Word Count: 1021
It had been days since Liana had confronted him, calming his nerves and cooling his temper, but the red-striped male was still furious. Liana had been able to soothe this hot temper, but the cool rage that coursed through him was harder to tame.
He was shaking with it, near snarling. The angry likely showed on his face, but it mattered very little. The red and white lion made his way to the outer edges of the pride. The lands filtered into a forest here. The lands around this area didn’t particularly belong to anyone as an individual, being so close to the edge.
They weren’t watched so closely either.
A snarl ripped from his throat and he slashed at a tree, the anger suddenly bubbling and become hot within him. The sharp, near serrated claws ripped through the bark along the tree. He clawed at the tree again, stripping the outer shell of bark from the side.
“That tree never hurt you,” a voice suddenly came from near him. Moyo turned on the voice, nearly swiping his claws out at the newcomer. He stopped short, attempting to control his temper. He recognized the dark-eyed male - a simple farmer, though a strong one.
“No,” he agreed with the Jordbrukare, and the other male looked at him with a curious expression.
The other’s voice was low. “Are you looking for a fight?” Verk might not be smart, but he could see the anger the advisor had. The tan lion shrugged his shoulders, watching the angry lion closely.
He didn’t expect the advisor to attack right away. Moyo lunged, claws out and fangs bared and his teeth dug right into the other male’s shoulder and the sharpness of his claws ripped down on the farmer’s arm.
He could feel the blood between his teeth and ground his jaws down once. The farmer tugged away from the pain, and only then did the angered advisor let the other go. Oh, how the taste made him hunger, but he could not act.
No, he had to reign himself back in.
The farmer watched him closely, circling around. He seemed to not feel pain at all, the tan male, and Moyo admired that in others - the lack of wincing and limping really made him pause. He could hear Liana’s voice say that the Jordbrukare was an asset to the pride.
And he was, Moyo could not lie, not until the other did something wrong. He didn’t even know this one’s name, but he knew the male on sight. They stood in a deadlock for a moment, just staring at each other. That is, until Verktygs made his attack.
It wasn’t a strong attack, despite the careful calculation. His strike landed upon Moyo’s shoulder, nearly a miss really, though he could see some blood stain the white of the male’s coat and Tygs counted it as a small victory.
Moyo snarled at the farmer. He was barely able to use his words in his anger, but battle needed no words as far as he was concerned. Words during combat - even a particularly violent spar like this one, could show far too many weaknesses.
The pair circled again, judging who would take the next attack. Verktygs ended up lunging once again, in an attempt to hit the advisor. It was a slow attack, though - a last minute choice, it seemed, and Moyo dodged with ease.
Tygs was losing blood, and his slowness was evident of that. It would take him some time to recover from this spar, and especially from the violence of it. Normally, he would only allow a spar to last a bit, and render his sparring partner to the ground with ease.
Moyo was not a small lion though, nearly as large as he was.
He took a small breath, a little slow to turn and watch Moyo again. A sharp pain blossomed on his flank, and the dark-eyed lion could only snarl in turn. He was injured on all sides now. He would be lucky if he could strike another blow before he had to concede the spar to the advisor.
He could see the determined expression on the advisor’s face though.
At least the anger had died down - by quite a lot, if he could say anything about it. It was one thing he did know - anger.
The dust-colored male huffed, stepping back, and watching for any movement. Despite Moyo’s earlier thoughts, the simple male was weakening to the state of not being able to fight much longer.
It was rather disappointing. Moyo thought the male would last longer, but there was blood dripping to the grass-covered earth below, staining it red. He took a breath, breathing in the heady scent that never failed to get his blood pumping.
He didn’t have time to move away from the next blow.
It was powerful, meant to take him down with a swiftness - meant to injure and disable, but despite the well thought out attack, Moyo was faster.
The claws still struck him, yes, but not quite hard enough to bring him down. Nay, it wasn’t quite in the right location either.
It gave Moyo time to bite down hard on the farmer’s shoulder, forcing a distressed sound from him. It took a few beats before he let go, relishing in the blood dripping into his mouth. He could feel the farmer shaking against his mouth, a sudden weakness about the both of them.
He noticed the anger had faded completely as he let the male move away from his bloody teeth. Verktygs was definitely worse off. Moyo took a deep breath. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” he said softly, almost calm save for the soft pants of the effort of battle.
Verktygs gave a small snort, taking a deep breath before tailing his sparring partner to the river that edged the pride’s land to clean his wounds. The would take time to heal for the both of them and Tygs was sure they would smart in the morning.
But, he would do it again in a heartbeat.
Moyo: 4, 4, 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 3, 3
Verk: 1, 4, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 2
Results: -3 Verk, Tie, Tie, Tie, -1 Moyo, Tie, -1 Verk, Tie, -1 Moyo, -1 Verk
Final:-5 Verk, -2 Moyo