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 Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:43 am
 Karroo was still a bit surprised that her mother agreed to bring her today. The last time she went on a herb hunting trip with Val, Karroo had wandered away. When her mother found her Karroo was threatened with a skinning for scarring her that way. The young cub had no fear of her mom but she did feel quite guilty for being the cause of such irrational fear so for a few days after she stayed close to home even though her little heart cried out for adventure.
Well today she was going to get it. Keeping in mind her last adventure the cub stayed within sight of her mom and Val went about her busyness. That is until she spotted a wooded area a short distance away, all thoughts of her mother was completely lost in amazement. She had never seen so many tree's together, one or two was normal for her, so she went trotting off into the dappled shade of the small forest. Once there her mind jumped at a idea and with a smile on her face she pounced on an imaginary foe after a brief 'scuffle' Karroo stood triumphant over the the 'foe'. "Ha. I have defeated you, you fiend now tell me where the princess is and I might spare your life."
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:53 am
 Odd was lounging with his oldest brother, Calder, re-living in hushed tones their last great adventure, when they had been turned into deer and been required to embark on a harrowing quest and complete a dangerous task. There had been clues along the way, the first left by a bird and indicated by an abandoned feather. Then there had been a tree with strange markings in the bark which had directed them into lands they would have been in trouble for exploring if they'd been lion cubs rather than deer. In the end they had been forced to touch a stone set up in a magical circle in order to turn back into lions again. They had gotten away successfully and their mother still didn't know about it, as far as they could tell, which was why their voices were hushed as they spoke.
"Hsst!" he said suddenly, cutting off conversation. "Did you hear that?"
The orange cub would have sworn on anything you liked that he had heard someone speaking. And not someone in their family, either. The voice was that of a younger female, and he knew all of their sisters' voices like he knew his own. This was not the voice of one of their sisters, which made the speaker wholly intriguing, and all the more so because she was unknown to him.
"That wasn't one of our sisters," he ventured. In his words he implied a question for Calder: What are we going to do about it?
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 7:24 am
 Looking upon his near twin as he was lost in thought, Calder canted his head to the side, eyes glazed over. Yes, their sisters had such high standards for themselves, and yet, all Calder wanted to do was sleep and lounge about. He wanted females to provide for him. At least right now. His sleepy little cub mind was becoming fuddled and fogged as the heat made him sleepy. Every so often he would close his bright eyes and then jolt awake, not realizing he'd fallen asleep sitting up. It wasn't that he was bored, just the sun got to the cub so easy and who wasn't sleepy in the sun?
Calder was a lazy boy. At least during this time of day. He always got lazy and sleepy and cranky. Often times, he would wander away, by himself, and find some real nice, cool place to take a nap until something, or his sisters, woke him up, telling him to come home. Today, obviously, he wasn't going to get his nap. Not with the hushed tones he heard that he thought was his brother whispering away, telling who knew what story.
Then his brother's not so hushed tone made him wake back up with a jolt and he sent a glare that direction. Someone talking? Truly? He hadn't heard anything. "You sure it wasn't an echo of your own voice?" He asked, whispering. For some reason, it just felt like one of those times to whisper. Wait a minute, he knew that look Odd was giving him. A frown worked it's way to his muzzle and he shook his head. "Even if you weren't going crazy, we shouldn't go toward it. What if it's like... a hyena trying to lure us in to eat us?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 12:00 pm
Karroo was still playing in her imaginary world, she had no idea that there were others in this wood or that they had heard her.
The young green cub reared back on her hind paws with a snarl on her face, as if she had been struck by the 'foe' she had recently pined. Once back on four paws her eye's darted deeper into the trees and with a growled "You will pay for that," she was off after the bad guy. Her green fur nearly blended with the greenery around her but she was slightly brighter then the dappled green that the trees tossed to the ground. She was a flash of green as if the sun had broken through the tree tops to fall upon a patch of lush grass.
Karroo was in full pursuit of the imaginary creature who was part of her game when she rounded a tree to find two golden boys just there. Almost as if they were waiting for her. The one with streaks in his main fluff was standing at attention, almost as if he had come to a sudden stop after pacing. The other was just laying there as if he had no care in the world. Karroo, not entirely sure how to proceed with the turn of events, just stood there silently waiting to see what either male would say.
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 12:16 pm
A more spiritual sort of lion than his near-twin, who was actually a near-triplet when their brother Herryk was present, Odd had been the first to notice the noise made by the unfamiliar cub, and was probably the first to notice her arrival in their vicinity. It wouldn't have been the easiest thing to notice were it not for the fact that she had not been there before and he had seen her emerge from behind the tree. She did not seem to possess their mother's skill for vanishing and reappearing at will, with nary a trace to mark her passage. Odd had been trying to develop that skill, but he had so far been unsuccessful, much to his disappointment. He consoled himself with the thought that it might be something which came with age.
