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 Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:41 pm
The things that he missed, however, paled in comparison to his severely wounded ego. To his great dismay, he and his brothers had been growing manes. At first, they had seemed like simple tufts. Mezi didn't love them, but they were okay since adult leopards had them. Now, however, the hair was growing down his neck. He hoped desperately that one day it would just stop growing all together, but there seemed to be no such sign of that happening. For a male who operated on how well he looked and how close he was to a real leopard, such a physical feature was the worst thing that could possibly happen. He wanted to find his dad now more than ever, to at least sit there and yell at him for what he had done. Then, the purple leopon would be perfectly happy to run on back to his safe Jungle and never talk to anyone again. That wasn't true at all, since he'd end up going nuts if he didn't have someone to talk to, but hiding was a nice idea with this baby-mane.
So, Mezi sulked. He was spread out in the savannah grass, soaking up the sun while waiting for his siblings to finish whatever they might be doing so they could move on. For all he knew, they were doing the same thing he was. Every once in a while, being out of the Jungle had a plus: they could feel the warmth of the sun whenever they pleased without having to search for light patches. That might be the only plus, but at least it was something.
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:15 am
 She moved timidly, each step quiet and careful. So far, since leaving the trees behind her, she had run into no one, and she was beginning to think that was a blessing.
Like Mezi she was missing the trees. They had always been there, ever since her birth. She had grown to depend on them for everything. For resting in, for eating in, for finding cover in. Now she was completely exposed and she was terrified.
She cast a glance back over her shoulder and felt a wave of panic wash over her. The jungle was nowhere in sight and it wouldn't be for a long time.
Her trembling legs took her onwards and she moved oddly, her belly as close to the ground as physically possible. Her ears were pinned, her tail dragged and her head was low, so low her chin almost grazed the ground. She looked almost as if she were stalking prey, though her body language was far too frightened.
So, as it was, when she stumbled across someone lying across the grass, a surprised cry rattled from her throat and she rolled on her side, holding up her forepaws submissively. Eyes squeezed shut, breathing hard.
Was this it...? Was this the end?
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:44 pm
Mezi's grumpy attitude was worse than ever lately. With his ego so deflated, he didn't want to even be looked at, forget talking to someone. Especially when it was meeting someone new. After being bumped into, he did was any antisocial jerk would do. He jumped up on his feet, the fur on his back bristling and his baby-mane puffing. If it was good for anything at all, this was it. He glared down at the figure, growling a deep, throaty lion's growl. "What do you think yo -" His voice had been so thick with anger he could've scared away small children, but then it suddenly stopped. His eyes softened somewhat as he realized what he was staring at: A red leopardess with a heart on her forehead.
His cub days had been quite some time ago, but he remembered them clear as a bell. Especially he remembered the day when he ran into pure leopards, like this one. She was much larger now, more matured like he was. Back then was when he tried to play off the hybrid thing and pretend he was just like everyone else. Now, with toomuch hare on his neck, he couldn't do it. Compeltely changing body language, Mezi shrunk back a half steff and looked down, clearly embarassed. "It's you." He managed to take a peak back over to her, but didn't dare look her in the eye. Where she had grown to become a beautiful, powerful leopardess... He had become a stocky, maned leopon. She'd been dealt a better hand in life, he mused bitterly.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 3:23 am
Fear clenched her chest, froze her heart and glimmered in her widened eyes. A…a lion!! She felt herself shrivel, her life being sucked away into a cold, deathly void. She tried to breathe, the sound rattling from her tightened lungs. She was aware only partly that he had begun to speak, could hear only the anger and not the words. She knew she had been right, she knew she shouldn’t have left the trees!
She hoped Alana wouldn’t be too sad that she’d been killed. She hoped that Beau would keep singing his merry tunes.
And then she was aware that the talking had stopped and the silence was filled with the terrible thudding of her own heart.
What happened next only confused the poor girl and added to her fear. It was her? He said it as if he knew her! As if they had met before!
But how could that be?
And then she forcefully stopped her panicking and looked at him, truly looked at him. She recognised that purple fur, those eyes. But it couldn’t be him, could it? The cub she had met so long ago had been a leopard like herself! Had she accidentally befriended a lion? But continuing to look at him, unaware that her stares might make him feel uncomfortable, she realised he didn’t look like the lions she had seen either.
He was smaller and his tail was certainly a leopard tail. His mane wasn’t as thick either, even though he was young. So then, what was he?
She blinked, averted her eyes and then pulled herself up onto her paws. “Mezi…?” She spoke the name hesitantly, still unsure, looking at him shyly. “It is you, isn’t it?”
