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 Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 2:54 pm
 Sarani was doing her best to become better at sneaking. It was a highly valued skill in her family, and if she wanted to find a place for herself in a viking band someday, she would have to be able to demonstrate her usefulness. She knew her fastidiousness about keeping clean would be an obstacle to overcome in that respect, so she would have to become the best sneak ever.
To that end, Sara was practicing her sneaking by picking targets at random and following them as they went about their days until she was noticed. It didn't matter who noticed her. If a random person noticed her, she lost her game. If the person she was following noticed her, she really lost her game. So far there were no consequences for losing, but simply losing was bad enough. Sara didn't like to lose any more than she liked to get her pristine white paws dirty.
And now she saw her next target...
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 3:01 pm
 Lofn was very much her mother's daughter... In fact, one might have gone so far as to say that she was a little bit too much like her. Quite frankly, if anyone happened to know this particular cubs family, then they would have realised very quickly that she had inherited the traits of both parents. Unfortunately, that meant that she was both observant and bit lacking in tact.
Today was to be of no exception, she had at least been given permission to explore (after being caught out of the corner of her mother's eye sneaking away), and now she had put just enough distance between herself and her mother to see the 'interesting' stuff. What was deemed to be interesting to a cub remained to be seen, but on this occasion it didn't take long for something to catch her attention.
...It came in the form of another cub.
For a while, Lofn merely watched, attempting to work out exactly what the paler cub was hoping to achieve. However, after observing for a whole minute, the youngster soon found herself bored and made for a more direct approach. This came in the form of her plodding along after Sarani with rather less 'grace' than Sarani probably appreciated, if she hadn't yet noticed the purple cub though, she was certainly about to.
"Whatcha doin'...?" she asked at last in a curious, rather musical tone.
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 3:07 pm
Sara nearly jumped out of her skin when another cub spoke to her. She didn't know how long Lofn had been watching her, but if she had known it was longer than a few moments, she would have been thoroughly disgusted with herself for failing to notice that she was being followed. Fortunately, she was unaware of her lapse, and thought it was just a moment of being noticed.
She hissed something inappropriate for a cub to be saying under her breath. It wasn't directed toward the purple-pawed cub. It was meant for the universe at large. Still, it was possible the other cub would think Sara was swearing at her, and she knew that she ought to apologize.
"Sorry. Hey. I was playing a game. I lost."
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 3:11 pm
A series of rapid blinks followed Sarani's apology, and then the cub simply shook her head. Water off a duck's back as it were, it seemed she hadn't taken offence and instead, was more curious about what the pale cub had been doing.
"A game?" She drew closer and inspected the area around her, glancing here and there in an attempt to discern what it might have been that she was doing. Beyond maybe not stepping on a crack or two in the soil, Lofn's imagination didn't quite extend far enough to realise that Sarani might have been tailing someone instead.
"What are the rules?" she asked and tilted her head to the side. "Can I play?"
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 3:15 pm
"A game," Sara agreed, stalling for time as she tried to figure out how she could explain the game, and if it could actually be adapted for two people to play.
"I pick a person to follow, and if I'm noticed by anyone while I'm following them, I lose." It occurred to her as she explained that just as she had failed to establish penalties for losing, she had also failed to decide what would constitute winning.
"I guess you could play, but I don't know how to make it a two-person game. Do you know any other games we could play?" Because Sara had more or less exhausted her creativity it seemed, and would be content to play something else if it was fun.
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 3:23 pm
"Ooooh, so kinda like how my mom used to sneak after my dad and pop up to scare him," Lofn seemed to acknowledge this, she could see how being discovered would be noted as a loss as they would lose the element of surprise. Granted, Sarani might not have had that intention, but on this occasion it seemed fortune favoured her - after all, when one was practicing how to sneak, who better than to try and team up with than the daughter of a stalker, right?
Except Lofn couldn't sneak to save her own life at the moment, she was much too noisy.
