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Neverending Sand; PRIVATE for the Oopster
Topic Started: Apr 20 2011, 04:35 PM (800 Views)
Cookie Dough
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Death to Babies
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
"What's this, Mom? It smells funny..."

"Don't touch the human contraptions, they could be nearby, just leave it alone!"

"It smells mostly like us-"

She jumped awake as the container fell backwards and down a tree. She growled, shaking her head.

"Hey, it's a cat! Hello?"

"Hrmm, any cat to get caught by humans is surely to be marked by them, leave it be, Son! Now come away from it, we'll hunt elsewhere..."

"Wait wait! Can you help me? Please, I'm trapped in here!" She clawed on the box, desperately.

At this, the mother walked to the crate, "What kind of cat are you? Your voice is strange, where are you from, Stranger?"

"I'm a tiger from the mountains in northern Asia, please get me out of here! I've been sitting in here for nearly two days- I'm roasting hot, hungry and thirsty, please help me!"

With that she turned, leaving, "You'll die here anyway, just hope the humans come back for you. Tigers don't live in Africa!" She laughed, moving her son away with her.

Leeria moaned out one of her airholes, hoping they might reconsider, "Please! I beg you!" She saw their flickering tan tails with tufts of brown at the end as they walked through small bits of yellow grasses and sand-like dirt. She must be somewhere far from home, she recalled nothing that looked like that where she lived. Then again, she only ever saw other Siberian tigers, rodents, some birds, and mountain goats to eat.

She laid back down, panting. The humans ruined everything! She hoped every one of them was dead as punishment. It wouldn't really matter though, she knew she couldn't suffocate in here forever, this heat would be the death of her unless someone would help her out of this thing or the humans find her. At this point, she wouldn't mind dealing with some humans as long as it meant getting her out of this box and getting some water.


((Super uber fail, soz D:))
Edited by Cookie Dough, Apr 20 2011, 04:36 PM.
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so they scream
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
((So you don't get confused, Azaan, Zaan, and Aza are all the same person.))

It was twilight before Azaan roused himself from his midday nap, Themba by his side. His brother was already awake, but hadn't moved yet. He lazily scanned the yellow savanna grass, scarcely dotted by green trees, his head resting on his paws.

Zaan flicked his older brother with the tip of his tail, and the other looked back at him, yawning. "Sleep well?"

After closing his own gaping mouth, cutting off a yawn, Zaan rose and stretched. "I did. And you?"

"The only thing I want now is a tender baby gazelle."

"Then let's go find one."

"I was hoping you would say that," Themba said, grinning and standing. He walked briskly over to Azaan, who began leaving the shady area under the small tree where they'd decided to rest for a time, waiting out the hottest part of the day.

---

Their village, as most in this savanna, was not much of a village at all. Cheetahs didn't gather for long. Generally, the girls didn't get along for any real length of time, although the males really had no trouble socializing. They all had their own territories, but just at dusk, when the light grew too thin to see clearly by, they would all gather together, light a fire, and sit around. Sometimes the boys wrestled, sometimes others brought scraps from their last kill to share with those less fortunate in their catches, and sometimes the girls led the boys away from the firelight and into the dark. They would come back later smelling strongly of what they had done, but it was not considered inappropriate; the girls of all the cheetah tribes (from what Azaan had seen) were markedly promiscuous.

It was on their way back to the village, a limp, mostly-eaten carcass dangling from Themba's mouth (they hoped that they could get it to the village before something bigger than them decided that it wanted it), that they noticed the odd smell.

"What is that?" Aza asked his brother, slowing their quick trot to a halt.

Themba came to a stop, also, but indicated his impatience with an annoyed growl and a flicking tail. Zaan ignored his brother and began pacing toward the source of the odd smell. Before he got too near, he leaped onto a large boulder to see ahead. With surprise, he noticed the crate. He had seen one once or twice before, though he'd never found one this close to his home village. He also had no idea what they were constructed to hold.

"If you're going to investigate, make it quick," Themba said, having placed the gazelle on the rock for a moment, "but I'm going to keep moving. Catch up when you're finished."

The older cheetah again picked the gazelle up and continued on at a somewhat more pressing pace than before. Zaan turned his attention to the crate. Silently, he hopped down off of the boulder and slowly crept his way toward the obtrusive object. Half of him wanted to believe that it would be empty and go join Themba, yet part of him yearned for the knowledge of what was inside.

