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 Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 6:55 pm
AIM LOG: Sergeant Sargent & _ p a o cx The moon shone down on the savanna, relieving the heat and blanketing the animals in bone chilling night, windless night. On clear nights like these Chache liked to wander. Walking kept his blood warm and often lead to interesting places. With his large ears he could hear predators long before they came into striking range. If he found himself being trailed he made a B-line for the nearest tree and shot into the safety of the branches, or simply outrun them. Oh, it was a dangerous world out there, no doubt about that. But Chache had confidence in his ability to evade his pursuers. Feeling secure in the night, he hummed a little folk tune as he wandered and looked at the stars.
The song told the story of two lion brothers who squabbled over a lioness. It was a raunchy little tune and Chache didn’t bother singing the words. He could hear them in his mind, giving him a tiny smirk. When he learned it as a kitten he never realized how suggestive the lyrics were. But the tune was dear to him, a piece of his childhood, so he went on humming and kept the lyrics to himself.It was a glorius night, yes it was! But...well, this old grump had nothing better to do than stomp around, brows furrowed in frustration as he paced. And paced....and paced...and paced some more. Liu was grumbling something under his breath, no doubt a few profanities shoved in with the rest of his jumbled up, nearly inaudible rant. Green orbs darted here and there now and again, not wanting his rant to be interrupted by anything. And he'd fight back, oh yes he would, even if it was one of those fierce lions that supposedly rule the savannah. With their big bushy manes and their annoying roars and all that racket! BAH! Useless creatures, at least in this old honey badger's eyes. Old, fading eyes that weren't going quite as fast as his hearing...actually, which was almost all gone. With a final stomp on the ground Li yelled out angrily into the sky, not caring who or what heard him- he could easily run into his little hole anyway. "You stupid, mangy, little brute of a wolf! It was MY dinner! MINE! MINE! MINE!!!" he screamed, then stopped only to catch his breath, then pace some more, eyes going to the path that the thief had taken. The ratel narrowed his eyes, just waiting to see if the mutt would come back for second helpings. He hopes he would, he really did. He wasn't the forgiving type, especially when it came to stealing his meal. A meal that would last him a good two meals..Chache stopped humming, ears perked forward in concern. Someone was in trouble! From the sound of his voice Chache guessed a ratel or some other ground dwelling creature. The mannerisms of burrowers were distinct to him. Perhaps it would be best to leave this fellow undisturbed. He should probably check it out anyway, in case someone needed help. Besides, this could be interesting.
Chache slowed as he neared the source of the commotion. He walked carefully, silently making his way through the grass. The smell of wolf lingered on the grass and in the air. Judging by the ratel’s furious ranting the predator had already gone. Chache sat up, lifting his head above the grass line and watching the ratel from a distance.With his hearing almost gone Liu didn't hear the rustling from not too far away, so his eyes were still trained furiously at the ground beneath his paws, as though if he stared long enough his stolen meal would miraculously be returned to him. The staring was futile, of course, so the old grump lifted his eyes as he came to a grounding halt. In the distance he could barely make out a figure, brown, a little on the small side...and his beady little green eyes went wide. His thief! It came back, and with a ferocius growl...of sorts, the aging honey badger scurried his way over and nearly ran into the poor serval (that he didn't know was a serval, actually). "You! HOW DARE YOU COME BACK HERE! You..you...thief! You scoundrel! You mangy little scavenger!" he yelled, squinting up at the creature that allegedly stole his beloved dinner. "Give it back! It's MY meal. I caught it, I should be the one to eat it! Where'd you put it, huh!? Where is it!? Did you hide it?" and he stopped his questioning for a moment to sniff out the air for any scent of his meal. When it wasn't there, he eyed the creature suspiciously, but said nothing more.Chache sprang back like a bird on a gust of wind. He flew back almost a foot and crouched on solid coiled legs, ears flat and tail bristling. The honey badger was an older fellow judging by the way he carried himself. Chache stood very still. When the honey badger seemed to run out of breathe he said plainly, “I’m sorry about your meal, but I don’t know who you are. I’m not the one you’re looking for.”
He spoke softly in the hope he could calm the badger down. It didn’t occur to him that the old fellow might be going deaf.
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Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 6:57 pm
Liu tilted his head slightly, ears twitching as he tried to catch the brown one's words. With the way he was standing, a foot or so away, the old badger saw that it wasn't the one he was looking to yell at, so he grunted and stook a seat. Sort of..well, it was an awkward sort of sit, anyway. He blinked twice, then shook his head. "I'm sorry boy, you'll have to speak up!" he yelled, though he didn't exactly mean to. The realization of the fact that this creature wasn't who he initially thought it was managed to calm the ratel down, but just barely. Still, it was better than having the mean old thing yelling at you for no reason. "What'd you say!? Did you insult me!?" he asked loudly, turning his head so one ear was directed at what he recognized to be a feline of sorts. Certainly not a lion of course...a serval, most likely. Even after looking at it for a while, he still wasn't sure. Blame it on old age.
“Uh, no…” Chache blinked. Was that too soft? Ordinarily a soft spoken serval, Chache hesitated to raise his voice. He found the ratel’s incessant yelling rather rude. Clearing his throat and taking a step forward, Chache said in a slightly louder voice, “I only said I’m not the one you’re looking for, but you seem to know that already. Are you alright?”
