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 Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 5:07 pm
 It had taken Kazul a while to reach the conclusion that her encounter with Tyr had not actually gone well, and while she was pretty sure she had come out of their confrontation the winner, it was just possible that she might not have behaved quite as well as one of the Warlord's cubs ought to behave, given the circumstances. Yeah, there were a lot of qualifiers in her conclusion, but the thing which ought to have impressed someone following the line of her thinking was that she reached any sort of conclusion like that at all without the help of a parent. She had really been furious with Tyr for suggesting that she acted all high and mighty just because Aesir was her father.
So after a good sulk Kazul returned to the spot where she'd met the brown cub. She doubted he would go back there so soon, but if he didn't, that meant he would be without his pile of skins, and Kazul knew from having already met one of his brothers that for whatever reason the cubs in that family had to wear them, or else they'd get in trouble. She thought the idea of the skins was stupid, and she didn't see why someone should get in trouble for not wearing them, but at the same time that meant she didn't think anyone ought to get in trouble for not wearing them, even stupid jerks like Tyr.
The furs were still there. She wondered if he had already gotten in trouble for not having them. Well, she was doing what she could, and if he was rude to her again, after she went to all the effort of bringing them back to him, she really would bop him on the nose. In the mean time, she did her best to drag the pile of fur to his den. Not that she knew where that was. But surely it couldn't be that hard to find if she asked.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:11 pm
Tyr hadn't made it all the way home. He'd made it close but not quite. Most of his fury and nerves had diminished after his infuriating conversation with that annoying little brat. He was struggling with himself. He just knew that if he went all the way home without those stupid DAMN furs on he'd get a stern talking to at best or a whoopin' at worst. DAMN DAMN DAMN. "Damn," he whispered. He liked that word. He didn't say it aloud often as he was sure he'd be reprimanded, but right now when he was alone it felt pretty DAMN good to say it.
And why had that stupid girl been so damn mean? It wasn't like she had to wave her status over his head, Tyr realized she was the Warlord's daughter and he hadn't wanted to get off on the wrong foot with her but hey, first she'd started attacking his furs and then she'd made fun of his brother?! Tyr loved Ingmar! He was a good strong brother, and just because he was pink didn't mean that he deserved to be made fun of, not at all.
So there Tyr sat, halfway between home and the place where he'd left his furs. He couldn't get the courage to go home without them, and he was reluctant to go back and find them. Distracted by a strange sound, Tyr turned and peered through the grass to spot Kazul dragging his furs around. He watched her for a moment debating on whether or not he should demand that she just leave him alone forever or try and make amends. After all, he hadn't been very nice.
And her dad was scary.
With a heavy sigh, Tyr noisily made his way to her. He should stop her before she got too close to the dens. "Hey," he grumped in an attempt to get her attention.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:25 pm
The furs were a lot heavier than she'd thought they would be looking at them lumped on the ground as they had been when she first attacked them. But now she couldn't think of any way to carry them more efficiently than to have heaped all the smaller bits onto the largest bit and drag them in her teeth. She had no idea how to put them on, and wouldn't have done so anyway even had she possessed that knowledge, and so the only option she had was the one she was currently engaged in. Her jaw was tired, and she hated having to back everywhere. In short, she was beginning to re-think her plan of returning the stupid furs.
"It's not as if he deserves them anyway," she muttered as she stopped for yet another rest. They were coming more frequently, and growing longer each time. Kazul was running out of steam.
Nevertheless, she forced herself to renew her grip on the furs, ignoring the nasty taste and the sensation of wet fur in her mouth. The she proceeded with the dragging. It was not the ideal situation, but she had settled on this course of action, and if she stopped now it would seem like she had decided to be really spiteful and hide the furs, which was hardly the case. Also it would make her look like a quitter and a baby, and she was too tired to make anyone who called her that eat their words at the moment.
It was during this haul that she heard the sound of someone approaching noisily and then a grumpy noise that might have been a salutation. The voice was unfamiliar and unwelcome.
