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 Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:57 pm
"I don't see why we have to do this, mom," Lawahka complained as she trotted at her mother's heels. Her father was already instructing her in the ways of being a following of Xibalba. She already knew most of the stuff already, so why did her mother have to go and add onto what her father was teaching here? But that wasn't the main issue. The main issue was that she had to learn alongside some other boy who Xibalba owned as well. This boy, however, wasn't born into this position. He had to be recruited. There was a big difference.
Nanako simply shrugged at her daughter, deciding it was best to just leave that question. Besides, she had to focus on getting to their meeting spot. It wasn't far from where they had been enjoying their breakfast, not to mention it was fairly easy to find. The clearing – their approved meeting spot -- just up ahead, she paused to look for her second pupil. Where was he?
"Is there a Farai around here? Calling all Farais, would you please report to the bright orange hyena," Nanako called, giggling quietly to herself as she waited for this Farai to show. Truthfully, the hyena was quite curious about this mysterious lion figure. She had never met him before, and thus was quite eager to see what all the hullabaloo was about. He must be quite something if Xibalba was keeping him.
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:48 am
Farai, by this point a little older, was still not really much happier about how his life was turning out. He hated Xibalba but could see no way to get away from her. He was slowly learning to hunt on his own, but that wasn't something she was teaching him. So, understandably, he wasn't very good at it. A part of him understood why. She wanted him dependent on her so that he wouldn't fun. And it was working. Damn her.
The young lion had been attempting to practice stalking, but when the hyena called out, the rabbit he'd been watching darted off. Ears going back, Farai muttered a curse and stood up from his crouch.
Wonderful. More lessons, and with a nasty hyena too. "Here," he said, voice sullen and ears still half-back against his head.
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Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:31 pm
"Aha! I see you! If you are the dark blue thing hiding poorly in the undergrowth, that is. Were you trying to stalk something?" Nanako sauntered over towards the blue lion, seemingly quite oblivious to the fact that she had interrupted some important hunting time. How was she supposed to know that he was practicing other skills? Today was their appointed lesson day, so that meant that she got to teach him for as long as she wanted. Then he could go off and play hide and seek with the rabbits in the bushes.
"So… you must be Farai the lion, trainee of Xibalba. It's nice to meet you! I'm Nanako, and Lawahka's somewhere around here. Oh, there she is!" The black and white pup had come trotting up at the mention of her name, red eyes scrutinizing her lion lesson partner. This was Farai? He was awful small. Maybe he wasn't full grown yet. "How come you don't have a real mane yet? I thought you were a male lion." Lawahka asked, frowning a little. "You just not grow into it yet?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:35 pm
Farai glared balefully at the both of them, very obviously not happy with the current state of affairs. "It's none of your business," he muttered to the first question, staying right where he was and refusing to come any closer to the pair of hyenas. Humiliating enough that he had to learn from them, but a pup too? Tch.
"Please," he said then, tone fairly dripping with sarcasm. "Don't go out of your way for me." Translation: Leave me the hell alone, why don't you, and don't try to pretend this will be fun, because it won't be.
Then he stared down at the pup and sneered a bit. "Who cares what you think. I don't have to answer anything that you ask."
(( Aaah, the bad attitudes of teenagers XDD ))
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Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 2:48 pm
Aaah teenage angst. There was only one real way to deal with it, and that was to really not deal with it at all. Ignoring things was one of Nanako's specialties, especially when it came to behaviour she didn't like. Thambo had told her more than once that her supposed ignorance of social cues made her look incredibly stupid, however the orange hyena argued that it was a fairly smart method of defense. Besides, it tended to make the person giving off the negative social cues even more upset when she ignored them. Thus, Farai's sarcasm was met with a beaming smile, and a playful nudge at his shoulder. "Glad we met up! Would have been a real dilemma if I had to go searching through the bushes for you. Not that we couldn't find you in broad daylight, but I bet at night you're mighty hard to find. Like, Thambo, I guess. You guys got more in common than you think!"
Lawahka, on the other hand, was no so impressed by this strange lion. One, he was taking up the time she could be spending learning from her father, and two he wasn't very hyena-looking and thus not very pretty in her books. "You can answer me or I'll bite off your nose, she-lion." At a nudge from her mother, the pup changed her tactics. "I bet that since you can't even talk about your no-mane that you aren't even a real male. You're probably just a female in disguise who thinks she's tough."
Nanako rolled her eyes and nudged her daughter again to draw the conversation away from her. "Seeing as you're finished with all your hunting why don't we go for a little stroll? We'll keep the shady areas so you don't fry."
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:17 pm
Indeed, Farai flexed his claws and growled softly at her apparent ignorance to his sarcasm. "I don't want to have anything in common with a stupid, smelly hyena," he snapped in reply - this time making no effort at all to be subtle.
If she wanted to play that way, then he could too.
As for the pup. Farai snarled and swiped at her with one paw. "I'm NOT A GIRL!" he shouted, completely ignoring Nanako's strolling suggestion.
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:23 pm
"Now now, the smell isn't that bad. You'll get used to it eventually!" Nanako winked at him, resisting the urge to butt him playfully in the shoulder. She may be playing innocent to his obvious dislike of her, but that didn't mean she had to put herself in any danger. The orange hyena was just short of positive that if she so much as touched this blue lion, no matter how affectionately, she would probably get her nose bitten off. And she needed her nose, so it was best to just keep her distance. Words would be enough, for now at least. Let him be sulky, she wouldn't let him bring her down.
