[PRP] A Morning Swim [Hila x Kafele]

[Vashtya]

It was early, and the air was cold, so one could be forgiven for wondering what a lioness was doing in the sea...and yet, that's exactly where Hila was. It was early, and she was in the shallows, hunting for small snails in the tidepools that littered the coast. She'd recently discovered that the small creatures were quite tasty, and had left her den earlier than usual, so that she could stop for...breakfast (really, more of a snack, she just liked how they tasted...), before she headed back toward the border, as had become her norm.

Eyes intent below the surface, she studied the rocks lining the tidepools that made up the shallows, occasionally prying a small snail off of it, and using her paws to crack the shell before extricating the small creature inside it.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

It had been a long night for Kafele who had been called to the border where a few Reavers were dragging back a Thrall who had put up a valiant effort to escape their clutches. He was alive but badly injured and the healer had been summoned to help get the Thrall stable before he was brought back to his master's den. It was a long process and the Thrall had continued to fight, but Kafele had done a good job and stopped the serious bleeding. Now he was rather dirty and exhausted as he made his way to the sea to wash up a bit.

As he walked he couldn't help but wonder why the Thrall had fought so hard. Was he that unhappy here? He had never thought of Thralls as being slaves nor had he ever seen one so injured by the paws of his pridemates. It was slightly disturbing to him and he almost didn't notice a familiar face a bit down the beach once he reached it. The early morning light made him squint a bit as he did notice his friend, so rather than simply wading into the water he headed down the rocky shore to where she stood.

"Morning," he said, his voice betraying his exhaustion.

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

Spotting movement out of the corner of her eye, up on shore, Hila stopped to glance that direction, the sun at her back making it much easier for her to see him without squinting. As she recognized her closest friend, a familiar smirk tipped up the corners of her mouth, until he spoke, and the exhaustion in his voice prompted her to take in his rather...dishevelled appearance. He didn't look injured, though, she noticed, expression thoughtful as she gave him a visual once-over. Even tired and dirty, seeing him prompted small flutter of butterflies in her stomach, making her want to grimace at her own foolishness.

Wading closer, she held out the snail she had just pried off one of the rocks - she hadn't forgotten the long talk they'd had a short time ago, after the new regime had shattered her childhood dreams, and figured one of her prized snacks was a small enough sign of gratitude...

"Morning." She replied simply. "Rough night?" She was careful to keep her tone light, although if he brushed it off, odds were quite high she'd resort to more direct (and biting) questioning.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Once he got close enough Kafele didn't need to squint to see his friend. It hadn't been long since he'd seen her last but in the few weeks that had passed she had lost the last of her baby fat and had really grown into her paws. With the way the breeze was toying with her braided mane and how the sunlight caught her dark pelt he found himself forgetting his own exhaustion for a moment to openly stare. It took him until Hila spoke to finally pull himself from his stunned state and he hoped he could pass it off as being tired and a bit numb.

"You could say that," he said with a weak chuckle, glancing at the offered snail. He lifted a paw to hold it on his pad, observing the creature as it poked its head out, little antenna waving about. He wasn't too sure what he was supposed to do with it, but it had clearly been a gift of some kind. Hopefully Hila would clue him in eventually.

"Making friends?" he asked, looking back at the lioness with a teasing smile.

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

Raising an eyebrow, Hila debated if she even wanted to ask just what that meant - on the one hand, the vague answer had her curious...on the other hand, she'd heard more than enough talk from males on the vikings she had been on...to know that some things really were better left that way. Although from the state of his coat, and the blood that marred it, she was inclined to assume that it had something to do with his tasks as a young healer, rather than something more...sordid. Thus caught up in her own internal debate, she failed to notice Kafele's...attention.

When he didn't immediately move to eat the snail, instead staring at it, she narrowed her eyes at him, wondering just what....and then he opened his mouth. At his good-natured mocking, she rolled her eyes.

