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 Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 8:45 pm
He chuckled and handed her another, biting into the flesh of his own fruit and trying to keep the red and sticky juices from getting everywhere.
"They are fish. For all v'e know, Stan v'as a female," he defended, tail curling over his knees and eyes surveying all of his domain approvingly. "And it does taste different."
And probably was much, much better for them.
"He really put a lot of effort into creating such a place," Valeriu mused to himself, picking some seeds (actual seeds in actual fruit) out and tossing them to the trees below. "Gods must have very good memories to make such things." Hands busy, his tail flicked over to curl behind her back, twitching at the feel of a butterfly attempted to land on it. Another, colored bright orange and blue, drifted in and landed stoutly on his hair. In fact, several of the large and beautiful things were fluttering close.
"They like the smell of the fruits," he explained, nose scrunching and waving away one of the things from his 'kill.'
One tinier one landed on his nose, and he looked ready to shake them all off.
"They really like it," he grumbled.
Damn butterflies.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 9:42 pm
“You just can’t keep track of who was who.” She informed him, looking out at the mix of butterflies and sky. Still, whatever Stan she might have had, that only made it more clear that naming them was a bad idea. It made it too personal-- and that was detrimental of any likeliness of her eating them.
It was only once he had started tossing seeds did she realize that they had any in the first place. Well, shoot. Maybe she’d have whatever kind of plant this was from growing in her stomach. With the next fruit she was more careful, spitting on the occasional seed as she watched the butterflies flock to her brother.
Tepin couldn’t help but giggle. He looked like a mime compared to the bright colours of the butterflies. Varu was totally out of place up here, while back down in the deep forest, he had looked like a native.
“C’mere guys!” She smiled, looking out to the sky, “I got some too!” Half-eaten fruit held to the sky, she couldn’t help but smile as the butterflies began to flock to it. No longer did she have a fruit in her hands-- no. Now she had a big ball of wings and feelers. They tickled. They kept coming. It seemed like there was no end to the butterflies.
“I’ve never seen butterflies before,” She admitted, a huge smile on her face as she kept her eyes locked onto the tiny bugs, “Just in pictures.”
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 9:54 pm
"They are pretty," he acknowledged, head ducking to avoid another would-be seating for two, "and pretty annoying," he added with a frown at the determined little insects.
"You'll find a lot of the animals here are unafraid of humans." He took another bite, wiping away some of the sticky syrup off his cheek (and only managing to spread it further). "I shall have to find a bush baby for you to pet."
It was a strange sort of education on human impact, he'd noticed. The animals here had never seen humans before; and Valeriu, predator though he was, was never needlessly destructive. The animals that he did not hunt - did not fear him.
Catching them was another story, though. Ocelots were fast little buggers.
Fed up with dodging butterflies, he leaned back, back - swung down so that he hung by his legs onto the branch, quite comfortable with eating his fruit in peace now.
And leaving Tepin to the butterflies' mercy. They always went for the higher placed fruits. Licking the juice off his fingers, he glanced off to the side - and found a pair of brown eyes staring back at him.
Man looked at monkey. Monkey looked at man.
He frowned at the furry little creature when it went and copied his hanging off the branch.
Monkeys.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 10:08 pm
“I could have waited to eat ‘till when we were home.” Home. Shack. Whatever. For the next few days that was home for them. “I wasn’t going to starve.”
But no-- of course Vale was going to worry about her, making sure that she was well fed and clothed and-- Hey wait!! He was slacking. And what was she supposed to do when they got back? Her suit had dried for the most part… But she didn’t want to stay in the same outfit for all those days! That was just gross. Tezcatlipoca really wasn’t cutting her any slack as a girl.
He ducked back into the underbrush, but this time she was prepared. His legs were still visible, and the girl felt no need to panic with her guardian clearly in sight. She did, however, have to flail to keep the butterflies from getting unwillingly caught in her spills of curls.
The poor buggers never stood a chance when faced with such a massive net of hair.
“Was it okay to leave the fire like that?” She asked, her hands trying to free a poor white butterfly from her curls, “It won’t, like, burn the forest down?”
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 10:23 pm
He thought back to a time when he had, accidentally, burned part of the forest. He cringed.
"No, no it v'ont. That is v'hy the pit is there, and v'hy it is located v'here it is. Any sparks, no matter how they are blown by the v'ind, cannot reach burnable material."
The monkey righted itself, giving one last long stare to Valeriu, before leaping to another tree; Valeriu swung himself back up, took one look at the butterflies caught in her trap, and laughed.
"You look like a princess out of a fairy tale," he complimented, grinning and reaching over to gently free the butterflies one at a time. And really, she did. Her hair may not have been so beautifully blonde anymore, but even then, she looked like she could easily be called the Butterfly Princess.
