Post by Therdde on May 28, 2008 3:51:21 GMT -5
Or: 'An Immunity to Iocane Powder' Or: 'Endgame' Take your pick. 
Characters:
Kein – Male Juvenile Cougar
Mateka – Male Mouse (spoofed by Maulisho)
- Sweeping Steppe -
It's early in the day. The sun is just barely visible. If they were home, it would still be completely hidden by trees. All of his family seems to still be sleeping. And though Kein was the one who insisted that they stop, though he was probably the most tired, he is awake, as hunger begins to gnaw at him. They haven't eaten since they left home well over twenty-four hours ago, and it has become too much to allow him to rest well. After several minutes of lying there and wishing Mom would wake up and go hunt something, he finally pulls himself to his feet and begins walking, low to the ground, trying to find something he can hunt. He has never successfully killed anything larger than an ant, but he intends to try. Especially since an ant wouldn't do anything to make him feel better. Even the ground smells different here! How is he ever supposed to find anything to eat if everything smells different?
There is one smell that might be familiar, but Kein will have to travel a considerable distance to track it down to its owner. Mateka has crossed through the area on his way to a better life--one far away from cougars. Ironically, it seems that his journey has been in a rather fateful direction, as he's only a few hundred yards away from where Maulisho is currently sleeping with her cubs. Eyes bright and whiskers twitching, the mouse is also out hunting for food--the non-alive kind. The kind that won't bite back, or claw, or worse, have /bones/ to deal with.
And before too much longer, Kein finds out the advantage to hunting in such a barren, compared to his home, place. He can't seem to find any scents, but eventually he spots movement out of the corner of his eye. He stops abruptly and jerks his head in that direction. As he watches the sparse grass move in absence of wind and too much to be attributed to any insects, he crouches down and begins creeping forward, tail flicking as he does.
"I don't think so!!" Mateka yells at the top of his lungs, kicking at a particularly offending seed and sending it flying. "Don't even /try/ that next time!" Muttering under his breath, he puts his paws on his hips and stares at the seed skittering away. Why can't food just be easier to find?
If Kein didn't know where his prey was before, he /definitely/ does now. That's not what causes him to stop suddenly, because the sudden yelling tells him not just what, not even what, but /who/. But that doesn't make any sense. Kein saw Mateka just hours before he and his family left the stone formations, and Mom had to push them quite a bit to get them out here. There's no way such a small creature as Mateka could make it in that amount of time... Not with his family. Fighting back a growl, Kein begins creeping forward more, slowly, trying to get close, because he doesn't want the mouse running. Not this time.
But for Mateka, it's an easy decision. If food can't be found here, then he'll just continue on his own journey. Skittering away, he chooses a fast pace to get to a new area; hopefully food will be more plentiful another quarter-mile or so away from here. He doesn't give more than a half-hearted scan for predators. In land this desolate, what's out there that might be dangerous? For that matter, if /he/ can't even find food, why would a real predator be here?
So much for not growling. Frustrated at what he thinks is his inability to sneak up on the mouse, he growls as he breaks into a sprint. He doesn't aim directly for Mateka, no. He wants to cut the mouse off, trap him, make him stay here, so that he has someone to take all his frustration out on before he finally kills the mouse and eats him. This time, he doesn't even think about how this might be bad. He is, after all, hungry. He needs to eat. Right?
Ugh. His stomach is growling now. "Oh, shut up," Mateka grumbles to himself as he continues his run toward new and better places. No more cougars, no more lack of food... surely a bountiful and safe land /has/ to exist out there somewhere, no? Somewhere there has to be a land not occupied by predators where mice know nothing but constant fear and hunger. It's out there, surely... somewhere.
As the small mouse continues to run, Kein picks up the pace slightly. When he gets close, he leaps, aiming not for Mateka, but for directly in front of him. And, hey. If he accidentally lands /on/ the mouse, it is no huge loss. At least he will be able to eat, even if he won't be able to blow off some steam. Hopefully, he can avoid that happening, though.
