Post by Therdde on Dec 22, 2009 8:26:47 GMT -5
Characters:
Jage - Elder Female Bush Dog
Kein - Male Jaguar
- Random Rainforest Setting -
Humid, hot, dappled, a sea of uninterrupted green and black declares this an untouched area of rainforest. The buzz of insects is constant and drowning, but Jage is used to it here, far from all disturbances. The old bush dog lifts her dripping nose, wrinkling it at the water, then looking up and down. The creek is not particularly fast-flowing, but it is too wide to jump and too deep to ford, and so Jage lopes up the muddy bank. A thick log rests across the water, granting passage, and she nods to herself before setting her paws upon it. She's too light to fear dislodging such a large log, but she moves slowly anyway.
Kein is quite certain he's not too fond of this being on his own thing. Oh, he's fed. He's maintaining his muscled form quite easily, since having been seen off of his father's territory. That doesn't mean he likes it, though. All of these thoughts have put the youthful jaguar in a particularly foul mood. In this mood of his, his tail whips about behind him, just far enough off the ground to be mostly-silent. He's not hungry, and even if he were, that little creature he just barely spots through the trees, the one daring to come to his side of the river, the side he took in order to get away from his possessive father... Where was he... Ah yes. Even if he were hungry, the bush dog would do little to fill his stomach. Still, an easy victory might be in order. Something to take Kein's mind off of his troubles, something to stroke his ego a bit...
As the log shifts, the bush dog stills, and she frowns gently to herself. Not as stable as she first thought, then. With a little shuffle she is over the rest of the log, and out in the open for that brief moment it's clear the dog is carrying a bit of a limp in her hind leg. Lowering her nose, she sniffs the ground. Nothing. No familiarity. Raising her voice, the dog gives a high-pitched keen that stops abruptly, and she stands with her stubby ears cocked. Nothing, again. Well, it was worth a try. With a deep frown to herself, she begins to follow the creek in a slow trot, stoically ignoring the pangs in her paw.
His mood, temporarily heightened at the thought of a new toy, falls again as he watches her walk. He hasn't even gotten to play with it, yet, and it's already damaged. That's no fun at all. Hmph. Well, he'll just have to /make/ it fun. He waits until the bush dog has passed him before slipping out of the cover that exists event only a short distance from the river to trail her. His muzzle is set in a very mean grin. The boy has a temper on him, and it is far too seldom that he gets to vent it on anything that isn't inanimate. Yes, he'll enjoy this very cubbish, cruel game made all the more terrifying by the fact that, immature mental state aside, he is most definitely nothing like a cub.
It doesn't take Jage long to notice that she is being followed. She hasn't survived the jungle by stumbling about blind and deaf, ignoring the telltale signs of every young animal who wants to get the drop on her. She doesn't yet give sign that she knows he is behind her as she continues on, sniffing the air as it clears and freshens. She smiles slightly. This will do. The stream has opened out into a small, circular pool, deep and cracked - a sinkhole, and a deep one by the looks of the colour. She sighs as she stops. Well, she's not going to outrun her new acquaintance. "Make yourself known, then," she says, in a voice world-weary. "My eyes aren't what they used to be."
Kein is not a bright creature. He's not /stupid/, but he has no need to be very clever. What he is, or at least tries to be, in this moment, is simply intimidating. With his maw split in a smile that is really just an excuse to show his teeth, he continues to edge forward. "Well well well. It seems I've found myself a snack." No, he doesn't plan on eating her. Luckily, it would seem she's forming a plan, in case he did intend to eat her. He, however, only wants the feeling better that generally comes with picking on others.
The bush dog doesn't sit. She's not that confident in herself. She does, however, take a few steps back, along the bank of the stream towards the sinkhole. The bank has begun rising as it reaches the pool, a steep though still short incline down to the dark dead-leaved water. "A snack?" she asks, her brows raising as she looks over the big jaguar. "I wouldn't have thought one such as yourself would be so desperate as to have to eat an old, stringy thing like myself." She doesn't sound insulting...not yet.
"What can I say? It's too hot for me to want to waste a bunch of time shopping around. You'll do." For every step that the bush dog takes backward, Kein takes one forward, but he does not rush the much smaller creature. It has nothing to do with the water behind Jage. Kein has only barely even noticed the large pool. He simply doesn't want the game to be over yet. The sooner the game is over, the sooner he has to go back to sulking.
