[PRP] Gift of Another Day (Mir and Xochi)

[Kimaria]

Xochipepe.

It was such a long and elegant name for such a little cub and yet, strangely, it suited her. She was as strange as her name suggested she would be, with the skull marking imprinted over her face, giving her the appearance of the walking dead. Only yesterday had she spooked a young wild dog and had looked on in amusement as he had fled with a yowl of fright. It made her think, too, that when she was as big as her mother, she'd be even more frightening.

The thought pleased her.

That afternoon she was practising her 'pouncing' technique, chasing flyaway flower seeds as they danced and spiralled through the air. Three times she had caught the fluffy things beneath her paws but more often than not they simply slipped out of reach, continuing their twirling through the air. One such seed drifted higher than the others, crossing the sun and forcing her to look away. Infuriated at it's intelligence she stomped her little paws, laid back her ears, and roared; thrusting out her neck in defiance. Certainly, when she was older and her fangs violently deadly in her mouth, the image of that might have sent another lion scrambling for safety. As a tiny cub, however, the roar was little more than an angry squeak and her snarl didn't quite lift up over her tiny fangs. Even still, the seed sagged in the air and, with a grin of success, she threw herself at it and ended up in a tangle of limbs in the dust.

Scrabbling madly to right herself, she turned in a complete circle to try and locate her prey when she was distracted by a dozen birds clapping noisily into the air.

Had she spooked them?  

[DragonsRage24]

A bird lay still, playing dead in her grasp as she watched with one dead eye - that's what she called it. She felt when she took a life, the energy that once was traveled within the sight of her blind eye into her, and she became more powerful, the energy filling her up. Grinning, fangs jagged, hungry, she watched it with the sudden rise and fall of breath and turn of a head trying to desperately find a way of escape.

She snarled, raising her other paw, looking at it, claws extending, the bird shuddered.

"Your life, shall not have been in vain," she spoke, sincerely, with a hint of psycopathy, "you will live on through me, for the better. I will see for you," she sneered.

As she swung her paw down to strike at the bird, she heard a noise so... irritating, she raised her other and the bird scattered up into the air joining the others that fled.

She roared, angrily, loud and booming from her chest.

Her prey had gotten away.

Turning, ehr eyes darted back and forth, searching for whomever had cost her a life, and her eyes settled onto something small...blood red..and alive.

Mir grinned.  

[Kimaria]

The daughter of Eztli had never been afraid before. There had been no reason to be. She had been safe and protected and had never been so close to a strange lion or lioness before. But now, the pace of her heart had become rapid and her mouth dry and she shifted backwards in the dust, though her gold eyes seemed unable to move from the strange lioness before her. Red. Red just like her and her family, but with the wrong scent about her. Her little nose wrinkled as it filled with the strange smell of the other and then she sneezed - the act so violent it almost sent her off of her paws.

But despite the fact that she was afraid she knew, deep down, that her mother would never let anyone hurt her. One cry and the female would be there in moments! Perhaps she should call out! Maybe there would be battle and Xochipepe would be able to watch it play out! To think of what she could learn and witness! Her little paws kneaded at the ground in excitement and then, puffing out her chest, she declared in a loud voice: "What are you doing here? My mother won't be pleased if she smells you." She tried to give another snarl, though she seemed to struggle to make the folds on her nose sit right enough so that she looked vicious. Frustrated, her tail whipped behind her.

"So you should be afraid. Afraid just like those birds."  

[DragonsRage24]

Mir stepped closer to the child the...mass of living, glorious, breathing flesh. Fresh, she thought to herself, so young and fresh. But, she also thought, not yet matured, not yet strong. So she hesitated striking although her claws yearned for the taste of blood and feel of it in between her toes. Sneering she snarled as she came close to the child, so close in fact Mir pressed her nose against the cub's forehead and breathed in deeply, pulled away and began circling the female cub. Female, like her, but young, naive.

Fresh...a part of her kept thinking, and she had to withhold herself.

"You be glad breath still fills your lungs and that I've a respect for your father, whelp," snarling, Mir continued circling her, slowly, and as she passed the cub, now and then, she would stroke a paw down the child's spine.

"Your mother also would not be pleased to find you missing, or would you rather it the other way around?" Mir asked stopping before the girl. A crooked, crazed smile filled her face. "Afraid, oh no, my child, it is you who should be afraid...you've cost me a life today, and your parents ought to know my means of necessity for living...I am one of you, show some respect, whelp, or I shall have you fill the void that you've created."  

[Kimaria]

Xochipepe's little face scrunched up in confusion, a brow arching as she regarded the female as if she were talking utter nonsense. The words that came from the adult's mouth meant very little to the cub. She knew of death - of course - but it was a child's knowledge. She knew a bird 'died' when it became food, but lions were not food. Surely that meant lions did not die. So, as far as the child was concerned, this adult had to be sick. Mad? Maybe she'd fallen too hard on her head and scrambled up her brain? Xochipepe didn't think that was actually possible but now--now she wasn't so sure.

