Samwel Igwe
PRIDELANDERS
Human Prince of the Pridelands
Posts: 536
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Post by Samwel Igwe on Mar 2, 2021 17:25:10 GMT
(Technically starting at Pride Rock, but most of it will be set at the Oasis so.)
Kabili had wanted to do this early.
Honestly, he wasn’t sure if it was because he was always a morning person. Or because he just wasn’t sure if he gave himself enough time that he would lose his nerve. So he’d made his way out of the pile from between his parents early that morning to generally collect his final thoughts.
His talk with Simba had put so many things into perspective for him. And that morning, as he sat at the mouth of the cave, waiting for Nala - who he’d already voiced his intentions to... He looked at the Pride as his family. A strange one, but a strong one he was proud to have.
But before he let himself move on, this was simply something he had to do. It would probably be the hardest day of his life - but he’d at least have someone there with him - and it was about time for this meeting anyway.
He yawned quietly, and watched as the sun rose above Pride Rock. And simply smiled to himself.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2021 23:17:19 GMT
Kabili had asked yesterday if she would come with him, and Nala had readily agreed. Not that she was looking forward to the emotions this day would no doubt bring, but she was determined to be there for her son. Also...it just sounded like a good idea in general, getting his now passed on birth mother's blessing in a sense.
She wasn't sure how far something like the afterlife for the Kings of the Past extended, and if non-royals and even humans were included in that, but she had to believe they were, if perhaps just not able to communicate. Yet maybe in a special circumstance such as this one she would still be able to get some sense of Kabili's birth mother. She'd heard some much about her she already almost felt like she knew her.
She hadn't felt Kabili get up, yet as she stretched she found him gone and rose to follow not long after his own progress, yet giving him a bit of thinking time perhaps.
Exiting the cave, she found him watching the sun as it came up and sat beside him, knowing he would move them to the goal for this morning in his own time. [/b]"Good morning, Kabili"[/b], she said, giving him a small greeting nuzzle.
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Samwel Igwe
PRIDELANDERS
Human Prince of the Pridelands
Posts: 536
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Post by Samwel Igwe on Mar 2, 2021 23:45:12 GMT
Kabili smiled a little, nuzzling back.
It was getting easier he’d noticed in the couple of days since Simba and his talk. Like he’d said, it had put many things into perspective. But most especially things didn’t seem as heavy for him... Like he felt more relaxed. “Morning mom, sleep ok?” He asked.
For her part he could tell by her demeanor that she probably had been thinking on it a lot too. Not that it was a bad thing, it seemed to him that it actually meant a lot if he read the look in her eyes correctly anyway. “Thanks again for coming with me,” he told her with a bigger smile. “I know it’s probably a lot to ask. But it just didn’t feel right doing this if she can’t see I’m really being taken care of.”
She’d want to know. Even if she was watching from heaven her presence did mean a lot to him. “Next time we can go out and do something more fun. Like another hunt.” Honestly anything was more fun than carving his mom’s headstone though that was for sure. “You ready to go...?” He couldn’t tell if he was really asking her, or asking himself.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2021 23:01:20 GMT
Nala smiled as Kabili asked how she had slept first, "I slept fine, thank-you. You?", she gently inquired, and knowing a lot might have been resting on the boy and given what today was all about.
Something he acknowledged as he thanked her for coming. She nodded, "Of course, I'm here for you in anything you need", she nuzzled him again. Also the reasons they had both realized before and getting his birth mother's blessing in a sense as well as reassuring her the boy she had called Sam was in good hands.
Whichever of them he was asking about being ready, Nala nodded. "Lead the way".
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Samwel Igwe
PRIDELANDERS
Human Prince of the Pridelands
Posts: 536
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Post by Samwel Igwe on Mar 3, 2021 23:21:47 GMT
Kabili definitely would have agreed it was a loaded question. He’d slept well but he almost felt bad saying that. Maybe it meant he was more comfortable now but he did feel a bit bad. “I slept pretty good actually. I don’t think it’d hit me yet,” he admitted honestly. “I think I’m getting better though. Talking to dad helped more than I expected It to. Even if I’ve never really done something like that.”
