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 Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2013 2:52 pm
Supposed mentor.
Shula hadn't approached Azar since their first encounter, but if there was one thing she had been vocal about, it was that. If the pride wasn't so isolated, so out of the way from much of the world around them, perhaps she'd have strayed from her aspirations. Cubs wanted to be all sorts of things when they were small. Very few knew what it met to truly commit to something. Whether or not Shula could be counted amongst those potential prodigies, she was fast approaching Azar's den early that morning.
Really early.
Kind-of-still-night-time early.
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Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 10:15 am
Hopefolly Sorry for delay. Azar is being a pain to write D: but I think I got there in the end.
--and Azar'bijan hated it.
Since the rains had come, the situation seemed to have calmed and the Nergui had retreated back to whatever hole they had come out from (or so it seemed). There had been little reports from the other guards, except the odd distant passer by, and certainly no other attacks. In fact, if Azar didn't know better, he would have said that the Firekin had quite moved on and forgotten about it as if it were all a bad dream.
The Nergui. The spies. The attacks. The death. The drought.
All of the bad times washed away with those rainstorms.
But Azar had not forgotten and he was certain the rest of the military had not, even if they were good at pretending. And hey, maybe it was over and the Nergui had come to the conclusion that they really had no hope in the desert. Or - more likely - this was the calm before the storm. Perhaps something was brewing out there in the north, beyond their scope. Hell, with the way things were going at the moment, Azar was almost hoping that his paranoia would prove correct. He wanted to feel the fire of a fight again. To join his comrades in battle. To rise victorious and claim the glory he had dreamed of (and earned) since a young cub. He was fed up of waiting. Fed up of being born during a time of peace with only the wavering thread of battle; always out of reach.
There was no glory to be had in guarding a border that nobody threatened...
Still, with his wounds from his fight with Fia now fully healed, he was at least now sleeping comfortably, nestled in the embrace of his sloped den, his back to the slight draft coming in from the night.
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 2:40 pm
There was pride to be had in guarding the borders, whether or not they were threatened. In honor of that mindset, Shula sat with rigid posture and watchful eyes outside Azar's den. No reaper would come calling for him anytime soon, yet she stayed at her post with the dedication of someone protecting a lion on death's door. Pride was more important than glory, but duty more important than pride.
So no matter how long he slept, she would be there, waiting. Even if he slept all morning and all day and never came out. Even if it meant getting no recognition this time.
...but he was going to get up soon, right?
Against her better judgement and at risk of tarnishing her patience's flawless track record, Shula caaaarefully peeked around the corner and toward the slumbering brute.
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 2:53 pm
There was someone else there. Even in sleep, there was an itch in the back of his mind. He could practically feel the eyes on him, watching from the shadows, flitting through the darkness of his dreams, taunting him and poking him and laughing again and again until the echoes churned into one and became the roar of the wind overhead.
Azar'bijan startled awake with a loud snort, shaking his head as he lifted it to glance blearily around his den. The fur on his shoulders had prickled upright, though it smoothed almost immediately upon waking.
Stupid dreams.
He exhaled with a gruff sound of frustration and stretched the muscles in his shoulders, shifting his position so that he could try and determine whether it was worth attempting to sleep again before his morning routine began. Sometimes it was better to just get up and make an early start on things rather than scraping a bit more sleep and wake up feeling even worse than before.
Still, he did not expect to see the shimmer of eyes at the entrance of his den.
His heart gave a surprised sort of twist in his chest and suddenly he was lurching to his feet, a growl on his breath as he lumbered to the entrance of his den, puffing angrily at having his home intruded upon by some sneaking stranger.
"What's the meaning of this?!" he grumbled, flattening his ears. "There better be some sort of emergency."
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:05 pm
Some might criticize Azar'bijan, given his rank and arrogance, for allowing a puny lioness barely out of cubhood to startle him. That someone would be Niu, but fortunately for him, she had an early shift and hadn't met her keep-Azar's-ego-in-check quota today.
One could almost hear the roll of his neighbors' eyes. There he went again, stomping around in righteous dudgeon. That was, of course, not how Shula saw it. What she saw was a lion ready to go to war at a moment's notice.
Shula flattened her ears too.
No, that wouldn't do. Straighten up!
"I was just waiting for you to wake up."
Missed opportunity to not be lame, Shula.
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:17 pm
Waiting for him to wake up? Was he forgetting something? Who was this little brat come waking him up at this hour, anyway? White. Mostly. A splash of colour on her back--
--he squinted his eyes as if that would miraculously bring him an answer. For a moment there was nothing, his memory empty and rattling as he scraped around for a name, for anything that might tell him what she was doing here. And then, quite suddenly, it hit him like a rock straight between the eyes. He did know this cub and she wasn't here on some sort of errand.
She was...she was...
"My name is not 'Kid', my name is Shula," she drawled. "--Sir."
"And I'm gonna be a guard --"
He sighed, snapping at the memory with a sharp clip of his teeth. Damn it all, was she really old enough now? And she hadn't decided to do something else?
"Still not learned any manners, I see," he grumbled, dragging himself from his den and shaking the sand particles from his fur. "You better have a good reason for waking me up." Of course, he had already guessed at the reason, but maybe he could scare her off before she asked and he could get an early start on his training--in peace.
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:41 pm
Shula had grown too much to be shooed away by Azar's base level hostility. If he were to yell and make demands, if he fired off some truly acrid remarks, then she could be convinced to back down. As it were, she kept her posture in check and her eye contact was unwavering.
