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 Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:48 pm
 Hadaya stared at the tree with a scowl on his soft, distinctly not intimidating face. His eyebrows were furrowed over his soft eyes, his ears flat against his skull as the breeze ruffled his thick, slightly too fluffy mane. He growled as menacingly as he could, his oddly still adolescent sounding voice rumbling in his throat. He didn't want to draw attention, however, so he kept it low. Of course, this lower volume only added to how completely unimpressive his attack stance was.
The tree was small and spindly: the perfect target for him to practice his clawing, biting and fighting techniques on. He leapt at it after his muscles uncoiled. He missed the target the first time, his leap from an awkward angle and too far away to be effective, but he sprang around and pounced on it again, this time sinking his claws into the bark.
He kicked and chewed at it for a little while, then, satisfied that he was making some progress, moved to release it. His paw did not come away from the tree, however, his body tugged back when he tried to walk away. He blinked and looked at it, finding his front left paw was stuck to the tree by his deeply sunk in claws. He pulled with all his might, even pushing his back feet against the tree, but could not free himself.
Getting increasingly flustered, he pulled and tugged desperately, until something finally gave way. He was sent sprawling backwards as the spindly tree was uprooted. It was still attached to his paw and fell on top of him as he flopped gracelessly backwards.
Sighing, he decided that was probably enough training for one day.
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Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 7:05 pm
Thoko felt tired. Not only did he feel tired, he felt drained of his physical and mental energy, and wondered how long he could go on with the pace he traveled. Only yesterday did he realize that traveling everywhere was something he didn't want now, knowing that it was boring and only wasted time. He couldn't stop himself from leaving again, however, as his instincts told him to keep moving forward. Now he regretted his decision on following his instincts. He was tired. His muscles ached from the countless steps he had made since last night, his mind completely shattered without proper sleep to rejuvenate. If he kept going on like this he figured he'd start seeing flying antelope.
Too late. He paused, squinting, staring at the figure a few feet away from him as the thing moved back and fourth, attacking something that looked like a small, sad-looking tree. It probably was a tree. And that thing - that blurry figure - wasn't the winged antelope like he had thought. This thing, as wide-awake people would know, was a lion. A lion that didn't seem to know what he was doing. What he was doing was the question he presented on his shoulders. "What are you doing?" Calling out toward the lion, his face contorted into confusion, his eyes squinted, sounding more annoyed than he normally intended to.
"That tree obviously feels pathetic, or the opposite," somehow, he figured that pointing this stuff out was essential. This lion needed help with whatever he had been doing. "because your stance is way off. Your whatever-you-were-doing thing was strange. Wait, what were you doing?" Babbling on incoherently to himself, he glared at the lion, coming in another range to continue his glaring assault on him. He wanted answers and he wanted them now. Right now, he couldn't exactly make up what the lion had been doing, and from his distance it did look quite... off. Yes, off.
His mind was tired. He might continue on babbling for who knows how long.
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Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:40 pm
Hadaya froze. No. He hadn't just heard that. He hadn't just heard someone asking him what he was doing. No, because that would mean someone had seen him and, presumably, that someone was close enough to not just walk on by. The question itself meant that this someone was now addressing him and coming toward him to get an answer.
No, that wasn't happening.
But of course it was. Why wouldn't it be? This was his luck. Every day. All day. It only seemed natural that once he was attached to a tree, the heavy stomp on top of him, he would then have some company. It would have been against the laws of karma for it to have happened any other way.
Hanging his head a moment, sighing for himself, he opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off. The other lion was speaking, babbling, which was great because that was exactly what Hadaya was probably going to do. So he was beaten to the punch there. Watching, a confused look on his face, he struggled to right himself.
Under the heavy gaze of the other lion Hadaya felt... a little less than comfortable. Shrinking into himself, paw still stuck in the tree stump, he shrugged his lanky shoulders.
"I was..." he said, not knowing if it was polite to interrupt the other lion's mumbling, but there didn't seem to be an end in sight for it, "uh. There was a little... animal... in the... tree." He lied. Poorly.
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:05 am
Thoko glared at the lion before him as his eyes ran past him and he stared at the tree, which was nevertheless a poor sight to see since it was completely uprooted; it wouldn't last for long before dying out here, he presumed. What a way to go, being attacked by a lion.
Speaking of lion... wait, what? He looked at him as his brain recalled what he had just said. An animal, a tiny one, in the small tree. Right now he didn't see any type of animal in the tree, and he wasn't tired enough to see that this male was lying.
"Liar," he spat. "if a small animal was in that tree, it would be dead judging by your force. Do you want me to show you how you really catch an animal, or at least fend for yourself?" He had nothing better to do anyways. And his mental mind seemed to be awakening as he thought.
