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 Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 3:35 pm
 Doto swatted his tail against the hot ground fairly impatiently. It was nearing midday, the sun high in the cloudless blue above, and he had not yet received a sign that his newest acquaintance, though not quite a friend, was coming. They had not set up a time or day to meet again, after their encounter with the gazelle.
He was sitting near the tree where he had first found her, where their conversation had first revealed their similar, albeit not too much so, natures. Truthfully, he could not express why he was waiting for her to appear again, beyond a willing concession of being bored. Not willing to admit that he had perhaps found a friend, he convinced himself that there was no one else worth talking to.
And he had nothing better to do that day.
So he waited, watching the horizon, not knowing what direction she might be traveling from. Sniffing the air, he wanted the scent of blood to greet him again, as it had before, so he would know she was approaching. The dried, picked over remains of her failed art project, the mouse she had torn up, were still lingering where they had been left. Apparently no one and no thing had wanted to get too near the mess.
He could only imagine what had become of the gazelle.
Sighing, he settled down on his paws, laying down in a lazy sprawl under the sun.
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Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:24 pm
 "Oh man... I'm late." Giza muttered under her breath as she picked up the pace, knowing that her new friend wouldn't be pleased about that. Really... she didn't even have an excuse this time.
She had just over-slept... she couldn't help that though. She had been up all night with her family, and she couldn't very well let her siblings show her up in front of her parents!
She was, after all, still highly competative... desire for art and death and glory and... all that other stuff aside. But she wasn't about to miss out on time with Doto. Really, he was far too much fun not to see again. She couldn't very well run off. Not a chance.
She grinned when she saw him, waving, "Hey! Doto!" She strangely didn't smell as much of blood as the last time they had met. She had either washed it off, or hadn't killed or... maimed anything since they had last seen each other.
The gazelle was still such a fond memory...
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Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:02 pm
Doto stood as he spotted her approaching, his tail swishing behind him in subdued excitement. He was still young, after all, and susceptible to childish eagerness when things he wanted were happening. Drawing a deep breath, a small effort to age himself a bit, he nodded at her as she called to him in greeting.
"Hello, Giza," he said, smirking, "you don't smell like blood today. Haven't been having much time for art recently? Though, after that gazelle, I don't think you'd be in a rush. It was pretty good, for our first hunt and all other things considered, don't you think?"
He grinned, using those offhanded remarks as a segue into a relatively normal greeting, "It's good to see you again, anyway. I've been bored at home, and I didn't really think you would come. What have you been up to?"
Not knowing her family very well, he had either forgotten or had never heard that she did not keep the same kind of schedule as he did. His family was active during the day, and only into the early hours of the darkness. The sun dictated their actions, not the shadows of the night. Moving closer to her and sitting down to encourage a bit of conversation between them, he looked at her with his swimming, fathomless red eyes and waited patiently to hear about her day.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:41 am
Giza yawned, loudly, cracking her back, "Good to see you too Doto! But nope... not enough time for art since the gazelle, dad has really been urging us to work with Kyra..." She did realize, after mentioning this, that Doto would have no idea who Kyra was... nor did he know much about her father. Or her mother, or her siblings really... But in general, she had always been taught to be very secrative about her relatives.
So, secrative she was.
"Anyway! Fun to see you again! I had to tell everyone I was tired yesterday so I could go to bed early and we could play more today!" She grinned, seeming quite pleased with herself for figuring that much out, "But don't you worry Doto! I always keep my word. If I say I'm going to show, I'll show!"
Giza was most certainly feeling childlike... well, certainly not innocence, but childlike excitement most certainly. She had been looking forward to seeing Doto again ever since they had caught the gazelle together. The first ever art project that had turned out exactly how she wanted it too... perhaps that would help her figure out how to try again with the feild mice.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:27 pm
"That's good. I don't like wasting my time. Not that I was doing anything back at the den. My siblings are relentlessly annoying. I'd much rather hang out with you. One of my brothers talks to rocks and trees. I think I hate him the most, but it's pretty close."