"You're a crazy lady." She blurted out, batting at Mir's paw and twisting so that she was facing the adult again. The little one might not exactly understand the meaning of the words but they did put her on edge. The fur on her back had puffed up in her fear - though she didn't seem to be aware of this reaction at all. "You don't know my father. I don't have a father." Her mouth tightened into an annoyed pout, though she took a step back - wary of that smile. "You're not one of us. You smell wrong. You're a stranger." And she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers...

Oops...

Her ears laid flat again, her lower jaw jutting in a weak attempt at defiance. "You should go back to your own home."  

[DragonsRage24]

At the child's words Mir seemed almost proud, "child, you've no idea what I am, though would you like to find out?" she graced her claws across the cubs back, claws barely touching the fur, "you've no idea how warm you are on the inside, and what is within you. IT has great value to me, but not yet, I could take you easily, but your end would bring me no strength, it has no woken within you yet."

One needs experience.

Although, Mir admitted to herself, she had taken the live of children.

"No father? Oh child, you are so mistaken." Mir dipped her head and let her face close to the cub's again, "do not say I am lying, I've seen his eyes and the face that mimics your own, if you continue being..oh, how do you children say, mean," her eyes narrowed, blind eye looking forward, glassy, "I could leave you without a mother as well. Would you want that?"

Go back home?

Mir laughed.

"I can go where I please, who are you to tell me what to do, I find home within life, but I cannot within you, you are too small to wear," she sneered. "But your mother...I think, might just be my size, hmm?"  

[Kimaria]

Xochipepe wanted to be brave. She really did. But the female was making her feel flighty and she bounced back away from the adult as the claws grazed the tips of her fur on her back. She expelled a breath of air - perhaps the cub version of a hiss - and hunkered down against the ground, her chin pressed to earth, forelegs extended. Her eyes rolled upwards to look at the adult, trying to be strong but clearly not practised enough to keep up the act when she truly was afraid.

"You couldn't hurt my mother." She replied, though the quivering in her body had her wondering...

No. No. Her mother was strong and brave and wonderful. That's why Xochi knew that she, one day, would be the same as her. Then this female wouldn't be talking down to her like this! "You can't wear me or my mother! We're lionesses!"

Lions didn't 'wear' other lions, right?

"You should stop telling silly stories. And you shouldn't talk to me like that. It's not right." Her heart was pounding the earth like a drum.  

[DragonsRage24]

"Silly stories? You think them a falsity, a dream? I'm children's worst nightmare's, child, nothing like seeing the wide eyes of a cub while I wear their mother or father away in the dark of night. You will understand someday. Just as you hunt prey for food, your mother, hunts, skin's animals to get at food to feed you, I hunt other things to give me strength and power..." she leaned close, "I hunt lionesses."

She pulled away and watched the child and sighed.

Ah, to be young and learning.

She hoped this day would prove a valuable lesson for the girl.

"I shall talk to you ho I wish, whelp, and you shall show respect to your elders, besides, "Mir leaned forward, craning her neck over the girl and gently, almost lovingly licked the girl's forehead, and tested the taste and scent on her tongue, "you wouldn't want me to become...what's the word...frustrated, would you?"

Mir sat back in the grass, watching the birds in the distance, they would return eventually, but Mir needed something now, "I am giving you a gift, child, another day, so learn this and learn this well. Become strong, stronger than you ever believed possible, for if one day you see me again, regardless of your father's blood," she whispered, "I may come for you."

Mir stood and took a step back and licked her lips.

"Now child, go to you mother, before I wish to grace her presence this night."  

[Kimaria]

She shivered, her fur on end as the fear rendered her almost incapable of movement. It was then that she learned hate. Hate for the female who made her feel this way. She was Xochipepe. A daughter of a proud and strong family. And this crazed female had happened by and snatched her strength from her in a single moment. Her pride had been wounded and she nurtured it into something stronger just as a child would. One day this would play out differently with her as the frightening monster and the crazed one cowering in the dust.

Her eyes squeezed closed as the female moved closer, licking her on the forehead in a fashion she'd expect of her own mother.

And when she was given leave to go, she tripped over her paws as she backed away, cursing herself inwardly at how frightened she truly was and at how obvious it was. Her eyes were wide as she continued to back away - as if she did not dare look away in case the adult changed her mind.

And then, at last, she turned and fled.

Later on, when the panic had been given time to abate, she would wonder whether the crazy female did actually know her father or whether that was some mad story, too.  

[DragonsRage24]

As the child fled, Mir licked her paws clean, stood and stretched. As hte child was out of sight, she headed towards where the birds fled up into the air in a panic like a black cloud, molding into one another like a buzzing, cackling haze. Mir was coming for them and they knew, but for one, it would be too late.

She took off after them and in one moment, Mir remembered this was the way to the firekin, and a lust was felt in her heart.

Playing with toys like birds was one thing.

But she wanted strength.

She wanted to steal somone's soul...a Firekin's true fire.

Her time was coming.