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 Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 9:39 am
 Okay, so he probably shouldn't have been out in the rogue lands hunting for a thrall on his own when he had plans to lead a viking in the near future, but he had not gotten permission to lead that viking yet, and so he was sort of in limbo as far as that went. He was still a reaver, but he was a reaver with ambition. A reaver who would go far. Such a lion really ought to have a thrall.
He had been trailing the pretty blonde lioness for the better part of the morning at this point and had decided that she would suit him perfectly. She was attractive, but didn't seem to be particularly observant or intelligent. He didn't know what sort of personality she had, but he would find out soon enough, when he confronted her. He was hoping that she would be intelligent enough not to force him to hurt her while capturing her, because he'd rather not. Thralls were, in general, preferable when they weren't injured. Not to mention, getting injured thralls back to the pride was always a hassle, particularly when a lion was on his own.
He picked up his pace and began to circle around so that he would be in front of her and could emerge from that angle of approach.
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Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 2:32 pm
Follow the sun, the old hare had said. Just follow the sun and she'd find the watering hole. That was two days ago, though, and she still hadn't found it! Asha huffed her tuft of headfur out of her face and determinedly kept marching on. It didn't seem like that hard to do. Just keep herself facing the sun, right? Hardly! She'd followed it that day until it had set, then she had settled down to wait for it to reappear. Much to her dismay, it had appeared behind her! She had been going the wrong way all this time!
Doggedly she had turned and begun pacing towards the rising sun, altering her course as the sun lifted into the brilliant blue sky. But halfway through the day, she couldn't figure out which way to go. The sun was right above her! How was she supposed to follow it now? Tired, she'd settled down to wait, taking a little nap. When she woke, the sun had moved again so that she could follow it! Confidently she followed it until it disappeared below the horizon again.
Imagine her dismay at discovering, the very next morning, that the sun rose behind here again! At a loss for what else to do to find this rotten watering hole, she had turned around again and begun following it obediently once more. However, it was getting that time of day again when the sun was very hard to follow! She paused to squint up at it, eyes watering as she tried to figure out which direction she was supposed to go. Sighing in frustration, she lowered her eyes and sat down, wiping a paw across her damp eyes. Augh, this was going to take forever if the sun kept being so difficult!
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Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 9:51 am
"You look like you could use some guidance," Snorri said, stepping forward so that the lioness could see him. She seemed frustrated, although he wasn't quite sure why. Perhaps it was just that she was lost. He was hoping for that. The lost were very easy to lead astray.
"I could help you get to where you're going," he offered, thinking to himself that he could help her back to the Stormborn, at any rate.
So far he was keeping his voice pleasant, although he spoke with an accent that gave away his origins to anyone who knew about the Stormborn. To those who didn't know about his pride and the way they spoke when not speaking their ancestral language, it tended to make them sound more aggressive, which suited most reavers just fine. Snorri was not making an attempt to sound intimidating or aggressive. That would come later, if the lioness proved unreceptive to his offer.Talencia I am so sorry. Somehow I completely failed to realize you'd tagged this.
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:56 am
After a moment of looking startled, Asha's expression turned exasperated once more, mixed with pleading. "I'm trying to find that horrible watering hole, but it doesn't seem to want to be found!" she vented helplessly. "I was told to follow the sun, but I've been doing that for ever so long, but I never seem to get anywhere!" She gave a great sigh. "I've followed it from morning until evening two days now, and still no watering hole!" Her mournful cry was very dejected. Clearly she was at a loss of how to resolve this on her own.
"I don't suppose you could help me find water? It's been days since I had a good drink, and I'm thirsty." She sat now, took the time to arrange herself more presentably, and cast him an appealing look. "I would be very appreciative of the help, if you don't mind." Her gaze was completely guileless, besides being completely brainless as well. The danger of being a lone lioness with a strange male advancing on her was completely lost on her. To her, everyone was a friend... even if they did unfriendly things.
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 12:53 pm
Watering hole? Snorri considered the local geography and decided that the lioness was well and truly lost. There weren't really any watering holes in the immediate vicinity. Besides, if she'd been traveling for two days, she probably was pretty thoroughly lost anyway.
"I can certainly do that," Snorri answered her. "We should probably wait for your companions to join us though. Unless you're feeling faint?"