He took a moment to stare at the green cub who had recently appeared, almost positive that she was not some fey creature, but not quite certain. He had heard a voice that might have been hers speaking as if from a distance, but the spirits of the forest had many abilities, not the least of which were the abilities to disguise their voices and their forms. It was said, however, that they could neither change their eyes nor their scents. He wished briefly that a breeze would blow so that he could ascertain whether she smelled properly like lion, or whether her personal scent was something less mundane.
"I don't think it's a hyena," Odd assured his brother, keeping his eyes on the newcomer. "It's another cub. Could you maybe tell our ma that I'm playing, just so she doesn't worry?"
He did glance away to see his brother's departure, but then his attention went immediately back to the green cub. Until he was sure of her, Odd wasn't about to offer her his name, which was a means of giving spirits power over you, he knew well. However, that didn't mean he couldn't be polite in other ways. Indeed, it was most definitely recommended in all the tales and scraps of knowledge his mother had passed to him so far that he show politeness to any stranger encountered in or around the woods, for they might be anybody or anything. He wondered sometimes if she practiced that habit herself, or if she was just so much a creature of the forest that she didn't have any need to worry about it. He would have liked to have that sort of confidence.
"Greetings and good afternoon," Odd bid the green cub, watching especially her eyes with interest. Everyone in his family had eyes of varying shades of gold.
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Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:17 pm
Karroo watched in silence as one of the two brothers, the one who was at first lounging get up and leave. He was going to tell their mom that the first boy was just playing, something that gave Karroo a brief flash of guilt. Unlike these two she didn't tell her mom that she was going to play in the woods but this thought as well as the guilt faded when the remaining boy said a greeting.
"Hi." Her greeting was short and full of curiosity. She took a few more steps into the clearing, stopping a few feet away. She smiled and with a giggle in her voice introduced herself, "I'm Karroo. I hope I didn't intrude on you and your brother." She glanced in the direction that the other brother left.
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:56 am
Odd smiled back at Karroo. So far she seemed like just a normal cub, but he remembered his mother telling him and his siblings that spirits could appear in any form they wished, and so it was wise to be wary, and not to give offense or proper names in most scenarios. Sometimes, she warned, it was difficult not to give a proper name without also giving offense, if you were obvious about it.
"I'm Odd," he said. It was only part of his name, and so surely he would be safe from being ensorcelled, should Karroo prove to be a spirit. Her name definitely sounded different from his name and those of his siblings. Maybe it was a spirit-y name. The thought gave him a delicious shiver.
He turned his head to follow her gaze briefly and then shrugged. "Don't worry about it. He wasn't being very interesting anyway. Did you maybe want to play something? I'm pretty good at Pretend, but if you'd prefer I guess I could play Pounce or something like that. Or we could tell spooky stories...though it's not really dark enough to be properly spooky."
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:50 am
Karroo nodded a greeting, "Nice to meet you Odd." The male's name was strange but then again she really couldn't talk, her mother even admitted to naming her from part of a plants name. She mentally shrugged and focused back on the male.
"Play?" Her smile widened until her cheeks hurt. Playing by herself is fun but to play with another... this was going to be so fun. "Yeah can we play pretend." She bounced a few steps closer and then with a twinkle in her eyes she asked in a serious voice, "Have you seen the Shadowed One? I have been searching for him for days now and had just caught one of his minions. Unfortunately the minion slipped away. I must get the princess back! Have you seen him or her?" It was somewhat of a risk to just jump right into the story she had created and was playing earlier but Karroo expected Odd to understand, or at least she really hoped he would.
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Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 6:29 pm
Odd was hopeful. Karroo seemed like a nice person, and her smile was friendly. Very, very wide, but friendly. He had already sort of reached the conclusion that he could trust her, but as far as he was concerned her smile and the way she agreed so readily to playing Pretend were proof positive that she meant him no harm, and would do him no harm. Likely if he knew about her mother he would want to rethink that thought, just to be cautious, but that wasn't likely to happen.
Just the same, he was a little surprised when she jumped right into the game. Usually he had to establish a setting and characters with his brothers when they played Pretend so that everyone knew what was going on. Now he felt a little lost, and even a little foolish. Surely he ought to know what she was talking about, at least as far as the him in their game. That wasn't quite the same Odd. It was a different version of him that was far less definite, and could be anything, really.
