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 Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 11:37 am
This was so so so so dumb.
An sighed as she maneuvered down the craggy rocks. For an adult they would have been mere bumps in the path. But for the young cub, they might as well have been mountains. She didn't mind crossing the rocks between the large dens, even though they stubbed her toes and burned her soft paws. What she DID mind was having to walk back and forth over them close to twenty times now, looking for someone to be her 'Mom-Approved-Sponsor.'
"Ugh, mom is so- owch, annoying-" An grunted to herself as she hoisted herself up. This was a dire situation! A dire situation indeed! When there was trouble, a hero had to go out and do what was right! Not find a babysitter so her mom would let her out of her sight. And she'd tried leaving on her own. Mom was damn tricky! Sometimes it was like she knew the kinds of trouble she'd be getting into before she even did it! Which was totally unfair.
But so far, she was coming up empty. When she'd first asked her mom to go off into the desert, the answer had been a firm "No." Which, of course, An had deliberately misinterpreted as a request to ASK aunt No. Who had sent her to Ea. Who had sent her to Dad. Who had sent her to Kaanga. Who had sent her to Uncle Kidondo. Who had sent her back to No, who now sent her to her cousin Fia.
An was quickly realizing that not only did she have too many brothers and sisters, she had too many cousins and uncles and aunts. This was serious business here! Did she actually have to get permission of the entire family to save the pride?!
But finally, she managed to wheedle herself up onto the narrow rock ledge, and took in an exhausted spurt of breath. "Hey! Fia! Are you there?!"
She'd better be, at this rate, she would probably have to go to dinner before she could even start this journey!
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 11:50 am
Though Fia had been born with a natural talent for fighting - a talent that if practised could have become something great - she had passed up that life to become a historian. She wouldn't have been cut out for a soldier's life in any case. She wasn't good at taking orders and constant training would have bored and irritated her. Instead, she had opted to record the history of the Firekin so that it might never be forgotten and repeated.
But, sometimes even that was not enough to keep her attention for long.
She was bored.
Her eyes were half-lidded, her mind floating up in the clouds of what she could possibly spend the afternoon doing. She didn't even feel like teasing any of the firekin males today, which was odd, because that was the thing she liked to spend a lot of her free time doing.
And then it happened. Her name was called and she was pulled back to earth, away from her musings. Who was that, anyway? A cub? What was a cub doing here? Please, please don't say that someone wanted to be apprenticed to her! She didn't think she could handle a little hyperactive juvenile scampering around, asking questions and being incessantly annoying!
Then she realised who it was. Little An. Well, one thing was for sure, she was too young for an apprenticeship yet. The wrong colour, too. But then...why was she here?
Curiosity roused, Fia pulled herself to her feet and padded slowly to the edge of the rock shelf, peering around in attempt to locate that sandy little ball of fur.
"I'm here, An. What do you want?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:01 pm
An gave a deep sigh of relief. "Ugh! Good, I'm so glad your here, if I had to run to one more person I would just...! Okay, so. Fia." God, she looked a lot like Ea. She had a hard time knowing exactly who she was facing. Ea had laughed like a crazy person when she had told her request. She was curious if Fia would do the same. "Well. I'll tell you this first! I already asked just about everyone, so you can't send me away!"
She pointed her little white paw accusingly at her. "I've talked to my mommy and my daddy, and your mommy and your daddy and half a dozen cousins and who knows what else...! So your pretty much the pride's only hope now, cause I want to go to the dunes and Mom says I got to go with someone. You can think of it as being my sidekick. If you will."
She turned around, towards the exit of the den and the sweeping desert outside. She pointed her paw in that direction, and scowled. "Last night, I couldn't sleep. I saw a monster, and I just know its up to no good. And it was horrible! Let me tell you, the teeth-" She reeled herself back. "Well, its teeth had teeth!"
An slumped forward. "So, um. If you'd come help me save the pride from a huge monster who has no doubt crawled up from the depths of another world, I would really really appreciate it."
She paused.
