[LOG] Errands today [Teo x Imbra]

[Feral Mule]

Word Count: 1780

Today, the red male was on an errand. Yes, the right hand was playing errand boy because he had aboslutely nothing better to do. That's what it felt like, anyway. Stretching himself out, he listened to the metal chains he wore clink together and smirked. He honestly wasn't too pissed off about this because it saved him from meetings and headaches with dealing with equally pissed off cheetahs. Silver eyes looked around as he wandered through the pride. He had a message for someone that had to get to them today, but there wasn't a time limit on the errand. So, of course he was going to enjoy his freedom.

"Well. If it isn't the new Hand," Imbra observed from the flat surface where she'd been stretching after a rigorous bout of training in battle.

"Tell me, Hand, how do you like my father's position?" she called to the red cheetah who was stretching a short distance away. "Is it as glamorous and full of import as you always dreamed?"

Imbra didn't know too much about the cheetah who occupied the position for the pride's new leader that her father had held for Lady Nyoka, and so she was neither hostile nor friendly toward him. This was her usual way of addressing people.  

[Feral Mule]

Hand? He arched a brow at that and turned his eyes to the cheetah female not to far away from him. She was cute, yes, and firey, much like her father, if he recalled right. He just couldn't place a name with her face. However, what did glory have to do with anything? He just wanted to keep the pride going and eventually kick out all the hybrids and maybe, just maybe, the leopards. Who needed them? The male rolled his eyes at that and then cleared his throat.

"Oh yes. It is just as I imagined. I don't know how your father ocould have given it up," he said, completely dead panned. He enjoyed that she wasn't hostile towards him. Most others would be, in her position. Her father was kicked off, or quit, or whatever happened there so he could rise to power and was proving to be a better Right Hand than her father ever could. "Tell me, how is your half brother? Last I heard he was entertaining males and giving them a little something on the side."

Gayness wasn't frowned upon in this pride, but it made this male uncomfortable and he saw it as weakness. He wasn't even sure if the boy was gay. It was just something the had heard through the grape vine, so it were.

"My father pledged his loyalty to Lady Nyoka. When she no longer cared to rule, he did not care to serve her heir," Imbra explained with an easy shrug. She did not hold Teo's position against him for her father's sake, knowing that her father did not begrudge him it. To all appearances, her father quite enjoyed retirement, though he did get antsy from time to time having nothing to worry about.

"My half brother and I don't have much to do with one another. He is younger than I, and our interests do not overlap a great deal. He takes after his mother and I after my father."

That ought to make it clear enough. Imbra didn't much care for Sanji. She had been incredibly competitive when it came to her own litter and had always resented her father's second litter, small though it was, for coming at a time when Mana could give the cub his whole attention. It had pleased her inordinately that Sanji had chosen to pursue his mother's profession, leaving Imbra's position as favorite child unchanged.  

[Feral Mule]

Aaah, so she didn't like her family much. That was interesting in a pride where blood was everything and family was blood. Tilting his head to the side again, he watched the girl and then moved closer to her, smirking. "Well, I suppose if your gender was swapped with his you would be more of a threat to me, wouldn't you?" Stupidly, Teo was one of the males who thought females were less than males. He was a womanizer and figured all females should be Geisha, entertainers or some of the low positions that had nothing to do with fighting. Those were reserved for males, at least, in his eyes.

"Anyway, how is your old father doing? Not rotting away and getting fat I hope. I hope he's staying in shape for any up and coming pride raids we might get or go on, bring back more slaves... more entertainment." He gave her a wide, toothy grin.

Imbra took in the smirk in conjunction with the typically misognistic attitude displayed by many of the males in the pride. When she was younger she might have bristled and snarled at his poorly masked implication that females ought to be subordinate, but she'd matured somewhat.

"Perhaps," she allowed with a smile that resembled Abhi's more than she would have cared to admit. "But it doesn't seem likely we'll ever put that to the test, does it?"