"Very beautiful," he found himself smiling all too sincerely.
He had the strangest feeling. It was like the butterflies had taken residence in the hollow of his stomach, and he was staring for a moment too long.
He jerked his eyes away to watch the butterflies around them match the flapping in his stomach.
Very strange.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 10:35 pm
She smiled sadly, turning her attention back to her hair. He didn’t mean it. Not really. She was just a little sister. The way he talked… It was like when a little girl dressed up for Halloween. Like a little girl in a costume, not a reality.
She wished he’d stop that. Wished he wouldn’t even compliment her. He didn’t know that his praise was more of an attack-- that his good intentions were turned into painful feelings. But he didn’t mean it. She knew that. She was just being selfish, and not letting his feelings factor into the equation. She would grin, and she would bear it, so long as these feelings remained.
She would crush them. The plan had changed since its creation. No longer did she want a boyfriend to figure out whether her feelings for Valeriu were true or not. She needed a lover, so that her thoughts would no longer focus on the man.
She needed to be torn away.
“We should get back,” She laughed, shaking her hair one final time to free the last butterfly, “Before anyone else gets caught.”
Her hands laced the bow over her shoulder, letting the string rest against her chest, while the arrows were still secure in her hands.
“I’ll walk this time.”
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 10:55 pm
"Good idea," he chuckled, holding out a hand to help lead her down. "Here. It is tougher to go down than to go up."
He peered down at the branches below them, remembering his first attempt.
"I got stuck my first time up here. I could not get back down, and spent the night sleeping off and on against the trunk. Afraid I v'ould roll over and fall. Some monkeys showed me how to get back down," he admitted ruefully. One-upped by small primates: it had burned.
Better than to be rescued by firemen.
He hummed thoughtfully, stomach already rumbling again like it had been for the past few weeks. Valeriu was man, and his mind was already on the next meal.
"V'alking v'ill be a good chance to hunt dinner," he mused all too enthusiastically. He knew, and Tezcatlipoca had made it all too clear, that regular food alone would not be enough to sustain him.
But for now, he could concentrate on catching some tapir.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 11:09 pm
Her hand grabbed his, more out of sheer necessity than actual desire to hold his hand. From now on, she would need to become self sufficient. Tezcatlipoca had made that clear to her, whether he had intended to or not.
Following his motions to a tee, they somehow managed to get down. But not in the awkward silence that would have permeated otherwise.
“That’s scary.” There were too many things in this jungle, “What if you would have been attacked?” Sleeping out in the open on a tree branch hardly seemed like the safest place to be. Particularly somewhere like this, where the sun barely shone under the thick leaves of the branches.
Valeriu only killed whatever good mood that might have remained in the girl with his following statement, and she scrunched her face up in distaste. She did not particularly feel like slaughtering any more innocent lives today-- the Stan Family Massacre had been enough for the tiny Godling.
“Is there anything else in here I can eat? Roots or something?” Roots. Disgusting. She just wanted some good old fashioned chicken nuggets. From animals she had not seen breathing. Or seen deboned. Or seen cooked. Or just flat out seen in any form other than delicious nugget.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 11:21 pm
Once they had returned to the mushroom staircase, he tentatively let go of her hand, hopping down to the next level first before turning to carefully watch her.
He did not want her falling. It was a long way down yet.
"It is actually safer to be up in the trees. Most predators are ground-based, and those that can climb cannot do it v'ell. They know their prey can easily run av'ay from them, so they do not bother."
He may have been fudging the truth a bit. Honestly, even the treetops were not safe. There were some hostile groups of simians, snakes and poisonous creatures that were all too dangerous to be in close contact with.
She didn't need to know that. For the most part, it was better than being on the ground.
Roots. He scoffed at the thought. Why eat roots when there was perfectly good meat roasting on the fire?
"I don't know," he confessed, shrugging dismissively. "I have never tried to look for roots. Maybe."
He grinned up at her. "You know roots come from the ground, right? And how tasteless they are."
He continued relentlessly.
"And, imagine - the jungle is filled v'ith insects. Suppose you do find a root - chances are, it has bugs in it. Even fruits have to be chosen carefully here."
He peered at her thoughtfully.
"You are not a vegetarian," he stated. "However...v'ould you like to me to catch and cook our food av'ay from camp?" He suggested. He hadn't missed the look on her face when he'd de-boned the fish.
"I can hunt v'ithout you seeing anything." That was probably the best thing to do. She was Tepin - a sweet girl from the city. And he - he was just another predator in this jungle. It was better that she didn't see that side too much.
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 11:01 am
It didn’t make sense. Jaguars, what had seemed like the king of this jungle, could easily climb. They were cats, right? So, naturally, they’d be just as good at climbing, if not more skilled, than Mr. Slinky back home.