When she feels the mud under her hindpaw begin to change, loosen between the roots, Jage stops her retreat. She is close enough now, so she can afford to. She looks the jaguar over. She knows this behaviour - of course she does, she has been an alpha female in her time and she's had to deal with uppity little ones before. Granted, the little ones were never this...huge. Or...or toothy. Even so, the canine's lips thin, as do her eyes, and she assumes the condescending, disappointed look of offended grandmothers everywhere. "Effort is so hard to muster these days, is it?" she says archly, forcing her fear down and away. She keeps a weather eye on the jaguar's paws. One swipe... "You should be ashamed."
When Jage stops retreating, Kein stops advancing. He certainly does not seem ashamed, though. If anything, he seems amused... Which was kind of the whole point. "Ashamed? Because I should get the best meal possible for the least amount of effort? I should be ashamed of efficient hunting? Ha!" Maybe he /should/ be ashamed. Wasting all this energy on a meal he has no intention of eating. He's not going to let her know that, though. Certainly, if either his mother or her mate were here to witness him simply playing with his food, he would never hear the end of it. But them, he's all on his own. It's what has saved Jage, thus far, from having to put her plan into action.
Jage snorts softly. "If this is what you would call hunting..." She looks down at herself dramatically. "And this old piece of skin is what you would call a meal...then perhaps you are not doing as well as your bulk belies." The look down is a test. If he truly wants to eat her, she is giving him the opportunity to lunge. If he doesn't move, then her suspicions will be right - a bored youth out on the prowl. Either way, she is ready.
She reads him too well. Kein does not lunge. Yet. Once he tires of her, he tells himself, he will do so, if only to give her a fright, but he has not tired of her yet... Rather specifically because she has not yielded to terror, yet. That oddity has not caught his conscious thought, though somewhere in his subconscious, he must realize that there is something odd about this female. Something bold. Something that keeps her entertaining, just as she is. "Just one of you, no. I would starve before nightfall, if I tried to live on just you. But where there is one old and tired runt of a meal, there is always more."
The idea of this jaguar amongst her pack involuntarily causes Jage to bristle visibly. "Don't be absurd," she says, drawing her head up tall to look him in the eye. The fact that he has not yet attacked her gives her more confidence now. This isn't a hunt, this is a conversation. Perhaps not the most civil one, though. "Have you not met my kind before, jaguar?" Entirely possibly, being so few and far between. "If you have not seen the rest of my pack by now, you will never see them."
Yes. She's a brave one. And in this exercise to hone his cruelty, he says, "Well, that makes us even, then, as I believe you will never see them again, either." Were this for real, Kein might try to force her to tell him where they are. Or he might even just let her go, with the intention of trying to follow her back to her pack. He does keep the conversation going, though. Her confidence is not poorly placed.
The slow, empty smile that spreads over Jage's stubby muzzle looks out of place. "Yes, I am beginning to worry about that myself," she says in return, leaving a beat before adding, "But not for your attentions, spots." She doesn't elaborate on her own situation, though chances are it has something to do with her slight limp.
Spots? Really? This little thing... Really, were Kein not looking directly at her, he would have to assume she's at least ten times the size she actually it. And male to boot, as she's got... Still, this is /not/ the terror he wanted from her. And so, taking a menacing step forward, though it is combined with an incredibly mild tone of voice, he says, "I'll be doing you a favor, then. Keeping you from living out the days or weeks you have left all alone." No. He's not stupid.
Tension spreads through Jage's body - a visible expression of the fact that, bold though she may be, she's still very much aware of the fact that Kein physically outstrips her in every way imaginable. She even draws back a little as he steps forward, though she doesn't dare shift her hind legs. "Do you always entertain your food so thoroughly? Or am I just a special case?" she says archly, her heart hammering. She's got a few plans in mind, but is well aware that once Kein moves, she will have only a split-second to decide which would be best.
"Oh, quite special. It's not so often such a small little thing wanders into my territory all alone." Territory? Not so much. He exaggerates quite well. He is still far too near his natal territory, and should his father get particularly restless some day, the chances of them crossing paths would be too great for him to actually settle down here. Unlike moments before, though, Kein can almost taste the fear on her, finally. Hah! He /is/ still intimidating. It's hard to hold back the laughter he wants to let loose.
