Part two of getting settled in a new land was taking into account the things about each part of it that were helpful. It was this spirit that roused the lion from his midday to dusk nap and lounge to get to explore. He stretched generously before departing toward what he assumed was the main hunting grounds of the land.

The sun was nearly set. Most of the sky was draped in deepening blues when he arrived. The herds had begun to settle and cluster together to become large groups of solid shadows. Runar approached a group of buffalo to mindfully observe them. He crouched in the grasses to avoid being seen. The lion spent long moments taking in the long and well-curved horns of the creatures. He'd definitely be avoiding those.


AW | Sept Y9 | Celosia Fields | Double Exp until 4/2

Potential Pathfinder EXP
+20 0/2 Discuss features of the territory with someone
+20 0/2 Help someone who is lost find their way
+20 0/2 Explore a territory and find something useful in it
+10 1/2 Study a dangerous animal (African Buffalo)

There's no plan, there's no kingdom to come

I'll be your man if you got love to get done

code by corvus | art by ale-tie

The setting sun lengthened the shadows of the buffalo herd to unsettling proportions, stretching and reaching ominously in the direction of the young lioness nearby. She regarded the beasts warily from a safe, healthy distance, moving quietly through the yellowed grasses and not daring to get a step closer. Even in this mostly restful state, she knew the herd was one wrong move away from becoming a danger, and Yasmin had every intention of making it to morning.

In order to do that, however, she needed to find a place to spend the night. While the plains didn’t offer much in the way of protection from the elements, it did remind her strongly of home, of the savannah her family once prowled, and as she walked it she felt comforted, reassured. Perhaps, if she could make this work, this could become her new home.

The thought barely entered her mind when she stopped all of a sudden, drawing up at the sight of another cat lying in the grass ahead of her. He had the shape of a lion—the square jaw, the tousled mane—but stripes covered the whole of his frame, unusual but plentiful. She couldn’t help staring with a puzzled frown—only half of which was visible beneath the sleek half-mane that covered the right side of her face—at the anomaly this lion presented. She knew she ought to say something, or at least keep moving, but the stripes…she found it hard to turn away.
@Runar

Image by Gabrielle Motter - Table by Mouser

He watched in silence. The buffalo mingled among one another. There seemed to be a rotation of members who lingered on the outskirts of the group to watch for danger while the others rested. He could spot a calf or two between the moving bodies. For the moment all things existed in a type of harmony.

That was interrupted by the sudden sound of two bulls literally butting heads. Runar flinched at the harsh, dull sound. He took a couple steps back and broke his gaze away from the buffalo to find he was being watched. Oh. Perhaps he should be a little more attentive.

She seemed to be staring at him. It was an observation that he took as a compliment. He retreated a few more steps away from the herd in order not to spook them as he finally tried for an opportunity to say, Hey. You like what you see? Or maybe he was just in the way of some tasty looking prey.

@Yasmin

Potential Pathfinder EXP
+20 0/2 Discuss features of the territory with someone
+20 0/2 Help someone who is lost find their way
+20 0/2 Explore a territory and find something useful in it
+10 2/2 Study a dangerous animal (African Buffalo)

There's no plan, there's no kingdom to come

I'll be your man if you got love to get done

code by corvus | art by ale-tie

The loud crash of buffalo horns colliding was more than enough to startle the puzzled girl too, and she jumped in much the same fashion that the striped stranger did. Yasmin’s face pinched and she ducked instinctively, hiding her dark, more diminutive frame further within the grasses, and noticing the male retreat cautiously back she followed suit. Not that she intended to follow the stranger, no, but she certainly didn’t want a couple late evening troublemakers of buffalo size taking note of her and deciding she’d be much more appealing flattened in the dirt.

At a safe enough distance, she heard the striped male at last speak—and his words rubbed her the wrong way. Stopping, she frowned openly, the visible left side of her young face drawing into an irritable sneer. “I see an obstacle to a restful night,” she snapped back in a harsh whisper she hoped the buffalo would not overhear. “Bad enough those stupid brutes decide now to knock heads.”

With an agitated twitch of her tail, she turned her head to watch the herd again. In the dimming light, their forms seemed to swim together, a solid, intimidating mass of thick bodies, dense hooves, and piercing horns. Another loud crack rang through the area, the troublemaker’s movements near invisible to her now, and Yasmin inched back another step without fully being aware. Was this all some kind of odd threat, a means of warding danger off? They certainly had nothing to fear from her.
@Runar

Image by Gabrielle Motter - Table by Mouser