[PRP] The "Outside", A Lesson (Solenn x Tapiwa)

[Epine de Rose]

The lioness had been on the prowl for the last few weeks; with her family thoroughly distracted by the pride's overall 'political' dramas, she'd taken the opportunity to scope out the outsiders. Well... they weren't outsiders anymore, some had joined quite some time ago and made for amazing members of the Bahari'mtoto. However, they still had information that she very much wanted and it was information that her father had very much denied her.

With him now distracted it was easier for her to scout and so much easier for her to approach those who were more open to her 'interrogation'.

She didn't know this one, well not personally, but she did know of him after he'd appeared at the King's more controversial summons. He'd seemed like a good sort, one who tried to balance his loyalties with whatever opinions he might have...but they'd never had the chance to meet. Now they did though and with no one to stop her the lioness had already begun to make her way towards the sandy male.

Supposedly this one had come from the outside, she wasn't sure if this was true but there was only one way to find that out!

MiddyGlow

 

[MiddyGlow]

Epine de Rose

Tapiwa was rather tired of the political drama he was a guard and he supported the king's brother who seemed to be much more grounded than the mad king. He had been living in the Bahari'mtoto pride for a while now and had been accepted by the ocean he felt connected to the ocean and it gave him comfort and he looked forward to teaching his own cubs to swim in the ocean. He watched as a white lioness with pink and yellow markings made her way over to him. He smiled and nodded his head to her in greeting and then said "Hello." He then waited to see if she was just passing him by or wanted something of him.  

[Epine de Rose]

She'd been seen!

Perfect.

"Good morning!" she sang in reply and continued to close the distance between them both. She was far from shy; if anything she was a little too curious for her own good and poor Tapiwa might have to remind her that personal space existed if she forgot herself too much.

"I know you," she added and then shook her head. "Well sort of, I try to keep an eye on all the new ones," she clucked her tongue. Yes, she knew he was a guard and that was the grand sum of it. What had stuck with her was that he had been an outsider, you know, the bit that wasn't all that important to most other lions but it seemed to be very important to her.

"You don't mind if I pick your brain?" she said finally. She remembered some manners at least and rather than being too blunt, she opted for a tiny bit of tact. "Just a little bit, I won't take all your time."

MiddyGlow

 

[MiddyGlow]

Epine de Rose

Tapiwa smiled as the lioness greeted him. He blinked when she got very close to him, he was a bit confused was she flirting with him? Ah so that was what she wanted, she wanted to know about the outside world, this wasn't a come on this was an information hunt. "Yes, I am a new member I'm Tapiwa. I lived in the rogue land and traveled to a few other lands before I made my way to the ocean, what do you want to know?" He asked in a curious tone. He looked her over kinda wishing she was flirting with him because she was very pretty.  

[Epine de Rose]

"Everything!"

She wasn't even exaggerating, the lioness quickly sat herself down on the sands and stared at him. Her father had told her some things of the outside world, but given his determination to keep her from going outside, she wasn't quite so sure that she believed everything he said. The opportunity to ask this 'new' lion about what it was really like would give her the information she actually wanted.

...And if that aligned with what her father had said then she'd deal with it later.

"What's it like, what are the creatures like, what's out there?" she began and tilted her head to the side. She'd learned better than to bombard others with questions now, she'd only ever get an answer to one if she did and the rest would remain a mystery. Better to give Tapiwa a chance to answer one or two first and then move on to the next.

"Please and thank you; I'm Solenn by the way," she finished, remembering she did in fact have some manners somewhere in her over enthusiastic body.

MiddyGlow

 

[MiddyGlow]

Epine de Rose

Tapiwa chuckled and sat down "Well telling you everything I have ever seen is going to take a long time, but I don't mind starting now, but I do have guard duty at time, so we will have to set up other times to meet where I can tell you stories of the land outside the pride." He considered where to start "I spent most of my time in the rogue lands, it is often very dry out there except when the rains come. Depending on where you are you can't see the ocean at all. I didn't even know about the ocean till I moved here and learned the ways of the sea." He smiled and then said "There is monkey grass, watering holes, trees that are different then the ones that grow here."

He paused a moment and then went on "There are many creatures that live out in the outside lands leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, hybrids, wild dogs, maned wolves, gazelles, and many many more. Elephants, giraffes, zebras." He found a piece of driftwood in the sand and began drawing some of the larger animals in the rougelands. "Life is hard in the rogue lands you have to be on your toes and find food and water in order to survive, most have no one else to watch their back out there so it can be dangrous."  