Jage can't resist it. It probably isn't very clever of her to bait him now, but the young jaguar's attitude is offending her. It's a strange thing to be thinking in the tense situation, but she can't help it, this reminds her far too much of putting her own children in their place - a dangerous thing to be reminded of. "Is that right? That would explain how you treat guests. Next time I pass through, I shall be sure to drop in and help you practice your skills again." She even manages a thin smile, tilting her head at him.
"Oh, see. That would imply that you get to leave, this time. And I can't let you do that." Kein got his little taste of fear from her. Now, he should like to year her scream. He doesn't banter about any longer. No, he leaps directly for her, even if the power he gives to the leap is not quite enough to take him all the way to the bush dog.
She has lost speed, strength, and a not inconsiderable part of her senses, but Jage has experience. The bait got him to leap at last, and he isn't messing about - this is no overly theatrical leap that will allow her to dodge aside. Plan B it is, then. It may just be his restrained power that saves her, as when he bunches his muscles and leaps Jage has dug her hindpaws in, ignoring the flare of pain from her injury. She twists and careens off the edge of the bank, into the sinkhole with a dull splash. Her position, after all, was not the best for entry. But she doesn't waste her efforts, either - the momentum has carried her deep, and in a moment her short legs are paddling, webbed paws pushing her along underwater as quickly as possible until she vanishes into the shadows of the sinkhole's undercut, overhung banks.
One second she is there. And Kein could swear that he does no more than blink, and she vanishes. It all happens far too quickly for him to notice the ripples in the water, or the tracks her paws left in the mud. Perhaps he might have. But with the surprise that overcomes him when, suddenly, she is gone from his sight causes him to lose control of his landing and send him into the water after her, erasing any trace of her journey into the water, and rather unlike the bush dog, Kein fights to get himself back onto land quickly, coughing, sputtering, and now very confused. One large, immature feline, rightly humbled. Oh, thank goodness no one is here to see it.
Except for one old, highly amused pair of dark eyes in the shadows, before they slip underwater again.
Jage - Elder Female Bush Dog
Kein - Male Jaguar
- Random Rainforest Setting -
Humid, hot, dappled, a sea of uninterrupted green and black declares this an untouched area of rainforest. The buzz of insects is constant and drowning, but Jage is used to it here, far from all disturbances. The old bush dog lifts her dripping nose, wrinkling it at the water, then looking up and down. The creek is not particularly fast-flowing, but it is too wide to jump and too deep to ford, and so Jage lopes up the muddy bank. A thick log rests across the water, granting passage, and she nods to herself before setting her paws upon it. She's too light to fear dislodging such a large log, but she moves slowly anyway.
Kein is quite certain he's not too fond of this being on his own thing. Oh, he's fed. He's maintaining his muscled form quite easily, since having been seen off of his father's territory. That doesn't mean he likes it, though. All of these thoughts have put the youthful jaguar in a particularly foul mood. In this mood of his, his tail whips about behind him, just far enough off the ground to be mostly-silent. He's not hungry, and even if he were, that little creature he just barely spots through the trees, the one daring to come to his side of the river, the side he took in order to get away from his possessive father... Where was he... Ah yes. Even if he were hungry, the bush dog would do little to fill his stomach. Still, an easy victory might be in order. Something to take Kein's mind off of his troubles, something to stroke his ego a bit...
As the log shifts, the bush dog stills, and she frowns gently to herself. Not as stable as she first thought, then. With a little shuffle she is over the rest of the log, and out in the open for that brief moment it's clear the dog is carrying a bit of a limp in her hind leg. Lowering her nose, she sniffs the ground. Nothing. No familiarity. Raising her voice, the dog gives a high-pitched keen that stops abruptly, and she stands with her stubby ears cocked. Nothing, again. Well, it was worth a try. With a deep frown to herself, she begins to follow the creek in a slow trot, stoically ignoring the pangs in her paw.
