[Request] Subconscious Lessons

[TheRoguePrince]

Keto waited as the sun started to descend through the sky. His brother had been hunting for some time, but there had been no need. A while after Kasi had left he had gone out a while for himself, and practically run head long into a zebra, and that went rather well, for Keto. It had taken some time to drag the prey back to the den, but it was worth it. Kasi would be dumbfounded to find food already provided, even if he did get something, which was likely. He always seemed to be the one who got the food for them, well not this time. He chuckled as he waited for his brother to return, perhaps they would go out and have a little sparring session later, at least he could win at that.

The sun continued to descend, and still no Kasi, what in the name of the Great Kings was taking him so long? Perhaps he should go looking for Kasi, but that would likely just end up with both of them looking for each other. Better just to stay here and enjoy the evening, it had been a while since he had had a bit of time to himself. He would enjoy it after all those days listening to his rather talkative brother report on his daily victories, always the confident one was Kasi.

Ever since they had made it here Kasi had seemed to grow exponentially more outgoing. He had always been so, but for a while there had been no reason for either of them to believe that something good would happen. The point is, they were two male lions, and that never boded well in joining Prides. Not that they really needed more than each other's company, but it would be nice for them not to have to worry about providing food for themselves everyday. It was always a nuisance when you didn't have any lionesses about.

[Alicia]

Mipa yawned, watching the sun roll across the sky. She had walked into this canyon a few days ago, and what a marvellous hunting ground it had proven to be! Despite the fact that most of the fodder lay above the gorge, there was always something wandering down the canyon’s dusty length. Something that would usually stop to sniff a juicy little sapling, often the very sapling Mipa put in the centre of her trap attached to a little tree. Yesterday it had been a little gazelle. This morning it had been a larger gemsbok some of which still lay beside her. The rest lay in her massive belly.

Mipa was unique among lionesses, in that instead of using brawn and stealth and cunning to catch her prey, she used only two things: her paws, and her brains. Paws to make traps, and brains to design them. Her previous pride hadn’t valued her unique ability. They had called her fat, and lazy. Even her parents! So she left them to prove that she could make it in the world her way.

And she had! Since leaving her pride, she was eating better than she ever had before! In fact, that was all she ever did. That was all there ever was to do. After all, there was nobody to talk to. She spent each day watching her traps, then wandering over, eating her prize and making a new trap before wandering back to her vantage point. As the months went on she got even better at making her traps. Oddly, though, the wandering was getting much harder. It seemed that the less she used her body, the harder it was to use, which in turn, made her use it less.

Out of the corner of her twinkling green eyes, she spotted movement. A smile crossed her face and she licked her lips in anticipation. Down the gorge, some five hundred feet or so, her trap waited. She sat well out of the way to avoid any potential prey being startled by her smell. Something was heading towards it... but it didn’t look much like prey... it looked...

Like a lion! The first one she had seen in months! Excitement made her heart flutter, but so did trepidation: it was obviously a male. Might he be territorial?

Either way, if he walked into her trap, he’d be a lot more aggro than if she warned him first. And if she didn’t warn him soon he would walk right into it. The last thing she wanted to do was untangle an angry lion from her own trap.

With a huff and a shuffle she struggled to her feet, huge belly hanging only one or two inches above the stone upon which she’d been sitting. “Uhh... excuse me!” she called out, but to no avail: she was yelling against the wind. The male wouldn’t be able to hear her from here. With difficulty she clambered down from her rock and started heading over, as fast as she could.

She was fast at first, but it didn’t last long. Only a few strides from the rock and she was huffing like a freight train, waddling along more like a lizard than a lion. Her fat cheeks were puffed out in exertion and her chubby back legs scraped against each other painfully, knees pushing into her belly, making her roly-poly body ripple and bulge like a mad accordion. Still the male continued towards her trap, only a few paces away. She stopped and, taking a deep breath, yelled, “Hey... Wait!!!” not knowing if he’d heard her...

[Harvs]

Kasi walked along the wide path of the canyon, Jack still in his mouth. After a while of walking, Kasi thought it would be nice to strike up a conversation. Otherwise, he and Jack would just be traveling along, against Jack's will of course, in solemn silence. But what to talk about? There was really no conversation that a lion could have with a meerkat. At least, not a normal one. Then again, what was normal about today? Jack was just standing on him... and then told a ridiculous story about lionesses and such. So what couldn't they talk about?

Kasi thought, maybe he should give Jack the low-down of what he would be dealing with in these lands. He seemed to be from a far away land. How far away, Kasi didn't truly know. But it would give Jack more confidence to stay with a meat-eater who could defend him if the occasion called for it. In-fact, if another predator attacked Kasi for Jack now, he would probably do all he could to defend his little friend. "It really is a good thing you ran into me, and not some bloodthirsty predator instead." Kasi started. He would have to encourage Jack to stay with him and his brother, otherwise he would be killed easily. "But I feel it's only safe to let you know, the deadliest snakes in the world come out at night." Though Jack's tail muffled Kasi's voice slightly, he could still make out his words clearly enough for Jack to hear him.

