I'm Home

[ March 6th. After Nyota had a run in with Zira, meeting her for the first time and talking to Scar. Open to all Outlanders who wish to interact that are in the termite mounds at this time. Low to medium risk. This is an interaction thread but that doesn't mean fights won't break out.]

It had only been a day since Nyota had spoken with the Lioness named Zira and the King himself, Scar. It wasn't much of anything here. No grass for Gazelle to graze in. No streams to drink water from. It wasn't like the pride he was in when he lived in the jungle. Only termites and bones. There was no room to be complaining now though. He had a place to call home for the time being and that in itself was a blessing.

The air caught in his lungs due to anticipation of meeting his new pride while he sat a ways away from a few lionesses picking at a termite mound. This was a new family he had been accepted into and that was just like being born again.

Nyota just sat quietly and stared at the many hole entrances of the large termite mounds and the lionesses and other creatures scattered about doing their own thing. His tail began swaying as a odd sensation of happiness overwhelmed him.

I'm home..

A smile slowly pulled on his maw as he lowered his head in thought. It wasn't long before the darkness began to feel warm to him. That the random faces around him became more familiar. One lioness in particular came to grab his attention.

She had her back to everyone and was doing something with her paw. It was clear to him that was the case since her bony shoulder was moving periodically. This had caught his attention and soon had him up on all fours and padding over in her direction. He moved slowly at first as to not alert anyone. Though of course that would have been the first sign that Nyota was new here; timid and paceful. Once he finally made it over towards the lioness who was laying down, Nyota cleared his throat and started to lay on the charm with a rather heart warming smile.

"Uh, hey there! Um. --" He paused for a moment, trying to figure out what to say next as he waited for her to turn around and look at him.

Kaluwa was not used to the Outlands being so full. Even after a year of her masters' war, the sight of strange creatures still filled the young lioness with a sense of innate wrongness that she simply couldn't shake. Prey animals and predators mingled in ways that nature never intended, working together and even forming alliances. Strange animals of all shapes and sizes from lands had come to make their homes in the dead territory of her pride, causing tensions to rise as predators became more and more pressed to find food.

To the young lioness, simply staying in the safety of the pride's dens was the best option. She'd not yet reached the age where she could go out on solo hunts without some kind of supervision, as all of the good hunting lay a day or more's walk from the den. As such, Kaluwa simply remained an ornery teenager residing under self-imposed house arrest. At that particular moment she decided to take what entertainment she could find within the termite mound; terrorizing their smallest inhabitants. Thick black claws dug into the crumbly structure, breaking chunks and grinding them into fine silt between her toes. This caused a mild scrambling in the white bugs that crawled within, who scurried about like mad in their little buggy ways. To Kaluwa it became a game of how precise she could aim her claws upon the things, tapping them down on individuals to try and slice them cleanly between the head and abdomen, thus decapitating them.

A voice distracted Kaluwa from her game for a moment and she flicked a cream-rimmed ear towards Nyota. A moment after that briefest of acknowledgements the youth lifted her head to regard him with what appeared to be a disinterested scowl. Though Kaluwa found that she was indeed intrigued by this stranger -- a blue-eyed Outlander male whom she'd never seen wandering before -- she suffered from what could only be described as 'resting bitch face'. Thus it was with only that cool stare and silence that Nyota was greeted.

Well, she was a ball of sunshine wasn't she? Her chilling gaze set him on alert. He couldn't shake the fact that it looked familiar though. This lioness looked so..familiar to him. It wasn't clicking and it bothered him. He couldn't put his paw on it. It was a few moments that he just stared at her, maw agape before he cleared his throat and spoke again.

"Ah. A'hem. My name's Nyota.. I'm new here in the Outlands." He introduced himself, letting his lips curl up into a rather charming smile. If anything, this lion's pelt would have been just as interesting as his bright blue eyes. Nyota was a rather interesting fellow all and all. He plopped himself down right beside her to see if he could partake in her little game.

He spotted a termite and snapped his paw out to try and catch it but he missed. Nyota lowered himself and peeked under his paw only to be disappointed to find out he missed the creepy crawly.

"Ah-ha! Missed 'em." He laughed a bit, shifting his bright blue eyes up towards Kaluwa. He was trying to lighten the familiar girl's mood. He let his eyes fall on her facial features staring for a moment before lifting himself upward to sit up.

"This is a bit harder than I expected." His tone of voice softened as he spoke, his eyes slightly closing as he just took her in. What was it about this lioness that kept escaping him. Now it was really starting to get to him.

