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 Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:44 pm
"Winged Ones! Your turn comes after mine." Just a small snarl, for emphasis. The tan lion dropped his hold on the meat and padded the few steps back out into the sunlight. A show for them...he wasn't going to eat if they continued. Four vultures had joined the former lone bird that had been circling. Large enough to cause a lone lion a bit of bother, it was surprising that at the reminder, they quit looming so close.
They'd followed Muroki from the desert, the bone-picking ravangers and while neither party was fond of each other, they knew the old ways of that land. Muroki demanded respect and a little patience on their part, so what? There was good eating on that gazelle. If he should curse them, they thought, they'd fall from the sky dead.
"Thanks for the help Laini." The commanding tone dropped away and his ears came up, another smile at the ready. He'd appreciated the help. Now he had shade and buzzard cover, should they forget their place. They were more unruly than ever now he kept avading them in the jungle. Muroki soon hoped he'd loose them for good.
(Sorry for lengthh but I've been meaning to mention 'em sometime somewhere. *pets her vulture characters*)
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:57 pm
Laini squinted up at them, circling and occasionally lining up with the sun to become dark shadows outlined in bright burning light. Vultures usually took their time getting to the food - at least from her experience - so that the fact that they were already there was shocking enough to her. Looking sideways at Malawa - no, Muroki - when he called out to them, she found his words curious. It wasn't a normal tone for strangers that lurked for your food. He addressed them as if he had known them a long time.
She nodded when he thanked her. "Don't worry about it." She looked back up at the vultures. Should they come down before they should be allowed (aka, when they were gone), they'd have a challenge. She reassured herself with that thought, giving a rigid visual nod. Laini continued to glare at them due to the lack of topics for conversation.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:51 pm
"If you'd like, you're welcome to can stay and have some if you're hungry."
Well, despite her earlier answer, Muroki decided he may as well offer anyway. She had helped him to get the food to the shad, the after all, so she'd contributed. The vultures he'd already dismissed. Wesesa, the head vulture, may have been named Careless but he was terrified of the lions.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 3:35 pm
Although there had been some tiny little hint earlier, she was still a tad surprised. "Oh ..ah, yes, thank you." She was being more modest than she liked. As a matter of fact, she wasn't modest practically at all. However, she couldn't think of an answer that didn't make her sound either completely modest ....or completely selfish. She might be relatively selfish but not with things she didn't work for. But whether or not, she couldn't deny that it felt ackward, laying down to have some. In said moments of ackwardness, she cast glances at him to make sure it was alright. Was this the sort of things friends did? Never really having any, she could only assume so.
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 1:12 pm
"Thanks...it'll be nice to have company again at a meal."
If Muroki was worried about anything, it didn't show to much. He'd always been a bit of a delicate eater and had been used, for a long while, to sharing his kills with the timid Hisani. This was almost home territory for the golden lion as he lay down to one side and set to work getting his meat in such a way that she could get to hers.
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 2:03 pm
Laini reserved herself the haunch closest to her. She didn't mean to be a delicate eater. Normally, she'd tear open the abdomen and go for the good stuff ....then again, she had only shared a meal once before. And at that point, she had already gotten at the good stuff. Such mannerisms as she was using could be related to a person who is a visitor to a country eating at a citizen's table. They don't know what's safe to eat and thus pick at it in the most respectable, polite way possible. Only she knew what was good to eat just not what she was necessarily "allowed".
One day - if she continued to share meals - she'd stop the nonsense but she couldn't help it. She knew she'd probably laugh if she saw Moyenda do it. As a matter of fact she was laughing at herself internally for being so ackward.
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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:57 pm
Having torn his way across the shoulder for some of the game-ier meat, Muroki turned his attention to slicing through the underbelly to get to meat more tender than the muscles of leg and neck. Not quite straight to 'the good stuff' but he'd been recalling exactly how to do it in such a way he didn't splatter Laini with blood nor seem to take more than his fair share. A trick of the paw.
Technically he had earned the lion's share, but after inviting her he could hardly hog all the best meat to himself, could he? Again, once this action was done, he simply pulled some his way and keep out of her way.
