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 Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 10:28 pm
((For Sharifu'bedui and Nyota'ausi :3.))
Sharifu'bedui was taking shelter from the afternoon sun of the Southlands, resting in the sparse shade of a short, scrubby tree. The sun was harsh on his dark back, and so the rogue male had rolled over, exposing his painted white underbelly to the sun, which was kinder on the paler fur. It wasn't much, but it did help, and when it was this hot, he was willing to sacrifice a little dignity while he napped.
Besides, it was only really undignified if you slept with your mouth hanging open and drool leaking out. So really, while the noble rogue wasn't looking his absolute best, he was still rather handsome, with his flashings of blue-purple spots and face markings.
He was in good health, too...granted, he was on the lean side, but that was doing well for a lone rogue such as himself. And he kept relatively clean and groomed, which helped his overall appearance.
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 10:40 pm
Nytoa'ausi was doing her usual rounds of her current homestead. She moved constantly, never able to stay still for very long. Her trust didn't run very deep, even with the land. It never gave her what she needed, so she moved from place to place, assuming that the land was it's own entity with different opinions and emotions. She might think a little oddly, but with one left to her own devices, what else could she use to explain her lack of trust?
Moving through the dried grass, her dull coat blending in near perfectly, she noticed an odd shape under a tree...and...a belly? What oaf would show their belly up? She inched a bit closer, trying to keep as quiet as she could. Ooohh...that oaf was sleeping. Well, in this heat, she certainly could understand, if only a little. Her own coat was fairly thin, and didn't keep the heat too much pas the point of uncomfortable. She had gotten used to it though, and didn't let it bother her.
Nyo's dull eyes studied the size of the lion. Male...definately an adult, much too large to be otherwise....probably not from around here, by his colours.... her thoughts became focused on him, and not on where she was standing. She lost a bit of her balance, and to catch herself, had to step on an extra crunchy part of the grass. s**t.
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 10:53 pm
That small crunch was enough to snap Sharifu'bedui to awareness, although to all appearances the only 'snap' to his waking was his eyelid snapping open to reveal a pair of bright pink eyes that scanned for, then focused, on the source of the noise.
A..female. His age, and so far as he could tell from his upside-down view, a pretty female; although there was something beautiful about even the plainest lionesses, his upbringing chimed in. Every lioness was lovely, and deserved attention and courtesy.
But courtesy was not lounging on your back while you met one. So in a quick, fluid movement that was anything but scrambling, he was on his paws and facing the stranger, head inclined politely.
"Good afternoon, lady," came his greeting in his deep, rumbling voice.
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 11:05 pm
Nyota froze, like a gazelle pondering flight or the frightened-frozen. Her ears laid back against her head, nervous all of a sudden, for he spoke to her, directly. Something she was not used to at all, let alone expecting it.
Her eyes dashed around her sides, making sure that she didn't have anything sneeking up on her. In an awkward attempt, she slowly sat on her haunches, though not looking comfortable at all. She was in that tense stage of ready-to-run, and she shifted her weight on her hindlegs quite often.
She gave a quick little bow, barely viewable, and gushed out the words she spoke.
"G-G'afternoon, there."
She felt like a cub that had it's tail in it's mouth; foolish and stupid. But how was she to know what to do? She'd come across the random cub or two, but nothing really ever happened; she was more-or-less ignored, and didn't know how to act around others. All she knew what how to survive, and mingling with others didn't click in that mindset.
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 8:26 am
Sharifu'bedui didn't fail to pick up on the lioness' nervousness, so obvious was her discomfort. Hoping it might help to calm her, he laid down in an effort to seem less threatening, far from tensed and ready to chase her off or attack.
Black mane obscured his eyes as he gave another small bow of his head, ashamed. "Please, forgive me if I startled you; it was not my intention. I am Sharifu'bedui."
He did not ask for her name outright, not wishing to corner her into even the smallest thing, when she looked so ready for flight.
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 8:38 am
Nyota relaxed; if only a bit. She sat down as one should, and stopped shifting her weight, but her legs were still tense, more for nervousness then anything. But why should so be nervous? He was the one that seemingly just barged into the area she was occupying, so she should be the one more relaxed, more in charge. But seeing a full adult infront of you after only seeing a few bumbling cubs made enough of a difference, to her.
Her eyes still darted around her, though not as much as they did in their first notice of one another. Seeing that the land was clear of all, save him, as it had been, she lowered her face a bit closer to the ground, stooped over.
"I rarely see adults as yourself here...."
Her voice trailed off as her question left her breath before she could even speak it outloud. So what was he doing here? The question echoed in her mind. One so exotic and...well, pretty as him should be in a more noble place...like those damn Pridelanders she'd heard of.
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 8:53 am
Inwardly, he nodded approvingly to see her relax even the slightest bit. She probably had cause to be nervous, with not only a stranger, but an adult male in what could well be her home. He had heard nothing of true prides in this area, so was she alone? With a small family group, maybe? But if there were even a small group nearby, surely his presence would not make her so anxious. For now, then, he would assume she was alone, until and unless he learned otherwise.
