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 Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 5:22 pm
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Dastell had a roseate future in the Rogue Lands if not for the incessant threat of starvation looming over his head. His mane was an unholy mess and his claws needed to be filed, just to name a few things that had suffered in the wake of his failure. This was proving more difficult than it should be for he, the smartest lion in his family. (How did he know that? Because he was the smartest.)
The merciless terrain of the mountains had never felt like home. Home is where the heart is, and Dastell's had never been too invested in those cold, stone floors and jagged rocks lining the walls. He wouldn't have guessed it was possible to get so used to being hindered by your environment that, in contrast, he couldn't seem to thrive in this simplicity.
Dastell had chased hoofed animals up and down mountainsides his entire life. He'd learned to avoid sharp edges and switch direction with the grace most rogue-borns would find unreal. Those were strategic hunts. The flip side of having an environment that worked against you was, if you were a bright one like him, you knew you only had to best the landscape better than your prey.
Out here, it was him and them. Of all the obstacles he had overcome in the past just to get a meal, the most elementary challenge continued to elude him: Running in a straight line.
He just couldn't keep up. It was downright embarrassing to watch and he thought he saw the zebras laughing at him, but couldn't tell for sure. They were too far away and would bolt if he tried to get closer.
He sat in the dirt and the grass and panted.
He just needed a different strategy... But therein lied the problem. Only him, them, and flat land. There was nowhere to corner them and nothing to use for a trap.
Dastell shook his head and pawed at his itchy, filthy face. The sun was setting just behind him. No one ever told him hunting at night yielded better results here. Where he was from, this was not the cause.
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 6:04 pm
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Hunting methods different depending on the pride that an individual heralded from. Dastell may have been finding this out for himself now, but no truer words had been spoken for the pale lioness either. Hailing from the Bahari'mtoto, this particular lioness had only known how to hunt in the ocean for quite some time. Had circumstances been different, and had she chosen another career path, then this may have never changed for her. However, as fate would have it her mother had been insistent that she learn how to hunt on land.
Why, you might ask?
The story was a rather simple one really! As a Hlare the young lioness had managed to persuade the pride leader to allow her to explore the roguelands in search of new herbs. Alas, the roguelands were lacking in large expanses of water and as such, her traditional hunting lessons were useless. Survival would be paramount and as such, the pride leader had been quick to accept Zephyranthes' mother's request and had placed her under the tutelage of a former rogue. Suffice to say that she hadn't been horrible, but she hadn't been the best either - to this day, she was not great with large prey.
Nevertheless she had managed so far and she had been enjoying her time in the roguelands. She had met many individuals, uncovered many herbs (though most had useless properties) and she had seen far more than she ever would have imagined. Truth be told she hadn't realised how naive she was to the world until she had been given leave to explore and it was only now that she understood what the rogue-born members had meant.
This day had been no exception for adventure, she had certainly found some and this was rather evident. With her curly fur matted and otherwise covered in dirt, she looked ever so slightly bedraggled. All things considered this wasn't entirely inaccurate given she had just crawled through a number of bushes... However, while she had been seeking further points of interest she hadn't anticipated what she stumbled upon:
- One large lion
- An unusual hunting attempt
She would have bet her pretty little hide that his prey had been laughing as it escaped. It was more comedic than drama bound and she couldn't help herself. Before the lioness could even stop it, her mouth opened and introduced her in the most rude of fashions.
"You're doing that wrong, you know..." |
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 6:32 pm
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By way of majority rule, Dastell came from a rude family. He had not one, but two sisters who were downright obnoxious, and found most of the others varying shades insufferable. He wasn't taken aback by the stranger's brazen commentary. What got him was the obviousness of it all.
Did you know the sky is blue?
Criticism had never bullied Dastell into submission before and he wasn't about to let it now. The hunger pangs and parched throat made it harder to shallow, though. "I think," he drawled, "you might be right."
In his case, half of his so-called smarts were patience in disguise. He held back and watched his more brash siblings. As they learned through trial and error, he learned through them. A sort of what-not-to-do lesson they never knew they were teaching.
It had been a while since he had a need to default to that tried and true method, but maybe... "What's the right way? Let's see it."
