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Princess_Feylin rolled 5 4-sided dice:
2, 1, 4, 2, 4
Total: 13 (5-20)
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 Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 11:40 am
 Galning was making absolutely no effort to be stealthy as he stomped along the pride borders. He was also making up increasingly creative names to call Ru the next time he saw him. They were becoming scatological in nature.
He couldn't believe Ru hadn't asked him to go on his viking. He and Ru had been sparring partners for ages it seemed. Galning's berserker tendencies made him an unpredictable opponent, which Ru appreciated, and Ru's remarkable lack of reaction to pain made him a safe opponent. Surely Ru knew that Galning would be invaluable on a viking. It wasn't like he hadn't been out before.
And Asper! His own cousin hadn't even mentioned him to Ru. When he'd talked to Ru about it at his sending-off, confronting him in a stand-off that could've come to blows, Ru had told him that he thought it best if Galning stayed to look after his son and his cousin's sons. Like a babysitter!
"Hrragh!" he roared, releasing some pent-up fury.
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ChexaRain rolled 5 4-sided dice:
4, 2, 2, 3, 2
Total: 13 (5-20)
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:00 pm
 Her earlier defeat had stayed on the very edge of her thoughts, and it had only fueled her dedication to training herself.
As a lioness, she felt power that her younger self couldn't compare to, and it was this power that brought her back to the pride once again, to face the challenge before her.
A sound, not too far off, had her ears swivel forward, focused on one specific ridge as she scaled a few choice rocks, coming face-to-face with Galning.
Only much closer than she'd thought he was.
Going wide-eyed at being nearly nose-to-nose, she quickly took a few steps back, holding a calm exterior despite the turmoil beneath her skin.
Her voice was calm, almost flirtatious when she spoke, a habit she'd picked up on that was the farthest from what she'd wanted to seem, "You radiate your own strength... It must be you whom I challenge to join the pride of these lands?"
The mere word of challenging him sent a shiver down her spine of delight, something she knew to be unnatural and yet, it was in her blood. Of course, if he was not whom she needed to challenge, his only use afterward would be directions to someone who would be more useful.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:51 am
"Waugh!" Galning exclaimed, backing up so quickly that he nearly tripped over his own paws. In the process he stepped on his tail, which had been injured in a sparring match a short while ago, which prompted a spontaneous yelp.
"Ah. Strength. Yes. That's me," he said, trying to find a way to put the words in an order that made sense and not really succeeding too well. Where had she come from?
"I mean, yes. If you want to join the Stormborn you have to beat me in a fight. Or at least fight to a draw. I guess you've already been here and lost before?"
Galning's own entrance to the pride had been a bit unusual. He and his cousin had ganged up on a reaver and threatened him until he'd agreed to take them back to the pride and show them that a missing family member was alive and well. Galning had fallen in love with the pride almost as quickly as his moron cousin Atheris had fallen in love with that reaver's daughter.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 5:18 am
A flicker in her eyes; she could recall the day she had lost, and a crease formed in her brow, breaking her blank expression. "Yes... I had attempted once before to join." She smirked, "I had been young and too weak, and he needed only scar me once before I broke confidence." A paw brushed against the faint scar, nothing more than a thin line hidden under fur now.
She boldly reclaimed the distance between them, a devilishly playful look in her eyes as she came nose-to-nose yet again, "Think you could handle a challenge against me?"
Maybe is what his dark features that took her back to that first fight, a surge of power through her muscles making her almost itch with excitement. The feminine charm oozing from every flick of her tail was a dark distraction, and she was using it to her advantage.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:25 am
He couldn't help giving the challenger a quick once-over to look for the scar she'd mentioned. How could anyone stand to mar that lovely girl's flesh? Actually, that wouldn't be so difficult if she wasn't any good at fighting and made an ugly scene about being babied. Or if she was stupendously annoying. But Galning would have had a difficult time deliberately drawing her blood even then, and he suspected the scars had been deliberate from the way she'd phrased things. He tended to focus a great deal on things like that.
"You can come up against me any time," he said, winking as he twisted her words to give them a naughtier connotation. He'd been such an awkward adolescent, so obsessive, it still thrilled him that he could now speak to females without undue awkwardness. At least not awkwardness to the degree he'd been used to eliciting previously. It occurred to him that she might not be as pleasant as she seemed, but what female was?
"Let's go," he said, lightly batting at the side of her head.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:39 am
She smirked. Good, he played along. Something in the pit of her stomach told her this lion would be good to keep close by, though visually she couldn't pinpoint a reason. In due time, it would become apparent; her gut feeling had never wronged her.
A soft purr and she was quick to respond, tapping him beneath the jaw and teasing him with a swift lick on the nose, "Don't go easy on me, or you might regret it."
With a quick jump back, she used the force of her hind legs off the ground to send her right back towards him, intending to knock him over or at least off-balance, her claws sheathed until the precise moment she would need them.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 9:02 am
"You like it rough?"
He grinned and then flattened out with his belly and chin on the ground, barely remembering to close his mouth in time to avoid dirt in his teeth. That was a nice leap, but as she passed over him he noticed that her claws were still sheathed.
"Hard to believe when your claws aren't even out," he teased as he rolled to the right and regained his footing. "Let's see how you like this..."
From his standing position he dropped to a crouch and sprang forward, aiming to use his superior size and strength to bowl her over and then pin her down. From there she'd be at his mercy. He wouldn't take too much advantage of her.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 9:57 am
She had to admit, that last comment made her crack a smile. Heck, she even had to bite her tongue to suppress a laugh.
