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 Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 11:51 pm
So perhaps that pride had been more hostile than he'd thought it would be. Anwar limped slightly as he prowled around the stream, wondering where to look for Rhaen. Hopefully he'd get another chance with her, because that dark girl with the bleeding heart was not going to work out at all.
But there would be other girls. Just because some Pads failed to return properly hardly meant anything at all. They just didn't know how to look. He knew. Anwar knew what he was looking for, and with his little brother along it wouldn't be long before he Dreamed of her again, and could lead Anwar to his fallen star...
...of course, he should like to have a bit more experience with females before he got there. He would hate to botch his meeting with her as he seemed to have with Rhaen. He paused to swipe a paw over his face, brushing the bit of blood that had been dribbling out of his eyes. He'd not been badly hurt, but fighting had never been his strong point. Not physically. But give him a moment to plan... victory was easily calculable.
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Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 11:56 pm
In point of fact, Rhaen was looking for Anwar as well. It had been a night or two since she'd last seen the brown male... and she wondered if he had gone somewhere else. But then, she lifted her head and caught his scent. Ah ha...
She'd been careful to circle around and come from the same direction as the last time they'd met on the borders. But she was a bit surprised at first to see that he was limping. Well well! So he'd finally run into one of the border guards.
But it didn't seem as if he'd been hurt too badly, which probably meant he'd put up a decent fight. Strength... was always good. Still, better to act concerned. "Anwar!" she called out, "What happened?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:04 am
Anwar looked up at the sound of a voice. Ah. So she was about. Lovely. Now he only needed to quell this frustration at her witholdal of important knowledge from him and he might have his experiment after all.
"I met a member of that pride," he informed her when she asked what had happened. "They aren't particularly friendly." So maybe his voice was a note drier than his character had been, a little sarcasm. What did she want from him, tears? Sure, it hurt. He'd recover though, he had intelligence enough to leave when he got in over his head. If he could hide a sprained paw from his family for weeks as an older cub, he could handle pain well enough to function normally.
He just...really wasn't fond of pain.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 12:40 pm
Pretending that she didn't have a clue what he was talking about, Rhaen widened her eyes and looked nervously toward the pride's lands. "They are? Really? I ... never went close enough to meet anyone from there. But ... I'll definitely be careful now."
Turning back toward Anwar, she made a little concerned noise. "Are you all right?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 12:56 pm
This lioness either had extraordinary luck or some kind of secret. Anwar eyed her, suspicious for the first time, before mentally shrugging it off. If she was one of them, he frankly didn't care. She was just his experiment, if she wanted to play dumb, whatever...though he doubted anyone would try to play it like this. She was too...silly. He'd never met anyone else as willing to shed pride as he was, and even if he had he doubted they'd have tried a lie so lame. 'I live around here but don't know that pride is dangerous'. Who would come up with that? Surely not a clever actor, they would have offered him something considerably more watertight.
"I'll be fine," he smiled, "Nothing serious, just some scrapes and bruises." That hurt like all heck. He wasn't used to taking that kind of abuse, the last time he'd been even remotely seriously hurt was when he'd fallen out of a tree a few months back and sprained his forepaws when he landed on his feet.
"I was more worried about you, really," the young lion added, concern painting his features, "If they're all so ferocious, perhaps it's not so safe to live around here..."
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 1:16 pm
Rhaen glanced behind her again, toward the lands - wondering if he had somehow seen through the lie. She'd deliberately made it not a good lie in hopes that he'd dismiss her statement.
"Maybe not..." she murmured, edging toward him juuust a little. "I think that it's not a very big pride, maybe. Or there's not a lot of uhm. Guards. Because I've never seen them..."
None of that was really true ... well, the part about border guards was. The lands were rather vast, and there really weren't enough guards to go around right now.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 2:04 pm
"Perhaps," he murmured. "But I doubt that makes it much safer." She couldn't be faking, could she? That story was too pathetic to be a good lie. He was a good deceiver, letting his voice ring with truth while holding back what he didn't care to share. He let his weight shift slightly towards her when she edged closer. What practiced con artist would use a pathetic excuse like that one anyway? She was probably just a lucky ditz. Or maybe the pride didn't attack females.
"Just be careful, my Queen, I'd hate to think of anything happening to you."
