[META-PRP] After the First... (Owu x Itiri)

[Epine de Rose]

Had he passed...?

He had, comfortably so at that, it seemed that the answers he had given were satisfactory and quite frankly, this came as a surprise to no one. His family were deliberately raised in a fashion that only the truly ridiculous would be unable to pass such a trial. More importantly, this trial was more of an administrative exercise to ensure that those who were unworthy had already been weeded out. Quite frankly, if he had managed to fail this trial then he would have been an embarrassment to his own father, so much so that he might very well have returned from the afterlife to let it be known.

His brother however - well he wasn't so sure. Owu hadn't been entirely sold on the idea of leadership, but following their conversation Itiri had been confident that he would do his best. Owu may not have wanted to lead, but that didn't mean he'd be an embarrassment to the line... He was better than that. Nevertheless this didn't stop the darker brother from waiting with something akin to baited breath until his sibling returned.

He was sure it would be alright, but every now and then he would get a niggle of suspicion that maybe Owu had changed his mind and come up with another plan. Fortunately, he'd find out soon though, the trial hadn't been that extensive for him given how rapidly the riddles, questions and so on had been rattled off and he didn't imagine that Owu's would be any different on this occasion.

Thus, it should have come at no surprise that Itiri was reclining on his rock again as he awaited his brother's inevitable return...

Pollack

 

[Pollack]

He had actually passed.

Though the thought of simply playing dumb still crossed his mind quite a few times during the test his brother's words seemed to have struck a cord with him. He was right correct, if Owu had tossed the test than it would have sent up extreme red flags to not only the Amoosu but frankly anyone who even had a hint on what kinds of questions they were asked. The only way they could have failed it with the extensive training they had gotten from their father during their childhoods were if they had managed to sleep through every single class.

...Which if they had done they probably wouldn't be standing here able to take the test in the first place! Hell hath no fury like a father's scorn!

He had no doubts in his mind that his brother had passed with flying colors. He was after all the more studious of the two siblings. Owu could honestly say his jaw would hit the floor if he learned that Itriri had missed any question at all.

Thus when he was finally released from the secure testing area Owu's first mission was to go find his overachieving sibling. Given that he was prone to worry over all possible outcomes it would have been downright cruel of Owu not to go poke his face to at the very least put his brother's worries to least.

Once he had made his way over to the certain rock that his brother had wordlessly claimed for himself as his very own thinking spot Owu greeted Itriri with a slient nod as he slowly climbed up to join him at on the rocky perch. Letting out the wary sigh he had been holding in Owu finally sat himself down on his rump next to his brother.

"Well..." He began with a click of his tongue. Pausing for a moment to give his brother just a wee moment of suspense. Hey, who else could he have this kind of fun with? "I suppose a congratulation is in order for the both of us then, father doesn't have to make a deal with Death himself and come back to lecture us today after all."

 

[Epine de Rose]

"That would be a momentous occasion," Itiri responded with a half smile and raised a brow. "Enough of one to cause our most beloved priest to have a heart attack and expire on the spot," he added. Admittedly, Itiri wouldn't miss him, but it would cause enough of a stir to change the political landscape again and Itiri was only just in the position to begin shifting his pieces into the right place for this landscape.

...Suffice it to say, for all the head priest's faults, he'd sooner deal with him, rather than a father returned from the grave.

"All the same, I'm glad you didn't throw the trial," he continued with a small chuckle. "That really would have caused a more realistic stir and quite frankly, we can't really afford to give our favourite lion even more ammunition against us," he pointed out. He afforded a pause as he considered the priest in question, to be honest, he hadn't seen him in quite some time. Ever since the quake he had mostly been deep within the catacombs, determined to recover every tiny bone he possibly could.

For all his flaws, Itiri respected his intentions and determination in that... even if it left him oblivious to the needs of the living.

"Please tell me you didn't find it hard though?" he shook his head. "I genuinely thought I was being had with some of those questions, I'm starting to wonder if anyone is legitimately meant to fail that one or if it's just there to weed out the unwilling..."

Pollack

 

[Pollack]

"Well to be fair that would be killing two birds with one stone. Father would be able to advise us and get that thorn out of our side." He replied back with a smirk. Ah, if only their problems could be cheated away so easily. He would gladly endure a thousand of his father's lectures again if just to be able to sit down and have his ear for ten minutes about their current situation.

Though he suspected his brother might just disown him outright for causing such a political uprising in the first place.