"But, I uh. Got to be home in time for dinner."
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:13 pm
Fia did laugh. She laughed in a way that she hadn't in a long time. (Since when had she become so serious, anyway?). The reason for her laughter? Well, listening to little An reminded her of her own youth, of her and Ea and their escapades. They certainly were related!
After a moment she gathered herself and set her mismatched eyes upon her little cousin. It was a shame, really, about her pelt and all. A shame that she hadn't inherited a fiery or dark pelt from her ancestors.
"You really saw this monster, huh?"
Wait...was she even considering this? Really? No...she couldn't be! She didn't like cubs and goign with An meant taking responsibility. A BIG responsibility! Kaanga might seem passive at times, but Fia was certain she didn't want to get on the female's bad side. There was no better way to anger a female than to put her cub in danger.
But then she remembered the times when she and Ea had been forbidden to go too far. She remembered, also, that most of the time they had gone anyway. If she said no and little An went running off by herself, wouldn't she still be to blame? Ugh...she was never, ever, ever having cubs!!
Dragging a paw across her face, she groaned a little. "I can't believe I'm about to agree to this."
Blinking and setting all her paws square on the rocks she continued, "Fine, fine, I'll go with you just this once. Just this once!" She repeated for added affect. "This monster isn't too far away, is it?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:23 pm
"YES." An squealed, even before Fia had agreed. All she needed to know was that the adventure was about to start. "Trust me- once mom hears all about this, she wont think I'll need a babysitter ever again. Really. Like, this is so great."
Glee flooded through her, and she danced around her much larger cousin. "Close?" Was she kidding? Was any monster worth finding close? But, she decided she'd leave that little tidbit out. "Well um...I'm sure it'll probably smell us and want to eat us and crush our bones and stuff. That'll....bring it...pretty close, right?" She grinned a toothy grin, and stretched.
"But, you gotta know, I'm the leader. Mom won't trust me alone if I be the sidekick. Got to show her, you know. But, I'll probably need you for like, heavy lifting things. And....carrying things. And...well. Stuff like that." She started down the side of the den, kicking up small clouds of dust.
"Don't be afraid though. I'm pretty sure its eaten something today. It should be all slow and dumb. Hehe. And I know where its tracks are. Just follow me!"
And with that, the little blonde cub went stumbling back down the hillside, in full confidence that Fia would be following.
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:44 pm
Fia, knowing that the closest thing to a monster in these parts were the snakes and scorpions, wasn't exactly concerned that they'd meet anything they couldn't deal with. After all, most snakes and scorpions just wanted to be left alone and wouldn't attack unless provoked. Which meant, then, that she'd have to make sure An didn't go provoking anything!
Ugh...was it too late to back out?
Yes. It was. An was already heading down the hillside, clearly expecting her to follow. Well. She'd done it now. "Okay then, great leader." She called back quietly. "I'm coming." And with that she descended quickly after the blonde cub, intent on keeping close to her flank and not letting her out of her sight.
In her mind's eye an image of a fuming Kaanga kept blinking into sight, putting a rare fear into Fia's heart.
Oh please, don't let anything go wrong!!
"Alright then, little An, show me these tracks. Lets get hunting this thing before it gets late." She cast a glance over her shoulder, back at the dens and wished that she hadn't wanted anything more than a nice little nap. A nap would be better than babysitting!! Dammit, next time she'd make sure that Ea said yes, or that at the very least, Ea came with her. She shouldn't have to shoulder this responsibility alone.
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:59 pm
Somewhere, Ea was indeed reveling in her sister's misery.
"Yup! Don't worry about it, I got this covered. The tracks start down by that-" her voice got cut off sharply as she stumbled, and dropped behind one of the rocks. It was a fall that could have had most cubs wailing, but not moments later An was dragging herself back up to the next rock, babbling away as if her conversation had never even stopped.
"- that rock, you know? The really big one. Mom said there used to be water there, but it went dry and stuff." Dryness, something any cub learned the deal with at a very young age. Whether they were huria or not. "But, they're like...well... you'll see in just a few!"
