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 Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 11:50 am
This was not an uncommon emotion. In fact, it was generally his default emotion. The Ukeshu had a very small range of moods: there was sleepy, horny, hungry, satisfied and angry. Occasionally, they overlapped.
Today was sort of a mix of rage and exhaustion. Exhaustion from the long, sleepless night and the struggle of getting his followers to safety. Rage because the Big Water had the audacity to sweep through his home and tear apart his territory. He had lost so many good keshu and laysi! And so many jask!
That was the worst of it, the loss of the jask and their mothers. The Ukeshu had personally coupled with the vast majority of the females who had given birth in the tunnels. Most of those jask were his blood, blood of a true keshu, and now they were lying asphyxiated in a bunch of flooded ruined tunnels.
It was so much work to start over!
Grumbling to himself, the large rat ambled boldly down the tunnel path. He had set his followers immediately to the task of digging out the tunnels and searching for survivors. In places, the earth was still wet and the air was suffocatingly tight, but he didn't care. He needed to keep his rats on-task. Needed to see who was still by his side...and, if necessary, where he would resume with rebuilding his army.
A small retinue of guards and scouts had been left outside, to keep an eye out for any further disaster. Otherwise, everyone was set to work on digging...excavating...searching for survivors. The Ukeshu had little hope that they would find any, but perhaps he would be proven wrong. For the first time in his life, he hoped that he would be.
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Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:42 am
 Akeshu wanted nothing more than to curl up somewhere and sleep, but he knew there was no possibility of rest as long as there was work to be done. He had reached the point of exhaustion where he acted without thinking, and at the moment, he welcomed the mundane work of digging out one of the collapsed tunnels. The area smelled of death, so he continued the work grimly, expecting to find nothing but lifeless bodies.
Everyone had lost someone. Akeshu had personally lost his long-time layjisk to the flood, and had seen his drowned corpse carried away by the draining water. But he knew the heaviest blows were to the population of females and jask. The remaining females would have to be protected more carefully.
Once he was done his task, he planned to find the Ukeshu and report on his findings. Then, he would take on his next order, and so on. He was a rat of action, not of decision-making, so he was content to follow the Ukeshu's orders. If anything needed to be done by a physically fit rat, he was the perfect candidate. He hadn't reached his rank by being small and weak, after all.
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:10 am
 Whisky shifted wearily through the fallen, water-coated debris, her fur matted, her whiskers slumped. She held the appearance of one who had lost everything, but it was not her lost comrades for which she grieved -- it was her brother.
She had looked for him as soon as she could, as soon as she had been able to drag herself out of the unexpected wave that engulfed her and those close to her. She had been in a higher area where the water couldn't reach so well and so only a fraction of its force had hit her. She had been lucky, but few others were.
Now, she rummaged along tunnels that made up their territory. It was hopeless, she thought. Most of the rats she had found and had once known were dead or dying -- what chance did they have, or any of them, for that matter? No one had seen the Big Water's coming, after all. Who was to say it would not come agai--
"Oof," she gasped, backing up slightly to eye the one she had unintentionally bumped into. Whisky had not been known for her friendliness, and despite all that had happened, she wouldn't change now.
"Watch it," she hissed sharply, back arched.
((Left it open so anyone can reply saying she crashed into you if you want~. She hasn't seen who the other rattie is yet. ovo))
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 5:18 pm
 There was a pained squeak from one of the tunnels and rats tumbled out in a rush, escaping the angry bites of one small but hardy female. Atle was not in a good mood. She was bedraggled, sore and extremely tired. But she still held her nose up proudly as she nipped at a few of the females she had managed to round up, before leaving them behind in order to scurry fnd their leader. It never occurred to her that Ukeshu might not have survived. He was Ukeshu. The Keshu she met along the way confirmed her belief and directed her along the way, and she was glad for it. She would not admit to it, but the near escape had left her wearier than she had ever been in her life. Atle’s wounded eye ached; and she was fairly sure that this disaster had made it worse. At this rate she would be blind in one eye soon, and thus useless… Atle frowned. No, that line of thought would not do her any good. It was only a moment until she had found the ukeshu, and she stopped in front of him, dipping her head in reverence. “Ukeshu…” She waited a moment and then continued. “I got out as many as I could, but the jask had to be left behind and some of the stupid utak’s wouldn’t leave them.” Atle’s eyes were alight with an inner rage. She’d lost her own litter in the mess, and at her age it would quite possibly have been her last. But she had not shed a tear. Not like those silly females who refused to budge even as the water roared closer. Atle made a further sound of disgust.
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Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:18 pm
The Ukeshu's whiskers twitched, his ears flicking forward as Atle approached. "You've done well," he said, stiffening slightly at her approach. He stood for a moment, straight-legged and with his back arched, maintaining a posture of dominance, before shuffling closer to her.
He rested his nose to the nape of her neck, giving her a gentle n**. "Your service is worth a thousand utak," he said, and meant it. Atle was one of his favorites. "Your own jask, then, are gone as well?" The female would have known better than to expect sympathy, as such an emotion was not one the Ukeshu felt. Still, he did regret the loss of potential warriors -- especially when their mother was of fine, trustworthy stock.
Well, no matter. They would rebuild.
His ears flicked forward, catching the squeak of rats further on in the tunnel -- a female who had smashed into another, it sounded like. Nodding a dismissal to Atle, the large male shuffled forward, tail lashing behind him in slight agitation.
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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 10:45 pm
The female dipped her nose modestly at the praise, stance shifting to be more obviously submissive as he approached. Only the slight twitch of her nose and half-closing of eyelids showed her pleasure at both the gentle n** and his words. Atle was pleased to be of service and his fondness, so very rare, made her fight harder to keep her place here.
“Yes.” Atle answered; not expecting sympathy and not getting any. There was a part of her, a part she did not acknowledge, that ached. She had seen so much potential in her young, and had been so secretly proud. Now that was lost.
But thinking about too much left her tired, and she could not allow any show of weakness. She bowed her head as Ukeshu shuffled away towards the disturbance, and she watched him for a time, sitting down and letting herself rest for just one moment. The first second she had allowed since the flood had washed through.
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Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:20 am
Finally, Akeshu broke through an air pocket in the remains of the tunnel. He widened the hole enough to peek into it, and was immediately met with disappointment. The air inside was stale; the kind of air that couldn't fill the lungs, no matter how hard one tried. Lying at the bottom of the pit was a soggy corpse, already being reclaimed by the things that crawled through the earth.
Once again he thought of his layjisk, and how the same thing would be happening to him.
"Bah!" Angrily, Akeshu turned his back to the hole and kicked dirt and debris until it was almost completely recovered. Then he started down the main tunnel, seeking the Ukeshu. He doubted if the Alpha had gone far from the proceedings, since there was a lot of work to be overseen.
Of course, things couldn't go that smoothly. Nothing did. As he rounded a bend, a hard body rammed into him, stopping him in his tracked. He let out an indignant squeak and shook his head. Who was running so carelessly through the tunnel?
Ahh, a female. And a disrespectful one, at that. He eyed Whiskey coolly, arching his back in turn and standing stiffly in front of her.
"No, YOU watch it, or face the consequences," he replied, daring her to defy him. With the new lack of females, he held back, but if she kept pushing him he would not hesitate to retaliate with tooth and claw.
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