[PRP] What's a Father? (Slivka x Korfiz)

[Princess_Feylin]

Korfiz was kind of a sweaty mess when he finished sparring with Palisander, but it had been a good match. The two of them were similar in skill and size, despite Korfiz's father being an outlander and Palisander's family being old blood Stormborn, and whenever they sparred, it was a good workout. Stinging along his sides and shoulders where sweat seeped into some shallow cuts reminded him that he would have to find a sunny spot to sit down and groom himself sooner, rather than later.

But that could wait, he decided, as he noticed a lioness near his own age walking along the path. He didn't know her, but that wasn't a surprise. The pride was large, and strangers many. There was no reason he couldn't get to know her. Providing, of course, she could stand being around him in his unwashed state. He decided there was nothing to be lost in at least greeting her. He could always move downwind if she seemed bothered by the smell of a hardworking warrior-in-training.

"It's a good day to die," he greeted the garnet-eyed lioness. "I'm Korfiz."

AstoriaFallen

Omigosh, is it really? That's bananas.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Korfiz smiled easily, flattered that Slivka noticed his markings, and apparently approved of them. Not that there was anything he could've done about it if she hadn't liked them. A lion couldn't change his stripes, after all.

"It's good to meet you, Slivka. I'm pretty fond of them, too."

That was true, actually. Korfiz was incredibly glad that he'd taken entirely after his mum's side of the family, rather than inheriting his father's distinctive stripes, as two of his sibs had, or an absurd and unexpected shade of blue, or, well, he'd definitely gotten the good markings in his litter, so going back to that "lion can't change his stripes" thing, Korfiz wouldn't want to.

"You weren't born here, were you?" he asked, taking in the lioness's smaller size and noticing that she spoke without the distinctive glottal growl that characterized Stormborn speech. She probably had a much easier time making herself understood in the rogue lands.

AstoriaFallen

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Korfiz refrained from offering any comment on Slivka's assessment. It didn't sound as though she was criticizing him. He wasn't sure how he would have reacted if she had been. Embarrassment? Defensiveness? Irritation? All possibilities, but none of them actually happened, thank goodness.

"It's noticeable, but not in a bad way," he answered her, hoping to reassure her. "There are a lot of former outlanders in the pride. I think it's a good thing. It helps those of us who were raised here learn how outlanders speak so we can blend in better on vikings, if we need to."

As for the rest of what she'd said, about her father, well. He wasn't quite willing to spill the circumstances surrounding his birth and fatherless upbringing, but he was more than willing to listen to Slivka talk about her own apparent father troubles. He liked hearing that there were other awful fathers out there, and that he wasn't alone in that respect.

"Do you not like it here, then?" he asked, misinterpreting the little shrug she'd offered. "Is your father...Is it unpleasantly different from your pride?"

He had intended to ask if her father was treating her badly, but that was too personal, and he didn't know of any freeborn worthy of the title who would be willing to answer it truthfully. The pride had a legal system that protected spouses from abuse, but offspring did not share that protection. He would have to be more subtle if he wanted to find out if Slivka was being abused. Stormlords he hoped she wasn't.

AstoriaFallen

Er. Sorry about Korfiz, too. I'll yank him back into line as soon as I can.

 

[Princess_Feylin]

"I just wondered," he said, trying for nonchalance. "You didn't seem exactly thrilled with being brought here. I thought maybe it was because you didn't like it."

Personally, he was baffled by the idea of growing up around a bunch of thrall creatures. From the way Slivka spoke, he surmised that the cheetahs and all were treated like equals, or at least fairly close. It was a real challenge for him to imagine what it could be like to live that way.

"It does sound like it's pretty radically different," Korfiz ventured, leaving the matter of Slivka's father for the time being. The conversation had moved on, and he wasn't going to be awkward and drag it back. "How did that work, exactly?"

He smiled, unable to stop himself, really. "I could use some water, and I'd love to keep talking to you. Hear about your old pride - if it's something you don't mind talking about, I mean."

He'd realized a little too late that not only might Slivka not be delighted to be in the Stormborn, with all its differences, but it might not be easy for her to talk about the place where she had been born and raised. Now he just had to try not to embarrass her by implying that she was too flower-blooded to talk about it.

AstoriaFallen

 

[Princess_Feylin]

"Definitely not boring," Korfiz assured the lioness.

Korfiz had not been raised to be particularly open and embracing of outlanders' traditions. The Stormborn way of doing things was the best way. It had to be, or else they would be doing something else, the actual best way.

That said, he wanted to keep talking to Slivka, and he was absolutely intrigued by the idea of a pride that existed just to play games. It sounded like something a cub would dream up. Apparently there were others in the pride who had useful skills, but they didn't sound like they were the ones that mattered.

"So, ah. Is it a pride for single parents to leave their cubs while they have to hunt, or something?" he asked, still unable to get his head around the idea that adults could do such a thing, and unconscious of the fact that the freeborn in the Stormborn could be said to lead similar lifestyles. "My mum probably could've used something like that, raising me and my sibs on her own."

AstoriaFallen

 

[Princess_Feylin]

It was a surprise to Korfiz that he'd not spoken to anyone outside the family until meeting him. He did his best to hide his incredulity, but probably some of it came through even so. He wasn't much of an actor, Korfiz. Not really. But he wasn't going to make a big deal of it. He wasn't going to mess this up by asking the wrong questions or saying the wrong thing.

"I'm one of five," Korfiz said. He would have asked about her, but she volunteered the information, at which point Korfiz's eyes definitely bugged out a bit. Eleven. His own mum hadn't had anything like that many cubs, and she'd been at her wits' end from time to time.

He jumped back to the matter of her pride for a bit, still curious about how a pride could be built around the idea of playing games.

"Did you..." No. Those weren't the right words. "Were you one of the competitors? In your other pride?"

AstoriaFallen

 

[Princess_Feylin]

Korfiz hadn't really thought about his mum's den as roomy or not. It was just home. He'd moved out, of course, and now lived in one of the great long dens where bachelor freeborn might reside if they didn't care to keep a residence for themselves. There was a lionesses' den like that, too, where his mum lived now, but she'd moved into her own space to raise Korfiz and his sibs.

"I think my family did sort of the opposite. My mum lived with a lot of other lionesses until she had us, then she moved somewhere more private until my sibs and I were old enough to make our own way."

He still visited his mum on occasion, and crossed paths with her, but on the whole they both had their own lives to lead, and were doing so.

"Ooh, scary!" Korfiz joked at Slivka's expressed interest in becoming a priestess. "I thought you had to start training for that really young?"

There were priestesses in his family, on his mum's side, but he didn't interact with them. He just knew they were there, and they were best avoided. His own plans were less spiritual in nature:

"I'm going to be a reaver once I find someone who will let me go viking with their band. I might try to be a captain, but maybe not. I don't know yet."

AstoriaFallen

I don't mind the idea of them having a fling, but I do have an eventual mate lined up for him. He'd definitely make sure to be a part of any cubs' lives though, given his own absent father.