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 Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:00 pm
"Shut up or I'll do the same for you." He grinned nastily. "But since you're smaller, you probably won't survive."
Before the cub could decide to do something stupid which would force him to do something infanticidal, he warned her, "It's all one to me. I'm really only interested in your mother. You're much too young to be of any use to anyone for several seasons."
He bent down to examine the unconscious lioness without a hint of concern for his well being. To his mind, a single angry cub did not constitute a significant threat. Hells. Such a cub did not constitute a threat of any kind.
"You can run now."
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:23 pm
Meera reached out and - without any sort of self-preservation - batted the lion on his arm. It was likely akin to being swatted with a feather - but a bold, brash move for Meera to have made, regardless of the effect.
And then she started screeching as loud as her little body could handle.
"I'm not running! Get away from my mama! Get away! You hurt her, she didn't even do anything!"
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:28 pm
Tahti had been sound asleep when she heard all the commotion. She raised her head, blinking in confusion. Mama and Meera were gone, but she could hear Meera shouting a little ways away. Half-stumbling from sleep, Tahti rose and made her way towards the sound of Meera's voice.
Peering through the brush, Tahti's eyes went wide as she saw Meera defending the prone body of their mother from a monstrously large lion. "Mama! Meera!" Tahti cried out in shock, unable to stop herself.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:41 pm
Vol growled at the cub's attack, but it was more an expression of irritation than anything else. He was trying to decide the best angle from which to pick the lioness up to carry her home. With a grunt he shifted Ghazaala's unconscious form and made ready to pick her up, saying to Meera, "Fine."
"She'll live," he said bluntly a few moments later. The implication in his tone was that Meera probably would not if she continued to annoy him. He had decided that he did not want the cubs. This one was much louder and more annoying than she had seemed while mostly asleep.
Another piping voice was added to the screeching of the first cub. Clearly there had been more than one of them. Vol swore under his breath. "Stormlords' balls."
His next vocalization was a full-out roar.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:57 pm
Meera heard her sister call out and wibbled between running to meet Tahti or staying next to their mother. In the end, Meera kept close to her mother, making worried gestures with her paws - or spinning idle circles as she watched the big, dark lion manhandle her mother.
"Tahti, he hit mama and she fell, and now he's --"
She was abruptly silenced by his roar. A meek girl, Meera had never enjoyed confrontation or playtimes. The roar had her running - back to her sister, where she nearly broke into tears.
"If he takes her, we have to follow."
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 3:28 pm
The strange lion hit mama!
Tahti was horrified. She hadn't seen much in her young life, and she had never imagined that danger could come upon them so suddenly and terribly. Nothing had prepared her for this.
Too stunned to cry at the roar, Tahti cringed. She leaned into Meera when her sister came running back. She didn't want to follow that horrible dark lion that appeared to be trying to steal their mama, but Meera was right. They couldn't let him take their mother! "Okay," she said finally, blinking back tears. "We have to help her."
She crept forward anxiously, trying to get a better look at just what the lion was doing now.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 6:30 pm
Oh thank goodness that had worked. Vol wasn't any sort of flower-blooded lion who wouldn't hurt a person just because they were female or just because they were cubs or just because they were female cubs, but that didn't mean he really enjoyed hurting things that fell into those categories. There was no honor to be found in doing so.
He had a grip that worked, though it did break the skin just a little above the bottom joint of one of the lioness's forelimbs. Working from there he heaved the lioness into the air a bit and shuffled beneath her. What followed were a series of minute adjustments to get her sprawled across his back in such a way that she would not slump off the moment he took a step.
"Right then," he muttered. The cubs had been scared off and he wasn't in any sort of mood to hunt them down. Especially now that he was burdened with their mother, who was no lightweight while unconscious.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 7:18 pm
The very instant that the big lion was up and moving with his cargo, Meera was wobbling after him. She paused for a moment to shoot a glance over her shoulder towards Tahti - but Meera would not wait forever. Where her mother was dragged, Meera would follow.
Slowly.
Sobbing all the while.
"Where are you taking my mama?" Choke, sniffle.
"Why did you hit my mama?" More sniffles, a sob.
"Why isn't she moving?" Tears, more tears.
"Did you kill my mama?" A frantic pause.
"Is she dead?" A blatant, sobbing, tearful wail.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 7:26 pm
Tahti joined her sister, sniffling to herself. She was more quiet than Meera, still lost in shock. She couldn't comprehend the magnitude of this disaster, and hardly thought at all of the sisters left behind her.
When Meera wailed that their mama was dead, Tahti joined her with a heartfelt cry. She couldn't stand thinking about their mama dead.
