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 Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 7:44 pm
It was a very nice day.
A bit of a breeze and everything smelt new and fresh - Teyd said that this was spring, and that there was a lot of beauty in the changing of the seasons, Leknaat still was uncertain about the sheer differenciations of the changing of the years. Everything was smell and touch, the ground was warming, and everything gleemed a little more in her mind's eye, the soft feelings felt more. . . comfortable and the slowing of number of cooler days made her realize that the summer was coming around again.
Sighing contently, she kept where she was, glancing blindly in to nothing in particular, dead eyes regarding the world with what one would probably call a world of knowledge. Was it going to be another quiet day?
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:08 pm
 It was quiet. Too quiet.
The stillness and the endless calm seemed false... while he was enjoying the warmth on the air, the length of the daytime, and the fresh, spring grass that softened the ground during their training sessions, Jowy found that more and more the older members of the pride were beginning to grow silent. Their eyes would linger on the boarderlines, they would speak in short, clipped tones, and there lingered an edge in their movements. Viktor wasn't his normal goofy self, Flik was...more on edge, and Gremio had was somehow worse in his fussing over Tir and Riou. The older lion rarely let the others out of his sight. Whenever a cub went missing, the veteran was tearing rocks from the ground and clearing underbrush until they were found.
Something was wrong...but the adults weren't letting them in on it.
Moody and uncomfortable, Jowy loped his way from the training ground. He'd been practicing with Bai Feng once more, improving his speed and dexterity through the racing field. He'd caught his foot on a stone just once and while he had been able to finish practice, it had slowed him dramatically. No doubt he bruised the claw...
Slowing his pace, the Chibun's ears rolled forward. There alone, enjoying the breeze and her lack of physical toil was Leknaat. A small part of him resented the fact that of all his siblings- she had been deemed the special one. Of all of them, the blind seer had been given one of the most important roles within the troupe. He loved her- but he envied her.
"Afternoon, Leknaat."
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:50 pm
She already knew had been there, his smell had mixed it with the flicks of wind and as much training as he was doing, his youthful feet weren't as . . . dainty as say an adult's. But she gave him the benefit of the doubt, and when he finally made himself known, her ears flicked bawards, the only movement that showed him she was listening. Her eyes were worthless, so she showed herself in other ways, other movements.
"Jowy, how was your training today?" she asked with a flick of her head, which probably looked a little peculiar, with the dead stare infront of her. "You sound a little. . . troubled?" It was not in her wish to nudge him too far, but as his sister, she wanted to know what was wrong with her brother. She wanted to be there for him at all times.
"Come, sit with me."
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:55 pm
While it was odd for some, Jowy was already used to his sister's odd mannerisms. How she would turn only an ear to an approach rather than her head or even her full body, how her eyes would remain closed even if she was wide awake and simply listening. It was strange, he knew that well enough, but it hardly phased him anymore.
"A little." The wind-chaser padded over to his sister's side and took a seat down beside her. His wounded paw raised up for him to lick at. It was the first time he'd properly gotten his weight off the limb since his training that morning.
"Our training regiment has doubled. The adults have tightened the boarder patrol...and we're leaning killing techniques for the first time."
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:14 pm
Leknaat's demeaner dimmed a little for a moment when she listened to him talk about battling and training. From when she was small enough to start on her own first steps, she was told that she would take another line of training with the great seer Teyd, and as much as she cherished the time she had around the leopard elder, she wished she could play and fight and learn along side her other siblings. Their stories were one thing, actually being there was another.
But, she held steady as quickly as she wavered, her face hardening a little again in to her quiet demenor, turning her head softly to her brother, but never actually looking at him. "Maybe there's something on the wind that they're worried of. . . " she trailed for a moment, lidding her gaze. "Teyd has been a little worried himself, being taken from me time to time by Viktor, the one with the long thread of history behind him. . . when I see him I worry a little, but I'm told it's nothing much." She murmured, before shrugging.
"Does it bother you, dear brother?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:21 pm
It was more or less a polite way of saying that something was happening- but she wasn't sure what. Jowy grimaced, an expression his sister was unable to see, and slowly lowered his paw back to the ground. Of course no one would tell her what had been happening... no one would tell any of the youngsters. Not himself, not Riou, not Tancho or any of her siblings. Even the soft spoken Jaques was unable to give him much insight... and he'd been from the outside.
