Queen Mother Eglantine

STATS - SKILL: 52
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As a cub, Eglantine did not understand the hostility the older huntress's had for their king. She use to look on as Baraq....or as the other lioness's called: Tafari (she never understood why he had two names). She use to watch him with the red lioness Dysis who was older than her, but not yet an adult. Tafari always had this strange look in his eyes she didn't understand, and when she was a cub she brushed it off. In her eyes he was a strong looking king and thats all that she cared about, because then her mother, Ayo (the queen) would be safe.

But then all her fancies of strong kings and kind rulers ceased.

How stupid she was when she was but a cub, just learning what meat tasted like.

Her mother and the others were asleep, the hunting party already left, and Hadithi went to she the witch doctor about his sore muscles. Eglantine wanted to play, she was in no mood to sleep and caught on to the scent of Tafari and happily pranced after him. Maybe if she snuck up reeeeeally good she could surprise him!

"Eglantine." His voice more of a threatening growl than the impressed purr she was going for.

The rosy brown lion cub poked her head out of the tall grass she had been hiding in. A smile on her face even though she got caught, he knew her name!

"Awe, I was so close! Wasn't I Tafari? I almo--"

"DON'T CALL ME BY THAT NAME!" Tafari roared to her. She felt the earth shake and her little legs give. Fearfully, Eglantine flattened her ears.

What did she do?

Was he mad she followed him?

"W-wha--" she squeaked looking up at his suddenly towering form, his eyes that same strange way.

"You insolent--did no one teach you not to call me that name? I am Baraq, your king!"

"I-I'm sorr--"

"And what king makes cubs cry?" a feminine voice asked from behind. Eglantine looked up with teary eyes to see Alethea standing over her protectively. The fawn pelt familiar and smelling comfortingly like sunshine.

"I was trying to teach her some manners." Tafari growled with a wave of his tail. Eglantine held on to the lioness fearfully.

"Then teach it to an aardvark, an honest king doesn't threaten his young." Alethea turned her glance to the trembling cub with a motherly smile. Grabbing hold of her scruff with her teeth Eglantine let herself be carried away to her mother were she would cry into her chest until she fell asleep.

His final words to her before she was out of ear-shot haunted her:

'Don't you ever come near me again...'

And she obeyed.
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Since that day Eglantine avoided Tafari like the plague.

She slept with her mother and the other lioness's, spent most of her time with her mother or Roksana and Blodwyn. She even left to hunt before the king would even wake up for the day.

Something that faithful day Tafari had snapped at her told her to ignore him, pretend he never existed and just focus on herself and the lioness's. And that's what she did.

Sometimes though he would try and talk with her, tell her something, but Eglantine brushed him off, muttered quickly she had to be somewhere, or ran off before he could even open his mouth. The rosy brown lioness took his words to heart all the way to her adulthood. She thought the king had finally gotten the picture too, for he hadn't paid much attention to her from what she could tell the last 2 months.

He must have gotten tired of her now and just gave up....

That's what she wanted to think.....until now.

She just needed to scratch her back, just a few minutes of bark on fur action to reach that spot she just couldn't with her paws. She had closed her white eyes for maybe just a moment when the tree creaked under more weight that definitely wasn't hers.

There was a low growl.

"Eglantine."

The lioness's eyes shot open. Her instincts told her to shrink back, to run. But two front legs blocked either exit from her predicament. Those legs were connected to the only creature she had planned to avoid until death: Tafari.

"T--" She snapped her jaw shut, she was almost going to say the forbidden name. Not that the seething look in her kings eyes said he was going to let her speak anyways.

"Eglantine," he repeated. "What are you doing?" he asked. The lioness blinked.....

"Uhh.....scratching my back?" she answered unsure now as to what she really was doing. She was pretty sure she was only on her back paws with her back against a tree to scratch it....then this thing showed up.

"No...not...why are you acting like this?" Tafari, she noticed, seemed to be as conflicted as she and this whole situation looked.

"Acting like....what?" She asked slowly. Her king has become an idiot....this would be her reasoning for this whole thing.....A momentary lapse in idiocy. It suited him though, the idiot king.

"You--this--Even Blodwyn still talks to me however biting her remarks are! But you--" his voice was low and oddly confused and stopped his speech midway through as if he didn't know what to say.

"Why are you just ignoring me!?"
.
.
.
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You've got to be kidding.
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.
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Right?
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Right??

"What." She didn't say it as a question. Tafari glared at her, she could hear his claws did in the bark angrily. Then there was silence. The two of them stood in that awkward position for what felt like hours.

"You heard me, I know you hear me."

Eglantine growled in frustration. She didn't was to deal with this, she had to catch up with Chitra and the others for a hunting patrol.

"You ask this now?!" She hissed, her front paw roughly shoved him aside so she could move away from him.

"You...You were the one who said to never come near you again!" She roared, lashing her tail out.

"I was just doing exactly what you wanted me to my KING!" she bit out 'king' like it was scorpion poison on her tongue. Tafari stayed oddly silent, his brow furrowed and glare wavering.

"So what do you want with me now? Hm? Do you want to mate with me? Dysis is there for you, just wait another few months." She yowled in annoyance, the lions hackles raised.