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 3:26 am
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Evidently Dastell lacked in as many manners as Zephyr did, by comparison he probably lacked in more based on his overall gruff demeanour. Nevertheless, Zephyr assumed that this nature was partially down to the fact he looked a mess and he may have had a very long day. If it was a day filled with failed attempts then she really couldn't blame him for his behaviour, she probably would have been relatively bratty too if things weren't going the way she had planned them!
"Well, it depends on what you want to eat," she pointed out slowly, closing the gap between them. She then took a seat a few feet away and lifted a paw to motion towards the herds silhouetted on the horizon. The prospective prey wasn't far away, but in the open expanse with a coat like her's and a coat like his, the success rate would plummet if they attempted to pursue them - pretty and attractive as a bright coat might have been, it did have its issues.
"If you're looking for something out here you'll have to wait until it's dark," she continued, setting her paw down and toying with her tail. To this day the lioness still tried to hunt by water, small prey and fish were much more manageable. "And even then you would need a partner to cut them off since they've got..." she trailed off and glanced around her immediate vicinity, as if to indicate there were no corners to trap something in.
"Everywhere, to run," she finished. She let this sink in for a few moments and then a warm smile flickered on to her lips. "Alternatively you can try to find a large water source like a river and find some fish or water voles!"
"Although you might need a pile of each given how big you are..." she mused softly. "Shame we weren't near the beach, the fish are way bigger." |
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Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 3:35 pm
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If Dastell followed prey as well as his eyes followed her, he'd not only have dinner, he'd probably be obese. He tracked her steps, then her line of sight when she pointed to the faraway herd; then, followed her suggestive gestures and took real time to appreciate how there were no traps, no corners to back things into, no anything.
Oh, wait, he'd already done that last one. All day.
Wait until it gets dark...
Dastell pinned his ears back. How had he let himself over complicate this so much that solution hadn't hit him in the face? It was tempting to have his paw do so instead, but he restrained himself. No point in looking even more like an idiot and -- wait a minute.
The natives Dastell had met -- peculiar to call a rogue a native, but technically they were to the Rogue Lands -- okay, losing focus. Ahem. The native rogues Dastell had met had never spared a thought to hunting his way. The methods were foreign to them, often unheard of. How was it she was familiar with the concept?
"Alternatively you can try to find a large water source like a river and find some fish or water voles!"
Fish? Water what?
"Although you might need a pile of each given how big you are..."
"I'm not where I come from," he told her, and wasn't really sure why. It was true that his Mistweaver grandparents on his father's side, his rogue-born mother, and the large litter in which he'd been born had made him a lion seen as scrawny when lined up with the other Aali. He just didn't know why there was an impulse to let a stranger in on such pointless information. Starved for conversation as much as food, maybe.
"You're not a rogue, are you?" |
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Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:43 am
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She had been strongly advised not to draw attention to herself out here. Without an escort she was liable to be more vulnerable than usual. However, Zephyr's mouth often ran faster than her brain could keep up with. With his suspicions raised she could only let out a somewhat guilty laugh and shake her head - suffice to say she was the honest sort and really,why should she bother lying? She didn't come from here and if the hunting hadn't given it away then something else probably would have!
"No," she conceded and turned in a circle briefly to gather her wits about her. When she had worked out roughly which direction her home was in she promptly pointed with her paw. "I come from the coastal regions," she continued and turned back to peer at Dastell, her head tilting to one side and her lips pursing briefly in thought. "We don't have big game on land out there, it's all in the water, but it's a nice place," she explained.
"S'probably why I'm not all that great with catching the big things out here," she waved her paw dismissively and cast a brief peek towards the prey in the distance. "You'd be perfect though, you'd just have to sit on them and they'd cry out for mercy," she remarked with a teasing smile. "Although based on current success rate, this would probably be after da -"
It was here that she froze, stared at him for a long time and then allowed her lips to part in a silent 'o'.
"Or we could paint you the same colour as your surroundings...?" |
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:23 am
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The way Dastell conserved energy had always led to accusations of being lethargic. He tended to hold off, wait until something really got his interest and then launch full force at it. Watching someone like Zephyr, whose movement played an active role in her conversations, was exhausting in a sense. He'd been stilled by their interaction, save his ears and eyes. The latter gazed in the direction she'd indicated and he began to piece together what he knew of the world in terms of geography.
