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 Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 3:40 pm
 God, it was so big.
Mashaka had never been to the Pridelands before. Not really. He'd been around the outskirts of it, traveled past it and through the edges, but he'd never truly been inside the pridelands for any length of time. He'd never had any interest, but moreover the idea of being surrounded by a massive ammount of lions, on their territory no less, made Mashaka anxious. Today, however, he was feeling daring, and wanted to explore.
He marveled at the wide open spaces of the Pridelands, even if he himself lived in wide open space. This space was... prettier somehow. Most impressive of all though was the ever-present monolith of Pride Rock, looming over the landscape, visible from virtually every corner of the lands. He stood a moment on a ridge and marveled at the sight of it.
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Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:57 am
 At a first glance, Kia appeared to be the ideal picture of a pridelands lion. Her natural coloring blended perfectly with the golden grains of the grasslands and her cream-dipped features gleamed in a lazy way that seemed to almost suggest a lazy life in the sunshine, but like many books, Kia's story delved a bit deeper than her outwardly appearance. Kia's heart was restless for adventure, even more so now that she had lived in the area for many moons and more now that Kia's current condition kept her from dashing with danger and journeying like her spirit longed to do.
Kia's condition was unfortunate enough for her, confused and worried she would walk as far of a distance as her feet would allow from pride rock, almost testing her strength by the day as her stomach seemed to stretch and sag more and more with each passing day. Also with each passing day she would travel less and less, but today, instead of her grief-stricken face of worry, Kia wore a bright smile. She had managed to reach farther in her daily walk than she did yesterday even and it was a beautiful day. The sky seemed to radiate with some sort of pride as if it too realized the glory of the sunshine and the effect that it's shimmery rays took on the pridelands. Kia thought everything was rather glowy. glowy seemed like the perfect word for this.
The trail of footprints in the dirt stretched longer then somehow slowed as Kia's bright eyes rested on another feline nearby, her expression lighting up quite a bit she quickened her pace a little, a cheerful grin spreading across her already happy face as she called out to him
"Hello there! I dont believe I've ever seen you around here before" she bounced happily onto the toes of her paws as she continued to approach. How lovely it was to find company.
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Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:27 am
So distracted was Mashaka by the glory of the wide open Pridelands and the towering Pride Rock that he had not even heard Kia's approach. His senses were shot. When she spoke, though, he was so greatly startled that he nearly fell over backwards. Pulling himself together, he stood abruptly and rounded about to look Kia in the face and catch his breath. He stared at her with a mixture of surprise, anxiety, and irritation; it twisted his expression in odd directions.
The first thing he noticed was her face. She was a pretty girl, indeed very much a Pridelander with her warm, earthy colors. The sight of her made Mashaka smile a little to himself, because nothing pleased Mashaka more than a pretty girl... except maybe the things he liked to do with pretty girls. Then he looked down.
Oh.
Mashaka frowned bitterly and didn't bother to hide it. Just my luck, he thought. The first girl I run into all day, and she's pregnant. Just great. He picked back up his head as she greeted him with cheer, though Mashaka was unable to return the sentiment. "Sorry," he grumbled. "Just passing through. I'll get out of your hair, if you want." And he did hope she wanted him away. He rather wanted to be away himself.
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Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:40 am
Kia blinked, her head tilting to the side slightly and her lips twisting into a slight jesting pout, half to attempt to cheerfully mimic his expression and half in response to his suggestion at leaving. No, not many would Kia let leave that easily.
"No sir, I assure you that you are more than welcome to stay!" she sat before him, her eyes shut in a warm smile that quickly replaced her mock pout "In fact, feel free to sit back and relax for a while. We can have a nice chat. Lovely weather we're having, no?"
she ended her statements in a small chuckle and fished around the depths of her mind for more generic small-talk statements that would be more than fun to test on a visitor that seemed to be having a particularly bad day. Perhaps it would cheer him up, after all, Kia's mind couldn't imagine talking having any other effect. Even if it was just silly little talk.
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Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:53 pm
Crap. No, Mashaka wasn't getting himself out of this anytime soon. He sighed and dropped his head, but refused to sit. Her parody of his expression left him less than amused, to say the least, and her small talk was even less amusing. "Great," he grunted, in response to her invitation to stay. He hesitated a moment before even acknowledging her her small talk, then muttered, "Weather's okay. I guess." Mashaka really wasn't the chatting type. He held more to the three S's: Seduce, Screw, and Stalk off into the night. Obviously that wasn't going to hold in this situation.
