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 Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 1:04 pm
She'd gotten slightly more affectionate towards him, nuzzling against him, insisting they sleep next to each other, purring at him, trying to talk to him about certain couples they'd seen on their travels. But, she didn't think he'd pick up on a single thing. Mollie wasn't discouraged, through. Shed just keep trying until he figured it out. Still, she really wanted him to notice. Talking with a friend a while back ago, Mollie didn't know why she just didn't tell him straight out that she liked him.
And risk losing a friendship? She thought bitterly to herself. No thanks..
Today, however, Vu had lead her towards a new pride. Or so he said. She wasn't so sure. Though she was behind Vu, her steps were hesitant, as if second guessing herself. Biting down on the inside of her cheek, her brows furrowed as she gave a little noise towards him. "This... is really it? You.. said there was a pride here...."
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Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 3:17 pm
 Vu nodded without taking his eyes off their surroundings. They should be running into a guard soon. He could smell the pride’s scent markers. According to the leopard he’d spoken to, the pride was made up of warrior males and their harems of females – whatever that meant. Vu was a little fuzzy on the pride’s politics. All that mattered to him was finally getting to be part of a pride that understood his values. Strength, power, family.
As much as he enjoyed traveling with the rebellious cheetah Zito and her band of rowdy followers Vu felt an increasing need for direction in his life. His mane was coming in thicker now, the scars on his neck starting to disappear. Heavily built with muscled legs and heavy shoulders Vu stood on the cusp of adulthood. He felt certain he would be accepted into the pride on account of his physical strength.
In fact his mind was growing, too. He was more aware of Mollie's affection than she gave him credit for. She gave him funny feelings like Irit when they met at the Prideland's boarder, only Mollie was his best friend. He didn't want to lose her to these primal urges. The words of his father still echoed in his mind. Love is weakness. Was that really true? How was he supposed to return her affections?
He still wrestled with her and tugged on her ear sometimes, like he did when they were cubs; that was his way of showing that he cared. Now that he knew how to control his strength maybe that feeling of love came through for Mollie, but he didn't know and felt reluctant to nuzzle her the way she nuzzled him. That kind of lovey-dovey behavior seemed somehow inappropreate for a warrior.
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Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:02 pm
Aali watched quietly, patiently true he was still a young sultan, tried only a few times, but he was learning. He gained confidence each day and took in advice with care spending the time to make choices for the future and reflect on those of the past. He learned about the hopes and fears of his pride brothers and from his Sultana the desires and dislikes of the many harems. For now though there was a delicate peace in the pride, each Pad tenderly caring for and cultivating his own harem in idyllic calm.
His ice blue eyes trailed the young looking couple as they finally cross the marked borders, he waited a moment more to see if they would turn away. With a serious expression he leapt down from the great stone he had watched from and headed towards them. There were two ways this might go, a joyful welcoming of a new Pad, or a bitter battle for the capture of a female. He couldn't go soft now, and his Viziers words reminded him of that, the borders were clearly marked the ways of their pride would not be mocked or ignored. They did not act in violence until tested after all, other prides were harsher.
Aali waited until he was closer before calling out. "Greetings! You are in the land of the Ukuucha'Wafalme." He would wait for a reply before deciding upon a more serious tone or a friendly introduction.
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Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 10:18 pm
When Vu spotted the large male he slowed his gait and tensed. He also moved a little closer toward Mollie. She could fight pretty well on her own, Vu knew this, but he felt safer knowing he could step in and block the first attack if the other male turned hostile. One more scar made no difference; such is the warrior’s chosen creed.
The male clearly meant business. Vu could see it in his walk, the subtle rippling of his muscles. He stood tall and stopped with Mollie close at his side. He wanted to wait for the other male to come closer. As the male neared them, Vu realized the stranger was not much older than him. Given a measure of reassurance, he called back, “Hello! We’re newcomers.”
