Misguided Youth (Private ABB and Saraiya)

[abalancedbreakfast]

"Fifty miles. S'why I wanted to get a move on, it gon' be a couple days" he explained before pulling back the shrubbery to reveal the bank of a gorgeous north flowing river. "We gon' leg it today, then I can talk to some monkeys who can tie together some logs with vine. We ride that the rest of the way, then we good."

[saraiya]

Kela nods at the plan. "Yeah. We can do that. I assume the river leads to the lair then?"

[abalancedbreakfast]

"Yeah, leads right to it." He said, starting along the riverbank. "You think that creep boyfriend a' yours gonna keep gunnin' fo' us?"

[saraiya]

"Not my boyfriend. Not even close." She rolls her eyes. "But, he might. He's actually a pretty good fighter, but I can still take him on. If he crosses the line, I want to be the one to kill him myself, got it Wapo?" Kela says.

Razu was her problem, more or less. She'll deal with him if need be.

[abalancedbreakfast]

"A'ight then. You sure you up to killin' somebody?"

[saraiya]

Kela pauses and gives Wapo a sly grin. "You think that just because I lived a pretty good life, that I never bloodied my claws before?" She laughs humorlessly.

"War has been a thing in my area, especially with jaguars, and being on the front lines was expected of me. You don't have to worry about me freezing up or anything."

[abalancedbreakfast]

"Ah, so you a warrior then? I feel you."

He kept on walking in silence for a couple minutes before piping up again.

"Hey, so afta' we get to the cave, what's yo' plan from there? You ain't lookin' to be a rogue fo'evah, right?"

[saraiya]

Kela shrugs a bit. "Not sure yet. I might already be a rogue, since I did abandon my pride." She says. "I don't exactly know where else to go, to be honest. What about you? Where will you go after you get all healed up?"

[abalancedbreakfast]

Wapo sighed. "I don't know. I wanna have a pride someday. Settle down wit' a nice lioness. Not now, but someday. But that ain't happenin'. Not with these scars" he said, gesturing to his right shoulder. "I don't know, Kela.I ain't no lion. Maybe I just another cave rat."

[saraiya]

"Don't be so hard on yourself. I happen to see you as a lion." Kela says. "You've just had it rougher than most. The only way you'd be a cave rat is if you actually lived in a cave and was a rat. Being a rogue is nothing to be ashamed of, my friend." She says with a smile.

[abalancedbreakfast]

He turned his head to Kela's and looked at her. "Yeah... okay..." he said, before glancing at the tallies on his shoulder and turning back around to keep walking, silently, for a long while.

[saraiya]

It took a couple of days, until Wapo led her to the rogue's hideout. As she thought, the area looked dangerous and unwelcoming to most.

"Looks comfy." Kela remarks as she bats the skull of a zebra out of her path. "Such a charming setting. The decorator should get a promotion."

[abalancedbreakfast]

"Hey, I know it don't look too good. Trus' me, i's betta' on the inside" he said, walking towards the two lions guarding the entrance.

As he approached, one of the two guards quickly stepped up and challenged the pair. "Hey, what are you doing here? If you know better, you'd turn around and get out!"

Wapo knew he'd have to respond to the aggressiveness with his own aggressiveness. "Ay' I ain't stupid! I a rogue, jus' like you, lookin' ta' talk to Mama Mlezi and crash fo' a couple nights."

"And your mate? Last I checked, rogues didn't have mates. You think I'm an idiot?"

[saraiya]

"Last I checked, it was none of your business why I'm here, too." Kela snarls at the guards. "If it was your business, you'd know I ain't his mate. Now move before we'll need a pair of replacement guards." She glares at them, unsheathing her claws.

She's tired and irritated by the guards and their attitudes.

[abalancedbreakfast]

Wapo turned to the lioness, genuinely surprised at the edge she had in her voice, before turning surprised to the guards, fumbling for the right words. "Yeah!... W- what she said! Now y'all betta' move right now befo-"

"Befo' what, child?" A deep, yet feminine voice bellowed out from the cave entrance, a golden coated lioness showing off an intentionally feminine strut appearing out of the darkness. "Ya' come in 'ere, kno'in tat ya' can't fight in da' safecave, draggin' 'dis poor yo'ng lady wit' ya'. Poor girl, wha' 'tid 'dis fia'brand put ya' through? I bet ya' have some horra' stories fo' me!" She said, the intonation in her voice extreme and almost performative, showing off a sort of caricature of emotion.