He glanced around himself for a distraction or means of escape, but he wasn't finding one. He turned back to Kia and said, "You know what, miss? I'm sorry... I'm just no good with small talk." He hoped maybe that would get him out of this. Not likely, but he had to try.
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:04 pm
A puzzled expression crossed Kia's features as she looked at Mashaka. So he wouldn't be amused by little conversation and she assumed that he wouldn't want to have a deep talk with her either. She mashed her lips together into a thin line as she thought. "No good with small talk eh?" she studied his unamused expression and countered it with a grin.
"How about games!" she chriped, clapping her front paws together in amusement "Everybody likes games! Even the grouchy ones" she nodded, yes a game could be the perfect solution to his bad mood. To Kia this little meeting had become in a very short amount of time a little mission. She would turn this grumpy sir into a smiling buffoon if she could help it and if not she would fail her mission, and that simply would not do
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:46 pm
She seemed perplexed, and for a moment this left Mashaka optimistic. He watched and hoped as she considered this... but then she spoke, and smiled, and Mashaka knew he'd be there for a while yet. Perhaps, he thought, he should just get up and leave... but perhaps she would follow him then, and he wasn't sure he wanted to go through the trouble of trying to shake a pregnant lady from his person. So he sighed and settled down on his rump to put up with her a while.
He was a bit startled at her sudden excitement, and his ears snapped back and eyes widened at her burst of glee. He watched her in wonder. "Games?" he repeated, uncertainly. Well, Mashaka had been playing some games recently... but the sort of games Mashaka liked this lioness probably wasn't interested, especially in her current condition. "Um..." he began, faltering, then managed, "Frankly, if the choice is between small talk and games, I'd prefer the small talk." He hadn't played a game since... well... he couldn't really think of a time when he'd played games. His foster family hadn't been much for teaching games. They were more for teaching cheating, manipulating, wooing, and weaseling one's way out of a tight spot. They hadn't cared for play and neither, resultingly, had Mashaka.
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:02 pm
Kia shook her head lightly with a laugh, her cheerful eyes studying his rocky expression with more amusement than frustration.
"Nonsense" she finally spat out as if it was the punchline to a funny joke "Everybody likes games, like I said before, and if you don't know any then I can teach you some. I know plenty!" Her grin widened as she nibbled at her bottom lip, searching for the perfect game to play, and searching for an easy one since she assumed that somebody like the male before her had never even played a game in his life.
"I know!" she said finally "We can have a staring contest, that's easy enough, plus I'm practically the best lion in Africa at staring contests" she flipped the fur on her head proudly, even though what she had just said was most certainly a lie.
"Okay go!" she blurted out suddenly without waiting for his input on the subject, her bright expression almost instantaneously turning stony as she squinted her eyes in complete concentration and locked them with his, just to be certain that she would catch even the tiniest of blinks on his part.
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Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:01 pm
Mashaka grew concerned and weary. He wrinkled his nose, as though he smelled something foul. The foul smell of child-like cheer. He hated children, so adults who were like children were almost as bad. She seemed dead set on getting him to play. "But... I really don't want to..." he began hesitatingly, but it didn't matter. Though Kia still stood there, she had already left him far behind in the dust. She was thinking ahead of him and intercepting his general grouchiness. He cleared his throat rather pointedly as she pondered games to play, and opened his mouth as though to object, but it still didn't matter. She was already off again.
"Staring... contest?" Mashaka questioned uncertainly. He'd never heard of such a thing. In fact, a very deep, very fundamental part of him was rather convinced that staring wasn't a game at all, and that you really couldn't make a game of staring.
But she was off! Mashaka's eyes widened, surprised, but he didn't blink. Not yet. Now, staring was something Mashaka could do, it was something he was well trained in... especially staring at girls. Face settling into a comfortably apathetic expression he stared softly and blankly back into Kia's eyes. It felt natural to him, to stare. He spent an awful lot of time doing it, anyway.
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Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 5:38 pm
Kia smirked slightly, her forehead wrinkled under the strain of her obvious concentration to keep from blinking. Unfortunately, Kia was not accustomed to staring or even keeping still for too long of a period of time, so within about a half minute of the begginning of her rahter forced game, Kia's eyes were burning and watering under the weight of her suddenly heavy eyelids.
It was no little wonder then that when a small, dry breeze rushed past Kia's face she did blink, thus forfeiting her title of "staring contest champion" to the near stranger that sat unfeelingly before her.
"You won!" Kia said rather cheerfully, as if she was babying a child's ego, with grins and a giggle as she cocked her head slightly with a rather satisfied look on her face. "See? Now that wasn't very bad at all was it? games are terrific fun right? and that was only a very simple game."