"I'm not stealing them or hiding them or anything like that," she said defensively.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:33 pm
"Of course you aren't," he groused, finally breaking through the tall grass he'd stomped through. "You already said they were dumb so why would you even want them?" It didn't make sense. Where was she going with them? He did know one thing for certain, and that was that she was getting them absolutely disgustingly muddy and gross. He'd have to clean them or something. Maybe he could just hide them and tell his mum that some strange lion had come along and made him take them off before running off with them.
He sat in her path and just watched her, now. Damn she pissed him off. Damn. Damn. "You're ruining them," he pointed out succinctly, raising a brow as he eyed the further damage she'd inflicted on the furs. He wasn't trying to be mean but he was just feeling so darned sour about their last meeting. He couldn't even remember if they'd exchanged names. They probably hadn't.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:49 pm
He wasn't much for thinking, was he? Kazul could think of all sorts of reasons to take his furs despite the fact that they were dumb, none of which had anything to do with her wanting them personally. No. The only reasons she could come up with, other than her true reason, were all mean, malicious ones. Like she could have buried them or thrown them from a cliff or torn them to shreds or peed on them. All of those things, she suspected, would get him in trouble, and if she'd been crueler she might have done several of them and taken joy in it.
"Not on purpose," she said, too tired to be anything other than grouchy, but also too tired to be actually argumentative or confrontational. "I couldn't think of any other way to move them from one place to another."
Well, that wasn't true, but she'd already considered and discarded them as impractical or impossible. It must have taken his ma a really long time to collect them all and put them together. Or maybe she'd had a Thrall do it, and then asked one of the Freeborn who was good at that sort of thing to assemble them. Either way, now that she thought about it, a lot of work must have gone into those furs. She felt a little bad about her part in their destruction.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:27 am
Tyr could sense that she was at least trying to be kind of sort of nice, and he figured that he should return the favor. After all, she was the Warlord's daughter and out of respect to the Warlord he should at least try to be nice and gentlemanly (or whatever) to this annoying daughter of his.
"Well, thanks," he grouched, a sour apology on the tip of his tongue. At least she hadn't peed on them or run them through elephant poo or put huge holes in them. A quick washing would get most of the muck out and they would dry fast enough in the sun, he supposed.
"I should wash them," Tyr whined softly in frustration. "My mama is going to be so angry at me." He wanted to care about making her angry, he really did, but he couldn't. He just couldn't. "Sorry you dragged them all this way." He'd have to take them to the nearest water source and scrub the crap out of them.
"I'm Tyr," he added, almost positive that he hadn't previously introduced himself. Better late than never, he supposed.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:22 am
Kazul actually bit her tongue to keep herself from saying something she oughtn't to. Just because he sounded like an ungrateful wretch didn't mean she had to stoop to his level. And there had been thanks rendered at least. She'd been beginning to think he wouldn't thank her at all, given how much he complained about her methods of trying to help. Such a jerk!
"I could try to help wash them," Kazul offered uncertainly.
Even though she'd made the offer in earnest and she would go through with it if he took her up on it, the green-furred cub wrinkled her nose at the thought of washing the skins. Something told her that it would probably be a very bad idea to get them all wet like that. Like they would never dry properly, and just stay soggy and smelly forever and ever. She wondered if his ma would still make him wear them, perhaps as punishment for ruining them.
When he introduced himself Kazul realized that she, too, had neglected to introduce herself. She'd pounced first, and then they'd fought, and then he'd stalked off. No introductions. And then he'd come up on her and they'd talked, but still no introductions. Tyr, huh?
"I'm Kazul."
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 12:33 pm
"Well," Tyr said gruffly, not wanting to appear weak or simpering. "Thanks, Kazul. I'm... I'm sorry I said mean stuff earlier. I just get so frustrated," he grouched. It wasn't much of an excuse, but Tyr wasn't a mean boy. He was an honest and kind cub, a little uppity sometimes but he wasn't mean. Besides, she'd brought his furs back to him when she hadn't had to. She could've just left them there to rot and then he'd have gotten in such trouble.
