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 Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:35 am
-- AIM Rp between Malkia and Mwezi'Mtoto ((Felyn & DFA)) A soft sigh rolled off the tongue of the golden lioness as she lay coiled beneath a tree. With scarce branches this time of year, it left speckles of light dappling her fur ,though it had enough branches to provide a decent amount of shade over all. Deep, dark orbs lay half closed as her chin balanced carefully on her forepaws. She was watching the land, waiting for a spec of white, though she was so casual about it it was probably not that easy to notice.
Inwardly, she frowned. Had he run off because he was tired of her leading the way? She didn't figure he was the sort to be led around for long, and she had assumedhe would leave her behind at some point. It wasn't that she truly minded being alone again, but the suddeness of it struck her as odd. What if he had wandered off and gotten lost again? Damn it, he might have been a pain, but she did have a heart.
With a soft sigh, she curled her limbs closer to her body, shutting her onyx eyes against the world, and tried to bring herself to ease. She'd wait for him a little while yet - he might turn up soon.Mwezi'Mtoto was limping.
That was the most prominent thought within his mind; he was limping. His fine, white pelt was torn here and there, and though the injuries had scarred over almost completely, it'd take a few more days for them to entirely heal. As it was, Mwezi was hurt. It hurt like a b***h, he thought idly as he limped onward, following a certain female's scent in the wind as he took care to carry the sleeping cub's form within his jaws.
He was hurt, his pride and ego were bruised and he was limping. The male could not help but whince inardly, however, anyone watching him could merely see a thunderous scowl written over his features as he tredded on. It'd been a few a days since he'd vanished, forced to take action and drive away the two large rogue males he'd scented in the wind. He had no real idea why he'd slipped off in the dead of night, away from Malkia to undergo such a task; she was non of his concern. Two rogues that had evidently wished to lay claim on her were none of his concern, yet he'd gone anyway, and had not only driven them off, but had blinded one, probably for life. The morbid though brough t a dark twitch to his lips, though a particularly nasty limp whiped it off and he hissed.
Then... there was the lithe cheetah, whom had insisted on chattering away despite his attempts at ignoring her. She'd brought him food and had... well, been a nuisance, really. The moment he had smelled rogues in the air, he'd grabbed the sleeping cheetah and had slipped off again, this time towards where he could barely scent Malkia in the air. So.... thus was how Malkia found him. Limping across the savvanah with a thunderous scowl, and small cheetah dangling from his maw, still obviously hurt and not in the least happy.
Mwezi'Mtoto was limping. And he was not at all happy about it.
The scent of the male was carried to her by a draft of win, her black eyes reopening to settle upon the direction she was almost sure he would appear in. At first, the white dot against the horizon appeared perfectly normal - but then smaller details began to jump out at her. For one, he was carrying a small brown and gold blob with him - a blob that appeared to be alive. Secondly, she noticed the limp. She was pretty sure that if he had been able to help it, he'd have never limped at all. That meant he was quite injured, to say the least.
With a soft frown creasing her mug, she pushed herself to her feet. Inwardly, she was slightly panicked, but outwardly the frown was all that showed. With a soft sigh, quick and gone as soon as it had come, she began to move her way out towards him. The closer she got, the more she noticed, and all the cuts and bruises dotting his form were not the least worrisome.
"What did you do?" she asked, once within hearing range, though trying not to speak too loudly. Upon close inspection, she'd noticed the blob was actually a sleeping cheetah cub. One can imagine all the horrible scenarios her mind was creating. Her eyes narrowed slightly on him, but beneath her mask of irritation and anger was worry - one'd just have to know it was there to see it at all. Indeed; appearences were quite important for Mwezi, for whatever reason, and thus, needless to say, had he been able to do anything at that moment, he'd have rid himself of the horrible, vile... evil limp that was chipping at the block of perfection that he happened to be. The scowl grew deeper at the thought, however, despite this, his grip on the slumbering cheetah was gentle, almost sweet.
