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 Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:56 pm
About a week had passed since Kef had last seen ‘Tani. Normally, living without company wouldn’t bother the little juvenile unduly. After all, he’d been alone for a good long while now. Why would another week of loneliness bother him? But, it did. Despite all the logical reasons why it shouldn’t bother him, it did. For now, he had been living in the jungle, scrounging up what he could. It was actually pretty easy. The vampire lions in the pack only drank the blood of their victims, rarely eating much of the meat. That left plenty of food for a young growing juvenile lion. Currently, he was gnawing on the remains of a young gazelle, his yellow eyes constantly surveying his surroundings, just to make sure he wouldn’t get caught. He had managed to haul a leg of the preybeast into a tree, where he could eat it safely.
There had been one or two close calls already, when an adult lion, presumably from the vampire pride, had almost come across Kef. The juvenile always hid or scurried up a tree. Currently, tree-scurrying was his favored method of hiding. The lions of this forest were lankier than most, but they still couldn’t scale the high branches like a young lion. The only trouble was getting back down. But he wouldn’t worry too much about that now, not with the gnawing hunger in his gut. Putting his paw on the meat, he leaned forward to continue his meal. It was all a delicate balancing act, this high in the branches. The branches swayed under the weight, but the little lion kept his balance carefully.
Unfortunately, the gazelle leg had less luck. Kef let out a cry as the leg began to tip over one side of the branch. Scrabbling desperately, he tried to latch his claws into the meat, but it toppled over. Good thing too, since he surely would have joined it in a study of gravity if he had. This failed to comfort the young lion, as he had spent a lot of energy dragging the leg up into the tree; now he stared mournfully at it, as if hoping it might float back up the tree out of pity.
If that was his intention, it failed to work. With a sigh, he carefully---oh so very carefully---made his way back down the tree until his paws finally touched ground again. By the time he got there, he was exhausted; lions simply weren’t made for getting up into trees or down them quickly and certainly not without expending energy. But, he had his food.
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:36 pm
 After meeting with Kef that day, 'Tani had wandered off in his usual fashion - not thinking much about the other for a while. But then the next day, he kept on thinking of things he should show Kef and stuff he maybe should have told him about how to avoid the other vampires if he didn't want to get caught and so on and so forth... and for some reason, he started worrying about the other.
Why he should worry, he had no freaking clue ... Kef could obviously take care of himself or he wouldn't've gotten this far with no family or anything.
But still.
So... 'Tani actually started looking for the other - and realize Kef was better at hiding than he'd given him credit for. Damn idiot, where'd he go off to anyway? He better not have left, he said he was gonna stick around...
Needless to say, by the time Kef was dropping preybeast legs out of trees, 'Tani was frustrated and more worried than before that maybe something had happened to Kef ... so when he spotted the other through the trees ... he instantly bounded toward him.
"Where have you BEEN?!" he practically yelled, skidding to a halt in front of the other, looking rather angry - though that was more of a cover-up than anything else.
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:04 pm
In all fairness, Kef had considered simply leaving, at least several times a day. He always thought better of it though; outside the jungle, there was stifling heat, large predators who would be delighted to meet---and eat---a little snack like himself, and then there was the lack of food… here, the thick verdant life all around provided plenty of hiding places for a clever cub, and the lions in the pride left behind more than enough food for a cub. And then there was ‘Tani, of course. Kef had said he would stay here. So he would.
His ears flicked back at the sound of something rampaging over the forest floor. Contrary to popular opinion, jungle floors are not littered with conveniently placed branches that snap under the slightest bit of pressure. This one, however, was, thanks to careful placement by Kef. There had been far too many close calls. Every muscle stiffened and he almost started moving towards a tree… but, then a few non-panicking brain cells managed to rally, pointing out the obvious:
It was Shetani’s voice.
Now that brought a smile to Kef’s face, a relieved one at that. For a time there, he’d been worried that his new friend had gotten in trouble for talking to an ‘outsider’ and wasn’t allowed outside the pride any more. The yelling made his smile fade a little, but not too much. He was honestly happy to see ‘Tani again. He sniffed and sat down elegantly, his tail wrapping neatly around his body.
