Nala journeys into the home of the strange pride and meets and even stranger lion.

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Nala’s Venture Chapter 4
Within the Copse By Shalion
Inside the copse, the rugged savanna trees grew fairly close together, but there was space enough between each branch for many lions to walk abreast. The wind was cut slightly, but the shade under the scraggly, spiky boughs was pleasant. Here the roots held the soil together which was damp to the point of soddenness, but was still a far cry from the mud-plains Nala had traversed so far.

“The pride is on the far side of the stand.” said Mirembe, still plucky as ever, though she was not the one having to drag a 150 lb calf nor did she have a bruised leg. “Wait until you meet my older sister, Kalisha. We can give you a good bath and get you cleaned up and you can share some of your marvelous stories with-” It was then that she turned her head and seemed to notice something about Nala for the first time. “Hey, what’s wrong with your leg?”

Nala was at first puzzled, though she couldn’t deny that her limp was worse for the mile or so that they had trekked so far from the place where they first met. “Oh, this. I bruised my leg pretty bad when I was in the river, I think. I’m fine though.” Her response was naturally a little guarded, it was never good to flaunt weakness in the wild.

“Oh, you poor thing! Why didn’t you say something sooner?” cried Mirembe, with apparently honest dismay. “You’re injured and I made you carry that thing almost all the way home. I’m so sorry!” Mirembe came close to Nala and brushed the top of her head underneath the Pridelander’s chin a whiskers; a sign of submission and repentance. “Please forgive me. I do want to be friends.”

Nala could not be angry at Mirembe for her obliviousness. The other lioness already seemed as a child to her and besides, she had considered the pain worthwhile for a formal introduction to this local pride since they had first started. “It’s alright Mirembe. Really, don’t worry about it.”

“Just let me carry that the rest of the way.” Mirembe said, reaching for the foal’s neck.

Nala moved her paw over the neck to block her. “Really, I’m fine. Besides, you said I should present this to your father to get on his good side. It won’t work if you’re the one bringing it into the pride, remember?”

If Nala’s tone was condescending, Mirembe didn’t realize it. “Oh yes! That’s right. Father will love you if you bring him this. He’s always saying that we need some fresh blood around here.” Her ears twitched. “Not that he’s gonna... you know. He really quite mellow and-”

“Yeah. You told me before.” said Nala with a laugh. When Mirembe swatted her forehead with her paw, Nala laughed again. When the older lioness began to pull the buffalo foal once again through the trees, it was less than an hour before they reached the area where the pride was residing.

Nala dropped the foal from her mouth in surprise when she first glimpsed the area where Mirembe’s family was staying. She was surprised mostly because there was far more to the area than Nala was used to seeing in a typical lion den.

Most lion dens are sparten and simple. A shady area to sleep away the worst of the midday sun, some flat dry ground to sprawl out on and that was about it. Those basics were present at the edge of the copse, but it was obvious at a glance that there was so much more. For starters, there was the ground. Stones had been set in the ground everywhere and close together so as to form a firm and level surface. Dark earth was visible between the stones and the area was coated with grit and stray leaves, but otherwise this place was blessedly dry. That alone was something of a shock, but there were more elements to this place that seemed utterly unnatural. The placement of the trees was one. There were fewer trees, but spaced so as to maintain the shady cover, and Nala noticed that there was clearly space made for the trees between the strange rock
formations. There were also... things hanging from many of the boughs. They reminded Nala of vines or partially dismantled bird’s nests in the way they hung, but the cord was dead and dry and only a single piece was used to support the strange objects that hung here and there.

Nala walked behind Mirembe her head low and her paws flinching slightly everytime she stepped on the hard surface of the pride area. There was even more of this strange organization as the two lions got deeper inside the grounds. It was really more than Nala could take in at once. The place was far larger than any but an extremely large pride really needed, she could tell. But the interior was filled with many more strange rock formations, far more complex than the ground. Some of these seemed like conveniant benches for lying, but others seemed to have other purposes. Even stranger, wood seemed to be shaped here as well into very unusual shapes that Nala could not begin to comprehend. She’d never seen the like before.

