Post by Therdde on Jan 21, 2011 13:02:44 GMT -5
Characters:
Kein - Male Cougar
Arroyo - Juvenile Female Cougar
- Wooded Terrain -
The shade from the trees provide a comfortable break from the sun, which has nothing to block it on most of the mountain. With Kein growing in both years and duties, he is only all too glad to be taking a bit of a rest, lying in the shade and listening to the summer breeze as it blows through the leaves and branches. Of course, while his body rests, his mind is still racing with all of the thoughts that can be expected to plague a male of his age and experiences. Though preoccupied by those thoughts, they do not trouble him terribly. His tail is still, and his body far from tense, so whatever courses through his mind cannot be too terribly troublesome for him, at least by all appearances.
Troublesome might be a young, bored cub, but thankfully Arroyo is not the sort of child who appears either rambunctious or a rough player who'd launch an assault at her sleeping sire. Instead, once aware he's near, the pale girl comes gamboling out from the bushes and nuzzles her side along the back and shoulder of her resting father with a warm purr.
Listening as he is, Kein would have to be a fool to miss the sounds of an approaching animal. Arroyo, however, is decidedly far away from being full grown, and though he deliberately does not look, he knows that whatever approaches him is no kind of threat, and so would be a very foolish animal indeed if it were anyone but his family. Only once the girl rubs up against him and greets him with a purr does Kein turn his head to look at her, and though expression holds the same traces of bitterness it always has when he has looked upon his marked offspring, he returns her purring with a deep one of his own before stretching out his neck to nuzzle against her. For all of the troubles that she could not possibly be expected to understand, Kein loves his children.
Arroyo might yet be still too young to recognize the grief in Kein's eyes when he sees her, or else she doesn't yet understand it, but she hasn't paid much mind to her marked state. "Heyhey daddy. Aiden here?" She asks as she peers around his legs to the front of him, though fails to spy her brother. "...bored." She says with a soft pout as she sits down, leaning her shoulder into her father.
"I sent him off with one of your sisters so I could get some rest." Stars know the boy would never let Kein just lie about, otherwise. With no other cougaresses nearby, though, it appears his period of resting is over, as he is not old enough yet that he could ignore the clear warning that is a cub complaining of boredom. As Arroyo leans against her, Kein uses his own shoulder to bump against her playfully. "Of course, if you let me stand up, maybe we could do something about that boredom of yours. Or, if you really want to just prop yourself against me all day, I could go ahead and take a nap." His smile as he speaks to his daughter comes easily enough, and after he teases her with his threat of falling asleep, he closes his eyes, although he actually has no intention of sleeping.
Arroyo is nothing if not a good child, far from the sort to drive her parents up the wall. She almost seems content to just slouch there next to her father and nap with him, content just to be there, but she only just woke up and her body is full up on rest. "You got aaaalll day to nap, daddy! We should play. Maybe we can find mama and gramma, they might wanna play too!"
"I've got a better idea." Kein does not leave his daughter to suffer under the impression that he may insist on sleeping for long, as immediately after responding to her, he drags himself to his feet. "I think it's about time for you and your brother to start learning how to hunt." And if Kein can start to redirect Aiden's more violent tendencies towards prey, even better. "What do you think about that, hmm?"
Arroyo blinks owlishly up at her father, though her smoke-toned amber eyes prevent her from completing a proper mimic of the bird. She hoists herself up to stand upright, tailtip twitching rapidly side to side. "Hunt? Really?" But, where one might expect a young, predatory child might be ridiculously enthused she seems more thoughtful about it. She frowns then, furrowing her brows as she states up to Kein. "Daddy... why do we have to hurt them?"
Kein's youngest daughter is not the first child to find the idea of injuring another animal distasteful. The first of Kein's, perhaps, but Kein's own brother had similar thoughts, and Kein is able to pull an answer easily from there, with little hesitation. "We don't. Not if we do our jobs right. We are cougars, Arroyo. We hunt fast and kill quickly, and our prey do not have to suffer. We can't live on plants, like they do, but we can show them that kindness, and be grateful for the food they provide us." It's not actually all that similar to anything he ever heard said to his younger brother, but much of it is pieced together from bits and pieces of things he heard over his own childhood, while the rest is what he would have said to Pelutho, had he had the nerve to talk to his brother, back then. Stuff he has had years to think about.