"Hmmmmm..." it was a murmur directed at the female through the bulk he carried in his jaws. It was right about then that Mwezi noticed that conversation was not about to be posible with Rin still snoring in his jaws. A sigh somehow escaped his throat and after a slight gaze was shifted towards her, he passed by and settled the small form against a tree, half hidden away from sight by the color of her pelt. Lifting his head he assesed the situation; no rogues nearby, the cub was asleep... everything was fine.
Except he was limping.
A grimace passed briefly through his features before he abandoned Rin body and went back towards Malkia, "I fought," he addressed her earlier question, his tone flat as if he couldn't understand why she'd need to ask; was it not obvious?
He sat and as he did, he whinced. God, it HUUUUUURT. He had to repress the urgent need to inform the world of just HOW much it hurt, because honestly, whinning was just one of those things that Mwezi Did Not Do.She watched him carefully as he set the cheetah cub down, followed his gaze as he examined the area. Well, at least he seemed to know how to take care of her as far as keeping her safe. She supposed it was a good thing she was here, though, or that poor thing might start thinking she was a cocky male lion cub. Pushing that horrible thought from her mind, she turned back to watch him as he sat.
She almost opened her mouth to berate him for telling her something so blatantly obvious, then remembered what she had originally told him the first time they met. Ask the question that will get you the answer you want. Cursing herself inwardly, she folded herself back into a sitting position. "I can see that. What I meant to ask was why you decided to go and do that?" Her tone was cool, but her eyes still creased at the corners - it was obvious she was trying to assess his wounds from where she sat.
She shifted, glancing towards the cheetah cub, staring at the form she could just barely pick out. "And where did you pick her up?" She was being fairly nice - but that's probably becaue he seemed to be too hurt to be too much of an a**.
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:56 pm
Now that she had asked a question which he could not evade with a simple answer, Mwezi frowned. In his mind, he tried to figure out a decent answer that did not involve the words rape, taking, or rogue males.
He soon enough noticed he could not avoid ALL those words and just for the most brief of seconds, the male was distressed, paniced, even though none of this showed on the outside but a small twitch of his eye.
Idly, he then tried to figure out which of the words was less insulting (to both himself and her), and finaly coughed lightly, "There were things that.... needed my undivided attention," a pause, followed by a frown; that did not sound sattisfactory and she was bound to pry, "Things that warranted my absense to assure your safety," that sounded MUCH better. He patted himself on the back mentaly before turning to glance at the sleeping cheetah and once again found himself at a loss for words and explanations.
How very vexing.
"In the rogue lands," he told her flatly, and turned to aim a small infuriating smirk at her. See how you like THAT answer, he thought to himself with a huff.
Her eyes remained on him, cool dark stones that never changed, watching him as he struggled through finding the right words. So he had something he wanted to hide did he? His first sentence all but proved that he didn't want her to truly find out what had brought him to physical violence. However, the second attempt at an explination was enough to make her eyebrows shoot up. It broke her cool reserve quickly, though she brought her face back to calm in a matter of moments. "Very.. well," she said slowly, cutting a glance at him once more before looking away.
He had done something to ensure her safety? That was as much of a surprise as the fact that he had willingly gotten himself marred. Not unwelcome, but certainly not something he even half suspected.
His next words made her eyebrow quirk. His answer was more than just a little annoying, but she couldn't avoid the amusement it had to hold for him. Her maw curled into a smirk at the corner, head shaking. Oh, it was clever, and she hated that she found it so. "Very well."
With a soft sigh she pushed herself gracefully to her feet, starting to circle him slowly as she eyed his pelt. "At least let me have a look at all the damage you managed to do."