"If you want to help me, we could drag them over to a pond or something." He sounded resigned to putting the furs back on before heading home. "Maybe I should just wait until the muck dries on it and then try and scrape it off, though. I got them real wet once and they got all slimy and took ages to dry and it was awful I couldn't even go outside. Had to stay in the den." Tyr shook his head. "They shouldn't take long to dry, probably," he added as an almost-invitation. She didn't seem so bad, really.
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Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:40 am
Kazul was far more appreciative of Tyr's attempt at an apology than she had been of his attempt at thanks. Younger and female, there was not such a stigma for apologizing and giving thanks in Kazul's world as there was in Tyr's. No one would think less of her if she did those things, as long as she didn't become sycophantic about it. There was little danger of that happening with the draconic little cub.
"I said mean stuff, too," Kazul pointed out. "And I attacked your furs."
Just because there was no stigma attached to apologies for Kazul didn't mean she wasn't a quick learner. She'd noticed that it was difficult for Tyr to apologize, just as it had been for him to thank her, and she'd decided that meant it wasn't something he wanted to do. If he didn't want to do it, neither did she. She didn't know exactly what his objection was, but even though she'd appreciated his grudging politeness, she wasn't going to mess up by being too polite in return.
So that was about as close as she was going to come to apologizing for attacking his furs and getting them all muddy. After all, she'd already said she didn't mean to get them dirty and she was going out of her way to bring them back to him. Actions spoke louder than words. She knew that for a fact. Her actions said she didn't want to be enemies, and he should pick up on that. She really expected him to, anyway, and if he didn't, she'd be annoyed.
"I think waiting would probably be a better idea if they got slimy before," Kazul said. She didn't relish the idea of dragging heavy, wet, slimy skins around. "I think I even have an idea for how to get the dried dirt off. Maybe. There was something my ma did when my da got covered in burrs and brambles..."
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 2:31 pm
Tyr shrugged, offering the tiniest smile in response to her almost-apology. "You didn't know they were mine," he said softly, sensing that she didn't want to fight and argue and be enemies with one another. Tyr didn't want to be enemies either, in fact he'd much rather be nice and make friends even if she was a girl -- and the Warlord's daughter at that.
Now that all of the niceties were out of the way, Tyr looked down at the muddied furs with a grunt. There was no use complaining about the furs all the time. Everyone knew he hated them. Everyone knew he didn't want to wear them. He just hadn't met anyone that was going to give him a reason not to wear them anymore.
"What does your mama do?" He was curious about this, honestly, as her ideas and input might come in handy whenever he got into trouble in the future.
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Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 2:20 pm
Kazul nodded, conceding that Tyr was correct in his assumption: she'd not any idea initially that the pile of furs belonged to anyone. Indeed, she had actually been under the impression that she was attacking proper prey. That was how her game of pretend told her things were supposed to go. A large part of why she'd been so unhappy with Tyr was that he'd not only refused to go along with her game, but he'd then had the audacity to scold her for it, and she could hardly be expected to take well to that. Now that she was in less of a grouchy mood, she could see things form his point of view, too.
"I should probably be a bit more careful about what I pounce on. I'd be in just as much trouble if they'd been left out to be cured or tanned by someone, I bet. Probably more." That was an unexpected flash of insight, there. She was always making connections of that sort, and learning to apply skills and knowledge to different situations, but being young meant that she didn't always draw the correct conclusions for every given situation.
"My ma works with skins a little sometimes, but she really does a lot of things. She does things with plants and stones and bones and feathers and fur and, well, everything. Spirits and gods, too," Kazul added. "She's the Head Priestess."
She didn't say this in a bragging manner. She was proud of her mother, but she didn't really understand what it was she did and lacked the patience to learn properly, so it was harder for her to be impressed by what few things she did see her mother doing. She also had not been born yet at the time of the last really big sending-off, so she hadn't even seen her ma do anything really impressive and priestess-like.
