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 Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:08 pm
 Hadaya was running again. He did it so often, he was beginning to believe it was the only thing he could do well. Of course, then he took the time to look at the blurs of the trees around him and note how short they were, and how dull the wind blowing over his fur seemed to feel. So he ran, but did not do so very quickly. That hardly made him good at it.
Still, if it made a difference, if it helped him grow some muscle and become more intimidating than his current thin, frail frame allowed, then he would keep at it. Even if he had already run over one creature before, and had crashed into a number of trees and rocks. No pain, no gain.
Leaping over a small rock, in order to avoid tripping and falling, he landed with too much forward momentum, tripped and fell. He skidded across the plain for a moment, inhaling a cloud of dust and smashed grass. Sneezing, he got to his feet, shaking his head as his nose twitched and threatened to suffocate him. He sneezed three or four times in a row, each time shaking his head as if to clear his nasal passages, and soon found himself very dizzy.
Stumbling forward, he tripped once again, this time on something much larger and softer than the pebble he had put so much effort into avoiding and subsequently ushered this current sorry state on. with a yelp he realized he had landed on top of another animal, and he rolled away dramatically, not stopping until he splashed into a small water hole. Gasping, he hauled himself away from the water, so scattered and freaked out he hardly knew which way to look.
He knew he had probably sneezed on whatever animal he had tripped on, but his head was spinning so wildly he could not now locate it. So he yelped out an "I'm sorry, I was dizzy!" to the entire area.
He just hoped whatever it was didn't have very large teeth and a bad attitude.
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 8:55 pm
Apollo was resting. He was thinking, he was dreaming. He was doing everything he usually did. Except this time he wasn't thinking about new ways to 'get the girl', like he used to. Right now, Apollo the All Amazing Purple Lady-killer was trying to calm this overriding fear he had. This fear of emotions he couldn't explain, this fear of being around people for more then a day....THIS FEAR OF NORMAL LIFE.
And it seemed as if life didn't believe thinking was a good way to rid oneself of social retardation, as that was what Apollo had, and instead opted to hand him a physical 'fixer-upper', so to speak.
And this time it was in the form of a small lion.
A small, stumbling, wailing lion.
"OOFH." Apollo remarked unintelligibly, his whole body moving a bit at the impact. And then the warm soft pressure was gone as the lion rolled away from him. There was splash, and Apollo turned his head, watching the other roll into the water then splash about.
He knew it was rude, but there was a laugh now bubbling up his throat, and the violet lion laughed so hard at the sight that he thought his sides would split. It was comical, the way this new creature acted.
He continued to laugh as the other pleaded forgiveness, and shook his head.
"N-no!" he laughed a little more, then continued, "You are f-fine!" he giggled a little, "I can understand being dizzy, you were sneezing your poor brains out!"
Apollo chuckled then and smiled, ignoring the growing fear of confrontation with another lion for any other reason besides a quick 'roll in the hay', and added, "Are you alright?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:06 pm
Hadaya was being laughed at. Sitting in a puddle, most of which had come from the water dripping off his fur, blinking and still slightly dazed from his sneezing fit, the aching young lion focused on the source of the creature torn by the hilarity of it all. Frowning miserably, he watched the purple lion as he tried to master himself long enough to speak.
Water dripped into his nose as he drew a deep breath to heave a sigh with, and he sneezed again. He let out a forlorn wail, giving up and dropping to his stomach, his legs splayed out around him as he flattened himself against the floor. There was no point in standing. The muddy earth was good enough.
"I'm fine," he said, moving his paws over his face and speaking through the weight of his top jaw now that it was supporting his paws, "I'm great. I didn't mean to run into you. Are you okay? I hope I didn't wake you from a good dream. It'd be a bad way to wake up from a good dream, just to talk to me."
His lithe frame shuddered as he finally heaved that sight he wanted to, his rib cage prominent under his yellow fur and expanding so much it looked like it might explode, only to cave in with such a profound misery that it threatened now to implode. He was having a bad day, and did not want to do anything more to add to it. All he wanted was to sink into the mud and vanish from this embarrassing, awkward situation he had somehow tripped into.
"Sorry, man."
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:16 pm
Apollo frowned. He did not mean to insult the poor lion, and did not like that this silly young one was apologizing to him. Definitely did not like it.