He gave a soft smile as he started to lead the way. Honestly, the way she was open with him so much from the beginning still did surprise him. He couldn’t imagine his kind would have been as open to a lion cub. Yet she and Simba had always done so much to make him feel welcome.
The teen decided it wouldn’t hurt to say something either. “Honestly it still surprises me sometimes how welcoming you were of me, y’know,” he admitted. “A few months ago I didn’t imagine I was making it out of this forest alive. Now I’m going back with a lionness I call “mom”. I know a ton of zoologists that would be jealous.” He joked.
After a moment. “I really wanted to thank you for that... I know it probably wasn’t an easy decision to take me in...” he explained. “I know I’ve had a hard time opening up sometimes and all, but you’ve been a great mom to me. And I want you to know that, and thank you..”
After all he’d made his feelings on the subject and he wanted to make sure he did the same for Nala. Especially before they well, did this.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2021 15:51:31 GMT
It was still a bit hard to tell, from Kabili's answers, fully how he might be feeling, but Nala also felt that maternal instinct that just knew was also growing day by day, so she caught some of the hesitancy or even guilt perhaps at having slept well. Something that was maybe getting better day by day but hopefully would also continue to grow.
She knew patience was the key, and as they were still helping Kabili feel truly welcomed more and more, so his still being in awe of it a bit was understandable. She smiled, and then realized she hadn't really discussed with him much on the decision and (hopefully he didn't feel this) but part of him could still just feel like she was falling in line as the other half of the couple of herself and Simba.
She nodded to his pondering where he had been vs. where he was now. "And it's an honor to be called Mom", she smiled, "Honestly when the subject of adopting you came up I think I realized why what I felt went beyond just helping you survive". Compassion for a lost and injured boy was of course where it had started, growing from there though.
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Samwel Igwe
PRIDELANDERS
Human Prince of the Pridelands
Posts: 536
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Post by Samwel Igwe on Mar 6, 2021 20:44:48 GMT
Kabili smiled a little.
Nala could completely understand that. Sure they were different species, but love really didn’t know a species, gender, or the like. They’d all felt a connection and that was more than enough for them. At least he assumed. “I was telling dad the other day...” he paused a moment in his words. “When I first got here I felt this connection. To the land... To you guys. Hell I’d been hearing a voice leading me there for weeks.”
As his eyes kept looking for the area that they were searching for. He felt like he could share his feelings on it deeper with Nala. Since she was such a good listener. “I don’t know if I believed in fate before. But the longer I’m with you guys and I learn about the magic here. The more I think it wasn’t an accident you found me,” he told her honestly. “I think I was supposed to come here - supposed to be with you. I just don’t know why yet.”
Maybe one day he’d understand. When he was older. But at fourteen he knew so little of the world - and most would say things like that take time to understand. “Either way I hope you guys know I love and appreciate you.” He added.
His footsteps finally stopped as he came across an open, but hidden grove. Small enough that it would have been indistinguishable if not for what was in it. Debris, not nearly as much as you’d think, a single seat from the flight, and blood. Lots of blood. Kabili stood there for a long moment - unsure if he could keep going.
But closing his eyes tightly and letting a couple of tears fall. He let out a deep breath. And nodded forward. “C’mon... It’s up ahead.” He managed. His voice cracked a little as he did.
He pushed past the trees carefully and found the larger grove where he’d moved her body. It was by contrast, peaceful, and beautiful. With a part of the River around Hakuna Matata Falls running alongside it. He’d buried her there, in the most beautiful spot he could find.
“I’m gonna get a couple of stones. I’m gonna need ‘em,” he managed as he went off to search. “Hang tight.”
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2021 17:32:46 GMT
The connection he mentioned made sense. Nala nodded. "Yes, I'm not surprised", she said, "I think it goes back to the kings of the past watching out for us, but...the Pride Lands have always been tied to what was going on in the Pride Lands and...it give the land a feel of its own". She probably didn't have to explain that, Kabili had admitted he felt it.
Literal voice aside.
"I think so to", she smiled as he said it was Meant to Be, in a way. Of course she wouldn't have had his birth-mother's death fit into that, but Nala felt the Fate aspect had probably taken hold after that and had nothing to do with the before. She wasn't sure there had to be a why, but Kabili was right to wonder over it, perhaps. She smiled and nuzzled Kabili again to show she did know he loved and appreciated them and it was reciprocated.
