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 Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:13 am
"Rrrrrrr..." The roar started as a growl that tickled the back of her throat. Any moment now and that sound would erupt and she would watch with delight as the animals fled from the song of the lioness. The song of death.
Not that she would actually kill any of them.
Ka'ohu had sprung into adolescence before she had even realised it. She was not long and slender like most girls her age, she had a stocky, burly build to her. In fact, if you stuck a mane on her you might think her a boy. She was not pretty in any sense. She had a large muzzle, coarse and dirty fur and fleas that tipped her whiskers from time to time.
She truly was her father's child.
But neither did she care about her appearance. Why bother to groom when a few steps outside would see your pelt dusty again? She had better things to do than licking. Vanity, she had decided long ago, was for proper ladies. But she weren't no lady. She'd been born in the wild and she sure as hell would act like one.
"RrrrrrrrrrrrRAAAAAR!" And as the roar reached it's height she sprang into the meadow and watched with delight as the vultures flapped in terror, their grotesque wings clouding the air and their angry calls giving her something to be proud of.
Lifting her head high, Ka'ohu moved to check out the carcass. Mm, easy pickings.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:30 am
Perhaps Ahnik was looking for a fight when he heard the roar of the young lioness and decided it was worth investigating, or perhaps he was just really bored.. but he was more than happy to just waltz away from the borders of his home, where he generally stayed but also wandered around, to take a look. He could always find an excuse if anyone got upset with him, he was supposed to be a guard now. He was investigating something that could be dangerous, though his big head told him it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.
Rather grumpy, the young lion stood still as there was a sudden rush of fleeing animals around him. He rolled his eyes and continued once again, his pink and red fur standing out in the dull landscape.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:34 am
And if his ears were keen or he were tall enough to get a good sight over the long grass, Ahnik would have seen a young lioness tugging desperately at the carcass of an antelope that looked as if it had been lying there for a couple of days.
Most of the good meat had gone. All of it in fact. What there had been left had been taken by the vultures and as usual Ka had arrived to late to catch a free meal. Or, a decent free meal, at least.
The sound of snapping bone followed and she almost rolled backwards as the leg came off in her jaws. As it was, she merely staggered and after a moment she pinned the bone beneath her paws and started grinding her teeth against it, desperate for the marrow inside.
Well...scavengers couldn't be choosers! And besides...it was better than nothing.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:45 am
Ahnik was naturally thin though he was reasonably well-fed. He'd learned early on that hunting was an excellent way to vent his frustration and his aggression. And, of course, he was the member of a pride. Pride cats, he assumed, rarely starved. Walking along, he started looking around better now that he was in the general area he'd heard the roar come from. It didn't take much looking to spot the scruffy lioness who appeared to be very busy. It was hard to see what occupied her attention, but the scent and the snapping sound were enough to give it away.
He stopped as watched her stagger, trying to decide in his mind if this was a male or female. It was difficult at a distance, and it didn't look distinctly feminine but it lacked a mane.
Instead of doing anything, or even trying to conceal himself, he stood nearby and merely watched with a neutral (though still somewhat grumpy looking) expression.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:49 am
It took her a while, but finally her teeth worked through bone, splitting it in half to offer the marrow inside. Once this was done she threw aside one half to concentrate her attention on the first. It took her a while but eventually she split the bone enough so that it was easier to get too.
Silently, she thanked her strong jaws for enabling her to complete such a feat.
And she sat crunching on bits of bone and marrow for a long while, her nose filled with the scent of the carcass and nothing else. Eventually, remembering her parent's warnings to make sure no one else tried to steal her kill, she glanced around and was thus startled to see an odd-coloured face looking at her.
She curled a lip and stood, pinning the bone beneath her paw in an effort to 'protect' it. "Hey yous, whatcha lookin' at me like that fer?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 12:03 pm
Ahnik watched for a moment, his nose wrinkling at the sound of more cracking bones. It was not unheard of, no, though it wasn't that appetizing. The fact she was gnawing at bones was also somewhat confusing, scaring off all those prey beasts- why didn't she just grab one and eat that instead? It would certainly be more tasty than that. The way she protected her bones and called out to him made it hard to him not to laugh, though it wouldn't have been a good-natured laugh. Ahnik rarely seemed to be in a genuine good mood, especially since he became an adolescent.
Trying to guess her gender was not a good answer to give, and Ahnik knew that. Saying she was near his pride's lands wasn't perhaps the best, either. She was not intruding, and she wouldn't be unwelcome as long as she didn't break any of the laws. Which basically wasn't hard if you wanted to submit to their dictator.
"Wondering about the roaring when all you have is bones," he replied, stepping closer so as not to need to keep yelling back and fourth if they were going to chat about this. He wasn't all that worried about getting in a fight, so he didn't care how close he got.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 12:14 pm
"I weren't roarin' at bones." She wrinkled her nose, looking down at the bone as if suspecting it might try to escape her whilst she wasn't looking. "They won't run nowheres." And she looked skyward then as if expecting something to fall down from it, maybe to interrupt this odd little conversation they were having.
"Thems birds up there. Vultures. Had to scare 'em off ma lunch, eh?" And she eyed him suspiciously. "Yous ain't hungry are yas? If yah are then I guess you could share. There's enough marrow for the both of us." She didn't sound so keen but she didn't exactly want to be mean to him either. Besides he was the first lion she had met since dwindling from her family's sides.