"She used to steal his stuff too," she confessed and then rubbed her chin thoughtfully. The little cogs in her head seemed to spin as she contemplated how best to make this a two-player game, but surely this was simple enough.
"We could see if we can get that band off his tail without him noticing," Lofn pointed towards an unsuspecting Freeborn with a surprising amount of subtlety. "Need to be extra sneaky and if we win then we get a prize!" She paused. "Except if we lose then we might get yelled at but mommy always did say you had to take some risks in life!"
Admittedly, Naima had said this to their father, not her cubs, but Lofn wouldn't have been a normal cub if she hadn't eavesdropped now would she?
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 3:33 pm
As unusual as it might sound, Sarani wanted to be a reaver, but had never given much thought to the theft part of that lifestyle. When Lofn mentioned that her mother used to steal things from her father, it sank in what Sara was going to be doing with the rest of her life. It was a truly exciting prospect. She would have to practice though.
"We could do that," she said slowly. It wasn't reluctance that made her speak slowly. It was thoughts of how she could get that band off the lion's tail which slowed her speech.
"I'm not scared to get yelled at. Besides, we'll only get yelled at if we get caught, right? So we just won't get caught." Because it was as simple as that. Obviously.
There was a distinct possibility that at some point in the future Sarani would borrow that scare and steal from her potential mate as part of their courtship. It was a good idea, and one well-suited to Sara. Or at least to the lioness Sara would grow up into.
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 3:43 pm
"Yup, that's how it works!" Lofn gave a confident nod. She had never actually tried this particular game before and had no idea whether she even possessed the ability to sneak with quite as much skill as her counterpart. She really did have the potential to throw a spanner in the works and thoroughly disappoint Sarani in the process... but it wasn't as if Lofn had promised she was any good at sneaking, only her mother was.
"And even then," Lofn raised a paw, adopting a dignified expression in an attempt to look more mature. "I know the super secret trick to d-d-d hm..." she paused briefly to collect her thoughts. "Diffuse? Yes! That one! I know how to diffuse the situation if we get caught," she soon patted her nose in a trust me kind of way and gave a nod.
"So we might even win anyway and still get the prize, just gotta be smart about it, mhm!" She peered back towards her newfound victim, who seemed to be dozing in the sun. For now, he remained unaware of their presence but whether that would last or not remained to be seen...
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 3:50 pm
Sara wondered if the two of them ought to come up with some sort of plan of attack, but she was not really accustomed to working with others in her games. She'd done it once before, but that had been a different scenario. That time she'd just been using someone as a lookout while she sneaked down to the river to wash her paws after dinner.
"Let's hope we don't have to use your trick," she said with a quick expression which was almost a smile,but passed too quickly to be really easily pegged as anything.
"Like you said, we just have to be smart. He doesn't even look like he's paying all that much attention. Probably he won't even wake up. Grown-ups can be pretty slow about figuring out what's going on." Not the grown-ups in her family, really, but other grown-ups.Epine de Rose Do you want to just end it with the two of them starting the game and leaving the outcome a mystery? I'm going to have to leave in about ten minutes.
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 3:57 pm
"The ones that don't go out all the time are usually slow," Lofn agreed with a grin.
Now that Sarani had agreed to participate in this particular game, one which probably had higher stakes than she had initially intended, things were going to get interesting. Lofn was perhaps far more invested than she should have been given how short a time had passed, but now that she had a partner in crime, it would be such a shame to pass up the opportunity.
Lacking the foresight that Sarani had, the purple cub wasn't really one for plans and as a consequence she had taken a leaf out of her mother's book and proceeded to wing it. It wasn't long before Lofn was nonchalantly meandering towards the dozing lion in typical cub fashion. She seemed to have no specific direction to be wandering in and as such, for now she was undetected.
Whether or not she and Sarani would be able to maintain the facade, and whether or not Lofn managed to succeed in becoming quieter as she drew closer, would be a story for them to recount at another time...Princess_Feylin We can leave it as a mystery. I'll finish this up on a cliff hanger/commencing the game and we can call it done! x3
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