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 Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 4:20 pm
Watching her smile, Jeraha growled lowly. It wasn’t a threat, just an expression of his uncomfortable irritation with the entire situation. “Don’t look at me like that,” he said lowly, turning his eyes off of her once again. Dark fur was great. Hell, any fur was great- it made certain no one could see the blush forming over his flesh. His face was red as a beet, but hidden from the world.
It was great.
The male was suddenly a deer caught between a rock and a lion’s claws, watching the lioness with widening eyes. Did she just call him sweet? Oh no, that wasn’t going to do at all. He couldn’t have animals starting to think that he was a sweet creature. “Well I wouldn’t go –that- far,” he grunted quickly, his words almost tripping over themselves, “it wasn’t a sweet gesture by any means. I wanted to get this feeling off my shoulders and I figured seeing you would do it. Completely self-serving, I assure you.” He didn’t think he had offered a very good defense, aware that someone wouldn’t have to come back at all if they were self-serving. They wouldn’t need to because they wouldn’t be feeling guilty.
“Anyway… now that you’re not drowning anymore…. I suppose I should go…” he was being hesitant about it. Why didn’t he want to leave? It felt like his paws were glued to the ground.
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 5:36 pm
Chikala's ears fell when he growled at her and knew she had made a mistake. She figured it had been her sweet comment, but when he told her not to look at him like that, her eyes widened and she blinked. He didn't want her smiling at him?
So she laid her head down on the ground and carefully moved her paws so that they hid her face below her eyes. She shrugged a bit, her gaze shying away for a moment before retuning to the lion before her.
"Well, it's just my opinion. And I'm not perfect, so I could very well be wrong... I guess." Her voice was muffled behind her paws, but distinct. He looked shocked at her comment about his actions and quickly defended himself against it. For some reason she found that... A little charming, she guessed. Not so much what he was, more like the way he said it. But she'd learned her lesson, she wasn't about to tell him so.
Her eyes widened at his comments about leaving. She realized she didn't want him to go, then. But there was nothing she could really do to make him stay, either.
"I guess, if you want to go, then you ca- ow," she began, sitting up as she spoke. But when she tried to actually stand up on all paws, a sharp pain shot through her right paw. It wasn't agonizing, but hurt nonetheless. A sprain, no doubt. Which was really inconvenient. She sat back down and rose the paw, looking down at it with narrowed, frustrated eyes.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:27 am
Watching her lie her head down, Jeraha’s inner hated grew again. Not at her, but rather, at himself for making her so upset. Apologize, he ordered himself, apologize you big ugly git.
Nothing came from his mouth.
He had just turned to leave when the faint syllable of distress filtered through his ears. Turning his head sharply, the male was quick to wonder what had happened in the two seconds he had turned his eyes from her.
“Are you alright?” the larger asked, mouth reacting before mind as he moved himself closer to her once more. There was no time for thinking-she was injured. Getting beside her, he looked down at her paw as she raised it for investigation, looking it over to see if there was anything seriously wrong. It didn’t seem like the bone was broken. Perhaps a sprain. He frowned thoughtfully, his eyes moving from the paw to her face.
Wow. He was really close to her now.
“Looks like you should take it easy for a little while,” he said lowly, not sure where his voice needed to be at that moment. His usual gruff tones seemed unwelcome to him at such a close range, the male not inclined to yell in her face for no reason. But he didn’t want to sound soft just because he hated whenever he gave the impression he could be nice. Who knew merely speaking could be such an intricate art form? In the end, he hadn’t been able to find a suitable tone, diving into almost a whisper to cover his tracks.
Well, now, at least, he didn’t have to leave without wanting to. He could stay and pester her about her paw as long as needed .Or until she got so frustrated with him she demanded him to leave, whichever came first.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:55 am
Chikala kept her focus on her paw, not really wanting to watch him leave. But the he was suddenly right there again, more or less whispering in her ear and inspecting her paw. She tensed at the nearness and she felt her ears start to burn a bit, from the bases, all the way to the tips. She wondered if the white on them had grown pink, or even red...
