Dumbass in Distress

[Boso]

May 14^th, Year 1

Boso spots had long faded, and the two fuzzy pedicles on his head had become quite pronounced. Then two antler spikes broke through. As days passed, twin tines furred in velvet rose straight up above his head, and they grew rapidly. Soon Boso had his first head.

He was grazing a little ways from his cabin when a breeze came up, rustling the leaves and grass around him. Boso's head flew up. He sensed danger, but he could not identify the object of his intuition. So Boso instinctively raised a forefoot, held it for a second and then stamped hard, releasing a scent from the interdigital gland.

"Who-?"

[Genie]

POOF!

Genie appeared in Canada with a loud poof, and he looked tired and out of breath. He looked around, desperate to find anyone, anyone, to listen to him.

"Guys? Help! Something bad has happened!" he shouted. This was no time to be comical or even humorous, this was serious, and even Genie knew this.

He looked around once more.

[Shani]

Ears twitched as Genie's voice echoed through the camp. Shani's head perked up from where she lay in a sunny spot outside her cabin.

Pulling herself to her paws, the council member quickly made her way to the sound of distress, stopping alongside Boso. Sensing his own uneasiness, she brushed her tail along the buck's side as she addressed the djinn.
"Calm down, both of you. Genie, what happened?"

[Genie]

Genie had to regain breath. He was surprised by this because usually, he'd act out of breath for fun and giggles, and genies never usually got tired or out of breath. But this time, he actually sounded out of breath and wasn't acting either. He looked up to see that Shani, one of the council members, had asked him what happened.

He stood, almost reluctant to tell them anything, but decided to tell her. Even though he assumed Kopa was going to be in a whole heck of a lot of trouble. He tried taking deep breaths, feeling almost guilty that he left Kopa in Agrabah. But if he had stayed, both of them would have been captured or even worse.

"Kopa... has been..." he paused, nervous to continue, but did anyway. "He's been captured by the Blackblood Legion," Genie finished, trying not to look down, and was successful.

[Boso]

Boso felt his neck fur rise as anger coursed through him. "What?!" he choked out disbelievingly.

Genie avoiding eye contact made Boso angrier. Fur bristling, he took a threatening step forward. He did not seem to feel Shani's tail tip. "And you just left him behind?" He spat out the question like a piece of fennel.

"What's wrong with you? Look at me, you coward!"

[Shani]

Shani stared in the direction of Genie, his words washing over her like a cold chill.
"Boso, hush."
Narrowing her sightless gaze, she flicked an ear at Boso. She took a few steps forward to stand in front of her adoptive bother, preventing him from attacking, however her gaze stayed in the direction of Genie. She wholeheartedly agreed with Boso's words, but tossing around accusations would only be wasting precious time.

"Genie, please explain to us how this happened," while her words were polite, they were backed with a tone colder than ice,
"What were you and Kopa doing in Agrabah, without telling anyone, most importantly the council, of your departure?"

[Mega]

Mega and Afua poke their heads from a nearby cabin before walking out to see what all the commotion was about.

"Calm down, both of you. Genie, what happened?"

Mega glances over at Boso while Afua was focused on Shani

"Kopa... has been..."

"He's been captured by the Blackblood Legion,"

Both males head’s whipped towards Genie , eyes wide with surprise. Afua would of spoke first had the young buck not of took the words right out of his mouth.


“What the hell did you do with my boyfriend?” Afua growls trying to control his anger. Mega still stiff with surprise just glares at the blue creature as he awaits him to answer Shani’s questions

[Genie]

Genie couldn't really blame Boso for how he reacted. "I didn't want to leave him, but if I didn't, we'd both be captured and you wouldn't be the wiser," Genie explained, knowing that joking here wasn't going to do him much good. He could hear that Shani's tone was polite, but underneath he could tell she wasn't happy. It was just a thing he picked up on after a while.

Genie then sighed. "I- we were looking for Aladdin and thought best not to tell you because you wouldn't allow us to do so, and I managed to track Aladdin there, but we didn't get a chance to find him," he didn't look sorry that he had gone, because he wanted to save his pal, Al. But he was sorry about Kopa being captured. He looked towards Afua. "I didn't do anything to him," he said.