It was difficult to continue to drag the carcass with the strange environment that had been presented to her, but fortunately there came distractions right away. There were several lions lying about in the central area of the pride grounds. One of them, oddly enough was a male lion who appeared a bit older than Nala was herself.

After giving a massive and toothy yawn, he hopped off the rock he’d been spread out on and strode up to Mirembe. “Why hello my cute, darling sister. What have you dragged back home today?” He shot a glance at Nala, “It seems like you caught something scraggly in the river. Probably should have thrown it back.”

Mirembe boxed him lightly on the snout, but to little effect aside from a sneer from the male lion. “This is Nala, Fauzi!” She sidled up next to Nala and laid her tail protectively across her shoulders. “She’s from a strange and distant land, and she’s our guest!”

“Harumph.” snorted Fauzi turning his head. “If she stays, that’s for father to decide. Although it certainly looks like she could benefit from a few regular meals...” Turning away from Mirembe, Fauzi came forward uncomfortably close to Nala. “No offense you you, of course... Nala was it? My fluffy headed little sister has a strange fascination with foreign places and is always bring things home. I’m sorry that you’ve seemed to have gotten caught up in her games. My name is Fauzi by the way.”

Nala furrowed her brows slightly. “So I’ve gathered... Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d just like to find your patriarch so I can stop dragging this thing and rest for a while.”

Fauzi grinned slightly and looked like he was about to answer, but Mirembe beat him to it. “At this time of day, Father’s usually out on the sun shelf.”

She began to walk off along a visibly outlined trailed, but her older brother smirked and added, “He’s not there, cotton-head. Does it look like there’s any sun out today?”

Mirembe bunched her shoulders in irritation, but stopped moving anyways. She spoke without turning. “So where is he then, Mr. I-know-everything?”

Fauzi lowered his head and began licking his forearm. “How should I know? I’ve been here all day. Last I saw, he was heading to the clear side to watch the savanna.”

Mirembe began to walk down a different path, also set with stones. She muttered harshly. “Gee, thanks you are so helpful!”

Fauzi continued to lick down his arm. “Always glad to help, dear sister.”

Seeing as it wasn’t her place to comment on sibling rivalry, Nala simply picked up the foal for hopefully the last stretch. Thinking on how they interactive, she really didn’t think that their bickering was at all unusual. Under Mufasa’s reign, Nala’s older siblings had often fierce rivalries that lasted sometimes all through adolescence. The only difference here was that Fauzi was male and it was unusual seeing a mature male seemingly comfortable here in the pride, no matter how he teased and baited Mirembe. Usually by his age they’d gotten restless and wandered off. Again, Nala was left with a sense of mounting strangeness that was now mounting on vertigo. Why were these lions so different from what she’d known all her life. Were all other lions like this or were they an exception?

No matter, Nala figured that she needed to simply focus on getting through with meeting the patriarch and hopefully earning herself a temporary stay here, and perhaps a meal as well. It wasn’t long before they were indeed coming up before the male leader of the pride.

The pride area was situated on the south-western side of the copse. As the trees thinned moving out from the center area - still they were walking on the unusual flat stone pathways - beams of sunshine broke in increasingly large gaps... well, at least relative sunshine. It was still overcast and gloomy overall. However, it was apparent that there was a strong afternoon sun behind the thin grey film of clouds still coating the sky. Those were rapidly moving away to the north. Nala felt right in predicting that tomorrow would be clear and breezy.

The strange stones suddenly ended before the last of the trees gave way to savanna beyond. Among these stand alones was a tall rock and sitting on that rock was a lion. He was almost as still as the stone beneath him so that Nala didn’t even see him until Miriembe bounded up a queer set of grooves set in the back of the majestic stone. Nala pressed her lips together and swallowed. She could only guess at how the patriarch would react to her.