Post by Therdde on Sept 4, 2010 10:26:39 GMT -5
Characters:
Thrash - Male Cougar
Kein - Male Cougar
- Eroded Well -
It has been quite a rough month for Thrash as of late in the Amaranth, and it has been a difficult time for the large cougar to wear a smile upon his face. It has been no real secret that he and Maul parted ways and have become distant, along with the presence of his brother here on the lands speaking with the dead, and causing him to be on edge. He has been practically a ghost, living along the borders as he patrols endlessly without much in the way of downtime. Being miserable is a new concept for him, and he isn't sure what direction he has now not only in the tribe, but in his life. He even is starting to look a bit leaner in his once powerful stature. For now, he is making his way through the dust, his head dropped down between his shoulders, making his way for the edges of the territory with a glassy stare in his eyes.
The trees to the north have almost completely lost their leaves. Any day now there will be snow even on the lower sections of the mountain, and for once, Kein is not too upset by that. As he visits the well to drink from the chilled water there, his step is light and his expression about as pleasant as it gets, really. Upon finishing his drink, he stands upright and perks an ear at the sound of an approaching animal.
As Thrash wanders slowly on through, like a semi set on cruise control, he smacks a stone off to the side, allowing it skip over the ground a few times before making a splash in a small puddle. If he notices Kein nearby, he doesn't raise his head upwards, or his voice in salutation. He just walks, looking heavy, and tired.
At Kein's absolute best, on the day when everything has gone his way and her has had nothing but pleasant thoughts, he still will not be a very social creature. Any effects left from his childhood spent living with wolves have long since faded away, and genetic disposition and years of solitude have taken their place. As such, where another cougar, or another animal, might have spoken to Thrash immediately upon spotting him, Kein first has to ask himself if this is really his business. And in a way, it is, isn't it? So, with a silent sigh of reluctance, he speaks up. "Thrash." It's not the command that it could be, but Kein does rather suspect it will be enough to get Thrash's attention, anyway.
Pausing as he hears his name, like an echo on the wind which shatters the spiral of thoughts that reign havoc on the back of his mind, Thrash pauses in mid step, almost like hitting a brick wall at full speed. It takes a few moments to register where he is at, and to shake his senses clear. Lifting his head, he looks around, eyes blinking as they dilate, then finds his attention finally upon Kein. He looks confused for a moment, before finally working out in a parched voice. "Yeah?"
Kein keeps his eyes on Thrash, though he does his best to keep his expression mostly neutral. With only a brief pause after Thrash speaks, Kein says, "It's a bit early in the year for you to be having such a hard time. Have you forgotten what winters are like, here on the mountain?" It is not quite the chastisement that it might seem to be, though if Thrash is having difficulty hunting, he should not be wandering about aimlessly, just hoping food falls in his lap. Kein's tone would suggest more of an invitation to talk, though.
"Life is nothing but a hard time, Kein. Doesn't matter if it snows or not, it's always going to be hard." Thrash says as he curls his tail around his haunches, then gives a sniff to the air. "It doesn't matter anymore, really. When the snow falls, I should just lay here and let it cover me. I'd just be another mouth to feed." He says bitterly as he stares down at his paws, his chest heaving out a large sigh.
If Thrash wanted comfort, he'd be better off speaking to one of the females. Kein, after all, is not much in the comfort business. He has managed, from time to time and with his biological children, to /try/ to be comforting, but even with the children he sired, that was always Nayeli's job. The older male's muzzle twitches, and in a tone that carries little compassion he says, "Welcome to adulthood, son. But if that's how you really feel, I think I'll let you get to it, then." Lack of compassion aside, Kein does not aim to be cruel. What he should really like is to snap Thrash out of it, if possible. To that end, though he says he'll let Thrash go about dying of apathy, he does not move away from the younger male.