Even before Kabili paused, Nala felt she could tell when they reached the area as well, it just had this...feeling to it. She peered forward, intrigued. She glanced to the foreign items in the area, trying, through them, to get that much more of an understanding of Kabili's world before. They moved on to a more peaceful spot. Nala kept a mother's checking gaze on Kabili as he spoke and even as he rushed off for stones. Even before seeing she understood an In Memorial kind of idea. Nala glanced back to the grove and tried to see if she could maybe feel Kabili's birth-mother. She thought maybe she could. It was a different feeling here to the sharper feeling of the place just behind them.
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Samwel Igwe
PRIDELANDERS
Human Prince of the Pridelands
Posts: 536
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Post by Samwel Igwe on Mar 11, 2021 19:16:14 GMT
Kabili only smiled a little as Nala nuzzled him.
He could imagine these days that the kings did have something to do with it. Again, he couldn’t ignore that voice he’d heard out on the Savannah egging hi on - pushing him to not give up. A part of him did wonder who but that was an answer he probably wouldn’t get. From what he understood the kings only showed themselves when absolutely necessary.
He noticed as Nala examined the different objects. And artifacts from the crash. There wasn’t a lot to salvage anymore or talk about but he did decide to say a few things. “If you can believe it, that leather thing in the middle is what saved me. I mean besides my mom anyway,” he explained as he pointed at the overturned seat stuck in a low hanging tree. “If I hadn’t been wearing those straps I’d be dead right now. That’s just one small part of those planes I told you about.”
He figured she may draw her own conclusions if she noticed there was only one.
When he’d disappeared to grab what he needed. He was gone for a little while, given he had to hunt down something just the right size. Returning with not one, but two sturdy enough stones that he rolled over to the spot one at a time. “Perfect.” He said when he’d moved them over.
He was silent for a moment - wondering how confused Nala might have been. “In human culture. We do this thing called a headstone,” he explained finally as he removed his pocket knife carefully. “It says someone’s name, usually when they died, and maybe a few nice words about them. So we always have somewhere we can visit them.”
He was silent as he crouched down to begin carving into the stone. “Hope the kings won’t mind.” He added since it was after all a foreign concept.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2021 20:07:37 GMT
Kabili's birth mother saving him Nala understood, or near as she could imagine from a tumble from the sky such as it had been, but even here, seeing the evidence of the contraptions like what he had mentioned, it was still just so foreign. Even looking at 'the leather thing', and understanding, vaguely, that it would have held him in place.
She realized her assumption thus far of his birth mother shielding them in their fall was both accurate and not as she had imagined. To a great sacrifice to her own self, obviously, given the lack of others there.
Nala was almost glad Kabili decided to go gather a few things at that time, since she couldn't think what to say, or not fully.
In her time left alone, she glanced to the sky and actually found her words a bit on what she might say later and to both Kabili's benefit of hearing as well as in a sort of promise to his birth mother, but kept them unspoken for the moment.
Then he was back. The placing of the rocks was not familiar but not too foreign to understand, perhaps. Many different animals of the Pride Lands had different customs and ways to honor their dead. She smiled and Kabili mentioned the Kings of the Past minding, or hoping they didn't
"Well I'm not really the expert, but...". She'd still known Mufasa and if all the Kings were like him (perhaps not a given) she couldn't imagine them minding, "I would expect them to understand honoring a lost loved one". She came up to get a better view of what Kabili was doing. "What do the marks mean, on the stone?", she asked in interest.
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Samwel Igwe
PRIDELANDERS
Human Prince of the Pridelands
Posts: 536
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Post by Samwel Igwe on Apr 1, 2021 0:26:25 GMT
Kabili nodded in understanding.
At least that did make sense that they would understand. After all he was starting to realize they had their own way of honoring their dead, in their case it was more spiritual with the idea of the stars, whereas with humans it was more physical. More metaphorical too.