"It would be wise for you to stay with my brother and me until we figure out what to do with-" Kasi stopped before he finished his sentence when he heart a feminine voice telling him to "Wait" Kasi turned his head and looked at the figure of a lioness not too far off. But it was too late for her warning. Kasi placed his paw on the ground and activated the lionesses trap.

Kasi was torn from the ground in a whiplash motion from a vine laying on the ground for wandering prey. Lifted completely off the ground and high into the air, Kasi dropped Jack from his mouth to the ground. and in a nanosecond, Kasi fell to the ground along with him, bashing his skull into the dirt. Lifted back up by the vine held by the tree, Kasi hung by his right hind-leg. The blood rushing to his head, Kasi started to lose consciousness. But not before he saw who had set this trap.

[Alicia]

(OOC: Heya. I might not be home all day tomorrow. I need to leave fairly early in the morning here (8am sydney time) and I might not get home until evening. So please, make your posts if you're going to and I'll make mine as soon as I get on next. Bye!)

Mipa’s heart leapt up her throat as the male was flung skywards. She stopped where she was, looking up and down the canyon, torn between helping the male and bolting in the other direction. If she was out here to prove herself, though, then running wouldn’t help. She would have to help the male and face his wrath later. With a shiver of fear she struggled closer...

It was a while before she made it to where the lion hung from the tree. His eyes were closed, she noticed through gasps for air. “I’m... so... sorry!” she said, almost blind from the exhaustion of the roly-poly shuffle she had performed in getting there. Collapsing in a heap on the ground sounded like a really good idea right then, but instead she waddled forward, right up to the lion’s gently swaying figure and stood on her hind legs.

Her huge, pale brown stomach looked rather like the moon as she reached two fat forearms out for the lion, holding his skinny frame in a tight hug as she pulled him to the ground. Holding him under her body, she then delicately undid the vine around his leg with her long claws. It snapped loose, and the tree branch sprang back with a whoosh. He was free.

“Are you ok?” she asked, nuzzling the male’s face. There was a patch of dirt, and maybe blood, where he struck his head against the stone, so she started cleaning it with her tongue.

“I’m really really sorry... please don’t be angry,” she said between licks, praying he could hear her despite being unable to respond. Once his face was clean, she rearranged his long legs, then fell back with a sigh onto her exceptionally large behind, and caught her breath.

A few red marks stretched across his leg. Any further injuries she wouldn’t know about until he woke up, and he could tell her. Or make her pay for.

He was an odd-looking male, she decided after a moment. Golden of body and red of mane... that made him a lot paler than Mipa’s chocolate brown. Most males where she came from had brown or black manes, too. Compared to them, this male almost seemed made of light. Did all the males around here look like this?

Were there any more males around here?

She looked around quickly, but didn’t see anyone... or thing, to indicate danger. With a final huff, she stood again and waddled forwards, sniffing the air about the male’s head.

His lean legs were light and stringy. Not bulging with muscle but... nice. Built for speed, maybe. He was obviously half a head taller than Mipa. No doubt he would be able to do her some serious harm when he came to, but she didn’t think he would, somehow.

He had a peculiar smell too... but then she noticed something else. The closer she got, the stronger it became: meerkat odour. As a cub, it had been her favourite treat. Why did he smell like meerkat?

She sniffed a little closer...

[TheRoguePrince]

Keto was becoming more and more dissatisfied as the day drew to a close. His brother had not returned, and that was definately out of the usual. Thoroughly sated and fed up, Keto decided that the time for waiting was over, he would find his brother, and deal with whatever had gotten in his way. Kasi had long been the duo's hunter, but if he had fallen into a real fight, he didn't stand a chance. He knew that his brother had been going after something down near the canyon they had seen on the journey to their current residence, and that seemed to be the likely place to start. So off he went.

"Now where would he have gone?", Keto asked himself as he started off toward the rather desolate gorge nearby. It seemed rather a bad place for a hunt, but unexpected certainly. Kasi had always had a great deal of success with hunting, and a place that didn't have much experience with his kind off predator would be a bountiful hunting ground for him. Keto might just be chasing after a problem that would turn out to be prey too big for Kasi to bring back. Though he didn't believe that himself, Kasi would have returned and gotten Keto is he needed help. This was most certainly an issue.

Keto entered the canyon downwind of the rest of it. It was a good place to be if there was trouble, and he knew there likely was. He sniffed the air, a normal thing for him to do in this situation, but the result was nothing like he had expected... In that whiff he had discerned the scent of his brother, a foreign lion, and something else he could barely make out. Not good...

