Part 1 - Let the journey begin... [Finished]

[Dakota]

Karensha sat there, turning her head when she felt Figgy roll into her. Her eyes met his round green ones, and she just kept staring at him not even blinking. Finding herself leaning closer and closer with her nose just about touching his, she jerked back when one of his long wiry whiskers poked her in the eye.
"Ouch " bringing up a paw fast she placed it over her eye, trying to brush away the water that now trickled down her face.
hmm thats what I get for not paying attention, and trying to be silly and lick his nose, guess I better forget about that for now .

Turning her attention back to Meri and Sanura, she heard snowball have her say. Impressed with what she said and how she said it, Karensha looked more closely at her, a bit hard seeing one eye was a bit blury and still streaming, but blinking rapidly she watched her.
seems we might have misjudged our Meri afterall, putting her in the same bag as Sanura, so to speak. A young cub doesn't have that maturity even if they have been through harsh mishaps, I wonder how old she really is .

Giving a small cough clearing her throat, the snow leopard faced Sanura and Meri.
" well ...I think, that I would like to go where Meri says, we have agreed that we need to move on, especially with these new scents around us which we don't know who they belong too..
Looking first at the lion Sefu, then slowly onto Kigeni " What we need to know next I guess, is whether you two will be coming with us and be part of our small family ?"

Turning back to the little lioness, Karensha lifted a paw and stroked her gently on top of her white fur. "It's upto you now, where you go, we go Meri "

[mahewarac]

" What we need to know next I guess, is whether you two will be coming with us and be part of our small family ?"

Kigeni looked away. These animals trusted her, but she couldn't trust them. She could live without them. Couldn't she?

They have been so generous to her for a while. And she needed the food. She had to stay.

"Ya, I will, if you let me."

[epppe]

Sefu barely heard what leopard said, he seemed to busy staring and the clouds. Snapping out of his daze, he heard the hyena answer what the leopard asked. Seeing the 2 cubs, the leopard, the lion who thinks it's a dog, and the hyena, he thought they would need at least one lion that could protect them if something happens. He got up went and sat by the group,

"Ya I guess I'll join your little group. I got nothin better to do."

[Kirsui]

"What do you think Meri?"
"It's upto you now, where you go, we go Meri."

Meri blinked her eyes. This was not what she had expected. She had thought... Well she wasn't really sure anymore what she had thought, but being the one to make the final decision of where to go was definitely not that!
'Throught the grassy planes to the mountains...' she thought.
'Or to Figgy's home at south through the... forest...'

The little white lioness flattened her ears and tried to fight back a shiver that threatened to go down her spine.
"To the mountains", she voiced out her decision with a quiet voice.
"I... I don't want to go south..."
She bit her jaws shut tightly after this had been said, apparently determined not to say anything else.

[cheezeegriff]

"To the mountains. I... I don't want to go south..."

Figgy had to stop himself from frowning - he had been very, very much looking forward to showing Karensha his family and the hunting dog pups and to see how everyone was going along himself - but he supposed tracking down their friends was more important.
"Right, well!"
he said, jumping - well... lumbering - to his feet.
"We'd better get going then, no? Before the day gets too hot. But before we leave perhaps we should eat these kills - I'd hate to think the poor things died in vein.
"So everyone eat up! Remember, every kill has a calf that'll grow up without a parent. Unless it's a calf itself,"
he said, thinking,
"And then the parents will just have another one next year. Anyway, you don't want to have to make another orphan in a few hours if you don't have to, do you?"
With that he winked at Karensha, then turned around and poked his nose back in the hole he had made in the zebra's middle.

[Dakota]

"To the mountains I... I don't want to go south..."

Karensha looked down at Meri closely, she was sure she heard a slight tremor in her voice, when the options were given to her and what she choose. Maybe snowball has some demons to do with her nightmares, when it comes to going south, I need to keep an eye out for her I think.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the look of disapointment flicker on Figgy's face, then watch as he put on his happy smile then he was back to eating.
Looking at Sefu and Kigeni and onto the tiger cub, Karensha then looked back to Figgy already eating.
"well.. if we are to start travelling, I really think we all need to make sure we are well fed and watered... so help yourself."

The snow leopard wandered away from the carcass, and lay down with her head resting on her paws, and just watched them all one by one.
what a mottley team we all make, a true assortment of felines.,
then Karenshas glance fell on Figgy as he gorged himself making his tummy swell even more.

