Nakema

[Nakema]

A single, solitary male lion quietly made his way through the tall, brown blades of grass that covered almost every square mile of South Africa. His green, piercing eyes scanned the horizon, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

This part of the Sarangetti was his home, and he had sworn an oath to himself to protect it until the very end. And so he would. Making his way under a single tree that provided some shade from the hot noonday sun, the lion flopped down into the dirt, kicking up dust around his body. He merely snorted to blast it out of his face, then yawned and looked around again.

Suddenly he spotted movement only a few hundred feet from him and instantly the lion's attitude had changed. His face was stern, his eyes scanning carefully for the source of the movement. As he spotted it again, the lion carefully and quietly got up and began padding slowly towards the source of the rustling in the blades of grass. As he got close, he crouched down, his tail swishing back and forth quietly. Then he pounced on the movement, only to discover a frightened, squealing wild boar under his paws. The lion sighed and lifted his paw, letting the frightened animal go. Had he been even mildly hungry, it would have been the first part of his meal. However, food was the last thing on his mind that day.

The lion returned to his spot under the tree and sat down again, then yawned and gave out a small roar. Birds rustled in a tree in the distance, and he watched as several zebra and herd of gazelle stopped grazing, searching anxiously for the source of the noise. Then he heard another noise. He had never heard it before. It sounded like the hooves of a stampede, and yet there were no cries or gutteral noises to match it. As the lion looked around, he spotted something in the distance, kicking up a large amount of dust and moving a pace that would give a cheetah a hard time.

Eventually the object came closer. He saw something that he had never seen before. It was loud, shiny, and seemed to be rolling along a dirt path on four disk-shaped stones. As the object stopped, something on the sides of the object opened and the lion realized what it was he was looking at. It was a loud, metal animal that carried roughly four humans inside along with their belongings. If he remembered, he had overheard a herd of gazelle talking amongst each other, and they had called it a 'thwuck'...or something like that. Of course, the herbivores' mouths had been full at the time, so he could have misheard the word. The lion didn't remember, but it really didn't matter.

As the humans assembled around the thwuck, they carried something in their hands that alarmed the lion. He had seen them before in the hands of other humans as they stood over a dead elephant about a week ago. They made a terrible noise and frightened any birds in the area. They also killed whatever they were pointed at, and smoke and flame spat out of the front of the object.

Why were the humans here? And why did they have those things in their claws? The lion remained still, hoping that the humans wouldn't see him. As he attempted to move out of their sight range, however, the lion startled a flock of birds drinking at a nearby water hole. Two of the humans turned around and pointed their objects at the lion, speaking in whatever humans spoke. Then one of the humans pointed his object at the lion and he saw smoke and flame shoot out of the front of it. Then he felt a burning sensation on his shoulder and realized that whatever the objects had in them, he couldn't see them. That was even worse. As the blood gently streamed out of the flesh wound on his shoulder, the lion ran as fast as he could away from the humans, hearing and feeling several more loud noises and objects whizzing by him. Then he went into a group of trees and high grass, where he remained for a few moments before looking out at the area around him. The humans had climbed back into the large metal animal and it was moving towards him.

Then the lion got an idea. Slowly, carefully, he made his way to the side of the dirt path where the metal animal would probably travel. As he crouched in a group of bushes, the lion spotted the animal, right on course. As it passed close to him, the lion pounced, outstretching his forepaws, claws extended. As the lion hit the animal, he slammed one paw through a hard membrane where he could see the humans sitting inside. The membrane caused that paw to bleed, but the lion slashed at the two humans that he could see, slicing one of the humans across the face and knocking the other out the other side of the moving animal. The second human smashed into a large rock alongside the dirt path, his brains splattering over it.

One down, three to go.

Suddenly the animal slid to a halt and the lion was thrown off of it. Then two of the parts of the animal opened and two humans pointed their objects at the lion. The lion merely roared and jumped on top of the animal and hopped over to the back of it, then came up behind one of the humans and caught his arm in his jaws, the pulled, ripping the human's fragile limb out of its socket. The human screamed and his object made a loud noise. The lion felt a burning sensation in his back, but nothing felt damaged. Then the lion swung a paw at the human, tearing its face off of its skull. The human dropped dead into the dirt. Two more to go. The lion circled the animal, searching for the other human that had clambered out of the animal's insides. Then he felt something collide with his skull, only to realize that the other human had hit the lion's head with his loud object.

