03/07/10 - Dead Land Shaking

The Players:
Badiliko - White Lion from Kopje Valley
Elimnyama - Rogue Black Lion, Mystic, and Chief Witness
Itumele - Juvenile Lion and Son of Balana
Johari - Badiliko's Mate and Kopje Valley Lioness
Kahini - Rogue Lioness and Kumalo Guide
Miiba - Wandering Hedgehog-Turned-Guide
Sanlina - Rogue Lioness and Guide

The situation, after having crossed the desert and skirted around the edges of the Kumalo lands, seemed promising until now: there was grasslands and good meat and cooler temperatures all around. The situation is different now, however. Before the party lies a wasteland almost entirely devoid of life: the trees are withered and dead, water is absent, and even the ground is disrupted with jagged outcroppings and sharp valleys, the land itself broken and cracked with decay. Worst of all, in Miiba's words: "This is Jahusi territory. The mountains in the distance are their stronghold…" He looks just as shocked as Badiliko does that anybody could possibly survive here. Moreso than that, Miiba almost didn't recognize this place at all, hinting at dramatic changes within the last year.

Itumele made a few attempts to see something more exciting as they passed some of the territories, but the most he's seen are vermin, or perhaps occasionally strange larger animals. "Big deal," he mutters out about the sight of the lands in front of them. He looks down at the small hedgehog, and then back up at Badiliko. "Can we take the small pointed thing there up to the top of the mountain and throw him off now that he's got us to this lame place?"

Badiliko looks down at Itumele with a frown and a shake of his head. "No, Itumele. It isn't his fault that this place is like this. We're going to find out what's going on here." He leans down and whispers something to the younger male after a brief moment's pause.

"The boss is right! This place was rich in grass and animals the last time I was here, I don't know what happened!" He walks forward to sniff the ground. "Wasn't a fire or anything like that, that's for sure…"

"How about I bury it?" Itumele says with a scowl as he scuffs his paw across the dusty ground in the hedgehog's direction. "I should'a stayed in the Kumalo lands. See if there's really even anybody there. I bet /not/. There's sure nobody here either."

"That's enough, Itumele. The mountains aren't that far away, so we'll go check it out and then go back, okay?" Badiliko's looking a bit stern, whether it's the boy's attitude or the current situation in general isn't quite known. He looks to Miiba and says, "This better not be a trick, hedgehog." And then he looks to the rest of the party. "Are the rest of you good to go?"

Sanlina walks along in the group alongside Kahini, looking silently around. She attempts to spot anything out of place here. The entire area might be out of place for a healthy savannah, but she's attempting to locate anything that might give a clue to the state of these deadlands. So far there hasn't been a hint, of water or life. Her expression is etched with suspicious concern. She glances over to Badiliko and nods lightly to his question. "We are. Let's not tarry long though, unless we can find some mountain source of water there."

"There's definitely water in the caves…at least, there should be," he states as he begins skittering along the somewhat broken path ahead. Regardless of the situation, Miiba the hedgehog is determined to not let any lions put the hurt on him because the land isn't wonderful paradise. No, he's going to fulfill his end no matter what!

"Pff, you're not my father." Then, somewhat under his breath, "so bite me." The young lion's tail gives a lash, and he grudgingly plods along after the pointy creature. Itumele's clearly not happy about this whole situation, and keeps eyeing Miiba as they go.

Badiliko, for the moment, lets the comment slide. He understands the frustration and tolerates it on general irritability. The white lion keeps close, though, for the hedgehog's sake as well as the boy's. "Let's go."

Sanlina moves up to walk on Johari's opposing side of Badiliko. "We came to help guide and protect those here from where our paws take us, not from yourselves." she tells him softly, keeping a low voice. "The young one's temper may lead to more trouble then the land could give us."

