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 Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 7:16 pm
 The winds of the rainy season were whipping across the lake, building up as they raced across the water until the normally placid waters turned choppy and hateful, and lashed against the rocky shore of the pride territory as if they wanted to run all the way up to the mountains at the other end of their borders. All day the howling had grown more furious, and lightning punctuated the storm as if to make sure the world got their point.
Ailes curled up against the green rock on the shore, shivering with his tail tucked between his legs, hoping the little tuft of hair might keep his paws a little warmer. Some of the others of the pride thought him crazy for his fierce defending of the stone. But he'd made a promise, long ago in his youth, to a stranger he'd never seen again, that he would protect the rock until the other lion could return for it. And if he abandoned the rock and his promise, well, what sort of lion would he be? So he sat as the rain assaulted him, praying the waves wouldn't climb high enough to reach him.
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 5:37 am
 As it turned out rain season was a bad time to wander around in unfamiliar places. Hantan'gang had hoped to find better shelter before the rain started to really pour down, but the wind pushed him through unknown terrain and he wasn't sure what he was looking for, really. The terrain he travelled through was rocky and unfriendly and he would have loved to find a tree or even a thorny bush to hide in. A crack of lightling made him wince and he suddenly remembered what his mother had told him about trees and thunder. Okay, bushes, a den, anything!
As he moved along, getting wetter and wetter from the weird sideways rain he started to notice scents that worried him. The markings were hard to read in this storm, but they could mean he was blundering into someones territory. Hopefully not a hostile someone. He would simply have to be careful, but due to the weather he was almost on top of the crouching lion before he noticed him. Oh, crap. Nice lion? He knew there were nice lions...
"Hello," he shouted, trying to get his voice to carry over the roar of the storm, "I'm not intruding on purpose, just trying to find shelter."
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 10:32 am
As the rain pelted harder and the waves lapped a little higher, Ailes started to regret his decision to come out here and keep an eye on the rock. He'd had some foolish notion that the weather might damage it, but it was doing a much better job damaging him. Already he felt his weight was more water than lion. Maybe he could run back to his nice warm den, surely the rock would be fine. And if it got dragged into the lake again, well, he would just haul it out like he always did.
He heard the voice and at first assumed it was someone from the pride, come to tell him off for his foolishness. He blinked blearily up at the leopard, and after a long moment realized he didn't know him. His markings didn't match any of the family lines from the territories, either. A rogue, then? "Hello. You won't find any on the beach," Ailes said, voice warbling slightly as he shivered. "But the pride's been digging some new dens up the coastline a ways, and I don't think anyone would be there right now."
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:33 pm
Friendly lion, good. And from the way he spoke he didn't seem terribly upset that Hantan had stumbled upon his pride's territory. Walking further into the territory to seek shelter wasn't tempting, but braving the elements didn't seem like a good idea either. A particularly strong gust of wind almost made him lose his balance and he crouched lower. But... why wasn't the lion moving from this very exposed spot if he knew of better shelter?
"Are you hurt," he said, straining his voice to be heard without shouting, "This doesn't seem like a good spot to lie down and wait out the storm."
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:52 pm
The wind smacked into them both, and Ailes huddled in the lee of the blue stone to keep from getting knocked around. It was precious little shelter, and did nothing to stop the rain. His sniffling was becoming a constant thing now. He found himself longing to slink back to his den and participate in some self pity.
But certain forms had to be obeyed. He reluctantly pulled himself to his feet to give a formal greeting. It wouldn't do for a stranger's first impression of his people to be a sniveling whiner. "I am Ailes d'Asp of the Sanc kingdom of the Ardhi'Mrvingo'Patano, son of Nuit le'Croix by Pwani'wingu, who was daughter of Usiku'mgeni by Ekundayo, who was daughter of Ayo'obi by Aziza." He stopped there as his throat got sore, coughed, and tried again. "I am honorbound to defend this rock from those who might steal it."
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 2:54 pm
Hantan listened with an expressionless face as Ailes introduced himself, and his extended family back to ancient times. Well, that was a real mouthful. Okay. A lion guarding a rock wasn't the strangest thing he had encountered so far on his journeys, but it came pretty close.
"I'm Hantan'gang," he answered when the lion seemed to be completely done, "Err... of nothing in particular."
In his opinion there was no need to drag his mother into this, and he didn't know the names of any other relatives either. Leopards were private creatures, at least the ones in his family. But the mystery of this rock nagged at him. Why would it need protection? It didn't smell like food, but then nothing smelled right in a storm, and no one (well perhaps with some notable and not very sane exceptions) would try to hurt or steal a rock. He supposed it had an unusual colour, but it might just look weird because it was wet. So why was this lion out here? Maybe he had bumped his head...
"Is the rock special in some way," he asked, unable to just let it slide, "I mean... who would steal a rock, right?"
He didn't even mention the possibility of someone attacking it. That couldn't possibly be why Ailes was guarding it.
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 3:10 pm
Ailes bit back a groan at the question he'd been asked a hundred times. Who would steal a rock indeed. Admittedly it was a very unusual rock, blue with strange swirling patterns in it. But if it weren't for that onetime meeting in his youth, he wouldn't have thought it was anything important. Even now he had his doubts. And every day the blue lion didn't come back to fetch it he considered just letting it sit on the beach until the pebbly shore buried it. The weather was especially bringing out those thoughts now.
"I'm just honorbound to defend it, is all," he sniffled, and rubbed his cold nose with a paw, but that just made things worse because his paw was soaked through. The leopard didn't look much better. His etiquette lessons nagged the back of his mind. He should offer to escort this creature to the dens, but... he glanced at the rock worriedly. Would it be alright in the storm? And the lightning was getting closer too, it was almost on top of them.
