult male, or perhaps she simply has a death wish.
It takes him a little while to traverse the distance, but once he closes it in Ausikifa does not stop moving. In fact, he takes to circling the aging Queen with a decidedly measured, purposeful pace, his long tail twitching with each paw step. Zira's words are met with an inhailed hiss, his sneer widening to a look of sheer distaste though soon a sick laugh weasels out from between his teeth. Ausikifa knows that he's now bigger and physically stronger than this hated lioness, but is well aware that she has intelligence behind those seasons and that he will have to be careful. "Bite your tongue, black Queen," the male snorts, still circling, "Sekhmet is mine, and you still killed my father. Fancy that. It's too bad I couldn't kill your children while they were young, but I think crisp, aging bones might just satiate my desires, don't you think?"
"Trying to live up to your father's pawsteps, Ausikifa? Even he was smart enough to follow me as Queen - something you are lacking," Zira continues taunting, facing the male head-on as he approaches. "You're not even smart enough to realize it was one of my mercenaries who killed your father, not myself." Her tail lashes angrily through the air - she wonders if any of the others are close enough to serve as back-up if needed. But chances are, with the intense heat setting in, they're all gathered around the diminishing river and other sources of water.
"My father was an idiot," Ausikifa replies tartly, "to follow you as Queen." He stops his pacing, putting himself on the inside edge of Zira's lands, trapping her between the borders. To her last statement, the lion snorts and rolls his shoulders skyward, "Your mercenaries follow your orders, ergo you ordered my father's assassination. You killed him, black Queen. You set it in motion." His ears flick at the dry heat around him, and while normally he would settle himself down for a load of bragging, the male slowly begins to build the energy in his muscles and waits.
"I had nothing to do with your father's death, Ausikifa," Zira snarls. She's more than willing to kill and tell, but not to be accused of a murder she hasn't committed. "He took it upon himself to court a mercenary's mate, and Sytobi did not respond to that very well," she explains further. "And as far as I'm aware, he died during the plague - so your vengeance is finished. Now leave before I have you executed for your crimes of treason," the Queen snaps - she's indeed growing weaker in her old age, or else she would have immediately carried out his sentence with pleasure.
"Treason my hind end!" the boy laughs out loud, almost doubling over with mirth. At this point, he really doesn't care what words spill out of Zira's mouth. In truth, she could be as innocent as the day she was born and that wouldn't stop Ausikifa from enacting his revenge. His mind is on the blood he'll taste on his tongue, not finding out the truth of the matter. The male's laughter doesn't dwindle, even as he bunches his muscles and launches himself directly at the withering Queen with little regard to his person safety. In his mind, he'll come out with nicks and gashes, but it will be Zira who will get the raw end of the deal.
Zira has not aged well, and her reflexes are not as quick as they were in her youth. She is hit almost exactly head-on, her shoulder taking the brunt of the lion's force and the sheer power of his lunge knocking her over like a felled tree. She manages to get out a roar as she falls to the ground, sand kicked up by their thrashing limbs, but it's not likely many will hear her less-than-adequate call from such a distance away. She attempts to bite at Ausikifa's ears and neck, but her position is awkward and it's unlikely he'll receive more than superficial wounds from this barrage of teeth.
The resounding thud of muscle against bone sends Ausikifa into a spiraling fury of bloodlust and hatred, losing a bit of his sanity in the whirlwind that comes when two despised enemies connect. The lioness' claws and teeth hit him and gouge him, mainly because in his eagerness to feed his passion, Ausikifa has not taken any precautions to defend himself. He'll be stinging from them later, but by no means are the wounds fatal. Still on top, the male extends his claws to their fullest and slashes mercilessly and the dark Queen's face, neck, and chest, his snarls and roars ringing clear as the day, and the dust around them creates a sickening kind of halo. When Zira's claws hit him, the psychopath doesn't even flinch, but laughs through his snarls, bearing his teeth in anticipation.
Claws rake down her face, leaving behind four deep, bloody gouges - one of which has sliced across Zira's left eye, leaving her half-blind. With a booming roar of agony, the Queen rears back in a surge of adrenaline from the intense pain, retaliating with a heavy paw slicing towards Ausikifa's own face. Blood pours down her face as she fights back, biting and clawing wildly, with no real strategy put behind her attacks.
