Private RP with Andrey

[Carl]

The dust settled over the prone form of an adolescent lioness, after she'd stumbled off the plateau down the slight incline to a distance not all that far beneath her starting point. Well, really, it wasn't her starting point at all, simply the start of her fall. Her dust colored fur blended into the scenery, and exhausted as she was, she contemplated while just lying there for a few moments to recuperate and regain her breath. Her name was Bast, and she'd gotten separated from her pride, somehow. She thought back to the events of the past few days.

It was the day before last, and she'd been going on a hunt with her pridesisters. It wasn't her first hunt, but it wasn't supposed to be her last either. She was an amateur, and she could be quite clumsy, and the two things together had worked against her during the hunt. She'd been stalking in the grass as she was meant to, but there was a problem. The antelope, when herded towards her, hadn't stopped rushing forwards. They were supposed to turn, run from her in fear, until the weak ones in the back of the herd became easy prey for the pride. They hadn't done that though, they'd rushed the inexperienced lioness, and she hadn't known what to do. Not wanting to fail her pride, and knowing the weak spot of most creatures is beneath its neck, she had lunged at the nearest antelope, aiming for the animal's vulnerable throat.

But she'd timed it wrong. She'd been struck by the powerful creature's forelegs and had toppled to the ground. Soon, she was fleeing from her own prey, as she was nearly hit by several of the frightened antelope. She'd managed to get some distance away from them, but was unable to see her pridesisters. She'd circled around the herd, looking for a point of attack. She knew her pridesisters would be following the herd too, trying to catch something to eat. She stalked the herd for miles, waiting for one of her pridesisters to make an attack, but no lionesses rose from the grasses, and none sprang upon the backside of any antelope. In time, the herd had calmed, and was grazing, and there was still no sign of Bast's pride.

That's when she'd realized they must have caught one while she was distracted, must have returned to the pride's dens. She'd gazed across the savannah looking for them, or anything familiar, but was well and truly lost. The young lioness had known she could not catch an antelope on her own. So she'd left in search of smaller prey, and tried to find her path home. She'd found her way to... here. Wherever she was now. Bast turned her head upwards to look around, her fur disturbing the dirt around her as she lie there on her side. The sun was setting, and she couldn't recognize the scenery at all. It was beginning to look like she wouldn't find her way home at all, but rather than thinking about that, she decided to focus on keeping herself alive. She'd focused too much on searching for them the past few days, and now she really needed to rest. So that's precisely what she'd do.

[Andrey]

Andrey couldn't quite remember how many days had passed since the last thing he'd eaten. His stomach snarled at him with each meager step he took; and his dirty tail lazily dragged behind him, soaking in the dust. It was hotter than he had ever imagined it could be, and though the ground had once felt pleasant, now it felt as if every step he took were sharp ... like those of the glass walkers he'd often watched from the safety of his carrier cage outside the tent, when everyone he'd known had been practicing their tricks.

The young lion cub licked his dry lips. Everything hurt. His whole body hurt, and he wasn't sure if it could possibly get worse ... which was a horrible feeling. He hated the uncertainty of it all. There were so many thoughts his active mind pursued, and the further he traveled into the Savannah, the more thoughts he seemed to encounter. Pub, the oldest lion Andrey had ever seen, used to tell him he thought too much, and did too little --- and at the moment, Andrey could see why the old cat might have said such things to him.

As the sun began to set, the silhouettes of plateaus, rocks, and shrubs all seemed to blend together. It was like a marvelous painting --- and while it may have brought him joy at one point in his memories, now it simply made him angrier each time he saw the sun dipping below the horizon. It meant another night without the comforts of home, and another night alone in the wilderness. Wherever he was, it was tremendously large, and he doubted it'd be any easier to travel when darkness fell over the ground. Andrey squinted at the land around him, trying his best to distinguish anything that might be important --- a scrap of food, a comfortable patch of grass, or some leaves ... A lion?

Andrey's blue eyes widened. He wasn't sure if the exhaustion were playing tricks on him ... But somewhere in the distance, he could swear he recognized the outline of a lion. He hadn't seen another lion in ... He couldn't remember, but the prospect excited him. What if they had food? Would they share? Of course they would, he was a lion, and lions shared, didn't they? His mind began to race with thoughts, and his paws began to travel faster. He began to walk more briskly, wheezing a breath with each step. What if it -was- Pub? What if he'd come to find him? Andrey's heart pitter-pattered against his chest. His paws began to travel faster, and faster, until he felt as if he were running. He desperately cried out as loudly as his raspy little voice could: "Hello! Is anybody there? Anybody!"

Before he knew it, Andrey had tripped over his own paws. His small body tumbled forward, rolling his red-brown coat in the dusty dirt, dimming it and raking it until it was a sloppy mess. He winced as the tumbling, laying still for a long while. His eyes lazily opened, looking forward. His wobbly legs stood him up, and he huffed an exhausted breath. It was then, and only then, that he noticed the lioness clearly. His mouth hung open, and his ears fell back. Seeing something living, and something familiar, had blown his little mind. There had been another lion in that silhouette --- and though it was a stranger, Andrey wasn't so sure he cared. At this moment, at least he wasn't alone.

