Three Old Ladies

(March 1st (I'm assuming? If that works in timeline.) Open to all I'm assuming, but primarily for a discussion between Malkia and Sarabi. Once more let me know of any continuity details I might have overlooked here. (The third old lady is the tree by the way, hah))

 Standing at the familiar fig-tree in the clearing on Pride Rock, was the old grey shape that seemed almost as constant in the landscape of that area as the mother-of-all trees herself. A trunk of flesh tenderly touched the trunk of bark, and scaled it up to the branches, where Malkia began stripping the once-succulent fruit from between the leaves. Or what was left of them, for with the 'great darkness' the old tree had not been getting the sunlight it needed to grow, and Malkia feared it would soon die. This was not the same as Scar's reign, the sun and moon had still shone then, however desolate the land had become, and tree had held out. Just like she, the lionesses, Zazu, and the few die-hard loyalist animals who had dared remain there, had. But this was not Scar's reign. This was far worse than that.
 Munching sullenly on the fruit that felt flavourless in her mouth, Malkia turned her head in nothing but sheer habit to gaze upon the grasslands, not that they could exactly be called 'grasslands' any more. The torches that were spread throughout the camp were hardly the sun, but they still held light enough to see what was going on, though vaguely for a creature with such poor eyesight as she.
 But torches, like tents and swords, were not natural. They were fire, and fire had for decades been an enemy to the Pridelands, but here they could be used for good, to bring light (however artificial) to the Pridelands. Malkia wasn't sure what to think of anything any more.
 "Oh Uru..." she said tenderly, rubbing the bark of the tree (for the Queen had loved it as much as her advisor). "What on earth are we going to do now?"

"I apologize for not being the lioness you called for old one."

Like she had any right to call anyone old one. She smiled softly as she walked towards the elephant. The great animal had been in attendance for a number of kings ascensions. From the raising high of Simba and Kiara to the roar of her son's return to the pride. She was happy to have the elephant adviser. She needed not only a kindred spirit in the old lady but also a word of wisdom from an animal so alive. Sarabi had always been facinated by elephants anyway from the time she was a cub. Their large size gave way to an even larger heart.

"Malkia...why so solemn this morning?" She looked up at the sky then back up at the elephant. "I mean besides the obvious. The dark, the war, the fights among the pride..."

One of her huge ears flapped the tiniest fraction when she heard a familiar voice approaching the clearing. And for a split second, she thought it was the long-dead Queen who's name she had called, come to take her away at last. But common elephantine sense immediately trampled away such calf-like fantasies, and she turned her massive bulk around. Always moving with a slow, dignified gracefulness. Her deep brown eyes looked Sarabi up and down, and a small smile was visible underneath her ivory tusks.
"Ah, but you are certainly the next best thing."
How like the deceased Queen Sarabi was, even if they had no blood relation. Malkia had always privately thought that when Uru passed on, she had split half of herself into her son and the other half in to his mate. However fantastical that idea was, it was certainly what it seemed like. She had been shaken of course, when Sarabi had been killed, and had gone on a fruitless rampage throughout neutral grassland, hunting blindly for the beasts that had done it. Though the hunt had resulted in nothing but her own exhaustion. Having Sarabi back was in her view, one of the best things to have happened to the 'army' for a long time. And somehow, she knew Mufasa had something to do with it.
"Hmph, you always did like a little joke Sarabi." She said when the lioness had finished. "Tell me, is it my thoughts you wish to know of? Or are you merely looking for an outlet for your own? Perhaps it is both..." She turned her head around again, and softly caressed the bark of the fig-tree.
"Oh no I'm just...remembering." She tilted her head down towards Sarabi and gave her a surprising roughish, encouraging wink. "It is what we do best you know."

Sarabi chuckled softly, tucking her head to her thick chest. She decided to relax slightly, lowering down on old bones and rolling her body to the side. She crossed her paws over each other and felt her body stop tensing and start holding more tranquility. She nodded her head and gave a small laugh towards the elephant.

“I’ve moved far beyond the need for an outlet, my friend,” she said, “I see the sky as the only ear willing to listen nowadays.” She lifted her head again and sighed, lowering her chin to her chest. “Seems the only unbiased ear we have.”

“It’s what we adore about your species, my friend,” Sarabi said, “Your ability to recall the best…and…worst of times…” She winced, pain filling her. Emotional pain of course.

