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 Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 9:22 am
"Are you all right now?" Muscardini asked, nudging his twin sister. "I think they've gone."
Gliri looked around, peering under his ribcage at the surrounding land. As he said, the small pack of hyenas had departed, leaving nothing but the cracked bones of their kill. The kill that Muscar had made, that is. The two lions might have been able to fight off four hyenas working together, but Gliri was no fighter and Muscar knew he couldn't leave her alone to fight one against four. It would have been a disaster. It did mean, however, that they wouldn't be eating that night, as they had not for the last two nights.
"You know, those hyenas are really getting to be a problem," Muscar remarked, not exactly expecting a response. Problem was probably the least of what Gliri saw them as. His easiy-spooked sister no doubt viewed them as far more than simply a problem.
"I suppose you're going to suggest we move on?" she asked. Her tone was carefully neutral, but it was obvious to her brother that there was one answer she wanted to hear and one he did not.
"I would suggest it, but it would only start an argument, because you're not willing to leave, are you?" he asked, unable to keep all of the venom out of his tone. "And before you suggest it, I am not going to find your Shazidi and ask him or his family to help. We don't need their help."
"Fine. But there's someone behind you," Gliri said, her blue eyes wide in a way that indicated to Muscar that the someone was not a person she recognized. He turned quickly and with his teeth bared.
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 9:43 am
She'd heard the hyenas long before she'd seen them, the sounds the creatures made while tearing into a meal almost unmistakable. Ayomide knew their sounds because of her experience trying to avoid the beasts at every turn, every step she took out in the lands a careful ploy to leave her as far away from many others as possible. She wasn't a loner by choice or endless preference, but more as a means for survival. She didn't think she could hunt for more than just one lion (herself) nor did she think she could handle the presence of another at night when she settled to sleep.
That being the case Ayomide had tried to make a big loop around the sounds of hyenas when she first heard them. . . only to find herself coming eye to eye with a pair of lions - more specifically a lion and a lioness. They were similar in color, perhaps related? She didn't know, so she wasn't going to say anything - her decision to stay silent reinforced the moment the male bared his teeth in her direction.
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 9:51 am
Once Muscar got a look at the lioness who had startled his sister his curled lips shifted back into their usual position, hiding his sharp teeth for the time being. If she proved to be more of a threat, the teeth would come back out, but for the moment he didn't see the need to threaten her. He could feel his sister pressing against his legs.
Gliri, crouched on the ground behind her brother, peered at the vibrantly colored lioness with evident terror. Her fur was fluffed and her teeth, though hidden by grass and her brother, were slightly bared. Her ears lay flat against her skull and her whiskers pressed close to her cheeks. She was not a happy cat. The skittish lioness did not like to be surprised, and she liked it even less when strangers did it.
"Hello there," Muscar said to the newcomer. "I hope you'll forgive me, but one can't be too careful. I thought you might have been a hyena returned."
Just the suggestion made Gliri shiver. Hyenas were possibly the worst. Lions were big and scary, and leopards could be sneaky and cheetahs were fast. But hyenas had those eerie laughs and that odd way of moving, and their jaws were so powerful they could snap major bones. And they stank even worse than wild dogs. Oh, Gliri hated strangers.
"I'm relieved to see that you aren't that, but I do wonder if you mean my sister or myself any harm," Muscar continued. Something in his stance, or maybe his tone or his expression, made it clear that he was willing to be as unfriendly as necessary in defense of his sister.
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