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Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:07 pm
tuesdayscat The title was asking for it and I'm not sorry. talk2hand Ohahira had heard more than one of them say it: How like Rå'styrke to bring home a silent Thrall.
If a lioness hears but does not speak, that doesn't mean she's perforce mute. Except to him, to Captain, and a certain familiar face, she hadn't uttered a word. By choice, by lack of necessity both.
So far they were not much different from the Firekin here on the matter of drudge work. Either they barked orders and let you be if you listened, or they were disinterested and wanted you out of their way. She did come off as a mute, she supposed. Just something about the way she carried herself. Not timid, and not the way someone who could speak and chose not to typically would.
Had she been keeping her mouth shut out of defiance, she'd eventually encounter someone with too much free time or too easily agitated that would find her silence a means of disrespect and gladly show her her place. Ohahira was too experienced for that. She didn't speak because no one had cared enough for it to matter.
She had mostly paced the past few days, trying to keep busy and, if not that, at least look it. By the second day, she wondered, what if he didn't come back? Where did that leave her? As some kind o general servant to the masses?
While Captain was out on his "viking", Ohahira learned things. The first of which was the word "viking" and the general definition of it: destroy, steal, conquer. Property. Land. Lives.
Their word for slave was "thrall", and unlike the Firekin, they gladly had children with theirs instead of breeding them with each other. She doubted that was what was in store for her, fortunately. What monsters those cubs would be. With someone like her as their mother and a sire like him, they'd probably gnaw through her insides and come into the world screaming.
Ohahira happened to be close enough to the borders when Captain and his band of merry destroyers arrived to take notice of it. She stood not far, but not close, and watched.
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 3:09 am
Hopefolly Sorry so long! Was getting ready for and am now in Europe, but so long as I'm home I should have wi-fi. I might have it at the hotel in Brussels through the next few days, too. Bringing my laptop just in case! Having even a semi-intelligent thrall was, on its own, a bit of a novelty for the captain. He understood the possible and worrisome threat that an educated thrall might possess, but he felt no twinge of worry noting occasional wise observations or a glimmer of intelligence. She seemed to possess no desire to overstep her current status, at least not so violently that he had reason to keep an eye on her. Thus, she had at some point attained quite the level of autonomy in his absence. He did not worry about her, anyway, and he did not often leave detailed or extravagant instruction. She was marvelously self-sufficient. Not that he often spared time for such thoughts. Upon returning from the current raid, for example, he was mildly surprised to see her at all. He was unaware of the games she played so far as interaction with the reavers that remained, but he would not have cared anyway. As it were, he barely glanced her way as his band came through the borders and into the pride lands. He watched his lions go about their business, organizing thralls and bounty in a way he would see fit, and when he did spare a glance for Ohahira, it was only as he passed her by. The vicinity alone indicated she should follow.
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 6:21 am
You'd find no better interpreter of body language than someone taken captive twice. Every move of a stranger on the temperamental side meant potential danger, so one learned to hear what was not spoken, and do so well. Ohahira "heard" him and followed without any acknowledgement. He wouldn't see it anyway, why bother?
There was one thing she needed to ask him; otherwise, she'd be plenty content to follow him wherever they were going in this blessed silence forever. The timing had to be just right. Not quite yet.
She did dare a glance over her shoulder at the returning -- what were they? Reavers, Zilly had said? Most seemed in more of a celebratory mood than their stalwart captain.
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 3:52 pm
Hopefolly This sucks; I'm writing in the dark in the hotel room and my parents have already started to try to sleep so they're making me rush. LOL sorry Rå did not share the celebratory mood of his Reavers often, mostly because he was not prone to passionate outbursts of any particular kind – besides violence. Undirected rage and pure unadulterated bloodlust were the most emotional fits he was ever likely to partake in, and that only rarely and far from home. Luckily most of his thralls were spared the show but once in their life: on their initial taking. Ohahira had been spared even that, though he doubted she would have been impressed by it. In fact, he was fairly sure she would have died and he respected that, which was an entirely new sensation on its own. He had no idea that she had any question at the ready for him, and so returned to his favorite resting place in a large circle of shade beneath a well place and well grown acacia that welcomed him with wide, thorny branches. Sprawling about on the dirt, he did let his golden eyes swing around to look her over, trailing his gaze down her scarred side and back to her face again expectantly. He was mildly interested in what might have happened in his absence, but not so much to incite a direct inquiry.
