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 Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:20 pm
The sun was just now beginning to set, and Jewels was starting to move around. She had been out scouting the area when she had gotten tired that morning and simply found a good place to sleep off her fatigue. She knew it would be best to head back towards the small dug-out that she shared with Semira, but if she was already this far away she might as well spend some time investigating. Perhaps this area would be more fertile with prey items than what she had back towards her impromptu home.
Stretching herself out over her forepaws, Jewels set off across the sands in search of a scent that could lead her to food. The more the sun set, the stranger her appearance became. As darkness finally took over, Jewels' outline could be seen wandering through the desert from the green glow her eyes emitted. It gave her light to see and hunt by, illuminating her vision in ways which the sunlight could not.
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Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:48 pm
Jewels wasn't the only hyena wandering these lands this evening. Though the other that for the moment crept along behind her could not make out the glow of her eyes, nor the fading light of day. He saw only shimmering bands of green light in the roots and living bits of the scrub, small yellow-white flashes in the dirt that denoted desert insects and other crawlies, and a bright blot of reddish copper that was the particular shade of predator red that told him he was following another hyena. The wind was neither for nor against him, for he trotted in a course parallel and slightly behind the other and the wind currently did not travel in a direction to cross both of their paths.
All else was darkness. Not true black, but simply empty space, for there was nothing there with true life for him to see and navigate by. He had to navigate by the light of the life sparks, because where his eyes should have been were scabby lumps of scar tissue. They never quite seemed to heal completely.
Across the way from him, to her side, he spotted a lump of "un-life", a black sort of afterglow left by something that usually had been dead less than a day and still had some leftover vestiges of the life once held. He cut around behind her to go investigate. It smelled young, even through the beginnings of decay. Some plant-eater's young that had gotten separated from its parents and wandered out here only to die. He flicked his blind face toward the other hyena, contemplative, and then let out a shivery call. "Bre~eeaa~aakfaa~aast. Sha~aare?" It smelled safe enough, though he was curious why the buzzards hadn't found it yet. Perhaps the little one wasn't the only one of its family to have met its end out here today. He and the bugs and the other hyena were the only things in "sight".
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Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:07 pm
The young female halted her movements and froze in her tracks at the odd-sounding call that reached her ears. While her leg muscles stiffened in fear and anticipation, her ears swiveled with a life of their own in order to pin-point the source. Slowly, she turned around and peered through the night. The wind, being still and calm this evening for now, was of no help in identifying the owner of the sound. Cautiously, she yi-yi-yiiipped a crying reply for little more reason than to find where the noise had come from.
She traced her steps back a few paces, looking around continuously. Jewels had not met a predator yet in the desert at night, but she was all too wary of the dangers that the wasteland could hold. Eventually, she caught sight of some movement off in the distance. She kept her eyes on that spot, waiting for a reply to her own call to try to better gauge the size of the one who had made it. Whoever they were, they certainly weren't wary of strangers. That in and of itself made her upset.
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Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:34 pm
The oddling cub had every reason to fear any hyena he came across, but perhaps he was lonely for companionship. He also hadn't had any dreams of death during his nap at the hot part of the day, so he felt relatively confident that at the very least he wasn't going to be killed for his attempt. Yi-yi-yiiii he yipped in return. I'm a hyena, and by my voice you can tell I'm a rather young one. Just a lonely cub...
He didn't actually know yet what gender his potential companion was, the lack of breeze and his concentration on the dead animal having doused his attempts to ascertain more information than the size of her life spark gave him. She was older than he, he knew that much, but little enough else. "Lo~onely~y..." He added after a moment as an afterthought. Make of that what she will.
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 3:58 pm
Slowly, Jewels moved forward after the stranger's second call. Her hesitation faded away at his third, feeling far more comfortable to know that it was just another lost cub in the desert. Absently, she hoped that he didn't belong to any clan that would come to hurt her if she came too close to him. Finally, the breeze picked up a little bit and brought her his scent - and the strong scent of the breakfast he had identified. She cackled to him in greeting, her head low in a gesture of non-aggression and non-dominance, once she was close enough to see him. Even though he was small, Jewels was hesitant and cautious about her final approach to the food just in case he decided to lash out. She knew that, regardless of his size, she couldn't benefit from a bite or two.
"Greetings," her green glow gave her enough light to see him and the carcass, and she wasn't put off by his odd appearance. Or at least, she didn't appear to be. Jewels had seen far too many odd ones in her lifetime to be but so put off by yet another one.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:05 am
She was close enough now that Oshi could smell her in spite of the odd direction of the breeze. There seemed a touch more green in the copper around her eyes than he'd ever noticed before... but then he hadn't seen many a hyena since his rather traumatic exile. An exile which, oddly enough, made him feel less fear, rather than the other way around. What worse could possibly happen to him? He didn't feel like seeking out death, but he doubted that even having his belly ripped open would hurt as much as his heartache. He'd nothing really to lose, only to gain.
"Maboroshi greets the One." He nudged at the carcass with his nose. It was more than enough to feed two young hyenas. "Breakfast? Good to eat before anyone smells him now, the wind wandering as it is." He nodded, mostly to himself, and started to gnaw at the flesh with his sharp little cub-teeth.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:16 am
Despite the other's odd cries into the night wind, he seemed solid of mind enough for Jewels to trust. She hesitated a moment before giving a small wave of her tail. "Maboroshi?' she rolled the name across her tongue, finding it just as strange as the many other things in the desert. "You can call me Jewels." It was the least she could tell him, considering that he had offered her food. Stepping up to the carcass, Jewels lowered her mouth to it and tore off a chunk. Still, even as she gulped what she could as fast as she could, she kept an eye on the lone pup. He didn't smell like one hyena among many, but it wasn't any use in taking a risk.