When he was closer, he realized that the crate was still closed, and whatever was meant to be inside was still inside.

((Equally horrible. Don't feel bad. I was literally falling asleep while I wrote this.))
Edited by Oop, Apr 22 2011, 09:40 AM.
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Ria had been scratching at the damn thing for three hours, at least, and she was panting heavily. She was tired, dirty, thirsty, hungry and her crate smelled like her waste. She had kept it to a corner, but there was only so much she could do in the tiny space.

She sniffed at a small space between the planks making her crate- something new? It smelled of male cat, but not a tiger... She must be in some foreign place, nothing smelled close to her kind or anything she was familiar with.

However, anything was better than rotting in here, so the smell was welcomed. She gave an innocent and pitiful cry similar to a cub. She pawed at the crate with retracted claws. "Please, help me, please! I just want to get out, please!" She rubbed her face against the crate, crying softly. "Please. I have nothing to give, but I will be eternally grateful! I really must escape, I need to be somewhere! Please- I'm afraid I will starve or die from this heat if I am not soon free. Have mercy!" She cried and panted as she rubbed against the side of the crate in an effort to persuade him to help her escape from this tomb.
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so they scream
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Azaan started when a voice came to him through the tightly fitted boards of the crate. There was a... a person stuck in there? Someone not from around her, by the thick accent, strange smells, and foreign markings on the box, but something still living.

Well, that settled it. Zaan didn't know what was inside, or why, but he couldn't just leave it in there. "Just hang on," he said, pressing down the panic that threatened to rise in him. Glaring at the crate, he paced back and forth, growling slightly. How could he go about opening it? Finally, he decided that he would have to shift to his human form. Once he had done so, he broke a branch from the tree. "Watch out!" he said, roughly jamming the branch between two boards.

Taking a deep breath, Zaan strained against the branch, wiry and lean muscles bulging. The wood of both the limb and the crate groaned, and for a moment, it seemed nothing would happen. Then, suddenly, a single board from the crate flew off in a pelting of large chips. Panting, Zaan stood back, trying to see what was inside. However, it was too dark for him to make out anything but a rather large shape. It made him nervous, but since he'd started, he'd may as well continue.

"One down," he said aloud as encouragement. "Still alive?" He repeated the process with the next board, and the next, until he was sweating and his hands felt raw and full of little wooden needles.

Finally, though, the last board came free, and Azaan, despite his fatigue, jumped nimbly away, changing back into his cheetah form as he did so. As a human, he had less defenses: no sharp teeth, no razor-like claws, and no incredible speed to take him out of danger's way.

"Are you alright?" he asked, crouching silently, ready to attack or flee at the slightest provocation.

((There we go. Sorry about that.))
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Death to Babies
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She growled as the first board exploded from the crate- tempted to stick a paw through the space and rip the damn thing to piece (though that hadn't work before). She waited until the space had been widened and stepped out of the crate, carefully avoiding the jagged edges of the exit.

She just flopped and rolled in the dirt, happy to be out of that stupid thing. "Oh sweet earth!" She rolled herself onto her paws and stood, her, usually, bright and shining gold coat was a dull tan-yellow now from all the dirt and dust. She took a good stretch before shaking her whole body. Unfortunately, it did, basically, nothing for the trashed state of her fur.

She looked at the other cat, "Thank you for rescuing me, I would have died in there, for sure... My name is Leeria, I'm a Siberian tiger from mountains in northern Asia, the humans call it Russia. Mind if I ask where I am now? I need to get back home..." She sat down calmly, making sure to not scare him.
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so they scream
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Zaan skittered away when the other cat emerged from the crate, revealing that it was much larger than he'd expected. It wasn't that he was a coward, but that he could not risk injury. In this unforgiving landscape, an injury that prevented him from running would, without question, be the death of him. Themba might be able to help him survive for a short period time, but Aza couldn't expect another to support him - not even his older twin brother.

Still, he could not help but stare. He'd never see anything like the cat that sat before him. The color wasn't entirely unusual in the savanna, but the stripes, the fur, the eyes - they were so strange!

As she spoke, Zaan slowly straightened, his ears perked forward. He wondered how she knew this language if she was from so far away.

"I am Azaan," he said, blinking his large redish-brown eyes. He tilted his head slightly, as if wondering how someone could no know where they were when, to him, it seemed so obvious. "This is Africa." He didn't pay much attention to country borders out here - it didn't seem important.