Am I going to care about him deeply, and not be able to keep him alive, and we will have to leave his carcass like that hes eating. He's a beautiful soul, and makes me happy and smile.. but will love be enough.. should I just take what happiness we may have, or should I keep my distance from now.

Sighing, she left her own question unanswered and looked over at where the trail would begin to lead them into the mountains.

[Kirsui]

Meri kept her gaze on Figgy when he spoke out and walked to the carcass. The white cub remained still for a while, not even listening to what Karensha said. She was rather sure Figgy wasn't pleased with her decision, and so with flattened ears the little white lioness made her way to him. She pounced on the carcass and settled herself on top of it so that she was facing Figgy.

"Figgy...?"
Meri bit her lip, gathering her thoughts momentarily.
"I... My home is at south too, in the forest... jungle... what ever it is."
She took a better position on the carcass and lowered her voice so that others than Figgy wouldn't hear her.
"But unlike you, I don't want to return..."
She flashed a faint smile and pounced down from the carcass.
"Maybe some day."
She quickly trotted away and settled down somewhat near Karensha.
"Maybe some day..."

[mahewarac]

"To the mountains I... I don't want to go south..."

"I think that's a good idea." Kigeni said. South was where her pack lived, and she wanted as little interaction between her two groups as possible. "I think.. I think we should all eat as much as we can of the zebra, and anything else we can find. I know from experience we need to eat as much as we can before moving, since you have no idea when your next meal will be. And since we are going to the mountains where not a whole lotta animals live, it'll be hard to hunt there." She dug her teeth into the zebra.

[cheezeegriff]

Figgy looked around at the others eating with a sigh of relief. FINALLY they're eating my food. Anyone would have thought they didn't appreciate the effort I put into catching this!

"I... My home is at south too, in the forest... jungle... what ever it is. But unlike you, I don't want to return...Maybe some day. Maybe some day..."

Figgy pulled out a big piece of meat, swallowing it whole, then stuck his finger in his mouth to think.
"It isn't really through the forest we'd have to go,"
he said,
"It's more... along the border. Then we cut out into the grasslands south of here. But, I don't want to make everyone do what they don't want to do. So long as we do wander southish SOME day. I do want to see them again."

"I think.. I think we should all eat as much as we can of the zebra, and anything else we can find. I know from experience we need to eat as much as we can before moving, since you have no idea when your next meal will be. And since we are going to the mountains where not a whole lotta animals live, it'll be hard to hunt t

The thought of going without his food was absolutely terrifying - almost enough to put him off his meal - but he swallowed his terror and said,
"First bit of sense I've heard all day! Well, aside from what I've said myself, that is."
He wiggled his eyebrows at Kigeni and grinned as broadly as he could. Then he turned around.
"Come on, Karensha! You get any skinnier and we'll be able to see your ribs through that lovely fur coat of yours."
He winked at her, then stuck his nose back in the zebra.

[Dakota]

Karensha wiggled closer to Meri and leaned over to her "we don't have to go anywhere you don't want to, when you are ready we will go see your home, and not before..ok ?"

Pulling herself back to her spot, she couldn't help herself and smiled at Figgys comment about her getting skinny... no chance of that I think while he's around .

Slowly she rose, pushing her paws into the sandy ground, and made to move towards the zebra, her tummy was feeling a bit empty, seeing she had missed out on figgys last meal he had supplied them. Stopping herself, Karensha turned to Meri smiling gently.
"You need to eat snowball, we all need to eat before we start on our travels, even though we have seen alot of food in the last few days, we can't count on it being as plentiful. I don't want you or Sanura getting sick, this is going to be fun for us all, maybe a time for starting over, I have a feeling it will be for me."

Moving over and standing in between Sanura who was chewing away with a blissful look on her face, and Figgy, she leant down and ripped off a piece of flesh. While she chewed, she watched the chubby lion gorging himself on his meal .
someone who appreciates his food definitely, but would he be able to protect Sanura and Meri, if something unexpected happened..

[epppe]

Seeing the rest of the group eat what’s left of the food, Sefu felt out of place with them. He’s been alone ever since he left his original pride, but the problem was that he liked being alone, there was nothing restricting him to do what he wants. Getting up, he turned around and started to walk away from the group.