So, the two walked for a while. For Fia it would have been only a few minutes journey- but it took close to twenty with An's constant talking, planning, and very tiny footsteps. But soon enough, they arrived at the stone An had been speaking about. She wasted little time in going to work.
"Okay! So, when I saw the monster last night, he was walkin around here like maybe he thought there was water, you know? But, he must of heard me because he went away." She flared her nostrils, and started to push about in the sand. Wind and passing sands had all but erased most of the footprints- but after several minutes of looking, An finally found a spot where the sand had been sheiled by the force of the rocks.
"AHA!" An grinned. "See, there we go."
Down below them, just on the side of the rocks were deep, large tracks. Against the bright gold sand they seemed black hollows, thick and deep with short, quick marks where a beast's claws would be. And just beside them, another rift in the sand, as though it had been dragging something- or someone, beside it!
"So, yeah. I'm thinking its a monster."
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:13 pm
Fia startled as the little one fell, but before she had a chance to ask whether she was alright, she was up and chatting away again as if nothing had happened. She grinned a little at that and continued after her.
The grin, however, did not last long. Soon Fia's head was drooping a little, her eyes slightly glazed. Did this kid never shut up? Like seriously, wasn't Kaanga glad to let her go off alone if only for a little peace and quiet? The desert knew that if Fia was cursed with a chatterbox child, she'd shove it outside and let it do what it wanted. (Probably good then that she never wanted cubs of her own).
She lay her ears flat and continued, feeling less and less enthusiastic now. How much longer was this going to take!?
She looked up again as An started to search for tracks and cast her own eyes about, not expecting to see much of anything. Pawprints never did last long in the desert - soon smoothed by a stray breeze. It was both a good trait and a bad trait of the desert, for it was easy to slip away unseen but difficult to find someone who was lost.
Her ears lifted as An found what she had been looking for, and with a short huff, the dark pelted female moved over to inspect what the blonde child had found. Leaning over her she sniffed curiously and tipped her head to one side.
I'm thinking its a lion, Fia grumbled to herself.
"Alright then, monster hunter, lets see where it was dragging its food to." Fia leapt down the rocks, being careful not to skew the tracks as she landed, and paused to wait for her 'leader'. "It can't be too far. If you saw it travelling at night it would have been goign to shelter. Too cold and dark for wandering."
She scented the air, but couldn't make out anything of use.
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:32 pm
"Ah! That's a very good guess!" An smiled, nodding her wind tossed head. "See, look! Your totally my sidekick. We work good together, yep. So, judging by your guess that he'd want to go for shelter.... but, I don't know... he was awfully big, you know? Where would a big thing like that hide?"
She crossed her paws and scowled. It was a very good thinking face indeed- although it caused her nose to crinkle in a most painfully adorable way. Something that would not doubt continue to haunt her into adulthood. But luckily for now, she was unaware of it, and continued making the peculiar face. "It made the most terrible moaning noise too..."
She scramped past the footprints. From here on was the thick of the desert- with few rocks, and even fewer places to hide from the swelling sun. For the moment though, the blonde little cub was happy enough just to be free of the rocks! "Out into the desert...finally!" She gleamed. "Lets go!"
And before anything else could be said, the little cub scampered off down the nearest dune. Shelter! Okay. Fia had been right about that. "Where would I go if I was a big nasty monster?" She mused to herself as she reached the top of the first dune. Down below, the sand sloped downward in such a curve that for a moment, An almost thought it might have been some sort of mountain. But it was only sand, right?
Sand was pretty soft.
She leapt, and started to run down the side of the dune, for the moment, her quarry lost. The thrill of it- it was so exciting she lot her footing, and rolled a good twenty feet down the side of the dune, before landing in a pile of sand at the bottom, giggling to herself like any manner of silly thing. "Hehe! Fia! Come on, what are you doing all the way up there?" She shouted.
