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 Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:38 pm
So, after that time where they discovered that Harmony had met her end, Grinch had subtly kept up his search for a suitable parent for Aidan. Here and there they had met lionesses that they had even become good friends with, but either Grinch always found something unsuitable about them, or once Grinch had seemed to come to a decision on one, Aidan had come up with some awful story or excuse to make it not work out. Her eyes were crossed, or she sang too much, or no one could be that happy and not mental or she made him feel funny or... Well, by now any excuse seemed to do.
He had long ago met an agreement with Aidan, and perhaps that was why Aidan was fine with the females until Grinch seemed to also like them. He would stop yelling at the cub to not call him Papa while they were alone as long as Aidan both promised not to call him Papa in the presence of anyone else and that he would leave when a better lion or lioness did come along.
Yeah, like Aidan hadn't figured out how to manipulate THAT scenario the moment it was out of Grinch's mouth.
So here it had been ages past and now it was a new evening and...
Grinch stood, yawned with a stretch, turned over, and gave Aidan a disgruntled shove with his front paws, "When did you do THAT?" He demanded of the boy.
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Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:53 pm
Aidan rolled over, yawning as Grinch shoved him. He was surprised he wasn't knocked over onto his stomach. "How'd I do what papa?" He looked over his shoulder at the big...or...not so big lion. He tilted his head confused. "Your gettin' smaller!" He stood up and stretched, laughing a bit. "Why are you shrinking papa?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:09 pm
Grinch snorted, then whacked Aidan again. He narrowed his eyes at him. It was a funny morning. They'd been out and about, and the cove they'd pick to lie in seemed to be the perfect place for them both to realize that something awful, terrible, monstrous had been happening to Aidan.
"I did not give you permission to grow." Grinch growled, "You shouldn't get bigger or higher, you should be this small and this low." He stretched his arms out to show the big and high bits, intentionally bopping Aidan some more as he did so. "Now move, and let me out of this cove."
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:21 pm
Aidan growled as he got continuously bopped by Grinch. "Quit hitten' me!" He marched out of the cove angrily, then realised his paws looked bigger. Things looked smaller or lower than before. "I..I'm growing up!" He reached up to the top of his head and grinned, chest puffed out proudly. "I'm gettin' a mane!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:34 pm
"You are not! That is not! It's your fur...it's beginning to rot because you...I didn't give you permission to grow!" Grinch stalked around Aidan, sniffing at him, muttering catches and phrases under his breath..something about not thinking boys and weeds overnight was a literal thing... some mutterance about having to admit something or... whatever...
Grinch snorted, "Now how am I supposed to get you a mother? They don't want a half-grown lion, they only oogle over cubs." He made a harumphing, grumping sound in the back of his throat, "We've been playing around too much. It's time you learned some things."
Grinch spun around and began to stalk off, again grumbling some bits and pieces under his breath. He was ticking off things. He had tried to make Aidan a Very Useful Cub already, and tried to sell off his good points to the lionesses they had met. He was a good fighter, and very loyal, and could defend himself...Grinch knew that because he was always poking fun at him, biting and clawing. He was a good hunter too, something unusual for a lion. It was a skill lonely Grinch had learned ages past, and had figured he may as well pick up on it too.
Oh, and he was grasslands-wise. All the traveling they'd done, Aidan knew all about the land and animals around them from first hand experience.
Grinch huffed. Yes, Aidan had turned into a Very Useful Teenager.
Only thing was... All Grinch had done Aidan's young life was spit bitterness and strife at him, and not given him any stability at all, what with his trying to give him away to everyone that came along. Grinch thought and thought, and as he did, his face became longer and longer, until his lips were practically curled to the ground and his eyebrows edged down to the tip of his nose.
"This won't do. It won't do at all." He grumped. While Grinch had still skirted the colorful and cheerful, he had once understood something deeper about it all.
And now. The cub. When ever had the cub had a chance to experience it too? Would he have to learn by stealing all he could from... well, who?
Grinch huffed and flopped on the ground. However would he teach Aidan to be a Happy, Socialable as well as Extremely Useful Lion?
