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 Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 1:08 pm
If he never met another bird in his life, it would be too soon. Rosko had a feeling this was going to be a troublesome evening, and his intuition didn't let him down. It should have been a quick to-and-from trip to the water source he'd hunkered down by (a modest stream not sure to sustain him for long, but good enough for now). Instead, he had found himself caught up in an interrogation by unwanted company.
He had no plans to ask the bird for her name. The Bird was self-explanatory. She was smart enough to keep to the trees after even the ever-collected Rosko had enough and swiped at her. Who nipped at someone's tail like that?
"Nothing like a lion tail," The Bird scoffed. "No fluff at the end and too much fluff everywhere else."
Rosko kept walking. He was pacing in circles in the hopes she'd get bored and flutter off to bother someone elsewhere. Climbing trees came easy to him, but avoiding him came easier to her. Not worth the effort. His only choices were to leave or wait it out.
"What did you say your father was?" The Bird asked.
"A lion," Rosko replied, "and my mother was a leopard."
"Where I'm from, they'd kill a thing like you." Ariza fluffed her feathers up, agitated. "Your parents are awful to bring a thing like you in the world, poor dear. Where are they? I'd like to give them a word or two!"
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Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 6:13 pm
Once close, she lay in wait, watching what appeared to be a very fluffy lion... was it a lion? Well, she thought it was, until she heard the creature admit his mother had been a leopard. Just like her! She was so fascinated by this stolen information it took her a moment to realize that the creature talking to this leopon, this other hybrid, was a bird.
Birds were so much fun to stalk, however they had the nasty habit of clinging to the trees, just out of reach. It also did not help, not at all, that Thalia was terrified of climbing. Never the less, she was too bored not to do something. Eavesdropping was fine, but the leopon looked absolutely irate at the bird and Thalia figured their conversation would end soon and then what? She'd be even more bored.
So, with courage that came from having no sense of danger or personal space, the leopon female made herself known to the other two, a big grin on her maw as she jumped into the scene. Her form was a bit bulkier than a regular leopard and her fur was extremely fluffy-- lovely traits she had inherited from her father.
"Helloooo!" She called, looking excited.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 6:48 am
The first time Rosko met someone usually felt like the second. Part of the reason he kept to himself. Better to avoid having to ask "Do I know you?" and offending someone. This time was different, though. The boisterous greeting could have been encouraged by familiarity except, without a doubt, Rosko would have remembered meeting his own kind.
Or was it kinds?
"Hello," he said, best described as polite. Enthusiasm tended to get filtered through his sense of modesty and this was how it sounded by time it reached anyone's ears. "You might want to--"
"Another one!" The Bird squawked in awe. "Is there a pride of you around here?"
You might want to come back another time was what he was going to say, but too late now. A more selfish individual would have tried to bait The Bird into hassling this stranger and make a quick escape. Alas, Rosko was too considerate. "Don't mind it," he said.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 8:42 am
A mischievous glint appeared in her eyes as she turned turned her head to glance sideways at the bird before the glint disappeared and she offered the small thing a huge grin, "Yes! I heard you talking and wanted to investigate! I've only ever seen my sisters, never a male before." She explained, glancing between the bird and the other hybrid. All the while she wondered if she could get the bird down off the tree long enough for Thalia to catch it and toy with it in her paws. But, she showed no signs of her thoughts on her face.
"I'm Thalia, by the way! It's so nice meeting another leopard lion mix." She said excitedly to Rosko, scampering a bit closer and quickly circling him, noticing the similarities in their overall composite. She couldn't help but find amusement at his having a mane though. If not for that tail he would look just like a lightly shorter lion.
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:57 pm
This was a peppy hybrid if he'd ever seen one. Rosko thought of his own siblings, an enjoyable enough brood, but full of personalities apt to bemoan their heritage and others destined to be bitter. He had sisters and brothers both; therefore, a female counterpart had not seemed like such a wondrous thing in the past. But when he thought about him being the first of his kind she had seen... Did his mane look okay?
"Rosko," he provided, and glued his eyes to the bird. Thalia showed no signs of ill-temper toward the thing. That kind of patience was commendable and, in his opinion, more of a rarity than her dual-species.
He supposed he couldn't blame her for circling him like a vulture, but it was mighty uncomfortable.
"There are more than you'd think."
He had six siblings. How many cubs must they have had by now?