"Don't be such a pity party!" she said, pushing off his rock and padding over to the other lion, "I wasn't dreaming," a lie, but what ever, "and I don't mind chatting with others. It is nice to see another lion such as my self." Apollo grinned, and then it faltered as the poor boy sighed so deeply the ground could have shook because of it. He was slightly surprised that the sadness around his poor lion didn't suddenly cause the wonderful day to become rainy and soggy!
"Don't say sorry!" Apollo whined, and then pawed the lion, "Come on. I am sorry! I shouldn't have laughed! You just...you brightened up my day," it was true too! He hadn't laughed in a while, and it felt good. "Don't be so down. At least you aren't like this little energy ball of a dog that I met the other day. She chased my meal off! All you did was stumble into me," and wake me from my depressing emotions!
Apollo grinned again and laid down in front of the other lion, so that they would be eye to eye, and grinned, "Here. Let's start this off as if I hadn't laughed at you and you hadn't fallen into the water. Okay? Okay, here it goes." He closed his eyes, then opened them, and pretending to be shocked, said:
"Oh wow! Another lion! Why hello lion who did not stumble into me before! I am Apollo, and you are?"
He may be afraid of social contact, but that didn't mean Apollo wasn't compassionate.
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:39 pm
Pity party? That sounded about as much fun as Hadaya was capable of in that moment. He peeked out from under his paws as he felt a shadow fall over him, spying the feet of the lion he had crashed into padding closer. Covering his eyes again, he shook his head and, due to the limited mobility, his whole body moved.
"I'm sorry!" he said, in direct response to being told not to say sorry. He moved his paws from his face at the jabbing, looking up enough to lift his face from the floor, "I brightened your day? I didn't mean to, but I guess that's good. Better than making you angry."
He watched carefully as the other lion laid beside him, a bit too uncomfortably close for his liking. Still dripping wet, depressed, and embarrassed, he watched as the other lion shut his eyes and adopted a new character. Or at least a new scene for the old character to play in. Not a great actor, Hadaya sat in silence for a long moment before he realized he had just been cued.
"Oh, uh. Hello, lion I did not smash into or wake up a few minutes ago. I'm Hadaya. It's... uhm... nice to meet you? What... er... what... what brings you out here?"
He felt silly, but if the other was willing to start over, who was he to argue?
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Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:37 am
Apollo grinned, chuckled once more, and rolled to the side, and then stood up. "Now, that is a good question. One I should ask you as well. You see..." he paused. Why was he here? The panic nibbled at his brain, because this was a question with several answers, and the reactions for each answer were not controllable. But he supposed it would not hurt to give some reply.
"I am...I live here. I suppose. I am waiting for someone," he shifted, and frowned. Was he waiting for Oboe? Or his sister? He quickly chose his sister (though he was still uncertain). "Any way, I am curious now as to why you are out this way," it was interesting, seeing a young male such as this Hadaya, out alone.
But Apollo was not one to remark on odd ways of other lions, seeing as he was such a scaredy cat he could barely leave this sunning rock and shady tree with out worrying about getting lost. Though with a direction sense like Apollo's, one could understand his worry.
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Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:19 pm
"I just wander around," Hadaya admitted uselessly. He shrugged his thin shoulders, sitting up and watching the other lion carefully. There was something off about this new acquaintance. Something unsure, nervous. Familiar. Sighing, he tilted his head and offered a bit more of an explanation.
"I don't have a family or a home, so I just wander around and find different places to rest. I didn't know you lived here, though. Not that I was going to stop here. Not on purpose, anyway. Kind of funny," he grinned thinly, knowing his joke was already stupid, before it had even been pronounced, "bumping into you like this."
He wondered vaguely who Apollo might be waiting for. He certainly did not want to keep this relative stranger from an important meeting. Blinking, he wondered why he wasn't telling him as much. So he did, "I'm sorry, I don't want to get in the way if you're meeting someone. I, uh... I could just... go..."
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Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:57 pm
Apollo was easily amused, and chuckled lightly at his new...friend's -was this lion, Hadaya his friend? No...not now, but an acquaintance at least!- joke, and his eyes glinted. It was nice hearing someone say something funny. His conversation with Nima had been much more serious.