"They're tasty - if you don't want it, though..." she shrugged, and made as if to take it back, smirking up at him.

Stepping past him with a light shoulder-bump, she shook the water off her coat and turned to face him, cocking her head to the side. "Everything turn out okay, or was it beyond help?" she finally asked, motioning at a particularly obvious streak of blood on his cheek.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

"Tasty," Kafele echoed, a little unsure. Was it a joke? He had seen her lifting something out of the sea and bringing to her mouth upon his approach, but had she really been eating them? He gave it another little sniff - all he could smell was the salty brine of the sea - and popped it into his mouth. The shell crunched pleasantly in his mouth but the overwhelming salt made him pull a face. Perhaps if the snail wasn't pulled from the water and had a chance to lose some of the liquid...

"Not my favorite," he admitted with a little chuckle of apology. "Maybe if you set them out to dry a little first." He knew there were those who hunted in the sea for fish and those he could handle, but the snails were a little too intense for his taste.

The question made his little smile falter as he moved to follow her from the water, shaking out his paws individually as he hadn't gone quite as deep as she had. He shrugged his shoulders a bit, not making eye contact. Hila was an intense lioness after all, very set on climbing and clawing her way up the ranks despite the new limits set on females. Surely she felt as most Stormborn did on Thralls.

"No one died, if that's what you're getting at," he said, using a damp paw to start to groom himself a bit, cleaning up the blood splattered over his already reddish coat. "Wouldn't say it turned out all right, though. It was a Thrall I was working on. He had tried to escape while out a-Viking with his master. I think he would have rather not accepted my help...he was fighting the whole time despite being at Death's paws." Granted, it had mostly been squirming and snarling, nothing terrible, and the Reaver that owned him had seen to the fact that Kafele hadn't gotten hurt.

"I just...I don't know." He fell silent then, not wanting to unleash the torrent of thoughts on his friend. What would it be like to be a Thrall? At the beck and call of someone else, fearing punishment should you not do as you're told? Kafele might be a soft-hearted lion, but the idea of living under someone else's paw...he didn't like that at all. He'd probably have done the same thing.

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

She snorted at his uncertainty, and then laughed at his apologetic words. "More for me, then." she said easily, not understanding how anyone could not love the flavorful little morsels.

Her eyes narrowed slightly, observing the way his expression dropped. And then he avoided her gaze...a frisson of...discomfort shivered down her spine - this was her best friend, and he was refusing to meet her eyes. That...was a first.

And what was that supposed to mean?! And then he continued, and she wondered if she didn't understand, a bit - she'd seen what sort of 'punishments' some of their peers thought were appropriate discipline...she opened her mouth to speak, then stopped, hesitating for a moment. She owned a thrall, after all - one who she'd captured when he was also severely injured (although not by her Viking party, as it had so happened). He wasn't one to fight like that, though, at least not from what she'd seen so far. Now, if she were ever to be made a thrall, as a punishment, on the other hand...

She'd escape, or she'd die trying. Hmm. It wasn't as though the role was meant to be comfortable, or pleasant, but at least when one of their own pride was reduced to that role, it was done for a finite period of time, and after that they could return to life as normal. For one born into it, it was probably all they knew...but what was that like, for one captured? Perhaps that would be a conversation one evening, for Skare.

"It wouldn't be the first time someone was...overexuberant in "disciplining" a thrall," she finally spoke, her tone expressing clearly her disdain for that sort of behavior. The only thing worse, as far as she was concerned, was aggressive attentions of a...different sort, with a thrall. Forcing her attention back to the conversation with Kafele, she watched him closely, then continued, feeling her own way carefully with her words. "This isn't the first time you've seen bad injuries though - what's really bothering you?"

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Kafele could feel the weight of Hila's gaze as she spoke and he hoped to all the gods that it wasn't the weight of judgement. Strength was so important here, both in mind and body, and any bit of weakness was often capitalized on. He knew Hila wouldn't take advantage of him for exposing his soft underbelly to her, but he was afraid she might lose a bit of respect for him. They'd been friends for so long, though...perhaps she'd see his side.