"I'm not your son, Kein." Thrash says as he pushes himself up to his paws slowly. "I'm no one's son. Mom didn't even want me I found out. Dad was just gonna kill me anyways. Got a brother who has my name." He scoffs out a laugh. "Tantallon. That was my name, mom gave it to him after she left me. It was supposed to be mine, but dad started calling me Thrash instead, so I stuck with it." He says, his voice wheezing out. "Then I find out mom got killed, takes time out of her days being dead to say good-bye to my -brother-, not me of course! Oh, and then your daughter dumps me, says she needs time to 'reflect' or something, think about her belly button and the purpose of it." This is where he pauses, squeezing his eyes shut tightly, before a growl erupts in his throat. With that, he flops himself down upon his stomach, and covers his head with his paws. "I'm just gonna get with it then."
Well, so much for trying to be his own special little brand of civil. The type of civil where, though not friendly, he does not yell or growl. Kein responds almost immediately with a growl and a step towards Thrash. "You're right. You're not my son. And this is how I'm to be repaid for hosting you for a year, then I can't imagine why it ever seemed a good idea to have you as a son." Not that Kein was ever a particularly accommodating 'father', but he has been kinder to Thrash than he has to any number of males who came before him. That should have earned him something. "Rot if you must. You're an adult now, and no one is going to try to stop you. But you will do it outside of Amaranth, rather than soil the land that has supported you for so long with the smell of your carcass. If you expect to stay in Amaranth, then /I/ expect that you will take care of yourself. And if you want to talk, I expect that you do so without insulting what has been done for you in the past." Yes. Kein feels a little guilt for inviting Thrash to speak, then snapping at him for speaking. Just not guilty enough to not have snapped at him or to apologize for having done so.
Pushing himself upwards to his paws, Thrash swivels his head over in Kein's direction, then shrugs his shoulders upwards. With that, he starts off, pushing off with his large paws, seemingly heading for the borders. His entire posture screams defeat. There isn't an inkling of the wise mouthed, joke cracking, or flirty cougar that once came to Amaranth. He looks, an feels completely stomped on, and obviously Kein isn't helping.
Kein snorts in response to Thrash's reaction. Certainly, there are others who could have handled this better, and Kein knows that even now, but saying the right things has never been his forte. "If you get your act together, you should let me know. You'll be welcome back here so long as you /want/ to /live/ here, Thrash. No matter what you say, you were as a son to me. More now than ever, I guess." After all, what do Kein's sons do but leave? Just as he has expected of each one of them, when they were ready to get out from under Amaranth rule and find their own way. And now, he supposes, it's time to go find a certain daughter of his.
"Cael left because he fell in love, Kein. He found someone that loved him back, and loved him for all his worth. I'm leaving because I lost love, and I can't stay here and feel that pressure on my shoulders." Thrash says as he looks over his shoulder, his voice wavering. "I love your daughter with every breath I take and every beat of my heart and I'd throw myself in front of a stampede for her. I'd rip the stars out of the sky and hand them to her if I could." His eyes, glassy, shine with wet emotion, before trickling down his cheek. "She changed my life...twice now.. I feel uncomfortable, and I don't know what to do."
Kein is not so quick to respond this time, and when he frowns, it is not out of anger. How much different is what Thrash is going through than what Kein is going through? Kein, of course, has more of a sense of obligation to the tribe, preventing him from leaving it on a moment's notice and from lying about and wasting away, but he still has some ability to understand. "I can't claim to know what goes through Maul's head. I don't think anyone could. She would have fought tooth and claw to keep you here, if I'd made her, back then. Did I ever tell you how my mother died?" It may not seem to follow, but Kein has been worried for a very long time how what Maul remembers, and how she remembers it, could scar her permanently. His worries never led him to any conclusions about what, if anything, he should do to help her, though. And perhaps now, if Maul has sent away someone she did care for, and who so obviously cares for her... well, perhaps he is too late to do anything about it.
Shaking his head, Thrash settles back upon his haunches numbly, curling his tail around himself like a protective blanket. "No, you haven't." He sniffs loudly, then wipes at his eyes with his paw, trying to work the tears away from his face.
