Post by Pallu on Apr 14, 2008 21:53:46 GMT -5
Participants:
Roho, male hyena
Aya, male Ethiopian wolf
[Forgotten Lands] Towering Rock
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------******************----------------------
Seeing this landmark from a distance is enough to judge it as towering;
here, close enough to touch its composing rocks, the formation becomes a
disorienting upward view.
Three gigantic chunks of rock jut up at angles from the land here, in a
strangely aesthetically pleasing pile of rock and boulders, disturbing
the grass and bush-littered horizon and also emitting an almost divine
synergy around its huge monolithic form.
It might be possible to climb these rocks, but a fall from such height
would be surely fatal, and there are more interesting nooks, crannies,
and scrubby plants to investigate around the bottommost boulders.
----------------------******************----------------------
Good morning, Sunrise! Here upon the shambled foothills of the three towering rocks, up against their shady gray vertical expanse, harbored by their sky-brushing majesty, is an excellent place to watch the onset of dawn. The mounds of boulders gathered on the eastern side are piled high enough to remove a beast from the wretchedness of the ground without strianing too many muscles; and so, the cumbrous, fat hyena waits, resting, his body a fitting ornament for the pinnacle of this musty slope. The cast of the air is gray, like the highlights of his fur, like the gravel, like the rocks. The sun will be rising soon to wreck all that, of course.
His charge being still asleep, Aya has tripped neatly down in the gray pall of dawn to go for a drink, and then an early breakfast. It's as he returns, a few lizards between his jaws, that he smells something he -hadn't- yesterday: a bigger, more powerful predator than himself. Uh-oh. Roho's form, like Aya's own, blends more or less in with the shadow-painted rocks, and the Ethiopian wolf casts a worried look around, feeling quite exposed on the narrow path. He's only got the one eye, and it feels rather inadequate just now.
It's only polite to address intruders upon morning stillness, in hopes they might become part and parcel with the better side of nature. The hyena stirs, taking a deep, audible snorting sniff. "Good morning," he rumbles. A few little pebbles tumble down the pile of rock he's resting on, as if they represented the entropy between Roho's joints. He turns to look at the wolf, letting him distract from the encroaching sunrise for a minute, anyhow.
Pebbles drop nearby-- the hyena is startlingly close, and Aya takes a step back, crunching the lizards quickly down-- he'll have to hunt again now, now he's certainly not going to let them drop! He's rather unprepared for the genial nature of the stranger's statement, and his ears lay back before he actually considers its lack of hostility. "Who are -you-? I haven't smelled -you- here before--" oh, my, that does sound rather snippy doesn't it? He licks his nose worriedly.
Not too snippy! But then again, the stranger may not be all that genial. He stretches his legs, and a somewhat larger cascade of dust falls. The hyena's underside isn't easy to see, it's so shielded by swaths of shaggy gray-brown fur. And he adjusts his position oddly, not quite seeming to lose his balance. "Oh," he says. "Oh, of course. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to be unknown. Pardon me." The voice is basso-baritone, and reflective in its tones. The hyena stands there for a few moments in stillness, and then nods. "I am Roho, the thief. I have come from afar. And who are you?" he asks with a facsimile of geniality.
Aya watches him, not quite meeting his eyes-- careful. He's big, for a male hyena-- Aya hasn't seen, especially lately, anyone with -extra- flesh on them, which Roho seems to have. Is he sick? He sniffs for a moment. "What?" the first comment is bewildering. "So you -are- not from here." Okay. Well-- that's good. "I don't make it a practice to learn about hyenas," he adds, wary, almost apologetic. Thinking, a moment later: thief? He looks -awfully- cumbersome for a thief, but Aya's glad he's swallowed Najisi's breakfast: thief could -very- well mean -bully-. But-- the hyena does -sound- pleasant. Ish. Aya's ears remain tipped back when he replies. "Aya. I've been here awhile but I had a home in the mountains-- I've been living here--" jerking his nose up towards the cliffs of the big rock. He's angled himself carefully, so that his good eye is towards Roho.
The hyena seems aware of how cautious the canine is being. He turns his whole body--which is, indeed, fleshy--to look at him, and settles on the rocks again. A third shower of detritus comes tumbling down, and at that point it seems the perch has stabilized. Now the two are facing each other directly. "You live in these rocks?" Roho asks. One of his large ears gives a half-animate flip. "Like a vulture? Have you...have you a family?" He still sounds neutral, or at least not recognizably friendly, nor hostile. Something else.
