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 Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2012 8:07 pm
Gods don't need to follow the patterns of the herds, so they keep whatever schedules they want. That's why I'm up.
What a bunch of bullshit.
Like those stars speckling a dark, endless sky. You'd think I was out here to do something romantic. Blech. Also a bunch of bullshit. She's smart enough to know I'd dump her on her small a** the second it became necessary.
The air smells like fresh rain tonight. It must have poured somewhere down the valley, because the grass is dry here. Wind's from the southwest. That usually means a dry summer. That funny red pelted pride won't be happy about that kind of news.
Veri better not be spoiling my children. Jesus -- Roka I thought you'd laid down closer than this. I didn't want to walk this far. It's cold, you frigid b***h. Your face better be worth it later.
Could you have picked a worse spot to lay down? This rock is freezing. Your body isn't, though. Smart enough to have your back to the wind. I'll cover that side for you -- but you owe me later.
Sleep for a few more minutes, you stupid lioness. I'll wake you up soon enough. That won't be the way it works, though, no. You'll freak out, I'm sure. Such a mortal.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2012 8:45 pm
I suppose a lot of lionesses would wake up slowly; take a moment to realize they aren't still cubs cuddled up against their mother. Not me.
Mind you, it's outlandish and simply not true for me to say I've never slept side-by-side with anyone. My twin sisters liked to make me lay in the middle as cubs. They'd inform my father and our brother who was on which side so they'd know come morning light. The Avas did whatever they could to maintain their individuality.
Anyway... It's been a long time since that happened. I don't remember exactly when I put a stop to it, but I was young enough to not be set in my ways yet. My mind figures out fast this extra body heat at my side is not normal and it jolts me awake.
Odd, I know, to somehow have to catch up with your own mind. It's always been that way for me.
My eyes open, fast. I scramble to the side, fast. Everything must look comical to her. I wonder if Gods have the same kind of instincts when they face down threats half asleep?
"You have got to be kidding me!" I could be more composed about my outage, I admit, but she's just so -- so --- Who honestly does things like this?! Creeps up on you in the middle of the night and invades your personal space?!
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2012 8:55 pm
Well, that's a perfectly normal response. For a mortal.
A shame though, I just laid down. Now I'll have to get up again.
I don't think she knows how much stronger she seems when she reacts. Her breath is heavy, eyes dilated, and she has some real emotion to latch onto. The pensive thing she tries to pull off is so boring.
She's better this way.
There's a shift in the wind. The grass smells a bit more rotten. Hard not to wrinkle your nose in response - maybe she thinks I'm wrinkling my nose at her.
"Oh good, you're up." Sarcasm is an art I've perfected. Only, this isn't sacrasm, not really.
"I want to know what you think of something."
It was probably a bad idea. I won't feel very good if she dies, but curiousity kills Gods, too. And with how curious Roka was, she should have been dead already. I'd like to think she's got ten-thousand lives.
It's a nice thought. Roka doesn't think I have nice thoughts.
I smile at her for good effect.
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 7:23 am
The frigid weather is easy to cope with when you're sleeping. Now, it's biting at my nose and ears; I feel like my toes are freezing to the ground. Perhaps I'll go to the Pridelands one day and live out my days with the masses. I've heard even a rock I'd sleep on would be covered with lush verdure there.
I'm the patient sort, so I can wait to visit those lands, just as I can wait for her to finish her new favorite hobby, annoying me, and move on. The Gods have too much time on their paws, I think. Forever is a long while.
What's she wrinkling her nose at? Hmph.
"Yes, thanks to you," I tell her curtly.
I am best at two things: being smart and being opinionated. Therefore, I am at a crossroads. The smart thing to do is to go. The opinionated thing to do is to stay.
I try not to sound too curious about it. I don't want to feed into her... well, being her. "What is it?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 2:12 pm
Ugh. That smells a whole ******** of a lot stronger. Its far worse than rotting meat. There's really no way to describe that smell other than what it is, but Roka probably doesn't have a word for it.
The winds are staying now. I forget if mortals smell better or worse than gods. Like most things, I assume probably worse if only because most have smaller noses.