Kein looks away from Thrash, down the mountain to the desert that lies well beyond his range of sight. 'We should have stayed there,' he thinks. Right up until he reminds himself that, if he had stayed, he probably never would have met Nyssa. He forces himself to take a deep breath that he hopes will calm him, then begins speaking. "I was born here in Amaranth. It was the only place my mother thought she'd be safe from my father, who had forces himself on her, and she was. But then the chieftain at the time took a fancy to her, and since she had a mate, she rejected him. He didn't take it well." As he speaks, he stays calm fairly easily. It all feels as though it happened ages ago, in another lifetime, and with how seldom he has spoken of it, it is more as though he is relating a story that he has long forgotten than telling something from his past, no matter how truthful it is or that it actually happened. "She kept us out of Amaranth until we got older, and then she decided we should come back, one day. She demanded that he should step down. He did, but not before I was banished. So I left with Nayeli. I begged my mother to come with, but... Well, we hadn't gotten far when Nayeli's grandmother called us back. We couldn't have been gone more than a couple of days. But it was long enough for the former chieftain to rape, torture, and kill my mother. Others, too, but..." But Maulisho is the one Kein cared about. All of these years, he has managed to develop some genuine desire to protect Amaranth, rather than just protect his mate's preferred territory, but then as now, he'd see it all burn if it meant he could protect those closest to him.
As he listens, Thrash furrows his brows a bit. "I see.. and Maulisho is in Maul's head. So.. that's why she told me she was with other guys before, before me." He says with a loud snort under his breath, shaking his head. "I guess she can't tell who is who sometimes when she speaks. I feel stupid now, I didn't understand... I was just jealous, thinking she was sleeping with other guys before me, and thinking I wasn't good enough for her." His tail twitches back and forth a bit behind him, before flattening his ears back.
Kein's tail twitches at the thought that Thrash and Maul have even discussed mating, but he pushes back his anger, and instead says, "My mother was a kind and loving cougaress, Thrash. She'd have given the world for us, or for her mate. But she didn't have an easy life. Unlike Maul, though, she had a lifetime to come to terms with a lifetime of memories. Maul... Well, it was a wonder that even my mother could take a mate, with all that happened to her. With the kind of memories Maul must have... she loves you, Thrash. Or she did, anyway. But she is still so young to have 'experienced' the types of things she might be remembering." And the types of things she has been remembering since she could barely talk.
"I understand." Thrash says as he pushes his paws at the grass some, working his claws into the soft soil of mush, and mud. "I don't know if she still loves me or not." His ears fall back against his skull, looking pained as he says those words. "I want a family with her, cute little cubs running around, getting into trouble. I wanted to name one Stomp, and maybe Shred. It would have been great." He says with a chuckle, before giving his head a shake, staring down at his paws.
"I wish I could give you some advice, Thrash, but if you took my advice, you'd be lucky to ever have Maul speak to you again. She certainly doesn't like to speak to me. But hopefully you won't hurt so much over her now, at least." After all, Kein has no reason to want to see Thrash dead or suffering. When they first met, sure, but Thrash has come a long way from the mouthy little punk he was when he first arrived. At least, most of the time.
"I'm still going to hurt over her, I didn't have a 'backup' plan if things went sour for me and her, though I think Kaya was hitting on me the other day." Thrash says with a wrinkle of his nose some, before shrugging his shoulders. "I don't do the rebound thing though, and I really don't want to get involved with someone else right now." He says as he paws at the ground. "I just want Maul. She's the first girl I've felt this strongly for."
Well, at least one of his daughters is beyond heartache now. Kein gives Thrash a rather thin smile, then says, "Even where it does not pertain to Maul, I am not the best person to ask about relationship advice. I wish you luck though, Thrash. But you'll have to excuse me." Because even now, Kein feels compelled to find his young daughter. That, along with the other things he has to do today, and he'll be lucky to get back to Nyssa before nightfall.
Nodding his head, Thrash settles himself back down in front of one of the puddles, staring down at his warped reflection. "Alright. I'll be back soon for patrols." He says, before twirling an ear forward some. "Tell Nyssa I said Hi." He says off handedly as he pokes at the water before him, causing ripples to stir along it's surface.
