Turiya had gone back and forth with Khazine, off and on, for hours. Neither had been willing to yield for any reason - not because of any perceived grudge, but because it was fun. One would get the upper paw for a time, only for the dynamic to be flipped on its head, over and over again; and of course, by the end of it, their duel had become less of a fight and more of a wrestling match the more tired they got, until they had finally ended in an exhausted pile of red and brown, sides heaving and both of them bleeding. There'd been no serious damage done, but neither of them had been pulling punches, either. That would have been boring!
The two of them had lain about until afternoon began to creep up on them, at which point little Khazine bint Aribak had reluctantly excused herself and made the trek up the trail back into Bonelands territory. Which left Turiya still sprawled out on the ground, reluctant to move. She was exhausted, true, but it was the good kind of exhausted, and she wasn't eager to leave behind such a deep feeling of satisfaction, nevermind that she looked ridiculous just lying about. What eventually motivated her to heave herself to her feet was an insistent rumbling in her stomach. Sands, but she was hungry! There was nothing like a good fight for working up an appetite.
So once she'd rolled over and lurched up onto her paws again and shaken off the dust, she made her way away from the spring to see if maybe someone, somewhere had hunted up something she could snack on. While she was entirely capable of hunting for herself, and did so most of the time, she was just a little on the sore and tired side, and the idea of hunting right in this moment was not at all an appealing one. If she were to try, she'd bet there was a much better chance of her tripping over her own feet and taking herself down than taking down any prey. Today, for once, she would be 'lazy' and mooch off someone else's hard work.
There was a slight hitch in her step as she jogged along - she was going to be damn sore tomorrow! - which seemed to draw a few curious looks, but she simply glared back to quell them. If anyone thought she'd lost a duel, they were wrong! It had been a draw, more or less, and a good one, so there. One set of eyes, however, seemed to linger, but when she looked up to meet them, they didn't look away. The striped lioness halted, glowered harder, and grumbled, "What're you looking at?"
The Outpost was a curious place. His mate hated it, naturally, as it was one of the entrance points for rogues seeking to join the Motoujamii, but Tezi wasn't quite as extreme in his views and opinions as Niwasha'Hewa; he had, after all, entered by duel himself, once upon a time. He might be descended from old pridal blood, but he'd been born a rogue, and there was as much outside blood in him as anything else. Still, Hewa had decided that half was better than nothing, and that there was no more acceptable mate to be found, so he'd been her choice. It wasn't the most affectionate of relationships, but it worked for them, more often than not, and though they'd only produced one cub in all their time together, that one cub had gone far, even if she'd compromised the values she'd been raised with to do it. It didn't upset Tezi as much as it did his mate, but he never bothered to argue with her about it. Some fights were just impossible to win.
Duels, however...those could be a good outlet, and whether or not he was in the mood to fight himself, watching rogues trying to battle their way in was fascinating. He was, perhaps, getting just a tiny bit old for fighting them himself, not that he would ever admit it to anyone else, so mostly he just watched. Today, however, there was an even more interesting sight: one of the daughters of the other Regent, from the controversial litter that made his mate's blood boil, limping her way through the Outpost and looking rather cross. Interesting.
She caught his stare, and when he didn't avert his gaze, addressed him gruffly. "You, of course," he answered calmly. "Bad day?"
"Great day," she corrected sharply. And it really had been a great day! It would be even better if she could get some grub, sooner rather than later. "Don't suppose you know if anyone's caught anything to eat?"
"I don't know, sorry to say. I caught something myself earlier, but I'm sure it's quite gone by now."
Turiya snorted. "Fat lot of help you are. If you've gotten enough of a look in, then, I'll be on my way before I waste away."
"Off you go, then," the older lion encouraged with a small, amused smile for the young soldier's brashness. Hewa, no doubt, would have snapped at her at the very least, if not cuffed her across the head for being disrespectful, but Tezi was far more easygoing. She was young, and Firekin, and they were meant to be full of attitude. He'd never say a word of it to his mate, but from the looks of it Agni-pariksha hadn't done so bad with her litter of rule-breaking misfits. This one, at least, didn't seem to be much of a misfit of all.
Turiya's only response to the male - a rather senior male, to her youthful eye - was a rough grunt before she turned tail to go back to the business of finding something to eat. She did have to wonder what someone his age was doing around the Outpost, when by her estimation his was a bit too old to be doing any dueling against joining rogues, but maybe he was simply there to do his job as a hunter. Who knew? She shrugged it off as she walked, choosing to listen to the complaints of her stomach over any idle thoughts she might have.