[Epine de Rose]

"As in...grass shaped like monkeys?" she blinked in surprise at this and then shook her head. That sounded both intriguing and nonsensical, but he hadn't yet finished his explanation and she found herself waiting patiently as he described each and every things he could think of in his brief explanation. It would be a lot to digest with no doubt several questions to pursue later... after she'd given them some thought.

"Oh I know what a Hybrid is!" They had one as a diplomat here, petite and very skinny in comparison to most of the lions, she could be quite easy to spot from a distance. Granted, the little diplomat spent much of her time exploring and otherwise offering up alliances to outside prides so she had yet to be subject to Solenn's interrogations.

"But if it's so hard then..." she wrinkled her nose. "Why would so many choose it?" she asked curiously. She'd heard there were more in that 'world' than in any other, but if the struggle was so real then what was the appeal?

...Maybe this was why he had found them instead?

MiddyGlow

 

[MiddyGlow]

Epine de Rose

Tapiwa chuckled and then said "No it is long brownish-tan grass that can hide a lion as they stalk prey, kinda the color of my fur." He said. He smiled glad she knew what a hybrid was, he wondered what type of hybrid the one she knew about was. "When did you meet a hybrid?" He asked having not met them himself. "I suppose the freedom to go wherever they like with no rules on marriage, or hunting, or rituals they don't agree with. The rogue lands have none of that, but the rogue lands also is a free for all. You have to survive the best you can on your own or in family groups if lucky. Solo hunting is not an easy task but it is one many choose for freedom." He shrugged. Tapiwa had no issue with the idea of marriage and being there to take care of his cubs and the other rituals of the Bhari some however did and they had left the pride for that very reason.  

[Epine de Rose]

She didn't quite understand why it was called monkey grass if it was just brown grass, but she's revisit that at a later date after she had done some further investigation. Maybe she'd find a way to finally sneak out and see some of it for herself and then she might be able to determine why it had that name?

Food for thought.

"She's one of us," She said finally and shook her head. "She's not here right now, she's in another pride asking if they would like to be our friends," she added. That was La Seine's job after all, to explore far off places and ask the question of whether or not they would be open to a relationship with the Bahari. She'd been away for quite some time, but the young lioness was aware of her...

"I think she's the only one though, I haven't seen any others," she admitted and pursed her lips.

The fact that he had said there were no rules or rituals, no traditions and restrictions would in the Rogue Lands, made her understand in part why others might want to live there. It seemed like there was freedom to be had out there and for a budding adventurer it might be perfect.

Tempting!

"So why did you decide to give that all up?" she asked finally and shook her head. "Especially for here, we're not exactly as neat as we used to be right now," she pointed out.

That wasn't to say the Bahari'mtoto couldn't get better again, but everything was a little 'meh' right now...

MiddyGlow

 

[MiddyGlow]

Epine de Rose

Tapiwa smiled and then said, "I hope I will have the chance to met her someday." He thought a moment about his answer "As great as wandering as a rogue is, it lacks safety unless you have a band of rogues or a family, which I didn't have it can get lonely and finding a mate can be tricky since you can go days without running into another lion. " He looked out at the sea "I came here by chance during a festival of the sea, I swam in the sea for the first time and it felt right. There are things the king has said that I don't agree with. I swore to the head of the guard to protect the members of this pride and I was accepted by the sea. This is my home now and through rough waters I don't want to turn my back on it."  

[Epine de Rose]

She wasn't really in to 'politics' and the nuances of Shui's behaviour were lost on her. She was a simple soul at heart and intended no harm to anyone, but some of the changes that had been made weren't something she could understand. Sure there were probably folks that did but Tapiwa's simple statement was simple enough for her to get.

...She didn't like some of what Shui had said either.

But at the same time, she hadn't liked what the Kizingo'zaa had tried to do either. Granted she didn't know exactly what they had tried to do but if the rumour mill was true, then they had been trying to hurt not just her, but little cubs too. In her books that wasn't ok no matter how mad the Kizi king got at the Bahari king!