Zaan's ears twitched as he caught the sound of a high-pitched bark. Themba was looking for him. Turning his long body, he made the chirping noise back, and in a moment, his brother responded.

"My brother is searching for me. I must go." He turned back to the strange cat once more, not sure if he should leave her or not. She was not suited for this terrain, and yet Azaan could not not support her - that much was obvious by her size alone. She probably twice as much as he did simply by how much larger she was, generally. Still, he couldn't simply leave her there.

"Will you be alright?"
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Cookie Dough
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Death to Babies
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((Haha, I actually didn't think about language difference O.o I'll just kind of fudge it a little if you don't mind xD))

"Africa? My father traveled to Kenya as a captive, but the humans later released him after a few years back in Russia..." Good thing he had traveled or else she would not know how to understand these cats...

She listened to their strange sounds, then bowed, "I will find my way. I am thankful for your kindness, hopefully I will be able to return the favor one day. Might you point me towards a water source, please?" She then left towards the water. She stumbled a little in the sand before gaining her footing and jogging away.


However, once at the water she was taken aback. Animals -huge- swarmed the area. She snuck around the side to avoid the large gray things and the orange and tan giant horses. However, she was incredibly hungry and the black and white striped horses looked and acted just like goats, and she could hunt those.


((I figure we can do a little skipping then have them meet up again?))
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so they scream
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Azaan watched the strange cat leave, a nagging feeling in his mind that he should have done more for her, but he eventually turned and, at a speedy trot, caught up to his brother.

"What was it?" Themba asked. He'd obviously already gotten to the camp and had come running back, probably worried.

"I'm not entirely sure. A Siberian tiger."

"Never heard of them."

---

Later that night, in his human form, Aza sat at the fire, staring into it, deep in thought. He still couldn't get the strange cat from his mind, and when he thought of her, he felt guilt boil up in him. He could tell that she was foreign, and yet he'd still done nothing for her. He could have invited her to this nightly meeting, shared a meal with her, and given her pointers on where to safely sleep. Perhaps he and Themba could have escorted her a good ways north. After all, they had traveled that direction before, and could have assisted her greatly until she got to more familiar territory.

"Zaan," a beautiful, young woman said, running a hand down his arm. Her dark skin looked soft in the firelight. "You're thinking too much tonight. Come with me. Let me take your mind off of whatever bothers you." Her hand closed around his.

Normally, Azaan wouldn't mind taking a beautiful girl up on an offer, but he was tired and not really in the mood. "No. Not tonight, Dayo."

"Are you sure?" Zaan was very much aware of Dayo's breasts pressing against his shoulder, but still, he refused.

Not much put out, though slightly disappointed perhaps, Dayo shrugged and then sauntered on to a boy a bit younger than Aza sitting across the fire. The boy smiled gleefully and stood, following Dayo away from the fire.

Zaan felt no regret in turning down the offer, but he did wish that he could figure out how the foreign cat fared.

((Skipping ahead sounds good, but I totally forgot to. :P Oops.))
Edited by Oop, Apr 26 2011, 08:17 PM.
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It had been a long night for Leeria. She knew humans hunted anything that harmed their storage or even came close to it, but she had been too hungry to care. She wouldn't come back to this place for a long time, hopefully never if she was able to find her way home.

She felt much better with the dumb bovine in her stomach. It was too cold for much farming where she came from, but the cows there were too well-guarded by their bulls anyway, here it had been two tied to a tree. Stupid humans had wanted her to eat it, really!

The rest of the night she had carefully groomed herself and settled into a tree. A few minutes into her bath she discovered a long string-like thing. It snapped at her, but she jumped off the tree- what the heck was that? It flickered its tongue after her before disappearing into the tree again.

She growled. This place was the exact opposite of where she lived. Those gray things with tusks, the giant orange and tan horses, and that spikey-scaled rat along with moving strings with teeth and scales. The sun here was hot, but the nights were nice and cool. She was able to settle into some brush, eventually, and finish her bath.

It seemed she was fairly alone here- no humans or other cats, no strange little rodent things... She had heard of poisonous creatures, she didn't know what was what and didn't want to chance it. However, she had to find her escort, he was still with the humans. She knew he was still alive, but no idea where to look or how to help him escape.


Everything was strange and confusing here, and it had taken her many hours to track back to her crate. She sniffed it, but could smell only her own waste and the dirt here. Wait- that other cat that had helped her, maybe he knew where some human villages were! The one she had raided from had been a hovel, barely five huts and only a few animals. She sniffed the ground and slowly made her way down his trail.

