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 Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:27 am
Kirala may have made a mistake leaving the company of multiple protectors that would have shielded her from any impending doom. Being chained to something was not a life she wanted. No, Balun didn't count. She'd enjoyed his company more than anything in the world. Following behind a bunch of Cricket's posse just for protections sake was cowardice.
She was no coward. No fool, either. Being around Balun non-stop for so long had maybe left her a wee bit careless for a little while after their goodbyes, but it was only a little while. One failed hunt against her life and she remembered who she was, or more, what she was, very quickly.
The grass in this area was just so delicious she couldn't stay away. Just the perfect distance away from the water. Not too close, not too far. She took another mouthful and rose on her hind legs, ears straight up, then twitching.
Hm...
What was that noise?
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:57 am
Heimdal didn't often regret leaving his pride all those years ago, living there had been more of a hassle than anything else; however, there were times when he did miss certain aspects of pride life. Namely, the part where he could be a right lazy b*****d and didn't have to hunt for himself. Yes, that had been, he decided, his favorite aspect.
But, alas, here he was, and the price of freedom was having to get up and actually do some work sometimes. He would have preferred to find someone else to do it for him, of course, but desperate times, after all. And when such an easy target presented itself, well, even he couldn't pass up such an offer.
So he stalked forward slowly, low to the ground and as quiet as he could be, large feet padding silently through the grass towards what appeared to be a nice little snack. A rabbit out all alone. Of course it may disappear into a hidden den, but with any luck it was out away from its home and he would have a neat little bit to eat without having to worry about all the fight that went along with something bigger.
'Ah, damn,' he thought dropping even lower as he tread on a twig, the small bit of misplaced wood making a snap. Knowing he'd have to move quickly he crouched, muscles tensing, preparing to pounce.
An easy meal, right?
And with that he leapt towards the rabbit, claws drawn, ready for the kill, ready for the kill.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:11 pm
"You just let her go out alone?"
"I figured if anything bad happened you'd see it! Cricket said you were a seer!"
"A certain kind of seer!"
Mto could have pulled her hair out. It turned out because Gzifa's older brother was a seer, Banji's sister was a seer, apparently everyone and their brother was a seer, the idea of her being a seer had been taken well. They accepted it and moved on.
But that was never what Mto was worried about.
What she was worried about was exactly what was happening when people heard about her premonitions; heard, didn't listen about them. Her visions had always only been prompted by one thing. Danger? Not that thing. Even if it was, relying on them? Bad, bad idea. It wasn't a good thing to gamble lives. Not that she personally cared about a hare. You know... it was a hare. But Cricket did, and as Cricket's friend or something (whatever), she was going to make herself care. Sort of.
A little.
"Oh, there she--" Crap!
Kirala jerked up at the snap, and a shrill, "EEEE!" followed suit.
"WAIT!" Gzifa barked at him.
Mto always agreed with one thing males said: women should be seen and not heard. She wouldn't bother yelling when she could instead tackle him. He'd see her alright.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:41 pm
God, he hated it when they screamed. It was better they die without knowing that their meaningless little lives were about to end. It was less annoying, at least. But it was the way of the world, and far be it from him to stop doing what he was born to do.
The bark, that was a little unexpected though. He glanced over at it just in time to see the lioness, who in turn prompted an interesting internal monologue (did that lioness bark? Can they do that?) that was interrupted by her timely tackle, which sent him rolling backwards and away from the hare.
He attempted to scramble out from under the lioness quickly, attempting to think fast about why he was being attacked. He wasn't on another pride's land. A rabbit was hardly a meal worth arguing over. He didn't think he'd slept with this particular lioness before either. Maybe he'd wronged a sister of hers?
"Excuse me, is there a problem?" he finally managed to say, perhaps with a bit higher of a voice than was typical for him.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:50 pm
On second thought, make that seen and squashed by.
Mto perched upon the lion without any shame for doing it. Luckily he hadn't made a crack about her weight (yet) or she might have decided to stop being so friendly and kill him. She was the daughter of a goddess, so her size was a bit more... yeah...