A nice place. . . Right.
Dastell all but cringed when his paws touched the water. Why anyone would want to claim large bodies of it as their home -- they were lions, for goodness sake. It was plain weird.
"You'd be perfect though, you'd just have to sit on them and they'd cry out for mercy."
It was an interesting experience to be taunted by someone so peculiar. Dastell took her remarks in stride, though couldn't offer any as compensation for her efforts. He had never been the type to engage in banter. The few times he did try, it came out more awkward -- if not unintentionally insulting -- than playful.
"Or we could paint you the same colour as your surroundings...?"
Paint. He knew that word. Where had he heard it?
Dastell must have looked intensely bewildered trying to rack his brain for the definition. All he could recall was the words of a bard he'd met. Something about the sea and sky being painted the same color by the Gods so that "both could be as much adored as their brother".
Paint, he reasoned, meant to turn something a certain color.
"That's not a bad idea..." Dastell's voice trailed off and he looked left, right.
Suddenly, he started to dig, and within seconds, he was rolling in the dirt. |
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:41 am
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Well, she'd certainly give him bonus points for enthusiasm and effort, even if his conversational capabilities were dire. The lioness watched in amusement as Dastell took to rolling in mud like a duck to water. As a more primp and clean individual herself, she'd always preferred to wait until night time, or simply to construct little traps and labyrinths to chase her small prey into. She came from a pride that thrived on such things, so it wouldn't have been a foreign concept to her... although she could guarantee that living in the mountains would have confused her.
"You must be really hungry," she observed, her lips parting briefly as the lion went from bright blue, to a dull and grimey off-brown. Suffice to say that he was not the most attractive of lions in the world right now, but he hadn't been all that attractive earlier either. The roguelands hadn't been kind to Dastell and even Zephyr in her still naive mindset could see this - she hadn't been out here long herself, but she knew when someone was only just starting out.
"Why didn't you just stay in your homelands if you find it difficult to survive out here?" she murmured, tilting her head to the side and dipping her paw into the mud that he was beginning to produce with his digging. It wasn't as soggy as the stuff had home, but it was ply enough to be able to place it against his cheeks. She'd have his face painted like the rest of him in no time! Well, provided he didn't bite her paw off for breaching his personal space.
"It seems like an unnecessary amount of trouble to put yourself through." |
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 11:45 am
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She supposed he had provided as good a reason as any for leaving his home. She was still naive in that respect and when it came to spotting a liar, she had never been very good at it. Eventually she would learn to recognise them (at least a little), but as it wasn't imperative that she spot his lie, she remained oblivious. Instead, she provided him with a loose and otherwise relaxed shrug as she continued to paint his face, pausing every now and then to admire her handiwork - suffice to say that his face looked darker than the rest of him right now.
"My pride was wiped out by a tsunami," she replied at last, though her tone didn't seem to betray any sadness. "We suffered a great many losses, family members, mates, cubs," she continued and smudged the mud deeper into his fur. "We're recovering slowly and we're rebuilding, but for that we need supplies. We have lions in search of boulders for barriers, new foods, new everything," she explained and offered a wry smile.
"I'm a Hlare, a medicine maker," she set her paw down and gave a curt nod, satisfied that he was dark enough to blend in. "I wanted to make sure that we had sufficient supplies of exotic herbs as well as common herbs to combat illness, so our leader gave me permission to explore for a while."
"Not so much an excuse as a 'I have a job to do' kinda thing, you know?" she fell silent for an instant and then motioned towards the prey on the horizon. "I'd say you're dark enough to give the art of daylight hunting another shot." |
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:13 pm
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Of course her pride had been wiped out by a tsunami. Why wouldn't that be the case? Mountains bless that Dastell waited to roll his eyes until he turned from her and to the horizon, so that she couldn't see and misinterpret it. As if there was any other way to take it than insulting.
This wasn't him mocking her hardships, though. This was his equivalent of a modern day middle finger to life. Take out his pride with a plague, take out hers with a tsunami. Because fate figured, hey, why not?
