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 Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 4:33 pm
 Arusi couldn't believe it, not even a little bit! She was finally going to have her very own adventure! She was thrilled, even though she and Kerer would get in loads of trouble if anyone caught them sneaking out. But what did it matter? She wasn't afraid! Now was a perfect time, with all the confusion circling the pride. Her stomach had been twisting and tumbling for what seemed like hours now, and every few steps she glanced back to see if they were being pursued. They weren't, and it was likely no one would notice their lack of presence any time soon. At least, it didn't seem like they were being followed.
The starry juvenile shot a glance to her companion; Kerer was even bigger now! She was a little jealous of the older lion... if she was big she could do way cooler things! She gave him a grin, pleased as anything to be starting their adventure. "This is gunna be so cool! Where do you think we should go first? Do you think we'll run inta anyone soon? Think they'll be interesting?" Or maybe they would be baddies! That would be equally cool, she'd fight them! She'd knock 'em down dead, let anyone say she couldn't!
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:10 am
 Kerer would have preferred to start this adventure at night when it was cooler for walking, but for the most part he preferred to let Arusi call the shots. She was better at turning up adventures than he was. She was also more inclined to be complain if things didn't go her way, so it made sense to him to have things go her way as much as possible.
"No one's watching," he reassured her when he saw her glancing back. "Were you expecting someone to be?"
Everyone was pretty thoroughly distracted by the goings-on in the pride. It was exactly that universal distraction that had provided this opportunity for exploration. He worried a little about what would happen if they were caught at this stage in their adventure, but he figured the worst that could happen would be that they'd both be scolded and told not to spend time together. For Arusi that might be easier to enforce, but Kerer was an adolescent and in training to be a hunter. He could make excuses to be just about anywhere.
"Besides, if we are seen, I'll just tell them we decided to do some recreational hunting to get away from the stress of all that." Really, though, Kerer spent a lot of time away from his family because of his mostly nocturnal schedule, so it would take some time before anyone noticed he was missing.
"Since we're on the border of the pride, we're more likely to run into people from our pride than anyone else, and we don't really want that," he reasoned. "After that...I don't know. Where do you want to go?"
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Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 5:16 am
She scrunched her nose as he stated that no one was watching them, which was basically the same as no one following them which was what she was truly thinking of. And not worried about at all! She shot him a glance that said clearly she was annoyed with the fact that she'd been found out. "No." She blurted out, stubborn as always. "I wasn' lookin fer that at all." But she had no real plausible excuse to be glancing backwards besides that, so she wasn't sure what to say to cover that fact up.
He had all of the answers anyways, she never would have thought of that excuse in a million years! At least, she hadn't thought of it even in the vaguest sense... most of her excuses came to the tip of her tongue the moment she was being questioned. She was good at lying when under pressure... but not so good at planning ahead. "Oh! That would be good. Bet you'd get hell though, bringin' a little girl like me out here when I should be in the temple or somethin'." She chirped, then laughed before shaking her head. It was obvious she would have found that all very humorous, on some level.
Her tail gave a flick and her eyes narrowed as she seemed to concentrate on deciding their destination. She'd heard a few stories from her parents, mostly about that one time they were in some other sandy pride. Or at least near the borders or something... "Not where the red pelts lived." She half said out loud, head tilting almost as if she'd just confused herself. It wasn't like she knew where those guys lived anyways... but what other places had she been told about?
"Well." She wanted to sound like she knew what she was talking about, of course, so she gestured toward the north-east. "I think we should head tha'way." Very matter-of-factly, in her opinion. "That is where the good stuff is." Again she said this as if she had some clue as to what this 'good stuff' was.
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Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 4:27 am
Well, what had she been looking for? Kerer had no idea. Many things about Arusi continued to mystify him, even though he knew her much better than he had the first time they met and he'd suggested that she might cry if she got a little muddy. He supposed that was only fair, since Arusi would probably be forever mystified by the way he avoided activity during daylight hours as much as possible, even though he knew she accepted his explanation that he simply got too hot during the day.
"Oh, okay. What were you looking for then?" The younger lioness often had different ideas than he did, and most of them were pretty good, or at least pretty entertaining. Kerer always liked to listen to them.
When she suggested he would get into lots of trouble for bringing her along Kerer wrinkled his nose. She was right of course, but things had been a little shaken up in the pride lately, which was part of the reason they had chosen now as the time to leave on their adventure. If they were found out, it would undoubtedly be his fault in the eyes of the pride, and given the generally low opinion of most of the pride toward him, Kerer didn't expect that they would be lenient with him for his transgression.
"North-east? I suppose there's probably good stuff that way. I want to stay fairly close to water though. It's important." Otherwise he was mostly content to allow Arusi to dictate their direction.
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Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:59 pm
Arusi didn't often question Kerer's habits or personality. Sometimes he did say things that bothered her or refused to come play because 'it wasn't night yet' or something like that. Oh wait, was that questioning who he was? Whatever, she didn't care! She knew that he fascinated her and had definitely been a lot more fun to play with than her brothers. She had no clue why they were such wussies- all of them! It was like they didn't take after mom or dad or something! But Kerer had played in mud with her and had gone adventuring and had just generally been a blast. So when he wasn't being annoying by asking stupid questions like he was just then, she really liked him. Right now though?
She scowled. What was she looking for? She needed something! Dung beetles! No... wait why would she even think of that as an answer? She choked out a little laugh before pushing an annoyed look on her face. "I dunno. None of yer business." She blurted. Well. So much for coming up with an excuse! She scrunched her nose and pulled a face, glancing back at him. It wasn't really his fault that she was embarrassed about the situation... but she wasn't going to feel sorry for it either.
