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 Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 8:29 pm
The adolescent had trailed after Lilah for many months, his childhood fading into nothing but a memory. His age, as opposed to getting rid of the strange feelings that had sprouted after being around Lilah for so long, strengthened them into that much more. He wasn't sticking underneath her so much now, and would even wander off for days on end to do his own hunting and scouting. It was from one of those treks that he was returning, his muscular and lean form cutting across the desert sands easily. It was just cresting nightfall, and the stars were beginning to rise on the horizon. Yet Diallo's mind wasn't on the stars overhead, but rather on the set of stars on the ground he was searching for.
Halting in her scent trail, he stuck his nose into the air and gave a small, quiet yip. The whole desert didn't need to know he was here, just the one he was searching for.
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 8:51 pm
Lilah had never known a family, but she had grown to enjoy Diallo's quiet company. Now that the younger hyena had reached adulthood, he often went off alone. At first Lilah had thought that she would like these periods of solitude, but to her surprise she rather missed Diallo. Funny. It had only been a few months, but she had grown dependent on him.
The cool dark of the night soothed her, and she lay relaxing atop a small rock ridge. Her ears twitched slightly as she listened to the sounds of the night. She was too slow to do her roaming on foot. Lilah preferred to simply wait and listen. Eventually a noise, a scent, a passing twist of emotion would catch her attention. Then she could use her precious few steps to investigate its source. That was her method of hunting.
Diallo's soft cry did not go unnoticed. Lilah's ears swiveled sharply to the source of the noise. He was too far for her to catch the scent, but the sound traveled well enough on this still night. The black hyena's jaw dropped open in a silent laugh. Good, good. The night was a good time for meetings. She cried out in return, the strange mournful warble of one hyena calling to another.
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 9:06 pm
The moments while he waited for a return call ate away at his nerves, making him shift his weight from one leg to another. He always worried that one time he would return and she would fail to answer, that he'd be left alone to wonder if she had gone on with her life somewhere without him or if she had been picked off by some heartless pack. In his time as a nomad at her side, he had grown to dislike the idea of a clan. He saw them as being more of a collective hatred towards outsiders than anything else. He respected the ones that had taken him in as an ignorant pup, and he cared deeply for his adopted father. Yet he wouldn't return there to rejoin them.
Hearing Lilah's familiar cry, his ears swiveled and locked onto the position it had come from. He took off across the landscape at a fast clip, covering the distance between them efficiently. He slowed as he approached, ducking his head down between his shoulders with respect. He always returned to her low to the ground, with a small whimper to make sure that she still wanted him around. Each time she allowed him back he was grateful, relieved, overjoyed. He really doubted that he could be without her.
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 9:32 pm
The grey and black hyena's subservience seemed silly to Lilah, and she let her jaw drop open once more in a grin. Other than raising her head to watch Diallo's approach, Lilah had not moved. She observed him calmly now, stretching her head forward slightly to sniff at him. The words for a detailed question about Diallo's journey failed to come, and she simply waited for him to speak, head cocked inquisitively.
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 9:47 pm
A grin slid easily onto his face as he moved towards her now, righting himself in the process. Diallo extended his neck to press his nose lightly against her cheek, daring to brush the movement down into the ruff of her neck if she didn't move away from him. He was being a little more friendly than he usually was, acting almost more like a pup in that sense. The young adult stepped up beside her, taking a moment before settling into the dust and sand next to her. Where once he would have instantly started to babble about this and that, he instead pressed his nose down to her injured leg before raising his pink-red eyes to her own. "How is it this nightfall?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 10:03 pm
Lilah returned the gesture, pressing her own nose against Diallo's furry cheek. Once such familiarity would have alarmed her, but she had grown used to Diallo. She considered his question carefully before responding. It was dark, for one thing, but that was obvious. What was there to say that Diallo didn't already know?
"Still. No movement." She thumped her tail against the ground in emphasis. The bones woven into her fur clinked once and fell silent. Though ambiguous, her statement covered a lot of ground. No prey and no enemies; no disturbances at all tonight. Diallo was the first beast she had seen. Lilah poked at Diallo's shoulder with her nose. "Where?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 10:04 am
His ears perked and swiveled at her statement, as if to confirm what it was that she had said. To be perfectly honest, he hadn't even noticed how calm the night was, having been too focused on finding her to worry much about those sorts of things. The brush to his shoulder made him look back over at her. Diallo resisted the urge to outright nuzzle her cheek in response, instead mulling over what there was to say.
He sighed, his chest rising and deflating with the action. "Just towards the setting sun. Everything in that direction is still as well." He quieted himself for a moment, thinking. "No sign of water, bad or good." He could run on an empty stomach for days on end, but without water progress wouldn't be made. "Flat, too." He finished his description of the events, polishing off the idea of any form of shelter. With the nights getting colder, that was something else they needed to find.
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 6:33 pm
No water, no food, no shelter. Obviously there wasn't much reason to travel west. Lilah wasn't too worried about herself, but Diallo's concern was clearly evident. The younger hyena probably wouldn't be satisfied with simply waiting here with her for things to change. This land was used up. It was time to move on.