"Yeah... I think I might have done that when I tried to hang onto the branch, when my claws slipped, maybe," she replied, letting rest on the ground and continued starring at it for a minute, getting a hold of herself before looking up at him. Gods, he was so big. And the funny thing was, she wasn't afraid of him. Far from it, actually. Oh, she wasn't a fool, she knew he could very well be dangerous, if he wanted to be, she'd bet. But he hadn't really done much other than shoot harsh taunts at her, which did hurt, but he didn't know her and had every right not to trust her. But it looked like that was also a shield he put up, against things that might get to him. So she could forgive him for that.
A small smile formed at her thoughts and she immediately looked away, searching for something else to look at so that he wouldn't see the look again. He had asked, after all, and the least she could do was respect that wish. Of course all she could find was plant-life to look at.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:54 am
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Jeraha said. It really didn’t. Though he hadn’t known her long, he felt like he still understood at least a basic over-view of her personality. The way she had helped him even though he had been really mean to her… that was careless. Maybe she was a little careless too. Spacey, anyway, to have let herself fall off a log thanks to some kind of bug. If that was what had happened.
It was still hazy to him.
“Well, since you’re going to be limping around for at least a couple of days…. Maybe I should stick around,” he said lowly, “I mean, just as a favor to you. Not because… anyway, I just don’t want to come back later and find you missing a limb or something. I didn’t save your life to let you hurt yourself in some other manner.” He was doing it wrong again. The whole talking thing. How were some lions able to handle it so well? Boy, he felt silly just sitting there in front of her, staring absently at her paw because he was too nervous to look her in the eyes. Those eyes. Why did they have to be such a perfect shade of red?
What the hell was wrong with him? Too long in the sun. That had to be it. He was delirious from some kind of sun stroke.
Looking up, finally, he discovered that she wasn’t even looking at him, her eyes veering off towards some plants. “Is there… anything you need?” he asked faintly, shifting uncomfortably on his paws.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:24 am
She honestly. Couldn't. Help it.
The small monochrome lioness burst into a fit of giggles which blossomed into a full-fledged laughing-fit, bowing her head as she tried to contain herself, but that only made it harder to stop.
"I, I'm sorry. I'm not- not laughing at you, ho-honest," she managed to get out, moving her head back and forth as her shoulders shook.
"I just re-realized how s-s-silly I have to look to you," she added and laughed some more. It really was a funny picture, in her mind. A sodden little lioness with a huge bump on her head because a bird flew past her nose and she slipped and fell from a tree, a place lions really didn't belong to be in, anyways. Add a blush that ran into her ears instead of her cheeks and it really was a hilarious image.
Her laughter, a rippling, whole-hearted kind of laugh, trailed of into delighted snickers, and then into just a smile. Her gaze flicked to him for a moment before her eyes closed and her shoulders shook again, her hurt paw held a bit off the ground to prevent too much movement to it.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:54 am
At first, Jeraha was about ready to go off on her for laughing at him. There he was, trying to be nice for the first time in his entire life, more or less, and she was laughing in his face! It didn’t inspire a lot of great feelings inside of his chest, a burning sensation boiling around his heart. This sensation, however, was calmed when she insisted that she wasn’t laughing about him.
Normally he wouldn’t take a comment like that in any real merit, but she hadn’t yet lied to him. Perhaps she really wasn’t laughing at him and he was just too eager to jump down the throat of another and rip them a new one. Still, he was awkward. If she wasn’t laughing at him, what was the problem?
Maybe it was the bump on her head.
“You should lie down,” he commented absently, watching her struggle to complete another sentence, “you don’t look silly to me. Well NOW you look silly to me, but before this outburst that wasn’t the case. “Now I’m just… concerned about you.” Getting up, he back away from her a bit, feeling a little unsafe so near her shaking frame. Plus, he was sure that laughter was contagious; a disease he did not want transferred into him.
