Skada rose as she usually did early in the morning with the sun just barely rising over the horizon. It glinted off the waves below the cliffs like molten gold and as she usually did, Skada paused to admire the natural beauty that the world had to offer. After inhaling softly the lioness continued into the gathering area in the center of the pride. She'd made her den on the very outskirts of the pride -- she hated feeling stifled and trapped.
Skada yawned as she took in the sights of the pride in the hours before others started rousing. She was proud of this place, proud of her home, and proud of her rank within the pride. It had taken many years, many ups and downs for her to reach this point, and here she was. A Captain, respected by the lions in her pride.
Honestly sometimes she thought the only thing that could make life better would be to start a little family of her own, but Skada feared becoming a mother. After all, there was really only one lion that she would consider being a father to her cubs, and that was... well... silly thoughts, silly thoughts.
The muscular male was dragging his dinner for tonight toward his den. Claws aided him in this, digging into the dirt and mud made from blood. Yes, he was dragging a full grown waterbuck for his dinner. Aesir hadn't taken him viking again, and it made the big male pissy. He had to do something while waiting for Aesir to return so he could speak with him on this matter. He wanted to get his paws dirty and teach other prides what it meant to be a lion. He truly felt this pride was the strongest of them all. Purple eyes flashed as he looked around, sensing someone close by. He paused in his dragging and looked around, blood covering his chin and some of his chest. A few nicks to his ear made the side of his head look horrible and there was a slash on his hind quarters he was ignoring.
Sure, it hurt, but they were scars from catching this beast. As Uda looked around, he spotted Skada up aehad. Should he bother her now? Even though he wasn't looking for a mate, or for love, so he told himself, he probably was looking at it right now. which bothered him to no end. Why did the things he not want find him? He wanted to focus on raising through the ranks and somehow trying to become the next Warlord. After all, didn't everyone?
He decided he would let her come to him.
A sound caught Skada's attention and she quietly turned her head to peer in the direction of the noise. It was Uda. Strange how he happened to appear just as she was thinking silly thoughts about him. Never would she admit to such a thing, though, not even under duress. He was truly a monster of a male, large and muscular with strength that was admirable. Dedicated, too, he was, and he felt the same way about their pride as she did. She knew he'd seen her so there was no reason to not approach. Skada did so slowly, footfalls soft on the dirt ground.
"Uda," she said softly, "Someday I will kill you," Skada finished, using the customary greeting of their pride. "Have you bitten off more than you can chew?" The question was posed with subdued mirth. She would not fawn over his wounds and scars -- Skada was not that type of female. Instead she would laugh at the amount of energy he was putting forth dragging a meal back to his den.
He snorted at the greeting and gave a lopsided, small, smirk. "Only if you get me before I kill you." That's how he answered that greeting. Then to her question he rolled his eyes and watched her try to hide her joy in finding him exerting himself dragging a huge dinner back. "I don't know, I haven't bitten you, yet, have I?" She really was almost too much for him to handle at points. It could be a good thing, if he thought about it right. At the same time, he could see it getting old. Either way, she was beautiful and he knew for a fact she could hold her own against him. They'd wrestled before, and she'd nearly won. Of course, he used his weight and size against her.
"It's a good day to die." He looked up at the cloudless sky and then back to her, arching a brow at her. "I see you're doing nothing, as usual. Go do your job."
If there was one thing that Skada hated, it was being made to feel as if she were useless and worthless. No, she'd fought hard and with passionate honor to get where she was today, and she would not allow some... some Reaver to treat her as some dispensable female -- a worthless female. Her ears pinned back as she narrowed her eyes at him. "I could say the same for you, Reaver," she snarled, "Once more the Warlord has not taken you with him? I was left behind to look after the pride, to make decisions where they need to be made." She ground her teeth together, finding some sort of sick joy in taunting him. His eyes lit up like no others when he was riled.
"So why are you left behind once more, Reaver Uda?"
He had only been teasing, but he got such a rise out of her. However, the chuckle died before it got out and he narrowed his own eyes. "...Aesier said he has to take the new ones out to viking so as not to show favoritism." He spoke it almost as a direct quote. That was the truth. Aesir chose who went out on a viking and it just wasn't him lately. "I was going to speak to him when I ran into him again, about taking me next time." He pushed his ears back off his head and shook his head, sitting down and wincing, feeling the blood oozing from the cut back there, it hurt, yes, and bleeding, yes.
Things weren't looking up for him today. Females were always so testy with teasing. They did it more frequently than he did, maybe he should just stop all together. It sounded like way less of a headache, than actually trying to keep doing it and getting nothing but trouble for it.