In between bites and swallowing, she lifted her head from the beast entirely and licked her lips, looking around the area. "Where did you come from, Maboroshi? No clan?" She reburied her head into the meat, ears pricked to listen for a reply from the other.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:18 am
Maboroshi stopped eating to ponder thoughtfully. Well, could it really do any harm to tell? What was she going to do, drive him away? He lived alone well enough.
"Driven away, driven away. I could See things they didn't like to be told. Death. They were dying, and I could See, in my sleep. They didn't like my dreams and bloody tears and tales of death. Taking my eyes didn't stop it, and they drove me off. Good for me, they all died of sickness they couldn't sense until it killed them, so I didn't get sick because I wasn't there." He tore off as big a hunk of meat as he could, intent on having something decent in his belly if he did get run off. "As though I could help being born with it. What say has a little cub in what happens to him? None, none, not at all, not until he's left on his own."
A moment's cursory consideration and he added, "Your spark of life is a color, pretty color. Do your eyes really shine green?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:14 pm
Jewels continued eating until Maboroshi really started talking about his past. She lifted her head from the dead animal, ears flickering a bit, though she wasn't about to bolt away from the small pup and the food. His question to her, however, seemed to take her off guard. Jewels ran her tongue across her mouth, licking away the blood that had already gathered there. She'd never really had anyone around to tell her that anything about her was beautiful. Dipping her head back down to the carcass and ripping a few more pieces off, she muffled her own reply, "Yes. A gift from the desert so that I may live."
Swallowing her mouthful, she looked back up at Maboroshi. "Too bad for them. They should have listened to you." Whether she figured that he was hurt by their actions or not, she was sympathetic. She decided to add a little more about herself, perhaps in return for his own information. "I haven't seen my clan since I was smaller than you, maybe your same size. I got separated from them looking for water."
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:48 pm
"Water's nice, yes. Little things live in the water, did you know? Little tiny tiny things. So small I see the sparks but not the color. Makes it easier to find the water." Perhaps the tiny tiny things were part of why he could see things recently dead? Hmm.
He returned to his eating, but being small, it didn't take as long to fill his belly, so he sat back a bit while she finished. "Do you miss your clan? I would say I miss mine, but I think that would be a lie. I think I miss company, but not the clan. Do you want to call me Oshi? The Mother called me that. She I miss, but she couldn't keep all the Others from me. And she got hurt too badly to come for me before the sickness came for her. Sad, sad." There was indeed a hint of sadness and perhaps remorse, but the emotional scars dulled the feelings.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:55 pm
Her ears flickered at the mention of things in the water. She'd never really seen anything there herself, but this cubling was obviously more in-tune with things than she was. He physically couldn't see, yet he got around just fine. The desert presented all walks of life with strangeness that she couldn't understand. Whatever the cause of it was, Oshi had benefited.
"Of course, Oshi," she flashed a small smile before continuing to eat around her words and listening to the pup. It was easier to eat what she could and walk off quickly before someone else caught the aroma of the freshly dead thing. Finally filling up, Jewels took a step back from the carcass and cleaned off her paws. "Oshi, where are you staying now?" She had just met the cub, yes, but he wasn't aggressive or a threat at all from what she could tell. His sorrow reminded her of herself a lot when she was younger, though perhaps it was more an instinct that he was male and he was what a budding clan needed.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:05 pm
Oshi was only threatening to those who were a threat. That was... simply how it was. Why waste the energy of chasing things around that didn't matter?
"Stay? Such as where I sleep? Where seems safe when I get tired. On my own, it seems more risk to keep going back to a place. Lone cublets are tasty to many things, better they don't have somewhere to wait for me." Since she seemed to have finished he wiped paws and muzzle in the sand to grind off or at least help disguise the smell of blood on him. "Move now, yes? Leftovers attract visitors, though not yet."
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:36 pm
Jewels dipped her head lightly in acknowledgment of Oshi's own statement. It was hard to stay somewhere permanently when it wasn't guaranteed a safe place. "Follow me, Oshi. We have a safe place, and you can stay with us." She gave her tail a small wave, her mind obviously made up on this. It hadn't taken her long, really, not with Oshi being such an intelligent little pup. Jewels wasn't sure that, on his own, he would survive anyways. And it was worthless to waste a life that maybe she could help. Perhaps she wasn't nearly as tough and sand-encrusted as she pretended to be.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:43 pm
Oshi's ears flicked foward at her statement. We? So she had friends? Well... company and more safety than he could otherwise acquire. How could he turn such a thing away? He padded after her with a, "Maboroshi shall follow Jewels." Ears and head turned this way and that as they went, both for the sake of recognizing landmarks and to keep an "eye" out for trouble. Even one who's sight was so specialized as his was able to spy these things, though in regards to landmarks the things he spied were stranger than most.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:36 am
Jewels was less worried about a predator, concealed by the darkness as she was if seen from behind. The desert was far from safe at night, but her eyes and Oshi's own strange sight gave them an advantage that most other creature's did not have. The quickly chilling air bothered her a bit, but not enough to slow her pace. It had taken some time, but Jewels had adjusted to the extreme difference in temperature from day to night. During the worst parts of the cold nights, she could always duck inside where it was warmer. Slowly, she lengthened her strides into a steady trot, eating up the distance at a pace that was meant to be a rate that the little pup could follow easily. She didn't want to push or lose her newest friend.
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