All the cubs had pretty much gone off on their own way from her litter. It was only right she did too. Shame that she'd never been a great hunter really, else she could have caught herself a nice plump hare.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 12:30 pm
He snorted a short laugh when she explained how she'd scared off the vultures. He'd expected that would be part of her answer, which is why he'd said 'when all you have is bones' because in his opinion.. it'd be more productive and beneficial to just catch something. He opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by her offer to share. Someone with so little to offer and apparently being so desperate that they had to take what bones they got.. it was very unexpected.
"No, I'm fine," he answered with a bit of an attitude that suggested he wasn't real keen on munching on some old bones, "Why don't you just catch something a little more.. ah.. fresh?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 12:34 pm
She gave him a look that seemed to say; 'are you mad?' and then she laughed. "But that takes a lotta work, eh? All I had to do was roar a bit and they were off. Free meal!" She waved a paw at the carcass, clearly proud and clearly used to eating this sort of thing.
"'Sides, yah have to take what yah find out here, eh?" And then she continued. "Anyways, I tried it before. Almost got stabbed by antelope horns. They're pretty nasty if they manage to spike yous." She shuddered. "Dead things can't do naught."
She rolled the bone beneath a paw. "No one ever says but they're actually pretty tough!"
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 10:18 am
"Pfft," he snorted when she argued, saying antelope were dangerous and that carrion was easily accessible with a simple roar. She wasn't wrong, but at the same time it was totally unreasonable in Ahnik's mind and from his reasonably-well-fed stomach.
"No, you leave the big stuff like antelope to the lionesses," he said as if it were obvious, but he realized the comeback for that in time, "Groups, I mean. They can't spike all of you. But things like hares, or those little antelope things. Smaller stuff. It takes work but it's much tastier than old bones."
Ahnik made a face, he liked bones on a reasonable level in his own opinion. He wouldn't make a meal out of them unless he was really desperate though. This lioness was lively enough to roar, protect her meal from him and carry on a conversation. She could do it if she wanted, if she could hunt like a lioness was supposed to be able to do.
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 12:30 am
"Yous reckon I can't hunt, eh?" She left the carcass and bounced forwards, eyeing him as she might eye a zebra standing all alone in the field. "I can. If that's what yous was thinking."
She hadn't had much practice, that much was true. After her mother deemed her good enough to join a hunting party if she ever joined a pride, she had left her to her own devices. Sadly, a couple days of starvation and an easy meal scavenged from vultures had left her lazy. She was out of practice and too happy to find a quick, easy meal.
She began circling then, moving lower with each slow step. She moved as a well-taught lioness would. Slow, cautious, calculating. But there was none of that wily steel in her mind. It was in her movement but it was clear she wasn't fully in the 'zone.'
Then without warning a playful snarl tore free and she came bounding at him.
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Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:32 pm
"Maybe," he replied aggressively, not afraid to agree to it even if it wasn't quite what had been on his mind. Ahnik didn't always think before he acted, but his tone wasn't as malicious as it could have been. He watched her argue, mildly impressed to see her actually doing something, responding and proving he was wrong. He smirked at her when she began circling him, lower himself in a defensive position more fitting for someone trained better for fighting than for hunting. He could hunt small things for himself but left the bulk of it to the lionesses, his job was more defensive and his aggression also led to more offensive.
His smile didn't change as she circled, watching her move with a suspicious lack of conviction. But he was ready when she snarled and bounded forward, bracing himself to jump out of the way.
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Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:38 pm
And when he evaded her, she gave a small huff of irritation. She felt for sure that she should have pinned him, or atleast caught him with her forepaws before he sidled out of reach.
Damn male!
She whisked around to follow after him, her stocky build making her less agile than the slender, delicate ones of her gender.
She shook her head and wrinkled her nose. "Yeah well, yous ain't prey-food." She stuck her tongue out at him and flopped onto her rump to scratch vigorously behind an ear. "Yous just a lion without no proper mane."
The itch was so bad that she was scratching for a good long while and eventually she lost her balance and tipped over on the grass, paws flailing as she tried to regain herself.
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Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:57 pm
"No, I'm not," he agreed, relaxing a bit when he was successful in avoiding her 'attack'. It was good to see he wasn't completely incompetent when it came to a real scenario, or as real as this was. He glowered when she commented on how he didn't have a proper mane, watching her scratch and taking a step back. He didn't want fleas, thanks.
"I'll have a mane," he argued, though his attention seemed more on watching the lioness scratch. She was too distracting or he might have come up with an insult to toss back at her.
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Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:15 am
She rolled onto her belly and drew both ears forwards, eyes narrowing slightly as she glowered at him. "One day, maybe." She replied. "I heard that sometimes males dun get no mane, ever." There was a light in her eyes that suggested she was teasing.
"Ah'm glad I won't ever have no mane. They look heavy and scruffy, dun they?" She paused to nibble at some dirt between her toes and then stood, shaking herself vigorously.
"Itching....is...getting worse!" She complained out loud.
"Do yous have a cure for the itchies?" She started stepping closer to him again, glancing the carcass out of the corner of her eye.
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