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 Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:10 pm
He'd been spending most of his days in the last few weeks studying, and though he had promised Ally he'd never leave again, it meant he didn't get a lot of time to spend with her. He knew it was a sacrifice he needed to make and he also knew that since she'd already had to do this, albeit over a much longer period of time, she no doubt knew it as well. Yet, that knowledge still didn't take the worn-down feeling from his bones, or the sadness he felt every time he thought about running off to curl up with her instead.
He groaned to himself as he stared down the plant in front of him in the fading light, making sure he could note everything about it, backwards and forwards, and perhaps in Pig Latin if someone wanted him to.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:38 pm
Alcmene was well aware of the great lengths Fafnir was going to to complete the tasks that she had set for him. She might not be in frequent contact with him while he worked so hard but she was the queen, she had no trouble keeping track of what he was doing. After all, he required lessons from the shaman, from her sister and some of the priests. Not to mention anybody he felt like introducing himself to along the way in learning who everybody was.
She was eager to see just how much all of this hard work had paid off. So for once, instead of just leaving him to his work, she went looking for him. Biti, who was becoming a very talented flier, helped locate him but then went off to occupy himself elsewhere.
"Fafnir," she said, jogging up to him. He looked so tired, she couldn't help but smile.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:18 pm
Being that he wasn't truly expecting anyone to come up on him, he was a little startled when he heard his name called and the rustling of paws behind him on the earth. He jerked, his head whipping around, before he laughed it off. How on earth had he been studying the stupid plant so closely?
"You snuck up on me, Ally," he breathed out, his smile in place despite his weary eyes. He pushed himself to his feet and turned around to face her, a little chuckle on his lips as he did so.
"Everything alright?" he asked after a moment, his gaze flitting over her. Her little companion wasn't with her, and she seemed to have jogged over to him - did she need him for something? She wasn't usually the one that came to find him, it was often the other way around, especially now that he had been so busy and she was letting him get to his work.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:35 pm
"I'm sorry," she said, pleased to see him smile but also respond so comfortably to her, "Everything is fine, I just wanted to come and see how you were doing." She walked up to him, nuzzling against him affectionately before turning to look where he had been so focused before she had interrupted him.
"Ah, working hard?" Ally asked, leaning down and sniffing at the small plant before them. Her smile grew, she lifted her head back up and looked over at Fafnir.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:47 pm
"Oh, well, that's good," he said with a weak smile, his nervousness that something was wrong being replaced by his vague shyness at her being so close to him. After weeks of not seeing her, having her nuzzling against him left him almost speechless. All he could do was smile and lean down to nuzzle back against her cheek gently.
"Uh, yeah," he finally managed, turning to look at the plant he had been studying. "The members are the easy part, I think, it's the plants that are a little harder. A lot of them look the same." He chuckled and let his tail whip behind him a bit, though his gaze slowly slid away from the plant and back to her, curious as to what had her all the way out here.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:58 pm
Having kept track of Fafnir, Ally knew he had been busy and could hardly blame him for being so scarce. If he had given up and started avoiding her she would have found that out, but no, he was working so hard. She was happy he was so dedicated though she had missed him, which was a part of why she came looking for him this particular time.
"Yes, some lions just have an easier time with names and faces than with the plants," she agreed, "It's kind of lucky it worked out that my sister and I were born in the order we were, she's much better at the plants than I am. But she's been learning since she was small." Perhaps it wasn't entirely luck, or nature, perhaps it was partly nurture to blame.
"Did you smell this plant?" she asked curiously, looking back down at it before looking back at him, "This isn't anything useful, it looks like it but it's the scent that tells you."
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:05 pm
He frowned as she mentioned the plant not being useful, leaning down to sniff at it, and frowning a little. "I told you the plants were the hardest part," it was said with a bit of a sulk, but only for the wasted time, not necessarily because he had been wrong. Wasted time was something he didn't really think he could afford. He sat back on his haunches with a little sigh, shaking his head and sending his mane flying. "Probably just because I'm so tired though, and all these darn plants look the same anyway."
He offered her a weak smile as he look up at her again, head tilted to the side. "I'm much better at the names and faces thing myself, but maybe that's just in my blood."
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:18 pm
Alcmene had to laugh when he frowned, stepping closer and nudging him affectionately. She hadn't meant it as harsh criticism, it was an easy mistake. He knew she was hardly one to be critical of someone's inability to correctly identify a plant, or perhaps she had reason to push harder for it. It could be dangerous, she would certainly warn of that when the time came.
"I know, I know," she murmured in agreement, "Don't worry about it, the smell is the main tip off." And the fact that the correct plant usually, not always, occurred in patches, not single plants.
"I'd say that's more important anyway," she said brightly.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:30 pm
He knew all about how easy it was to make mistakes - he had learned that the hard way, when he and Ally were younger, and she was the one giving him a little lesson. Safe to say, the plant from that day was the first one he had learned to identify. "Well, at least I know not to chew on any of them before I'm sure," he said with a playful chuckle, nipping lightly at her ears.
He did nod though, as she mentioned that smells were the most important, and that plants occurred in batches. His smile faded, and his eyes took on a look of concentration for just a moment, as if he was making a mental note of that. No doubt he had already been told, but so many things did flee the mind when working on a weary brain.
"As long as I get the important stuff down, then," he commented, offering her a pleasant smile again. He leaned in to n** gently at her shoulder, a return to her previous nudge. "It's a lot to take in, all at once."
