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 Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:25 pm
Why was everything always going wrong? Why? She stomped her feet and stared down into the muddy hole she had just pulled herself out of. Clay caked her sides and her legs, some of it smudged her face. She had been hunting and had lost her mind apparently, trying to dodge a muddle bog hole and had only succeeded in falling in and losing her prey. And her dinner.
She sighed, glaring into the muddy hole and growling at it. Curses. That was the like... billionth rabbit today. She was starving. She was covered in crud and she was angry at herself for failing so miserably at killing things. She sighed again, rather heavily this time and began to shake off the heavy nasty filthy clay.
"Ugh. I hate hunting." She muttered quietly to herself
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:50 pm
Maktaba wondered about his children, and how they were doing. He wondered about the friends he had made, and the cubs he had helped train and had watched grown over his life. He wondered about one lioness in particular, though he hadn't seen her in some time now.
He wondered how his life had changed so much.
Now he was without his female friend, or his cubs. They were adults now, anyway, and his friend had moved on. They were still close, but not together, as it were. He was alone again, wandering and gathering all the wisdom he could, learning about anything that he encountered. Or from anyone that would teach him. More often than not, though, he stopped to offer wisdom to others.
He stopped when he saw the lioness in the mud.
"Are you alright, dear?" he asked softly, his tone friendly and without any edges. He tilted his head, wondering why she was splashing mud on herself, and interested in the reason. Sometimes he jumped to the strange reasons, rather than considering what might be obvious and simple.
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:55 pm
She hadn't noticed the stranger approaching, as she was too busy wondering why mud felt so stupid in between her toes. She had started to try to scrape off some of the thick crud from her front lets, when a voice made her head jerk upwards. Her ears twisted forward and bits of dirt flung off them, scattering onto her shoulders. Now she looked like an idiot; didn't she? She looked down at her paws, at the mud puddle, the direction of her escaped prey and then back up at the stranger. "I am.. I am alright yes." She had to think about it... she hadn't really noted any injury... Just mud.
She sat down and looked irritated. "I was hunting. I wasn't paying attention and ran straight into this puddle.. like an idiot." She grumbled and looked very irritated with herself and her inability to... do anything these days. "I have been trying to improve my abilities to hunt.. but... I keep getting... left in the mud."
She lifted her paws to show him the evidence.
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:38 pm
Maktaba regarded her with interest for a long moment, then chuckled at her explanation. He understood the frustrations of hunting. He wasn't the best at it, after all.
He was much more interested in learning and exploring than he was hunting and fighting. So he was not the most physical lion around. That suited him just fine.
Knowledge didn't require many muscles.
"I've done that, I know how it feels. It often makes me feel like a fool, running myself into a tree or a ditch, but when we're hunting we can hardly see anything but the prey. Particularly when they're fast. Were you hunting something small?" He smiled, at least able to guess what had happened and doing his best to make it seem less embarrassing than she obviously felt it was.
He padded closer to her, stepping in the mud and pausing, looking down at it.
"Ah, yes, I see what you mean. A point well made."
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:20 am
She sat there and looked rather grumpy at herself, her paws still caked and stupidly heavy. She sighed, sort of giving a half hearted shrug. "It was a rabbit... I am a wuss about killing anything bigger than that by myself... chances of getting hurt 'n all." She didn't really look large enough herself to take down a large prey beast. "I am used to hunting with my family.. but we have parted ways... and now I find I am inadequate for this... large hunger life."
She began to pick the drying mud off her paws with a look of disgust. "I mean when I was with my sister I could easily get the job done and have a full stomach.... Taking a nap... anything but running around with my tongue hanging out and my head pounding... in disappoint or the heat." She sighed. "I just wasn't made for this."
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:33 am
Maktaba regarded her once more and nodded his head.
"I know what you mean. As I said, it's not my forte, either. But maybe we can figure out a better method for you. We're not too incapable, I don't think, perhaps we're just going about things with the wrong thoughts in our heads."
He watched her, eager and happy to help her if he could. He smiled at her warmly and chuckled as he padded closer so he could clean his mud off as well. He obviously had far less on his paws than she did.
"Maybe we'll find some water first, as well. I don't think I can see you under all that. I'd like to know who I'm talking to, really. My name is Maktaba, on that note."
He was easy going and free with his offers of help and advice, even when other lions were not so keen on accepting them. He was just trying to help, and it was in his blood to train and guide. maybe he should try harder to fight those instincts a bit better, but he didn't.
They gave him meaning.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:46 am
She looked skeptical at his words. She felt pretty damn incapable of doing this on her own. She was a damned adult. She should be able to do this.. she had to do this or she was going to have to find another way to feed herself. Maybe she was just getting down on herself. She wasn't sure. She sighed. "Unless I can simply ask the animal to stand and let me dispatch them than I don't know what to do." She said quietly.
"Would be nice to get this off my legs. I feel like I weigh 20 more pounds." She sort of chuckled at that. "I am Nazgul." She added, realizing that she hadn't introduced herself properly like she should have. "I really appreciate the help... I figure I should get an idea of how things should work in life. Like... running and eating." She laughed.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:04 am
"Well, we'll come up with something. Have you tried traps? It takes a bit longer, from what I've seen, but it also cuts down on the physical assertion that hunting can take. It's more like... ah... herding, that way, but it may be a better alternative?"