“Call me when you kids decide to leave.” He yelled back at the group before disappearing.

Finding a spot away from being seen by the group, yet close enough to hear if they call. Sefu simply sat there staring at the clouds, wondering if he belonged with the group. Lying down, he started to think if this group would turn into a family to him, which would become troublesome in his view. A family would mean that he would have to look out for them instead of just himself, a thought that was completely foreign to him.

“Whatever,” he mumbled to himself while trying to relax and enjoy the last moments of being alone.

[Deleted]

Sanura lay there rolling around the juicy meat in her mouth, she was hungry again, maybe she should eat more this time seeing as how they were going on a big walk.
Looking up and over Kigenis shoulder she stared at the waterhole, expecting to see Baraz standing there, blinking fast she turned knowing she might never see him again.

Lowering her head she was going to eat some more, when she saw the lion walk past and away. why doesn't he ever eat anything, hes gotta be hungry Picking up the piece of flesh that she had ripped her small piece off, she sniffed the air and followed to where she thought he had gone.

Not seeing him anywhere she sudenly panicked. She broke into a little run, still holding the meat in her muzzle, her head moving from left to right. he's gone too, just like Baraz and the others,.
Stopping she dropped down by a small bush, letting the meat fall from her teeth onto the ground and just lay there "he's run away, he didn't want to be with us either".

[Kirsui]

"You need to eat snowball --"

Meri followed Karensha with her gaze, but made no move to follow her to the food. She had told them already, she wasn't hungry, and though she knew they meant well for her...

She sighed, turning her head so that she could gaze on the waterhole. The water was pretty, calming...

Her ears twiched and she turned to look at the eating group in confusion. For a moment stared them with a puzzled expression, before realization hit her.
"Sanura!"
The little white lioness was on her feet in an instant. She couldn't see her tiger friend anywhere.
"Where'd she go? Did you see where she went?!"

Meri was panicking, not the same way she had the day before when she had caused that whole episode with the tree climbing... It was different, she absolutely had to find Sanura, because if the tiger cub had gotten lost...

Without a thought Meri darted at the direction where she had seen Sefu go a moment ago, figuring that maybe Sanura had followed him. She called for Sanura as she ran, her head turning from side to side as she tried to catch a glimpse of the tifer with her only eye. Unfortunately for her, she had no idea how far Sefu had went, and so as she pounced over and around stones and branches in search for Sanura, she completely forgot the fact that in doing so she herself was in a situation of getting badly lost.

"Sanu --!"
She had no idea what happened, but the next thing she knew was that she lost her balance and begun to fall. Her head turned to face the ground as she tried to look for something to put her paws on for balance...

And she screamed when pain broke loose. She curled up on a ball, covering her right eye - the working eye - with both her paws as she rolled away from the offending branch that she had hit when she had fallen. Both her eyes were tightly shut under her paws and she kept letting out whining noises while trying to will the pain away. She knew she had wounded herself somewhere on her face, she could smell, taste and feel her own blood, but where the wound was she wasn't sure.

She just wished she had never ran from the group like this.

---

"He's run away, he didn't want to be with us either."

"Who ran away, little one?"

The smooth, low voice that spoke those words belonged to a rather tall male lion. He had mostly golden fur, with brown stripes on his back and socks on his forelegs, and his light cyan eyes gazed from behind a white and orange mane at the little... feline that had appeared out of nowhere on his path. He looked very calm as he stood there, and by no means was he threatening.

He could smell a pride on this... feline, or more like a group of different creatures. And so, he lowered himseld so that he could look closer at the small... cub.
"I'm Rondea", he introduced himself with a friendly smile.
"Are you lost, little one?"

[Dakota]

Karensha stood there beside Figy both of them silently eating. She saw Sanura follow after Sefu with a piece of meat hanging from her mouth, it looked like the cub had found someone she wanted to be around now Baraz had gone away. Turning back to her meal she looked up quickly in mid chew when she heard the panic stricken voice of Meri ,shouting out for the tiger cub. "Where'd she go? Did you see where she went?!"

Stepping back Karensha was about to speak up, but she didn't get a chance before Meri charged off. Pausing for a moment, the snow leopard realised she couldn't let her go off by herself and started to follow, when she heard an anguished scream. Pushing her self forward into a run, leaves slapped at her face, pulling at her long tuft as she raced towards the white cub. 'MERI... WHERE ARE YOU..."

