Sahara in Death (Private: ABB, Lyonize, Saraiya, and Scorp)

[abalancedbreakfast]

Sahara. A land in the modern day only thought of as sprawling desert, scarred with the invisible straight lines of foreign oppression that tear through what little life is forced to eek out an existence within its sun-scorched dunes. But, in an age past, an age not long ago in comparison to the deific scales of geologic time, this fate-cursed land was lush. It teemed with life, with the dancing grasses of a savannah and a proto-Nile that served as the artery of life to animals long gone.

And sat, perched betwixt these two eras, sat the tempest-tossed misfortunate lion. Mwitali. And the dying pride which clung to an ever drying lake of stagnant, stinking water that once called itself a river. Him, his pride, and all other creatures that had the misfortune of living in this transient, dying savannah, had the great cosmic misfortune of being the whipping boy of mother nature. 

Mwitali. Mwitali, Mwitali. The summoner, was what he had been named. Under the setting moon he lay, daring to sleep away from the rest of his pride as the morning came. But sleep refused to come to him.

What did come to him instead, however, were the characters of his mind. The characters he had dared tell nobody about apart from his older brother, Vita. They were there to try to sway him, this way and that. Whether he wanted them to or not. 

A land comes into my focus, pupil, said the voice of his spirit, as a lion visible only to Mwitali sat beside him. The young male's ear swiveled in the direction of this apparition. It was a thing he was often mocked for, the way his ears swiveled to things that weren't there. At least, weren't there for others.

"What land, Roho? Another place of ruin and decay? Even the water here smells like it's dying..." Mwitali brooded, idly clawing at the stagnant water to force some, any movement in its algae-tarnished surface. 

Roho nuzzled Mwitali gently, the pressure and force against Mwitai's mane feeling more real to him than he would have liked. You act as if the entire world is Sahara. As if the sun simply ceases to be when it dips below the horizon. Have you not seen the glimpses I have given you?

Glimpses of other lands, and their strange creatures and goings on, that he had seen for years but could never do anything useful with. When Roho took control, it was as if Mwitali could connect to the universe in strange ways. Sometimes useful ways, but... "Those glimpses never did anything for me. I'm still stuck here. Drinking water from a fish graveyard."

A waterline that recedes approximately 3 to 4 cubits each dry season, and only gains 1 cubit back in the rainy season, came another, more analytical phantom-lion, who's tail flicked idly in the water as he drew circles into the sand. 

"Thank you, Akili, for that depressing observation" Mwitali lamented.

Akili, the avatar of Mwitali's logical mind, continued to draw his circles as he talked. The remaining lakebed is only 24 cubits across at its narrowest point now. At this rate, the lakebed will be dry within 12 years. And that's assuming that the rate of evaporation doesn't pick up. Even if you survive that long, mating will become a useless endeavour. You'd be brininging any cubs into a barren world.

Leave it to Akili to make the prospect of making cubs depressing, came the voice of a third, final lion, the avatar of bodily need and mechanism, who, in Mwitali's mind, stood, stretching out his muscles, his rump waving haughtily in the air as he flexed and stretched his hind legs. But, that's okay. Making cubs isn't exactly your style of love, is it, hot stuff?

"Kimwili. With wildly inappropriate comments about my proclivities, as always," Mwitali sighed. "Great, the whole trio is here to remind me of the pointlessness of it all. Can't you all just leave me alone for half a second?"

But without us, you would not be anything. You would be a husk.

Honestly? I think he's right to lament. My stomach aches every day for a meal, and it seems like we're running low even on sick juvenile gazelles to sink our teeth into, to tear the flesh and sinew from bone. The ones we do find don't particularly have much meat on them these days either. And you, Roho, sit here waxing poetic and giving our host glimpses of a kind of luxury he can never have.

"And that's the thing that infuriates me when you show me these visions, Roho! You never give me anything useful to do with these visions! They're just... like, showing a starving cub a cut of meat, and then tossing it off a cliff. You're useful for other things, like when you tell me how people are feeling or when to stand my ground on issues, but... good kings above, if your constant lamenting about metaphysical elephant-dung doesn't just..."

Waste your time? Roho asked, a bit indignant as he huffed out his chest. Is hope completely useless to you? Has your spirit really been so crushed by this world?

This line was enough to get Akili to stand up and swipe away his circles, a bit enraged. You know, hope doesn't mean a damn thing if you keep failing to give him something he can actually act on.

Like what? Argued the now defensive agent of spirit, digging his claws into the dirt, ready to die on this hill.

Like a single cardinal direction.

The entire group stopped their activities, looking at the logistician lion and the emblem of spirit that stood across from him, failing to produce a single comeback to that. Very well he said, putting a paw on Mwitali's chest, and closing his eyes.

Without warning, the young, brooding lion was sent to another far flung corner of the world. Blades of grass directly in front of him gave way to short shrubbery. Then, a sight that Mwitali had never seen before...

Trees themselves were unremarkable. But to see trees this dense, and a river this flowing between the rising peaks of two mountains, a flow that made him question the very forces of water itself? And the strange gazelles, with antlers shaped like trees that moved in herds big enough to feed an entire pride for years. Small, long-eared creatures that hopped along haplessly. It was another fatalistic glance into a promised land that sat locked, only behind a cardinal direction.