Thrash - Male Cougar
Kein - Male Cougar
- Eroded Well -
It has been quite a rough month for Thrash as of late in the Amaranth, and it has been a difficult time for the large cougar to wear a smile upon his face. It has been no real secret that he and Maul parted ways and have become distant, along with the presence of his brother here on the lands speaking with the dead, and causing him to be on edge. He has been practically a ghost, living along the borders as he patrols endlessly without much in the way of downtime. Being miserable is a new concept for him, and he isn't sure what direction he has now not only in the tribe, but in his life. He even is starting to look a bit leaner in his once powerful stature. For now, he is making his way through the dust, his head dropped down between his shoulders, making his way for the edges of the territory with a glassy stare in his eyes.
The trees to the north have almost completely lost their leaves. Any day now there will be snow even on the lower sections of the mountain, and for once, Kein is not too upset by that. As he visits the well to drink from the chilled water there, his step is light and his expression about as pleasant as it gets, really. Upon finishing his drink, he stands upright and perks an ear at the sound of an approaching animal.
As Thrash wanders slowly on through, like a semi set on cruise control, he smacks a stone off to the side, allowing it skip over the ground a few times before making a splash in a small puddle. If he notices Kein nearby, he doesn't raise his head upwards, or his voice in salutation. He just walks, looking heavy, and tired.
At Kein's absolute best, on the day when everything has gone his way and her has had nothing but pleasant thoughts, he still will not be a very social creature. Any effects left from his childhood spent living with wolves have long since faded away, and genetic disposition and years of solitude have taken their place. As such, where another cougar, or another animal, might have spoken to Thrash immediately upon spotting him, Kein first has to ask himself if this is really his business. And in a way, it is, isn't it? So, with a silent sigh of reluctance, he speaks up. "Thrash." It's not the command that it could be, but Kein does rather suspect it will be enough to get Thrash's attention, anyway.
Pausing as he hears his name, like an echo on the wind which shatters the spiral of thoughts that reign havoc on the back of his mind, Thrash pauses in mid step, almost like hitting a brick wall at full speed. It takes a few moments to register where he is at, and to shake his senses clear. Lifting his head, he looks around, eyes blinking as they dilate, then finds his attention finally upon Kein. He looks confused for a moment, before finally working out in a parched voice. "Yeah?"
Kein keeps his eyes on Thrash, though he does his best to keep his expression mostly neutral. With only a brief pause after Thrash speaks, Kein says, "It's a bit early in the year for you to be having such a hard time. Have you forgotten what winters are like, here on the mountain?" It is not quite the chastisement that it might seem to be, though if Thrash is having difficulty hunting, he should not be wandering about aimlessly, just hoping food falls in his lap. Kein's tone would suggest more of an invitation to talk, though.
"Life is nothing but a hard time, Kein. Doesn't matter if it snows or not, it's always going to be hard." Thrash says as he curls his tail around his haunches, then gives a sniff to the air. "It doesn't matter anymore, really. When the snow falls, I should just lay here and let it cover me. I'd just be another mouth to feed." He says bitterly as he stares down at his paws, his chest heaving out a large sigh.
If Thrash wanted comfort, he'd be better off speaking to one of the females. Kein, after all, is not much in the comfort business. He has managed, from time to time and with his biological children, to /try/ to be comforting, but even with the children he sired, that was always Nayeli's job. The older male's muzzle twitches, and in a tone that carries little compassion he says, "Welcome to adulthood, son. But if that's how you really feel, I think I'll let you get to it, then." Lack of compassion aside, Kein does not aim to be cruel. What he should really like is to snap Thrash out of it, if possible. To that end, though he says he'll let Thrash go about dying of apathy, he does not move away from the younger male.