[Carl]

"Hello! Is anybody there? Anybody!"

The sound of a voice ricocheted around in Bast's head, breaking through her unconsciousness. She couldn't have been drifting long, she had barely dozed off, right? But it was so hard to peel her eyelids apart, it was as if they'd been sealed shut. She had definitely heard a voice. She needed to get up, to answer, this she knew. With one ear pressed against the earth and filled with sand, and the other ear pointed the wrong way, she hadn't been able to distinguish whose voice it might have been. Had it been someone from her pride? Perhaps they'd caught up to her at last. She was so sleepy, though!

The young lioness forcefully pried her eyes open. Whoever it was had to be to her back. She'd figured as much when she'd heard the call, but she hadn't been sure. That was one of her problems during hunts after all, it wasn't the easiest thing to her to locate the source of a sound. She'd seen other lionesses do it with relative ease, but the skill had always evaded her. Her tongue flicked out of her mouth to wet her dried black lips, and she cleared her throat. It would take her a moment to raise to her paws at this rate, since she was in a state of wakeful sleep, and so she was very aware that it was imperative to let whoever had called out know that she was in fact here, and was getting up.

"I'm here," she tried to cry out, stretching out her forelegs, then her hindlegs as well. Bast licked a paw roughly, promptly using the dampened paw to wipe at her eyes and keep them wakeful. Once she was sure she was sufficiently awake, she planted her paws against the dirt and pushed off, rising to a standing position and stretching out her back. Her rump smarted, and so did her left hindpaw, her chin, and her forelegs. There was still the dull pain in her chest from the antelope's strike, but none of her injuries were anything major, and she'd walk them off.

With a yawn, she strode toward the source of the call, noticing a young cub not too far ahead of her now. She caught his scent, and took note of his appearance. He wasn't from her pride at all, and certainly hadn't come looking for her, but he'd found her, and maybe, just maybe it was for the best that she'd gotten lost. Cubs shouldn't ever be out on their own, much less after dark. Hyenas, crocodiles, and many other African predators, including other lions, could make an easy snack of a cub.

"Where are you from little one? It can be dangerous out here," she said, perhaps louder than her attempt at call earlier had been.

[Andrey]

Throughout all of his travels, Andrey had felt very fortunate that few dilemmas had piled onto his initial problem of finding his home. The moment he'd seen another individual, however, he began to realize precisely how grave his own situation was. He'd run head first, anxious and pleading for any form of contact ... If it was a distraction, it was welcome, and it was even more welcome if there was the possibility of a meal --- or at least something to drink. Nevertheless, he wasn't sure if he should be delirious with joy, or frightened beyond belief. He'd only ever met a hand full of lions over the course of his life time, after all --- and standing in front of one he didn't know ... He realized he knew absolutely nothing about his own kind. As he thought, his ears fell back further, and his tail sank. Proud as he was, though, he couldn't help but timidly puff out his chest and raise his head. He certainly didn't want to appear as weak or tired as he felt. Being around grown-ups had always made him feel small, and it wasn't a feeling he especially welcomed.

"All over, I guess?" Andrey quirked his brows. He'd never given much thought as to where he was from, or even where he was going. One week it would be a place filled with trees, grass, and water ... and the next, it would be a dry and barren wasteland. He'd seen many places from the security of his carrier, but he wasn't so sure he was from any of those places. "I... Don't really know. I... Uhm." His brows furrowed, as if he were struggling to explain his predicament. "There are ... a lot of people ... Humans. There are a lot of humans, and elephants, and there's a very old lion. His name's Puuba, but everyone calls him Pub." His voice drifted off, the thirst causing a bit of discomfort with each word he mustered.

Andrey shook his head, sitting down. His shoulders rose up as he cast his eyes towards the ground, a frustrated expression on his face. "I'm not really sure where this is. I've been looking everywhere, but I can't ... I can't find anyone." Aggressively, his tail flicked at a brush of dirt, knocking it faintly into the air.

Putting on a bold face, the cub cleared his throat. He inhaled a deep breath, as if trying to collect himself and deal with something internal. All the while his stomach growled, making it harder to concentrate. "Where ... Where are you from? Do you know what this place is?" His ears perked up slowly, a vaguely hopeful feeling nesting in his heart. Perhaps if she knew where they were, she would know where food was, or at least a tiny bit of water...

As if having forgotten something important, he jumped with a start. Focusing his attention on Bast, he managed to muster the most sheepish of smiles. "I'm Andrey."

[Carl]

"Andrey? What a strange name," the lioness mused, before continuing to answer his queries, "My name is Bast. I'm from the Oasis Pride, but I got separated from my pridesisters on a hunt and I got lost. I'm not really sure where I am now, but I know I'll find my pride, I just have to keep looking."

