don't let them in.

[PRIVATE] don't let them in.

Kiuaji Posts: 40

Absent Abyss atk: 5.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 4.5

Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 9 HP: 61.5 | Buff: NOVICE

Matanye :: African Crowned Eagle :: None Nova

02-17-2016, 01:32 AM

His only reply came in the form of an airy laugh, breathless and unabashed into the air. Of course, he knew what she was asking, but it never hurt to bat around for the sake of passing time. In part, he was reluctant to part with information upon his dearly departed friend and her babe, one didn't get into the position he had built from the ground up by being loose with his tongue. Tembovu had elaborated that he hadn't told Rexanna about Mara, only she and Faxr had perished, understandably to a degree, he had not gone on to explain much else about her. Maybe to stop this lookalike from fleeing, or to save his own heart from shattering once more, he could only imagine what must keeping the Elephant King's essence strung together.

It was wise for her to at least figure out that he couldn't be trusted, his loyalty and trustworthy strings were reserved to Tembovu, and were shakily tied to a few others who had rode the storm and survived. Where were they? Momentarily, his focus is drawn from the thief and to wondering where the cheetah and lioness have gotten to. Everyone else who spoke to him would have to best the den and hope they didn't succumb to the venom. Still, the poisoner offered her a smile laced with falseness, gentle and assuring that she could trust him with what he wanted to know. Who else would benefit? None that came to his mind, of course, he could tell Tembovu and he just very well might, but who was to say how he would take information he pried from the delicate creature below him.

"But, you are in a sense saying he was a mistake, just in a less offensive way." He interjected with a questioning look upon his effeminate features. "He was an ill-timed blessing, unfortunate in his conception and delivery? I wonder what events would lead someone to having a child of such circumstances. I don't doubt your affection or love for your son, my dear, I have seen first hand a mothers love for her child." Kiuaji chuckled with a flick of his tail, the silken tassels coating his curled legs to obscure them from view. "A precious thing." A weakness, how many mothers had he denied the chance to see their sons again? How many mothers had he taken from sons? Truthfully, they were long lists with names that escaped him, but he remembered their faces so clearly. It was all part of the Great Game, the shadow which War cast, and a price Politics demanded all pay.

I'm hopelessly in love with Tembovu. "Of course." Kiuaji would keep that confession in mind, how could he let it pass? This false Mara had swooned to the charms of Tembovu and she in turn had sung her siren song and ensnared him. Rexanna began to explain further and he listened intently, head tilted and marked lips pursed in thought as he absorbed each word she spared to him. How tragic, he could almost hear the gaggle of theoretical mares swooning at the drivel of a cliche love affair gone wrong. The devilishly handsome soldier with a past, and the exotic maiden with a deadly secret.

Old Gods save him, he was being sucked into it.

"Have you given him cause to believe you were anything but what you said you were?" His question is filled with skepticism. Tembovu was not an unintelligent stallion by any means, he would be able to figure out a liar when the game began to get heated, so what had she done to invoke a sense of distrust in him? What hand had she played to conceal something from him that would result in the earthquake that brought rifts and ruin between them? "Tembovu is not so willing to simply distrust and be rid of things without good reason." Kiuaji exhaled a deep sigh and his eyes purposely shut for a long moment before they opened again, glittering in the emerald light as he observed her once more.

"Mara was the best of us. Childhood friends we were, Hasovir, Tembovu, myself and Mara. Hasovir is dreadfully handsome, you know? It's a shame really, his beauty is wasted on him. Where was I, ah, think of her as the sun after a particularly cold night, come to fill you with warmth and light. Or the snow capped mountain who refuses to be rid of her snow in the mid-summer, sturdy and resolute." He began, voice careful and thoughtful — like a song any mare would sell her soul to have as her own. "It is true, you look a like to her. Like a phantom from a dream desperate men have when all hope is lost, perhaps that would be a good way to describe it. Any man who had buried their mate and child and left their homeland would understandably be distraught and overcome by a sudden appearance of someone so close to the thing he could no longer have." Kiuaji paused only when he felt the familiar pull of something in chest, it seemed his little eagle had caught herself a fine meal, feeling her pride blossom in his chest and he subconsciously made the effort to block his own internal thoughts and feelings from her.

"The similarities seem to end there though. Mara would not have hurt Tembovu, she loved him far too fiercely to do such a thing, and he her. She was not about living a life of shadows and concealment, she was open and honest. Caring and compassionate, not unafraid to stand up for what she believed in — tell people that they were wrong." It's uncomfortable, talking about her. It weighs heavy on his mind — though there is a smile when he mentioned her knack for speaking her mind, she had told him many a time when eyes and ears were not on them. The Sleuth takes comfort at least he is only skimming, and not getting into the deeper parts of what the Dorobian Natives had been. There are no memories shared, no ghosts dancing upon the words he breathed into life, and for that, he is thankful.

The questions come like soft whispers as he picks at what he'll say. Why didn't he know sooner? How didn't he catch on until it was too late? Kiuaji had been outplayed at the last moment, like many of those who had emotional attachments to the lost and wounded. "If you are hurting one another you should not be together, it is as simple as that, my dear. There are wounds on that stallions heart I nor any close to him would have picked open."

Finally he stood, long legs effortless in their ascent to bring him to his tall and slender height. Hair once more cascading in heavy and long waves down his neck and against his hocks, he shook himself loose of the numbness in his legs from being laid down for so long. He gave a passing glance to the place she had be pawing in acknowledgement of her words, wondering what a lion had been doing in such a place. "Was this confession of love brought about before or after the cracks had began to form?" Kiuaji inquired lightly, ringed ear shifting. "But the child was not his, no? I hardly think you can hold it against him now, seeing as you now have a child at your hip and he does not."

"talk talk talk"

Some hearts are a desert you can die wandering in

Credits: Image by Littlewillow-Art @ DA

@Rexanna