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 Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:18 pm
 Voldemaras was brooding on his favorite rock. He liked the rock because it was flat and warm and afforded him a good view of the ocean below without being close enough for him to get splashed or dampened by the spray. He also liked it because it was large enough to hold his entire body when he stretched out, and there weren't all that many rocks that could make that claim.
Below him one of the Warlord's daughters was talking with one of her b*****d brothers, which meant that it had to be Kazul and the Odd one. Vol had always wondered what the two of them found to talk about for so long, and whether they realized that their meetings on the beach weren't as private as they probably should have been. Vol, for one, had very little difficulty hearing what they said as long as they didn't lower their voices and the wind was blowing in from the water, which was usually the case.
Sometimes when they talked about his protege he eavesdropped, but otherwise he tended not to care what they had to say to one another. Today, for instance, they were discussing their nieces and nephews. Not interesting.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:24 pm
 It seemed like all the juveniles her age were getting people to train them now. It made sense: when they were adolescents, they would (hopefully) be taken along on their first vikings and become full-fledged Reavers. Sehvi didn't think she would be able to stand it if the boys from either of those two annoying clans were taken on vikings while she was left at home. So that left trying to find a trainer. Sehvi wasn't going to go lurk around the sparring grounds, begging any old Reaver to take her on. Why would she want to learn from a lion that might very well be an idiot? No. Sehvi wanted the best mentor possible, and that meant seeking out Voldemaras. He had trained Captain Ru, and the former outlander was even now leading a viking of his very own. Sehvi wanted dearly to lead her own vikings some day. So she marched up to the old lion where he lay sprawled on his rock, glaring at him with an intent look on her young face. "Someday I will kill you!" Sehvi announced, the words sounding a bit ridiculous when said in the voice of a quite young female.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 5:40 pm
"Not today," Vol replied automatically, before he even glanced at the owner of the youthful voice addressing him.
Until he looked over his shoulder and saw the dark coat and bright eyes of an unfamiliar cub the reaver had assumed that the cub he'd seen fighting the other day had come back to ask him to train him. Burzum, was his name, and come to think of it he was one of the sons of one of the Warlord's bastards. Maybe he ought to have paid more attention to what was being said on the beach below him after all.
Now that he saw his life was being casually threatened by a little girl cub he went on to add, "And probably not ever. What do you want?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 5:45 pm
Other, meeker cubs might have given up right then and there. The famed Reaver Vol didn't seem very approachable at the best of times, and his sarcastic response to her greeting was disheartening.
Would have been disheartening if Sehvi was a sissy like that splotty Yolla.
She straightened up a bit, puffing out her chest. With a full-blooded Firekin grandmother and Stormborn grandfather, Sehvi was proud of her size and rightfully so. She might seem tiny to Vol, but Sehvi was no weakling! Surely Vol could see that she was as big and brawny as any of the young males, and perhaps brawnier than some. "I want you to train me."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:00 pm
"And I would like it to rain fish for five minutes every two weeks," Vol replied. "That doesn't mean it's going to happen."
He looked back out to the sea and listened for a moment to see if the cub was going away. Going by the cub's size, voice, and lack of mane, he was likely dealing with a girl. A large girl, but a girl nonetheless. He had no idea what she hoped to learn from him.
"Besides," he said over his shoulder, "you're asking the wrong lion. I don't do women's work."
After another moment's pause in which he decided the fastest way to get rid of this annoying cub once and for all would be to shock or horrify her, Vol added finally, "And you're much too young for me to train you to be a proper bedmate. So I believe there's nothing more to be said here. Go away small person."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:07 pm
Women's work! Sehvi was appalled, much more appalled than by Vol's talk of bedmates. Sehvi didn't plan on being anyone's bedmate if she could help it, but the thought of being pushed into women's work was all too real and all too horrifying to stomach.
Her features twisted into an indignant scowl. Vol might be the best there was, but clearly he was a little slow on the uptake!
"I know you don't do women's work. That's why I want you to train me to do men's work," Sehvi said, giving Vol her most ferocious look. "I'm going to be a Reaver. And maybe a Captain. So I want you to train me, because you're the best. And I'm going to be the best."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:19 pm
Vol finally gave in and rolled over so that most of his body was angled toward the persistent cub instead of the sea. It was a concession of sorts, but she would be mistaken to think that it was a herald of good things to come.
"Is that so?" he asked with a decidedly nasty leer. "Reaver and then captain? Such ambition from a walking womb."
That was probably a little harsh, but Vol had been increasingly dismayed by the number of female reavers the pride was taking on and raising up, and he would have liked to n** that particular trend in the bud. Here he was being given an opportunity to do just that and he was going to be as ruthless as necessary. It was better for the pride his way.
"It's flattering, I suppose, that a fluff-headed female like you thinks I'm the best. But I don't do girls."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:28 pm
Okay. When she was the Warlord, she was definitely going to make this guy spend some time as a Thrall to learn some humility.
