|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:15 am
The dark grey lion was not himself, that much was for sure. Normally a volatile creature, quick to anger, he seemed somewhat placid and down. His injured shoulder was well on its way to healing now, but the hatred and anger he felt towards the female who had tricked him was still hot in his veins.
Tricked him! A female! Again!
Why was it that they all seemed out to get him? Family, stranger and friend alike, all waiting to pounce on him in his moment of weakness. It made him angry at himself, though that wasn't much of a change. Even still, he limped out under the ray of the dying sun to seek the water he knew was close by. He was thirsty and tired and grumpy, and maybe water would fix all of that.
Or perhaps not...
Even still he did feel refreshed as he reached the bank of the watering hole and lapped at the water. His hungry eyes lifted to where a small herd grazed just beyond the water. But in his condition he wouldn't be hunting in a while. No, he'd have to scavenge like the vultures.
Ugh...how he hated life sometimes.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:12 pm
Moving swiftly through the cover of the tall grasses a you could find her. hunger taking over her body including her mind and painful thoughts. It had been days since she had allowed herself to eat last, for now she was paying for it dearly, nearly trespassing on Pridelands in order to obtain a decent meal. How long has it been since she ran away from her families grave? It had been some time she knew, but was she over the limit. Would her family's spirits seek revenge on her as she hunted?
No. They would leave her alone for now. She didn't feel the paranoia of them watching her. hell, she could even go as far as to say she felt at ease as far as her situation was concerned.
There was running water close by, the scent of it alone drawing her closer, but at the same time the herd of antelope seemed a better prize. At least, they had been the better prize until the wind took her scent to them, scattering their bodies all across the lands. It seemed she would have to move along again, maybe pick off the dead bodies that lay across the lands.
What misfortune lay in wait next?
Pulling her body away from the area the herd had been, Kakali made her way towards the water, her throat dry and ego bruised from the blow of the herds leaving.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:59 am
Hala startled as the herd did, head bolt upright as he watched them take flight. Not from him, surely? Even a stupid preybeast knew the difference between a lion passing by and one who had that glint of hunger in its eye. So then, if not him, than who?
His green eyes streaked across the landscape, finally picking out movement in the grasses somewhere opposite him. A lion, then? If there had been wild dogs there, he was sure he would have heard them baying. But, if it was a lion, did that mean there was more? A hunting party? He hadn't accidently strayed into the lands of that pride, had he? Panic seized him, a horrible emotion that he tried desperately to squash. He was Hala, ex-assassin! He need not fear anyone! But the wound in his shoulder would prevent any swift attack or get away. He'd have to watch his tongue if he didn't want to get wounded again...perhaps fatally this time.
And then she appeared, clearly seeking water, too, and he felt a growl at his throat. A female. The bane of his life. It seemed that all females wanted to trick him somewhere along the line, even if they didn't have the intention, too. He didn't think any of them could be different.
For a while he was content to just stand there, watching her approach, knowing that she had only look in his direction to see his stark pelt against the dusty wilderness.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 1:02 am
She could feel the eyes of another burning into her skull but she did not look up or acknowledge it's existence, it could wait until she was drinking at least. Her throat as dry as it was she knew damn well not a word would come out well.
Trailing her eyes over the water, watching for signs of any trouble she waited a few seconds, hovering over the river before finally settling in for a drink. It was as refreshing as dew was to the crickets. A sigh escaping her as she looked up finally, happy with the amount she drank. Now, the eyes. She had to place them as they were still staring at her with a rather angry feel to them.
Surely enough as soon as she looked up and to the left she noticed him. The dark gray lion, standing there with nothing better to do. Frowning a bit at him her eyes darted towards the water before looking back up at him.
"Do you always stare so intently?"
Her words were light, holding no real meaning to them as she backed away from the river. Making distance between the river and her along with the mysterious lion before her. Room to run was always safer than getting comfortable after all. She rather be rude than be dead!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 7:39 am
(( sorry it's taken me a while to reply. Struggled to get on this week cos of bro hogging the computer.))
She spoke.
His body twitched and he resettled his weight to ease the painful throb in his shoulder. It was a moment before he responded, his eyes still watching her intently, almost as if he did not trust that she might try and attack him if he looked away for even a second.
"Perhaps." Was his short reply. "When you've been through what I have been, you don't tend to trust people very much." And then he sat, because he had to, extending his foreleg out a little. "But so long as you keep to your side of the water and I keep on mine, there's no reason to think you could be of any harm."
It seemed off for a male to be saying such things, but he wasn't talking about physical harm. He meant a females manipulating ways, their tricks. Scoundrels that they were!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 7:51 pm
[That is fine, I have been busy myself. ^^ ]
An odd body movement caught Kakali's eye. Was his body twitching in pain or maybe anger? She kept her ground as she watched him, trying to determine the cause of his twitch. Brown eye flicking from his body to his eyes and back. They gave off that very distrusting look, as though he was readying for some kind of fight.
Then he spoke, bringing her attention to his face once more.
A brow rose at his short stiff reply. He certainly was an interesting character, reminding her of herself in a very small way. "One shouldn't assume another hasn't been through much themselves before getting to know them." She mimicked him, slowly lowering herself to the ground to stare at him.
