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 Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 7:41 pm
Taraxa was at least spared the aggravation of having to shoo away his new 'friend' as he prepared for bed. Lucky for him, she'd always been very picky about her sleeping arrangements, refusing to let anyone within paw's reach. As per usual, Xi was no doubt an exception to the rule - any rule - but she'd never been one to snuggle up at her daughter's side. And since she hadn't, no one had ever had.
Zilly was but a creature of habit.
Her worst habit still was and may have forever been obsession. She told herself over and over to surrender the hope she'd ever be able to go home. To just let that dim fire burn out. Those thoughts were troubling and sad, though. It was so much easier to focus on the here and now. This place was her home. Taraxa was her... something.
He was a lion and he was around. For Zilly, that was enough.
She didn't ask for much, in her opinion, and found it very unkind life decided to throw in another catch hidden somewhere in the fine print.
Water. Running water. Lots of it.
Drowning.
Not her, but him. He had drowned.
She didn't awake from the vision like a child would awake from a nightmare. She didn't look frightened like someone playing her role in that scenario should have.
Zilly didn't find that productive enough. She'd never go against her mother. Not ever. If Xi didn't want her around, then she'd stay away. Hurt for it, yes, but stay away even so.
However... Losing two, two lions was unacceptable.
She didn't find it the least bit creepy to lay directly in front of Taraxa as he slept, resting her face between her paws and just staring, staring, staring. All night. Into the morning. She refused to sleep again. How could she?
Zilly just watched him like some horribly ironic and highly disturbed guardian angel the whole time.
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 7:51 pm
Taraxa had had the worst dreams he'd ever had. There had been a lioness, one he'd fought before. He couldn't get rid of her no matter what he tried. No matter what he did she just wouldn't go away. Perhaps it was his brain's way of telling him that it wasn't really a dream, that he'd wake up and she'd be there again. Perhaps it was trying to warn him that when he woke up she was still going to be there. Forever.
Always.
With a heavy sigh, he mournfully left the dream world and came back to reality. He knew she would be there. He knew it.
But creaking open those golden eyes, he hadn't expected her to be right there.
Staring.
At him.
Almost in a panic he tried to close his eyes again. Maybe this was his dream, not the other. Maybe this was a dream and all he had to do was wake up.
Hesitantly eyes opened once more. Nope.
Still there.
How creepy. Had she been there all night? Watching him? Just... staring?
"What do you want?!"
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:00 pm
What did she want?
So many things. She wanted to go home. She wanted her mother to like her best. 'Love' her - that was the ultimate dream. Sometimes, she thought she wanted Nanako back, but only until she remembered the way she nagged at her about every. little. thing.
What did she want from him?
"Nothing," Zilly replied.
So simple. So honest. For someone who had riotously fought her way into a pride of what many would look down on as nothing more than degenerates, she was acting like an innocent little cub scolded by their temperamental father.
Except she wasn't a cub anymore, the embodiment of Chaos was her sire and Taraxa was a much better father than him.
Without any tact or reluctance she explained, "I had a vision and you died."
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:07 pm
"Oh, another vision. Did I die because you cracked your head into mine again?" Disgustedly he rose to his feet. His mouth was dry, and whether she followed him or not Taraxa was going to get his morning drink of water just like he had every day before her cursed arrival.
With a backwards glance at his snoring cubs, he started making his way out of his den, lurching towards the mountain lake that collected runoff from the higher peaks. He would ignore her. It would be that easy. Just ignore her, old chap, he told himself. Maybe she'll go away. Or maybe Gunnar would come out of hiding and take responsibility for what he'd done.
Grumbling to himself he slowly made his way towards the freshwater lake. That water would be so good, cold and crisp, and maybe she'd find a butterfly or something to chase after. If he was lucky maybe she'd fall off a cliff.
One could only hope.
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:14 pm
Zilly's plight had been delayed because her eyes had followed his. Head canted, ears up, she gawked at the little bundles in some deranged mode of awe. Obviously, she had seen them before, but she hadn't really looked at them.
They were so... tiny. She hadn't come across a cub since she was one, and wondered if she had forgotten a time when she herself was such a scrawny little thing.
Were those his? They looked like him--
--Oh, s**t!
Zilly darted outside and after the lion. With his slow gait and her fumbling rush, it only made sense she'd catch up. After that, she circled around him, blocking the path. Blocking his death, if he'd only care to believe it.
"You can't go there," she insisted. "I saw it."
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:20 pm
"Lioness," he uttered with a calmness that didn't reach his eyes, "you will move away from me. Now." It wasn't a question, it was an order. His eyes expressed his frustration, and also spoke of the harm that would come to her if she resisted.
He would have that sip of water, or he would be maiming her. It was that simple.
"Again, I know you speak of visions, but you also cracked your head into mine recently. You also smeared me with my own blood last night. Before that, you threw a dead meerkat at a tree. Last night, you thought a wild dog corpse wasn't dead." He gave her a level look. "So really, what you say means nothing to me."
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:27 pm
Zilly didn't correct him this time, too distracted listening to the other things he had to say and trying to make a decision about what to do. She really did seem to think time just stopped and tapped its foot when she needed the break.
