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 Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:41 am
 Udongo's powerful jaws locked around the muzzle of the wildebeest, her claws digging into its' sides and her massive weight quickly became too much for the struggling, choking creature.
It was over in a matter of minutes. The big lioness untangled herself from her prey, and sat down beside it to try to catch her breath, her dark flanks heaving. She was pretty darn pleased with herself. This would keep their little group of three neatly fed for a good while. Not bad for an ex-nanny. Even though the wildebeest had managed to knock her over a bit, and she was sore in places, and she would probably be walking a little bit slower than usual for a while, still, it was totally worth the effort.
She wondered what the look on Aruna's face would be, and the thought briefly made her chuckle.
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:06 am
 Ruzanski and his hunt partner had been irritated, to say the least, when the herd of wildebeest they'd been stalking began to move all on their own, reacting as if they'd been induced to charge by another hunting party. As the least senior lion in their group it had fallen to Ru to see what had spooked the beasts into motion.
Ru got a lot of those assignments, and he took them without complaint. He would not always be the youngest Reaver on an outing, and it was a testament to his abilities and skill that he was asked to go viking so frequently at his young age, really, so he knew better than to complain. At least not to his companions. However, Ru liked to eat at least once a day and when he was deprived of his morning meal he could be more than a little testy.
"...limb from limb, and then I'll rip their..."
His subvocalized monologue faded into silence as the wind shifted and carried the scent of a fresh kill to him. He followed it until he was close enough to hear a lioness chuckling to herself over what was probably one of the wildebeest he'd hoped to bring down himself.
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:39 am
The black-brown lioness pulled in another deep breath and got to her feet, wincing only slightly from the aches and pangs that the wildebeest had left her with, and was about to shake herself down when she suddenly became aware of the presence of another.
She raised her ears quizzically as she took in the sight of the young, strangely-decorated black lion that stood glaring at her. He looked angry, but he was far too young to make her feel threatened in any way.
She tilted her head to the side. "Um, hello?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:04 am
"That was supposed to be my kill," Ruzanski remarked. There wasn't much emotion in his voice as he made the remark. He wasn't upset about that. He was feeling something else. It was the scent of blood in the air...It did things to Ru.
"I'm supposed to come back with something dead and edible," he said, continuing on in such a way that it wasn't quite clear whether he was speaking to the dark lioness or himself. He was doing that on purpose, partially in an attempt to keep the lioness off-balance but also to keep himself from completely losing control of whatever it was that went strange when he was at the scene of violence or in a position to perpetuate violence.
Now he looked directly at the dark-eyed lioness and said, "You could fit those qualifications."
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 1:28 pm
She tilted her head the other way when he started talking quietly to... Himself? It wasn't very hard to confuse Udongo, and right now she was definitely confused. There was something... Somehow threatening about him, too, and she couldn't wrap her head around that, either. He wasn't just smaller than herself, he wasn't even fully grown yet, his mane still just a fluffy promise of what it might one day become.
He looked up at her, and she blinked at him.
"Bring... What-where? What?" Was he actually threatening her? This little almost-grown... Udongo shook her head, trying to sort out her thoughts by force. "Um, I... I'm sorry if I... Messed something up for you...?" She offered, her head slowly returning to its' confusedly tilted position.
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:21 pm
"You're coming with me," Ru said, reaching out for her with claws bared in readiness to snag in her pelt and draw her closer.
He may not have been particularly imposing or large, especially not when one compared him to the other Stormborn lions in his party, but that didn't mean Ru wasn't dangerous at need. The lioness's apology went right over Ru's head as he allowed himself to give in to the impulses which lurked behind his green eyes, brought out at the chance of pain and violence. Usually he made a sincere and honest effort to curb the sadistic urges that rose with bloodlust, but they could come in handy from time to time, just as their mirror, the delight in his own pain, could aid him in battle, at least when they weren't a distraction.
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Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 12:59 pm
"What? Where?" Udongo's voice was rising in sheer confusion. The young lion was coming at her with bared fangs and claws, and she clumsily, belatedly tried to dodge. She probably wouldn't have been able to move out of the way even if she had been at her best condition, but as bruised as she was right now, the move really only served to hurt her worse. His claws dug into her skin and she stumbled, getting them good and hooked in her dark hide.
The pain made her gasp in surprise, but the real shock to her was that the look in the... Half-child's(!) eyes conveyed in no uncertain terms that he did mean to hurt her. She instinctively spread her legs and ducked down, digging her feet into the ground to avoid being pulled down, like she would back when rambunctious cubs used to attack her en masse.
She knew she was a big, and consequently heavy lioness. She doubted that this boy could manage to wound her in any significant way as long as he didn't get at her soft underbelly, but she still couldn't understand why he would attack her at all. "Wait, stop!" she yelled desperately, ducking her head and sleeking her ears back to protect them and her eyes. "I don't want to fight!" It went against every fiber in her body to strike back at someone so young.
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Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 12:49 pm
In his right mind Ru would have had a few difficulties with continuing to attack a female who had asked him to stop and declared that she had no wish to fight, but with each viking his qualms became fewer. His mother, wherever she was, would have been horrified at what her son had grown up to be, but Ru had stopped worrying about his mother's hypothetical opinion long ago. She had left him and his sisters, and so she had renounced all claim on him.
And besides all that, there was the little matter of his mental state being not quite normal. He took pleasure in pain, his or another's, and once he gave in to those delights there was no turning back. He would have to be stopped by an external force, such as another lion or his own exhaustion. He was not, after all, a god, to go on and on tirelessly.
