Darkness; that was all that surrounded the lion as he looks around the dark place he found himself waking up too. He looked to try and peer into the dark room he was in, where was he? How did he get here? His mind was a bit hazy as he tried to recall the last thing before waking up here.
The sound of water droplet clashing against the stony ground, echoing in what he can only guess could be a cavern. "Hello?" He called out, his voice echoing out to make it sound as if more of him had called out in a distance in a chain reaction.
He stayed for a moment, taking in the silence that soon followed afterwards; nothing.
"You're awake~" A voice cooed in the darkness; it sent a shiver down the lion's back at the eerie feeling.
Turning towards where he thinks to find where the source of the voice came from, he was only met with an endless darkness, "Who's there?!" he called out with a trembling voice; why was he finding whoever else here to be menacing?
The voice gave a chuckle, "I am the monster of the Outlands-" a white tail slid under the lion's muzzle and disappeared back into the darkness, giving him a whiff of what he could only assume as blood and mold but there was another scent in there that he could not place, "something to be feared."
He questioned on her words, something to be feared. He could feel it that her words were true, he was feeling nervous around whoever it was that was hiding around him. Feeling like a prey trapped in a spider web, he could hear her claws gently scrapping against the stone ground, the sound boarding in his mind as he tries to keep focus on where it were coming from.
"It must be pretty lonely." The sound of claws came to a halt at those words that escaped the lion's mouth, all went completely silence as if to let those words sink in.
After what felt like an eternity in the silence, the voice spoke up to break it up, "I had long since pass that point, there is nothing left of me but unconditional; unBEARABLE hatred." He caught the strain in her voice as she put emphasis on that.
The sound of her footsteps returned as she went back to circling around him, "Now, why don't we get started~" she said before everything gone silence again. "How did you come to know of me?" he heard her whisper into his ear.
Quickly turning to find that there was only darkness; how was it that she could disappear before he has a chance to get so much as a glance of her? Though there was other things on his mind as well to leave this last of the matter, "What do you mea-"
Before he had a chance to finish his question, he was quickly interrupted by the voice again, "I don't recall ever seeing you in the Outlands, the only place I have ever existed before today; there were only three Pridelanders who ever took notices of me. Kiara, Tiifu, and Zuri. Other than them, there is one other animal here in the Prideland who would know I exist, and that is where I am stump at." She paused, letting the first half set in before resuming, "And here you are, someone who was looking for me; who knew I existed. How? If it weren't those four, who else here in the Pridelands know of me?"
There was only silence, and it was annoying the other that remained with him; "Who?" she stressed further on the question. A grunt was soon follow as she found that there was going to be no hope in getting the answer out of him there.
"Who else knows of me?" he raised a brow, was she getting desperate? Her growl only solidified his curiosity as he kept quiet. Testing how far he could go before it drove her to get reckless and expose something that he could use to either escape or understand what was going on.
"There is still hope," he said, surprising the other with him for a moment at what he meant; "stop this before it's too late. You don't have to do this, there must be someone who cares about you."
She let a resentful tone to that, "The only one who ever cared about me abandoned me! Left me for dead, thought of me as a FREAK! There is no turning back for me." She let out a small sobber that contrasted to her previous statement, as if there was a chance to stop whatever road she was going down. "No matter, if you won't tell me willingly, I'll just force what I need out of you."
He had tried to question what she meant by that before he felt a grasp pulling him by the tail into the darkness around him. The sound of her chuckling resonated through the cavern as his claws scratched against the ground like a nail to a chalkboard as he called out for someone.
** Return to the Watering Hole **
Nirmala looked at the white serval with a deadpan glare that would make you think that if staring could kill, she would had ended Kama right where she sat. To which only gave Kama a thrilling feel, "Not every day I get to see any animal have an ounce of courage to give me the same look you are giving me right now, how I miss this feeling!" she jokingly gave a shudder.
She looked over at the serval, not giving in to whatever she was trying to get out of her. Readying herself for the possible fight, Tau had mentioned how she was dangerous, and if she was truly the one who killed those buffalos, his warning was no exaggeration.
What was unusual was her posture, Kama gave no sign of being on guard or even caution for that matter. As if she were in a state of peace and tranquility, but it had not ease a sense of dreary that surrounded her; as if it were the calm before a storm.
