Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jeraha had slept well throughout the night, though his dreams had been anything but pleasant. Mentioning his father had been more than enough to bring back painful memory in the warped workings of his clouded mind. Off-colored, somewhat distorted views of the various moments where his old male had proven himself to be a completely evil, monster of a lion.

Fatigue alone kept him from waking up in fright.

The sun stirred him come the morning, its light reddening his world just enough to disturb him from what had finally become a peaceful, dreamless sleep. Irritated, his expression hardened for a moment, his heading turning against the ground. No. Too early.

Five more minutes.

Opening his eyes, the male let out a low growl as the morning itself, blinking a couple of times and raising his head. First he noticed he was very sore, and for a moment he didn’t seem to know where he was. It was only when his eyes fell on Chikala that he recalled what had happened. How they had come to meet. Kept him from trying to attack her.

“Do you just stare at people when they sleep to make them so uncomfortable they have to wake up?” he asked in a grunt.

“It’s fine,” Jeraha grumbled lowly, though decided to let the incident slide for now. It was too early in the morning to be making enemies again. The large male was not one who dealt well with early rises. Though it didn’t seem possible, it made him crankier than normal most days. Today, however, he felt oddly serene. Like the slight of being forced to up his eyes prematurely wasn’t that big a deal as it had been more the sun’s fault than the girl’s anyway.

A minor detail he normally wouldn’t have taken into consideration.

“No,” he lied, “my wounds are fine.” On that he pushed himself to his feet, finding it easier to do than it had been the day before. At least the leaf that had almost paralyzed his body hadn’t lingered; there didn’t seem to be any trace of it left in his system. Unfortunately, it felt as though there wasn’t a trace of anything left in him. His wounds were stinging again, especially the ones under his chest. Not being the type to bother others with his problems, feeling as though Chikala had helped enough, he decided to keep himself quiet on the matter of his injuries. He sat down, looking around the unfamiliar area. “What kind of food can one find here?” he asked, “I’m starving-what are you looking at?” he asked, following her gaze to the trees.

When she looked at him, smiling, Jeraha grew awkward. Shifting on his sore paws, the larger animal frowned. Niceness still made him nervous. What was she plotting behind those kind red eyes? Did he even want to know?

“It doesn’t matter to me,” he replied, “stop smiling at me like that. You’re making my skin crawl.” He moved forward, limping faintly on his front left leg. He did his best not to look at the female, keeping his cold exterior up as always. No real good came from making friends anyway. Putting your trust in another only led to one thing: pain. Being hurt. And then, with that loyalty supposedly established, it made things all the more horrible. Indeed, it was better to be betrayed by an acquaintance than a friend.

Every so often he found himself wondering which was actually worse; getting hurt or being alone. The two were at war, the latter his life and almost no better than the former. Was it really worth it?

He wasn’t quite ready to find out.

“I can’t hunt like this. I suppose I’ll have to fish,” he concluded after a short interlude of blinding silence.

Whoops. He had upset her. For a moment he considered apologizing for the unprompted snap, but soon thought better of it. No need to waste oxygen on words that weren’t really true- he didn’t care if she was upset or not. Not feeling like she was hiding something from him was worth her displeasure.

A rather good deal, actually.

Limping after her, Jeraha made no sound sans the occasional stifled protest to pain. His tail swayed from one direction to the other, low to the ground to save him some energy. Her silence, he knew, came from the previous anger. No doubt she was avoiding a fight with him. It was a little disheartening. What fun was in quiet? He wanted to speak to her, if only to make her feel like an idiot again.

Or maybe just to break the unbearable silence, he wasn’t sure which.

Stopping beside her, he looked into the water. The area was nice. Pretty. “Alright,” was all he could say about the scenery, “I haven’t fished before,” he commented almost under his breath, “you’ll have to show me how to do it.” God, did that hurt. He just took comfort in knowing that he was just asking her to show him how, not to do it for him. Never in a million years would he let her catch his food for him.

Jeraha nodded slowly, only because he felt he had no other options. He knew trying to learn on his own would mean scaring the fish and making things harder on the both of them. At least if she fished first they would have something to eat. Rather, she would have something to eat. Pride dictated he would not touch anything she caught. It wasn’t just because she was girl and he didn’t take pity. It was just him who needed to eat, after all.

He would rather go hungry than see her suffer on his behalf. If only one of them had food, it would be her.

“Very well,” he said, “don’t keep the fish waiting then.” He made sure he was comfortable, watching her intently to make sure he would be able to mimic her moves when it came time to do so. He was unsure of himself-fishing was not something he often dealt with in the rogue lands. Should he make himself look like a fool in front of this girl someone would have to pay for it.

Watching, Jeraha couldn’t fight the fact that he was impressed.

“You don’t have to get anything for me,” he grunted quickly, watching the fish and ignoring the gnawing of his stomach in protest to the declining of food. He watched her carefully, narrowing his eyes. Why was it so hard for him to tell her to shove off and eat it herself? Never had he run into such a problem previously. Now he watched the fish, more than hunger keeping him from swatting it out of her grasp in a show of displeasure.

He wasn’t making a friend. No way.

“You eat it,” he added gruffly after a moment, “I’ll try catching my own. I don’t need pity.” He moved away from her, limping slowly towards the water. Getting wet wasn’t a favorite pass time of his, but it had to be done. The water stung at his wounds, but felt comforting as the same time. Least it helped clean the blood off his gray fur. He looked into the water, debating whether or not he would actually try to catch one of the fish and risk hurting himself.

“What are you going to do?” Jeraha barked back, peering over his shoulder at her. He raised his head a bit, as though making point out of the difference in height. “Are you going to bump into me and hope I fall into the water? Why don’t you sit back and stop being such a pain in the a**? I asked you to show me how to fish- not do it for me. I’m not the one who’s not listening, now am I?” He watched her with a satisfied smirk, before his eyes followed hers to the fish. So she was still plotting to fish, even though he had told her he didn’t want her help. Annoying.

Very annoying.

“Just forget it,” he sighed, irritated. Turning around, he let his tail swish against the water, purposefully trying to startle the fish she was going after. New plan. If she was going to be like that than he would just have to be a jerk again. She would learn his ways or leave him be. Compromising was not an option. Removing himself from the water, the male limped a little towards the brush. Why should he stay? They weren’t getting on. Still, he stopped before the foliage, looking back at the female to see how she was reacting to it all.