Ahali was happy today. He'd been happy a lot more often lately, since he'd just been getting better and better at hunting. Just earlier he'd caught a goat. Though, he was almost sure someone else around here had caught something, probably that weird lbue leopard, because today he found a kid. And so far, he didn't remember catching any female goat.
As for the kid, he'd caught it. But not killed it, right now he held it by the scruff in his jaws, the little animal barely bothering to kick anymore. Yet, why was it "important" to carry around the poor baby goat? It meant mating season had come and gone for the goats and now they'd had kids. It was always good to keep a peg on how the local herds were doing, wasn't there?
Reaching the cave he shared with his mate, Ahali flopped on his belly, letting go of the kid, if only to flop a paw onto it and keep it still. Amazing how small these little things were, huh. "Don't worry, I won't kill you. " He perked his ears at it. something this small was hardly a good treat anyway. Chances were he'd let it go. Or kill it quickly, seeing as its mother was apparently dead.
--
Afu had been sleeping away the morning, after a night spent ... somewhere. Likely, she had been prowling around the lands, and coming back, she had done what any sensible cat had done: sprawled out, soaking the sunlight into her dark pelt, before the heat had driven her sleepily into the recesses of the cavern, into the shade and lower temperatures. It did not, however, get as blazingly hot here as it did on the savannah below, and it wasn't too long after that she woke again as the evening drew near, slightly chilled.
To warm up, she decided to get moving again; but as soon as she gets on all four paws, she hears - and smells - Ahali coming in through the entrance beyond, his presence comforting. The lioness meanders through the series of caverns, lazily taking her time, until she gets to the outermost one, where she finds an ... well, an odd sight.
Purple eyes disappear into a blink as she takes in the goat kid's appearance, and she has to stare at it for about seven seconds before she realizes that yes, it's a goat child and yes, it is, in fact, alive. Not dead, which is the default position for anything that's dinner. "Ahali, what in blazes are you doing?" There's no anger or annoyance in her voice: just, for once, plain bafflement, and it looks like Ahali's managed to weasel out a genuine emotion from Afu today ... point to him.
--
At the familiar voice, Ahali paused for a minute, before smirking. "Showing off. " He flicked his tail tip contently, poking at the kid's cheek, the small herbivore not seeming to react. "The herds had kids. First time since we've been here. " He patted the small goat. "I found this one alone. Something probably killed its mom. " Absently, the large lion ran a paw over its scraggly fur.
For a growing pride, he at least assumed the herds not dying out was a... good thing. The kids were clumsy and silly, they'd hardly have to work hard to catch food for now, and it was a win-win situation anyways. More prey beast was always good, seeing as the usual herds didn't come up here.
--
Afu's ruffled fur settles back down a little, and she snorts, incredulously, but in self-control again. "To who?" She queries, raising an eyebrow. "Me, or the goat?" Her instincts twitch away at her to pounce on this cowering little thing, but she restrains them. She'd be a pretty poor Empress if she couldn't control those instincts. Her tail is the only thing that betrays her; it twitches erratically, and she abruptly moves to Ahali's other side and seats herself. You're not even hungry, she scolds herself.
A blink is given to Ahali. "That's right. Good to know about what time, too, if they have them the same time every year," she said thoughtfully, watching the hooved beast. "We can plan for when we're able to harvest them, and when we'll have slightly ... leaner times, unless we can send hunters down to the flats."
--
"Mhm. " He smiled, patting the little creature with a paw. With its hooves on the ground again, it seemed more restless, now actually trying to stand up despite the weight on its back. "As for this, " He poked its nose with a claw, and in retaliation the small thing let out a pathetic little noise, somewhere between a strangled "ba-aah" and a squeak.
At with Ahali folded an ear back. Easy on the vocals. "What do you wanna do? " He curled his tail, allowing it to settle on top of one of his hind legs, and wrinkling a whisker as it closed its mouth around one of his toes, trying hard to bite it, but he simply pulled his paw away then put it back. "Well, I see someone's getting daring. " He mumbled.
--
She wrinkles her nose slightly. It was a tough little bugger, that's for sure. But still ... a goat? They were for eating, although Afu's occasionally toyed with her meals before. She has no regrets about it: they were simply preybeasts, they were certainly not given the lofty status of a predator. Still, she's oddly squeamish about killing it here. To hide her discomfort, she snorts at her mate, flopping against his side. "You're the one who caught it, Hero. You decide."
--
Ahali twitched his tail tip, eying the pathetic little beast for a moment. He wasn't so keen on killing it now either. No only had he not been planning on it, he wasn't hungry. Waste not, eh? So instead, he merely bit a nick off its ear. Pulling his head back, Ahali examined the mark he'd made. It wasn't particularly big, actually. It looked exactly like something had bit off the tip of the ear, making the left one look "rounder" than the right. Otherwise, it didn't seem pretty damaged.
Afterwards, he tapped it lightly then let it go, shoving the dumbfound goat away as if nothing had happened and looking back at his mate, twitching his striped tail. The goat stared for a moment, then instinctively remembered these were dangerous lions-- one had just bit its ear! -- and hurried off, bounding up and down on the rocks. "I'd like to know if I see that one again. " Just for the heck of it. He didn't care for its wellbeing, after all.
He paused, looking away for a moment. Not much more to do now. Meh. Lazily, he reached out with a paw and prodded Afu. "Tag. " He mumbled lazily, then rolled over and stretched out. Not running away is an awesome way to play tag and you know it!
--
Afu watched, ears perked forward in curiousity, as Ahali 'tags' the creature. It looks oddly familiar, and she frowns deeply.
