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 Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 12:25 pm
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They were gone. Not many guards, to be fair, but the one that mattered most. He'd expected more of the patrolling Firekin to show an interest and leave - hoped that he would be expected to work even harder to make sure the borders were protected. But down by two guards was not enough to keep him constantly on his toes and, after his shift was done he was back in the heart of the pride again, grieving and grouchy.
Still, Shaak's words had not fallen on deaf ears for once and she had stuck close by him since the group had headed out, ready to lend a shoulder if he should so need. Not that Azar would ever admit that he needed to rely on someone else. Emotions were not easy things for him to navigate - impossible, in fact.
But...there was something else that was preying on his mind - something other than his rebellious son for once.
He thought of how he had failed to speak with his son. Thought of the missed opportunity and the cowardice. There was nothing that could be done about it now, of course. But there was someone else he could speak to. It'd be good for the practise, if nothing else. And, though he was loathe to admit it, he did want to smooth things a little - if that was at all possible.
He had been looking for her, however, for some time now, hoping to spy her black and orange shape close by. So far he had been unsuccessful and as the morning dragged on towards the hottest part of the day, he'd started to think that she wasn't in the vicinity at all. Maybe he ought to go back out to the borders and see if the current patrol needed any extra assistance...
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:14 pm
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She hadn't been making herself difficult to find, in fact the black lioness didn't have a reason to make it hard. She'd simply been busy... She'd been working which might very well come as a surprise to the lion who was certain she did absolutely nothing with her life (apparently). Nevertheless, she always made time for her new friends nowadays and she had made herself comfortable with the pair of lionesses who had quickly become a staple in her life.
...it was here that he would find her.
Or rather he would have found her if a particular lioness hadn't spotted him first. If Azar hadn't spotted Asyria by now, he'd know where she was by the rapid fire narratives that the tri-coloured lioness was now giving!
"Oooh and the wayward father has arrived; look at him skulking here and there," Paschar murmured. "He seems to be looking for someone, is that regret in his eyes? Oh, no, this wouldn't be possible!" she feigned a gasp and then shook her head, Asyria rolled her eyes.
"Do you have to?" she asked curiously.
"You know, he's not bad looking," Paschar remarked and raised both eyebrows. "He's got that gruff, tough-guy exterior that you just want to chisel away and and nibble on the nummy interior," she added. It was Asyria's turn to raise an eyebrow at this, and she glanced briefly towards Azar - she'd concede he wasn't bad looking, but she hadn't really given him much thought beyond that. He made no secret of his opinion of her and given her lack of interest in fictional romantic scenarios, she had never quite lost herself to the wonderful and bizarre world that her friend lived in.
"I'd take him," Paschar mused finally.
"You'd take my father so I'm not really sure I'd trust your tastes in men," Asyria remarked mildly and shook her head.
"Well you would say that about your own father, but this one isn't related to you and he's not half bad looking."
"That I don't dispute but I'm fairly certain we've had this conversation before," Asyria replied.
"No we didn't, that was Uriah. We, personally, have not have this conversation," Paschar corrected.
"And we're not going to have it now," Asyria gave a dismissive wave of her paw. Truthfully, Azar was wandering about a bit like a lost cub, but it didn't seem like he was without purpose, he just seemed to be looking for someone. Well, she'd been loitering in these parts for a considerable amount of the day so she might as well be the adult here.
"What or who have you lost, and on the off chance I don't know their names, what do they look like?" Asyria called out dryly.
"And are you single?!" Paschar added, popping up from behind the black lioness's head.
"That's not even relevant."
"It's relevant to me!"
"I think you may have missed your calling as a matchmaker..."
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:35 pm
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Ah, there she was. Had she been watching him walking in circles all morning just out of spite? Had she been laughing? Hm...with females, you could never be quite sure. Sometimes it felt like they were a different species altogether. Their odd quirks that he could never quite figure out. Still, now that she was there in front of him, he wasn't feeling all that brave anymore and, seeing that she wasn't alone, either...well that was just going to throw a crocodile in the oasis. Especially as the other female was loud and uncensored - the type he really couldn't abide.
He ground his teeth and tried to settle the swish-swish of his tail so that he didn't just leap into this all fires raging. Ignore her, he warned himself with a stern, threatening voice. If he let her get to him then this conversation would be done and there'd be no second chances.
Scowling, he snapped his eyes across to Asyria and refused to even look in Paschar's direction. "I was hoping," he paused to gather himself, "to speak with you alone, but...if you're busy..." no, no, that was him trying to squirm out of it. What had he just been thinking about second chances?
