Post by Avalikia on Oct 21, 2010 19:27:33 GMT -7
Characters:
Dushta - Male Black Tiger
Dalaja - Female Tiger
Setting:
Lower Waterfall
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It's nearly dawn - the sun isn't officially out yet but the sky is starting to lighten, indicating that it will shortly. Dushta can be found back on his favorite rock, though he hasn't been back for long. Having left those lion cubs to their fate, he took the long way back, stopping at the river to wash the blood off of himself the easy way. Still, the scratches on his shoulders, while blending in rather well with his dark fur, ensure that he still smells of blood and will until they've had a chance to heal. But by far the biggest change is the absolute look of contentment on his face.
Generally, this was the time when Dalaja was most successful in her hunts. Just before the sun pierced through the canopies and signaled to the nocturnal prey that it was time to rest. Most of them were tired and clumsy by now, including one such poor wretched deer that was now dead and half-eaten by the self-starved tigress. On her mind is of course, the meal, but also the scent trail belonging to Dushta, intermingled with the dead bodies of various lions and their blood. Interesting though it was, her meal was first. With her hunger sated at last, Dalaja feels no guilt in leaving over half of the carcass to rot, on the trail of Dushta again. It isn't long before she is led directly to the rock, and she stares up at the content tiger with an amused expression on her face, appearing suddenly with surprising stealth. "I saw what you did." She said, monotonously, though she was more impressed than anything.
As contented as he looks, Dushta is also just slightly more on edge than normal. A part of it is that, while he didn't get hurt enough during the night's events to impair his ability to defend himself, he can't be sure that the other tigers - especially Rakta - won't think otherwise. And another part is that he's grown used to the pattern of him having a bit of fun followed by others being upset with him, though he doesn't suppose that they'll be able to react /this/ quickly. Still, he's quick to pick out the sounds of Dalaja's approach, though his relaxed smile indicates that he doesn't view her as likely to cause trouble. "Did you?" he asks at her statement, sounding pleased. One thing is for certain in his manner: he is extremely happy about the events of the night.
The smell of blood is strong on Dushta, not only because he still held some of the metallic scent from the night previous in his fur, but also because of what little wounds he did receive at the hands of the lions he attacked. Truthfully, Dalaja was a bit upset with just how non-injured he was. In a way she had wished to see him in a great deal of pain just because she disliked him so much. But equal to her disappointment is her astonishment, and in that astonishment lurked a great deal of impress as well. "I did." She repeated, smirking a bit. "I guess I don't really care to know.. as I don't find the loss much of a /loss/ anyway.. but what did they do?"
Actually, Dushta is a /bit/ more injured than he appears at first glance. The wounds to his shoulders are the only really noticeable ones, but they're not /that/ deep and will heal easily. What's more of a bother to Dushta is the already massive bruise that's only now deciding just how much it's going to hurt to his right side, but that's hardly visible so he'll pretend it doesn't exist as long as someone may be watching him. "What do you mean, 'what did they do'?" he asks, genuinely puzzled by the question. That sort of thing has certainly never been a factor that he's weighed in his mind.
"I assume you killed them because they got in your way somehow.. or were you just in the mood to kill?" She asks, half mocking, half serious. A great many might've been disturbed by the fact that he killed for the fun of it, but not Dalaja. In fact, she kind of found that attitude ideal. Even if she did prefer having a /cause/ to go with killing. From this distance, she can't tell that his injuries are more serious than they first appear, nor would she really care either way, even if she did hold some sort of good emotion toward him, which, at the moment, she still didn't.
That clarification only slightly eases the puzzled look on Dushta's face. Now he understands the question, but it takes him a moment to figure out how to answer it. "Well, I suppose that when I saw that there were /three/ of them, that put me in the mood," he finally answers, probably giving this far more thought than Dalaja intended. "If there had been four, then when I tricked them into splitting up that wouldn't have left one of them alone," he explains, "That there were three made it possible. I suppose I'd have gone after two, but that would have been less interesting."
