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 Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:21 pm
Adona Benedicta Eirik stared at the space ahead of him, golden eyes focused on a mouse skittering to and fro a few yards from him. His claws itched at the dirt beneath them, but he didn't dare move. Not yet. He was crouched low, one paw stretched out in front of him in preparation for the leap, but not yet. The mouse was too jumpy; he'd miss.
When the mouse finally paused for a few moments to nibble on something or other, Eirik shoved forward with a growl, pouncing the mouse and clapping both paws down over it. He panted a little in excitement, staring at his paws, and slowly unfolded the brown claws from the mouse.
Or what should have been the mouse, but was actually just dirt and a leaf. Fuming indignantly at having lost his quarry, the cub sat up and looked around, tail twitching in agitation. Now, where had that mouse gone, anyway? His eyes scanned the dirt, more focused on the mouse than the comings and goings of the Reavers and Freeborn in the pride. No one of interest, anyway. Certainly not his siblings or his father. He exhaled loudly from his nose and got up, still looking for that gods' be damned mouse.
He was hungry, after all. It would've been a nice snack. Princess Feylin Aesir took a deep, tired breath. Lately the pride seemed to be crawling with cubs. Almost literally. Taraxa had been the first, Aesir reflected, but Gunnar had been pretty quick about following. Those two were always doing things together, but Aesir really felt that having cubs together - not like that! - was going a bit far. And then there was the newest litter, Nymph's. He hadn't seen any of the cubs from that litter yet, but that was fine with him.Just as he was thinking this, a small cub popped up, seemingly out of nowhere. Startled, he drew up short. It wasn't as though he was ordinarily an easy lion for a person to sneak up on, but how was a fellow supposed to prepare himself for cubs popping out of the grass like daisies? That just wasn't an expected, everyday occurrence, and thus was hardly one for which a Stormborn, even the Warlord, could really be prepared."Someday I will kill you," he said, mostly to mask his surprise and give himself a chance to recover his wits.
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:29 pm
Adona Benedicta Eirik yelped a little when he heard the greeting, stumbling back, and looked up at Aesir. Once recognition kicked in and Eirik was aware of who he was staring at, the startled look went to awe in about three seconds. "Not today!" He blurted, sheepish as soon as he realized how it had come out. "Hello, Warlord." He ducked his head down, not quite bowing but close enough. Aesir, the only lion that could possibly trump Eirik's father, was right in front of him! Eirik tried not to seem nervous, but given that the cub had already ducked his head and jumped back from the Warlord upon his greeting, well...
Mission failed, young Freeborn. Mission failed. Princess Feylin "Hello, Freeborn," Aesir replied to the cub. He was certain the cub was one of Taraxa's, but he was markedly less certain which one he was. There really were a lot of them. He knew for a fact it wasn't Loki, because he had his own set of memories to go with Loki, and they were not particularly pleasant ones, to be honest. He could laugh at them in hindsight, but he still remembered the feeling of burrs piercing his softer parts and clinging to his coat. In an inexplicable effort to get along with the small thing, he offered a conversational gambit: "Good job surprising me. You'll make a good Reaver if you keep that up."
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:33 pm
Adona Benedicta Eirik looked up as Aesir spoke, and blinked a little. Had he the ability, he might've blushed straight through his fur. "Thank you, sir." He said, grinning a little. A Reaver, straight from the Warlord's mouth. It was practically a blessing to the young cub. "I'm better at surprising people than catching mice, it seems." He looked around aimlessly, but by now the mouse had taken refuge in a hole somewhere. Dratted thing. He looked up at Aesir sheepishly. "How are you today, sir?" He asked, eager to be able to talk to the Warlord. It was quite exciting for Eirik, to have their fearless leader take time out of his day to talk to Eirik, even if only for a few moments. Princess Feylin Aesir thought about that. He could catch mice, it was true, but he hadn't felt any sort of urge to do so in an age and a half. In truth, he had been luxuriating, perhaps for too long, in the fact that he no longer had to hunt, either for himself or for others. Trusted Thralls were permitted to hunt outside of the stronghold itself, so long as they kept to Stormborn holdings, and although Aesir had not been trusted in the usual way of things as a Thrall, it had been known he would not run away, and so he was a safe one to send out. Providing he was part of a hunting party led by a Freeborn, of course. "I'll tell you a secret about mice," the Warlord said, speaking candidly, "Right now they may be good practice and sufficient to fill your stomach, but once you're an adult no one will ever, ever ask you to catch one unless they want to make you look like an idiot, because it never gets any easier." The cub's pleasantries didn't rankle the Warlord, who was usually not comfortable in the presence of children. Probably because they were presented so well, and without seeming like the result of coaching. "I'm well," he answered. "And you?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:42 pm
Adona Benedicta Eirik actually leaned in for the words of wisdom from Aesir, ears perking up curiously as though he were being allowed in to some secret society of Secret Keepers in the guild. A cub's imagination went wild on ocassion, and Eirik was no exception. He grinned, though, at the secret Aesir entrusted to him. "Really?" It made sense; he rarely saw adults pouncing after mice. It made him feel less foolish for losing it, for certain, and a weight seemed to lift off of the cub.