He'd said so much and she struggled between keeping up and reacting as quickly as she needed to. The reason Zilly remembered her conversations so keenly was that she couldn't stop that mental log from filing through everything.
Not fast enough.
He tried to move, but she moved the same way.
"I don't care." That was one of the easiest things to say when she wasn't given enough time. "I don't want you to go."
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:31 pm
Was she serious? She didn't want him to go? She really expected him to care that she was tossing around orders like she was born to do it.
Taraxa smacked his lips together. He was really thirsty. His head hurt.
Bad.
Taraxa lifted one large paw and slowly lifted it up. He rested that large paw right against the bridge of her nose. To an outsider, it might look like a sweet little caress.
Until he shoved.
Hard.
And then he ran. He could taste that cool water on his tongue already. He didn't stop until his toes touched the waters edge. With a smirk he looked over his shoulder at her, then deliberately dipped his head to take a refreshing sip of water.
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:39 pm
The comical, cross-eyed stare at his paw was soon seeing the Earth up close and personal.
Zilly lifted her head and batted away the dirt on her face. She knew then he'd gone, and panic set in. Not nearly as frantic a hysteria as it was with her mother, but the dread was there, turning her stomach in ways she didn't like.
She had to think.
Think.
Thinkthinkthink.
Zilly swayed where she stood until she finally she broke out into a run after him.
By then, he'd already been there for a good solid minute or two.
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:48 pm
Ahh, satisfaction. Sweet, crisp and clean satisfaction. Smugly he watched Zilly approach. The only way he could've been more smug would've been to say, 'Haha, stupid.' -- but he refrained -- and turned back to look out over the lake.
His eyes sharpened abruptly. What was that? Was it... was it moving? He narrowed his eyes and stretched out his neck as if that would bring it into focus. It looked like...
A cub. Not just any cub.
HIS cub. It looked like Ulrika in the water, splashing, drowning.
Without even giving a second thought to his lack of swimming prowess Taraxa dove into the water and clusmily tried to paddle into the center of the smallish lake. His head dipped under but he came back up, exhaling with a cough and swimming further out.
He had to save his cub.
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:54 pm
Zilly clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and flared her nostrils. Both were nervous twitches she hadn't indulged in for months. She made up for that ten fold lately.
If only she were quick-witted enough to notice the wayward log, she'd have thought to knock it in the water. She was certainly clever enough to, but as usual, there wasn't enough time. There never was.
Seeing it as her only and last resort, she ran into the water after him. Swimming hadn't been one of those things stressed to death by Mama like protecting Nym had, but she had learned how to do it of her own accord for that purpose.
...Okay, fine. That damn hyena had pestered her after she'd almost drowned until she learned. Details were not important!
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:02 pm
As he drew closer to what he'd thought was his cub, he... well, he realized it wasn't his cub. It was nothing more than a log floating soggily in the center of the lake. The white that had looked like Ulrika's hair was nothing more than some sun-bleached lichen.
His muscles burned with the exertion of keeping himself afloat. He was still weak from the short fight he'd had with Zilly the previous night, and still a tag hungover from the mint and berries he'd had. Was this going to be the end of him? Was this how he was going to leave this world?
'Here lies Taraxa. He died while valiantly trying to save a dying, drowning log. May he rest in peace.'
When he sank underwater for the last time, air burning in his lungs, Taraxa was, for the first time in his life, hoping to see Zilly's stupid face once more.
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:10 pm
Zilly would argue her face was not stupid, but it would have to wait until she was in a position to open her mouth and not drown as a result.
Swimming had become something of a pastime after she'd learned how to do it. Her muscles were used to the pressure and feel of water. She swam like a fish if there was a fish anywhere that swam like a big, she-hulk lioness.
Down into the water she sailed, navigating under the sinking Taraxa. The paddle back up was gruesome - he was just so fat! - but she made it. Her muzzle pierced the surface, then her entire body, lugging his on her back.
Had land been any farther away, the waters may have claimed them both.
Zilly shifted her weight so his body toppled onto the shore. She spit out a mouthful of water, then gave him a heavy hit to the head. Didn't you know that's the real way to perform CPR?
"HEY!"
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:15 pm
He took the help even if it was from some dumb lioness. Maybe she wasn't so stupid after all. She had warned him that she'd seen him die in a vision, and that had nearly come true.
His head cracked onto the ground and he kept his eyes closed until one of those huge paws thunked him upside his head. Only then did he creak open an eye, breathing heavily.
He'd almost drowned, and she was hitting him upside the head.
Some things would never change.
"What," he grunted, rolling onto his side, "did you just hit me for?" Maybe later he would thank her. Okay, sooner rather than later. She had saved his life, after all.
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:24 pm
"I had to make sure you were alive."
Logic, meet Zilly. Zilly, Logic.
She felt more persuaded to cozy up with Mr. Complaints. Her stomach hit the mud and she grumbled, "I feel bad."
'Bad' as in sick, though she wasn't ill. Simply worried.
Worry wasn't altogether foreign. She worried about many things. But concern to such a great depth was not something she had faced down. It was the one area where Xi being top dog (or top cat) was an exception; Zilly agonized over what her mother thought and felt about her, but not her well-being. Nothing could hurt her.
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