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 Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:30 am
There were certain moments in Matifu's life where he almost started to regret the fact that bachelorhood would be ending soon. Not to say he couldn't have any woman he wanted, but he'd have to watch out for a lot of them once he and his fellow friends charged over the plainslands and held a tight, harsh victory. There would be little time for "all male" outtings and skirmishes. Goodness knew what the women would think of their small fights. Yes, with everything, there was a lack of freedom to go with it.
It was either freedom of choice or freedom of mates, and Matifu knew what his choice would be, and would continue to be, until the day he died.
But it was none of these choices, nor the forementioned bachelor moment, that caused him to stop and pause on what was presumed to be rogue-lands. The dust did not stop with him, instead lifting up from his heavy paw marks and spinning off with the wind in a ghost of a figure of where he would have gone had his walking continued. By all standards, he was a large lion. He was all bulk and a quite a great deal of height to go with, but it made his movements lumbering and slow.
A quicker lion would - and had - be able to get an advantage against him, but he was thankful that the size itself was a deterant for most small, ramboncious males just starting off. They didn't mess with that one. The blows from a large paw like that would make a few concussions known.
Matifu clamped his jaw shut, realizing it had been slightly open and resumed his walking. He broke into a trot, passing a few scarce tufts of grass. The weight of each step was felt in his shoulders; in a few years, it would probably break way to pain. He was getting old. He wasn't old (or so he claimed), but he was going to be.
His point of interest was a bright, blue colored lion in his field of view. The blue color itself was disturbing to him, but more than that was the fact that a bird had stuffed a feather with expert aim into the male's head. It made him look entirely foolish. Nevermind the scrap of waste that was thrown over his back. Matifu decided not to ask.
"Excuse me," he said, trying politeness at first, but then swaying far away from tact. "But how did you get that retarded thing stuck in your hair?"
Bwana was getting close now. He could still see his prey as he remained low to the ground, inching his way closer and closer to what he hoped would be a very good meal. The grass was tall enough to conceal him, only the light cream feather in his mane was visible, but any animal would have simply thought that to be a bird, nothing more. All-in-all, he felt very comfortable with his position. The large animal had been lying in the sun for a good twenty minutes now. Clearly it had fallen to sleep in the sun, basking in the light and letting the warmth get the better of him.
That would be his last mistake.
Without wasting any more time, Bwana sprang forward, charging over the ground and closing the gap between himself and the animal he was soon going to sink his teeth in. Just a few more feet and then one mighty leap! He flew through the air, landing right on top of the animal just as he had planned. And then he slipped off. Because it wasn’t an animal at all.
It was a rock.
A large rock he couldn’t eat and had been stalking for the past half hour.
Sitting up, the completely embarrassed soon-to-be-king was happy to know that none of his small going home group had seen him act like such an idiot. If Fara had seen him… even the children… they would have never been able to stop laughing about it. How foolish! A king mistaking a rock for something delicious.
Sighing heavily, he climbed onto the rock, sitting himself down and looking around. At least nothing else could go wrong on such an already horrible day. Of course, that was only a cue for something else to happen. Blinking, he turned his head, facing another lion that had come from no where. Too annoyed to wonder what he had seen, the purple lion let his tail twitch as his eyes narrowed.
“It’s a feather,” he shot back, “and it’s not stuck. It’s an accessory. Would you mind telling me where you put your manners this morning? How dare you address someone so rudely! And with such a plain fur coat!”
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:31 am
The look that Matifu gave back was one of muted curiousity. "I know," he answered with a sardonic tone to his voice. "That it's a feather."
There was a term for this kind of individual, but Matifu simply could not grasp a hold of it. Something about a "brain" came to mind and a relation to the feather at hand. Before he could sit down and think on it, there was a prattle of words going from ear to mind that he had to process.
"Back with my mother. I'm not following the rules now." He grinned and eyed the feather from his distance away. The way the lion spoke sounded a bit questionable. Matifu wrinkled his nose.
"Where'd you get off wanting a feather in your head?" Matifu asked, this time circling the male and looking him up and down through squinted eyes. "Hey," he finally decided upon saying, stopping in front of the male to face him. "What would happen if you lost it? The feather." (fin)
"Oh, I see, a rebel, how lovely," Bwana sighed, heaving an overly profound sigh as he eyed the lion carefully. This lion was not a very nice creature, unlike most of the others he had met on his journey. Thankfully, he wasn't completely out of his element when dealing with lions of clashing personality. There had been a time when he used to get into fights for fun.
He had to admit the thought of getting into one now was like a tickle on his spine. Something he needed to try and ignore. "Is there a rule I don't know about forbidding me to have a feather on my head if I want one? Because I'm fairly certain I can do whatever the hell I want and it doesn't matter what you think of it." He huffed as the lion circled him.
Did hot females feel like this when they were getting checked out?
"I would simply find another feather. Why? Are you going to big-brother me and try to take it? Honestly, don't you have something... else you can be doing? As much as I enjoy talking to meat heads, I have a feeling any further discussion will end poorly for one of us. Ah! I'm sorry, I'm being very rude. aren't I? I suppose I'm supposed to be taking the higher road these days. My name is Bwana. What do they call you?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:32 am
"Uh. . ." Matifu's answer was perfectly well thought out and exucted. No one could have done it better.
