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 Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 4:04 pm
 Erlendr padded softly into his den, a portion of ibex in his mouth. He'd just come from Luc's den, his friend and Captain having given him a part of his kill since the golden colored lion hadn't the chance the past few days to hunt for himself or go down to the common eating grounds.
It had taken all his skill to keep the young lioness alive, the medicinal training he had learned from his Pride far to the east put to the test so she would not succumb to the fever and infection that had raged thru her.
Now she lay amid the pile of fresh bracken and warm hides that made up his bed. The wound, which had festered and he had to cut open to drain more the once, had been packed with a poultice of strong smelling herbs wrapped in hare gut and held stretched out in a split made to be as immobile as possible.
He had managed to get her to eat by chewing the meat first, then offering it to her bit by bit, herbs to keep the fever down rubbed into it. Water was given a sip at a time through a hollowed out gourd, nearly twenty four hours for the past four days Erlender had not left her side.
This morning her fever broke...
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Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 6:30 pm
 Kyra had been studying her surroundings almost since the moment her fever broke that morning, trying to make sense of where she was, what she was doing there, and how she was going to deal with the male whose smell permeated the entire den.
At first she'd only been able to conduct her studies visually and without moving the rest of her body because she didn't want to let on to the golden-coated lion that there had been a significant change in her condition, but when he'd gone out to fetch food she had forced herself to her feet and after that made an agonizingly slow circuit of the den to inspect it. After doing so she could come to no more definite conclusion than that the den belonged to a male and he liked to keep things neat and clean.
A prickling along her spine warned her that someone was coming with barely enough time for her to drop into her former position on the pile of hides and bracken as if she'd been there all along. Her heart rate was elevated from the effort of moving, but her head was clear for the first time in, well, she didn't know how long. She was glad, because it gave her the opportunity to finally see what she was up against with the lion who had made off with her.
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:31 am
Erlendr noticed the change the moment his paw crossed over his den's threshold. The stillness of his home had been disturbed, she had been up, and though she lay now on the hides, her breathing told him she was very aware of him. He would tread carefully now, treat her as he would any wounded predator, more so if his suspensions were correct and she was at least half trained to fight, or worse not trained at all and just angry.
" Awake so you are," he said softly in the earthy rumble of his voice, the tone low and calm. He sat the meal down at the far left front of the den, which was obviously where he cleaned and prepared his meals if he took them privately and not down in the common area. He began to tear the meat into strips, dipping each manageable portion into a hollowed out gourd of mixed herbs.
" Water is there, bed beside. Fresh this morning Luc did bring." He nodded toward another gourd, this one bigger, with sweet, clean smelling water within it, " Fever taken you has four days, five nights long. My den you have stayed. Erlendr I am called. Stormborn you are with. Thrall I have claimed you, so others here harm you not. Should touch you they, kill them I will...until better you are."
Erlendr had decided to be truthful with her the moment she woke, from what he had gathered from her feverish ramblings surprises were not high on her list of favorite things. She would have questions now, and he would answer them, with honesty.
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:50 am
Well, there didn't seem to be any point in pretending further to be asleep. Such was Kyra's first thought. However she checked herself before she moved or acknowledged the lion. It could be a bluff, a ploy designed to trick her into admitting that she'd woken because he wasn't sure if she had or not. With an effort she consciously slowed her breathing, unaware that it was too late.
The identity of the lion was a mystery and that continued to bother her as she feigned sleep for a little longer. It was the smell of meat and torn flesh that made it difficult for her to keep her ruse up, more than his bluff. It was tantalysing, the blood and the way the herbs mingled with its scent. Unconsciously she began to salivate, but that necessitated a conscious action on her part to stop herself from drooling.
Mentally she cursed herself when she realized that she had given herself away. It didn't matter to her that Erlendr had already known or guessed. She didn't like to give anything away to an unknown enemy. And of course he was an enemy. It made no difference to her that an enemy had no reason to keep her alive for...four days was it? He was male. That was all she needed to know about him to be certain of their enmity.
Kyra decided to leave the matter of claiming go for the time being. That would be a temporary state of affairs at best. No lion could claim her, as if she was a slave. And a Thrall sounded much too much like a slave for her liking.
"Who is Luc?" she demanded. It was vitally important to know whether she would have to fight another lion, or just this one when she decided it was time to leave.
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Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 1:00 pm
Erlendr turned his golden eyes toward her, his expression as calm as a clear summer day, " Captain mine he is. Gracious he had been in feeding us both as recover you have."
He walked toward her, making sure that his movements were slow and none threatening as he placed the meat within her reach. " Take it I will you can yourself fed now, and no longer need I to do this you for? Though careful would I be, slow I would eat, weak still you are."
He glanced over at her wound, " When finished you are, treat your wound I will, then question sure you have."
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Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 1:30 pm
So Luc was the golden lion's captain, whatever that meant. Kyra knew what a captain was, sort of. It was a rank among martial lions, though she didn't know where it was on the scale. She didn't really care. What she wanted most to know was the two lions' motivation in helping keep her alive. She couldn't believe it was anything good.
He was being too careful not to upset her or startle her. In truth, it was kind of freaking Kyra out. No one was that considerate or patient unless they were expecting something, and she knew for a fact she didn't want anything to do with it or them. Probably she'd have to kill them both.