Pushing past a large overhanging bush, she heard whimpers and came finally to a halt in font of the cub all curled up, little noises of distress, found there way straight to karenhsas heart.
Lying down beside her, Karensha took hold of the little white lioness and pulled her in close against her chest, rocking her gently. Even though the cub still had her paws over her eyes, they didn't stop a small trickle of blood from oozing out and slowly making a red trail down through the fur and dripping off the little muzzle..

Still clutching the lioness, Karensha needed to see where the damage had been done.
"Snowball, I need you to move your paws away from your face, I know it really hurts, but karensha needs to try and make you feel better. I wont let anyone else touch you if you don't want, but I want to look after you, please... trust me enough to let me see...please Meri ?"

[cheezeegriff]

Figgy pushed his snout deeper and deeper into the zebra's belly, eating himself a little cavity in which he could fit more and more of himself inside. Eventually his ears slid in too, and he lost track of the outside world, slurping and burping and chewing greedily as his old pack compeditivenes came back and made him do his best to eat faster than anyone else.

FIGGY, DON'T YOU THINK YOU AUGHT TO STOP NOW?

Not just yet... just a few more mouthfuls...

FIGGY, YOU REALLY SHOULD STOP RIGHT NOW.

Oh stop it you old fuddy-dud-
Not before he had finished his thought had a deep pain stabbed him in the middle of the abdomen, and he groaned.
"Ohhh no... I've really done it this time, haven't I?"
He paused for a moment, then drew his head from the zebra, about to seek some sympathy from Karensha. Only she wasn't there, only Kijeni was left.
"Hey... where'd everyone go?"

[epppe]

Sefu heard one of the cubs not too far away, but the cub spoke to softly for him to hear what she said correctly. Something started to bother him though, the smell of a new lion. He got up quickly and tried to find the cub by where he heard her last. While getting closer the cub’s scent, he was also getting to the new lion’s scent, which meant they must be close to each other.

Before going through the last bush, he started to hear the stranger talk. While he was talking, Sefu was sneaking around trying to be as quiet as possible. Finally getting behind, Sefu could see the lion without being exposed himself. He lay down just watching Rondea talk to the cub.

“I don’t think the cub is lost kid,” he yelled at the lion, making sure the lion could hear him. Seeing the lion was about the same height as himself, he also saw that the lion didn’t look like he wanted to eat the cub since he could have attacked already.”I think she was trying to find me.”

[mahewarac]

Kigeni stepped away from the meat to scratch her large ears. She could tell a flea had found a home behind one, and it seemed to love biting her. She growled softly as the itch refused to go away. A few of the group continued to run off. She realized the only one of them who she knew the name of was Figgy. Looking at the lion gorging himself, she rolled her eyes when he collapsed from overeating. Seems he does that a lot.

"Dude, when you are eating more than half the entire animal in one sitting, that should be a sign to stop." She looked back at the jungle. "They've when gone for a while." She whispered. Getting up, she trekked back to the trees. Finding them hunched around the little cub, Kigeni noticed the blood. surrounding the tiny animal. "What happened?" She asked.

[cheezeegriff]

(OOC: Mahew, remember there are two groups, and only Karensha went after the injured Meri.)

"Dude, when you are eating more than half the entire animal in one sitting, that should be a sign to stop."

Figgy grinned slyly, knowing full well that what it actually meant was that Kijeni was simply a bad loser.
"Well... seeing as everyone went this way and that,"
he said to himself, once he was alone,
"I'll suppose I'll just wait right here."
With that he placed his rear on the ground, but didn't quite lie out completely - he was too engorged for that to be comfortable. As time passed he began to worry a little, but then he realised: they had eaten most of the zebra, but there was still that jungle boar to go.
Walking over to it cautiously, a naughty smile playing on his lips, he gently lowered his head and began to tear open the beast's flesh.
"Mm... pig meat... nothing like it in the world,"
he said, his mouth full again.

[Deleted]

Sanura looked up as a shadow fell over her, and kept looking and looking her neck stretching. She blinked fast as she stared "You aren't Sefu, and I'm not lost, I just can't find him anymore."