"I'm good." He nodded, snorting a little. "Loki hasn't tried tripping me into a pile of mud, any day without Loki's tricks is a good day." He could have fun with the best of them, but his brother...tended to take it too far for Eirik's tastes. And the tastes of others, if he heard things right. Princess Feylin Aesir's tail and ears twitched, thinking of Loki. It hadn't occurred to him that it might be even more of a liability to be related to the young prankster than it was to simply be an acquaintance of the cubs' father. But it definitely made sense. "That sounds about right. He got me with a hanging passel of burrs when I was on my way to talk to your father about my viking." And at the time Aesir had growled and sworn and generally put on quite the show, terrifying the cub, at least initially. "Perhaps I should begin employing cubs to assist with the stealth parts of raids." He wasn't the least serious about that, though if Taraxa's offspring were any indication it wouldn't be a horrible idea. Except for the part about taking cubs on raids.
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:51 pm
Adona Benedicta Eirik flinched in sympathy as Aesir recounted the tail of the hanging burrs. "Yikes." He muttered, snorting a little. "I think he tried doing that to one of my sisters." He said with a frown. "It's amazing he's not dead yet..." After some of the pranks, he was almost certain Lenn would wind up killing Loki. He really couldn't blame his eldest brother... "I wouldn't take Loki. He's likely to be a cause for Stormborn maulings." He scoffed a little, shaking his head. His brother would no doubt be a horrible Reaver if he chose the path.
At the topic of the raid, Eirik's interest nearly doubled. "How was your viking, sir?" He asked, perking up a little. Eirik hadn't been able to hear from the source how it had went, though he heard positive things of the Warlord's return. Of course, he'd been more excited for Taraxa's return than Aesir's, but he was curious as to how the Warlord viewed the raid. Princess Feylin "It was a near thing," Aesir reflected. There had indeed been two warring options in his head, and it had looked for a while as if the Kill option was the one which would win out. Fortunately, there was also the Cub factor, which was kind of an automatic No Kill. His brain had felt a little broken, and very distracted by burrs at the time. "Maybe he just needs direction. Something to challenge his mind and keep his paws otherwise occupied." If Aesir had realized that he'd just made a mature suggestion regarding a cub's future, it might have shocked him dead. Fortunately he had no idea. "It was a success, I think. Few injuries, no deaths, and several Reavers brought back Thralls." And so far there had been no sign of the personal strife which had been foretold at the sending-off. "What did you do while your father was away? He has a Thrall who looks after you, right?" He couldn't remember the Thrall's name, but he was fairly sure it was a hybrid.
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:03 pm
Adona Benedicta Eirik grinned a little, shaking his head. "You're not the first to nearly kill 'im." He promised, snorting a little. It amazed Eirik, what Loki could get away from either by running or just by being Loki. He had a talent for avoiding trouble, at least. Or being fast enough to run. He nodded in agreement, seeming to expect such mature advice from the Warlord. "Maybe." He snorted. "His sole purpose in life is to make others wanna strangle him." He said matter-of-factly, grinning a little.