"If you're busy," he ground out, "then tough. This can't wait."
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:43 pm
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"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say he's single," Paschar remarked as she leant in to Asyria's ear. "He's got a grump only his mother could love right now," she observed.
"Paschar..." Asyria gave the lioness a pointed glance and Paschar released a gusty sigh, waving her paw in a regal fashion as though she were some sort of queen. Fortunately the black lioness knew that the younger lioness had quite a bit of restraint and after a few moments, it seemed like Paschar had made her decision.
"That being said you can probably ignore the terrible personality and just concentrate on the looks if you're feeling particularly -"
"Paschar."
"Hot and heavy."
"OH MY GODS, PASCHAR!" Asyria had lost her cool, though in an amused way as she began to laugh at the absurd direction the lioness had gone in. Paschar looked thoroughly satisfied with the outburst though, seemingly taking it as a win as she rose to her paws and dusted herself off lightly.
"The lady doth protest too much," She peered at Asyria with a waggle of both eyebrows and then gave her paw another wave as the black lioness looked set to slap her. "I'm going, I'm going!" she chimed as she padded away, leaving Asyria alone with the already flustered red lion. He always seemed to be flustered around her, there wasn't ever a day when he was just...calm. Perhaps that's why she'd given him space, you could only get so much sport out of someone before they automatically set themselves to hostile and there was just no fun in that.
"What do you want?" she asked once Paschar was out of earshot and lifted her brow. "I never thought I'd see the day when you demanded my company, have the watering holes frozen over?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:59 pm
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Ignoring the red one was hard. Everything in him was telling him to snap at her and he seemed to be on the verge of doing so just as she dismissed herself and left them alone. Who even was she? Azar could not remember crossing paths with her before and he was certain that he would have. Maybe she was some horrible relative of Asyria's that he hadn't known about? Well wouldn't that be just wonderful...he'd have to make a mental note to avoid her at every possible opportunity.
Still, with Paschar out of the way, he was faced with the dark lioness alone, feeling strangely ill-at-ease now that he actually had her attention. From her response, she wasn't going to make this easy, either...
Through a frown, he gave a grumbling, "no," then paused a moment to gather his thoughts. He wasn't even sure what she had meant by that. Frozen over? What nonsense was that? "I...came here to..." he paused again, his brow furrowing as if battling with himself, "I'm not angry with you."
There. He'd said it. Well...sort of. In a round-about way.
He took a step back then, giving a short nod.
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 2:07 pm
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"You're not angry with me," Asyria repeated as she provided Azar with a long and measured stare. It was something she rarely used, but she had still inherited it from her father. One didn't need to say much when one stared like this, they simply communicated their disapproval (or in this case bemusement) silently. Quite frankly it was her most valuable weapon and one she rarely employed, but in this moment it came naturally because she had absolutely no idea what the lion was talking about.
"Well I'd assume not as I haven't done anything," she said at last. Though it might have been a mild drawl, she was probably trying to point out the absurdity of his approach. She wasn't entirely sure what he was going on about, she knew he wasn't mad at her, that had never been a concern. Now the fact he wasn't her greatest fan? That was common knowledge, but again, not an earth shattering, cataclysmic piece of information.
...At least no one else would care, so why should she? It wasn't as if she had anything to prove to him.
"Unless I missed a memo and I've done something in one of your dreams that you feel the need to reassure me is okay and that you, in the waking world, are not in fact irritated at me... Then I'm not entirely sure what you happen to be talking about."
Apparently Azar held grudges longer than she did, she didn't seem to recall their last meeting.
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 2:24 pm
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Oh for the love of---
He set his jaw and tried to let the tension flow from his claws and down into the sand. His shoulders remained tense, though, and a muscle in his neck twitched as he tried to navigate himself around this ridiculous conversation. Apparently it was pretty difficult to just come out and say 'I'm sorry'. Had he ever apologised in his life? Maybe once...way back when he was a dumb kid. Yeah, there was probably one time.
"No. Listen--" his frown deepened again, his eyes tracking down across the sand rather than at her, now. She had fierce eyes and he found them disconcerting (maybe terrifying?) when she used them on him. "All the stuff before. With the regent and...the rest." He paused, looking momentarily pained, "what I'm trying to say is...I shouldn't have jumped to conclusion...and yeah..."
Not everyone is out to get you, he recalled Shaak's words. They'd been repeating on a loop ever since.
