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 Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:34 am
Publicity: semi-public?
Location: dry season side of the river, by a bend
Weather: hot, dry, and dusty
Bẹ̀rù was not hugely surprised that following the pride-wide meeting and discussion regarding the pride's future it was decided that some lionesses ought to be sent to investigate the river and determine how dire their predicament really was. In fact, she was more surprised that this action had not been taken sooner.
After the meeting she and her friend Tàpá had agreed to meet at a certain bend in the river. It was one of the places where there was usually more of a current, at least during the rainy season. Bẹ̀rù did not expect to find much of a current this afternoon, what with there being a drought going on and all that.
Droughts were not particularly alarming to the dark-coated lioness, truly, and Bẹ̀rù wondered at how her friend could believe it would be better for the pride for them to relocate. Tàpá had lived in the pride long enough to know that they did suffer periodic droughts. That's where their name came from, even.
She sighed as she made her way to their meeting place, wondering if Tàpá would have beaten her there.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:47 am
Tàpá had just arrived when her friend came into view, but she hadn't started investigating the river properly yet. She noticed the ground was sending up more dust then usual when she put her paws down, and what grass there was on the ground was not just brittle, but near to crumbling. It was not good for the herds, and not good for lions. The disease would make it worse, especially if it spread to the healthy hunters. "Hello, Bẹ̀rù. Are you ready to see just how bad the river is?"As they came to the slope of the river bank, Tàpá looked down resignedly. The dirt was cracked with lack of moisture, and the water level had sunk drastically. What was there looked more like mud then water, and Tàpá had serious doubts about if it was drinkable. "Well, this doesn't look promising at all, does it? There's not enough water to float a log."
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 12:18 pm
"Oh, absolutely," Bẹ̀rù replied with so much enthusiasm it was undeniably feigned, and had done more than cross the border into sarcasm: it had found a little place to make a den for itself and raise cubs in the capitol. "In fact, I think I may be giddy. Do I look giddy to you?"
She planted her feet firmly on the ground and looked Tàpá in the eye, meeting her friend's green eyes with ease. One of the nice things about being a very self-assured, do-your-own-thing sort of lioness was that it made it very easy to make and hold eye contact, particularly with people she felt comfortable with. Several years' acquaintance had brought Tàpá into that group.
Shortly thereafter Bẹ̀rù followed her apricot-colored friend to the river bank and joined her in looking down at the river. Well, what remained of it. The bank was far wider and the river far narrower than usual. And, honestly, calling it a river was being generous. Rivers were defined by their current and their depth, and Bẹ̀rù suspected that this "river" had neither at the moment.
She didn't like the dry feeling of the cracked earth beneath her paws, for it only served to remind her of how dry and cracked the pads of her paws had become with the drought. She wasn't hugely vain about that sort of thing, but appearances did matter to her and it was just uncomfortable when her paw pads cracked and bled. Her nose wrinkled in distaste as she took a few cautious steps down the slope toward the muddy mess.
"No. Not promising," she said flatly, her teasing mood gone in the face of this unappealing reality. "But at least no one's going to mistake any crocodiles for logs this season."
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:53 pm
"No, but that doesn't mean the crocodiles aren't lurking in the mud. They do that too, sometimes." Tàpá started picking her way down the bank to the frustratingly small water, only a few body lengths of mud across and probably only up to their shoulders deep; Tàpá didn't think this would keep the pride going very long at all. It was silly to get caught up on a place; what mattered was the people.
"Let's go across, I guess; there were pools on the other side, weren't there? Maybe we can find some that have water still."
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 2:05 pm
Beru acknowledged her friend's point about the crocodiles with a flick of her ears, but said no more on the subject. She doubted they would encounter any of the great carnivorous lizards. Crocodiles needed to feed, too, and while everyone had to come drink, the setting and drought terrain was hardly ideal for a crocodilian ambush.
"It's not a bad idea to check for pools over there. I doubt there's been any more rain there than there was here, but perhaps some of the pools held it."
The dark-coated lioness half-slid, half-walked down the slope to the water's edge to inspect it more closely, as if simply looking at the water from a nearer vantage point would change the actual state of the water and the water level. The only thing that could do that was rain at this point, and it would have to be a lot of rain, at that.