She smiled, her eyes glinting enthusiastically as she studied her new friend's face for perhaps the slightest hint that he enjoyed the little contest so that she might have the chance to shove another game in his direction.
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:31 pm
Mashaka was bored. Fiendishly bored. There was little challenge in staring to him. He watched with great indifference as she strained not to blink. Then, it seemed to him, as soon as the contest had started it was over. A draft snapped shut her wearied eyes while Mashaka's own satiny magenta orbs remained quite fixed. In fact, he continued to stare blankly for quite some time after Kia had already lost.
"Yippee," Shaka muttered as Kia declared his victory. He genuinely didn't care... although... a very small part of him was somewhat delighted in the fact that he had so easily beaten her at a game she fancied herself an expert at. He was trying his hardest not to smirk; if she thought he was at all enjoying himself, he'd never get out of here.
"That was... tolerable," he replied to her questions. "Still not my thing." He wondered if he'd ever get it through her head that games just weren't his thing.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:30 pm
"Not your thing?" the lioness replied with a pondering expression, picking up that he might have been slightly bored "Well then... I suppose we'll have to find a better game!" and with that the grin returned to her face as she chuckled slightly
"Everybody loves games." she insisted once more, grinning while reaching a paw up to tap him on the nose "Even you."
"So..." she said again, chewing lightly on her bottom lip as she sorted through her thoughts. "I suppose you need a more exciting game dont you?" she was obviously a little taxed. After all, most fun games she knew involved running, jumping, swimming, or something else that was quite unpleasant for any female in her condition. She supposed that he must have noticed by now.
After another moment of difficult thought her expression lit up and a smirk crossed her lips.
"I've got it!" she said cheerfully, convinced that she had found the perfect plan "Have you ever played hide and seek?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:17 pm
Ah! She looked dissatisfied! Mashaka briefly perked up as the smile faded from her face. But then she grinned, and her resounding optimism was back again. Mashaka hung his head and groaned. "Can't I just--?" he began, but he was interrupted by an insistance that he, too, must love games, and tap on the nose. He grunted and backed off. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "So you say." He paused to rub his nose ferverently, as though it had gotten dirty and he were wiping it off.
He tapped his foot impatiently while she tried to think of a more "exciting" game for him. He couldn't think what that would be. No game had ever struck him as particularly exciting... he'd seen kids play before (disgusting little things). Then she smirked. Oh no.
Her suggestion brought nothing but a blank stare from Mashaka. "What is this... hide and seek?" he inquired. He'd never heard of anything of the sort. But then again... he'd never played games before.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 5:15 pm
"this hide and seek?" Kia went off sounding shocked again, her mouth dropped open in a playful interpretation of complete astoundment. She seemed to be going in and out of this state quite rapidly during their meeting "it's only the best game ever created!" Kia bounced to her feet excitedly as she said this.
"Hide and seek is a fantastic game where one person hides and the other person goes to find them after giving them time to go hide" she nodded matter-of-factly at various points throughout their conversation "and no peeking is allowed." she shot him an almost serious glace at this last point, lowering one eyebrow as if she was almost looking at him to test whether or not he was indeed trustworthy enough to not peek.
After seeming satisfied, Kia's face resumed its normal cheer and she continued
"So! Shall we play? It is a marvelous game.... oh please say you'll play with me!" she grinned goofily and fluttered her lashes, not even noticing how silly she must look and sound.
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Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:27 am
Mashaka sat, with as much patience as he could muster, through Kia's shock at the fact he'd never played hide and seek. It took all his effort just to keep from rolling his eyes at her exaggeration and excitement. It was just a game, after all. Games didn't really mean anything.
He sat through her hasty explanation of the rules of hide and seek, his tail curled tightly around his hind legs. He said nothing. He just stared and listened. His ears did snap back a moment at her insistance that there was no peeking, but it was reflexive; a sharp tone and a sharp look always made some part of Mashaka wince. And he probably wasn't trustworthy enough to not peek, but as he was hardly interested as it was, he saw little purpose in peeking anyway.
The maroon cheetah watched the lioness' theatrics unimpressed. His first impulse was to say that no, he did not wish to play hide and seek with her. This was, in fact, the last thing he wanted at this moment in time. However, he really didn't want to have to hear her whine about it when he said it. Then, the more he thought about it, the more an idea seeped through his mind which delighted him. He smirked. "All right, miss, I'll play hide and seek with you. If you don't mind, I'd like to be the one to seek."
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