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:16 pm
Thalia stopped circling him after getting one good look at him and placed herself in front of him with a pleasant expression. "So very nice to meet you Rosko!" She said once she'd caught his name, though as she caught his eyes on the bird, she too turned to eye it curiously. If only it would come down, she thought with slight amusement, but quickly turned her sights back on the male hybrid.
"Really? I've only met my sisters, and I guess you now too. I figured there were others, but never met them. I also heard there are leopard-cheetah ones and cheetah-lion ones! But I don't think I've ever seen any of them." She said, looking thoughtful as she appeared to search through her memories to see if perhaps she had, but maybe had mistaken them for something else?
She then focused back on Rosko. If not for his tail, she might mistake him as just a lion, it was such a subtle difference. Even her, she realized, could nearly pass as a lion, if not for her build and her tail. She assumed the fluff was not a trait inherited by being half leopard, but simply because her father was a rather fluffy thing.
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 6:44 pm
Leopard and cheetah, hm? Rosko tried to picture such a thing. Long legs, probably; lithe bodies he suspected. He couldn't remember a time he'd so much as said hello to the fastest predator around. Far be it by him to know they were seducing leopards now.
From above them, he heard a squawking "Even the cheetahs?"
Rosko took a moment to size up Thalia. She was either bigger than his sisters or graced with more fur. Either way, she appeared, to him, capable of climbing a tree. "How do you feel about eating birds?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:21 pm
She nodded at his, and the birds, seeming surprised about cheetahs cross-breeding. "I've never seen one, but I've heard about them! In fact I'm trying to find this group of all sorts of hybrids, it's like a coalition just for those of us who aren't one species or another!" She seemed fairly excited. A cheetah had told her about it and she'd been trying to figure out where exactly they were located, but so far her poor sense of direction was getting in the way.
At the mentioning of eating birds, Thalia perked up even more (if it's even possible) and then looked up, "Oh yes, bird is soooo delicious." She said with a sweet tone as she smiled pleasantly at the creature perched high above them. It was hard to tell if she was teasing or serious. But then she eyed the tree the bird was hiding in and shifted her weight around a moment, "But it's so... high up... perched in that tree like that." It appeared the act of climbing was not one her Thalia's favorite things to do.
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:07 pm
Rosko was as lion-like as he looked. The inhabitants of his homeland almost wholly favored the species. Being raised by his lion relatives with no leopards in sight, he was a product of his upbringing indeed, and hence didn't find Thalia's aversion to the tree anything to gawk at. He snorted, sprang forward, clung to the bark, and began to climb.
The Bird was agitated, but not threatened. She jumped to another branch and fluttered her wings. "A leopard would be faster!"
For the time being, Rosko ceased his attempts. But he stayed where he was, just in case opportunity presented itself. Stretched out on the branch, he looked down at her. His tail swayed very leopard-like. "A coalition? Where did you hear about that?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:49 pm
The hybrid watched with amusement as the male attempted to climb up the tree, the bird easily fluttering to another branch and spitting a little insult. She couldn't help but chuckle, the bird has spunk, that was for sure. Even so, she stayed firmly planted on the ground. No matter how her leopard mother had tried to show her that climbing was okay and good, Thalia could never get the hang of it, plus the few times they got her into a tree, the height had terrified her to no end.
Her ears flickered as he replied to her talk of the hybrid coalition. She grinned happily, "I ran into this cheetah who was adopted by this hybrid and she told me about this group of hybrids who were starting a coalition and taking in any hybrids who wanted a home. They even have pure blooded felines who are willing to surrogate for the infertile hybrids and produce hybrid offspring."
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Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:12 am
Rosko had always been the astute sort. He remained ready to spring at any chance to take down their antagonizer, all the while concentrating on Thalia's every word. And there were many. Where as he tended to keep it short and sweet, his new friend made three sentences seem like one. She spared no detail. He almost envied her willingness to divulge so much so easily.
Infertile?
Rosko fluffed up his fur and gave a little shiver, as if he had to shake the word out of the part of his brain vocabulary resided. He'd heard it but once; about a lioness, not a hybrid. What a peculiar subject to spotlight, at least in the opinion of someone uninformed of the ongoing dilemma his kind (kinds?) had. He'd never thought about having cubs, let alone if he could.
"Why didn't the cheetah bring you with her?"
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