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 Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 1:02 pm
Pur was playing in the fall leaves of the forest in a care-free manner. Her last conversation with Herryk had gone better than expected. At the very least he believed she saw herself having his children, but she knew after the second conversation on the topic that he could just not see himself siring her cubs. Or with children at all. She was content with this for now, but still strongly believed in her visions. At the very least she was still going to be living in the forest without worry of being kicked out.
"Pretty browns and reds, and oranges and greens," Pur mused, rolling around in some of the leaves, them sticking to her porcelain fur tentatively with a crunch.
Man she loved the crunching sound. It was the most satisfying part of the falling leaves. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Pur smiled and let off a small squeal of excitement as she quickly tried to form a big pile of leaves. After a few moments, she had a sizable enough pile and backed herself several feet away from it. Crouching down, lithe body ready for the pounce, Pur launched herself forward into the leaves and watched as they sprayed everywhere.
She hadn't had this much fun in awhile.
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Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 1:31 pm
 Odd had been enjoying the canopy. The trees near his home were very old and their branches had grown so that a lion could almost walk from one tree to the next without even having to jump in some places. Not everywhere, of course, and sometimes it was much easier to jump than to try any other way, but it was still a phenomenon that delighted Odd, who enjoyed being able to perch up high and watch things as a bird might.
For the past several minutes he had been following the sound of what could only be a lioness or a cub enjoying themselves a great deal by playing with the leaves that fell. Odd liked the trees whose leaves changed colors and fell seasonally, he decided, though he had never experienced this season before. He liked that his orange coat could actually blend in with these colors as it could not easily do with the usual green and brown foliage of his home.
He grinned when he realized that he was looking down on the lioness his brother Herryk had told him about. The crazy one who thought her father was a god and who thought Herryk was going to be the father of her cubs. Not that Odd didn't believe in seers - that would have been impossible for him, since he had one full sister and one half-sister who were seers - but he did not believe that they were infallible, and he had a hard time believing that Herryk would be a father for a good long while. As for her father being a god, well, he wasn't sure about that. The Stormborn claimed to be descended from gods, but it was a long way back, beyond anyone's memory.
Odd settled more comfortably on his branch to watch her cavort and play, having no desire to disturb her revelries. Unfortunately he did disturb a nest of small mammals that fled too quickly to the ground for him to identify them. He watched with a smile on his face and in his eyes as they scurried across the ground near the lioness's leaf pile.
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Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:30 pm
The quick scurrying of the small animals had caught poor Pur off her guard. She had been enjoying herself in the fallen leaves and the forests embrace so much that she had forgotten others did live in these woods and that even here had the potential to be dangerous. Startled, Pur jumped slightly; however, as soon as her paws hit the leaves beneath her she elegantly slipped and found herself sharing a tender moment with the forest floor once again.
This was becoming a bad habit for her.
"Owww," She muttered to herself, shaking off the debris and some of the dirt the impact had embedded into her porcelain (well, not so porcelain right now) coat.
She wondered when Herryk was going to return to his den, if he was going to return to his den. Perhaps he'd just been thoughtful enough to give her a proper place to stay and than bolted on her again? She sighed.
Tilting her head back she caught a glimpse of orange and black legs. Her hair stood on end and her ghostly eyes sparkled with excitement, "Herry-"
Oh.... Ohhhh. This. This was not Herryk, no. The mane was wrong. Was this, one of his brothers?
"You're not Herryk...," She trailed off quietly.
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Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:55 am
Odd winced when the white lioness slipped and went sprawling on the ground, knowing that it had been his fault, at least in part. On the other hand, it didn't seem likely she'd look up with the distraction a fall like that could pose, and that suited him just fine. He hadn't intended to run into anyone as he goofed off in the trees, and certainly he hadn't meant to come across the weird lioness who was stalking his brother. For all that he teased Herryk about it, Odd wasn't sure how he felt about someone being obsessed with his brother.
Unfortunately it seemed like his estimation of the situation had been incorrect. The lioness looked up and then he could see her eyes, which were some of the oddest eyes he'd ever seen on a sighted lion. A few of the Stormborn had eyes which had turned white with age or blindness from a battle wound, but they were all properly blind. This lioness had white eyes that he didn't think had anything to do with injury or glaucoma or cataracts, and it made him a little uncomfortable to look at.
Aaand she thought he was Herryk. There was no way this was going to go well. Odd gave serious consideration to retreating into the trees and making a quick escape, but he'd spent too much time around the Stormborn for that to really be a viable option. It was cowardly, and Odd was not a coward, even if he was not so foolhardy and brave as a Reaver might be. He was not, for instance, going to come down from his perch until he was more certain of the situation. And more used to the lioness's strange eyes.
He paced on his branch, not sure how he wanted this encounter to go and for once unable to simply say that things would happen as they happened. He had liked it better when he could simply be a voyeur and draw his own conclusions based on his observations. Well, it was too late for that, he told himself. He also told himself to stop pacing and to hold still.
"No," he agreed. "I'm one of the brothers. The odd one."
Sorry it's a bit disjointed. My brain is fuzzy.