He smiled at her, understanding she was tired and upset.
Guiding her, he led her to some water he had heard nearby, letting her walk slowly if she felt like it. Or was incapable of moving too fast with all that gunk on her legs. It looked cumbersome, to say the least. He padded to the water and dipped his paws in one at a time, getting off the lingering clumps of mud on himself without much effort.
"It's nice to meet you, Nazgul," he said, looking at her again. "I'm afraid I might not be the greatest source on learning about life." He laughed and shook his head. He wasn't the best at practical things, either.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:14 am
She looked down at her paws for a moment at the mention of traps, before keeping a good pace with him as he lead towards the water. "Traps... I suppose that would work." She hadn't really thought like that before. Perhaps it was a very good idea. Unless she was a total failure at that.
She looked relieved upon seeing the water. By now her legs were so heavily caked with the dried hard mud; that it felt like her legs were made of rock. She stepped to the waters edge, took a good look around at the waters surface for any danger, and stuck her front legs in and began to swash off her legs with a smile on her face. It was a relief to get it off. And lo and behold, the mud washed away from her legs and her face and soon, it was obvious that she was almost just a muddy colored lioness of sorts. Except for the few marks on her cheek. "It's alright. I figure life is about learning new things..."
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:30 am
Maktaba was surprised to see she was actually similarly colored to the mud, which made him wonder how much of it had been mud and how much had been her fur without him knowing any better. He pondered this for a moment before deciding it was not important.
He was glad to see her cleaned up, at any rate.
"That must be much more comfortable for you," he said with a nod, imagining she was thinking just that. He did not particularly like being dirty, after all, and often projected those feelings to others in some sort of unwilling kinship on their end. Particularly if he was wrong.
He sat down, taking a breath and turning things about in his head.
"Alright, then. If you'd like, I could help you make a trap before I get back on my way? We'll see if we can successfully hunt something that way. I'd like to help you, make things easier on yourself."
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:32 am
She sighed in content at her newly and freshly washed paws. She sat back, her paws sopping and her fur much cleaner than it had been when they first met. She smiled over at him and held up a paw. "Much much better." She nodded her head and looked very pleased.
"Yes.. much more comfortable. I don't know how anyone can live in that land thats all swamp... Mud in your toes all the time... ugh." She made a face and chuckled. "And I would appreciate some help making a trap. Just so that I can perhaps be a bit more successful." She stood up. "So what do you suggest for a trap?
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:17 pm
Maktaba shook his head.
"Swamps are fascinating, but certainly not some place I would like to live. Perhaps study, but the buzzing bugs and the constant mess are quiet unwelcoming to me. there is always a heaviness in the air, as well, which is oppressive and makes me feel slow."
He had visited many places in his travels, but he had not really settled anywhere at all. He was still trying to find a place to call home. He didn't realize that it wasn't a some thing or a some place he was looking for.
"Well, I think if you use vines or holes you can have equal chances for success. One trap I've seen is to dig a pit and cover it, perhaps lining the bottom with something sharp, or just deep enough to catch what you want and kill it yourself. The other was a trick with a vine, where the prey trips the vine and becomes entangled. Either way, they are slowed and stopped, and your meal is easier to catch."
He had seen them in practice, but hadn't made them himself. He was not a great hunter, but he was passable enough to do things the old fashioned way.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:30 pm
She made a face and nodded. "I hate mud." She said simply, though that was pretty obvious wasn't it? She could only imagine the sound of the bugs and the smell and just.. everything about it. She could barely stand to walk across mud. "Blech."
She sat and tried to decide which would be the best bet. "I think the vine would be easier on my own. A pit would be nice but.. when I am on my own I will have to keep redigging it over and over... I think the vine would be easier in the long run." She thought about it for a moment more. "yeah... I like the vine."
She started to go back towards the greenery and searching for some vines...
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:41 pm
"Yes, pits are better for if you live in one place, and can herd beasts into it without much trouble. It is convenient for staying in one place, but I suppose traveling makes them even more trouble than just hunting."
He pondered that, as if he hadn't thought of it before. He nodded his head, thinking it sounded reasonable.
He moved with her as she started walking, hopping to catch up as she walked along.
"Alright, vine it is. I think it's just a matter of finding some strong enough, then finding something to run into it. If you give it a good scare, it'll be too busy running away and it would not, theoretically, see the vine until it tripped. You don't have to use fine, you could use any sort of thing that's similar. Or you could come up with a trap that suits your style as well."
He smiled at her. It might be beneficial, since she hadn't thought of traps before but now that she had it might be something to work with.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:51 pm
She started to ruffle through the trees and bushes, looking intently for a vine that would suffice. She dug around on the ground and looking in the trees; simply nodding at his words. A vine trap was a grand idea in the long run. Until she knew where she was going to be living permanently. She finally came upright with a pretty long vine, that was amazingly perfect for the job.
She wrapped it around her shoulders and trotted back to him. "A vine like this?" She threw her chest out to emphasize her find.
"So we just..." She sat down and got ready to figure out how to make it a trap
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