Kama's eyes remained closely locked onto Nirmala as she circled around the serval, "Not going to try and find your friend Baliyo?" she mocked, Nirmala dismissed it and tried not to let Kama get the better of her judgement.
The next moment moved faster than she could have imagine, noticing a flick of the serval's good ear. Before she had a chance to blink, Kama had some how quickly gained up in front of Nirmala in her face before lunging a swipe at her.
Nirmala had managed to quickly back away from the attack before it interacted, but this left an opening for Kama to make a leap towards the unsuspecting lioness. "You should have been paying attention, now you'll pay with your life!" Kama mocked.
Nirmala gave a kick from below and sending the serval to fly a few distance away from her, giving her the chance to regain her footing before the serval did.
Kama chuckled, placing a paw against the spot where the lioness had gotten a blow at before coughing up spit. "That felt enthralling!" she said with a excitement in her tone, it shook the lioness at how she could find getting hurt to be anything good.
Their routine continued of Kama making a few charges at Nirmala, her attacks always slipping pass by a mere moment notice before she made for another lunge at the lioness. This repeated motion was starting to confuse the said lioness as she had gotten in the rhythm of her attacks. Making a swipe, leap, and a charge back; occasionally getting kicked or swiped at herself from the lioness.
But with Kama being at a disadvantage to this moment, she never broke from her continuing chuckle as she kept going. It was as if she was not sane, as if some dark force were pulling her to keep up this routine without a care about the host's body. This gone on for what she could only guess being seven minutes, she wanted to put an end to it, but Kama would not give a moment break to allow her to do much more than swat her away.
And that was when she soon found that she made her first mistake; Kama made a swipe at Nirmala and with a miss, she got ready for a leap only to get a tackle from below. She changed up her motion, as if to get Nirmala too comfortable in the current situation to not suspect a change to what was to come.
Giving a swipe up, sending Nirmala to fly backwards and onto her back, she was left with a crook in her neck from that. "Too bad, you lose." Kama said as she pinned Nirmala onto the ground before she had a chance to escape.
She glared down at the lioness, a sly grin that gave her the victorious look that told her that she was playing in Kama's paw. She purposely allowed herself to get hurt to catch her off guard, a risky move that could cost them their life and yet she did it without a second thought.
Kama lowered her head down towards the confused and baffled lioness below her, reaching towards her ear before softly whispering something in it. Whatever it was that she said, it left Nirmala in shock as she looked over towards the serval as if to find a clue in her expression. But her expression only damper when she saw the serval's sinister smirk.
Raising her paw over towards Nirmala, she gave a bite into it until the lioness saw blood slowly seeping from both her mouth and the paw that she was biting into. Her expression growing both worrisome and curiously at what was happening before Kama returned her now injured paw back to the ground and; connect her mouth with the lioness'.
She felt Kama forcing her way through, and with Nirmala's confusion and surprise; she didn't have the chance to resist- as she managed to get her blood down the lioness' throat.
Raising her head away from Nirmala; she kept her same smirk as she saw the confusion on the lioness as she was lost for words on what had just happened. That confirms another suspicion of mine, they don't know of my blood. Kama thought.
She removed herself off of Nirmala to allow her to regain herself; her wide eye focused entirely on the serval, "Wh-at?" she struggled to say, Kama couldn't help but laugh at her state.
"Don't worry, you'll understand what I've done soon enough. For now, just get ready for something worse than death. Cause there is no longer any hope for you to survive today." She said confidently.
It had not taken long before she understood what she meant by that as her chest soon felt like it was struggling to breath, Nirmala collapse towards the ground to try and catch her breath. Following after, she started to try and cough something out of her, first it was just saliva as it started to pour like a fountain before something red started to come into the mix. Blood.
Her body fell completely to the ground, looking up towards the approaching serval who kept a cold glare on to the now down lioness. "There is one thing about me that you were obviously unaware of, my blood is as poisonous as a black widow's venom."
Her eyes fell widen at this; explaining what Kama had done, but it left her with two questions as to how was she able to be capable of doing this and why had Tau not told them of this? Was he not aware of this? A warning of his resonated inside her mind as she recalled the moment. You're making a mistake! You can't win against her!
Something he was right about; there was obviously no way they could win if they didn't know of this fact. Whatever she was.
"There is no turning back for me, Lilly."
Author Note:
Next chapter is the meeting of Kama and Tau. Also, I was told to post this here so I will. . .
"Three Keys; One Lock!"