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 Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 11:54 am
After all, it had given him this divine gift.
“Azkaila... Are you ready to start the day?” The dark blue of her coat brought a faint reminder of Nyoka. The pain, the betrayal... The love. Linje swept the thoughts away as he brushed his tongue across Azkaila's cheek.
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Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2010 9:14 pm
Azkaila had been sleeping quite peacefully between her father's paws. Occasional twitches of her own paws showed signs of her dreaming. In her dream her father was there, and his massive head leaned down to scoop her up. She could feel his nose burrow into her fur, and as she gently opened her eyes, she realized her dream was not far from being true.
Giggling, she rolled over to her tummy as her father's nose tickled her belly. "Daddy... that tickles!" she laughed again, her tail flicking and thwacking ten thousand miles an hour as she play growled and tugged at his ears with her teeth while he rasped his tongue over her cheek. She faintly paid any notice to his dirty fur and scratches as her mind was far to little, innocent, and active to fully grasp the concept of pain in her fathers eyes. Instead she beamed a bright smile at him. "Of course! What are we doing today?!" she mewled, wiggling impatiently as he finished his licking.
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Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:01 am
"Today we will be doing what we do every day, sweetheart. You know the routine by now, don't you? First we groom..." Linje grinned, eyes sparkling as his daughter giggled in a childlike manner. He gently lifted a paw, sweeping it across her dark blue fur to tame a tuft that was misbehaving. "And then we hunt. And then we groom again... And then we sleep."
Without realizing a cub needs more stimulation than this, he rose to his paws and began scanning the grasslands for a meal. Spying a lone herd of buffalo, the leopard started for them. He glanced over his shoulder, making certain the hybrid cub was prepared to follow him. "Y'see those buffalo in the distance? They're too big to hunt, but they always know where water is. And a water source means tons of hunting opportunities."
He began hid slow gait towards the herd, nose and ears flickering keenly in every direction. But his daughter distracted him again and he looked at her. "Can you keep up or do you want me to carry you? I don't want you to hurt your perfect paws, after all."
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 4:01 pm
Azkaila did her best to keep up with her father. She wanted to impress him after all, though she did stumble a few times. It didn't take her long to get into the routine of running effortlessly without any sound, but she still wasn't graceful.
As she pranced along, she took leaps and bounds to swat at her father's tail. It would be a lie to say she had hopped today could be a little different. Smiling as always, she cast large purple eyes up at her dad and nodded. "I'm fine! .... WOAH!" she gasped. Even if she had seen buffalo once or twice before they were still so...so... "HUGE!" she burst out, and a flock of birds took off from the tree tops. Grinning like an idiot, she tried to leap up and snag one or two, but of course failed. To say she had an excellent attention span was far from the truth.
Stepping beneath her father and between his front paws, she peered out again at the herd. "Beefalowds. They know where water is?" she repeated as her father had said, kneading her 'perfect' paws into the ground, her tiny claws scraping up the dirt. She was starving, and the grumbling noises in her tummy declared it for all to hear. "Soz then what we huntin today?!" she asked, always seeming to be full of natural healthy questions.
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Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 7:56 am
Linje chuckled warmly. Seeing his daughter so happy and lively flared a unique sensation. One that he found himself incapable of identifying, but it was perfect and he clung to it with his life.
"They are huge, aren't they?" Linje grinned, eying the cattle in the distance as the birds exploded into view. "Don't get too close though. They won't bother you if you don't bother them..." Linje paused, meeting his daughters' face with a silly grin and a whisper. "And you don't want them to bother you. They'd stomp you flat." Confident that his daughter would take that lesson to heart, Linje returned his attention to the Savannah. A hare would be the perfect meal, not too big or dangerous to hunt.
"Hares. Have you seen a hare, before? They have big ears and big legs that let them run really really fast." A single grunt of laughter escaped him. "But not as fast as you. You are part cheetah, after all."
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Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 7:33 pm
Azkai's eyes grew wide as her father explained how one could trample her flat. She imagined herself beneath their paws and then suddenly stuck to the grass like the bugs she often squished for fun. A shiver ran down her spine and she nosed up against her father's leg.