"Indeed," he spoke softly; he was still busy patting himself on the back for his previous, curt answers, and thus was a bit too busy to notice much of his surroundings. When Mwezi finally turned to gaze at her, he arched a brow, noticing he had somehow broken through her cold exterior (something which didn't happen very often - it was true both lions wer eused to bickering as they were used to getting on eachothers' nerves, but it was a rare ocurrance for either of them to actualy break the othe others' exterior). He found he very much liked his sucess and idly wondered if it'd take a pair of male rogues trying to lay claim to her for it to happen again.
He instantly squished this train of thought, finding it highly distrubing and not at all helping.
Instead he focussed on her form again, "Indeed," he said again as she answered him a second time, pleased with the irony of the situation. Now, if he could get the limp to vanish, and all traces of the fight to heal away, all would be pleasent with the world.
Amazingly enough, he did as he was told, rather silently; he lifted himself off the floor, shook off the fluffy pelt that generaly resided around him (and was still marred with not only his blood but the blood of the other two males, something Malkia was sure not to miss even if Mwezi himself had forgotten it) and allowed her access to his person. The thought a blinded rogue running into trees, somewhere in the roguelands however, instantly made him smirk again. Oh, he could deal with a limp and a few injuries.
She frowned as the metallic scent of blood reached her nose, filling it up until she grimaced slightly from the smell alone. She could pick out the scent of his own blood, as well as that of the two others. It seemed to suggest that he had fought with the damned thing on - which was a highly amusing image to say the least. Still, she pushed the thought away and moved on to the problem at hand.
She brought a paw up to touch one of the worst wounds lightly, not enough to really hurt him, but it was one of those motions that happened when one was examining. "You did a good job of banging yourself up," she said, eyes fluttering as she shifted to stare at his leg. She couldn't determine precisely why he was limping - but she didn't want to go poking around in that area.
She nodded finally and moved to sit back down, watching him with a sideways glance. The one thing that troubled her was why he would go trying to fight two others. She knew there were two, but not what type of creature, not from blood alone. Her jaw tightened and she glanced away to the horizon. "We won't be able to travel right now with you injured. At least, it wouldn't be a very wise decision on your part." It was crisp and to the point again - her mask was back in place rather firmly.
"I did not 'bang', myself, woman," he turned to eye her over his shoulder, his slight glare indicating he was rather ofended by her choice of words, "I merely had the displeasure of not counting with numerical advantage, is all," a pause as he turned his gaze towards the sky, that small sadistic smirk threatening to capture the corner of his maw again, "It is not I whom shall return home minus two eyes, anyhow; I do believe they were left worse fo wear," he'd not had his way entirely though. Had he had his way, they'd have been turned to ex-males; how DARE they threaten anything that he-
And... he swiftly squashed that train of by throwing a cow in front of it. Then blinking, he followed her movement and sat down as well, mind left peacefuly blank. Not thinking, he thought to himself, This is me not thinking. This is me OBVIOUSLY not thinking about being in any way jelous because-. He once again frowned and found himself being forced to toss a rhino in front of his train of thought, seeing as how the cow had not worked.
Her voice dragged him out of whatever cloud he'd been hovering in and again, blinking slowly, the male turned to look at her. As her words finally cut through the haze in his mind, he found himself stiffening slightly, "We shall move onward," he said forcefully, "What is not wise, is to remain in a place that can warrant an attack, particularly when I am...." he dug around for a word, "Not at my best."
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:23 pm
She kept her eyes in the distance as he spoke, cursing at herself with her own thoughts. The fact that she was worried over him was disturbing - like a festering wound in her gut. She had no problems with becoming attached to something - so long as that something was a smart a** with a god complex. She drew herself out of her thoughts slowly, realizing that he was still talking.
"Perhaps next time you should take that into account then? Then I won't have to sit around worrying that you've stumbled into a pit of vipers and gotten yourself killed," it was slightly cold, but it was almost obvious that the tone was used to cover something else up. She was angry at him for getting himself hurt, and angry at herself that she cared that he had done it.
