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 Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 12:35 pm
To some degree she felt the fool, waiting out on the edge of the forest like a girl who'd been promised some grand sonata. It wasn't like that, she knew, but the feeling haunted her all the same. Zsaria had spent a good deal of the morning hours gathering the freshest appetizing mint springs she could find, their aroma was nearly overpowering as she approached the small pile she had made. Now she simply had to wait for her companion, if he still planned to show. It wouldn't be too much of a loss if he didn't, she could always take a good bit herself and roll off into her dreams. No sense in wasting it, after all. While tastes varied within the pride she was of the old way, mint, when one chose to partake in it, had to be so fresh that it was still nearly dripping with the morning's dew. None of that nonsense of drying it and storing it in the dens for a lazy day. For a moment she seemed to have gotten lost in her thoughts, it tended to do that to her even before she chewed.
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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 8:34 pm
Even though they had come to some sort of ... well, understanding, perhaps, it still felt strange to be going to visit Zsaria. The lioness had been under the effects of mint when they'd spoken, after all. Maybe she had thought better of spending time with him.
Still, Zsaria was a fellow reaver, and Gunnar wasn't about to turn down the offer of some mint with a friend - or at least companion. The blond lion usually limited his own intake very carefully when with others. The thought of getting too intoxicated and embarrassing himself in front of the others was loathsome. Horrifying. But with a lone female? Gunnar was certain that even if he overdid it and babbled out his life story, Zsaria wouldn't notice or mind. Even though she was a reaver, she was also a female, and they liked that touchy-feely stuff.
Spotting Zsaria at the edge of the forest, Gunnar perked up. He perked up even more when he saw the little heap of mint. This was shaping up to be a wonderful day. "Zsaria!" He shouted cheerfully, quickening his pace. He grinned at the other reaver. "I see you got me a present. How sweet." It was teasing, but it was good-natured.
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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 8:41 pm
"I'll be amazed and impressed if you can handle it all by yourself," she called back with a laugh, gesturing with a paw, "It's to share you know, the best around." She had her secret spots that she liked to gather in, shaded off places where one could usually find mature plants still growing, not yet picked clean by her fellows. "I thought perhaps we could partake in the forest, where we might not have unwelcome surprises," she suggested, glancing over her shoulder to the break of it. She had always favored the forest, much as she had the highest points of the pridelands, but for very different reason. The forest held mystery to her still, no matter how many times she paced it. New life, new death, constantly changing. It was especially open to her when she was under the effects of good mint.
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Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2010 3:58 pm
Gunnar smiled at Zsaria, pleased that she hadn't responded to him with her usual touchiness. It seemed she hadn't lapsed back into her typical mistrustful, grouchy attitude since they'd last spoken. Good. For his part, Gunnar would try not to be as snappish and surly as he usual was around the female reaver. He had no real reason to dislike her. There was simply this ... mutual distaste, perhaps, that had sprung up between them.
Seeing the amount of mint she'd brought for them to share, he was beginning to think she would make an excellent friend.
The blond lion was a bit surprised at the suggestion of the forest, but he nodded. "A good idea. I don't often like people seeing me act foolish." He gave her a wry grin. That was a start at friendship. An honest confession instead of just a taunt about how she wouldn't be able to defend herself if 'unwelcome surprises' appeared while she was under the influence. The blond lion started for the forest, assuming Zsaria had some place in mind.
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Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 4:35 pm
Zsaria seemed to understand the balance of their sort of friendship was fragile, and made no effort to engage him in conversation as she lifted up the mint gently in her mouth and took for the trees. Consciously she had no specific place in mind, but her feet were slowly leading her toward a familiar clearing from her cubhood. It had been a place her brothers had taken her late in the evening to play pranks on her, and she had no concept that she even remembered the way. Her mind was awash in the rush that had come from the mint touching her mouth, it's chilling sting washing over her tongue. She began to speed up, just a bit every so often, and within a short time she felt they had reached their destination. She did not recognize the place. The ground was flattened, with only the young sprouts of juniper and weeds poking the dry earth. At the back of the clearing stood a tall tree which dominated the rest, its branches spread out as if it were restraining the rest of the forest from coming inside. It felt welcoming to her. With a soft sigh she laid the pile of mint back down, turning it over thoughtfully with a paw. "Is this alright?" she asked with a voice that was too soft. It would be much easier to communicate him once their minds were loosened.