Dastell channeled grief this way, with sarcastic snipes at invisible, intangible targets; with bitterness that he could convince himself was him being a b*****d and not a self-defense mechanism to cope. He was apathetic, not depressed. There was a difference.
Really, he was.
Dastell frowned.
She was right he probably could hunt now. It was just...
"Forget it," he said carelessly. "Come over here, I might have something for you."
And off in the exact opposite direction of the herd Dastell went. |
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:20 pm
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Fire and Ice, that was the only way she could have put it if she had seen his expression. If she could even begin to grasp his thought processes it would have only served to reinforce her views. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but she was growing accustomed to the darker and more cynical lions that seemed to exist in the roguelands. They were bitter, more curt and very little optimism seemed to exist... in order to survive, it was almost as if you had to lose the softness and warmth that you possessed.
She may not have known Dastell at all, but his gruff and abrupt nature were enough to reinforce her view on these particular lands. Lions came here when they were angry, when things didn't go their way... It was just as well she was only passing through, as she had no wish to ever give in to a darker nature.
"But wait, you're going the wrong -" she glanced back briefly towards the prey, then quickly bounded after him, the word 'way' lost on the gentle gust of warm wind that swept passed her. She had already concluded it was better not to make him wait, he might have a temper and she had never been a fighter!
"For me? I'm gonna level with you, if it's mud I'd like to give it a miss," she confessed and shook her head. "There's a reason I live by the water, not a big fan of the dirt!" |
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:40 pm
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"Water is what makes mud, so you might want to reevaluate your life," Dastell put in. His voice was as usual: hollow, but there was a humor to be found in it if one were the type to look for the best in things. Perhaps this Hlare was the only one he'd met so far that could decode it. He didn't wait for her to do so, as his follow-up fired off too quick.
"It's not mud, Hlare," he assured her dryly. "It's not far, either."
He pawed at his face as they walked, ridding it of the layers of his oh-so-clever disguise she'd so sedulously applied, all for naught. The potential rudeness of it was lost on him, but it wouldn't have changed his actions. He'd have only hoped his guidance would be thanks enough to make up for it.
Dastell was awful with surprises. He couldn't stand getting them and he was bad at arranging them. "There's a field of strange plants near here. I slept in some of them. You might be able to use them." |
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:48 pm
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Check.
She was momentarily lost for words as he pointed out the flaw in her statement and then she began to laugh. So he had a penchant for the blunt, she'd already gotten used to the gruff nature of those in these lands. Nevertheless, it was the first time she had expressed an appreciation for the point that one of these individuals had made. True enough, mud was born of water and soil, and since she hadn't given any clarification he had tripped her up. Suffice to say that in a duel of words, the male had won.
"All right, you got me there," she admitted as she padded after him, lifting a brow as he began to wipe away her handiwork. "Seriously?" she asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "If I'd known I wasn't painting your face for a genuine purpose I would have just turned you into a monkey," she remarked and shook her head. "At least then I could have appreciated my own artistic genius," she finished.
"But in regards to your understanding of mud... You can also make use of the water to get it back off again," she was very rarely quiet, at least not since she had embarked on her journey. Still, her ears did perk appreciatively at the prospect of seeing these new plants and if they were of any use...
"Ooooh if they're of any use I'll owe you a swordfish," she cooed warmly. |
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:02 pm
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"Keep it," Dastell insisted. He neither wanted lions to "owe" him or possession of whatever a swordfish was (aside from the obvious). She was strange with her choice of bartering commodities -- and everything else, frankly. Reminded him a lot of Korini when she got irritated. The sister that upfront was the sweetest, but had a mouth on her and loved to exercise it. He could almost hear an echo of her a few seconds ago.
Seriously?
Dastell snorted, smirked despite himself.
Seriously, Dastell?
Yes, just about an echo.
"I hope none of them are poisonous," he said offhandedly when they reached the halfway point to their destination. He failed to mention he hoped so because he'd been hungry enough to eat some of them. Since he wasn't dead yet, odds were looking in his favor. "Dangerous out here. You should have brought a brother or your father, Hlare."
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