[PRP] Three Pound Fish

[Kisoni]

She wanted him to stay.

The thought was a strange one, and one Kampfur was still processing a few days later, even as he inched close toward the pride.

It was nearly impossible for a stark-white lion to sneak up on damned near anything, especially one with an acid green mane, and so he wasn't bothering to sneak as he took a slow, deliberate walk around the shore-side border of the pridelands. He wanted more information...and perhaps even a run-in with the local protectors.

And he found...nothing. Perhaps they didn't care, just as Chary had told him. It was equally possible they were watching him, and he just didn't know it.

Finally he climbed a thick, relatively short tree and settled in some branches, trying to listen for any hint of a pride nearby.  

[Bronze Coffee]

She did want him to stay.

Charybdis didn't make friends often or easily, so having one to join the pride well, to her it sounded like one big sleep over.

The girl was heading toward the spot Kampfur had been living with a huge zebra leg in her mouth. She looked quite content as she carried it out of the pride, ignoring any questions she was going to get from anyone. She hunted this zebra and she was going to give this leg to him to sweeten his sometimes prickly mood when he saw her. Of course Charybdis thought nothing of his mood, it was just him, not her.

She hummed as she tried to walk as carefully as she could. Unfortunately she couldn't see below her and managed to stumble on a handful of small rocks here and there. When she thought she recovered, the black lioness sped up and then tripped hard over the root of a tree she knew was there. She landed on her chest with an 'oomph' and the zebra leg went skidding down the path further.

"Ooooow..."  

[Kisoni]

Kampfur had been sitting there for quite a while, a few hours maybe, when he finally heard someone approaching. They weren't being any more careful than he had, and for a moment Kampfur dared to hope it might actually be some sort of prey species...

'Of course it's her,' he thought, even as he found himself rather glad to see Charybdis. That, he told himself, had more to do with the zebra leg in her mouth. Of course it did. Couldn't be anything else.

And then the lioness bit the dust hard.

Kampfur winced when she went down. He sighed dramatically, before letting himself fall down to meet her.

Though not the best at hiding, Kampful was at least graceful enough to catch himself properly. He came about to Charybdis' side, helping to ease her up on her feet.

"That root wasn't precisely small, you realize." Even he had to admit the comment was unnecessary, though Kampfur didn't seem to realize he'd said it until it was out of his mouth. He flicked an ear in annoyance at himself. "Are you hurt?"  

[Bronze Coffee]

With his help she got up onto her paws and it had only taken her a quick second to see that flash of green to know who it was. The female whined as she shuffled around a bit and swallowed thickly. "Ow... My chest.." It felt like she'd landed on a rock, and she probably had. They were littered everywhere.

"I came to give you breakfast," she said with a huffy groan. The female made a paw motion to the zebra leg and then used that same paw to sort of rub at the sore spot on her chest. Her pink eyes were watering by now and she just continued to grumble unhappily to herself. Charybdis was never graceful when she wanted to be, never prepared when she tried to be. Nothing worked her way.

The god of luck must hate her. Or love making her suffer embarrassing situations so much.

"At least you didn't laugh. I'm fine. Just... skidded on a rock probably. Sorry your breakfast is now filthy."  

[Kisoni]

Concentrating on getting her steady, Kampfur had barely noted where the zebra leg ended up. Now he looked to it, and felt a pang of...something. It was an awkward sort of feeling, though not his usual sort of awkward. Like he'd done something very wrong, misjudged something immensely, and should probably...should probably...

That was where his vocabulary really petered out. He wasn't at all what sure what he should do about it, so instead he said, "It's a zebra. They're always filthy."

He brushed his shoulder against hers in a calming fashion as he moved past, going to retrieve the leg and bring it back.

Kamp set it at their feet and offered her a small, unsure smile. "See? Tastes just fine. And uh...that is, um, are you...sure? About giving this...to..."  

[Bronze Coffee]

When he moved against her like that, the way he fussed, it made Charybdis happy. He wasn't as prickly as he had been before! She wanted to prance around and giggle, to point it out, but that'd probably make him mad, so she settled for biting down on her inner cheek and waited until he retrieved his breakfast.

"Oh good. See. Some lions don't like it when the meat's hit the ground. They'll eat everything but the part that's like.." She made a face. "They'll eat everything but a little bit that's maybe touched the ground like once." She was omitting the fact those were cubs she was talking about, no one she knew carried those habits over to their adult lives, but it was still funny watching how fickle cubs are with the way they ate things.

