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 Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 12:48 pm
Mailuuka had been stalking her prey for what felt like hours, and as she hadn't been keeping track, too focused on the boar's scent to notice anything else, it very well may have been. All the dark lioness knew however was that she was very hungry, and had tracked the annoying creature further into the borders of grassland than she had wanted to. She still wasn't a comfortable distance away from where she had finally escaped the evil pride that had 'raised' her from the time she was kidnapped as a cub, and wariness was crawling up and down her spine like fleas.
She brushed the sensation off with a switch of her tail, reassuring herself that although not safe, she was far away from the danger of being taken back to that place. Mai stuck her nose to the ground, filling her nose with the scent of what would hopefully be dinner, to distract herself from the evil thoughts that wanted to emerge. Now wasn't the time to think about how afraid she had been, now was the time to hunt so she could fill her belly to move on.
As she sniffed along, she sunk into the bushes when she got close to her prey, purple spots and ears blending in nicely with the few sweet-smelling flowers that were on the bush, and her mind wandered somewhat as her body went into hunting mode.
A blur of black and purple was all the boar saw before it met its end at the bite of her fangs and claws. Mai sat back and licked her muzzle clean of blood, paws still resting on the boar's scruffy neck. Finally, after almost a week, she would get to have a filling meal...
Her ears perked suddenly as she heard a twig snap, her head lifting up to look around. She had only taken a few mouth fulls of the fresh meat but the sudden sound raised a panic in her. Mai had not been doing well around others since she had escaped, and every noise sent her into a momentary panic before she found out the source.
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 7:29 pm
When the red lion was hungry, he didn't get cranky or irritated or anything. He simply sought out food, be it hunting, or stealing. She also just happened to pass through his line of sight as she caught and killed her boar. On a whim, Azulon decided this was what he would eat today. Probably the boar.
He didn't hurry walking over, because Azulon was rarely ever in a hurry. He was a large lion, reflecting his firekin heritage very well. No one could ever persuade him to rush, besides, perhaps, himself. If he were in the mood. So by the time he reached the lioness and her kill, she had already taken a few beginning bites. He noted that. "Ah." Se had noticed him, but he didn't consider stepping one a twig foolish at all. It didn't really matter.
"You've caught my lunch today. Very good." His voice was something strange. Calm, cool, yet terrible all the same. "You may carry along now." He unceremoniously continued towards the boar. If she didn't move, he could shove her, no big deal.
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 11:02 pm
Kai's blood turned to ice when a smooth male voice spoke. The twig snap hadn't been nothing, it had been a very specific something. A terrifying something that still haunted her dreams, which more often than not were nightmares. It was a lion. And a big lion. A very big, very red, very unfriendly sounding lion.... And he was demanding her food.
At first she didn't move, in fact couldn't move, frozen with fear as she was. Then her gut instincts took over, ingrained from too many years of being forced to live in situations where she had to dodge punishment for crimes she hadn't committed, and offenses that were non-existant. She took two steps back from the boar, then three, then a fourth.
She didn't want to run, she needed this kill. It was hers, she'd taken it down herself, and her stomach cried out in agreement. She was hungry! The few bites hadn't been enough, not by a long shot. Mai wanted and needed the whole thing. But fear forced her to move back, to submit to the tone that the male lion was using. Words of those type had fallen on her ears too many times before, and she had grown to know better than to ignore them. To ignore was to get hurt, to comply was to avoid punishment.
Only reminding herself that she was no longer a slave to that awful pride made her stop backing off. This was her kill. Her lunch. Not his! But her voice just wouldn't come...
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:05 pm
Good, she was smart. At least, initially she was. The lioness backed away and he contently reached the boar, not really looking at it as he pulled it a bit closer to himself. He didn't sit or lay, though, and instead glanced at the lioness. Lazily, as if she were just a fly buzzing around in his peripheral vision. "If you're staying in hope of scraps, there won't be any." Azulon was a big lion, he could definitely handle eating an entire boar.
But he also knew that sometimes people were dumb. Maybe this lioness was, as well. Maybe she thought she had a chance of reclaiming her meal. Of course, as he idly scratched the skin with the claws on one of his paws, Azulon knew she didn't.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:19 pm
His red coat and red eyes frightened her, but it was mostly his tone of voice, and the way he delivered his words that left her frozen, despite the fury she felt at being stolen from. Given, for years, she'd had her kills taken from her, one after another, and only been allowed to eat after all others had taken their fill first. Sometimes she didn't get to eat at all. Those particular words made her hackles raise, quite literally. There won't be any scraps....
The fur on her back raised up in a long ridge of tufts, and her front claws extended, but still she didn't move. Mai still wasn't sure if she wanted to attempt to fight, or run away. There won't be any scraps.... His words echoed in her head, made her shudder with anger mixed in with her fear.
She was free! She had escaped! He wasn't from the old pride or else he would have recognized her, this lion was just a bad lion! And he had no right to claim her kill! If he had asked, maybe she would have shared, but... that was not what had happened. And she was not okay with this.
"No." her voice came out weak, but finally, it did come out. She wasn't sure what she was saying no to, her inability to move, her fear, the lion stealing her food. All she knew was that she must protest.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:28 pm
It was a little amusing to watch the lioness, though he didn't seem to be particularly interested in her. He didn't begin to eat yet though, or settle down. This was, after all, more interesting than eating the boar he'd taken possession of. He used a paw to pull one of it's tusks, just to let the head limply loll back onto the floor.
