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 Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 3:35 pm
 Some people might think that after more than half a year in a pride of fighters, many of whom were far more skilled than he, Ruber would have lost some of his cocksure swagger and conviction of his own prowess. Those people would have been quite wrong. Oh true, things didn't always go the way the red male envisioned they would, but had he not managed to get Nuria, who apparently had a reputation through the pride, to sleep with him? Now that took serious skill. And, being part of Chaka's group was helping Ruber to expand his fighting skill and improve his chances of being able to put any impertinent newbie or lioness in their place. So it was no wonder that the red lion was walking tall as he wandered the Motoujamii-Simo lands after a particularly good practice.
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 3:46 pm
Elda was doing what Elda normally did. Keeping to herself and taking her mind slowly through her training routine as if she might suddenly forget a step and never recover from it.
Unlike Ruber, she was a huge, ungainly female who was more than a little socially awkward. She had inherited none of her mother's beauty, it seemed, her crooked nose and dull eyes that seemed too far apart giving her the constant look of being confused. And she was easy to confuse.
There was no confidence. No ego. No ambition to speak of. Elda found joy in following orders and completing them to the best of her abilities and Seide, her boss and idol, had earned her loyalty long, long ago.
She was just returning from the oasis - now mostly full after all the rains - with water dripping from her chin, when she spotted him. Tall, bright-eyed and oddly marked. An ex-rogue, to be sure, though she'd never met him before. Still, she was easy to overlook and she never went out of her way to introduce herself.
Even now she had paused in step, hesitating as she seemed to be struggling to decide whether to continue in the same direction or perhaps avoid him altogether and change her path.
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 3:50 pm
Ruber happened to be looking around him, more to see who he could lord his superiority over or pick a fight with than for any other reason, when his eye fell on the red and white lioness. Her coloring was deeper than his own, and she was at least as big as he was. Between her size and her build, the former rogue was certain she'd been born here in the desert.
Well, perhaps talking to her could...enliven his day. The male altered his course to head straight for her.
"Well then," he began once he was in easy conversational range, "what do we have here?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 3:53 pm
Well, it seemed the decision had been taken out of her paws. The male was heading her way and already he was speaking. A single ear tipped forwards, curious and wary both. His tone was odd and she didn't quite understand his question.
Her first thought was: what? and she almost said it before taking a moment to think.
It was clear she was a Firekin female. So what else could he have meant but her rank? That was easy enough to answer and she would do so gladly. Her rank was what she was. It was what she lived for.
"Sentinel," she replied gruffly; her voice low and gravelly.
She blinked; once, twice, and then shifted awkwardly. "But you are not."
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 4:00 pm
It was Ruber's turn to blink. He hadn't expected his question to be taken so literally. But it was worth noting that she was a Sentinel. He believed that made her rank higher than his own position as a Soldier, which was...unfortunate. He wasn't exactly fond of lionesses ranking above him, but considering that most of the army was included in that, it wasn't something he could afford to dwell on at the moment.
But this lioness was not a commander of his in any way, shape or form and that was all to the good as far as Ruber was concerned. Still, it galled him to calmly accept her statement with no reaction.
"Well, that's true enough, but one has to wonder how exactly you achieved that rank," the male replied, silky tone conveying his doubt that she had managed to gain her placement entirely on her own.
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 4:12 pm
This conversation seemed a little odd and as he spoke again, Elda wondered if she'd missed something. As if they weren't quite on the same level. But his questions seemed simple enough and she could give him simple answers if that was what he wished. Maybe he was newer here than she realised. Maybe he didn't know how things worked.
If that was the case then she probably wasn't the best one to ask, but she could answer that question at least.
"I worked hard. That is all. When Moto'seide was promoted to legate, I was picked to serve under her command." She looked at him for a moment, not mentioning that her friend, Su, had encouraged her to go for the change. "Hard work is all it takes."
Then she asked: "you want to become a sentinel?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 4:16 pm
The longer things went on, the weirder the lioness seemed. Was she trying not to take offense from his words, or did she honestly not understand his meaning? He'd yet to meet a stupider seeming lion, but Ruber did have to admit that he'd been fooled in the past.
Yet the more they spoke, the more certain he was that this female was just an idiot.
"Good to know," he replied absently, considering the situation. "I haven't decided whether or not Sentinel is a rank I wish to pursue. But tell me...what is your name?" It would be something good to know. And he might be able to make...inquiries...around to see if she was really as stupid as she sounded.
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Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 1:59 am
Would he make a good sentinel, someday? Well, Elda wasn't the one to decide, so she would not judge. It was a good career and a good ambition to set one's sights on if they were that type.
"Elda," she replied in her usual dull tone.
"I do not know you, either. You are new here?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 3:49 pm
Elda, huh? Not someone he'd heard of, but that was hardly surprising. There were an awful lot of lions in the pride. More than he'd ever imagined would live so close together. It had been kind of strange, at first, but Ruber had grown accustomed to the idea and the presence of others around him.
"Not anymore," he replied calmly, examining the claws of one forepaw. Oh sure, there would be those who saw him as an outsider until the end of his days, but the red male had decided that he'd been in the Motoujamii-Simo long enough to no longer count as "new".
Whether anyone else agreed with him or not, well, that was their problem.
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Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 3:38 pm
"Oh."
She let the single word hang there for a moment, staring at him dumbly as if unsure what to do next. This small-talk thing really was tricky and she'd not learnt the knack to it yet. Probably never would.
Her eyes flicked suddenly sideways, flustering slightly, and then she took a slow step back, her joints cracking from standing in one position for so long.
"I must get back to work." A poor excuse maybe, but this was getting awkward now and she didn't really know how one dismissed oneself from something that wasn't military orientated.
"Goodbye," she decided on at last, fumbling over the word as she staggered back a few steps.
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Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 7:43 pm
"All right then," Ruber replied agreeably. He'd have to ask...someone...if that Elda was really as not-right in the head as she seemed. He'd like to give a pretty lioness the benefit of the doubt, but more research was in order.
Perhaps he'd been remiss. Maybe he needed to learn more members of the pride than just those he interacted with regularly.
It remained to be seen if Elda was one he'd seek out again.
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