Charybdis nodded as he asked if it was really okay. "Mhm! Yeah. It's fine. No one's going to go hungry. Trust me." The hunters always provided for the pride. There was left overs too. "I was trying to tell you that before. It's honestly alright."

The girl seemed to shuffle a little bit and let her tail flick back and forth carefully as she thought about something. He was being really nice. Her plan must have worked.

"Got plans?"  

[Kisoni]

It felt strange to eat in front of someone else, but Chary had said it was for him and Kamp was, as usual, rather hungry. He sat and began to tear into the meat without much thought for dirt or whatever else might be on it. A meal was a meal.

"Thank you," he said around a mouthful, when he realized there'd been a pause between the last thing she'd asked and his stripping of the zebra's leg. Sometimes those were hard to catch with her near-constant chatter.

"Not...exactly. I was just sort of, ah....watching?"  

[Bronze Coffee]

Charybdis stretched herself out while he ate and just sighed as the sun warmed up her fur. It felt really good today. There didn't seem to be any sign of the storm that rolled through, or any more storms approaching. It felt like it was going to be a normal, clear day that she was really thankful for.

He thanked her and she blinked a little more. Instead of saying it's no problem again, she just nodded and stared off to the distance.

"Watching what? The only thing that's over that way is the pride. Oooh you curious?" She asked, grinning. He was thinking about what she asked of him! That was good.  

[Kisoni]

"It's...seemed rather quiet," Kampfur replied quiety. He licked the blood from his chops as he look up, mis-matched eyes watching the woods around them.

"I can smell them, but I haven't seen or heard anyone but you."  

[Bronze Coffee]

"The wind carries our scents a good distance," she said as a way of explanation. Or she hoped it would suffice. "Our guards are well.. really good at their job. If they thought you were a threat you'd have been taken care of a long time ago." She giggled a little more and then shrugged.

Who else would Kampfur like to meet? Charybdis wanted him to have the full experience.

"Things... Things have been a bit tense anyway.. It's like the pride is getting ready for.... something big. I don't know what yet. The whispering I hear doesn't make a lot of sense! It's.. not really worth repeating right now." She seemed a little worried, a tad anxious, but it wasn't too bad.  

[Kisoni]

"Taken care of, huh?" He muttered, one ear twitching.

Kampfur took another bite to avoid having to answer questions for a moment as he considered all of that. Trouble in the pridelands, then? Not terribly unusual, but also a little worrisome. Kampfur didn't like trouble in general, and certainly not stepping into trouble that was bothering someone else.

Especially not if it was the sort of trouble that seemed to bother even someone as sweetly oblivious as Charybdis.

"And yet, you seem worried."  

[Bronze Coffee]

"Well. It's.. tense. It's not common in our pride. We're usually... really relaxed. Things have been charged, but I don't think it's like... that bad or important. It'll blow over, I'm sure." Charybdis had a little smile on her face and then stretched her front legs out one more time.

"Anyway, I saw some hermit crabs today while hunting! They were fun. They might be my next subject when I'm done with the starfish." If she was ever done with those starfish.

"One time, I put a hermit crab on my sister's ear while she was sleeping. Heh. It pinched her and she ran around the den forever until it let go! So they're funny to me. I wonder if they are like us. Do they talk? Do they come from eggs?" It was clear to see how her obsessions started. Just small, simple questions that she needed to get answered one day.  

[Kisoni]

The change of topics seemed random, but Kampfur was beginning to understand--vaguely--that Char always seemed to jump around when things were getting to serious for her liking. In some ways he could appreciate that, and so he followed the topic shift without comment.

"Probably so. Most things in the sea seem to, at least from what I've noticed." He didn't know overly much about the sea, in actuality. But fish came from eggs, and fish seemed to be the majority in the water.

"You have a sister, then."  

[Bronze Coffee]

"Oh several. I forget how many but we ...were a rather sizable litter..." She thought back and shrugged. She'd forgotten how many siblings she's had over the years, but Charybdis was sure it was three or four. "That's nothing though! A long, long time ago, there were two half-sisters who each had a litter of ten in the same week!"

Charybdis' eyes were huge as she explained it. "It was just. I bet it was crazy. I bet they got soooo big!" She grinned and then shrugged a little more. "I feel sorry for the cub sitters who had to take care of them."  

[Kisoni]

Peppermint Coffee

"Ten." Twenty cubs. At once.

Kampfur couldn't help but shudder at the thought. "Their lives must have been rather...interesting for a time, I'd imagine."

That also meant the pride was a sizeable one. Perhaps they simply didn't come out this way, often.

He shook his head, deciding a change of topic was in order.

"So. Did your starfish come back?"