There was a low rumble that was the elephant equivalent of a chuckle, and Malkia gave a soft smile behind Sarabi's back, tiny eyes filling with warmth when the way she lay down triggered a memory of how she had always used to lounge around like that as a cub.
 She hummed and nodded sagely when Sarabi spoke, but her head remained down when she mentioned the sky.
 "The sky..." she repeated quietly, lifting her head to look up at the dark. "But is the sky really listening anymore?" she mumbled, to herself but loud enough for Sarabi to hear. Looking up at the stars and asking guidance from her mother, Mohatu, her sisters, Mufasa and his father, and most of all, her beloved Queen, had been a method of consolation for her whenever she felt smaller than the largest land mammal ought to feel, as she knew it was for many other creatures who had relatives and friends who had passed on. But now the stars were no longer in sight; the Great Kings, Queens, and Beasts of the past, had abandoned them. Her Queen had abandoned her.

 "What did we do wrong...?" she whimpered, barely above a whisper. In a pitiful voice befitting of a frightened gazelle fawn, and from a creature so stoic and almost as much a part of the landscape as the rocks themselves, it was a sound far more frightening than any trumpet or bellow.

 A great sigh shook her great body, and she turned around as Sarabi spoke more, hoping she had not heard, or would not comment. She nodded again, and gave a sympathetic rumble at the Queen's clear sings of distress. "Bad memories rearing their ugly heads?" she asked, "I find that tends to be one of their favourite hobbies."

((I hope you don't mind me going ahead and reviving this?? I really liked the thread and don't want to see it die... aaand ;w; It'll be nice to have a thread with you in which our characters aren't trying to kill one another!))

Sarabi shifted against the earth lightly, rolling her shoulders but halting when Malkia began to speak. So soft, it demanded silence for Sarabi's old ears to hear it, radars twitching forward as her amber eyes stared at the ground before her as she listened. Did the sky listen.. Perhaps at an earlier time in her life Sarabi would have forlornly wondered the same, especially with everything that had been happening down here. But instead she offered a gentle sympathetic smile.

"The skies always listen for those willing to speak..." she reminded Malkia softly. Whether it was a gentle nudge to not lose hope or merely a simple small comfort was undetermined. But both of these things were extremely valuable in their day and age. She looked to the skies, still starless and blank. Perhaps Mufasa and the Great Kings and Queens were all blocked out by this alarming darkness, but if so it wasn't nearly the same as abandonment. Sarabi chose not to speak of this however.

Bad memories rearing their ugly heads? I find that tends to be one of their favourite hobbies.

"Are you doting over me, old one?" Sarabi chuckled in good humor. She was flattered really, as her own problems paled in comparison to this great war and Malkia would do nothing else but ask. Sarabi would expect nothing else from her gentle companion, but exhaled slowly all the same. When she spoke next her voice was quite gentle, and she seemed to be staring somewhere in the air between her and the earth in front of Malkia's feet.

"I've made many mistakes in my life..." Sarabi confessed.

 A small smile creased the wrinkles under her tusks and her eyes flashed down for a split second in appreciation of the Queen's words. Such an old head on (relativley) young shoulders. Though it suddenly dawned on Malkia that perhaps they were about mental equals in age by now, given that lions aged considerably faster than elephants.
..That was a frightening thought.
 But Sarabi's words had been sucessful in their attempt to console her. Of course Mufasa, Uru, and all the other great Monarchs would never truly abandon them. But with the darkness, did they have any choice? Were they stuck up there and unable to see the living just as the living were unable to see them? Surely the stars would not be gone forever, were even the great rulers of the past dying out now?
 She shook her head to bring herself back to the present, and turned around again to listen to Sarabi. 
 "I find it hard not too." she replied with a small chuckle. Having pulled a thorn from the paws of each lion in the pride at least once, it was second nature to her to be concerned for all of them. Quite unusual feelings for an elephant to have towards a group of lions, she knew, but at the same time the Pridelands Pride was not a usual group of lions, nor was she a usual elephant.
 Malkia's expression softened as the old lioness confided in her, and she gave another rumble of sympathy at Sarabi's distant nature as she went quiet.
 "All of us have." she reminded her, curling her trunk upwards slightly, knowing where this was going. Sarabi and Mufasa's choice in picking Simba over his littermates was coming back to bite them, so it seemed.