Perhaps Arroyo's question had been a predictable one. She is not a hard player, disliking the typical pounce-and-wrestle so common to youngsters with sharp teeth. Anger and raised voices have always seemed to disturb her. She doesn't seem entirely content with the answer, but she's still a child and some things are still well beyond her. "Oh. Doesn't seem fair... but okay."
Kein does not simply walk on his way to teach Arroyo to hunt. Rather, he sits to look at his daughter, any trace of a smile gone to be replaced by a frown. Ah, if only he could tell her how his heart aches to look at her and hear her say those words. "I know that this isn't what you're going to want to hear, but there is very little in this life that is fair, Arroyo." If there were, Kein, Nyssa, Arroyo, and Aiden would all be far away from this mountain, and Kein, who does not mind hunting, would be able to provide all the food Arroyo could possibly need, so that she would never have to hunt. "That's why, when you find something that is, you hold onto it as hard as you can. And you do the things you need to do that allow you to keep holding onto it. Hunting included, fair or not. Do you understand?" As much as what he says could be considered cruel to be telling such a young, innocent child, there is nothing but sympathy in his tone as he says it. Well, sympathy, and that ever-present regret.
Arroyo looks up to her father as he speaks, patient and genuinely interested to understand him. She may be a child, but, she has been marked for more and innocence has no place in it. For all he tried to simplify it, it is still a heavy discussion for a young child and her concentrating face makes it clear she's trying to digest it and somehow phrase it so that she can understand. "...can try." She murmurs finally, though it's evident deeper understanding will take time.
Kein lowers his head to nuzzle gently at his daughter. After doing so, he says, "Why don't you go on and find your brother? I'll go ahead and hunt for us today, all right?" After all, given the conversation they've just had, he really doesn't have the heart to continue with his planned lesson today, or to force anything Arroyo might see as unfair on the child. She'll have enough of that in her life, most likely, as he has. No reason to force it on her today.
Arroyo butts her head back against her father's in a firm nuzzle, her purr sounding relieved. "Okay." She says as she smiles up to Kein, "Mebbe we can play after you nap." She remarks as she moves in to twine herself around the legs of her father before she heads off to find her elder sister who's tending her rambunctious brother. "Love you, daddy!" The girl chimes before bounding off into the brush, for now seeming to banish the deep discussion as something for another time.
Kein - Male Cougar
Arroyo - Juvenile Female Cougar
- Wooded Terrain -
The shade from the trees provide a comfortable break from the sun, which has nothing to block it on most of the mountain. With Kein growing in both years and duties, he is only all too glad to be taking a bit of a rest, lying in the shade and listening to the summer breeze as it blows through the leaves and branches. Of course, while his body rests, his mind is still racing with all of the thoughts that can be expected to plague a male of his age and experiences. Though preoccupied by those thoughts, they do not trouble him terribly. His tail is still, and his body far from tense, so whatever courses through his mind cannot be too terribly troublesome for him, at least by all appearances.
Troublesome might be a young, bored cub, but thankfully Arroyo is not the sort of child who appears either rambunctious or a rough player who'd launch an assault at her sleeping sire. Instead, once aware he's near, the pale girl comes gamboling out from the bushes and nuzzles her side along the back and shoulder of her resting father with a warm purr.
Listening as he is, Kein would have to be a fool to miss the sounds of an approaching animal. Arroyo, however, is decidedly far away from being full grown, and though he deliberately does not look, he knows that whatever approaches him is no kind of threat, and so would be a very foolish animal indeed if it were anyone but his family. Only once the girl rubs up against him and greets him with a purr does Kein turn his head to look at her, and though expression holds the same traces of bitterness it always has when he has looked upon his marked offspring, he returns her purring with a deep one of his own before stretching out his neck to nuzzle against her. For all of the troubles that she could not possibly be expected to understand, Kein loves his children.
Arroyo might yet be still too young to recognize the grief in Kein's eyes when he sees her, or else she doesn't yet understand it, but she hasn't paid much mind to her marked state. "Heyhey daddy. Aiden here?" She asks as she peers around his legs to the front of him, though fails to spy her brother. "...bored." She says with a soft pout as she sits down, leaning her shoulder into her father.
