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 Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:41 pm
The black and white striped cub moved at a snails pace over the savanna. It was growing late, the sun sinking lower and lower on the horizon while the shadows seemed to reach up at her form. Red eyes wearily looked about, forever cautious and forever afraid. She was a mangy looking thing, covered in dirt and dust from the plains, but was too scared to stop for long. Grooming . . . .well. . . she didn't have time to stop and clean her coat! Her brother had told her to keep running so Xieros would obey.
She had no idea where she was, how far she had traveled, or where she was going. All she knew was she couldn't go back there, she couldn't stop anywehre for long unless the golden lions found her. They haunted her nightmares, and even awake she still remembered the death of her family, the death of her pride.
Poor Xieros was in quite a poor state. She wanted to run but had no energy. Standing was almost too much work and her paws were full of sores. She hurt. . emotionally. . .mentally. . . and physically. . .but there was nothing else for her to do. She had to keep moving. Step by painfully slow step, the striped tailed cub tried her best to keep on keepin' on.
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Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:42 pm
Azria didn’t particularly like the night, although he couldn’t say that he didn’t enjoy watching the sun sinking into ground and the sky turning red, purple, orange. But there was something about the absence of light that distressed him somewhat, and although it wouldn’t be right so call him scared of the dark, it always made him uneasy.
So it was only to be expected that, with the oncoming darkness, Azria was hurrying home. He had spent the entire day outside on his own, exploring, inventing games with his wild youngster’s imagination, swimming, hunting – the last was more just a semblance of hunting than anything, but he had begun to improve his abilities, and had even successfully stalked a meerkat though he hadn’t had the heart to kill it and he hadn’t been altogether hungry.
“Home, home,” he was humming to himself as he made his way across the familiar landscape, thinking of the atmosphere at home and his siblings when he caught sight of the figure of a cub some ways away, taking painful, pitiful steps. A frown flashed briefly across his brow as he paused, then before he knew what he was doing, he had turned from his original path to make a beeline toward her.
“Hey,” he prompted when he had drawn within earshot. “You okay?”
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Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:48 pm
The little cub was so exhausted she missed the sounds that warned her of an approaching and much older cub. But she didn't miss the voice that called out, seemingly from no where! Jumping half a foot in the air, her ears flattenened and she jerked visibly away from the source, half running away and mostly tripping over her paws. Skidding in to an ungraceful heap, she kept her body tense and her eyes instantly jerked to her attacker!
Wait . . . .
That wasn't one of the golden nightmares. No, that was . . . that was a cub! Or . . .sort of a cub. He was older than she, larger and could easily out weight her in a fight. So frightened and skiddish, it took Xieros a few moments to actually let his words process. Was she . . .okay? No. No she wasn't . . not in the very least! But how did she answer him? Heart still racing, visibly shaken but too upset to move, Xieros stared. . . before finding a very small voice.
"I'm . . .f-fine . . ." She tried to sound brave, tried to sound bold, but her voice wavered. She was terribly frightened of this stranger, unsure what he would do to her, unsure if he was friend or foe. All Xieros knew, outside of her late family, was foe. . . so she couldn't assume this one was any different! Why was he approaching her anyway? Was he going to pick on her, was he going to laugh at her lowly state, whatever did he want?
Part of Xieros wanted to break down and cry. But she wouldn't. No. Not to this stranger. Because if she stopped and had a good cry over her lot, she likely wouldn't keep going and would resign herself to the death that licked at her heels. She had told her brother she would run. . . so that was what she was doing, and would do, until she could run no more.
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:08 pm
Another frown. Perhaps he should have made that a rhetorical question – because clearly, most clearly, she was not fine! Now that he was close enough to see, he could tell that she was younger and much skinnier, and absolutely filthy, and no cub that was fine deserved to be in a state like that!
“I don’t think you’re fine,” he said tentatively, watching her with concern. For all he knew, in the state she was in, she could keel over at any moment and… well… die! It was a rather terrifying thought, to have to watch a cub her age die – and now that the thought was in his head, it wasn’t about to leave.
“Well, where are you going?”
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