Grinning, was excited by the idea of playing with her again. He didn't know what they might do, but anything was better than enduring his brothers and sisters, or his parents. His father was the only bearable one, but only because Doto saw him as a capable rival rather than anything else.
Her comment about going to bed early did not really register to him, and he all but missed her drop the name of someone he was not familiar with. Not the best at listening and engaging in conversation, he kept his minds on the points he wanted to cover, rather than accommodating the natural flow of the talk.
"What do you want to do today? I'm pretty sure it's still too soon to try another big art project, but we could easily find something else to do. I just don't know what. The last game I played was hide and seek, and that was stupid."
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 5:00 pm
Giza couldn't help but laugh a little, "Hide and seek? How dull. When my siblings and I play, we have much higher stakes than that..." She grinned, fondly remembering her last game of 'hide and seek' which had been a lot more like 'hide and hunt'. Much more fun. It was more like... deciding who was stealthy enough to get the upper hand on the other siblings. She had been excellent at it.
"And a brother who talks to rocks?" Giza burst out laughing, "That's pathetic!" She stopped abruptly, "Might as well be talking to something dead and rotting... much more company. Don't you think? At least that has some worms inside it." Now that seemed to amuse the young lioness even more.
"Still, I'm sure we'll find something to do... the gazelles are all too afraid to let their babies run free now... since I sent them back such a nice gift." She grinned, remembering her art fondly, "Poor little thing... all blind and lame with no tongue to tell them what I did... oh well. At least they know there's someone scary out there." That seemed enough to amuse her.
Then she tried to think of something else they could play. Maybe something she had her siblings did? It would be interesting to see how her new friend would fare with her 'assassin' training.
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:35 pm
"No, I don't think that. Dead things, bugs, rocks. Most other animals: nothing worth talking to. My brother is an idiot. Most of my family are. But they can do things their way, and I'll do them mine. I don't find 'playing nice' with other things all that important. Just other lions, I think. And even then, there are limits."
Tilting his head, he arched an eyebrow. He remembered the gazelle, and while it would have been fun to do something similar he knew they were in no position to push their luck. A simple game between them would have to suffice.
"We could always practice hunting. We did really good that first time, but there's always room for improvement, I guess."
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 12:40 pm
Giza couldn't help but laugh and clap her paws together, "What idiots they sound like! Your family... no fun! No fun at all! There are much more interesting things to do than talk to some old rocks! So lame... and besides, no matter what you do to a rock... it never cares." From her expression, it was obvious that at some point in her life, Giza had tried to make a rock cry. It didn't seem to have gone well.
"Hunting? We could do something like that... there are plenty of mice around here, and they're never smart enough to learn how to come back... even though I seem to get my claws in them all the time." Giza grinned, flexing her claws and grinning, "But we should make plans... you like those, don't you? And if we both know what the other is going to do... I bet we'll be able to catch anything!"
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:30 pm
"I do like plans, yes," Doto grinned. He didn't know if they need a plan to catch mice, but if there was a rabbit or something bigger or faster to find, then they would be in a good position if they already had a plan, "mice are probably about as stupid as rocks. But at least mice bleed. And make noises. They're not really screams, though, so much as... high pitched squeaks."
Shaking his head, he pounded his paws against the earth, a bit more excited than he probably should have shown. It wasn't very often he got to play a game he wanted to play, always stuck with playing nice with his family. Or getting in trouble for not playing nice. But Jeraha was not around right now, and that made life much more free.
"Let's find a rabbit, or something like that! I'm actually hungry, so I might have to eat it if you don't mess it up too much."
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Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 12:12 pm
Giza nodded, feeling a little on the peckish side herself. She could use something like a rabbit... besides, it might help her to stay awake longer. "Sounds good to me... We did pretty well with the gazelle, just going off signals, but I bet you can come up with something neater, if you have more time."
