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 Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 12:35 pm
ShinosBee Well. Well well. If Morrigan had been the type of lioness to have a good laugh at her mate's discomfort, this would have been the time to tell. Aesir had returned from meeting with one of his reavers not puffed up proud or telling tales of glory to come...oh no. He'd come home to her looking like he'd rolled in a briar patch. Her face remained relatively impassive as she looked him over. Clearly there'd been many, many more briars, but surely he'd removed some himself and others had fallen off while he walked. He still was frankly a mess. She breathed out sharply through her nose and raised one brow a fraction of an inch. Clearly, she was just tickled with amusement. "...Testing a new weapon, my love? You should know better...the gods have made clear the way of the reaver...I do not think coating one's foes in briars would be to their approval." Princess_Feylin Aesir, having not even gotten to have his meeting with Taraxa on account of a small, pale cub's antics, was nowhere near distanced enough from the event with the briar ambush that he could look at it with any kind of a sense of humor. In fact, the Warlord was still very, very close to exploding with bad temper. He'd mostly managed to contain his temper in front of Taraxa's cub, but he had not been in a good humor when he departed the scene. The whole affair was entirely too much like running away with his tail between his legs. Largely because, in essence, that was what he was doing. He had taken every back path and hidden trail he knew of to reach his den, even though it meant prolonging his discomfort, in order to preserve his privacy and dignity. He was certain he would be a laughingstock if anyone actually saw him covered in burrs, and he would rather die. Thus, Morrigan's good humor didn't exactly go over well with the Warlord, and he only managed an inarticulate snarl.
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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 1:00 pm
ShinosBee The warlord's growl did not scare her. She knew plain well that he'd come to her for help. Where else could he go? Certainly he would suffer no one else to see him in this state. He needed her, and she knew it, and she knew that he knew that she knew it. "Hold still. And do not sit down. You have them in places you'd rather not press to the ground, husband." She slipped past him somehow without a sinlge burr transfering to her thick fur. She had a plant, somewhere in here...aha. The plant was a rancid color, but surprisingly sweet smelling. She returned with it and dropped it at his feet. "Chew that. And hold still." Not waiting for him to oblige, she picked up a branchy twig in her mouth and ran it swiftly several times over his side; the branches acted like a comb, and briars fell to the ground in bunches...many taking some of his fur with them. Princess_Feylin It was something of a relief that Morrigan had not seemed phased by Aesir's growl, because he certainly wasn't in the mood to make apologies to people with flowers in their blood. Stormlords! It was uncomfortable in many ways for him to be covered in burrs like this. The physical discomfort was, in truth, secondary to the basic emotional discomfort of being so easily taken by surprise and humiliated by such a young cub. And the worst part was that he couldn't even mention the incident to Taraxa in hopes that he would take his cubs in hand, because doing so would mean admitting to having been caught in the first place. "I had no intention of sitting," he growled. His voice came out rasping and dangerous, and a sensible lion not born into the Stormborn might have backed off. Once again, the fact that Morrigan did not, and simply went about helping him remove burrs without saying anything further, did much to endear her to her mate, who was beginning to recognize and appreciate that she was an attractive lioness, but remained distant out of respect for and discomfort with her profession. He was grateful she hadn't made him ask for her assistance.
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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 1:29 pm
ShinosBee Morrigan was quick and worked deftly with the branch to remove the vast majority of the sticky little briars. Every few passes with the twig she would set it down, and sweep all the loose ones out of the area with a larger tree branch. This sort of cleaning was almost like cleaning the altars after a sacrifice or reading...She bromed the briars into the brush, trying to scatter them evenly. If anyone were to go off the path here in the next few days, more pity them. She worked in silence, perhaps inwardly distracted, or just focusing. Able to detect the smaller chnges in his posture, she eventually prompted him to lift his paws in turn. She checked between the pads with a claw that was wickedly sharp, yet she did not nick him once. On the less furry areas he'd been coated in, she even abandoned the branch, working instead with her own paws or occasionally her mouth. Soon enough he was briar free. And of course, he'd not chewed what she'd told him to. FIne. It'd been little more than a sweet tasting plant to soothe his nerves, but if he wanted to be cranky she would let him. With a glance to him she moved to retrieve the plant. "You are free to go, my dear." Princess_Feylin Despite Morrigan's command to stand still and chew the plant, Aesir turned his head this way and that to watch her at her work, fascinated and impressed by her ingenuity in removing the pesky, painful little things. It would not have occurred to him to use that brushy twig to comb the burrs from his coat. Not in a hundred seasons. He had actually been resigned to a long, uncomfortable period of having them pulled out one by one with lots of stuck tongues and gums along the way. "You did that very quickly," he observed, his mood somewhat improved now that his discomfort had been eased. "I should thank you." Any other lion might have followed that up with an actual expression of gratitude or thanks, but for Aesir, simply acknowledging that thanks were due was about as much as he was likely to do. Aesir wasn't one to emote too much, and thanks were a form of emotion, to his way of thinking. "You know," he began, stepping carefully away from the fallen burrs. "I didn't do that on purpose."
