[JRP] Cover Letter (Korfiz & Ohra)

[Princess_Feylin]

It was probably stupid, but Korfiz had always kind of really wanted to go on his first viking with the warlord. The problem with that was, of course, that Warlord Ruzski rarely left the stronghold, let alone the pride, so it was unlikely that Fiz would have that opportunity.

The next best choice would have been to go out with the lion who had trained the warlord, Voldemaras, but he no longer went on any vikings, claiming his next viking would be his last, for he intended to seek out a glorious death in battle. Korfiz knew because he had already asked and been rejected.

After those two, Korfiz didn't much care who he went out with, as long as he did it soon. He wanted to be one of those who had become a reaver before the full growth of their mane, which he thought was a mark of distinction. That meant he really had to get moving on finding a captain though.

Fortunately, he had connections. Through his sometime-friend Rikka he had access to a number of reavers and captains in her immediate and extended family. Because he didn't want to become embroiled in the nastiness brewing between her brothers Ragnvard and Ronan, he instead asked her to introduce him to one of her brothers-in-law.

She'd smirked in a way that should have worried him and suggested Ohra.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Ohra's sister-in-law had not warned him to expect a visitor, but it wouldn't have made much difference if she had. He would not have altered his plan for the day. He didn't like altering his plans once he made them. It made him a little bit anxious and restless, and although violence against his brother usually helped with that, Ohra was just as happy to skip right to the battling his brother part, no anxiety necessary.

So his plan for the day, barring unexpected interruptions from friends of his sister-in-law, was to teach himself to braid his own mane. He had recently taken it into his head that this was a skill he ought to have. Both of his sisters could, too, as well as his mother, and for that matter thralls could do it. Brummen, of course, had said his resolution was flower-blooded and womanly, but Brummen said that about just about everything. Ohra had bitten his ear and decided to ignore him.

It was a little more challenging, however, for him to ignore the young lion sitting in front of him in a posture of ill-concealed impatience. Ohra was trying to pick up one of the three long leaves that comprised his practice braid and having a difficult time of it. The youngster would have to wait until he had finished.

What if he's going to challenge me in breytast vindar? Ohra thought to himself, and then accidentally punctured a hole in one of the leaves, getting it stuck on his ********!" he exclaimed. The younger lion had startled at his sudden cry, reclaiming his attention so that his next words were "What do you want?"  

[Princess_Feylin]

While Korfiz might not have called himself easily startled, he had not expected the long silence that had stretched annoyingly between himself and the reaver to be broken by an expletive. He was not pleased with himself for jumping when it happened. Almost certainly it would not help the impression he was trying to make, namely that he would be a brave warrior who Ohra should convince his captain to take viking the next time they went out.

"What are you doing?" Korfiz blurted out.

He had never before seen anyone messing about with leaves in the way Ohra was, and asking what the reaver was doing would give him time, he hoped, to master his urge to laugh at the sight of such a large lion waving one paw around trying to dislodge the long, slender leaf that was caught on one claw.

Fiz might have offered to help, but he was unsure if that would go over particularly well. He didn't want to imply that the lion was incompetent or anything offensive like that.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Ohra glared at the younger lion, sensing the laughter behind his question. One thing Ohra particularly disliked was being laughed at. It came of being not very bright, and thus a frequent butt of laughter. He also hated when people went out of their way to pretend they thought he was smarter than he was, though, so he could be a fairly challenging lion to interact with.

"Braiding," he said shortly, feeling a little more embarrassed about his decision to learn this new skill than he had when Brummen had actually been making fun of him for it. Brummen was family, and inclined to make fun of people, but this lion was a stranger and Ohra didn't like the feeling that he might be being judged by the younger lion. His embarrassment prompted him to defensively add, "Can you do it?"

He gave the blond lion a challenging look, like braiding was a skill any lion ought to have, and if the stranger lacked it, he was the one who ought to be made fun of, and not Ohra. It was a look he'd gotten good at over the course of his life, once he'd learned that he could substitute it for speech and give the impression that he had a much better grasp of the situation than he really did.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Again, Korfiz was hard-put not to make a face when Ohra answered him. Braiding? That seemed like an unusually flowery pastime for a reaver. He began to wonder if, perhaps, Rikka had been pulling his tail in suggesting he seek out this particular reaver. Perhaps Ohra wasn't even a real reaver. Sure, he was big and muscular, but that could be said of most of the lions of the pride, particularly those with old blood, or those who claimed god parents (Fiz wasn't sure he believed their claims, despite their generally enormous physiques).

"No," he responded, startled once more, but not in such a way that he had to worry about embarrassing himself by jumping. "I don't know anything about braiding. I didn't think it was something I would need to know to be a reaver."