"So. You kill things because it's interesting to you, hmm?" She asks, genuinely intrigued by that fact. She'd never met anyone who killed for strictly just the fun of it. Even the extremist murderous tigers and tigresses from the Sakht Nakh clan back in it's golden days killed for a reason, even if they did get enjoyment and whatnot out of it. The fact is they had a goal to motivate them. Dushta, as far as she could figure, had no goal. It was odd. /He/ was odd. "They're not the smartest of beasts, the lions.. but they aren't as stupid as most, either." Oh, she wouldn't say she was impressed. But that was about as close to it as she would get.
"Well, things would get incredibly dull if I didn't, wouldn't it?" Dushta asks. And, naturally, he values his own entertainment well above anyone else's life. More than his own safety at times as well, though as he just hinted he's not suicidal about it - if the odds had been stacked any more against it then he would have refrained. "No, they are not. These three were practically begging for it. Still, any grown male lion is a /bit/ of a challenge. They have an annoyingly large amount of fur around their vitals. Still, I have my ways," he says, idly examining one of his forepaws. He knows she's impressed whether she says so or not. He's just waiting for her to say something negative about it, as these neutral statements practically pass for flattery when compared to her usual insults.
"I suppose so." She mutters amusedly, sitting herself down and staring up at the black tiger, still uncertain of how she should feel about his "crimes", though she definitely wasn't against them. Scoffing at the notion that male lions were a challenge, she rolls her eyes, but makes herself comfortable on the ground, laying down and curling her tail around her, as if she didn't have a care in the world. "Perhaps. But you should get used to it, if you're serious in your endeavors. Father had a particular disliking for the lion population, and it would please him greatly if they were destroyed, I think."
Smirking a little at that, Dushta comments, "Well, those are not the first lions that I have killed - though I must admit that three adults in a row are a new personal best. And I wouldn't want to try for four - that would require more luck than I'd like. But I suppose that's a part of the reason I accepted leadership of this clan - one tiger can only do so much." So despite the fact that there isn't any real /purpose/ behind his omnicidal tendencies, that doesn't mean that he's halfway about it. "Of course, another reason is that it allows me to have enemies: powerful enemies that might conceivably track me down," he adds as an afterthought, though the way the grin on his face remains indicates that this too is merely for his own amusement.
His bragging only helps to reinforce Dalaja's dislike for the particular male, but she'll tolerate it for now. He did accomplish quite a feat, if for no reason at all. But, his last comment has Dalaja giving him an odd sort of look that was almost disappointed in nature, but disappointment, for her, was reserved for those she actually cared for. And that was.. her mother, basically. Only one. "You're stupid." She says, though she seems comfortable enough still not to move at all. "Making enemies for yourself so bluntly is a foolish way to go about things. It only causes trouble. If anything, you should attempt to have your clan infiltrate the Do-Rakhanaa as they did to my clan."
Smirking a little at that, Dushta comments, "Well, perhaps it's a bit foolish of me, that's true. But never remaining in one place for long and hiding in the shadows gets boring after awhile, and if something comes of it that I can't handle then I /deserve/ death. And knowing that there are those out there that want me dead keeps me from dying of boredom, especially my second." He eyes the tigress carefully at that moment to catch her reaction, curious to see what she makes of that bit of information, but he quickly adds, "And you assume that I /haven't/ sent one of my clan to infiltrate the Do-Rakhanaa."
The bit about deserving death does have her attention captured again, moreso than before. Hey, that line of thinking was quite similar to her own, actually. Grinning mildly at that, she seems to have finally accepted the fact that his pelt color was different, as there were little to no comments about it during this entire meeting. Impressive, for someone as opinionated and prejudiced as her. "I'm aware that your .. 'second' wants you dead. He was rather eager to inform me, actually. But I think I might've convinced him of how foolish /that/ was too." Yes, telling people they were stupid was Dalaja's specialty. "So, you're smarter than you let on. Good. Perhaps your clan won't be such a pitiful embarrassment to the memory of the Sakht Nakh as I expected."