He nodded as she spoke, pausing in his grooming to finally glance her way. There were others in the pride who did treat their Thralls well, but rarely did those Thralls act out or try to escape. They were happy with their lives here and they were often times pampered beyond belief. Some collected Thralls rather than objects or treasure and it was often those that suffered the worst, but sometimes - like the lion he had worked on - they were the sole Thrall in the den and all their master's attention, good and bad, fell to them.

"We're a pride of strength and power," he said quietly. "Not cruelty. Not tyranny. If this were a one-off thing I'd keep my mouth shut, but I've seen too many lions treating Thralls like dirt. Like less than their jewelry and skulls and pelts. They're living creatures, they're lions for the most part. And yet a good amount of them are beaten and live in fear." He bit his tongue to keep from rambling too much, sighing quietly as he plopped his rear down onto the sand.

"It just. Hurts me, I suppose. Here," he said, lifting a paw to place it over his chest which had been so tight and painful during the ordeal he thought he might be dying himself. He couldn't explain why, but all he knew was it wasn't a sensation he relished. "That the pride I know and love so much is the same pride that others would rather die than return to. That we live next to sadists and power-hungry lions who degrade and demean and hurt others of their kind. I know it's not everyone," he added quickly as he lowered his paw. "But there's enough of them that it's unsettling."

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

She continued watching him closely as he went began to wash off the mess from his fur, curious as to whether she should pursue a more...aggressive line of inquiry, or leave the decision more firmly up to him...and then he spoke, finally, if a little haltingly.

As he began, she blinked, waiting for him to work through his thoughts before replying. It wasn't an angle she had ever considered herself, really. Her treatment of thralls had always been a more practical one, rather than a particularly considerate one - damaging one's property made it less likely to be...functional, after all.

"Part of being stormborn," she began, her own words thoughtful. "Is a belief that we are better, or more deserving, than others - otherwise how would we justify reaving? Or thralldom as a whole?" Even as she spoke, her own words made her uncomfortable - she'd never really thought to analyze their way of life, before. "And if we're better than them, and stronger, and might makes right...then with that comes a feeling of their being...lesser. They are property, just like the furs we sleep on, or the beads we wear in our manes." Her tone was matter-of-fact, without crossing over into agreement, necessarily. Because while she wasn't sure she was ready to completely end the practice, defining what it meant out loud left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"And it isn't as though we don't demean or degrade even our own pridemates, at times." And then she made a face. "Even the thralls who are treated kindly aren't given a choice - any choices they are given are at their owner's behest, and could be taken away on a whim." She finally trailed off, a little surprised at her own words. She had no real comfort to offer, though, other than acknowledging that he...wasn't wrong. It was widely known that there were a number of their brethren who treated their thralls poorly, or even with cruelty, and they all turned a blind eye to it.

She wasn't as emotionally invested as Kafele was, clearly - but his bringing it up had her [ithinking, in more than a passing fashion, about what that must be like for the thralls themselves...for the first time. Perhaps had he mentioned this when they were younger, she would have scoffed and brushed it off, comfortable with the status quo of perceived stormborn superiority...but the memory of her own recently-restricted freedoms and subsequent ire had made her just jaded enough to be willing to be critical of generally accepted behavior.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Kafele continued to wash himself slowly as Hila spoke, his ears drown and head drooped just a bit. He knew nothing he said nor did would sway the pride's beliefs. He knew if it got to be too much he could leave, but the thought of putting his family and friends behind him was too painful to bear. He could tell Hila wasn't proud of the way some of their brethren treated their Thralls, but who was to tell someone how to treat their things?

He sighed softly as he lowered his paw, done cleaning himself, and moved out of the sea to sit on the sand. He gazed out at the sun as it continued to rise over the water, everything pink and yellow and beautiful.