Fishing, fishing. He was not an idiot. He wanted to know if he was likely to be followed or made to fight to keep his prize. After two days, he suspected she had managed to lose any companions she might have had, too, but it would do no harm to check. And, of course, it was always good to know if he would need to carry an unconscious body back to the pride, or if she'd get there under her own power.
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 12:59 pm
"Companions?" She gave him a completely blank stare. "Wait, my companions? Goodness, I haven't had companions since I left home!" She gave him a bright smile, oblivious to his fishing. "I'm all on my own, which is why I'm so lost right now." She looked genuinely crestfallen now too. "Perhaps I should have companions. I don't seem to do so well sometimes." It wasn't that she couldn't feed herself. Her body proved that she could, as it was sleek and filled out, her fur shining with health.
"But no, I feel alright. Just thirsty." She gave the big, strong lion another sweet smile. "And a little dusty, I guess, but that'll be solved when we find water." The "we" was said with a great deal of confidence and trust. She'd follow him wherever he led, so long as he promised her the desired water.
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:08 pm
Snorri grinned. It might be mistaken for a smile by someone with a naturally cheery outlook, but the reaver was definitely not smiling. He was grinning at his good fortune.
"My mistake," he said, doing his best to banish the grin that might give away his true motivation. "A lioness on her own does run a certain risk, it is true, but I'll see to it no harm befalls you while you travel with me."
And he would, too, as long as she did what he told her to do without a fuss and made no attempt to flee. Then he might be forced to teach her a lesson. Pain was a very good teacher, he knew. Even when his parents were training him to be a skald, they were more likely to castigate him physically than verbally. It left a more lasting impression. Particularly when it left scars.
"Let's go, then," he said, setting off in the direction of the pride. He was certain she would follow him. She seemed like a trusting sort.
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:13 pm
Asha warmed at the sight of his grin. She wasn't entirely sure what she'd said that pleased him, but she was happy to have made him smile. As he called her to follow him, she bounded after him and bounced along beside. That lasted for a while, but then she glanced at the sun, frowning faintly. "Hmm. We are going to a different waterhole? We aren't following the sun anymore," she commented, her brow only slightly furrowed. She was struggling to understand, though distrust didn't even enter into the equation. "Maybe you know of a better place?" she asked hopefully, peering up at him with a bright, open expression.
Really, she was so glad he'd appeared when he had. What would she have done without his help? Probably continued to wander after that stupid sun, getting more and more thirsty! "Thank you so much for helping me," she spontaneously spoke up, beaming up at him. "You are a good friend."
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:41 pm
"Yes," he said. "I'm taking you somewhere where you can drink water that comes from melted ice, and it's so cold your teeth actually feel it."
He barely managed not to snort when she called him a good friend. He was a good friend, actually, to those lions he considered his friends, but he would never consider a thrall a friend, and this lioness was nothing but a future thrall as far as he was concerned. No friend material there.
"This is little enough. You can't have had many good friends where you come from. Where is that, by the way? You don't look like you're from anywhere nearby."
He set an unhurried pace, seeing no need to rush this. She was going along with him willingly and the longer he kept her walking, the more thirsty she would become, so that if she did decide it was necessary to flee later when he told her the news about her being his thrall, she'd be weaker.
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:50 pm
"A good friend is one who is willing to help," she intoned, almost like it was something she'd been told many times, perhaps as a cub. "I've met many helpful creatures," she added with a serene nod. "It's wonderful how even strangers can help each other as friends." Her light-hearted babble showed that she wasn't at all suspicious of him choosing a different place to take her, not one bit.
She gave him a sideways glance when asked where she was from, and then actually did scan the horizon, as if trying to locate where she grew up. "Um," she said slowly, gaze looking left, then right, then left, then back over her shoulder. "Um..." Really. Asking an already lioness where she was from? Truly unfair. With slumped shoulders and folded ears, she answered miserably, "I don't know. I've been wandering for a long time now."