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 3:21 pm
Mezi shifted uneasily under her gaze. He was unused to this sort of observation, despite how painfully aware he was of his odd looks. It was rare that he and his siblings made contact with anyone but eachother while they were traveling, so they didn't have to deal with uncomfortable stares or awkward questions often. When they had left their Jungle home, they didn't look so freakish. They could blend in with the local leopard population easily. Now, however, he and his brothers wore the evidence of their genes on their necks.
For a split second, he considered not going home. If Hera was looking at him like this, surely every other leopard he came across would. He'd end up a grumpy old leopon with nobody to care about him, staying in a knarly, leafless tree. He could picture himself muttering to nobody about nothing, watching flowers grow at the base of all the other trees besides his and see little leopard cubs run in fear of his mane. After he had this elaborate image, though, he decided he'd rather have that than live some place with more lions than leopards. He figured either way he'd be a lonely grouch, so it'd be better to be in a tree than in a savannah.
As she looekd away, the young male felt even worse about the situation. He debated just running away and finding his sister to moan to, but that would be SO un-manly. He might look like a half-lion, but he could at least act like a real male leopard, right? "Yes..." He crushed a grass shoot under his paw. "You've gotten a lot bigger." He managed to look at her face, though he was twitching while he did it.
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Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 5:11 am
Realising suddenly, that she was probably making him feel uncomfortable with her lack of manners, Hera put a smile on her face.
It was Mezi!
Well that was something to be thankful for! It was great to meet someone she knew out here in this terrifying land. Great to feel that she wasn't so alone. She wriggled happily, momentarily forgetting about the difference in his appearance.
"So this is where you've been all this time!" She blurted. "I looked for you, but your scent was gone. I thought you'd just dissapeared. I didn't realise you were off travelling." She shifted closer, glad to have company. Besides, there was safety in numbers.
"You've got bigger too!" She smiled, her eyes falling onto his mane. "I must have been so silly as a cub. I could have sworn you were a leopard! But...Mezi...what are you? You don't look like a lion either?" Not realising she'd probably hit a sensitive nerve, her smile remained.
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Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:31 am
Mezi was able to relax some when Hera started smiling. At least he didn't disgust her. To Mezi, all leopards had the same twisted superiority complex he half had. He didn't blaim them for it, either, since he thought they were the gifts of Africa. Being a half-leopard made him feel special and inferior at the same time, and he felt that all leopards should look down on him; and if they didn't SHOW him they were disappointed with his genes, he figured they were at least thinking it. So, the fact that the red leopardess wasn't cringing at the sight of his lion like trait seemed to be a fantastic thing.
"My siblings and I..." He trailed off, ashamed of what they were looking for. Although, really, what was the worst that could happen? Hera'd be shocked, dismayed, horrified... All sorts of bad adjectives. She might run back to the Jungle. Mezi'd do the same in her paws, but it was okay. She was better off in a tree, right? Leopards belong on a branch. "We're looking for our father."
Mezi stiffened back up at her next question. He wanted to say 'freak', but didn't. "I'm a mix. Not really sure what to call us, but my mom's a leopard. My dad, on the other hand... He was a god. I think they're a type of lion. Kind of look like bird-lions, if you ask me." He and his brother Matojo had a run in with one when they were younger. Since then, Mezi had accepted that they were actually a species and not a cross between birds and lions, but he still referred to them as such just for kicks.
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Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:58 am
Hera looked at him, interest sparkling in her eyes. Hearing his voice again, the same and yet different, deeper and more mature sounding. It calmed her heart, had it beating normally again. Was it just luck that had led her to him or was it fate? Fate that in this huge place she'd meet the one friend she made as a cub.
"Don't look so awkward, Mezi." She smiled. "I'm a little curious about my father, actually. I only ever knew my mum and she never spoke about dad at all. I guess it just never crossed my mind to go looking for him." She shrugged. "It's a nice idea, though." She paused as she listened to him, eyes widening.
Animals could inter-breed? That was odd, but, it also gave Hera hope. If different species could fall in love then maybe there was hope for finding friends in lions. Though, the fact that Mezi's father hadn't stayed around possibly wasn't a good sign.
"Then...you're a leopard-god?" She blinked smiling. "Wow, you sure are special Mezi." She laughed. "I feel a bit plain now." She pawed the ground. "So have you had any luck in tracking him?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:26 pm
Hera's making light of a situation Mezi found to be dark and dismal threw the lad for a doozey. Obviously, she hadn't been all mean about hybrids when she was a cub, since Mezi'd hid his species from her. Now that it was out in the open, though, and she was simply okay with his growing mane, was really doing a number on his logic. What was a FULL, PRIVELAGED leopardess like her shugging off his half-bloodedness for? Every second of his raising said this shouldn't happen. His own mother hated his species, for goodness sake! Then again, Mleli wasn't exactly the most cuddley of all leopards in the jungle. His brother, Matojo, had learned that one the hard way.
