[PRP] Fill me in (Burz & Sko)

[Princess_Feylin]

While not usually a particularly fastidious lion, Burzum was glad to be washing the grime and mud from his coat. While he was moping around, feeling sorry for and disgusted with himself he'd allowed himself to get into quite a state of dishevelment. Watching the dirt float away from him filled him with a new disgust. How could he have let anyone see him looking so unkempt? It did the family no favors, that was certain.

"So," he said to his brother, who he had been sort-of ignoring since he stepped into the forest pond. "Do you know which of Njal's get is responsible?"

If Sko didn't Burz could help with that. He had spent more than half his life living with members of that family, and he was confident that given the right piece of information he would be able to figure out which of the ******** had gotten Klona pregnant. His first guesses at the moment would be Niklas or Bruten, but they just happened to be his least favorite of Njal's sons. It could have been any one of the pismires.  

[bipolar bee]

Skogund took up residence in a tree that bordered the pond, only half paying attention to Burz. He was actually sort of thinking about the things he'd do to the scum that had gotten to Klona. He was also trying to figure out why someone would do what they'd done to her - she was pretty enough, Sko supposed, but ******** if she wasn't all there. It would have had to been a real sick b*****d to take advantage of a lioness who probably really didn't realize what was going on.

"It's hard to say. I don't know enough about Njal's sons, let alone what they all look like - and the cubs are... they're all mismatched. One looks like mum, but with this sweep of streaky black and silver over her eye, and her eye itself is a little weird. Another is dark with hair and markings like you n' me and papa. Two more look more like papa, but one's dark and the other is lighter. One's pale with a stony arm and the same markings we all have on our face. Another's... that poor cub's got granpa's wing, Njal's arm, that streaky color on his foot, and markings like you n' me n' papa. On his face."

He paused briefly, thinking of Anushka. That eye...

"So. It's really hard to say. Could be any of them, far as I know."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Burz may have looked as if he was concentrating on his scrubbing, but that really required no concentration at all. In fact, he was listening intently to Sko describe the litter. It sounded positively enormous. Six. For any lioness that would be a lot, but for someone like Klona, that would be impossible to manage on her own. Not that he believed for a second that she would be doing so.

Unfortunately, the cubs' descriptions weren't hugely helpful. They were too varied, and could have come from any of Njal's family. Though...the streak of black and silver over one eye was a very familiar marking. He'd seen it every day of his captivity. Naaja bore such a mark. So did Bruten. But the fact that two of the litter had that marking meant that probably any of them could have passed it on. It came from Njal's mate, after all.

"Bruten, Naaja, and their mother all have an eye marking like that. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt Naaja had nothing to do with this. Bruten, well." He grimaced. "He's more than enough of a d**k to have done it, but to be honest I couldn't really say without seeing them, and even then...they sound like they've got a strong resemblance to everyone in the family."

He didn't like to admit that he couldn't solve the mystery right then and there, since he would have like to have done so, but there it was. Of course, if they were going to kill all of them, it didn't make as much of a difference if the got the father right, but it would be nice to make his death extra horrifying.  

[bipolar bee]

"Yes, I know that the mark comes from Njal's wife," Skogund rasped sourly. "It is not as though you've said something I haven't already figured out."

Yeah, he was being kind of a b***h, but he was irritated. Soon papa and Klona and ********... everyone else would be swooning over the mighty Burzum's return. Skogund rolled his eyes to himself and flopped over on the broad branch so that he could glare down at his brother's head.

"What would be real helpful is having someone on the inside who knows the family. Someone we can... bribe," he flexed his claws, and it was apparent that Sko's preferred method of bribery would involve teeth, claws and blood. "Do you have an in? With the family?" He probably did. Skogund wouldn't be surprised. ******** Burz.

"Don't believe Klona when she tells you their names. She's calling them her little birds. She's finally off my ******** back about the birds - which reminds me, she actually did have a bird for a few months. There was peace in the forest, for once since her ******** conception."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Burz's tail swished beneath the water. Burz was irritated by Sko's insistence on making contentious remarks about everything. It wasn't as though Sko had done anything before now, or uncovered anything useful.

"How excellent that you are so well-informed. It doesn't sound as if you really require any help from me at all. And, frankly, if you're looking for someone who has an in with the family, that wouldn't be me."

Yeah...no. There was no member of that family that would trust him at this point. And he didn't give two shits about that. He had made his opinions and his intentions toward them clear from the start, and his mind had not changed. They would die, and he would be responsible, even if that meant being labeled a murderer and killed or exiled. It was an acceptable exchange.