Miiba continues to lead the party along the path, not taking notice to the whisperings of the large predators behind him. Even if they were talking about how to best eat him, though, it soon becomes the least of his problems. There are small pebbles scattered around the ground that are moving around visibly. Moving becomes shaking, shaking then becomes jumping, which is then explained away with the next piece of evidence: the ground itself begins tremoring, soon to violent levels. If Miiba could he'd be as pale as his benefactor, apparently knowing what this is. "EARTH SHAKING!" he cries out as he begins dashing forward, as if it would help him escape from danger.

By the time the hedgehog hollers, Itumele's already clued in to the fact that for once, Miiba's not full of crap. Unlike the small hedgehog, though, the young lion chooses to lower himself to his belly in a crouch, looking around as if to search out some kind of a visible source.

"Earth shaking?" Badiliko questions a moment too late. Unlike the desert he clearly has no experience with such things, deciding to bust his chops on the matter and follow the hedgehog's example. He and Johari begin a dash away from the current area, hoping (like Miiba is) to get away from the most dangerous of it. Of course this momentarily leaves Itumele and the others behind, though one would hope the example would be followed.

Sanlina frowns as the land begins to shake. "Land tremors." she says quietly, crouching down a bit. She lifts her muzzle to sniff the air, then blinks lightly as three of them run. "That isn't good." she mutters to herself, then takes off after them. "Badiliko, wait up! We need to stay together!"

While Badiliko may well keep to Sanlina's advice of staying together, poor little Miiba is in dire need of getting the crap out of here and continues his tiny dash to get to those mountains, where it's probably safer than open ground. Probably.

Itumele has certainly had no experience with earth tremors during his short life, but it's pretty clear to him that it'd be difficult to remain on his paws. As such, he stays put! There doesn't seem to be any sort of immediate danger as far as he can detect, so he may as well stay put. Right?

Well, one guesses we'll see! Badiliko says something to Johari and then turns back, waiting for Sanlina, Kahini, and Elimnyama to catch up. "Go on up to Johari, I'll catch up!" And then he runs back to Itumele. "Itumele! We can't sit here, we have to keep moving!"

Sanlina runs past Badiliko, and gives him a warning. "Do not go to the mountains!" she growls, and puts on her best burst of speed to try to catch up to Miiba to try to stop him. She may be a bit smaller and not huntress-fit, but what she has helps in this area, giving her a bit better speed and stamina. "Miiba, stop! Don't go to the mountains! That may be the source of the earth tremors! You could get trapped!"

"No it isn't!" he replies as he and Johari sort of stop. "The mountains are the one safe place! Trust me on this!" Whatever science or experience the hedgehog has is being betted on head over heels. "There's a spot of bedrock close to the base, we'll be safe there!"

Itumele hears bits and pieces of some shouting, but he doesn't really hear anything much until Badiliko comes back to him. "Nuh-uh! That stupid thing will just take us where rocks can fall on our heads! I'm staying here till it's over!" And with that, Itumele flattens his growing form as close to the ground as he can. Pity he's too big to pick up and run with.

How embarrassing it must be, then, when the very ground behind Itumele begins undergoing a cataclysmic change! Within sight (though not immenently close yet) the ground from whence the party came begins cracking even more and then splitting, dead bushes and several rocks falling into the crevice At the rate it's going, Itumele is going to be caught up in it somehow. "We don't have time!" Badiliko shouts above the din of shattering earth. No, Itumele can't really be picked up and carried like a cub. But he can be given some incentive, perhaps, as the shooting crevice approaches him?

Sanlina puts on a firm expression when Miiba answers her. "I hope you're right. I'll hold back though, just in case the mountains are trouble." Then she hears a cracking sound, the telltale of the earth splitting. She glances back and frowns deeply. "To the side Miiba! An earth split is coming!" and she veers off toward the side, while continuing to run with the hedgehog to be there to help if anything happens to him, while Badiliko and the others try to get Itumele moving. She carefully tries to steer away from the direction the split is moving. "We'll be seperated if we're not careful." she growls, hoping the hedgehog just doesn't run directly away from the split.