He answered her half-spoken question after a moment of thought, giving his reply in the same deep voice but courteous tone as his earlier words. "I have been in these lands for less than half a moon, simply following my feet. I hail from the mountains, to the north and east of here."
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:12 am
Nyota'ausi's ears flicked forward as she heard the word 'mountain'. So he wasn't from here....quite obvious, for a black coat wouldn't survive long in the head of the southlands. Her own thin coat could get unbearable sometimes, and it didn't hold in heat like such a dark colour. Interesting. But....she felt a small twinge of jealousy that she couldn't hide in her words. Her ears flicked back against her head as she cringed backa bit and looked away.
"Good to know you are traveling....I did so for a brief while." She turned back to him, feelig a bit more braver, but she wouldn't look him in the eye. She feared it might make herself too vulnerable.
"I....I am Nytoa'ausi. I..." Her words fell off. Might as well hold off the whole 'I'm insane, a reject, and live on my own, just waiting to die' part, since she assumed it was pretty obvious. She eats, but there's no shine to her coat. Her eyes don't carry a spark of life that most lioness' have. Her stature was of no self-esteem, and she didn't look forward to the future. She lived in the moment, but not in the happy sorts. Just doing enough to keep her alive and move around these lands that she had learned so well, on her own. Not that she'd want the pity and help of others. She'd half-picked this way of life, and was too stubborn to change it on her own.
But, she should speak. Maybe speaking would bore him enough to make him leave? Only trying could prove for certain.
"Mountains..." the word fellt awkward coming out of her mouth, "where it is cold? Colder even then the nights here, when the sun strives to leave us in the time when prey is scarce?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 12:36 pm
"Only briefly? Is it that you found a reason to settle here?" he inquired politely, having picked up on that race of jealous tone and hoping to have the reasons for it illuminated.
Nyota'ausi, he repeated to himself in his mind, unable to help but wonder where the sparkle and shine in this nervous lioness had gone, or if she had ever had any at all. Surely she had, so what might have taken it?
"From the mountains," he affirmed, "Where it is cold, although depending on the season it is merely cool, but the nights are cold whatever the season, high and deep in the crags."
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 2:35 pm
Nyota's tail flicked a bit as his words sank into her thoughts. She didn't really want to talk, but then...she did want to talk. She wanted that interaction with others that she always watches others do from the shadows. She wanted it...but she was scared of it, also.
"Cold...I've only remembered heat..." her voice trailed off as she thought about things, unspoken, and most likely would stay unspoken for for a long time to come, she assumed.
"To be away from others, is my reason. I've been chased out enough to learn my place is behind the tree and on the ground. Nothing much better is out there for me." Her voice trailed off again. She didn't have much confidance in her speak, either. "I've been known to be...different...from others."
Her back twitched as she spoke those last few words, words she didn't want to come out. Not her darkest secret, but certainy one should not say infront of a stranger.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:27 am
Sharifu'bedui flicked his painted tail in thought, resisting the instinct to frown; he feared the lioness might take such an expression poorly, when he would only mean it because of her plight, and not because of her.
"It is a very ignoble thing, that others would chase you, a lioness, away. There is reason to drive a lion such as myself away, when I can be considered a danger to others' prides." Though he had to wonder what it was that made her 'different' and what it had to do with her rejection, but it would be horribly crass of him to ask outright.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 8:03 pm
She could sense the curiosity in his voice, though the questions weren't spoken. She herself resisted the urge to tilt her head to the side, making sure that the words were something he actually said, and not things whispered from the wind.
Nyota straightened herself up. She was getting a little more relaxed, and less tense with the time passing from their first glance 'til now. He wasn't a threat to her; or at least, not an immediate one. Her own tail flopped itself lazily around her side, resting just short of her forepaws.
"Where I come from...well, normality is standard, and anything else is an embarassment."
She decided to leave it as that, and not push it too far. Her back hunched over a bit, as if she'd said something uncomfortable.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 8:09 pm
"Normality is relative, and well, depending on the sense you mean it in, I'm not precisely normal myself." He favored her with a light smile, eyes flicking to the multicolored tuft of his tail.
In appearance, at least, he was unusual; and if the attitudes of others she implied were the norm, then perhaps his own noble nature was strange.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 8:17 pm
Nyota's ears flicked to the back of her head, as if she heard something from behind. She wasn't focusing on the land around her now; more, it was just the way he took it was a bit comforting, but...it wasn't, at the same time.
The words and everything on her mind wanted to come out, but nothing would come out of her open mouth. She promptly shut her jaws with a snap, and went on thinking instead of answering. She didn't know how to answer to that. Everyone was different, as she'd quickly learned from leaving her home, but it wasn't always a comforting thought. Things drilled into one so young were hard to forget, or even think around. Fighting with her mind on this, she looked a little disgruntled.
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Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 8:16 pm
Sharifu'bedui watched the lioness carefully, worried by her lack of spoken response. Her disgruntled expression he saw as cause for concern, as he was the cause of the expression, he could only assume. His head bowed again.
"My apologies if my words overstepped boundaries, lady."
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