Yes, this was her friendly, crushing some lion's rib cage.
As long as she didn't rip his thing off she was in her friendly zone.
"Yes, there's a problem. That hare is off limits for you, you... you... You."
Yeah. That'll show 'em.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:57 pm
Heimdal was feeling pretty lucky right now. Pretty lucky that he was a bit on the larger size, because if he wasn't he was pretty sure his lungs would be crushed right now. This lioness was not exactly dainty. He didn't have anything against bigger girls (in fact, he found them very pleasant on occasion) but he was less fond of them when they were sitting on him.
"Oh, so very sorry," he managed to say, attempting to shift out from under her, "I am afraid I didn't get that message, please do forgive me," he continued, an edge of sarcasm on his voice. He tried not to be sarcastic when he could avoid it, it confused others, and it was more antagonistic than he liked to pretend to be, but in this case he figured it was a bit unavoidable.
Really, you you you? It was quite likely this woman was crazy.
"Would you mind getting off of me now?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:06 pm
Mto stared down at him. Stared down at him. That kind of stare a wife of twenty years would give her husband that even after that much time would send him running scared, less he stay and risk becoming deaf. Mto wasn't the verbal sort mostly, so he wasn't going to get a talk. Just the eye.
"Don't spew your bullshit at me, Heimdal," she warned him. Just pouncing him and she'd already had a good number of visions concerning... ahem. Things. Certain things. "I'm colorblind to that silver tongue of yours."
And, still not moving. He deserved a broken rib or two.
"Uh, Mto, maybe you should get off him before he goes splat?" Gzifa prodded. "I mean you are kind of..." Don't say it. Don't say it. "...being mean."
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:17 pm
Oh god, Heimdal hated that look. Hated it. It was one of the many reasons he didn't stick around after he dealt with business. The damn look, it reminded him of his mother, how awful was that?
Oh.
Did she know him? He was usually good with faces. He didn't recognize her though. Oh, crap, she was probably related to one of them, this was what he was worried about. Her sister? Her mother? Maybe just a pride member she knew. She didn't seem very familiar to him, she was sort of like... no, not really actually.
"Well, that's too bad; I figured you might appreciate my tongue."
Okay, probably not the best move, was it? He couldn’t really keep his tongue though, he though perhaps the lack of oxygen was getting to his brain.
"Oh my, yes, I would listen to the wild dog, Mto, she seems quite intelligent." He hadn't noticed the other creature before, but suddenly the bark made sense. Hopefully she'd get the lioness off of him at least. He would like to be able to take a breath soon.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:24 pm
Mto didn't look back at Gzifa because she had sense enough not to. What kind of moron pinned a stranger then didn't keep their eyes locked together? That's what she'd been doing the entire time, too. Eye contact was never a problem for her. Not even looking in the eyes of a worthless piece of... worthless lion. Yeah.
"Say my name again, and you won't have a tongue," she hissed at him. True, she'd possibly left the Swampies forever. That didn't mean she didn't take their values to heart. Names were important. The reason she'd left no less. Some playboy jerk didn't need to be saying hers.
At least she finally stopped crushing him. For now.
Kirala scurried behind her. Mto probably cared about her the least. It wasn't something she hadn't realized. But Mto was also way more fierce than Gzifa. "Thank you!" she whispered.
Gzifa took it upon herself to make peace as usual. "Sorry she almost crushed you, uh... That hare is our friend.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:37 pm
Heimdal carefully picked himself back up off of the ground, which, he was sure, bore a Heimdal-shaped imprint now, and kept a careful eye on the lioness as he sat down again, trying to take stock of what was going on.
"Hnn, that's alright I suppose. Feel free to use my name though, believe me, I don't mind at all."
Okay, he was pushing it, but he thought he could probably outrun her.
"Friend? Oh, that's nice. I'm very sorry for the trouble, I hadn't realized that. You can't blame me for doing what predators do, though," he responded silkily, turning his attention to Gzifa and ignoring the lioness.
