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 Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:18 pm
It took a very long time for Asper's words to sink into Isti's brain through the haze of his partially-panicked attack instinct. However at length he was able to recognize that Asper had joined the fray and their opponent was down and seemingly unconscious. He came to, panting and wild-eyed.
"Now?" His mouth hung open as he continued to pant. "Now we interrogate him."
A grin spread from his mouth to his ears. He liked the sound of interrogating someone. It sounded very important and serious. Not that this wasn't important and serious, but. He just liked the sound of it. They had overwhelmed a Stormborn, and now they were going to question him to find out what had become of Atheris.
They first had to move him though, because this was hardly an ideal spot for interrogations. Another Stormborn might come along and catch them by surprise. Dragging the enormous lion had been a task and a half, but they'd managed it, and Asper had been clever enough to decide that he should not be brought back to their den, for safety reasons.
At last they were able to stop and Isti flopped onto his side, panting again. It took a lot of energy to be a berserker and then drag a gigantic lion all over the continent.
"So. Interrogations. You should start when he wakes up," he said to Asper.
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:30 pm
Taraxa At some point between blacking out and right now, Taraxa had kind of sort of regained consciousness. He kept his eyes closed, though, and was slightly amused by their attempts to drag him hither and yon. Well, it'd been amusing until his head had crashed against a few more rocks. Consciousness had been fleeting after that point, and it wasn't until a few moments after he'd been placed at this final resting spot that his sense of hearing had come back. He didn't open his eyes yet, but he was interested to hear what the lions had to say. Taraxa wasn't sure which one was speaking about interrogations, but it didn't sound pleasant. Too much mint and too many berries. Now look where he was. Asper "What?! Why do I have to interrogate him?! Didn't you say I was emotionally compromised?!" Asper couldn't believe what he was hearing. This was all Isti's fault, at least Asper thought so. If he had just listened and thrown the rock like they'd planned, ...well, Asper wasn't sure where they would be now, but it surely wouldn't have been with an unconscious mountain of a lion lying unconscious at their feet. Surely. "You interrogate him! My emotional compromis..ation... is giving me a headache," he finished with a bit of a whine. For one so usually clear-headed and deliberate, Asper was acting like a big baby. A big big BIG baby. It was all Isti's fault.
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:36 pm
Isti gazed at their captured prize with undeniable pride, but it was exhaustion which clawed at his mind and caused one eyelid to droop rather than any sort of lingering battle-madness. No, that ship had sailed and now he was more or less completely spent. He'd survive and be revitalized in a bit, but for the meantime he was mostly dead. At least he felt like it.
"Yes. Exactly. You're scarier when you're like that," Isti said agreeably. "Besides, I'm tired and I'm going to take a nap over here where he can't see me."
That way maybe the big lion would forget there were two of them and if he tried anything maybe Isti would wake up and be able to prevent any serious hurt from coming down on his cousin, who didn't deserve to be seriously hurt, even if he was kind of stupid. They wouldn't even be in this situation if Asper had just kept a better watch on Atheris, now would they?
"And you have to interrogate him because I'm waiting in reserve. And by waiting in reserve I mean sleeping. So if you don't do it we might as well just drag him back home with some flowers and an apology. And by we I mean you."
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:44 pm
Taraxa Taraxa remained as still as possible while he listened to the two males bicker. Were they married? Gods be good, they sounded like man and wife for all intents and purposes. He was so ashamed. Captured by two sissy lions who were obviously NOT Stormborn. He was going to have a hell of a time figuring out how to spin this tale so that he didn't come out the loser. He stirred slightly, hoping to capture the attention of at least ONE of them. The lion that spoke of napping didn't sound too irrational, not like the other one. The big baby. Adding a long groan to his movements, Taraxa stole a look at the pair. Great. Kids. Asper "You aren't going anywhere," Asper hissed furiously at his cousin. "You said we were in this together!" Isti probably had never said such a thing, but it didn't matter. He was here, right? That automatically meant that they were in this together! Right? Right? "You can sleep when we're--" he stopped, a horrified expression creeping over his features as the giant lion let out a groan. Oh man. Oh man oh man. They were so dead.
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:58 pm
"Nngh!" Isti whined. By all the gods' stinking hairy testes he was tired. "Asperrrrr!"