"So..." sorry, "you're entitled to your opinions."
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Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 2:27 am
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"Right," Asyria's response was measured, and remarkably, she managed to hide the worst of her confusion as she regarded the lion before her. She honestly had no idea what was going on at this point and eventually, if he looked at her for long enough, he might realise that. Fortunately for Azar, Asyria had never been the type to just let things lie and instead she shook her head and released a sigh. Perhaps Kerra had encouraged him to do this? She had no idea as to what he was up to, but this was another subtle under current she was going to have to learn eventually.
...Azar's reactions were more nuanced, he was one of the harder to read in that respect. She'd get there in the end though, eventually she'd understand.
"Azar what the hell are you on about?" she said finally, blunt as always, as she regarded the lion. Her brow was raised and she kept her gaze fixed on him as she examined his overall demeanour. Based on his body language he really didn't want to be here, so someone had definitely forced him, she just didn't know to what end... "I'm well aware that I'm entitled to my own opinions and I don't exactly need affirmation for that," she pointed out.
"I'm not sure why you feel the need to inform me of that?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2017 4:06 am
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"Ahhh," Asyria raised a brow. Well if this was his method of apologising then it certainly needed work, this was a very roundabout way of achieving something when he simply could have summarised the issue and said that in the first place! Instead, he'd adopted the ways of the Sphinx, and had promptly left them both in a state of frustration (or confusion in her case). He really did seem to have a knack for over complicating things - first he got himself into a dramatic, imaginary tryst and now he and gotten himself all turned around over something so...well... Insignificant.
"You were stewing over that?" she asked after a few moments and shook her head. Of all the things to get caught up on, the lion had gotten stuck on something between them? She'd much rather have preferred that he direct those good intentions to his son! At least then the angst could be put to bed and they could all admit he was a grumpy a**, but not a bad one at heart. Now though? Well he was still a grumpy a** and he had missed his window of opportunity to apologise to his son before Heti had wandered off on that grand expedition.
"It's fine," she gave a wave of her paw, almost dismissively. Perhaps that wouldn't go down well, but she really didn't see why it had caused so much of an internal struggle - maybe it was just because he'd been told to apologise to her specifically? Who knew! "Honestly I'd already forgotten about it, I just put it down to you being you," she pointed out. "You're not the first traditionalist I've ever met, you'll not be the last either."
There, she'd make that painless for him!
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Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2017 12:42 pm
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Azar wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or grateful that, despite it all, the 'apology' had gone down rather well. She hadn't gone for his throat, laughed or refused to accept. In fact, it was like she wasn't even annoyed at all. He considered this a moment but could only come up with the conclusion that females were weird and he would never understand them no matter how much he tried. Still, he wasn't going to complain. Not this time, anyway.
"Well...good. That's that then," he narrowed his eyes as he peered around, almost expecting that horrifying lioness to come leaping out from behind a rock. Thankfully it seemed she had stayed away for now. How she and Asyria were even friends, Azar had no idea. Asyria was sort of...smart? That other one? Not so much...if he never ran into her again it'd be too soon.
"I suppose I'll let you go find that irritating friend of yours."
He took another step back and tried to think what he could do to keep himself busy for the rest of the day. Training grounds? Or sulking back home? Maybe both? Yeah, a bit of both.
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Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 2:17 am
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Always so full of bluster, he truly was exactly like the land. Full of hot air and often without a sense of humour, this was made all the more clear as he chose to insult her friend and she could do nothing more than shake her head. Hopefully, Paschar was nowhere nearby otherwise he might find himself traumatised by the very insistant lioness. He'd learn to like her, or he'd lose the will to live, either way it was usually safer not to provoke the bubbly female.
"Her name is Paschar," Asyria corrected him as she rose to her paws and considered her options. She imagined that her friend would most likely have sought out Uriah, so she would begin her search there. This would no doubt result in an interrogation whereby Paschar attempted to uncover any gossip their might be - fortunately on this occasion there wasn't any!
"And you might want to be slightly more subtle about your dislike of her," she warned with a chuckle as she wandered away. "She's highly likely to be one of the individuals who will teach your next batch of cubs, should you find yourself a complimentary partner," she finished. It was with that, that the lioness began to pad away, she'd no doubt bump in to him again and he'd mostly likely be grumping at something as usual... Sooner rather than later probably.
Kimaria Sorry I've been moving house and I'm away this weekend so I'm so behind. ;o;
/fin
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