Dissension (Julie Skywalker and Dark Huntress)

[Dark Huntress]

(OOC: Terrible post, but I had to do something!)

Xhosa squeezed herself put of her hiding spot and bounded up to Bao. Her playful demeanor had vanished, replaced with a hard expression that showed worry. "I'll come with you! That way if-" she paused, carefully selecting her words "-it was a bad snake I can help you!" She gave the grey lioness what she hoped was a comforting smile.

She followed the limping lioness, Obi and Chika falling into her peripheral vision. She didn't give the two a second thought, let alone think they could be talking about her. After a second, though, a thought occured to her. "Hey, Bao," she said, coming up beside her, "Obi and my aunt are right over there. I'm going to go get someone and tell them what happened and if anything happens they'll see you."

She darted off after that and trampled the golden grass in her way as she sped towards Pride Rock. She slid to a halt in the middle of the sunning area, eliciting disapproving looks from many lionesses, including her mother. A quick glance afforded her the knowledge that noone there could medically help Bao and she continued at her previous, quick pace towards the den.

"Sethunya!" she yelled as she neared the dark cave. "Sethunya," she was panting by the time she saw the elderly, sage lioness with the princess. She trotted up to them and bowed to the primcess. "Your highness," she gasped then turned to Sethunya. "You better come quick! Bao got bitten by a snake!"

*£*

"Xhosa is perfectly capable of being serious when the time comes. She just needs," Chika sighed heavily as she though of the appropriate word. An image of Zaire quickly helped her decide. "-stability," she finished, looking over at the prince. "The question is: do you want to be the stability, or do you need it yourself?"

She glanced up quickly as her niece went streaking off towards Pride Rock. "I wonder," she mumbled, squinting at the ashen lioness Xhosa had left. She glanced at Obi. "Do you think something is wrong? Or are they just playing?"

*£*

Adanya groaned as her daughter's voice sounded from the den. It wasn't loud enough to understand what she was screaming about, but it was, well, loud. Loud enpugh to disturb everyone resting. Oh, she inwardly groaned. Why did I have to have Xhosa? Why not Chika! The gods knew she loved the lioness, but sometimes...

Chenziri shook his head a little as he felt his mate tense. Xhosa was a child, she was loud, why did Adanya mind it so much? He sighed and settled down again.

[Carl]

Themba's eyes widened at Xhosa's news and she leapt to her paws. The older lioness rose to a standing position more slowly. This may or may not be serious, but they needed to hurry all the same. She stretched her legs quickly and then began jogging down the back of the cliff and towards first the cave, then the ground, the princess starting to follow her.

"Where is she, what kind of snake was it, can she walk?" the old lioness asked calmly. If it was something serious, she'd need to get some things from the tree, but she'd need a few things from there anyway probably, and in fact, she'd probably need to call on the baboon shaman who was supposed to live there, as she might would need the use of his hands for this. So before Xhosa could answer her, she turned to the princess, "Themba, could you go to my tree and call for the mandrill Falsafa? He should be in some of the other trees not far from there."

The princess merely nodded and then sprinted away, adrenaline coursing through her.

☩ ☩ ☩

"I don't know," Obi said, not answering the first question, "It looks like Bao could be limping. I'm going to check on her. Are you coming?"

The gray lioness was making slow progress, which was unusual for her, as there was usually a little bit of a bounce in her step. It struck the young prince as exceptionally odd, and so he started approaching his strange friend, a look of concern creasing his face. As he drew closer, he could tell she was definitely limping.

"Hey are you alright?" he called out to her.

"It's nothing bad," the foreigner called back, "Only a minor bite."

The prince stopped, a little taken aback, and asked, "A bite? From Xhosa?"

"No, from a snake," she replied, rolling her eyes though he was too far away to see that. She felt fine. It couldn't be that bad.

[Dark Huntress]

"I-I don't know what kind of snake it is," Xhosa stuttered. "She was limping, but she could walk and she's in the plain between the waterhole and your tree." Xhosa tried to answer calmly as she trotted with them. "Obi and my aunt were near her when I left," she informed them, multi-colored eyes darting wildly about. She sighed with relief as she saw Obi and Chika had reached Bao already and that the grey lioness was still on her feet and, seemingly, as feisty as ever.