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 4:22 pm
Hard to believe Ohahira had been a gabby cub. Her sisters knew her to be an incredibly amusing raconteur with a flair for dramatic detail. Ironic she had lost her inclination for storytelling after things worth the breath it took to explain happened.
"From a Firekin," she offered, and it was one of the only times she had bothered. Once, she had hoped these scars would heal or that fur would grow over them and hide them some; by now, she knew a futile dream when she saw one. They were the only thing she could count on to stay with her forever.
Even her name was expendable.
She picked up on the question he didn't ask. A shame he would not do her the same courtesy. "Nothing interesting," she said, as if he had asked out loud. "I keep to myself."
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:48 pm
Rå had never been what one might consider gabby; as a cub he had been shy rather than silent, easily impressed upon by his brutish father more apt to bat a paw than an eyelash at a child seeking companionship. That was a sob story never told; he had arguably forgotten about it, anyhow – that was so very long ago. Besides, so far as stories went, Rå was so very rarely interested. Short and succinct answers did just as well, and he gave a brief grunt at her explanation. Firekin; a respectable pride – or so he heard – which was a rare enough thing. He did not know her position there, or the whereabouts of the lion that had left her those scars, but he liked to think the other faired worse – simply because a good fight was a good fight, and Ohahira seemed good for one. As for unspoken questions, Rå was disinclined to ask what he thought might be on another's mind, a thrall least of all, but he nodded his thick mane once in response. Nothing interesting was enough for him, though he did give her a bit of a glance. Just because he did not ask did not mean he was completely oblivious to the question that seemed to be hanging in the air; she wasn't saying something and that was about as close to permission as she was going to get. His steps slowed out of habit, a physical ramification of his waiting.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 4:01 pm
Ohahira was observant, not a mind-reader. She couldn't be sure of why he seemed to move less quickly than he had been a heartbeat ago. There was only means of guessing the reason, and if she were wrong in thinking he was waiting for her to speak, then she doubted the backlash would be too dramatic.
Sooner or later, she was going to ask either way. Now was as good a time as any. She kept her eyes on him.
"I'm going to need a name here," she said. In the end, she opted not to phrase her dilemma as a question. There were other ways. "If you don't care, I'll find one."
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 7:38 am
He stopped completely at that; she had not voiced a question but made an observation and it was a good one. It was not that he had forgotten to name her but that he had not seen the rush in slapping a name on a possession. She was correct that he did not care, but he liked the idea of her finding her own even less. His golden eyes narrowed as he turned to look at her. His consideration was brief, but he let his eyes trail over her with each second of thought; when he spoke, it was decisive, " Tyst." He lowered his brows as if he expected argument, and though he knew it would not come by way of verbal response. It would be miniscule, and a louder cat might miss the twitch. Turning his gaze back in the direction he had been walking, he 'harumphed' low in his throat before continuing his slow trek to his den.
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 10:56 am
Opposite of his expectations, Ohahira did not defy his choice, nor would she. Having any name at all prompted a lucid moment in the inner-workings of her mind. She felt more at ease now than she had in quite a while, but it had been too many years since she'd had the privileged, and didn't look any different for it. Her muscles may have forgotten how to do anything but be prepared for attack.
Ohahira -- Tyst, rather -- thought of her mother as they walked. The name she had given had less thought behind it than his. Would she be upset by the change regardless?
This was what her visions wanted for her daughter, and here she was.
And the new name suited her well if her silence said -- or didn't say -- anything. She was mute the entire trek to his den.
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 3:55 pm
Hopefolly I'd consider this done. <3 Just wanted to round it off. Rå'stryke was content. So be it, his newest thrall had her name and so far as he was concerned that made her as appeased as was necessary. Her lack of complaint pleased him more so, and her lack of response solidified his choice. Tyst; silent – he could hardly have made a more appropriate choice. He might have given himself a round of applause or a pat on the back if his mind had not already moved on to more important issues.
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