[PRP] The After Party... Or Not! (Tollak x Kifu)

[CaliWolfe]

Tollak was pleased with himself. He had braved the roguelands and in doing so returned victorious.

He was a reaver! A real reaver! He had barely just walked back to the pride before parting ways with the two others who had accompanied him on this particular Viking of his. Already the youth was ready to holler to the top of his lungs in joy.

"Take that!" He grinned in satisfaction at his new title. Soon he'd be able to approach those still non-reavers he called friends and with pleasure gloat in their faces about his success.

Usually Tollak wasn't this chipper. He tended to favor a more down-to-earth attitude but tonight he had deemed an exception. He walked around the pridelands with his head held high and was more then pleased to flaunt his new status around. "Hey, watch where your going!" He snarled as someone bumped into him. "I'm a reaver you know."  

[Puhterodactyl]

Kifuani had been looking for Calder while she strolled through the pride, and her white eyes were focused elsewhere. She must not have seen the grey lion in the dimmer light, and they bumped into one another. She turned to apologize, but his snarl cut her off before she could form the words, and the next words earned a scowl from the thrall.

"Well doesn't that make you special?" Kifuani hissed at him. The formerly quiet female had become embittered by her induction to the pride against her will and her new relationship with the equally gruff Calder was only exaggerating her feelings. She knew as a thrall she should never talk to a reaver like that, but he caught her in the wrong mood.

CaliWolfe

 

[CaliWolfe]

Puhterodactyl

"Well yeah, it does!" Tollak hissed back. Ain't no one was going to ruin his mood. Not after the proud accomplishment he had just made. Not after he had decided this was the one thing he could run around and holler with success about. Especially not before he was able to rub it into his brother's face.

"What's with you anyways? You think you're better because you're an adult don'tcha? Well I'm not even an adult yet and I'm already better then half the freeborn!" After all, what good was a freeborn who didn't strive for something better? Tollak made an exception for his sister, whose speciality was brewing mint, and his mother, who was desperate to become a reaver even before females had been allowed to again. But those who were like his brother? Who sat around trying to remember names all day? Stupid. Stupid and useless the lot of them.

If Tollak wasn't fuming after trying to not let his mood be ruined he might have noticed the other wasn't familiar enough to be a freeborn. But alas, he didn't realize this through gnashing his teeth around.  

[Puhterodactyl]

The lioness narrowed her white eyes at this upstart. He didn't even realize she was a thrall. "You think you're some big man because you went out on a little viking, but you grew up in this pride with all of your needs cared for, with a cub sitter, a healer, everyone hunting and providing." She snorted. "Musta been a real tough upbringing, buddy." She gave him a sarcastic wink.

"Was that the first time you've left the pride?" She circled Tollak, looking down her nose at him. She didn't have to tell him she was a Thrall, right? Well, maybe unless he asked. She wasn't quite clear on all the Thrall rules.

CaliWolfe

 

[CaliWolfe]

"As if." Tollak snorted as the lioness began circling him. Clearly, this stranger had never met his mother. Inari was tough and was going to be certain her cubs also maintained such toughness. Or at the very least, knew how to fight. Even Stig, his brother that Tollak considered an absolute lost cause had learned the ropes.

"Was that your upbringing? Gods all you old folks are such hypocrites." At this point he let go of the idea that his mood was sour and found sanctuary in the idea that a fight could be brewing. The warrior his mother had strived to raise found his blood heating and the desire for violence grow.

Still, he wore a scowl when addressing the thrall when all he wanted to do was grin. "What of it? Have you even seen the outside of the pride?"

Puhterodactyl

 

[Puhterodactyl]

Kifuani looked down her nose at the boy. "I've seen babies born and lions die. I've seen the ocean and the desert and the mountains. I've seen dozens of prides, ones just forming and those collapsing in on themselves. I've seen plagues and cannibals and wildfires. What have you seen, hmm?"

The dark lioness would find no pleasure in duking it out with an adolescent. Especially one of a higher rank, if it ever got out. Then again, he really was acting like a brat. These viking lions were no good, not a one of them. Even her aunt who had been living in the pride only a few years was not like any kin to her. Couldn't be trusted, couldn't be counted on. Kifuani had always had to be strong, just fending for herself and her more timid mother. But the unkindness she found in the Stormborn had only made her harder. So if she had to knock some sense in this kid, she'd do it.

Kifuani stopped pacing, and raised her head high, staring at the male. She didn't have to impress him. She cared little for his opinion. But, he had made her mad.

CaliWolfe

 

[CaliWolfe]

"Ooh, so you're nothing but an old washed up reaver then." Tollak snarled with pleasure. He still was vacantly unaware of the lion he was speaking to being a thrall. Though if he had known, that wouldn't have stopped him from picking a fight with her.

"I've got plenty of time to see all that stuff and more. Besides I can fight, and fighting will take me places." He stood in position prepared for a hit of some kind, and waiting with his tail swinging across the ground. It was a brief thought, but he wondered if the lioness would bother initiating the fight, or would he have to? If she gave up and walked away he was certain the other reavers would be satisfied and amused to accept his challenge.

As she stopped to sneer had him Tollak finally allowed the grin to creep onto his face. Smugly he told her, "You look flower-blooded. A flower-blooded washed up reaver. Or maybe you're just a freeborn who got lost one day like a moron."

Puhterodactyl

Wow Tollak. Way to be a brat.

 

[Puhterodactyl]

The hilarity of being mistaken for a reaver was almost too much to bear. A grin crept across her face and she sniggered. She rolled her shoulder casually. Maybe she should take up being a nanny, cubs were awfully entertaining, and to her this adolescent was acting quite juvenile.

She nodded her head and pursed her lips. "Oh, you'll go places for sure."
She winked.

"Flower-blooded?" She hadn't heard that expression before, but she couldn't let that give her away. What was the opposite of that? What did those stupid vikings say about themselves? Hmm... Ah!

"Silly boy, I'm just as born of salt and iron as you are and you're wearing my patience thin."

That was the first time she'd outright lied to a lion ranking above her, but she was tough enough to back it up.

CaliWolfe

 

[CaliWolfe]

"Heh." Tollak chuckled. This was amusing, entertaining. Turning his negative into a positive. A situation he had not encountered many times.

"Oo, how scary. The washed up good-for-nothing reaver might bite me." He laughed the taunt towards. Usually he didn't bother with pushing buttons or aggravating others but this was almost too good of an opportunity for it. Violence was only as satisfying as the insults that provoked it he found. And Tollak's delight on the subject was evident.

The smirk he held upon his face seemed to grow while he spoke. "I don't fear you." He then proceeded to say a line that swelled in the back of his mind. A sentence that had once been spoken to him, by a cub his own age.

"You look like a thrall. Tell me, was your mother a thrall old washed up reaver?"

Puhterodactyl

 

[Puhterodactyl]

Kifu stiffened and glared at Tollak, the fur on the back of her neck bristling. "I ought to do worse than bite you, impudent boy," she spoke with a low growl and narrowed her eyes.

The black lioness gathered her muscles, tense, as though she would lunge at him. But no, she couldn't give in to his taunt. Her ears lay flat against her head. What kind of trouble would she get in for this, though? Attacking a reaver after she lied about her rank. Or worse, what would happen to her mother, Chayah? Her mother still bore the scars of trying to protect her cub when the reavers came to take them. Still not willing to back down, she held her ground.

Wait, was that a flash of orange?

All thoughts left her mind.

"I'll deal with you later, boy."

The black lioness padded off with great haste, bumping the grey adolescent on her way.