Zuri
Being, as it is, that my id on some IM systems is furahivszuri, people from school, that know me as Zuri ask who Furahi is, and people from here that know me as Furahi ask who Zuri is.
Furahi is my Warthog ''persona'', and Zuri is my Lion cub ''persona''. They're both me and some people have even noticed how sometimes I switch between them on the fly (if only pigs could purr...)
A long time ago I mentioned about my first ever serious writing attempt, Zuri's story. I mentioned that if someone wanted to read it they should just ask me. I think 2 people asked and one of them didn't read it. So now I'm forcing it on you.... No, not really, but I'm posing it here, since the value of only having it over there on its web site has faded, and it's even short enough that it doesn't even grant an lj-cut.
Don't mind the seemingly random swahili on the first lines. In the original conception of the story they made sense. The way it turned out they don't, but it's a finished work, I can't go back and change it anymore (hint for George Lucas). I know they seem like I just stole lines from The Lion King soundtrack, this is only partially true, just trust me that they made sense in the story's original conception.
So here it is, my favorite writing (of my own) so far.
It was a peaceful dawn, the night's cold punished mercilessly
Busa!
That night's noises were those of the crickets and of the wind waving the tree's leaves
Busa ngo Xolo!
The spider monkeys rested on the tree tops; below, a gazelle herd rested, except the little groups in charge of watching for predators.
Busa le lizwe!
Just a single noise perturbed that dawn's serenity and placidity. A mew. A cub's mew. A lion cub's mew. A sad lion cub's mew, that came from a cold and dark cave.
Busa Zuri
It was a warm afternoon in the Jani, the sun was setting quickly, but it wasn't taking that brain melting heat away, probably because of the short distance from the desert. In the middle, a couple of Lions and, around them, not a soul. The female, Karanga, growled in terrible pain, while her mate observed and suffered with her, feeling useless to help her. She was giving birth, two of the little ones were already out: Kawia, which they considered "was late" although he was the first one, because he came out almost two hours after she got in labor; and Indela, a playful lioness cub. The problem was now the third cub; his mother had been suffering for hours because the little one was in a bad position and couldn't be born. The moments seemed endless; the minutes became hours, and the hours, centuries. Two. Two passed, yes two, and two more; four hours later and finally an inert body plopped to the ground covered with blood. It didn't move; it didn't breath; it didn't live. The mother broke into tears and the father felt devastated. As if it were alive, the lioness took it in an almost instinctively way and began to clean it. She groomed and groomed, until it was completely clean. She sighed and thought to herself, "He was so beautiful! ", and as she began to shut her eyes to give in to her inner sorrow, she was distracted by a soft loving mew. Her cub, the one that hadn't want to come out, the one causing all the trouble, the smallest one; lived.
The dawn's cold had vanished leaving behind only a nice fresh weather in the Kiawara. The mewls that had disrupted the night had vanished no more than two hours ago. The gazelles were awake now, moving from side to side to feed and satisfy their thirst. The monkeys played and plucked fleas from each other. Suddenly, a mighty roar broke the morning's perfect harmony. The gazelles fled and the monkeys hid. A shout followed the roar, "Zuuuuriiii!". The cub woke and opened his eyes wide. What he saw filled him with fright: A young lioness with dark fur, staring fiercely, throwing hate at him through her eyes, "Zuri! I told you not to fall asleep!", she said, to which he answered shyly, "Sorry mummy". She growled at him and began to pad away. Without even looking back she said, "I don't know why I bother... come, I haven't even started with you yet".
The Jani's noon was even more blistering hot than the rest of its days' hours. A couple of lions moved towards the desert with their less than a moon old cubs. They knew crossing it would be tough, but the goodies of the Kiwara, across from the Jani, made the journey more than worthy. They were tired and decided to take a break to rest. The parents, exhausted, fell asleep almost immediately, while their two larger cubs played to pounce and their smallest one, Zuri, laid curled up next to his mother. A couple of hours later, a terrifying noise woke the adults up. It was a familiar sound: Hyenas. Right away, the mother looked for her cubs. Zuri was still laying next to her, his little eyes blinking because the commotion had waken him up; but the other two weren't anywhere in sight. The lioness hid Zuri and told him to stay. Scared, both parents ran off in search of their cubs, towards the source of the sound. When they arrived, pain disintegrated their eyes and ripped their souls. Kawia, or what was left of him, laid aside; there was a big hole in his tummy and he had lost his eyes, two legs and tail; meanwhile, the hyenas were having fun with Indela; several of them were chewing on her and pulling her from the arms while she screamed for her mother. The Lioness, without even thinking, rushed there to attack them and, after her, the Lion. In the horizon, a lion cub approached crawling, for he didn't walk very well yet. In a short time, thanks to their superiority in numbers, the beasts had restrained the male; a bunch of them began scratching, clawing, and piercing his under side. The cub was coming nearer. Moments later, the mother was bridled as well. The cub arrived to the scene. His mother spotted him first and motioned for him to hide, which he did obediently, behind a rock that was shaped in such way that he could watch without being watched. From there he saw how the hyenas had fun with his mother, how they attacked her, how they tortured her, how they killed her. It was from there too that he saw the hyenas laugh, make fun of them all and finally leave.