Giza did love a good plan, though she wasn't always the best at coming up with them. Sure, she could pull torture out of a hat without thinking twice... but actually getting around to doing things... well, she was a one trick poney, unless her dad had already set the idea in her head.
And Doto was good... This was going to take 'learning' to a whole new level. She could hardly wait.
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Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:11 pm
Doto nodded. Their system for the gazelle had worked flawlessly, but it was a bit too straight forward for the devious lion's tastes. He liked tricks and traps, and did not care too much if his plans ended up making a hunt long and difficult. When they succeeded, they were more than worth the build up.
He looked thoughtful, but found he was distracted by the silence. Perhaps the only creature that needed conversation in order to think better, he looked at Giza inquisitively.
"I don't know much about you, besides, I guess, you're inner workings. So... what do you think? Want to tell me about your family or something? I know that sounds silly, but I think we should at least got to know one another, you know. For our hunts and games."
And because he simply wanted to know more about her. He didn't add that part, though.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:52 pm
"Me?" Giza pointed at herself and giggled, "Oh... Wow, you want to know about me. Let me see... I live with my dad, and my mom, and our trainer-big-sister-Kyra." She said, seeming quite proud, "And then I have... Two sisters and my brother. We're all in training to be like my dad... I think he'd be dissapointed if we didn't wind up like him..." She grinned evilly, "But of course... I plan to be better than all of them combined. What fun would life be if I didn't try to be?"
She laughed, "We're just very good at being... bad." Giza looked at Doto, tilting her head to the side, "What about you? What's your family like? Do you come outside during the day, or do you move around at night?" She didn't even think that her last question might be odd.
Mercs moved around during the day. Lions on the lamb -so to speak- moved around at night, as far as she knew anyway.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 11:03 pm
"Being bad, huh? That doesn't sound like a hard thing to be. Training for it is a bit much, don't you think? Or are you just not telling me something?" Doto's red eyes flashed and he smirked, baring only one side of his teeth, "in any case, I'd bet everything I know that you'd be better than them all."
"My family is... ridiculous. My mom is a push over, and my dad tried to be a jerk but everyone knows he's squishy soft. I don't really hang out with my sisters, and only two of my brothers really talk to me. And only at their own risk. Jani is the one that talks to rocks, and Kavu only wants to impress our father. To me, Jeraha is more a rival than role model."
He frowned at her last question, "we sleep at night, and come out during the day. Is that not what you do?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 9:53 am
Giza giggled a little, flashing her teeth as she smiled at him, "Being bad is harder than you think... and what my daddy does is a big secret. I wouldn't want someone finding out and then blabbing about it... because if he and Kyra aren't around to train us, then we won't grow up to be as strong as they are. You could say we're... wanted dead or alive." She seemed to be quite proud of that.
"Ha! Your family sounds so boring... at least mine is aiming to do bad things when we get older... and my dad is already a big shot because of what he's done... talk about a snooze-fest. You would be better suited living with me and mine." She decided, nodding. At least her family was a well-known-wanted group of killers. She knew that much... after all, it was what she was being trained for. Not her fault that she didn't want to kill things.
No. No, killing was so dull.
"We're only supposed to go out at night... when we have the advantage." She grinned, then she sighed, "Or at least my daddy, my brother and my sister do... Mom, me and my other sister don't get special night vision... no fair."
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 11:09 am
Doto listened attentively, though his ears implied he was listening to something else. One turned toward a bush, he listened for the sounds of a small prey animal as he kept his eyes on his friend. He was curious about this occupation of theirs, but did not want to ask further than she was willing to tell him. When he was meant to know, she would confide in him.
Or he'd figure it out on his own.
"I'd be better suited living anywhere else, I think," Doto said with a sigh, knowing full well how boring and useless his family was. He tilted his head to the other side, "I can see well enough at night. What do you mean, 'special night vision'?"
His eyes moved from Gize to the bush he had been listening to.
"There's a rabbit or something in there."
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