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 Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 9:07 am
 Voldemaras was not paying much attention to what the Captain was saying. He had been viking under this lion before and he liked working with him, but he had heard this speech before. Most of the time when Nordik went viking, he asked Voldemaras along. It could almost be said that the golden-eyed lion served as the Captain's second, though Vol would not have been the one to say it. He believed that authority derived from actions, his own and others', and that if people did as he said, then he had authority over them.
Instead he was looking at the band Nordik had chosen. There were seven of them in total, and two of them were neophytes when it came to viking. The one, a dark-pelted lion by the name of Ruzanski, had actually been included on Vol's recommendation. The other was a very pink young lion who had been born to a very pink female Reaver. Vol did not approve of female Reavers, but the pink lion's mother had been asked along on Aesir's first viking as Warlord, and so he would give her son the benefit of the doubt.
It was hard, though, when he remembered the cub as being wrapped in furs for most of his youth. It had been a ridiculous gesture and Vol did not understand it at the time. As he studied the pink lion, who seemed healthy and normal enough, he decided he could not understand it now, either.
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Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:42 am
Ingmar's fidgets from the week before his reaving had finally worked themselves out, and, nervous as he was, he managed to sit still and pay attention to Nordik as he went through his orders.
Ingmar knew he had a lot to live up to. Most of his siblings had gone along other paths, choosing not to become Reavers, and he wanted to make his mother and father proud when he returned from his first trip. He had grown into a large adult, and, although he no longer wore the complete get up that his mother had wrapped him and his siblings in when they were young, wore a portion of thick cape buffalo hide around his legs to protect them. One of the first lessons Dodonna had given him in fighting was that a lion that can't move, can't fight, and if the muscles in his legs tore, he couldn't move.
Ingmar knew he would be paired with a more experienced Reaver this time out. First timers were expected to know how to fight already - when they went reaving, they were there to learn tactics and how to obey orders and work in a band, aside from gaining glory. He would have to listen first though.
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Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 7:55 pm
Vol probably ought to have been paying closer attention when Nordik spoke, but he did at least manage to devote the Captain enough of his attention to hear that he had been paired with the fur-wearing pink youngster. Hearing that Vol looked sharply at Ingmar once more and then sharply at Nordik. He had thought he would be paired with Ru, since they were already used to each other. Apparently his Captain had other plans.
"Captain?" he interrupted. "Did you say I'm to work with...Ingmar?"
The hesitation was not because he felt at all chagrined about questioning his Captain's decision. Nordik didn't mind when Vol questioned him because usually Vol's questions brought up matters worth considering. At least that's what Vol believed. So he didn't worry about interrupting or asking questions. The hesitation was because he wasn't one hundred percent certain he'd gotten the name right.
He did not want to come across as a childish sort who complained whenever he didn't get exactly what he wanted, so he stepped forward to address Nordik in an undertone that ought to have gone mostly unheard by the lions around them. "Wouldn't it make more sense to put me with Ru? We've already got something of a rapport."
"It wouldn't do Ru much good. He's got to learn from someone else now, and you can impart your wisdom to Ingmar. It's better for everyone this way," Nordik replied at a normal volume, clearly not caring whether Vol came across looking petty. Vol didn't appreciate that, but he wasn't going to say anything else on the matter and compound the problem. Instead he nodded and made his way toward Ingmar to wait for Nordik to finish talking to them.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:11 am
Ingmar wasn't unduly troubled by Vol's exchange with Nordik. He was the most inexperienced lion here, and in Vol's place, he probably wouldn't have been wanted to be paired with the baby of the group either. Ruzanski was a better fighter then Ingmar, he could tell from having watched the other Reaver's sparring, but Ingmar still had to prove himself. He had room to improve.
Ingmar inclined his head as the dark lion joined him, still listening as Nordik finished sketching out his plan and giving instructions. He didn't want to miss anything important.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:26 am
"So," Vol said to Ingmar once Nordik had dismissed them to tend to their separate duties. "Which of us do you think Nordik means to punish?"
The way he said it ought to indicate that he was joking. In truth, Vol could understand why he had been paired with Ingmar. It would be better for everyone. He was just not in the mood to meet new people today. Not that it mattered, he did what his Captain said, and was glad he wasn't the Captain. He would never have thought to pair himself with Ingmar rather than Ru.
"Probably you," he decided. "What did you do to him to earn that sort of punishment?"
It was an invitation for Ingmar to speak, introduce himself, say something to Vol which would make him memorable in some way that didn't relate to his mother wrapping him in skins as a cub or his bright pink coat, which were presently the two most striking things about him as far as Vol was concerned.
