The Journey (cont. from second journey)

[Opera Ghost]

karifu goes up to titus
karifu :hey im here

[Mizani]

"Is it alright with you if Titus leads, or do you want to?" Mizani smiled.

[Opera Ghost]

karifu:i don't mind at all*she smiles*

[Mizani]

"Cool, then we're right behind you Titus" Mizani smirked.

[Opera Ghost]

"yeah lead the way Titus"

[simbaji]

simba sighed as he looked around. He was getting anxious to move on but started to realize that the goal that had been their journey into the homelands of Malaika was starting to be lost, even to the older lion whose journey it had been in the first place. Even if he had gone with the others to hunt he would be feeling the same desire to continue. The cub's gaze drifted back and forth between Malaika, the direction the others had gone off to hunt in again and the direction of Malaika's homeland. It was becoming obvious that something had to be done. The rogues they had stumbled upon seemed more intent on hunting time and again and Malaika was starting to be content, even if frustrated, to wait for them to return before continuing on. At this pace they might as well abandon the journey altogether, and that was something that simba would not let happen. He knew that what they were doing was important enough to Malaika. With that the young cub got up and shook his pelt of the dusted earth and looked at Malaika.

"We should go... If the others truely want to join they'll find us and catch up."

[Titus]

"Ok what should we hunt first there's a lot of herds out today" Titus doesn't know what to hunt he has a hard descion on what to hunt first.

((I can't spell that word descion or what ever it means))

[simbaji]

The young cub turned and began to make the first few steps towards Malaika's homelands. He found it ironic that he was trying now to help the older lion complete a journey when he himself had several others of his own that waited to be played out. The scene of the land before him was almost errie. The winds were calm and carried nothing more than the stale heat of an unrelenting sun. As his eyes peered around he saw little in the way of shade or others means of cover save for one tree in the distance that had long since thrived in this unforgiving place. Birds used it now, with several flying in the air near one of the dry and aged branches before landing. Two or three would circle and then land, setting off a chain reaction of another set taking flight. They didn't stray from the tree.

A fly landed on his ear and he twitched it to get the intrepid insect off. With that he started moving. He knew Malaika wouldn't stay laying down for long once he saw that simba was serious about moving on. The cub's stomach growled again and reminded him that he would need something along the way. It was too bad that the others they had met up with had never found anything, or at the very least share at some point if they had. But then, there was no reason for them to. Rogues did not survive by helping others and he could think of no reason that Mizani or the others would feel compeled to break with that. Still, even a drink of water would be nice. Perhaps they would find something along the way, a forgotten stream or small watering hole; anything to help take the bite out of the searing light that flooded the day.

Step by step he moved. Determination had set in. And just as the cub had thought those thoughts he felt a stab of pain ripple through his chest, causing him to pause in his steps a moment. He tried to hide the pain it caused but wasn't sure how successful he had been. A flood of thoughts and understandings rushed through his mind's eye and then left as quickly as it had come. He was left bereft of any understanding of what had just happened, much less and meaningful remembrance of what he had been shown; he was however filled with a certain sense of calm and fear. Things would soon come to a crux. The events would not be pleasant but perhaps after.. after there would be peace. There would be calm, the calm that he had longed for for much longer than anyone truely knew.

As he lifted his gaze from his brief lapse his eyes once again fell on the birds in the distance. A realization begged for his attention and he felt himself naive for not having seen it sooner. The birds were not simply flying from point to point or looking for a place to rest, the were circling something. His ears perked and his senses were brought to full attention. A body that had been content to be forced in it's present course of action became alert and ready to follow any command it needed to carry out. For some reason he could not place there was something different he was sensing about what lay in the near distance. The thing that caught his attention two-fold was the fact that he got the sense that what they would find would be more than just a simple stray zeebra or other such beast that met it's life's unavoidable end. With only a brief glance back he called out to his friend.

"Malaika! Out there in the distance.. something's not right."

[Malaika]

The older lion got up slowly letting the days sun still warm him. he looked out upon the horrizon at what the cub was seeing and couln't make out what it was but sure enough something didn't feel right. Those who do try to journey this land know naught of the perils await them but malaika knew he knew that if you have never traveled it before with some one then it best be wise not to travel at all. Yet he still wanted to push on since he knew he could make it.

Malaika strolled up behind the cub giving him some shade since he towered over the cub even if by just a couple feet.

"Let us check it together but stay close to me. There are those whom even in death wish not to be found."

Even though Malaika didn't want the cub to come he knew there would be no stopping him. Instead he requested the cub to stay close.

Malaika's ears flattened as they slowly pressed closer.

