Huǒ Wūyā was returning from his patrol, ready to report his findings. It had been a very quiet shift, but that was usually the best sort of shift. Everything was quiet, without being too quiet to set off any alarm bells in his head. Ever since coming here, he felt like this place must be somewhat like his mother's homelands. He hadn't been here for long, but it was easy for some of the youngsters to think otherwise. He was middle-aged, with a tinge of greying around his eyes and nose. He was strong, as his firekin blood blessed him with strength, and he trained the best he could when he wasn't on shift. It was a quiet existence, but the only thing that Wuya could think of to make it better would be a wife. There were a couple lionesses he had seen around the North, but he made sure to not give any eyes to those in the ruling family. No, if one of them fancied him, he knew that they would do the approaching, and not the other way around. Though he was rogue-born and raised, he was smart enough to not cross certain lines in the social structure that grew in Tianxia.Di Zhenhan noticed the newer recruit returning from his patrol and decided to interrupt his path. "Good to see you, Wuya," he said as he approached. Though Wuya was a large lion, Di himself was fairly large as well. It seemed that those with strength and stature naturally found themselves attracted to the North house. "Off to give your report?"
"Yes," Wuya replied, a bit surprised to get interrupted, but he didn't mind. Though his career path was not the same as Di's, it was still nice to visit with someone who had more experience in his career of choice. "It was uneventful, though I'm sure you would know that. Scouts seem to go further out than the normal patrols."
"Yes," Di replied, sizing up Wuya as he spoke. "It is a bit more loose than set patrols. I'm sure you'd guess as much."
Wuyu nodded, though he gestured for Di to follow him as he began walking again. "At times. Its work that needs to be done, though sometimes I wonder what good it does. It seems almost too quiet around here sometimes, besides the wandering rogues that get turned away from here. I don't know, sometimes I feel like there should be a little more going on than there is, but perhaps that's because we don't have enough bodies filling in the ranks. I'm sure more slips past than we all agree, but....eh."
"They do," Di replied. "It is how someone such as yourself petitions to join, though the smarter route is to petition to the guard for safe passage to the Lord." It always worked better to pledge loyalty to him and start from the bottom ranks. Equipped with that knowledge, he made sure to tell what few rogues he came across, but many of them didn't show an interest. They just wanted to get out of pridal lands before being attacked.
"Yeah well....hey, you don't have a wife yet, do you?" A change of subject is what the black and white lion wanted, as he didn't really want to talk about himself at the moment, and all of his mistakes and downfalls. He felt like there really weren't that many of them, but regardless he didn't want to think of them. "I mean, there doesn't seem to be that many females around that aren't...well..." He gestured, sure that Di knew what he meant.
"You mean high class, right?" Di said with a glare to Wuya. "No, though some of them aren't bad, there's definitely one that you need to steer clear from. The yellow one named Lian Baozuo. She's got a thorn in her side that no one can pull out, and don't even try."
Wuya was a little surprised to hear Di say so much at one point in time. "Well then, that makes things a bit difficult." He pondered on that for a moment as the two walked on in silence, clearly thinking about his prospects.
"You could always ask for an arraignment," Di added. "You may get a girl from a different house that you wouldn't meet otherwise. It won't be easy if you don't have family, but I'm sure the Lord or one of his underlings could set it up. Regardless of the inconvenience, we need numbers. Marriages would certainly help that out." It was obvious that there was a tiny number of recruits, and if something happened they may be in trouble.
"Yeah? I didn't know that, interesting....thanks for helping me out a bit on this, even if you don't have any solid leads," Wuya said with a laugh. "I guess it couldn't hurt to start down this path. I'm not in a hurry, but it can't hurt my career if I got married at some point along the line."
"Sure." Di didn't mind helping, even if he himself wasn't all that interested in finding a wife right now. If ever. He was pretty content with where he was, and the only thing he really wanted to do was be a mentor and stick to his scouting duties. If Wuya here was able to get himself a wife and have cubs, Di would offer to help mentor them and get their paths set for their careers in the North house. He felt like that would be a win/win for everyone involved.
"Well, I think its time for me to split," Wuya said with a nod. "I gotta go submit my report whether it was unevenetful or not. Hopefully I can talk with you soon, and you can let me know what it is you know of the few females around here," he added with a wink. "I ain't in a hurry, but it something works out for the better I wouldn't mind starting now." With a respectful bow, the black and white lion whistled softly as he walked away, leaving Di to watch him.
"Well, I better warn the girls," he said to himself, shaking his head and trying to suppress a chuckle. There was a male that was raring to go, and perhaps one of the girls around here would show an interest. He wouldn't know until he told them, and if they showed any bit of interest he'd set up a meeting. Couldn't hurt. The worse thing that would happen is they wouldn't get along and go their separate ways. With the girls he knew as hunters, that wouldn't be to hard for them to accomplish. With a wag of his tail he turned to find them immediately, feeling like life might get a bit more interesting around here.
(1,136 words)