The Kiwara's noon is as fresh as the most pleasurable of the weathers. A young Lioness was about to hunt, she had already spotted her meal: a small gazelle that had segregated itself from the herd. Meanwhile, a young cub was hiding in the bushes. The lioness began to approach silently, she was invisible for her prey thanks to the Savannah's tall grasses. She crept closer and closer. A small branch emitted a cracking sound as a big paw stepped on it and broke it. The gazelle's ears turned to the source of the sound, its head followed, but before it knew it, it was already on the floor, with it's mouth in the lioness' fangs. The lioness increased the pressure more and more, until the gazelle finally died asphyxiated. The lioness began to eat then, but an instant later her ears warned her that the cub had left the bushes and was moving toward her. She shouted for him to go back, so he did. When all the good flesh had left the gazelle, the lioness took a tiny piece of the worse meat and tossed it to the cub, who devoured it immediately. When he asked for more all he got was a raucous laugh and a sarcastic comment about vultures.
The desert's heat is far worse than the Jani's, especially for a lone cub. Zuri, now an orphan, wandered through it looking for something unknown even to himself. Two days he had roamed; alone and with no food or water. He was excessively tired, thirsty and hungry. Every step he gave was an accomplishment. Eventually he didn't even accomplish this. He plopped on his tummy and laid there, waiting for whatever there was to wait for. Suddenly, he was shaken, something lifted him roughly and launched him through the air, he landed a few feet away and heard a laugh. With his last strength, he let out a soft "Owie". He heard the laugh come close and stop. He felt himself being sniffed and heard, "What? You're alive?", his little eyes blinked opened and saw the form of a young dark lioness. He saw the form smile, with a hypocritical smile, "Isn't this convenient?", the form said. He was lifted and taken far. First, the lioness gave him food and water to make sure he didn't die on her; but then, when he finished she took him to the top of a tree and left him there to his destiny. The cub mewled his throat out, though in the middle of the desert his mewls were useless. When the moon was on it's highest, the lioness came back and carried him down a few branches, then tossed him off the tree and followed him. When she picked him up she whispered, "You know now who to obey".
The Kiwara's nights are colder than the North pole, but this one in particular seemed as if it'd been planned, planned for tragedy. Noyana, the dark and young Lioness, and her cub Zuri were arriving to their lair (a cave behind some spiky bramble patch) when they found a trespasser: a cute, little mouse. Noyana shouted to Zuri, commanding him to kill the mouse, he refused at first, but then was forced by her to obey. He chased the mouse for a while, until he cornered it, but instead of killing it he hid it and told his mother he had eaten it whole. Cleverly, the Lioness nodded and claimed to be tired, retiring to her corner for sleeping. When he thought her to be asleep, he sneaked out of the cave to play with the mouse, which he thought was a "friend". He played chasing the mouse for a few minutes, but then the mouse disappeared into the mouth of the cave. As Zuri's eyes followed the sneaky mouse, he noticed he was being observed. When he discovered those honey eyes staring at him, glaring in the night, he turned pale. Before he could do anything, he heard the loudest roar he'd ever heard. He tried to escape, but Noyana simply had to stretch a paw to grab him. He cried and begged for his life, but the evil lioness threw him against the ground with all her strength and put a paw on his neck. Applying more and more pressure until she finally suffocated a life that probably never should have existed.
The body was devoured by the vultures, in a dawn in which everything was serene, the monkeys slept on the tree tops, the gazelles were alert, the crickets sang, the wind wove the trees' leaves and a lioness slept deeply and peacefully. The mew was heard no more.
Comments are most definitively welcome and encouraged, even negative ones (a good friend's review of it was "I'm sorry I read it", and that's OK)
Also, since I'm on it, here are the two pictures I use as reference when someone asks about Zuri or when I think of him:
Picture 1
Picture 2
(the 2nd pic is actually Kalahari)
The icon I'm using in this post is obviously Simba, but it's also Zuri, and it's the only Zuri icon I have
Edit: OK, it was long, it did need an LJ-cut unfortunately :P
Furahi is my Warthog ''persona'', and Zuri is my Lion cub ''persona''. They're both me and some people have even noticed how sometimes I switch between them on the fly (if only pigs could purr...)
