let me hold your hand and dance around the flames
in front of us; dust to dust.

The lioness has been keeping a low profile.  The adjustment from life in the plains to life in the Edge had been...challenging.  That day in the threshold the idea of finding a place like home had been all the temptation she’d needed.  But it didn’t take long for her to realize that this wasn’t home and never would be. Gone was the councilwoman, reborn was the lioness.  She found there were days she spent longing for the days of the Council.  At least in that world she knew her place.  She had her own agendas against the corruption that ran rampant amongst the powerful. Those moments were fleeting, but they were powerful.  When they passed she found herself overwhelmed with shame, and a physical bitterness lingered on her tongue. 

Time healed. The intrusive thoughts became less intrusive and the bitterness faded. She had the answers that she so desperately wanted.  More than anything, Eshe helped.  Tsavo didn’t know how she would have adjusted to this place without the assistance of Eshe’s light. She’d spent a considerable amount of time teaching the cub how to hunt, to hide, to climb.  Prior to finding her, Tsavo didn’t understand the concept behind companions.  She understood now.  Eshe was part of her, the better part of her. 

The lioness had been freed of her cage, but had no idea what to do with this newfound freedom.  It was overwhelming. Maddening sometimes. She had found that integrating into this new place was easier said than done. Tsavo had been born into society back in Dorobo.  It had been effortless for her to move in social circles, to climb to positions she wanted.  There was a price to pay for that privilege, one she had paid many times over.  Life in the Edge was different.  As if to illustrate her point, Eshe came bounding from the bushes in a whirl of tan fur and poorly contained excitement.  The lion cub had stumbled across something intriguing.  The lioness rolled her eyes at the display and shifted into her lioness form, staggering for a few steps as she acclimated herself to her feline body.  She stretched before gesturing to Eshe to lead the way, silently padding along in the cub’s pawprints. 

It wasn’t long before Tsavo could hear the voices from the cover of the foliage.  The pair watched as Tsavo began to understand what was happening here.  Target practice.  Eshe, caught sight of Mbwene who immediately became more interesting than the gathering.  She looked at her bonded, pleadingly, but hesitated until she was given permission to leave cover. Happily, the little lion bounded her way towards her elephant friend, disregarding Mbwene’s other company altogether.  Tsavo’s focus, however, was on the small glass target.  Without a word in introduction, the lioness bounded past those had gathered, intent on striking the glass.  She leapt at the last moment, reaching out with one paw with all her claws extended.  The strike made a terrible noise against the glass, fingernails on a chalkboard, leaving a deep cracks in the glass and a large spiderweb of cracks where the center of her paw had struck the center - the force amplified by the impulsion.  She slid to a stop and turned back towards the group, stopping only to inspect her work. “Well. That’s interesting.” 

”Hello everyone,” she added, nonchalantly, with a flick of her tail.