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:38 am
"Well, I might have hit on his daughter and he wasn't too pleased when she returned with . . . well, he wasn't too pleased." That hadn't been a good day. It had started a very good day, and then turned very bad. He decided to stay away from the girl, or at least appear to publicly, until he had at least one reaving under his belt and wasn't just some Freeborn kid making time with the Captain's daughter.
"But unless he told you secretly to push me off a cliff, he can't be that upset about it."
Not that he would actually put that past Nordik. Maybe he should stay away from clifftops in the near future.
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:06 am
"Is that all?" Vol asked. "Between you and me, I've seen his daughter. Was hitting on her part of a bet?"
Of course the fact that his joking was more or less implying that Ingmar had bad taste in women didn't occur to the older Reaver. Vol didn't think Nordik's daughter was all that attractive, anyway. His personal preferences ran toward striped lionesses, really, and although he could appreciate good looks in lionesses with other coat patterns, it wasn't just her unstriped pelt that made Nordik's daughter unappealing to him. Being who the sort of lion he was, Vol tended to assume that his opinion was the only correct one, and so of course Ingmar would agree with him about Nordik's daughter.
"He may have put up a fuss, but I bet he's secretly thrilled that someone noticed her at all, and he's probably taking you along as sort of a reward." Vol carried on casually insulting his Captain's daughter. Oh, there'd be unpleasantness if Nordik heard him, but the Captain's attention was elsewhere.
Just in case Ingmar didn't understand what he was saying, Vol clarified: "I've not been instructed to push you off of any cliffs."
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 9:49 am
Ingmar didn't connect Voldemaras's words to her pelt. It wasn't something he really worried about with females. "It wasn't part of a bet, I just prefer females to be a little plump instead of a little bony. They're softer that way. Still going to stay away from cliffs around Nordik, though. He's certainly not acting thrilled about it."
Ingmar didn't want to put too much weight on one girl, anyway. He wasn't sure if he wanted to settle down with her, even as soft as she was. He was still young, after all, and there were many females out there.
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:00 pm
Vol hadn't even considered the girl's plumpness, actually. He did prefer a more svelte figure, but from experience he knew boniness was not fun. Given his choice between a bag of bones or a sack of flesh, he supposed he would choose the latter. But that hadn't been what he meant.
"In that case, I'm surprised you didn't really risk your neck by going after the Warlord's daughter. The green one. She's definitely soft around the edges, and around the middle, too."
Vol had noticed that both she and her sister were growing up to be very lovely, fierce lionesses, but he wasn't going to get into the mess he had no doubt would result from expressing any sort of interest in either of them. The illegitimate daughters would probably be safer, but he didn't often see them around. He thought one or two might be training as priestesses, like their mother, but he wasn't one hundred percent sure of that.
"And that's just Nordik. He never acts thrilled about anything. But trust me, if you'd said you wanted to take the girl to mate, he probably would have kissed you. He's not had much luck getting rid of her, and from what I'm told, he's getting anxious to see her officially paired off, before something...unofficial happens."
Vol shrugged. "Anyway. You were listening to him, jah? Tell me what he wants us to do and let's be off."
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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:16 am
Ingmar wasn't sure if the older Reaver was joking, or if he was trying to get his pink sidekick killed. "I'll go after Kazul or Badb when I think it is an excellent day to die. Even the Vikingborn daughters - if the Warlord didn't kill me first, they all look like copies of him. I have no desire to go topping a female and then have her turn around and see Aesir's face."
Ingmar shuddered at the thought. He just . . . ugh, he didn't even want to think about that.
"He wants us to go up ahead and scout the dens, first. There are a few lion families and he wants to know how many fighters they have, and what kind of herds are around."
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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 3:28 pm
"You raise a valid point there. I do think Aesir means to kill anyone who comes sniffing around those girls. Assuming they don't beat him to it. I hear they're pretty fierce."
Though he'd also observed that Kazul, at least, spent a great deal of time with his young companion Ruzanski. He'd ribbed the green-eyed lion about it from time to time, but Ru had been disappointingly unwilling to be drawn into any sort of argument on the subject. He had just shaken his head as if he was dealing with a child who believed that just because two people were of opposite sexes they ought to get married. Vol had hit him upside his head.
On hearing Ingmar's other reservations about Aesir's daughters Vol laughed. He hadn't given any thought to the Butter Face phenomenon, though now that Ingmar had mentioned it, he could see it being a faint possibility with the viking-born girls. However, he didn't know them that well, and was more inclined to believe that they would not look too uncomfortably like their father.
"You might not be so bad, Pinky," he said. "Let's go do some scouting."
Fin?
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