"You're supposed to tell me what it is."
I stare back at her, trying to read that expression. She asked, so she's trying to find out if what I have is interesting enough for her to see. Whether she's willing to travel with me. Since Roka's clearly interested, I give her the most boring answer possible.
"It's kind of a lake."
Not really a lake. Not any lake I'd drink from, anyway.
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 3:34 pm
Kind of a lake? How is something "kind of a lake"?
"It's either a lake or it's not," I say, and I can hear the suspicion in my own voice. It feels like I'm talking to one of my sisters who are scheming to make me a victim of some prank.
Like with them, I keep my expression neutral as I can. You never want to let these types know what you're really thinking.
"Where is it?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 7:47 pm
"Up," I tell her. "Down." I grin. That one was mean, just for her confusion, and the look on her face. I love that look. The one that means she's thinking, and the one that means she's a little bit perturbed.
Really, it's straight across, but it's impossible to make it there by going through the hillside. "Up, then down," I correct for her.
"We're close. You can smell it."
Maybe it's hard for her. Roka's got her back to it. The wind isn't as strong as it usually is. Last time I was here, it was so thick you couldn't breath. A lion's heart gave out.
You don't see that very often.
"Coming?" I make my voice as teasing and childish as I possibly can. I get the feeling she doesn't like turning down a challenge - must be a sister influence. I make sure to get as close to her as possible when I go by. Just to squick her, and also because I like it. A lot.
She smells good. Unlike the air.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 4:25 pm
Uuni reminds me of both my sisters put together. One of them has never been comfortable with the fact I'm smarter and the other uses I dare you tactics to get her way. The latter Uuni has met, so I wonder if they've been scheming how to annoy me behind my back.
I decide I'm not going to enable her puerile behavior by feeding into it. Just ignore it. That's the best way to put her in her place.
We strongly disagree on where "her place" is. It's not this close to me.
I stare at her, give her "the stink eye" as Ava calls it, and put some distance between us. Not too much, but enough.
"You're not taking me to a graveyard, are you?" It doesn't smell like decay, but I don't know what else smells like this.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 11:34 am
That comment rewards her with a laugh. "No." Though, I don't blame her. It does seem like the morbid sort of humor a goddess of blood should have.
"Though it might become one, if you aren't careful." I don't add, 'if I'm not careful'. I've only been here twice. Twice, in an entire lifetime. There's not much draw to a sulfur-smelling, flesh burning pile of rock. Some of the mortals, though, they revere it. There's a god out there somewhere, dedicated to these things.
But most lions don't have a word for volcano, don't even know what it is. This will be my third time staring at it. Even I don't really know what it is. I'm inclined to agree with the mortals on this one.
So I'm curious, with all her wit and all her intelligence, what Roka is going to think of the crusty pool of fire. The wind shifts again, blowing most of the stench from us. That's good; it will keep the heat from us, too.
The climb isn't really what I wanted to do tonight. Exercise is probably good for gods, too. Its a wonder we're alive at all, with how much teleporting we all do. I suppose when you feed on beliefs and misery, you don't need to walk up hills every day. Still, I can't tell if it's the sulfur or a lack of power in my lungs that's making me breathe so hard.
"The earth likes to crumble here," I warn her. It's her choice what she does with the information. I'm not going to outright tell her to be careful.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 4:42 pm
The air here isn't right. Instead of breathing it, you choke on it. I'm wondering if I just let myself get baited into a trap. Is she me bringing out here to kill me as part of some ritual? Taking me somewhere to be enslaved? Do any of the other things my mother warned me of?
The climb is humbling. I haven't spent much time on rocky terrain, and it shows. I breathe in through my nose, out through my mouth slowly. I might gag, but I won't pant if I can help it.
"The earth likes to crumble here."
Comforting.
I watch the ground rather than ahead of me from then on out. Until the only thing in front of me is a drop, and down is suddenly a long way. What's there I can't put into words, as I don't know the right ones. It must have a name. She probably knows.
It's fire on the ground as if it were water.
"A lake of fire," I say in wonder.
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 5:04 pm
"Sort of," I answer.
