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 Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:56 am
She sat now tending to it, carrying water in large concave leaves. It was a long process especially during the dry season but it was worth it. Nyu talked to the plants and picked large insects off of them as she watered them, giving them the same sort of comforting talk she’d give her own children if she had any. Oh what a peaceful day it was.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:11 am
Ulozi was still pondering how exactly he was going to take... “care” of his issue. He wanted the magic. Most certainly he did. But how was he going to get it back? Or for that matter, get it at all in this lion body. He wondered how many more years he might have to train to get it right for this body. It was bulky and clumsy and had none of the grace a human body possessed. He craved that body back so strongly. It’d be so much easier. He remembered that dark lake in Britannia that glistened like silver in the moonlight and the precious stones that gave him their power with the right… persuading. But he was nowhere near and had the faintest idea that he could never survive to make it there. He had already learned about the hatred or… possession issues people had with lions. And he had no wish to be captured and kept from seeking out his magic.
He looked around at the land he had entered. He was cautious and slow. It was pride lands and he was neither a member nor a welcomed guest. Death could be on the menu tonight. He could take any lion down one on one, his ego told him. But common sense told him anymore and he’d be ripped to pieces. They were all brown in these parts so identifying her wasn’t easy but a lioness talking to plants was and thus he found her. Slinking up beyond her, he cleared his throat, “excuse me…?”
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:38 am
Nyu turned around slowly at the voice. It wasn’t one she readily recognized but she had talked to many a pride member and it was possible that this was one of those infrequent ones she had already met before but only briefly. Something in her spoke of caution and was the part that made her turn slowly. Indeed, at the site of a familiar orange and purple pelt, she was highly alarmed.
“What are you doing here?” she asked looking about as if she expected an ambush. “I thought goodbye meant we were never seeing each other again.” He hadn’t been too friendly last time she met him. As a matter of fact, she had thought him rather creepy so to find him back near her was about as creepy as she could imagine. “I mean, really, I haven’t got anything you want.” As a matter of fact, what did he want?
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:53 am
Now he saw just how truly she underestimated him. Because, fact of the matter was, he knew that her skills were magic. There was no way else she could be able to. She claimed years of training, but that was probably just her training in the use of magic. She tried to convince him using a half-lie. Well fine with that. He had to give her credit. A dumber lion would have fallen for it. But not Ulozi. He was a genius and much more practiced in the ways of lies and magic than she …if only he could cast magic. And he wanted her magic for himself. And he’d get it. Get it at whatever cost he could think of. Sadly, this meant he needed to get all… buddy-buddy with her.
“I just… I just came to say hi,” he said innocently, just the hint of a whine in the voice to trigger thoughts in her brain that she had misunderstood him and thought wrong of him. He wanted her to think him a gentle, kind soul. That was his plan. He had been curious, mainly, in their last meeting so hopefully this wouldn’t be so hard to believe.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:00 am
At his words, she felt guilty for thinking mean things for him, not knowing she was actually being played for a fool. She sighed and abandoned her work. “I’m sorry,” she said sincerely. “I just… I just don’t trust outsiders very well. Especially ones who think it’s fun to antagonize water buffalo who kill more rogue cubs than starvation and abandonment combined. Trust me when I say we’re their mortal enemies.”
She looked down at her paws still trying to make amends and sighed again. “Let me make it up to you. Let me show you around or something.” If there was a way to make her feel bad, he had solved that mystery and was plucking at her like a finely tuned harp. And Nyu was too nice of a person to realize it, even with her temper.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:07 am
Indeed he was playing her like a harp or guitar. And it was easy. Pluck one string and it made the correct response. He couldn’t help but be excited by his almost immediate success. “Oh would you mind showing me your garden?” he asked kindly. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a lion care for one before. I mean, not that it’s bad or anything. I think it’s quite wonderful …which is why I want to see it.” He beamed at her to add some emphasis and hopefully make his statement ring true. “What sorts of things do you grow in it?”
He really hoped it was her pride and joy. Because if so, surely she couldn’t resist someone’s seemingly earnest desire to admire it. Everyone possessed an ego. One just had to know how to stroke it.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:20 am
Quite truly her ego would have purred had it been gifted a voice. This garden meant quite a lot to her and to have someone else to appreciate it with her made her very happy and excited. She ushered him over to its very edge and pointed some out for him to see. “There, that’s potato. You can’t tell very well since the root, the important part is underground. But it helps strengthen the immune system – so extremely helpful for newborns, you know? Rooibos, that shrub right there, is very helpful in maintaining a good diet. Of course, it’s very hard to prove and I only know its properties through word of mouth since it can’t be easily observed. Ooh and there’s kankerbossie which is just wonderful for the digestive tract.” She stopped and smiled at him. “Oh I just love herbs. Aren't they just so... useful?”
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:26 am
Ulozi nodded as she talked, taking in what she said. He already knew herbs were useful. You could make potions or help make powerful spells with less energy by using them. This really didn’t dissuade him at all that she had magical powers and was some type of witch. “Oh they are probably the best thing to have. It’s so sad when someone is sick and can’t get help,” he replied trying to sound sympathetic. It actually really annoyed him to say that but he had very little choice it appeared. For she seemed to be absolutely in love with the idea of having them and being able to use them.