<!> In [Mbaamwezi] Kame Desert, Zira roars.
The roar causes the male to reel his face backward, causing Zira's claws to tear down his chin and into his mane leaving rivulets of fresh blood in his fur. The pain normally caused from such a wound is almost unfelt by the son of Seth, and instead Ausikifa echos Zira's surprised roar with a dominating one of his own, perhaps to overpower her or perhaps because he can. Her claws continue to dig and tear at his underbelly and forelegs, but her flailing intensifies his need for revenge and the boy lifts his body in an attempt to slam it down on the lioness' prone body, his ivory teeth flashing and snapping down at Zira's exposed face and neck.
All that heavy weight of a fully-grown male lion being dropped down on the elder lioness' form isn't likely to have positive results. A loud crack can be heard and Zira's eyes open as wide as a full moon before she inhales in a sharp hiss at the pain of a broken rib. All this time, she's spent her rule behind and above her lionesses, having them do most of the work for her - she may have once had the battle skills to be a worthy rival to an adult male lion by herself, but that time has passed. She can feel herself slipping away, her chances of coming out alive diminishing, and Zira, for once in her life, is afraid.
The crack elicits a deceitful snarl from the male, and as the lioness begins to slip, as she begins to fade and her movements slow, Ausikifa lowers his head to whisper in her ear, "Old and ragged, decrepit and dethroned. Make not war against the son of Seth, make not love, either." Who knows what the boy means by it, but as he hisses at the lioness who slowly dies underneath him, the male grips her flesh with his great paws, kneading them in anticipation and the glory of the blood staining the desert beneath them. Ausikifa opens his jaws, causing it to pop in his over zealousness, before going for the Queen's throat with the gusto of the first kill of the rainy season.
As the demonic-sounding words are whispered into her ragged ear, the Queen prepares herself for one more attempt, readying her muscles for another attack. She tenses slightly before beginning to push herself up against the lion's weight - but is stopped dead in her tracks by the sudden clamp of sharp teeth around - and through - her vulnerable throat. Choking in surprise, Zira coughs up blood, further reddening her brutalized face and the sands beneath them. The speed with which she was taken down is dishonorable; an embarrassment to her pride, herself. Her remaining good eye is a bright crimson amidst the matching blood, slowly fading to a dull brick red as the matriarch is sent to her eternal home in Jahanum. The Queen of Mbaamwezi is dead.
The last breath is squeezed out from under him, and Ausikifa feels the last moment of life before the stillness of death, though it takes him time before his jaws relax and he lifts himself away from the fresh carcass that was once his mortal enemy. His light pelt is stained with dark blood, some oozing from his own cuts but mostly from the dead Queen's body, and it's only now that he realizes the deep cuts on his throat might scar over time. But, his bloodlust fading as Zira's life fades, Ausikifa backs away from the darkened desert sands with purpose, sneering down at the lifelessness of one he thought would be a challenge and his disapointment is clear. The male snorts, licking the still warm blood from his white muzzle before turning tail and heading back to the depth of Kivuli, the confines of the shadowlands, his vengeance satiated, his deed done.
Zira, Mbaamwezi Queen
Ausikifa, vengeful son
-- [Mbaamwezi] Kame Desert --
Zira is no longer the lioness she once was. Her children are almost fully matured, and her age is beginning to show as well - her bones creak after long periods of standing or lying down, she can no longer run as fast during hunts, she has to rest more often. Her lanky form and scrawny pelt are looking worse for the wear as well - her tan fur seems to be a duller grey-brown than it was a year ago, and her skeleton looks even more sharp against her thin skin than usual. And yet she still continues to religiously patrol her lands like a dragon hovering over his hoarde of gold, panting and pacing in the heat that is all the worse as a result of the intense dry season.