She stiffened as the goat bounded off, her entire body screaming at her to chase; it was an instinctive reaction that wasn't easily overcome, and she licked her shoulder compulsively for a few minutes before she was able to calm it. By then, though, she was able to recall why the gesture looked familiar.
"The two-leggers do that, to their cattle," she murmured, stretching. She'd gained a lot of respect - and envy - of the two-legged creatures down on the plains. The female had even managed to kill a cow or two before being driven off ... she had, in truth, felt like she'd been lucky to escape with her life. Her black pelt had helped ... at night, she could slip in and out of shadows unseen, and that very talent had saved her. "To mark them, as we would our territory ... "
The ebony-pelted feline jumped as the paw pokes her, then rolls her eyes, faint smile playing around her lips as she flops right on top of him. "Tag back," she retorts dryly, licking his cheek.
--
"Really? " He asked, though at first seemed a bit distracted. "I don't know much about two leggers. Only ever saw a couple up close and they ran off. " Prolly to fetch the spears I saw them use on that antelope the other day. "Screaming and waving their arms like morons, too. " did they honestly think they'd scare him with those skinny limbs?
As Afu lands on him, at first Ahali grumbles, lazily raising a paw to prod at her. "Thats not a tag. Thats an assault. You're not a very good tagger, are you? "
--
"Mmhmm. Not thinking about starting to overlook a herd of goats, are we? You'd make a fabulous shepherd." At his reflective statement about the humans, she snorted, chortling, into his mane. "I can't imagine why," she quips innocently when she comes back up, eyes gleaming. "You're perfectly harmless when you're not hunting," she finishes, drawling out the 'harmless' especially for emphasis.
She yawns casually at the criticism, taking it in stride. "I'm an excellent tagger, this is called tag-by-assault. No tagbacks from it, though."
--
"Oh, yes, I'd love to spend all my days out there with those smelly goats. " He rolled his eyes, then at the comment on being harmless, he couldn't help but smile. "I'm a little bundle of love, all I wanted to do was say hi and see how they were doing. "
He raised a paw, half heartedly batting Afu. "So basically your victory is indesputable? How fair. " He said dryly, then rolled onto his back to bat at his mate. "Well, I declare a rebellion to your tiranous ways! "
--
That sends her into another fit of chortles - she can't help it - and she hides her face again before they die down. The mental image of Ahali being just a cute little 'bundle of love' - like an adorable fluffy cub - is just too much for her. "Can't imagine why they'd think anything different," she gasps, shaking her head from side to side.
The dark lioness snorted, tugging at a bit of his mane slyly. "Rebellion won't be tolerated, you'll have to really go become a shepherd if you rebel against your Empress," she sniffs, tail twitching. "With the smelly goats and all. We could call you goat-boy." She quirked an eyebrow. "Of course, tales being what they are, you or your son would probably rise up and defeat me years down the line ... " she heaved a great sigh. "It's not quite fair."
--
He chuckled. Yeah, why ever would they think he was anything but a loving, happy guy?
"Tirant. " He smiled. "Stories of me and my son would be told for generations. Those that had slain the evl empress. " He sat up, though not too fast so she wouldn't simply be thrown off of him. "Though, if I'm the goat-boy and you're the empress, I wouldn't likely have a son, would I? " He smirked. "Maybe we sohuld just compromise, say.. " He paused, as if he were thinking very thoroughly on the matter. "I win and you lose. Sounds fair to me. "
--
He was, though, easily strong enough to slide her off, and she grumpily flops to her side on the cavern floor, bemused, tail-twitching. "Not too likely, I'd admit, unless you have a girl on the side that I don't know about," she says, mock-affronted. and raising her head slightly off the ground. "And I wouldn't say evil empress, just ... morally compromised at times." She flashes him a coy grin, white teeth startling against the black pelt.
Afu rolls her eyes dramatically at the comment. "I don't accept defeat gracefully, you know."
--
"I have five, but their infertile. " He roled a paw through the air, in an 'oh well' kind of sign. "Cursed by some random god. Real pity. " He smiled, then playfully heabutted her, before flopping next to the lioness and using her as a pillow, for a change.
"It's alright. I can forgive you for being a sore loser sometimes. "
--
She smirks. "No wonder you hang out with me, then." She purrs briefly at him, relaxing comfortably, not really wanting to move. "Mmph. I'm never going to do anything productive today at this rate."
--
"Of course. your sole use is fertility. " He yawned, definitely understanding what she said next. "Productivity is over rated. Lying around is great. " He grumbled, but then smiled. "I have done my part today, at least. So on the bright side, only one of us would be the lame, lazy ruler. "
--
She snorts. "You don't have any heirs yet, doofus. And I could quickly change any future potential of that, so I'd be a little bit nicer if I were you."
At the next few sentences, Afu blinked, rerunning their conversation silently in her mind, in case she missed something. "What the hell did you do today, lazyguts?" One of her paws prods him in the stomach, claws carefully sheathed. "And I wouldn't say that; even rulers need their beauty rest. Sometimes for a day or so.
--
he chuckled, shifting as if to make himself more comfortable with his pillow, closing his eyes for a moment only to blink one open when prodded. "Heey. I patrolled. And Hunted. And I found out the goats bred. "
He'd give her that it wasn't too much, but he'd done -something-!
--
"Alright, several points to you, then," she mutters, stretching out further. Her head sank down. "I'll pick up the slack tomorrow, fuzzball, and you can play the lazy ruler for a bit, how's that?" She purrs briefly, before shutting her eyes and drifting off into slumber again.