An elecrtic tingle rose from the fertile soil beneath his paws through every inch of nerves in him, stimulating his adrenal glands and making his heart restless, his muscles tense, and his mind a hive of nerve activity as the universe itself tried to work out his location. And in a flurried passion of feeling, emotion, connection to the very fabric of life itself.

Your salvation lies to the northwest. Across a channel. And in a land no other lion has yet touched.

And then, they vanished. Mwitali was back on his own. Sat beneath the stagnant filth-water of his home pride. All that had changed was that his paws trembled with this new knowledge, and that the setting moon had been replaced with a rising, oppressive sun.

Mwitali froze in hope.

[Lyonize]

While most abhorred the blistering heat of days like this, Vita took solace in it. As temperatures rose, the willingness to fight declined. Nobody plans to attack on a day like today. The heat would drain you on your way to the battlefield and then you'd be met with well rested defenders.
That was a philosophy of the intelligent, would-be assailant anyway. And Vita enjoyed not being attacked as much as he enjoyed fighting exhausted, unintelligent foes.
Scorching heat meant a likely simple day for the primary defender of the pride. But that still didn't mean he had a day off.

With a yawn that bordered on a suppressed roar and a stretch that accentuated his broad physique, Vita headed to the nearest source of water and hoped his nose was only playing tricks on him when he noticed a particular twinge of sourness to the familiar scent of the nearby waterhole. As he drew nearer, he almost found relief in thinking the bad smell was just his brother who was already there. But Mwitali wasn't the type to ignore hygiene. No, it was definitely the water. Vita ignored his brother while he approached the waters edge. Just looking at it, Vita knew this watering hole was seeing it's final days of drinkability. He sniffed at it again which, he immediately regretted. In this state, it was a cruel parody of the life-giving liquid it once was. But he had to at least try. If there was any chance it would give him the fortitude to stay vigilant today, he had to take it.

It tasted like cape buffalo cud and vulture-
Vita's thought was interrupted by the sight of his brother gazing off into the distance. A quick glance in the direction of his stare didn't answer any questions. Vita had seen that stare before but not in anyone who hadn't seen their friends gutted in front of them. No, Mwitali didn't have combat fatigue. Vita spit the algee taste out of his mouth.

"Tali, what are you doing?"

[abalancedbreakfast]

Mwitaji shook the visions out of his head and turned to look at Vita. "I found a way out of here."

Without warning, the slim lion sprung to his paws, walking hastily away. "To the north. Roho showed me something up there. A place wehre there was more water in one river than we have ever seen in our entire lives, vita! And he said it was to the north!"

Vita, Mwitaji's older brother, had known about his visions for a long time. He was the only lion Mwitaji trusted with them, so he was familiar with Roho, Akili, and Kimwili, the alter egos in his head. He knew generally what they did. But as Mwitaji looked at the doubt in his big brother's eyes, he realized he'd need more justification than what Roho could give him.

Remember what I said, about the evaporation of the lake, Akili whispered to him, causing Mwitaji's ear to swing to the invisible phantom.


"Look, that lake? I measured it last year, when I was still an adolescent. It was 26 cubits across at its narrowest point then. It lost 4 cubits in the dry season, and only gained 2 back in the rainy. That's two cubits a year of loss, assuming that evaporation doesn't speed up. The lake will be gone within 12 years, and it's barely drinkable now because of the dying fish! You have to help me convince the others to come north with me!" he said, frantically making a beeline back to the cave.

[Lyonize]

"I found a way out of here."
"To the north. Roho showed me something up there. A place wehre there was more water in one river than we have ever seen in our entire lives, vita! And he said it was to the north!"

Vita's eyes glazed over.
"Every way is a way out of here. How do you know north is the right way?"

"Look, that lake? I measured it last year, when I was still an adolescent. It was 26 cubits across at its narrowest point then. It lost 4 cubits in the dry season, and only gained 2 back in the rainy. That's two cubits a year of loss, assuming that evaporation doesn't speed up. The lake will be gone within 12 years, and it's barely drinkable now because of the dying fish! You have to help me convince the others to come north with me!"

He followed his brother but at a much more leisurely pace. He wasn't about to waste energy trying to keep up when they were just going to the same place anyway.

"Nobody is arguing about the lack of water!" He shouted ahead. Against his better judgement, Vita quickened his pace just a little. This had better not upset mother. Or the rest of the pride. Vita thought to himself.

[abalancedbreakfast]

Mwitaji stopped dead in his tracks at Vita's argument. The fact still remained that he had no evidence to substantiate that north would be the fastest way out of here.

He had to think, fast. And he looked around desperately, trying to find something as his analytical brain kicked in. Akili stepped in front of Mwitaji, and looked up to the sky, prompting Mwitaji to do the same.

"Do you see up there, Mwitaji? That single cloud? Every rainy season, what little rain we do get comes from clouds that are driven from the north to the south."

"Vita, the clouds! When what little bit of a rainy season we have comes, the clouds come in from the north. Which means there's some... large source of water up there where they build up. And by the time they get here, they're almost dissipated!"

This made Mwitaji hop for joy and sprint into the cave, slowing down as he entered to make sure that everyone wasn't still asleep.