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 1:49 pm
Pur watched him pace back and forth for several moments and her head cocked itself to one side as she watched with high interest. She wondered what was going on in that head of his, considering she had seen that sort of walking before. It was what her brother did when he was thinking.
"Herryk did say he was a triplet," Pur muttered absently, catching herself in her rudeness. Her ears and nose turned a light shade of pink and she smiled to Herryk's brother sweetly, having already forgotten that he had told her not to speak to anyone. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I'm Pur. Pur'coeur."
Getting up from the forest floor, various types of foliage stuck to her white underbelly, Pur offered Herryk's brother another smile and sat down before him in a more relaxed manner. She didn't want him to think she'd strike out at him or anything. She was definitely not one of those types of girls, what with her lithe small body.
"If it wasn't for your mane, you'd look exactly like Herryk. Is it confusing to your Mom to have three similar looking sons?" Pur asked, quite happy to be talking to someone again after such a long bout of silence, "I have a sister that looks like me. Except she is black and her marking is red, whereas I am white and my marking is black."
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:54 pm
Sitting still was not usually difficult for Odd, but this situation was highly unusual. Ordinarily he would have held very still and done his best to become invisible until he knew how to deal with the people and the situation confronting him, but the time for stillness had passed. She had very obviously seen him and even addressed him. It seemed he would have to participate in this conversation.
"Good manners aren't as important around here as good sense," Odd replied. "And sometimes in the forest it's best not to speak your full name. You never know who or what may be listening, and what power they might gain over you knowing your name."
He hadn't been speaking entirely in jest when he introduced himself as the odd one. Oh, certainly it was a play on his name, but it was also the truth. Herryk was the one who felt the forest's call the most strongly and Calder wanted to be a warrior. Odd walked a line between the two halves of his ancestry, trying to keep them in balance, although recently he had kept to the woods rather than his den in the pride's stronghold.
"I don't think she's ever had any difficulty telling us apart, though I doubt our father can say the same. He tries though."
Odd filed away the information about Pur's sister, just in case he might need it in the future. It never hurt to know things, after all. And he could always tease Herryk about it somehow. He wasn't sure how yet, but he'd figure it out. Herryk could use some teasing, in Odd's humble opinion.
"I expect your mother had it easier with you?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:21 pm
Pur's smile faltered quite noticeably when it came to the subject about her mother. If it wasn't for the fact she was trying to be a pleasant individual right now, her lips and eyebrows would have been twitching something outwardly resentful when Odd mentioned her mother having it easier with her.
"N-no... not quite," Pur said with an uncomfortable chuckle. "It's never easy on a mother to have unwanted and hated children."
Pur dropped the topic quickly and looked away from Odd and began to stare off into space as she spoke, "So, I guess that Herryk told you about me?"
Her tone was a little less full of life, bordering on possibly lifeless as she carried on her conversation with Odd. The subject of Pur's mother always ate at her, and although she tried her best to not be obsessive about it and move onto a more pleasant topic she eventually came back to it unwillingly.
"I mean, you didn't seem very shocked that I thought you were him or that I knew his name, so he had to have told you about me, right?" She said quietly.
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 7:32 pm
Odd wasn't quite sure what was wrong with his supposition until she went on to mention that her mother had not wanted her cubs, and hated them. Odd had wondered from time to time if his mother had wanted him and his siblings at first, but she knew ways to prevent children from being born and he assumed she would have practiced them if she really hadn't wanted to bear them. He knew she didn't hate them. He couldn't imagine being hated by his mother.
"He did," Odd confirmed. "Some. I know that you have had visions of yourself with cubs you believe are his."
He still had a difficult time wrapping his mind around that, even with all the lionesses he knew who had some form of the Sight. It was probably just that no one he knew had ever been part of any of those visions before. Well, he hadn't been, and so he supposed he could relax about that. If this Pur female meant his brother any harm, he would see to it that she was stopped and controlled. He wasn't a violent lion, so he would use other means.
"It is more of a shock that you make these claims, honestly, than that you momentarily confused the two of us."
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 12:36 pm
"Oh. I see...," Pur said quietly.
Herryk had mentioned her, but more importantly what she saw and Pur wasn't sure how she felt about that. It wasn't like mentioning what was seen changed it, but at the same time she felt like talking about it at length jinxed it regardless. These visions were gifts from her father, after all, perhaps he would grow angry that she blabbered about it to others as her mother would get angry if she blabbered about anything in general. She certainly had know way of knowing.
"Imagine how I felt," Pur commented offhandedly, half-grinning mostly to herself before she noticed how her reaction may come off as, "That's not to say I haven't had visions before!"
The lithe, snowy lioness gave off a very nervous laugh as she tried to struggle for her words, "It's just that... It's only ever been family... that I saw."
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 6:45 pm
Odd watched her carefully. He wasn't sure what to make of this strange lioness with the ghostly pale coat and the visions of an unlikely future. Her manner was strange to him, and he wondered how much of that came from being an unwanted cub.
