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 Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 8:23 pm
Seth listened, her interest peaked, though she kept it hidden, taking to grooming herself as well as he spoke. She was a cleanly lioness and though the mess did not bother her, she did not necessarily enjoy it, either. The feeling of blood caked into her fur was irritating. It almost felt as if it was restricting her movements.
New blood, hm?
The idea of settling in a pride was always a curious one for Seth. She could never truly decide where she wanted to be or what sort of home was best for her. And of course, Akida had to be able to come along. The lioness could never leave her dear friend behind. Not when Akida had been her best friend for so very long.
And this little lion seemed nice enough. Sincere. If he was a representative of them out to recruit, he wasn't bad at it...Even if he was so jumpy. His nervousness didn't add up to what she had been told so far...Unless he found her to be intimidating. He seemed to be holding something back. Nervous.
Seth couldn't imagine that he was malicious, though, despite all that.
The lioness shrugged the thought away and paused in her grooming long enough to throw out a careless question.
"How does your pride feel about jackals?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 7:56 pm
The question caught Harith off guard. It didn't make him nervous to hear her ask it as he didn't know she had a little jackal friend to be thinking about. If anything it just confused him why she picked such a topic. Why talk about jackals? Was she trying to avoid them? Did that mean...She was interested in his pride? Why else ask such a straight-forward question like that?
The lion couldn't help it. He gulped like he had a rather large fur ball in his mouth he didn't want to spit out.
Blue eyes looked upwards at what he could see of his mane, trying to distract himself further from his thoughts with his favorite past-time: Fixing his mane. It was longer than it had been a few months ago and he hoped it had no plans of growing further towards the ground. It was already all in his eyes. If he flicked his head in just the right way it covered one of his eyes. He knew it would fill out before he was completely grown. His chest hairs might grow a bit longer to fit the new mane.
Running his tongue along the pads of one foot, Harith flicked it through the white hair above his eyes, pushing it this way and that so the curtain in front of his eyes changed from yellow to white to yellow, again.
"Can't say I've seen anyone bonded to any kind of tiny creature," he responded, trying to keep his blue eyes away from her pretty face. Her pretty and slowly becoming more pretty face as she cleaned. "But I know we allow all species, though they aren't always given the same...Respect as a lion." He put his paws flat on the ground and willed himself to look at her, trying to form his words right around this sensitive subject. At least for him. "Even if someone disagrees with a jackal, it's not their business if the family den the jackal lives in doesn't mind."
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 7:42 pm
Seth continued to groom herself nonchalantly but her eyes watched him like a hawk for a reaction. If he himself didn't like jackals he was going to be out in the cold. Seth and Akida were inseparable.
His gulp amused the lioness but she pretended not to notice as she continued to wash the blood from her face, her paws. Once she was sufficiently clean, she stood up again and stretched from her toes to the tip of her tail and gave a satisfied little yawn.
His answer seemed well enough...He was nice. She and Akida were tired of the rogue lands.
Well. You never got anywhere in life by playing it safe. If it turned out she didn't like Harith after all she'd just take care of the situation herself.
"So when do we leave?"
Seth grinned a mischievous grin, knowing that as jumpy as Harith had been so far, this would throw him through a loop.
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:34 pm
Harith was still a bundle of nerves as he continued to will himself to keep looking at her. He would not complete this quest if he couldn't even look at a lioness. What would he do when he took her home? Separate the den so they never had to even look at each other? That wouldn't solve anything. He couldn't ask a lioness to come to a new and strange pride, than ignore her because he was too shy to even say hi in the morning.
This quest was so stupid. He didn't like feeling forced to do this. But if he didn't hurry on back he'd be stuck in this horrid roguelands longer. It was an endless cycle.
Seth began to speak, again, and the adolescent focused on her words, determined to be attentive with both his ears and eyes. But as what she said fully sunk in, his face froze. His mouth didn't even hang open or make odd sounds. It could be debated if he even blinked during his silence. He just froze. Was she trying to pull his leg? Tease him? Mock his quest? Did he really want to assume one of those? At this point he didn't want to diminish her charm by tagging something negative to her personality. But surely it couldn't be that easy?