And while age has not been kind to one, it has been more than kind to another. The son of Seth and Suki has matured in the way that all young males do, and has grown bigger and stronger over the past few seasons that have turned him into a fine adult. In stark contrast to the Mbaamwezi Queen, this upstart youth is in excellent condition, with and illustrious pelt and always a full belly; it happens when you have a lioness to hunt for you, and you've been shacking down in lands with good game. The drought hasn't affected Ausikifa much yet, and the male can be seen prowling over the wavering horizon in the no-man's-land between the rich Kivuli and the barren Mbaamwezi. His head down, ears back, and shoulders slumped low as he stalks closer to the border, the male's keen eyes have in them a look of solid determination and his muzzle harbors a sick, twisted sneer. Today... he has a mission.
Despite the intense heat burning the sands, making the desert almost painfully bright and causing the hotness to rise back into the sky in mirage-inducing heat waves, Zira has not known many male lions in her life, and so it is not difficult for her to recognize the one lurking at the barren borders. "Have you come to return the lioness you stole from me?" she calls out to the younger male, "Or perhaps to apologize for wrongfully accusing me of your father's murder?" Her taunts are inflammatory - perhaps the aging Queen does not realize the potential danger of her words to this adult male, or perhaps she simply has a death wish.
It takes him a little while to traverse the distance, but once he closes it in Ausikifa does not stop moving. In fact, he takes to circling the aging Queen with a decidedly measured, purposeful pace, his long tail twitching with each paw step. Zira's words are met with an inhailed hiss, his sneer widening to a look of sheer distaste though soon a sick laugh weasels out from between his teeth. Ausikifa knows that he's now bigger and physically stronger than this hated lioness, but is well aware that she has intelligence behind those seasons and that he will have to be careful. "Bite your tongue, black Queen," the male snorts, still circling, "Sekhmet is mine, and you still killed my father. Fancy that. It's too bad I couldn't kill your children while they were young, but I think crisp, aging bones might just satiate my desires, don't you think?"
"Trying to live up to your father's pawsteps, Ausikifa? Even he was smart enough to follow me as Queen - something you are lacking," Zira continues taunting, facing the male head-on as he approaches. "You're not even smart enough to realize it was one of my mercenaries who killed your father, not myself." Her tail lashes angrily through the air - she wonders if any of the others are close enough to serve as back-up if needed. But chances are, with the intense heat setting in, they're all gathered around the diminishing river and other sources of water.
"My father was an idiot," Ausikifa replies tartly, "to follow you as Queen." He stops his pacing, putting himself on the inside edge of Zira's lands, trapping her between the borders. To her last statement, the lion snorts and rolls his shoulders skyward, "Your mercenaries follow your orders, ergo you ordered my father's assassination. You killed him, black Queen. You set it in motion." His ears flick at the dry heat around him, and while normally he would settle himself down for a load of bragging, the male slowly begins to build the energy in his muscles and waits.
"I had nothing to do with your father's death, Ausikifa," Zira snarls. She's more than willing to kill and tell, but not to be accused of a murder she hasn't committed. "He took it upon himself to court a mercenary's mate, and Sytobi did not respond to that very well," she explains further. "And as far as I'm aware, he died during the plague - so your vengeance is finished. Now leave before I have you executed for your crimes of treason," the Queen snaps - she's indeed growing weaker in her old age, or else she would have immediately carried out his sentence with pleasure.
"Treason my hind end!" the boy laughs out loud, almost doubling over with mirth. At this point, he really doesn't care what words spill out of Zira's mouth. In truth, she could be as innocent as the day she was born and that wouldn't stop Ausikifa from enacting his revenge. His mind is on the blood he'll taste on his tongue, not finding out the truth of the matter. The male's laughter doesn't dwindle, even as he bunches his muscles and launches himself directly at the withering Queen with little regard to his person safety. In his mind, he'll come out with nicks and gashes, but it will be Zira who will get the raw end of the deal.
Zira has not aged well, and her reflexes are not as quick as they were in her youth. She is hit almost exactly head-on, her shoulder taking the brunt of the lion's force and the sheer power of his lunge knocking her over like a felled tree. She manages to get out a roar as she falls to the ground, sand kicked up by their thrashing limbs, but it's not likely many will hear her less-than-adequate call from such a distance away. She attempts to bite at Ausikifa's ears and neck, but her position is awkward and it's unlikely he'll receive more than superficial wounds from this barrage of teeth.