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 5:11 am
Gunnar was content to trail after Zsaria as they made their way through the forest. He likewise didn't try to chat with her as they walked. She had her mouth full of mint, for one thing. Gunnar didn't want her to accidentally swallow the whole thing. Then there would be none for him ... and he would have to drag an extremely intoxicated lioness back to the dens.
The blond lion looked about when they reached the clearing, assessing the place. Peaceful enough. Defensible enough. And, happily, the ground was flat enough that they could roll around like foolish cubs if the mood struck them.
Sometimes the mint made one do silly things. It was best to be prepared.
"Looks good to me," he replied. He smiled at the lioness, slightly amused by her soft voice. "You're awfully quiet. I must take your breath away." His tone was smug, although Gunnar had mostly dropped the idea that Zsaria was the typical soft and sweetly foolish female. He simply couldn't help teasing her a bit. "Pass me some of that mint," the blond reaver added.
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 5:24 am
"You do," she admitted with a sigh as she pulled a few sprigs from the pile and shoved them toward him, "I didn't want to say anything but your face makes quite an impression. How did you get it so flat?" At the question she leveled eyes with him, while she may still be outside the range of close knit with them she certainly wouldn't let her good nature be abused. She was still a reaver after all. "I hear around the dens you spar with no claw," she said as she began to chew on the end of a sprig of her own. The first rush was always her favorite part, it stopped her in mid thought and brought out a cheerful little melody and colors and calm from the back of her mind. "Saving the blood for your enemies?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 5:44 am
Gunnar laughed at her comment about his face, delighted. Unlike Taraxa, he was extremely uninterested in vicious females, but he had found that he very much liked trading jabs with Zsaria and her smart mouth. "Just lucky, I guess," he said cheerfully, taking a sprig for himself. He was just beginning to chew it, savoring the rush, when Zsaria made her next comment.
The rush of happy feelings cut off abruptly, although his tongue was still sparkling. Gunnar was instantly on guard, tense. He eyed the female carefully, unsure whether or not she meant to insult him. The blond reaver didn't want to shatter their fragile truce by roaring at her, especially after she'd brought him mint, but he couldn't keep the stiffness from his voice as he replied. "I prefer to earn my scars in true battles, not fighting against friends." The mint was working at him again, soothing his jangled nerves, but he struggled to stay alert, ready to snap at her if she insulted him.
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 5:59 am
"True enough," she admitted, seeming unaware of his sudden increased agitation. She hadn't really meant anything by it, it was a choice she could understand having seen how terrified Taraxa's young cub had become. After all, he would have less to prove than she did even on the worst of days. Her eyes took on a bit of a shine as she progressed down the mint, chewing it lazily into a soft pulp. "I'd never really considered it, for most of my life my friends might as well have been enemies," she reminded him, making a bit of a face, "It was a little satisfying to shut Taraxa's mouth for him though."
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 6:12 am
Gunnar was ready, ready to shout at her and stomp off (maybe weaving a bit as he did so), but Zsaria wasn't trying to insult him. He listened to her silently, his nerves calming as both mint and sense took hold. No, she hadn't meant to insult him at all. In fact, the lioness was looking quite relaxed and inoffensive, speaking calmly about her own troubles.
The blond reaver was always very touchy when someone insinuated that he was ... well, unwarrior-like, but this wasn't one of those times. He resumed chewing the mint, allowing it to do its work once more. Yes, Zsaria wasn't so bad. He could relax around her.