"You think this is about that!?" he roared.

"Why else did you have the sudden urge to talk to me, you seemed quite content ignoring me too for the last few months!"

"Thats--I--This is different!" He struggled to argue back. Eg scoffed.

"Oh really, pray tell what it is that I can help you with then?"

"..."

Tafari grew silent again. His eyes clouded in thought and Eglantine didn't have the patience to wait for him to find his answer. She turned to leave; the dust her paws unsettled woke the lion out of his thoughts before he pounced on her to keep her from leaving him like all the hundreds of time she ran. Eg growled threateningly.

"You....."

"Shut up." he interrupted. "Just...just stay for a few more minutes...Like this." he stumbled over his words. Like he was nervous. Eg tensed under him, he wouldn't, would he?

Nothing happened. Eg began the relax, her muscles ached with Tafari's weight pinning her into the dirt. His paws moved off her shoulders, she watched them placed on the ground on either side of her head before he laid his body close to hers, their pelts brushing so close together she didn't know which part was hers. Eglantine turned to Tafari with a strange look on her face. He was acting weird. Eg didn't like it, this was uncomfortable, she had never been so close to him before. She could smell him, the sun, the blood, even Dysis on him. It did strange flip flops to her gut and her ears flattened unsure.

Tafari laid his head over her shoulder with the leg that was draped around her pulling them closer. Brown clouded her vision and tickled her nose with his scent. She felt on her his own nose breathing in every scent she had on her.

This...is so uncomfortable. She spent her life avoiding the lion that traumatized her so much as a cub. Made her cry until the senior lioness's concluded for her well being she should just stir clear of their king in general. But now?

All her accomplished escapes evaded even her now as she stilled against him as he held onto her like something precious. They were so close, but his hold didn't hurt, like he was trying so awkwardly to not hurt her.

"B-Baraq.....let me go. I don't like this." she muttered between his coarse mane. He silently shook his head.

"Now that I have you in my grasp I don't want to...I finally......" his voice drifted off as a sound she had never heard from him vibrated in his throat. Eglantine's eyes widened and she used all her strength to squirm away from his touch to stand, taking a step away from him as a precaution. She stared at him with wide white eyes.

Tafari also seemed shaken at what just took place finally. He looked at the empty space where she had just occupied to her form, freaked out and tense. His eyes cleared as he realized what he had been doing all this time and scrambled to his feet. He just...stared at her. Eyes showing emotion she wasn't even sure he understood.

She took another step back and he twitched.

"I.....I have to go." she finally choked out before darting away in panic. Forgetting the hunting patrol was hunting in the opposite direction.
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It was an odd feeling, Eglantine thought. Her heart thumped heavily and her breath came in quick gasps as she followed Blodwyn to the spot two large lumps of fur lay. Shock reflected in her pale eyes as the dark fur of her king and the scent of blood soaking his side did not hold just the scent of his opponent.

It was hard to believe. Even with all his might he could still, surprisingly, get hurt. This was the cruel tom who had killed her mothers lover and mate. The tom that scared her into silence as a cub.

And yet...

Their pace slowed as the white lioness-princess stared awestruck at the scene of one mangled lion corpse and a heavily breathing Tafari. Sharp. burning eyes immediately settled onto Eg. She felt that familiar shiver down her spine he had caused her every time their eyes met. It was a burning, cold, breath taking experience.

"T-Tafari?" she gasped as the brindle lioness took a step closer to him. His side bled with a noticeably open wound. His teeth were bared and he growled scathingly at the princess within the group.

"Curse you Blodwyn, anyone....anyone would have been better than Eglantine!" He roared. The older lioness didn't seem fazed as she swiped a paw over his head.

"Shut up and let her help you up you flea-bitten mongrel."

Eg looked upon her king as he eyed her with his amber eyes. There was...shame. Weakness. Age.

Eg gulped. It was the most open he had ever allowed himself to look. This weakened state of his did not bode well for her. IT churned her stomach, she liked the Tafari that didn't take shit from no one.

Where was that lion. That King that was so cold, yet so awkwardly kind to his only children, Kurika and Shanira. Sisters of all things.

"Tafari..." she sighed again and glided up close to this terrible king and his bloody side.

"No...I..." he choked on his words as he glared up at Blodwyn, anything to keep from meeting Eg's eyes apparently.

"Look at me Tafari."

And this wounded tom obeyed without thought, like he always did when she ordered something of him.

"I don't want you to see me in such a state Eglantine...This is...pathetic." he growled. From behind Eg, Blodwyn rolled her eyes and left the not quite mates to their business.

"...Not as pathetic as scaring a cub to silence." she murmured and hesitantly brought her muzzle to his mane. It was dirty from the fight.

"I always do wrong by you." he stated. It was a fact, she knew. It seemed so very hard for him to be nice.

"You do." She said matter of factly. "But I forbid you to actually die from a little scratch like this before I give into your advances."

Tafari chuckled low and foreboding.

"No, we can't have that, now can we."

"Lets get you cleaned up old man." she murmured through his mane before licking his cheek sweetly. He grunted.