But Fia wasn't the only one who heard the cub's wild call. It was heard by a small little snake- resting itself not far from where An had landed. It quickly paniced and sunk into the sands... leaving a very hungry and distraut secretary bird who had been poised to snap it up just seconds before An had crashed the scene.
"Bloody thing!" The tall bird squaked, and rushed up towards the child.
An grinned at the bird. "HEY. Have you seen a monster?"
The bird responded by biting her on the top of the head.
"OW!" An growled.
"Stupid lion! Stupid, stupid. So loud, why so loud?" It hollered. "You steals my food! Always, they steal! Why, why why?"
With each why, he gave the cub another peck on the head.
"Heeeyy, stop that! We're on serious business here!" She slashed her little claws towards the bird, who simply side stepped and shook his willowy head.
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:44 pm
Was this what she had become? A little blonde cub's sidekick? To think it! Her Mother and Father rulers of a warrior pride. Their eldest daughter nothing but a cub's helper. She should have been ashamed, but luckily for Fia she had never had so much pride that it would bother her for long. Today it would grate on the nerves a little. Tomorrow it would be in the past. Nothing to fret about at all.
She grinned at the cub's 'thinking face' and was about to answer when the little one suddenly took off, running faster than she had previously. Fia's heart leapt into her throat.
"Hey, wait!" And she dashed after the blonde, intent on keeping sight of her. Blast her sandy pelt! She was extremely camoflauged. Scarily so! She was almost afraid that if she blinked she might lose sight of her altogether.
Again, visions of an angry Kaanga infiltrated her mind and she pressed onwards, catching up with An a few moments later, cliimbing up the nearest dune. She paused there with the little one, trying to calm the racing of her heart, but no sooner had she arrived then An was off again, forcing Fia to give chase.
"Your sidekick is too slow!" She huffed.
And as Fia started down the dune, not liking how the sand began to fall away beneath her paws, the bird made its appearance.
Fia had never seen the likes of it before. A leggy thing with a large beak. And it was shrieking at An. Then it was pecking her, too!
Anger and fear filled Fia then and forgetting the dangers of sliding sand beneath her much heavier bulk, she charged down the dune, allowing a roar to roll up from her chest.
"You. Back off!" She snarled, eyes flaring.
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 2:00 pm
It didn't take more then the huge shadow of a lioness looming onto him to get Hakkari shrieking. "Ahhh!" The bird wailed and flapped his wings, drifting a few feet away from the pair. "Crazy, crazy!"
An smirked and puffed out her chest. "Haha! Taste the wrath of my sidekick, bird!" But about as soon as she had said it, she gave a her head a courtesy rub. It stung a bit, but other then a few small red marks, she was fine. "Owch, owch, owch." She muttered to herself.
Hakkari sidestepped, eyeing the lioness cautiously. Her roar had got him shaking all the way up from his long stilt like legs. "Crazy, crazy! Too much trouble. Fools!" He kicked some sand at them, and then seemed to go back to work looking for more food. But as he walked around them, he continued his soft, muttering rant. "Always they yells. Don't know how to be quiet, thats what I think! Always with the roaring and the eatings. Maybe Hakkari wishes to do the eatings! They would not be so if it was Hakkari with the roaring! He would eats the little blonde one and then they see who Hakkari is!" The bird babbled.
An, having tended to her head, turned around to Fia and smiled. "Hehe. Silly birds! But, I don't think he's the monster. But... hey!"
She bounded off, and rounded about the bird. Hakkari took a few steps back, squaking in surprise. "Hey! You, you! Have you seen a monster?"
"Monster!" Hakkari wailed. "I sees little blonde monsters! And monsters with stupid not right eyes! Should fix her eyes! That's what I think."
"Yeah, but like. A really really big and scary monster!" An asked. "Not like a lion at all!"
Hakkari grunted. "Hrmph. Monsters. Everything thinks they're monsters-!"
"We're monster hunters." An admitted, as though this might somehow convince the bird. "Me and Fia. And, I hear she's got really big teeth. She might get...angry if we don't find a monster. You know?"
