[PRP] Have I got a story for you. (Lahn & Sheng)

[Whimsical Blue]

A pale lioness strode back into her pride with a satisfied look on her face, a mouse dangling from her jaws. It wasn't a very impressive looking kill, but Lahn was still confident that it would prove adequate for her trial to adulthood.

It was strange, really... ever since coming to Tianxia, she'd spent most of her time with Xun. Their trials had been the longest time she'd been away from him and she found herself grumpier than usual, her temper shorter and her sleep not as restful. She'd deny it was because of him, of course. No, most likely it was because she was outside the lands she grew up in, the places she was used to and comfortable in. That's all it was.

Lahn looked around as she moved towards the dens, hoping to find Sheng so she could show him her kill.  

[PhiferWolf]

Sheng looked about, curious where everyone had gone. Since most of the adolescents were out and about, the House seems emptier. With the two demons sitting at the bottom of their home, and Fu Ren with the new litter, he worries if the first litter will come back. Was he too hard on them? Did he expect too much from them? Still, he worries as he had not seen their faces in a long time.

As he was approaching teh House's gates from the mountain side, he noticed a stranger moving about the House, heading toward the den. With a roar, the Lord stormed down the mountain side, landing agains the ground with a thundering boom, and headed straight to her.

"Trespasser! How dare you enter my House without my permi-," he paused as he slowed his steps to a trot. His emerald eyes glanced over her, from the tip of her nose to the tuft of her tail. "May have you grown, Lahn." He coughed.

"You've returned?"  

[Whimsical Blue]

Lahn started at the roar from inside the dens, nearly dropping her mouse in surprise and a good deal of fear. In her memory, the lord of the pride had never raised his voice to her... even if it turned out to be a mistake when he realized who she was, it still left her heart beating furiously in her ears and her eyes wide with fear. It took a long moment for her to bring herself back to normal, literally shaking off the adrenaline rush she had gotten.

When he got close, she did drop her mouse to the ground, but only so she could speak clearly. What she had to say needed that.

"My lord! Well met." She said crisply, but warmly, making an elegant bow before him. Even with her rough sort of relationship with his son, he had always been kind to her. "I have indeed returned, and brought the required proof of my adulthood with me." Clasping the rodent, she offered it to him by the tail. It had been cleany killed, and was for the most part intact. Not exactly what she should have returned with, but there was a point to that.  

[PhiferWolf]

He looked at the small critter with a cocked brow and a confounded expression upon his face. A mouse? It dangled from the female's maw by it's fleshy tail. No signs of puncture. No blood he could see or smell. There was something that he wasn't picking up because it was dead. What was the cause of death? Was the kill so clean that not even he could figure it out? Then again, the Lord often just rended anything he was put against. A growl passed his lips, irritated that he could not discover this mystery.

Emerald eyes looked at Lahn, his son's mate to be. She has grown into a beautiful lioness. She was agile, her fur was smooth and sleek, but thick by his standards. Perhaps it came from being from the snow pride. Sheng circled her once. Twice. And sat back down, a rumble emitting from within him.

"You return to me from your Trials and you have a rodent to confer to me? How do you explain the worthiness of this... 'prize'," his eyes narrowed. "If you wish to sleep here tonight, I hope your answer is monumentally better than this."

He looked over his shoulder toward the pride's many dens.

"Xun will be disappointed if you have to undergo the Trials again, Lahn."  

[Whimsical Blue]

Lahn Zhi smiled toothily as she set the mouse down between them and sat back, taking on a pose she's practiced many times for its effectiveness.

"Well, my lord, there is a story behind that, and you'll soon see how I came to possess this seemingly ordinary rodent... one that was at one time a great monster of a beast!" Her voice took on spirit, her eyes lighting as she went into her tale.

"It was a horrid thing! Large as an elephant, enough that it blocked out the sky when I stood in its shadow. It smelled like a dead carcass, one that'd lain in the sun for days with the scavengers picking at it... and I could see the rust of blood on its mouth and limbs, and splattering its chest. It was truly a sight to make a grown lion cower in fear and turn tail to escape." She nodded at her description, nothing but a sense of truth in her voice.

"But what it looked like and horrible it was is only a very, very small part of the story, you see. But it does bare mentioning, so that you know what kind of a prize I've brought back for you, even if it doesn't look like much. Would you care to hear the rest of the tale, My Lord? I promise it is worth the listening."  

[PhiferWolf]

Sheng smirked as he kept a listening ear. A beast so large that it blacked out the sun? Even he could do that. Smelled like a dead carcass? Anything would after he was through with it. And blood splattered on his chest? Recoil from a deadly blow, he was sure. The Lord smiled. Sounded like this one was describing him but he was no rodent, no he was one formidable lion.

"I would make a grown lion cower and run with a trail behind them," he scoffed with a curled lip. This was slightly amusing and he couldn't enjoy it if he continued to pace around the young lioness. Sheng sat himself down and looked at her again. She had a fine posture, one that Mwana must have shown her or one that she had imitated to her own.

"Go on, Lahn, tell the rest of the story, hopefully it will not be for nothing that I have to make you go back out to the Savanna," he replied as he nodded.  

[Whimsical Blue]

The pale lioness rolled her eyes with an exaggerated sigh, waving a paw at him to settle himself. "You don't believe me, I can tell already. Remember, those who close their eyes can't see the wonder around them." She admonished him, rising herself to pace a little, the mouse left on the ground where she had been.

She settled into her storytelling with ease of practice, something even Xun probably hadn't known she was doing. She'd not wanted an audience for her failures as she learned effective ways to tell her stories, so had hid it from it. Not all that hard, lately, as he'd separated himself from her, giving her more time when she had nothing else to do.

Lahn started her story with her trip out into the lands, how she had wandered and explored, finding the good game herds and where they watered and rested. She kept it light, focusing less on her skill at tracking and more on the things she had seen and learned. After a bit, she settled into a more serious part, giving him a steady look.

"That was when I found the bird, crumpled on the ground beneath a thorny bush. A delicate stork, her wing was mangled and she was dying of thirst, unable to reach it. Her cries were so sad that I was moved, and I carried her to the water to soothe her thirst. When I settled her in a tree for safety, she thanked me sweetly and I left satisfied, quickly putting it from my mind. What was a wounded bird to me, after all? Not enough for a meal, and not enough to test my hunting skills. I moved on, still searching." She continued.