What does Miiba look like? A stupid earthworm? Admittedly, being an earthworm could help right now, but he still isn't stupid! He (and Johari by proxy) veer off in a diagonal-opposite direction from the crack. The others are matching alongside Sanlina. Now all that's left is for Itumele and Badiliko to get it in gear, lest they be swallowed into the Circle of Life.

What the—yip! It takes just a glance over his shoulder before Itumele sees something bizarre going on. And it's headed straight for the pair of them. The youth is back on his paws, scampering away from the approaching crevice. Perhaps unfortunately, due to the direction Badiliko approached him from, the youth heads in the opposite direction from where Sanlina and the rest are.

Hey, at least he's going away from the split in the earth and that's progress enough for Badiliko! And given his promise to Balana the lion is dead set on keeping close to Itumele…which becomes pretty damned inconvenient as the split in the earth lengthens and widens, increasing the chasm between Badiliko and Itumele versus the whole rest of the party.

Sanlina continues on, watching the split and the mountains. She attempts to move further away from the center of the split to keep solid grounds. Sanlina glances to Kahini. "I'll stay on the ground here. If anything happens to the outcropping of rock that Miiba said might be safe at the mountain base, I can be free to help them. If anything happens to me, they can help me. Where will you go?"

Miiba continues to lead the others to the patch of bedrock where the vibrations of the earth are much less severe. "Here!" he calls out to the others, not yet noticing the boss-man and the kid being on the wrong side of things.

Itumele's footing is quite far from sure as he goes stumbling along. Another glance over his shoulder, though, and it seems the earth isn't opening up in his direction anymore. So before he trips and falls flat on his face, he crouches himself down to the ground again.

Johari has found her paws slowing up as it sinks in that Badiliko hasn't come with them yet. Watching the little guide race up ahead, she instead finds herself looking over her shoulder as the ground continues to shake. Its downright terrifying, though there's one obvious thing that does register in her mind even in such a state. Her mate!

The good news (of a sort) is that Badiliko and Itumele are safe, Badiliko standing protectively by Itumele…which seems to come in handy as an uprooted tree gratuitiously decides to fall in that general direction. To make a long event short: Badiliko takes the brunt of the falling tree and, though still on his paws, is forced down to a crouch and a roar of pain as several dry branches puncture Badiliko's fur and flesh. Itumele MIGHT be scratched by some branches, but better than being impaled, flattened, or both!

As the ground continues to shake, Kahini's mind starts to lose the 'Nyoto's mate and pride lioness' thinking for more the Kumalo training buried deep inside of her mind. The rush allows some of it to slip into the forefront of her head. "For now I'll go with the hedgehog, Lioness Sanlina. Shaky ground or not, someone needs to see what things are up ahead before everyone rushes into it." Kahini states in the 'scout' attitude she was trained in.

Sanlina nods lightly to Kahini. "Try to see if you can convince him to leave the mountain side well enough alone and just keep to open ground. Like most earth splits I've come across or heard of, this one's moving in a fairly straight line. I'll keep to the side." she tells the other lioness, being in a 'keep all bases covered' state of mind. She glances back at the roar and frowns. "We'll have to go back for them after this lets up. They're otherwise keeping safe from the split. Let's hope the tree didn't do too much damage. It won't do any better to split everyone up further at the moment."

Miiba stays well enough put, sitting on yon bedrock like the scared little guy he is! He'll take inventory once this is over, staying in his little ball for now.

"Look out!" the young lion hollers about the time the tree crashes into Badiliko and some of the smaller branches scrape up and break across Itumele's form. For the moment he's still hunched down, but apparently has enough mind to push himself out from between the branches, scratching himself up a little more in the process.