"What was that?" He had heard, of course. But she was weak and scared, and Azulon liked making people squirm. Or perhaps making them build up their courage. Make it look like they were going to have a great moment, then smack them down.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:23 pm
Mai watched the rogue stare at her, and she stared back. Blue eyes steady and defiant, as well as wary, and a touch worried. She didn't want to back off, and couldn't seem to make herself. But still it was hard to just stand there, so close, doing nothing. Part of her wanted to run still, but there was another part that was starting to want to fight.
"I said... I said 'No'" she repeated herself, realizing it was a little easier to find her voice the second time the denial came out. She didn't feel any more confident, but maybe, she hoped, she was on her way to getting there. "I said no. It-it's mine."
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 5:25 am
He smirked. Did she think he was the sort of lion who cared? "No. It isn't." He replied. Now Azulon did sit, but he sat tall, like a king might. "Not anymore." He kept his paws off the boar now, because he didn't need to show his possession of it. he boar was too heavy for her to grab and run off with, and if she came for it, he could simply strike.
A different lion might try to warn her, tell her to leave now. But this was Azulon, and he did not warn anyone about himself. He felt no need to point out he'd killed, and eaten, many lions before. Lions much stronger and larger than this little female. If she was smart and fled, good for her. If not... it made no difference to him.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:54 am
To her own surprise, a faint growl escaped Mai's throat as her ears swiveled to face back in anger. "Yes it is! I said it's mine! I didn't catch it for you, I caught it for me, and I'm hungry!" The outburst was very uncharactistic of her, and she didn't even know where it'd come from, but she didn't want to contain it. It felt good to fight back, even if it was only words.
Mailuuka wasn't sure she was brave enough to try and actually take this lion on. She was still underweight, still a bit malnourished from her years of deprivation as a prisoner slave to her previous pride. There was no way she was stronger than the red lion. Not by a long shot. She probably wasn't even as strong as him. There as the chance that she might be quicker, but it was unlikely. He looked fit and healthy, and she just wasn't at full strength. What's more, she wasn't rested.
So while she protested verbally, and her body was rigid with tension, the black and purple lioness made no immediate move towards the boar or the red lion. She wanted, she needed to protest, but she wasn't quite yet brave enough to risk her life over one boar. But she wanted to let this jerk know she wasn't happy with him!
"I said it's mine, leave it and go away! You can't have it!" Another growl crept up from her throat, but it was more a whine, more the plea of someone who has been beaten down too long to know how to make demands. The sound of someone too used to only begging. It was more pitiful than threatening.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:43 pm
He would have smiled, but somehow contained himself. "You want it that badly?" He asked calmly, as if she were a whining cub. Patronizing, that was normal enough for him. He looked down at the boar, then the lioness, and swished his tail. Azulon deliberately raised his paw and stepped over the carcass, standing once again. Then he moved nonchalantly towards the lioness, as if just to walk by her.
Then, quick like a snake, he whirled and used his front paws to strike the side of her head. "I will eat today. Either you, the boar, or both." He smacked at her once more. Usually an attack would be accompanied by a snarl, but Azulon's voice remained unchanged. He might as well be telling a story.
"Which one is up to you, but chose quickly." He stopped advancing towards her, and instead stood his ground, the boar a couple feet behind him. This female would either flee now, or foolishly continue to think she could recover her dead pig.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 1:14 pm
For one very breif, shiney moment, Mailuuka actually thought the lion might be retreating, that she had won her meal back simply by standing up for herself. She felt her heart soar...
Blue eyes followed the red form carefully as he began to walk by. She had won! All she needed to do was stand up for herself! The feeling of elating made her giddy, but it made her stupid. She ought to know that things weren't so simple, that more was required than trying to assert dominance after immediately giving up your prize at the first threat.
The feelings of happiness shattered instantly the moment the paws struck her head. All sense of accomplishment vanished, replaced instead by terror and the urge to flee. The first hit hadn't been that bad, she's only been moved a bit, her head jerking to the side. But the second blow was more damaging, as she felt a pain slap down on the side of her head and begin to throb once she fell to the side.
There was no blood that she could feel from her throbbing head - it was a mercy that the theif hadn't extended his claws when he easily could have. But it hurt something awful. Mai struggled to her feet, scuffling back and away from the lion in front of her who had thankfully stopped short of walking right up to her.
How could someone be so cruel and not show it on their face or in their voice?! It baffled her, and that shook her confidence even more than the violence did. This was calm, calculated violence, you didn't, you couldn't see it coming. In her old pride, she'd at least had warning when she was being threatened and about to be hurt, but this lion... the blows had come from no where, she'd thought she'd won!
Involuntarily, she could feel herself physically shaking, she was terrified. Physically, had she been smart, were she faster, she might possibly have a chance at winning. Mentally, she was no more prepared than a cub. She knew she had to run, but she didn't want to, and part of her was too afraid to, but she knew she must.
"Y-you can have the boar.... I'll go..." the quiver of her body was also in her words, and the voice speaking them came out weak as grass in a wind.
Tentatively she backed up a step, slowly, as if to make sure the lion in front of her would even let her run. He could kill her and wouldn't mind doing it... whether or not that was actually true, she was sure of it.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 7:11 pm
Just as expected. For all that building up, this lioness wasn't capable of much. In the end, Azulon couldn't blame her, of course. In her place, he would have done the same. It was the smart thing to do. "Alright." He may have said good choice, but it didn't make much of a difference to him. Lion meat, boar meat, all the same in the end. Really, if the red lion didn't have to eat to survive, he wouldn't bother.
He didn't care to watch her go, because now she just didn't matter anymore, so instead Azulon just turned back to the boar. He stooped to pick it up, then walked away, taking it to a better spot for him to eat.
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