The fresh disturbance startles the wolf, it's clear-- he twitches a little, blinking. "No. There're caves up there--" he jerks his muzzle up; indeed, there -are-, little nooks really, many of them rather hard to get to from the looks of it. "-- Umm-- I-- no..." not perhaps the -whole- truth-- it's hard for any animal to lie even if he lies with his mouth-- Aya's body language is conflicted, his body tense and just slightly hunched but his thin tail high. "My pack was up in the mountains, not here. You've no clan? I haven't smelled any-- at least not right -around- the big rock--"
Roho moves his large head from side to side. "No, no clan. No family, either. I came from the north," and he flicks his tail, much like the ear rose a moment ago, "and now I am here. So you are light on your feet, Aya? Have you a title?" He shows no sign of seeing through the half-lie.
Aya glances for a brief moment in the direction Roho indicates. "-- Well, glad to me!" rather hollow ring to it, all things considered. He's not half so good at playing neutral as Roho. "-- I suppose ,yes. Uh-- no, I don't. I can't imagine what it would -be-, even-- I just left, really. Have you?"
Now Roho turns again, facing the sun, which is just now beginning to make itself known. There's no cloud on the horizon, and nothing blocking it--a brilliant sliver of yellow is the result. "As I told you. The thief. Make no mind of it, though, Aya. I don't steal anything much. No more than anyone else." It seems that he's ready to regain his previous repose. If Aya's after a getaway, this is his chance.
"Ah. Well-- I'll see you later, then....?" he makes a question of it, backing away bemusedly. He takes a few steps farther up the path before appearing the change his mind and turning to head back down into the savanna-- he glances over his shoulder a few times as he goes, though-- and it's not solely Roho he's looking at.
"You may. Are you going?" asks Roho. He notices the way the wolf goes...allowing himself to be distracted again. Eventually, he slips down from the mound and, carefully, makes his way to the ground, not without causing another dusty little landslide. The hyena looks to try and identify what manner of hazard or beast in the mountainous pass is scaring off the local denizen.
Over his shoulder: "I have to hunt," he can't just ignore the question-- it's be rude! Only after he's out of sight does he pick up his pace. He's uneasy about Roho's presence there-- hyenas don't like lion cubs, he thinks-- but what can he do? The path itself smells mostly of local herbivores, and Aya, and faintly of lion.
Roho follows slowly for a short distance, just out of curiosity, but he doesn't pursue Aya. He picks up the local scents and turns, taking it all in, connecting it to his mental pictures. Then, deciding that this one is gone, he heads off slowly toward the east, for his own kind of hunting. That old feeling of being unknown is coming back...and it's not an unsavory one.
Roho, male hyena
Aya, male Ethiopian wolf
[Forgotten Lands] Towering Rock
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------******************----------------------
Seeing this landmark from a distance is enough to judge it as towering;
here, close enough to touch its composing rocks, the formation becomes a
disorienting upward view.
Three gigantic chunks of rock jut up at angles from the land here, in a
strangely aesthetically pleasing pile of rock and boulders, disturbing
the grass and bush-littered horizon and also emitting an almost divine
synergy around its huge monolithic form.
It might be possible to climb these rocks, but a fall from such height
would be surely fatal, and there are more interesting nooks, crannies,
and scrubby plants to investigate around the bottommost boulders.
----------------------******************----------------------
Good morning, Sunrise! Here upon the shambled foothills of the three towering rocks, up against their shady gray vertical expanse, harbored by their sky-brushing majesty, is an excellent place to watch the onset of dawn. The mounds of boulders gathered on the eastern side are piled high enough to remove a beast from the wretchedness of the ground without strianing too many muscles; and so, the cumbrous, fat hyena waits, resting, his body a fitting ornament for the pinnacle of this musty slope. The cast of the air is gray, like the highlights of his fur, like the gravel, like the rocks. The sun will be rising soon to wreck all that, of course.
His charge being still asleep, Aya has tripped neatly down in the gray pall of dawn to go for a drink, and then an early breakfast. It's as he returns, a few lizards between his jaws, that he smells something he -hadn't- yesterday: a bigger, more powerful predator than himself. Uh-oh. Roho's form, like Aya's own, blends more or less in with the shadow-painted rocks, and the Ethiopian wolf casts a worried look around, feeling quite exposed on the narrow path. He's only got the one eye, and it feels rather inadequate just now.
It's only polite to address intruders upon morning stillness, in hopes they might become part and parcel with the better side of nature. The hyena stirs, taking a deep, audible snorting sniff. "Good morning," he rumbles. A few little pebbles tumble down the pile of rock he's resting on, as if they represented the entropy between Roho's joints. He turns to look at the wolf, letting him distract from the encroaching sunrise for a minute, anyhow.
