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 Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:20 am
Pizarro had been listening to the corsairs who took care of him while his mom was out on raids as they told stories for the better part of the previous evening. They hadn't realized he wasn't asleep, he suspected, since some of the stories were a lot scarier than any he'd heard when they told stories to him and his siblings. The worst ones were the ones about the Mersey Sintin. The lions there were like nightmare figures, violent and rapacious and monstrous, and they hated pirates. He'd been unable to sleep for fear of one of their reavers coming to carry him away and eat him.
He was still contemplating these gruesome possibilities with a certain amount of juvenile relish when a flash of bright blue moving caught his attention. Was it a reaver? His fur fluffed up and he stood up quickly, trying to make himself look bigger. He was already large for his age, so his fluffing up was pretty effective. It might have been more effective if he hadn't growled, though, because his growl still sounded like a cub's growl, and was more laughable than threatening.
"Who's there?" he growled, and then stole an expression from some story he'd heard. "Show yerself afore I slit you from nuts to nose!"
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 10:26 am
 The light blue cub exposed herself from the shadows, and halted her steady trod. An eyebrow raised at the older cub as her golden eyes peered into his red ones. Meara flopped down on all fours, her excitement uncontainable as her tail swayed rapidly behind her. It had been just a few days since her father had dropped her off with the rest of the females of the pride, and she was still waiting to see some sort of action arise.
Torin had been gone for days, and had brought the cub home as his own. He said something about being raised with the rest of the wenches, but she wasn’t quite sure what that meant. All she truly wanted was to play, and get her paws dirty. But she just couldn’t seem to find any fun… not anywhere!!!!
When Meara heard the older cub’s attempt at a growl, she stifled a playful giggle. What puzzled her the most was what he had said. She hated those words she never really understood. She felt out of the loop when the others of the pride spoke. Scurvy, seadog, wenches, naves. It was so much for her small mind to register.
The younger cub’s head tilted to one side “Slit me from me Nuts? What’re those?” She only countered his question in her confusion.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 10:40 am
Not a reaver, definitely, Pizarro decided as a light blue cub much smaller than he and unfamiliar to him emerged from the shadows. Unless reavers were habitually very tiny, which Zarro very much doubted. In the stories they were monstrously huge, and there was no way this cub could count as that. Not at all.
He began to relax, the fur along his spine going back to its usual position and his claws sliding back into their sheathes. If she wasn't a threat, he didn't need to be posturing and trying to make himself look like he, too, was a threat. It was hard to tell if he was very effective at it or not because mostly the only cubs around to try it on were his siblings, who knew him, and everyone older also tended to be bigger.
Her question caught him off-guard, however, and Pizarro bit his tongue carefully to keep himself from saying the first thing which came to mind, since he hadn't expected his expression to meet with any confusion. He'd never tried using it before, so maybe he'd used it wrong, but he'd said the exact same thing as the pirate in the story. It shouldn't have provoked a question, but fear.
"Ah..yer nuts. Y'know. They're, well, you don't actually have any 'cause yer a miniature corsair, but they're like precious jewels to them as have'em. Really important things."
He wasn't sure what they were for, himself, and had never thought to ask why he and his brothers had them and no girls did. The difference between boys and girls had not yet become of such tantamount importance to him. That would happen when he was older.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 12:12 pm
Meara’s eye blinked, and she only shrugged it off. “Yes,” she stood proudly, mimicking the few times she watched her father when he would fill his lungs with air to puff out his chest. Her imitation was more exaggerated, her eyes bugging out as she held her breath. It was a very silly sight indeed.
She gasped for air not long after, and coughed. “I am Meara, a mini corser,” she stated simply. She did not know what a corsair was, but she knew she was one, and wanted to keep it that way. She beamed and hunkered down low. “And you are?” She wiggled her behind playfully as she watched him.
She had always wanted to find someone else to play with. Being an only child was just so… so… dull. Her eyes batted as she used her cubbish charm. She had seen other females around the pride do it, and so she figured it would work out for her. Maybe even get her what she wanted.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 12:53 pm
Did that mean she'd understood him? Pizarro couldn't tell. He didn't feel quite comfortable discussing his manbits with a little girl, either. Some of the older pirates bragged about theirs, and that was how he knew they were important, but he still didn't think he was supposed to talk about them to younger girls. He'd never heard any girls talking about nuts and stuff like that. Not even the girl pirates like his mum.
