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 Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 2:57 pm
Nolaka reached out a paw and pushed a small pebble a few feet. The rock was unusually blue compared to the surrounding red and ochre rock, the yellow sand, or the muddy brown of wet creek ends. It was striped and so smooth that Nolaka had kept putting a paw on it to reaffirm it was real.
The young cub did not waste much thought on where her brother may have obtained such a pebble. Ukhozi brought home all sorts of worthless things. There was no end to them, and Nolaka would stumble over them at night and bruise her fragile toes.
Everyone was better without Ukhozi's junk. The face she imagined him having when an item from it was missing was also quite priceless.
A tingle of excitement worked up her spine. The cub looked back over her shoulder. The thorny bush she'd hid behind still shrouded her.
Nolaka returned to her work and her small claws unsheathed. Without a second thought, the small cub began to dig. The ground was still relatively soft from the rain and moved easily under her hurried pawstrokes.
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Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 8:35 am
Perhaps he had thrown it atop the pile of gray pebbles gathered a week ago. But... having checked there once already, the cub wasn't entirely convinced to give it a second look. The shape of the object escaped him, but what wouldn't was its odd color. For that, it would have surely stood out. So, maybe it had been buried beneath the rotting collection of insects he kept hidden in the shrubbery, which seemed a likely scenario as those were the last he had sat beside and sifted through. Yes. He would look into those immediately.
Ukhozi was a good cub. He was kind to his siblings, favored his sisters, loved his mother, and helped when he could. None were without their personal faults, Ukhozi being no exception to that, but all in all their mother had little to complain about when it came to her pale son. Except, perhaps, that was lighter than some of his siblings... and that he kind of had a knack for bringing home junk.
It was a habit developed early on, around the time when his mother first introduced them to the rest of the pride. Ukhozi was a hoarder, down to the very bones he walked with. What he saw and liked became objects he couldn't leave behind. It was a primal need, no? Where one often had to possess what it was they favored, whether it be in the form of a pride female or, in his case, a vulture feather... In truth he knew hoarding objects had no reasonable value, to himself nor his pride. Insects wouldn't help them in their hunts, tiny bits of pelt remains wouldn't keep them safe at night... it was purely entertainment. Entertainment for himself. By having these collections, he felt that sense of 'ownership' which his pride did not possess individually. Ukhozi wouldn't keep a meal from his family, but these objects of his...
Distracted by his mission at hand, the cub completely overlooked Nolaka's lack of company within the general gathering of the pride. Even if he had noticed it, the only interest it might have sparked would have been who she had decided to bother this time. While he knew better than to put it past Nolaka, that his search might have ended by simply finding her, Ukhozi did not make it a habit to accuse anyone before the facts were all known. This was particularly true of his sisters... even the biggest bully of them all.
Although she did make it hard for him to love.
He made haste to the plot beneath the shrubs, where his expired collection was beginning to take on a rather foul odor, and nosed the entire pile so that it toppled over. For several moments he shoveled through the remains, until certain that what he was after would not be found within it. Then, and only then, did he overhear the faintest of sounds just over his shoulder.
"Nolaka?" The cub inquired, filled with innocent curiosity and, for himself, a bit of worry. Ukhozi did his best to keep his collections out of sight as one too many toes (not only Nolaka's gosh) had been bruised by his interests. With his ears rotating forward atop his head, and his brow wrinkling ever so slightly, the cub took a step toward his sister, asking, "What are you doing?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:28 pm
Ukhozi's attention to detail provided him the evidence the cub was too good-mannered to seek out himself. All in innocence, the stench of insect carapace bloomed outward. The shrubs provided no protection against down going winds.
Nolaka, hole freshly made and rock nestled into the depression, reeled backwards and curled in on herself. Whether because she was a cub, or because she had forgotten for a moment that she should be discreet, Nolaka gagged out an unpleasant breath of foul-odor.
