you expect me not to analyze it?

[ninazu]

BURN
BRIGHT

The lioness’s ear flicked, head turning to look at the horned beast. Her golden gaze instantly found him, despite the bustling marketplace, now that his voice called. Heart dropping, the ardent immediately thought to run – emotions were weak, she was his superior. Stryker earned her loyalty and respect, but a gift? And in what world did she deserve the gift lying next to him? Even without looking at the contents, Ninazu wanted to violently reject the damn thing. Burn it. Burn her own cardboard offering, for good measure.

But Ninazu never ran from anything. Heavy paws took her towards Stryker, each second excruciatingly slow. The physical pain became stronger, as though to make up for the mental vice she clamped around her emotions. However, that only convinced Ninazu that she needed to do this. Whenever a decision hurt, then the more crucial that decision was – and the more she wanted to ignore the urgency.

“Stryker, thank you...” she said, voice trailing off with a strangled cough. The lioness didn’t know what to say; so she pushed the plain cardboard box towards him without another word. The ardent usually felt at ease around the marauder (more so than anyone else, at least), but it was obvious to any observer how tightly wound she was in this moment. Ninazu knew how to control fear and anger; fear of rejection, however… that was quite another matter.

Inside the cardboard box, the ardent carefully laid a golden grill on top of a thick layer of black tissue paper. But that was just the outer gag gift – she enjoyed the humor Stryker brought to her life. Underneath the paper, she put a few dull scales of Bai Shi in a decorative glass jar. And next to that, well… was a fucking lion heart. Clearly, Ninazu intentionally fucked up the age-old metaphor.

© MADI