"All right," she sighed, looking down at her paws. They were already muddied from her slide down, but that didn't mean she was thrilled at the prospect of becoming soaked all over with the muddy, murky water. It would be such a colossal pain in the a** to lick off later, when the heavier sludge fell off but left behind fine dust to coat her tongue and make all new mud.
With a last wince she waded into the much-diminished river and began her crossing. The riverbed beneath her paws squished unpleasantly between her toes. Ordinarily she would not have attempted a crossing at this point in the river, but it was hardly the dangerous crossing point it would have been with proper rainfall.
"That was vile," she remarked as she slunk up the bank on the opposite side.
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:18 pm
Tàpá followed Bẹ̀rù's path through the water, grimacing as the sludge enveloped her. Ugh, mud. She was thirsty, but she didn't know if it was a good idea to drink without letting it settle. Resignedly, she took another step, and felt something scaly under her paw. Then the crocodile she stepped on reared up, and Tàpá scrambled crazily for the opposite bank, but not quick enough. The crocodile's jaw snapped shut around her leg, and she started screaming.
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:12 pm
"Oh hells," Beru snarled, turning and leaping at once, though she wasn't sure what she would accomplish when she came down. Just the same, she had to do something more than stand by and watch her friend scream.
It took her another few moments to realize that Tapa had been attacked by a crocodile. What a horrid, hateful bit of cosmic humor that they should be discussing the possibility of crocodiles and then Tapa should fall victim to one. Well, she hadn't fallen yet, Beru thought fiercely.
With the water so shallow and muddy it wasn't so difficult to find the crocodile and leap onto its back. With luck she would distract the monster sufficiently to convince it to release Tapa's leg before it could role and break the bone as well. If it hadn't already done that. Her claws couldn't pierce the thick hide, of course, but her sudden weight could startle it, she hoped.
"No!" she screamed, though whether she screamed it at the crocodile or something else was unclear.
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 12:50 pm
Tàpá could feel the crocodile pulling down, and dragging her into the mud, apparently ignoring the weight of Bẹ̀rù on its back. She floundered, trying to kick away but not succeeding. The reptile just had too good a grip on her leg. She gasped as the crocodile started go under, and knew she would be trapped with it."Go for his eyes, Bẹ̀rù! They're the weak spot."
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 2:25 pm
So that clearly wasn't working. If anything, it was causing the damn crocodile and his prey to sink faster, which would be a huge problem when it reached the point where Tapa's head went under water. She supposed she ought to be grateful the reptile hadn't yet rolled.
"Yeah, sure," Beru muttered.
It wasn't exactly easy to tell where the cursed thing's eyes actually were. There was mud everywhere, and blood, and it blended in very well with the former. Still, she certainly made the attempt, balancing precariously on three paws while slashing around the widest part of the crocodile's head with the claws of one forepaw. Mostly she caught armor, she could tell, but she thought she might've felt something go Pop! An eye? She hoped so.
"Let her go you scaly b*****d," she growled low in her throat. It wasn't likely the crocodile would understand her, or heed her if it did, but she felt helpless and impotent, and like this was somehow her fault. She'd been the one to first mention crocodiles, after all.
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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 6:36 am
Tàpá started panicking. It didn't matter how strong a lion was, if a crocodile bit down with its full strength, her leg bone would snap and she would be useless as a hunter for months, and never again if the bone didn't heal correctly. Even if it did, she would be dead weight to a pride that already had too much dead weight, especially in the middle of a drought.
The crocodile didn't like Bẹ̀rù swiping at its head, but it wasn't quite ready to give up the lioness caught in his jaws. He worried her leg a little, and started to move. Tàpá took a deep breath when she felt the monster turn, knowing that soon he would roll, or pull her under. She started frantically kicking at his face with her other back paw, trying to catch something in the muck to keep her above water with the other paw.
Whether it was Tàpá's flailing or Bẹ̀rù managed to get him in the eye, the crocodile was having second thoughts about this meal. He loosened his jaws, just enough. Tàpá yanked her leg out, shredding the skin in the process, and scrambled out of the water.
"Get out of there, Bẹ̀rù!"