It was early morning, so she doubted he would be hunting yet... He smelled like fresh blood too, it would be silly to hunt the day after a kill. Then again, maybe it had been a small capture, or his own blood from an injury? He had looked healthy... She grunted, jogging down the trail, hopeful that she would be able to find her savior and ask for his help again.
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so they scream
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After sharing his thoughts with Themba, Aza's twin had convinced him not to think about the other cat. Zaan had done more than anyone else would have been willing to, and that was enough. Zaan owed her nothing, while she owed him her life. "It's as simple as that. And if she doesn't make it, well, Siberian tigers weren't made for the savanna, were they?"

Zaan had contented himself with those words, and he and his brother had returned to the small territory they now commanded - a stretch of several miles where at least three female territories all overlapped. It was a good territory. In their human forms, they laid in the lengthy grass, waiting out the most blistering part of the day before they hunted again.

"You ready, Aza?" Themba asked him.

"I suppose so." As he sat up, Zaan spotted something moving toward them. At first, he thought it was a lion, and said nothing, but as it drew nearer, he could see that it was the tiger from the previous day - Leeria. Still saying nothing, he shifted and took off at a quick lope for the other figure.

He slowed when he reached her. "I am glad to see you safe. I was worried." And his voice, warm and genuine, reflected the smile that would have been on his face.
Edited by Oop, Apr 27 2011, 08:40 PM.
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((present tense sounds weird xD))

Leeria stopped and crouched low as the thing came nearer, but the scent was familiar and she had seen no other cats like him. Maybe they had more in common than she initially thought. She stood and shook out her, now, glistening gold fur.

He was worried? If she hadn't heard that a million times... Though, never from such a stranger, it warmed her. She flickered her tail as a content response. "I owe you my life and I have no warrant to ask of your help, but I am in a strange place and even some advice would be helpful. The land is much flatter than my home and I find it difficult to hunt these large herds of creatures- they are vicious, too big or too fast. I ended up raiding a little outpost and took a cow. It was a dire need, else I would not have chanced it..." Her ears went back and she turned her head to see one of those tree cats hop down in the distance. She turned back and examined the familiar cat, "How many creature live in this place? Where I live there are Siberian tigers, some rodents, an owl or two and mountain rams... There are least ten different large creatures I have counted, so far. Anyway, I came to ask if there are any large human villages nearby. My friend was taken captive, and it is necessary I rescue him. He is still alive, but I do not know for how long. Any large village would be a start..."

She sniffed the ground, then cocked her head when her eyes saw his paws. He had dog paws- nearly. Her one paw could have fit two of his with room left over, even the other cats had large paws, not as large as her's, but much more impressive than this yellow and black cat. Maybe three cats here? There was the cat in a tree she had seen- black and yellow, but its paws were wide like her's, these paws were much too different and he was much faster... If she wasn't so afraid of starving to death in the near future, she would be quite entertained with this place!

She snorted, "Though, can we talk in the shade? This sun will be the death of me before the difficult prey..." She trotted to a nearby tree and flopped underneath it. It was significantly cooler here... Her thick fur was made for icy snow not the toasty savanna!
Edited by Cookie Dough, Apr 27 2011, 08:29 PM.
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so they scream
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Zaan could hardly focus on her words, he was so busy staring at her. She was just so... strange. The color of her coat would fit in fairly well without the dark stripes, but the way she was built, Leeria was completely awkward for life in the savanna. Too bulky, too... fluffy. Even male lions had less cumulative fur that she did! "Yes, I would imagine it would be hard for you to hunt here," he said. It was hard enough for creatures who were well-adapted to this terrain to not starve.

Large villages? "The nearest village is at least a day's travel away. I would not mind escorting you, but I need to speak with my brother first." If they left their territory undefended, they would almost certainly lose it. But perhaps Themba would like to stay behind, though Zaan doubted it. They worked best together, anyway.

"Come speak with my brother and me. We will decide the best course of action, and maybe figure something out for dinner."

In the shade, Themba stared as Zaan had, blinking his amber eyes. "What a strange creature," he said. What are you, again? Siberian tiger, right Aza?"

"Yes. She needs our help."

"What kind of help?"

"An escort to the nearest village."

"That's an entire day away." For the first time, Themba lifted his gaze from Leeria and instead looked to Azaan. "We'll lose the territory."

"I know. We can make another." He could tell that Themba didn't much like that idea.