There is nothing like inspiration to keep the tiredness from your paws, whether running from a predator or running toward the hope of paradise somewhere. Mateka, however, is conscious of a single thought: how quickly the shadow around him appeared... and then his vision is filled with tawny fur. A cougar. A small cougar, but a cougar nonetheless. Even the miniature versions have enough teeth and claws to make his life end in a hurry. Quick--time to engage the wits! Adopting a friendly expression, he gives a dramatic bow. "Greetings to you, friend!"
Kein spins to face the mouse once he realize that, no, he didn't land on anything. His teeth are bared, and he's still growling. Taking half a step closer to the mouse, he says, "Y'know, I think you're following me, mouse." Which wouldn't be a very wise move, all things considered. His accusation isn't entirely fair, though. He's the one who told Mateka to get lost, to never show up by his home again. Nevertheless, that's not the real point. The point is to make sure this mouse knows exactly who he's dealing with, and oh how Kein would /love/ to see Mateka terrified, for once.
Mateka doesn't want to assume that this is the same cub that he's dealt with twice before now--what are the chances of him being all the way out here as well, and so far away from his home territory? "Following you? Why... why would I do such a thing?" Mateka does his best not to look frightened, but it's not easy. Despite all his apparent skill with bluffing and dramatic theatricals, Mateka still feels the same mind-numbing terror that any mouse would when confronted by a genuine monster. Small monster, but still much bigger than Mateka, for sure. "Believe me--I haven't been following anyone or anything except my desire to be far away from cougar lands."
"And far away from your family too, huh? The reason you begged me not to kill you, so they wouldn't be sad?" Some things may take Kein a while, but he's actually fairly bright, once he has all the pieces, and all of the pieces of this particular mouse are starting to fall into place. He has no doubt that everything the mouse told him the night before last was a lie. He has no family. And with that in mind, he tells himself to remember that anything the mouse says today will probably be a lie. It seems to be a trend, with this one.
Mateka looks down at his feet, looking devastated. "My.. my family." Sighing, he looks back in the direction that he came from. "If only they were still alive to come with me." He looks back at the cub, knowing that he'll have to really be at the top of his mental game to win this encounter. Third time's the charm, right? "You refrained from eating me, but my mate and kids were... not so fortunate. Another predator got them--a big reason for why I left." Sighing again, he is silent a moment before adding in a somewhat probing manner, "Is that what happened to you too, kid? You're this far away from home because your family died too?"
Kein doubts what the mouse says, but he indulges Mateka, for this moment. "You wanna know why I'm out here? Because of you." It's time to flip this game around, and he wants to see the mouse confused for once, wants the mouse to be the one who needs more information in order to put the story together. If he doesn't get what he wants, though... He still intends to go ahead and tell Mateka why he is partially to blame for why he is so far away from home. Chesmu, Mateka, Kein, and to a very small extent, Mom, all in order of how much blame he thinks they deserve. Mom is the only one he has decided to forgive.
Mateka was prepared for a lot of responses from the cougar cub... but this definitely catches him by surprise. "I... err... me?" The mouse looks rather baffled. "How... is that possible?"
"Yes. You." Another half-step forward. "/You/ convinced me to tell my friends their father was evil. /You're/ the reason they laughed at me. /You're/ the reason my mom had to leave me in the middle of the night, and /you're/ the reason she got hurt!" Mom never left his side in the middle of the night /before/ he insulted Nayeli, after all. And everything that led to him hurting Nayeli can be directly attributed to Mateka's lies. The only thing Kein doesn't know is that what happened between Chesmu and his mom was brewing for a long time before that night. And this is exactly what Kein wants. Yes, he wants to make this mouse, in particular, suffer... But he also wants to make someone realize how /he/ is suffering, and that's not something he could do, since his mom is worried about bigger things.
Okay, this is definitely not what Mateka was expecting. "Kid, I don't know what you're talking about... perhaps you're getting me confused with... another mouse? I don't even know who your friends are, or who their father is, or any of that." Okay. He needs to figure out what's going on, before the cub gives in to his emotions and just kills him before anything else can be done to salvage the situation on Mateka's part.
