[PRP] Convictions (Gever x Alamea)

[Hopefolly]

Gever had gotten far more exercise than sleep the night of the gathering. No sooner would he settle in the dirt than the urge to move would goad him until he yielded to his restless paws and again took to pacing back and forth. Byu was a breath away from breaking, but other one -- Alamea. She might not be. He didn't want to hurt her, however, he feared he might have to. Gable's punishment would be swift and merciless if he returned to failure. Just as disheartening was the prospect of Ardant's success. Salt in the wound, so to speak.

No one raised in the horde was a stranger to violence. Gever's claws were besmirched by innocent blood from time to time, though he didn't see it as such. He only did what he had to, what he was taught and what he was told. Nothing more.

Yet this wasn't his first night without slumber. Not the first stone churning in his gut.

The morning was too early. The night too late. He waited until the sun was positioned overhead, high noon, before he sought out Alamea. She would be doing drudge work at this hour, he assumed.

Andranis

 

[Andranis]

Hopefolly

Sorry this took so long, if work didn't eat me other stuff did crying ;

Indeed, the black lioness was busy doing her daily drudge work. Her mother had been taken away early that morning to be worked with, leaving Alamea and a couple others alone to make sure Nebo didn't fall over. The pale brown lion concerned her. He had recovered from his vision, but she was left confused by his being able to speak the Nergui tongue. At least, that morning he had. Now he acted as though he still barely knew what anybody said in the tongue.

As she moved a rock, her ear flicked to the sound of someone approaching. She didn't even pause, not looking up, trusting only her nose. Gever was here... Probably to take her away. She spared a glance toward him only as she turned another direction to push the rock. Alamea glanced around, making sure nobody would beat her, before she stopped and stared at him. "I know why you're here."  

[Hopefolly]

Andranis

[S'all good. Not lightning quick myself as you can see. XD

Nebo was a curiosity. They all were. But Gever had no time for the rest, not now. If he were to sway more than the pair of slaves he'd been assigned, glory would be had for days, if not weeks; however, the risk was far too great. Punishment would be swift and brutal if he fell short with she and Byu, let alone another. He had to think of survival first and foremost.

They were alike in that regard. He noticed her cautious glance around.

"Of course you do." Gever's skills as a linguist were not to be undermined; his accent was far better speaking this tongue than many of the Nergui, less harsh. It was befitting if one had a tasteless sense of humor. "No one will strike you today," he assured her. Two words hung in the air, unuttered but obvious: Except me.

Then he nodded over his shoulder and told her, "Walk," though he didn't say to where.  

[Andranis]

Hopefolly

Sorry about that, I had an allergic reaction come up to a drug for my psoriasis, and then my muse pretty much went on hiatus on me gonk

Alamea spared a look toward the last two Hongshan amid the slaves, as well as the others, particularly that curious Nebo character, before she turned to Gever, starting to follow him. She knew the unspoken threat, not being a stupid lion. After all, she'd grown up knowing some inkling of how the Nergui acted, if only as she had seen from limited observation.

It felt strange, walking away from the other slaves like this. It could have been seen as relieving, but at the same time... If she made one wrong move, she'd be right back to the spirit-breaking tasks. She kept her head down, though not nearly as low as other slaves, as if to say she was above them. "What will we be doing first, if I may ask...?"  

[Hopefolly]

Andranis

We.

Gever heard her, but he didn't acknowledge it. His thoughts were riddled with self-interruption, bouncing around in his overworked, perhaps too clever mind. A spectator may have assumed there was a crick in his neck due to the continuous, albeit subtle side to side rock of his head. "What do you think is appropriate?" Alamea had been presented a deadly hybrid of rhetorical and trick question by a lion too impatient -- or too merciful? -- to give her time to answer. "Beat you? Drown you? Should I kill your family?" He shook his head, blew a heavy breath from his nose.

A passing hyena gave his stride pause. Gever was wary of the dogs lately. His brows had pulled down and from the corner of his eye he observed Alamea. Though he had not requested she speak, he was quiet for long enough she could have. Should she keep track of their surroundings, she'd find they were progressing away from the horde, for better or worse.  

[Andranis]

Hopefolly

For a moment, her eyes flashed, orbs of fire set in darkness as she watched the hyenas. Since she was a cub, their whooping and laughter had irritated her. Now her lip curled a bit as she fought a growl in her throat. If she passed and became a full member of the pride... She'd make life a living hell for those dogs. She remembered them too well, watching and waiting as her brothers and sisters had dropped off while the hoard marched on. Being a cub made nobody special, unless they were Kaar. Being the cub of a slave meant that only your parent or parents cared... If they weren't too weak yet.

She glanced at Gever, frowning. "I... Am not sure on where I am to begin in these tasks..." Or what tasks she was to do. All she'd really known, besides the watchful eyes and quick beatings, was tasks intended to break the spirit. Alamea's spirit refused to be broken, of course... Instead, it had been shaped, even as she listened to the quiet and hushed stories of the old pride her mother and the other two red lions had been in before now. She glanced at the retreating hyena again. "Perhaps I could muster the strength to beat that hyena?" If anything, it'd make HER very happy.  

[Hopefolly]

Andranis

"That hyena is one of us." By us, he meant them. Him, the Kaar, the rest of the Nergui. "You'll show them the proper respect." Whether or not Gever himself was fond of the lesser creatures (and this is how he saw them lately), he could only imagine the wrath he'd face from the higher uppers should he be caught encouraging their captives to physically assault them.

Alamea would still need to muster her strength. She was taken to a hillside. At the bottom was a boulder. Heavy, bulky, but enough a lioness like her — granted, this was in optimal health — could give it a good shove on even ground. Up a slope? Very unlikely.

"Push that up," Gever ordered. "All the way to the top."  

[Andranis]

Hopefolly

She could only sneer after the hyena. Nergui or not, she still didn't like the beasts.

Alamea looked at the boulder, then up the hill. She looked back at the boulder, then to Gever. A frown set into her face as she rolled her shoulders. She went over to the boulder, pressed her shoulder to it, dug her paws in, and began to shove. The rock, predictably, barely budged or moved.

After what felt like several hours, Alamea collapsed, panting, and looked at the drag line she'd made with the boulder. The distance had moved was equal to... The width of her paw... She placed it, then looked at her paw, then the rock, before smacking it with her paw. "Stupid rock!"  

[Hopefolly]

Andranis

Gever had no means or mind to count the minutes, he just knew they had been many. He had said nothing throughout her absurd task. No encouragement, no insults, no orders. The silence could be the most damning of all. Any living soul would have had their frustration spill over eventually. Her breaking point involved lashing out physically and verbally.

Gever noted the parallels between her and this rock, but that hadn't been his intentions, so he didn't voice this.

Instead, he looked to her and said gravely, "This is the best life you can hope for for as long as you stay as you are. Every day, sun up to sun down, moving stone not meant to be moved. We --" Gever meant the real 'we.' The Nergui. "-- do not do this drudge work."  

[Andranis]

Hopefolly

She looked at Gever, while bracing her shoulder against the rock and shoving it. No drudge work... No more shoving rocks around... The rock budged just a little, no more than the width of a toe, and she quietly marveled that she was able to do even that. She wasn't by any means a muscular lion. Like any slave, she was thin and far under kept, not having enough food to help break her. But she wasn't weak by any stretch, having a strong will that refused to break. Instead... She gave the rock a shove with her paws, snorting at it. If it was the last thing she did, she'd get the stupid thing up the hill. "Up, you stupid rock!"