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 Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:30 am
 Kepo had roamed farther afield than he usually did. When he first started wandering away from home as an adolescent, he had been frightened and appalled by the world away from his family. He had grown more used to it, though, and as a young adult not much bothered him.
This landscape was more desolate than he liked, though. It was ... unpleasant. Kepo hadn't seen anyone around. He doubted if anyone called this place home. There were plenty of bones here and there, but he hadn't spotted any game. The young adult sat and gnawed at a bone disconsolately, wondering what he should do. It seemed like a waste to turn around, but the land had just gotten more and more grim as he went along. If he did find anyone living in this crappy place, they probably wouldn't be anyone he wanted to take back home with him. Bah. He crunched on the bone some more as he thought, even though it was dry and didn't smell very promising.
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 10:21 am
 If Skada had been a mind reader she wouldn't have appreciated Kepo's evaluation of her home, but she wasn't so she was happily unaware of the insult. She had lived in the graveyard pack for some time now and had settled in nicely, still plotting how she could secure a nicer skull to live in. Not that her current one was nasty in any way, but she could always use a bigger one closer to the water. She sniffed the air, feeling an unfamiliar scent on the wind. Oh-ho-ho... Intruder? She soon saw the hyena, and could confirm that she didn't recognise him as a pack member. She'd remember those stripes all right. He didn't seem to have noticed her yet since she walked into the wind, and she knew from experience that crunching on a dry bone didn't exactly improve ones hearing.
"That will cost you," she hollered, "Did you pay for that bone?"
She wasn't sure she could force outsiders to trade for bones she hadn't picked up yet, but it was worth a shot! Skada had her own definition of bartering...
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 10:59 am
At the sound of the yell Kepo's ears perked up. There was actually someone living here? He raised his head, looking in the direction of the shout.
A female! A pretty one! Kepo had never seen anyone with markings like that, but they were definitely nice to look at. All that black and grey and white was very nice. If Kepo hadn't been in such a sour mood to begin with, he would have been delighted. As it was, he was simply ... pleasantly surprised.
He did like bossy females, but he wasn't very taken with her yelling at him about paying for a bone. He dropped the bone and eyed it critically, then looked back up at the female hyena. Kepo stood up, to meet her gaze. "I didn't know that was your bone." Respectful enough. "I wouldn't pay for a bone like that, anyways. It's old and dry." That was a little obnoxious, but hey. His mouth felt all gritty and unpleasant. The momentary pleasure of chewing on a bone had not been worth it, not at all.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:40 pm
Well look at that... Skada was encouraged by her initial success. A similar request to one of her fellow graveyard hyenas would have resulted in laughing or possibly a fight. Wow, rogues were really dumb. Never mind that she had been one not long ago. That was a different matter, because she had always been way smarter than average. In her not very humble opinion off course...
"Well, too bad," she said sternly, trying to see how far she could push this male, "You gnawed it so now you have to trade for it. I can't expect anyone else to want it when its got your slobber and tooth marks all over it. Watcha got? Hmm?"
Flawless logic! Skada couldn't stop a smug grin. This poor fellow must be dazzled by her excellent bartering technique.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:52 pm
This female was hot, but she was kind of uppity. In an unpleasant way. Already feeling a bit disgruntled, Kepo frowned. Was she stupid, or just being obnoxious for the hell of it? Why would anyone pay for some crappy bone? Kepo was a little vague on the whole concept of payment to begin with, his clan not being noted for its peaceful trade traditions.
"There are plenty of other old worthless bones lying around, if you hadn't noticed," Kepo said irritably. "My slobber probably made it better anyways. I'm the son of a queen, you know!" He straightened up a bit, striking a noble pose that made him look extremely handsome (in his opinion, at least). This rogue female might be a wacko, but maybe hearing about his noble origins would make her settle down. And then fall for him. Yes.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:56 am
Skada grinned as she watched the other hyena think, he didn't seem all that pleased but what did she care? She was convinced that if she never backed down and kept insisting she would eventually get what she wanted in any given situation. At the moment she didn't quite know what she wanted, but she knew she was having fun. Even if he didn't want to trade for bones she was getting a kick out of messing with him.
"Oh, reaaally," she said, pondering the possibilities of trading the bone as some kind of relic or souvenir to the next stupid rogue she met, "Does that mean I should call you prince? Or that you'll be a king? You'd sound like a lion-wannabe if you started to call yourself that. King of the Savannah and all that. Do you have anything else to trade besides slobber?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 3:33 pm
Kepo instantly scowled at her senseless blathering about kings and princes and lions. Ugh. How horribly obnoxiously stupid. Other rogues had asked him about his rank before, and it never ceased to irritate him. Although he had much more experience with the outside world now than he had as an adolescent, Kepo still felt that the whole world revolved with stately grace around his clan. It was unreasonable to expect a stranger to know his own clan's customs, but it rankled every time some rogue professed their terrible ignorance in such a way. It annoyed him enough that her teasing tone went entirely over his head.
"No, I'm not a prince," he snapped, still frowning. What a weird word. It creeped him out a little to hear the mangling of 'princess'. "I'm the best male in my clan, but I'm not a girl. And I'm not a lion." He drawled the last word with infinite scorn for the lesser felines.
