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"Oi, Ketos, stop daydreaming!" Nesf barked impatiently at her companion.

"Wh-what?" He snapped back to reality, startled, and immediately tried to deny that he had ever left reality in the first place. "I didn't- I wasn't-!"

"Yes, you were," the sandy lioness cut him off, rolling her eyes. "We may be north of the river, but that's no excuse to slack! The Burkuteshti could have decided to circle around up here for all we know, and even if they haven't, that doesn't mean there's no one else up here who might take exception to us. So stop drifting and start paying attention!"

Thoroughly chastised, the borclu hung his head. He liked Nesf, but she could be...she could be a little stern, to put it politely. He supposed it was understandable, though, given her upbringing and recetn events. He couldn't imagine growing up in the middle of the war the way she had; the fact that it was so perfectly normal to her and the rest of the Qyrhyeshti was a little disquieting at times. "Sorry. It won't happen again."

"Good, make sure that it doesn't." Her tail lashed in irritation for a moment more before she spoke again, with less sharpness edging her voice. "Tala said there were oryx up here, so keep an eye out. A springbok would be good, but an oryx would better. We could use the bigger kill."

"Would've made it easier if Tala'd come with us," the pale-eyed lion grumbled as he surveyed the landscape. It was gravelly up here, a little scrubby, and markedly devoid of anything edible.

"Yeah, yeah, a lot of things would make this easier, including less complaining from you. Tala's got patrols to look out for, which is marginally more important than us being hungry."

"Is it?" Aniketos pointed out, "Starving to death seems just as counter-productive to survival as being killed by Burkuteshti. In fact, I'd aruge that it's probably worse, since, you know, starving to death takes time. At least if-"

"Oh, just shut up already!" the muharip snapped.

"No! I have a valid point to make, Nesf bint Adala, and you're going to hear it!"

"I know what you're going to say," she spat at the borclu who had a way of getting under her skin just so, "And it's stupid and I don't want to hear it!" In the interest of preventing him from saying anything more, she pounced at him, catching him off-guard and knocking into him from the side, hard enough to throw him off balance and take him down. She stood on his ribs, teeth bared. "I said shut up!"

"You are such a child," he wheezed. Trying to catch his breath was difficult with all the weight Nesf was deliberately pressing down on him with; she might be fairly small, but 'small' was relative when it was putting pressure on your ribcage.

"I am not," she retorted, turning up her nose flipping her forelock out of her eyes before she released him.

Aniketos snorted. "Yeah, I see that."

"What was that I said about shutting up?" She turned piercing blue eyes on him in a look that could kill, and he finally - begrudgingly - quieted down.

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