Pebbles drop nearby-- the hyena is startlingly close, and Aya takes a step back, crunching the lizards quickly down-- he'll have to hunt again now, now he's certainly not going to let them drop! He's rather unprepared for the genial nature of the stranger's statement, and his ears lay back before he actually considers its lack of hostility. "Who are -you-? I haven't smelled -you- here before--" oh, my, that does sound rather snippy doesn't it? He licks his nose worriedly.
Not too snippy! But then again, the stranger may not be all that genial. He stretches his legs, and a somewhat larger cascade of dust falls. The hyena's underside isn't easy to see, it's so shielded by swaths of shaggy gray-brown fur. And he adjusts his position oddly, not quite seeming to lose his balance. "Oh," he says. "Oh, of course. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to be unknown. Pardon me." The voice is basso-baritone, and reflective in its tones. The hyena stands there for a few moments in stillness, and then nods. "I am Roho, the thief. I have come from afar. And who are you?" he asks with a facsimile of geniality.
Aya watches him, not quite meeting his eyes-- careful. He's big, for a male hyena-- Aya hasn't seen, especially lately, anyone with -extra- flesh on them, which Roho seems to have. Is he sick? He sniffs for a moment. "What?" the first comment is bewildering. "So you -are- not from here." Okay. Well-- that's good. "I don't make it a practice to learn about hyenas," he adds, wary, almost apologetic. Thinking, a moment later: thief? He looks -awfully- cumbersome for a thief, but Aya's glad he's swallowed Najisi's breakfast: thief could -very- well mean -bully-. But-- the hyena does -sound- pleasant. Ish. Aya's ears remain tipped back when he replies. "Aya. I've been here awhile but I had a home in the mountains-- I've been living here--" jerking his nose up towards the cliffs of the big rock. He's angled himself carefully, so that his good eye is towards Roho.
The hyena seems aware of how cautious the canine is being. He turns his whole body--which is, indeed, fleshy--to look at him, and settles on the rocks again. A third shower of detritus comes tumbling down, and at that point it seems the perch has stabilized. Now the two are facing each other directly. "You live in these rocks?" Roho asks. One of his large ears gives a half-animate flip. "Like a vulture? Have you...have you a family?" He still sounds neutral, or at least not recognizably friendly, nor hostile. Something else.
The fresh disturbance startles the wolf, it's clear-- he twitches a little, blinking. "No. There're caves up there--" he jerks his muzzle up; indeed, there -are-, little nooks really, many of them rather hard to get to from the looks of it. "-- Umm-- I-- no..." not perhaps the -whole- truth-- it's hard for any animal to lie even if he lies with his mouth-- Aya's body language is conflicted, his body tense and just slightly hunched but his thin tail high. "My pack was up in the mountains, not here. You've no clan? I haven't smelled any-- at least not right -around- the big rock--"
Roho moves his large head from side to side. "No, no clan. No family, either. I came from the north," and he flicks his tail, much like the ear rose a moment ago, "and now I am here. So you are light on your feet, Aya? Have you a title?" He shows no sign of seeing through the half-lie.
Aya glances for a brief moment in the direction Roho indicates. "-- Well, glad to me!" rather hollow ring to it, all things considered. He's not half so good at playing neutral as Roho. "-- I suppose ,yes. Uh-- no, I don't. I can't imagine what it would -be-, even-- I just left, really. Have you?"
Now Roho turns again, facing the sun, which is just now beginning to make itself known. There's no cloud on the horizon, and nothing blocking it--a brilliant sliver of yellow is the result. "As I told you. The thief. Make no mind of it, though, Aya. I don't steal anything much. No more than anyone else." It seems that he's ready to regain his previous repose. If Aya's after a getaway, this is his chance.
"Ah. Well-- I'll see you later, then....?" he makes a question of it, backing away bemusedly. He takes a few steps farther up the path before appearing the change his mind and turning to head back down into the savanna-- he glances over his shoulder a few times as he goes, though-- and it's not solely Roho he's looking at.
"You may. Are you going?" asks Roho. He notices the way the wolf goes...allowing himself to be distracted again. Eventually, he slips down from the mound and, carefully, makes his way to the ground, not without causing another dusty little landslide. The hyena looks to try and identify what manner of hazard or beast in the mountainous pass is scaring off the local denizen.
Over his shoulder: "I have to hunt," he can't just ignore the question-- it's be rude! Only after he's out of sight does he pick up his pace. He's uneasy about Roho's presence there-- hyenas don't like lion cubs, he thinks-- but what can he do? The path itself smells mostly of local herbivores, and Aya, and faintly of lion.
Roho follows slowly for a short distance, just out of curiosity, but he doesn't pursue Aya. He picks up the local scents and turns, taking it all in, connecting it to his mental pictures. Then, deciding that this one is gone, he heads off slowly toward the east, for his own kind of hunting. That old feeling of being unknown is coming back...and it's not an unsavory one.