But of course, her wonderful attention span kicked in again and she peered up at his face and grinned, standing on her hind paws like a meerkat and butted his nose with her own. "Course I've seen a hare!" she said, though the memory was quite vague. What she did remember was the large ears she saw leaping through the grass as if they had legs of her own, and then when she came closer, they were gone. A bigger grin spread across her muzzle as she jumped around in place. "I'm part Cheetah!" she repeated and began to dash about his paws. "Where they at?! I wanna see whose faster!" she said, not slowing down, nor getting tired. As she ran circles about his feet, she periodically took gentle playful dabs and nips at his tail and ankles.
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 2:31 pm
Linje strolled casually as his boisterous daughter made a ruckus in the tall grass. The nearest shrubs rustled with life. If that was the sound of their dinner, it was long gone by now.
"You gotta be quiet or they'll hear you and run away." He explained, easily deflecting Azkaila's playful assaults and retaliating with the nudge of his gentle paw. "They like to hide in the thick bushes, sometimes they live in borrows in the ground..."
Linje crouched, letting his belly rest on the dirt and pulling his daughter close. "See that bush there? It just moved. If we stay quiet and still.. it might come out..." And sure enough as he spoke, the bush rustled again. A twitching nose appeared, as pink and vulnerable as a lost worm. It must be an immature rabbit.
Linje pulled Azkaila closer, pressing her against his fur in an attempt to sweep away any temptation she might have of bursting after it too early. When the rabbit's eyes were in sight, Linje let go and urged her to catch it. "Remember what I said. Quietly."
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Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 2:38 pm
It all seemed to happen so fast, what with her brilliant attention span and all. Before she knew it she was facing the rabbit, as it began to emerge from the bushes. She grinned and crept low to the ground, her belly slightly brushing the dirt as she went. Her form wasn't anywhere near perfect....but she was trying her hardest.
As soon as she felt she was in striking distance, and had been quiet enough, she used what strength she could to lunge at the rabbit, paws and claws outstretched. She landed with anything and everything but grace, slapping at the rabbit and the dirt, trying to catch it in her paws.
It went one way, her paws went the other, and vice versa. Only because she managed to stumble and trip the strange creature a few times by slapping its feet out from under it, was she able to latch her teeth sloppily into its hind leg. It's kicks were powerful and she felt herself starting to lose control, but her natural cat instincts took over and she quickly sank all her claws into any available spot of flesh and held on for dear life until its movements finally subsided. Grinning like an idiot, she let out a triumphant giggle and sunk her fangs into its neck and carried it back to her father.
It wasn't perfect. Not by a long shot. And definitely unorthodox. But she caught it. That's all that counted....right?
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Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 11:44 pm
Linje intently watched the scene unfold. His grin had vanished as he fought the urge to help his daughter succeed. All of the muscles in his legs tensed with every movement of the hare. It was so hard to sit still. SO hard.
But when Linje found that Azkaila was on the winning side of this deal, the leopard relaxed. He hadn't expected her to take down a rabbit on her first try, not even an immature one. The rabbit, however, fell victim to the young leotah's claws and fangs rather quickly. Coincidence or not, Linje was utterly impressed. And proud, don't forget proud.
"Wow, Azkaila. You did an amazing job." Linje relaxed, letting himself fall into a lump of dirty white fur... as if the entire ordeal had exhausted him. "I wouldn't be surprised if you hunted better than me, one day." His purple eyes twinkled with pride as he eyed the carcass in her maw.
"Go ahead and enjoy your prize.. my little huntress. Then we can go get a drink at the watering hole." He lifted his head for a moment just to lick the top of her head in praise. "I love you."
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Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 6:20 pm
Purring loudly, she giggled through the flesh and dropped it at his paws. "Nuh daddy, I caught this one for you!" she said and licked her lips, blinking back down at the rabbit. The sweet crimson liquid had dribbled its way into her mouth and she lapped at it hungrily. "Buuuuut..maybe we can share?" she said again with a cute cheeky smile and kneaded her paws into the ground.
She didn't even wait for him to say ok before she began to knaw on its side and chew off bits of flesh...rather than ripping it off because she didn't really know how yet and any time she tried to rip it, she only managed to splatter blood on the both of them. Just as everything else, her hunting skills would take time to improve.
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