Because all mice tell terrible lies that get the animals they fool into horrible trouble, right? That part actually wouldn't surprise Kein, given that his only interactions with mice have been with this one. But, no. He's not mistaking Mateka for some other mouse. He's sure of it. "I'm done listening to you lie. I'm hungry now." Kein tilts his head to the side, nodding off in a random direction. "Someone gave me a head start, once. I'm gonna give you the same chance. Go on. See if you can get far enough away to live." Kein wouldn't give Mateka that opportunity if he didn't know he could catch up... Probably the same reason the wolf gave him the opportunity, once. The only difference in that Kein was in his home territory, with adult cougars around who eventually came to his aid. Mateka has no such luck.
So it's come to this. For whatever reason, the cub has seemingly decided that he's through talking and now just wants to enjoy a little sadistic chase before killing Mateka. Well, if it's the mouse's day to die, then so be it... but he's not going to die at the pleasure of this monster. Meekly, the mouse sits down in front of Kein and looks at the ground. "If you're hungry, then go ahead and eat me. You and I both know that I can't outrun you, so if you have to murder me, then go ahead and do it."
If only everything in the future would be this easy to kill. Kein can't avoid one last come-back, though. "It's /not/ murder. I'm /not/ bad. You are." If it weren't Mateka, it would be someone else. Kein doesn't give the mouse a chance to reply, though. Rather, he lunges forward and snaps at the small creature. As small as Kein is, it still wouldn't take any more than that effort to kill the mouse, especially as close as he is to Mateka, unless the mouse should get up and start running after all.
He's not going to simply sit there and let the monster kill him, however! Though he might seem ready to meet his end, Mateka is quite ready for what he figured the cub would do: a simple forward charge. As soon as he detects the slightest hint of the attack, Mateka launches himself upward into the air, hoping to gain enough elevation to avoid the teeth.
Kein isn't /entirely/ surprised that the mouse doesn't meet his end as stoically as he implied he would. After all, everything else Mateka has said has been a lie. He is surprised, however, when he feels the tiny mouse land on top of his head. Growling once more, the young cougar shakes his head quickly, trying to dislodge the small animal, since he can't exactly easily reach Mateka, up there.
It's hang on or die, and Mateka does as best as he's able: grab ahold of fur with paws and teeth and try to outlast the headshaking. It won't last forever, and the mouse realizes that although he may have won a little bit longer to live, it won't be all that much longer... his stamina to hold on is nothing compared to Kein's stamina to keep shaking his head... or to finally just reach a paw up and pluck him off.
It only takes a few seconds of the irritating little mouse holding on for Kein to duck his head and swipe at the small creature with a forepaw. His claws are unsheathed, and he'd like to catch Mateka with his claws, but he's just as likely to snag himself with them as he is to catch the mouse, given that he can't see what he's doing. He can handle a few scratches if it gets this mouse off of him, though.
Thankfully for Mateka he's small enough to where the claws act as more of a trapping rake instead of several sharp points raking across him. He's easily dislodged from his perch and caught in the paw of the cub. This is /not/ good.
Kein can't even tell that he has caught the small creature until he pulls his paw from his head, at which point he flexes his claws further to keep the small mouse trapped. "You should'a just run, mouse. You might'a lived longer." Longer, yes. But still not indefinitely. Still, it was not with actual physical torture in mind that Kein suggested running in the first place, and it is not physical torture he has on his mind now. He just wants this mouse out of his live forever. As such, he lowers his paw to the ground, then attempts to shift his paw to just trap the back half of Mateka under it, so that he can kill the mouse quickly, without having Mateka escape his teeth again. Safer than snapping at the mouse while Mateka is completely within his paw, after all.
Swallowing hard, Mateka watches as the paw is removed from his head, though leaving his legs still trapped and immobilized. He can't struggle, he can't run, he can't even bite or anything. This is definitely the end, then. "I did run," he says softly, staring up at the cub's large eyes. "I was trying to run far away from your kind. Trying to find a new life somewhere."
Too little, too late. The mouse is partially responsible for destroying Kein's whole way of life, and there is no sympathy forthcoming, this time around. He is tired of talking, though. So now, even though it's tempting to continue, as it is /always/ tempting to continue arguing and fighting and talking with Mateka, Kein lowers his head and bites at the mouse again, aiming to nearly half the mouse and intending to eat the half he bites off immediately. It will, at least, be a quick death, and in the months to come, Kein will be able to tell himself that he saved another young animal somewhere from being drawn into Mateka's lies, even though that really isn't his motivation.