With a snort Owu gave a half shrug of his shoulders. "Our little talk that we had before was a nice reminder of what was at stake. You had no idea how hard it was not to make up a bullshit answer to some of the more...idiotic questions they gave us." He honestly suspected some of the questions were thrown in to the loop just to test if the brother's were still paying attention or if they were on auto-pilot throughout the test. "But I agree that sending our favorite elder a gift basket that large would even give him a reason to finally stick his head out of the catacombs and enter the game again." He remarked as he ran a paw through his already-tussled mane.

Frankly he would be jumping for joy to learn if the elderly priest had announced that he would be spending the rest of his miserable life down in those dark tunnels sorting out the bones. But alas, the gods didn't favor them enough to allow that. <******** no!" He shot back in an instant, his brows furrowing tightly as he regarded Itriri with disbelief that he would even think that he could fail that test. Last he checked he didn't have a learning disability thank you very much! "I have to wonder if it's more a test to see if you're willing to sit still for a few hours or if you're too much of a spazzing imbecile to compete even a simple task. Who do you even think wrote up those test questions? Personally I think our first cub-sitter might have gotten mixed up and accidentally wrote that test out for her newest class."

Joking aside this was only the first trial that was meant to serve as Itriri suggested a way to weed out those who were serious or those who just didn't care. Going forward the trials would be a much tougher test of the brother's abilities both mental, physical, and spiritual.

With a sigh Owu's mood sobered up as he regarded Itriri with a tired gaze. "This is only the beginning. Tomorrow can I expect you up bright and early to come prepare for the next trial with me?" He inquired with a half-formed smile. Despite them being "challenging" each other there was still no one else he would want on his side throughout this journey than his brother.

Epine de Rose

 

[Epine de Rose]

"I suspect that our father didn't necessarily have a plan for our esteemed priest," Itiri shook his head slowly. Their father had been wise, but he didn't seem to have the drive to prevent what had occurred. All in all, it was as if he had accepted the status quo, or he simply hadn't known how best to combat the rising power of the priesthood. For all intents and purposes the Amoosu had to receive some applause for the manner in which they had risen, and how quickly it had been achieved.

...But now it needed to end.

Whether it was Itiri or Owu who achieved this momentous shift in authority would remain to be seen, but the head priest would soon find himself back where he belonged, under the paw of the chief... whether he appreciated the sentiment or not. This pride needed to thrive and at this current point in time, it seemed their darling priest lacked the capacity to see anything beyond the fallen. The time for the living was now, their ancestors would always been regarded with the highest esteem and tended to with the greatest care; but not at the expense of killing the living prematurely. This disrupted balance so much and in Itiri's eyes, any priest should have realised the importance of this vital balance between Mkodi and Death himself.

"Regardless," he paused and shook his head. "We'll fix it," he pointed out and then released a sigh. His brother seemed to be settling in to these trials rightly, but Itiri did have to wonder...

"Define 'prepare'," he murmured cautiously and narrowed his brow, aware that his brother had the potential to run him ragged just for giggles!

Pollack

 

[Pollack]

"Mmm." Owu murmured under his breath. It wasn't like their father to be so blind to anything a situation, if anything nothing seemed to happen under his reign that he didn't know about. When they were younger Owu had been convinced that his father had eyes in the back of his head and ears all over the pride.

Now, he had to wonder what secrets he learned in his time that he took to the grave with him.

"Knowing him he probably was forming a counter-measure before he died. Father was never one to just accept something lying down." He mused out loud. If that was the case it would seem though that his father didn't have a solid enough plan to forward onto his sons.

Or perhaps Itriri was right and he was just blindsided by the up and coming priest, who knew?

With a grin Owu's head tilted up so he could focus his attention onto his brother. "Come hell or high water we'll fix this." That was a promise he was intent on keeping one way or another. Even if it meant ruining his own reputation it would be worth it to make sure the pride flourished with his brother's leadership.

Letting out a short chuckle he gave a reassuring pat on Itriri's shoulder. "Don't look so scared! It'll be easy to get you started, I promise." His grin crooked into an impish smirk as he went on with his commentary. "Just some jogging, mountain climbing, perhaps pushing rocks to get some weight training in....you know, the basics!"

Epine de Rose

 

[Epine de Rose]

Oh good lord - Owu might have been describing the 'basics' but it was in these sorts of moments that Itiri was less inclined to believe him. Owu was stronger than he was, physically speaking his paler brother had a bit more to him than he did. Consequently, while Owu would be absolutely fine with numerous training regimes, Itiri might very well need a medic by the end of it. Oh he'd be prepared, that much was assured, but whether or not he'd be able to do anything except curl in a ball during the trial was another thing.