A long time ago I mentioned about my first ever serious writing attempt, Zuri's story. I mentioned that if someone wanted to read it they should just ask me. I think 2 people asked and one of them didn't read it. So now I'm forcing it on you.... No, not really, but I'm posing it here, since the value of only having it over there on its web site has faded, and it's even short enough that it doesn't even grant an lj-cut.
Don't mind the seemingly random swahili on the first lines. In the original conception of the story they made sense. The way it turned out they don't, but it's a finished work, I can't go back and change it anymore (hint for George Lucas). I know they seem like I just stole lines from The Lion King soundtrack, this is only partially true, just trust me that they made sense in the story's original conception.
So here it is, my favorite writing (of my own) so far.
It was a peaceful dawn, the night's cold punished mercilessly
Busa!
That night's noises were those of the crickets and of the wind waving the tree's leaves
Busa ngo Xolo!
The spider monkeys rested on the tree tops; below, a gazelle herd rested, except the little groups in charge of watching for predators.
Busa le lizwe!
Just a single noise perturbed that dawn's serenity and placidity. A mew. A cub's mew. A lion cub's mew. A sad lion cub's mew, that came from a cold and dark cave.
Busa Zuri
It was a warm afternoon in the Jani, the sun was setting quickly, but it wasn't taking that brain melting heat away, probably because of the short distance from the desert. In the middle, a couple of Lions and, around them, not a soul. The female, Karanga, growled in terrible pain, while her mate observed and suffered with her, feeling useless to help her. She was giving birth, two of the little ones were already out: Kawia, which they considered "was late" although he was the first one, because he came out almost two hours after she got in labor; and Indela, a playful lioness cub. The problem was now the third cub; his mother had been suffering for hours because the little one was in a bad position and couldn't be born. The moments seemed endless; the minutes became hours, and the hours, centuries. Two. Two passed, yes two, and two more; four hours later and finally an inert body plopped to the ground covered with blood. It didn't move; it didn't breath; it didn't live. The mother broke into tears and the father felt devastated. As if it were alive, the lioness took it in an almost instinctively way and began to clean it. She groomed and groomed, until it was completely clean. She sighed and thought to herself, "He was so beautiful! ", and as she began to shut her eyes to give in to her inner sorrow, she was distracted by a soft loving mew. Her cub, the one that hadn't want to come out, the one causing all the trouble, the smallest one; lived.
The dawn's cold had vanished leaving behind only a nice fresh weather in the Kiawara. The mewls that had disrupted the night had vanished no more than two hours ago. The gazelles were awake now, moving from side to side to feed and satisfy their thirst. The monkeys played and plucked fleas from each other. Suddenly, a mighty roar broke the morning's perfect harmony. The gazelles fled and the monkeys hid. A shout followed the roar, "Zuuuuriiii!". The cub woke and opened his eyes wide. What he saw filled him with fright: A young lioness with dark fur, staring fiercely, throwing hate at him through her eyes, "Zuri! I told you not to fall asleep!", she said, to which he answered shyly, "Sorry mummy". She growled at him and began to pad away. Without even looking back she said, "I don't know why I bother... come, I haven't even started with you yet".
The Jani's noon was even more blistering hot than the rest of its days' hours. A couple of lions moved towards the desert with their less than a moon old cubs. They knew crossing it would be tough, but the goodies of the Kiwara, across from the Jani, made the journey more than worthy. They were tired and decided to take a break to rest. The parents, exhausted, fell asleep almost immediately, while their two larger cubs played to pounce and their smallest one, Zuri, laid curled up next to his mother. A couple of hours later, a terrifying noise woke the adults up. It was a familiar sound: Hyenas. Right away, the mother looked for her cubs. Zuri was still laying next to her, his little eyes blinking because the commotion had waken him up; but the other two weren't anywhere in sight. The lioness hid Zuri and told him to stay. Scared, both parents ran off in search of their cubs, towards the source of the sound. When they arrived, pain disintegrated their eyes and ripped their souls. Kawia, or what was left of him, laid aside; there was a big hole in his tummy and he had lost his eyes, two legs and tail; meanwhile, the hyenas were having fun with Indela; several of them were chewing on her and pulling her from the arms while she screamed for her mother. The Lioness, without even thinking, rushed there to attack them and, after her, the Lion. In the horizon, a lion cub approached crawling, for he didn't walk very well yet. In a short time, thanks to their superiority in numbers, the beasts had restrained the male; a bunch of them began scratching, clawing, and piercing his under side. The cub was coming nearer. Moments later, the mother was bridled as well. The cub arrived to the scene. His mother spotted him first and motioned for him to hide, which he did obediently, behind a rock that was shaped in such way that he could watch without being watched. From there he saw how the hyenas had fun with his mother, how they attacked her, how they tortured her, how they killed her. It was from there too that he saw the hyenas laugh, make fun of them all and finally leave.
