|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 5:32 pm
 Sjurd had just returned from a Viking. Adrenaline still rushed through his veins and blood still tainted his pale blue fur. The lion hadn't been wounded, so he moved past the dens of healers and towards the cliffs where he sat and breathed the cool, salty air.
The raid had been a good release. The reaver had the chance to let loose. Let his claws and work the aggression out of his system. So when Sjurd returned to the pride, he had his characteristic light-hearted grin pressed to his features. He made friendly talk as he interacted with other pride members. Smiled and flirted and worked his way out of the homecoming gathering that marked the return.
The cliffside was quiet, and Sjurd was content. Well, nearly content. Brown eyes narrowed into he dark and churning sea thoughtfully, his tail twitching behind him. Against the dark sea and bright clouds, the blue-grey lion nearly blended in.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 5:58 pm
But that all seemed like a dream. Day after day, she remained hidden, traveling by shadows and at night, getting food when she needed it and generally avoiding the daily life of other members of the pride. The longer she went unnoticed, the less she had to contribute, the better.
She heard noises outside and rolled her eyes. She was not going to be drawn into something like that, but with everyone gathering in one spot it was a good time for her to slip out and go outside for some fresh air and to stretch her limbs. She did just that, leaving her dark and mostly hidden little hole in the ground and moving toward the cliffs. She did like the water, despite herself, and often found herself taking risks just to go and be near it. She was not happy to see someone else there, though she had not actually spotted him until she was much too close for comfort.
For a moment she considered running at him and knocking him into the ocean, but she did not have it in her to do something terrible like that. She was just not built to be a killer, and would have to learn how to better fit this place, if she did not manage to leave. She tried to back away slowly from the male, though, and tripped over some of the loose rocks on the ground.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 7:30 pm
The sound of the stumble drew Sjurd's attention immediately. That and the action still in his blood drew his claws from their sheathes and made his teeth bare. But the sight of the female, lithe and fallen and pretty, made him pause. The reaver wasn't one to take in the pride females as conquests. Lustful tendencies were for Bruten, and Sjurd himself had little interest in taking in others as his property. He didn't have the thirst. Still, this female was pretty.
A look of concern crossed the lion's features. His maw turned into a slight frown and his claws had sheathed. Sjurd let his head fall ever so slightly to the side. The reaver wasn't necessarily a cruel lion. Not when he didn't want to be which, admittedly, was most of the time. He wasn't a lion who felt the desire to needlessly show off their capabilities, as others in the pride seemed to. No, Sjurd liked to keep a more lighthearted impression amongst the pride. There was a time when he could release his aggression, out of the pride where he could let loose. That time had passed, and Sjurd's aggression had been sated.
"Are you alright?" the lion called, his voice low and almost gentle in its delivery. He moved hesitantly towards the lioness, brows furrowed. If this was part of some mask to hide some darker intention, he couldn't really say. Lines blurred and the lion didn't know which parts of himself were true and which were facades to save face. He had long since tried to tell the difference.
Still, he sounded sincere enough. And he didn't seem to be making any move to be aggressive towards the lioness. The only sign that there could have been something dark about the lion was the blood on his paws, but even that wasn't unusual for the pride, for reavers especially.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 9:25 pm
Hivya looked like she was ready to bolt when he turned around. She saw his claws come out and thought that this was the end, this was what she had been hiding from all her life. She was going to get attacked and dragged off somewhere and no one would ever know she was gone, and they wouldn't care even if they did know. She was just going to be another number, another conquest, and that was that. In the back of her mind, she knew that was not how these things worked, but her fear was just too potent.
Anyway, he was growling at her with his claws out, and she could not help but assume the absolute worse.
"Please don't hurt me," she eeped out, crouching down as if she thought she could sink down into the floor and escape that way if she just got down low enough. Her bright pink fur made camouflaging impossible, and that tended to only work when the creature one wanted to hide from was not already staring directly at them. Her ears were drooped down to her head and she watched him with teary eyes.
He wasn't attacking her, though, and that did not go unnoticed. She swallowed hard, clearing her throat.
"I... I didn't think anyone would be out this way. I thought everyone was gathering elsewhere. I... didn't mean to interrupt you..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 9:40 pm
"Don't hurt-" Sjurd cut himself off with a faint laugh. It was a gentle laugh. One of disbelief that she'd immediately come to that conclusion. Was he that intimidating? Or was this one just that secluded. He supposed it was somewhat warranted. This pride could do unfriendly things to its females. The lion shook his head, his laughter fading into a somewhat sympathetic look. Each of his expressions was well thought out. Each of his movements careful and purposeful. It was this sort of intent that went into his daily living, now. To balance him between something gentle and something monstrous.