Assuming things about others was not a pastime Shula indulged in. She hadn't meant to gloat about her theoretical apprenticeship as if she knew he'd agree. After she'd said it once, there was no taking it back. That he could refuse her was not of the question, but she feared failure and the criticism of her peers more than his foul mood. What would Kerra think if she ended up a liar?
I didn't wake you up, Shula thought. No point wasting time on that; he hadn't asked for her opinion, so she kept it to herself. "I'm old enough now. I want to learn." From him preferably, but she had already made a list of backups. "I can help," she continued in her next breath. So serious for such a tiny thing. "For when we're attacked again. Everyone pretends it's okay, but it's not, is it?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:19 am
The denial to accept her was on the tip of his tongue. He'd even gone so far as to begin to frame the 'no' that would begin the blunt sentence. And then she went and said it. The one thing he knew, deep in his gut. That the danger was not over. There was trouble brewing somewhere out there and someone needed to be ready for it.
Azar's eyes flared open, his mouth clipping shut; closing off the refusal before it had even begun. She was an astute cub, that was for sure. Perhaps there was some redeemable qualities in her that set her up apart from the others. For, if he was going to be honest, he'd not had many apprentices since becoming a guard. There had been his own son Heti, of course, whom he'd studiously trained - and with little love, patience or understanding. Next had been Hraga and that apprenticeship had come about by accident - the cub being thrust open him by his mother, No. Azar'bijan was not about to disobey that scary female any time soon. Still, despite the rocky beginning, he liked to think that Hraga and he had eventually reached an understanding. Whatever the case, the lad had come a long way since that day of their first meeting.
And now, here he was again, being faced with another prospective student.
Realizing, suddenly, that he'd been silent for an unusual amount of time since she'd spoken, he cleared his throat and looked down at her. He knew that students were a symbol for one's own talents. Knew that having an apprentice would bring him much higher esteem and yet Azar also knew that it would all be for nothing if those students turned out less than perfect. Still, he'd worked miracles with Heti and Hraga. At least this female had the base gut instincts that he had--and at such an early age, too. When he had been that young he'd been too busy bullying the other cubs and trying to barrel his way headfirst into everything.
"Just keep that thought to yourself kid. Don't want to go around scaring the other babies," he drawled. Then, with an acknowledging snort, he stepped around her and took a few steps in the direction of the training ground. Only then did he pause to look back at her.
"What are you standing around for?" his words snapped like a whip. "Since we're both awake and you're being so bloody insistent, I suppose we better test out how good you are." His eyes narrowed. "But this doesn't mean I'm saying yes. You have to prove yourself first, understand?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:48 am
With her natural affinity for promoting security it was practically inevitable Shula would know something was amiss. No one was ever truly safe and if they could attack once, why not again? She had a lot of time on her paws to listen to the adults. They spoke of it rarely, but a little went a long way. Azar himself had taught her the taboo word: Nergui.
If the Nergui come the guards will be the first there to stop them.
Wunderkind Shula was not, but her dedication exceeded any rational expectations one could have for a juvenile. If she were more adept at socializing, someone likely would have noticed her penchant for structure and budding tactical skills because a group would draw the eye. As it was, Shula was just another youngster who often bossed around her only friend. No one loitered long enough to realize every game she chose consisted of agonizing over their positions to better watch for imaginary enemies and brainstorming the best maneuvers should they appear.
Then again, if she had the support of many, she could have gone on to apprentice to one of their parents, older siblings, aunts or uncles. They might have undermined her and told her not concern herself with the Nergui. They could have brushed it off in the name of preserving blissful youth as those like Shunqa claimed for the best.
She was still young and her knowledge scattered pieces of a puzzle only time could bring together. That these Nergui were lions like her -- in the sense that were real, and had families and friends of their own -- was for now out of reach. They seemed to exist only to feud with the Firekin, and on a similar note, Shula often felt she was here only to help win.
She wasn't sure whether or not to take the looming silence as a good sign and didn't take it upon herself to assume one way or the other. All she could do was wait, watch, and listen. The same things she'd always done.
""Just keep that thought to yourself kid. Don't want to go around scaring the other babies."
Did that mean...?
"What are you standing around for?"
Shula made quick work of getting from Point A to Point B, the latter being at Azar's side.
"But this doesn't mean I'm saying yes. You have to prove yourself first, understand?"
"I will -- and my name is Shula."
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:03 pm
He looked down at her as she closed the gap between them and wondered whether he'd just made a mistake in giving her that 'maybe' answer. Was he going soft in his old age or something? Wait. Old? He wrinkled his snout in distaste at the thought and snapped his eyes up to the horizon. Well, he might not be old, but his days of youth seemed far behind him now. Back when he'd bullied huria, spent days in an angry sulk when he learned he was to apprentice as a guard instead of a soldier and then got himself into that whole sorry situation with his ex-mate. Some lions might look back fondly on their youth, but Azar'bijan knew that his life right now was pretty good, despite everything.
Despite the little one now trotting along at his side...
"Fine, Shula, we'll start with three laps of the training ground," he began in his gruff tone. "And you'd better be quick, because once that sun comes up, you won't want to be running in it."
And then a few practise drills. See how well she could throw up a defensive posture. Maybe he could grab one of the other apprentices as a 'victim'. Heh, yeah, that might be a good idea. Who knows. Maybe that useless son of his would be there to play that part.
Without warning, he quickened his pace, not bothering to make sure that his potential student was keeping up. He already knew she would be.
/fin
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