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 Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:45 pm
Ohahira had her ups and downs. More downs than ups, and when there were ups, they weren't as up as the down was down. There were some of the many late nights she'd spent alone and thought, did she have to do this? Go after Tara? Couldn't she really just let it go and go back home, beg her mother to accept her again and live?
But in the end, she never decided that was the best option. Sometimes it didn't even feel like an option at all. After what she'd done, what she'd been through, there was no going back. So she'd fight. Tara, Mwokoti, any and everyone who had harmed her. Goddess or mortal, male or female. They would pay as much as she could make them do so until she died the death of an angry soul.
Viciousness was not something outright visible to others, but she came as close to it as you could. Her posture were tense, her face constantly scowling if not snarling. When she ate the zebra who had been violently torn apart as it was, she more shredded it further than anything.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:52 pm
Life was good, and when life was good, Tayhira overestimated her bounds. On normal occassion, the sight of a lionness munching so ravenously at her food would have scent her scurrying and hiding. Instead, it became an area of interest. No danger could possibly come of it. Not when life was so good.
Sliding up idly, she decided to get a closer view on just how well the spotted lioness was destroying her prey. It was a rather vile and sickening process. In fact, it left that particular huntress with a look of some sort of crazed warrior having just torn the heart from their victim and proceeding to devour it in malice and power-expression. The world was probably more appropriate as: Crazy. With a capital c.
"What did a carcus ever do to receive such vicious treatment?" she asked when close, quite possibly too close. There was no secret that she wasn't nervous. She was crouched low and prepared to shoot off like a rocket when that anger turned her direction, but for now she wanted to see how much anger she really could stir up.
Who knew, too? She wasn't against stealing her lunch and if the lioness got to distracted chasing her shadow, a healthy meal might be in order.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:01 pm
It was funny in the ironic kind of way. The cruel ironic kind of way. As a cub her parents couldn't get her to stop talking. The memories had been long since suppressed but by no means entirely forgotten. Triv taking his daughter to hunt only to have her dramatically collapse on the ground and wail about the woe that was she, being a creature forced to take the life of another. Nyumbani shaking her head at her sister's behavior. She could remember them all, if she wanted, she just didn't.
Ohahira could speak, still, if she'd wanted. She just didn't. The cub that no one could get to shush had grown into an adult that hadn't uttered a single world in weeks. She whipped her head around to the leopard, and instead of saying anything, just hissed at her.
Go away or you die the noise said.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:06 pm
Right on cue, Tayhira took a leap back. A chill went down her spine. That was one nasty lion. It was clear she was getting nothing out of 'it'. And it certainly had no interest in staying.
Blood probably partially curdled by now, Tayhira slunk back a few steps. That should have been warning enough, but. . . not today.
"Testy," she retorted from a distance. "Someone likes their space." Sarcasm was laced through her words and annoyance at having been so easily unnerved. It would have been smarter to have just walked away, but she really wanted to win this game now.
"And you don't talk either? Abused as a child, maybe?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:12 pm
It was a cliche in movies that the hero, who had been captured, had one last time before they somehow managed to escape, or someone rescued them, or the villain otherwise got screwed over. Lions didn't know about movies, but had Ohahira been in one, she wouldn't have been that type of bad guy. They'd have gotten their mouth open and she'd have shoved a gun in it and fired before they could say anything.
As it was, it was amazing she hadn't gone after the other female just for daring to walk within eye shot of her, let alone speak to her. And taunt her? Yeah, bad idea.
Ohahira abandoned the zebra and span quickly around, her back legs lowering then springing forward toward the target.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:19 pm
She might have gone on, too, had she not realized that her benign toy wasn't exactly benign at all. Most lions gave at least the tiniest of angry shouts or warnings the instant before they pounced.
This one, however, was in the air before Tayhira realized that the necessary stimulus was missing.
There was enough time to utter a hiss and a growl and attempt to back up before the target was met. It didn't take any brains to realize that target was her.
Feeling the breath gone out from her chest, she lashed out with her claws instinctively. She would have much preferred to run, but any such movement was rendered impossible.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:30 pm
In a fit of snarls and hisses, Ohahira landed her target and they both fell to the ground with a thud. Her first action after the impact was pinning her down with the claws that had been extended in advance mid-jump. The downside of her fits of rage, provoked or not, was they were just that; pure rage.
The flailing claws struck her in the face and she growled again, blood running down from above her right eye and leaking into it. Out of reflex it snapped shut.
Her fangs bared and very quickly she aimed a vicious bit for the leopard's shoulder.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:36 pm
She swore she could hear the bones in her shoulder crack. They were at the very least disclocated. And the pain that followed was practically unbearable. It was quite possibly mostly her imagination sending the nerves into panic fits, but the end result was pain. Lots and lots of pain.