"I'm not your son, Kein." Thrash says as he pushes himself up to his paws slowly. "I'm no one's son. Mom didn't even want me I found out. Dad was just gonna kill me anyways. Got a brother who has my name." He scoffs out a laugh. "Tantallon. That was my name, mom gave it to him after she left me. It was supposed to be mine, but dad started calling me Thrash instead, so I stuck with it." He says, his voice wheezing out. "Then I find out mom got killed, takes time out of her days being dead to say good-bye to my -brother-, not me of course! Oh, and then your daughter dumps me, says she needs time to 'reflect' or something, think about her belly button and the purpose of it." This is where he pauses, squeezing his eyes shut tightly, before a growl erupts in his throat. With that, he flops himself down upon his stomach, and covers his head with his paws. "I'm just gonna get with it then."
Well, so much for trying to be his own special little brand of civil. The type of civil where, though not friendly, he does not yell or growl. Kein responds almost immediately with a growl and a step towards Thrash. "You're right. You're not my son. And this is how I'm to be repaid for hosting you for a year, then I can't imagine why it ever seemed a good idea to have you as a son." Not that Kein was ever a particularly accommodating 'father', but he has been kinder to Thrash than he has to any number of males who came before him. That should have earned him something. "Rot if you must. You're an adult now, and no one is going to try to stop you. But you will do it outside of Amaranth, rather than soil the land that has supported you for so long with the smell of your carcass. If you expect to stay in Amaranth, then /I/ expect that you will take care of yourself. And if you want to talk, I expect that you do so without insulting what has been done for you in the past." Yes. Kein feels a little guilt for inviting Thrash to speak, then snapping at him for speaking. Just not guilty enough to not have snapped at him or to apologize for having done so.
Pushing himself upwards to his paws, Thrash swivels his head over in Kein's direction, then shrugs his shoulders upwards. With that, he starts off, pushing off with his large paws, seemingly heading for the borders. His entire posture screams defeat. There isn't an inkling of the wise mouthed, joke cracking, or flirty cougar that once came to Amaranth. He looks, an feels completely stomped on, and obviously Kein isn't helping.
Kein snorts in response to Thrash's reaction. Certainly, there are others who could have handled this better, and Kein knows that even now, but saying the right things has never been his forte. "If you get your act together, you should let me know. You'll be welcome back here so long as you /want/ to /live/ here, Thrash. No matter what you say, you were as a son to me. More now than ever, I guess." After all, what do Kein's sons do but leave? Just as he has expected of each one of them, when they were ready to get out from under Amaranth rule and find their own way. And now, he supposes, it's time to go find a certain daughter of his.
"Cael left because he fell in love, Kein. He found someone that loved him back, and loved him for all his worth. I'm leaving because I lost love, and I can't stay here and feel that pressure on my shoulders." Thrash says as he looks over his shoulder, his voice wavering. "I love your daughter with every breath I take and every beat of my heart and I'd throw myself in front of a stampede for her. I'd rip the stars out of the sky and hand them to her if I could." His eyes, glassy, shine with wet emotion, before trickling down his cheek. "She changed my life...twice now.. I feel uncomfortable, and I don't know what to do."
Kein is not so quick to respond this time, and when he frowns, it is not out of anger. How much different is what Thrash is going through than what Kein is going through? Kein, of course, has more of a sense of obligation to the tribe, preventing him from leaving it on a moment's notice and from lying about and wasting away, but he still has some ability to understand. "I can't claim to know what goes through Maul's head. I don't think anyone could. She would have fought tooth and claw to keep you here, if I'd made her, back then. Did I ever tell you how my mother died?" It may not seem to follow, but Kein has been worried for a very long time how what Maul remembers, and how she remembers it, could scar her permanently. His worries never led him to any conclusions about what, if anything, he should do to help her, though. And perhaps now, if Maul has sent away someone she did care for, and who so obviously cares for her... well, perhaps he is too late to do anything about it.
Shaking his head, Thrash settles back upon his haunches numbly, curling his tail around himself like a protective blanket. "No, you haven't." He sniffs loudly, then wipes at his eyes with his paw, trying to work the tears away from his face.