The lion roared and grabbed the object from the main with his jaws, accidentally causing it to produce the smoke and flame again. As the lion looked at where the human had been, he saw the human lying a few feet away, a large, bloody hole in his torso. The lion dropped the object from his jaws. That was a special object that took whole portions out of the defenseless animals in his home. The lion snorted...served it right. Okay, so there was one human left now. It must have still been inside the animal. However, as the lion circled the animal again, he saw blood dripping from inside the shiny animal. Was that from the last human? It probably was. The lion had hit it pretty hard.

Satisfied that his work was completed, the lion slowly made his way back to his tree and laid down, licking his wounds carefully. They stung pretty badly and some of them were leaking a fair amount of blood. The lion made a notice not to attack any humans with those objects again. If there had been any more, he probably wouldn't have survived his own attack.

As he finished tending to his wounds the best he could, the lion picked up his head and looked into the west. The sun would set in a few hours and night would come. Then he could rest fully.

He was a lion. His name was Nakema.

[Kalia]

The wind was hot, hardly cool enough to cause a painful breeze. But it bustled toward her, carrying the scent of machines, along with two, maybe three humans, and a lion. Its fingers sifted through the bloodied skin that she wore, caressing over her own tanned form. Yes, she looked human; no, she wasn’t. Two triangles of zebra skin was tied around her waist to hide her from view, and one tied around her chest front. Having been around humans long enough, she learnt that to blend in, one would have to dress like them.

The lioness took in the scents with her sensitive nose as it fed through her long golden hair. Now, there had been bloodshed, and not from the Human’s veins. Fur sprouted through her clothing and skin, and her face jutted forward, while her ears grew and moved to the top of her head and her hands and feet flattened out. The rifle was now clutched between her jaws as she bolted through the grass plain, seeming very much like a blur of gold among the dry reeds.

By that time, she had reached the other side of the waterhole, and the truck had begun speeding straight for the shot lion relentlessly. She had made a bad assumption of two humans, because there were four inside the truck, all of them holding their own shotguns. Like the fur had sprouted through her skin, it melted back, and with a few bones popping and stretching, she raced to the bank where she would be hidden from view. Kalia took aim with her rifle and pulled the trigger, forcing a sickening thud into the human left in the truck.

When she had looked around, everything was silent again, aside from the lion padding back to his tree. Her breathing slowed considerably as she listened closely. Once she had concluded that everything was okay again, she dropped the gun from her fingers and stood straight, the dry grass reaching up to her knees, brushing hard against them. Slowly the lion made her way over to the deserted truck on bare feet, not glancing over at the male lion, and opened the closest door. She lifted her feet and climbed into the vehicle, grasping the human she had shot by the wrist.

Easily, he was pulled free, and slumped into the grass, smacking his head against the foot rest to get into the car as he fell. She smirked. Even in death they were stupid creatures. Her hands touched the ground and flattened out, sprouting fur all over her form. In a shiver of people-bumps from her head to the tip of her brushy tail, she returned to her true form. Toned muscles, golden fur, amber eyes, not a flaw in sight. She turned her head over her shoulder to glance at the male, then bared her teeth and sunk them into the shoulder of the human she had claimed.

Already the blood spilled onto the fur on her chin and cheeks. After tearing out a decent-sized chunk of flesh and devouring it simply, she decided against eating the human there, and locked her canines around the upper left arm, beginning to drag it away awkwardly. It was unwise to eat around other lions, even if they had their own kill. If she stayed, he would probably challenge her to give up her choice and leave.

Kalia wouldn’t have that.

[Nakema]

As Nakema watched the sun track its way across the sky, he sensed someone else nearby. Baring his teeth and uttering a low growl from within him, Nakema saw a human female, beautiful to any set of eyes, no matter the species, drag the human that he thought he had killed out of the shining animal, which gave out a sputter before it coughed and seemed to stop emitting its awful smoke. The lion saw the loud object in its hand, but he paid it no mind. The female was not after him. Probably a scavenger searching for something of value on the humans. Yet something struck his senses as odd. Her scent was that of a lioness. But that seemed impossible...unless...

Nakema looked away again, watching a flock of birds leave their watering hole as hyenas approached it. A moment later he looked over again, only to find that the human female had turned into a lioness and was dragging away her kill, or at least what he assumed was hers, judging from the smoke coming from the object after it had belched flame at the metal animal. Another lioness...here in his very home!