Mateka dies. The end.
Characters:
Kein – Male Juvenile Cougar
Mateka – Male Mouse (spoofed by Maulisho)
- Sweeping Steppe -
It's early in the day. The sun is just barely visible. If they were home, it would still be completely hidden by trees. All of his family seems to still be sleeping. And though Kein was the one who insisted that they stop, though he was probably the most tired, he is awake, as hunger begins to gnaw at him. They haven't eaten since they left home well over twenty-four hours ago, and it has become too much to allow him to rest well. After several minutes of lying there and wishing Mom would wake up and go hunt something, he finally pulls himself to his feet and begins walking, low to the ground, trying to find something he can hunt. He has never successfully killed anything larger than an ant, but he intends to try. Especially since an ant wouldn't do anything to make him feel better. Even the ground smells different here! How is he ever supposed to find anything to eat if everything smells different?
There is one smell that might be familiar, but Kein will have to travel a considerable distance to track it down to its owner. Mateka has crossed through the area on his way to a better life--one far away from cougars. Ironically, it seems that his journey has been in a rather fateful direction, as he's only a few hundred yards away from where Maulisho is currently sleeping with her cubs. Eyes bright and whiskers twitching, the mouse is also out hunting for food--the non-alive kind. The kind that won't bite back, or claw, or worse, have /bones/ to deal with.
And before too much longer, Kein finds out the advantage to hunting in such a barren, compared to his home, place. He can't seem to find any scents, but eventually he spots movement out of the corner of his eye. He stops abruptly and jerks his head in that direction. As he watches the sparse grass move in absence of wind and too much to be attributed to any insects, he crouches down and begins creeping forward, tail flicking as he does.
"I don't think so!!" Mateka yells at the top of his lungs, kicking at a particularly offending seed and sending it flying. "Don't even /try/ that next time!" Muttering under his breath, he puts his paws on his hips and stares at the seed skittering away. Why can't food just be easier to find?
If Kein didn't know where his prey was before, he /definitely/ does now. That's not what causes him to stop suddenly, because the sudden yelling tells him not just what, not even what, but /who/. But that doesn't make any sense. Kein saw Mateka just hours before he and his family left the stone formations, and Mom had to push them quite a bit to get them out here. There's no way such a small creature as Mateka could make it in that amount of time... Not with his family. Fighting back a growl, Kein begins creeping forward more, slowly, trying to get close, because he doesn't want the mouse running. Not this time.
But for Mateka, it's an easy decision. If food can't be found here, then he'll just continue on his own journey. Skittering away, he chooses a fast pace to get to a new area; hopefully food will be more plentiful another quarter-mile or so away from here. He doesn't give more than a half-hearted scan for predators. In land this desolate, what's out there that might be dangerous? For that matter, if /he/ can't even find food, why would a real predator be here?
So much for not growling. Frustrated at what he thinks is his inability to sneak up on the mouse, he growls as he breaks into a sprint. He doesn't aim directly for Mateka, no. He wants to cut the mouse off, trap him, make him stay here, so that he has someone to take all his frustration out on before he finally kills the mouse and eats him. This time, he doesn't even think about how this might be bad. He is, after all, hungry. He needs to eat. Right?
Ugh. His stomach is growling now. "Oh, shut up," Mateka grumbles to himself as he continues his run toward new and better places. No more cougars, no more lack of food... surely a bountiful and safe land /has/ to exist out there somewhere, no? Somewhere there has to be a land not occupied by predators where mice know nothing but constant fear and hunger. It's out there, surely... somewhere.
As the small mouse continues to run, Kein picks up the pace slightly. When he gets close, he leaps, aiming not for Mateka, but for directly in front of him. And, hey. If he accidentally lands /on/ the mouse, it is no huge loss. At least he will be able to eat, even if he won't be able to blow off some steam. Hopefully, he can avoid that happening, though.
There is nothing like inspiration to keep the tiredness from your paws, whether running from a predator or running toward the hope of paradise somewhere. Mateka, however, is conscious of a single thought: how quickly the shadow around him appeared... and then his vision is filled with tawny fur. A cougar. A small cougar, but a cougar nonetheless. Even the miniature versions have enough teeth and claws to make his life end in a hurry. Quick--time to engage the wits! Adopting a friendly expression, he gives a dramatic bow. "Greetings to you, friend!"