He waited for her to finish up, sitting straight with a rather indignant expression on his dark face.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 12:52 pm
"Are you kidding me? How could I not look silly?" Chikala asked, looking up at him finally, her mane once more covering the one eye, so really only her left one was visible.
"I mean, I'm still dripping wet and I almost drowned and I've apparently got a huge bump on my head and a sprained paw and all because I was startled into falling out of a tree by a no doubt frighten bird, and me being a very good climber, too," she explained and tilted her head a bit, ears pricked forward questioningly.
"Now, taking all that into consideration, how can you say I don't look absolutely silly right now?" she asked another question, her tail flicking back and forth. At least her ears weren't burning anymore.
Wait... Did he just say he was concerned about her? Her face grew a bit more thoughtful and she blinked at him, trying to figure out if she had heard correctly.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:26 pm
Jethro watched her, his expression serious. The large animal wasn’t laughing. He didn’t look remotely amused by what she was so. Then again, he no longer looked pissed either. It was like he had been caught in a transitional phase, stranded with an impassive expression while his emotions sorted themselves out. This was not actually the case. He was contemplating his next move quite intensely, zoning out so-to-speak. Emerald green eyes observed her frame carefully, as though watching the water dry from her fur.
“I just… don’t think you look silly,” he remarked faintly, his voice gentler than he had hoped it to be. Gods, what was wrong with him? All he could do was stare at her and tell her he didn’t think she looked silly. Because it was true. When he looked at her, he thought she looked nice.
Wet fur, bump and all.
With a sharp intake of breath, the male stood, taking a few steps further from her as his head veered skyward. “If there’s nothing you want, I think I’ll go hunting,” he said faintly. Another escape tactic. He didn’t have the courage to stick around and try to get to know someone. Plus, she had never directly told him to stay. He was pushing himself against her and she didn’t seem interested. Maybe he needed to go for a little while and think things over.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:55 pm
Of course the heat returned to Chikala's ears as Jeraha stared at her and she couldn't help but stare back as he did so, watching his deep green eyes. She liked green, it made her think of the world around her, of life. She glanced away, certain that the tips of her ears had to be something other than the normal white right now. She'd never had someone take that long to study her, not to her knowledge anyways.
She looked up as he stood and started walking away, telling her about his thoughts to go hunting.
"Um," she began, paused, and looked at his paws, instead of higher up. "Will you be coming back here?" she asked, really wondering if he would. He hadn't said goodbye or anything so maybe he would. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:09 pm
Jeraha looked back at Chikala, ears perking forward. An invitation to stay? No. Just a question. He was thinking too hard. Or hoping too hard, one of the two. “If… you’d like me to,” he said awkwardly, turning around a little so he wasn’t watching her with his head turned almost completely around.
Owl he was not.
“I could… bring something back for you,” he said after a beat of extremely uncomfortable silence on his end, “if you’re hungry or something… what do you like to eat?” If she said ‘meat’ he would have to bite her tail. HE waited for her to answer, hoping an occupation would keep him from running mad. All this stuff was really starting to get to him. Emotions. He avoided them like the plague. And for good reason. In the past, emotions had betrayed him.
This couldn’t happen. He couldn’t let them back in again. This girl- she was changing everything. How?
Witch.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:27 pm
"I... I would like you to come back, if you don't mind," Chikala replied, finally looking up. For some reason she was feeling a little uncomfortable with this sort of parting as well, as if the feeling was contagious.
But when he asked if she would like something, she looked down, humming a bit in thought.