Shaking her head as much at him as to clear away the thoughts, she let her tail thump against the ground. "How are you possibly going to be capable of travelling with such an injury? You should be resting, not walking." Her eyes were sharp stones, though her face was blank and rather serene. She shifted her eyes towards the cub, watching, and added in a softer voice, "I don't know how well we can travel with her, besides."
As childish as the action seemed, the male could not help but huff mildly, the breath blown through his mouth and outward, "At the time there was bu no other way," he drawled, "It was either a fight or risk..." and here he paused, having obviously reached another point of conflict which he could not lightly ignore. Risk what, he though as he dug around for an excuse, risk them taking you? Risk them harming that what is min- He forcefuly squashed the train of thought and tried again, but after several attempts that lead to the same out comes, the male decided it was, perhaps best, to take the safe route out and simply tell her the truth.
A long weary sigh was released then as Mwezi closed his eyes, "You," he told her simply, "I could simply not allow those brutes to dishonor you, as that was what they were doubtlessly after, it was clear in their scents and in their eyes. At least not whilst you travelled with me, as that would dishonor me in turn," he patted himself on the back for such a swift and effective escape route he'd just weaved for himself with his own explanation, "Dishonor is not acceptable," it was one of those other things that Mwezi Did Not Do. He was still mid-pat when she spoke again, and effectively sent him spirraling into confussion; he was used to confussion, really. Mwezi had found that the more time he spent with the girl, the further time he spent cofnussed, however, there was something in the words... something in what she'd said... that he dared not put a finger a on. Despite not daring however, he could not keep himself from asking, "Does this mean to say you were worried about what might happen to this Mwezi and thus, by correlation, care?"
He took a moment to sniff haughtingly, though the movement lacked actual ruth behind it for once, "Short of you carrying me, which I doubt you'd be willing, I will have to manage. It is that, or risk facing any brutes that might have been in ally with those barbarians."
Her eyebrow had quirked in wonder as she listened to him slowly draw out the words. Honor was it? Well, she had heard of others fighting for much less and at least his was for a good cause. She was vaguely shocked, but it only showed as a slight tightening of her mouth. She hadn't even sensed them near - and he had, and gone out to try and protect her to boot. It nearly made her smile, though all she truly showed was a twitch at the corner of her mouth. Shutting her eyes, she dipped her head to him, "then I thank you."
She was not stupid, she knew she was too small to fend off a lion, let alone two. If they had found her alone, she surely would have been at risk - but he had done something she had never truly encountered of anyone else. Well, her nany had always saved her from hyenas or other predators when she was small, but this was.. different.
His next words caught her slightly off guard and she opened her eyes to look at him. She took a long few moments to consider what he had asked, obviously trying to work up a response. Finally, with a light and graceful shrug, she chose her answer. "Yes, I was worried, so on some level I care what happens to you." There were many different versions of caring: friends, companions, ..lovers. She just chose not to decide what form she was expressing at the moment.
She sighed, realizing what he was saying was the truth. Thumping her tail lightly against the ground, she glanced towards the cheetah cub once more. "Fine, but let me carry her when one of us needs to. You don't need any more weight to carry." It was a tone that simply said not to argue. They need to travel, yes, but he didn't need to harm himself any further.
"Indeed, you should, as is most natural," feeling himself pad out from on top of the frozen lake he'd been treeding and back on firm land, Mwezi mentaly turned towards the frozen lake in question, pointed a claw and let out a long mental HA! at it. He then proceeded to do a mental (albeit extremely dignified) victory dance on the grounds he had by then determined as 'safe'. However, at her next words, the male felt the 'safe' ground he'd ben treeding somehow snap under his very paws to send him tumbling back down into confussion.
She cared for him?
How very.... odd? Sweet? Nice? ... how very er... something?