Keto broke into a loping run. He knew he had to make it to his brother before something horrible happened. As he ran the scent grew stronger, to the point where he knew how far away the scene was, and it was close indeed. He looked ahead and saw something he had never seen before in all his life. Kasi was hanging from a tree branch, and some strange lioness was standing over him. He roared with distaste, this was gonna end now.

[Alicia]

(OOC: Just so you know, Rogue, Mipa got Kasi down from the tree during the last post:).

[TheRoguePrince]

(OOC: I just saw that, thanks)

[Ushujaa]

[OOC: Sorry it took me so long to get a post in i hope this is up to par and i'm trying to respond to the latest posts, sorry about back tracking of whats happened so far.]

Things had gotten from weird to bad and Jake had a feeling that it was only going to get worse. One moment he was being carried away, being told how lucky he was, the next thing he knew he was being flung into the air. He dropped to the ground, nearly being crushed by his lion companion in the process. Ow... he mumbled, he grabbed the back of his head. He turned to see Kasi unconscious beside him.

Jake could hear footsteps coming closer and closer. Whatever was coming towards them was big. Jake moved towards Kasi and lightly shook him. Come on big guy, time to wake up! Jake could hear the footsteps getting louder and louder. his heart was racing, all he could do was hide.

Jake positioned himself behind the tree Kasi hung from. He made his way to the top of the tree swiftly. He wished there was something he could do for his new friend. Friend, was that the right word to call him? After all he did almost kill him but he didn't. He had every opportunity to kill Jake but still he chose to put up with Jake's antics.

Jake looked to see what would become of Kasi. He observed as this beefy lioness approached the defenseless lion. He leaned a little bit closer and cupped his hand to his ear, trying to hear what this lioness was saying. She's... apologizing? Jake was confused, maybe she wasn't so bad but he wasn't planning on coming down to find out, at least not until Kasi gained his senses again.

Jake looked down at the lioness, she was smelling Kasi then the air. Had he been found out?

Jake was startled by the sudden roar, he was so shocked he jumped up, as he came down on the tree branch it came out from beneath him. He screamed as he fell from the tree and landed on Kasi's stomach. He looked up at this lioness, she was much bigger then he thought when he was safely in the tree. Um... Buddy, Time to get up! Jake turned and smacked Kasi, hoping it would rise him from his sleep. Man, i'm probably going to pay for that later Jake turned back around, If this trap maker were to try something it would be a good idea to be facing her. Would she try something? and what was the source of that booming roar that scared Jake out of the tree? He hoped his guardian would awaken before he had to find out.

[TheRoguePrince]

If there was one thing that could break Keto's normal emotionless attitude, it was something bad happening to his brother, and this was one of those times. Kasi was laying on the ground, clearly unconcious, and some strange lioness was standing over him. Who knows what that could mean? It didn't seem all that friendly, and if that wasn't enough, something had just landed on Kasi and assaulted him. It was time that Keto got to the bottum of this, and seeing as he was the biggest one around, it wouldn't be all that difficult. He approached the lioness first, unsheathing his claws to display his displeasure.

A small matter did manage to disturb him though, why hadn't the lioness ran away when she saw Keto coming? Obviously she hadn't been in the best shape for a while, but Keto was a big, bulky lion, not a sprinter like his brother. His coloration was warm, but imposing. Yet this brown lionesses just stood there and sniffed at something. Great, regardless of whether or not it was harmful, it was about to stop. She had gotten in his brother's way, mistake.

Now Keto had identified almost everything the wind had promised, but there was still something missing. That small scent that he hadn't identified before, it was eminating from near Kasi. What did it mean? It wasn't the smell of any of their usual prey, and certainly not a predator. Something was causing it, and it seemed to be drawing the primary interest of the lioness. If it was that important, he would certainly look into it. Beside, at this point any incovenience he could cause would be a pleasure. She had knocked out his brother after all...

[Alicia]

The roar echoed through the cavern, and Mipa cringed. It sounded close, but the canyon’s shadows were quickly deepening and she couldn’t see who made it. The scant light from the sky above cast the canyon in shades of grey, making Mipa feel like she was in a bad dream.

A meerkat dropping out of a tree and abusing the sleeping lion didn’t help with that feeling.

"Come on big guy, time to wake up!"

Mipa stared, dumbfounded. “You know him?” she asked. She’d heard of lions making non-lion friends, but never with food. They wouldn’t last long if brought back to the pride.

So this lion must be a rogue.

Her ears pricked again; she could hear footsteps. Leaning down to the little meerkat she said, “Hey... I think we might be in trouble. If I were you I’d climb back up that tree.”Mipa looked around; there wasn’t anywhere she could hide, nor could she really run. Nor did she want to abandon the lion that had walked into her trap. So she crouched low beside the lion's body (as low as she could, anyway), ears back, large, blue eyes wide with fear, and waited for something to emerge from the gloom...