The part about being smarter than he lets on actually causes a laugh from Dushta. It's not that he tries to appear stupid, it's that everyone assumes that he's stupid - perhaps because of his color or overly relaxed demeanor during his 'down time' - and he lets them assume that he's stupid because it puts them right where he wants them. Such as the mess his second got himself into by just giving him leadership. "Hmm, well, you must understand that I don't care about the Sakht Nakh - not that I mean any disrespect to their memory, but they no longer exist and I do not share their ideology. So how well I live up to their memory doesn't matter to me. Still, if I in some way have proven that I'm not a blot on the forest..." He trails off, allowing her to confirm or deny that as she will. Not that he'd put any stock in it if she said that he didn't.
The black tiger was rather blunt in how he put his feelings toward the Sakht Nakh, but Dalaja didn't expect any better from him. Just because he was smarter than he let on didn't mean he was /smart/, and any smart creature would be for the preservation of her father's clan, or at least honoring their memory. Still, she doesn't let his comments bother her too much. "Someone like you wouldn't be welcome in it anyway." She said in a rather snobbish way, her own way of defending the so-called evil clan. All this time, she'd hardly even looked up at him, instead having conversation while her eyes were on the ground or staring at her paws. Now, she looks up. "What makes you think that you're anything more than a 'blot' on the forest? Because you killed some lions? Nothing you do will change your color. You'll always be a blot."
That he wouldn't be welcome in the Sakht Nakh is so obvious at this point that it hardly needs to be said, nor does Dushta particularly care. What he /does/ care about, mostly for his own amusement is seeing if he can't get the good opinion of this tigress. And despite what she seems to be trying to say to the contrary he knows that he's scored more than a few points. "Ah, I see," he says, sounding disappointed, "I suppose you were lying then when you said that I might be able to prove my worth, as the one thing I can't change is my stripes." Or lack thereof.
Thinking back for a moment, Dalaja can't rightly remember if she ever said that he could prove his worth, though she might've. And now particularly, she wouldn't be completely opposed to maybe working with him in the future. The fact that he could kill three adult lions in one night, within a short amount of time even /is/ quite impressive to her, far more than she's letting on. But that seems to be the main problem, what she lets on and what she does not. Laughing a little, she still makes no effort to move from her spot, but does stretch out her front legs, claws hitting the ground for just a second. "I'm no liar." She says, most of the hostility in her voice gone by this point.
The disappointment vanishes instantly, as it wasn't real to begin with, and Dushta's ears perk up at her statement. "Oh?" he asks, with genuine interest, "Then I look forward to being able to do that, if lions weren't a part of that test. Because if I have not at the very least proven that I'm worth a second look then I'm sorry, but your standards are too high." He ends that with a grin, as he's proven his worth to himself many times over and knows that at the very least he's gotten this tigress's attention. The real challenge here is to see if he can't get her to admit it.
Staring up at him quietly for a minute, Dalaja gets up very quickly, and lets out a pretty exaggerated yawn before she gives a decent enough smirk, and shrugs. "I look forward to it too." She says, and is actually half tempted to reveal that he at least has her attention now.. but she doesn't. Instead, she begins to walk away to nowhere in particular, but rather surprisingly, actually offers a good-bye. "Keep yourself out of trouble, I'd like to be able to insult you some more." She says, and then begins to walk off at a leisurely place, having no real goal in mind.
It's all too easy for Dushta to see what she means behind those words, and he grins at that last part. "I promise, no more playing with lions. At least until these heal," he says, referring to the scratches on his shoulders while really meaning the bruise on his side. /That/ will be irritating for awhile - perhaps he'll stick to hunting for food for a few days... nah... But for now the efforts of the night have tired him so he's liable to spend the rest of the day sleeping - with one ear listening for someone trying to kill him, of course.