The female was hot, but Kepo felt terribly insulted. He glared at her sullenly. This was terribly bad manners, but she had just called him a lion. A lion! He shuddered. "I don't have anything to trade. Why are you obsessed with trading things, anyways?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:55 pm
"Oh, the best," Skada cooed, in a way that could almost be mistaken for admiring, but she wasn't very good at acting as a fawning lady. She had more in common with a filthy party-crasher than a lady and she was proud of that fact, "And not a lion, I would never have figured that out on my own!"
The word "clan" should perhaps have triggered some alarm bells, since other clans or prides or packs moving closer were usually bad news. But one couldn't be expected to remember everything, right? Skada missed the little word since she had already labelled this stripy dude as "dumb rogue". It was a label she used often and with enthusiasm. She must have said something right at least, because she knew sulking when she saw it. Was it prince? Or lion? She didn't remember calling him a girl so she wasn't sure why he was stressing that part.
"I'm a bone collector, Stripy dude," she said slowly but not very patiently, "It's my job to trade for useful things... and things. I'm a very important hyena in my pack! I have connections."
She wasn't really that important, but he didn't know that. Most of the useable things she had found for the pack had been scavanged, stolen or found, but trading was serious business too. It was annoying that he claimed to have nothing to trade with, but he was still interesting enough to keep bothering.
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Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:17 pm
Skada's sarcasm went right over Kepo's head. It wasn't his fault. His brain had never been properly wired for insightful thinking to begin with, and now it was heated with anger. He glared at the insulting female, too cranky to think properly at all.
He hadn't known the female had a pack. Huh. That was kind of alarming, but Kepo was too annoyed to be cautious. He sniffed scornfully. "I don't know what kind of pack would live here," he said, glaring around at the crummy landscape. "I don't know why you would collect these bones, either. These bones are old. What would you do with old bones?!" Probably something stupid and pointless.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 11:51 am
"We don't live right here, stripybutt" she said, getting a little irritated at the other hyena's lack of appreciation for their territory, "We live in a much cooler place, but you can't go there because you're an outsider!"
She was resorting to pup insults, but he made her mad. The elephant graveyard was the best place she had seen, and the best part was that it wasn't infested with lions. And it was her home! She should bite him for being an arse about it. And she should bite him even harder for dissing her task.
"It's a title you idiot," she growled, "I collect all kinds of useful things, not just bones."
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Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 4:36 pm
As silly as it was, Kepo was strongly tempted to retort that she couldn't go see his home, but he bit his tongue. He was trying to woo and recruit females, not drive them off!
Of course, if she had a pack, it might be a little bit harder to recruit her ... he had better turn on the ole Kepo charm. He bravely waited out her insults, refraining from snapping back at her. He had to remember that she was a pretty female, even if she was kind of a jerk.
"Well, there are lots of useful things where I live," Kepo announced proudly. "Lots of them. Many more useful things than there are here!" Yeah, that oughta reel her in.
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 12:23 pm
"Uh, huh," Skada said, hell-bent on finding some way to shut the stripy male up. It wasn't even about trading anymore, "But do you have elephants? If you have so many useful things you should have brought some to trade with."
She glared smugly at him. Sure, the elephants were dead but this dumb male didn't need to know that. And dead or not they were wicked cool to live among. It annoyed her that he had questioned her pack and their choice of territory. The monochromatic hyena was oblivious to Kepo's "charm" and if someone asked she'd probably say that it looked as if he was trying to pick a fight.
"I stood on an elephant head this morning," she said. That's how badass I am.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:18 pm
Did he have elephants? Kepo squinted at the female. Was she crazy, or what? It sounded like she was bragging, although he didn't know why anyone would want to brag about having an elephant infestation.
"No, it doesn't have elephants," Kepo sniffed. "I could stand on an elephant's head if I wanted to any time, but I don't because I'm smart and elephants are big. And they smell and have tusks. Standing on elephants is stupid." Kepo was sounding more disrespectful by the moment, but he was finding himself incapable of talking to this annoying female in any kind of proper way. She was just so irritating!
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 11:37 am
"You are stupid," Skada said before she could stop herself, "You always make sure the elephant is killed before you stand on it, obviously. I bet your pack is too weak to take down an elephant!"
Sure, the elephants in the graveyard rarely needed any help dying, and most had been dead for quite some time... To say the least. But since she had run out of good arguments some time ago she used whatever she had. Perhaps she should cut her losses and take the gnawed-by-a-prince bone home since this worthless excuse of a hyena couldn't grasp the concept of trading anyway. Better quit while she was winning after all. Because she was winning, whatever this was...
"I'll take this," she said and snagged the offending bone, "And don't even think about stealing anything else around here."
She eyeballed him for a while and then turned around with a disgruntled snort.
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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:26 pm
Kepo glared at the female, furious at the insinuation that his pack couldn't take down an elephant. They could kill elephants all day if they wanted to. They could kill a whole herd of elephants and eat it for lunch.
"Fine!" Kepo hollered, giving the black and white female his most disgruntled stare. "Take that crappy bone. I'm going home. I'm going to go home and eat an elephant. We eat elephants every day! Fresh ones!" Yeah, that really burned her. Take that, jerkface.
Kepo turned around as well and began stomping home, thoroughly disgusted with this horrid place and its even worse inhabitants.
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