[JRP] Time for a beating (A'asifa Ramliya & Sølvslips)

[Princess_Feylin]

Things had not been going well in Sølvslips' den of late. His brothers had seemingly vanished, which was sort of alarming, but not enough that he was inclined to go looking for them - they were an independent bunch, the brothers Grei. More alarming was the fact that he was finding himself increasingly drawn to and possessive of the thrall he had brought back, Hiimatayt. Tay.

To get his mind off of the thin-furred, sweet-natured lioness, Slips had actually volunteered for border patrol. It wasn't the most exciting of jobs, but today it actually filled him with an odd sense of...something. He liked the knowledge that by patrolling the border he was defending the pride, and in a distant way contributing to Tay's safety within the pride, although he was also thoroughly distracted from his task by wondering what Tay was doing all the time.

It was a relief when he heard a roar of challenge.  

[Princess_Feylin]

A'asifa Ramilya had begun to hear the rumours of a warrior pride that allowed the finest warriors to keep what sounded a good deal like harems several months before he ever met anyone who had actually encountered anyone from this much talked-of pride. From that brown-furred, blue-eyed lioness he had learned the pride's name and a good deal more about its practices.

The lioness had been surprising to him in many ways, but most especially in the way she seemed to know so much about his own former pride, the Ukuucha'Wafalme, as well as this other pride, which was so far away. He had also been privately amazed at her ability to shift between the warm oasis sounds of the names Ram had grown up around, and the huskier burr of this other pride's names. Myrsky Syntynyt. What a tongue twister!

From Gintare he had also learned the proper way to join the pride - by challenging one of their warriors and either defeating him or fighting to a draw. He had also learned not to be startled if the warrior he encountered was female, which had been useful indeed, as he definitely would have been taken aback by that. For all her knowledge of the pride, however, Gintare had been indifferent to his offer of companionship on the way there, although they'd spent a pleasant evening together.

When he arrived at the border of the Myrsky Syntynyt and roared his challenge, A'asifa Ramilya was on his own.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Sølvslips moved toward the challenging roar in a confident, powerful, manly leonine way which made all the other hypothetical lions fall back in recognition of his innate dominance. If there had been lionesses present, their inner goddesses would have been dancing sensual sambas and shaking their not-at-all metaphorical tails at him.

"Well," he said, flicking his grey eyes over the brightly-colored lion.

It looked as though the lion's fur was thin in a way similar to how Tay's fur was thin. Perhaps they came from the same place. Perhaps they knew each other. Perhaps this outlander was in love with Tay.

Slips would destroy him.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Ram wasn't quite sure how to respond to the large, well-groomed lion with the piercing grey eyes, and the way he looked at him as if he was weighing him and finding him wanting. Ram was not accustomed to being on the receiving end of judgment, and he didn't like it. It made him bristle. It made him especially bristly when the dark grey lion simply said, "Well."

"Well what?" Ram demanded, but there was no time for him to receive an answer. The larger lion was already charging forward, to all appearances making an earnest attempt to murder him.

Gintare had warned Ram that they were ferocious fighters. He had not expected this level of almost personal hatred though. His surprise allowed his attacker to get in several powerful blows to his head which left him dizzy and reeling.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Slips unleashed his fury on the outlander who dared to make eyes at his sub. His fighting style was controlled and impersonal, and his eyes showed no expression. He was cold and calm and filled with protective rage.

It filled him with satisfaction, the way the challenger fell back. He was establishing his dominance in his usual coolly assertive way. No doubt the other lion would recognize it and submit in another moment. That was what usually happened when Slips' grey eyes flashed.

Recognizing that it was probably time for that, Slips paused, waiting for the yellow lion to admit that he was in every way Slips' inferior and that he was unworthy to even think Tay's name or imagine her shadow.

He sat back expectantly and said again, with a more inquiring inflection, "Well?"  

[Princess_Feylin]

"Well...what?" Ram panted when the furiously controlled onslaught of violence subsided. He had the feeling there was no way he could reasonably claim to have won this battle.

"I forfeit?" he hazarded. "You're the better fighter?"

Gintare had mentioned that it was permitted for a rogue challenger to return and challenge again in the event that they lost their challenge, but she hadn't told him if there was any process for acknowledging defeat. He hadn't thought to ask though. He'd been very confident that the skills he'd learned in the Ukuucha' Wafalme and the roguelands would have been more than sufficient.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Slips was amazing at reading people's body language, and he had just delivered a sound beating to the outlander. He knew everything about him that could possibly be known through the skillful application of violence. Everything the yellow lion had said was true. Even so, it was not what Slips wanted to hear.

Thus, rather than answer any of the blue-eyed lion's questions, or respond in any meaningful way, he preferred to have the hated lion keep guessing. To encourage him to continue with his guesswork, Slips moved forward like a leonine boxer and jabbed his paw against his enemy's throat, forcing him to the ground and feeling an indifferent thrill of excitement at having someone on the ground, helpless before him.

"Well?" he repeated again.  

[Princess_Feylin]

"I...really...don't know...what you want...me to say right now," Ram said, his speech broken up by the pressure of the larger lion's paw on his throat. This was not the challenge Gintare had described to him.

"I lost," he gurgled, transfixed by his opponent's deep grey eyes and the alarming way they flashed. "You won. Is there more to this interaction?"

He really had not imagined this would be the way his challenge went. First of all, he had not imagined that he would lose, but also, he hadn't imagined that his loss would go like this, or that the lion he fought would be so...so...dreamy masculine commanding weird.

"You're not going to kill me, are you?  

[Princess_Feylin]

Slips relented with a disappointed sigh and leaned back so that his paw was no longer close to crushing the less imposing lion's throat, even though his paw pad was still twitching with the need to school this plebeian outlander who coveted Slips' thrall.

"I'm not going to kill you. You just have to leave now."

He was too mature and grown up to say anything more than that, except he had to add, "If you ever come near her, I'll skin you."

His voice was cold and passionless and full of barely contained fury. He was a sexy figure of menace. Any nearby lionesses would have to fan their inner goddesses' faces.  

[Princess_Feylin]

The incredibly handsome mysteriously alluring grey lion's accent made him a little difficult to understand, and Ram wasn't sure if he'd said "here" or "her," but he decided that he didn't care to stick around and find out, either. He just wanted to get away from this compelling clearly insane lion. He hoped the rest of the pride wasn't like this, because Gintare had made it sound much more like someplace he would want to live, but not if everyone here was going to behave like the domineering creepy grey lion.

"Okay. I'm leaving," Ram said, his dignity offended.

He was not, he realized as he walked away, actually injured. He'd just been thoroughly intimidated and confusingly aroused by his opponent's magnetic confidence peculiar behavior. He realized he would have to find a way to train himself to be a better fighter if he really wanted to gain admittance here, though he wasn't completely sure that was something he wanted at this point.

Ram left the borders feeling confused, and wondering how much of that was due to those early blows to his head.