One Lonely Tree, Standing in one Lonely Field {o}

[Kamaria]

It was one of the few trees that had been left standing out here, after the wood stopped. It simply looked lonely, standing silently in the grass, with empty savannah all around it. There was only the grass, the wind, the deep blue sky, and, of course, the soil it had rooted itself into. Sometimes the wind would come to play with it, waving its long branches to some unheard tune. And sometimes the grass would join in, swaying to that same invisible music. But even the wind couldn't stand the lonelyness of this expanse of grassland. And then the grass would go back to ignoring the tree, and the wind would move on, and the deep blue sky would retreat again, and the tree would be left there, standing silently, so lonely.

They were very alike, this lone lioness and that lone tree. Neither had much contact with their own kind, and neither had much contact with anyone else. They both just stayed put, hoping that someday, someone would come along, if only for a few hours, maybe a day, if they got lucky. They both stayed quiet, thinking to themselves, wondering when the next visitor would chance upon the lands. They made their own way in the world, without any help from anyone else. But they both longed for company, no matter how much they hated to admit it.

That is why she had come here, so that she could be not-so-lonely with another very lonely thing. She was the Queen of a pride. Of course, anyone could see that it wasn't much of a pride at all. Actually, it could hardly be considered a pride. It was just a piece of claimed land. But the only inhabitant was herself, and no one else. She was used to being on her own. She had been for over a year now. She wished someone would come and take her mind away. Just to lift her spirits. She wished someone would come join her pride, or someone was bound to take over it. She plopped down between two roots that protruded from the ground. They made quite the little bed, and she found herself very comfortable here. She thought she would make this her sleeping place for as long as she could.

"You know, things wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't the only thing here." Oh, god, she was talking to a tree. A tree! But it was working. She felt a little better, talking to something. Plus, she'd already found that they had much in common. "It's so lonely here. No one ever comes." She paused for a moment, as if listening to some response. "Of course, it's an unnatural place. But it shouldn't keep everyone away." She sighed and rested her head on the hump of a root, watching the landscape. "Maybe I should leave. Find somewhere else to live, where there are more lions." She paused again, and chuckled. She was really talking to a tree. It was a sad thing, but she didn't care so much. At least she was having a conversation, even if it was one-sided. So she continued her conversation, just saying random things, hoping that someone would happen along.

[Vox]

The wind whispered along the grasses, dancing on them, making them bend slightly under it's ethereal weight, the sort of pressure that was more real in thought, than in actuality. It was the rare being that had a greater presence than substance, that could always be felt, but never seen, unless it had a companion riding on it's back. The birds rode it, and skillfully too. But they were the greatest of the beings that chose to accompany the great gusts and breezes; the rest were merely leaves, or dirt, or that dreaded dust that permeated weak, weak lungs and left them wheezing for oxygen. It was not discerning, and would take any it could carry. It was not picky, anything that came with it could stay. It was a majestic force, the greatest of all spies, for it was everywhere, and yet never caught, or harnessed, for long. The wind.

Furtive movements of his paws were the first indication that action was anticipated. It was in his usual fashion. Those around him knew he was going to move, long before he actually did so. He had to prepare himself, arm himself against the idea of approaching the world again, of rising up from his reverie and facing reality. One might think of him as a dreamer, really, from the way one goes on about him. But he wasn't...Not really. He had passions, great ones. He had longings, oh yes indeed. But as far as dreams went, he felt rather flat. It had been that way for a long time. For quite a bit before his change of name, change of identity. He had renounced dreaming, because dreaming had failure somewhere in the equation. Or, simply not doing anything about his 'fancy'. He was a capricious man, certainly, but only about very small things, and for this we must forgive him. He was here one moment, there the next, and never in one place long. But he always came back to his base, to his original home and plan. And thus it was with his ambitions.
It was strange, therefore, to find him in the westerly lands, rather than those nearer the east, as he usually returned to at this time of year. As was it unusual that he seemed to lack his usual lustre, his normal composure, as far as what he wanted out of life. Truth was not fading as fast as he had hoped. He was not an old man, but a gentleman well in his prime, though he acted more like the former. Our man did not dare challenge his 'father' for the position which he had lusted over for so long...But he wish he could. Oh, would that he had the courage of a lion! Hah. And that was the greatest irony of it all. Oedipus was more a cat than a lion, and Truth was his better. Truth had to go. Truth...Needed to get out of his plan. But...How? Truth was, and he did not kid himself to think otherwise though he often boasted to the contrary, his superior in almost every respect. A greater leader, a more cunning commander, and...Worst of all, Ed suspected that he had a far greater heart, and a steellier nerve than he, Ed, possessed. But enough of that. If he thought those thoughts, they would have him, and he would no longer have them.

