If anybody would of asked if Kiuaji had been following Tembovu, he would of said yes and no. His day didn't entirely start out with following the Elephant King, it had been a rather nice twist of fate that he had spotted his old friend in the distance. It hadn't been his intention to follow him either, but he had spied the unmistakable grey of fire long dead and the strangely stony look that scarred his face, it had halted his step as he had turned to go back to his exploring, his slinking, his sleuthing. Something had happened to mark the larger stallion so, and Kiuaji had given into curiosity and the need to see if the once-general was at least in a state to be left to his own devices.

He knew things could get rather explosive, there was a heat and ferocity to Tembovu's anger unlike anything he had witness pour from the glands of the other warriors of home. Like molten magma, from the deep furnaces of the earth it raged, threatening to spill from the cavernous trenches of the dark places the earth and stallion hid well.

Unfortunately, the poisoner was unaware that it had been manifested and given form.
The effeminate stallion followed at a safe distance, slender legs and plum tinted hooves carrying him silently and swiftly. A leopard stalking it's prey, he bounded over fallen logs and weaved around large rocks, staying safely out of sight and out of mind of his quarry. Questions rose and fell in his ever changing mind, they came and went as the leaves did in the seasons, as the rains did back in Dorobo. Lush one moment and parched the next.

The bamboo forest and pools of crystalline waters brought a string of new questions that weren't orientated to his old friend, there was something other worldly about this place. It did not fit in with the rest of the outside world for reasons he couldn't quite fathom, the obvious were blaringly obvious. The shades of vibrant green on the flora reminded him of jade and emeralds brought in from other lands, all worn by those that could afford them — while the water glistened as if it was lined with Diamonds. If he knew of the battle which had been fought for the tranquil patch of land he stood upon, he'd understand why his instincts sang to him so.

He stilled in a patch of bamboo and reeds as his friend rested at a particular patch of water, head tilted to the side to better observe when Tembovu's attention had suddenly been captured. What was it? Serpentine hues flickered to follow his line of sight — Ah, an egg. Alone and abandoned, precariously perched as though ready to drop and shatter at the faintest breath of wind against it's fragile shell.

Would Tembovu's most tender emotions win over? Would he go save the egg before oblivion swallowed it whole? It seemed to be so, if not a little help from the egg's own whims, it toppled on it's own devices and Kiuaji found himself holding his breath as Tembovu surged forward to save it from itself. Why? Why was he holding his breath? He had little attachment to it, after all, and it had endangered itself. If it had shattered, it had no one to blame in the next life but it's own stupidity.
 
Little by little, he skulked out of his nestled spot, gracefully ascending a nearby pillar of moss covered rock overhanging the serene moment. Kiuaji wanted to see what had emerged out of the egg that had splintered and cracked the moment his friends pale muzzle had touched it's surface and he was rewarded with the sight of a stone coloured trunk patting his friend and then suddenly yanking the fine strands of his whiskers.

It was that which broke his cover, his long silence ended on a rather cheeky note from the new born elephant, his laughter rang airy and light over the pool. The poisoner settled, tucking his long limbs under him to lay upon his rock and gaze down at the two, long tail falling in soft waves over the mossy sides, an illusionary waterfall of golds and whites while his mane spilled over the front of the rock in a similar fashion. "It seems as though you have found yourself a life long friend." He commented lightly, a smile curled onto his marked lips.

Ringed ears perked to catch the name given to the trumpeting creature as she figured out the new world, a smaller elephant for the bigger elephant. "A fitting name for her, if her welcoming is anything to go by." Relating to when she had yanked his whiskers, he exhaled a light sigh, wondering briefly that he may find something akin to what his friend had just discovered. A kindred spirit for the den of vipers that writhed and wriggled inside his chest, or perhaps the spirit would cast it's soothing light to reveal to him something that he long thought he was incapable of having.

a heart.


________________________________________________________________________________________

talk