Finally, Harith's mouth fumbled with the right words to say. All he managed was an almost squeaked "What?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 9:06 pm
Seth's eyes lit up with the laugh that she held back, afraid to scare him off. He hadn't been the most confident lion so far and he was even more thrown off than she had imagined. That squeak was absolutely endearing and she couldn't help but smile. She'd left him speechless but she almost wanted to nuzzle him to let him know she was serious. Almost. She didn't know him quite well enough for that sort of affection. He just tugged at her so.
Perhaps he had expected something worse to come of this.
"You, myself, and Akida. When we do leave? For your home?" she continued, forcing her smile not to become a smirk lest she make him upset.
Seth sat back down, deciding that his could take a while before letting a roar escape through her lips. It wasn't long before Akida came trotting from seemingly out of nowhere, a smile on her face. Obviously she had been listening to the whole thing and she sat primly at Seth's side, smiling over towards Harith, the image of politeness.
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 10:00 pm
"Um..." was the most the male lion could manage at the moment. He had expected every female he tried to put up a fight instead of being so willing to go along with a strange lion. Then again, he reminded himself, he hadn't told her the whole truth. If she was serious, and by repeating herself it seemed so, she deserved to know the whole truth of his being out here.
"Well..." he started, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves. Eli had said to woo a female. This wasn't wooing. This was too fast. He wasn't sure if he could handle this. "If you mean it, I should let you know I hid some facts about this." His nervous tone betrayed his emotions, fearful that the reproach he never got before was coming just around the corner as he kept talking. Kept talking until his courage would run out next. "My quest does involve new blood, but it's...Designed to make the quester find his mate. So by going back with me, that makes you," here Harith couldn't resist pausing to make circles in the dirt at his paws with one claw, blue eyes down on the nonsense he was drawing, "part of my den. And our customs are different than most. I can't imagine a female willingly wanting to go back, but I've been taught to respect everyone. My family is not so bad. It is, regardless of family, expected for a male to take more than one female into his den as his mate." Here he looked back up, his head still bowed almost apologetically at the customs of the pride he was born into. That he still loved above all else. No matter what anyone in the roguelands thought of it. His paw had stopped the circles in the dirt, suspended in the air with the claw retracted. "My father has two. My mother and one he took in from the roguelands to help. My grandfather has four. I don't actually have plans of looking for a second, but..." He shrugged, the paw landing back on the ground. "I don't want to gather females just because it's expected. I want them to know what they're getting into, first."
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 10:50 pm
Seth paused, the amused expression falling from her face as she listened. What formed, however, wasn't a look of anger. In fact, her face was blank. Quiet and stoic, betraying nothing. Seth was nothing if not a master of her emotions.
She and Akida exchanged coded glances. It was almost as if they could read each other's minds at this point. Seth could tell her glance was questioning. This turn of events had been a little unexpected. She never would have guessed that little shy, nervous Harith was out for a mate...It did, however, explain why he was so uncomfortable. In fact, the whole interaction made a lot more sense now, looking back at it.
Sethunya weighed her options. On one hand, he had lied to her the entire time despite fairly direct questions...When he hadn't lied, he had evaded the whole truth. That was not so favorable.
On the other hand, he hadn't led her to the pride to find out herself that she was now his. Before he had even moved a step, he had come completely clean. His tone let her know he was nervous. He seemed as if he regretted his actions. He wanted to be completely forthright and honest about what was going on. The lioness appreciated that.
Being a part of a harem was not particularly appealing either, to be sure, and yet here he stated he didn't want one. He wanted only one mate...And he considered her good enough to be that mate. Pretty enough. The thought made her stomach flutter just a bit.
Perhaps...Being his would not be so bad. If this was who he was, if his family was as respectful and caring as he assured her they were...Well, he was what had come of them, wasn't he? They couldn't be so bad.
After a moment, Seth cocked her head to the side, her ears going flat against her head in a rare sign of shyness, and a small, sweet smile formed on her lips.
Akida stared up at her, eyes wide.
"Your honesty is your saving grace. Can we go home now?"
[FIN]
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