"You weren't disrupting me. It's fine, really. I'm not going to hurt you." Sjurd moved towards her, stopping at a comfortable distance before sitting, lowering his head to where he was on the same eye level as the lioness. He wasn't lying. The reaver had no intention of hurting her. Unless... Well, unless she was into that sort of thing. But that was beside the point.
Sjurd gave the best subtle smile that he could. "Promise. My name's Sjurd." He nodded, crossing his paws in front of him and curling his tail around his hind legs. "You have nothing to worry about. I'm not like some of the lions around here." Another reassuring smile.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 12:42 am
Hivya shuffled her paws and kicked away some of the stones that had caused her to give her location away. How she had been so careless she did not know. But this lion did not seem as bad as the stories she had heard. At least, he was being nice to her so far and that was all she could really ask for. She looked at him sheepishly, ears drooped and eyes just barely lifting high enough to look at her.
"I just... I've heard bad things about males around here. I've never seen them but I... I don't know. I just worry about... what can happen if I'm not careful. I tend to just stay by myself, and I don't talk to anyone. Which is probably good because I seem to be saying a lot..."
She snapped her jaws closed, shaking her head. She felt stupid now, realizing that not every single male in the pride was evil and she had been hiding in a corner for nothing. Though, she was staying open to the idea that he was just pretending to be nice. After all, he did have blood on him.
"Did you... did you just hurt someone?" she asked, eyes focused on the spots of blood now. She didn't see any injuries on him, after all. "Oh. M-my name is Hivya."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 8:12 pm
"That's a good mentality to keep, around here." Sjurd gave a smile and did his best not to make it a sly one. He really was trying. It was like a battle in that head of his, and he didn't want a bad reputation, or anything. "They take a lot of pride in brutality, around here." His tail brushed back and forth behind him. "Though that does seem like a rather lonely lifestyle."
He raised a brow at her, not quite able to wrap his mind around the concept of just staying locked away in a den all day. The bringing up of the blood made him hesitate and he glanced down at his paws and the blood that speckled his pale pelt. "I am a reaver, you see." He looked back up at her, trying to give a gentle look that contradicted the implied lifestyle that his role in the pride held. "We've just returned from a viking," Sjurd continued, glancing over his shoulder to where the rest of the crew must have been.
"Hivya. The pleasure is mine, beautiful." The adrenaline must have been wearing off; he was catching back on to his charm. "And I suppose it makes sense to be hesitant around here. A pretty face like yours would attract a good number of brutes around these parts." He wasn't positive that he wasn't one of those brutes himself. Pretty sure, but not positive...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:44 am
Hivya was not sure if she trusted him just yet, but at least now she had an actual interaction with a male, and it was not as terrible as she had believed. That made her confused, as well, as now she had to question the things she believed, and the ideas she had with her all her life. She looked him over and nodded her head slowly as he explained what he had been doing.
Now that was not a surprise to hear. She nodded her head slowly and looked up at him, then smiled a very thin and timid little smile, her eyes returning to his gaze long enough for her to get a good look at his eyes. It did not clear much up in her confusion, but that was the theme of the day.
She shuffled a bit when she was called beautiful, shaking her head.
"I... I didn't think I was anything particularly special. And I never got the idea that the males were particularly discerning... I mean... n-no offense. Uhm. Do you really think... well. I am glad, at least, that you're being so nice to me. You aren't planning to steal me away, are you?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 12:16 pm
"Oh I don't know if that's true. You're like a little gem. A pearl in her shell." Was it too much? Should he tone it back, a bit? Sjurd didn't know. For once he felt a bit nervous. He did his best not to show it, keeping the quaint smile on his features.
Sjurd was a flirter, but not usually one to follow through. He generally didn't have any interest in that sort of thing. This seemed... different, though. And he didn't quite know why. Maybe Bruten was rubbing off on him more than usual.
"Of course not, miss Hivya." His head tilted to the side and he shrugged his shoulder. "Not unless you want to be," he said, only half-joking. His gaze stayed fixed on her, though made sure to make his eyes gentle. "I must say you're rather intriguing. So secluded from the rest of the pride. Don't you ever get curious? Don't you ever wonder what it's like to be with others?" Sjurd quirked his brow, trying to be suave in his attempt to coax her out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:52 pm
Hivya blushed under her fur, which was thankfully pink and showed absolutely no sign of the change of color in her pale skin underneath. She sometimes wondered if lighter pelted lions, the ones with white fur especially, had trouble with their fur glowing pink when they were embarrassed. She had see it in the tips of ears and even in pale noses, but she assumed that anywhere the skin felt hotter was prone to changing red, right?
Who knew. She had to ponder a lot of things to keep her brain occupied in the more boring days of her isolation. She had a lot of pointless thoughts in her head as a result, and tended to over think things when she had more important things to focus on.