[simbaji]

"Ok"

The cub replied, not happy about feeling like he was on a tether but content enough that at least they were heading to whatever it was that was out there. Malaika had said, 'There are those whom even in death wish not to be found.' Just then a thought occurred to him, 'What if the dead did want to be found?' It was an altogether creepy thought that brought a quick chill down the length of his back and leaving his fur noticably on end. A few moments later his pelt gradually rested back in place, formed to his young frame. He looked up and was pretty sure that Malaika had not seen him get slightly freaked out like that and was glad. It had nothing to do with him having to explain at that point so much as it had to do with him wanting to not look like he was easily spooked. Leaders should have more resolve he thought.

The shade offered by the older lion was very welcome and he kept pace easily. simba was sure that Malaika was not as apprehensive about what they might find judging by the gate they were traveling at, but then he also judged that Malaika had not felt what he himself had felt not but a few minutes past when he first realized something was amiss. Still, even he himself was unsure of what they would find and it could be very well probable that his own misgivings were misplaced - though he had long since learned to be trusting of such feelings as they rarely proved unwarrented. Of course at that point he was left to concede that he then didn't follow those instincts as often as he should - a flaw he noted in the back of his mind to work on.

The grasses and earth beneath his paws were dry yet not entirely brittle. Even in the hot african sun it was possible for many types of vegitation to retain some measure of defiance against the incesant heat, even if only provisionally. Moving his attentions from the ground to the sky he trainned his eyes once again on the birds flying methodically about a single point. No visible form could be made out yet but it was clear that far from a rove of innoculous crowned plovers or other such fowl that these birds were indeed carion - vultures. At seeing this he knew that whatever it was that they would find would be the remnants of death brought about by one fashion or another, but he still could not figure out why he would be so concerned as to what they would find. It wasn't like he hadn't seen hunted prey before, much less eaten such kills. Time would tell, and none to delayed in doing so as they neared their brief destination.

[Mizani]

Originally posted by Titus
"Ok what should we hunt first there's a lot of herds out today" Titus doesn't know what to hunt he has a hard descion on what to hunt first.

((I can't spell that word descion or what ever it means))

((ooc: did you mean "decision"?))
"how about we pick off that old Wildebeast?" Mizani grinned, licking her lips.
What Mizani said was true. The animal had lived a full life.
It lifted its head up, to search for predators, but it didn't smell the young lions.

[Opera Ghost]

"yeah good idea mizani" Karifu said with a grin

[Titus]

((thank you that's the word i'm looking for))

"that's not a bad idea at all, let's get going" Titus creeps up to the wildebeast watching every footstep it took, he finalyin got in attacked distance"Got ya where I want ya" Titus runs at the wildebeast and jumps on it's back tackleing it to the grassy ground.

[Mizani]

Mizani ran over to the struggling Wildebeast, and put her weight on it, so as to hold it while Titus finshed the job.
"Better then last time" She laughed, while panting a bit, after the run.

[Titus]

panting hard then Mizani Titus was surprised that he brought the wildebeast down"I guess so" laughs with her"well let's eat"

[simbaji]

As Titus and Mizani prepared to sit down and eat the vultures that simba had seen were busy eating a meal of their own. The cub and older lion were nowhere close to where they had been left by the group of rogues they had stumbled upon. It had taken longer than simba had thought to reach the point where they could see what had only been the subject of curiosity and speculation, but what he saw when they finally reached a range where they could see was more than he bargained for.

There, in the short distance, was what the carion had been circling. A human. Though disfigured from death and being feasted upon the form was unmistakable. simba immediately froze. He was mortified as the first thought's that ran through his mind were that it was Fernando. He couldn't even begin to think of what he would do if it were. Limbs and muscles that had willingly carried him this far froze and trembled. He tried to speak, remembering that just because it was a human didn't mean that it was Fernando. And the leader of the Mizaati Mara Pride needed to also show that he was capable of facing such horrific events even if it were - one of the legacies adults had no doubt also crafted to fit their distorted view of the world, a world he had found himself thrust in.

"M... Malaika... do you see it? It's.. it's human. It's not Fernando is it?"

simba did his best to compose himself. Fernando had been the only human he had ever trusted and the only one he ever would. The two had met during one of simba's playful excursions into the strange land he had woken up in one day. A land that would become his home - in spirit if not in territory. Fernando had been missing for some time, and even though the human tried to assure the cub many times that things were ok, he still worried, still missed the times when he would care for simba - nurturing a relationship and bond of deep trust and love, cementing a friendship that exceeded any normal bounds in this life and the life to come.