She put her paw around the lanky bird's neck, and pointed in the direction of Fia. "She's crazy. Really. You'd better tell us where the monsters are!"
"BAH." The bird wailed. "Brutes, all brutes. Hakkari sees strange things, how does he know what are monsters? He saws the black beast, if that is who you mean."
"Black beast?" An gasped.
"Yes. The two headed one. Killed his friend, it did." Hakkari said flatly. "Silly lions. Chasing monsters. Only firekin monsters here. This monster, it not hurt Hakkari. It cried! But, it kept walking. Found its friend. But not good for eating, so I left it."
"Where did you see this?" An squaled. Yes! Now they were really on the trail!
"On the ridges, crazy lions." Hakkari continued to peck at the earth. "Not so far. You see it, and take crazy lionesses with you. Wrong eyes, is bad omen. Thats what it is. Friend to snakes."
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 2:43 pm
This bird had clearly been out in the sun too long. Desert madness. It's brain was addled and now it spoke nothing but nonsense. Perhaps she should do everyone a favour and just strangle him. It'd put him out of his misery...and hers.
She glanced towards her 'leader' and couldn't help but be concerned. "Are you alright, An?" But with all the chattering from the blonde, she assumed that the peck hadn't been all that bad. It hadn't stopped her jaw from swinging.
"Watch who you're calling crazy, bird." Fia growled, her tail thrashing. "We're top of the food chain. You're just lunch."
She moved to stand protetively beside the blonde, happy for now just to let the little one talk. Perhaps she'd talk herself to sleep and then Fia could carry her home safe and sound and she could go back to her...musing. Seriously, she needed a bit more excitement in her life. Maybe she should grab Ea one day and go on an adventure. Relive their youth. Or would that be too shameful now? And if it was, did Fia really care? The rest of her siblings seemed to be working hard in their jobs or looking to take mates. She curled a lip at that. A normal life just didn't seem to sit well with Fia. She was a bit of a rebel at heart. She didn't want to be contained by rules, especially since the rules had been set down by her parents - of whom she had loved to disobey as a youngster.
What was that bird talking about now, anyway? What? Black beast?
Her ears swivvelled around to focus on the bird, Hakkari, her mismatched eyes now slightly confused. Was the feather-brain simply making things up or had it actually seen something? It seemed to know what the Firekin were, since it called them by name. In fact it seemed to know quite a lot about them. She frowned. What if An had seen something? Not a monster but an intruder of some sort?
"This black beast. It definately wasn't a Firekin?" Fia asked, looking in the direction he had spoken of. "And don't talk to me about bad omens. I have enough of that from Itz." Perhaps she should have brought the black-scaled cobra with her. No...he'd probably have made matters worse. Either that or the bird might have tried to eat him.
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 3:09 pm
The bird started to walk away, nosing at the sand with his sharp beak. As he strolled, a small lizard burst from the sand- and just as quickly, he gobbled it up. In between bites, he laugh. "Crazy strange eyes. You hear what the little monster said. Talk about not lions, she said, so I did. Course it is not a firekin. Not that you all aren't monsters! Horrible things!"
An fluffed her fur, and scampered forward and after the bird. She wondered what a lizard would taste like....wait! They were on a mission here! "Answer my sidekick's question, you! What sort of monster did you see? It was dark when I saw it...!"
Hakkari lifted his head, and shook it back and forth. His feathers ruffled. "Not listens to me. Thats the problems. I said it was a black beast. No firekin. Two heads it had- one says nothing. Face like dumb. Big, huge eyes. Other, other just wails. A ghost of the desert, most likely."
Suddenly, the bird started to choke and hack.
"Oh no!" An gasped, rushing forward. But before she could rescue the dumb thing, the bird spit up the lizard's head.
"Ugh!" Hakkari snapped. "Bad tastin thing. Not like snake! Snake! Would have been good! No, black beast. I tells you already. Left its friend dead on the ridge. Kept walkin. You can see it still, over there. Vulture birds, not for good friends, not arrive yet. Other animal dead on south. Taste bad. Not like dead things."
