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 Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:50 am
Laini'Ukunga slowly paced the sand, her eyes warily on the temple. Most members stayed a good distance away. The vultures were prone to attacking those who showed too much interest. But Laini was getting fed up. She had been attacked by vultures outside of the pride boarders and well away from the temple for no reason other than because they could. A lion had had to come save her. But she didn't want to need to be saved any longer. The wind blew up sand and pushed back her feminine mane, but her eyes still shone intensely. She fumed to herself and plotting pacing within sight of the temple, her vengeful eye turned upon them. Perhaps she needed some sense shook into her and a little more planning on her part. But she was tired of them, them and their plague upon the Dawnwalkers.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 7:11 am
"Agitates you too, sister?" Muroki appeared over the crest of a sand dune, face grim. His expression wasn't for her - Laini would know that - but because he was fed up of the vultures too. They're ruined his life. Had they not turned traitor, for they had once been members of the Clan, they might have survived the plague and recovered. Instead even today they were a black cloud hanging over the Temple. They couldn't roam free in their desert, they were taunted, he and some others had been attacked...and the jewel in the golden sands, the Temple's lake, was in their talons. Muroki would give anything to be able to wade with Johari through it's lush waters to the shrine in safety.
"To see them, I mean." He slid, in a controlled fashion, down the sand to stand at her side.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 7:19 am
Laini huffed and looked over her shoulder, ready to grumble. But as much as she wished to look completely slighted, the sight of her "brother" looking healthy as ever -if even just faking it - was something to be happy about. When they thought he would never get better, it had been a sad day indeed. She gave him a quick genuine smile before returning to her dour expression.
"They do. They corrupt everything and foul the place with their stench and disrespect." She said distastefully. She certainly did not want them there any longer. They were a stain and they needed to be expunged. Everyone seemed ready to just put up with the vultures as new but unpleasant neighbors even though they had come with the full awareness that they were to extricate these flying vermin. Whereas before she had been one of them, she was put off by it now.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 7:34 am
"Soon as Fedha's finished her treatments on my shoulder, I'm organising a strike back. Too long they've had unquestioned power here. They seem to have fogotten that once on the ground and when they're not in a flock, we can hurt them more easily that they can hurt us."
A hint of a growl crept into his voice and he glared at the Temple witha deadly look in his eyes. This was a vicious and angry Muroki, moreso than the grumpy argumentative rogue Laini had first met and farcry from the loving friend and mate he'd proven himself to be. They were a blight. They were out of balance with everything else around here and were corrupt. Dawnwalkers historically hadn't taken slaves since time forgotten - since they themselves were Temple cats - and the idea was as outdated as letting a two-legger braid your mane.
It had to stop.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 7:42 am
"They seem to have forgotten every thing natural by my reckoning." Her eyes slanted into a narrow glare towards the temple where their squabblings could be heard. "They defile that which does not belong to them." The sooner they were gone, the sooner the Dawnwalkers would no longer have to worry. A newborn cub all alone was easy prey for a daring vulture. Not to mention the random attacks vultures liked to engage in. It was unpleasant, unlawful, and not right. They needed to realize their place. And it was not there. "I'll gladly join you. All you have to do is say when or where"
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:01 am
"Once, they were valued members of the Clan, you know. They kept the lands fresh by clearing and cleaning the bones of prey and were given their own meat on festival days. They were allowed the left overs of our hunting efforts, always. They were praised. Then they killed and ate those who were weak, afflicted with the plague..."
"It's good to know you'll be fighting alongside me." He turned to look at her, his glare fading. She was as dear to him as a sister and he almost wished Laini wouldn't fight, since she may get hurt. But she'd already been attacked and he knew her claws and jaws were needed to make sure she never was again.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:54 pm
It was hard for Laini to imagine the vultures as those with a place in the pride. All she saw them as were the vile things they had come to be. She thought about their attack on her. On Muroki. On slaves that were once innocent cubs. They had gone too far and she was glad she wasn't alone in the matter ...since she was so close to making an attack all on her own.
She nodded at him. "Oh you can count on me," she replied. She was in war mode now. By pacing, she had noticed every entrance in view, particularly the ones favored by the vultures. She clearly didn't know all the entrances or all their movements. But by her standards, she thought herself well-informed enough to plan a coup.
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:27 am
He almost felt like he could take them on right now, and he itched to let out a challenging roar and make a run for the Temple. Go bust up a few buzzards. But he'd been hasty when they'd provoked him before and Muroki had ended up ambushed and poisoned. They'd need to be clever. The birds strength was in numbers and in flight.
But how could they take those away? The whole desert was open sky with no trees to hinder them and if a lion got mobbed by a whole group and got knocked down, chances are he'd be swarmed. Never to regain his paws. If only they weren't here in the Temple, but in some thick close jungle. Wait.
They were in the Temple.
"...You know, I think I may have a plan."
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:55 am
Laini turned her head to look at him, a smile creeping over her face. "Really now?" She was all for plans. There should be a fair amount of them present to at least do a fair amount of damage under organized direction. Yes, they could do this. Laini was all ears. "Do tell."
She knew, of course, that they were in the temple but she was too brash at the moment to have come to the same conclusion on her own. But that's why the pride had him.
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:17 am
"Ever had to defend a den, Laini? Or even just moved around in a cave." He flashed her That Grin, the one that still shone through on the odd occasion, a crooked daredevil smile. It was a left over from his charming days as a bitter adolescent and when he used to lie as a youngster to try to get some attention when he was just-another-lost-cub-trying-to-survive. Believe me baby, I know what I'm talking about.
"It's harder for the enemies to get in or out and your movement is restricted."
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:23 am
No, Laini had never defended a cave. But she knew what he was getting at. His grin sparked a certain twinkle in her eyes and a sly grin. She imagined, just briefly, an attack heightened with glory: lions streaming into the temple with the vultures all gathered on the ground gloating over treasure, the vultures shocked and surprised and torn down and killed in the same moments. Yes, they could do it. The vultures would be taken care of. "Oh indeed it is," she replied, waggling her eyebrows.
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:25 am
"That Temple is the den of the Dawnwalkers. It's not really made for vultures even though they were once Clan - they roosted by the river, in the trees. If we take the fight to them in there, make sure they cannot exit, trap them where they can't fly and they have to face us head on and only a few at a time..." Muroki like the lions before him assumed the Temple had been made for the cat and the dog like members of the pride, what with the square dens and lush lake. Made by Jua and Mkodi, perhaps.
"They won't let it happen more than once. But if we can find out where they keep the slaves, and if they're all together, we can free them."
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:42 am
Laini nodded. "Yes, that sounds good to me. We should tell the others." She nodded. Of course she meant Johari first and then the guardians and then the others. But she believed his plan sound and although some might try to poke holes in it, their minds would only figure out how to fix them.
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:55 am
"Yes. It needs work but it's the start of a plan. If we can go at night too, when they roost..." He trailed off, already starting to poke holes in it himself and patch p those already gaping in the fabric of the idea. They'd work it out together. Two heads were better than one, and many heads - well. They'd get there.
"Come on sister dear. We may as well go back now...get something to drink and find the others."
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