There was so much that interested him about what she had to say regarding her visions, however she didn't seem to want to talk to him about them, perhaps not even about the vision that had brought her to his brother. Still, he would not press her on the subject unless he saw a need to. On the off chance she was correct in her prediction for the future, it would not do to offend the mother of his brother's cubs too badly.
"It's all right," he said. "You don't need to try to explain it to me. I am not someone who will find it overly unusual for a person to have visions, and I know what it is to be schooled to silence."
He was not ashamed of his upbringing, but he had learned not to speak of it among the Stormborn. The warlike lions did not have a great understanding of the world of spirits. Even the way their priestesses thought of them had seemed alien to him at first, though he had learned to accept their views as well as his mother's.
"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked, referring to the slip that had brought her to his attention.
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 8:58 pm
Pur was actually quite thankful for Odd's comment. Explaining things was always very time consuming, and to be quite frank she wasn't the greatest at it. Things were what they were, and that was the way Pur preferred them to be. So, if for instance, Herryk was to think her a lunatic or some baby starved female, than so be it. She wouldn't exactly argue it with him. He didn't seem like the sort who would sway just because she tried to explain it to him anyway.
"Oh, huh?" Pur muttered, having already forgotten about her spill. She smiled brightly since most of the awkwardness was over with, "Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I took worse tumbles trying to get here."
She gave the Stormborn a cheerful laugh and shook herself out a tiny bit, some debris sticking to her was starting become a little itchy and the last thing she wanted was to flop down in front of Herryk's brother and gnaw at her fur trying to get it all out. The shake took care of the most annoying of it, thankfully.
"Do you rove the forest too? Or is it just Herryk and your mom who likes it here most? It's really peaceful, makes me feel safe," She said with another grin, looking about a bit.
She went quiet for a few moments before continuing, sincerity and hopefulness dripping from her voice, "You don't have to answer if you don't want. I know it's probably odd for me to ask about you, it's just that... While I know it's hard to accept what I came seeking Herryk out for, I know it's true in my heart. And I just... I want you all to like me."
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:09 pm
"I'm both glad and sorry to hear it," Odd said with a joking half-smile. "There are plenty of hazards in these woods, so you'll have to be more careful!"
He said this in good humor, but Odd wasn't kidding. He had grown up navigating these woods, or woods similar to them, and even so he took care in certain sections of the forest. There were places here that belonged to the spirits and which he knew better than to disturb. He could only hope Pur managed to avoid them, too. It would be a shame, he thought, to see her white pelt torn and bloody.
"I do not spend as much time here as my brother Herryk and our mother, but more than our brother Calder. Still, I have a home here that is my own, and when I do not wish to live among the Stormborn, I dwell there. I wouldn't say I rove the forest though." He grinned.
His grin faded when she returned to the subject of why she'd sought Herryk out. "You are more likely to be judged on your merits in this place and this pride than you would be in most other places. Don't worry too much."
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:01 am
"Merits?" Pur questioned thoughtfully. What were merits? Did she have any merits? She only hoped she did, otherwise it seemed like she would not be liked by this pride and his family. Should she ask him what merits were? No, no... Than it would seem like she was stupid, and Pur was not stupid... just not learned.
"How did you get up into that tree?" Pur asked, moving from her spot on the ground to the base of the tree Odd was currently in. She stretched against it and tried to dig her claws into the tree and push herself up, but it didn't work. She simply slid back down, her fluffy white bottom hitting forest floor with a light thud.
"I've never climbed a tree before."
She was almost like a child at times. Perhaps it was because her childhood was not that of a normal child's. Because her's was filled with pain and fear.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 5:39 am
"Mm. The good things about you. What you can do, the things that make you who you are. That's more important to the Stormborn than where you're from or your personal history. Though ancestors are pretty important to those who are born into the pride."
He shrugged. "For instance, Herryk and I are sons of the warlord, even if we're bastards - viking born, if you want to use the pride term - and that means a little. But what means more is what we do. Mostly we're dismissed and discounted by the pride because we have done little to distinguish ourselves since being born."
Explaining the intricacies of Stormborn hierarchies and politics was beyond him. He didn't have any sort of instinctive sense for these things anyway. If she wanted to know more, she would have to talk to Herryk about it. Not that he expected Herryk to do a very good job of explaining. He didn't care much for the pride. It was good that she had changed the subject.
"I climbed a different tree and made my way through the treetops. It wasn't that difficult. The trees here are so dense it's pretty easy to stay aloft once you get up. I've been told leopards hunt from trees," he added as an afterthought.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:20 pm
"Leopards are also very mean," She said with a matter-of-fact type nod. This, of course, would be from only her experiences with them in the Rogue Land and the fact she is a woman. Had she been a man, she might have said something different, but she was what she was and sometimes male leopards were not so picky. It led to some interesting, if not terrifying, experiences for the poor girl.
"Where is this tree?" She asked, wanting to see if she herself could climb the trees like Herryk and Odd seemed able to do. "I want to try. Hopefully I am not a slippery-paws."
She gave Odd a cheesy little grin, adding, "I've spent my life on the ground looking up at the sky. I want to see how close I can get to the stars."
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