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 Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:26 pm
 "Take care of it," Nyoka had said to Mana. And then she left.
Mana looked down at the corpse with a measure of distaste. He didn't know who it belonged to, who had killed it, or what it had done to deserve this fate. All he knew about the situation was that it was now his job to deal with it. He'd known this would be a part of his duties. Not disposing of corpses specifically, but taking care of any messes Nyoka wanted cleaned up. He supposed that was what this was.
"So," he said, addressing the corpse. "How would you like to be disposed of? Burial or simply dumping you into a body of water would be easiest, but fire would be more thorough. I suppose I could also leave you out for scavengers to pick at, but that also invites scavengers and discovery."
In other words, he wished Nyoka had granted him a little less autonomy in this instance and left him with at least some clue as to her desires for this dead body, other than that he take care of it. Another thought crossed his mind, one which reminded him a little of his time with the Mizimu'Tungika. His mind lingered on that possibility a little longer than it probably should have. The members of this pride did not seem like the kind of people who would feel eating the dead was an acceptable practice. For that matter, Mana wasn't sure he wanted to go with that practice either, considering how little he knew about the dead person in question.
He decided to seek a second opinion, and with that in mind went in search of one of the low grunts of the pride.
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Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:55 am
 "Lousy little--" Matope grunted under her breath, chucking one last large branch into a pile of other various-sized tree parts. She tromped over to another large branch, grabbed it in her jaws, and hurled it to the right into the pile with the rest, muscles rolling under her skin and orange eyes fiery with concentration. The branch landed heavily on the pile with a crunching thud.
Matope shook the hair out of her face, took a breath, and continued the process several more times until she had finished clearing the area.
When she was finished, she stepped away from the pile of wood, gave it a once-over, gave the surrounding area a once-over, and then left it behind.
One job down, and only...well...wait, there were...a lot of jobs she had left to do. It was her job to do jobs.
"...Dangit."
Nah, she wouldn't complain. She didn't really have the right, she guessed. She had a place to stay and was being provided for. But that didn't help the fact that she was getting pretty tired.
Expression suddenly seeming particularly disgruntled, the brown-striped lioness continued to walk, bulky legs making deep paw prints.
'What did I have to do, again? What was the job...it was...somethin'...more cleanin'? No, no, hm...'
As the lioness walked, her mind was so absorbed in her own thinking that she didn't even notice a fellow Grunt approaching her.
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Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 6:32 am
Mana almost winced when he saw that the first of his subordinates to put in an appearance was a lioness. He didn't care for lions. His beliefs from his life with the Mizimu had not left him, and he could not help feeling anxious around lions, even those who had no knowledge of his former pride. He considered waiting or looking for someone else, but the idea of just leaving a corpse until he found a person he wanted to work with was unappealing. Besides, lions had strong backs and were better-suited to dragging heavy weights than cheetahs.
"You," he said, addressing the dark lioness. He didn't know her name, but if he had he would have used it. "Come with me. There is a matter I would like a second opinion on."
He started walking back toward where he had left the body, taking it for granted that she would follow. He wasn't positive that she would, but that was the way the pride was supposed to work. Lions were supposed to be subordinate to cheetahs and obey them. And he was of a higher rank than she was by default.
"It has to do with a body. I'm to get rid of it, and I'm undecided as to how I should go about doing so." He spoke without looking back, playing the part he was expected to play by the pride. She would have to keep up with him and listen. He wanted to get this over with quickly, and therefore with a minimum of repetition.
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Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 8:10 am
The hairs on Matope's back bristled in surprise at the sudden sound of an unfamiliar voice, and her body immediately turned to face the source. Before her was a blue-eyed male cheetah, very lean and almost regal, and Matope instantly felt dirty and stupid in front of him. The lioness set her jaw and tried to seem focused on him rather than her inner-thoughts--that was part of her job, after all.
Huhhhh, a real clean-up. She'd done those herself before, but never with someone else's help. Sure, others had sort of supervised, but...Matope always did things on her own in the end. No one had ever asked her opinion on clean-ups, either.
...Actually, no one had asked her opinion on anything before...
When the High Grunt asked Matope to follow him, she did so without even a second-thought. She was so used to taking orders at that point that when she heard a command, even if it was directed at somebody else, she would instinctively want to complete the command, even if that sudden drive lasted only a fragment of a moment.
Matope followed the cheetah in brute silence, easily keeping up with him, but always just slightly behind--maybe as a sign of subordination. She mulled over his quick words the best she could, trying to see what he wanted her help in, and trying to see what she could even say in reply.
"Well, it's, uh..." Matope started slowly, "it depends on where it's at." she figured. Once they got to the body, she could be of more help.
At least, that's what she...hoped.
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Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 8:38 am
"It's just a bit beyond the boulders that guards sometimes perch on," Mana said. Matope may have been conditioned to obey without question, but Mana was conditioned to explaining himself, particularly when a lion questioned him. An unusual situation, that.
"Fortunately, it's not exactly in the main area of the pride, so I think it should be relatively simple to dispose of it with a certain amount of secrecy." He wondered how that would apply to whomever had killed the leopard. No doubt he'd be expected to deal with that, too, when he'd finished this task. Oh, the joys of being Nyoka's right paw.
They were just rounding the rocks as he spoke, so the corpse itself was visible momentarily. The kill had been clean, though not bloodless. Mana assumed the leopard had been advised to leave, refused, and then forced the guards to be more aggressive in their persuasive attempts. It was nice to know they were doing their job, though a little unsettling to think how close the leopard had gotten to the pride before someone dealt with him.
"As you can see, here it is" he said, indicating the body. "Nyoka, I think, would like this dealt with quietly, so I suppose we ought to move it, at the very least, away from here."
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