He closed his eyes and began to tune his cousin out. It was true that Asper was scarier when he was emotionally compromised like this, but Isti knew deep down that he was scarier, and if Asper tried to keep him from sleeping for too much longer, there would be some serious family in-fighting. Maybe he would eat him. And the fat lion, too, because suddenly he was famished.
Unfortunately for him, Isti couldn't fall asleep fast enough not to hear their victim groan. That groan was so obviously not Asper it was comical, except for the fact that it also meant the Stormborn was waking up. Oh, gods of everything that was and wasn't shiny, they weren't ready! Why didn't they have a plan?
"Why didn't you plan for this?" he demanded, surging to his feet with renewed vigor. A second wind or another adrenaline rush or something had gotten him upright again and now he paced with energy that he was afraid not to use just in case it decided he didn't need it after all and went away.
"This is your fault," he snarled. But he paced in front of the big lion and stared down at him, squinting with his right eye.
"You are our prisoner, fatty," he announced, wishing he'd been able to come up with a better epithet. "And I'm going to eat you if you don't tell us what we want to know."
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 9:06 pm
Taraxa "Fatty?!" Taraxa winced and rubbed his head with a huge paw. Did the little pipsqueak just call him fatty!? These two obviously had no idea what they were doing, or who they were dealing with. If he was feeling better he would school the little bastards. Cracking his eyes open a little further, Taraxa peered around. He didn't recognize where he was which was strange. He'd been born and raised in these lands, knew them like the back of his paws. Maybe he'd hit his head a little too hard. "Who are you little bastards, and what do you want! You'd best speak fast while I'm still recovering." His eyes were drawn to the lion that looked most like the smitten thrall, his brown drawing down in a frown. Asper Asper was busy shooting daggers at Isti. His cousin was being so aggravating about the situation. Isti knew they hadn't come into this with a plan or else they would've gone over it before they'd set out under the dark of night. Now, here they were, the pinkish blush of morning slowly spreading across the sky. Someone was going to miss the lion they'd captured soon enough -- and they'd likely send out a search party. Though it'd felt like they'd dragged the heavy lion for miles and miles, Asper doubted that they'd moved him far enough. It would also be easy to find them. It wasn't like they'd made an attempt to cover their tracks. They were so dead."Yeah," he rallied behind his cousin despite wanting to smash his face in. "We're looking for a lion. My brother."
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 9:30 am
Isti wasn't sure at first if he ought to respond to the large lion's obvious outrage at being called "fatty" or to his demands for their identification, but he decided to take his cue from Asper, who ignored both conversational gambits, if they could be called such, and continued the line of questioning Isti had begun.
"YOU aren't the one ASKING the questions here," Isti said, deciding to leave the actual asking of questions to Asper unless something good occurred to him that he absolutely had to ask. He would just do his best to look intimidating and back Asper up.
There was probably some flaw in his reasoning, like the fact that he was the smallest lion present, but Isti didn't let that bother him. He knew Asper was the better planner most of the time, a lion whose plans had a better than twenty percent success rate when he made them, unlike Isti, and so it made sense to let Asper do the talking.
Besides, Isti could either be in full-fight mode or he could be in narcoleptic napping mode, but there wasn't a lot of grey area between them right now. Neither one of those two modes was much good for asking useful questions, but at least the former could be useful for threatening.
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 9:48 am
Asper Asper watched his cousin as he spoke, feeding off of the attitude that Isti had. It was easier to act big and brash and bold when his cousin acted the same way, and suddenly he was utterly thankful that Isti was here, even if he had ruined the 'plan' that they'd briefly talked about. "Yeah! You aren't the ones asking questions here! We are! And my first question is," he spat, narrowing his eyes before inching closer to the big brown lion, "who are you, and what have you done with my brother? I know you Stormborns have him, so just tell me where he is and we all walk away from this -- no more questions asked." It was easy to act menacing when Isti appeared to be on the verge of his berserker-insanity-killmode. "WE. WANT. ANSWERS." Taraxa In that instant it became clear to Taraxa that the blonde lion was the brother to the dark-maned lion he'd 'captured' -- the lion that was smitten with his daughter. Ath.. Athermis? Athernids? Atheris, that was it. Atheris. "I am Reaver Taraxa, champion of the Stormborn." Okay, so champion was kind of fudging the truth a little. "Brother in a band of warriors." Or something. It made him sound really important, at least he hoped so. "Your... brother? I happened upon him in a meadow near the boundaries of my pride. He asked me to take him back as a Thrall. A slave," he corrected, realizing that the two idiots before him wouldn't recognize the term Thrall.