"I don't really know a lot about it," she admitted.
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:52 am
"Neat," Tyr whispered reverently. That actually sounded so awesome to the little cub. "Are you gonna be just like her when you get older? I don't even know what I want to be when I grow up. My mama and my papa are both Reavers." When the boy spoke of his papa he spoke of Nymph's mate Dodonna. "Maybe I'll be a Preistess." He giggled at the thought, knowing full well that only females could hold the rank.
Kazul was pretty neat, at least now that they weren't constantly sniping at one another. She would make a good friend, that was becoming clear. Well, Tyr thought she would make a good friend, at least. She was smart, too, which was something that Tyr admired in others.
"What do you want to be when you grow up, Kazul?" He posed the question in sweet tones, again genuinely curious about this tentative friend. They were drawing closer to the pond where Tyr planned on washing the furs, and there was no harm in idle conversation while they cleaned the filthy pelt.
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 6:51 am
Kazul swelled with pride at Tyr's reaction to her ma's profession, but at the same time she made a face at the idea of growing up to be just like her ma. There were definitely parts of her ma that she wanted to be like. She wanted to have a mate who was the best lion of his generation, if not the whole pride, and she wanted to always seem cool and collected and in charge, even when she didn't feel that way, and she really did want to be beautiful, but as for being a priestess...well. She didn't want to do that. It didn't sound exciting enough.
"You'd make an even weirder Priestess than usual," Kazul said, giggling. Because her mother was the Head Priestess, she had already met most of the Priestesses of the pride in her own den. They were all strange in their own ways, and privately she, like her father, found them a little bit creepy.
"If they let you be a Priestess, I definitely don't want to be one. It would have to mean I was at least as weird as you." She grinned and hoped he would realize that she was teasing him. It was a relief to see that they were nearing the pond, since she was growing tired from helping to haul the furs.
"Actually, I'm going to be a Reaver when I grow up, and have adventures," she told him as they reached the spot. "And maybe someday I'll even be a Captain, and then the Warlord."
Though being the Warlord would mean something would have to happen to her da, and she wasn't willing to hope for that, even if it put a pretty firm cap on her ambitions. She loved her da absolutely, and would rather see him as Warlord forever than be hurt or killed.
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:33 am
Tyr giggled as well. Okay, so Kazul wasn't that bad at all.
"I don't think I'm weird enough to be a Priestess. Could you picture me dressed up like Saraneth with her bells or Brynja with her potions and creepy chants? If I was gonna be anything, I think I would be something... funny. Or something serious. It's hard to decide, I just know that I don't want to fight."
He mulled over her plans as he dipped the mucked up furs into the pond, sloughing off the dirt and grime that the 'clothes' had collected.
"I bet you'll have grand stories to tell," he grinned at her, "and then the bards will be singing songs of your glory and victories." It was hard for Tyr to think of Kazul as being Warlord. She was a girl, after all, but he didn't want to press the issue. They'd just gotten pleasant with one another and Tyr didn't want to ruin that.
"Maybe I'll make furs for the pride or something," he said absently, using his claws to pick apart a thick piece of mud, "like the one your papa wears."
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:43 pm
Kazul closed her eyes and scrunched up her face with the effort of imagining Tyr wearing bells like Saranath or chanting like Brynja. Her imagination was good, and she could do it, but the mental image was absolutely ridiculous. She smirked.
"Oh, you in Saraneth's bells would be funny. But you'd probably have to fight all the time, or else spend your whole life being teased." She glanced at the furs he was cleaning. "Though maybe these dumb furs give you practice with that."
Probably she shouldn't push it on the subject of his furs, and so she didn't say anything more about that. Even when he mentioned the idea of making furs, though it tempted her sorely. How could he even think of doing that after spending his entire cubhood swaddled in fur? What if another mother got as crazy as his and asked him to help her? Would he do it?
"Nah. I'll sing my own songs. I'll be a bard, too." Well, she did like to sing, and she wasn't bad at it.
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