"I wasn't trying to maim you without reason." She purred, only given moments to react when he'd leaped at her. Claws were out, and she used them to grip his shoulders and, throwing herself on her back, she used his weight against him and kicked hard with her hind legs, hoping to send him right over her.
Of course, she wound up smacking a good portion of her body against the harsh ground, feeling every ache and scratch as she scrambled back to her feet.
Wincing, she wrinkled her nose, not daring to see what damage she'd done to herself but knowing there was blood. She could smell it, and it wasn't pleasant.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:17 am
"But purposeful maiming would be all right?" Galning asked wearing a wide grin. He was enjoying this.
The last challenge he had been involved in, well, he didn't remember much of it actually. Lesedi had come looking for him and told him that he'd lost. Galning had no memories of losing, but as Lesedi filled in the story he supposed that running away would be considered losing. Except he hadn't run away. He'd been berserking and his feet had just taken off.
Well, that wasn't going to happen this time! No matter what, Galning intended to be present for the entirety of this challenge, and win it if he could. Not that he would mind so much if he lost to this particular lioness. She was pretty and quick-witted and he would enjoy seeing more of her around the pride. But he wouldn't let her win, even so. He had the honor and strength of the pride to consider.
He might have said more but he was too busy being thrown through the air and trying to reverse himself so that he wouldn't land on his arse when he eventually hit the ground. Unfortunately, he ended up on his arse anyway.
"Ou..." His tail hurt.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:07 am
She couldn't remember the last time she'd actually had a decent challenge. Her challenges to the Stormborn, she wouldn't count because there was a meaning to them.
A random guess would have her thinking when she still lived with family, tormenting her sisters to make them stronger. It brought a smile to her face; had she always been that bad?
She thought of what would actually come about from her joining the Stormborn, curious if any of her family had the same idea as her about joining them. She knew her mother would be here the minute she caught wind of it; that much she could almost guarantee.
Back to the present, she approached Galning in confidence, "Are you ready to give up yet?" A hint of taunting to her tone as she offered him a hand up.
It suddenly came to her attention that she didn't know this lion's name. She would learn it, eventually. She felt it was a must.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:15 am
It galled him a little to require assistance, but with his tail not working as it ought to be his balance was impaired and he was not terrifically graceful most of the time. He was actually at his most graceful when he was berserking, but he rarely remembered what happened when he was like that and people tended to get hurt. Sometimes other people, often him. It wasn't a good way to be for a challenge.
"I might have to," he admitted. "At least if I don't want to do permanent damage to my tail."
He would have been more willing to have permanent damage done to almost any other part of his body. It would take less time to learn to compensate for that than it would take him to learn to compensate for an improperly balanced tail. At least that's how it seemed to him. The appendage in question twitched and he winced. He didn't even know why it had twitched. The damn thing never did what he wanted it to do.
"Don't you dare laugh. They're important," he grumbled.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:26 am
"I would do no such thing." She huffed, though she couldn't hide the tiny twitch at the corner of her mouth.
With a light tap to his side, she flicked her gaze to the pride grounds, "Come on, I'll make sure it stays attached. Or, you could sit here on your butt and hope it decides to on its own."
She wasn't sure how they took to treating their aches and pains, but she would learn. Right now, common decency told her that he could blame her for the loss of his tail if she didn't at least offer to make sure he didn't.
Besides, she couldn't suppress her own laughter at see him without a tail if he did. This was just as much for his sake as it was her own.
Yeah, she would go with the latter.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:44 am
Galning did as she suggested, marveling over the way she had phrased her suggestion. Did she...?
"Did you just offer to check out my butt?" he asked, feigning indignity. Two could play at that game. He'd seen the smile twitching at the corner of her mouth. "Because I'll have you know I'm a reaver of the Stormborn, and far too scary and fierce to be objectified."
He did his best to look scary and fierce. He was pretty good at it, actually, but his heart wasn't really in it. He didn't want to scare the lioness off. She'd just won her askorun, after all. He had to take her back to the pride and introduce her to a lawspeaker and a priestess so that her name could be entered in the pride's history and the gods could be made aware of her.
"Welcome to the Stormborn, nameless," he said as he dropped the face and began walking back toward the pride. Over his shoulder he called, "Don't even think about looking at my butt."
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:59 am
She was quick to follow after him, brushing off his warning as if it didn't make any change to what she thought of him. Well, it didn't, but like it mattered.
She gave him a rough tap to the hind quarters and caught up to his speed, meeting him stride for stride, "Nameless? I think not. I've gone by Freyja since birth."
With a mischievous smile, she quickly raced ahead and turned to face both him and the distance between them, "Besides, I don't find your butt to be much to look at."
If half the lions were as interesting as this one, she wasn't going anywhere for a long time, if at all.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:04 am
Her tap on his hindquarters made him start, but he got the feeling that she wasn't exactly making him any sort of offer so he kept walking. Oh, yes. He'd definitely gotten better at interacting with females.
"Freyja, then. I'm Galning. And because it's your first day among the Stormborn I'll ignore what you said about my butt."
He knew he had a great butt. He'd been told so on several occasions. Right now though, his tail and his butt and most everything else hurt. It hadn't been a long or even particularly violent fight, but he'd not gone into it in the best of shape and he wasn't coming out of it any better.
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