Dushta - Male Black Tiger
Dalaja - Female Tiger
Setting:
Lower Waterfall
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It's nearly dawn - the sun isn't officially out yet but the sky is starting to lighten, indicating that it will shortly. Dushta can be found back on his favorite rock, though he hasn't been back for long. Having left those lion cubs to their fate, he took the long way back, stopping at the river to wash the blood off of himself the easy way. Still, the scratches on his shoulders, while blending in rather well with his dark fur, ensure that he still smells of blood and will until they've had a chance to heal. But by far the biggest change is the absolute look of contentment on his face.
Generally, this was the time when Dalaja was most successful in her hunts. Just before the sun pierced through the canopies and signaled to the nocturnal prey that it was time to rest. Most of them were tired and clumsy by now, including one such poor wretched deer that was now dead and half-eaten by the self-starved tigress. On her mind is of course, the meal, but also the scent trail belonging to Dushta, intermingled with the dead bodies of various lions and their blood. Interesting though it was, her meal was first. With her hunger sated at last, Dalaja feels no guilt in leaving over half of the carcass to rot, on the trail of Dushta again. It isn't long before she is led directly to the rock, and she stares up at the content tiger with an amused expression on her face, appearing suddenly with surprising stealth. "I saw what you did." She said, monotonously, though she was more impressed than anything.
As contented as he looks, Dushta is also just slightly more on edge than normal. A part of it is that, while he didn't get hurt enough during the night's events to impair his ability to defend himself, he can't be sure that the other tigers - especially Rakta - won't think otherwise. And another part is that he's grown used to the pattern of him having a bit of fun followed by others being upset with him, though he doesn't suppose that they'll be able to react /this/ quickly. Still, he's quick to pick out the sounds of Dalaja's approach, though his relaxed smile indicates that he doesn't view her as likely to cause trouble. "Did you?" he asks at her statement, sounding pleased. One thing is for certain in his manner: he is extremely happy about the events of the night.
The smell of blood is strong on Dushta, not only because he still held some of the metallic scent from the night previous in his fur, but also because of what little wounds he did receive at the hands of the lions he attacked. Truthfully, Dalaja was a bit upset with just how non-injured he was. In a way she had wished to see him in a great deal of pain just because she disliked him so much. But equal to her disappointment is her astonishment, and in that astonishment lurked a great deal of impress as well. "I did." She repeated, smirking a bit. "I guess I don't really care to know.. as I don't find the loss much of a /loss/ anyway.. but what did they do?"
Actually, Dushta is a /bit/ more injured than he appears at first glance. The wounds to his shoulders are the only really noticeable ones, but they're not /that/ deep and will heal easily. What's more of a bother to Dushta is the already massive bruise that's only now deciding just how much it's going to hurt to his right side, but that's hardly visible so he'll pretend it doesn't exist as long as someone may be watching him. "What do you mean, 'what did they do'?" he asks, genuinely puzzled by the question. That sort of thing has certainly never been a factor that he's weighed in his mind.
"I assume you killed them because they got in your way somehow.. or were you just in the mood to kill?" She asks, half mocking, half serious. A great many might've been disturbed by the fact that he killed for the fun of it, but not Dalaja. In fact, she kind of found that attitude ideal. Even if she did prefer having a /cause/ to go with killing. From this distance, she can't tell that his injuries are more serious than they first appear, nor would she really care either way, even if she did hold some sort of good emotion toward him, which, at the moment, she still didn't.
That clarification only slightly eases the puzzled look on Dushta's face. Now he understands the question, but it takes him a moment to figure out how to answer it. "Well, I suppose that when I saw that there were /three/ of them, that put me in the mood," he finally answers, probably giving this far more thought than Dalaja intended. "If there had been four, then when I tricked them into splitting up that wouldn't have left one of them alone," he explains, "That there were three made it possible. I suppose I'd have gone after two, but that would have been less interesting."