That was good, since he really supposed that this male needed some help if he wanted to survive in the big, bad savannah.
"My name is Thoko, by the way."
Well, this was a rare moment for him at least. Being somewhat civilized. Wow.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:20 pm
Hadaya winced. He had been caught in his goofy, bumbling lies before, considering how often he had to try and save face, but never so directly. He felt ashamed for even trying to fib, and he shook his head slowly, eyes on the floor.
"I... I know how to fend for myself," he sighed reluctantly, knowing he might not be believed now. A 'boy who cried wolf' scenario, in some sense, but there were also facts stacked against his statement. He was stuck to a tree, after all, and had been poorly trying to train against it earlier. He looked like a big lump of useless. But at least it matched how he felt.
"I'm a hunter... for my pride. I know a few things about catching... bigger things, anyway," he said, clearing his throat. He looked up then, offering a thin, forced smile.
"I'm Hadaya. Do you think you could, uh... help me get my paw out of here?" He was already pretty embarrassed, so he didn't think it would be any more shameful to just come out and ask for some assistance now. His toes were starting to hurt, anyway.
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:27 am
Or... not
Thoko wasn't too convinced by the lion's statement, though he wasn't going to fight a useless battle over it. What was the point of that? He shook his mane and bit his lip as he wondered what would have happened if this lion actually knew how to fight. Hm. That would have been a rather interesting battle at least, but he was put with this instead.
He snapped back to reality and took a step forward as he eyed the lion's, Hadaya's, paw. He didn't even give it a second thought because he knew something would burst out from his babbling head. Instead, he crouched down and carefully pulls the lion's claws from the tree.
Surprisingly, he did know a thing or two about medicine, or about yanking your claws out of useless trees even if it was just useless tree.
"There," he said, sitting up.
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:26 am
Hadaya looked surprised, but genuinely happy, when Thoko moved to help him. He beamed a grin when his paw was free, holding it up not because it was hurt, but because it felt weird and, ultimately, he was worried that if he put it down he would get it caught in something again. That wouldn't do him any good.
Plus, he didn't want to ask for another favor.
"Hey, thanks!" He said, breathing a sigh of relief, "I'm sorry. That, ah, wasn't really your problem, but thank you for helping me anyway! Is there anything I could do for you? To... help you back?"
He tilted his head, more questioning his offer than anything else. What could he possibly do that such a strong, intimidating looking lion wasn't easily capable of? Oh well, it was polite to offer and if the yellow-brownish Seer could return a debt he always jumped at the chance. It rarely happened, of course, but that didn't mean he didn't keep his hopes up.
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:44 pm
Thoko didn't show any emotions while Hadaya held up his paw, obviously happy to have it set free from that tree. He was gradually becoming more and more awake as the minutes passed by. That was good, if he really suspected it was good getting no sleep for who knows how many days. He shook his head and turned to the ground as he pondered the question.
Did he really need anything?
Well, there was one thing he needed above anything else at the moment. "Um, do you have some place I could rest?" He asked, flustered. He doubted he would find a nice place to sleep before he traveled on, and Hadaya must have a place to rest.
He never had people help him before. It was something new for him. "Thank you, by the way." He murmured.
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 6:53 pm
Hadaya was suddenly very, very excited, but doing his best not to let it show all over his friendly face. His mane seemed even fluffier than it was a moment ago, though, and that was an uncontrollable reaction to his surge of eagerness. He could, without much effort or pain, help someone! Even if it was just in a small way.
"I know this place pretty well!" He said exuberantly, once again failing to keep everything he wanted to hide out of his voice, "and I know there's an empty den right next to mine."
He never tried to think about why that den was empty.
"They're in the Simbafutaji lands, but I don't think it's a problem for you to rest there. I stayed in these lands for a while before I decided I wanted to join the pride. I'll show you where. And no problem! You helped me first, so it's only fair."
He nodded his head, beginning to pad back to his den, which wasn't too far from the outer borders of the pridal lands, which were close to his chosen tree-attacking spot.
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:28 pm
Thoko took no notice of the way Hadaya reacted. His gaze was focused on the ground as he listened to the excited lion, letting out a quiet sigh as he nodded in his direction. The arms of sleep were coaxing him away again, leaving him more emotionless and exhausted as they padded closer. He was anticipating laying down on the den floor and sleeping at least ten hours, or more.
He pondered the reason why this lion was so anxious to help him. Was it because he helped him? Probably. He surely wasn't used to this. Blue eyes landed on the land ahead as he shook several strands of black hair out of his face.
This was different. He felt comfortable here. Normally, he would have cringed at the thought of being in pride lands. Instead he felt safe, and blamed it at the exhaustion that beat away at him.
"Thanks again," he said loudly as he padded inside the empty den. It was... cozy.
He would sure sleep a lot.
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