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 Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:24 pm
 The girl had spirit, he’d give her that. The fight had been invigorating, and the fact that both of them looked torn pleased him. If anyone assumed she had won, he knew it had not been the case. Other wondered why she was still alive, but he knew it was better not to kill what he could beat down instead. In the proceeding days, Soro had watched Lorelei’s moves closely, and allowed her to go to her den to gather her things. While she fixed her wounds, Soro left his alone, cleaning them from time to time, and chewing on the ones that looked discolored. His healing took longer, and he was left lying in his den, resting as he waited for Lorelei to return. A wound on his paw had reopened and bleed, but he left it be, a few flies buzzing around. Later he would go for another swim to rinse the dirt off.
To get comfortable, he pulled the bones closer, laying atop them and resting his head on a rib that was under his throat.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:57 pm
 Lorelei dropped the moss covered stone in a shallow pool she had dug near the banks of the river, where she could harvest the red moss at her convenience. The pool filled with water from the river, yet free of the current it allowed her mossy stones to continue to grow in peace and the constant influx of fresh water prevented the pool from growing stagnant. It was a clever solution, one she was quite proud of. The river really was an invaluable resource for this pride.
She wrinkled her nose as she walked into the den, ears folding against the buzzing of flies, her tail giving a twitch. She had watched Soro’s wounds fester for days. Though she despised him she also pitied him for his stubbornness. She glanced down at his bloody paw with a frown. “Those bugs are going to get fat and spoiled off your blood,” she murmured, a gentle sternness in her voice.
Instead of offering treatment she wanted him to ask. She would have taken a lot of pride from hearing a request from him, it would mean that she served a greater purpose instead of being just a pretty thing for him to look at.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:08 pm
Soro had rested his eyes, but peeled them open when Lorelei came. He didn’t like her wandering at times, but he picked and choose when she left. If there was ever a time he didn’t want her to leave, he would, and while she was out, he enjoyed a rest. Watching her, he noticed her look at his wounds. For a while now, he caught her looking at them. Even he could understand that as a herbalist, she would inspect wounds, but he didn’t push the issue.
At her comment, he gave a lazy smirk. “Don’t you like the company. A couple more friends in this den with you while I’m away.” He went down and licked is paw, tasting dry and wet blood. The scab tore some more, which only meshed into the color of his already red fur. “I would think a bleeding heart like you wouldn’t care about flies. Shouldn’t you be use to them?” He watched her from the corner of his eyes as he licked his wounds, wondering if he would rest a while or go for that dip in the water. It had been his only idea of treating his wounds, and he would often be found back in his den, dripping wet, without a concern to dry himself off. As his tongue lapped up the blood, a discolored yellow bleed with it.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:37 pm
“I’ve never had the pleasure. A skilled herbalist needn’t make their acquaintance,” she said in regard to the bugs. “The only good bug is a dead bug. Not that you’re asking for my advice.”
She had seen it before. Flies were inevitable, but if you allowed them to feed off you as they pleased it usually led to infection. Though she couldn’t understand why the flies often brought infection with them, if they were the cause of infection or merely a symptom, it made no difference; that the two were connected was all she needed to know and they were irritating besides. She hadn’t noticed the yellow ooze leaking from his wound yet.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:46 pm
Soro watched her with crimson eyes as he lapped up the blood, ignoring when he lapped up a fly that had gotten in the way of his tongue, having been dried on and trapped in his fur for him to devour. Lorelei was proud, which was something he understood. Many of the females here were proud of themselves as if they took it from their mother’s when they nursed from the start.
“As if asking is needed. You are more than happy to show off what you know. Proud of it in fact.” He grinned as he started to chew on the dead flesh. The taste was bitter on his tongue, and he checked his work. A wound that had been a bite mark had turned to a bleeding gash. It was making it irksome to walk now. His eyes trailed to the lioness as he thought how others would see his condition later on if this continued. The fact he would be limping later might make them think that Lorelei was refusing to treat him, which meant he was not forcing her to treat him. Soro didn’t ask for help after all.
“If you are proud of what you do, and the bugs bother you, then come and lick my wounds. Maybe a female’s tongue will do as you say - being a “skilled herbalist” after all.”
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:24 pm
“Just licking is for amateurs,” she informed him smugly. When she looked at his paw again she had to suppress a grimace. “Leaking puss. That’s what you get for making yourself a banquet for insects. Excuse me a moment.”
She trotted over to the part of the den where she kept her herbs. Some where stored in spare pouches, but most were laid out on a sheet of dried animal skin given to her by one of the huntresses. She returned with a selection of herbs and leafs carried by the stem. She laid them out in front of her and motioned for Soro to put his paw forward where she could easily reach it. “This will sting a little. That’s how you know it’s working.”