“I know roots come from the ground!” She shouted defensively, her face turning red as she hopped to the next mushroom down, “They’re like potatoes, right?”
Still, bugs? She didn’t even like to look at bugs, let alone have to eat them.
Even if she regretted it, following behind him like a child, she knew that the only way she would survive this trip would be to eat what she was told and not try to be like a stubborn brat.
Thoughtfully, quietly, she spoke. “Yea,” She didn’t want to be a pain, “If you don’t mind.”
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 11:15 am
He leaped down to another mushroom top, tail wagging at all the jumping.
"It is no problem," he reassured her cheerfully, momentarily distracted by a gecko scuttling across the bark of the great tree. He followed it around, ears focused on its movements, scooping it up before it could make its escape. "I can just make another fire pit further downstream. It just means you v'ill have to be on your own a little longer than need be."
He frowned, and the hand which held the gecko waved warningly at her. "So don't get into any trouble v'hile I am gone! As long as you stay close to camp, you v'ill be fine." The gecko stared up at her, incriminatingly - either backing up Valeriu's statement, or begging her to free him from the claws of a catboy gone wrong.
It knew - Valeriu was probably thinking of all the different ways he could roast a gecko.
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 12:14 pm
Her attention never left the downward path she was following. With each bounce of the mushroom she would find herself slightly lower and slightly closer to her goal.
“I’ll be fine if I’m in camp.” She informed him, her eyes never straying from the shadowed crème of the next cap, “I just don’t wanna bother you.”
She looked up at the waving, however-- only be to see the eyes of a small and pleading creature. It’s bright eyes were terrified, and its speckled body wriggled pathetically in the hands of its captor.
Her face fell flat-- why was Valeriu waving a lizard at her?
“What is that?” She asked him, knowing full well the answer, and almost sounding like a scolding mother, “Put him back. He’s terrified!”
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 12:22 pm
"No it's not! See look, it's happy!" The gecko let out a series of squeaks, which Valeriu evidently interpreted as delight. Pleased, he gently pet its head with a finger, avoiding the flailing and hissing and snapping of the feral reptile.
Boys.
"You think v'e can keep it?" he speculated, holding up the gecko to grin at it as he hopped down to the next step. "I can make it a little leash and collar, and it can be a guard gecko!"
A little pet to protect Tepin when Valeriu wasn't around.
"On second thought, a guard jaguar v'ould be better," he amended, carefully replacing the spotted tree-dweller back on its bark. "There are a few females around that are less aggressive..."
He looked to be seriously considering it. An ocelot would be too small, a crocodile was cold-blooded and out of the question.
But a jaguar. Hm.
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 12:36 pm
The expression on her face could only be described as not amused. Varu was so different here. He seemed like a completely different person. Maybe without the stress of taking care of his sister, worrying about money, and rent, and all the other players, and keeping their secret and--
--And just everything--
Just everything, all the stress that had piled up, without that burden, this was what Varu must be feeling now. He was more like a kid than she had ever seen him.
“He doesn’t look like he’s happy.” She frowned, watching as the creature tried to free itself. Poor little guy. Valeriu was a pure menace to the inhabitants of the forest. “Look at him run!” She paused to watch the small creature dart across the tree bark, off to find safety and a place with notably less cat boys.
“Yea, sure.” She said offhand, bounding down a few more mushrooms. “Just get the most deadly thing in this jungle, and put it right next to me.” Her grip on her arrows tightened considerably, even the thought was terrifying.
“Its not gunna obey you just like that. All its gunna do is wait ‘till your not looking and then eat me.”
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 12:48 pm
"Actually, the most deadly thing is probably Calmaxtiloc," he gestured with his arms, trying to recreate the size of the gargantuan caiman as he watched the gecko skitter off. "A monster crocodile. He broke my leg, I clawed his eye."
There was no small sense of satisfaction in that statement. He puffed up at the mere thought of kicking that beast off him.
He stepped off, landing back on solid ground and watching Tepin finish making her way down. "The females are nicer than that. A few of them are my friends," he shrugged. He couldn't talk to animals like Quinn could, but one cat knew how to communicate with another somehow.
"They are fun to play v'ith, but sometimes they are too strong for their own good." A few scratches here and there wasn't that bad, though.
He blinked up at her. "I think they v'ould like you!" After all, if Valeriu treated her as a kitten - there was a good chance they would too. Tepin: the adopted human-kitten.
He had to look away to hide the grin on his face.
"Any stray of mine they v'ould accept."
Even more so, now. Now, that he'd grown, in the few times he had returned here - the forest's predators had seemed to defer to him. It was strange. He'd had to fight to establish himself as top dog in the jungle, and even then it was tenuous; nowadays, even the most hostile of his enemies stayed far, far away from him.
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