Her downcast expression didn't last long though. "Oh, but the wonderful things I've gotten to see!" Her eyes turned all starry as she gazed at the imagined wonders. "Leopards in trees so tall, I couldn't see the tops! Monkeys making the loudest and most astonishing sounds! Whole fields of flowers more colorful than rainbows!" She took a gasp of air, clearly entranced with all of this, eyes unfocused and a beaming smile on her face. "Just imagine! So I don't mind not having a home. Though sometimes...," she trailed off again, frowning faintly, "sometimes I do wish I had a home. Somewhere safe, with other lions. Somewhere I didn't have to worry about getting lost." She gave an exasperated sigh at the mention of her biggest foe... being directionally challenged.
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:13 pm
Snorri thought that her definition of friendship and his were very different, but he wasn't going to set her straight. According to her definition, he was a friend, and that made his life easier. Why complicate things? She didn't seem like she had the mental capacity to handle complications anyway. She didn't even know where she was from.
"Doesn't it get tiresome, always moving around and never really settling in somewhere?" Snorri asked. Personally, he loved to travel, but he had the pride to return to, and that made all the difference. "I mean, leopards and trees are nice, I suppose, but I'd much rather have a place to call home and my family around me."
No. He definitely did not want his family around him. They drove him absolutely batty. But he was trying to make a point here. He was hoping to persuade the lioness that she should make his home her home.
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:20 pm
"I do get tired, yes," she replied openly, clearly not quite understanding the meaning of tiresome. "I'm tired right now, actually." She breathed out a sigh, realizing in that moment just how tired she was. "You are right, having a place to call home would be nice," she continued wistfully, swishing her brown tail behind her slowly. "Somewhere safe to rest and be comfortable in." She cast him a confiding look. "Some of the places I've slept weren't comfortable at all!" she said with a lowered voice, as if it was something she'd rather not spread around.
"But I don't really want to be with my family," she concluded in a normal tone of voice. "They told me to leave and never come back. So I haven't." She gave a little sniff, clearly wounded by their words. Moments later, she forgot about her hurt feelings again, though. "Maybe if I had a new family, I might like to be with them. Because I would get to choose them. A family of friends." She beamed again, clearly pleased with this idea.
Sidetracked, she again looked up at him, this time inquiringly. "Do you have a lot of family?" she asked innocently, unaware in the extreme about his true feelings about his family.
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:31 pm
"My family's a goodly size," he said. In this his tone was more forbidding than it had previously been at any point during their acquaintance. This was not a topic he wished to pursue.
"Maybe you could stay with my pride. As long as a person is useful, there's a place for everyone here." He thought about how best to put it. "Some of us are fighters - that's what I do, mainly. Others keep track of the law and history. Some intercede with the gods on their pridemates' behalf. And others take care of the pride and make sure their needs are met."
"The way's going to get steep here," he warned her while simultaneously looking around to see if he could spot anyone on sentry duty or patrol. "We're coming into my pride's lands, and they're somewhat elevated." Understatement.
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:58 pm
For the first time, she showed some trepidation. Her steps slowed a little, and she looked worried. "I... I don't know," she turned to look up at him anxiously. "B-by myself?" Oddly enough, the ditzy lioness who feared not for her safety wandering around the roguelands now fretted about joining a pride of strangers. It was one thing to find friends in ones or twos in the roguelands, but a whole pride of lions to try and befriend... it sounded hugely daunting.
Plus, they sounded so strong and smart! Fighters, historians, those who spoke to the gods! The best she could see she would do is that last category, and even then she wasn't sure she would know what these strangers would want. "I don't know what I'd do," she whispered, scooting closer to the comforting familiarity of the male, glancing around uneasily. "What if they don't like me?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 3:23 pm
"You'd hardly by yourself. I didn't mean to suggest that at all. That would be just as bad as wandering, wouldn't it?" He was careful to keep his tone something bordering on jovial. Not too much, because there was no way he could do that without sounding forced and strange.
"I'm sure I can think of things to keep you occupied if you're worried about not having anything to do." He rolled his shoulder and shrugged as if it were no big deal. "There are a lot of lions and lionesses like you that came in with warriors who help out. We call them thralls. You'd fit right in with them, but if you're not comfortable staying with strangers, you're welcome to stay with me."
This was almost too easy. He'd walked her into the pride's lands for goodness sake. This small burst of canniness would not be nearly enough to save her at this point.
"In the unlikely event that someone doesn't like you, or says or does something you don't like to you, you can tell me and I'll make sure they don't do it again." A good freeborn looked out for his thralls.
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