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 Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:34 am
 Ataro had taken to wandering from time to time -he didn't think his father approved of this new habit, but he was nadult and if he wanted to wander..well he damn well would thank you very much. In fact whenever it was brought up he had a built in excuse...obviously wandering was in his blood.
Of course he always hated the sad look that entered his father' eyes when he made this particular remark, it always made him feel guilty afterwards...but it always worked, his father stopped pestering him. At least for a little while.
And he was free to wander again - like he was now, though he wasn't sure exactly where he was headed he knew it had to be someplace better then home and surely he'd run across something interesting along the way. convinced of this fact the wild dog trotted along with his head held high, paws sending up small puffs of dust as he went. By the gods it was hot today but there was a tree up ahead, maybe he'd stop and rest in the shade a bit.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:43 am
 The heat of the day had sent Ibala to seek out whatever shade she could find. And what better place to keep cool than within the boughs of a tree, this was she could stay cool, enjoy a bit of breeze that might not reach one who was on the ground and had a perfect view of what was around her. Letting out a yawn the leopardess lounged on a large branch, letting her tail and left front leg dangle.
Her eyes scanned the area around the tree and settled upon a male wild dog. She watched him as trotted along, well it looked like he was headed for this tree as well. And look at those colors! Ibala loved his colors, especially those shades of purple, it reminded her of her own pelt. A smile crossed her maw as she watched him approach, thinking that today would be a good day because today she would make a new friend.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:50 am
Approaching the tree Ataro didn't even bother to look up and see if someone else had already claimed it - truthfully when he saw no one else lounging about under the tree looking up just didn't occur to him and with a sigh of relief he merely flopped down on the ground, wriggling slightly in the cool earth and giving a huge yawn. "This is the life" He breathed out, quite sure that he would be content to just laze about the rest of the afternoon right here in the shade.
And it was practically perfect as far as he could tell - no fathers fussing and worrying about, no siblings wanting to go and do something and best of all no females around. Ataro liked his sister well enough but beyond that he found he had little patience for the members of the opposite sex, they talked to much, demanded to much..always wanted to be the center of attention and when things weren't going exactly how they wanted them to go - they left. Truly there was just nothing good about them as far a he could see and life was better lived well out of their presence. Like right now..peaceful..calm..serene. Perfect.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:58 am
Ibala watched in silence as the wild dog flapped at the base of the tree. He was so cute she just wanted to jump down there and hug him. But she hesitated for a moment, long enough to hear him speak and that made her giggle a bit. "I agree." She called down to the male, this was the life. "But you don't get the lovely breeze down there." What little wisp of wind there was out there today stayed higher in the air, robbing those who were ground bound of it's cooling benefit. Laying her head down on the branch Ibala watched the male curiously, though the smile across her maw said she only wished to be friends and have some fun.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:07 am
If a wild dog could jump out of his skin it was likely that Ataro would have done precisely that when his so called 'perfect' silence was broken by a voice. A voice from above no less...and a female one at that. As it was poor Ataro had leapt to his paws like the ground had suddenly burst into flame beneath him, a shocked expression on his face as he searched for the source of the mysterious voice.
Ah..a leopard, lazy cat looked like she thought she owned the entire tree looking down at him like that and Ataro brindled slightly, though he thought perhaps part of that reaction might be due to his wounded pride at being so terribly startled in the first place. Note to self - look up next time.
"Yes well not all of us can climb trees" He pointed out after he'd regained some of his composure "It's not very polite to startle someone like that you know" He continued, and it wasn't..not really, even if it had been partially his fault.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:14 am
Ibala couldn't help but laugh as the wild dog got to his paws quickly, clearly startled by her talking. When she finally managed to stifle her laughter the purple leopardess stood and walked back along the branch to the trunk of the tree. Then carefully made her way down a bit before leaping to the ground, landing a bit away from the male. "I could teach you. I taught this lion cub how to climb a tree once, he caught on really quickly. Though he did have some trouble getting down." She giggled at the memory of that blue, white and brown cub and wondered what had become of him. Giving her head a shake she focused back on the wild dog.
"Well I didn't mean to scare you silly. Most others look around before they take a rest." Ibala looked him up and down admiring his color and pattern. "You have a very lovely coat. It's like mine, only with some grey on it! You know I met a grey wild dog once, she was very pretty but didn't have the purples you have." Realizing that she was rambling Ibala snapped her mouth shut and waiting to see what the wild dog had to say.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:24 am
"I don't really see a reason for me to learn how to climb a tree" He told her after a few moments - I mean really could you just imagine how incredibly silly that would look? A wild dog in a tree? "I don't even have claws sharp enough to grip the bark" he further pointed as she came out of the tree - to talk to him he assumed, so much for his nice quiet rest. He should have known it was too good to be true.
"I did look around - on the ground - where most folks tend to lie" He told her , slightly miffed at her rebuke, and he didn't really care that she thought he was pretty, he knew he was..he was quite handsome, it was somewhat of a curse really - just drew the female to you like bees. "Oh yeah?" He faked interest in this grey wild dog, though really he could care less i mean what were the odds it was someone he knew and gave a crap about? Pretty low. "I haven't met any Leopards before" He told her with a slight shrug.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:32 am
"Hmm." She lowered her head to look at his puny claws. Nope those were no good for climbing trees that was for sure. "Good point, tiny claws like that won't get you very far up a tree." And then she skipped the conversion back to the reason behind learning the skill. "Well climbing is fun, can give you a better look at your surroundings and can get you out of tight spots." She had escaped danger a time or two by quickly clamoring up a tree to safety.