"No!!" Johari screams, eyes going wide in shock at the sight that she sees. She was just in time to turn about and see the tree go down. Now she's really torn. She doesn't move, which might not be the best thing. She hasn't put much of any distance between herself and this crack. She spins about now, putting Kahini, Sanlina, and Miiba to her back as her mind races for something to do about a situation she's powerless in.

Badiliko does what he can to get the tree lifted up enough for Itumele to get out from the odd ends of the branches, but otherwise he's locked into his position, the blood beginning to come out of his back from said punctures. "…Itu…" he says with heavy breath, not able to say much else as he hisses, grunt, and growls in the pain that is protecting Itumele from wooden danger.

Kahini finally reaches the base of the bedrock that the hedgehog is on, but just ignores the creature for now. Instead, her eyes travel along the sides of the crack traveling from their direction onward, searching both sides as she tries to figure out what can be done now that her paws are a little more stable on the trembling ground.

Sanlina quickly shifts her direction, moving over to Johari and headbutting her lightly. "Pay attention to the crack!" she tells the other lioness firmly. "Move it!" giving her a push in the direction to more stable land. "We'll go back the second we can." she adds to try to help aliviate that fear, if only by a little. "We have to stay safe ourselves at the moment."

To the fortune of everybody, the tremors seem to die down, soon becoming a dull rumble and then a divine still. The chasm that formed from this freak earthquake is still there with some earth crumbling into it every so often, but it seems to be done expanding in a significant fashion. Looks like Miiba was right, even if just for this circumstance.

Itumele finds himself clear of the tree, and shortly thereafter, on still ground. For a moment, he's staring off towards the crack. He can't see much of it. It's about that time he remembers the fallen white lion, and turns about to scamper back over to the lion's head, the crimson liquid catching his attention a moment later. "Yer bleedin," he informs Badiliko, as if the male was unaware.

"But, but, but…." Johari stammers as the ground starts to steady under her paws as the shaking ground starts to subside. Rock crumbles and falls into the crack fifteen feet from the lioness's paws though, and now she starts to back away, "We have to get to them, Sanlina. We /have/ to!"

"…I know…" Badiliko replies as his footing gives way and he's forced to more or less lie down on the ground. He's trembling a little bit with pain. "…find the end of the crack and get to the others, Itumele."

Kahini's eyes settle on something up ahead. A rise in the ground and that drops off sharply down to the split in the lands. As her eyes look directly across, it appears quite low. Her mind is turning now. It looks long, but the ground is steady now. If one were to get a running start. "Lioness Sanlina, Lioness Johari, over here!" She half roars out, before she comes back to the hedgehog. "Unless you have a better idea, we're going to jump this crack." Her voice is bound and determined. She's about to break a promise made to Balana.

Sanlina makes it her immediate job to keep Johari safe. "I know. We shall. But it won't do them good if we're hurt in the process as well." As the shaking gets down to managable levels, she heads toward the cliff. "We'll find a way across." she tells Johari. Fortunately there's a way up to the outcropping, which she takes to get to Kahini. She glances over at the land that could be jumped to. "Other then finding a way around the other end of the split, this does seem to be the best way across. It's doable." she tells Kahini.

"'s not shakin no more. They can come here," the juvenile concludes. Itumele moves a little closer to peer at Badiliko's wound as best he can, and then moves back to the lion's head. "Go sideways, over that way. The tree's more off the ground there. You got a stick stuck in you but I can't see if it's broke or still stuck to the tree."

Johari wants SO bad to go to Badiliko right now. But alas, she can't. She follows Sanlina up to where Miiba and Kahini are already found. As her own eyes look over the proposal, she swallows. Doable? Well, maybe, probably, but its not a sure fire thing. Still, Badiliko is on the other side. "Alright, I'll go first." She offers, before heading down to where the rise is ahead of the others. Yeah, all action, no thought. The lioness backs a few steps. She tenses her muscles, takes a deep breath, and charges towards the divide. Her legs reach the edge, and with a push from the hind ones, the lioness goes airborne for what seems like forever. When she comes down on the uneven ground on the other side, much to her relief, she finds one other surprise. The ground is loose and she starts to slip backwards towards the crack. It takes her claws sinking into the ground to stop the backwards momentum.