Lilah didn't much like heading into the more populous territories, but it seemed necessary. There would be more food and shelter, but there would also be more competition. In the past she had even spied some new predators there. She hadn't had a run-in with the big cats yet, but they worried her. They would have to be avoided.
If Diallo was still fresh, the two hyenas could start off this very night. Lilah looked over at the younger hyena thoughtfully. "If you are strong tonight. We go back to the territories." An unusually long speech for her.
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Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 7:54 am
Diallo's ears flickered as she spoke, his pink-red eyes locked onto her intently. A long journey meant Lilah must be worried about the same things he was, but he also knew that it would put stress on her injured leg. At the same time, he was anxious to get out of this place and somewhere he could hunt for the both of them. It wasn't doing any good for them both to be going hungry. He tipped his head down, across her good leg, licking lightly at the injured one before rising to his feet. He knew, simply.
"We move, but slow tonight. Easy." He wasn't in a rush to meet anyone else. He didn't even remotely want to entertain the idea of running into a pack of hyenas. The thought alone made his stomach turn and the fur at the very edges of his mane turn up.
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Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 2:49 pm
Lilah rose slowly to her feet, nodding agreeably at Diallo. The younger hyena's solicitous manner often bemused her, but she accepted it. She could not travel as far or as fast as other hyenas, but she did not think of herself as crippled. At least not yet. Lilah broke into a slow trot, keeping close to Diallo. The grey hyena seemed anxious. Lilah wasn't particularly upset, but she did think they needed to move on.
Heading back to her birthplace provoked mixed feelings in Lilah. Hopefully, she and Diallo would be able to find an unoccupied niche and take it easy. Contending with other predators would be bad enough, but if they ran into another clan of hyenas Lilah had no idea what would happen. The clans could be fierce, and Lilah had heard rumors of an especially fierce queen rising to power somewhere in the area. Oh well, no point in worrying, worrying. She let out a soft warbling call, almost a hum, to the tune of her thoughts. No worrying, worrying, worrying.
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Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 7:23 pm
The young adult stretched out his legs, bowing over them before moving to catch up with Lilah. He matched her pace easily, keeping a little space between them at the shoulders. He might not run partially under her any more, if only because he couldn't fit, but that didn't mean he didn't stick to her at times. It seemed that he was being particularly close since his return. Perhaps something had happened? But then again, Diallo was getting older.
Letting his tongue drop out of the side of his mouth, his attention and thoughts wandered. Unlike Lilah, he wasn't sure about any other particular clans that they might run into. He tried to tune that out, even when the birds were particularly loud about those types of things. Instead of thinking on that which he didn't know, he took to admiring the sky overhead and beside him.
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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 12:22 pm
Lilah kept up a good pace despite the ache in her leg. She was well rested and had no problem matching Diallo's speed. In fact, she was concerned that the younger hyena might grow tired and need to take a break soon. Diallo's constant closeness was mildly irritating, but it flattered her as well. She wouldn't want him to go stumbling into a hole and breaking his leg as well.
The quality of the light changed with deceptive suddenness. The stars had faded to nothing more than pale blotches in the sky before Lilah realized it was daybreak. That was good. She could use a drink to ease her dry throat. The black hyena's tongue rasped against her lips as she thought about water. Yes, that would be nice. She could taste the water in the air. Assuming that Diallo could as well, she altered course minutely without speaking.
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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:21 pm
Having put on muscle that was now difficult at times to keep because of the scarcity of food, Diallo was able to keep up with Lilah despite her worries. He had doubted his own ability to do so at moments during their journey, especially once his legs started to hurt from the exhaustion. But once he had pushed aside thinking about the distance and the speed, it had really just happened. He didn't even notice that the sun was rising until Lilah changed their course, and he looked at her through tired eyes as he followed, spreading a bit from her with his own aches and pains.
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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:51 pm
The muddy waterhole was about the same diameter as Lilah's head, but after the long journey it looked like a crystal lake. She dipped her snout in and sucked up a great draught of water before moving aside to allow Diallo access. Below the top layer of scum, the water really was quite refreshing. She sat back on her haunches with a contented yawn, relieved to be off her paws at last. They weren't back in the territories yet, but they had to rest.
Lilah pawed at her snout to scrape away the quickly drying mud. The land was definitely richer here. She hadn't realized how much she missed the smell of green and growing things. The air in their last makeshift den had been old and tired, barely capable of carrying an odor. This place was younger. Newer. She liked that.
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 9:16 am
By the time they stopped in front of the water, Diallo was almost entirely asleep. He waited for Lilah to drink before stumbling lightly to bury his nose under the film and suck in the night cooled liquid beneath it. If it had been less than clean, he wouldn't have noticed at this point. Wandering had made his stomach well-adjusted to the less-than-fine things in life.
Oblivious to the scent of life in the area, the young adult flopped down a few steps from the watering hole. With his head resting on the ground, he stared at Lilah with a silent question. Were they really safe laying out here in the open, near a source of clean water? He didn't really think so, but he wasn't too sure if he would be able to move just yet. He let the mud dry around his muzzle. He'd be uncomfortable later because of it, but would wait to scrape it off until then.
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