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 Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:53 pm
 Ombra had been wandering for so long now. She wasn't sure entirely where she was. She had seen deserts and forests, mountains and vast beds of water along sandy beaches but she hadn't seen home. She'd crossed paths with countless lions, leopard, dogs, and hyena, but none of them were related to her and many were not the slightest bit friendly, or enjoyed her humor.
Currently, she was hold up in a small cave along the side of a rock outcropping. She wasn't entirely sure where she was, and as a result didn't know how close to her home and her family she had managed to come. Cloaked by the shadow of the cave, the black as night lioness stared out into the open waiting for someone to slink by. She hoped they drug by food so she could ambush them and take their leavings, but she wasn't against someone simply to scare.
She missed how easy it was to scare people at home. Wherever home was.
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Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:48 pm
 Usually Alaric did not go in for scouting. He preferred to send less senior reavers as advance scouts and work from their reports, but in this instance the lion he'd sent had returned with some ridiculous story about haunted shadows. Oh, he tried to play it off like it was nothing, but the reaver had clearly been shaken by whatever he'd seen, and that was enough to pique Lars' interest. He had asked for and received his captain's permission to investigate.
The blond lion retraced the reaver's steps, following his scent and the careless signs of his passage. He would have to take that up with the reaver upon his return. Just because they were still fairly close to the pride didn't mean the young idiot could afford to be careless. So far he also didn't see any sign of haunted shadows, although there was a cave, and that looked promising.
"There had better be a damn terrifying shadow monster in here," Lars growled softly.
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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:44 am
Ombra heard the stranger approaching from outside the cave and her eyes widened in the darkness. Picking up what light filtered into the depths, she could see the shape of a large cat outside the mouth of the cave. Judging by the way it carried it's weight, she figured it was either a lion or a lion-hybrid.
Quietly, Ombra inched herself to the closest wall of the cave that light did not touch, her dark coat and eyes blending into it. Perhaps she would have fun with this intruder of her space. It'd been awhile since she had the opportunity to give a good scare, and the last lion that had come her way frightened far too easy. Much like a baby who didn't understand the face hiding game. Maybe this one would give her a real nice yell.
She heard the lion grumble to himself, and a sliver of a smile crept onto her face. It looked like he was a friend of whatever baby lion she frightened a little while back. At least this one was coming prepared. It was even more fun when they were skeptical or cautious. She watched the male's form carefully, although because of the low light she couldn't exactly see his features.
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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:55 am
Lars was cautious going into the cave. He was a large lion and a skilled fighter, but caves were different. For one thing, they were confined spaces, which made his size less of an advantage and more of a liability. Plus, most of what he knew about fighting worked best if he could see, and this cave was quickly becoming too dark for that. How deep was the damned cave anyway.
"Look, this is stupid," he said aloud, speaking in the common language rather than Old Myrsky, although he still had an accent that added an extra growl to his words. Lars was clever at many things, but languages were not his forte, and at home he preferred to speak exclusively in the ancestral language of the Myrsky Syntynyt. The recent influx of outlanders had made that somewhat more challenging, since they didn't understand, but he didn't much care about their comprehension difficulties. Their accented common was difficult for him.
"Just show yourself, or don't. I'm not hunting and I won't hurt you if you don't give me a reason to." Lies. If it turned out to be anything he thought potentially dangerous or useful, he'd hurt or kill it as needed. But telling people that you might kill them didn't tend to go over well.
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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:19 am
Ombra's brows furrowed for a moment as the male spoke aloud. Something about the way he was speaking sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. She swore she had heard that accent before, but it seemed like a distant memory barricaded by the other foreign accents she had heard on her travels. Still, it bugged her but she shrugged it off. This was supposed to be fun, not frustrating.
Ombra watched the male tread cautiously as he delved farther into the cave. He couldn't see where he was going and she delighted in this fact. The less sure they were of their surroundings the better they would scare, especially when they were talking to themselves that much. At least, that was her experience. Something about this male still made her feel off, even during this game, but she would not allow it to distract her. If she did, he might find her and it would be bad for both of them.
As the large male passed by where Ombra stood, she leaned in somewhat and blew air at his ears, dipping down gingerly towards the ground afterwards.
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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:41 am
Lars wouldn't have considered it overreacting that he snarled and snapped his teeth in the direction of the sudden breeze. In a cave where there should have been no moving air, it was perfectly reasonable to be suspicious of unexpected breezes. His lips remained curled back from his teeth as he shifted, his tail sweeping broadly to find the nearest wall to orient himself against.
"Last chance," he warned. "I've got your scent now, and I'll hunt you down if you give me further reason to."
He didn't quite have the scent, to be honest, but he would in a moment. Especially if he could manage to draw blood. He was pretty damn good at tracking blood. Most reavers got to be, very quickly. Though he might just make the younger idiot track this one, as punishment for being such a flower-blooded moron. He didn't think the captain would object.
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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 10:12 am
Ombra's smile curled upwards, almost betraying her location with a small glimpse of white teeth. She definitely was enjoying this game, and her partner in it. He was fun, this male, especially with his bluffs. He he had her scent, he would have hit her by now instead of looking around and swatting aimlessly. And this would be an entirely different sort of game at this point. For a brief moment she wondered if this is how Burzum and her would have played if they had been given the chance to grow up together.
