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 Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2021 1:55 pm
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It wasn't that she didn't enjoy playing with her brothers and sisters, or playing at all, it was just that her mind was usually occupied by thought and whatever had captured her interest at that present moment in time. She would play with them, often for short periods but would grow bored much more easily while participating in the playful antics of pups than she would if she was off on the next big adventure. Her brothers and sisters had asked her to play much more frequently when they were younger but as the days went on, they would approach her less and less, assuming that she would either refuse their company for something she deemed much more interesting and fun or feel obliged to participate rather than joining them because she wanted to.
Looking over at her brothers and sisters as they played, paws on heads while tugging at ears, pushing each other over and pinning each other down in order to practice dominance, she felt a momentary lapse of sadness and a pang of guilt that she wasn't closer to them in the same way they were with each other. A frown set across her maw and her ears drooped. She loved them, without question, and she loved her parents and her family but while she would try to accommodate their needs with considerate replies and appearances, it was becoming more and more obvious how different she was to them.
So instead of joining in she crouched low to the ground and crept through the riding dust clouds kicked up by the many tiny paws that were wildly dancing across the ground and around each other. Instead she was seeking out another type of company, a mature outlook, someone who could share their knowledge and experiences that may allow her to understand her siblings better and how she might be able to bond with them in a way that was unique to her. She looked to her parents first and paused in her step, deliberating on whether to approach them about this matter or not. After fumbling her lips to one side, changing expressions more than a few times in her chain of thought, she lightly shook her head and carried on padding away from the group. |
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Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:34 pm
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As her family grew ever bigger, so, too, did Eli find her patience. She'd always had a lot of patience for others, especially children. But when you found yourself suddenly the unofficial matron of a large group of lions, you found yourself naturally growing to be even more so. She couldn't have survived so many large litters had she not learned this.
It had been a gradual shift. After being on her own so long in the roguelands, she'd joined a pride. There, she had two of her three litters, with half of her children deciding to stay around with her. Maybe it was being out in the roguelands that made things different. She'd had a third and her daughter, a short while later, had one of her own, so that Eli's were adolescents helping take care of a new batch of cubs. Not what some of them had wanted to do, she knew. Particularly Malia, who always seemed to be the one chasing after Aiolani, Eli's granddaughter. Now Aiolani was almost fully grown and it was her turn to help out with the next generation. Eli had expected her to leave once she got old enough to survive on her own, but Aiolani, despite being an introvert and enjoying a lot of her peace and quiet, never went very far from the group. Eli wouldn't have faulted her if she'd wanted to leave. Maybe in due time she would decide it was better for her. She still had some more growing of her own to do.
It really made Eli start to feel her age. At least mentally. She could still join hunts and take down prey on her own when she needed to with no trouble. She wasn't out of the game, yet!
The red lioness smiled to herself as she reached a distance away from her family that they were a faint scent on the wind. She sat down and breathed in deeply of the air. She identified different types of grazers. And something else not prey. Or feline. Also not hyena, which made her relieved. She could deal with anything but a hyena. Even a.....Wild dog. That was what it was.
Eli opened her eyes and focused on a tiny pup. The smile never left her face, though her caution went up. Time in the roguelands before she'd found a pride hadn't left her without a little experience in other predators and their rivalry.
"Should a little one like you be on their own?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 8:27 am
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Was it possible she had covered more ground than she had realized whilst lost in her thoughts? Her mind had been occupied by the issue that continued to present itself in the everyday, trying to solve the problem by mulling through possible solutions. She kept running out of ideas and that frustrated her, she didn't know enough to come up with a viable solution and was in definite need of some help with the matter. It would continue to bother her and plague her mind until an answer she could agree on was found.
If it hadn't of been for the lioness speaking up first, the tiny pup may as well have just walked right into her! Snapping her gaze upright to the towering figure, Ahnika halted in her tracks mid step, a paw held loosely in the air in front of her. Her eyes widened, the image of the other mirrored within them. She was frozen in the moment, unsure of how to react in this situation. She had never met a lioness before. She had seen these types of predators stalking through the grasses at a distance as they sized up their prey and others lazing around on boulders as the small family pack made their way to the nearest watering hole to quench their thirst but never in her short life had they been approached by them.
She gulped, ears sticking firmly to the back of her head. "H-hello?" She managed quietly. It was true, she had bad habit of wandering out of the safety of her pack and so far had been lucky enough to have not found herself in a sticky or potentially fatal situation.
"Are you going to eat me?" She quizzed, knitting her brows together. "Or are you a friendly lion..?" She quickly added "ness" remembering that female lions were lionesses and were usually the ones that did the hunting. She hoped it was the latter, if there was such a thing.