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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:06 pm
Dividing up the spoils, it was -if such a term could be used. Of course, it wouldn't be a true definition considering she hadn't worked one once for it. Laini took careful note of what he was doing. He had visibly left some for her. It really was noticable. With a nod of thanks his way, she pulled some out for herself. The dark red of the blood mixed with her teal fur, giving it a shiny brown tint but she didn't mind. Not like it caused her any trouble. She burried her face in what she had selected which meant she dirtied not only her paws but her maw. She was losing that reserve that she had retained out of respect ...because she was getting used to him. She didn't even get selfconsious about it ...until the end where she lickly her maw, trying to clean it the best she could. She didn't need to look like a vagabond, much less someone who hadn't eaten in foreever -'specially since it wasn't true.
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:18 pm
His own muzzle was still stained with blood anyway and as soon as he'd finished what he'd been able to pull out, Muroki joined her in taking his teeth to the food when it couldn't be brought to the teeth. This was how lions had been eating since the first lion walked, after all. Who could fault it? They weren't snarling, they were sharing.
Laini, Laini, Laini...the name of his would-have been mother in law. It suddenly struck him that here was a lionness, sharing that name in part, with grey on in her pelt just like his old beloved's mother. He knew he'd never be able to forget that love but did it have to sneak up on him! Could they be related...?
He almost choked on his meat.
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:50 pm
((oh noes D; ))
Laini had no such history with which to connect Muroki and thus had very little to think about. She wasn't one to preen herself so once her maw was clean she simply stared down at her paws. She thought she heard Muroki make a noise but everyone made noises when they ate so she ignored it. Laini waved her tail side to side lazily. The nice breeze still felt rather nice as it combed through her fur and she subconsciously lifted her head into it. But other than that, she remained a pretty much empty vessel.
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:00 pm
((I just remember why I knew what her name meant without checking... X3'))
Once he'd checked she was finished, Muroki got to his feet and too up his grip on the much lightened load. Some of the surrounding trees had fallen to learn at an angle against their fellows - an easy climb for him, though easier for a leopard. Still, it was dogs and hyenas that you had to worry about here so it was as safe a larder as Muro could get.
"Laini, might I ask you a question?" He called, as he made his way nimbley back down without the food.
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:06 pm
((I acutally thought I was originial calling her "soft mist" xD guess not))
Laini was startled out of her thoughtless zone at the movement of Muroki. She rose to her feet, perhaps faster than he had. Her stomach made protest, alerted her to the fact maybe she was more of a glutton than she liked to admit. Internally, she cursed her stomach for its rebellion and for bringing it to her attention of said fact.
"Um sure," she responded to his question. "Ask away." What could he possibly have to ask her, she wondered.
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:15 pm
((Oh adding "mist" was. ^^ I love her name, m'self.))
"Is your name a family one? Just I knew a Laini once, with a simular grey on her as yours." It was a long shot. Hopefully completely off target. Just when his heart was healing... "I don't mean to be rude...?"
Muroki came to a stop at the base of the tree, where it was most horizontal. It would have taken someone who knew him very well to notice the look about how he held himself. Tensed, though not as if he were about to move - as if he'd tried to lock himself in place lest the answer affected him badly.
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:24 pm
((oh ok! I do too ^^ ))
Laini frowned slightly. "Actually, yes, it is. Those in my family line and maybe my family's pride - I'm not sure on that one - were always named after something of the earth. My uncle's name, Jabali'ufuko, means "rocky beach" and my mother's name, Tuli'usiku, means "silent night". Stuff like that. But I never really met anyone in my family ...except for my mother and my other uncle, Moyenda, so I don't know if grey runs in my family..."
She didn't quite know why he wanted to know. So what if they had the same name? There was no way they were the same lion, obviously. She waited, though. Perhaps he would explain?
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:30 pm
Sweet, sweet relief!
He lept with the casual grace all cats possess down to ground level and flashed her the sort of smile he'd used back in his 'charmer' days of adolescence...that were actually only a few moths ago, now he thought of it. For the first time, he wondered just how deep his feelings had been, having been so fleeting. It had been love for sure - but had it been life ending? No. It hurt. But he wasn't going to die...though that didn't mean he wished to meet a distant cousin...
"Oh I was worried for a moment I'd been dining and debaiting with someone who was related to someone I once knew. They broke this heart of mine once. I was terrified it'd happen again, but you're from a different family."
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