The words finally got to him, and he nodded rather boredly, as though he already knew what the serval was going to say. He blinked a few times as he thought of what to answer back; it took him a bit longer than he would've liked, but that didn't push him over the edge just yet. He was an irritable one, so if one wasn't careful he'd probably blow his top again and be screaming into the sky for another hour or so. And Liu cleared his throat, which had somehow gotten a bit raspy during the past few minutes of...speaking. "Right, well I know that!" he said, the volume of his voice just perfect for his hearing. He didn't realize that he was speaking much too loudly for everyone else though, which wasn't entirely his fault. "I can see that you're not a wolf! You're a little cat...a serval, right!?" The gray badger cleared his throat again, getting a little worried about his voice. He pushed the thought aside though, and went on. "Did you see a wolf, by any chance!?"
Chache angled his large ears away from the loud badger with a faintly disgusted expression, wondering if the badger knew how loudly he was speaking. As he studied the old fellow he noticed a strange sheen in his pupils. The sheen was faint, only noticeable when Chache looked directly into his eyes. Was he going blind, too?
Realizing this, Chache suddenly felt guilty for thinking badly about the old fellow. He couldn’t help the way time had made him. “Yes. My name is Chache. I came over to investigate after I heard the commotion, but he must have cleared out of here before I showed up.”
Drat, he got away! Liu almost took a whack at the serval, but his paws instead aimed aimed at the ground, and he stomped his frustration away. For a good minute or so, then his attention went back to the serval. Despite his rather grumpy side, Liu couldn't help but feel a little guilty for yelling at the innocent bystander, so with a sigh he took up that awkward seat once again and spoke. Still loudly, but with his mind now equally as quiet as the dead of night, the volume of his voice had lowered significantly. "Right, sorry about that," he started, sighing again. "I'm Liu, it's uh...well, good to meet you. Don't think you can say the same about me, but I don't expect you to." The old badger's stomach growled a bit, but he shook his head and cleared his throat to drown out the sound. "That's the third time this week that darn wolf's gotten to a meal of mine. I gotta admit I admire the pup's resourcefulness, but at this rate I'll dwindle down to the size of my dear ol' dad before he passed on. And he was about as fat as a starving baby bird.."
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Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 6:59 pm
Chache slowly relaxed, though he almost ran off when Liu started stomping. He put on a smile whether or not Liu could see it. “Ah, that’s alright.”
This is really unfortunate, Chache thought. I could probably catch him a field mouse or something, if badgers like field mice. I’m not sure what he’d like to eat. Of course that would only be a temporary solution. The wolf pup knew where to find a free meal and no amount of field mice could correct that. Chache sat down closer to Liu so he wouldn’t need to raise his voice so much. “Begging your pardon sir, have you thought about moving your burrow somewhere safer?”
Liu twitched a little bit where he sat, green eyes meeting Chache's for a second before he stood and nodded his head excitedly. "Oh...of course! That's...that's brilliant! Move!" he laughed, mentally slapping himself for not thinking of it the first time it happened. "The little rascal wouldn't know how to follow me, no, he wouldn't know where to start! That's perfect!!" The little old badger grinned ecstatically at the serval, limitless gratitude very apparent on his aging face. Without saying much else, however, Li scurried back to his burrow for a short while, gathering a thing or two his parents had left to him, then just as quickly made his way back out and to Chache. "Thanks a lot!" he yelled with a smile. The volume of his voice had gone up again, what with his mind bustling with thoughts of where he would go at this point. It was an interesting thought, to be traveling at his age, but...well, you couldn't avoid it sometime. "I'll be heading that way then, Chache! I think I can find a good place to burrow near a tree or something, if I'm lucky!" The little badger started on his way, laughing almost as if he hadn't offended the other so badly only minutes earlier. It was strange, his mood swings, but at his old age, what did it matter?
That way? Chache thought about the glaze in the old badger’s eyes and bit his lower lip. If a predator happened to catch the old fellow he’d never see it coming. Forget about hearing it. Chache stood and walked after Liu. Of course, if the old badger stayed he was bound to fall prey to that wolf sooner or later, but that wouldn’t make Chache feel any less guilty if he got picked off by a roaming lion on his first outing. “Would you mind if I walked with you? I’d like the company.” Chache didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
Li stopped in his tracks, turning to look at the serval, almost angry as he scurried back the way he came until he had to look at almost a ninety-degree angle up at Chache. "What...are you implying Chache?" he asked, his voice a little gruff. "That I can't take care of myself because I'm old? Because I'm going blind and deaf? Well I'll have you know that we honey badgers have a way with danger!" he exclaimed proudly, the sort of pride only a father could instill into a young, growing ratel. "We can take on lions and leopards alike, and forget about snakes. Wolves would be a pushover if my legs weren't giving out so often now. Don't you even THINK about worrying about me out in the open, Chache, because chances are I'm more able-bodied than you are when it comes to outsmarting the best of them!" And with that the ratel turned on his stumpy little tail and scurried away, turning back only once to look at the blurry brown blob that was Chache. "Good night!" he yelled back, then was gone.
Chache tried to apologize but found he couldn’t raise his voice above Liu’s and before long the ratel was heading off again. This time Chache sat down with a heavy sigh. Well, can’t blame me for trying, he thought morosely as he groomed his ears. He scanned the grass, eyes twinkling in the dark.
He’ll probably be alright. He could probably scare a lion right out of his fur with a word. That made Chache smile. He shook himself off and stood, taking one last glance over the savanna. A glimmer of humor lighted his voice. “I must have been mistaken! Good luck to you then, Liu!”
With that Chache went on his way, leaving the badger to walk on his own four legs for tonight. If he felt like it he would try to pick up his scent in the morning. He could call it an accident.
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