"You put her down. You put her down and go away," Tahti said, her voice trembling. "You put our mama down!"
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 7:34 pm
"Stormlords' balls," Vol muttered when he realized that he was now the drum major for a parade of weeping cubs. "I don't need this."
He was not about to give up his prize just because two little anklebiters had decided they didn't want him taking their mama, but he wasn't sure whether the lioness's net worth would increase or decrease if he just knocked the cubs out as well and dragged them along.
"She's not dead," he grumbled, rolling his eyes. "What possible use could I have for a dead lioness?"
Actually there were a lot of uses for a dead lioness, but Vol doubted that either cub would come up with a single one. He, on the other hand, could not stop himself from grinning as he imagined a few of them. They involved using sharpened bones on annoying pipsqueaks, by and large, though a personal favorite involved wrapping intestines around a person until the intestine split and covered the poor sod with whatever was getting ready to be excreted.
"Shut up, the pair of you, or I'll kill you both." Or at least knock them out and leave them behind. Which was an increasingly appealing thought.
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:35 am
Okay, good, her mama wasn't dead. She was still thrown over the big, mean lion's shoulder, but she wasn't dead. Meera certainly didn't want to die, either - and she didn't want Tahti to die - so Meera's wailing and shrieking was immediately toned down to a steady stream of sobs.
Quiet sobs, so as not to upset the monster-lion that had hit her mama.
"Don't get killed," Meera whispered to her sister, urging the other cub to keep as quiet as she could. "We just gotta follow him and wait til mama wakes up, Tahti. When mama wakes up, she'll beat him up and then we can all leave together."
Meera's voice was low and almost unintelligible through her sobs, and she picked up her pace so as not to be left behind.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 7:43 pm
Tahti also did not want to die. Their mother had always seemed huge and strong and smart. A lion that could knock her out and pick her up like a cub would probably be able to squash Tahti and Meera if he wanted to.
The cub quieted at her sister's urging, her ears wilting back against her skull. "Okay," she mumbled. "We'll follow him and be quiet."
She padded along at Meera's side, biting her tongue hard to hold in her own miserable whimpers. She hoped she and Meera were being quiet enough to escape his notice. She didn't want the huge nasty lion to get angry at them again.
"Meera, what if he's too strong for mama to beat up?" Tahti whispered.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 7:55 pm
Vol pretended that he was unaware of the pair of cubs following him like a line of ducklings. There was no way this could possibly look anything but stupid, he felt, not having much in the way of a paternal instinct. The best thing to do in instances when looking stupid was unavoidable was to ignore the entire situation. Well. Not all the time. But in this case it seemed to be the best idea.
Three thralls brought back unassisted before the sun was high in the sky. It was an impressive haul. Of course, two of those thralls were cubs, so it wasn't as though there was much glory in fighting or capturing them, but cubs made valuable thralls. Even so, he didn't intend to keep them. Let them go to someone else who felt like training them.
The whole reason Vol was out looking for a thrall this morning was because he wanted someone to tell young freeborns he wasn't available to train them in the skills necessary to a warrior. Training two cubs to be good thralls would definitely defeat the purpose of this expedition.
Though...if he kept them for a time he could use them to secure their mother's good behavior. Maybe. Soon he would be home and once he was there and his thrall was awake he would make his decision. It may be that the female was unfit to be a thrall anyway.
As they passed a familiar reaver on patrol Vol nodded and continued toward the stronghold, continuing to pretend to ignore his extra shadows, and doing his very best to ignore the stares his miniature procession was earning him.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 7:34 am
Meera had to admit, Tahti's question had her feeling all sorts of upset again. She brought up a good point, but as mere cubs, what could they do?
"I don't know," she admitted to her sister, voice trembling and low. Meera didn't want the large male overhearing their conversation - it was too likely he would spin around and clap them upside the heads, as well. "We can figure something out, probably, Tahti. Don't.. don't worry."
Meera had herself convinced that neither of them should worry - she was doing a good job of believing her own advice up until they passed by yet another large lion, one that their mother's captor seemed to recognize.
She started softly sobbing once more.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 11:33 am
Tahti wasn't so good at convincing herself not to worry. In fact, she was starting to doubt the large lion's assurances that their mother was even alive. It seemed like they had been walking forever. How far away were their sisters now? What if more of these horrible lions came for their sisters while they were sleeping?
She shrank back from the new strange lion when it passed. At least it didn't have any poor lionesses or cubs slung over its back.
Tahti began to cry again as well. "What if she never wakes up? It's been ages and ages," she said hopelessly to Meera.
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