AIM RP between Lithia and Myself: In Progress
Hadaya padded his way across the open plains of the savannah, enjoying the mild heat of the day and the warmth that was seeping into his yellowish brown fur. He liked when the weather was cooler, not much a fan of feeling sticky and uncomfortable at all hours of the day. It was just lucky that today there happened to be clouds in the sky, and that was enough to dispel some of the direct heat.
Letting out a big yawn, he drew closer to a line of trees, seeking a place to take a brief nap before going back to his den and checking in with Dura and all the other cubs. He was glad his extended, adopted family lived near him, and let his son pad around with them when Hadaya needed to go out hunting, or just escape for a bit. He wasn’t the best father, he knew that, but he was certainly trying his hardest. Sometimes that overwhelmed him, and he started to worry about every little thing. Those were times when he had to go out for a walk.
So here he was, wandering like he had done for so long during his youth. It was relaxing, in a way, though he felt a heaviness in his paws that he couldn’t explain. Sitting under a tree, he heaved a profound sigh and tried to figure out what was dragging him down.
The tiger striped female often spent her days asleep in trees due to the fact she was not in a pride nor had any family to stay with. Encroaching on others’ lands to some was punishable by death or lead to fights. Briseis wanted no part of either. This was why she often hunted at night and roamed then. There were hardly any lions or others out to bother her when they were all getting their beauty sleep. It also saved energy for the poor girl; it was an extremely hot day to be out. The little femme had found a place to sleep among the branches of a tree. It had caught her eye by the vines that crawled up the side of its bark. Her tail hung over the edge as she slept soundly.
The female was off guard and unknowing of the roaming male who was wandering closer and closer to her little vacation spot for the day. Ever so often she rumbled in her sleep as if she were being chased or if she were chasing. Her ears flickered back and forth as if she were awake; through truthfully she was in a deep slumber. For the most part she couldn’t easily be awakened which she thought was a good thing.
So the female lay in the branches of the tree, dreaming of chasing a good meal to fill her up. Perhaps her knight in shining armor, or memories when she was a young cub of her mother. There was no telling with the secretive and mysterious female…none the less she was quite oblivious to the events that approached.
Hadaya yawned gain, and then drew in a deep breath through his nose. He caught scent of another creature nearby. Very nearby. Above? He sniffed and then looked up, spotting a limp leg dangling down from some vines. Blinking, he got to his feet, circling the tree and not seeing much else. The branches and vines got in the way. Was someone up there? He didn’t like the way the foot was dangling. Maybe they were just asleep?
“Hello?” He called, a bit too quietly to be effective. What if they were asleep, and didn’t want to be bothered? But then… what if they weren’t, and needed help? Hadaya had always been a bit excitable and paranoid, his natural ineptitude forcing him to constantly ere on the side of caution. It never really worked out, but the habit still had managed to ingrain itself in his character. Steeling himself, he decided there would be no harm in going up and seeing if whoever it was up in the tree was okay.
Unless they attacked him.
Feeling like he was willing moving toward a large set of waiting teeth and claws, Hadaya bounced at the tree. He clung to it, scrabbling a bit to hoist himself up. He was not the best climber. Or anything, really. But he tried. He made a lot of noise in his efforts to get closer and see if everything was okay, climbing steadily and quickly.
As the female continued in her dream land, her tail moved from side to side. Her ears flickered at the call of the male that wasn’t in her dreams. She didn’t awaken then, however. Nor when he started to make the venture up the same tree, one would think she would awaken due to the shaking and sound of the claws against its bark. It wasn’t until she scented that her eyes fluttered open. Bright blues gazed out into the male as they were nose to nose. She blinked as her vision cleared she scrambled to her paws, mistakenly she misplaced her paws and slipped from the branches’ comfortable canopy. She gasped as she clawed at it once more before twisting and turning to land on her feet. The clumsy female hadn’t managed to land straight and hit her head on the tree.
She rumbled, attempting to make sense of the situation that stood before her. She had been dreaming…now she wasn’t…or was she. This wasn’t one of those times when she thought she were actually roaming around talking to others only to find out it was a figment of her imagination. What a day that was. She squinted to see into the tree to see the yellow brown male still up the branches, clingy as if it were life itself.
“Oy?! What the hell was that all about?” she exclaimed, stated and inquired all at the same time. The male looked like he was having issues of his own at this point. She could hardly care less, she was wanting to kick some butt for being woken up early. That and the stalker male was still kind of creeping her out…
Hadaya blinked. He hadn’t been watching when he was climbing, so focused on getting the climbing done right, and hadn’t realized he was so close to her until he felt the pressure in the air around him of being inside someone elses personal space. He looked up and saw a big nose in front of him, which told him he was definitely too close. He let out a surprised yelp when she moved suddenly, nearly dropping out of the tree before scrambling to hug himself tighter to it. He saw her back up and her paw slide, and he let out yet another less-than-impressive yelp.