"Those who will not fight are fit only to serve as Thralls," Ru said. It wasn't quite word for word what the Stormborn believed, but it wasn't a completely inaccurate paraphrasing. Even lions who chose to live as Freeborn after their askorun must first fight to earn their place. "Will you submit to that?"
It was difficult for him to make these reasonable statements when he scented blood and felt her flesh beneath the pads of his forepaw, but she would be of more use as a Thrall than a corpse. The desire to draw blood warred with his responsibility to his pride behind his eyes, and even if she swore to come quietly and submit to Thralldom, he didn't know if he would be able to rein in his bloodlust completely.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:14 am
The pain was sharp, but bearable. Udongo felt small droplets of blood run across her fur, and equally small droplets of sweat sting in the shallow claw marks. That was real. The smell of the dead wildebeest, fresh meat and spilled blood, was heavy in her nose and on her own breath. That was real, too.
The physical presence of the black young lion was also undeniably real. His claws, his bared fangs, the unbridled bloodlust in his voice. But was this really happening? Udongo pulled in a deep, slightly shaky breath and scrunched her eyes closed even tighter. Wrong question. This was obviously happening. The right question was why this was happening, why would this boy be so angry with her? Yes. That was what didn't make sense. She opened her mouth as if to ask, but while she tried to shape the words, she realised that wasn't the right question, either, and her jaws clamped shut again.
Really, this was all happening too fast and too unexpectedly for Udongo's brain to properly keep up with. The youngster had already made clear that he was upset because she had disrupted his hunt. And then what? Udongo had never heard the word "thrall" before, but she thought she understood the gist of the question. But just to be clear, she decided to pose a more "right" question:
"If I submit... To be a thrall... I don't have to fight you?"
She remained low, paws widely spaced, eyes tightly sqeezed shut and ears sleeked back to appear as unthreatening as possible, while still ready to counter any attempt to get her off balance. Physically, of course. Mentally, she was already soundly toppled over.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 11:48 am
Ru watched the lioness through eyes which were wide and too-bright, almost like he had a fever. Perhaps the strangeness that took him when blood was drawn was a sort of sickness or fever. He'd wondered from time to time, but he didn't think about it overmuch. Thinking about it could bring it on.
She was breathing shakily but deeply. Her eyes were closed and she wanted to speak, but it seemed she didn't know what she wanted to say. Ru was practically trembling with the effort of remaining still and keeping his bloodlust in check. Speaking and fighting. Mutually exclusive for Ru.
"That's more or less how it works," Ru admitted. His voice was thick with the need to do or feel harm.
"Thralls are laborers for the Stormborn. If I take you as a thrall, you will have to obey the command of any freeborn lion of the pride. Is that what you want?"
Her body language indicated that she was willing to submit, by and large, but Ru still hoped with part of his mind that she would resist. His own mind was fairly fuzzy with bloodlust. The term bloodlust was probably the best descriptor that could be applied. It came on him a great deal like lust. Having known lust now, as well, Ru was aware of how apt it was.
"If it is, come with me."
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Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 9:14 am
She wasn't, perhaps, the brightest or quickest lioness, but even Udongo could understand the threat, the vibrating, barely held back violence in the timbre of the young lion's voice. It made her mind even muddier, like her thoughts had to wade through a swamp. She wasn't scared, even though she probably should be - it was merely that she had never in her whole life encountered a situation like this one before, and she felt an immense pressure to try to think on her paws: A strenuous feat at the best of times.
She knew she didn't want to fight. Not someone so much younger than herself. She knew she wasn't opposed to hard labour - rather, she thrived on it, it was one of the few things where her big, heavy, clumsy body was actually more useful than troublesome. She knew she didn't mind being told, or ordered, what to do. She wasn't sure what a "freeborn" lion was, nor those called the "Stormborn," but hopefully they weren't all like this boy. She swallowed, opened her eyes and turned an intensive black scowl toward the earth at her paws.
"I..." But what about Aruna? She would worry... Udongo dared a quick glance up at the youngster's face, winced slightly at the sight of the feverish, glazed glow in his green eyes, swallowed again and tried anyway.
"Couldn't I just... Give you my kill instead?"
She was fully aware that bargaining was a ridiculously risky manouvre right now, but just... In case... She had to try. She braced herself for the only all too possible consequence of her boldness.
She wasn't afraid of pain. But she didn't like it.
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:08 pm
"Your...kill."
The absurdity of the suggestion was almost enough to knock Ru back into something resembling a normal thought process. At least rationality flashed through his mind momentarily as he measured the relative value of a thrall versus a wildebeest. A thrall could catch multiple wildebeest, which made the thrall more valuable, ultimately.
"No. That won't work. Come on, thrall. Let's make an end to this and get going. We've some distance to cover before we reach the other Stormborn."
His green eyes continued to glitter at the possibility of pain and blood, but he had an easier time keeping it in check now. Somewhat.
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 6:51 am
Relived that there seemed to be no more violence in the near future, but troubled at the thought of leaving Aruna without so much as an explanation, Udongo slowly straightened up and threw a concerned glance at the dead wildebeest. If it was left here, would Aruna be able to find it before the scavengers devoured it all? She hoped so. She had felt so proud at the thought of having been able to provide a hearty meal for her sister, and now she wouldn't get to see her eat it.
She heaved a small sigh and a tiny shrug, turning away from the carcass and towards the black, violent boy. At least she wouldn't have to fight a kid.
Having no idea where she was going now, or what was going to happen to her when she got there, Udongo meekly followed where the decorated young lion would lead her.
She only hoped her sister wouldn't be too terribly upset. But as she thought about it, the brown lioness' heart rose in her. She believed in her sister. Yes. Aruna would come find her, sooner or later. Surely.
And then Udongo would apologize properly.
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