She couldn't possibly be any 'harm' to him now. Though it did strike her odd that he would be paranoid of her harming him. She knew when to run rather than fight, and this certainly was one of those times. Size did matter after all.
"Strange thing to say. Harming you..." Had he perhaps gotten into a stiff with someone not to long ago? She felt a story here, and so decided to enjoy her company, no matter how prickly the outside it seemed to be.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:48 am
He watched her still, head slightly lowered, ears now brought forward to attention. "You're a rogue, and a female at that, we won't be spending time getting to know one another." He bared his teeth for a moment and then continued. "And I can assure you, my situation is quite unique."
He pushed himself to his paws and bent to drink again. When he had finished he continued. "There is no one to trust in this world. Not friend. Not family. Certainly not stranger." He returned his piercing gaze to her. "Especially female ones."
He blinked. "In my experience, much harm can be done without drawing a single drop of blood." He growled then, seeming angry at something, digging his claws into the earth. "But they pay in the end. They all pay. I'll make sure of that. I am not one to be crossed!!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:17 am
It had been true what he said. They wouldn't be spending much time getting to know each other. Most times if two rogues met it meant they either hunted together, fought or spoke briefly. What would come out of this meeting she wondered.
"I believe you. " Her eyes watching his body and how it preferred one side to the other. Hurt leg, or perhaps... shoulder? Something was causing him to ache.
She had been watching him drink, weighing the options of leaving the lion or talking to him when he mentioned the word family. A loud growl slowly ripped through her throat at the mention of it as her eyes dilated slightly in rage. "Family. Vile scavengers ripping apart whatever family member they can get their claws on..."
Her eyes took to the sky as she cursed them for all the evils they had caused. One day she would get her revenge for the curse they gifted her with. Though she was still terrified of their own rage.
When she calmed slightly her attention turned to the male again, he seemed to be dealing with his own ghosts. Revenge. He was seeking too, could he possibly have been dealing with the same set of emotions she had been?
"Yes, that is true. Though I still don't believe I could do that. I don't know you. You haven't upset me, and I am not a sadistic b***h either."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 7:29 am
Seeming satisfied with that, he turned his head away, casting his gaze out across the world. He wished it were not such a big place, that his brother was easier to find than this. He wished that not everyone in this world seemed up and ready to so easily back stab their friends. Him, in particular. But he supposed that such a wish would never come to light, not unless life as they knew it came to an end. The world would forever be a big and challenging place...full of treachery and deceipt around every turn.
"They all say that." He muttered, returning his gaze to the female. "At first. Believe me, I should know." He paced a little. "Take this, for example." An ear twitched and as he prepared to speak, his hackles rose. "Dear brothers, honoured and respected. Loved by all. By the pride. Work together well as a team, never far away. Then one day, fate comes calling. Both brothers fall in love with the same female. Jealousy rises, pushes away family bonds. One brother attacks the other, attempts to kill him but fails. Then, he flees, and the injured brother - left behind - comes to see this is what the female had always meant to happen."
He paused. "I've seen it happen before."
And then he continued, hastily. "Another male, alone and angry, wounded, too. He's saved by a female who nurses him back to health. He falls in love with her, perhaps, or at least sees the benefits in keeping her around. Then, one day, she tells him she is pregnant." Hala paused again, watching this other. "But the children are not his. Betrayal." He shook his head. "I've witness that, too. And so, even if one sets out not to hurt another, they end up doing so. That is what it is to be alive."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:15 am
She watched the lion turn his head away, wondering what he was thinking but at the same time thinking of her own ghosts. What God would lift the curse she was given and how would she take revenge on the dead? It had been their fault for living so close to them, and their fault they were killed. She had done nothing wrong for hiding.
Attention captured by the lion she decided to lend him an ear. There was something in the way he had spoke that gave her the impression that he didn't normally tell tales. As his story spun a picture was slowly painted, him and someone similar to him fighting, a snake for a female plotting and ultimately loneliness and rage. To her that female deserved death, no one should torment another so far as to rip a family apart, not if they were working, unlike her own family.
"That lioness should have been put to death for her actions." She muttered softly as he finished. She herself had put someone to death for just that, betrayal.
And then he continued in an almost hastened fashion. The stories he told were not of another she felt, but of his own. Though she would never point that out. It seemed his fuse was rather short for something like that. They did remind her however, of the reason she came to be a wanderer.
"Your stories... Remind me of my own experiences. You are right though, Betrayal seems to come packaged with life. "
Her eyes were misty with thought, memories falling back on the times of her childhood. Could she share them with this stranger? He seemed to have been through a similar fate.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 12:53 pm
He growled, not liking where this was going. Not liking what he was saying. He ought to leave right now. Right this instant before she managed to bring out further hatred in him. But he didn't. He was rooted there, his claws in the earth, his eyes fixated upon her.