Don't look so awkward? Don't look so awkward? Heck, just that well intended statement made him stiffen into a goofey looking position that was almost comical. His face twisted a little with confusion. "I'm very curious about mine..." He continued to stare at her oddly as he spoke, as if waiting for her to suddenly crack up and laugh hysterically at him. If it wasn't obvious already, anyone could've told now that his confidence and his huge ego had been hammered down SEVERELY since leaving the jungle. He'd always had issues with his species, sure, but he'd also always had a nice helping of vanity for his coat and cockiness to even it all out. That'd definitly changed now. "Mom never spoke kindly of him. Or, rather, hardly said anything about him at all. When she did, it wasn't anything good. We grew up knowing he was bad." Though he wasn't on good terms with Mleli at the moment, he was very willing to believe this mysterious father of his was worse than she was.
"Special?" His jaw could've unhinged itself. "Special... Hera, I'm hardly anything other than a freak!" His posture lowered significantly as he said it. It was time to stop playing games and just be serious about it already. "I'm half a leopard, half a lion-god-thing. The two worst things ever, y'know? Lions and gods. And I've got the both. Sure, I'm half leopard, and I'm proud of that... but I'm only HALF leopard. I'm not even close to special." If Hera hadn't picked up on his prejuidices towards lions (and gods, for that matter) yet, she might as well know. Mezi figured she must've shared his views on the... lower species, since she was a leopard. He just assumed they were all under the belief that they totally rocked.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 8:28 am
She nodded understandingly. "I would be too, especially if my father was a God! I've never met one before. I just thought they were make believe." She smiled. "That means I'm friends with a part-God. I shouldn't worry about what your mum said. Sometimes creatures have a way of exagerating the truth." She smiled wide. "Does this mean you have magical powers too, Mezi?"
Her smile faded a little as he continued, realising suddenly that Mezi was...unahppy. Why was he unhappy? What was there to be unhappy about? She moved closer, shuffling up to sit alongside him. "You're not a freak, Mezi. Don't say things like that." She frowned. "Besides, I don't think being normal can be considered a good thing, and what is normal anyway? Is anyone normal, Mezi?"
She lifted a paw and placed it over the top of his closest one, comforting. "Mezi, I don't think you're a freak. Besides, not all lions are bad...I don't think." She hadn't actually met many. "I know creatures far worse than lions. Besides, you look cute with that ruff on your neck." She smiled, hoping to cheer him up, though it may have been a vain attempt.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:32 pm
Mezi did have one magical-ish power. Due to his lineage, he was a seer. His power manifested itself in seeing the current, though, not the past or present. When he dreamed, he often saw vivid scenes of random critters in random places, going about their daily lives. What he didn't know was that those critters were really doing what he saw. Because his mother had never shared the fact that his dad was a god until their last show down, the whole seer thing had never been explained to him, and he had no idea that there was anything significant at all about these dreams. "No, I don't. The only thing my dad gave me was a purple coat and a mane." His tone was quite bitter. He did, however, like his coat. His mother hadn't ever liked the color, but Mezi was pretty fond of it. It reminded him of the flowers he so loved. Kafiri, his sister, had a much more stunning pattern on her fur, which he was jealous of - but he was content with his.
As her smile faded, the grumpy male started to feel guilty. She'd been perfectly happy to have found him, and here he'd gone and rained on her party. He felt almost as bad as he did when he made his sister cry. "I don't know who's normal..." He glared at his paws, realizing he didn't have an answer. "But whatever normal is, it isn't me."
Not all lions are bad? In all honesty, Mezi'd never met a lion. He met a lion-goddess, which sort of counted in his mind, but aside from that he had no experiance to go on. Just the stuff his mother had muttered about. Her compliment was completely unexpected. So much so, he looked up at her with slightly widened eyes. His expression quickly changed to a smirk. "Well, I've always looked cute." He winked at her, unable to resist the ego-triggering compliment. "And you aren't too shabby yourself." Smooth, very smooth. Nope, Mezi hadn't mastered his dad's sweet talkin' quite yet.
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Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:21 am
Blinking, she nodded slowly. "Well the purple is very fetching. You remind me of the jungle flowers back home." She thought of the trees, the greenery, the sudden, random downpours. She missed it, every little thing about it. She sighed deeply, wishing that she could be back there, though she was glad her travels had brought her to Mezi.
"You should be glad you're different." Hera replied. "It gives character." She smiled.