His mood, temporarily heightened at the thought of a new toy, falls again as he watches her walk. He hasn't even gotten to play with it, yet, and it's already damaged. That's no fun at all. Hmph. Well, he'll just have to /make/ it fun. He waits until the bush dog has passed him before slipping out of the cover that exists event only a short distance from the river to trail her. His muzzle is set in a very mean grin. The boy has a temper on him, and it is far too seldom that he gets to vent it on anything that isn't inanimate. Yes, he'll enjoy this very cubbish, cruel game made all the more terrifying by the fact that, immature mental state aside, he is most definitely nothing like a cub.
It doesn't take Jage long to notice that she is being followed. She hasn't survived the jungle by stumbling about blind and deaf, ignoring the telltale signs of every young animal who wants to get the drop on her. She doesn't yet give sign that she knows he is behind her as she continues on, sniffing the air as it clears and freshens. She smiles slightly. This will do. The stream has opened out into a small, circular pool, deep and cracked - a sinkhole, and a deep one by the looks of the colour. She sighs as she stops. Well, she's not going to outrun her new acquaintance. "Make yourself known, then," she says, in a voice world-weary. "My eyes aren't what they used to be."
Kein is not a bright creature. He's not /stupid/, but he has no need to be very clever. What he is, or at least tries to be, in this moment, is simply intimidating. With his maw split in a smile that is really just an excuse to show his teeth, he continues to edge forward. "Well well well. It seems I've found myself a snack." No, he doesn't plan on eating her. Luckily, it would seem she's forming a plan, in case he did intend to eat her. He, however, only wants the feeling better that generally comes with picking on others.
The bush dog doesn't sit. She's not that confident in herself. She does, however, take a few steps back, along the bank of the stream towards the sinkhole. The bank has begun rising as it reaches the pool, a steep though still short incline down to the dark dead-leaved water. "A snack?" she asks, her brows raising as she looks over the big jaguar. "I wouldn't have thought one such as yourself would be so desperate as to have to eat an old, stringy thing like myself." She doesn't sound insulting...not yet.
"What can I say? It's too hot for me to want to waste a bunch of time shopping around. You'll do." For every step that the bush dog takes backward, Kein takes one forward, but he does not rush the much smaller creature. It has nothing to do with the water behind Jage. Kein has only barely even noticed the large pool. He simply doesn't want the game to be over yet. The sooner the game is over, the sooner he has to go back to sulking.
When she feels the mud under her hindpaw begin to change, loosen between the roots, Jage stops her retreat. She is close enough now, so she can afford to. She looks the jaguar over. She knows this behaviour - of course she does, she has been an alpha female in her time and she's had to deal with uppity little ones before. Granted, the little ones were never this...huge. Or...or toothy. Even so, the canine's lips thin, as do her eyes, and she assumes the condescending, disappointed look of offended grandmothers everywhere. "Effort is so hard to muster these days, is it?" she says archly, forcing her fear down and away. She keeps a weather eye on the jaguar's paws. One swipe... "You should be ashamed."
When Jage stops retreating, Kein stops advancing. He certainly does not seem ashamed, though. If anything, he seems amused... Which was kind of the whole point. "Ashamed? Because I should get the best meal possible for the least amount of effort? I should be ashamed of efficient hunting? Ha!" Maybe he /should/ be ashamed. Wasting all this energy on a meal he has no intention of eating. He's not going to let her know that, though. Certainly, if either his mother or her mate were here to witness him simply playing with his food, he would never hear the end of it. But them, he's all on his own. It's what has saved Jage, thus far, from having to put her plan into action.
Jage snorts softly. "If this is what you would call hunting..." She looks down at herself dramatically. "And this old piece of skin is what you would call a meal...then perhaps you are not doing as well as your bulk belies." The look down is a test. If he truly wants to eat her, she is giving him the opportunity to lunge. If he doesn't move, then her suspicions will be right - a bored youth out on the prowl. Either way, she is ready.
She reads him too well. Kein does not lunge. Yet. Once he tires of her, he tells himself, he will do so, if only to give her a fright, but he has not tired of her yet... Rather specifically because she has not yielded to terror, yet. That oddity has not caught his conscious thought, though somewhere in his subconscious, he must realize that there is something odd about this female. Something bold. Something that keeps her entertaining, just as she is. "Just one of you, no. I would starve before nightfall, if I tried to live on just you. But where there is one old and tired runt of a meal, there is always more."
