Welcome to Gaia! ::

This pride. Was. AMAZING.

Rosvo never wanted to live anywhere else ever in his life. It was full of warriors with heroic histories, and one of them was going to let the young hyena help him become famous. Ro had hoped that it would be Captain Hroarr, and then Captain Ru, but now he was spoiled for choice and he couldn't even begin to choose which of the lions would be lucky enough to have him as a thrall who would help him make history. Or her! Ro had been brought up by strong females, after all, and he knew well that women could make history, too.

He was busy standing still and staring at all the lions around him when he met a potential recipient for his companionship and glory-garnering assistance. The lion actually ran into him, but it was probably Ro's fault. He had been just standing there, after all. He was totally in the way.

"Sorry! Sorrysorrysorry. Can I help you?"

"You could watch where you're going," he told the hyena, even though he had been the one who hadn't been looking.

Sandur had not failed to notice that there were more hyenas around the pride now that Ru had returned from his viking, but he had not given it a great deal of thought. They were thralls, of course, and although his own mother was a thrall, theirs was an interesting and confusing family. Suffice it to say, Mopani'lo was not treated like a thrall and Sandur did not think of her as one.

He didn't really think of thralls at all, in truth, except when he ran into one of them physically. He was fit enough that he could do most things for himself, and had no need of a personal thrall. Not to mention, those had to be kept and cared for, and since Sandur didn't exactly go viking or do anything else to contribute to the pride, keeping the thrall would be needlessly taxing for him.

Ros immediately began to revise his opinion of the lion he'd just met. He still had potential for greatness, of course. All lions had that potential in them. But Ros had really expected a more warlike and aggressive reaction. Not that he wanted to be hit or anything, but who did? He just wasn't terribly impressed with a freeborn whose only reaction to having a thrall in his way was to suggest the thrall watch where he was going.

Nevertheless, Ros was pleasant and upbeat, because you never knew who was going to make you famous. "Oh, yeah. I can totally do that."

He pranced in place for a very short time, accidentally-on-purpose preventing the lion from moving on while he introduced himself and asked, "What's your name? Are you a reaver? Have you killed a lot of people? Do you think you're going to be famous?"

It came out as something of a jumble, however, since Ros was speaking much too quickly.

Sandur frowned, having absolutely no idea what was being asked of him. The Miz hadn't really been around much when he was growing up, so he wasn't used to the potential for hyperkinesis that hyenas possessed. He felt a bit overwhelmed and instinctively looked around for something to use to distract his interlocutor. He was pretty accomplished when it came to distracting people, unfortunately, the unnerving focus the hyena had on him made it nearly impossible for Sandur to come up with anything, so he was forced to try to answer the thrall's questions instead.

"Sander, no, no, and probably not?" He couldn't remember the name they hyena had given him. It had all happened too fast.

This was why Sandur liked his studies. They were unhurried and quiet and he didn't feel all this pressure to provide the correct answers to thralls, for goodness sake.

"Huh." Well, that was disappointing. Ros further adjusted his opinion of the lion in light of this new information. So far he was not particularly impressed by this Sandur character.

"Well, if you're new to the pride, you should really think about becoming a reaver. They get a lot more respect around here, you know." He was genuinely trying to be helpful. "Basically all you have to do is find a captain who will take you viking and once you go, as long as you don't completely embarrass yourself, you'll be considered a reaver. Plus you can keep the loot you help bring back. Well, sometimes. Depending on how the captain runs his band. All of the captains are different, you know."

He nodded, doing his very best to convey that the best thing Sandur could do for himself would be to become a reaver as quickly as possible. Freeborn was good, too, but not like being a reaver. Rosvo had never heard of a glorious freeborn, after all.

Sandur stared hard at the hyena. He was basically the same size and shape as the Miz, so he was evidently an adult, but his thoughts seemed as scattered as a cub's might be. He didn't really know what to make of him, but he did wish Rosvo would leave him be.

"I know all about that," Sandur said. "I was born in the pride and raised here, and my family has a long history."

It wasn't a particularly distinguished history, thanks to his uncle-and-grandfather Taraxa, but it was long, and definitely colorful. It also made it regrettably difficult for Sandur or his family to do anything that didn't meet with general disapproval. Even hyena thralls disapproved of him, apparently.

"I don't have any interest in being a reaver though. I prefer other occupations." Why was he even discussing this?

Ros slanted a suspicious glance at the brown lion. He knew all these things and he simply didn't want to be a reaver? That was practically blasphemous or sacrilegious or something, at least in Rosvo's squirrely brain. Ros would have done anything to be allowed to be a reaver and win glory for the family and the pride. Anything.

"What could possibly be better than being a reaver?" he scoffed. "Reavers win all the glory, and have all the fun. Everyone else is just...I don't know. Support staff."

There were crafters who turned the reavers' treasures into art or useful things, and healers to patch them up when they were wounded, and thralls to bring the reavers their breakfasts and keep their dens tidy, and freeborn to bear the reavers' cubs, and lawspeakers to tell the reavers' stories and priestesses to bless the reavers in their endeavors. Everything was about the reavers. Ros couldn't imagine wanting to be anything else.

Support staff was hardly a flattering way to describe the majority of the pride, in Sandur's opinion, and he frowned at the thrall. He might have explained to him exactly how wrong he was, but the thrall's opinion about non-reavers gave him the opportunity to do as he should have done when he first ran into the hyena, and send him on his way.

"That was an inappropriate thing to have said, thrall, and I am angry. You should leave now, and go about your business before I do something you won't like." Sandur had never struck a thrall in anger before, or for any other reason, but he was pretty certain he could manage it in this instance. The hyena was rude and annoying.

"You have no right to question a freeborn on his choice of occupation, thrall. As the title implies, I am a free lion and I may do as I wish. Now, leave me."

After the life he'd led, Ros could recognize a dismissal when he heard one, and although this one was not issued with a great deal of authority, he got the feeling that he probably should be going. Not because he thought the lion was going to do something to him. Sandur didn't look or sound very angry, to be frank, and since he wasn't a reaver, Ros couldn't convince himself to be properly concerned about his anger anyway. Mostly it was because Sandur was boring.

"All right," he agreed. "This is me leaving. Right now. This very, very minute."

He made the most cursory of obeisances and scuttled off to find his mother to tell her about the crazy lion he met who could have been a reaver and simply didn't want to. He was sure Tatit would share his horror at such a lion. So would their owner, Gabe, most likely, although she was all moon-eyed over one of the reavers that Captain Ru had led on his quest.

Sandur breathed a sigh of relief when his posturing paid off and the hyena skittered away. It wasn't as if he hadn't been grilled about his life choices in the past, but it was somehow easier to bear that sort of scrutiny and veiled criticism from other lions than from thrall creatures. He wondered if, perhaps, the thrall had been sent by someone especially to make him feel uncomfortable.

He would have to have a word with his moms about it at some point in the future, but not right away. It was high tide, and he liked to be on the beach at high tide so he could watch it go out and pick up treasures the receding waves deposited on the sands. The hyena had mentioned the treasures a reaver might win, but Sandur put his value in the treasures of the sea.

Maybe he would even see one of those whale-monsters Ru's band had talked about. Anything was possible! So he put the silly hyena from his mind for the time being and went to inspect the beach.