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 3:21 pm
Hantan was starting to realise that honour made people do strange things that didn't have to have anything to do with common sense. Honour it was then. However, Ailes didn't seem to be thrilled to be on guard duty this particular day. Water dripped from Hantan's bangs and he sighed. He could just leave this young lion to drown from too much rain or be swallowed by that lake, but it didn't feel right. Perhaps he too had some sort of honour code even if he would never think of it that way.
"Would it break this honour to take the rock to a better shelter," he asked with some caution. This could possibly be a very stupid suggestion, and he didn't want to be yelled at or attacked.
((OOC: I'd love to continue but I really need sleep now. This is fun! I'll be able to reply again monday if not sooner.))
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 5:07 pm
The idea of moving the rock had never even occurred to Ailes. He looked at it, trying to judge how heavy it would be. It was a mighty labor of many days to first move it from where he'd found it to the beach, but that had been some time ago and he'd grown to nearly twice his size since. It still looked very heavy, and the cold was making his legs ache already.
"Maybe I could hide it somewhere," he contemplated. If it wasn't out in the open it would be less likely to be stolen, wouldn't it? He'd be the only one who knew where it was. Well, except the leopard, if he hung around while Ailes performed the task. The lion eyed him warily. He didn't seem like a thief, but was it worth taking the risk?
In the end his etiquette urges welling up made the decision. If he could hide the rock somewhere, then he would be able to escort the leopard to the dens like he should. He nodded. "Maybe I could push it up to the beachline and hide it in the foliage. Just for tonight." That wouldn't make him a bad guard, would it? Soaked and freezing and with the thunder hollering overhead, he decided he'd take his chances.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:22 am
Hantan figured Ailes was asking rhetorical questions, and that they would be better answered by the lion himself, and not by a leopard that knew nothing about special rocks. He almost regretted blurting out the suggestion to move it, because it looked like heavy and awkward work to do so. While he couldn't answer the questions in any meaningful way, he felt that it would be good to say something and not just stand there.
"Can I help... in any way," he asked carefully, dreading the answer a little bit. But this lion knew the terrain and he did not. Hantan's best shot at getting through this storm without being drenched might be sticking with him for now.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 3:52 pm
Just as he thought his back was about to give out, the rock rolled over, and he let go. Then he had to brace himself against the rock again just to keep it from rolling back down the slope and crushing his paws. Snorting in frustration, he put his head against it and heaved, shaking all over from the cold and the effort.
He got a few more yards of progress before the slope became so steep that it was all he could do to just keep it in one place. There was a steep crest just at the top of the slope, and if he could just get it over...
He ducked a little too far down to push against it, and suddenly there was an enormous weight on his back, and then it was gone and the rock was barreling down the slope towards the leopard. "Watch out!" Ailes wheezed.
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 9:43 am
Hantan had watched the lions efforts, shifting his weight from paw to paw since he didn't know if he should try to help, or even how to do it. The rock looked much to heavy for a leopard to handle. He had dragged some pretty heavy prey animals up trees, but that weight came in another shape and was much easier to handle. And so he didn't need to be told twice to watch out, since he was already throwing himself out of harms way. He felt something swish by uncomfortably close to his tail, but aside from landing in a deep puddle he was fine. Wet, but fine, and he had been pretty soaked to start with so standing in water up over his paws didn't change much.
"Are you okay," he called over the noise of the wind.
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Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:53 am
The rock bounced along down the slope, crashing past Hantan, with Ailes scrambling to follow. Its weight drove it down into the choppy water until it was lost from sight. Ailes galloped down the slope and plunged into the cold, groping blindly, but he couldn't feet the stone. It had rolled too deep for him to reach it, and in this dark weather he wouldn't be able to spot it even if it were right next to him. It was all but disappeared from the world.
He paddled for a while, unwilling to just give up, ears flat against his head as the thunder growled overhead. Finally he clawed back onto the shore and stood there, sopping wet and miserable. He shook it off though; he wouldn't allow pointless self pity. In a roundabout way his sentry duty delimma had been resolved, and now he would have to wait until good weather to retrieve the stone.
He nodded an apology to Hantan. "Looks like I'll be able to show you the way to the spare dens afterall. They're this way. Once I have you settled in I'll warn the pride patrols, so they'll know not to chase you out or anything." He led the way, puddles filling in his footprints as he passed.
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Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 3:04 pm
At first Hantan was afraid Ailes had been hurt somehow and in the blurry of rain it almost looked as if he too tumbled towards the water. He hurried to follow, wondering if he could hold the lions weight if he somehow got his jaws around his tail. However, he soon realised that the lion wasn't hurt, just desperately trying to recover what he had lost. Looks like he wouldn't have to try his strength pulling a waterlogged lion ashore.
"Careful," he yelled, "Don't drown yourself over this."
Hantan felt guilty for suggesting the move in the first place, even if he still had a hard time grasping why a rock could be so important. From Ailes actions it was apparent that it was important, but why? It wasn't something the leopard was likely to understand. Guilt mingled with relief as the rock guardian offered to show him to the shelter he had talked about earlier.
"Thank you," he said, and bowed his head, "Are you sure you shouldn't take shelter soon too?"
To him the young lion seemed much too worried about things and honour for his own good. It was nice that he was willing to brave the storm to tell the guards not to attack him, and it was... uh... very dedicated... to guard a rock. But good for his health. Nuh-huh. Clearly he was missing something, but Hantan wasn't going to turn away something good just because he didn't understand it, so he kept his eyes on the yellow spots on the lions backside and tried to keep up.
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