Obviously having expected her to either deny it, tease or taunt him back, Mwezi found himself blinking slightly, albeit still somehow managing to remain regal. With each blink, he was trying rather desperately to fire his brain into action but found he could not; instead he was replaying her words in his mind, over and over again, trying to find an indication of ... something that would allow him to skirt around the topic without having to traverse that trecherous frozen lake.
After a minute had gone by, Mwezi gave up trying to go around and merely took a deep breath and dived into a run, attempting to cros the mental lake at top speed, everything be damned, "Indeed?" he drawled, a word which was obvious was swiftly becoming a favorite, "To what level, might I ask, is it that you care about me?" finding it dishonorable to keep on looking away from the female, he let out a mental sigh and turned towards her, watching her under an outwardly languid gaze, even if within he was still doing a mad dash across that god damned lake. He swiftly decided he hated lakes. And ice.
"As you wish," he tilted his head lightly, but kept on watching.
She gritted her teeth at his words, though outwardly only the slight bulge of her jaw muscle made it obvious. She did not want to be having this conversation with him - not when she had not had the time to think it over properly yet. She'd not made the connection that she had been so worried, or that that meant she cared. It was only when he came back and pointed it out that it became obvious, and she was treading her own thin ice as she tried to feel her way around this. Damn him for putting her in such a predicament, a damn herself for walking into it so easily.
"What kind of question is that?" she asked slowly, eyes concentrated on him, but the black depths had smoothed over to become as hard as rocks. "Perhaps you would like to try asking me how far it is before I reach the stars? Or how long it would take to walk to the edge of the world?" She tsked lightly, though she was not truly angry with him persay. She was just aggrivated that she didn't understand it, but fed up with it all the same. That she was losing her cool made it blantantly obvious that something was wrong.
"I don't know," she said finally, knowing he would probably mock her if she did not give him a straight answer. "I was worried that you might be harmed, but how can I know what that truly means? I care, is that not enough for now?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:16 pm
"A very good question," he told her haughtingly, as if really, there was no other way to put it. Dimly, he felt the ice crack under his paws and he idly decided this conversation had to end before he would freeze to death, or from awkwardness. Both of which were also things Mwezi Did Not Do.
After a moment's pause, during which he made a show of actualy looking like he was pondering, he then shook his head, "No, that is not wha I wish to know. Stars are irrelevant in this scenario, as are edges of the world. I am merely interested in the extent of this 'caring', as you would have it, unless you rather not say, which is also a plausible answer; I did ask if you cared to let me know, for which a simple 'no' in thus case would have suficed," that he was getting longwinded in his explanations and logic was more than hint enough to her that he had no idea where he was heading. However, he was content enough to let it go. For now.
Specialy since he could feel his brain was not at its best. Very reminiscent of the way his body was not at it's best; how vexing.
He took in her words as he mentaly skidded out of the frozen lake, having arrived at the other shore. Deciding that was enough, the male nodded, "Yes," he said simply and then got up, turning his head to grab his fluff between his teeth, dragging it to the shade of the tree where the young cub lay. He then procedeed to lay down, curling his body against that of the cheetah's before arching a brow towards the other female, "Come. We shall rest now, and leave at night when the darkness will secure our... safety."
She listened to his words with a small sigh. The boundary of his mind was more than an annoyance at times. His inability to take comparisons like that as she meant them made it harder to get her point across on most occasions. She was sure he knew what she meant this time, but after he spoke, the whole conversation seemed to turn into an untraceable mess.
She was almost relieved when he got up to go sit by the cub, though his summons of her was quite odd. Him leaving meant that she did not have to answer him, but knowing he wanted her to rest was ridiculous. She'd not have been able to rest even if her mind wasn't tumbled into a mess at the moment - she'd spent days doing nothing but waiting and resting.
"Fine," she said softly, slightly stubborn, though she picked herself up and made her way to the tree that he had chosen to rest beneath. She lay down, close but not close enough to be in his personal space, and curled in on herself. She shut her eyes - but she had a feeling there'd be no rest for now.
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