"Oooh," An grinned. "A victim! Well, we're going to have to investigate the crime! Take us to it, bird! Quickly now!" She said, running forward and waving her claws.
The bird trembled and squaked. "What- why? No needs Hakkari! Hungry! Already cost my lunch, and crazy lions takes me away."
"Don't you want to be a hero?!" An grinned.
"Heroes is for dumb monster lions. Go find black beast on your own. To south, it is." He muttered.
"No way!" An said. "You could be working for him, for all I know! Here! We are actually pretty hungry, aren't we Fia?! I say we chase him! And he better lead us to this monster's friend thing!"
The bird gaped. "Stupid, stupid. Hakkari would not run from blonde monster. He does not fear the-AGGGHH"
At around this point, An had sunken her tiny teeth into the birds thin leg. It started to run- and before Fia could catch her, An was off after him. "To the scene of the crime!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 4:18 pm
Strangely, Fia found herself for admiring An for her persistence. She was a cat who would get things done, even if she did go about it in an irritating fashion, jabbering away like that.
"Don't worry about it, An, if it chokes it'll save us a lot of squawking and noise. The damn thing is giving me a headache, and I thought you were bad enough." She grinned at An and reached out a paw to bat at the blonde's ears.
And then it was time to get serious again. Was this little game actually turning out to be more dangerous than she had first assumed? A victim? A dead friend? Or was it simply a hunter catching its prey and then losing its hunger? Well, they might as well see it through now, they'd come this far, hadn't they?
She smiled. "Yes, actually, it is coming up to dinner time. I could do with some nourishment." And then An was attacking the bird. Or...biting rather than attacking. It was hard to keep herself from pouncing the feathered thing and bringing it down, but she supposed that wouldn't be a good thing to do now, not now they'd had a conversation with it. Somehow it seemed...sort of wrong.
And then she was off again, full of energy as always. Fia sprang after her, the soft sand cushioning her steps as she battled to keep up a decent pace. "An! How many times do I have to tell you to slow down!?" But she realised it was pointless. The girl was intent on getting to the bottom of this and all Fia could do was comply.
After all...she had agreed to this.
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Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 4:32 pm
"Can't slow down! Must eats the bird!" An yelled back to Fia, although it was mostly a fake threat for the wayward runner. As the little blonde cub bounded after him, he screamed a horrible blood curdling noise that only a bird could make. And in the quiet desert, it seemed to be echoing everywhere against the silence.
"Aggh! Crazy, crazy lions!" He screamed.
"Go! Go! Go! I bite you again, bird! Like this!" This time, An grabbed a few of his tail feathers. He responded by shrieking, and picking up his pace a bit.
The strange party continued down through the desert. Although it was clear both An, and the distraught bird, were starting to get exhausted- he continued to run into the direction of the nearby rock cliffs which rippled in the southern half of the desert. Yes, thought An. This is where we need to go!
After a few moments, finally they reached the rocks. Now with ample places to hide, the bird leaped out of reach of the winded cub. He flew clumsily onto a outcropping of rock. He wheezed, and eyed the two. "There! Horrible things!" He spat. Or, well. He did a bird's equvilent of a spit. "I hope the black beast eats you! Just like the other one!"
And with that, he hobbled off, nursing his missing tailfeathers.
An took a deep breath. All this running had exhausted her, but she wasn't about to stop the hunt just when it was getting good. Sure enough, up ahead were the rocks. Two particularly large ones pressed together, forming some sort of small, dark rift. An slinked forward, peeking into the start.
There was light at the end of the rocks, and dappled all throughout the stretch. It wasn't a cave... but it was shady. She sucked in a breath and gathered her strength.
Only to spit it out seconds later when a horrible, rancid odor entered her mouth. "UGH! Monster smell!"
But Fia might have recognized it a bit differently. It was the smell of blood- coming from the opening up ahead!
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