"Well, good then. That's good. It's good to know about that...stuff." He trailed off, not really sure where he was going with that particular thought and deciding it wasn't worth pursuing. It would probably only lead to more discussions about his nuts and he really didn't want to go there.
"Ah, right. Meara. Good to know ye. I'm Pizarro." He didn't have anything like as much flair as Pirato did when he introduced himself, but he did try to mimic him a little when he made his introduction. His tail sketched an elaborate curlicue in the air behind him as if to punctuate his words.
"By the way, yer not a courser. You're a corsair. Two different things. Don't know what a courser is, but girls - like you - are corsairs." As an afterthought he added, "When they grow up. I don't rightly know what y'are now."
He had no idea why she was batting her eye at him, and could think of no reason for her to do so except that maybe she'd gotten something in them and was trying to get it out. "Have ye got sommat in yer eye?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 6:08 pm
The lioness eyes Pizarro’s tail as he made his introduction. She fought the instinctual urge to run up and bat at it. She rolled her eyed as her little antic had failed. “No.” Her statement was matter of fact as she drew closer to him. He sure did seem boring. Couldn’t a cub take a hint? Especially since he was a boy, she had figured he would have been rowdy.
“I told ya I’ma corser,” Meara said again, not even stopping to correct herself. “An when I grow up, I’ll be the bestest corser there ever was.” She smiled again at Pizarro as she childishly rolled around on the ground. Her tail flicked about below her. She briskly reached a paw out to swat at one of Pizarro’s forelegs.
“Pizarro,” his named rolled around on her tongue. It was easy enough to say, and that was all that mattered to her anyway. “What are you gonna be when you grow up?” She observed him with a bit of curiousness as she made her inquiry.
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 10:53 am
Pizarro gave up. Some people didn't want to change their ways and he could respect that. He wasn't much for change himself. His brother, Schylar, was constantly trying to change him into a more rough-and-tumble sort of boy, but Zarro really didn't like violence, and he hated blood. It made him feel so sick to his stomach and horrible. Ugh!
"Fine. Yer a corsair. An' I don' doubt ye'll be the bestest when yer older."
He felt safe saying that, even though he firmly believed his mum was the best ever. But she wasn't a corsair. She was part of a ship. Which made her better than corsairs, and meant that Meara could be the best without coming into competition with his mum. Yeah...he was something of a mama's boy.
He couldn't get over how tiny she seemed. It was just...odd. But apparently that didn't keep her from being playful. He danced backward when she swatted at one of his forelegs and automatically one of his forepaws darted out to tap her back, though not hard and definitely not with claws out.
"When I'm older, I'm gonna be a crewman on a ship." There weren't a lot of other options for him, after all. "Mebbe I'll captain a ship someday." If everyone else on the crew died and he was the only one left.
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 9:42 pm
Meara chuckled at Pizarro. “Yes, I will be. And you’ll be the bestest crewman there ever was. Well…” she paused a moment and watched as he swatted back. Her fur stood on end from excitement. “My Daddy’s the bestest pirate, except the big red mister boss pirate.”
Meara made an amused face as she thought about Pirato. Her father had pointed him out to her before, and she knew her father held him in high regard. Then again, daddy was crazy… So maybe he wouldn’t be the bestest pirate ever.
“Daddy likes to keep an eye on all of the shinies,” her eyes suddenly began to glaze over as she remembered the one time she had ever caught a glimpse of them. “He has some reawy pwetty ones. I ahways ask him if I can have one, but he ahways tells me no,” she rolled back over and stood on all fours with one of her infamous pouty demeanors. “The mister boss doesn’t like to share.”
Meara suddenly leapt up at Pizarro with a playful growl and a mischievous smile.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 7:33 am
"Which o' the pirates is yer dad?" Pizarro asked.
He thought he knew the answer to this one already, but it couldn't hurt to ask. And it would definitely hurt more to assume and assume wrongly. At the very least that would hurt his ego when he was proven wrong, and it could also end up hurting him in other places if someone took violent offense to his mistake. Not likely, with the majority of the pride being fairly laid-back about matters of parenting, but possible.
"Pirato also don't bathe too much," Pizarro confided. "Y'ever catch a whiff o' him from downwind, ye know who 'tis a league away."