“Oh, be careful!” He cried uselessly, as if she was not already aware that she was currently slipping out of the branches. He hauled himself up, to where she had been laying, and tried his best to catch her with his big meaty paws, lanky legs fumbling, but he missed. Even his ditch attempt to grab her fur with his mouth was useless, leaving him chomping air. He was off kilter and nearly tumbled after her, except his tail was stuck in the crook of a branch. He slipped, but didn’t fall to the ground, instead having his tail painfully tugged before he found himself clinging to the trunk again, upside down.
“Well” he called back, his voice very high pitched due to the uncomfortable way his tail had been pulled, “I was trying to see if you were okay. And then I was trying to not be responsible for you falling out of the tree, but uh. Neither really… went as planned.” He sighed, as if used to this, trying not to whine as he spoke, “I’m uh. I’m stuck now though. But are you okay?”
Her eyes narrowed as she cleaned herself for a moment while the male spoke. She looked back up and she couldn’t help but smile when his pitch went up, poor guy. His intentions seemed nice, probably the backwards way about going about it though. He could’ve just been curious, usually that was her excuse when she got into trouble. Her mouth twisted as she attempted the prickling sensation she was getting up her hind legs for landing wrong. It wasn’t pleasant, but they weren’t broken either. She would fair. She circled the tree watching him and he her from above. “Well it seems your in the bind now, eh?”
She scaled the tree, her smaller body allowed for more room and ease for climbing trees. She hadn’t met a male lion that could climb a tree without making a fool of himself. Though this new guy, she thought he pulled it off with a new fashion. She would’ve laughed if she wasn’t so shocked. Her bright blue eyes watched as his muscles strained to keep himself in the tree without loosing his tail. She found where his tail was stuck…it looked painful. She wondered why she was still looking at it without helping him. Again, she could only thing poor guy.
She swatted at the branch until it gave way and let the male’s tail free. She blinked for a moment before crawling half way down the tree and leaping to the ground. This time she had a bit more grace when landing. “I’m okay,” she stated after she helped him. She watched him carefully, “You okay?” she asked back with a soft, and more gentle tone than before. Perhaps she was now actually concerned with his well being instead of being mad that he made her fall from the tree. It was okay now, no one seemed to be missing eyeballs or bleeding to death. She couldn’t help but to burst out into laughter at the whole situation. To an outsider it may seem weird, but to her perfectly normal.
“Bind? Me? N-no, I’m. Uh. Totally,” he wiggled a bit and winced as he tugged harder on his tail than he had intended to, “t-totally in a bind. Yeah. Hm.”
He smiled down at her, somewhere between an effort to tell her silently not to worry about him and to convince himself that he wasn’t worried. It didn’t work, in either case, because it was a very nervous looking smile and it didn’t last too long. He looked back over his shoulder, but couldn’t really see his tail or how he might get himself down from this angle. Maybe if he tried climbing backwards. Of course, he could hardly be trusted to do that, considering he had a hard enough time climbing when he could see where he was going.
Hadaya hated trees.
His ears perked and he twisted his head around, a bit disoriented by being upside down, and tried to spot the lioness. Where had she gone. Was she climbing the tree? Just listening to the sounds of her claws in the bark told him she was much better at it than he was. He tried to watch her, but was getting dizzy and shut his eyes for a moment. And then he felt his butt was free of the tension in his tail and gravity was pulling it down and away from the tree. He went with it, tumbling to the ground in a heap of fluffy mane and lanky legs.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, looking up at her and grimacing instead of smiling as he intended, “I’m good, thanks. Uh. Glad that… worked out. I’m Hadaya. Resident ‘make people fall out of trees’ guy.”
The femme’s eyes were narrowed, she was not impressed. Either that or she was grouchy for getting woke up before she wanted to. She couldn’t help the yawn and stretch. It was like trying to contain a restless cub in a den, it wasn’t happening. She watched the male for a moment and decided she would give him a second chance. She really wasn’t one to hold grudges.
“I’m Briseis, resident sleeper of trees who happens to get knocked out,” she smirked.
“Nice to meet you Hadaya.” She sat on her haunches, still restless she was waiting to actually wake up. That and when she woke up she was always hungry. Then again it seemed if she wasn’t sleeping she was hunting. It was the way of life. “So do you live around here then?” she inquired. She was rogue, he could be part of a pride or stay around these parts…something. She didn’t know, it was always good to ask. He could have a reason for knocking her out of the tree. Perhaps she was invading territories. None the less she wasn’t against having a conversation with the clumsy and rather straightforward male.