"I haven't seen any of them," Odd said apologetically to buy himself a few more seconds to figure out what was going on.
"But the woods are dark, and the Shadowed One prefers dark places, no? I'd think his minions would, too. There's a trail this way..." He nodded toward the path his brother had taken, but then decided quickly that it would not be wise to lead a stranger home. "But that seems too obvious. Probably it's false and meant to lead us astray."
He hoped he was playing right. Odd had always thought he was a creative cub, and relatively clever, but in this instance he wasn't as quick on the uptake as he would have liked to be.
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:36 pm
Karroo watched as Odd joined her in her game. For a moment she was worried that he wasn't quite sure what was going on. With this thought in mind she continued with the game but planed to explained a bit more, "This is quite possible sir. Thank you for your help."
The green cub hurried to the path and after a moment shook her head, "Your right they did not pass this way. They must have split up." She looked over her shoulder at Odd, "I'm Lady Karroo, friend and protector to Princess Imani. We were on a trip to visit the princess' distant cousin. We were ambushed and she was taken from me. I swore to her father that I would protect her and I have failed." Karroo began to pace back and forth as if agitated, "I must find her before she is taken to His lair."
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:58 pm
"Of course," he said in response to Karroo's thanks.
When she explained more of what was going on in the game she was playing Odd relaxed. This was something he could understand and join in with. He even knew what sort of a character he wanted to be. It was one fairly close to how he imagined himself when he was grown up, so it would allow him to deal better with any twists and turns Karroo threw in. He thought he might take on the role of a wood-wise lion who could guide her through the forest.
"I'm sorry to meet you under such circumstances, Lady Karroo. It is hard to lose a friend, and harder still when there is duty involved." He made his expression one which would indicate that he knew this feeling from personal experience, something in his past he would rather not talk about. Also he hadn't decided what it was, exactly, but he could come up with that if she asked.
"Perhaps I can help you find Princess Imani," he suggested. A part of the game which mystified him were some of the words she used. Lady and princess. He didn't know what those things were, having never encountered them before, not even in stories. His mother told different kinds of stories, those of spirits and the like.
"I know these woods," he continued. "They have been my home for much of my life and I can track anything through them. If the Shadowed One or his minions came through here, I can find their trail and then we'll find them."
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Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 9:59 pm
Karroo immersed herself into her pretend characters personality so when her face grew solemn, it was 'Lady Karroo' who was thinking that she had met another who knew how hard this was for her.
"Duty declares I find her, friendship declares I find her using any means necessary." Her eyes took on a fearsomeness as she thought about her friend in the claws of the Shadowed One. Her anger drained and her shoulder's drooped a bit as she realized the magnitude of her current quest now that she had lost the minion she had caught earlier.
Her hope returned though with Odd's suggestion, "That would be much appreciated Odd." Karroo couldn't help but break from character with a bright smile. She had found a perfect playmate in Odd. After a moment of thought as to where this 'pretend' should go she fell back into 'Lady Karroo'.
"Then lead on Odd. The sooner we find Imani the sooner we can both be in your dept." She bowed slightly to the male and gestured to the ground. For the moment the story was up to Odd. Would he take them deeper into the forest? or would he take them out of it? It was up to him.
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 2:37 pm
For Odd either duty or friendship would have been sufficient. If anyone so important to him went missing, he would undoubtedly be just as concerned as Lady Karroo was. Her solemnity lent his own countenance more gravity, however, even though the missing lioness was not an friend of his and Lady Karroo was a new acquaintance. He understood that her mission was crucial, and more importantly it was the right thing to do. He was proud to assist her in this task.
Odd nodded soberly and began to prowl around the area, searching for a sign which would indicate which way to go. Beginning a hunt was always the hardest part if the spirits didn't decide to be helpful by providing an obvious sign. Sometimes they did and others they didn't. Today, however, the spirits seemed to be interested in helping Odd out with his game and provided a patch of nearly dried mud which had wavy patterns in it. Obviously this was the beginning of the trail, but which way would it lead?
"The trail starts here," he announced, summoning Lady Karroo to look at what he had found. "And if I'm not mistaken it leads in this direction."
He decided that the wavy lines were pointing, and so he set off in the same direction, watching for more of them, though he did not expect the spirits' next sign to take the same form. That would be too easy. It did give him an idea for the sort of signs he ought to be looking for.
"Watch for signs of passage that don't seem right. Like paw prints with too many toes or oddly smooth patches of ground. Those sorts of things can happen when unnatural beings pass through." Well, why not?
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 10:25 am
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