Badiliko, at first, complies with Itumele's request and shimmies forward some. If the branch wasn't broken before it most certainly becomes so, some snaps being heard from the dead wood as several branches come apart from the main structure. Badiliko's eyes lift up and see a lioness starting to sink in the ground…wait…he recognized that one. Although his blood is hindering him (nevermind the branch), he moves forward to try and help her. "Itu, get to her!" he commands, for once in his life sounding quite "do-or-die" about it.

Kahini watches Johari's approach and leap, inwardly cursing at the younger lioness's ambition to just jump out after her young mate. Johari growls and looks about. Her eyes pick out what looks like the best spot to land on the other side. Its a little farther of a jump, but it'd be worth it. "You're next." She mumbles to the hedgehog, scooping the thing up in her jaws before heading down and taking the jump herself. The scene is much the same, only when Kahini's paws touch the earth, her claws are already sinking into it. She shifts no more than two inches at most. However, when she does land, her jaws almost bite the poor hedgehog in half upon impact. It can't feel good!

Sanlina shakes her head lightly as Johari heads off. After Kahini jumps across, she too does so. She gets a running start, and right at the edge shoves off with her hind legs. Her smaller size comes in handy as it allows her to jump a bit further then the others, as well as making her lighter, giving her a bit more control on the ledge. She tries to move down to Kahini and Johari. "Alright, let's get to better ground! Anyone need help?"

Itumele turns to look over in Johari's direction, but by that point Kahini and Sanlina have made it across the crevice as well. "She's got help. Don't be stupid," the juvenile says. "You need that stick unstuck. It's all stuck in you."

Johari is breathing overly deeply, clinging with all fours until she's sure that she's stable. She releases one claw at a time, testing it to make sure that she won't slide. She becomes a little more confident, and with some effort works her way to the somewhat flat ground above. "Come on, lets go!" She calls out to the other two lionesses and the hedgehog, before rushing off towards Itumele and Badiliko.

"…" Badiliko doesn't reply to Itumele or to anybody else, citing being stuck with a branch or two and likewise conserving his strength. If he were Itu's father, though…nevermind. Badiliko conserves himself as the lionesses approach him and the boy.

Kahini spits out the hedgehog, feeling at least a half dozen sore spots from the creature's quills in her mouth. Yuck! She too works her way to the top, coming up and catching up with Sanlina. Sure enough, Johari is already bounding away. "They're going to be the end of us yet." Kahini mutters, before going in the direction of Badiliko.

Sanlina heads off toward the others along with Kahini, giving her a light nod in partial response. "If they don't do each other in first." she adds softly. "The hedgehog is a bit too excitable."

"That's easy for you to say! You're not a fraction of your size and a food item on other animals' lists! And I know this territory, okay?!" Once on the ground he shakes himsel dry of dust, dirt, and Kahini-saliva. "Now come on, we gotta help the boss before we go on."

Itumele takes his time in investigating the stick stuck in Badiliko's side, but seeing that the others are on their way over, he figures they'll probably take over anyway.

Johari is the first one there, sliding to a halt in front of her mate. Eyes go wide as she sees the blood on the otherwise white coat. "Oh Badiliko! We gotta get you out of there, uh, lets see…" She racks her brain as her eyes seem to get stuck on that one bloodied branch.

Yep, there is the one branch. It looks sorta painful. "Jo…get everybody to push on the trunk…" For a guy who's losing blood Badiliko seems confident that it will be the solution to getting the bulk of the tree off of him.

Kahini arrives a few moments later, looking the situation over herself. "This part over here, Lioness Sanlina." Kahini motions with a paw before calling out "Lion Itumele, Lioness Johari, we need you too!"

