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 Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 10:41 am
Feeling a cautiously renewed confidence, Tikiti was wandering near the borders of the Kusini lands. He was practicing his hunting, he was a hunter after all- and now that he was fully grown (to a rather disappointing size) he needed to improve. Away from home was the best place, too, because it reduced the potential audience and so he didn't have to overdramatize everything. He could genuinely work on his hunting abilities.
Creeping along in the grass, Tiki had his eyes on a herd of klipspringers. They were small enough that he had a shot of catching one on his own, without the help of a group. So that's what he was going to attempt to do.
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:10 am
Uhai had wandered away from his family. He'd done his best to find his brother, but it appeared that Palahala was lucky today for he was spared the usual harassment. Without Palahala and in a very predatory mood, the little god knew his best bet was to go looking for something to do. Maybe he could chase around a mortal prey beast, or find and observe a mortal predator! He was on foot, still a clumsy flier, and he happened to spot the same little herd that Tikiti was about to ambush.
A bit overenthusiastic, as soon as he saw it he sprang into action and ran for the older creatures. He wasn't likely to catch one, but he didn't care- he didn't even realize immediately that there were other predators around yet. The klipspringers bolted, running away from the irritating little god and unintentionally towards the true danger.
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:26 am
Caught off guard by the group suddenly running towards him, Tiki froze a couple seconds too long before bolting forward in an effort to catch one while he could. It was almost like he had help, someone to scare them in his direction. It wasn't what kind of practice he wanted, but he wasn't going to miss his chance.
Luck was not on his side this time, though, and instead of getting a hold on any of the little creatures when he pounced, he more ended up stumbling over them and scraped in the side by the horns on the males. With a grumble, he jumped out of the way and watched them go.
"So much for practice," he grumbled to himself, then looking around, "What was that all about?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:39 am
Uhai stumbled to a stop when he suddenly saw a lion lunge out from the grass and stumble over the rush of prey beasts. He didn't realize he was competing for this little hunt! But what was more exciting was this was the first time he'd spotted a mortal hunter at work. More than interested and always enthusiastic, he bounded forward. He didn't know much about his own abilities or the beliefs of mortals so his divinity was completely unmasked.
"Hey!" he called out, skidding to a stop not far from the larger lion, "You were hunting!"
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:43 am
Whatever Tiki was expecting to show up at the back of the herd, a little winged lion was not it. Being from the Kusini'mwezi, a religious pride who worshiped the goddess of the harvest, he was not unfamiliar with the concept of gods- but he was unfamiliar with the concept of meeting one face to face. So his immediate reaction was confusion, he didn't know what exactly the thing was- but it was certainly .. excited to see him.
"Hunting?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow, "Yeah.."
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:52 am
"I don't think you're supposed to trip over them like that, though," Uhai pointed out without hesitation, as if he were revealing some great secret to the other lion. Then he remembered his manners, mostly because the look the funny pink-faced lion was giving him.
"I'm Uhaijizi," he introduced himself, spreading out his wings proudly and grinning toothily, "I'm god of predators! So I would know." He nodded matter-of-factly. It didn't matter how obnoxious he was to a mortal, right? Gods were better than mortals, could do things they couldn't and everything. Funny pink-faced lion would have to be impressed.
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:23 pm
God of predators?
The first thought that went through Tikiti's mind was how inconvenient and embarassing that he would be found by such a god when he was working on his own skills as a predator- and failing quite miserably. But he could blame the god for that. Or could he? The harvest goddess was treated with respect by the Kusini and no one ever met or saw her. So erring on the side of caution, he was careful with how he responded.
"I'm Tikiti from the Kusini'mwezi," he introduced himself, much more polite than usual, "And I do believe you have a point."
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:19 pm
"Oooh, a pride lion!" he gaped excitedly, dancing from side to side as he prepared for a very exciting round of Q&A. Prides specifically had hunters to do this kind of thing, that was exciting- and some prides employed some of their members as guards, right? That was two interesting things about it, Uhai's brother was god of guards after all!
"Cool! Are you a hunter? Or a guard? Or are you something else?" he rattled off a bunch of questions very quickly, then looked the small lion up and down, "What else is there?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:37 pm
Tiki stared down at the small god, taking a moment to admire the skull around his neck as the kid rambled off with a bunch of questions. He supposed the questions made sense- at least the one about hunters.
"I am a hunter," he replied, "I'm too small to be anything guard-like, and all there really is otherwise is nannies and royalty."
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:57 pm
"So you are a hunter!" he beamed, looking Tikiti over again when he said he was too small to be a guard. Size couldn't matter for hunting if you worked in a group, or picked something small. Except the pink-faced lion didn't appear to have much luck doing that either. He looked around, not so interested in talking about nannies or royalty. Hunters were far more interesting!
"Did you have to catch something for your pride?" he asked suddenly, leaning and looking off where the klipspringers had gone. He could think he was better than mortals but he could still appreciate what he might have done wrong, he wanted to help this kind of thing, not hurt it. "I can help you find them again, I bet."
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:03 pm
Skeptical about how a cub could help, but figuring somehow it might be counteracted by the fact he was.. well, a god, he considered the offer. He wasn't supposed to catch anything for the pride, but it certainly would help his own ego. Accepting help didn't have to hurt it, either. Well, he might not if a mortal offered but this was a god- who was he to argue? Besides, something so small being so potentially helpful was.. comforting.
"I could use the help tracking them down, I suppose," he agreed with a grin, turning to where they had run off, "How are you going to find them? What exactly do you do?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:22 pm
"Great!" Uhai said cheerily and scrambled off ahead of Tiki to try to track down the lost herd. He couldn't explain why but he just knew which way to go- they'd both seen the general direction the herd had run in so that was a start. He was just happy to go along, jogging ahead despite carrying on a conversation.
"I don't know," he admitted, "I just know- we saw them go this way, we gotta go from there at least!" He jumped another couple feet ahead enthusiastically.
"I like watching predators, it's really cool," he said, "Most don't trip over stuff, though. And some are really small and funny but really good, I saw some funny looking little things get a buffalo. Sometimes I watch prey, but they're a lot less interesting."
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:54 pm
Oh, the wonders of the divine. Even the little god could not say how he knew these things, how he did things. How could a god even be a cub? Weren't they ageless? Did they grow really slowly? If that was the case, Tiki believed that Uhaijizi definitely should know more than just 'I know'. How could Africa function if the gods didn't even know what they were doing? Predators couldn't be so new..
Well, he didn't need to worry about it. But it made him question if he really needed to be so careful and respectful about the cub.
"Small and funny hunters that are really good?" he repeated thoughtfully, another hopeful thought related to size. This wasn't a wasted trip, that was certain, "That's interesting, I'm sure hunters are more fun to watch for someone like you but you know, watching prey can teach you a lot."
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 8:15 pm
"Yeah," he said, looking back over his shoulder and wings at Tiki when he commented on the little hunters that got the buffalo, "And they might not be gone so I'd be careful, they didn't look much like they just wanted to eat something like that. Not enough of them to want something that big, but maybe they have a pride or something too."
He went back to leading the way, taking an unexpected and instinctive turn- only to stumble when Tiki said you could learn from watching prey beasts. He came to complete stop and turned to look at the older lion, intrigued- he'd never thought of it before..
"What do you mean?" he asked, "How?"
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