[Duel] Fired Up (Shunqa vs. Bimnono)

[Hopefolly]

((OOC note to self: Set a week after the duel with Seide.))

Righteousness was a privilege, not a right. Nono would have joined the Nergui if they had water. She couldn't tell you a damn thing about them, didn't even know of them, but that was the point: if they had resources, she'd go with anybody, no matter who "they" were.

It came as a shock to her the Firekin had brains and skills to go with their reputation. She had found an outpost as Moto'Seide promised she would. They did not feed her, but directed her to water. Training with the Firekin and other rogues there, she learned a few things:

1. How to mimic their speech a little better.
2. They were spoiled.

That's right, spoiled. In her language, they called this"hasellen bastona", which literally translated to "they were born luckier than us", but was used informally to express envy of well-to-do lions.

Nono looked upon every drop of water as if it was the love of her life. In the eyes of these lions, she may have seen fire, but she did not see gratitude. Not in her opinion.

Truth be told, she would have gladly hunted all for herself (she was used to that) and been content to tarry around the water source. This she knew could not be so.

Back to the borders it was, once the sun was almost out of the sky.  

[Hopefolly]

Paranoid was just a word unprepared lions used. Shunqa was the embodiment of self-fulfilling prophecy if ever one lived. He waited for the next disaster, and when something bad happened, got a sick kind of gratification. He told you so!

Putting it that way, one might think Shunqa craved the drama.

Wrong.

Ultimately, Shunqa was born as a product of seemingly unfortunate circumstances. If his father was never... then his mother never would have -- and they wouldn't know each other.

The Firekin would be alright without him, without most of them perhaps, but the pride would be worse off without Seide.

On the other paw, just as there would be no Gepeto if there was no Mpaji, there would be no huria grandcubs if there was no Moto'Seide to have them. He never felt death was a merciful solution, but to never exist to start with might be.

--Not that he wished away his sister. Or... his father. Shunqa loved Mpaji, he did, it was just...

Anyway, if those cubs were going to be born one day -- and if Seide insisted on returning to her work with Veru -- Shunqa had no choice but to train, train, train. How could he argue with Azar'bijan the youngsters should not be taught to fear and fight their enemies so young, then as an adult, not be able to help protect him?

He hadn't spoken to his sister enough to know the rogue approaching him was someone she knew. He wondered if, like him, she had picked this time on purpose. Neither too hot nor too cold, it was as comfortable as it would get.  

[Hopefolly]

Nono had many conflicted feelings with her upbringing too. Approaching Shunqa, her mind was restless, churning out one method after another of how she might kill him if they fought for water. Since males had those manes that protected their throats, the eyes went first with them; as they writhed in agony, you could strike.

If asked, Nono said her growing years had been uneventful.

Nono did not lie. This was how much of the desert functioned where she came from.

She was no bloodthirsty monster. And, in her experience, the lions who enjoyed watching the life drain from someone's eyes were few and far between. The intent to murder their own kind was not an innate thing for most of them, no, but greed? Oh, yes, so many were stingy. They couldn't share. They would rather learn to kill than to share.

Moto'Seide had probably not ever killed anyone. She talked too much for that, and that moment she had looked away from Nono, even thinking she was hostile... Nono blamed arrogance when it happened. The true culprit was ignorance.

Nono was not innocent of it herself. She was clueless how many of them there really were, among other things. She did not think so many that the mark on Shunqa's shoulder, those on his legs, were coincidence.

And he had his claws out. A family habit?

Nono stopped. Not one to repeat mistakes, she announced her intent by saying only, "I am here to challenge."  

[Hopefolly]

Seide's claws had been nothing more than a failure to communicate at work. The military -- of which Shunqa counted the guards, the hunters, the sentinels, so on -- were taught to hesitate, in his opinion. They were trained to not bite, to not scratch, to not break. There were strict rules against it and penalties for any Firekin who injured another so severely they could not tend to their duties.

The hunters weren't saddled with these reservations. To kill was his job. Prey, not lions, but lions bled as they did. Their bones snapped too. Their throats could be crushed and rendered useless.

He knew that his rank was not the only that hunted. He knew, likewise, many of the hunters sparred frequently. Shunqa was not one of them. He practiced with Elda, once.

Since his days were spent fighting to kill prey, he had to remind himself to ease back.

He looked down at his own paws to make sure they obeyed his will rather than his instinct. No claws.

"Whenever you're ready."  

[Hopefolly]

Nono: 1/5 Roll: 2 - Light Attack

Whether or not Nono missed her first attack depended on whether or not her opponent underestimated her speed. She begrudgingly confessed she had yet to meet anyone slower than her. If her legs had not been so short and her girth not wider than it should have been, she'd have fought as most lions did.

"The only body you have to protect is the one the fates gave you," her mother would say. And she would tell her, "Learn your own way. To give you life is the fates job. To pity you throughout it is not."

Nono remembered that.

And she remembered that the first attack was the job of a challenger. She had been sure to stop fairly close to Shunqa so that the distance between them could be crossed quickly, but not too quickly: she kept in mind that she would need enough room to jump.

Nono had gauged the distance with wondrous accuracy. Shunqa had no choice but to yield to her weight or risk his spine snapping. They toppled over in a mess of limbs and fur.

Right away, Nono slammed her paws down on his chest so that the back of his head hit hard against the sand.

Not the eyes.  

[Hopefolly]

Shunqa: 1/5 Roll: 3 - Strong Hit

Shunqa may never know how alike he and Seide were. Almost in as many ways as they were different. Like his sister, he was intrigued by this style, having never seen anything like it. He would find more time to marvel when his head was not being thrashed around.