She gave a drowned cry, and the flailing completely ceased from her right arm. Eyes gone fuzzy, she persisted in squirming, flailing, maybe pleading would work?
"I'll get out of your way! Let me up! I'll go, I'll go!" Could it even understand what she was saying?
Her back legs beat at her captor in desperation, her head tucked tight to her chest. She would not let her throat get ripped out or her neck snapped. There's no way she was dying getting from one stupid mistake and a filthy, crazy lion. Right? Right?!
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:47 pm
Ohahira was not one to cease in a hunt, be it of prey beast or predator who had earned a spot on her list of things to destroy. Since the Firekin, her rate of success in hunting had been one hundred percent. As soon as she dug her claws into something, it was as good as dead. It was too easy to pretend that the thing being chased was Tara, Uzulu, or if she was feeling creative, some love child of the two of them.
But, sometimes, all she needed was this rage. Her head shot back up and blood dripped from her mouth. She took no time to survey the damage done. If she wanted to admire her work, she could do so when the work stopped twitching.
One paw rose for the finishing blow, slashing the flesh it had been dug into on the way up. It swung back down, aiming for a final slash to the throat.
Except it never met it's target, the motion never completed. On the way down, it was interrupted by a more sluggish, but larger, weight crashing against her side and sending the startled lioness rolling.
Banji had returned.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:55 pm
Lack of weight transferred as the signal to move. Groaning as she rolled over her injured shoulder, Tayhira managed to get quickly enough to her feet. The offended limb dragging against the ground, she stumbled back a few feet away from crazy lioness and even more insane lion.
Did he want to get his rear end kicked? Tayhira was no judge of true skill, but she assumed that the lioness that had just been making her hind end worthless was likely to make his.
Still, two against one, well, one and a half against one was better odds. If it was necessary she could spring for the back of a neck or something. She could manage agility on three legs.
But for now, she waited with raspy breath and a clenched jaw to find out what would happen. She made sure to do that waiting behind Banji.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:05 pm
Banji had been returning with the remains of what had in life been a hare. Tay had mentioned being hungry, so he'd gone to get it. It counted as a favor he'd have done anyway because he himself was hungry, and more importantly he couldn't very well let a lady go hungry.
The scene that welcomed him had his jaw drop and the hare then fell to the ground motionlessly. Banji hadn't thought about what he was doing before he reacted, he'd just pounced, much like Ohahira herself but for far different reasons.
Wait... Ohahira?
"Hahi?" He couldn't believe it. He'd known she'd been getting angry, he'd even told Nyumbani, but... What was she even doing out here? Without Hasana? He looked back at Tay, wanting to ask her what happened, but the sight of her wounds silenced him.
For the time being Ohahira remained docile enough to keep from attacking again. The sight of her uncle had thrown her off.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:17 pm
Wait. . . these two knew each other?
Tayhira hissed and then silenced, shifting harder onto her front left leg and wincing. Her tail was working overtime to keep her balance. She probably looked like some drunkard fool who'd stolen from the elephants Amarula tree.
She limped, drug, whatever adjective it was towards where Banji had dropped the rodent, sitting down in front of it with a heavy flop. No one was going to steal this meal while they had family reunions.
She didn't dare utter a word for or against the situation. Instead uttering a, "Just my luck," under her breath.
It would be a long time before she could tussle with anything if ever again.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:21 pm
IIf Banji had been told this story by a friend--or a stranger or something, since he didn't really have friends--he wouldn't have believed Tay would've dared to get back up, move and play safeguard to a hare. They were far from a meal worth dying for. He was living it, so he had to believe it. That woman had some nerve.
Banji sighed and turned back to Ohahira. His mouth was barely open to speak again, perhaps ask her something, when she tackled him. Caught off guard, all he managed was "oof!" and was then successfully pinned to the ground in the same manner the leopard had been.
Ohahira snarled again, "Where's Tara?!"
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:26 pm
To be truthful, she had to admit that she was actually quite alarmed when Ohahira pinned him to the ground.
She pinned her ears and her tail flicked, but all retorts quickly vanished when the pain when shooting through her shoulder again. And there here eyes went all blothy again. Or was that Ohahira's coat?
Grimacing, she managed to somehow catch what was being said.
"If I tell you, will you go away?" she asked. She had a vague idea of where that 'Tara' creature had gone off to. Nothing specific, but anything to get that terror out of sight.
And she was touching valuable merchandise, besides.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:28 pm
There were a few ways Ohahira had expected this to end. She'd expected Banji to not tell her, then she'd kill him, then she'd kill the leopard, then she'd eat. There was only the one option, it was the order that she was unsure about. It came as a surprise to her when the leopard dared speaking again. If she'd had the ability to read Banji's mind she'd have agreed with his thoughts; a lot of nerve.
"Where's Tara?" she hissed warningly, this time at Tay instead.
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