"I am very sorry hare," he added.
And now back too the lioness. The avenging a friend/family member motivation had only made sense when she'd been tackling him specifically because he was who he was, but she hadn't don it because of supposed wronging, but because she'd been protecting the lunch. So now the question was: How did she know his name?
"Excuse me miss, have we met before? You seem to know me quite well."
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:44 pm
Gzifa bought it as easily as people bought a furby a few years back. Mto might be immune to his smooth tone but she certainly wasn't. Not that she could blush under all that fur, but she would have. Her feet shuffled around each other and she bashfully looked at the ground. "Well... It's okay."
Mto wasn't paying anyone any mind but Heimdal, on the other hand. She leered at him every time he breathe, when he blinked, and most viciously when he spoke. Even more when he spoke to her. Moron.
"I know every bad thing you've ever done. When you left that woman you rescued from drowning in the lake. The one you told you were a single father. All of them. I know."
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:55 pm
"Oh, no, I feel quite bad about it, I hope I haven't caused you too much trouble."
He was pleased to see that someone was acting like they should. It really threw him off his game when his words fell on deaf ears. It was a damn waste, words had power, and he liked them to do their jobs.
Even if he'd much rather prefer the nice response from the big lioness.
Especially when she started talking. This could make things difficult.
"Ah, I see. To be fair, I did rescue her first."
He had done that. And it's not like he said he'd love her forever or anything, they both had fun, and that was the end of that. And who could complain, she did get to live, after all, what if he hadn't been there? She would have been a damn sight worse off.
Ahhah, though, it was uncomfortable to know that this Mto knew all of it. A quick mental check left him with two options. The first was that she was a goddess, he'd heard of them walking as mortals, but he figured that was a no-go, he figured she would have smote him if that were true. The other thought was that she was a seer. That one made a deal more sense, so he decided to go with it.
"I don't think I've ever met a seer before, and I have to say, I'm not terribly upset by it."
That was true, he disliked the idea of someone else being in his head, he barely had enough room in it for himself, let alone for someone else.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:02 pm
"I'm not terribly concerned if you're upset by it or not," Mto shot back at him, still with the look. A less intense version of it, but the look none the less. Gzifa was the most bothered by the scuffled and she wasn't even involved.
Not until, "You're being awfully mean to him, Mto."
Kirala had a nod of agreement and, "My mother always told me, when a girl hare was mean to a boy hare, it meant she had a crush on him and--EEK!" After a snarl, directed purely at her (because Mto could break her "never look away from hostile" rule just this once), the hare decided maybe Gzifa wasn't such bad choice company after all. She peeked out from behind the wild dog and added meekly, "But I'm sure it's just a hare thing!"
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:17 pm
"Hmm."
H wasn't terribly surprised by that, Mto didn't seem to think much of him, which, he had to admit, made sense if she could see what he'd done. Or, more specifically, who he'd done.
Heh.
"She really is, isn't she?"
Yes, things seemed to be going quite his way until the stupid food opened her mouth. That was going to make things worse, he just knew it.
"Yes, I'm quite sure that's true," he said, trying to diffuse the situation as best he could. To be fair, Mto was attractive enough, in an angry, large sort of way, but he got the feeling that perhaps there were less dangerous crocodiles to flirt with.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:23 pm
If a crocodile had ever thrashed their tail so violently against the ground, Mto was indeed one. So was Heimdal, though. Crocodile tears without the tears. That was the worst kind of liar.
"I am not, you deserve worse. I should probably kill you." Luckily Mto was against such violence. Her track record didn't suggest it since she'd nearly crushed him to death, but in the end he hadn't actually been hurt, had he? There you go. "You've haunted me a lot, Heimdal. Vision after vision of females wailing over you leaving them. I've been wanting to... meet you for a while because of that. Heimdal here has had as many lady friends as Banji."
Both the other two females gasped.
"That many?!" Gzifa blurted out.
"How improper!" added Kirala.
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