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:51 pm
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Eli's face never betrayed a single emotion going through her mind right now. Or, she hoped it didn't. Normally, she had a pretty good poker face, but having so many new family members spring up so quickly might have dulled her ability a bit. It was difficult to keep an impassive expression on your face when you had so many cubs bouncing all over you and adolescents who needed a firm paw. Honestly, she was surprised she had any patience left.
She had raised a paw of her own, ready to stop this tiny pup from walking straight into her. Eli put it back down when she realized it wasn't helping the situation, given the pup's fear upon finding herself face to face with a lion. Understandable. Had she herself, at this age, come face to face with another predator of a different species, she would also be afraid for her life. Such a small thing wouldn't be hard to do away with. And it wouldn't be the first, and certainly not the last, time a rival species was dealt with like that. Not that she'd ever done it. Oh, she had no problems killing the adults if they threatened her. But never the babies. To snuff out something so helpless was just cowardly.
The lioness chuckled, lowering her paw back down to the ground. "Fortunately for you, I am currently full." She of course meant it as a joke and she hoped the smile on her face conveyed that. Than again, said smile could also be taken as predatory, and so she curled her front paws underneath herself, hidden away from sight and trapped by her body. "Mm. I like to think I'm about as friendly as they come. At least I would never harm a child. But it is dangerous out here on your own. Are you all alone?" If this was an abandoned or lost pup, she wasn't sure what she'd do. Though she was sure her family wouldn't mind if she'd brought back a pup in need of a home, it was always better for your own species to raise. A lion couldn't teach a wild dog what it needed to know in order to be an adult wild dog.
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 7:56 am
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For a moment Ahnika adopted an extremely worried look as the lioness stated that she was currently full, which meant that she might not be for long and while Ahnika certainly wouldn't fill a lion, she would make a swift and tasty snack to tide her over until she caught something a little more substantial to maintain her hunger. She gulped gently and was going to take a step back, having not realised she was joking, quite often taking things literally, until she continued on to say that she was friendly. Was she truly friendly or was this a ploy to have her stick around until she was hungry again?
It may have been a tough choice for some or not much of a choice at all depending on who was in this predicament, she gathered most cubs would run, or be simply naïve enough to trust what another predator had to say by not knowing any better. While she wasn't fully sold by the lioness's words and watched as she tucked her paws underneath her and settled her body language to be less threatening, she was however not going to pass up this chance to learn more about her and her species. She wasn't sure if she would ever get another opportunity like this and so, while cautious and ready to flee if things started to take a hairy turn, she walked closer to the female and laid down in front of her, mimicking the way she hid her paws.
"How long will you be full for?" She asked quickly, lifting a brow. "Did you have a quick snack or did you eat a big meal?" She shook her head at Eli's question. "My pack's a short distance away..." At least she thought they were, she didn't actually know how far she had wandered. She wasn't going to tell her that just yet though, not until she knew for sure that she could be trusted.
"I just needed some space away from my brothers and sisters..." She sighed, momentarily looking off to the side.
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Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2022 11:40 am
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Eli considered the question for a moment. She had had a full meal, brought in by the many daughters and granddaughters of her family. A pride of their own without a title to name it as one, more of her children had wanted to stick with her than she had expected of them. They weren't much like her, that was for sure. The old lioness had been on her own for much of her starter years, only choosing to finally be around others when she found the Sikukuu Pride. But that was gone, now. Now she was back out in the roguelands, only not alone this time. Two of her three litters had been born within the Sikukuu lands and when it had disbanded, some of the children had left with her. She was glad for it. She was getting older. It was nice to have others to depend on in her later years.
But should she tell this tiny cub all that? That she also had a pack of sorts somewhere out there. Not close enough for their smell to reach them, even if the wind shifted. A whole pride of lions would be scarier than just one lion. She wasn't trying to scare the youngster.
Eli lowered her head more to the level of the pup, her ears relaxing to the sides of her head. "I've had a full meal. A tasty buffalo. I won't want anything else for the rest of the day." Not unless the cubs were extra rambunctious and stubborn about playing with their great-grandmother. Fortunately, there were only four of them, how much energy could they really zap from her?
"Oh, did you?" There was a chuckle deep in Eli's throat. "My grandchildren are at a difficult age and one of them just had cubs. My family is also a bit noisy at the moment. A bit of quiet for oneself is important."
Candle Wick Ghost I took way more time, sorry! I get terribly distracted. OTL Taking a while to get my brain back into a RP routine.
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