But swiping at her pup was something completely different. Puffing up and standing just that much taller, pink eyes narrowed as she stared down Farai. "Look... chill. I'm here for your benefit. If you insist on playing sulky teenager, I'd be happy to drag you around by your tail all day. Be grateful that she feeds you. You would starve, otherwise." She raised an eyebrow, while Lawahka scowled from behind her mother's leg. Stupid lion. She'd bite him later for sure. "Now, are we going or what?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:19 pm
"How d'you know I would starve?" Farai shot back, tail lashing as he glared at the pup. Apparently, for as long as she wouldn't rise to his bait, he was going to ignore Nanako. Unless she made him pay attention or something.
Puffing up his own chest, he attempted to glare down his nose now. "I'm probably a better hunter than you are. Hyenas are just scavengers that scrounge around in the dirt all day and only benefit from what anyone else leaves behind!"
Who knew just where he'd picked that up, though it could be something half-remembered from his time with his parents.
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 1:12 pm
The orange hyena raised an eyebrow at his question, but said nothing. It had been pretty obvious to her that his hunting skills were less than satisfactory. No doubt Xibalba had never taught him how to hunt, a precaution to make sure he couldn't stray too far. Oh he could run away, but what would he do for food once he was gone? Scavenge like hyenas? No doubt his pride was large enough for him to think himself above scavenging. Ah well. Nanako was used to dealing with arrogant boys. It was worth the free meal she got when Xibalba hunted.
"We don't eat dirt, if that's what you're implying. And I most certainly do not eat your leftovers since you do need to catch something in order to leave some food behind." Nanako gave him a crooked grin, not all that bothered by his words. Hyenas got lots of slack for being garbage disposal, and this was nothing new. Thambo might have tried to take his face off but Nanako wasn't interested in fighting. Not yet at least. "As a lion your hunting skills are satisfactory compared to those of a lioness or a group of lionesses. It's all relative." She shrugged.
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 8:43 pm
"Then what's the point of listening to you?" Farai asked, sulking again. Good gods, he hated this. Why couldn't everyone just leave him the hell alone, huh?
He'd be just fine on his own, he really would! He was getting bigger and stronger now and he could very well take care of himself. Thankyouverymuch.
Huffing, he turned his back on them both.
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:11 pm
Nanako just shrugged at his question, and sat down so she could scratch behind one of her ears. "Because she sent me to teach you, and that's what I'm here to do. You could always go and complain to her if you think it's unfair that you're being taught by a hyena. I won't take offense." She didn't add that Xibalba might be more than a little miffed if her young spy was skipping his spying lessons. The hyena didn't imagine that would go over too well with the lioness.
"Turning your back to me isn't going to change anything, sadly, since you can hear me no matter what direction you face," the orange hyena supplied helpfully, though she couldn't help but grin. This young lion was so funny to watch. His rebellion was pretty sad. "So, first lesson of the day: We like to know about nearby packs and prides, especially how big they are. With me so far?" Lawahka nodded, and Nanako turned her attention back to Farai. Was he going to respond?
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:55 pm
Farai's ears went back at the hyena's words. He really didn't want to go complain to Xibalba. She ... kind of scared him. Not that he was about to admit such a thing.
At least the pup had shut up, that was something.
And if this was stuff he was supposed to know, it wouldn't... really hurt to listen, right? He didn't have to like it, but there wasn't much he could do about it.
So after a moment or two, he just nodded slightly. That was all the answer she'd get for now.
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:32 pm
Was that a nod? Excellent! Content that he was listening to her, Nanako continued with her teachings. "Doesn't matter what species in the pride, but we like to know everything about them. How big they are, for example, is one of the key factors. How guarded their borders are, what do they believe in, are they friendly to outsiders, do they hate any particular species, and things like that are all things you should figure out. If you have to go to the pride to find things out then that’s okay, but try your best to get all this sort of information from conversation. But, you have to be subtle."
"What's that mean?" Lawahka piped up, frowning a little at a word she didn't know. She had completely forgotten that Farai was there, else she would have kept her mouth shut. The young hyena didn't want to appear stupid in front of a definitely more stupid lion.
"It means you can't just ask them right out. You have to like... put it into conversation and get answers that aren't exactly direct. You understand?" The question was directed to both of her 'students.'
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 8:12 pm
Despite his resentment at being here in the first place (and the reason for that), Farai was interested in what the hyena was talking about. And though he didn't really know what 'subtle' meant either - he was glad the pup saved him from asking. Sort of.
"Duh, anyone with brains knows that," he shot at her anyway, with a little glance over toward Lawahka. "It's easy."
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Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:51 pm
Lawahka's ears shot back at the comment. "Yeah well I bet you're easy... easy to take down! Any loser with two legs could out hunt and out run you!" She was shushed by her mother, who was more interested in getting this lesson over than having to break up her quarreling students. Nanako could console her little black daughter later. For now, she would just have to continue on.
"Subtly is important. You can ask, say, about the Graveyard pack, but only if they bring it up first. Then you can pretend you're curious about this pack and ask them what they think about it. Different creatures have different opinions, which can help you get a good view of the pride you're focusing on. Let's say, for example, that Farai wants to learn about a pride of lions nearby. Who would he try to talk to for information?"
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