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 2:18 pm
She nodded seriously at that. "I'll be careful, I promise." Then she smiled and tilted head at him. "Besides, if you're around, you'll protect me right? Or I could run away..."
If she needed to run, she was pretty fast, so that wasn't exactly a lie. Not that she'd ever run from a fight. Heh ... that'd be pretty pointless, actually.
She wondered if that's what Anwar had done, though. He didn't look ... quite as beat-up as he would have been if he'd really fought a demon. But the fact that he ran wasn't all that bad - as it showed intelligence. She knew that she could hold her own in a fight. Perhaps he knew that he couldn't, and so he had escaped.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 2:45 pm
...ah, drat. 'If' he were around. That was the key wasn't it, that 'if'. He wasn't going to be around long, and he'd little desire to collect every lioness he met to make his banu. He wanted a large harem, but he wanted it to grow. He needed to leave room to improve so he could show improvement and at a rapid rate too. Perhaps he might return for her, if she were still here. She was pretty enough, though he perffered his banu to be intelligent, unlike some.
Maybe another aspiring Pad would find this sweet naive lioness and bring her home with him. Anwar didn't much care.
"Be sure you do, I'd hate to have to worry about you all the time," he said softly, "And I'm traveling with my little brother, he's looking for someone you see and I can't leave him to wander on his own. But I'll come back. That I can promise." Honesty was the best policy, wasn't it? Not that he'd told the whole truth, but he hadn't lied exactly... "I'm sure you're capable of looking after yourself though...I just..." Anwar let himself trail off, glancing at the earth by his paws as though shy or uncertain. He wasnt' glad to have been knocked about, but perhaps he could use this to his advantage...
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 5:14 pm
Well, duh. She hadn't expected him to stay. If he came back, though, that could be awkward. But... she couldn't really think of anything to say against it, so she let it go for the moment.
"Oh, who is he looking for?" she asked, pricking ears toward him a bit. Then she blinked, noticing the way he was shuffling around. Was he actually working up to asking something having to do with other things? "What is it?" she asked.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 5:59 pm
Anwar just shrugged faintly at her question, "Oh, a girl he saw when he was younger. He wanted to ask her to come with him now that he was old enough to be a p...rovider." Not Pad. She wouldn't understand what a Pad was, and if she did know then she'd know that he was and if she'd sense she'd be suspicious.
"Ah, well, it's just...where I come from we're taught that boys are to take care of girls, it just...feels wrong to leave you in danger..." he mumbled, "Especially since...I...uh..." Was he doing this right? Was he moving too quickly? It had only been a few days after all, and she wasn't a member of his harem that would be part of his family and such. Oh well, he was doing this because he wanted to see what worked and what didn't.
"I just, I don't want anything to happen to you because I...like you..." And if he sounded awkward, it would work ever so well anyway. After all, he was pretending to be an openly friendly but still very young lion. It would make sense that he'd be awkward, right? To act confident would seem false.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:20 pm
Rhaen stared at Anwar for a moment or two after that admission, as if stunned. "You ... you do?" she asked finally, widening her eyes a bit. Geeze, it TOOK HIM LONG ENOUGH to come out and say it!
That much had been obvious to her from the start. Or something like that.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:30 pm
"Yeah...well..what's not to like?" he scuffled his paw more, wincing faintly as he put pressure on a sore spot he hadn't remembered in time. "I mean, you're very nice to talk to, and very skilled, and...really quite lovely...even for a Queen," Anwar added, a hopeful playful note sliding into his otherwise 'shy' voice on the last bit.
Was this working? It seemed to be working...
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:33 pm
Rhaen smiled at that, pretending to be flattered. She'd been starting to think that he would never get to the damn point! "Well I ... thank you..." she murmured in reply, ducking her head.
Then she looked back up at him. "I ... think I like you too," she admitted softly.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:40 pm
It was working. Brilliant. So she did like him after all, that was a very good start, very good...but now what? He didn't want to settle down and start a new life, he had business to attend to after all.
"Well...uh...that's...that's great. S-so...uh..." How was he to ask this? He knew the basic fundamentals of such things, he'd learned of it when he was younger than, perhaps, he should have, always seeking knowledge even if it meant nothing more than eavesdropping. But how to get there...he had little idea.
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