He wasn't sure if he should tell them that Kopa insisted, but he decided not to. He'd rather have the blame on him than Kopa right now.

[The Gourmand]

“You're in big trouble.”

The massive merman caught the whiff of an oncoming shitstorm and came right away. He had been working in the tiny blacksmith’s shack. While his hands still needed healing, he was still able to use his tentacles to craft things, just at a slower pace. The Gourmand held a half-carved crystal spear, still glowing a hot blue, in the tangles of his limbs.

“So is the brat when we get him back.”

To say the officer was angry would be an understatement. His fury was abundantly clear just by being near him, but to waste time focusing on it would be counterproductive; his mere facial expression conveyed it clear enough. He attempted to close a fist, but recoiled, feeling the stinging in his palm.

“We have every reason to believe they took him into their lair. What would I do with a prisoner? Lock them away! That makes things very difficult,” he growled a took his chin in his hand, “We need a plan. The little idiot could squeal...”

[Kiara]

Sunshine was sunshine and Kiara was still a cat. Stretched out a few feet from Shani the liger had been lounging, lower legs splayed while she herself remained focused on a few sheafs of parchment she'd rested on a flat board of wood. Writing had eluded her thus far -- though she figured from observing some of the bipedal animals of the camp that it was simply a matter of training her paws to act properly rather than ineptitude -- but reading she'd found was a welcome way to pass slow moments in the camp.

Or learning to read, rather. What use was a Council member who couldn't read a written report or understand the contents?

The papers before Kiara were simple lists and phrases, accompanied by a dictionary the lioness occasionally leafed through to a corresponding page. Rhyme and reason had been abandoned for the exercise at hand as Kiara had devolved to simply accustoming herself to unfamiliar words and terms for useful human tools, building a more extensive vocabulary.

Kiara's studies broke as a yell summoned Shani up from her repose nearby. A glance up was followed by the liger's full attention and the slow closing and re-organizing of her papers. Setting them in such a way to keep them from being blown off by an errant wind Kiara rolled up on her paws and followed though her own strides were kept a bit shorter so as not to outpace the feline she'd already begun to outgrow.


Upon approaching the group that had voiced the break in the camp's silence Kiara had remained silent, her personal counsel held back as she observed the proceedings with a wrinkled brow. Though she knew Boso -- another member of her apparent family -- the blue biped before them was a relative stranger to her. His words however made his existence suddenly a lot more interesting to the liger female.

"Kopa... has been... He's been captured by the Blackblood Legion," 

A noise half-caught between a choke and a cough broke from the quiet cat as her eyes widened.

Kopa...

Kiara became deaf to the conversation. It was as if someone had seized her tail and shoved it into an electrical socket, shooting her claws from their beds and stiffening both her spine and hackles. Every inch of her body looked ready to break at the slightest provocation. 

Her older brother. One of the few pieces of her life that had survived Priderock's fall. She had so little left. Immediately Kiara's mind raced to Kopa's rescue, a yell ready to burst from her lips demanding the summoning of the army to march. To go, to tear through the Legion for her errant brother. Kiara's head reared back, a snarl plastered to her muzzle as she looked to Shani.

And froze again.

Unbidden came a memory of another missioned doomed from the moment it had been issued. Simba had once sent soldiers for the sole purpose of taking a single life. Nearly all who had marched from the Freedom Fighter camp had died. All in exchange for one life.

Was it that different a command to make if it was to save one?

Could any single life, even her own brother's, be worth losing more?

Kiara's gaze moved past the group to the camp around them. So small. So weak, compared to what they'd once been. What was the weight of their lives compared to one?

Ice crept through Kiara's veins as slowly, ever so slowly, the girl's gaze returned to the dirt and closed. Her voice ran as cold as the dread in her heart. "If you would be so kind as to summon the rest of the Council and Officer Shang, Officer Gourmand."

Let the Council deliberate together over the fate of her brother, but Kiara's hope already had begun its descent. For what other decision could they make?

Oh, Kopa... What have you done...?