"Well I guess you know to look up next time huh? Not everyone stays to the ground, besides something could fall from a tree if your not too careful. Wouldn't want to be relaxing in the shade and have something hit you in the head now would you? No, of course you wouldn't cause that would hurt!" When he seemed to perk up at the mention of the grey wild dog she figured he might know her. "Do you think you know her? Maybe she's a friend of yours? I'm not sure how many grey wild dogs are out there, but she is the only one I have seen so far."
Her head lifted up curiously for a moment. "Well if you haven't seen a leopard before how do you know I am one silly? Maybe I'm a new type of tree climbing lion...or a really fat cheetah. You know cheetah can climb trees too, and their claws are pretty tiny like yours...so maybe you can learn to climb after all!" Ibala smiled and glanced between the male and the tree. Oh yes she could just see him scaling up that trunk right now, and the thought made her giggle.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:46 am
Why did females have to talk so damn much? And this one seemed unbearably ..cheerful as well. I mean there was cheerful and then there was so cheerful you just wanted to throttle them until they stopped cheerful. This leopard seemed to be of the latter variety. How lucky for him.
"What if whatever your trying to get away from just hangs out at the bottom of the tree?' He asked her - I mean you couldn't live in a tree, surely you had to come down at some point or well..you'd starve or die of thirst. But he wasn't sure she'd even heard his remark because she kept going on and on - about his tiny claws and that grey wild dog. "Grey's likely pretty common' He tried to get a thought in edgewise but she was already moving on to a completely different topic and when she finally stopped talking long enough for him to say something he just looked at her and asked deadpan "Are you a fat cheetah?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:54 am
So busy with her rambling Ibala didn't exactly notice that the wild dog had tried to answer her questions or make comments during her long winded speech. After sitting quiet for a moment, which was quite out of character for her, she felt that she had finally caught all of his words. "Well the thing chasing you would eventually get bored of waiting for you to come down and leave. I know I get bored if I have to sit around for too long. I mean do you really want to wait for days on end for something to come out of a tree when you have a savannah full of other prey you could go after?" That was just silly, what could possibly be that important to wait around that long for.
"Same it's so common, grey is kinda dull, not very exciting at all. Now blue and purple, those are exciting colors and hey we both have purple on us so that must mean we are both exciting creatures huh?" It made sense to her in a way and Ibala wasn't the truly sit and think about it type so the fact that exciting colors and exciting personalities weren't tied together never registered to her. She let out a laugh at his question. "Oh heavens no! I am not a fat cheetah. Though I saw one once, poor thing couldn't chase down an antelope at all, too much weight slowing it down. No, no, you were right I am a leopard and you are a wild dog. There! Now we each know each others species. Oh but we don't know each others names! I'm Ibala. And you are?" She asked happily, wanting to know her new friends name.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 11:01 am
Wow..it really was just..never ending and this leopard clearly wasn't smart enough to actually get that he had wasn't thrilled to be having this little chat with her. Maybe she was as lonely as his father and instead of moping about in a den just latched on to whatever poor soul happened to wander by.
He should have picked a different direction to go in today...hindsight was a b***h wasn't it? He thought about pointing out that being as annoying as she was something might just stick around to eat her simply to get rid of her - bu that would likely just lead to another lengthy explanation so he let it slide.
"I guess?" He stated in reference to the whole 'exciting' colors bit, he had grey on him too - did that make him bi-polar or just more of a moderate? maybe she had something there with that theory since she was very very purple and very very extremely happy, he supposed that could be a form of excitement.
"I'm Ataro" He told her - though he questioned the wisdom of telling her his name. Ah well too late now.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 11:26 am
The length of quiet that passed between them made Ibala nervous. She hated when conversations died, and that happened quite a bit to her. Was it because she talked too much? She had been told that a time or two before but hadn't really considered it to be a problem, but maybe some didn't like all that talking. But she couldn't just stand there like a bump on a log when there were others around.
"Ataro. That's a nice name...sounds like...we'll I'm not sure what it sounds like, but I like it. Boy it sure is hot today. You know what we should do, we should go get a drink from the watering hole. It's just..." Ibala glanced about to find her bearings. Ah there it was! "...this way! Come on I'll show you the way." Turning Ibala began to walk towards the water hole assuming that Ataro would follow her.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:05 pm
Ataro blinked at the leopard as she started babbling again - why couldn't people just learn to enjoy things in silence? Why did there always have to be talking - unnecessary pointless conversation that most didn't care about anyways.
But then she gave him a slight chance - she turned and started walking off, nattering on about some watering hole - Ataro was thirsty he had to admit and a nice cool refreshing drink of water certainly sounded appealing - but not nearly as appealing as say...leaving.
So that's precisely what he did, he waited until the brightly colored leopard got a good bit down the path and then he dashed off into the tall grass keeping his head and shoulders low as he snuck off - quite sure that she would come after him if she saw him. She seemed the sort that wouldn't be to quick to pick up tat he was trying to run off from her. She'd probably think he'd just gotten lost or something equally stupid...so Ataro put all hi focus into putting as much distance between him and the leopardess as possible.
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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:15 pm
Ibala continued to walk along blissfully ignorant to the fact that Ataro wasn't with her anymore. In fact she made it all the way to the water hole before looking back. Well hey now where did he go? Ibala scanned the area but found no sign of the wild dog. "Very strange." She murmured to herself before lowering herself down at the waters edge. Ibala took her time drinking thinking that perhaps the male was just a bit slow. But after some time she realized that he wasn't coming, what a shame, she had been enjoying her time with him. Sighing slightly Ibala rose to her paws again and with one final look towards where she had met the wild dog set off in search of some easy prey. Hunting and a belly full of food always made everything better.
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