It would take a few minutes for Malaika to investigate what they had found. Fortunatlly for simba he would not find his fears validated. However, what would be discovered would still be more than they expected. Just because simba's fears would prove to be unwarrented did not mean that Malaika would be as fortunate. For the older lion too had had dealings with humans. And what he would find when he investigated would have it's own impact. A nightmare revisited. Reborn. This was not a simple villager who had died. Messengers were found in the strangest of times and circumstances. Death did not always keep them from fullfilling their task either.

[Malaika]

Malaika crept forward and looked upon the human. A shiver fled down his spine and into his tail as the visions of war flooded his mind. How long ago had it been since that war? Could this human hed been sent to get reinforcments? Why had they attacked in the first place. From the looks it wasn't fernando and so Malaika had to assure the cub, though he himself couldn't tell.

"I'm... not sure. It doesn't look like him. Then all humans look alike to me."

The older lion looked away not wanting to see how simba had taken that. He should have been a little more charasmatic and even more sympathetic. After all Fernando was the only human he ever trusted. He became Malaika's brother not long after they had met. Fernando had healed him of his anger and hatred. yet in the end in that final battle it consumed him. Took everything he loved away from him and helped him start a new. Yet even then it still hurt those who where around him for with no recolection of who they were he lived a sheltered life on the edged of the pridelands in which had come to know them as the Mizaati Mara. Since those where the only words he actually remeberd at that time. It was a teen lioness who eventually brought him back around to whom every one was. In his greif he slowly visited simba frequently trying to pull everything back together. What had upset him even more durring that time was how he had fallen in love with simba's adoptive son elementalfox, though Malaika didn't know why simba had adopted a son nor did he understand how simba remained a cub while his own daughter, Imbali, grew into aldulthood. He stood and watched as elementalfox took the young cubs claw and slit his own throat.

Malaika looked away at the thought yet he could not shake it as all the events he ever knew flooded back to him like the tide.

It was his own daughter Imbali, then in her adolesent stage that had helped him regain his memory.

With a sigh he looked closer at the human now lying dead and half eaten in front of him. On his haft torn arm was a symbol wich he recognized only from his nightmares. It was the symbol of the valley pride.

[simbaji]

simba tried to keep from making comments about Malaika's perception of humans. While it was true that the cub didn't trust any of their kind, he didn't have the rage and hatred that Malaika had; much less that he also hated it when the older lion put Fernando in the same category as the rest of humanity. Fernando was nothing like the others of his kind.

The cub padded closer and saw what Malaika himself was seeing. While he was sure that he himself wasn't feeling or thinking the same things that Malaika was at this sight, he knew that there was more than a simple death here. For while simba didn't know much about Malaika's past when it came to the wars he had been in he did recognize the symbol on the human. Something was diffinately not right.

"What is it? The symbol, what does it mean?"

[Malaika]

Malaika looked back at simba then back again at the symbol.

"That symbol is of the Valley pride. Back before the great pride wars there was a human group whom still kept the old ways who could in fact speak with my great grandfathers pride. They disapeared and the ways of the ancients was lost. There is a rumor that my great uncle Chaos had killed them or chased them off. But he died in the great Pride wars. Nothing more is known to me about this tribe other than they helped to protect my family. If they are still around they may be able to help me look for what I need to know. Could they know the reason why the other humans attacked my pride?"

Malaika thought back to all he had been told about the Pride wars. Both his father and his uncle had fought against their uncle, Chaos. In the middle of the battle the walls started to collaps. It burried Chaos while the other two left. But no one saw weither Chaos was dead or not. Was it possible that he could still be alive? 'No thats just crazy.' Malaika thought to himself. There is no way that his Evil uncle could still be alive. If he was then he would have already come after him. He knew from his uncle Asikari that Chaos didn't much like humans. The only thing Malaika would be able to do now is search his homelands in the shadow's of Mt. Kilimanjaro to find the answer he needed.

"We must go now. We must not waste any more time."

[simbaji]

simba nodded in agreement. The cub looked back and wondered about Mizani and the others. In such a short time it had seemed as though they had found friends in eachother. Hunger and other factors seemed to intervene and now they were seperated. He hoped that sometime soon they'd be able to meet up again. He was hopeful that the few brief moments weren't all that there were to friendships found in the middle of nowhere. Heaven knows he'd made and lost enough friends to such circumstances. Now it was only time that would tell if their paths would meet again. He knew he and Malaika could wait no longer.

As eyes that held a sunset amber peered back to where he had last seen Mizani and the others venture off to he hoped they were ok. In his mind he wished them well and hoped for a reunion shortly then turned to look at Malaika once more. He could tell that what they had found was important and left them perhaps shorter time than they had thought to see their journey through.

"I'm ready"