He resented that he sounded uneasy. Vu shed all memory of formality and manners after his time in the rogue lands. Zito saw to that. Now he saw that manners and formality might be expected of him and wasn’t sure if he could call them back. He glanced at Mollie, feeling a little helpless and wondering if he’d said the right thing.
((Switching up the post oder a bit.))
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:22 pm
Vu was getting protective over her when this other male neared them. Though, the other male was very intimidating for the female. Her first thoughts were to just stay silent and close to Vu. Which is what she would be doing. Though, her ears twitched to the words spoken and the way they were. Being a quiet female had it's perks. She learned to read tones and what was between the words.
Ears lowering a bit more, she bit down on the inside of her cheeks and sighed mentally.
[lame post is lame]
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 4:19 pm
Aali's posture slowly relaxed, it became a bit more welcoming it was clear these lions were young and simply looking for a place to call home. He slowly smiled and nodded at vu's words watching the way he stood protective over the female, like a good Pad.
"Are you aware of the way our pride operates?" He questioned curiously, he would give them a chance to leave if they had come unaware.
His eyes trailed to the healing scars on the young males neck and carefully measured the muscle beneath his pelt. A strong young male, no doubt the world had challenged him often and would continue to do so. It looked however like he was ready to rise to any challenge. He had seemed to loose a bit of his confidence when met with the formalities of entering the pride though which meant he wasn't foolishly cocky.
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:41 am
“Sort of… I heard something about the males keeping harems of females. Does that mean every male gets a group of females?” Mollie helped him figure that out. The idea occurred to him, but at first it sounded too strange to believe. He had never heard of such a thing before.
“But we’re not really picky about customs. Mollie and I are just looking for a place to belong. I trained as a warrior since I was a cub. I need to be in a place where my training will mean something.”
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 12:11 pm
She spoke up then, her voice quiet and not as froggy as usual. She often talked to Vu, so it was helping her vocal cords. "S-sir... I have also trained... as a warrior, along side him for quite some time. I-i.....I could be ..of some.... use..." Her voice trailed off then, and she looked back don, green eyes closing for a brief moment before looking back up at Vu. Hopefully she didn't do anything to offend the other mysterious male.
The thought of Vu having more than one female was a little unsettling, but they'd talked about it. Vu'd said she'd be his favorite, so as long as that held true, she'd have absolutely no trouble living in that kind of pride. She was even willing to learn healing, or nanny skills, if needed so she wasn't just dead weight.
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:50 pm
"Our customs are most important to our way of life, so long as you uphold them two fine warriors such as yourself would be most welcome into our pride." He nodded softly before settling himself to better explain.
"The pride is made up of Pads and their harems, the larger a males harem the better he is considered, for the care and prowess it takes to keep each Banu happy and healthy is considerable. Banu are our females, females that belong to a harem, the very favorite or most useful or prettiest of the Banu in a males harem is chosen to be his Beybanu, the lead female of his harem. The actions of a males harem reflect upon him." He looked at Vu carefully trying to ensure the male understood.
Finally he frowned softly and added "of course...there are rebellious females, untrustworthy females, they are Kajira, and when they cannot be gentled to the ways of the pride...they must be eliminated lest they threaten all our peace."
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 2:12 pm
Vu nodded slowly to show he understood. By now it was clear that they were speaking to a lion of high rank. He had that suspicion when the lion first approached them. Now there was no doubt. The male’s knowledge and calm authority proved it.
“I’ve known Mollie since I was a cub. She’s very sweet and kind. Um.” He looked slightly embarrassed and smiled. "What I mean is, we won't cause trouble. We get along like best friends.
“I just have one question. How do the pads get more females? For their harems, I mean.”
The idea of having a group of females all to himself excited him on a superfical level. Having had so many strong females around as he was growing up made it easy for him to understand how much damage a determined female could do to a pride. This made him a little apprehensive about the idea of gathering a big harem. He might have to keep a whole bunch of females happy, yet he had never been very good with social graces, and most of the females in the Pridelands hated him for his rude, boisterious behavor, so even though he liked the idea he wanted to keep his harem small in the beginning and work his way up. He didn't expect any female to listen to him just because of his gender. When did that ever happen?