Oedipus's long tail with it's black tuft twitched in a way that was as impatient, and slightly annoyed as he was currently. He did not like having to rethink his goals. His goals, unlike his situation and moods, were fixed and unmoving, in his opinion. And when they too came into question, or were subject to his own or other's scrutiny, it made him feel nettled and misanthropic (excuse us if the root of the word does not make particular sense in context, and allow us all to assume that by 'antho' we mean 'present company' or 'general audience capable of as much or more sentient thought as the thinker himself'). His swarthy, clever face was at present in a state of forced repose. He was, despite his rather uncofortable mood, rather pleased with the weather, with the state of his other affairs, and his hunger was for the moment, satied. He had dined on a warthog several hours ago, and was very nearly finished with sleeping it off. It was because of this that his restlessness had kicked in, and the need to move had spread throughout his body like a toxin, or poison.
As if to spite all his previous shifting, and slight movements, the action which brought him standing fully upright was sudden, and angry. He shook his mane free of dirt, thin as it was at his age of two and a bit years, and coughed very slightly in the delicate, casual way which told all who were listening that his was a chronic cough, and not the kind that came and went with the amount of dust in his lungs. Feeling marginally better, now he was standing, Ed surveyed the landscape around him.

There was a forest to his left, he was not much bothered with which position the sun was in and therefore did not know whether it was east or west, but it grew more and more bare as it reached out to his current position, and there were few trees surrounding him. In fact, he could only count three. One was the small bush (he considered it a tree for simplicities sake) he had been briefly napping under, the other was far in the distance, and the third was a little ways a way, about two hundred yards, and the tallest of the three stunted little bits of foliage. Ed smirked at the tree in the distance, admiring it slightly for surviving both the parched dry season and the constantly flooding wet season. His feet paddled slightly as he struck out for it in an aimless sort of way, not staying particularly straight as he trotted in his dashingly nonchalont way toward it but zig-zagging as the mood took him. Taking in the breeze through his 'marron' nostrils, he allowed his black lips to part as his tongue curled out to clean his whiskers more thoroughly of their last meal. He was not much one for water, but he found himself bathing often. Partly to cover his trail, and partly because if he was wet he was not dusty, and if he was not dusty, he could breathe better. It was because of this that his face was not permanently stained with blood and gore.

As he drew closer to the tree, his eyes travelled over the worn, shrivelled bark of the thing, gazing at it with his intent, olive-green eyes. "Ah, my friend...We are not so dissimilar, are we? Like you, I have never known greatness...Neither in stature, nor in position. Like you, I have always been apart, different." He sighed slightly, staring up at the shrunken branches, his voice taking on a morose tone. "And like you, I have not been treated kindly by the world. I wonder how the seasons must feel to one such as yourself...Lonely, probably. And hard." Ed looked at his feet, small compared to most males his age, and rather effeminate, like the rest of his lanky, graceful frame. "Very hard, has it been, for me." His low, raspy voice, filled with a passion that his frame could not express, and his slightly sickly complexion contorted as he fought to keep extreme bitterness out of his voice. His breathing grew slightly more fitful, and he gave another, barely audible this time, cough. It was more out of habit, or perhaps nerves, than anything. His brow furrowed. It relaxed soon enough, as it always did, when his mind wandered to something else, his hitherto undisplayed caprice now in greater prominence. His eyes grew bored and troubled with the tree, or rather, what the tree represented to him, and instead alighted on another creature. He had not been careful enough. He had not noticed her there.

It was a lioness. One about his age, as well, maybe a touch younger. She was...Well, she was no great beauty, as far as that went. But he considered her in those shrewd, sharp eyes of his, and decided that she was indeed quite handsome. Not pretty. But handsome, yes, she could be called that. She had a presence Not exactly regal...But lonely. Well, that was all right then.
It struck him, suddenly--and this was a truly wonderful idea--that she might very well think he had been speaking to her. Her sad, slightly triangular eyes seemed like they would have responded very well to his despondent conversation with the tree. Little did he know that she too had been practising her 'lengua de arbol', as one might say.
His stare grew less intense, and more affably curious, as it was apt to do when he met someone's gaze, and it was of the opposite sex. His slightly mocking, but definitely friendly, smile curled upon his lips like a purring cat as it might go about it's business: stretching, strutting about for a moment, and then settling by a window somewhere, in the sun. He looked up at the tree, and then down at her again, and cocked his head in a way that asked the silent question 'And h'what might this young lady be doing all by her onesies on this absolutely charming day, hmm?', and dictated that he was going to let her start the conversation, but that he did, certainly, intend to talk to her.

