A moment of quiet, a moment of time alone, that’s what Nobo had been waiting for ever since his lion had stupidly agreed to follow yet another god around like a pet. He watched the trio walking ahead of them, thinking about what had just happened and how he could yell at Shibasa in the best possible way. There were tons of things he could say, he admitted silently. He could even leave the poor b*****d to face his fate on his own, but he wouldn’t. Instead he bobbed along, perched on Shibasa’s head, wondering if those huge a** ears of the cursed god’s were better than most.They probably were, he decided, but it didn’t matter. Shibasa needed an ear-full, and he was going to get it. “Are you an idiot?!” the vulture demanded, yanking cruelly at the lion’s mane. “That is a god. A g. o. d. How much trouble have you had with those in the past? I remember, myself, because I was there at the time! You don’t have enough soul left to play with gods like this, you idiot!”
Silence. It pissed him off more than if Shibasa had argued back! But noooo, the lion just kept trudging along, letting him pull on his mane and yell at him for his stupidity. If he weren’t moving, he would have thought that the lion was dead. “Say something!” he finally barked, grabbing one of the red ears next to his claw. “Saaaaay sooomeeethiiiing,” he bellowed right in the ear.
“That hurts,” Shibasa said.
“That’s now what I wanted! Give me an explanation! Why are we joining a pride when we’ve been perfectly fine wandering around for an entire year by ourselves? We don’t need them! We definitely don’t need another god in our lives! Come on, Shibasa, let’s do the logical thing, turn and run as fast as we can in the opposite direction! I’ll fly, you run--“
“Not yet,” Shibasa said.
“Why not yet? When, then? Are we going to wait until some pink lion tries to mount--“
“Don’t be crass.”
“You know you were thinking the same thing!”
Shibasa sighed, his head lowering slightly. “Didn’t you hear what he was, Nobo? He’s the god of the cursed. What if he can get rid of mine? What if I can finally have all of my soul again?”
“A soul is overrated! I’ve eaten a million creatures in my lifetime--“ an exaggeration, but that wasn’t the point right now--“and never once have I tasted soul! It’s not there! She was lying to you, Shibasa! It’s all in your head!” He pecked the head in question, getting a hollow sound in return.
“You don’t believe in souls?” Shibasa asked him. “Just because you can’t taste them? Just how much do you know about bodies?”
“Well there’s the outside, then the meaty part, then the bony parts, then all these squishy things on the inside--“
“Fascinating,” Shibasa drawled. “And how do you know that one of those squishy things isn’t the soul?”
“Because--because--it didn’t taste soul-y! There should be a certain taste to a soul, and I’ve never tasted it!” the vulture said.
“I felt it,” Shibasa said. “She took a part of my soul. I want it back.”
“And that’s it, is it? Case closed? Use whatever god you run into to get it back?”
“No,” Shibasa said. “I wouldn’t have used a nice lady like hardships. But this mean a** b*****d... yeah, I’ll use him. He’s a lot like me, he said it, himself.”
Nobo went silent for a long moment, watching the god from the distance, his mind examining Shibasa’s decision before he spoke. “What if he’s lying?” the vulture asked more quietly. “He could just be making our lives worse.”
“My life, Nobo. You can always leave whenever you want to,” Shibasa said.
“Hell, no, I can’t even remember where I was living back before I found you,” Nobo said. “Probably been taken over by someone else by now. Never trust a vulture, they’ll screw you over the moment your back is turned.”
“That’s funny, I was thinking the exact same thing.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha,” Nobo drawled. “Damn this is a long trip. Maybe he’s leading us off to kill us, you ever think of that?”
“Nope.”
“Why not? Look at him, he’s a growing god! He could totally use some fattening up! A bit of lion with a mix of vulture--“
“I’ve seen you eat, Nobo,” Shibasa interrupted. “You go for meat I wouldn’t touch with a stick. You’re probably poisonous enough to kill a god twice over. It’s a wonder I haven’t died from green rot just from you pulling at my ear.”
“Your breath ain’t so fresh, either, you know.” They both snorted, having come to a draw with that one, and trudge on, lost in their thoughts for the moment.
“We’re gonna die one dayyyy,” Nobo started singing, his voice a gritty tenor. “So why not celebrate now? I’ll chew your leg as you fall down, and then you’ll know to saaaay--“
“Nobo.”
“This life was bad, but now it’s gone, and love you know you’ve done me wrong! I once was yours, but now I’m not, cuz love you know, you done me wrong!!”
“Nobo!” Shibasa bellowed over the song. “You know I hate that song!”
“You’re following a god you never knew, and soon your bones he’s gonna chewww! You’re doomed to fall, cuz you’re so dumb--“
“SHUT UP!” Shibasa bellowed, tossing his head angrily to get the bird off his head.
“This life was bad, but now it’s gone, and love you know you’ve done me wrong! I once was yours--“ The chorus was cut off with a squawk as a giant paw smacked the vulture hard.
“I said to shut it!” Shibasa said. “Else next time I’ll use claw.”
“Mean a** b*****d,” Nobo complained. “That hurt!”
“Now you know how I feel.”
“I was just singing a song!”
“Blow it out your a**,” Shibasa growled. The sound of a fart ripped through the air, and Shibasa groaned with a mix of amusement and disgust. “You damn dirty bird.”