"Good." He nodded. Eirik had, of course, noticed the influx of Thralls. That alone didn't necessarily mean good things, though. He blinked at the question, and grinned, nodding. "Thuto." He said. "He watched us, but most of the time I was watching those who stayed behind fight, and trained a bit." He reached up to rub his nose with a paw, snorting dust off of his nose afterwards. "You don't get to be as good as my Dad by sitting on your rump all day." He said, grinning at Aesir. Princess Feylin Eirik didn't make his brother sound like an appealing choice for a Reaver on a raid. There was a place for good humor and pranks, even during vikings, but someone who took things to extremes like that and had a real knack for irritating people, even if he also had a knack for getting out of trouble, would probably be a greater risk factor than most Captains would want to take. Aesir, himself, might consider such a Reaver for the impact he could have on morale, but it would definitely be a fine line between having a positive and negative impact. "Thuto," Aesir agreed. That one had come to the pride after Aesir had taken the title of Warlord, and so he had not had any cause to know or work with him. Which was just as well, given that Aesir shared the general Stormborn feeling toward hybrids, which was that they were innately inferior. "You're right about training. It's important, and you're lucky to have a lot of cubs around your age to train with." Aesir wouldn't be the fighter he was today if he hadn't been born into a litter large enough to sustain lots of cub fighting and offer lots of opportunity for bullying. That there had been other cubs in the area had been helpful, too.
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:13 pm
Adona Benedicta He nodded, smiling a little at Aesir. "I trained with one of Gunnar's cubs. Lucivar. I won." Perhaps it wasn't the most gracious way to talk about his victory, but given that it was one of the first duels he'd actually participated in that didn't count more as cub rough-housing, Eirik was proud! He even puffed up a little as he spoke of it, grinning a little.
Sure, the cub was younger than he was, but they were pretty even when it came to actually fighting. He could've lost, if Lucivar hadn't gone at him headfirst... "He's pretty good, too." He said after a minute of thought. "Trains more than me, I think." Which was saying something, given how often Eirik liked to watch others or participate himself in some good old fashion wrestling... Princess Feylin "Good job." Aesir meant it, but also wondered if maybe Lucivar was too easy of an opponent. On his own scale, Aesir would put cubs below hares as decent opponents. Hares moved faster and with more coordination. But when fighting each other, he guessed other cubs would be the way to go. It had been a long time since he was a cub. But then, if the cub was good like Eirik said, and trained more, that was something else. "So did you win because you got lucky or because you're simply a better fighter?" It hadn't been Aesir's experience that the fighter who practiced less won more.
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:27 pm
Adona Benedicta Most cubs would probably proclaim that they were obviously better, but Eirik paused and frowned. Finally, he tilted his head. "I think it's 'cause he tackled me." He said finally, looking up. "My brothers do that all the time. I know how to take a tackle and pin my brothers down when they come at me. I don't think he expected that." He grinned a little, shrugging one shoulder. He liked to think they were both evenly matched; though Lucivar practiced more than he, Eirik had the advantage of being older and slightly bigger.
Whatever the case, Eirik wouldn't win in an undignified manner, and he certainly wouldn't try to take credit for being better. "I bet if he hadn't tackled me, he might've won." Might've, was the key, because Eirik was still bigger. But he bet Lucivar would've had a better chance if he hadn't tackled him head on and thrown him off. Princess Feylin A lion who was better with cubs, or more inclined to try to instill lessons in them at least, might have said something about the importance of knowing one's opponents at this point. It was certainly an ideal place to interject such a comment, but the thought didn't go through Aesir's mind. He was actually thinking about lunch, and what was likely to be available. As the Warlord, he could probably command any sort of lunch he wanted, but he preferred not to put his authority to use for stupid purposes like that. He could eat whatever had been caught and prepared, and would be glad to have been spared the hunt, which was an activity he found tedious at best. "Ah." He offered as a response. If the conversation had come from someone older, Aesir probably would have been more invested in it, but in truth he had a very hard time taking a cub seriously, even if the topic was very similar to topics discussed among Reavers and Captains, and even Freeborn, every single day. The source really did make a difference, at least to Aesir. Fortunately, what he was about to do was one perquisite of authority that the Warlord had no difficult taking advantage of. He met Eirik's eyes and said, "I've enjoyed speaking with you, but I have matters to attend to. We'll talk again." And just like that, he was free. Or that's how it usually worked, anyway. Adona Benedicta Eirik perked up when the Warlord spoke again, bidding his farewell to the cub. He looked forward to speaking to the Warlord again, but wasn't dumb: The Warlord had far more important things to do than entertain a cub. With a bob of his head, Eirik rose and began to trot off to find one of his brothers. "Bye, sir!" He called over his shoulder, grinning a little. He bet none of his brothers got to talk to the Warlord like he did. They'd be so jealous! Fin.
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