"Death." He snorted. "If she'd have been found out, she probably would have. But there was no proof. No proof at all. And she was loved." His eyes narrowed. "Maybe I'll see fit to take her life myself, some day. It is an easy thing, after all, to take it. Our lives are so fragile if we are not careful with them. Alive and kicking one moment, limp and lifeless the next." He sighed, somewhat more content in that knowledge.
His pride had taught him that the sinners must meet death. To bring justice by ending their lives. But Hala was slowly deciding that innocence did not exist past childhood. A child was innocent and should never be harmed, but once they matured, the seeds of wrong-doing were planted. A sad and terrible thing.
"Than you understand." He replied. "Not many do."
And she had interested him. "Very well then." He continued hastily. "I am Hala. And what is your name, betrayed-one?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:00 pm
Ears flattened against her head as he growled. There was absolutely no need for him to do that around her. They were having a perfectly civil conversation after all. Him venting his rage to her, and her listening intently, enjoying the idea of being with someone of similar thoughts. Had she opened Pandora’s Box though? Was he the type to never speak about his past? More than likely. Just like her.
Brown eyes watched him speak, interesting in what he was saying. The female had been lucky, too lucky. Death even in love would have been the ending battle had she been in the position, because she had been in a way. “I believe you should. See I too have seen many things. A lion cub and a hyena pup enjoying their summers together, speaking about family and what they wished to do as they grew older. Only the cub never knew that the pup had been tainted by the evils of the pack.” Her eyes darkened as the memory slowly filled her head. Rage, its cool sting rushing through her veins. “That pup had been gathering information from the cub, taking it back to its family for later. One day death struck, the pup waged war on the lion cubs’ family, slaughtering all but one. The sister of the cub.”
Her body shook as she remembered Rafiki’s face, grinning as the large pack of hyenas attacked. “That pup learned that no animal should have two faces for as soon as the chance arose, she took both her life and her face.” For Kakali, nothing was trusted to innocence. Absolutely nothing. Anything could be tainted if it wished to be tainted. If a creature was supposed to be innocent it had to prove it to her and she had to test it.
Nodding lightly at his comment the fire in her eyes slowly died down, leaving only a flicker of a flame in them. “Sadly. They will learn some day though, and wonder why they allowed themselves to be so stupid before.”
Watching him lightly as he introduced herself she bowed lightly, keeping eye contact the entire time. “I am Kakali, Hala. How refreshing it is to meet another with similar ideas on life. To know the truth about it.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:54 am
He was surprised at how she seemed to respond to his semi-openness with an openness of her own. Was that how it worked, then? A little give and take? Hala had not given much since his time as a youth in his old pride. He had forgotten what it was like to...to be around like-minded others. This female, then, understood, so he might as well make the most of their fleeting time together.
"And revenge, was it sweet?" He replied, sensing somehow that, like he, she had been describing something she had experienced herself.
"A surprise. But not a bad one." He returned briefly.
"Are you heading anywhere in particular, Kakali? Or do you simply journey the lands?" He was curious to know, but supposed her reasoning could not be much different from his own. If you didn't trust people you couldn't settle and become part of a pride. You were forced into becoming a rogue until death or unless you had a change of heart.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:51 am
Had revenge been sweet for her? Her memories spiked again at his question. An image of the faceless hyena pup staining her thoughts. She had remembered feeling horrible for a split second before feeling a powerful surge of energy rush through her. Then, then she felt relief. Even if she took the life of another, they deserved it. It had felt sweet, bittersweet.
"It was." She gave him a soft smile, brown eyes lazily watching him now. She felt she could put her guard down, if only a little in front of him.
Again a light smile, yes, that was definitely true. "Indeed. As it would be a rebirth for the creature."
Dropping her gaze from the lion suddenly, Kakali moved towards the water, dipping her head for a few moments to drink. The cool feel of the liquid healing her throat causing her to sigh as she came up. She had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that they would be talking for awhile.
Returning her brown eyes to his she continued to answer his questions. "I follow my feet. Only having a couple places I ever truly stop more than once." Such as her families old den area, but that she would keep to herself. "I could ask the same of you Hala, but I have this feeling I will get a similar answer." A low rumble of her stomach called, she was most definitely starting to feel hunger eating at her.
"Have you ate?" Follow her gut she questioned him. Even though they both didn't trust many, maybe they could at least gather an animal together. Plus, she had a hunch he couldn't exactly hunt at the moment. What with his twitching and everything.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 2:22 pm
He shuddered, anticipation growing in him. How sweet it would be to see his brother bleeding his life away beneath his claws, to see the look in his eyes. And then he would be free from the burden of what had happened, free to...to what, exactly? What was there after revenge?
Best not think about that...
He set his eyes back on her, trusting her a little more now, though he couldn't help but curse himself for it.
"A similar one of sorts." He replied. "I seek something...someone, perhaps." He replied carefully. "I am not sure where this person lives or strays or whether they move from place to place like we do. All I know is that I must find them. So I travel the world...to...find clues, I suppose." He tilted his head, growling softly. "Otherwise, yes. I follow my feet."
He startled at her question, feeling the suspicion momentarily rise within him. "No...I haven't." He didn't want to openly admit that he wasn't in top shape, despite the fact that it was clear. "I take it you haven't, either?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