He had seen her do this dozens of times before: first she licked his wound clean, as clean as she could get it, then she chewed on the stem of one of the herbs, mashing it into a paste, and licked it over the wound. She then wrapped a green leaf around his paw to stop more flies from getting in. When she finished with this first wound she moved onto the others. She didn’t wrap all of his wounds, only the ones that could be easily protected or needed it most, because she just knew he was going to destroy some of her make-shift bandages as soon as he went outside. They always did, which was why she didn’t like to rely on bandages unless the patient really needed them or wouldn’t be moving around for a while. She worked with speed, efficiency and coldness. This was typical of her, but there was a brightness in her eyes that seemed unusual.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:07 pm
He had seen her work on other lionesses, but while Soro had no problem when he rested upon her, her treating him was different. Reluctantly, he offered his paw, and he narrowed his eyes when she called his way of handling his wounds childish. “The way I have treated my wounds has been the same, and it has worked. If it has not killed me, then it is enough.” He had had enough wounds in his lifetime that the system he used work. That didn’t mean he had festering wounds before, but that was in drier climates where his dried up in the sun, and after a while, went again. A few times he had bad fevers, and sometimes wondered if he would lose a limb or die, but the fact he was alive proved it didn’t matter what he did.
That didn’t mean he was stopping Lorelei. She was use to treating, and he allowed it. Key word. Allowed.
What did bother him was the licking. The feeling made him turn his ears back with each lick, not out of pain, but discomfort. A female licking him turned his insides, and he flexed his claws into the stone of the den to curb the feeling. Looking over as she worked, he wondered why she even bothered. “Do you do this because it’s as you say? I am part of your pride? Why not let your enemies fester from their wounds? Do you think it’s smart to let some that are meant to die, live?” Not that he felt he would have died, but he didn’t understand the mentality of the herbalist. The purpose of the job was meant to stop death. If it was meant to happen, then it happened. If it didn’t, then it didn’t. The only thing that kept him alive was the divide gods that protected him.
"If I was meant to die, it is not in your power to decide that."
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:47 pm
If it has not killed me, then it is enough. Lorelei scoffed at his reasoning. Simply surviving is the lowest of pleasures in life. She could hardly call it a pleasure at all. Everyone has to have dreams. It made her wonder what the life of this male had been like before he joined the tyrants and helped them take over Kiuma’s pride. Kiuma might be dead, but it was still her pride.
Soro’s questions amused her, though she did not appear amused. Without looking at him, she said, “I’m not trying to save your life. Though it might please me a little to see you suffer through a long, painful demise, your wounds aren’t nearly that bad. At worst you might catch a fever, but you’re a strong boy, you’d get over it. But until you got better you’d be a big mean grouch, and do you think I want to deal with that? No sir. I’ve treated fevers. They make even easy-tempered felines unpleasant. Suppose I’m wrong and instead of a fever you lose your paw. Think you’d be a jolly ray of sunshine after that, do I?”
She paused to glance sternly at the lion behind the mask. If he knew what she had planned for him and the rest of his kind, he would know that none of what she did today mattered at end game. As she looked at him she found herself wondering about him again. There was no reason for him to hide behind that ghastly mask. Maybe he did it to intimidate. He obviously felt no fondness for others. She returned to her work. Curious, she asked, “Do you always see kindness as futile?”
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:08 pm
“I don’t see it as futile unless you want something. There is motive, and there are liars. You. You are a liar. It’s in your gender. A female does not have to be nurturing, but you get pride and power from your position. You have a rank and a skill. Like you have said. It’s not kindness that drives you, but keeping your life easier. There is no sympathy in what you do. Your heart is cold and your mind poisonous.” He checked the bandage on his leg, sniffing it as he talked easily about how he felt. It smelled foul, and he wondered if this was of any use.
“Kindness does not matter. It’s a lie. Everyone takes it out of warmth, but it’s just a mask of decete. The same lion who is kind can easily tear through your throat. Does the fact that they were tender to them before the murder make it better?” He grinned as he looked over his shoulder at her.
