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Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 5:53 pm
 Ensis looked around alertly as the small group crossed the invisible boundary that separated Stormborn lands from those which were unclaimed. It was, after all, the first time he'd left the pride's lands since he'd been accepted as a member. Now, he hoped to advance in rank and become a Reaver of that selfsame pride. It was strange, how different this present moment was from the time, several moons ago, when roaming these lands was the whole of of the white lion's life. Then he had been on his own, having left his family to pursue his goal of improving his martial skill. Now, he had won his way into the Myrsky Syntynyt by that same ability, and was one of a group, headed out to find new Thralls, food, or both. He wasn't alone. That, in and of itself, was something that he was still getting used to, even after months of being amonst the Stormborn. Sometimes he missed the privacy he'd once had, but even so, it wasn't as if he did much with it in the first place. One just liked a bit of peace and quiet to think in, that was all.
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Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 6:02 pm
Walking beside the white lion, almost like a shadow, was Yu. His step was lighter after his... Chat with the priestess Thokk. At the same time... He was determined to not die in a Viking, not before he saw the results of the ritual. Which was why he'd opted for an easy Viking this time around. Caramel-gold hair fell into his face, before he flipped it out of his eyes, then turned to the other lion. "Are you nervous? Nothing wrong if you are... Everyone is on their first Viking..." Nerves made one more aware, more tuned in to the world around them. If anything moved, a nervous lion knew. If something happened, they knew. If nothing was going on, they listened intently for when something DID.
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Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 6:06 pm
Pink eyes blinked in surprise as the older lion spoke to Ensis. He hadn't expected anyone to address him, aside from issuing orders. On reflection, the white lion supposed that was a foolish expectation. If living in a pride had taught him anything thus far, it was that people talked. All the time. Except for when it was absolutely forbidden. And since they weren't actually stalking anything yet, he supposed it made some sense.
Some.
"No, I'm not nervous," the green-maned lion answered slowly. "Just...observing how different it is to be a part of a group, as opposed to a lone rogue." It seemed a somewhat brusque response, he reflected in the silence afterwards, and Ensis felt compelled to continue the conversation, somehow.
"You've been on many Vikings?"
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Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 7:19 pm
The older male chuckled, smiling. "Just saying, no shame in it..." He turned his eyes back to the group as they traveled, lapsing into silence a moment before he answered again. "I don't miss being a rogue out on my own... It's lonely. If you don't talk to anyone, you begin to lose your mind... Or talking to your dinner, holding conversations until you get to know it and can't bear to eat it... And then you starve." Perhaps he spoke from experience, perhaps not...
"I've been on a few... But since my nephew's been away, I've been going on fewer... Keeps my sister in line if I'm around." He worried about Susu... And the sort of things she could do. She still wasn't happy that Munyu was gone on a Viking, and it felt like the band had been gone for a long time.
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Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 7:26 pm
Ensis made a face. He wasn't nervous. He knew these lands well enough...though things were subject to change in the rogue lands, much more so than in a pride's territory. There was no way at all that the white lion could conceivably be nervous!
Then again...he hadn't been part of a group like this before. No one had relied on him to do his part, to be in his place. He didn't want to let them down.
Did that count as being nervous? If it did, he sure as hell wasn't going to admit it out loud!
"What does your nephew have to do with keeping your sister in line?" Ensis asked, redirecting his thoughts back to Yu's conversation. It was a valid question. He understood about having siblings - he had a few of his own, somewhere - but he wasn't sure how the nephew figured into this. And since the dark lion seemed to want to talk, he might as well satisfy the lighter male's curiosity...right?
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Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 7:56 pm
Yu grimaced. "I suspect that Susu... LIBERATED Munyu from another lioness's paws, as it were... I'm afraid of her doing that again in his absence." Though from the looks of it, she was pregnant... Which meant she wouldn't be stealing ANY cubs. Thank the gods.. "So tell me something... Do you have family out here somewhere? So I know not to try and catch them if I find them..." He didn't want his OWN family captured and enslaved, after all. Why would he do that to someone else's? A part of Yu felt sorry for the Thralls. A rather large part... Even the one he'd managed to drag in... She couldn't help the sins of her relatives, after all...
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Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 8:01 pm
Ensis blinked at the explanation he was given. If anything, he was even more confused. Was Munyu the nephew? Or was it Susu? Or Munyu someone else entirely? It probably didn't matter, unless if the white lion met up with any of these people. Which, he had to admit, was likely, being part of the pride and all. But he'd worry about that when or if it happened.
"Somewhere," he answered, rolling his shoulders in a shrug as they walked. He honestly couldn't say where any of his siblings or either of his parents roamed. They hadn't exactly stayed in one place when he was young, and only the gods truly knew where they were at this moment?
"I don't think they're near here, but I couldn't say for certain," the younger lion added.