The Kiwara's noon is as fresh as the most pleasurable of the weathers. A young Lioness was about to hunt, she had already spotted her meal: a small gazelle that had segregated itself from the herd. Meanwhile, a young cub was hiding in the bushes. The lioness began to approach silently, she was invisible for her prey thanks to the Savannah's tall grasses. She crept closer and closer. A small branch emitted a cracking sound as a big paw stepped on it and broke it. The gazelle's ears turned to the source of the sound, its head followed, but before it knew it, it was already on the floor, with it's mouth in the lioness' fangs. The lioness increased the pressure more and more, until the gazelle finally died asphyxiated. The lioness began to eat then, but an instant later her ears warned her that the cub had left the bushes and was moving toward her. She shouted for him to go back, so he did. When all the good flesh had left the gazelle, the lioness took a tiny piece of the worse meat and tossed it to the cub, who devoured it immediately. When he asked for more all he got was a raucous laugh and a sarcastic comment about vultures.
The desert's heat is far worse than the Jani's, especially for a lone cub. Zuri, now an orphan, wandered through it looking for something unknown even to himself. Two days he had roamed; alone and with no food or water. He was excessively tired, thirsty and hungry. Every step he gave was an accomplishment. Eventually he didn't even accomplish this. He plopped on his tummy and laid there, waiting for whatever there was to wait for. Suddenly, he was shaken, something lifted him roughly and launched him through the air, he landed a few feet away and heard a laugh. With his last strength, he let out a soft "Owie". He heard the laugh come close and stop. He felt himself being sniffed and heard, "What? You're alive?", his little eyes blinked opened and saw the form of a young dark lioness. He saw the form smile, with a hypocritical smile, "Isn't this convenient?", the form said. He was lifted and taken far. First, the lioness gave him food and water to make sure he didn't die on her; but then, when he finished she took him to the top of a tree and left him there to his destiny. The cub mewled his throat out, though in the middle of the desert his mewls were useless. When the moon was on it's highest, the lioness came back and carried him down a few branches, then tossed him off the tree and followed him. When she picked him up she whispered, "You know now who to obey".
The Kiwara's nights are colder than the North pole, but this one in particular seemed as if it'd been planned, planned for tragedy. Noyana, the dark and young Lioness, and her cub Zuri were arriving to their lair (a cave behind some spiky bramble patch) when they found a trespasser: a cute, little mouse. Noyana shouted to Zuri, commanding him to kill the mouse, he refused at first, but then was forced by her to obey. He chased the mouse for a while, until he cornered it, but instead of killing it he hid it and told his mother he had eaten it whole. Cleverly, the Lioness nodded and claimed to be tired, retiring to her corner for sleeping. When he thought her to be asleep, he sneaked out of the cave to play with the mouse, which he thought was a "friend". He played chasing the mouse for a few minutes, but then the mouse disappeared into the mouth of the cave. As Zuri's eyes followed the sneaky mouse, he noticed he was being observed. When he discovered those honey eyes staring at him, glaring in the night, he turned pale. Before he could do anything, he heard the loudest roar he'd ever heard. He tried to escape, but Noyana simply had to stretch a paw to grab him. He cried and begged for his life, but the evil lioness threw him against the ground with all her strength and put a paw on his neck. Applying more and more pressure until she finally suffocated a life that probably never should have existed.
The body was devoured by the vultures, in a dawn in which everything was serene, the monkeys slept on the tree tops, the gazelles were alert, the crickets sang, the wind wove the trees' leaves and a lioness slept deeply and peacefully. The mew was heard no more.
Comments are most definitively welcome and encouraged, even negative ones (a good friend's review of it was "I'm sorry I read it", and that's OK)
Also, since I'm on it, here are the two pictures I use as reference when someone asks about Zuri or when I think of him:
Picture 1
Picture 2
(the 2nd pic is actually Kalahari)
The icon I'm using in this post is obviously Simba, but it's also Zuri, and it's the only Zuri icon I have
Edit: OK, it was long, it did need an LJ-cut unfortunately :P