Hady sounded like his lived a life much like Apollo, though it seemed he did not enjoy the freedom as much...Apollo frowned, and shook his head softly.
"Nah, stay a while. I don't get to meet others often. And you are interesting," he smiled again, "Funny too. Tell me, did you ever had a family? A mother perhaps? Or..." he frowned, imagining a mother leaving her cub alone to defend for itself made his heart ache, but he knew it happened. "Were you always alone? Tell me a little about yourself!"
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 4:38 pm
Hadaya frowned, not much for this line of questioning. He felt he had recounted his life's story too many times recently, and it was wearing on him. And if he was getting tired of hearing it, he could only imagine how others would take it. Heaving a sigh, he shook his head.
"I had a family, yeah. Mom and dad. And some siblings, I think, but I was so little I can only remember one time with them, when we were all together. There were only three of us, I think. But then my parents asked me to go find them something, so I could show them I wasn't completely useless, and I tried. I was coming back and they were all gone."
There was more to it than that, of course, but he didn't imagine Apollo wanted to hear his sob story at the moment. Hadn't he just been called funny? Hadaya would much rather make someone laugh, on purpose or not, than have them feel depressed by him. Inevitably, the young yellow lion always killed the mood. It was something he was working on changing.
"What about you?" he asked, hoping it wasn't as stupid a question as it sounded in his head, "have you always been on your own? Do you like it very much? I mean, this little spot is pretty nice. A bit wet, but nice." He was still dripping, which he thought made his comment a bit more comical.
Or maybe he was trying too hard.
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Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 1:18 pm
Apollo tilted his head. How could one's family just up and leave their cub!?
A little roll of anger thundered through the lions chest, but he locked it up. To many emotions as of late, he had to be careful when expressing them. So instead the violet lion nodded, a look of 'I understand' on his face, though there was no pathetic pity, for he knew most hated it when other pitied them. Understanding was one thing, pitying was another.
His own life had not been perfect, bittersweet at best, and Apollo also felt uncomfortable with outlining his entire life, but if Hadaya was kind enough to share something with him, would it not be fair to give the yellow lion a peek into his own life?
"I had a mother as well, no father though. My mother disliked him very much, and I never met him. She was a grumpy lady, and much tougher then me. I never learned to hunt really, and then when I had just hit adulthood, even if I was still immature, she kicked me out. Demanded I find my own family. I got lost, and couldn't find my way back, and had no idea where I was going. I met another lion, well lioness. She ended up being, can you believe it?, my sister!" Okay, so he was getting excited! Could you blame him. There was a twinkle in Apollo's eye now, "She was the exact opposite of me, well, in personality. Serious, strong, brave, not afraid to explore the world! She was a great hunter too...." was it the light in the sky, now darkening as a cloud drifted over head, was was the light in Apollo's eyes fading?, "But she disappeared a while back...I waited here for her. I still haven't met my father."
He turned his head to the side, and then gave another laugh, and a different, though just as wonderful, light came to his eyes as he finally got his companions little joke. He looked over the still wet lion and smirked, "It is nice, isn't it? And I suppose I like...this aloneness," okay, that was a lie. "But...well, never mind. I am fine alone." He had to convince himself that he didn't want Oboe back. Even if he did.
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Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:29 pm
"At least you can remember her..." he said, not very good at finding the silver lining as far as Apollo's parents were concerned. He did feel a spark of happiness when the older lion mentioned he had found his sister. It seemed such a strange, fortuitous happenstance, something that Hadaya was wholly unfamiliar with. Unless bad luck counted, just on the other end of the spectrum.
And then he heard she disappeared, and his fleeting hope in the nature of the world died a cruel, painful death. It was inevitable. The world only worked in one way: it tested every one and every thing, and it never let up. Happiness was fleeting, and the bad times out numbered the good ten to one. It was a constant struggle, finding the will and, ultimately, justification to keep on living when life only threw the short end of the stick. And the short end was the sharp end.
Of course, that was all too profound for Hadaya to articulate accurately. Instead, he grumbled incoherently for a moment before sputtering out, "I'm sorry. I'm sure you'll find her again."