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 2:24 pm
Mollie would have smiled at Vu's shyness describing her, if it hadn't been for his next question. She physically bit down on her tongue to keep from saying something. They had talked. It was fine, right? That's what she kept telling herself in her head. But on a deeper level, it didn't settle to well. Maybe Mollie could pick his females for him, ones that would run away, leaving only Mollie for him to be with and look at. A big part of her doubted a female got that much authority over that much.
Looking past the other lion, she studied the lands ahead, for any sign of more members of the pride.
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 2:39 pm
It was good to see that they both seemed to grasp the ways of the pride and not only accepted them, but Vu actually seemed excited about the prospect of joining their way of life. He glanced at Molly wondering how she was taking it, she seemed mildly apprehensive.
Hmm perhaps the idea of a harem didn't appeal to her, he knew that Kajira could often be jealous and hateful towards the harems. Still Vu seemed confident in his Mollie and that would do for now, he could demote her later if she caused him trouble after all. With luck she would learn though, and welcome harem sisters into her heart openly.
"New females either join willingly, or those females who enter our lands are claimed by the pride...in times of greater need we raid." He nodded softly finally at peace over the way their recent raid had gone.
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 2:56 pm
“Raid?” Vu repeated in a hushed voice, as though it might cause offense.
Capturing females that wandered into the pride’s lands made sense to him. Vu had inherited his mother’s opinion on rogues. Even after spending so much time among rogues he still felt that those who belonged to a pride were somehow better. At least they were privileged. Rogues shouldn’t be allowed to come and go as they please.
But his upbringing also reminded him that slavery is wrong. The male said that it was a pad’s responsibility to care for his harem by keeping them happy and healthy, so perhaps it wasn’t slavery after all.
“I guess that makes sense… If there weren’t enough females to go around then the pads would start fighting. As long as the females are happy in their harem it can't be so bad.” He turned to Mollie. “What do you think?”
Now seemed like a bad time to be having second thoughts. The pride’s policy on capturing females made him wary. If they tried to leave now this big male might not allow it. Vu tried to communicate his concern with his eyes. Besides, if the pride did turn out too cruel, they would be far safer leaving after dark when no one was around to see them. The pride might not be as cruel as it sounded.
((He'll warm up after he meets some of the pride members. =P))
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 3:03 pm
It made sense to her, capturing of females. Her gender was used for boosting up numbers in a pride to win more territory. She got that from hearing things on their journey. Still, to Vu's words, she looked into his eyes and saw the wariness there. Molemogi just gave him a smile and a nod, quiet as ever, but her body language told a great deal. At least to Vu.
The young lioness put her every ounce of trust in Vu; that he'd keep her safe, that no other male would take advantage of her. That was a big fear for her. She grew up with a lot of sisters, and the only male she ever talked to was Vu. So, males made her slightly uncomfortable; but not extremely. It wasn't something that would rule her life. She just had to settle into living along side males. It wouldn't be that hard.
What she really wanted was to talk to another female. To figure out just how she should feel about her friend and... mate, she guessed, having more than one female. Tail flicking a little, she offered a reassuring smile to Vu, and a nod to the other lion.
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 3:11 pm
Aali smiled softly and slowly stood. "We make every effort to show Kajira the benefits of accepting a good life among their sisters. Banu are treated accordingly, each with her own unique abilities. Of course every Pad values his banu differently, some for intelligence, others for beauty, and some for hunting prowess."
He finally nodded and moved back a step his body movements were welcoming. "Come then, I'll show you to the lake, you can drink and make your final choice." Yet Aali knew that the younger pair would stay, he could see the quiet acceptance in them. He hoped that the female would come to understand and embrace the prides ways, he could tell that Vu would probably manage that task faster. The young warrior would probably grow into a great asset in protecting their home and customs.
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