"Gyuck! Ugh." The cub's nose had wrinkled up against her face and she fought back the desire to wretch.
"Dying," she responded with perfect drama. Ever so similar to her mother at her age, though with far more paw to back up her outrageous insults.
As her brother neared, Nolaka was forced to squint. The noxious gases grew worse, stinging and watering her eyes. The blue rock remained, unphased and uncovered, in its perfectly crafted nest.
"Ugh, you smell terrible. What's wrong with you?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 7:53 pm
Ukhozi cautious of Nolaka, and chose to tread lightly on the ground walked nearest her.
She made him nervous outside the realm of family ties and sibling rivalries, a fact more noticeable when forced to be in her company completely on his own. Nolaka was perhaps a bit too smart, or a bit too clever... or both, and he often worried, like he would with their own mother, of what harshness (reprimand or otherwise) would come from her silver tongued mouth when faced with his oddities.
In the present moment the male seemed to carry a consistent, and genuine, look of curiosity that had yet to form into an inkling of suspicion. Still, an uncertainty of what he would find in the hole she dug, (because there could really be anything in there, wouldn't put it past Nolaka.) and in response to a subconscious fear that what he sought out for could very well be neatly set in its center, made it easier for Ukhozi to withdraw himself as Nolaka reeled.
"Dying?" He stammered at first, leaping in a start once his backpedaling landed his rear into some foliage. Her response disjointed his thoughts and rattled his brain, setting his focus off of the previous path to the Blue Stone and onto another.
"Smell... W-what do you mean?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 5:15 pm
Shia bean No u. Poor Ukhozi. I feel so bad for him.
A hissing sound came out of her throat and Nolaka made her best effort to roar at him. This came out as more of a squawk, bouncing off the back of her throat. To her, however, it sounded ferocious.
"You're foul," she repeated, though at this point she could have been talking about more than just his smell.
"What are you doing?" Nolaka stepped towards him, shaking her head. "Go find some water! Wash that off! Whatever it is, wash it off!"
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Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 6:15 am
Ukhozi winced. To a cub, a roar was a roar even if it cracked. "I stink? But..."
Perhaps she was right. The sweet aroma of Ukhozi's excavations were, at the very least, powerful, even for him. He was rather fond of the odor, but unfortunately not all of the things he liked were also enjoyed by his siblings. A frequent occurrence he would come to accept.
Nolaka's step forward forced the male to hunker down, and the shake of her head made him groan. The telltale sign of disappointment! Oh no! But because he did not scuttle away immediately from the site, his gaze was given a moments chance to shift from his sister to her filthy paws, and then to the hole which she was putting behind her.
And then it hit him. Just before he thought he might run for water. He actually remembered.
The stone.
"Hey... wait! What's that??"Kaelyndra AS YOU SHOULD. Damn you Nolaka and your adorableness. Cannot stay mad forever. Also sorry for double quote! TYPOS
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Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2014 9:09 am
Shia bean It's okay! Double quotes do not actually annoy me. I have to click the box anyway and then it becomes obvious.
At once, the cubs shouts came to a halt. The advance upon Ukhozi faltered, and the black and clay cub came to an abrupt still. Her tongue pressed into the roof of her mouth before her widened eyes narrowed.
"A stone," she countered with the haste and heightened voice that liars often possessed.
The fib seemed like an amazing idea and it barreled from her tongue like an avalanche let loose. "I found it," Nolaka continued despite not being prompted as to the stones originating location. She knew whose it really was, and Ukhozi had likely caught onto the fact, but she would chase her lie to the finish line.
The cub's head tilted slightly sideways and she squinted one eye at him. Just try me.
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Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:17 pm
'A stone'
The stone.
My stone.
Click.
Ukhozi rose from his place partially in the bush, straining to see past his sister. The fear that had been instilled in him before would at present be replaced by an even stronger sense of curiosity. Although the poor thing still felt no reason to openly accuse her of thievery, if what was in her hole actually his stone then he only wished to remedy the mistake.
