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 Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:15 pm
By early afternoon, Mal was fairly sure of two things. One, he didn’t like hunting much. It involved lots of running around after some small animal which was usually torn apart by the hounds, thus making the entire activity useless. Or, at least, he amended, he didn’t much like hunting with the nobles. Other nobles, he corrected himself, reminding himself that he was supposed to be one of them. It wasn’t the actual hunting he despised so much. It was the fact that it seemed pointless, since it didn’t actually accomplish anything other than killing something. Oh, and the fact that it meant he was more or less forced to deal with the so-called ‘nobility’.
And, two, he was also pretty sure that none of the nobles could track their own butts if they weren’t attached firmly to them. It had been horribly easy to lose them… and he was barely even trying! Sure, he had put a half-assed effort into covering his tracks and such, but that was more for his own amusement than actually trying to get away from anyone. He was just that bored right now. After all the excitement of the past few weeks, things were now positively dull.
Stretching out lazily, he briefly scanned the sky, admiring the way that the afternoon light filtered through the green leaves of the forest. The occasional patch of sky could be seen with a rare cloud wafting through the blue. It was far too nice a day to be stuck with idiot nobles watching a dog tear a rabbit apart. On the bright side, he had managed to cling to his usual brown and gray attire; those idiot nobles tried running through the forest wearing all sorts of bloody stupid clothes with all sorts of things dangling off them! It made Mal think of a field of flowers that had been vomited up by a rainbow of butterflies. How could people think to hunt like that? The gray and brown colors, however, helped a person slip away into the shadows, using light and shade as playthings.
He leaned against a conveniently placed tree for a moment, still looking up, before slipping down to sit on the mossy ground. While it was far too nice a day for running around after rabbits, it was the perfect sort of day for quiet reflection. It wasn’t often that he quietly reflected on things, so he wasn’t very good at it. Mostly, he got distracted by various bugs and things that he discovered.
Bugs or not, it was still more fascinating than trying to pretend to be interested in whatever Lord Whatshisface had to say. (Actually, during particularly boring conversations, Mal was in the habit of making up his own words).
Aeron was even less amused than his human. Hunts, in his experience, were supposed to be fun, with the wind rustling his feathers, brushing by his fur, and the glorious kill. But, those stupid humans kept scaring everything away! Irritably, Aeron gnawed on an ancient bone he had unearthed, his beak grating against the hard surface. It was a good way to vent frustration.
What he really wanted to do was be back with Sekhmet, but he didn’t trust those humans with Mal. He didn’t know if Mal noticed it or not---probably didn’t, since humans never noticed anything---but those people looked at him funny. Like… like a dog or a cat eyeing a particularly fat prey animal. With a sudden crack, the bone broke under the pressure of Aeron’s beak, leaving the gryphon with nothing to do.
Eventually, he moved over to Mal and relaxed, placing his head in his human’s lap. It was his subtle little way of asking for headrubs. His unsubtle way of asking for headrubs involved biting people.
Mal responded and traced his fingers through Aeron’s feathers, coaxing a purr from the gryphon.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:30 pm
Normally Kaisa avoided these farses like the plague. He was low enough in the family totem poll to get away with, and aside from that his eccentricities were well known and the rest of the so-called noble class seemed the happier for his absence. Today though, he'd heard that someone was going to be there that he had apparently developed more than a passing interest in... though all the same he showed less than fashionably late to avoid the idiocies that passed for pleasant small talk and gossip. It's not like the hunting parties were ever hard to follow.
Used as he was to making trips like these on his own with or without his griffons in tow, and a far better and more experienced hunter than most of the city-bred fanfare, when he noticed a trail going off to the side that was definitely not left by a forest animal he had to follow it. There were even some poor attempts at camoflauging the trail, and he couldn't help wondering if they were this half-assed because of lack of knowledge or lack of desire. He suspected the latter; the general idiocy of the Xuan city nobility meant they'd never split apart from the group like this. At least, not and bother covering the trail, because they'd probably be doing so to prove their "courage". It was all a rather elaborate pissing contest he'd long ago grown bored with. He could wipe the floor with any 10 of them... probably more. After all none of them seemed to take into account different fighting styles or the fact that in a real battle the other party rarely played fair.
He krept along on silent feet, long blonde hair tied tightly behind his head, faded clothing of brown and green forest colors carefully kept from snagging on stray branches more by habit than by thought. He'd been told he stalked like a panther; it unnerved his more... legitimate circle of friends.
Aeron and Mal were difficult not to spot, and he crouched down a few yards away from them to contemplate the picture. He suspected that Aeron would notice him first, but if the big male charged him Tiamat would put a stop to it quickly enough. The big griffoness was rather protective of "her" human, and he knew she was probably just out of sight somewhere. She could be silent as death when she wanted to be, though it had yet to help her in sneaking up on him. He knew how she thought. He thought much the same way in many ways.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:29 pm
Aeron’s ear-tuft wiggled a little as the soft sound of leaves rustling caught his attention. His first thought was that it was merely the wind. After all, wind moving through the branches was hardly unusual, especially when there were lots of branches to be rustled. The strange thing was the lack of wind. A soft hiss emerged from his beak and he lifted his head a little, a subtle warning for whatever was out there. Upwind as he was, he couldn’t smell any intruders… but he knew they were there.