[saraiya]

"He's been good, ma'am. Your guards, on the other hand, like to instigate." Kela struts up the the lioness, intentionally pushing past the guards.

"You must be Mama Mhlezi. I've only heard good things about you and was told you can provide shelter." She says to the lioness. "I'm Kela and I suppose you already know my guide."

[abalancedbreakfast]

"Ta' one an' only Mama Mlezi, 'das me! An' if 'dis boy been treat'n ya' roight, I s'pose I can let'm in. Guards, I don't want'ya goin' round instigeh'tan things wit' people ya' know is fellow rogues!"

"But, ma'am-"

"Don't go disrespectin' ta' mama! If ya' had half a brain about 'ya, 'ya could see clea' as day t'at he was hea' just last mon't." She said, batting the back of the guard's head. "Get in hea' ya' two yon'g rogues, bot' of ya'. Can I get ya' kids anyt'ing, som' food fo' ta' lady? Yon'g lad, any'ting?"

[saraiya]

"Food would be great. I appreciate this." Kela says honestly, then goes to follow Mama Mlezi in, briefly flashing her sharp teeth at the idiotic guards in warning.

The inside what better, though not by much, than the outside. A bit dark, but doable. And the other rogues didn't seem too welcoming, but they weren't her concern.

[abalancedbreakfast]

A lioness stepped onto a rock in the cave, and started singing in a soothing voice, easing the tension in the room as the other rogues lounged in the large cave room. But there were murmurs among a pair of smaller rogues in the room, a male and female.

"He's changed since last month. Look, he's got one more scar on his shoulder"

"Ain't that creepy. I shudder every time I see those tallies."

"What are they there for?" the lioness asked in a hushed tone.

Before they could continue, Wapo nudged Kela and gestured to an empty spot on the opposite side of the cave. "Ay, you wanna' go ova' there?"

[saraiya]

Kela looks at the spot and nods. "Yeah, sure. I'll go over there." She says, going over to the area and taking a seat while Wapo went off and did whatever he needed to do.

After a few minutes of solitude, Kela scowls as a rogue male saunters up to her. "Need any company, miss?"

"No." She glares at him. "Go away."

"Now, sweetheart, don't be so rude." He tsked and moved closer, earning a rough smack and a snarl from Kela. She notes with satisfaction how her claws nicked the side of his face, leaving small scratches.

[abalancedbreakfast]

Wapo had gone into a smaller offshoot of the cave with another male to get information on prides in the area. Good places to poach, smuggling opportunities, rogue rivalries, and all the things a cave rat had to know. In the meantime, Mama Mlezi had walked out of a different offshoot with another lioness, who was towing in a zebra calf for Kela to eat.

"Hon'y, are you givin' dis' yo'ng lady tro'ble? I to'd you ta' sho' a little more respect to 'ta ladies!"

The male groaned and rolled his eyes. "I was just trying to see if there was any spark! Can't blame a guy for trying"

"Boh't I can blame a guy fa' failin'! Ta' girl clea'ly ain't interested in romancin' ya!"

"Yeah, well your waitresses have been rubbing up against me!"

"Ma' waitresses do dat' ta' get some extra food from domb males loi'k you! If t'ey want ta' get a bit catty, I can't stop 'em! Now go and be pat'etic somewhere else, boy, before ya' embarrass yourself" she scolded, swatting him on the back of the head and sending him back to his spot as the singing lioness finished her first song with a dramatic and drawn out flair.

"So, hon'y, wot's ya' story. How'd ya' get cough't up wit' ta' Red Zebra ba'k there?"

[saraiya]

Kela furrows her brow in confusion. "Red Zebra? Oh! You mean Wapo!" She realizes after a moment.

"Well, he had gotten himself badly injured while fighting, and I helped make sure he stayed alive. Not a very impressive story, to be honest." She shrugs. "He said he'd help me if I needed to get anywhere, and since I don't really have anywhere to go, I'm sticking by his side for a bit."

[abalancedbreakfast]

"'Dat boy got injured in a foight? I warned ta' boy, ya' don't get t'at many tallies on ya' shoulda' before it catches up to ya. Tho' ta' be honest, he's the only one ta' do the tallies on ta' shoulda'."