Sanlina nods lightly to Kahini. "Agreed." and moves over to the section Kahini points out. Her build might be a boon in other situations, but here she's the weakest one out concerning brute force and weight. Still, every bit helps, and so she does so.

Miiba looks up at the tree, contributing what he can. "It looks like the branch stuck in him is broken. The tree should be okay to move!" And with that he's off being supportive: pushing at the tree with his head, though ultimately it's useless.

Itumele squints off towards the newly-formed crevice for a moment, and then looks back at the others. Well, Sanlina's probably only the second weakest. He's near to adolescence, but still far from having much muscle. He tries to find a spot that would work for him to nudge against, and lifts a forepaw to put his pawpad against it.

Johari's drive is commendable. She gets right up there with Kahini and Sanlina and starts to push with all of her might. Get that thing off of her mate already!!

With several heaves and powerful pushing from the team of leonines the tree moves itself right off of Badiliko, which takes almost all the weight off of him. All that's left is his back bearing a dead branch in it, not to mention the blood loss from it.

Kahini watches the lion out of the corner of her eye as she pushes with all of her might. "Okay, that's enough!" She exclaims once Badiliko is free. As soon as he is, she starts to back off the tree trunk slow enough so that no one else gets jabbed with a branch.

Sanlina moves with Kahini so the tree doesn't decide to roll back over as well. Once that's free she moves to examine the stick. "I don't see any other solution other then pulling it directly out." She glances to Kahini and Johari. "What say you two?"

Miiba doesn't do much of anything once the tree is pushed away. All is well enough, apparently, and the hedgehog doesn't do anything out of worry of agitating the leonines.

Okay, there, he helped. If all of the lionesses weren't swarming all over his wound, the young lion might try to do something to help. As it is, though, he knows it's better if he stays out of the way. Plus… there's that big dark pit lurking over there! Curious but cautious, the youth makes his way closer to the crevice, trying to see what he can see of it and still be away from the edge.

Johari backs off the tree trunk and spins about, heading straight for Badiliko. Her face is filled with worry. "I'll do it." Johari remarks, before looking into the eyes of her mate. "Let me try Love. We gotta get it out."

Badiliko just nods weakly as he braces himself on the ground, his claws digging into the dead earth and his teeth clenched as much as possible. This was going to sting and he knew it on some level.

Kahini doesn't see a point to making an objection to it. SOMEONE has to do it, so it might as well be the mate that does it. The group is a bit short on healers.

Sanlina moves back out of the way of Johari and heads to Kahini's side. Doing so, she notices Itumele heading toward the new cliff-side. "Careful Itumele. The edge is unstable. It may give way!" she calls out to him. Hopefully that'll be enough. Anything more and he's liable to just ignore her, she thinks, indicated from his latest temperment.

Miiba examines the branch silently, giving Johari some pointers on the side as to effectively removing it from Badiliko's back.

He's pointedly ignoring her anyway. "'m not an idiot," he mutters, glancing around. He can't see down into it without getting closer or higher. Itumele glances around, catching sight of another tree not too far off. He pads over towards it, rearing up on his hindpaws and pushing against it as hard as he can to test its stability. Well, seems stable, so he scrambles his way up into it in a less-than-dignified manner.

Johari is too focused on Badiliko to notice Itumele going up the tree. She says the only thing she can think of before doing it. "I love you." Certainly loud enough for the others to hear. Jo catches her breath next, and rubs her cheek along Badiliko's mane. Only it doesn't stop, she keeps her rub up against the other lion until her teeth bite down on the stick. She closes her eyes, hoping to do this right. A moment later, the lioness pulls her head away, and the stick with it…

A dulled roar of pain escapes Badiliko's maw as the stick is pulled out of his side. The good news is that the stick comes clean out, no splinters being left behind. The bad news is that the bleeding is going to be a pain to patch up, especially without opposable thumbs. Where was a meerkat or monkey when you need one?!