And he would make sure they knew that too.
A shiver ran down Mal’s spine. His posture didn’t change at all, but he was suddenly alert. He couldn’t hear anything or smell anything, but something was off. As a newcomer to Nemoren, he was a little fuzzy on the fauna of this land, but he was still pretty damn sure that very few creatures would be willing to disturb a fully grown gryphon. Except, perhaps, another gryphon, but there weren’t any wild ones this close to Xuan.
Oh… wait… really, really, really stupid humans might be willing to piss off a gryphon. And that did describe many of those idiots who had gone off hunting today. His eyes moved over the surrounding greenery, trying to spot the intruder. Several times, his gaze went right past Kaisa, seeing only the colors and not the shape behind them.
The colors. Hmm… the shades seemed just a little off, not quite matching up with the shades around them. That brown over there was just a wee bit too dark. There was probably some red dye in there somewhere. And red dye meant clothes. And clothes generally were worn by people. So, unless his stalker was going completely in the nude…
“You’re very quiet,” he said eventually, focusing on what he could see of that brown color.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:09 pm
"Nice change from that gaggle of mush-brained idiots, isn't it?" Kaisa drawled. Obviously Mal hadn't quite been able to make him out, since he appeared to be concentrating on his knee. Unless of course Mal was looking at his pants intentionally, but given how tense the man seemed at the moment he doubted he'd been taking the leisure.
He stood and brushed the dirt and leaves from his pants where they'd come in contact with the ground and walked a bit closer to the two, stretching his arms above his head and leaving them crossed there as he approached. He stopped before he really got close enough for Aeron to snap at him, not comfortable with the dirty look the griffon was giving him. Fair enough... "Tiamat."
She knew a summons when she heard one and slipped quietly as death out of some bushes, pacing forward to a space between Kaisa and Aeron and nonchalantly collapsing into a lounging position on the ground. Relaxed posture aside, she and Aeron both knew than he'd have to go through her to get to her human, and that she'd make that no easy task.
Kaisa grinned and crouched again, this time near Tiamat's head to give her a scritch behind the ears. "I take it that's Aeron?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:46 pm
Mal broke into a grin at the words. He recognized that voice, even if he had only met the speaker once. Huh. Kaisa was much better at hiding than he thought… noble or not, the man had some training in it. That was enough to make Mal’s regard for the blonde to inch just a little higher.
“You’ve no idea. I’ve spent the last half hour listenin’ to someone complain about the blood involved in huntin’.” Rolling his eyes, he relaxed slightly, since Kaisa was probably not a threat. Temptation, yes, but not a threat. “’S either this is Aeron or I’ve got a random gryphon followin’ me around all the time.”
It was surprising, how well the red-and-black Tiamat could hide in the forest. Well, sort of surprising… red and green were pretty much the same colors to Mal. She probably wasn’t a threat either, not unless Mal suddenly lunged at Kaisa.
Inwardly, he reminded himself to save all lunging for later, when there weren’t any chaperones watching.
Aeron’s ear tufts pricked forward at Tiamat’s entrance. Now that was one lovely lady gryphon… not wild-bred like himself, but she hid well enough for one. Sekhmet or no Sekhmet, Aeron would always appreciate beauty.
He trilled a brief greeting at the other gryphon, ignoring their humans completely. With two gryphons in the area, it wasn’t likely anything would burst from the leaves and attack.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:46 pm
Kaisa sighed longsufferingly. "Actually you'd be surprised what sort of idea I have. Danneger or Raetric?" Referring to the two noble lordlings he remembered complaining the loudest before they stopped inviting him along on the hunts. Raetric at least had shut up for a while... and stopped attending for a while... the time he'd had Tiamat catch and disembowel a boar in front of him and then idly mentioned how he'd seen wild griffons do that to men...
Kaisa wasn't always the nicest of people.
"Aeron then. Though I've seen stranger things happen than for griffons to randomly follow people around. I train them... so I've seen some rather bizarre behavior, especially from the ones that are spoiled from a young age." He shrugged and rearranged himself in a more comfortable position sitting on the ground. "Speaking of spoiled, was it the complaining about how bloody hunts are that drove you away from the group or did one of the oldsters start rambling at you?"
Tiamat chirped a return greeting, rather noncommital as to her interest or lack there of. There was a nice spot of sun right here and she'd actually gotten quite comfortable in a rather short time. But still... no reason to be rude, she supposed. "I am called Tiamat. What is your name, Wilder?" Wilder was her term for wild-born griffons.
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:00 pm
Mal tilted his head to one side and scratched one cheek. “Hmm… not sure about their names. I refer to them by whatever physical feature jumps out at me.” At least in the privacy of his own mind. So far, he didn’t actually have to use their real names since they seemed content at talk at him. “Ohh… I remember now! That would be Chicken-Beak and the one with a dead ferret under his nose. They’re a riot. At least, I assume they are. Whenever they open their mouths, I just kinda blank out and kinda guess what they’re sayin’. I’m sure it’s better than whatever they’re actually sayin’.”