Burz remembered Klona's obsession with birds, and it sounded as if she had not shed that obsession. Too bad. It had been one of the more irksome things about her. He couldn't blame Sko too much for the way he talked about the matter. He'd had to put up with it for significantly longer than Burz had. Although, really, Burz was of the opinion that listening to Klona whine about birds was less of a hardship than what he had endured in the stronghold.

"She had a bird," he repeated, wondering if that was a significant piece of information. He knew that Bruten had a vulture who followed him around, then vanished inexplicably. Was there something to that? It could be a starting point, if nothing else. "What kind of bird?"  

[bipolar bee]

Sko merely snorted at Burz's retort, but bit back his own. He'd spent a lot of time being worried about his brother's welfare, and for Burz to waltz back into the forest and then promptly blame him for what had happened to Klona... it left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Some awful foul-mouthed creature. Dark with a purple sort of beak, I don't know. He was never very nice to Klona. I don't really know where she found him. Wouldn't tell me, wouldn't tell mum or papa or even uncle Odd. She was real upset when he took off round the time she started getting fat."

Now that he thought about it, it was completely ridiculous that they'd simply thought Klona to be fat.

"So once we find who did this, what next? Do you have any ideas? I'd be happy just to lead him into the forest and rip out his throat."  

[Princess_Feylin]

"A foul-mouthed vulture?" Burz pressed.

He had been fortunate enough not to have had many dealings with the creature during his time as a thrall, but he was aware of its existence and its association with Naaja's brother. A part of him really, really hoped that Bruten could be held responsible for Klona's litter. It would be just one more excuse to smear him across the sands.

Burz hopped out of the water and shook himself, showing godlike restraint in not pointing out the sheer idiocy of mistaking a pregnant lioness for one who was simply fat. Once she was pregnant, there wasn't a great deal they could have done about it anyway. Well. That wasn't quite true. But he doubted that inducing a miscarriage would have gone much easier on Klona.

"We can't do that unless you want to spend your entire life hiding in the forest as a fugitive," Burz said wearily as he began to lick himself dry. "There are legitimate ways to kill someone that are completely acceptable by the pride's laws, as long as as the right conditions are met."

He was, of course, thinking of a holmgang. He or Skogund could challenge Bruten to a holmgang over his actions toward their sister and phrase the challenge so that it would be to the death. They would need to know the right words though, and Burz didn't know them. He had never fought in or witnessed a holmgang. Naaja hadn't gone in for that sort of thing.

pinchmonster

 

[bipolar bee]

Princess_Feylin

"Yeah, a vulture. Ugly little p***k. Why?"

Sko really should have paid better attention, and he knew he should have been paying better attention. He was glad that Burzum didn't point out the fact that he was an idiot. Sko knew he was an idiot, and he'd known he was an idiot the instant that the first cub had been birthed on the forest floor while Klona was freaking the ******** out.

"What are the right conditions," Skogund urged, "and how do we go about making sure that these conditions are met, as you say? And I don't care if I am branded a fugitive. I only worry for the others." Klona, his papa, his other siblings. His aunts, uncle and cousins. Those were the ones he worried for. Sko doubted that life would be easy on the rest of them if he strolled in and murdered a lion in cold blood - even if that lion deserved it.

"It isn't like I plan on living in the stronghold. Especially after this. Papa needs all the help he can get with those cubs."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Burz smiled nastily and a noise somewhere between a growl and a purr rumbled in his chest. Although his voice was hoarse and rasping, it was clear that the white lion was pleased by the way things had turned out. Well, within reason. Either way, he was obviously savoring the words he spoke as he spoke them, imagining acts of violence to come.

"That's Bruten's bird. It looks like we get to start with Bruten."

His fantasies were dispelled by Sko's remarks about conditions and being a fugitive. At Sko's bold dismissal of any concern for his future he didn't bother holding back a snort. As Sko had said, those cubs would take a lot of minding, although Burz had a hard time imagining Sko as a babysitter without wanting to laugh.

"It matters if you're a fugitive. Our family would not be punished for your actions unless you chose to return here and stay with them. At which point they would be aiding a fugitive, which is a crime." Then, since it seemed necessary, he decided to remind Sko, "Murder is also a crime."

He paused for effect, perhaps a little bit too proud of his idea, since it wasn't really all that clever. "Winning a holmgang where the loser happens to be dead is not."

pinchmonster