"I'll think about it. For now," Themba said, yawning and stretching, "let's think about dinner. Dayo told me that there are more gazelle slightly to the east."

Zaan stood, happy to be doing something productive. He would like to see Leeria attempt to catch a gazelle.
Edited by Oop, Apr 27 2011, 09:04 PM.
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Leeria listened, then growled under her breath, "I hate feeling so useless... Those black and white horses would be easy if they didn't stand so close to one another- I cannot get them apart. Two pairs of legs is nothing to be kicked with, it becomes ridiculous when there are ten pairs or more..."

She licked one of her paws, "If I am successful in retrieving my companion, we will win as many territories for you as you want... No offense, but you are very small-built, good for speed, but if they wanted to keep the territory, even the larger cats that live in those groups would have a hard time fairing against him. It would be the least we could do for you..."
Edited by Cookie Dough, Apr 28 2011, 01:43 PM.
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so they scream
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With a quiet consideration, Themba contemplated this. It wasn't about winning territories -- he and Aza could keep a fairly small one's borders protected on their own, and the only others they might have to run out would be other males -- it was about losing this one in particular, which they had carefully staked out.

"I'll think on it," Themba finally said, and then began moving eastward. Zaan followed.

"We don't usually hunt zebra - the striped horses you saw. We prefer gazelle," he explained to Leeria as they trotted along, ears perked and long tails swaying for balance.

"Hush!" Themba ordered some time later, crouching. Azaan did the same, creeping forward to his brother's side, where they quietly conferred with each other. The gazelle hadn't noticed them yet, but they were fleet-footed and always ready for an attack.

They waited a moment, picking out an older gazelle that was large, but probably unable to outrun the two of them. Anticipation hanging over them, Azaan waited for Themba to break into a sprint, and when he had, moving at his maximum speed within moments of taking off, Azaan watched carefully. Because he had less stamina than his brother, they had figured out long ago that it was better for Themba to wear out the pray, and for Zaan to finish it.

It was an odd time of day to be hunting -- too early or not early enough -- and the heat out an obvious strain on Themba, who appeared tired much more quickly. Zaan noticed and, in order to concentrate, broke from his crouch earlier than usual. Because of his increased speed, he reached Themba in seconds and overtook him, quickly catching up to the old gazelle.

With one swipe, he knocked the prey off balance, and as it fell to the ground, he leaped atop it, his mouth finding the bucking creature's soft throat and clamping down on it. Themba appeared next to him, panting heavily, but pleased with the catch. He signaled Leeria over.

"I always forget how fast you are," he said, laying down.

Zaan waited until the gazelle quit twitching before he responded. "And I always forget how slow you are."

Themba laughed good-naturedly. "Oh, sure. Says the one who's freakishly large for his kind."

Zaan laughed, and then, standing, began eating.

((Bleeh. Just not feeling RPing right now.))
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((lol it's okay))

Leeria watched from a distance back, but at the sight of the gazelle, she put her ears back. That thing would feed them- maybe; she needed something bigger. It took her a bit longer to cover the distance. In this heat, she dare not run at any tiring speed without a very good reason. She stopped beside them both, looking at it, "I am not that fast, I could never catch one of those. It's a bit small for three, even the two of you can't have your fill on that..." She looked around, she smelled fresh blood nearby besides this kill, "Maybe I can steal more of a meal... Or try with the... the zebra, again." She laid down beside them, glaring out into the distance.

"Do you all like each other? All these cats? There are three- I think. I mean, do all of you get along? It seems like everyone is tip-toeing around each other... Wouldn't it be easier if you all worked together?" She stood again, her ears back, "What is that?"

A string of tourist Jeeps was curving near them. There were only about five cars, at the most.

Leeria backed away from the distant thing, unsure of the loud noises. "More large beasts? These ones sound angry..." She went to the nearest tree and quickly climbed it, hiding herself in the shade of the leaves on the branches and hoping it would keep going. However, it stopped fairly close to them, the people inside standing up and small flashes came from them. She had seen a camera and humans before, but not that thing they were in- they came up with the strangest things...

They obviously had not seen her as they were looking at the ground and the tour-guide was stating facts about cheetahs.

Leeria listened as much as she could. They were a way back, as to not 'frighten the animals away as they were quite skiddish.'So these two were cheetahs and one of them -she assumed Azaan- was quite rare. She knew better than to jump down, so she just stayed stone-still and quiet.
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