Ah, midafternoon. A time when everything was kinda lazy, except by the water. That would be why the small blue and white Lion was avoiding it. But...It was still strange, because the violet eyed male also seemed to be dodging trees in a silly dance. Growling and hissing at any random tree he passed by, Illyon was currently more worried about them attacking him, than him running into a tree. Which was probably why he accidentally found himself barreling into a tree head first, and rolling backwards til he was sitting. Staring at the tree with wide eyes, he murred, "See...Knew you were out to get me." Eyes narrowed, and he bared his teeth, "You better stay away...."
Merino had been relaxing in the shade of a tree not too far away. Though her lighter fur helped a bit with the heat... she still liked to find a cool spot in the shade to nap in the middle of the day. However, when Illyon came by making quite a bit of noise, the pink lioness raised her head a bit, blinking. What in the ...?
Getting up, she stretched a bit and yawned, then padded toward where the male was. "Uhm. Excuse me but. What are you -doing-?" she asked, blinking.
Looking over at the equally pale lioness, his eyes were wide as a paw pointed at the tree, "It ATTACKED me. I was just trying to get away from it, and it attacked me." Okay, so maybe he wasn't QUITE sane, but....he was still kind of cute in the way that he was currently pouting about it. But that was a pretty female.... "I'm Illyon. You?"
She blinked a few times, and looked from the lion to the tree and back again. She didn't see anything that could have 'attacked' him but maybe it was some kind of animal that .... ran behind the tree? Or ran away? "What attacked you?" she asked, confused.
Then she smiled at his introduction. "Oh... I'm Merino. It's nice to meet you."
He blinked once, twice, and pointed his paw insistently at the tree, "The evil things! They plot against me. Follow me." Sad thing was, his face was QUITE deadpan. Yes. He was serious. He HATED TREES. The things were constantly out to get him, oft times making him run into them. But he canted his head, "Merino....It's a pretty name." HIs grin was sweet, honest, "I like it."
Uuhm, okay maybe it was something -in- the tree? She was still confused, but she smiled politely and bobbed her head a bit. "I'm ... sorry to hear that it attacked you..."
He let out a sigh and mumbled, "It's not your fault trees are evil. They like to come after you when you don't expect it, like when I'm watching my paws." Now done with his tirade against trees, he lay down, setting his head on his large paws, looking up at her with those violet eyes, "So....What brings you here?
Oh ... he -did- mean the trees. Well, that was. Odd. But she'd heard of odder things, so she couldn't really hold it against the other. "Oh, me?" she asked innocently at his question, smiling faintly. "I'm just wandering around ... seeing what there is to see about these parts."
His tail flicked back and forth, head canting to the side, a soft sound of acknowledgement from his maw. "There's not much to see. Lots of trees and a good watering hole...good prey too. I live here, sort of. Though I'm wandering a lot. It's fun." He'd never really found time to settle at all...as much as he hated it.
"Why do you live near the trees, if you hate them so much?" she asked curiously, tilting head. After all ... that seemed a liiiittle silly to her.
He sighed, "I don't know. I've lived here since I was a cub...and when I wandered off, I just kind of stayed here." Ear twitching slightly, he smiled, eyes distance, "My mother grew on these lands as well."
Merino nodded at that. "Aah ... I understand." She smiled juuust a bit slyly. "It's kind of scary to leave the lands you've always known hm?"
His tail flicked, and he sighed, "No. I want to. I want to see more...There's got to be a place with less trees. Less of the evil things. And a new environment."
Merino nodded slightly at that. "Oh, there's plenty of other places out there! If you've never really left this area, then ... you don't really know much about the outside, hm?"
He shook his head, "No. Not much. Though I've dreamed about seeing more than this." He shook out his pale blue mane, before sitting up again. "Are you hungry?" Random, yes, but Illy was slightly hungry, and loved hunting too. That, and if she was hungry, he was more than willing to share~
She blinked a bit, but then nodded. "Actually, yes ... I am a bit hungry. What are you thinking?" she asked, ears tilting toward him.
Tail flicking again, though more quickly, he eagerly told her, "I'm a good hunter, and I was just going to show you where to catch good prey, and get a big one to share. It's usually easiest." His slightly larger build was still quite lithe, showing off the muscle.
Merino had to stop herself from laughing a bit, though she did smile. He seemed quite confident in his abilities! "If you want to hunt together, I'm not going to argue!" she replied with a nod.
He nodded eagerly, and took off at a slow lope over the grasses, carefully avoiding the trees. Leading her near a watering hole, he watched some of his usual prey, body lowering into a crouch when he spotted a large one, "This is the best place to hunt.
"I can see that..." she murmured softly, eyes narrowing. She'd learned quite a bit more about stalking and hunting in the snow when she was young. But she had been outside the lands enough to learn other methods as well. "Shall I go around and chase it toward you?"
He nodded, slowly, and moved off to another spot, muscles bunching as he got downwind of the creature, eager anticipation of the hunt striking a chord.
It didn't take Merino long to work her way around, keeping low in the grass. And then she crept slowly closer to the beast ... eventually springing out with a roar to drive it toward where she knew Illyon would be.
The drive was successful, and he immediately charged the creature,his body tensing as he jumped the thing. HIs fangs sunk into the neck, as he used the creature's momentum against it, as well as his own weight. Bringing it down took a few minutes, but soon, it was down, and he had enough food there for himself and Merino. Smiling at her, he canted his head, "See?"
She nodded happily at that. "I do! You're pretty good." Apparently, he hadn't been boasting after all. She'd seen plenty of others miss a kill like that because they mis-timed their jump, or made some other mistake.
Leaning his head down, he nudged the thing towards her, with a grin, "You eat first. I can wait." Ever the gentleman, Illyon.
Merino smiled at that. "Well, thank you... you're really very sweet," she purred - and dug into the meal.
