[VIKING P1] A Good Day to Die (Tethys x Iloziya)

[Epine de Rose]

Very little had occurred in the last few weeks, his band had been extremely successful in their most recent outing and as a result their Captain had made the decision to rest. As such, it was quite some time before he had received the notification that they would be setting off again on another Viking. Once again, there would be a few new faces with them that had requested the opportunity to prove their worth.

...As per usual, the Captain expected each of them to keep an eye on the new bloods, but also to observe them to confirm whether or not they were worth their salt. Anyone who wasn't pulling their weight would obviously not be permitted to attend again. It was a rare occurrence, but every now and then there were a few lions who didn't make the cut (or so he had been told).

It was with curiosity that the lion therefore wandered towards the designated meeting spot. When he referred to new blood was he referring to youngsters, or individuals like him? They had yet to have a few youngsters with them, would make for a bit of a change.

Still, Tethys gave a number of his brothers a nod of greeting and settled himself comfortably off to the side. This time it wasn't him bringing anyone along, it looked like a few of the others had made their case this time. Now it was time to see if they'd be half as successful as he had been with Xochi!  

[Ctrl F Greenie]

*Approved Freeborn - waiting on SB cert.*

Iloziya had proven himself. The trip to the Vikings had been short and sweet, he hadn't encountered any obstacles and that included the lion he'd faced to be accepted here - perhaps not the best day of that lions life.

Once accepted he had done his utmost to learn what he could about the ranks. His one true desire was to impress a Mother he knew would haunt him if he did any less and so he found out, fairly quickly, that to move up in the world meant going with a group on a Viking or a Raid. To find such a group was a simple task as well - all to easily accepted he had figured that while out on this adventure they would be reviewed by the already existing members. Iloziya feared very little about having another judge him, heck he had been judged all of his young life, at least here they didn't know his name.

During his brief investigation of how to go about joining a Viking he'd been given a meeting spot. Fresh from the roguelands and his home lands - of the Mwezi - he hadn't the foggiest where that meeting spot was and so he'd left early to get there, fortunately upon arrival he recognized a couple pelts and made the determination that he was in the right area.

"This part is the hard part." He quietly reminded himself. A low growl rumbled in his chest as he thought to the fall of his Father, his Father would have been better at this than he and that thought sent a sharp pain to his chest. He'd not been good enough while his Father was alive. There was so much rage brewing within him that he felt ready to go after anyone who may approach, but instead he tried for a deep breath and remained in a silence. It was in fleeting moments after that that he had noticed a while male that had been carefully gazing over the new blood - or who Iloziya had to assume would be new blood, which meant he'd been on a Viking before.

Though he continued to remain silent he did decide to approach the male and seat himself along side him.

Epine de Rose

 

[Epine de Rose]

"You'll break your teeth if you keep your jaw shut that tight," Tethys remarked without turning to look at the lion. He was looking at the younger lions in the group, there were some youngsters here today and as a consequence, he surmised they wouldn't be doing anything spectacularly dangerous. Nevertheless, just because his eyes were pointing one direction didn't mean he wasn't aware of what was coming towards him.

Suffice it to say that Iloziya was stiff as a board! The white lion wasn't sure if this was down to nerves, or if the male was simply a tense individual, but if he kept on like that Tethys was going to start wondering if he walked without bending his knees as well. Hell, if it came to it he was probably going to start teasing him about it too.

For now though, it was more appropriate for him to at least acknowledge the lion's presence. His first Viking it might be, but he was roughly the same age as Tethys, and he certainly didn't look like a weakling. Whoever he'd gotten for his challenge was probably nursing a number of bruises, or had been for a while, it really depended on how long he'd actually been here.

He must have arrived while Tethys had been out.

"You got a name, or is your mouth stuck together?"

Mysses Greenie

 

[Ctrl F Greenie]

"Funny guy." Iloziya retorted, not immediately acknowledging the question about his name. When he did finally get about to answering he did so simply. "Iloziya, yours?"