Sehvi privately thought that most of the other girls were indeed fluff-headed, but she was no damnable fluff-head. Her head was as hard as a rhino's, thankyouverymuch. She narrowed her eyes, thoroughly pissed at Vol's dismissal.
If Vol had hoped to make her give up, he was out of luck. Sehvi did not give up easily. "I'm not just a girl. I'm big. I'm strong. I'm mean. I can beat up any of those sissy boy-cubs any day." She lashed her tail furiously. Some of those idiots had already found trainers, too! For the love of the gods, was she going to have to leave the pride and challenge her way back in to become a Reaver?!
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:39 pm
Vol rolled his eyes, completely unimpressed by Sehvi's self-evaluation. He hadn't asked her name yet and he did not intend to. He genuinely didn't care what her name was. He could see for himself that she was big and strong, and that would serve her well someday in bearing and rearing Stormborn cubs. The rest was unimportant, being that she was only a girl.
"Do not think that you will impress me by bragging about your fighting skills. For one thing, they are unseemly in a female. For another, there is as little honor to be found in beating up a sissy cub of any gender as there is in beating up a thrall or a poppet," he informed her.
He huffed, deeply disappointed by the way of the world and wondering about what direction the pride was going when a girl came to a reaver and asked him to train her to fight. That sort of thing simply would not have happened in his youth. Not ever.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:44 pm
Sehvi was starting to think that the old codger wouldn't train her after all, but she still wasn't ready to give up. And she liked that little nugget of wisdom about not beating up sissies or thralls. She would have to hang on to that one. The next time Yolla or one of the other stupid boys pissed her off, she would tell them 'I would kill you, but there is little honor in beating up sissies and thralls.'
Yeah, that would be a laugh all right.
"So teach me to fight people that aren't sissies," Sehvi said. "I'll fight you, old man. I'll walk my womb all over your godsdamned face."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:02 pm
"I will not teach you to fight," Vol said. He spoke very slowly and clearly to make sure that each one of those seven words penetrated the girl's thick skull and made its way to her tiny, evidently little-used brain.
He debated the wisdom of adding more words that could potentially confuse his message, but in the end he decided it might help her comprehension if he explained why he wouldn't train her. "Females have no need to fight. The reavers of the pride do the fighting so that our women can do their part to breed and raise the next generation of Stormborn."
It was bad to kill cubs. It was bad to kill cubs. It was bad to kill cubs.
But scaring the s**t out of them was okay. And with that in mind Vol lunged forward with his paw curved into a sort of hook so that he could snag the cub and drag her to him. After that the plan was to hold her over the edge of his rock and tell her to leave him the hell alone.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 7:53 pm
So Vol really wasn't going to teach her to fight. Sehvi bore up stoically to this bad news. She would have to find another teacher then. A better teacher. One that would teach her to kick Vol's a**.
Sehvi was actually fairly old-fashioned in her worldview. Except, of course, when it came to herself. She, like many of the older generation, thought that females were too flowery to fight and ought to stay home with the cubs. Sehvi was not a flowery cub-minder, though.
She was about to open her mouth and tell him so when he grabbed her. Before she knew what was happening, Sehvi was being held out over the drop. Heedless of the potential fall, Sehvi hissed and snarled at the older lion that held her captive, striking at him furiously with her little claws, struggling in his grasp.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:04 pm
"Are you sure you want to be struggling?" Vol asked, chuckling. He had no intention of dropping her, but if she squirmed her way free she may find herself falling to the beach regardless of his intentions.
He glowered at her automatically, lest she think the chuckling meant he was weakening in his resolve not to instruct her, even though he could not now remember what she had said to provoke him into dangling her over the edge to begin with.
"Don't bother reavers with your silly ideas about training. I doubt you'll find anyone else willing to train a girl, either," he advised her as he drew her back onto solid ground. "Go find someone to teach you how to mix dyes or tan hides or heal. It may not be too late for you to build a reputation as a proper freeborn."
He gave her a shove in a general "away from him" direction and deliberately turned his back on her to stare out at the water once more. As far as he was concerned, this conversation was at an end.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:08 pm
And just like that, she was dismissed. As though she were no more important than ... than ... than a girl! Fuming, Sehvi glared at the older lion's back. "I will find someone to train me," Sehvi growled. "And then I really will kill you some day."
Sehvi about-faced and began marching huffily back towards home. She was too blisteringly angry to try and seek out another teacher today, but tomorrow she vowed to hunt down a mentor somehow.
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Voldemaras was brooding on his favorite rock. He liked the rock because it was flat and warm and afforded him a good view of the ocean below without being close enough for him to get splashed or dampened by the spray. He also liked it because it was large enough to hold his entire body when he stretched out, and there weren't all that many rocks that could make that claim.