He was actually rather proud of his attempt to bring the conversation back around to the topic he'd originally come to discuss: the possibility of Ohra speaking for him and getting him included in a viking. It really was incredibly frustrating that his mother's family refused to acknowledge him or his siblings in any way, since there were a number of well-known and well-respected reavers and captains there and his father was, of course, absolutely useless. Generally, Fiz blamed his father for his current predicament.

"Speaking of which," he began, but was cut off by a dismissive grunt from the older lion.  

[Princess_Feylin]

"It's not," he agreed shortly.

Ohra continued to look at the young lion challengingly, as though daring him to say anything else on the subject which would cast aspersions on Ohra's decision to practice this skill which he had just admitted was unnecessary to a reaver. He also continued to struggle with the leaf spiked on his claw as the younger lion opened his mouth to say something.

"Mmf!"

Ohra had finally succeeded in pulling the leaf off of his claw, and his grunt was both an exclamation of satisfaction and frustration, as he had torn the leaf irreparably in the process. Since he had only brought the three leaves he had been told he ought to use to practice, the destruction of one third of his practice materials had effectively ruined any hope he might have had of continuing for the time being.

"Did you want something?" he demanded. He had grown tired of this interaction and needed to go find a replacement leaf, so if the blond kid had something to say to him, he'd better hurry up and say it.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Fiz almost sighed with relief when Ohra finally demanded to know why he had been sought out. Sure, he sounded impatient, which wasn't ideal, but Fiz figured he was still willing to listen, or he would have just been told to scram or get lost. That being the case, Korfiz cleared his throat and lowered his voice as much as he could in order to sound more grown-up as he stated his case.

"I would like to go viking with you and your band. I have heard people speak well of your captain and I think I would make a good addition to his band."

He paused here to give Ohra the chance to say something. Ideally, the chance to jump in and immediately offer to get Korfiz added to the band as soon as possible. It didn't look like that was going to happen, though, as the silence between them stretched longer and more uncomfortable until Fiz was certain he was going to fail to convince this lion, too.

Awkwardly, he pressed on, "I'm a good fighter and I know how to navigate, a little, and I can hunt well. I'm motivated, a hard worker. I'm also a really quick study, so if there's something I don't know that I need to know, I know I'll be able to learn it quickly."

Still, Ohra said nothing.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Oh, Ohra thought as he watched the younger lion grow increasingly uncomfortable in the silence that stretched between them. So that's what this is about.

When the blond lion broke his silence, stumbling over his words in his haste to get them out and convince Ohra of his worth, Ohra began to frown. For one thing, he was talking much too quickly now, which Ohra didn't like, and for another he kept re-using the word "know," which Ohra found mildly confusing. Overall, he wasn't making a particularly good impression. That, combined with the fact he'd witnessed Ohra doing something he wasn't sure he was proud of yet, meant it was unlikely Ohra was going to go out of his way to help him get into his band.

"Hm..." Ohra said, seemingly mulling things over while the blond lion sat on tenterhooks.

Like his earlier expression, Ohra had learned that saying "hm" and then not saying anything for a while made him seem far more thoughtful than he really was. Sometimes it prompted people to explain things further, or in a different way, which could be helpful if he hadn't really understood them the first time around.

Finally he shrugged and informed the stranger, "I don't know you."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Desperation flared behind Korfiz's silver eyes, welling up inside him and trying to force its way out through tears. Fiz refused to cry. Instead he took a deep breath which did little to calm him, but at least held his tears of frustration and disappointment at bay long enough for him to make one last-ditch effort to get Ohra to vouch for him.

"My name is Korfiz Honningson. I'm a friend of Rikmodr's. She told me I should talk to you about this. I'm from an old Stormborn family on my mother's side. I swear you won't regret taking me along."

Okay, yes, he was getting perilously close to begging here, but there was more than just the opportunity to go viking riding on his request. If he asked Ohra and Ohra refused him after Rikka had specifically suggested Ohra, he didn't know how he would tell his friend that he'd failed to convince the lion to take him along. It would be a new level of humiliation that a little bit of not-really-begging couldn't even begin to touch.

"Please give me a chance."  

[Princess_Feylin]

"Ja, okay. I'll ask," Ohra agreed without any intention of explaining further.

As far as he was concerned, once Korfiz had claimed that he was friends with Rikka, Ohra was okay with him. Rikmodr was a younger sister of Raskogr's, who had married Ohra's eldest sister, Seqineq, which made Korfiz a friend of the family by Ohra's reasoning. As a friend of the family, it was expected that Ohra would do him this little favor. It didn't make much difference about Korfiz's family, to be honest.

"Don't die in bed," he bid the younger lion nonchalantly before getting up to go find a replacement leaf for his braiding practice, leaving the silver-eyed youth gaping after him.