"No rule, no." He stood there watching, eyeing the feather and debating what could be done with it. It was no fun if the purple lion could simply find another feather. No good at all. It wasn't a feather he would want to find another one of.
"You don't get out much, do you?" Matifu asked after a while, sitting down on his haunches. It would have been pointless to take the feather now. The purple-fellow would probably sit and wail about it, and the only thing more grating on Matifu's nerves than a bawling female child was a bawling male adult.
"Matifu," he answered, skeptical of the sudden friendliness between them. "It hurts when you fall off the higher road. My cousin did that. She walked backwards and talked sideways every day after that. Why would you want to take that?" (fin)
"On the contrary," Bwana replied, "I've been out far too much, my plump friend." He watched the other carefully. Though the colors of his fur were fairly normal for a lion, he had to admit that the design of it all was rather interesting. He hadn't seen anything like it around his pride, anyway. Maybe it had been a little mean of him to assume the worst just because he looked boring and acted like an idiot.
He didn't like the way the guy kept looking at his feather, though. It had taken him an age to find one as fluffy and beautiful as the one in his mane. The feather was a part of him and he rather wanted it to stay that way.
So he stayed on alert, just in case.
"I... suppose a real road would be painful to fall off of, yes. Um, how does one talk sideways?" He didn't know what to make of this guy. "You don't live around here, do you? Are there more like you I should be worried about?" Damnit, don't be mean Bwana. Act like a king.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:32 am
There were no roads that Matifu knew about that weren't real. He passed the statement off as a fanciful statement - just as fanciful as the lion himself. It all fit together like a neat puzzle.
"You'd have to see it to understand," Matifu explained, his voice a low rumble. "Don't ask me to show you. I can't do it. I've tried." He metaphorically tossed the question behind him and moved on.
"I live here. I live there. I'll be living out there," he motioned with his head, "soon." The final question perked his interesting. He stood back up on his feet and squared up his shoulders.
"Four. And don't be snuffling around trying to get in on the action. I'll wack you up the head so hard you can't see straight." Maybe his buddies would help. (fin)
Bwana decided to just let it go. Whatever talking sideways was, it was probably not something he wanted to see anyway. This lion... didn't seem fully put together. Admittedly there was something charming in that. It was like talking with a child that could kick your a**.
"I'm not sure I even want to know what "the action" is, so you don't have to worry about that," Bwana assured him, watching the lion stand with continued indifference. Outwardly, anyway. On the inside his mind was screaming 'run away, now!' but he wasn't going to let the other one know that.
"You shouldn't threaten kings, you know," he added after a moment, trying to casually slip his royalty into the conversation, "I don't think that would turn out well for you."
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:33 am
Matifu pondered this statement. Threatening Kings was indeed very bad business.
"It's a good thing you haven't threatened me, then," he decided upon. It was a half bluff. He wouldn't be a king persay, but he wasn't going to be living all alone for much longer, and with the pride he had his eye on, there wouldn't be any intruders trampling his relaxing grounds.
He let out a deep, low chuckle and grinned. "I won't step on your tail if you won't step on mine. Deal?" He pushed one paw forwards in a sign of treaty, his tail swishing behind him as he waited for an answer. (fin)
"Oh! You're a king then? I am too, so I suppose... that works out rather swimmingly, doesn't it? Two kings, getting to know one another." It also meant they could fight and there really wouldn't be anything wrong about it. Kings fought all the time.
Now he really needed to place nice.
"Uh... sure. Deal," Bwana replied. Because he didn't understand anything the male had been doing up until this point, he didn't really know what the intention was behind the paw. Confused, he moved his forward carefully, poking the paw with a claw not enough to hurt, or even really be felt. He lowered his paw again, watching the other with an arched eyebrow.
"You're not as bad as I thought you'd be," he said after a moment, "I'm surprised and pleased all in one."
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:37 am
Matifu felt compelled to celebrate in some way. It was his first alliance, so to speak. How this male was a king, he had no idea, but the bawling might have had something to do with it. As long as this Bwana before him could hold his pride, Matifu wasn't going to judge how he did it.
His eyes watched Bwana's claw snake out and tap him lightly on the pad of his foot. A bit shy, was he? Matifu didn't mind. "I get that a lot." Matifu's voice was mostly a laugh. He added, to clarify. "I only mess with lions that mess with me the wrong way." He placed the big paw back on the ground underneath him.
"Maybe I'll see you around, King-friend." With another, broad grin, he returned to a jog and made his way back across the dusty, sparse landscape where more important things awaited him. (fin)
"Well, I hope I never end up messing with you the wrong way," the purple lion replied lightly enough, feeling a bit more secure now that they had made this... whatever it was between the two of them. The get out of trouble paw touch thing was a rather nice way to go about making friends.
He would have to do that more often.
"Good bye," he replied, refraining from tagging a nickname on after that. Calling him 'meat head' again now would just seem vindictive and that wasn't what he was going for, really.
He turned the opposite way, looking over his shoulder once more before leaving the area. At least he wasn't thinking about his humiliating hunting experience.
Aw damnit.
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