“Hiding,” he said in a decidedly smug tone. “Surviving. Having fun in general. What’ve you been doing?” Alright, so his smug tone kinda seemed… well… fake, considering how panicky he had been just a few moments ago. But, something told him to put up a bit of a show for ‘Tani. He couldn’t quite figure out why… huh.
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:36 pm
At that, 'Tani's frown deepened and he stamped a paw, tail twitching and ears back. "Wonderin' where you were and hopin' you hadn't managed to get yourself eaten, what d'YOU think?" he spat back - though a part of him was relieved that the other was obviously just fine.
And now that he was calming down a little, he remembered stepping on all those sticks before... and wondered if Kef had put them there like that... to warn him.
Huh... smart.
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:46 pm
D’aww… wasn’t that adorable? Shetani was getting all angrified! The word ‘cute’ was probably the last word that should ever wander across Kef’s mind, but it was actually the first. He bit his lip and tried to keep it down, however, because he was certain that it would be… be highly inappropriate. That and it was more than a little weird.
“Eaten by what? Your pride? You said that they only drank blood!” Kef said, smile fading---or, rather, draining---once more. Those were the only really dangerous predators he could think of around here. Oh, sure, there were some pretty big snakes, but they only ate once a month; so long as he remembered their general hunting grounds and the last time they ate, it was all good. Besides, they could actually be pretty nice when they weren’t hungry.
“Besides… your pride is easy enough to avoid.” Alright, that was a lie; every time a big lion crossed his path, within just a few feet of him, Kef fought down inner panic. He had been amazingly lucky this far. But, he had to be lucky every time; a vampire from the pride only had to be lucky once. “…It’s good to see you again, ‘Tani,” he added eventually, in a rushed way, as if afraid that, if he spoke too slowly, he might not get all the words out in time.
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:52 pm
'Tani huffed and rolled his eyes at that, claws flexing for a moment. "Duh, I mean the other vampires. Drinking your blood is eating," he explained, as if he was maybe talking to a newborn or something. "D'you really think you'd be able to live with all your blood gone?" he asked then, peering hard at the other.
He sighed then and deflated a bit, knowing that there really wasn't much he could do about it, anyway. So no reason to stay angry right now.
Then he blinked when Kef blurted out that it was good to see him again... and then smirked just slightly. "Huh. Well, it's good t'see you too," he replied easily. "An' I'm glad you're good at hidin' cause I don't want you eaten."
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:18 pm
“Oh, come on, they wouldn’t take it all!” Kef protested immediately, despite the fact that he didn’t know this for a fact. Actually, Tani would know better than he would… but, the brown cub chose to ignore this fact, on the basis that it contradicted the ones that he liked. “I’m just a kid! They couldn’t kill a kid, could they?” Maybe they could… clearly, he’d have to work even harder to keep hidden now. It was easy to hide as a young juvenile. It would get harder, he knew, once he grew up a little.
But, by then, he was certain he’d be a super genius at staying hidden!
“I bet I’m even happier that I haven’t been eaten,” Kef quipped back, smiling once more. He looked his friend up and down curiously; they both had grown a bit since their last meeting, as cubs were wont to do. But, there were a few things off about ‘Tani’s appearance… “You have fangs!” the other male suddenly blurted out, realizing what was bothering him. “And you have a shiny thing! How’d you get that?”
He didn’t sound particularly afraid, even if the red male did have fangs. They were friends! And friends did not bite friends. Well… not seriously, anyway.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 7:58 pm
'Tani snorted at that. "Y'don't think so? Well I'll just go find someone that's hungry right now and we'll test it..." Of course, he wasn't serious... But he'd seen a group of vampires drain preybeasts completely dry, so why not a juvenile lion?
Ugh. Morbid subject though, time for a switch.
He raised a brow at Kef. "Uhh... duh, I'm a vampire. 'Course I have fangs. Makes it easier t'bite in and drink the blood," he pointed out with a knowing sort of nod.
Then he glanced down at the amulet bumping against his chest. "Oh this? I found it one day! It was hangin' off a tree branch just like it was waitin' for someone to come along and find it. So I stuck my head through and pulled and it stayed on me and came offa the branch," he related the story proudly. To him, it was like someone had left it there for him...