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 7:02 am
ShinosBee "I could tell your discomfort, and sought to relieve it." She peered at him a long moment. "Another duty of the priests, as well you know. That you are surprised by my speed...I shall have to tighten the reins on my brothers and sisters." Were they to be met with a wounded reaver, time would be of the essence. She would not have her flock dawdling! She would see to them, and make an offering to the gods for their forgiveness. And she too would have to shape up. This...marriage business. It must surely have been distracting her from her more holy duties. She had been self-absorbed, thinking only of herself and her mate. That would end here and now, she decided. The gods always, always came first. "I am sure the one who did then, my dear, met with a fitting end? I am surprised that whomever it was found so many briars...plants are so very rare in these rocks." Her brows slowly rose, and without a word she plucked a leaf and began gently nosing several briars onto it. "These...will make a fine offering...How fortunate then, that this has happened." She seemed more animate than usual, contemplating her upcoming offering. Such was always the way. And as it should be. She delighted in the thought of serving her gods. Princess_Feylin Aesir wasn't sure how the conversation had suddenly become about the priestesses' duties and how well they performed them. In truth, he would not have gone to a priestess to have this sort of discomfort relieved. More likely he would have turned to one of the Freeborn who had learned healing skills, or perhaps a Reaver or Captain with similar skills. He would not have bothered a priestess for anything less than a mortal wound. "I don't really think it's their fault," Aesir said. "I wouldn't have gone to one of them anyway. I was thinking of how much longer it would have taken me to rid myself of the things on my own." When she mentioned the fitting end his assailant had presumably come to, Aesir scowled, though with less fury than he'd demonstrated when he first came into the den. His mind had been taken off his most immediate problem, which had actually been dealt with, and only one person had laughed at him, and she'd stopped almost immediately. He was thinking of Morrigan, of course. He did appreciate that she'd recognized he was in no mood to laugh at being the victim of a child's prank. "Actually, he's fine. Quite possibly pissed himself, wince I wasn't exactly smiles and rainbows when it happened, but physically he's fine. Can't very well go around killing cubs, though a sound thrashing for that one probably wouldn't go amiss."
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 7:30 am
ShinosBee Not even Aesir's reassurance that he'd found nothing wrong with her methods or the recent state of her fellow priests could dissuade her from her decision. "Regardless. We must reach out to the gods and ask for their approval." She drew up with an indrawn breath. "Especially with the upcoming viking. The signs are good...but they could be better." She twisted her leaf-bundle of briars closed. "As for your assailant...Yes, perhaps that is the best route to take. Discipline...It is clear the cub lacks it. Perhaps...hm." She looked up and intensely at the sky for a long moment. "If his father wills it, bring him to me. A day devoted to the gods, seeing the value of that discipline will be good for him. With your permission, of course, husband." The tone of her voice made it clear that her seeking his permission was only for his benefit. He was the warlord, and she was his wife, but she was also was the head priestess, and had power to move withing the pride as well. "Is there anything else I might assist you with today, husband? I need to prepare for the offering..." Princess_Feylin Aesir began to tune out, as he usually did whenever Morrigan started to talk about offerings and signs. It was not that he was unappreciative of the huge importance such things played in his life, but he did not understand them or how they worked, and since he did not, he opted not to try. It only made his head hurt, and there was enough in his life to make his head hurt right now. Understanding the mysteries and the ways of the gods would have been too much. He practiced the ways of the gods when he went viking. "I'll suggest it to his father the next time I see him," Aesir said. He didn't plan to mention why, specifically, he thought Loki could do with some time spent serving the gods, but he shouldn't have to. All he needed to say was that the cub lacked discipline - which was true - and might gain some through hard work. It also might serve to scare the living daylights out of him. Stormlords knew, Aesir found the gods' places a little unnerving, particularly when the priestesses had them decorated for some ceremony. "There is nothing else," he said. "I will let you get back to your business."
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