Not feeling afraid the tiger cub kept staring at the new lion, he looked...pretty with all those colours on him. " Rondea, thats a nice name, I don't suppose you passed Baraz anywhere have you - he's..missing too ?"

Lowering her gaze at last she was staring at his funny coloured paws when she heard a voice from behind the new lion.
“I don’t think the cub is lost kid,” .”I think she was trying to find me.”

Sanura jumped to her paws and started to run to Sefu, when she realised she had forgotten her gift. Turning she moved back and picked up the meat with her muzzle and went over to Sefu dropping it at his paws.
" I bought you something to eat, cause you must be hungry and I thought Figgy wasn't going to leave you any, so here it's for you."

Stepping back she gave him a small smile and started to fiddle with her ribbon that was still tied for once around her paw. Realising she had ignored the new one called Rondea, she looked over at him still standing still.
"Would you like me to get you something to eat too, there's plenty still back with the other's ?"

[Kirsui]

“I don’t think the cub is lost kid. I think she was trying to find me.”

Rondea's ears perked up at these words and he looked over his shoulder at the nwly appeared lion. He watched how the small cub ran to him, presenting her small gift to him before asking Rondea if he wanted something too. He chuckled softly and shook his head with a friendly on his face.
"Nay, little one, I am not hungry."
Then he looked up at the other male lion. It was amusing to be called a kid by this stranger, considering Rondea was fairly sure he was older than the other male was. However, he would let it slip. For now.
"If it's not too much asked", he begun politely.
"Could I perhaps come with you to your group?"

---

Meri was too much in pain to realize when Karensha arrived and picked her up, holding her close while she still whimpered out her pain.

"Snowball, I need you to move your paws away from your face -- trust me enough to let me see...please Meri?"

She whimpered more and at first held her paws on her face tighter. She didn't hear when Kigeni arrived, her little mind was pondering too much on wether or not Karensha could see what damage had been done.

Then finally, after something that seemed like several minutes, Meri lowered her bloodied paws from her face. Both her eyes were shut tightly and the whole right side of her face had turned red. It was hard to see where the wound was, or even if there was one. But the blood had to be coming somewhere, and for some reason Meri seemed determined now to open her eyes at all.

[Dakota]

Karensha still held Meri in her arms, gently rocking her. At last she saw the paws move away from the cubs face, slowly but at least Meri was letting her see what had happened.

Moving her head in closer, she could see the fur coated with her tears and blood all mingled together. What she really needed was some water to wash her face with, so she could get a clear look at any damage. Looking around quickly she needed Figgy...where was he, he can't still be eating. Sighing she called out loudly.

"FIGGY I NEED YOUR HELP....NOW"

Turning her head, she heard pawsteps, but found instead of Figgy it was Kigeni..
"I need some help, could you get Figgy or could you somehow get some water to me, I have to wash Meri's face, and I don't want to move her, in case the bleeding gets worse..please Kigeni "

Karensha was starting to get frustrated "where is everyone for goodness sake when you need them."

[mahewarac]

Kigeni looked past the cat at the small cub. She was in pretty bad shape, but she'd seen worse. She has defiantly seen much worse. Still, the others

"Hold on. I'll get him." She said, sounding more casual than cat probably wanted. Running back to the impound, she sped to Figgy and jabbed at his stomach to get his attention.

"We're having an issue with one of the cubs, and the snow leopard wants you to come quick." Kigeni hoped the mentioning of her might get him moving. She began to walk back to the jungle to lead him to them.

[epppe]

Sefu laid there hearing Rondea ask if he could follow him to the group. He thought the lion probably wouldn’t cause any problem and would be better company than the rest of the group. Looking at the cub, he gave a slight grin to her.

“Thanks for the food, but it wasn’t very smart to run after me yourself. You’re lucky that this lion found you and not someone else who had an appetite.”

He grabbed the food and ate it in one bite since it wasn’t much. After eating the food, he got up and started to walk in the direction where he last saw the group.

“Come on, both of you.” He said while being slightly depressed that he would be able to relax by himself.

While walking back, he heard Karensha call for Figgy. Wondering what was going on, Sefu started to jog to where he heard her call. Reaching the leopard and the cub, he saw that the cub was bleeding. He got closer to the two of them to see what happened.

“I guess this wouldn’t be a good time to say that I found someone else who wanted to join the group.” He said with a slight sarcastic tone in his voice.