"So. You kill things because it's interesting to you, hmm?" She asks, genuinely intrigued by that fact. She'd never met anyone who killed for strictly just the fun of it. Even the extremist murderous tigers and tigresses from the Sakht Nakh clan back in it's golden days killed for a reason, even if they did get enjoyment and whatnot out of it. The fact is they had a goal to motivate them. Dushta, as far as she could figure, had no goal. It was odd. /He/ was odd. "They're not the smartest of beasts, the lions.. but they aren't as stupid as most, either." Oh, she wouldn't say she was impressed. But that was about as close to it as she would get.
"Well, things would get incredibly dull if I didn't, wouldn't it?" Dushta asks. And, naturally, he values his own entertainment well above anyone else's life. More than his own safety at times as well, though as he just hinted he's not suicidal about it - if the odds had been stacked any more against it then he would have refrained. "No, they are not. These three were practically begging for it. Still, any grown male lion is a /bit/ of a challenge. They have an annoyingly large amount of fur around their vitals. Still, I have my ways," he says, idly examining one of his forepaws. He knows she's impressed whether she says so or not. He's just waiting for her to say something negative about it, as these neutral statements practically pass for flattery when compared to her usual insults.
"I suppose so." She mutters amusedly, sitting herself down and staring up at the black tiger, still uncertain of how she should feel about his "crimes", though she definitely wasn't against them. Scoffing at the notion that male lions were a challenge, she rolls her eyes, but makes herself comfortable on the ground, laying down and curling her tail around her, as if she didn't have a care in the world. "Perhaps. But you should get used to it, if you're serious in your endeavors. Father had a particular disliking for the lion population, and it would please him greatly if they were destroyed, I think."
Smirking a little at that, Dushta comments, "Well, those are not the first lions that I have killed - though I must admit that three adults in a row are a new personal best. And I wouldn't want to try for four - that would require more luck than I'd like. But I suppose that's a part of the reason I accepted leadership of this clan - one tiger can only do so much." So despite the fact that there isn't any real /purpose/ behind his omnicidal tendencies, that doesn't mean that he's halfway about it. "Of course, another reason is that it allows me to have enemies: powerful enemies that might conceivably track me down," he adds as an afterthought, though the way the grin on his face remains indicates that this too is merely for his own amusement.
His bragging only helps to reinforce Dalaja's dislike for the particular male, but she'll tolerate it for now. He did accomplish quite a feat, if for no reason at all. But, his last comment has Dalaja giving him an odd sort of look that was almost disappointed in nature, but disappointment, for her, was reserved for those she actually cared for. And that was.. her mother, basically. Only one. "You're stupid." She says, though she seems comfortable enough still not to move at all. "Making enemies for yourself so bluntly is a foolish way to go about things. It only causes trouble. If anything, you should attempt to have your clan infiltrate the Do-Rakhanaa as they did to my clan."
Smirking a little at that, Dushta comments, "Well, perhaps it's a bit foolish of me, that's true. But never remaining in one place for long and hiding in the shadows gets boring after awhile, and if something comes of it that I can't handle then I /deserve/ death. And knowing that there are those out there that want me dead keeps me from dying of boredom, especially my second." He eyes the tigress carefully at that moment to catch her reaction, curious to see what she makes of that bit of information, but he quickly adds, "And you assume that I /haven't/ sent one of my clan to infiltrate the Do-Rakhanaa."
The bit about deserving death does have her attention captured again, moreso than before. Hey, that line of thinking was quite similar to her own, actually. Grinning mildly at that, she seems to have finally accepted the fact that his pelt color was different, as there were little to no comments about it during this entire meeting. Impressive, for someone as opinionated and prejudiced as her. "I'm aware that your .. 'second' wants you dead. He was rather eager to inform me, actually. But I think I might've convinced him of how foolish /that/ was too." Yes, telling people they were stupid was Dalaja's specialty. "So, you're smarter than you let on. Good. Perhaps your clan won't be such a pitiful embarrassment to the memory of the Sakht Nakh as I expected."