He cringed at the idea of finding the sort that would show him.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 3:36 pm
Aidan watched as Grinch circled him, sniffing and bopping him. There was something about the way he protested to Aidan's growing that got a thought running through his head.
He did not answer the question Grinch asked, but instead shrugged his shoulders. At this point he didn't care if he got a mother or not. Grinch was the one that had raised him. "There's no need to look anymore then. I'm almost fully grown, and you've raised me Papa."
As the big green lion muttered to himself and turned away, Aidan walked over to a lake edge and looked in. He was shocked at what he saw. Was that really him? The little cub that was once lost and alone? He was starting a mane. He looked over at Grinched and bit his lip sadly.
With his ears lowered he walked over to the lion he'd known as his papa and sat down next to him. For a while he said nothing, just sat there. He had a feeling he knew why Grinch was upset, but he wanted to see if Grinch would say it first.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 3:53 pm
Grinch huffed, and sat quietly for a long time.
"I suppose not." He muttered. It had been half an hour ago that either of them had spoken, but Grinch was answering Aidan's comment from that long ago.
He sighed, "Aidan, I think it's time I took you down to see some friends of mine."
Gracious, how he had no desire to go back there!
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 3:59 pm
Aidan did not look at him when Grinch spoke. He was trying to word something correctly. Finally he figured the best way he could. "Are you upset I'm growing up Papa? Do you miss me being a cub that you could lift and knock over?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:03 pm
"I don't like cubs." Grinch grumped, "It's about time you got bigger."
He frowned some more and tilted his head at Aidan, "Cubs don't belong with Grinches. You do know what we are, don't you?" He stood up and began to walk off, this time with purpose. He was going somewhere.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:05 pm
Aidan stood and followed Grinch as he walked away. He felt no need to retaliate, even though he had a feeling that was not the whole truth. For a while he just stayed quiet, following the still bigger lion, not sure where they were going yet.
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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:02 pm
Grinch trotted on in front of Aiden that morning, not saying anything, and his body language different than usual. He would not be very readable to the teenager now.
Morning had turned to a hot afternoon though, and there would be no trotting along in the heat of the day. Grinch did his usual trick, finding himself a nice, large tree and climbing up into the branches where he could both sprawl and enjoy the heat.
"Aiden. It is good that you are growing up, and I am very proud of you." Grinch spoke softly, slowly, carefully, "I'm angry with myself, and afraid of what I could be making of you. You know how to hunt and kill and defend yourself. You know how to deal with a sarcastic, grouchy old Grinch. You know what it is to be alone and to wander." He huffed, "Listen. What do you hear around you."
He put his head down and closed his eyes, ears up and alert though for both the sounds around and the teenager's answer.
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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 3:19 pm
Aidan followed in silence, grinning as the Grinch climbed up onto a typical perch. A tree branch. He sat down on the ground and looked around, still a tad confused. His ears perked as Grinch spoke, and what he said caused Aidan's eyes to widen. Proud of him? That was...that meant so much to him...nobody could possibly know what it meant to him to hear that.
"I..made you proud Papa? You really are?" He stopped and bit his lip, listening to the lion that raised him. "Your helping me become a strong brave lion, that's what your making me."
Aidan closed his eyes, ears perched up as he listened. He heard several things in the quiet. "I hear...birds chirping and flying...possibly water flowing somewhere..."
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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 3:23 pm
Grinch tucked Aidan's first words into the back of his mind to answer later. Instead, right now, he concentrated on the answer to the question he'd posed, "Birds, rustlings, water. What kind of things are those, Aidan?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 3:29 pm
Aidan was confused. What are those things? They are noises...but did Grinch mean something more? He watched his words as he spoke. "They are sounds you hear if you stop and get quiet..."
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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:13 pm
"It is the noise of the world." Grinch's ears flickered and he opened his eyes, "There was a time I hated the noise of everything around me. I sought out that cave home, and for a good, long time it sufficed to keep all the noise out for most of the year."
He snorted, "And sought to destroy those times that the noise penetrated my solitude. But there is more than noise in noise. Why is it here?"
It was more philosophical than Grinch tended to get, but here it was, and his question was meant to be answered.
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