And his smirk helped bring a laugh to her throat. That was better! She nudged her shoulder against his, playfully, and turned to face him. "That's true." She wriggled. "Thank you." No one had given her a compliment before. Well...that wasn't quite true. Beau, the orange leopard, had complimented her but it had seemed different than this one. "Two cute leopards like us shouldn't be in this dowdy place." She continued. "Oh, I miss the jungle. I don't even know what I'm doing out here really. I guess I was getting lonely...the jungle has seemed empty recently...well it always did."
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 6:17 pm
ooc ;~; I'm so sorry. I have the flu, and it just like... destroyed all will I had to do anything other that required brain power. <3
Mezi liked being compared to flowers. He couldn't help but keep up his small grin. Those little things were possibly his favoritest living creature ever. Since he was currentlly in a low opinion about himself and he was udner the impression that no leopard would want much to do with him once he had his mane grown in, he had nothing left to fill that spot besides flowers. Really, the only things in this world that Mezi 'loved' were flowers, the Jungle, himself and leopards. Despite his narrow views, they really were up there on his list due to their beauty. For someone who tried to be macho, it was an interesting love, but Mezi didn't care. They were so beautiful and clean and perfect. He missed them dearly.
Choosing to ignore her comment about different being good (because that was near as crazy a saying change was good, pfft!), he focused instead on the flowers. He'd seen some purple ones a few times, but he'd definitly seen more red ones before he and his siblings had left. "Y'know, I've seen plenty of red flowers. I think they stick out better than the purple ones." He winked at her playfully, getting better with the compliments.
Her sudden change to a more serious topic meshed with Mezi's current state of mind far better. He was very, very homesick. Hving been raised as leopard-like as possible, he was practically one with the trees. And now that he was strong enough to actually climb them, too, there were hardly any around! It was like a cruel joke nature had played on him. When he was young, he couldn't get up trees because he wasn't as agile and graceful as leopard cubs already were at that stage. "I miss it, too. I sort of liked how empty it seemed, though. Empty but full." He closed his eyes for a second and sighed lightly. There was such thick plant life there, but you could go a whole day without having to talk to anyone you didn't want to. That had been awesome for Mezi, since he didn't want to meet knew creatures who might figure out his genes. That and he wasn't exactly social. "We belong there, I think. Like lions belong here. It's just... the way things are."
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:26 pm
(( s'okay hon <3 no probs! Hope you feel better soon! ))
She giggled, it was an embarrassed, shy kind of giggle that had her eyes sparkling and her ears bowing sheepishly. What was wrong with her? She was acting like a wordless little cub! All laughter and no words! This wasn't the way a mature leopard was supposed to act!
"You're right." She replied, finally finding her voice. "We belong there with the trees and the plantlife. That way we can slink up into the trees, lounge on the boughs and make faces at those poor creatures who can't climb like we can." She sighed contendly. She had never done that before. Teaing others had never been something she'd wanted to do. She'd been too afraid!
Now that she was a little bigger, though, she was determined not to let lions push her around and certainly not in her own home!
"So you'll go back then? To the jungle, I mean. I'll be heading back soon I think. I thought it'd be nice out here but it's too open, too scary. You're right, sometimes the jungle seems lonely but it isn't really. It'd be even less lonely if you were there." She twitched her tail thoughtfully. "Maybe I should look for my family whilst I'm out here too. I miss them..."
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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:43 pm
He wasn't sure why Hera was suddenly all giggley, but he liked it. He smirked at her, waiting for her to regain control of herself. He agreed whole heartedly with everything she was saying. In his mind, he pictured the pair slinked out on tree branches, chatting away about happier things. In this scenario, he was of course a lot happier than he was at that time, in the savannah. He couldn't help but chuckle when she mentioned making faces. Mezi felt a pride in the fact that he could get up trees, especially because he had been so worried about it at first. When he was a cub, he needed a leopardess's help to get up a tree. Now he could do it on his own, but as if someone was playing a joke on him, he was out in the savannah where there were very, very few trees. "Sounds like paradise." He stared off in some random direction, which he assumed to be where the Jungle was.
As he was spacing out, he hardly realized what Hera was asking. "Of course I'll go back! I don't want to stay away from it any longer than I have to." The sooner he found his father, the sooner he could go back home. Unfortunately, that also meant potentially facing his mom, but really, he didn't mind the idea so much. If it meant being back in the Jungle, he'd do almost anything. "I'm sure you won't be there for long before I get back." He nodded and smiled at her. As far as looking for her family, though, he didn't know what to say. The only family members he really felt close to were out here with him, so he didn't really miss any family back in the Jungle. "I'm sorry you miss them."
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