She scratched her chin, thinking about what he'd said, and recalled a strange word or two he'd used, "There are ... a lot of people ... Humans." People? Humans? What kind of creatures could they be? She'd never heard of something like that. And she didn't know this lion whose name he'd dropped either. Puuba... Pub... she'd never heard of him, which likely meant that her pride hadn't either. This cub seemed to be really lost. She processed this for brief moment as she spoke, and continued thoughtfully, "I've never heard of this Pub, nor have I heard of these... people... humans. I'm guessing you're really far from your pride then, and you must be even more lost than I am."

The young lioness wasn't the best huntress, but she was good at picking up on things. She knew how to listen to the traveling birds, and to eavesdrop on the herds. She knew how to think, to process, and to gather information from others. All of the creatures around that she knew of had never mentioned humans, only the common creatures of her land. Whatever humans were, they must live far from this area. She'd heard of strange creatures living in far away lands, different kinds of strange creatures, heard from the birds, but had never heard the names of said entities. It was possible that this cub had ventured quite a long way from home, but as far off as these animals of lore must be, considering that she had never seen them herself in all her days of roaming this vicinity, it didn't really seem possible that a cub could make it that far all alone.

It didn't add up, but that wasn't important right now. More importantly was that she was an adult, even if only just, and this was a lost cub. She needed to do what she could to help him survive out here, and that's exactly what she intended to do. If they could find her pride, perhaps they could help Andrey find his way home? It could take a while, but she wasn't exactly the sort to give up.

[Andrey]

It had taken Andrey a few moments to fully process everything Bast had said. The notion that an individual wouldn't know what a human was had never occurred to him. They seemed so common in the areas of the world he had seen, and he'd performed for so many over the duration of his short life. Wherever he was, he was suddenly certain that it was, indeed ... Very, very, very far away from home.

His expression grew long and weary for only a brief moment, before he shook his head. He cast it off, and replaced it with a sheepish grin. "That's okay. I guess they don't come here ever. People are funny like that. Pub's really old too. He's always in a cage. People are afraid of him, but... He's nice, really."

The young cub's voice drifted off. He hadn't imagined this lion would be lost as well, and the thought was ... Sad. He'd spent such a short time alone, and the feeling had been driving him slowly mad. He was constantly hurting, constantly hungry, constantly thirsty. He was always wondering if he would ever see his home again. With all of that worry on his shoulders, he could only begin to wonder what a grown-up would worry about were they to lose everything they'd known too. He was sure she was missing her home too.

Sensing the somber nature of their conversation, Andrey hopped up. His tail and ears perked high, and he smiled wider. "I haven't really seen anyone else out here. I saw some birds, but they were flying too high to talk to. And I saw these funny looking things. They had feet like rocks, and tree branches coming out of their heads ... And they were huuuuge."

Andrey turned to look back in the direction he had come from. "That was a while ago. I don't really remember." He crinkled his nose as his stomach began to growl. The feeling was beginning to get on his nerves.

"Is there anything to eat here? Or drink?" Andrey looked back at Bast, his little blue eyes scanning her, as if hoping looking long enough would give him an idea.

[Carl]

Funny looking things with rocks for feet and tree branches coming out of their heads? Whatever could this cub mean? He had quite the imagination. Why, everyone knew that tree branches and rocks weren't a part of any creatures, didn't they? Those were just plants and rocks! Bast scrunched up her face at his description, but when he spoke again, she decided to ignore that for the time being. He was obviously from some strange land, and he could have mistaken the antlers and hooves of antelope or some other herd animals for rocks and tree branches. Although, could there really be a lion who didn't know what prey animals were? They were the essence of life, after all, and without them, no lions would exist.

To his question she replied promptly, "There's a stream I passed not too far back, maybe half a day's walk? And we can't be too far from my pride's lands, I only lost them a few days ago. There will be lots to eat around there, if we can just find them. I'm not positive of which way to go though, I don't usually travel on my own."

As she finished saying it, she took in the cub's appearance. He looked weak, tired, she could tell he was trying not to show it, but he wasn't as successful as he might have liked. A half a day's walk could kill him. She frowned and pondered. They could always try another direction? After all there was the one he'd come from, and the one she'd come from, and there were others as well. She sniffed the air. It was damp, there could be water, or a jungle nearby, but it could just be humidity. All the same, she had a new proposition to make. To her left was another valley with a hole in the side, the tunnel of some other creature. It could be food, and it could lead to water. She was well aware that it was cooler under the ground, and moister, it was possible that the tunnel led to an underground spring.

"That's not good enough though. You need water and food sooner than half a day or more," she murmured, "Look, over there. You see that tunnel in the grass on the hillside? I bet there's something you can eat in there. A hare or some other small prey, and the air smells damp; there could be water in there too. I'm too big to get into small spaces like that, but you might be able to squeeze inside and have a look."