His right shoulder wiggled from under her weight, and with great force, his paw swung around to strike her in the side of the head.

He should have been impressed how she stayed on her paws. Instead, with a surge of adrenaline and -- and something else, something he didn't like -- he jumped up and slammed into her side so hard she rolled across the sand.

He then sheathed his claws. When had that happened?  

[Hopefolly]

Nono: 2/5 Roll: 3 - Strong Hit

Nono got used to the dry, the hot, the thirst. She would never become accustomed to the taste of sand in her mouth or the burn of it when it got beneath the fur and scratched your very flesh.

It didn't need to be said she was no petite lady. To make her roll like this he had hit her hard. She could swear she felt her bones quiver and some of them crack.

Nono's recovery time was quick on the draw, as per usual. There were no second chances for her kind. When you fought, you used all the energy you had; any spared would only be wasted on dying.

They circled each other.

Nono feinted right, but when Shunqa lifted his aligning paw to swing, she darted to his left side and threw her weight into him. He, of course, got a mouthful of desert.

Revenge was not sweet. It tasted of sand.  

[Hopefolly]

Shunqa: 2/5 Roll: 3 - Strong Attack

This burly lioness snarled as males did.

(No, she didn't. That was him.)

There was a lot of idling in hunting. A lot of waiting for just the right second, for the perfect opportunity until you --

Nono stood on her back paws. Shunqa raised his front legs to full length and they collided with her chest. The force knocked the wind out of her and Nono's shorter legs dangled uselessly. He took full advantage of this, pushing hard enough for her to fall back. Some blood hit his face and he sheathed his claws (again).

Shunqa pounced before her back had hit the ground. They crash landed and red colored the sand. His lips were curled -- It's a duel. Calm down. -- and he would swear his paw was not so heavy on her throat.  

[Hopefolly]

Nono: 3/5 Roll: 1 - Miss

Survival instinct kicked in when her air was cut off. Nono did not think about how he was rougher than Seide had been (at least once she discovered Nono meant no harm to her people). She didn't think anything, just swung her paws, hoping to hit him. But he stood too tall.

Desperately, Nono tried and failed to get her back legs under him.

Her eyes locked on his and she bared each and every tooth.  

[Hopefolly]

Shunqa: 3/5 Roll: 2 - Bide

Not looking prey in the eye was the first thing he'd teach an apprentice if ever a youngster was so unfortunate to get stuck with him as their mentor. Keep your eyes on the throat, he'd say, and he'd try to make it out to be some kind of tactical reason when, really, sometimes it just made you feel bad.

Prey did have the ferocity of predator. Shunqa felt her glare before he saw it.

Immediately after witnessing the look in her eyes, he eased up.

What was he doing?  

[Hopefolly]

Nono: 4/5 Roll: 2 - Bide her fat a**. Light Attack.

Nono would exploit his guilt and sleep easy for it if not for the sore throat she was going to have keeping her up, what with all the wheezing and gasping. You didn't nearly snap someone's neck without consequences. Not to them, or to you.

With his mental stutter broadcast across his face, Nono took her chance and smacked him one good. Claws out.  

[Hopefolly]

Shunqa: 4/5 Roll: 2 - A-BIDING BY HIS MORALS LOLOLOL Bide

Okay, he deserved that.

None the less, Shunqa growled in defiance of the sharp pain suddenly pulsing across his face. He stepped off her neck, off her form entirely, and shook the blood away; put his own claws in, then in again. Those things had a mind of their own, he swore it.

"Sorry, that was too rough."  

[Hopefolly]

Nono: 5/5 Roll: 3 - ULTIMATE BITCHSLAP Strong Hit

Nono. was. pissed.

She and Moto'Seide had their misunderstanding, and my, my was the punishment for their carelessness ugly. But when the air was cleared, that stopped. They stopped, to a degree, though neither had been fully committed to killing the other.

This one new that this was not for water from the start. Not for the right to keep on living. This was his idea of "honorable", was it?

Nono could fight dirty if that's how he wanted to do it. She'd told Seide nothing but the truth, and the truest of all was she died in battle or not at all.

Honorable battle, well, that was up to the offending party.

She swiftly swung at him, hitting him across the face harder than she had assaulted anyone in a long while.

"Jogafi," she spat. Sorry. "Was too rough?"  

[Hopefolly]

Shunqa: 5/5 Roll: 3 - Strong Attack

That one he deserved not as moral backlash for his sins against the Firekin way, but for being stupid enough to assume she was going to smile and nod after he'd rendered her unable to breathe. What good was water without air?

The hit knocked Shunqa over. He expected her to keep going, but she waited patiently until he was on his paws.

It had been out of justified anger and he couldn't blame her for it.

Shunqa started left. She started right. They went in a circle and eventually met in the middle. Blows were landed, hits were had. He had the advantage of more air in his lungs; when she ran out of breath, he tackled her to the ground and in doing so won.

For all that being this kind of victor was worth.  

[Hopefolly]

Nono wasn't sure if she hated or respected this Firekin as she lay defeated. He had wronged her, but had repented, and had not answered her brutality with more of it. His family line was full of mad lions. Absolutely crazed. Why did they not pick one way to behave and follow through with it?

No claws. Claws. Honor. No honor.

Hmph!

If nothing else, she could say there was no shame in being bested by them.

She rolled onto her stomach when he was no longer hovering over her.

"Ya like fire a'ight," Nono grumbled. "Too much anga'."

Whatever he had to say, she wasn't interested. This one was going to take a lot of time to calm down from. Nono was shaking her head in disgust for as long as he could see her.