"Do we know each other..?" He randomly asked, now locking his eyes onto hers after staring at her face for a while.

Kaluwa's unblinking stare met Nyota's without break nor flinch as he settled down beside her. Still being in her teenaged months the lioness found herself to be rather insubstantial compared to the feline beside her. The king she was familiar with was no prize male when it came to size, and while there had been males flitting about among the pride the only one that could have been considered of a substantial bulk would have been Claudius. The stranger beside her however would not have surprised her at all if he had a few stones' worth of weight over the other male.

To put it simply, the guy was bigger than she was used to.

The younger lioness watched with an eerie stare as Nyota attempted and failed at her little game, expression remaining unchanged. After a moment her shoulder twitched in what might have been a shrug. Followed by the movement was a low rasp of a voice, monotonous and dissonant to her appearance. The voice sounded like a lioness well into adulthood, not the barely-more-than-a-cub female it sprung from. "They're small. Hard targets."

His question was met with yet another one of her twitch-shrugs and more brief utterings. "Never seen eyes like those. Rare here."

She didn't seem to find him familiar like he found her. He was still laying on his belly beside her, shortly after her response rolling onto his back and curling his bottom half so that his body was shaped like a 'U'. Maw just pulled into a grin as those bright blue eyes lit up with their own smile.

"Yeah, I'm a pretty rare sight." He boasted as his ears flickered against the cold dusty ground. He gently pawed at the air towards the lioness he was conversing with, trying to get some sort of crack in her maw. Something of a smile. That's what he did best was make people smile with his dorkiness. That's just how Nyota was. His personality in a place like this was certainly rare. Clearly wasn't from around here.

"I uh. Didn't catch your name?" He inquired as he uncurled from that rather odd positioning and posed himself laying down once more with his front paws criss-crossed over one another.

"Maybe we could hunt together some time? You seem like you know what you're doing." He purred out as his ears twitched the dust from their fur.

"Pleasantries seem ta be the norm 'round these parts. Seems strange ta me at least."

His claws clicked down on the ground next to Nyota's body. His head lowered next to the fluffy lion's mane, offering him a terribly creepy grin with those yellow teeth of his. The raptor was now among the lions. They, like he, knew the queen of the outlands. Had met, had joined the war. Now he just had to get cozy with these furry creatures. He stepped between them, raptor body hunched over, head lowered as his teeth glowed in the surrounding torchlight of the outlands. They hadn't asked for an introduction but the gruff voiced male was going to give them one.

"Name's Bubbha," he growled low, "Nice ta meet'cha." His eyes narrowed. "What'syer names, lions?"

It seemed odd to see another dinosaur in the Outlands.

It had been a couple of days since Wheek had arrived to search for his mother, but instead he had found Nelleke and Dixie, who were taking care of him while his mother still decided to stay elusive. Even with the two motherly figures around, he felt quite alone, since no one of the same species had popped up yet.

Wheek had just been chasing a small field mice when he ran into the small crowd. Two of them were furred like Miss Dixie, but didn't look like her. Their names were Nyota and Kaluwa, apparently. He had caught that part. And then he saw Bubbha.

It had been awhile since he had seen a raptor, and they still scared the crap out of him. He had heard stories of raptors taking down dinosaurs ten times their size. 

Wheek wanted to exit the scene before anyone saw him, but he was too curious for his own good. He stayed, but behind a small termite mound. For safety reasons, of course.

The male's playfulness was met with a dumb stare. The smaller feline had never been able to take place in conventional play. Rough tussling with the other cubs of her generation had made up her social playtime. Beyond that she had only her little game of perpetual torment, taking a sick pleasure from the pain of creatures smaller and weaker than herself. Being such a socially stunted girl, Kaluwa simply had no idea what this dark male was trying to accomplish. She had no precedent to compare his behavior to.

Orange eyes regarded him with a slow blink as he righted himself and shot another grin her way. Still the female's expression didn't change. "Kaluwa." Another slow blink, as though she needed time to process his offer of a hunt. "Never hunted before. Don't know."

The clicking of claws didn't prepare the young feline for a bipedal creature, nevermind one as weird as... This. The fur along Kaluwa's spine ruffled in a slow ripple of wariness as the scraggly beast loomed over them, and her muzzle was quickly brought into a wrinkle of a silent snarl. No noise emerged from her throat as she bared her teeth in warning against his intrusion into her space, and with her ears pressed flat against her head it appeared that Kaluwa was fully prepared to swipe.