'Too weak, so I sat and reflected all that time' was probably not something that any of the pride would be pleased with, meanwhile, his brother would come back with numerous tales from his time in the sacred lands; and would he be tired? Absolutely not, the damn lion would be positively beaming and probably ready for yet another round.

...Itiri made a mental note to invest time in finding someone as agile and full of life as Owu was, if only so that Owu could run himself ragged and Itiri would survive the night!

"I'll let you pick two out of the three," he said at last and shook his head. "You're not making me do all of them."

Pollack

 

[Pollack]

He couldn't help himself, try as he might but when it came to his brother it was just far too easy and ended up with such excellent results a good portion of the time! With a loud bark of laughter Owu shook his head at Itriri. "Come on, Itriri give me a bit more credit than that, I know that you're strength is more intellectual." He teased with a grin, giving a half-hearted shove with his paw to further prove his point.

Those different strengths and weaknesses were why they had always made such a good team. Itriri often being the mastermind of schemes or planning out every detail to the second, why Owu prided himself on being able to always go and complete any job that needed to be done. Them working together did prove more fruitful rewards, after all two heads did work better than one.

...Still he suspected if either brother had switched lives for the day that both would end up curling up crying like babies!

"Two out of three." He agreed with a nod. "I can swing with that. Tell you what let's just start out with a nice hike in the morning, just the two of us, and we can kill two birds with one stone? More time for us to talk in private and preparing ourselves for the next trial." He suggested with a wary smile. With how many eyes and ears were currently on the two it would provide (hopefully) a chance for the two of them to get down to business to defeat the priest.

Epine de Rose

 

[Epine de Rose]

Itiri lifted his brow, he was tempted to point out that a hike only counted as one activity, but if Owu had some how lumped this in to something else as well then he wouldn't have been surprised. He'd take what he could get and so long as he wasn't run ragged he'd accept it. It was one of those rare occasions when it would have been obvious that the cogs in his head were turning, that aside, the lack of concentration on his face seemed to imply there wasn't much going on in there even if he was pondering something.

"All right," he agreed with a small nod and chuckled. "I'll accept the challenge of a hike," he said. "It should at least warm me up for when we're abandoned in the sacred lands," he mused and pursed his lips. "I don't imagine it will be terribly long before we're called for again, although the priests seem less inclined to rush at this time, so we might as well make the most of it."

...It wasn't that they didn't want to bring a new leader to the forefront, it was simply that it wasn't their immediate concern, the disturbed bones were.

"Besides, the view has always been nice," he conceded. "Dawn sound good?" he offered. He wasn't really vying for more time, but he was aware that there might be some who wished to approach the pair following the first of their trials and disappearing wasn't the most professional thing they could do!

Pollack

Fin after your post? =O

 

[Pollack]

It was rare that he could conceded to anything, it simply just wasn't in his nature to willingly give up without a fight. However on this matter he knew that there was a very fine line with his brother from preparing him for the upcoming trials and possibly being seen as trying to commit murder.

Hell knowing his brother he might actually kill him if he tried to shove him into his normal routien!

"I'll make sure to route it to terrain we're likely gonna be encountering in sacred lands." Or at the very least his best guess to them. Due to the fact they were, as the name suggests, sacred no one had been able to set foot in them for many years. He could only go off of the first-hand accounts of the place from their father and his forefather's before them. What he did know its that it was extremely rough, with a far amount of rock climbing and narrow paths covered in fog a good portion of the time they had to contend with.

He couldn't really say he was extremely excited about the next portion of the trials.

"I suspect they'll take this time to check us off their priority list as a, "Look we did a thing" before going back to sorting out the catacombs." He remarked with a snort. The High Priest certainly was in no rush to attempt to give the brothers any more power at this time. He would no doubt be trying to postpone the ceremonies as long as he could.

"Before dawn." Owu responded without missing a beat. "It'll take us a few hours to complete it. Let's get it done before the heat of the day sets in, as well before anyone even notices we're gone." With a grin he waved his paw to dismiss any protest his brother might bring up. "Don't worry I'll come wake your a** up so you don't forget."

Rolling his shoulders lazily Owu rose to his feet, working the crinks out of his joints that had already built up. "Go get some sleep, we have one hell of a day ahead of us tomorrow."

Epine de Rose

Fin. <3