"Taraxa could use a beating once in a while," Gunnar said amicably. He was starting to feel a little too lazy and calm to be sassy, but he laughed anyways. "He's a great reaver, but everyone's ego needs a blow from time to time." Gunnar was less certain of what to say about Zsaria's personal confessions. Talking about feelings and so forth was mostly alien territory to him. "I am glad that my friends are my friends," he said at last.
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 6:31 am
"And I'm glad the ground is soft," Zsaria said in a barely audible voice as she rubbed the side of her face against it. There was something familiar here, it smelled like her father. She wasn't sure it was entirely a good thing, or that it was even really there at all. Mindlessly she downed swallowed another piece of mint. She should slow down, she was already way ahead. "Do you remember my brothers?" she asked after a short silence, the question sounding as offhanded as asking him to pass another piece. Despite the broach of the uncomfortable topic she didn't seem at all upset, more introspective.
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 6:42 am
Even though he was with someone presumably safe, it was still difficult to relax his restraint enough to take another sprig of mint. Gunnar kept his for now, chewing it slowly. He smiled at the lioness as she rubbed her face against the ground, mildly amused. Yes, mint made one do silly things ... he didn't feel quite that silly yet, but he might soon.
Earlier the question about her brothers would have put him on edge, but the mint he had taken was lulling him into a peaceful, dreamy mood that could not be broken so easily. Gunnar did not feel that he was involved in Zsaria's personal tragedy, but he understood how family drama could wound. It was natural enough for the lioness to obsess over it. He shrugged, stretching his paws out before him. "Of course. They have not been gone for so long." Maybe it was time to take another sprig of mint. He didn't want Zsaria to get too far ahead of him. He swallowed his and plucked up a fresh one.
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 7:05 pm
She paused as if to contemplate just how long it had been. He was right, though it seemed so much longer. "Did you like them?" she asked with a bit of a muted yawn, "I mean, did you think anything was off about them?" It was a strange idea perhaps to be asking someone she didn't even know was involved, but there was a good chance he knew more about them than she did. Part of her father's grooming for an elegant and refined daughter was to keep her as separate from their training as possible. She hadn't really known them herself until they had come back from their first viking. Adalstein and Kjell had always been kind enough to her, but Pontus... Once he'd returned he'd changed, he didn't seem to want anything to do with them all. Maybe that change had caused it all. For a moment she wished she'd meeting him in a viking. No, that wasn't her place.
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 8:18 pm
In the past, Zsaria had always seemed him with deep suspicion for his association with her brothers. He hadn't been involved in whatever had happened, had never known the truth of it. But he had been friendly with them, and that was enough to taint him in the female reaver's eyes.
Of course, perhaps Gunnar had been misreading her. From the few personal statements she had made, it seemed that she was suspicious of all male reavers. She certainly wasn't touchy or angry now.
He pondered her question for a moment, slowly chewing on his sprig of mint. Gods, but the stuff was strong. Strong enough to loosen his tongue if he'd had anything to hide ... thankfully, he didn't. "I liked Adalstein and Kjell. They were good reavers." This was the ultimate praise Gunnar was capable of. "Pontus..." He wracked his memory, trying to recall what he had thought of Zsaria's other brother. The missing one. "He was a good reaver too," Gunnar began doubtfully. "But I did not like him." The blond lion loved nothing more than going a-viking with his reaver brothers (and, lately, sisters), but he was also wary of them, particularly when they acted strange. Something about Pontus had set him on edge.
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 8:32 pm
"No, I wouldn't guess you would," she said quietly, peering off toward the large tree. It seemed inviting, she wanted to lay against it. She realized she was drooling a little around the spring she held between her paws, she'd stopped chewing it while she thought. Her mother had always said Pontus took after her father, too much. At the time she hadn't known what that meant, she still didn't really, but it was good to learn more. She didn't want to hear that he was a good lion or a horrible one, just who he was. Who they were. "My father trained them well, I think," she told him, "Was Pontus ever..." Her mind didn't agree with her mouth, she wasn't sure what she was trying to ask. "Did you ever see him get angry, more than usual?"
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