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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:52 pm
Beru nearly lost her balance when the crocodile began to shift in preparation to roll. It was precarious enough standing three-pawed on the back of a live animal, but when that animal was unhappy about having a passenger and was doing its best to shed said passenger without losing its meal, the task became incredibly difficult. That her claws couldn't penetrate its thick hide to aid her grip made it even more of a challenge, but Beru was determined.
As soon as she saw Tapa somehow free her leg from the predator's mouth, Beru wanted to leap ashore, but she made herself take an extra second, just one, maybe two, to cling to the damned lizard to give her friend the time to put some distance between herself and the creature that had just tried to make a meal of her. She continued to growl low in her chest as if it would have any bearing on what the crocodile did in the next few seconds.
"Happy to," she panted just before a particularly effective thrash from the crocodile sent her flying more or less in Tapa's direction. She hoped she wouldn't crash into the lighter-colored lioness.
Her brief flight was both terrifying and exhilarating, but the landing left much to be desired. She was momentarily stunned and slipped in the mud as she instinctively tried to scramble to her feet and up the embankment. A defensive hiss escaped as a warning for no one to come any closer until she got her wits about her once more. For the time being, she felt like she was watching events from a third-person perspective.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 9:32 am
Tàpá was incredibly relieved when Bẹ̀rù leapt onto the bank and started getting her self back together, and even more relieved when the crocodile grunted and moved downstream through the water, away from the two bothersome lions.
"Well, that was quite an adventure," Tàpá said weakly as she staggered up the slope on the far side of the river. "Let's check the pools and get back across before the monster comes back."
She looked at her leg. Not broken, thank heavens, but she couldn't put much weight on it. This was sure to complicate things over the next few days, whether the pride decided to move or not.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 9:39 am
Once her wits were all back where they belonged, Beru was able to stare at her friend with the full strength of her incredulity. She wanted to go on with their task in her present condition?
"No," she said firmly. "We, or at least you ought to go back and have your leg looked at right away. This can be done later, or else I can do it on my own."
It was absolute idiocy for Tapa to try to drag that injured leg around looking at pools. Bad enough she would have to get back across the water at some point. Beru frowned. There were better crossing points with milder slopes on the bank. They could go to one of them so that Tapa could cross back more easily.
"Let's get to the easy crossing upstream. Then you can even look at a pool if you really want to. There's one along the way." She didn't think this was a good idea at all, but there weren't a great many options.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 11:47 am
Tàpá agreed quickly. "Easy crossing sounds good. If there is a pool on the way, we should look, though. Maybe the next excursion will have more luck at the river crossing then we did."
Tàpá would have liked to get the assignment done, but if she passed out on this side of the river . . . well, Bẹ̀rù would have no choice but to leave her to go get help. She was to heavy to be carried back by just one other lion, and the pools weren't far from the river. There was always that chance that the crocodile would be keeping an eye out and decide on a return visit to claim the meat that escaped him.
Tàpá followed Bẹ̀rù upstream to the easier crossing, and hoped they made it back quickly. She didn't want to leave a trail of blood from the river to the area the cubs were.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 12:52 pm
Beru nodded and set off at a slow pace, trying to accommodate Tapa's injury. She could adjust to go slower or faster if necessary, though slower might drive her insane. Even at this pace she was hard-put not to start dancing in impatient circles around Tapa. She just couldn't help it. She was a lioness who walked quickly by nature, and had to concentrate on not doing so if she was supposed to slow herself.
"Probably the pools closest to the river would have the most water anyway, so we can gauge the others based on this one," Beru theorized. And if that wasn't the case in fact, it damn well was now. She wasn't going to drag Tapa all over the pride in this condition. Yes, water was important, but there were even more immediate issues, like Tapa's bloody leg.
It still seemed to take them an age to reach the pool Beru had been thinking of, and when they did reach it, Beru was less than thrilled at what she saw. There was water, and it wasn't too shallow, but without rain it wouldn't be getting any deeper either. And, of course, there was a thin film of dust on top of the stagnate water, which indicated nothing had disturbed it in some time. In a drought, that wasn't necessarily a good sign. It could mean the water was bad.
"I'm going to take a quick drink," she said, and then proceeded to do so. She didn't bother to add that she was testing whether the water was potable. She'd find out soon enough when her stomach either twisted into painful knots or didn't.
"Let's keep moving," she suggested when she thought she'd drunk enough.
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