The idea of this jaguar amongst her pack involuntarily causes Jage to bristle visibly. "Don't be absurd," she says, drawing her head up tall to look him in the eye. The fact that he has not yet attacked her gives her more confidence now. This isn't a hunt, this is a conversation. Perhaps not the most civil one, though. "Have you not met my kind before, jaguar?" Entirely possibly, being so few and far between. "If you have not seen the rest of my pack by now, you will never see them."
Yes. She's a brave one. And in this exercise to hone his cruelty, he says, "Well, that makes us even, then, as I believe you will never see them again, either." Were this for real, Kein might try to force her to tell him where they are. Or he might even just let her go, with the intention of trying to follow her back to her pack. He does keep the conversation going, though. Her confidence is not poorly placed.
The slow, empty smile that spreads over Jage's stubby muzzle looks out of place. "Yes, I am beginning to worry about that myself," she says in return, leaving a beat before adding, "But not for your attentions, spots." She doesn't elaborate on her own situation, though chances are it has something to do with her slight limp.
Spots? Really? This little thing... Really, were Kein not looking directly at her, he would have to assume she's at least ten times the size she actually it. And male to boot, as she's got... Still, this is /not/ the terror he wanted from her. And so, taking a menacing step forward, though it is combined with an incredibly mild tone of voice, he says, "I'll be doing you a favor, then. Keeping you from living out the days or weeks you have left all alone." No. He's not stupid.
Tension spreads through Jage's body - a visible expression of the fact that, bold though she may be, she's still very much aware of the fact that Kein physically outstrips her in every way imaginable. She even draws back a little as he steps forward, though she doesn't dare shift her hind legs. "Do you always entertain your food so thoroughly? Or am I just a special case?" she says archly, her heart hammering. She's got a few plans in mind, but is well aware that once Kein moves, she will have only a split-second to decide which would be best.
"Oh, quite special. It's not so often such a small little thing wanders into my territory all alone." Territory? Not so much. He exaggerates quite well. He is still far too near his natal territory, and should his father get particularly restless some day, the chances of them crossing paths would be too great for him to actually settle down here. Unlike moments before, though, Kein can almost taste the fear on her, finally. Hah! He /is/ still intimidating. It's hard to hold back the laughter he wants to let loose.
Jage can't resist it. It probably isn't very clever of her to bait him now, but the young jaguar's attitude is offending her. It's a strange thing to be thinking in the tense situation, but she can't help it, this reminds her far too much of putting her own children in their place - a dangerous thing to be reminded of. "Is that right? That would explain how you treat guests. Next time I pass through, I shall be sure to drop in and help you practice your skills again." She even manages a thin smile, tilting her head at him.
"Oh, see. That would imply that you get to leave, this time. And I can't let you do that." Kein got his little taste of fear from her. Now, he should like to year her scream. He doesn't banter about any longer. No, he leaps directly for her, even if the power he gives to the leap is not quite enough to take him all the way to the bush dog.
She has lost speed, strength, and a not inconsiderable part of her senses, but Jage has experience. The bait got him to leap at last, and he isn't messing about - this is no overly theatrical leap that will allow her to dodge aside. Plan B it is, then. It may just be his restrained power that saves her, as when he bunches his muscles and leaps Jage has dug her hindpaws in, ignoring the flare of pain from her injury. She twists and careens off the edge of the bank, into the sinkhole with a dull splash. Her position, after all, was not the best for entry. But she doesn't waste her efforts, either - the momentum has carried her deep, and in a moment her short legs are paddling, webbed paws pushing her along underwater as quickly as possible until she vanishes into the shadows of the sinkhole's undercut, overhung banks.
One second she is there. And Kein could swear that he does no more than blink, and she vanishes. It all happens far too quickly for him to notice the ripples in the water, or the tracks her paws left in the mud. Perhaps he might have. But with the surprise that overcomes him when, suddenly, she is gone from his sight causes him to lose control of his landing and send him into the water after her, erasing any trace of her journey into the water, and rather unlike the bush dog, Kein fights to get himself back onto land quickly, coughing, sputtering, and now very confused. One large, immature feline, rightly humbled. Oh, thank goodness no one is here to see it.
Except for one old, highly amused pair of dark eyes in the shadows, before they slip underwater again.