She really needed to work on being so touchy. Skada didn't think Uda would say anything that would rile her purposefully, at least not in a way that made her outright furious. With a sigh she moved closer as she noticed his wince. "You should clean that, Uda, or have one of the Priestesses do it. Infection will set in, and you are no good to the pride if you cannot perform as a Reaver should." Skada shook her head. "Where are you trying to drag your dinner off to? If you rest here I can drag it the rest of the way." She could, too. Skada took pride in her physical strength. She'd beaten many male Reavers. Uda had been the only one in recent history that she'd not been able to best.
It was as close as Skada would come to an apology
If she dragged it for him, he would lose some of his pride, and that's not what he wanted. Uda shook his great white mane and head. "Just to my den up ahead. 's not too much further. I will get it looked at just as soon as this is safely in my den. For now, it can wait. It doesn't hurt bad right now, just uncomfortable." It wasn't the whole truth, but it technically wasn't lying. She wasn't him, so she couldn't call him out on it.
Right now, he was toying with the idea of asking her to take the relationship to the next level. They saw each other frequently, bickered and fought with the best of them. He got envious stares when they walked together in the pride. Skada was the definition of a Stormborn female; smart, strong minded and willed, physically strong and as much as his equal as any Reaver. She held a position of power he could have had but didn't want.
"Skada, I need to talk to you about something."
Skada dipped her head replying with a softly spoken, "Speak your mind, Uda." He was polite, something that pleased Uda. Most of the males in the pride looked at females as objects unless they could prove their worth -- or unless they were Priestesses. Many of the Priestesses in the pride were feared and rightly so.
Skada watched him carefully, ears perked as she waited for him to talk. He was a strong male, admirable, respectable. Nothing like that simpering Gunnar or the failure Taraxa. No, Uda was a true Reaver, one of the best in the pride, and Skada would listen to what he needed to say.
"...I wanted to take our relationship to the next step. .. well, so there would actaully be a relationship. Not moving in together or anything, but getting used to being... a couple." That was as close to admiting that he'd been thinking about her as she would get. So if she didn't get it, he wouldn't explain it futher. He stopped talking after that and just eyed her, waiting wanting to gauge her reaction. He braced himself for the worse, like he always did, at least mentally.
He hoped he wasn't assuming things. That would just look horrible on his part.
Slowly, slowly a brow raised. This was turning out to be the strangest day ever. Just before she'd seen him she'd been thinking about him and then he appeared and posed the very same question to her that she'd been pondering days past. She frowned slightly - not at his question, but at her own thoughts - before returning her attention back to the matter at hand.
As a Captain, more specifically, a female Captain, she could not just simper and swoon after Uda. He would have to earn the right to call himself her mate, even if that's not exactly what he was doing now. Well, she didn't think that's what he was doing now. He was asking to lay claim to her, and this pleased her greatly.
"I cannot say yes," she said softly, raising her eyes to meet his own, "unless, of course, you win against me in a spar." She figured he would, but in her mind it would be a battle well-lost.
Of course she couldn't say yes. He wasn't expecting her too right off the bat, but she offered a way to 'win her heart' so to speak, and he smirked. He often won their spars. "Very well. Tell me where and when and we shall spare. Preferably after I drag this back and get my cut looked at by a Priestess." He was probably one of the only ones who wasn't terrified of them. They did their jobs just as well as he did. Sure, some were bitchy, but if you didn't talk more than what was asked, then you were good to go. He could ignore their snide comments if they gave any.
Uda was thrilled she issues the challenge. It gave him something to look forward to.
"I prefer the mornings," she said calmly, not wanting to sound too eager. "when the sun has yet to rise. I will meet you at the sparring sands. Our aim will not be to spill blood, Uda," she continued, setting the rules for their sparring session. "After all, you would not want to maim my beautiful face, now, would you?" She couldn't help the husky laugh that rumbled from her throat, the sound rough from disuse. Her comment itself was a humorous one, as most of her pelt was full of nicks and scars from years of battle.
"Do you agree to the terms?"
"I understand and accept." He smirked and gave a rough laugh of his own. Watching her, he knew he did the right thing; made the right move in her eyes. "Plenty of time to bloody each other up once I win." Now he was confident. This was in the bag, unless she somehow pulled some new trick out of thin air and beat him with it. Which could be possible. After all, she was a Captain. Who knew what was lurking in that brain of hers. He didn't and he certainly wasn't going to try to figure it out. A female mind was a very dangerous place.
"Three mornings from now? Allow the cut proper time to scab over, then I'll meet you the third morning at the sands."
Skada gave a short nod, holding back the grin that threatened to curl the corners of her mouth. No, this was a serious matter, but deep down in some secret feminine place that she kept culled and hidden, well, she was thrilled. Of course she would never, ever admit it. She'd become too used to being the hard-skinned, hard-headed female Captain that she'd spent many of her younger years working for. This, this was new. These emotions were new and frightening and it made her blood roar in anticipation for their next meeting, three days from now.
"I will leave you to your meal, then, Uda. When next we meet, I hope you are at your best or the bards will tell tales of your failures." She dipped her head in goodbye.