The part about being smarter than he lets on actually causes a laugh from Dushta. It's not that he tries to appear stupid, it's that everyone assumes that he's stupid - perhaps because of his color or overly relaxed demeanor during his 'down time' - and he lets them assume that he's stupid because it puts them right where he wants them. Such as the mess his second got himself into by just giving him leadership. "Hmm, well, you must understand that I don't care about the Sakht Nakh - not that I mean any disrespect to their memory, but they no longer exist and I do not share their ideology. So how well I live up to their memory doesn't matter to me. Still, if I in some way have proven that I'm not a blot on the forest..." He trails off, allowing her to confirm or deny that as she will. Not that he'd put any stock in it if she said that he didn't.
The black tiger was rather blunt in how he put his feelings toward the Sakht Nakh, but Dalaja didn't expect any better from him. Just because he was smarter than he let on didn't mean he was /smart/, and any smart creature would be for the preservation of her father's clan, or at least honoring their memory. Still, she doesn't let his comments bother her too much. "Someone like you wouldn't be welcome in it anyway." She said in a rather snobbish way, her own way of defending the so-called evil clan. All this time, she'd hardly even looked up at him, instead having conversation while her eyes were on the ground or staring at her paws. Now, she looks up. "What makes you think that you're anything more than a 'blot' on the forest? Because you killed some lions? Nothing you do will change your color. You'll always be a blot."
That he wouldn't be welcome in the Sakht Nakh is so obvious at this point that it hardly needs to be said, nor does Dushta particularly care. What he /does/ care about, mostly for his own amusement is seeing if he can't get the good opinion of this tigress. And despite what she seems to be trying to say to the contrary he knows that he's scored more than a few points. "Ah, I see," he says, sounding disappointed, "I suppose you were lying then when you said that I might be able to prove my worth, as the one thing I can't change is my stripes." Or lack thereof.
Thinking back for a moment, Dalaja can't rightly remember if she ever said that he could prove his worth, though she might've. And now particularly, she wouldn't be completely opposed to maybe working with him in the future. The fact that he could kill three adult lions in one night, within a short amount of time even /is/ quite impressive to her, far more than she's letting on. But that seems to be the main problem, what she lets on and what she does not. Laughing a little, she still makes no effort to move from her spot, but does stretch out her front legs, claws hitting the ground for just a second. "I'm no liar." She says, most of the hostility in her voice gone by this point.
The disappointment vanishes instantly, as it wasn't real to begin with, and Dushta's ears perk up at her statement. "Oh?" he asks, with genuine interest, "Then I look forward to being able to do that, if lions weren't a part of that test. Because if I have not at the very least proven that I'm worth a second look then I'm sorry, but your standards are too high." He ends that with a grin, as he's proven his worth to himself many times over and knows that at the very least he's gotten this tigress's attention. The real challenge here is to see if he can't get her to admit it.
Staring up at him quietly for a minute, Dalaja gets up very quickly, and lets out a pretty exaggerated yawn before she gives a decent enough smirk, and shrugs. "I look forward to it too." She says, and is actually half tempted to reveal that he at least has her attention now.. but she doesn't. Instead, she begins to walk away to nowhere in particular, but rather surprisingly, actually offers a good-bye. "Keep yourself out of trouble, I'd like to be able to insult you some more." She says, and then begins to walk off at a leisurely place, having no real goal in mind.
It's all too easy for Dushta to see what she means behind those words, and he grins at that last part. "I promise, no more playing with lions. At least until these heal," he says, referring to the scratches on his shoulders while really meaning the bruise on his side. /That/ will be irritating for awhile - perhaps he'll stick to hunting for food for a few days... nah... But for now the efforts of the night have tired him so he's liable to spend the rest of the day sleeping - with one ear listening for someone trying to kill him, of course.