out of crackers! Sorry it's sort of jittery, and all over the place. I'll try harder next time. I didn't want it to take ages, so I kept it vaguely concise, haha.
As for the dialogue...He's trying to be cool, and impressive, in case you haven't noticed, so it would go against his character to have him talk, and say something stupid xDD I beg your pardon most sincerely for not giving you more to work with than his little monologue with the tree--I shamefully copied your wonderful idea on that, haha.

[Kamaria]

So lost in her one-sided conversation she was. She let her guard down. Of course, it had been slowly dropping over the months and weeks without company or intruders. She didn't even reserve her senses for the scent that came on the air, nor for the sound of shuffling paws somewhere behind her. Nor did she even take her eyes off the horizon, where she had planted them, waiting for the sun to go down and blind her out of a conversation. She didn't care what was happening, but for a moment she was silent.

And then the tree talked back. At first, she thought it was just some stupid trick of her still juvenile imagination. She didn't pay it much attention. But the voice was different. It was raspy, just as she might imagine and old tree's sound, but there was something else... It wasn't what her original conversation had consisted of. She had imagined it a quiet voice, a whisper. And there was always the fact that the voice wasn't just inside her head. But she still didn't react immediately. Only long after he--it was a male's voice, of course--had finished, did she finally look up.

At first she couldn't comprehend what she saw. This voice had not been the tree's, but someone else's entirely. She wondered how she could have let him sneak past her borders without seeing him even once. But, she had been a bit lazy about patrols. It wasn't a very wise thing to do, but there hadn't been any others in the area for a long time. And it was hard to keep up with a territory all by your lonesome. She was slow to react, but she stood, in all her stocky glory, and glared. Her eyes shone amber in the sunlight, but burned with frustration and annoyance.

"Who the hell are you, and what are you doing on my land?" She wasn't a pleasant girl when she was surprised, especially when she was agitated with herself for letting him get so far into the territory. And she certainly wasn't very welcoming to strangers who looked menacing but had a mocking but somewhat friendly smile. She didn't like his looks. He simply looked to be one of those unstable types, someone she would never entirely trust. She didn't know exactly what to think about him, but she did know that he was tresspassing, and he'd better have a damn good reason why.

[Vox]

It amused him somewhat to watch her struggle to find the one who was speaking. It made him feel more comfortable. Which, if we are to be quite honest with ourselves, was as inconvenient for the lioness as it was convenient for him. He was imposing. He was rude. And he was unwelcome. All that he knew, and yet...And yet he liked to be reminded of it. Smooth-talking and suave, at times, he still didn't manage to be as well mannered as he should, and dragged himself wherever he fancied, which made others get tetchy.
It seemed that this girl, like most of the other people he met on his travels, was not the sort who took things all in their stride, with a level-head. Well, that was unfair of him. She might have done, if he had given her some warning of his presence. But he had probably just given her an almighty fright. Some spook turning up on her land, grinning at her weirdly, with his strange greenish eyes. Yep. That was odd, all right. He didn't blame her. Of course he would have preferred a nice, friendly, royal welcome...But it wasn't as if she knew who he was, anyway. He'd get to that in a moment, yes indeed. But for now, he had something to say, rather, and he found it more important to formulate that thought, rather than observe the niceties and answer he actual question first.

With languid grace, he took his time in responding to her nerve-inspired reply. Choosing his words carefully was not a favourite pastime of his, but in this instance, he thought it might be a good idea. And so he seemed to chew on the words mentally before swallowing them and speaking them. Ed scrutinised the other with his large, dangerous looking eyes. They were defined as dangerous, because their shape changed often, indicative of his constantly flowing emotions. This moment they were narrowed, the other the were skeptically crooked with eyebrows arched, and finally they were resigned and bored, wandering about listlessly. But today he kept them intently focused on the girl, for she was little more than that, and certainly not by any means a 'woman'. He cocked his head to the side slightly, curled his lips back into a smile after their brief repose in a thoughtful frown, and then uttered something, which at first sounded as thought it might be on a totally different subject, but then connected to the conversation presently at hand. And her was what the young prince said, "My...father," Here a certain emphasis was put, and it was not clear whether it was from disdain or merely because he was stressing how important his father was, "My father has always taught me that a whole is only as strong as each one of it's individual parts, and the something 'extra' that team spirit brings on. That a kingdom is only as powerful as each one of it's members. That a ruler has no power..." Oedipus took a few steps forward so that they were on the same side of the tree now, and only a few feet apart, so he needn't raise his voice to make himself heard, "...If she had no subjects." This last phrase was spoken in a low voice, his rasping, slightly wheezy tones gaining a great deal more of power when he spoke softly, rather than his forced, rather strained tone of before that made him 'waste his wind'.

