Post by Dotty on May 20, 2019 10:33:03 GMT
Leaving Home
He knew his mother was testy at the moment, Aujaq had learned to read the old lioness’s moods from his earliest days. If she was in a foul mood, best to make yourself scarce or else receive a heavy blow to the head from her paws and a growl. If she was in a rare good mood or at least not likely to snap, then she was safe to approach but never affectionate. She would perhaps let you sit quietly by her side and listen to her lessons on survival on the great plain but she was never one for songs, or games, or even affectionate cuddling.
His mother was not an easy creature to live with at the best of times but since his mane had started growing in, she had been worse than usual. Even his father, larger than her and thick with muscle but his fur was beginning to streak with grey, was cowed and spent little time around their den.
“It is because you are useless.” His adult sister told him unkindly and as if it were obvious.
“I’m hardly useless, Akna!” He argued back “I go with father to patrol, I help keep us safe!”
“That doesn’t put food in our bellies and father did it just as well before you were born as now.” Was her stinging retort. Akna was right and would know better than he, after all, she was already grown when he was just a mewling cub. “We don’t need two guards, we need hunters who’ll help feed us.”
“You know that males are not good hunters, our manes--” he began but she cut him off with a glare so icy he recoiled. His sister was their mother’s daughter through and through but she had never been this harsh with him before. When he was little she would cuddle him when their mother cuffed him, would play with him, taught him how to catch the lizards and mice that sometimes hung around their den. Yet she too seemed to be growing colder and more distant with him the older he became.
“That doesn’t excuse you. Either you pull your weight or you will be gone before Mother births her next cubs. Unless you want to be on the plains by yourself, I’d do the latter and soon. I thought we taught you better than this!”
“Mother is pregnant again?” he hadn’t known that. His mother didn’t tell him anything and his father was a quiet lion even at the best of times. Sometimes he would not say more than two words to him at all as the two prowled the invisible boundary of their home and made sure to mark it as theirs.
That seemed to take the anger out of Akna at least “You didn’t know?” she questioned “It’s fairly obvious. Oh, what am I saying, you’re a male. Of course you wouldn’t know the signs.”
“Signs?”
“Her moods, her appetite is growing, she’s spending more time in the den, and she’s getting fatter…well, not fat…round.” Akna listed off. Now that she mentioned it, Aujaq could see it now. The last time his mother had new cubs, he was just finished suckling and so hadn’t noticed a difference from her before and after. Those cubs had died during a particularly fierce winter chill and no one had spoken about them since or else receive more than just a cuff from their mother.
“They were weak! The weak die and the strong live! Do not speak of this again or we’ll leave you to face the snows as well!”
He knew his mother was testy at the moment, Aujaq had learned to read the old lioness’s moods from his earliest days. If she was in a foul mood, best to make yourself scarce or else receive a heavy blow to the head from her paws and a growl. If she was in a rare good mood or at least not likely to snap, then she was safe to approach but never affectionate. She would perhaps let you sit quietly by her side and listen to her lessons on survival on the great plain but she was never one for songs, or games, or even affectionate cuddling.
His mother was not an easy creature to live with at the best of times but since his mane had started growing in, she had been worse than usual. Even his father, larger than her and thick with muscle but his fur was beginning to streak with grey, was cowed and spent little time around their den.
“It is because you are useless.” His adult sister told him unkindly and as if it were obvious.
“I’m hardly useless, Akna!” He argued back “I go with father to patrol, I help keep us safe!”
“That doesn’t put food in our bellies and father did it just as well before you were born as now.” Was her stinging retort. Akna was right and would know better than he, after all, she was already grown when he was just a mewling cub. “We don’t need two guards, we need hunters who’ll help feed us.”
“You know that males are not good hunters, our manes--” he began but she cut him off with a glare so icy he recoiled. His sister was their mother’s daughter through and through but she had never been this harsh with him before. When he was little she would cuddle him when their mother cuffed him, would play with him, taught him how to catch the lizards and mice that sometimes hung around their den. Yet she too seemed to be growing colder and more distant with him the older he became.