"C'mon, this way!" Xhosa said, though the position of the three lions was fairly obvious.

*£*

Chika followed, a little slower. She definitely recognized the lioness as one of Xhosa's friends or 'acquaintances'. Baya? she thought. Bayo? Bayi? I'll recall it sometime! She then sighed, feeling old. "I don't think Xhosa is that violent?" she said smilingly. "Can you move it? Wiggle your toes? Feel your paw at all?" She was no healer, but she knew there were basic signs of immediate danger.

Before the chalky lioness could answer, however, Xhosa bounded up, tuft flopping and breath short. "Sethunya's coming," she informed them breathlessly, not even a trace of her former scatter-brained behavior present.

[Carl]

"Of course I can feel it," Bao almost snapped, rolling her eyes, "It hurts quite a bit." Then she demonstrated for the other lioness that she could, in fact, move it.

"I don't think it was a deadly snake or anything," she continued. When Xhosa bounded over saying that Sethunya was coming, the gray lioness sighed in relief and stood waiting. She knew that Sethunya would handle it without all the fuss the others were making. The gray lioness began limping towards the old and wise one.

"Let me see your paw," Sethunya said gently as she grew near. Bao complied, holding it up for her to see. The pad had been mutilated and it looked pretty bad with a little blood trickling off of it. The older lioness moved her nose closer to the wounded paw and sniffed it. It didn't smell like it had been poisonous. To be sure, she licked it. It was an action that caused the wounded lioness to flinch and cry out, and the prince to cry out in alarm.

"What if there was venom in there?!" he cried, worried for the old lioness.

"Never fear," she assured him, "there isn't." Then she turned back to Bao and continued, "Come on back to the den, lean on me if you must. Themba will be bringing a mandrill shaman to better tend to your wound soon."

"I'll run ahead and tell my parents to make room," Obi said, wanting to feel important. Then he bounded away, his smallish mane tugging behind him in the wind his movement created.

[Dark Huntress]

Xhosa looked around, a little dismayed to find there was nothing for her to do. She frowned and glanced at Obi's retreating figure. If only there was somewhere else to run, others to tell. She sighed and followed the others who were moving out. Her aunt had already turned away and was moving through the golden waves of savannah grass. The excitement already passed, along with the danger, Xhosa felt bored and useless. She wanted to do more, to help more.

I wonder..., she thought, If being a queen is always busy and full of affairs. She sighed and shook her head. She would wonder about that at a time like this.

I'll probably add more...

[Carl]

Themba realized when she was about halfway to the baobab tree that there weren't any other trees nearby it. She wondered vaguely if Sethunya had been trying to get rid of her, considering their little talk earlier. But she shook it off and kept running. She had no other options, besides, Sethunya wouldn't have told her to go off here without a reason. As she reached the baobab tree, she looked up at it and said almost quietly, "Falsafa?"

When she didn't get a response, she started climbing awkwardly into the branches of the tree, trying to figure out where the hell a mandrill would be at. She turned her head back and forth as she climbed, looking here and there for any signs of a monkey.

"Falsafa?" she called more loudly, climbing up higher until she was breaking through the canopy of leaves above her and gazing out across the land. The view was stunning, and from here, she could see a small group of trees off in the distance. "Falsafa!" she shouted, clambering back down the tree trunk as fast as she could go and making her way towards the other trees.

She sprinted away across the land, the grasses tickling the bottoms of her paws until she reached the other collection of a few trees. These were much smaller than the baobab tree, and wouldn't likely support the weight of a lion. But that of a mandrill? Sure, why not.

"Falsafa?" she asked into the trees. A shaking of branches answered her. "Falsafa, is that you? A lioness named Sethunya sent me in search of you..."

"Sethunya!" a voice shrieked, and with a burst of leaves a mandrill's head popped down out of the branches.

"Er, yes... you see, another one of our pride, she was bitten by a snake, andㅡ" she tried to explain.

"Sethunya's a great lioness, wise, and rather gifted for your kind," the mandrill mused as he dropped out of the tree and onto Themba's back.

"Heyㅡ" she protested, both at being cut off and at him dropping onto her like some kind of ride.