“Hm… Do I really have to have a reason for that? I was bored. My mind can only take so much idiocy in one dose. If I stayed there, I would’ve had to hit someone. And I’m told I’m not supposed to do that anymore. Which is insane. What’s the point of bein’ a noble if you can’t hit the idiots?” Actually, Mal would hit people anyway. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that his actions were more… important than they were before.
Aeron made a point of stretching his wings, just to show off his impressive wing-span. Wilder, eh? Well, that was pleasant… he rather liked the fact that he was still instantly recognized as a wild-borne gryphon. It was a matter of pride.
… Yeah… a gryphon who wore bells felt proud of being borne wild. There was probably something hypocritical in there. Good thing that the gryphon had absolutely no concept of hypocrisy.
“I’m Aeron,” he introduced himself, holding his head up high. “It is nice to meet you.” At least, it was better than following around those idiot humans.
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:04 pm
Kaisa gave Mal a very brief look of incredulity before falling back from his crouch and onto his rear in laughter. "Oh, oh, I have GOT to remember those descriptions. Raetric especially. Dead ferret." The laughter subsided but he grinned, a bit evilly. "He's afraid of weasels and ferrets and the like. His younger sister kept one for a pet and she trained it to attack him if he ever set foot in her room. That entire family snoops on one another, I think she's the only one that managed to develope any sense." He shrugged slightly. "Though considering who we're talking about I'm not sure that's saying much."
He shifted so that he had his elbow resting on one of his legs and his chin resting in his palm as he regarded Mal, this time with a slightly less subtle interest than he'd shown in the bar the first time they met. "If you really want to hit them and get away with it, you could always challenge them to a freestyle duel for sport. They always go for that kind of thing for sport. And for some reason they never seem to learn that "freestyle" means "anything goes". Well, short of kicking them in the groin." Not that Kaisa hadn't had his share of "accidents" regarding where he hit the particularly annoying members of high-society. "The only ones that bother learning anything besides that stiff, stylized, court-entertainment swordplay generally avoid court and actually do their best to govern their holdings."
He stretched out his free hand to rub at a spot on the back of Tiamat's neck that she was particularly fond of. "That's just one option, though. The better one would be to avoid them, but given the circumstances you can't do that. At least not until the fanfare dies down." Not that Mal was ever likely to be able to have the freedom to come and go as he pleased that Kaisa had... though Kaisa had to fight tooth and nail for it. But Kaisa was also a lot less important in social standing. That wasn't something Mal could get away from.
Tiamat wasn't one to judge another griffon for having baubles he enjoyed. She had some herself. Kaisa just wouldn't let her wear them out here for fear of one of them breaking or getting lost. And acquiring baubles was a very natural griffon thing to do, after all.
Aeron did have an impressive wingspan, Tiamat would admit. Not that she was really looking seriously... and Aeron smelled of Sekhmet in any case. But he hadn't pushed any sour buttons yet. "Pleasure to meet you as well." Not that she had much else to say. Tiamat was willing to speak if spoken to, but she wasn't necessarily the talkative type. That and Kaisa was rubbing that spot she so enjoyed and it was rather distracting.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 12:43 pm
“Trained ferrets, eh? Might have to look into that… Aeron doesn’t much like ‘em either. Funny thing. Whenever they see Aeron comin’ too close, they run away. I’ll have to remember the duelin’ thing. Never much got into the whole fightin’ for fun bit myself. When I fight, it’s usually for keeps.” It had perplexed him when he had first learned about sport fighting, since he had always thought of fighting as pretty serious stuff. The war hadn’t been fun or playful, for one thing. “I’ll have to keep it in mind, if it really does let me hit them and get away with it.”
Not to mention, it would teach them to leave him alone. He was rather keen on that idea. Speaking of things he was keen on, he also enjoyed the fact that Kaisa was looking at him. Not that he wasn’t sending his own sidelong glances towards the other man; he was simply more subtle about it. Mal stretched out a little, leaning back against the bark, unaware of the beetle that was slowly making progress towards him.
“Ah, social standin’… I’ve got my plans for that. I don’t intend on takin’ over the House. I don’t think I could. Prolly takes lots of learnin’, rulin’ over something like that. I think that I’ll just be as eccentric as I can. That’ll convince ‘em to give the job to one of my sisters.” Hah! Sisters. Half-sisters, really. “What about you? You have any family besides yourself?”
Aeron rather liked the silence from Tiamat. It was a nice change from the constant talking of the humans. Talk, talk, talk, talk! Didn’t they ever shut up? If they ever wanted to catch something, then they had to learn to be quiet. He watched the red and black female gryphon for a while before shoving his head under Mal’s hand, asking for more headscratches. No surprise, Mal obliged. No one wanted to make Aeron upset if they could help it.
He paid only vague attention to the humans. So long as the blonde one didn’t attack his human, everything was fine. Although the glances between them were a little weird. Aeron blinked, feeling a little confused by this. “Were you wild once too?” he asked, deciding that he might as well say something.
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