[CHAL #2] Tethys x Naima

[Epine de Rose]

She was following him, she knew she shouldn't have been based on the warnings he had given the first time...and hell, he had even warned her a second time. When she had stumbled across him the second time, out there, with his band... Instead of attacking her as he had warned, he had merely sighed in exasperation and told her to run as far away as her tiny little legs could carry her.

No ifs, no buts.

Just go.

She had originally done as she was told, she had remembered how painful the blows had been and he had gone easy on her. When she'd seen him the second time he had seemed different, more awake, more lucid... Whatever had been holding him back before wasn't there anymore so the damage would be far, far worse.

Alas, as she had wandered further away from the band of Vikings her mind had begun stuck. If they were really so bad, then why had she been shooed away? She had done her research, she had asked the passing rogues and preybeasts nearby about the region and they had only been negative - so... why? It was a question that she hadn't been able to shift and she had decided that she may have misjudged them, misread them even. She wanted to understand.

Thus she found herself following the band again, she maintained a proper distance and as they crossed into their lands once again she followed quietly behind. All she needed to do was get this attention, and this time, she knew how she was going to do it.

...She pounced.  

[Epine de Rose]

He had known when she changed her mind, in fact, he'd been more than aware of her for the entire duration of this particular venture. His Captain had also been aware, but bizarrely, had given Tethys leave to deal with it. How Tethys had quite managed to swing that one was still a mystery to even him, perhaps there had been something in what Tethys was saying when he indicated that something with that level of stubbornness (or was it stupidity?) might have something going for them.

Consequently, he allowed his band to gain a distance from him and agreed to meet with them shortly. He would catch up, he said, he just needed to swing by his sibling to ensure she and Nanabe were getting on and there hadn't been a war in the dens due to conflicting views or opinions.

This was, however, a lie.

No sooner had the lioness pounced upon him, paws pressing against his shoulder; than he had spun round and given such a violent shake that she had been thrown back off him. She would have been hit with such force that she was positively winded, and it was enough for him to fully express his fury in the given circumstances.

"Are you insane?" he snarled. "How much do you actually want to die?"  

[Epine de Rose]

She was hit, and by all that was holy did she feel it. Whatever might have handicapped him the first time was definitely long gone... She didn't even know something could shake that hard. She hadn't bounced this time, but she had slid a distance away and was recovering as he opened his maw to express his fury - this really should have come at no surprise to her, she had been warned after all... but it still made her flinch.

"I - I..." she took a breath and shook her head. "I don't want to die," she replied as she tapped her paws against the ground - confirming that she wasn't as badly dazed as before she bounded forward again. This seemed to be how they were expected to behave, perhaps if she managed to gain his respect then he might answer the questions that she sought. Perhaps if she demonstrated she was capable and not spineless, he might confirm what she suspected.

That they weren't evil or cruel.

Well not all of them.

Feinting to the left, she then swept round and leapt on to his back once more, this time attempting to dig her claws into his shoulders.

"I just had a few questions."  

[Epine de Rose]

Really?

"Oh for gods sake!" Before she had the time to settle his claws were already on her and she was thrown off again, this time it was less ferocity, but the point remained clear. Why had she chosen to step foot onto soil that she knew was dangerous, he had warned her twice now and she had decided that it was somehow appropriate to come now?

Of all the things to sacrifice your freedom for, questions most certainly weren't it... Not if there was no way for you to get out again anyway.

"This is not the time, or the place, for questions!" he snapped, once again circling the female as she rolled back on to her paws, though she had opted to remain lying down at this current juncture. "You could have asked these before, out there, where you are not at risk of being dissected and turned in to a bloody decoration," he added.  

[Epine de Rose]

This time she was winded, far too much so to move at this time and as she gasped for air, she met the lion's albeit stubborn gaze. He was angry, but at this current moment in time she had a rebuttal or him. Rather than attempt to make another hit, one she knew wouldn't succeed at the moment, she instead clambered to her paused again and gave each foreleg a brief rub down.

"Except I didn't have those questions until now," she retorted and scrunched up her nose. She spoke the truth in this, as she had fled she hadn't wondered, it was only as she had gained distance that the questions appeared. There hadn't been a way to ask them while he was there the second time, and if she had waited for a third there might never be a chance!

"I only came up with them after," she stated and sucked in another breath. She was still a touch wobbly...  

[Epine de Rose]

If his sister had been here then she would have expressed how impressed she was at him, or perhaps, how like her he had become. In those moments a sense of frustration welled up and threatened to bubbled to the surface... He was usually the least annoyed of the pair, the one who was the least easy to provoke, and yet here he was about ready to lose his own head at what could only be described as a ludicrous display.

"Then ask them the next time you see someone away from here!" he slammed one paw near her, and promptly swung with the other, smacking her with more force than he had initially intended. A brief flutter of guilt caused butterflies in his stomach to take flight, but these were quashed when he remembered his father's words - sometimes one needed to be cruel to be kind. She needed to see that he was one of the 'nice' ones, if she were to meet someone else...

He closed his eyes and tried to summon his patience.

"There is a reason you should not be here, if you have any semblance of -"  

[Epine de Rose]

Smack.

It brought tears to her eyes but rather than cry out, she felt something within her snarl with indignation. Before she could stop herself, her own flaws flew up and slammed, hard, into his chin. It was an assault worthy of respect, and she sincerely hoped she had broken his jaw in those moment. Well, not really, but she hoped that his eyes watered just as much as hers as she tried to stumble away and nurse her cheeks.

"A semblance of what?" she demanded.

"Why is a question so -"  

[Epine de Rose]

Tethys would later admit that it had been one hell of a smack, but he had recovered from far worse and without hesitation, he smacked her again. If she was truly so stupid as to assume that she could talk her way out of it, if she wouldn't listen to reason (albeit he hadn't given her much of one), then he would have to demonstrate in practical terms exactly what would happen to her if she insisted of following this god forsaken trail.

"If you have any sense of self preservation," he hissed, raising his paw to strike another blow. "You will run," he continued, the hackles of his mane rising to make him look much larger and much angrier than the majority who knew him had ever seen him.."

He wasn't quite sure why he was so adamant, at this point it would have been easier to capture her, but something stopped him. He couldn't quite put his paw on what that was.

"Now run," he ordered. "Or I will take your freedom!"  

[Epine de Rose]

Perhaps her initial instincts had been right all along...?

He looked ready for another assault and she didn't much want to be on the receiving end of this. At this current moment in time, she hadn't registered his words, when she'd had a chance to calm down she would...but for now, all she could see before her was a lion growing in size and fury.

She had tempted fate, tested his patience, and was now subject to his anger. He hadn't been lying when he denied her the opportunity to question him, he had been right when he had said that now was neither the time or the place.

...And the way he looked now?

Well, she surmised that in the next few minutes his paws would fall far harder and she might very well lose her head.

It was with pained eyes and a tail between her legs that she fled. No uttered words, no declarations that she would be back, she could preserve her own life when it was truly needed and that was now...  

[Epine de Rose]

Tethys thanked his lucky stars as she fled - if she were to return a third time without true potential then there was no way he would be able to save her no matter how legitimate her queries might have been.

As the lion watched her go he could only hope that she might meet someone else beyond their borders who might be willing to answer her questions and give her the answers she sought. He had started to become aware that the majority of those outside believed they were all cruel, merciless and bloodthirsty but this was not how the Vikings were.

Beneath their gruff exterior there was honour, there was valor... there were expectations. It just wasn't for the weak to see, the weak were only meant to serve and if they did not wish to serve then they needed to make sure they were never seen...