“Yeah I’d like to think so anyway,” Kabili finally managed in agreement as he continued his cravings. He took a moment before continuing his thoughts. “It also is nice to have a grave. I think they’d get that. It’s like... The stars for you guys. Some way we can go and speak to them. When we need to.”
Oh! The markings! He hadn’t even thought about how that may have been weird for her. “Oh this is how you make a grave. You put the name of whoever died... When they were born and died... If you know I mean,” he explained honestly. “And then some nice things about them. So that anyone who sees the grave knows who’s buried there. Or who it’s a memorial to.”
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2021 13:22:56 GMT
Kabili went on to say that the grave was, and would be, like the stars were for them. A place you knew they were. Of course, it was only the Great Kings who got a spot among the stars for them, or...Nala had always heard the story as they were the only ones who could speak back.
She imagined it would be like a feeling, but Simba said Mufasa had literally spoken once.
Nala nodded. "Makes sense, and I'm glad you'll have that", she smiled. Though she had also been prepared to believe that Kabili's birth mother got a place among the stars too. They hadn't known of humans before, so how would they even know if they did or not?
A written language was also a new concept. "You mean those marks...mean the words we speak? Fascinating". Just when she thought she couldn't be surprised by humans any further. Nala kept her words few and low, though, so as to not intrude on Kabili's moment. She also intended to sort of give her own, reassuring Kabili's birth mother that her son was still well cared for even in her absence.
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Samwel Igwe
PRIDELANDERS
Human Prince of the Pridelands
Posts: 536
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Post by Samwel Igwe on Apr 27, 2021 22:01:40 GMT
Kabili nodded.
Though he also wondered the same thing about the stars. He held the belief in his heart that they all went there - maybe the "stars" were event representations of them in Heaven. But of course, he knew so little of everything still that he couldn't be sure about anything. "I still think she's up there though. I think we all are," He decided to vocalize. "Dad and I were talking about that a while ago. There's this place humans say we go when we die... I think every living creature does. And they say it's somewhere in the sky."
The teen nodded as she asked about the words though. That was something that he did find interesting too... "Yeah, that's something humans came up with, I think. Though we all call it a language. Least Zazu does," He pointed out. "And they all look different too. I'm writing in English. I mean, we all speak it anyway. But there's like Swahili too. The language humans speak on this continent."
Of course, he could only wonder why the animals all spoke English. But he'd just written that off as part of the magic of the realm. Maybe they weren't and they simply understood each other through it after all. Either way, when he'd finished, he took a seat and a deep breath. "My friends say it reminds them of like the pictures that Rafiki draws."
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2021 14:47:01 GMT
Nala nodded again, "I chose to believe that as well, that...just because only the Kings of the Past may speak to us they are not the only ones up there". Or, as someone married into the royal family perhaps she had to believe this to believe that her own mother got a spot as well after she died and not just her in-laws, as it were, great as they were. Well, again, most.
Of course Zazu would know what to call this specific human dialect and language. "Zazu is the expert on such things", Nala smiled, and knew it came out a bit like a hidden jab at the bird, but didn't truly mean it as such. Languages was not so foreign a concept, though. "Ah, like the individual languages of the Pride Lands even, your father and I are still learning those, Elephantise being the hardest", even Nala would admit, though thankfully only Simba would have to ever really make use of it in formal settings and such. Rafiki's pictures were a good thing to compare it to. "Yes, I suppose it is".
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Samwel Igwe
PRIDELANDERS
Human Prince of the Pridelands
Posts: 536
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Post by Samwel Igwe on May 27, 2021 5:07:19 GMT
Well, he hoped not at least. Certainly, things in his religion pointed toward the good ones going up there, while the truly evil of heart being sent to a far darker place. "Only the good people though. Like truly good people," He explained honestly. It was his belief, but he couldn't help but at least share his peace on the matter. "We humans believe that those that are evil... Y'know, like Scar? They go to a place called Hell where they end up suffering for it... Or something like that."
Elephentese. Man, he was still trying to get used to animals having different languages at this point. It was so weird to think that was the truth, but here was his reality now. "It's still kind of crazy thinking that you guys all... Y'know have different languages," he admitted. "I only ever knew two, and one I basically only knew a few prayers for. That was for my... Religion, least that's what we call it."
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