Mlezi laid down with Kela, getting comfortable with the lioness and making sure she felt at home. "So, he hasn't mistreated 'ya? Guess I taught 'im roight."

[saraiya]

"He's been nothing but good to me." Kela says. "What do those tallies mean, anyway? He never told me."

She's always been curious about them, but never had the opportunity to ask what they actually meant.

[abalancedbreakfast]

"Oh, lady, dat's a touchy sobject for 'im. Di's is goin' ta' take some backstory, tho'. But promise not ta' jodge da' poor lad. I've known 'im a while now, he's loike a son ta' me. And don't tell 'im I told ya'."

[saraiya]

"I promise to neither judge him, nor tell him that you told me." Kela promises, wondering how bad the story behind those tallies was.

[abalancedbreakfast]

Mlezi looked around, and beckoned Kela into a side cave that lead to a more private, smaller cavern with a hole in the side overlooking a beautiful cliffside waterfall. However, it had seemed that one of the lioness waitress had been cozying up to one of the rogue visitors, getting caught red handed nuzzling underneath the lion's chin before shooting away from the lion upon being caught.

"OH! MAMA MLEZI! It's not what it-"

"Don't try ta' test me, yo'ng lady! I was a yo'ng lady once, too! I kno' it's exactly wot it looks loike! Go'on, get, out with t'e lot of ya! Save ta' romancin' fa' afta' your shift, Peremende!"

After shooing off the two from the room, Mlezi sighed and sat down, placing a paw on Kela's shoulder. "Dat boy, he grew op a troubled loife, dat' one. His pride lived in a barren gorge, miles away from any grass for ta' herds to graze on. It di'nt 'elp 'im t'at 'is fatha' treated t'e boy like a slave, beatin' 'im at the sloightest wrong. His motha' wosn't much help eitha'. T'at old witch had sent him out on ludicrous huntin' missions, beratin' a small boy for only bein' able to catch a hare when she had demanded a gazelle. Can ya' believe dat? In a wasteland, too."

Her expression dropped as she got to the hard part of her story. "One night, when de' boy was an adolescent, he had'nt eat'n in weeks. A growin' male, not eat'n in three weeks. He told me ya' could practically see ta' bones in 'im. He decided ta' start poachin'. He traveled twenty moiles to a pride where there was gazelles as far as t'e eye could see. Managed to score ta' biggest one in the herd, too. But he got caught by an adolescent. So, he did what a scared, starvin' cob would do in t'at situation. He killed 'im. Dragged the gazelle all the way back twenty miles in one night. But when he got back, his fatha' smelled the lion blood on 'im. Clawed 'im in ta face, and beat 'im within an inch of his loife before givin' 'im his first tally, so 'tat everybody knew his crime. Kicked the boy out of the pride when he woke up the next mornin'. But the boy had snapped by t'at point. He went ob'sessed wit' revenge. He... he couldn't 'elp i'mself. Afta' tryin' to join a new pride, and gettin' beat half to death again because of the tally on 'is shoulder, he had it. Came back a week lata' and killed his own fatha'. As one final gesture of hatred for 'is fatha', he added the second tally on himself. Every time he had to kill anotha' lion, he'd add anotha' one. It was one of 'ta only reasons he has respect wit' some rogues. But I see it fo' what it is. It's a painful reminda' to him of why he lives ta' rogue life..."

[saraiya]

"I... see." Kela says, shocked by all he went through before she met him, and that didn't even count the years afterwards as he was growing up.

"How did you come to meet him, Mama Mlezi?" She asks after a moment.

[abalancedbreakfast]

"Oh, t'at was almost six mont's ago. He came to ta' cave, draggin' himself along, practically 'alf dead. He'd gotten into a scrape with a rival rogue gang, almost died. I gave 'im shelter for three weeks. Poor lad couldn't speak for ta' first week. Even t'en, I only found out about 'is story a mont' ago. He 'as real problems gettin' close ta' people..."

Mlezi moved to nuzzle Kela, showing a concern for both her and Wapo.

"Please, don't t'ink he's any less of a sweet person. He be a good lad. But... he's misguided. He needs a light of some sort."

[saraiya]

Kela nods at that. "I know. Even when I was the one making sure he stayed alive, he still was making sure I was good and comfortable. He is a nice lion." She says, thinking back on it.

"He asked me where I plan to go after this and said he'd help me get there. Only, I don't know where I would end up. I've only been really living one day at a time since leaving my pride."