Suddenly excited, Nakema stood up, only to fall again as he felt something within his shoulder snap. He must have been injured worse than he thought, for the feeling was excruciating. The lion roared in pain, scaring most of the surrounding prey and causing them to scatter. He couldn't walk as a lion in this state. But he had to meet this lioness! He made up his mind and concentrated on changing into his human form. He felt his tendon move around, and it felt completely out of place, but as he finished changing it moved back into place and felt a little better.

Nakema's human form probably would have made most human males jealous. A mussed head of blonde hair, piercing green eyes that would cause most human females to faint just looking at them, evenly tanned skin that seemed to match his lion pelt exactly, no shirt and a simple leatherskin loincloth to cover himself and make him appear at least half-decent in other human company. Rotating his shoulder and popping everything into place, Nakema stood and carefully approached the lioness, holding out one hand low to the ground, as if to say he wasn't here to challenge her. His human speech had improved over time, but it still wasn't perfect. That would come with age. Instead he approached the lioness and, once close enough to the human and the immortal, Nakema sat down cross-legged in front of her. Watching her eyes carefully, Nakema reached out for the man's object and studied it intently. What was this thing called? He had so much to learn of humans, still only being a late teen in their years.

He decided instead to use his telepathic ability to speak to this living goddess. He just hoped she could hear him.

Please, do not be threatened by my approach. I merely want to talk to you. I've never seen you here before, and I wish to know your name. You may take this human as your kill if you wish, for I do not eat human flesh. I eat only the flesh of a proper kill. Just tell me who you are...please.

[Kalia]

Suddenly, the wind changed its course, sending her scent down to the male lion. If she wasn’t careful, he would follow. Shoot… she cursed in her thoughts, and began to try and lope with the corpse dangling from her jaws. The lioness found it quite difficult always to run with such a large chunk of flesh to carry, but she had to move from the lion. She had to get away, out of his territory. Soon, his pride would come and feast on the meal he had gotten them.

Which meant she would most likely be a part of it. The roar made her flinch, but she didn’t turn back, continuing to lope away. However, when she did look back, there was the same lion, only in his imitation human form, following her slowly. Had she been more attracted to humans than lions, she would have stopped, but no. Humans were no different from each other. ‘Please don’t be threatened by my approach,’ he said, but she turned her head back and let go of a warning snarl, still holding up the lolling human.

‘Teach me what you know,’ that was laughable, had she not been threatened by him. The tip of her brown tail twigged impatiently as she forced the snarl to grow, baring her bloodied canines further. This was one of the times that she remembered why she became nomadic in her life. Her ears on her head twisted and flattened as if wanting to protect the contents as he spoke. He was just another lion wanting to know everything.

I’m not the lioness you speak of! She warned, letting her snarl die down while her tail swayed in annoyance. Oh yes, she heard him, but she didn’t want to listen. Not at all. She had to get out of the area. Oh, she hoped that she would be able to leave before his pride discovered what had happened. Reassurance of this thought reminded her of the goal she had. Remove the corpse from the land he occupied, and devour it before the scavengers came. Kalia did a dangerous thing, and turned her back on the lion, dragging the corpse at the lope she had done earlier.

[Nakema]

First she snarled, then she bared her teeth. Then, she turned her back on him. Anger bubbled up within him, and he changed forms again, hoping that his wound would hold up, at least for the time being. Nakema was furious. A female turning her back to a male demanding her attention was unheard of. He changed forms on the run, sprinting on two legs first, then bounding on four before skidding to a halt in front of the lioness, snarling himself, baring his canines for her to view. Now he meant business. That was what it should have been all along.

DO NOT turn your back on me! Stop right there! he snapped at her.

Nakema roared briefly at the lioness before approaching her and staring straight into her eyes, his own full of rage and demanding respect. Rage filled him from within, threatening to burst out if she attempted to strike him in any fashion. He did not wish to strike her, but if it was necessary, he would do so. He had to command her respect, and he was beginning to tire of trying to figure out how.

Put that wretched corpse down and stand still so I can talk to you, he growled.

Nakema sensed a powerful spirit within this lioness. She would not be easy to negotiate with. But he would prevail. He had to. The male began to circle the lioness, as if ready to pounce on her at any moment. He had given her two opportunities to share her identity with him. He would not ask again. Adrenaline pumped through Nakema's veins and he let out a low, gutteral growl as he circled the lioness.

I'm growing impatient so I won't ask again. Who...are...YOU?