"You eat some first," she demanded
She didn't trust him not to have used herbs that would make her vulnerable again. So what if he'd had four days in which she was completely vulnerable to do as he wished? There was no telling the depths to which a male would sink. She was hungry though, so she hoped he hadn't done anything to the meat that would make it inedible for her.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:19 pm
One eyebrow raised at her request, and again he wondered at what had happened to her before this. It seemed he had a habit of finding females who had been poorly treated by other males. Honor to the gender, who by all rights without there would be no males, made perfect sense. It baffled him how other males could not see this and continued to treat females as objects or worse.
These thoughts however were kept firmly behind his calm expression as he took a portion of the meat he had served her and ate it without hesitation. It was the same meat he'd been pre-chewing for her and forcing her to eat for the past four days, but Erlendr doubted she remembered that.
" Poisoned you I have not, nor drug you will I not, save for drop seed to ease the pain of the adder that poisoned you did. Lucky were you, lose your life, nor leg, to bite it gave."
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Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 7:39 am
Kyra's mouth watered achingly as she watched the lion who called himself Erlendr took a bite of the food he'd offered without the faintest hesitation. It was the lack of hesitation that reassured Kyra the most. She guessed it was possible for him to have built up an immunity to whatever he had doctored the meat with, but she decided it was a chance she would just have to take, because she was hungry. She did not like taking this sort of chance while weak and injured though.
"All right," she said. "That will do."
She moved toward the meat and took a cautious bite. His demonstration had helped to allay her concerns about this particular serving of meat, but she remained generally suspicious. This lion spoke much too oddly to be trustworthy. He was probably hoping to confuse her with his unusual speech so that at a later date he could claim he had or had not said a thing. She kept both eyes on him while she ate, taking tiny delicate bites which were at odds with the glare she maintained throughout.
When Kyra had finished she eased back into a more comfortable position. He had seemed willing to answer questions earlier, and so she meant to ask them. If he hesitated or refused to answer, she would have further reason to suspect his motives in helping her thus far.
"What is a thrall? What does it mean that you have claimed me?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 8:53 am
" Stormborn I am, a Pride who lands around them raid. Treasures, food and such most is wanted, females, outside the Pride however come with this as well. Captured, confused, to whole Pride are given, unless by one is claimed. Sick you were, adder's bite near death had taken, Claimed you I did, so no other harm may do you, touch or hinder you, unless wish me to kill."
Erlendr held up a paw before she could speak out a protest or a growled threat.
" In name only this is. Practice I agree with not, protection only it gives as heal you do. Once strong enough you are, teach you I will to fight, survive beyond borders here. When time comes, let you go I shall and face what will come of it. No lion held against their will should be. Know to much of this do I, though some chains one can not see."
Erlender watched her with those patient amber eyes, calm as the sea when the storms let it lay, reflecting the sun above, allowing what he had said to settle within her.
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 4:51 pm
Kyra didn't like what she was hearing. Raiding for treasure and food and females reminded her too much of how she was taken as a cub and made a slave for a cheetah pride. They had been interested in moving goods and slaves, too, for mercenary reasons. Kyra wasn't sure yet what the Stormborn's motivations were, but she didn't think they were likely to be good.
Two questions fought for precedence on the tip of her tongue when Erlender finished speaking his first piece, but she was forestalled from speaking either when he held up a paw. She had wanted to ask why he would want to keep others from touching or harming her, and also if he would really kill someone for her. If he was willing to do that, Kyra thought she might be able to turn this whole thing around with a little seduction.
Her plans to seduce Erlendr vanished from her mind when he said he would teach her to fight once she was strong enough. The condescending implication that she did not already know how to fight was enough to send her into an indignant fury. She felt equally indignant that he seemed to think she would believe his false promises to let her go just because. That wasn't how the world worked.
"I know how to fight," she muttered sullenly before remembering that she had decided to try to seduce the golden lion. She blamed a nonexistent lingering of fever for her oversight.
"But I don't fight well," she lied hastily.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:36 am
" Sure I am that fight you can, or in the Roguelands not you would have been or survived long as you have. The adder bite accident was. I speak of way of fighting to learn for your slight build. To beat a male with brute strength not, but with agility, cleverness, and speed." His gold eyes met hers, " So that never caught you are, against your will taken, so that choose your mate you may, not have choice made for you."
He moved back to the place in his cave where he kept the supplies that made up what he used for treating wounds and other small aliments. While the adder bite was healing it still was swelling, and draining, and the hare gut had to be removed and the wound flushed with clean water.
" Wound I need to treat, drop seed would you like before or after do I so?" Elendr's voice was calm, it seemed very little did much remove that calm from him.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 2:46 pm
"That would be...very kind of you," Kyra said, deliberately making sure he noticed her giving him a thorough once-over. "But I don't see what you get out of the arrangement as it stands. I don't feel right about that."
If he wanted to teach her to fight, well, she wasn't going to object. It never hurt to learn more ways to kill people. She didn't believe that he was really going to let her go when the training was done. Probably it would never be done. Or he wouldn't train her completely, so that she wouldn't be able to defeat him. Or...something.
Men could be used, even enjoyed, but never trusted.
As he moved away her look sharpened until she figured out what he was doing, and then she softened her expression with some effort and said, "You really must let me repay you somehow, Erlendr. I'm sure I can come up with something."
Of course he was playing the dutiful healer, which irritated Kyra because it meant her wiles, such as they were, would be less effective on him while he was looking at her objectively. It was frustrating. Maybe if she let him see her helpless again by taking the damn seeds it would help. Some men liked their women helpless. Most of them did, deep down.
"Before, I think. I don't like pain." She didn't. But she could bear a lot of it. Not that he needed to know that.
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