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:45 pm
"I know it is," she said, smiling and daring to dodge when he nipped at her, "You're doing very well." Feeling somewhat playful, she walked a small circle around him, taking a place at his other side, and then she stepped forward before looking back. Her intention to go for a walk, and for him to come along, was clear.
"Let's see how much you know," she said, challenging him. They might go for a walk, if he would follow her, but it seemed she was intent on testing how much he had accumulated in the weeks away from her.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:56 pm
His eyes followed her as she playfully walked a circle around him, one eyebrow raising. He had no idea why she was in such a happy mood, but then, he supposed she always was when she was with him - and that simple fact made the smile on his face broaden. As she stepped forward and away from him, and looked back, he didn't miss his cue. He pushed himself to his feet and walked after her.
He only faltered when she mentioned a little quiz of sorts, his brows drawing down. "Uh, alright then," he muttered slowly, a frown forming. He didn't know what she expected out of him with this, to be quite honest, but it was a little unsettling. What if he wasn't doing as well as she thought?
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 3:01 pm
When Fafnir followed after her, she started moving again, walking along. She noticed his misstep when she challenged him, nudging him a bit more sharply, less playfully than before. This was another kind of test on its own, she had emphasized the importance of confidence before, she would keep doing it until he stopped doubting himself.
"What did I say about confidence?" she asked with a smaller smile, "You haven't done all this work, gone through all this trouble to go without showing it off. Now! We know your family, can you tell me everybody who is in my family?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 3:22 pm
He grunted lightly at her nudge, but he got the point she was trying to get across. Still, he knew that confidence was something hard won for him, given that he was just so unused to it, and he was really going to work on that most of all. He picked his pace up to match hers again, nodding and raising his head. "Fine, fine, go on.."
Her first question made him quirk his brow, his reaction a smile, though he couldn't help his first complaint. "That's really no fair, your family is so much bigger than mine." He did laugh at himself though before looking away, a look of concentration on his face. The more immediate family members were easy to remember, it was when they started getting into cousins and such that he had a hard time tracing them all.
"Well, I'll start with the smaller side first, then. Your Mom is Aureole and she has a brother, uhm," he paused here to try and remember the name of the male he'd never actually met, only heard of, "Otieno?" He made it a questioning sound, but didn't pause, simply went on. "She has a cousin named Thoth, who has four adopted cubs." He paused again as he tried to put names to the faces in his head, his steps slowing, before he nodded and finally managed, "Amalthea, Hecate, Kallisto and, uh, Atlas."
He took a deep breath to clear his head, concentrating now on giving her the bigger chunk of the family, and mentioning the male she wasn't truly that fond of last he'd heard.
"Your father is Unyezi, he has a brother named Njiru and a sister named Khathelela. Njiru has three cubs, Dhaka'kali, Quiyue and Taraiya." He paused to collect his next train of thought, albeit the fact that he had found that part particularly easy. The old king was important, and well, he knew Njiru fairly well. "You have three full-blooded siblings, Taigi, Erion and Miakoda." He hesitated then, throwing her a sideways glance, before continuing. "You also have four half-siblings, Tshokolete, Ulivuma, Nyota'shuti and uhm," he frowned, trying to remember the last little cub. To tell the truth, he always struggled with their names, because he knew Ally was sore over it all, and because they were still so young and not exactly huge members of society yet. "And, Aoede, I think?"
He thought over everything he said, trying to remember whether or not he had missed anyone, though he knew it was likely that he had. He glanced at her for confirmation, raising his brows as he did so. "Was that everyone?" Now that he was no longer trying to walk and talk (more importantly, think very hard) at the same time, his pace picked back up.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 3:43 pm
She glanced over at him with a smirk when he complained about her question, "My family just spreads out beyond siblings, though I won't argue that it's larger. But one side is in the royal lineage, and soon both sides will be your family." She was very careful about what she said, but she meant to put a bit more pressure on him, to remind him part of why this particular question was perfectly valid.
She nodded along as he spoke, not interrupting him to add any details, particularly about how Otieno was lost, having never returned to the pride when they migrated. She nodded along as he listed her cousins, her brothers and sisters, focusing on the names rather than just who they were. She still was quite upset about her father, she was not speaking to him again yet, and she had mostly avoided her new siblings except to learn their names and place.
"Sounds perfect," she said brightly, stopping and taking a look around where they were now. It was a familiar place to her, one of many place she had been quizzed as a cub, "Now, from here, show me the quickest way back to my den." It was the exact same direction she had been given when she was studying the land, she supposed having grown up in the lands and working as a hunter, Fafnir would not have needed to spend so much time focusing on this.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 4:02 pm
He had to admit that he did only have a small family because his parents had joined by themselves, with no siblings, and none of his siblings had had any offspring of their own yet. One day, he supposed, his family would be much larger than Ally's simply because, well, his parents did have a lot of cubs. It was her next sentence that made him stop and think. It was important he knew her family, he realized now, just because it was going to be his family soon. He hadn't really thought about that before. "You're right," he said with a nod, but simply said no more about it.
He was pleased that he had seemed to get it all right, and just as he thought that was all she was going to ask them, she turned to him and asked him something he really hadn't expected. In all honesty, he hadn't spent much time studying the land, only because he had grown up here and, with his added training as a hunter, he knew most of it. For a moment, he just stared at her, before nodding.
"Right, okay," he had a feeling he pretty much knew the best way back to her den, and this time he didn't hesitate before nudging her shoulder with his head and starting out in his chosen direction. He did, however, make a note to study the farther reaches of the territory he hadn't visited so well.
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