Like the male talking to her right now. She was worrying about the color of her skin and fur, when he was actually flattering her and making her feel like she had never experienced before. She had no way of knowing how to process what she was feeling, not sure what it meant, and having no points of reference for it.
She offered him a few timid smile, small, but her eyes lit up as she looked at him and she finally seemed to step away from the fearful side of things, opening up a bit more and letting her more true personality shine a little.
"I... I guess I do wonder, sometimes, what it's all like..." she managed to admit, her voice shaking, though now her nerves had shifted from fear to something closer to excitement. "I just... I've always been more worried than curious, I guess. Until now, maybe."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 2:31 pm
At the sight of that smile, the look in her eyes, Sjurd gave his own in return. That slight expression, could it mean that he was getting somewhere? He released a breath, his body relaxing a bit. The reaver couldn't help but feel a bit victorious. Like he was winning something. And he supposed he was, in some sort of way. It was a sort of victory that he didn't often relish in (this, surely, was more Bruten's field of prowess, not his own), but he had to admit that it felt rather nice.
He didn't have to see her blush to feel the resonating of her anxiety. The way her voice quivered, the way she was holding herself. Perhaps it was best that he didn't push to hard. Not right now, anyways. This whole thing was like a game. Each of his moves had to be well orchestrated. Controlled and measured. Though it wasn't specifically one that he would very often play, games concerning the nuances of character were ones that Sjurd could appreciate.
So this situation required some tact.
"Oh I wouldn't worry, my dear. For every one out there who would try to do harm, there would by at least a few more than capable of keeping you safe, and more than happy to do so, for such a gem." Sjurd gave a toothy smile, doing his best not to look like a predator. "And the world is worth seeing." He glanced around thoughtfully before directing his gaze back towards her. "And if you ever need someone to guide you through it, I'd be more than happy to put a little excitement in you life. Feel free to call on me anytime." Was he being too forward? Perhaps...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 2:57 pm
She watched him carefully, thoughtfully, and decided she wanted to trust him. She knew it was probably a stupid idea, that he could easily hurt her, but the way he called her a gem, and made her feel like she had something special to offer... it was alluring. She was not just a possession, she reminded herself, but maybe if she felt protected, like she was something worth protecting, she would be able to face the pride a bit more and not be so hidden and alone.
Or maybe, subconsciously, she was just tired of hiding, and this was the first good opportunity to escape her self imposed prison. Either way, she found herself wanting to take a risk, and that risk was the lion before her.
"Would you mind, then, meeting me some time and showing me around? I mean. Where should I find you... i-if I did want to take you up on your offer. I'm not saying that I will, I'm not sure... just yet... b-but..." she did not want to see too eager, pulling back a bit, but her body language was bit too easy to read, despite her best efforts.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 8:17 pm
Sjurd tensed his jaw briefly, his tail swishing behind him as he thought. There was something rumbling inside of him. Something dark. Something hungry. The reaver tried his best to suppress it. To hold back the beast. But, well.
The lion smiled a thin smile. He motioned over his shoulder with muddy eyes in the direction of his den. "My den is near that of other reavers. A thrall near there could direct you, I'm sure." His gaze moved back towards hers. It was direct and unyielding, but with a warmth he tried hard to maintain. "If others are to give you trouble there, tell them that you are in my company. I'll keep you safe from the harm of others."
From the harm of himself, though, he couldn't well say.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:28 pm
She was tense as she watched him, swinging her tail behind her, but keeping it low. She was still very unsure of herself, but she was going to stick with this new plan, if that was what it could be called. She let her ears droop a bit.
"But I'm not one of yours," she said with a lot of hesitation, "A thrall, or anything like that. "I'm... I'm just... your friend, okay?"
She watched him for a long moment, not sure a reaver had friends. Or if that really was what she could call herself. But she wanted to be near him, to take this risk and to experience whatever this was going to allow her to know. Good or bad, she had to do this now that she had stepped foot out of her hiding hole.
"I... I look forward to seeing you again, some time... soon, maybe."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 1:50 am
Lithiasaur And I think this is a good wrap-up? c:
"Of course, my lady Hivya. My friend. Nothing less, and nothing more." His mouth pressed, thin and wry. Something troubled him. Something deep in his gut, but that wasn't something to trifle with, right now.
Instead, the lion simply dipped his head, his expression fading. "I look forward to your company as well." He glanced over his shoulder before making eye contact once again with the pink lioness. A distant expression lingered on his face. "Until then, my lady. Stay safe."
His voice was but a murmur as he disappeared into the fog.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sjurd had just returned from a Viking. Adrenaline still rushed through his veins and blood still tainted his pale blue fur. The lion hadn't been wounded, so he moved past the dens of healers and towards the cliffs where he sat and breathed the cool, salty air. 