He looked up into the other lion's face when he said he was fine alone. Something told Hadaya that was not a true statement, and the young yellow lion tilted his head when he noticed Apollo's expression. Not familiar with love, he could not fathom what was going on in the older male's head, and thus could offer no more wisdom on the matter than, "Being alone sucks a lot of the time."
Shrugging his lean shoulders, he shook his head, "I'm always alone, and sometimes it gets hard, you know, to deal with. I start getting this tightness in my chest, and I just want to talk to someone. Anyone, you know? But I'm no good at it, so most of the time I just don't, and deal with the alone... ness."
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Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:07 am
Apollo decided that this family subject was getting them no where. Only digging them into a hole of sadness. So he merely nodded at Hady's sputtered mumbled comment, though he did smile a little, silently saying 'Thanks Hady, and I am sure you will find as family as well.'
When Hady glanced at him, he knew that his little 'I am fine alone' act hadn't worked, and glanced away. He couldn't stand it that people could read him so easily, but he supposed that was both his weakness and his charm, and as he glanced out into the savannah, he let Hadaya's words ring clear in his mind. It was true too, especially as of late. Being alone was horrible.
"I am glad you found me then," he said with another smile, head turning back to his companion, "Because I understand that feeling," he tilted his head a little, and added, "It is nice...meeting a friend."
Friend.
He wanted this now, friendship, something that had frightened him so much before. And well, if Hadaya wanted it as well, Apollo wouldn't mind adding another friend to his list.
"You can talk to me when ever. I don't travel much, really."
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Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 3:44 pm
Looking up, Hadaya had never been called Hady before. No one had come up with a nickname for him before, and it hadn't registered to him that he deserved one. Blinking, he smiled honestly, glad to have a friend as well.
"Yeah, it's pretty neat," he offered, shrugging again and looking at the ground before it got too awkward. He nodded as Apollo said he did not travel much. The same could not be same for Hadaya, though. He wandered around too much, but he had been lingering in this area for a while now. It seemed a good idea to remain where he had managed to find some friends.
"I just wander around, but if you want to talk to me again then I wouldn't... mind coming back and talking to you, if you're around and still want to... or whatever. I don't know. Maybe that's not what you meant. But anyway, I'm a good listener at least. Because I never know what to say, so I don't interrupt. So... yeah. If you needed it..."
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:39 pm
Hadaya was, it seemed, in many ways exactly like Apollo. Sure, Apollo seemed social and chattery, like a cub, but under it all lingered his fear or rejection of commitment, of trusting another with his feelings. And Hadaya? He seemed to have turmoil as well. Apollo almost found himself asking the question 'What is wrong with you?', but halted himself, because that would be rude, and well...he didn't think Hadaya would much like it.
"It seems," he chuckled, "I am the only one who does not wander." There was a smile on both his lips and in his eyes as he spoke, and Apollo stretched a little, getting comfortable on the warm ground. "Thanks, Hady, it is good to know people are always willing to listen," Apollo tilted his head a little and added, as if in afterthought, "I can always listen if you wanna talk, as well. You know?"
There was a pause then, and Apollo rolled onto his back, staring up at the clouds as they drifted past. It was a beautiful day, and he sighed, rather loudly. "Hady....have you ever loved someone?" he mumbled, the thought out and vocalized before he could really contemplate the whole question through. He winced soon after, berating himself. But made no action to change the question.
Because maybe that was what was missing now. Love.
Even if it scared him.
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:50 pm
Hadaya felt as if he had been punched in the stomach. Sure, he had offered to be a good ear, and even attempt to be conversational, but he hadn't been expecting to leap into those duties quite so suddenly. He knew nothing about love, having never experienced it for any one or any thing since his parents, who he imagined had it all, left him.
"No, I don't think so," he said truthfully, searching his head for an acquaintance that might be close. He had met many creatures he liked recently, but didn't know any of them well enough to consider a stronger word for it. The first face that came to his head was Sinasina's, but she was a much older leopard who now had a family. She treated him like a son, and he wondered if he loved her like a mother. Frowning, he imagined he just liked her like one.
After all, his mother had not been all that great, in the end.
"But I don't really know anyone to love, you know? I guess making friends is kind of a little bit of love, when you trust someone and you feel like you can count on them. But that's not the same, I guess. You love someone? What's that like?"
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