Golden eyes shifted to his peripherals as it was the only way to really see his neighbor now. He wandered next to him and then sat down, gave his mane a toss to remove it from his vision - he'd grown a tad shaggy.

From this position he was able to get a better view of the other individuals, he'd understood why the pale lion he sat next to had chosen it, appropriate. From here he noted that there were plenty of youth with them, plenty as in any. Iloziya hadn't imagined that such youth would have gone on something akin to a Viking, primarily considering they held battles on some occasions. This was likely a specially thought out event, one that held a low threat level.

Regret surely had shown on his face, but only briefly.

Epine de Rose

 

[Epine de Rose]

"Tethys," he finally looked round to face the male and offered him a warm smile. If Iloziya had been under the assumption that this particular warband was fully of loud, brash and otherwise brutish Vikings he should have realised in those moments this wasn't the case. They were hardly weak, but their Captain definitely had a particular standard he liked to maintain and those who were too busy one-upping each other were not on that list of requirements.

However when he caught the brief glimpse of regret he chuckled and shook his head.

"Relax, seriously..." He advised and tilted his head to the side. "What are you worried about, that you won't get enough blood on your claws?" he turned his gaze back to the younger, barely adult lions nearby and smirked. "Or are you worried we're going on a nature walk?" he challenged. "See if we can identify all the different types of tree and flower in the savannah, maybe a few bugs?"

At this point he was screwing with him, and there was absolutely no way that Iloziya would miss it.

Mysses Greenie

 

[Ctrl F Greenie]

Tethys. The name bounced about in his head as he sat the remainder of the white lions words in utter silence. Until those last ones, had he not had a moment to calm his anger he'd have lashed out unnecessarily - the appearance could have come across as weak and that was the exact opposite of what his intentions were.

Iloziya took a breath and rolled his shoulders, relax. "If you only knew what kind of expert I was in the field when it came to the many varieties of bugs or plant life." He sighed, a small smile forming at the corner of his mouth.

Still - he felt off and it would likely have been clear. The turmoil from his home had certainly taken it's toll on him and he found it hard to find humor when he looked to prove himself. That goal was so clear in his mind that he'd found it hard to focus on much else beyond it.

"You don't fancy yourself an expert in that field?"

The inquiry, a joke of course, was his follow up attempt to be 'one of the guys'.

Epine de Rose

 

[Epine de Rose]

"I have better s**t to do than stare at bugs and go 'ooooh' as they make pretty sounds," Tethys retorted and offered a grin. At this point in time he had no idea that eventually he would become very fond of plants, but not for the reason that either of them might have suspected. "I'll leave that to the folks who don't have to haul back mounds of food, treasure and god only knows what else we'll find out here."

He paused.

"On a positive note, we're actually going somewhere fairly important," he motioned to the Captain who was barking orders at two of the more boisterous youngsters. Though his Captain was a more relaxed individual, he did have to remind them that they were now adults and on this occasion, play time was most assuredly over.

"Abandoned territory," he explained, no doubt the Captain was already explaining this to the others as the younger ones had gathered round. Those who were already members of this chosen squad had already been briefed. "Not our's," he clarified and nodded northward. "It used to be hostile territory, for some reason it's become completely deserted. We don't know why but they just upped and left at some point..." He tilted his head to the side.

"It's time to see if we can figure out why, we came up blank with another territory which was a neighbour of this one but we did come away with a pretty solid haul."

"Maybe the old Maestro lands will come up with something decent as well."

Mysses Greenie

 

[Ctrl F Greenie]

His face betrayed him with a grin in response to Tethys' retort. "Ah yes. I'd much rather haul the good stuff - plants, ick." Iloziya realized before it was to late just how juvenile his response in return had been, but mentally shrugged it off.

Iloziya raised a brow as he was explained the plan for the days outing, his attentions entirely on Tethys now and completely forgetting the Captain. "Maestro?" What he'd gotten out of the speech was that although this wouldn't be action heavy it'd likely turn up something to have caused the disappearance of an enemy pride. The whole plan rang alarm bells loud and clear - something he'd have an awful time ignoring if it kept happening.