Kein spins to face the mouse once he realize that, no, he didn't land on anything. His teeth are bared, and he's still growling. Taking half a step closer to the mouse, he says, "Y'know, I think you're following me, mouse." Which wouldn't be a very wise move, all things considered. His accusation isn't entirely fair, though. He's the one who told Mateka to get lost, to never show up by his home again. Nevertheless, that's not the real point. The point is to make sure this mouse knows exactly who he's dealing with, and oh how Kein would /love/ to see Mateka terrified, for once.
Mateka doesn't want to assume that this is the same cub that he's dealt with twice before now--what are the chances of him being all the way out here as well, and so far away from his home territory? "Following you? Why... why would I do such a thing?" Mateka does his best not to look frightened, but it's not easy. Despite all his apparent skill with bluffing and dramatic theatricals, Mateka still feels the same mind-numbing terror that any mouse would when confronted by a genuine monster. Small monster, but still much bigger than Mateka, for sure. "Believe me--I haven't been following anyone or anything except my desire to be far away from cougar lands."
"And far away from your family too, huh? The reason you begged me not to kill you, so they wouldn't be sad?" Some things may take Kein a while, but he's actually fairly bright, once he has all the pieces, and all of the pieces of this particular mouse are starting to fall into place. He has no doubt that everything the mouse told him the night before last was a lie. He has no family. And with that in mind, he tells himself to remember that anything the mouse says today will probably be a lie. It seems to be a trend, with this one.
Mateka looks down at his feet, looking devastated. "My.. my family." Sighing, he looks back in the direction that he came from. "If only they were still alive to come with me." He looks back at the cub, knowing that he'll have to really be at the top of his mental game to win this encounter. Third time's the charm, right? "You refrained from eating me, but my mate and kids were... not so fortunate. Another predator got them--a big reason for why I left." Sighing again, he is silent a moment before adding in a somewhat probing manner, "Is that what happened to you too, kid? You're this far away from home because your family died too?"
Kein doubts what the mouse says, but he indulges Mateka, for this moment. "You wanna know why I'm out here? Because of you." It's time to flip this game around, and he wants to see the mouse confused for once, wants the mouse to be the one who needs more information in order to put the story together. If he doesn't get what he wants, though... He still intends to go ahead and tell Mateka why he is partially to blame for why he is so far away from home. Chesmu, Mateka, Kein, and to a very small extent, Mom, all in order of how much blame he thinks they deserve. Mom is the only one he has decided to forgive.
Mateka was prepared for a lot of responses from the cougar cub... but this definitely catches him by surprise. "I... err... me?" The mouse looks rather baffled. "How... is that possible?"
"Yes. You." Another half-step forward. "/You/ convinced me to tell my friends their father was evil. /You're/ the reason they laughed at me. /You're/ the reason my mom had to leave me in the middle of the night, and /you're/ the reason she got hurt!" Mom never left his side in the middle of the night /before/ he insulted Nayeli, after all. And everything that led to him hurting Nayeli can be directly attributed to Mateka's lies. The only thing Kein doesn't know is that what happened between Chesmu and his mom was brewing for a long time before that night. And this is exactly what Kein wants. Yes, he wants to make this mouse, in particular, suffer... But he also wants to make someone realize how /he/ is suffering, and that's not something he could do, since his mom is worried about bigger things.
Okay, this is definitely not what Mateka was expecting. "Kid, I don't know what you're talking about... perhaps you're getting me confused with... another mouse? I don't even know who your friends are, or who their father is, or any of that." Okay. He needs to figure out what's going on, before the cub gives in to his emotions and just kills him before anything else can be done to salvage the situation on Mateka's part.
Because all mice tell terrible lies that get the animals they fool into horrible trouble, right? That part actually wouldn't surprise Kein, given that his only interactions with mice have been with this one. But, no. He's not mistaking Mateka for some other mouse. He's sure of it. "I'm done listening to you lie. I'm hungry now." Kein tilts his head to the side, nodding off in a random direction. "Someone gave me a head start, once. I'm gonna give you the same chance. Go on. See if you can get far enough away to live." Kein wouldn't give Mateka that opportunity if he didn't know he could catch up... Probably the same reason the wolf gave him the opportunity, once. The only difference in that Kein was in his home territory, with adult cougars around who eventually came to his aid. Mateka has no such luck.