"I suppose there's not much to be done about it," he said softly after a bit. "Other than to treat the Thralls I come across with the respect I would a Captain. Even if they 'belong' to someone, they're still living things. Even if we're 'better' than them, that doesn't mean they deserve to be treated the way they are." He was quiet for a moment before shaking his head, a few drops of water flying off as he did so.

"Sorry to ruin the nice morning," he said, glancing Hila's way again with a weak smile. "It bothers me still, but it felt good to get it off my chest. Thanks for listening and not just laughing in my face." Kafele knew his friend well and had he told her he tripped over a rock and smashed his face into the ground, she would have teased him for his clumsiness. The fact that she had answered seriously when he had bared his soul to her, in a sense, was a huge relief.

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

Looking at Kafele's...rather defeated posture, Hila pursed her lips, more bothered by his upset than she cared to admit. Deliberately casual, she sat beside him on the sand, eyes narrowing on the horizon. "Change is always possible." she said finally. "Although you're probably not wrong, since for most of the pride, thralls are a convenience they'd be unlikely to want to give up...and the capturing and keeping of them is a pretty...core practice."

When he apologized, she rolled her eyes, looking at him from the corner of her eye, without turning her head. "Nothing is ruined," she observed, carefully hiding the niggling, soft feeling that fluttered in her chest at his words behind a small smirk.

"We all have things that come up that can be...upsetting." she said after a moment, finally looking directly at him. "And while we might not always find them to be the same thing, what are friends for, if not to commiserate?"

She shrugged, brushing off any indication that this was something unusual, or special on her part...never mind that there was no one else she could think of off-hand who she'd so comfortably vent her own spleen to, or who she cared enough about to do the same for.

"Now, if you were to have gotten too whiny, I may have had to dunk your head under the water to help bring you to your senses," she said, tone shifting easily into their more usual banter.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

The presence of Hila at his side made Kafele's heart beat just a bit faster, but he blamed it on the fact that he was still a little anxious about admitting his feelings on Thralls to her. She wasn't there to tease or insult him, though. Just offer an ear, play devil's advocate, and be a rock of reassurance that he wasn't going crazy.

"Thanks," he said very softly, a hesitant smile on his face that ended up breaking into a soft laugh as she went on to threaten him. "You have my permission to dunk me in the ocean if I ever get too whiny," he said, leaning in to bump his shoulder against Hila's. Thanks to both of their god heritage Kafele didn't tower over Hila as he did with most of the females in the pride, allowing him to be more physical with her than he might another, smaller friend.

"Well... I think I'm all cleaned up. You want to try fishing for some actual fish and not those slimy snails?" he asked, teasing her back a bit.

Vashtya

 

[Vashtya]

Eyes glinting with mischief, she sniffed disapprovingly at him. "As if I'd need your permission." She retorted, her tone haughty enough to make it obvious she was teasing. When he leaned close to bump his shoulder against hers, her own heart skipped a beat at his sudden proximity, before she got her reaction firmly under control.

Shifting her weight slightly, she swatted him lightly with a paw, far more comfortable with these more physical expressions of affection, as a whole, than verbal ones. At his next words, she wrinkled her nose at him, rolling her eyes dramatically. "I suppose we can, since your palate isn't suitably developed to appreciate the tastiness of the snails..."

Reaching the water first, she scooped up a pawful, splashing it in his direction wirh a playful glance over her shoulder.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

"We can't all be snail enthusiasts," Kafele said in return with a little chuckle, glad the mood had lifted a bit. He still didn't feel right about what had happened this morning, but he knew that not all Stormborn treated their Thralls that way and that some even enjoyed being here. It wasn't fair to judge based on a pawful of rotten apples. The water being splashed in his direction distracted him from his thoughts and he pounced into the water beside Hila, drenching her in return. The fish hunt was put on hold as a friendly water battle ensued, the two nearly drowning each other with good-natured laughs and jeers.

FIN

Vashtya