[Deleted]

Sanura stood there watching as Sefu ate the huge piece of meat up like it was just something small. that would have taken her ages to get through it all.

Glancing up from under her lashes sanura looked at the new lion. The star around her left eye started to itch and was making her eye water. quicky she bought her paw up and rubbed it hard, still watching him.
“Come on, both of you.”. The tiger cub swung her gaze back to Sefu and watched as he started to walk away, jumping up she ran after him, her tail swinging around from side to side, looking back to big lion she grinned " You are coming too aren't you ?" Carrying on she heard karensha's voice shouting for Figgy and started running faster, coming to a stop when she bounced off Sefu who had halted too quick in front of her.
Rubbing her head, she moved around past the lion to see what was happening. Her eyes and mouth opened wide, and her voice started to shake
" Meri, whats wrong, why's there blood all over you, Meri ?"

[cheezeegriff]

"We're having an issue with one of the cubs, and the snow leopard wants you to come quick."

Figgy looked up at Kijeni, looking right through her for a second as his mind moved up a gear from the simple pleasures of indulging in his greatest vice. By the time he had stopped chewing and actually realised what she had said, Kijeni was moving away back between the trees.

GET MOVING, FIGGY.

"Ergh..."
Figgy said, then took a tentative step forwards. The last thing he wanted to do was go anywhere, and 'coming quickly' was entirely out of the question. What does an 'issue' with the cubs mean, anyway? He thought as he was trying to keep up, almost having to hold his breath to keep all his food inside him. Is she playing up? Wants Figgy to come deliver some discipline? Not so sure I'd be good at that... much better at hugs. Maybe my hugs are punishment enough, heh heh... heh...

When he finally did drag his belly into the clearing, still shaking his head to get the gore off his ears from poking it into the zebra, he stopped upon seeing the site of Meri's blood.
"Golly gosh,"
he said, looking at them all standing there like stunned mullets, then said,
"Well? What are you all doing?? Get her to the water! Wash the blood away so you can see where it's coming from!"
He got out of the way, mostly to let them race past him to the stream as well as to catch his breath. What a perfect time to eat, he thought to himself, cursing quietly.

[Kirsui]

Rondea followed the lion and the strange cub, and sped up to keep up with them once he heard that call and both the lion and the cub begun running. He assumed someone from the group was in trouble.

And indeed soon enough they reached a very odd sight. There was another strange feline here, by the looks of it some kind of a leopard, who was holding a very small lioness whose face was covered in blood. The male lion who he had already met had gone closer, throwing a sarcastic note of Rondea joining the group at such a time while the strange striped cub was calling for the hurt lioness.

What caught him completely off guard was the hyena who lead a really fat lion to the scene. Now he understood the odd scent of pride on the striped cub, it was because they all weren't lions.

"Well? What are you all doing?? Get her to the water! Wash the blood away so you can see where it's coming from!"

Rondea's gaze returned to the hurt lioness and with a slight frown he shook his head.
"You could make her condition worse if you did that", he said with a smooth, calming voice.
"Since she has hurt her head, moving her could worsen not only the wound but also any possible damage inside her head..."
He tilted his head, his gaze locked on Meri.
"We need water brought to us. Unfortunately though I have no idea where the nearest water source is..."

---

Meri had no idea what was going on around her. She had heard Sanura's question and wanted to reply, but she couldn't utter out any words, just soft whimpers. The pain she felt was making her dizzy and she was tempted to put her paws back on her face. She could hear everyone was there, and if she understood anything they were all staring at her.

However, the new voice completely startled her. She yelped in fright and confusion. She gave in to the temptation to cover her face, curling up on a ball as tightly against Karensha as she could as she hid her face with her paws again.

[cheezeegriff]

Figgy looked up at the funny, colourful lion as he contradicted Figgy's opinion. A flash of anger ignited in his mind - who is this guy and why's he think he's more intelligent than me, Figgy? - and making it worse was the fact that the male was probably right.