His eyes had locked on hers, slightly challenging, but not dominating or quite as obnoxious as he usually was. He held it for a few moments, and then broke the stare, blinking once and turning to step a few more feet away. He sighed as if in disappointment, or boredom, and then said in a louder voice, so that his vocal chords seemed to strain, and break slightly from want of air. "And right now, it's just you and I here, in this land. Which..." He turned to face her, a sardonic, but quite harmless, expression on his face, "Is not, after all, very promising." He smiled a touch less sarcastically, and his posture grew half-way formal. Oedipus bowed his head respectfully to her, and flicked his tail calmly. "I bring greetings, your Majesty, from the Pride Alethea, I am Prince Oedipus, heir to the throne of my father, the King." He smiled openly, and a rare, pleasant expression took over his face as he looked at her again. For a brief instant, he looked like a well-brought up, polite, handsome young man with feminine characteristics, but only where they were to his advantage. And then he looked to the side, at some disturbance, and his face darkened slightly, ears pricking forward, lean, well-arched neck thrusting itself and the muscles it was attached to into greater prominence. Oedipus watched the disturbance, a cloud of birds, until it passed, taking this moment to show how relaxed and disarmingly inattentive he was to her actions, if they were aggressive. He was not here to fight. He was not here on official business, either, really. He was here because this was where the excitement, the unknown was. He had not been to Poriuma, the old seat of his uncle King Rohtah, in a very long time, and he was keen to see what sort of person this Queen was. Connections to the other Houses of royalty were always important. And he thought Truth might not take away his position if he occaisionally did something worthwhile for the Pride...

[Kamaria]

She watched him, dangerously quiet. He couldn’t be much older than her, if older at all. His mane was just beginning to cover the whole of his neck, and barely concealed a scar over his skin. His dark pelt blended with the shadow of the tree, making him all the more threatening when he looked like that. He seemed to wait a long time to reply to her hastily spoken question. She glared at him, waiting, shoulders tensed and tail lashing. If he took this long to answer anything, he was going to get annoying very quickly.

When he finally replied, it seemed to her that he was lecturing her on the workings of a pride. And it seemed that he was insulting her, or simply proving that she couldn't do much to him. Whatever way he meant it, she didn't like it. She let a warning growl rumble up her throat. But she waited to see if he would answer her question at all. She held his gaze evenly, stubbornly proud of her land. Even if there were no other inhabitants, it was hers. He walked away, and then continued. Now he spoke of the two of them, and then tried to inform her of the quality of the land. She tried to restrain herself from lunging at him right then, and tried to speak calmly, though she didn't succeed at all. "It won't do you any good to insult me or my home, stranger."

She blinked as he bowed his head to her. At least he knew something of respect. She smirked as he finally gave her an introduction. "I bring greetings, your Majesty, from the Pride Alethea, I am Prince Oedipus, heir to the throne of my father, the King." She tried to recall where exactly the Alethea resided, and finally remembered. She raised an eyebrow. "Why so far from home, Prince?" Her voice was mocking, just barely curious. She turned her ears half-way forward, listening now but still not quite comfortable with his presence. Prince or not, she wasn't the type to give respect to a name. Besides, he'd already made her mad, and hadn't shown much prince-like character. "Play your cards right, and you might just take home greetings from Gwadnoya, the Queen of the Ari." She paused, eyeing him unhappily. "As you so gracefully pointed out, there are no members to this pride, yet there is still a Queen. As long as I remain, so will the Ari."

She narrowed her eyes, feeling a little better knowing where he had come from and what his name was. "So, Oedipus, what brings you here, if the place isn't very promising?" She sat back, her tail flicking behind her. Her muscles were still tensed, but she was pretty sure he wasn't going to attempt to take her place. She watched him for a moment, and then looked back at the horizon. She had begun to enjoy watching the days pass; welcoming the sun from the east, and waving it goodbye in the west. It had become a very relaxing way to pass the time alone.