"She can see more than is visible, and can use the tools of our kind. Veeery very resourceful that one. Also saved me the trouble of being the pride's shaman. I am able to live out here in relative peace thanks to her," he continued.

"Look, that's fascinating, I'm sure, but we need to get back to Pride Rock in a hurry!" she snapped, worried for Bao.

"Then why are you just standing around? I cannot treat a snakebite, if I cannot see it," Falsafa said rather matter-of-factly. Themba groaned and just began the journey back to Pride Rock as fast as she could go.

---

Sethunya had taken Bao into the den and was talking to her in a low voice while examining her wounds. So lowly that Obi couldn't understand her from where he sat on the promontory overlooking the lands. He sighed, and stepped down to meet Xhosa.

"It seems there's not much for any of us to do except wait for my sister to get here with this mandrill," he whispered. "Do you think it's gonna be ok? Like... did you see the snake? Was it... scary?"

[Dark Huntress]

Xhosa shook her head. "No," she whispered. "I was hiding-we were playing hide and seem and she thought it was my tail..." If Bao had not been hurt, Xhosa would've probably laughed at the incident, but right now...she didn't want to in the least. "It was pretty scary, but I think she'll be okay, Sethunya said she would be." Many of the young lions and lionesses had immense faith in the sage lioness and Xhosa was no exception.

She laid down and rolled over to look up at Obi, starting to feel tired from all her running. "Was Themba okay? she asked, somewhat out of curiousity, somewhat to start a conversation, but mostly because she cared, being of a rather gentle, caring nature.

*£*

Chika sighed as she collapsed next to Zaire, who seemed yawned and turned over to give her more space. She shook her head. Men! The sunning area was buzzing with news about the little foreign lioness and there was little hope of falling asleep. Bao! That's it! Chika recalled suddenly. She placed a paw over hear head to block out the noise then proceeded to fall asleep.

[Carl]

"Oh, yeah, she's just having a little boy trouble," Obi remarked with a smirk, "See, she's crushing on someone she can't have, so she's a bit jealous that I have options."

He said it in an off-hand way, as if it wasn't very important, and stared up into the stars. As he realized how it sounded, like he was full of himself, he added, "She was going to talk to whoever it is so she can move on. She should feel better soon."

---

The princess trudged on, slower and slower with the mandrill on her back, doing her best to hurry. Finally she stopped and sat down, causing Falsafa to slide off of her.

"I can't carry you anymore. Progress is much too slow. Come on use your legs!" she snapped, sprinting ahead. The money shouted out an expletive after her and then came running along.

"Hey! What is the meaning of this! Do not treat the healer this way, if you want your friend to be taken care of!" he informed her irately. She turned her fangs on him, her eyes steely.

"Let's get something straight here, monkey. If. Anything. Happens. To. Her. I. WILL. KILL. YOU. Are we clear?"

The mandrill threw up his hands defensively.

"Like muddy water," he replied softly, "To Pride Rock wit' us."

---

"Do you think she's alright?" Nthanda asked her mate, speaking of Bao, as they'd heard what had happened as well.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, Sethunya would have alerted us all by now if she wasn't going to be. Rest my love, we need to get lots of sleep before the morning patrol. We have a lot to do tomorrow, the hippos are having a problem with alligators, and the giraffes are having concerns about something. Not to mention we have to watch for any rogues," he said, licking her cheek. She nodded.

"Yes of course, you are right as always, Nnamdi."

[Dark Huntress]

Xhosa wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, you're the only one. Rogues don't visit here often." She grinned at him then rolled back onto her feet, following Obi's gaze towards the stars. All the kings of the past, she thought. So many.

"Obi, do only think kings turn into stars when they die? Or maybe everyone else does too, just not very bright ones..." She cocked her head, her multi-colored eyes slowly sliding over to look curiously at him. She seriously seemed to believe he knew everything.

"I don't think it be fair if only the kings got to be stars," she stated frankly. "Just because the others were born different doesn't mean that we shouldn't get to looked at by our descendants later-light up the night sky." She sighed. Honestly, Obi was the only one she really ever confided her little fancies in. They usually got good laughs out of them.