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:37 pm
It was weird. Despite having lived here for a while and occasionally watching the pridal lions, Kef still couldn’t seriously believe that they were really all that different from him physically. But now, seeing those fangs… well, maybe they were different after all. “You didn’t have fangs before, and you were a vampire then too,” he pointed out doubtfully, trying to find holes in Tani’s logic.
Upon hearing the story, Kef tilted his head to one side and leaned closer to give the metallic medallion a sniff. It smelled of, big surprise, metal and trees. Nothing very interesting, as far as smells went. It was far more interesting to just look at, thanks to its exceeding shinyness. “It looks good on you,” he said dismissively with a slight shrug. “It matches your mane and fur. White n’ red.”
Once those conversation topics were exhausted, Kef was at a bit of a loss. So, of course, he fell back on every kid’s favorite game: asking what someone else wants to do.
“So… what do you want to do?”
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:14 pm
'Tani frowned at that, eyeing the other. "Did too," he protested. "They were just littler! I'm bigger now, 'n so are they, so you can see 'em when you couldn't before."
He tilted his head back some when the other came to sniff at the amulet, puffing chest out proudly. "I like it," he said simply, with a grin.
Then he flicked tail back and forth as he thought about the other's question. Hmm... "Well, you keep sayin' you've been hiding from the other vampires, so why don't'cha hide from me an' then I'll try to find ya?" he suggested after a minute or two. It'd be good to check on Kef's hiding skills, anyway!
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:21 pm
“But that doesn’t make sense!” Kef protested, before he really thought about the logic of arguing about sense when he was talking to a lion who fed exclusively on blood. That, in and of itself, didn’t make much sense either. So maybe logic didn’t really matter right here and now. He plunged ahead anyway. “Because you’re growing at the same rate as your fangs, right? They’re growing with you. So why would they suddenly be noticeable now and not then?”
No matter what ‘logic’ said, that was the way things were, obviously. They weren’t noticeable before. They were now. That should’ve been the end of story, but Kef’s mind refused to let it go. He liked noticing things like that. It made him feel warm inside.
The suggestion made him grin brightly. “Ok! Umm… you count to one hundred and then come find me, alright?” one hundred sounded like a nice round number. Big too. It should give him plenty of time to hide!
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:37 pm
'Tani just stared at the other, refusing to dignify that with an answer. It didn't really matter if the other thought it made sense, that was just how things were! No big deal, geez.
He raised brows a bit at the high number the other wanted him to count to, but nodded. "Okay. 1 ... 2... 3... 4...5......"
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 4:16 pm
Kef watched suspiciously before bounding off in search of a perfect hiding place. There was a reason why he had chosen such a big number. Mainly, he wanted to be able to cover his tracks a bit. He put on his Serious Face---because Hide and Seek was srs buzness----and went over his mental map of the area. Well, there was a stream over in this direction, so that’s where he ran to first. It was really more of a trickle than a stream, actually, but he called it that anyway because it sounded far more exciting. It barely went up to his knees and had a current that could rival a pond’s. He bounded through, followed it downstream for a bit and then hopped out. Lions were not, by nature, an arboreal species, but Kef had gotten somewhat decent at climbing up trees.
It was only the climbing down part that gave him trouble. But that wasn’t important right now; playing, now THAT was important! Digging his claws into the tree bark, the young lion managed to claw his way up into the lower branches. Of course, this made a mess of the poor bark. And the splashes were a bit obvious… but he was still a brilliant hider! Oh yes.
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Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:34 pm
'Tani's ears pricked at the splashing noises, swiveling about as he continued counting softly. Ugh, could Kef be any louder if he tried? Really ... 'Tani was already wondering how the other hadn't gotten himself eaten yet.
But he dutifully kept on counting until he finally got to one hundred and then he sat up straight and yelled, "Ready or not, I'm gonna find you now!"
Running immediately toward the stream, he sniffed about at the ground, quickly finding where the other went in. Then he spotted a few paw-prints in the mud at the bottom where they hadn't been totally washed away and started following them slowly so he could find where Kef left the stream again.
Please. This was too easy!
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