For Pizarro, one of the most memorable things about the commodore was his distinctive, pungent odor. He smelled more than faintly pickled from all the fermented fruit he liked to eat, and that combined with a general lack of concern for personal hygiene made him unappealing to smell. Zarro didn't mind much. Though, to be fair, he'd never really been that close to the commodore.
He was distracted from his train of thought by Meara's sudden leap, which probably would have brought down one of his siblings, who were smaller than he. He merely stumbled backward and then sprang back at her, actually aiming for jumping clear over her head. It would probably not go well if he failed, but he might have been showing off just a little. This was someone who didn't know he was something of a coward.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:25 am
Meara stopped mid-leap, ducking as Pizarro made his impressive hurdle over her small form. Her little jaw dropped and hung open in awe. Her ears bent back as she wondered what other feats Pizarro could do. She was almost jealous. No, she WAS jealous. She was so small, but one day maybe she could jump that high.
Meara lifted up her head and began to look for her father. She knew he couldn’t be too far, she had just seen him moments ago. The wheels in her head began to spin as she plotted on how she would assault him next. She loved to pounce on daddy, even though it made him mad and he would always drag her back to be with the other cubs of the pride. She craved the attention. Her small head nodded over in the direction of her father, “That’s Daddy,” she grinned as her tail pointed over at him.
Torin stood in the distance, keeping watch over the pride. He also took the liberty of flirting with any of the nearby corsairs. It was almost like looking at a larger male version Meara, only his coat was tan. He always reeked with pride and arrogance.
Meara thought her father was so odd, he was nice to the other females until the males showed up. Then her dad would always revert into hyper-jerk mode. It seemed that she was the only exception, and that was something that she would never come to understand.
The light blue cub scrunched her nose as he made mention of the very potent odor. She stuck out her tongue in clear disgust. “Mister boss smells like poo,” she whispered plainly. “And the fwuit stuffs he eats makes his bweath nasty. Daddy’s does sometimes, but not like the boss.” She brought up a paw to cover her nose, giggling all the while.
She attempted to jump towards Pizarro once more, “Wets pway!”
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:36 am
Zarro landed with a heavy thud, relieved that he'd managed to clear Meara. He'd only been able to do it because she was smaller, but that was fine with him. He still felt very proud of himself, and his teeth were bared in a fierce grin as he turned to follow the direction of her nod. His garnet-eyed gaze fell on Cap'n Torin and he nodded.
His grin widened. His suspicions had been correct, and he was very pleased with himself for having made the connection. Now he wondered about her mother. He knew there was a blue lioness who was sometimes seen around the pride, but he didn't think she'd had any cubs. Unless he was wrong. Which was thoroughly possible. He didn't want to ask about it at the moment though.
"Yeah, okay!" he agreed. He was enjoying the possibility of having someone to play with who wasn't trying to make him tougher by playing rough. It didn't even bother him that she spoke a little more oddly than most.
And after playing for some time, Zarro stopped noticing the way her speech differed from everyone else's, with the impediment she seemed to have. He was having fun just goofing off. In many ways, he was still very immature after all. He wasn't anything like ready to be a crewman yet, even though they'd been playing at it a bit. He broke off mid-game, though, when he heard the older corsairs calling. It was time for food.
"This was fun," he said. "I'm gonna go eat, but 'twas fun."
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:59 am
Meara’s breathing was unsteady after such a fun game. Her ears perked at the corsair’s call. Her tummy rumbled, and she made a cute, but awkward face. She smiled, “We’ll pway again sometime then.” She was just glad that she had found someone who would play around here. Everyone either stunk terribly, or were too busy counting shinies or the like. Especially her dad.
Meara scampered off to find Torin and see if she could bum some food off of him. He often shared with her, simply because she was too shy to eat with the other cubs. He assumed she would grow out of it, and she would. “Buh bye,” she yelled.
Unfortunately, Meara had become something of a daddy’s girl. Little did she know that if her mother was still alive, her father would try to abruptly cut her off once he had some reassurance that she had grown more accustomed to the pride. Her father had little time to care for a cub, let alone play with her all of the time. That was one of the main reasons he kept dragging her back with the rest of the cubs. It was almost a daily ritual: Torin would waltz in with Meara squirming in his jaws. It was sort of silly, and the little cub never was able to take a hint that her father was needed elsewhere. Maybe she’d grow out of it just like she eventually would her speech impediment. Only time would tell.
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