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 10:46 am
"Yeah. Answers," Isti echoed, doing his best impression of a menacing glower.
It was almost a little disappointing when their captive was so willing to just tell them what they wanted to know. It was sort of a shame he had no idea what half of Taraxa's words meant. At least he wasn't sure what a Reaver was, or if maybe that was part of the lion's name. He guessed it was probably the latter.
"The Stormborn call a lardsack like you their champion?" he interrupted. "I can't believe they even call you brother, fleshpile."
The name-calling still wasn't up to his usual standards, but it was loads better than fatty. He wasn't sure he would ever be able to live that one down. Anyone in his family could have come up with better. Twist the gods' tails, his own name sounded like more of an insult than fatty.
"He's lying," Isti told Asper, interrupting once more. "He's lying about who he is and he's definitely lying about your brother. He's an idiot, but he wouldn't ask to be enslaved."
Actually, Isti wasn't one hundred percent certain about that, but probably saying he didn't believe Reaver would get him more accurate information. That is to say more information that was accurate, assuming Reaver was telling the truth. And if he wasn't, well, perhaps his next story would be true.
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 11:07 am
Asper Asper had secretly suspected that his stupid brother would purposely get himself caught so that he could access this bloody female easier, but he really had kept the hope alive that his brother really wasn't that stupid. At Taraxa's words, though. Well... His shoulders slumped in defeat. "Isti," he said to his cousin, shaking his head, "I think he's telling the truth." It was hard for him to look either of the other lions in the eye. His stupid brother had gotten them all in such trouble and right now he wasn't sure what to do about it. "Can you take us to him? I'm ah.. sorry for all the ... heehhhemmm." He waved a paw in Taraxa's direction. Taraxa Taraxa had to admit, he had to admire the tenacity that the duo had. Especially the smaller male. He had a bloodlust in him that could prove to be beneficial on raids. The other lion, well... he wasn't sure what he thought of the blonde lion yet. "So you're saying you want me to take you back to my pride after you've dragged me away from my home and family in the middle of the night, after you knocked me out and after you've called me names? All so you can see your brother? The lion that wanted to be a Thrall?" Taraxa raised a brow, "Now why would I do that?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 11:27 am
Isti gaped at Asper. He was so easily defeated. How could he give in so easily? He couldn't decide between swatting Asper for just giving in like that and swatting Reaver for giving them the news that had made Asper weak so suddenly. After a few moments reflection he decided Asper had been through enough lately.
Trying to move quick like lightning Isti's paw darted out and hit Reaver on the back of his head. The larger lion's mane probably cushioned most of the blow, but just the same, Isti felt better having done it. In fact, it felt so good he did it again, just for the hell of it. Probably Asper's moronic apology was meant to include that, too.
"That's what HE'S saying," Isti growled. "PERSONALLY, I have other IDEAS for what you can do, lardass, but we can go with HIS idea for now. And the REASON you'll do what he says is I will FRICKIN' EAT YOU!"
Toward the end he lost his growling and went more toward shrill, almost womanish shrieking. Definitely losing it, he was grinning manically again and his right eye was twitching.
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:33 am
Asper Asper stared at his cousin. He couldn't remember a time he'd seen Isti act so insanely belligerent. He hoped that this Taraxa didn't leap towards either of them after the hearty thwap that Isti had delivered to the back of his head. Clearing his throat loudly, Asper turned his attention back to the lion before him and offered a weak, sickly smile. He felt like he was going to be sick. "If what you say is true, well, I would like to see it for myself. We don't want any trouble or anything like that, honestly," Asper tried to sound convincing, blatantly ignoring his cousin and any sounds of outrage that might've come from him. Taraxa Taraxa rubbed the back of his head with a paw. No, the strike hadn't hurt. In fact, Taraxa was starting to enjoy the way the darker lion acted. He was brash, bold and loud. All of these things were traits that Taraxa enjoyed in his Reaver brothers. The crazy ones were the ones that made Viking fun. "Fine," Taraxa grunted, shaking his head. "I'll take you back. You would be wise to keep your friend in check, though," Taraxa added, "because if he does anything stupid like he just did, my pride members won't hesitate to kill him." Well, unless the dark lion slapped him in front of Tazira. That loon would just laugh, most likely. With a sigh, Taraxa rose to his feet and gestured at Isti. "Lead on. I don't even know where we are."
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