Anything he wanted to know about her father would have to come from some other source. Imbra wasn't going to give away anything on that count. Her father preferred to keep his private life private, and she saw no reason for anyone else to take an interest.  

[Feral Mule]

Females. They were going to be the end of the pride as they knew it. He bit back a growl as she refused to provide him with the information he dsired and then rolled his eyes again. Whatever, females were tricky snakes that needed to be constantly watched, else they corrupt the males of the pride. He blamed all of the hybrids on the filthy females that would do anything for sex and ignored the concequences.

".... Tell me. What do you aspire to be in this pride? You can forget right hand. I'll die with this title and by that time, you'll be far too old to take it."

Imbra's temper sparked but she knew better than to let it come to the surface. For one thing, a fighter should never attack in anger. For another thing, Imbra knew better than most that attacking a Right Hand would be an action of the utmost foolishness. He might not be able to best her in combat, but he had higher connections than she did at the moment.

"I aspire to be happy," she said with all the wide-eyed innocence she could muster.

So far she was not impressed with him as a Right Hand. Her father would have known all about any potential rival to his position and would have either eliminated them or neutralized them. This fool probably wouldn't have even known who Imbra was if she hadn't told him. She probably shouldn't have given him that nugget of information, but it was harmless enough.

"What about you? What do you aspire to be?"  

[Feral Mule]

Oh, he saw a little bristle there. Laughing, he shook his head, finally getting some reaction out of the girl before he sat down and watched her. Her innocent act flopped big time. It made her look stupid and foolish. She had the eyes of a warrior and the silent strength. He could see it in how she controlled her emotions and kept them in check. Yes, if she was a male, he would consider her a threat, but.. Well, they had covered that. She would certainly fail as an entertainer. They had to have poker faces.

"I am what I aspired to be. I dreamt of this position. It was a god send the day your father retired. He left it open for someone better suited. I mean no offense towards him. He did a good job while he had it, but, at this point in time, I'm not sure he could handle it." He laughed again before sighing. Happiness. Oh, he was happy. He had a female he was interested in, the best position of the pride, besides ruling it, and that was his small world.

He wanted to one day rule the pride. When that happened, and it would, he would kick out every single hybrid, every leopard and any of the males or females that parented a hybrid. Hybrids were disgusting, lowly creatures that should be killed off at birth. Their parents should be run out of the pride or hunted down and their pelts worn as a warning to the rest of the pride. That.. That was his biggest dream. He knew better than to say that out loud.

Im did not like hearing slights against her father, but she had heard them before. Her father had told her for most of her life that he would not fight her battles for her, and expected her to do him the same courtesy. When she was younger she had thought that was his way of telling her to be tough and handle her own problems, but now that she was older she realized it had been his way of keeping her from becoming embroiled in the more serious problems he dealt with as Nyoka's Right Hand.

Her irritation at him for insulting her father served to disguise the amusement she felt at how he had interpreted her display of innocence. Imbra knew she was no actress, and if he had thought she was attempting to fool him with such an act he was an even greater fool than she had previously supposed. A shame for the pride, but not her problem. Right Hand was an appointed post and when the position was open she had not been appointed. That was just the way it was.

"How wonderful for you," she said. "But the rest of your life will probably be appallingly dull. I hope, for your sake, that it isn't."

She was done with him for now, and so she returned to her stretching, determined to say no more even if he spoke again.  

[Feral Mule]

Her little dismiss amused the Right Hand greatly and Teo laughed at it. Slowly, the male got to his paws and sighed, shaking his head. A fire cracker, that's what she was. He was impressed and amused by her. He would definitely come visit her again, if she liked it or not. Ah, the name snapped to his brain all of a sudden.

"Good day to you, Imbra," he said, winking at her before he turned around and headed deeper into the pride. After all, he did have something to do and then return back to his own empty den. Mingling with females always left him surprised and happy.