The resounding thud of muscle against bone sends Ausikifa into a spiraling fury of bloodlust and hatred, losing a bit of his sanity in the whirlwind that comes when two despised enemies connect. The lioness' claws and teeth hit him and gouge him, mainly because in his eagerness to feed his passion, Ausikifa has not taken any precautions to defend himself. He'll be stinging from them later, but by no means are the wounds fatal. Still on top, the male extends his claws to their fullest and slashes mercilessly and the dark Queen's face, neck, and chest, his snarls and roars ringing clear as the day, and the dust around them creates a sickening kind of halo. When Zira's claws hit him, the psychopath doesn't even flinch, but laughs through his snarls, bearing his teeth in anticipation.
Claws rake down her face, leaving behind four deep, bloody gouges - one of which has sliced across Zira's left eye, leaving her half-blind. With a booming roar of agony, the Queen rears back in a surge of adrenaline from the intense pain, retaliating with a heavy paw slicing towards Ausikifa's own face. Blood pours down her face as she fights back, biting and clawing wildly, with no real strategy put behind her attacks.
<!> In [Mbaamwezi] Kame Desert, Zira roars.
The roar causes the male to reel his face backward, causing Zira's claws to tear down his chin and into his mane leaving rivulets of fresh blood in his fur. The pain normally caused from such a wound is almost unfelt by the son of Seth, and instead Ausikifa echos Zira's surprised roar with a dominating one of his own, perhaps to overpower her or perhaps because he can. Her claws continue to dig and tear at his underbelly and forelegs, but her flailing intensifies his need for revenge and the boy lifts his body in an attempt to slam it down on the lioness' prone body, his ivory teeth flashing and snapping down at Zira's exposed face and neck.
All that heavy weight of a fully-grown male lion being dropped down on the elder lioness' form isn't likely to have positive results. A loud crack can be heard and Zira's eyes open as wide as a full moon before she inhales in a sharp hiss at the pain of a broken rib. All this time, she's spent her rule behind and above her lionesses, having them do most of the work for her - she may have once had the battle skills to be a worthy rival to an adult male lion by herself, but that time has passed. She can feel herself slipping away, her chances of coming out alive diminishing, and Zira, for once in her life, is afraid.
The crack elicits a deceitful snarl from the male, and as the lioness begins to slip, as she begins to fade and her movements slow, Ausikifa lowers his head to whisper in her ear, "Old and ragged, decrepit and dethroned. Make not war against the son of Seth, make not love, either." Who knows what the boy means by it, but as he hisses at the lioness who slowly dies underneath him, the male grips her flesh with his great paws, kneading them in anticipation and the glory of the blood staining the desert beneath them. Ausikifa opens his jaws, causing it to pop in his over zealousness, before going for the Queen's throat with the gusto of the first kill of the rainy season.
As the demonic-sounding words are whispered into her ragged ear, the Queen prepares herself for one more attempt, readying her muscles for another attack. She tenses slightly before beginning to push herself up against the lion's weight - but is stopped dead in her tracks by the sudden clamp of sharp teeth around - and through - her vulnerable throat. Choking in surprise, Zira coughs up blood, further reddening her brutalized face and the sands beneath them. The speed with which she was taken down is dishonorable; an embarrassment to her pride, herself. Her remaining good eye is a bright crimson amidst the matching blood, slowly fading to a dull brick red as the matriarch is sent to her eternal home in Jahanum. The Queen of Mbaamwezi is dead.
The last breath is squeezed out from under him, and Ausikifa feels the last moment of life before the stillness of death, though it takes him time before his jaws relax and he lifts himself away from the fresh carcass that was once his mortal enemy. His light pelt is stained with dark blood, some oozing from his own cuts but mostly from the dead Queen's body, and it's only now that he realizes the deep cuts on his throat might scar over time. But, his bloodlust fading as Zira's life fades, Ausikifa backs away from the darkened desert sands with purpose, sneering down at the lifelessness of one he thought would be a challenge and his disapointment is clear. The male snorts, licking the still warm blood from his white muzzle before turning tail and heading back to the depth of Kivuli, the confines of the shadowlands, his vengeance satiated, his deed done.
