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 Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 7:32 pm
 Koka’s cloak protected her head from the oppressive sun like a mane. Being large for a rogue lioness, with her plodding gait and ungraceful posture, from a distance, she resembled a lone white male traversing the cracked earth. She controlled a modest territory bordered by slant, jagged cliffs on one side, pocked with small caves where she escaped the hottest hours of the day; and the giant dunes of the erg sea on the other. The dunes were eternally shifting according to the will of the winds. Large prey was scarce here. There was enough small prey to feed a single lioness, if she hunted diligently, which Koka did. She was diligent in everything she did. That was how she survived.
It was early morning, the sun had just climbed over the dunes, and Koka was making her way to the edge of her territory in search of prey and intruders. The caves were her most valuable resource. Indentations in the rocks collected dew which she could drink and the rocks created homes for lizards and snakes that helped stave off starvation during hard times. Koka was adept at making use of every resource. She never raged against the luxuries she did not possess. However, fortune had smiled upon her recently. A gazelle had wandered too far from the lands of green and gotten disoriented in the heat of the desert, making an easy kill. After she’d stripped it of meat she had carried some of the bones back to her cave for later. Most of the carcass was still lying on the dune where she left it, as the noon day sun was coming out when she arrived at the caves, forcing her to take shelter from the heat. Now she was going back to retrieve the rest, if anything remained.
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Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 8:32 pm
The desert had been Soro’s birthplace, in a crevice against a massive rock where his mother had given birth. The moment he entered the world, he had sand under his paws. He knew the place well and the habit of the terrain, but it did not mean he had an upper hand. He lived, just as everything lived, day by day in hopes it wasn’t his last. This meant you ate what you could, drank what you could unless it had the feel of disease, and tried for any scrape you could find as the sand fought to take you down. When the sun was at it’s highest and most intense, nothing came out. No lions, no snakes, no food. Scavenging and getting by was done at dawn and dusk after the heat and before the cold. At that point, hunting for shelter was more important.
Getting by had lead Soro to find a torn husk of an animal torn to pieces in the sand. It’s bones and pieces of body had been a relief for the lion, who had came atop a dune spot the find. His first instinct was to look about to see if there was the creature who killed the animal nearby or a pack of scavengers who would come to protect their meal. Just because there was no one eating didn’t mean they would not be far. As he moved, he noticed he was alone, and decided to feed himself as quickly as he could before any hunter did come to fight for what they could not drag away. He was starving, and he needed food.
As he ate, he pushed ribs down, trying to get at the meat that was still on the bones and what he could safely devour. Each piece he could find he would eat regardless if it wasn’t to his liking. As he ate, he kept making sure to look up and about for any signs of the owner of the meal, wondering if it had been abandoned and what it might attract. As he did, he noticed the white figure atop a dune, blurring and rippling from the heat that had yet to fully come. It was massively white, and he looked up, swallowing down a hard piece of meat, before licking his mouth. He had to see if he could safely defend his find, or if he should decide that it was not worth it and take the luck of a meal and go off to find a shelter instead. His ears went back, and he kept his eyes on the figure. Not in any mood, he called out. “Who are you?” It was more an idea of what the creature was, this lion, and if they were the type to fight for the carcass.
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Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 8:38 pm
Dark brown shape was parked over her kill. Let it be known that Koka was not a lioness devoid of sympathy. The desert is a harsh land indeed. Compromises don’t come cheap. She started at a jog with her teeth bared when the male’s voice carried over the dunes and replied with a threatening roar. She slowed and greeted him with a low snarl, orange eyes blazing like twin suns under the hood of her turban, fur prickled and gleaming at the tips as she faced off with the male, sizing him up.
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Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 8:44 pm
Soro stepped away from the carcass, but only to give himself space. If it came to it, he would kill for even this piece of flesh. Here, even a rotting corpse could spell life or death for him, and if he had to, he would spend up his life fighting at a chance to live rather than giving up and dieing in the dunes. He was given a second chance at life, and he in no way wanted to make his idols, the scorpions, ashamed by seeing him become the coward. His life was somehow important, and he would work to find that purpose for which he lived. He could not die here, in the sand, right now. He still had a lot to do in life.
Ears back, he roared again, and he hunched. “I will fight you if you come closer? Be gone with you? I will spare no sympathy for your gender if you attack.” He was giving a warning. He would rather eat than risk fighting in the hot sun.
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Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 9:12 pm
My gender? Does he think we’re at a gentleman’s ball? She chuckled, breaking her laughter with a snarl as she closed in on the carcass. Koka had a special advantage when it came to fighting in the desert. Her white pelt shone with a glare like the edge of a blade catching the light of the morning sun, while the dark spots under her eyes made it easier for her to see even when the sun cast a blazing light on the sand.
She stood over the carcass. “The feeling’s mutual. This is my kill and I’ll be the one to defend it, so make your move, intruder.”