Softie! A Kumalo would never show such a reaction to that! Or so thinks Kahini, though she won't speak her mind outloud on the whole thing. This aside, the group is now assembled, though on the far side of the crack and in this dead land. Badiliko as is certainly means the groups progress in any direction will be slow at best. "Lioness Sanlina, we should take a look around."

Sanlina swivels her ears and head around to Kahini. "If the earth split started not too far from here, we might be able to go around the end with not too much time lost. Otherwise, it appears the earth tremors have wiped out the water and life here." She glances suspiciously at the mountain. "Though why they started is a cause of possible concern. I've come across stories of these being started by volcanos as they start to grow. I do wonder if that mountain is hiding anything."

"No, the mountains have nothing except caverns," Miiba corrects Sanlina. "There used to be a lot of water here…what's causing these tremors is beyond me. This isn't the same place…"

From up in the tree, Itumele can actually see a fair distance down into the crevice. "Wow! Cool!" the young lion says with a lash of his tail. Considering it was quite a different scenario a few moments ago when it was shaking… The young lion tries to get a little bit better view.

Johari winces, but its not from pain. Its from looking at the pain the other lion is in. "Love, lay down, sit still, and maybe I can clean it up." She's groomed a few bloodied wounds clean, but most were actually her own. She does her best to clean up the areas to the sides of the wounds, with every intention of turning her mate back into a somewhat presentable lion.

Badiliko complies and lies down on the ground. So maybe he's unaccustomed to this sort of thing, but you know what? Cut some slack! Given the fact that he was impaled on a tree branch he's held himself together quite well. And he's even still awake while his sore wound is licked clean.

Kahini can't do much more than what Johari is already doing, so she shifts her attention to Miiba instead. As she strolls up to the hedgehog, she doesn't look to happy. "Caverns, huh? And what other surprises are waiting in this area?" Someone isn't too happy about being lead to a dead land, that's for sure.

Sanlina moves along with Kahini and also adds her own. "You may have known the lands before, but they have changed. It may be that the mountain has changed as well. We may need to investigate this further." she tells Kahini. "If those caverns can get us back to the other side of the land split. However, I suggest caution in case another tremor comes."

"Only whatever's changed since last year. Seriously, this is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you. I have no reason to lie to you." He sounds sincere and forward. Ultimately, who knows what lies ahead?

Okay, he's seen enough. Itumele picks his way down from the tree and heads back towards where the group is. "It's full of crap. Just throw it into the crevice and be done with it," he says as he makes his way around to the other side of the fallen log and flops down out of sight. Apparently he's not got anything else to add for now.

"You're a pretty good patient." Johari works her tongue gently around the wound, though she's trembling a bit herself from the combination of all of the excitement and then the injury of her mate. Itumele's attitude doesn't help either. "Kahini, Sanlina, I don't think anyone should go anywhere tonight. I'm staying here with Badi until he's good enough to move."
The white lion shakes his head. "No…we need to keep moving. We're not far, I can rest at the feet of the mountain." He starts to rise up (if he can) and makes the attempt to walk forward.

Kahini heaves a sigh and stares down at her paws. Why her? Why HER?? "Lion Badiliko, Lioness Johari, I'd suggest we find somewhere away from this crack, at least as far as Lion Badiliko can make it."

Sanlina glances to Kahini for a few moments, then looks back to Miiba. "No Itumele, Miiba may be correct. One shake, and we already see an earth split. Yet we have come across no others. The land is dead, but trees are still standing. The death of the land may be recent. I would think with earth tremors like that, we'd see more damage. More splits. However.." she says, speaking to Miiba now. "Things have changed. We need to know if there's any special area of this land we have not yet found out about. Mountain lakes. Canyons. The such. They may also have changed, but what do you recall?"

~End Part 4~

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