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 Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 3:43 pm
It wasn't really in Gliri's nature to explore. She was shy and skittish by nature, but she was also quick-minded as well as quick-footed, and that meant that she didn't have to work hard to be bored by occupying the same place day after day while her twin brother went out and hunted for them. Still, she was out and about, trying to get the feel for this patch of land. She had a good feeling about it, but feelings could be wrong. She wasn't a seer or anything interesting like that, after all. Caution was clearly the order of the day.
For Palia, ending up in new places came as naturally as putting one foot in front of the other. She was an only child, never met her father, and her mother traveled constantly with her. Naturally there came a time when Palia’s urge to explore pulled her away from the safety of her mother and flung her into the world alone, but although she still missed her mother from time to time she would never allow herself to get caught up in nostalgia.
A sly smirk rose to her lips when she spotted the lone lioness. Lions could kill cheetahs, which was why Palia tried to avoid going near prides, but a lone lioness posed her little threat. She could use the company. If the lioness was naive, maybe she could amuse herself by playing a trick on her. Loneliness manifested itself in strange ways in Palia. She trotted toward her, wanting to find out what she was doing.
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Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 4:33 pm
Her senses always finely attuned when out exploring, the approach of the female cheetah hardly came as a surprise to Gliri. The main problem with cheetahs, as far as Gliri was concerned, was that there was no way she could outrun one, even though she was very fast for a lion. Her speed came from lots of practice at fleeing from terrors both real and imagined, and was almost always fueled by fear. It was not like her to run for the joy of it. Running was not an activity she associated with joy, after all.
Knowing her chances of flight were next to nil, Gliri decided to hold her ground and see what the cheetah wanted. With luck, it wouldn't be a fight. Being a lion didn't make her any sort of brave fighter. In fact, Gliri would probably be the first to label herself a coward. She wasn't exactly proud of it, but she accepted it, and that meant she and her brother could make allowances for her shortcomings and work around them as necessary. Sometimes she could even convince herself to feign bravery and do things like she was doing now - standing her ground in preparation for dealing with a stranger with unknown intentions.
She was not going to call out to the cheetah, though. That would be asking too much of the shy lioness. If the cheetah wanted anything to do with her, she would have to make the first move. Gliri's first move was not running away.
Palia was surprised, but mostly amused to note a touch of fright in the lioness’s eyes. Even though Palia could hold her own in a fight she preferred to run away rather than risk an injury. If cornered, she would kick dust in her opponent’s eyes and strike with every low blow she could think of, especially if her opponent had an unfair advantage. She did not enjoy fighting, it was simply something she did when it was to her advantage or when she had no choice.
“Well hello there,” she purred, trotting up to the lioness with a playful bounce in her step. “You look a little nervous. Were you expecting someone else?”
It didn’t matter that she was a total stranger. Palia never had any fear of strangers, unless they did something to warrant caution, so she often walked up to people she never met and struck up conversations on the spot. Sometimes they seemed uncomfortable with this, which she found silly. She could never understand people who didn’t enjoy new experiences. Their lives must be so boring!
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Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 5:25 pm
It took Gliri a few moments to gather her courage sufficiently to formulate a reply. Not that replying to a salutation was particularly challenging. Even the most socially awkward of characters in the stories she told her brother could simply return a Hello. However, Gliri recovered herself relatively quickly and responded to the cheetah with a perfectly polite, if very quiet, "Hello."
The cheetah's question about Gliri's expectations brought a small smile to the lioness's features and an amused twitch to her tail. Expecting someone else? Her? Gliri was too much of a coward and a shut-in to expect to meet anyone except her brother, and although she had deliberately set off in the same direction he had, just to be safe, she hadn't actually expected to run into him. She hadn't really expected to run into anyone. Rather, she'd hoped she wouldn't. Life was much easier when she didn't have to contend with strangers of any kind.
"Don't mind me," she said. Squeaked was more like it. In an attempt to recover her dignity, what remained of it, Gliri joked, "I'm like this most of the time. The elevated heartbeat from nerves makes my body think it's been more active than it really has and keeps me fit. Or something."
It occurred to her that maybe the cheetah was expecting someone, and so she asked, "What about you? Were you expecting to meet someone else?"
Palia laughed at her joke. That was actually pretty clever. She still seemed awfully nervous for a lioness, but in a cute sort of way. Palia almost felt like cuddling up with her. Whether or not she warmed up to a person quickly often had a lot to do with her mood. Today she felt like making new acquaintances, so the lioness’s interesting sense of humor easily sparked her interest.
“Naturally I was expecting to meet someone sooner or later, so it might as well be you. What’s your name?”
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Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 6:32 pm
Oh, wonderful, Gliri thought. She should have just gone on being awkward and overly polite. That probably would have ended the encounter much faster. but no. She had to go and use humor. It wasn't as though she didn't have a sense of humor, but usually the only person who got to appreciate it was her brother. She wasn't someone who tended to use humor to disguise discomfort. She tended to deal with being uncomfortable by becoming more uncomfortable. It was a vicious cycle. When others made an effort to put her at ease, it very rarely worked.
"As long as I haven't spoiled your plans for a romantic rendez-vous or something like that," Gliri said, figuring that since she had started off with humor, she may as well continue until she ran out of light-hearted, pithy things to say. It probably wouldn't take long. She didn't think she was all that clever or good with people.
"I'm Gliri," she said. And then she continued a habit she wasn't at all pleased about and parroted the cheetah's question back at her. "What about you? What's your name?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:58 pm
A big dopey grin crossed Palia's face. She was usually very aware of herself, but she had no choice but to smile when she thought of that fiery cheetah with the strong back legs. Even though his name left her mind days ago his shapely figure would stay fondly in her memory for weeks to come. From the moment she laid eyes on him she knew she needed to have him.
Sometimes Palia felt the same sort of desire for a female. Her desire to cuddle up to adorable little Gliri was far from motherly, but while she enjoyed admiring the other female she would never act upon her feelings. How would that even work anyway? Palia couldn't get her head around it.
"Not unless you have a brother," she cooed jokingly. Or maybe not. She never tried lion before. If Gliri's brother was as skittish as her she shouldn't have any problem. "My name's Palia."
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 7:34 pm
Gliri's eyes widened until the blue seemed almost to swallow the top half of her face. No one in her life had ever spoken to her in that tone of voice, from what she could remember. There was something about it, the sort of cooing quality which reminded Gliri of something she could almost remember, but it seemed like whatever it was had happened lifetimes ago and she wasn't even sure she really remembered it at all, or if she had dreamed it. Whether it was real or manufactured, Gliri knew she wasn't comfortable having someone female speaking to her like that.
"Um. I do. Have one. A brother. Actually. Palia."
Nerves made her speak in a staccato rhythm, truncating her sentences so that individual words or pairs of words were separated awkwardly. At the same time, she also shrank in on herself a little bit, intimidated by Palia's manner very suddenly. It almost seemed like the cheetah was attracted to her, but that simply wasn't possible. Females were attracted to males and vice versa. Nothing else made any sense to the young lioness.
"Speaking of. My brother. I mean. I should go. He's waiting."
That was a lie, and not a very well-told one either. Muscar had no idea where Gliri was, or that she was away from the den at all. He probably would have been surprised to learn that she'd taken it upon herself to learn a bit about the lay of the land. But it was the first excuse to leave which came to mind, and Gliri did feel a very pressing urge to leave this strangely friendly cheetah's presence.
"It was nice to meet you," she said all in a rush. "I hope you have a nice day." And with that she turned and sprinted off.
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