Kein looks away from Thrash, down the mountain to the desert that lies well beyond his range of sight. 'We should have stayed there,' he thinks. Right up until he reminds himself that, if he had stayed, he probably never would have met Nyssa. He forces himself to take a deep breath that he hopes will calm him, then begins speaking. "I was born here in Amaranth. It was the only place my mother thought she'd be safe from my father, who had forces himself on her, and she was. But then the chieftain at the time took a fancy to her, and since she had a mate, she rejected him. He didn't take it well." As he speaks, he stays calm fairly easily. It all feels as though it happened ages ago, in another lifetime, and with how seldom he has spoken of it, it is more as though he is relating a story that he has long forgotten than telling something from his past, no matter how truthful it is or that it actually happened. "She kept us out of Amaranth until we got older, and then she decided we should come back, one day. She demanded that he should step down. He did, but not before I was banished. So I left with Nayeli. I begged my mother to come with, but... Well, we hadn't gotten far when Nayeli's grandmother called us back. We couldn't have been gone more than a couple of days. But it was long enough for the former chieftain to rape, torture, and kill my mother. Others, too, but..." But Maulisho is the one Kein cared about. All of these years, he has managed to develop some genuine desire to protect Amaranth, rather than just protect his mate's preferred territory, but then as now, he'd see it all burn if it meant he could protect those closest to him.
As he listens, Thrash furrows his brows a bit. "I see.. and Maulisho is in Maul's head. So.. that's why she told me she was with other guys before, before me." He says with a loud snort under his breath, shaking his head. "I guess she can't tell who is who sometimes when she speaks. I feel stupid now, I didn't understand... I was just jealous, thinking she was sleeping with other guys before me, and thinking I wasn't good enough for her." His tail twitches back and forth a bit behind him, before flattening his ears back.
Kein's tail twitches at the thought that Thrash and Maul have even discussed mating, but he pushes back his anger, and instead says, "My mother was a kind and loving cougaress, Thrash. She'd have given the world for us, or for her mate. But she didn't have an easy life. Unlike Maul, though, she had a lifetime to come to terms with a lifetime of memories. Maul... Well, it was a wonder that even my mother could take a mate, with all that happened to her. With the kind of memories Maul must have... she loves you, Thrash. Or she did, anyway. But she is still so young to have 'experienced' the types of things she might be remembering." And the types of things she has been remembering since she could barely talk.
"I understand." Thrash says as he pushes his paws at the grass some, working his claws into the soft soil of mush, and mud. "I don't know if she still loves me or not." His ears fall back against his skull, looking pained as he says those words. "I want a family with her, cute little cubs running around, getting into trouble. I wanted to name one Stomp, and maybe Shred. It would have been great." He says with a chuckle, before giving his head a shake, staring down at his paws.
"I wish I could give you some advice, Thrash, but if you took my advice, you'd be lucky to ever have Maul speak to you again. She certainly doesn't like to speak to me. But hopefully you won't hurt so much over her now, at least." After all, Kein has no reason to want to see Thrash dead or suffering. When they first met, sure, but Thrash has come a long way from the mouthy little punk he was when he first arrived. At least, most of the time.
"I'm still going to hurt over her, I didn't have a 'backup' plan if things went sour for me and her, though I think Kaya was hitting on me the other day." Thrash says with a wrinkle of his nose some, before shrugging his shoulders. "I don't do the rebound thing though, and I really don't want to get involved with someone else right now." He says as he paws at the ground. "I just want Maul. She's the first girl I've felt this strongly for."
Well, at least one of his daughters is beyond heartache now. Kein gives Thrash a rather thin smile, then says, "Even where it does not pertain to Maul, I am not the best person to ask about relationship advice. I wish you luck though, Thrash. But you'll have to excuse me." Because even now, Kein feels compelled to find his young daughter. That, along with the other things he has to do today, and he'll be lucky to get back to Nyssa before nightfall.
Nodding his head, Thrash settles himself back down in front of one of the puddles, staring down at his warped reflection. "Alright. I'll be back soon for patrols." He says, before twirling an ear forward some. "Tell Nyssa I said Hi." He says off handedly as he pokes at the water before him, causing ripples to stir along it's surface.