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Questionable Conversationalist
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 Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:28 am
The maned wolf prowled through the twilight, her red-tipped paws carrying her back to the den she had begun to call her new home. Even after her encounter with the lion it was still good enough for her. It smelled a bit like him though. And he’d made the entrance larger. An accident she was sure, but annoying nonetheless. Well, whatever, she didn’t care. She’d live here until she decided to go elsewhere. ‘Home’ was where the heart was. She didn’t have a heart here anyway.
His sister lived around here now, Kasai was certain of it. He could smell her scent, though the way it was intermingled with lion made him a touch nervous. No blood scent, aside from a bit of prey, so he did think she was all right after all. But still, it was odd to think of his sibling tangling with a lion. He hoped no harm had come to her, he would hate to find her hurt. But then, he hated to find anyone hurt, in any way.
They say opposites attract. Well, perhaps it was true to an extent, for though they were almost identical in appearance, in personality they could hardly be more different. And yet Kasai loved his twin with all his gentle heart and soul. Quietly, the black and blue furred maned wolf settled down to wait for her to return to the den she seemed to have chosen for her own. It was a bit sad to him that, aside from the lion, there didn’t seem to be any other scents around. Wasn’t she lonely?
Who was that there by her den? Hinote bristled as she approached, the red fur at her shoulders standing on end. A stranger would soon learn that they had no business being anywhere near her territory, but as she drew closer she could see that it was not a stranger at all. “Brother?” she asked, her tone thick with disbelief. It had been a long while since she had seen him last. But that was her fault. No, not fault. It was her choice.
“Sister!” he exclaimed, his tail wagging with a joyful greeting as his paws danced him towards her. “I have been looking for you, I missed you and was worried,” Kasai added, pausing just short of nuzzling into her. Hinote, he knew, had been a bit funny about physical contact when she left him only a few short weeks prior. She’d gone cold after…well. After HE’D disappeared. But the weeks hardly seemed short to Kasai. They had been long and lonely and sad indeed.
tbc
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Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:38 pm
It really was her brother. Hinote stared at the happy young dog who came dancing towards her, his tail wagging like a pup’s. Honestly, he was just so… She stiffened as he seemed to reach to nuzzle her, not desiring physical contact of any sort, but Kasai seemed to catch on quickly enough. At least, of all the things her sibling was, ‘stupid’ didn’t seem to be one of them. “So what brings you here?” she asked, her fur crawling slightly at his nearness despite the fact that he had not yet touched her.
Her coldness hurt. Kasai couldn’t help the feeling, he loved his sister and did want her to be happy. But it hurt to be rebuffed even if she hadn’t actually said anything. “Can’t I just want to see you?” he asked softly, his ears lifted hopefully even as he felt his head drooping. She’d gotten plain unfriendly, she hadn’t always been this bad. She used to be grumpy, but at least she smiled sometimes then. Now it seemed like she didn’t even feel anything.
Hinote huffed, alright so maybe her brother was stupid. She knew for a fact her den was as out of the way from where he usually spent his time as possible. She’d selected it for that very reason. If he had come all this way to just see her, maybe he was stupid after all. It was a silly reason to spend two days walking. “You can call it whatever you want,” she growled, finally giving in to the urge to take a step back from her twin. His nearness was annoying, like an itch she could not reach and would not go away.
It hurt a lot. Kasai’s ears laid back as his redpawed sister took a step back from him. He had…never hurt her. Ever. That she would pull away from him physically was only a painful reminder of how she had already withdrawn from him emotionally. And her words were crueler than she probably intended…or well, he hoped they were more harsh than she had intended. Otherwise…otherwise… he didn’t know what he would do.
“S-so…” he stammered, trying to say something, anything, to keep her from disappearing so quickly after he’d only just found her again. “Uhm, it…smells like lion around here. You get any visitors or something?”
He wasn’t going to just leave was he. Hinote huffed again, her ears laid back in aggravation. At least he wasn’t touching her. That was something. But he was so happy to see her, she didn’t want to just leave him. She didn’t actually want to move him to tears, and she was guessing from the way the joy was leeching out of him that she might if she continued. “Yes. A lion about drowned himself after the last storm,” she snapped, “He’s long gone now.” Or he had better be. Stupid creature had been a miserable fool, she didn’t want him around. At the very least his corpse would reek.
“Oh, is that so?” A lion nearly drown? Here? But there was hardly any water, just a small stream that barely looked like it had any fish in it, let alone enough room to drown a whole lion. Unless it was a cub? But if it were a cub, then it would have had a mother or father looking after it, right? “How?” Kasai asked after a moment, still not quite sure how that was possible in such a dry area. At the very least it was conversation. At the very least it kept her from leaving.
Hinote snorted disdainfully. “This area floods in the rain,” she explained, having seen the way her brother looked down at the small stream. “I am still not entirely sure how he managed it, but he did.” The lion, a full grown adult, floundering in the flooded stream had been something else. She would have thought an adult would know how to look after himself. Plainly not the case.
Flooding. Of course. Now he felt dumb, and surely his sister was going to be bothered by his comment. It seemed she was always ready to be bothered by anything he said lately. It was why she’d left in the first place wasn’t it? That he bothered her by being around? He couldn’t help himself though. He missed his sister when she wasn’t there. He loved her, even if she didn’t have it in her to return the sentiment at the moment. Maybe someday…maybe she’d go back to her old grumpy self. The new grumpy self…he didn’t like.
“S-so…uh…what happened then?” Kasai asked, feeling like he was trying to catch leaves in a high wind talking to his sister.
"He didn't drown," Hinote snapped, bored with her brother's stammering. "Was there anything else you wanted?" the female demanded. "Because otherwise I've things to attend to and I don't need a babysitter for it," she added acidly.
Now he couldn't hide the hurt any longer. "No, Hinote, I really did want to see you," the young wild dog whispered, "I'm sorry that it bothers you so. If..." he hesitated, trying to swallow the torn feelings, "If you...ever need me...I...I'm moving up the mountains. There's a pack there that's in trouble and...and it shouldn't be hard to find. If you need me."
He didn't know what else to say, what else to do aside from stand there looking at her pleadingly for a few heartbeats more. And then, dejected, he turned and padded away, the enthusiasm he'd had before utterly absent now.
Finally, he was leaving. But that he would come all this way to tell her he was moving? Foolishness. She didn't care, she didn't plan on visiting him anyway. Maybe he really had missed her, that traitorous little voice hissed in her head. She shook herself briskly, growling at the voice. Still. It was cruel of her to be so hard on him. He'd always been a bit slow she supposed.
"Goodbye, brother." Hinote thought about saying something else. Some trivial well-wishes or something. But she'd no real care about the matter. She didn't feel anything really. Watching him for a few moments more, she huffed and moved to return to the den. She felt like sleeping...and being alone.
FIN
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