So it's come to this. For whatever reason, the cub has seemingly decided that he's through talking and now just wants to enjoy a little sadistic chase before killing Mateka. Well, if it's the mouse's day to die, then so be it... but he's not going to die at the pleasure of this monster. Meekly, the mouse sits down in front of Kein and looks at the ground. "If you're hungry, then go ahead and eat me. You and I both know that I can't outrun you, so if you have to murder me, then go ahead and do it."
If only everything in the future would be this easy to kill. Kein can't avoid one last come-back, though. "It's /not/ murder. I'm /not/ bad. You are." If it weren't Mateka, it would be someone else. Kein doesn't give the mouse a chance to reply, though. Rather, he lunges forward and snaps at the small creature. As small as Kein is, it still wouldn't take any more than that effort to kill the mouse, especially as close as he is to Mateka, unless the mouse should get up and start running after all.
He's not going to simply sit there and let the monster kill him, however! Though he might seem ready to meet his end, Mateka is quite ready for what he figured the cub would do: a simple forward charge. As soon as he detects the slightest hint of the attack, Mateka launches himself upward into the air, hoping to gain enough elevation to avoid the teeth.
Kein isn't /entirely/ surprised that the mouse doesn't meet his end as stoically as he implied he would. After all, everything else Mateka has said has been a lie. He is surprised, however, when he feels the tiny mouse land on top of his head. Growling once more, the young cougar shakes his head quickly, trying to dislodge the small animal, since he can't exactly easily reach Mateka, up there.
It's hang on or die, and Mateka does as best as he's able: grab ahold of fur with paws and teeth and try to outlast the headshaking. It won't last forever, and the mouse realizes that although he may have won a little bit longer to live, it won't be all that much longer... his stamina to hold on is nothing compared to Kein's stamina to keep shaking his head... or to finally just reach a paw up and pluck him off.
It only takes a few seconds of the irritating little mouse holding on for Kein to duck his head and swipe at the small creature with a forepaw. His claws are unsheathed, and he'd like to catch Mateka with his claws, but he's just as likely to snag himself with them as he is to catch the mouse, given that he can't see what he's doing. He can handle a few scratches if it gets this mouse off of him, though.
Thankfully for Mateka he's small enough to where the claws act as more of a trapping rake instead of several sharp points raking across him. He's easily dislodged from his perch and caught in the paw of the cub. This is /not/ good.
Kein can't even tell that he has caught the small creature until he pulls his paw from his head, at which point he flexes his claws further to keep the small mouse trapped. "You should'a just run, mouse. You might'a lived longer." Longer, yes. But still not indefinitely. Still, it was not with actual physical torture in mind that Kein suggested running in the first place, and it is not physical torture he has on his mind now. He just wants this mouse out of his live forever. As such, he lowers his paw to the ground, then attempts to shift his paw to just trap the back half of Mateka under it, so that he can kill the mouse quickly, without having Mateka escape his teeth again. Safer than snapping at the mouse while Mateka is completely within his paw, after all.
Swallowing hard, Mateka watches as the paw is removed from his head, though leaving his legs still trapped and immobilized. He can't struggle, he can't run, he can't even bite or anything. This is definitely the end, then. "I did run," he says softly, staring up at the cub's large eyes. "I was trying to run far away from your kind. Trying to find a new life somewhere."
Too little, too late. The mouse is partially responsible for destroying Kein's whole way of life, and there is no sympathy forthcoming, this time around. He is tired of talking, though. So now, even though it's tempting to continue, as it is /always/ tempting to continue arguing and fighting and talking with Mateka, Kein lowers his head and bites at the mouse again, aiming to nearly half the mouse and intending to eat the half he bites off immediately. It will, at least, be a quick death, and in the months to come, Kein will be able to tell himself that he saved another young animal somewhere from being drawn into Mateka's lies, even though that really isn't his motivation.
Mateka dies. The end.