"Who were Maestro?" Golden eyes stared intently, clearly awaiting an explanation. He knew very little of other prides, it just so happened that he'd come across the idea of Myrsky during his exile so what else was out there, waiting to be discovered. "Did they have many spoils? Why the hostility?"

Perhaps it had been their attitudes that wiped them out?
He mentally berated himself for not having done more research and rushing head strong - he'd been balanced at one point, now it was time to return to that. Both brain and brawn - not just one.

Epine de Rose

 

[Epine de Rose]

"I'll be honest with you," Tethys gave a loose shrug and fixed his gaze on Iloziya, he was pleased to see that the lion was loosening up a little. Wherever he had come from seemed to have given him a bit of a peculiar disposition. "I don't actually know, the last few expeditions have been new to me as well," he pursed his lips and then motioned to Iloziya, before pointing to himself.

"Like you I'm not exactly local, this place is my home now and I wouldn't have it any other way, but there are regions I haven't ever stepped foot in," he clucked his tongue thoughtfully and attempted to recall what information he had received when he was bandying ideas about with his brothers. They had been forthcoming with the intel, even if some of it had seemed utterly ridiculous to an outsider like him...

"They were pirates," he said finally. "From what I can gather they seemed to have quite a thing for theft, who they tried to take things from didn't seem to concern them overly much," he mused. In some respects it was quite like the Stormborn, Tethys could only surmise that in part, this similarity might have caused the conflict. One too many attempts to grab resources from the Vikings and they may have found themselves on the receiving end of a very irritated warlord... Still, they never seemed to have gone to war with them.

"They were neighbours of the uh...mermaids, I got no information in regards to them other than them being 'female' and when we explored that region we couldn't find a damned thing that told us where they had gone or why they had disappeared -"

He paused.

"But they left a lot of things behind which seems to indicate something happened even if we can't work it out," he shrugged again. "Possibility of a land grab though, most certainly a chance of acquiring whatever was abandoned as well."

Mysses Greenie

 

[Ctrl F Greenie]

Hm, who knew. Iloziya had been convinced that the lion he'd chosen to seat himself next to was the real deal, a born member of the pride, but he should have noticed the difference - though there wasn't much.

The explanation was much more detailed than expected and he appropriately nodded to convey he understand as necessary. "Two prides, side by side, up and leaving with little to explain why?" He face contorted in such a way that indicated he was thinking about the why. He thought of the food sources, water sources and more. Perhaps the lands are cursed? A curse wouldn't be entirely out of reach in his mind, it was fact that many members of his home believed that the Great Lion had turned away from them, was this the same idea?

"Sounds like plenty of pillaging to be done at least - we certainly can't complain and the opportunity at more land? Who could pass it up."

Iloziya felt a touch better though, had Tethys been of old blood he might have been less likely to speak out at all due to ignorance, but at least now that ignorance may not be his alone.

Epine de Rose

 

[Epine de Rose]

"Exactly," Tethys was glad that the lion was on the same page. There was a certain amount of intrigue surrounding the circumstances of both prides that a few of them would have liked to have uncovered. However, the opportunity to acquire land and resources was definitely not something that his Captain was about to pass up either. All in all it was a rather good way to ensure success and all being well, it would ensure those youngsters would learn a thing or two, and the likes of Iloziya would be able to show that they had done more than just sit and babysit.

Whatever Iloziya ultimately chose to do with his 'career' in the Stormborn remained to be seen, but for now he had the opportunity to explore with Tethys's band. Once he'd done one Viking, he'd be more than capable of doing a second in whatever band he chose until he eventually found a place that he preferred and a Captain that he believed he could follow.

"Let's go!" The Captain's voice boomed. It might have interrupted Tethys if he had been about to speak again, however he had already observed a number of his brothers stirring and had had an inkling that they were about to move.

"Word of warning," he said briskly. "He's not a great fan of dawdling, hope your paws are up to a proper march!"

Mysses Greenie

Fin - On to Part 2!