"So you're one of the ones who sided with the King's brother?" she queried. She got that bit at least, it had been for that reason that Shui now had a loyal guard, she had a brother who wasn't a huge fan of it simply because he'd been outranked and moved to the side. Last time Solenn checked her brother hadn't even ignored Shui, he'd simply done his job and been punished for it.

She wasn't sure if Shio had meant for it all to happen, but clearly Shui hadn't liked it when the guards had looked at Shio for direction instead of him.

Heh.

Politics was weird.

Although she was pretty sure that none of the guards had really meant to offend their king, they (like her brother), had just wanted to do their jobs and didn't want anyone to get hurt.

MiddyGlow

 

[MiddyGlow]

Epine de Rose

Tapiwa considered his words carefully he didn't want it to seem as if he planned to overthrow the king unless he proved himself insane and a danger to the pride. Then it might become necessary that Tapiwa would have to stand with the king's brother for the sake of their people. If the king ordered unmated females out to sea to their deaths Tapiwa would not stand for such behavior. He was rather angry about the banishments that had already happened, the families that had been broken apart for hubris sake. "Well I don't know if I would say that, he is the leader and I took on a position where I take his orders it would be chaos if the guards were to take orders from our captain and the king at the same time.. At that time it just made more sense to settle things peacefully when the Kizi arrived. I don't think any of the guards wanted anyone hurt." Tapiwa was silent for a moment and then said "I will do what I must for the good of the pride even if it may be unpopular, to me sending away the unwed rogue females was not the best thing for the pride." His tone was very soft, he hoped what he was saying would be held in confidence he didn't want it getting back to the king, that would not go well for him.  

[Epine de Rose]

"They've known for a long time that they're not supposed to act disrespectfully here," Solenn really wasn't one for politics, but her family was one of the oldest bloodlines in the Bahari and tradition had always been important to them. While they had always been considerate of others and leaned towards being moderate in some of their views, they were all raised to respect some of the most core values of the pride.

...One of those was that they were never meant to have children outside of a relationship.

It was hardly a new 'rule' either, it was the very basis of their pride and if her family were to be believed it used to be even worse for those who disobeyed it. Before Ram had gotten here they weren't treated well at all. Ram had applied a certain level of tolerance and consideration to some of the reasons why they may have succumbed to temptation but as some of the more traditional minds had put it 'give an inch and they take a mile'.

Solenn didn't know how to feel about it all, but she knew what those females had done was wrong.

"And Shio is the leader of the guard, but he serves under the King," Solenn shook her head slowly. "He was never his equal and for some reason, it seems like the guard have decided he is." She mused. Tapiwa hadn't been the only one and he wouldn't be the last either; they had all had good intentions in the actions they'd taken but whether or not they were right in the end was something far beyond what Solenn understood.

At least now things were calm, right?

She hoped they were, things didn't seem to be exploding anymore!

"At least you don't want to hurt anyone, you know?" She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "So long as you're looking after everyone I'd say you're doing your job pretty good, even if it's a hard one!"

MiddyGlow

 

[MiddyGlow]

Epine de Rose

Tapiwa nodded thinking over the things she said "Not wanting to hurt anyone doesn't always help, sometimes there is no other choice and if the Kizi or other pride members had attacked there would have been no other choice, the situation was worrisome. There was no telling what would happen when tempers flared as they did." He paused and then said "Enough of that." He smiled and then asked "What do you like to do around the pride?" He asked in a curious tone. He wanted to know more about this female. Did she like shells, was she good at swimming. He had been accepted by the ocean which was something he was grateful for since it connected him with his new home.  

[Epine de Rose]

Meh, politics.

Solenn would never be a part of it and never had aspirations to change that either, she only hoped that in time her own family would be happier again. Her aunt had been silly but she had been desperate for a family for so long, it was no wonder she'd given in to temptation. Nevertheless even now it seemed like fate had a way of righting wrongs as said aunt had soon found her happy ending...with the brother of the male who had sired her cubs.

"I like to explore," she admitted with a half smile. This would have been code for 'nosey' if you'd asked any of her family, but she was a social creature who very much liked to pick the brains of new and old about almost any subject that took her fancy.

But did she have any hobbies beyond that?

"Mmm, and I kinda like to try and design neat things but I'm not really that great at it right now," she admitted. If she hadn't been so fixated on exploring the world beyond her home, her real goal probably would have been to get good enough to challenge Solomon in regards to his abilities!

MiddyGlow