“That doesn’t excuse you. Either you pull your weight or you will be gone before Mother births her next cubs. Unless you want to be on the plains by yourself, I’d do the latter and soon. I thought we taught you better than this!”
“Mother is pregnant again?” he hadn’t known that. His mother didn’t tell him anything and his father was a quiet lion even at the best of times. Sometimes he would not say more than two words to him at all as the two prowled the invisible boundary of their home and made sure to mark it as theirs.
That seemed to take the anger out of Akna at least “You didn’t know?” she questioned “It’s fairly obvious. Oh, what am I saying, you’re a male. Of course you wouldn’t know the signs.”
“Signs?”
“Her moods, her appetite is growing, she’s spending more time in the den, and she’s getting fatter…well, not fat…round.” Akna listed off. Now that she mentioned it, Aujaq could see it now. The last time his mother had new cubs, he was just finished suckling and so hadn’t noticed a difference from her before and after. Those cubs had died during a particularly fierce winter chill and no one had spoken about them since or else receive more than just a cuff from their mother.
“They were weak! The weak die and the strong live! Do not speak of this again or we’ll leave you to face the snows as well!”
He shuddered at the memory of his mother’s fury. Weak. She hated that most of all. Akna had always said she was tough on them so they in turn would be tough and able to survive when she and father eventually died. Mother was old, this he knew, like father her fur was streaked through with grey and Akna had told him that they had sisters older than her who had left and brothers who had died.
“These will probably be her last cubs.” Akna told him “She’ll probably want them to live more than any others because of that. That’s why she is harsh towards you. I heard her say to father that you should have been chased out long before now but that he was too soft on you.”
That hurt. His mane had not filled in yet, he didn’t feel ready to leave the only home he’d ever known. Of course he knew that one day he would have to, his mother had not shied away from telling him that at an early age. His father had always been the kinder parent, if you counted tolerance as kindness, so it wasn’t surprising that he would be more likely to keep him around than their mother.
“Mother wants me gone?” his voice cracked despite him trying to hold it back. As much as his mother was a terror to live under at times, he had assumed she had loved him in her own way, apparently he was wrong.
Akna’s paw was heavy around his shoulder as she pulled him into a hug “I’m sorry. It is the way of things for our kind.”
That may be so, Aujaq thought, but it didn’t make him feel any better about it.
-----------------------------
The morning came and Aujaq found himself rudely awakened by a low growl and a cuff to the side of his head. That let him know it was his mother who had awakened him before he’d even opened his eyes. Sure enough, his mother’s icy glare was what met him, her one green eye like his own and the other milky-white and blind from an old war wound. He felt Anka stir where her head rested on his flank and his father’s snores were deep rumble beside his ear, all of them curled around each other to stave off the worst of the chilly night.
“Moth--”
“Come and be silent about it. I don’t want your wailing to wake up everyone else in the world.”
He shut his mouth immediately and got to his paws. Better to do as asked when asked or suffer her foul temper. As gently as he could manage, he shifted his sister’s head onto the cool cave floor and rose to follow his mother who was already out the cave and didn’t bother to wait for him to catch up. His stomach felt like it had a large weight in it, like he had overindulged himself in a meal, and he had a feeling he knew what was about to happen but he dutifully followed after his mother.
His mother led him towards the small river which was the furthest east their territory went and as soon as he realised this, he knew his fears had been right. His father was reluctant to let him go, or so Anka had said, so his mother was doing it instead. He kept his head low and tried not to cry because he knew that would only infuriate the old lioness more.
They stopped at the river bank and his mother crouched to take a long, deep drink. When she stood up, she turned to him and regarded him coldly.
“You are an adult.” She told him without preamble “It is time for you to leave and make your own way in the world. You’ve become a burden to keep and we cannot afford mouths to feed now that there is new lives on the way. Come back here and I will see to it that you’re chased out again and I will not be gentle. Do you understand me, Aujaq?”
He understood but he wished he didn’t “Yes, mother.”
“Don’t look so sullen.” She said “It is for your own good I am doing this. If you have heeded me as you should, you will have nothing to fear.”
She left him there without a goodbye, not even a final look.