When he finally found Nolaka's ice blue gaze it was met with a wrinkle of his brow. "Something in your eye?" He started, stepping toward her. Then, "Where'd you find the stone?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:59 pm
There was nothing in Nolaka's eye, and had the cub stopped to think about it, she might have realized that. Instead, she suddenly felt there must have been. She raised a paw to her nose, sweeping it over the eye she'd squinted.
However, the cub held her ground. When Ukhozi stepped forwards, Nolaka began to grow larger--her fur puffed out on either side of her as her ears went back.
"I just found it, okay?" she continued. "It's just a stone!"
The cubs mouth smacked together and her tail swished violently behind her. "I just found it. On the ground." The female cubs story was as weak as her plan to bury the stone had been, and it came forth in the repetition of her words as she lied.
"You can have it if you want it so bad!" But she absolutely, definitely, did not take it from Ukhozi's stash of things!
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 5:54 am
Ukhozi sidestepped out of the way when his sister showed no interest in moving for him. While the flair of her fur forced the cub to stall in his pursuit, it did not stifle his interests. He, too, would grow. Rising as high as one could manage stably on all toes required, which happened to be just enough to see past his sister's crown, Ukhozi strained just a bit longer to catch even a glimpse of her find.
After a moment of thought he flattened out on his pads again. "I found a pebble on the ground the other day." He replied matter-of-factly, his gaze falling upon her for a tick. It was less an accusation and more a confirmation of her statement. Even if it was, in fact, a lie, in their immediate area alone he could see dozens of stones ripe for the taking. His gut might have been holding on to a dying flame of doubt, but the honest brother in him (or maybe just a cubs innocence.) couldn't argue with the facts.
Nolaka's final offer took him off guard. Where he should have narrowed his eyes and pried a bit deeper, the male beamed. His tail swayed to and fro erratically, while the eagerness seeped into his tone.
"Really?!" His mouth hung open for a second before a hard swallow did away with the 'are you sure you don't want it?' and the 'I don't want to take your things away from you!' remarks that might have jeopardized his chances. It was a rare occasion to find Nolaka in such a giving mood, and whether the stone had originally been his, or was a new piece to add to his collection; he wanted it. And he wanted it badly.
"Thanks, Nolaka!" Without another moment to spare the male cub would push forward past his sister and make way for the freshly dug pocket in the Earth. The reflection of blue would catch his eye the closer he crept, until he hovered above it -- obviously speechless.
Kaelyndra Thank youuu! I figured you would want to wrap this up in the next post or two (?) but I gave you a little leg room in the event Nolaka decided not to be so nice. Lolol < 3 Thank you for the RPPPZZZ! We ought to do more with these two before Ukhozi has to leave.
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 9:29 pm
Shia bean I think this is an excellent spot to wrap. Hnngh. Your characters Shia, I love them all. *stuffs them into her pockets and flees* And yes, we ought to do a lot more. You may hit me up anytime. Nolaka would love to rub some dirt in Ukhozi's face when he leaves, so we should also do that when his time comes.
The cub's eyes stuck somewhere in a neutral place between widened with shock and narrowed with suspicion. They remained on Ukhozi while the male pushed forwards. It wasn't until he was almost on top of her that she began to move, and she did so quickly. Nolaka's small body twisted at the rib cage and she spun a circle as Ukhozi past.
Ukhozi stared speechless at the stone and Nolaka stared speechless at him.
"Well, you're welcome," she eventually managed. In the event, Nolaka had forgotten why she had stolen the pebble to begin with. And, even while watching him, she began to feel an annoying pressure on her skin. There was something wrong about how stupidly happy he was over a rock.
Sniffing in audibly, Nolaka turned and went to stalk better prey. Something that moved, hopefully. An object with the potential to fly would be best.
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