The Newcomers had arrived and good looking ones at that. Not that Claudius was interested in having a new lady to play with. The Ex-Pridelander, Subira, would do just fine for now. Speaking of which, where was she? Claudius hadn't seen her in a good few days. Hmmm, no matter. "Hello there fellow lions, I am Claudius, champion of the gladiator fights in the Rome Arena. I humbly welcome you all to the Outlands."

He turned focusing on the female close to him as he spoke, "Welcome, M'lady and to you sir." As he walked along he turned to Nyota, her blood red eyes meeting his sky blue.

"I heard that you’re up for hunting, my friend. Might I join you two on your little outing? That is, if you will allow me?" He turned abruptly as the raptor made himself known with southern twang.

Wow, this lioness was very doll-like. She didn't smile much if any and that made Nyota a bit sad. He didn't like it when he couldn't make others laugh or smile. He didn't let it dampen his enthusiasm though. Quickly righting himself up, the calico colored lion just beamed an even bigger smile down at the female as he flicked his ears forward.

"Never hunted before? Well, it's not that hard! I can teach you!"

He had reached out with a single paw to extend his claws and offer his big massive extremity to Kaluwa.
Nyota was pretty good on picking up when someone was walking up on them so he turned his head over his thick neck to witness Claudius pad up to them. This guy was /the/ champion of the gladiator fights? His mind turned to how awesome a fight with this male would be but quickly pushed that aside and stood up fully to the much larger male before them now. He noticed how he spoke and looked at Kaluwa first which really didn't bother him at all. She wasn't his to get jealous over. A crack in his maw showed his straight white canines.

"Thanks! I'm humbled to be here!" He gave a small chuckle as ears swiveled along his head. Once the larger male was looking down on him, he just closed his eyes and smiled wide as he nodded.

"Sure! But we're going to have to teach the misses here a few hunting tricks. She's never hunted before."

It wasn't like he was making fun of her. It was fine that she didn't know how to hunt. He would teach her and surely the champion of the gladiator fights could teach her a thing or two. When Nyota noticed Claudius turning quickly and settling his focus on something else so he peeked from behind the massive shoulders in front of him to witness the raptor that he was looking at.

Whoa, he'd never seen one of those before. A peek of curiosity came over him as he slowly stepped out from behind Claudius as it were to settle himself near the dinosaur to answer him.

"Bubbha, huh? My name's Nyota. Nice to meet you.."

He wasn't too sure about this character. That creepy grin and those eerie eyes staring at him made him a tad bit uncomfortable. Now, he sits in silence fully aware of the way that Kaluwa was reacting to the strange creature that introduced himself as Bubbha. Seems she got the same feeling he did but that was no reason to ignore someone or make them feel bad. So he just stuck with it and road it out.

The hick raptor wasn't the only dinosaur to grace the lion's presence that day. Or had it been night? Either way, Roth made himself known with a polite cough from his throat. His razor sharp claws were held out limply in front of him ready to flash out and rake across any possible enemy he might come across.

"Hello lions, and to you sir!" Bright eyes flicked to the feathered raptor as a smile graced Roth's muzzle. "I see I'm not the only dinosaur here in this army. That's good, very good!" He swung his tail lightly as if giving it a happy wag, almost like a dog.

"Hello fellow raptor. I am Rothilion; you dear chaps may call me Roth, for short, if you so desire." He glanced at the other lions while saying this, not wanting to be rude to them. He was a very formal raptor after all.

"Niiiice ta meetcha too."

His voice cooed and curled in a manner in which no one could tell if he was truly being genuine. He had never actually seen a creature like Nyota, Claudius or Kaluwa. So when Kaluwa gave him a signature cat angry face he had no idea what her state of mind was. Still, he stayed back out of his own apprehension. She was showing off her teeth...so maybe she was angry. But the flattened ears, the fur...his head lowered slightly as he stood his ground. The one with more hair, the male named Nyota, looked much more friendly.

Before he could continue he spotted a creature he DID recognize. A featherless raptor. His eyes widened as an actual grin appeared on his face. "Well HOWD-Y stranger," he clucked. He was formal and quite poetic and polite, unlike anything Bubbha had ever heard. Still, Bubbha had found a kin, so he was quite pleased and didn't mind hiding it.

"Name's Bubbha," he woofed, "Sure's hell's a good sight to see a dinosaur who knows pack life'round here! Yeah-howdy! Happy ta see yah!"