I have a hard time believing its fire. Not because it doesn't look, or feel like fire, but because it doesn't smell like it's burning. Its smoke, if you can call it that, smells more like dead bodies and rotten plants than it does fire.
To be truthful, I don't like the name they give it. It doesn't mean anything. It has no expression, and it doesn't sound dangerous enough. The word almost sounds fun. That drop, and that smell, they definitely don't lead to fun.
"What do you think it is?"
And if one of those mortal's invented it, in their strange brain, and invented the god to manage it, what other bizarre things are they coming up with? Water that parches your throat instead of cleansing it? Air that you can't breathe? Air that you can swim through? Though I suppose that's quite a bit like flying.
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 2:46 pm
What do I think it is? Didn't I just say --
Calm down, Roka, I tell myself. She's obviously playing some kind of game with me. That in mind, I have a second look at this mess. But it just looks like it did the first time: a lake of fire. What else can I compare it to?
There's two things I hate to say more than anything in the world, and I'm forced to say both now.
"I don't know. What do you think?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:07 pm
So logical.
I don't meet many mortals who don't simply invent something they don't have an answer for. They are always guessing, even when they know they're wrong. Here Roka is, admitting she does not know, and then asking. Not even pretending she doesn't know.
Maybe I can respect that.
"Eh," I grunt, as if I don't really care.
And, I don't really. It's a big mess of ooze that turns sharp enough to shred paws when it cools. Eventually, it becomes no more than a rock. It comes from somewhere in the earth, it burns, but it doesn't smell of fire. What are you supposed to make of that?
"A thought." The mortals have some interesting ideas, so I expand on that. Hell, they might be right, I don't know. "Heard it said it's a living beast angry with her sister." There's no beast I know of greater than a god. It doesn't think, doesn't feel. It has no motivation, you can't talk to it. "Maybe a lot of thoughts. Angry ones, amoral ones, plucked from animals as they die. It smells like rotting souls."
I laugh. What a load of crap. It sounds even worse out of my mouth.
"I haven't a ******** clue."
I don't admit that I was hoping she'd know. I suppose I may as well have asked her to explain a tree. Or why lions can grow something in their bodies, birth it, and watch it grow. I suppose a lake of fire isn't really that unique after all.
But I'm still disappointed. I really don't like that lake of fire. I get the feeling it doesn't like me, either.
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:25 pm
I might not know all the religions there are to know, especially since I hear of a new one what feels like every few days, but you have to live under a rock to not be aware of them. My mother told me what the Firekin believe. My father told me of his own pride and their customs. From my sister I have been recited the things she's learned. None, so far, have been so ridiculous as this.
"It's no beast," I say, sounding on the superior side. I am. Superior, that is, to any lion that would believe that nonsense. "I don't know what it is, but I know it's not that. Have you gotten closer?"
I lean forward like I'm tempted to try myself. The only thing holding me back is I'm smarter than I am curious.
Probably.
I did follow her out here.
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:26 pm
I don't panic often. I don't panic at all.
Sometimes, because I don't care. Other times, because it's simply easier not to. I will get worried, everyone is afraid, and my brain is smart enough to keep me out of the worst of things. But I don't panic.
So it's a really weird feeling, to see her leaning and then to realize I've reacted.
Not in an amused way, or a brief roll of my eyes. No, she actually got my feet moving. So much so, that I've pushed my shoulder into her chest in hopes of pushing her backwards. Anywhere but towards that awful smell, that thing that gets testy and simply levels everything in its path. Not even gods have that power.
The rock beneath my feet isn't stable, and I'm not used to it, so they slip off as I scramble back up and to the other side of her. I decide the mortal form isn't safe. I can't fly as a mortal, so I take on the form that I can fly in, horns and all.
My heart is pounding. I don't like it.
I swallow. I let my own children kill themselves over curiousity and knowledge. That's what I do - I give people information, let them make their own choices. I'm not letting Roka. I ignore the implications of it, like usual. I don't like getting attached, let alone to mortals.
"How about we forget about the volcano and do something else?" It won't cover up my actions, but my face is already back to its usual state. I'm ready to move on. This was a bad idea.
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