Shaking his head again to try and get the meat and blood off it, he waddled a little closer to Karensha and the cub.
"Phoof!"
he panted, trying to be lighthearted in the sight of so much blood,
"At least you know your heart's still beating."
Then he looked back at the big male, noting with annoyance that he was a little taller than himself which also annoyed him to no end. Quickly his mind flickered over possible ways to bring water to Meri - dig a trench? Find an empty leaf and fill it? Have someone fill their mouths? That wouldn't be enough. With an exasperated sigh shook his head.
"There's no way we'd be able to bring enough water here! Karensha, you'll have to carry her, but veery gently. Lie down. Kijeni? Sefu? Both of you - use your paws to lay Meri down on Karensha's back."
He stepped back to allow them to work, biting his lip and hoping they would be careful.

[Dakota]

Karensha was still in the same spot cradling the white cub, when everyone seemed to turn up at the same time, including a new face. Looking up at him briefly she could only see kindness on his face, giving him a small nod she turned back to shelter Meri who had started to shake at hearing a strange voice
"shhh.. it's ok snowball, no ones going to hurt you, they have to get past me first, and thats not going to happen."

Looking up at hearing Figgy now appear, the snow leopard took particular notice of his face and his bulging stomach. Keeping her face blank of emotion she at first stared at him. " So you decided to leave your meal Figgy and answer my calls of help at last, or did Kigeni have to bring it to your notice?"

Turning away from him, she wasn't sure if she was hurt or angry with him maybe just disapointed. Listening to what both lions had to say about how to treat Meri, she sighed.
Contradicting each other didn't help at all. She knew that they would have to take Meri to the water, not bring the water to her, she just didn't want to move her unecessarily and cause her more anguish.

Looking up at the lion and away from Figgy 'Thank you for your concern, I know we shouldn't be moving her, but we haven't any other options I'm afraid, so we will have to be as gentle as we can, we move back to the waterhole, it's not that far away.

Speaking as softly as she could, Karensha leant over by Meris ear "I'm going to get Sefu to place you on my back, and I will carry you to the waterhole, then you and I will go into the water by ourselves, and I will clean you, so we can see what the damage is.. I'll try my best not to hurt you as we go.... please forgive me if I do Meri ."

Turning to the hyena the snow leopard gave her a smile " Kigeni, could you please lead the way back to the waterhole, by the safest smoothiest route."
Finally she gazed at Figgy, blinking with her long purple lashes. Shaking her tuft slightly she kept eye contact. "Figgy.. can I trust you to look after Sanura, and make sure nothing happens to her while we are going back to the waterhole or perhaps you would rather Sefu ?"

[cheezeegriff]

" So you decided to leave your meal Figgy and answer my calls of help at last, or did Kigeni have to bring it to your notice?"

Figgy's heart dropped in his chest, and his look of concern vanished and was replaced by utter mortification.
"Uhh, du... well I..."

Karensha looked away from him them - which was for the best, he supposed, because she was right - and spoke to the male lion. He hardly heard what she said, too caught up in the horror of Karensha's rejection and the guilt. The food that made his belly thrice as big as it usually was suddenly became sour, and even sitting was uncomfortable, he realised, when he couldn't bring his front paws together due to his bulk.

"Figgy.. can I trust you to look after Sanura, and make sure nothing happens to her while we are going back to the waterhole or perhaps you would rather Sefu ?"

He blinked.
"Well I could... I could help you mend..."
then he thought about it. It would take him an age to reach the waterhole, even if he didn't need to stop and rest, which most likely he would, and what good could he do there anyway? He had only mother's guidance for healing wounds and they had used materials further south in the plains: he didn't know any of the materials here.
"I'll look after Sanura,"
he said with a gulp. The way they all looked at him made his skin goosebump, and he stood as rigid as a statue, waiting for them all to leave.

[epppe]

"So you decided to leave your meal Figgy and answer my calls of help at last, or did Kigeni have to bring it to your notice?"

Seeing Figgy try to answer this made Sefu want to laugh, it seemed funny since the overly confident lion just seemed dumbstruck by question. Hearing Karensha ask if he wanted to watch Sanura, he was about to say he wouldn’t mind until he heard Figgy say he would watch the cub. This statement made Sefu start to laugh under his breath since he could tell that Figgy felt guilty about the comment Karensha said.

“I guess I’ll go with you Karensha just in case you need help.”

He picked up the cub as careful as he possibly could and set it on the leopard’s back. After doing that he walked to the outside of the group in the direction of the waterhole.

“Hurry up, you don’t want the cub to run out of blood, even though it would probably be less messy around here”