A thought occurred to him. “You don’t have maagpyn bossie do you? It’s pretty hard to find but I bet I know where to find some if you would like.” Maagpyn bossie was used for stomach pain but a little known use was that it was a remedy for insomnia. And of course, he had uses for it that he would love to perform that didn’t require magic. As a matter of fact, he might even be able to use it as a gateway tp get his magic back. The only thing was he had a slight clue where to find it but not an actually idea. And they could get dangerously lost if he was wrong.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:43 am
”Oh yes, indeed!” she exclaimed, agreeing with him about herbs. It was one of the reasons she loved to have them. They could be so incredibly useful and good to have in a crunch. Telling one “go look here for a herb” or “you want such-and-such an herb for that” wasn’t always the safest route since they then had to go find it. Having a garden, she could prepare it for them and help out.
For the herb he mentioned, she paused and had to run the name through her mind a couple times to try and find if the name was familiar at all. It didn’t seem to ring a bell but she supposed it’d be quite useful. With a slow nod and an almost puzzled look, she nodded. “Sure. Yes, please show me.”
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:52 am
She didn’t seem incredibly interested in the herb. Maybe she didn’t trust it as he expected her to. He didn’t really credit her with not knowing it since he considered it popular enough for her to know. So he couldn’t figure out why she didn’t really want it. Unless of course it was because she appeared to already have plenty that helped stomach problems.
He mentally shrugged. Whatever. He’d turn this into an advantage for himself. “Come along then!” he said cheerfully with a smile and chose the direction he guessed was the right one. “And we can have a nice talk along the way.” That seemed to be how everyone became comfortable with each other. He’d just have to make up a story about himself and once she knew a lot about this fake story and felt she knew him, she’d open up and… and even share her secrets with him just as he had intended.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:56 am
She smiled back at him. “I’d like that very much,” she said sweetly, following him down the path he had chosen. She felt so guilty for misjudging him and thinking him such a bad character. Nyu was beginning to see him as such a sweet guy that she even struggled trying to think about how to make her past behavior up to him. “So talk…” she said with an amused smile. “Should I go first or would you?” aShe wasn’t a very chatty person but it was the least she could do. And She was a great listener so she could make either way work out.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:00 am
He was surprised that she was actually offering to talk about herself. But rather than seem anxious to know her secrets, he decided to stick to the original plan and talk about himself. He went on and on, elaborating about supposedly being a prince thrown out of his kingdom after being cursed with being reckless (to thus explain why he had been with the water buffalo). Ulozi claimed he had traveled from land to land, doing what he could to make up for this punishment: escorting a group of lionesses and their cubs stranded by flood back to their pride, helping out a hermit for a couple of months (where he learned all about herbs), along with many other adventures. They weren’t entirely plausible all together but he thought he told the story with enough life and vigor and kindness as to make it believable. Now he only hoped she correctly ate it up.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:10 am
She found his tales of heroics to be fascinating. And of course, she soaked it up because she was feeling guilty for not thinking good of him the first time she met him. And she made sympathetic noises when he talked about his curse, beamed when he talked about his heroics, and leaned in closer when he talked about herbs and the hermit. In reality, what she was allowing herself to do was to fall head over heels for his story, something she wouldn’t have normally done. She had cursed herself into this situation and had submitted herself to it blindly. And now she couldn’t escape.
She kept circulating the story in her mind until she realized it was her turn. Nyu told him all about the story of her birth that her mother had told her. She told him about coming back to her pride, being given the position of Jumbe, and also the banishment of Tamu and her doubts on his sentence. She couldn’t take it back for the sake of her pride and the fact that a lot of her told her it was the right choice. But she still couldn’t get rid of her doubt, only smother it.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:20 am
He smiled at his success but carefully curved it to seem a concerned, caring smile. He listened to her story and even her birth was spoken in such a way he couldn’t help but believe that she was made of magic. Ulozi was almost dying to take it, to harness it. Oh he was so close. Noticing her response to his story, he took the liberty of walking close beside her. When she talked about her doubts he took the liberty of rubbing his cheek briefly on her’s attempting to be comforting. “It’s alright. I’m sure you made the right decisions. And it’s perfectly normal to have doubts. You couldn’t truly be alive if you didn’t have doubts.” He was lucky he was a genius. He almost said human and not alive. And that would have been the end of that.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:06 am
Shari'nyunyu smiled dreamily like any girl caught up in a fairy tale until the contact slowly traveled to her brain and she pulled away sharply. This was wrong. This wasn't right. She didn't agree with this. This wasn't something she should be doing. She had a responsibility given to her by the pride as Jumbe and she wasn't about to go against that. Every moral fiber- while that wasn't every fiber, it was a good portion - said no.
She shook her head violently. "Oh I'm sorry. Oh I'm so sorry," she said, her knees feeling just a bit weak and bobbed a little thanks to them. "Oh I have to go. Sorry about this. Sorry about all of this." Oh goodness, no this wasn't right. What was she going to do now? Oh no. She couldn't ever see him again. No she couldn't least everything she had worked for and everything she stood for went downhill. And so she bolted.
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