Feeling a little more rambunctious than she ought to be in this situation, Ombra slinked slowly several paces to the male's side until she could make out his leg. She darted out a pink, wet tongue and quickly licked up the side of his leg before slinking towards the mouth of the cave along the darker wall.
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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 1:10 pm
For Alaric this wasn't a game, but when he was very obviously licked when he could have been bitten he quickly revised his estimation of the situation and allowed that perhaps someone else was playing a game.
"All right," he muttered in Old Myrsky. "Let's play."
He bared his teeth in a feral grin as he ducked his head and let his mane fall forward to shade his eyes. Glancing toward the mouth of the cave would leave him more blind for seeing in the darkness, but he was fairly certain that was the direction his...opponent?...had moved in. It was still mere luck that allowed him to see the figure moving along the wall though.
Lars kept his head down and moved further into the cave, sidling along the wall and keeping his eyes on the other figure as he sank deeper into the shadows. How deep was this stupid cave, anyway? He had grown up in the Stronghold, and this was not so far away that he should have been unaware of its existence. That was a question for another time though. Right now...there!
He had a definite fix on the other creature's location, and he took advantage of it, plunging from the darkness at speed to tackle them.
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Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 8:31 pm
Something about the way this male was speaking grated at Ombra increasingly. She knew she recognized that way of speaking from somewhere, but she couldn't quite put where it was from. She couldn't pinpoint the place where this dialect came from out of all the places she'd been and she could feel like she should.
Her mouth twitched every time he spoke now, but she was more annoyed at herself than him. Still, this did not stop the twitch and occasional glint of white teeth that accompanied it which betrayed both her mood and her position against the wall. Thankfully, the male still couldn't see her as well as she could see him, but in the end that benefit did her no good as he was lucky with whatever gods he worshipped and in her distracted state he managed to guess right on her location.
Ombra didn't process it until after it had happened and she was starring up on the cold, mildly damp ground of the cave at a male lion with light hair and eyes the color of the sky in the morning hours. He had guessed correctly, found her, tackled her, and now she was starring up from beneath him on the ground.
Two waves of emotions flanked her mind at once, fighting for an outlet. On one hand, she wanted to laugh hysterically because he had managed to find her where his friend ran off scared like a little baby. On the other hand, she failed her game and he was touching her which she was overly not fond of. He didn't ask if he could touch her and that grated her about as much as her inability to place where his voice was from.
In the end a weird mixture of growling and then laughter escaped her dark face, but it was both breathy and hoarse at the same time. Like someone who once had a light and airy voice had been unsuccessfully strangled.
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Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 8:28 am
Lars grinned in toothy satisfaction at the success of his leap, but he did not remain atop his opponent for long. He'd gotten the information he needed: lioness, female, and probably not a danger if left alone. The question then became whether he ought to leave her alone, or make an attempt to capture her. The band wasn't supposed to be bringing in thralls on this viking, and hadn't brought much in the way of gear or reavers for that sort of thing. So she could be held, maybe, but it would be a pain and hinder them in their actual purpose.
His decision made, Lars stepped back and moved a few feet away, close enough that he could reach her if he changed his mind, but not covering her and squishing her either. The gods-awful sound she made before he moved had almost been enough to make him reconsider, but it was just noise. She hadn't attacked him. In fact, she'd had him in a position where she could have done, but had gone for something playful rather than violent. Playful.
"My point," he announced, speaking as clearly as he could in common. "But you're good."
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Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 1:40 pm
Ombra's mouth twitched again when his dialect switched over to the standard she'd heard all over the Rogue Lands. Back and forth, back and forth. They always had to switch like they were doing some sort of favor to you instead of just sticking with one way of speaking to make the conversation easier. For some reason she was reminded of some white male who did that to her, but she didn't actually remember ever being near said white male. She remembered him, but not ever being around him.
Dismissing the thought, she flopped over onto her side before raising herself up off the ground. She was a little on the muscular side for the average lioness, but still relatively small. One could argue she could be considered compact even, with how much muscle she retained in relation to her tiny size. Her size was something she inherited from her mother, who was quite petite and lithe. But she retained the hardness and muscularity of her father's family.
Now facing closer to the light it was even more obvious the advantage she probably had over Lars's reaving companion. She was dark black from tail to face, with eyes just as dark and face markings even darker. If it weren't for the shreds of light reflecting off her coat, her white teeth and her pink gums you'd barely even know she was there.
"Thanks," Ombra responded, her speech still hoarse sounding and breathy, but not nearly as grating as her guttural growl or laughter.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 7:55 am
It was still too dark for Lars to make out the markings on the lioness's face, but he could definitely tell that her coat was black. That would have made it easier for her camouflage herself, but he was still unwilling to cut the less experienced reaver she had terrorized any slack. He'd managed all right, despite her natural advantage.
"Do you have a name?" he asked.
It didn't really occur to him to wonder why he was bothering to hang around making conversation with the strange lioness now that he had figured out what he was dealing with. If pressed, he might have said that he found the fact she had licked him intriguing, but that was probably not it. Really, he was just tired of the company forced upon him by this viking and happy enough to have someone else to talk with to break up the monotony.
"I'm Alaric Lifson. Lars," he went on, offering his patronymic as well as his nickname.hibi-tea Sorry it took me so long to tag this. I forgot. redface
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