“Don’t get smart, Lorelei. I like how you speak , but I don’t like how you say it. You’re a female. I’m sure you have a soft voice for when you talk to your females. Something sweet and low. I bet it sounds like a snake, or a vulture’s cry. A lionesses’ voice is a crude, raw thing. ”
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:08 pm
She bristled angrily because she did not like to see herself agreeing with him, even if it was only a small agreement, though her offense might appear to come from Soro’s hard words, and there was that, too. Oh, she used to think highly of her gender because she was oppressed like every other female in her pride, yet unlike many who were confined to the toils of motherhood she practiced her skills outside the family den. Somehow that made her special. She never led a revolution in her life. She never so much as spoke a contradictory opinion to her husband. She kept her mouth shut and her head down, expressed her true feelings only in private, usually to her grandmother Sao, but in her mind, oh, she was a radical. She gracefully trotted the line between mother and working lioness. She led a life of secret romance. She was a rebel, a role model, a symbol of the greatness that is womanhood.
She learned the hard way that there is no prestige in being a woman. While some of the Amazons, ignorant of males, gawked at the sight of two females working side by side with the raiders, and while others called them traitors to their own kind, Lorelei hated Xibalba and Alkar’kono for their deeds. They had stolen a precious friend from her with violence and ruthless abandon and made the free into slaves. Though they rattled her ideologies just as well, she had a perfectly selfish motive for hating them that suited her better. Call it base if you will to hate someone because they stomp into your den and break all you hold dear, thought Lorelei to herself. At least it’s honest.
“Everyone lies. It doesn’t make me unique.” Her voice was as cold as Soro’s description of her heart and as poisonous as it was weathered.
Soro would never recognize that there had been some real kindness in her choosing to heal him when he asked. If she was a true bleeding-heart, as Soro seemed to think she was impersonating one, she would have healed him much earlier, whether he protested or not. True compassion is doing something kind even when it’s at your peril. Lorelei was not that kind. A vindictive female would have ignored his command until he threatened her with violence, or attacked her because simply he was furious and in pain, all for the joy of watching him suffer. Despite what was said, Lorelei did not enjoy the suffering of others. She acted crass with her patients to disguise her vulnerabilities. Maybe she felt this way because she spent so much of her life healing the sick. Warriors had died on her, fathers with cubs. She once saw a proud huntresses, the backbone of her old pride, paralyzed from the waist down after a severe trampling by a wildebeest. The pain in her eyes….
Though she hated Soro, had even tried to blind him once in anger, his festering wounds and their foul smell offended her on a level which she was not at all comfortable with.
Finished, she backed away and gave Soro a critical looking over, tail swishing in subdued fury. Contented with the mundane quality of her work she gathered up the unused materials and returned them to the pile with a quiet sigh. She longed to shake off the icicles of this conversation. “If you’re thinking of taking a dip in the river you should wait at least an hour. By then the medicine should have absorbed into your wounds.”
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:32 am
“I never said everyone lies, and you’re not unique. You do have uncommon qualities, or maybe it’s just hate that makes you speak directly without putting a veil around your words. ” He noticed that Lorelei was more mute than she had been seconds ago, not that they had long conversations to begin with. Their small talks were something to string time along, but he did enjoy the time he could roll around a few thoughts.
As she trotted back to her side of the den, Soro took his time to turn his head, watching her flanks move as she walked away. He made no effort to hide what he was doing.
“I won’t be tender to you after this if that is what you were going for. ” He never asked for the help, and he wasn’t about to feel indebted to her. Reaching over, he dragged a few bones closer to his side as he prepared to rest. Setting his head on the ribcage he had before, he looked over at her, continuing to smirk as she fiddled with her plants.
“Did you treat all your patients with such a caring touch?” He teased, flexing he claws as he stretched out his front paws before curling them around the ribcage.
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:20 pm
Lorelei glared at him. “I’m going to sun myself for a while,” she sighed, turning to leave the den. She saw no reason to justify herself to a monster like Soro’bohloko. His petty taunts were an annoyance, nothing more, and she did not need to endure them.
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:26 pm
Soro laughed outright as she refused to respond, knowing he was aggrivating her. Even annoying her was something he could do on lazy afternoons, and he watched her give him the cold shoulder and end the conversation. "You are going to sun yourself, what?" He stressed, looking at her as he smiled. "You're forgetting to add on something when you address me, or do you want more of my attention?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:53 pm
A steady throb pierced her brow. She stared ahead blankly, ears turned back. Slowly she turned around, looked Soro in the eyes and said in an emotionless tone of voice, “I’m going outside to sun myself, Master.”
This wasn’t worth fighting over. Soro was too strong for her, she knew that now. She could hardly stand to share the same den with him. Any shame that allowed her to get away from him was worth enduring.
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:03 pm
Soro grinned, flashing white teeth and shimmering red eyes behind his dull mask. "That is good, pet. You may go." Smirking, Soro rested his head, easing his body as he curled his tail in. As his eyes closed, he looked at the bandage about his paw before he feel asleep.
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