"You don't have to hunt for me if you're hungry, but... I like most things except birds and snakes and things like that. Hares are nice, but kinda hard to catch, from my experience, so I don't really get those often. Usually little gazelles and fish, if I haven't had any luck in a time," she explained with a little shrug, looking back up at him, red eyes catching green.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:43 pm
“Alright,” the large animal replied with a quick nod of his head, “then I suppose I’ll be back.” Now he was hers to command? Willing to come back just because he knew she wanted him to? So weird. So bad. Jeraha felt the urge to run while he still had the chance, just to avoid what he felt might be coming. There was something special starting up between them, unless he had been alone so long he was now attracted to anything with girl bits, and he knew sticking around meant diving head-first into unfamiliar territory. And what an a** he would make of himself if he did take a risk and found out she didn’t feel the same.
Like missing a catch and hitting the mud face-first.
The entire time he was out hunting he thought these things over, concerns playing and re-playing in his mind to the various situations he set up for himself. All of them ended in failure. One way or another, he knew he would be betrayed, or abandoned, or hurt. Everything could –and would- go wrong and he knew with every part of his mind that allowing emotions the reign was a big mistake. As he moved over the ground about an hour or so later, large rabbit between his jaws, he understood that he couldn’t go back. It went against all reason.
Eyes coming to rest on Chikala, the lake once more before him, Jeraha was certain he was making the wrong choice. But tell that to his heart.
He set the hare in front of her, sitting down and cleaning himself slowly. There was blood on his claws from the kill he had eaten prior to catching the hare for her. “I hope that’s enough for you,” he said faintly.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 4:16 pm
Chikala watched him as he walked out of sight and when he was, she carefully laid herself down and closed her eyes with a small smile. She tried to figure out just why she was, but soon gave up trying to unravel the complexities of her mind in this type of mood.
He'd saved her life. Sure, there were those that would do that, she knew she would, but it hadn't been someone else it had been Jeraha, a lion who to the first glance was cold and didn't seem like the type to go out of his way to save another. But he was, and she was glad to know that. It was like... that crystal her pack-rat of a sister had shown her once. On the outside, it was hard and gray and rough and looked just like any other rock broken into a semi-circle. But when she had turned it over, inside were hundreds of tiny crystals in pretty blues and greens. She had to look beneath the hard surface to find the intriguing surprise within.
And he had offered to get her something to eat. She didn't even consider that she could be mean and refuse his help when it came to food, as he had the morning after they had first met. She was more intrigued that he would ask her. She thought it was a nice gesture.
When he returned, she had fallen into a light doze, her ears twitching as she listened idly to the world around her. It wasn't until he approached her that her eyes opened and she looked up. Her eyes widened at the hare he had caught and she watched as he set it down in front of her.
"Thank you, very much, Jeraha," she said as she sat up, placed her good paw on the kill to keep it down, and bent to eat.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 4:45 pm
“Not a big deal,” muttered the mistrustful male. He watched her as she started to eat, perplexed further as he noted that she even seemed cute to him while ripping apart the hide of a deceased creature. That either signaled he got off on very strange moments or, more likely, he really was starting to fall for this female. Sighing softly, he rolled his head about his shoulders, closing his eyes for a moment so the darkness would calm him down. Didn’t help.
“So…” he said lowly, “what happens now?” He was at a loss. No longer could he be mean to her. Didn’t have it in him outside of the off-handed snarky response should she say something too perfect to pass up. What did that leave? Actual conversation?
Checking his paws for more blood to clean, disappointed to find them perfect, he dodged looking at her frame at all costs, green eyes bouncing all over the place. “This is very odd for me,” he said abruptly. The art of tact had never been his strong point, why try to fight it? “I don’t…. talk to others. I’m not that kind of guy. So for me to be talking to you… like this… is kind of a big deal. I guess I’m wondering… ah, hell. Look. If you hate me, or are only being nice to me because you feel you have to, tell me right now, alright? Emotions confuse me. I don’t want to be here, trying to act like a good guy when you’re not even interested.”
Yeah.
Subtle as a mallet to the face.
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