Her tail gave a little flick and she nodded as he replied to her. Right, they would need to stay near water. Probably would get lost if they strayed from it and then they'd end up dead, and what fun was that? That was not a story you could tell! "Alrigh' sounds good teh me. Course I know that already though." Well, it sounded good and maybe she probably knew it but it wasn't like she'd been thinking about it when making her decision. "Les' go then!" She finally offered Kerer a big grin, filled with excitement and childish joy.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 10:32 am
Kerer's eyes widened in surprise at Arusi's answer. Well. That hadn't been what he'd expected to hear at all. Quickly he reviewed their conversation for the past minute or so and decided that he hadn't said anything particularly annoying, and so clearly she was the one being annoying.
"You're in a mood," he observed. "Snap out of it. This is supposed to be fun."
He even refrained from mentioning in that long-suffering way of his that it was too hot and too bright out for this part of the trip to be much fun for him. He was very proud of himself for his forbearance in doing so. Or, rather, in not doing so. Depending on how you looked at it.
Arusi did seem to have snapped out of it pretty quickly, which was good, but it gave Kerer pause. Was she going to be moody like this the entire time they were out in the rogue lands? If so, that was not what he had signed up for. Not that he would abandon her, even so, but it would have been nice to know in advance.
Girls. Sometimes you just couldn't tell with them.
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 10:03 am
Her ears flicked back just slightly as Kerer sort of chided her. It was deserved, she knew it was. She made a face, but at least had the decency to look a little embarrassed. Normally she probably would have said something snotty if it'd been one of her siblings, but it was easier to see the truth in her friend's words. "Yeah I know." She breathed out softly, trying to shake away her annoyance and awkwardness. Maybe if they were just farther away... or maybe she should just stop worrying about if anyone was following them or watching them or whatever! Her tail gave a little flick and she nodded to herself. That was the best idea, it would keep her from getting mad at Kerer for no reason.
She continued on and they walked in silence for a little bit, surely it wasn't something that would last. "Think we'll meet any'un soon?" Of course it didn't last, Arusi was on the trip after all. "I bet we will. Like... What do ya think they'll be like eh? Think they'll be from ano'er pride? Or maybe rogues. Do you think we should tell strangers that we're rogues too?" At least she was having a good time imagining it all in her head.
But what if they didn't run into anyone? What if somehow the lands were just... were just... "There are other prides out here, right Kerer?" She slowed her pace, turning around to face him. She usually lead the way, Kerer just took his time walking and she liked to rush ahead.
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 3:07 pm
"I hope so," Kerer said truthfully. Meeting someone might make this more like an adventure for both of them.
He thought about it for a few moments, speculating. He'd never left the pride lands before and although his parents had both been rogues he didn't know a great deal about the rogue lands. They had never anticipated that their cubs would be going there, he suspected.
"Well, probably they won't be very bright. Since they're not educated at the temple like we were," he theorized. "But we shouldn't make fun of them for that since they'll also be bigger than us, probably."
Sensible suggestions, if not very interesting. Kerer was, after all, an imminently sensible lion. It was why he spent most of his daylight hours slathered in mud. To keep cool under the relentless African sun.
"There are definitely other prides out there, and I'm sure we'll run into people from them. And rogues, too." He had no idea whether they should claim to be rogues or from a pride, and so he ignored that question.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:43 am
Arusi nodded 'knowingly' to his words, as if she held some vast knowledge just because she also went to temple and was, in theory, taught all sorts of things. She'd spent most of her time daydreaming about adventures she could have been on in stead, but she wasn't going to openly admit to Kerer that she was likely as stupid as the rogues. "My mum and pop were rogues, they're not tha' big." She said slowly, head tilted as she thought to herself. "But one time they did tell us stories 'bout some red giants or something. Sounded pretty cool, e'en though that kept tryin' ta say it was dangerous or somethin."
As she waited for his reply to her other question she jogged back to the dark pelted lion, running in a broad circle around him. It was like Arusi's energy was endless, how she moved about so often in the blistering heat. "I think it's gunna be cool. I can't wait!" She beamed at him, racing ahead once again.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:22 am
"That's true," Kerer admitted.
His parents had been rogues, too, for that matter, but he didn't usually remember that because of how thoroughly they had adopted the pride's ways. They had reminded him of it before he left and given him some helpful advice about living in the rogue lands, but even so he tended to forget that they'd spent most of their lives there.
"I don't remember hearing about red giants. But they do sound pretty cool."
That bit about them being dangerous completely went over his head. Danger had to be better than this walking and hunting and sleeping routine they'd been going with lately. Definitely more interesting, and that meant it was an improvement, right?
"Let's go look for them. It'll be fun." And it would give them a direction, too. Sort of. Assuming one of them knew which direction they ought to look. Which he didn't. But Arusi might.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:48 am
"Okay!" Arusi was quick to jump on board with the idea. It was a goal, or something, and it sounded cool! She wasn't afraid anyways, if her parents had met some giants they couldn't be that dangerous. Sure her mom had a temper, but she didn't strike Arusi as very warrior-like. And her father? Well he was more likely to make a joke at someone's expense than really fight them.
Unfortunately she didn't actually know where they were either. That part of the story never seemed very interesting to her. She decided though that they couldn't be in the way there were already going, just because. So she turned sharply to the left, thinking it was as good as any other direction. "Firs' one ta spy a red giant on this trip wins!" She didn't know what, but that made the interesting search even more fun! It was only a matter of time, right?
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