"I sent him off with one of your sisters so I could get some rest." Stars know the boy would never let Kein just lie about, otherwise. With no other cougaresses nearby, though, it appears his period of resting is over, as he is not old enough yet that he could ignore the clear warning that is a cub complaining of boredom. As Arroyo leans against her, Kein uses his own shoulder to bump against her playfully. "Of course, if you let me stand up, maybe we could do something about that boredom of yours. Or, if you really want to just prop yourself against me all day, I could go ahead and take a nap." His smile as he speaks to his daughter comes easily enough, and after he teases her with his threat of falling asleep, he closes his eyes, although he actually has no intention of sleeping.
Arroyo is nothing if not a good child, far from the sort to drive her parents up the wall. She almost seems content to just slouch there next to her father and nap with him, content just to be there, but she only just woke up and her body is full up on rest. "You got aaaalll day to nap, daddy! We should play. Maybe we can find mama and gramma, they might wanna play too!"
"I've got a better idea." Kein does not leave his daughter to suffer under the impression that he may insist on sleeping for long, as immediately after responding to her, he drags himself to his feet. "I think it's about time for you and your brother to start learning how to hunt." And if Kein can start to redirect Aiden's more violent tendencies towards prey, even better. "What do you think about that, hmm?"
Arroyo blinks owlishly up at her father, though her smoke-toned amber eyes prevent her from completing a proper mimic of the bird. She hoists herself up to stand upright, tailtip twitching rapidly side to side. "Hunt? Really?" But, where one might expect a young, predatory child might be ridiculously enthused she seems more thoughtful about it. She frowns then, furrowing her brows as she states up to Kein. "Daddy... why do we have to hurt them?"
Kein's youngest daughter is not the first child to find the idea of injuring another animal distasteful. The first of Kein's, perhaps, but Kein's own brother had similar thoughts, and Kein is able to pull an answer easily from there, with little hesitation. "We don't. Not if we do our jobs right. We are cougars, Arroyo. We hunt fast and kill quickly, and our prey do not have to suffer. We can't live on plants, like they do, but we can show them that kindness, and be grateful for the food they provide us." It's not actually all that similar to anything he ever heard said to his younger brother, but much of it is pieced together from bits and pieces of things he heard over his own childhood, while the rest is what he would have said to Pelutho, had he had the nerve to talk to his brother, back then. Stuff he has had years to think about.
Perhaps Arroyo's question had been a predictable one. She is not a hard player, disliking the typical pounce-and-wrestle so common to youngsters with sharp teeth. Anger and raised voices have always seemed to disturb her. She doesn't seem entirely content with the answer, but she's still a child and some things are still well beyond her. "Oh. Doesn't seem fair... but okay."
Kein does not simply walk on his way to teach Arroyo to hunt. Rather, he sits to look at his daughter, any trace of a smile gone to be replaced by a frown. Ah, if only he could tell her how his heart aches to look at her and hear her say those words. "I know that this isn't what you're going to want to hear, but there is very little in this life that is fair, Arroyo." If there were, Kein, Nyssa, Arroyo, and Aiden would all be far away from this mountain, and Kein, who does not mind hunting, would be able to provide all the food Arroyo could possibly need, so that she would never have to hunt. "That's why, when you find something that is, you hold onto it as hard as you can. And you do the things you need to do that allow you to keep holding onto it. Hunting included, fair or not. Do you understand?" As much as what he says could be considered cruel to be telling such a young, innocent child, there is nothing but sympathy in his tone as he says it. Well, sympathy, and that ever-present regret.
Arroyo looks up to her father as he speaks, patient and genuinely interested to understand him. She may be a child, but, she has been marked for more and innocence has no place in it. For all he tried to simplify it, it is still a heavy discussion for a young child and her concentrating face makes it clear she's trying to digest it and somehow phrase it so that she can understand. "...can try." She murmurs finally, though it's evident deeper understanding will take time.
Kein lowers his head to nuzzle gently at his daughter. After doing so, he says, "Why don't you go on and find your brother? I'll go ahead and hunt for us today, all right?" After all, given the conversation they've just had, he really doesn't have the heart to continue with his planned lesson today, or to force anything Arroyo might see as unfair on the child. She'll have enough of that in her life, most likely, as he has. No reason to force it on her today.
Arroyo butts her head back against her father's in a firm nuzzle, her purr sounding relieved. "Okay." She says as she smiles up to Kein, "Mebbe we can play after you nap." She remarks as she moves in to twine herself around the legs of her father before she heads off to find her elder sister who's tending her rambunctious brother. "Love you, daddy!" The girl chimes before bounding off into the brush, for now seeming to banish the deep discussion as something for another time.