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Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 8:39 pm
Yu noticed the confusion in Ensis' eyes. "Ah, I'm sorry..." He smiled sheepishly. "I'm used to lions knowing who I'm talking about in the pride. Susu is my half-sister through a shared father. She's the white priestess with the black tail tip and purple and blue marks on her legs. Tends to come off as creepy... Munyu was a cub she brought into the pride as her own, all white, black mane and tail, purple eyes... He's rather big to be a cub now, though..."
The black lion patiently listened to the other's words, inclining his head a little. "Then we may not run into them at all... I'll just make sure to note every Thrall brought in, I suppose..." They needed a new subject. "So... Enjoying being in a pride...?"
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Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 8:49 pm
"I see..." Ensis wasn't actually sure how to respond to the outflow of information in response to his expression, and so sutck to a neutral pair of words. He supposed he hadn't really spent a lot of time getting to know anyone in the pride, and thus was unaware that his face tended to give away what he thought. It was simply...strange...to have someone answer queries unspoken simply because he had made a face. Not that he wasn't relieved to have an explanation of sorts, but it was still a bit disconcerting.
He also wasn't sure how to react to Yu's concern for the potentiality of Ensis' family being taken as Thralls. He supposed he shouldn't want that to happen to them...but the white lion simply couldn't imagine such a thing happening.
Not that this new subject was helping to get things moving or convincing the white lion to talk more.
"It is different," he answered. The simplest, most concise and truest answer he could give. Indeed, being in a pride was so totally unlike being a rogue that the younger lion could barely conceive of how the two lives could be related, let alone verbalize them.
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Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 6:48 pm
"Oh? Is it a good different, or a bad different?" The black lion didn't offer many more words. He'd talked himself out, it seemed, with no further introspection available. The older male lifted his head, ears flicking as he listened, then dropped back down for the steady walk. If he'd heard anything, it wasn't what he thought it was. There was no battle charge quite yet.
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Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 6:59 pm
"I haven't determined that yet," he answered after further thought. Oh certainly he'd sought out the Myrsky Syntynyt in the hopes of becoming a better warrior through joining their ranks. And yes, he had learned a great deal in the few moons he'd been amongst them. That was quite good.
But...living in a pride was a totally different lifestyle from what he'd known before. It was hard to say whether it was good or bad, since Ensis had so very little to compare it with. Sure it frustrated him when his fellows assumed he had some knowledge of an unspoken rule of pride life, but he could begin to understand their anger as he saw the wisdom in whatever the issue was.
He learned. He got better.
"You said you were a rogue, once. How was it for you, joining a pride?" the white lion asked, turning his dilemma back on the older male.
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Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 2:56 pm
Yu closed his eyes for a moment. "Relieving and... Exciting, I guess you could say." He smiled a bit. "And a bit hectic... But mostly relieving, because I've found rather few lions related to me here. Plus the protection of a pride... And being in one place, I've finally started finding friends..." Bousvor came to mind. "But mostly relief at not being related to half the pride..." He made a face, eyes shifting away as his thoughts went to the Pridelands. Through his mother, he was related to... Half the pride. From both sides of her family, incidentally... Never mind how many lions he was likely related to through his FATHER'S side! He was very glad his younger half-siblings wouldn't have to deal with that when they started looking for mates.
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Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:00 pm
"Relatives?" Ensis found himself asking. It was a strange concept for the white lion. Oh sure, he'd grown up with parents and siblings...but that didn't seem to be what Yu or many other of their fellow pride members meant when they used that word. He knew a bit, about aunts and uncles and cousins, but sometimes it seemed to him that when people talked about being related, they used the most confusing of connections, so labyrthine that the green-maned male had no idea anymore how the two were related and had to simply smile and nod accept that it was so.
He didn't even know how a single lion could be related to half the pride. It simply made no sense to Ensis.
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Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:09 pm
Yu grimmaced. "We'll just say cousins... Lots and lots of cousins..." And distant aunts and uncles, but he'd leave that detail out.
The older lion then tilted his head, opting to draw attention off himself. "I heard someone admonishing you for not knowing something everyone assumes is common knowledge... Do you need help learning things..? I know it was a pain to learn them myself..." The skin on his rump twinged just a bit. A real pain... A VERY real pain...
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Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:13 pm
Ensis' mouth screwed up slightly. He didn't want to ask for help, that would be a sign of weakness. But here the older lion was offering his aid freely. Should he accept it? Or would that also be weakness?
There was simply so much he didn't know, even down to tiny details like this.
"I think I'd better," he sighed, bidding farewell to a few more items of self-reliance. It wasn't that he didn't want to be in the pride, he simply wasn't sure about what it was doing to his ability to survive on his own. Then again, if he didn't learn these things, they might decide the pride was better off without him...he had no real idea.
"For starters, what do you do when someone comes and sits next to you at the watering hole...? the white lion asked, having decided to take the plunge. He might as well start with the basics, after all!
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