"It bothers me. Probably a little more than it should." Afterall, they were being trained to kill. Not antelopes- those required groups, hunting parties, and stealth. They were being trained to fight against claw and fang, for their weapons to forge a path through thick manes and muscular bodies.
"I want to know what has them so worried. If it's a threat, we all have a right to know."
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:29 pm
"Is that how you feel brother?" she murmured sweetly, her eyes trained on him for a split moment, feeling out the threads that fell from him - her own special seering skill. Everyone had them, and they danced around the outline of those she searched. He was complicated, and she felt it deemingly so. the only thing she could make out with her brother was his attachment to the cub who had come around when they were born, Riou.
"I don't blame your worry and frustration, I would want to know what was happening if I was being trained to watch my hide in an event that would be coming around. . ." she murmured softly, her eyes dying out again in to the blank stare past him, before she turned back to her original gaze point. "But I'm not even allowed to train with you all, so there is little I can do."
'Somehow I feel that you're holding something back. . . can I hear you out? Maybe if you got it out, you'd feel better."
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:39 pm
He nodded slowly, remembered himself, then answered with a simple, "Yes. That's how I feel... if there's a threat out there, I should know about it so I can at least know what to expect. If there's a threat somewhere within our boarders, how will I know? What if it gets to you? What if it hurts Riou or... or the others."
He wouldn't be able to stand it... he'd never forgive himself and he'd most certainly never forgive the adults for blinding him to the danger in the name of protection.
"I wouldn't be jealous, Leknaat... father thinks so highly of you. He's always talking about how you will weave the fate of this troupe. We never recieve any of that praise."
The inquiry had him bristling. There was more... but he'd not shared his thoughts with anyone apart from Riou. "I... I want to be stronger. Father is a great leader, but he's flawed. He's weaker than the other teachers. We're...we're the children of the wind. We have the power he lacks. We have so much potential, Leknaat, but we're being treated like newborns."
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:56 pm
"He does hold high respects." She started, frowning a little at her brother's remarks about jealousy and spite. She knew that a couple members had felt that it was so strange that she had inherited such a rank, and it humbled her to an extent. "But he also has barred me from getting my feet wet in adventure or tactics such as yourself. I'm fragile, like a glass mountain. Sometimes I wish I was with you. But I digress."
She cantered her head again, her eyes lidding as she listened to the winds around her and her brother, her tail flickering on what she was told was grass. It was soft, and smelled wonderful on days like this. A muffler, though.
"Maybe they cherish our lives, we are the future of the pride, but . . . I understand your wishes to be strong, I see that in you, Jowy. I say, follow your dreams, your heart. You can only be true to yourself, you know?" She murmured softly, leaning over a bit toward her brother to whisper in a hush tone. "I would not judge you."
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 10:02 pm
It was a dangerous bit of advice... Jowy was young and reckless and while he loved his family deeply, his view of the world and of necessity was somewhat skewed. The rules his father hand laid down were often over-stepped or touched on very carefully. He often did it not out of spite for his father, or out of disrespect for the rule- but out of disagreement. The borders of the pride were established to keep enemies out and allies in- but it also served as a rope about his neck. Out there was the answer to all this tension- out there was the face of what had the adults speaking in low voices and demanding twice as much effort on the training field.
"I only have to be true to myself... and my family." He added, his tone determined.
With a firm nod of his head, the youth rose up to his paws and shook out the loose grass that had clung to his fur. "Thank you."
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 11:24 pm
"That's a good mantra to stick by." She answered, murmuring to her brother. If Leknaat knew anything about what this advice could bring Jowy, she had no physical marks showing that she even acknowledged it. She was blissfully oblivious, or so it showed on the outside, and she would keep it that way. It would take her brother far, she felt, and hoped that he would be well in life. It was all she could really do.
It was too late for her to tell him more, as he dusted himself off and wandered off, the sound of his departure making her alone again. All she could do from here on end was sigh openly and hope for the best.
"I can't promise this won't tear you apart. . .don't get yourself hurt. . ." she stated, leaving herself to flutter back in to the ebb and flow of the winds around her.
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