He was late. As if the day hadn't started out bad enough with Gala's insistence on remembering her mother, now she was having to stay up late to wait for an old drunk fool to stumble his way to her doorstep. Unfortunately she couldn't do the ritual without the trinkets, so she had to wait for him. In fact, she had considered sending Raki out to find the beaten down ex-reaver, but preferred to keep her thrall close at hand in case anything came up. It was all very frustrating and Thokk was more than ready to lay down and sleep for the few hours she would be allowed for tonight. For in the morning, she would need to go through the process of finalizing all the components and securing a final specimen. She wondered if that was easy than it sounded.Magnus just so happened to be walking up the stony path that led to the priestess' dens at that very moment. His large, stout frame shuffling and wobbling as he walked. The ex-reaver loved his mint, and in turn it loved him too! It made him feel so fuzzy on the inside, and made him forget the pain and the anger that burned and choked him from the inside. Like an ever present disease his left hind leg struggled to keep up with the rest of his body, the old ache familiar to the aging lion. Nonetheless, priestess Thokk had asked him to bring her something, and he would not disappoint! Nearly at her den now, the waning hours of daylight slipping away, he boastfully called out, "Hey, I'm here! You in there, priestess Thokk?" His words were also slightly slurred. It was no secret just how off his a** drunk he was at the moment.
By the gods, they were certainly testing her today! Thokk couldn't help the fur that stood on end at Magnus' sudden booming voice, and she quickly slipped out of her den to meet him. "Yes, I am here. Now follow me", she hissed at him, casting an unnerved glance at the neighboring dens. If she had wanted to wake the entire pride she would have done so herself. The priestess could not help but feel contempt for the bumbling fool, and wished sorely for the encounter to come to a quick end. "This way", she urged, watching the old lion stumble his way after her. If this wasn't necessary, she certainly wouldn't have invited him over.
Cheerfully oblivious to Thokk's hostility toward him, Magnus continued up the path after her. Quite addled by the uphill climb, the old lion had a difficult time keeping up. His old aches and pains may have been numbed by his drunken stupor, by they were making sure he knew they were still there. His leg was the worst of it all, the little attention whore that it was. It liked to lock up on him every once in awhile, with grinding joints and jolts of sharp pain that shot up into his hip every other step or so. Not to mention that it had a pace of its own! Damn thing couldn't keep up with the rest of him. When finally they reached the tippy top of the path and entered the den, Magnus couldn't believe just how dark it had gotten! "Whew girl, you can't live in the dark for yur whole life. You should get some sun in here." It sounded like a perfectly reasonable request to the drunken lion, of course.
If she fed him poison, would anyone really care? She was sure it would be easy, he'd probably eat anything she offered him. "Its a cave Magnus, its suppose to be dark", she growled at him off-handedly, agitated by his stupor. She glanced back at him, suddenly realizing that he hadn't been carrying anything with him, and was about to snap at the idiot when she noticed the pair of tattered, ragged bracers he wore on around his legs. Her expression hardened into something close to contempt. "You said you would take care not to damage them on the way here", she told him in hushed, venomous tones. No one was around to see them, if her claws just so happened to strike him in his stupid face no one would know. And she was certain he wouldn't remember when he awoke with his hangover in the morning.
"Oh. Yeah, I knew that", he replied as he plopped his rump down to sit. He still thought she could do something to get some light in here, its not like he had waited all day to bring her this stuff. Er, well, it hadn't been dark when he had started anyway, and he may have stopped for a few snatches of mint along the way. Huh, that explained why it had gotten harder to see along the path. When Thokk mentioned the bracers he glanced down at them, suddenly worried that they had fallen apart on the way over. They hadn't, thankfully. "I've not touched them since your father gave them to me, other than tonight. He wore them into battle you know, did you expect them to look all pretty?" he laughed at the idea. Thokk's father had been quite the fighter, and Magnus would have made fun of him endlessly if he had actually taken better care of these bracers. They were a warrior's pride and joy, with as many battle scars as its owner had once had. Magnus hiccuped as he brought his giant paws up to his maw one by one to undo the strings that held the tattered pieces of leather around his leg. For such a large, obviously battle scared lion, Magnus was actually quite delicate in the removal of the bracers, and then carefully setting them down. He had kept them all these years, as a reminder of a comrade and a friend. "Take good care of these, girl. They're worth more to me than my own." To be honest, he wasn't even sure what she needed them for.
Thokk watched him with a little bewilderment at his assertion that they had seen battle. That made sense, but the priestess was in no mood to start apologizing to a drunken slob. "They'll be fine", she assured him, slightly miffed that he'd think she'd toy with them or something. They were important to the ritual, thus they were important to her and would not be harmed in her care. At least not until the ritual was complete and she was allowed to do what she wished with them. Either way, she was fairly certain Magnus would not be seeing them again. "You may leave now." She waited expectantly for him to leave, their business concluded.
He could not keep his eyes off the old artifacts of a once-lived life. He and Thokk's father had gone a-viking many times together in their youth, and Magnus owed his life- no matter how wretched it was now- to that old warrior. To be honest, he wasn't certain if he deserved to be the one left alive, as it was his rescue that had crippled Thokk's father so badly, and eventually drove him to find his final glory. He had planned on retiring after that... to spend the rest of his life with his family in glory and honor. Magnus glowered down at his own paws, before lifting his gaze to Thokk. The poor girl. "Your mother made these for him, as a wedding present. I don't think he ever went a-viking without them after that. He claimed she had blessed them with luck and protection", he laughed heartily, his stupor returning. "s**t, I have to piss."
It was her luck that her two visitors would be old lion living in the past. First Gala and now Magnus! She honestly didn't care to remember her parents in happy way, and was quite sore at Magnus for bringing it up. If they had meant so much to each other, they wouldn't have done what they did, and they wouldn't have left Thokk all alone with this stupid curse. To find true love. That is what her mother had cursed her with during her dying breathes, just loud enough for Thokk to hear as she watched her mother slip away from the poison. She saw what true love did to them, and Thokk wanted no part of it. She almost missed that last part Magnus laughed out, and the lioness practically screamed at him, "Not in here! Get out!" She wasn't sure how close to shrieking she had come to, but she was about ready to chase him out when he got up on his own accord. For gods sakes, she hated that lion!
Magnus couldn't help the laughter that boomed from his voice, but nonetheless he got up to leave. He had in fact forgotten what he had been talking about earlier, but he was sure it had been funny! Maybe? He wasn't exactly sure, but the mint intoxication had picked up fully again and the old lion stumbled away in blissful ignorance. Like nothing had ever happened. He hoped Thokk took good care of those bracers, they meant a good deal to him. He paused. Maybe he should go back and tell her so? Naw, they'd be fine. She was his daughter, she wouldn't do anything to disgrace his memory. Satisfied, Magnus wobbled his way back home.
(Word Count: 156 cool