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Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 9:26 pm
He wasn't in the mood, and while he had at least something in his stomach, it would not hold him out for long. He needed a meal, and he wasn't one to learn how to negotiate for scraps. Not with a woman at least. If he wanted pity, he would have begged. If he wanted charity, he would have applied to her reason and their camaraderie as a higher species under one sun. He felt none of this. He had pride in what he was, and he in no way felt equal or in any way alike this female. He did not have to know who raised her, what she felt about the world and it's troubles, or anything else. It was of no concern. What was important was she wanted her kill back, and he wanted what he found. It was a general rule that when you turned your back on a kill, you risked it being taken. Coming back meant you were fighting for it anew.
There was no need to talk or waste your breath. In the end, no one knew who would become another corpse in the sand that might later lead to another dispute. No one had sympathy for this dead animal here, and no one would weep over either of their dead bodies if it came down to it.
With one good leap, he went for her face, hoping to blow her down and go for the neck. A throat was a place of interest, but he also extended claws and bared teeth to go after her face and whatever hold he could get.
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Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 9:53 pm
Koka had seen many of her siblings perish in the desert. Her mother was not equipped to survive her, but they had been forced to learn because of her cruel father. His bones, like the bones of her siblings, now lay buried amongst the dunes, thanks to her claws and the help of her mother and only surviving sister. If it came to that, she had no qualms about killing.
She dodged his attack by jumping backward, but only just barely, and as he landed she swiped at the vulnerable points of his face with her claws, the eyes and nose.
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Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 10:21 pm
His paws met sand, and he felt his body impact, and as he turned to register his attacker, he felt claws to his face. His mane helped to take the blunt of the claws, but he felt claws on his nose and under his right eye. Blood spilled and he shook it, roaring as he squinted, reaching out paw aggressively back. He rose up on his back legs, hoping to push her down. If she made a misstep or was thrown on her back, she would be vulnerable.
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Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 10:48 pm
Accustomed to the shifting sands Koka held her ground until the opportune moment. With her opponent’s belly exposed she charged and grappled him, raking her teeth through his chest and shoulder before using her weight to hurl him to the ground with a bloody roar.
“This is my territory, male! You have no holdings here!” she growled.
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Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:17 pm
The turn around have taken him by surprise, and he noticed how much heavier, larger, she was in comparison to his body, his build compromised by months of poor diet. He fell back, but pawed to get her off. He could die, but he would go down trying.
He roared back, finding it hard to talk as blood wept into his eyes and claws cut long marks across his exposed chest and shoulder. He was in deep pain, and he knew if he did not die here, it would be a hard time recovering.
Despite his best efforts, he roared in pain, and tried to free himself from her massive body.
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Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:35 pm
“Submit!” Koka roared. She pushed down on him with all her weight, pressing her paw against his throat to silence his roars. The male was already in bad shape. There was no reason to kill him in this condition. At best his death would be a waste of energy. If he was destined to die, the desert would finish him for her.
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Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 12:41 am
He couldn't. There was no way he could submit to a female. It would mean he was lower, and every fiber of his body rebelled against the idea. He pushed into the paw, pushing with what meager strength starvation had given him and his bones lent him to pull her off. "ne..ver.." He rasped, having no air to give him a roar, but pushing out the words. If it came to be his dying breath, then it was at least worth saying.
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Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:35 am
Against reason the male tried to pull her off, but her legs held her as sturdily as stone. Her recent meal leant her the strength he did not possess, which she wielded against him without pity. “Stubborn fool,” she hissed. “You should save your energy for the next fight. Now get out of my sight before I gut you!”
She let him up. As soon as he was on his feet she snarled and started gnashing her teeth at his rump to force him to flee.
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Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:44 am
Soro was bleeding into his eye and half blinded from the stinging pain. The hot breath of the females roar pushed back his mane, and he was relieved to find air in his lungs once more. As the push, he lifted himself up, staggering due to a bleeding shoulder. Pain swallowed his upper half, and he felt a swipe to his hind quarters to match it. He caught himself stepping away, before going a distance, before turning about. She had her ears back and was growling for him to go. His eyes flickered for a moment at the female and the carcass, but he knew he managed a meal to live, and fighting over scrapes was not a worthwhile battle now that he knew it was not going to have any advantage for him. He was going to have the short end of the fighting advantages at this rate, and so he reluctantly left, hoping that in the future, he would find her again and take her territory for his own.
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Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:58 am
Koka snorted and swiped her tail as she watched the male retreat into the erg sea. She had a few scratches on her from the scuffle, none bleeding too terribly, so she took a moment to offer Mkodi her silent thanks. When the heat waves dissipated the outline of the dark figure she turned to the carcass. There was still a little meat left between the rib bones. This was an extraordinary stroke of luck. She thought the buzzards would have pecked it clean by now for sure. One scavenger had already tried. She picked up the carcass by the spine and started to drag the remains back to her cave.
((Fin~))
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