[PRP] No Time For This (Xopantla and Poistros)

[Geyser Eelborn]

High summer now, with the haze of the sun both pouring down on the land below like a sack of boulders and rising up from the ground like a wavering fog. Thin fur and a white pelt kept the she-cat cool most days, but today was not most days. Today was a real scorcher. Her tongue lolled out and the woven sack around her neck, full of sulfur crystals, created a heavy patch that warmed her skin beneath the fur to an uncomfortable degree. Her eyes kept blinking in the haze, and she was dying for a sip of water. Perhaps that was why she was following a creek that trickled down the mountain to the flat lands below. The grass was full of crickets, all shrieking and sawing away. A noisy day, then. And not a day to risk your mucus membranes.

Hence why Xopantla didn't notice the other B'alam until she was almost tripping over him. She skidded to a halt on the dusty ground, several small lumps of sulfur tumbling out of the pouch. She scowled and scooped them up with a paw. Stupid pouch, not quite tight enough despite her best efforts. Oh well. She took a glance at the stranger. She'd met a couple others since settling here on the mountain. There was another Fire-cat on the other side of the mountain, and a Wind-cat and an Earth-cat or two. This one was another Earth-cat--how were there so blasted many of them around here?! Wasn't their fur too thick or something?

Caitlyn Hellstorm

 

[Caitlyn Hellstorm]

Deciding that it was time for him to leave the marshes to sunbathe in the plains, the dark male stretches his body out while getting up with a huge yawn and his red eyes moves around to make sure that there is no intruders around because he strongly dislikes having other b'alams around. Poistros slinks out of the somewhat cool place, squinting as the sudden blast of heat hits him and almost took his breath away and he was starting to reconsider his decision about sunbathing. Standing in the shades of low hanging trees, Poistros glares at the sunny area and is not amused about how hot it really is but at this point, the draw of the sun is too strong so he reluctantly steps out into the sun with his eyes all squinty.

The second the sun's rays hit his body, it was a pure bliss for him and he managed to move few meters away from marshes before he flopped down, sprawled in the lush green grass 'island' that is surrounded by bare dusty ground. The male closes his eyes as he starts to slip off into slumber-land under the sun for a good while before the cloud of dust blocked the sun and he hears clattering with heavy breathing just right above her. The hell...? He thinks while his ears flattens back against his skull in sheer annoyance because he knows that heavy breathing means a b'alam is nearby without him realizing it. His glaring red eyes snapped open and collided with .... a female's blue eyes.. the second he noticed that its a dreaded female standing over him, his body went completely rigid and hostility could be felt, radiating thickly from his body. Poistros forced his stiff body to stand up so he could appear bigger than the female while he stares her down with a glimmer of fang that could be seen whenever he curls his upper lip up on occassion. No way in flaming hell he will talk to this female but he can't just walk off or he will be considered a coward. Oh the decisions he have to make right now...

Geyser Eelborn

 

[Geyser Eelborn]

The tom had clearly been asleep when she stumbled upon him, sprawled out in a patch of green grass amongst the brown. And from the way he rose up from that grass, he was none too pleased to meet her. Fluffed up fur, tensed muscles, he was trying to look bigger than her. Heh. Not that that was hard--Xopantla was a tiny little thing, short even for a female. She'd never had to fight before in all her life, but...funny thing, she didn't really think she had to. Even in the face of this, this belligerent...dozer. Besides, he didn't have fangs any larger in proportion to his body than she had. But she did have something he didn't have--the large claws of a Fire-cat. She allowed them to silently slide out of their sheathes and batted a paw under his chest--a single sulfur crystal had fallen under there, and she had not yet retrieved it.

He was very pretty, all things considered. Nice markings, nice eyes. He looked like swamp gas. She idly made note of his colors and patterns--they'd look great on a firecracker. She took another sniff of the air around him. He smelled like rotten vegetation, carnivorous plants, reptiles, sphagnum moss, and acidic water. Swamp cat, then. She shrugged at him and flicked her tail. "Your choice to come near a volcano, Earth Triber. You know where your marsh is."

Caitlyn Hellstorm

 

[Caitlyn Hellstorm]

The smell of something rotten that Poistros is not familiar with hits him full force, causing him to make a stinky face with his lips peeled back from his fangs and he fought with himself not to jerk his head back with a hiss at the vile smell. Noting that the female is a petite thing, the male looks down at her with contemptuous gaze and he had to admit that the female didn't seem so intimidated like he thought all females would be by him. When the female batted under his chest, Poistros glares at her in warning even though he noticed that her claws are much bigger than his regular claws and he wisely stayed very still while letting the female fish around for that horrible smelling piece.

A flicker of surprise crosses his red eyes when the female accurately guessed where his homeland is and he narrows his eyes briefly in suspicion, staring at her. The gears inside his mind starts to work and he finally realized why the female would make an accurate statement.. its because he didn't bother to wash the marsh smell off him. Hell, there is probably some moss growing on him and he won't even know it! The female seems very odd, especially that marking on her rump but Poistros doesn't dare to move a muscle to examine that questionable marking on her body.

The uneasy feeling that he have come to become very familiar with unfurls inside his chest, spreading out to every part of his body and his poofed out tail starts to sway back and forth, picking up the tempo with every swish.I am not going to talk to this female. She needs to leave because I am here first. He thought balefully while his muzzle twitches, glaring at the female as the waves of hostility is coming from his body. Poistros wants to say something to that female so badly because they were nowhere near volcanoes (that he's aware of) and he settled with a soft dangerous growl in warning for the female to bugger off when she still have the sense to do so.

Geyser Eelborn

 

[Geyser Eelborn]

He settled down while she was fishing for her sulfur, but as soon as her paw was withdrawn, his aggression picked up once again. So...what? While her big ol' claws were near his chest and throat, he was polite, but as soon as she was out of his space, he assumed that he could intimidate her? What a coward! What a presumptuous, arrogant coward! She could see surprise flicker in his eyes when she mentioned the marsh, and then those eyes narrowed. What was his damage, anyway? Why was he acting so aggressive? Was it because she disturbed his pwecious nap?

Oh, grow up. He couldn't possibly think she'd done that on purpose, could he? Cripes, what a fool. And a jerk. And if he wasn't, then his problem must be with...what, her tribe? He was earth tribe. She'd met a couple of them. They hadn't really left enough of an impression on her to really have an opinion either way on them, beyond "they're not fire tribe, why should I care about them." But the last one she'd met had at least been a teensy bit friendly. Too friendly of course. But neither she nor the wind cat she'd met a while later had been offended at her being fire tribe. What gives?

"I've got work to do," she said, slipping the crystal back into the pouch around her neck. "You go back to your nap. Just watch out for the hornets. They'll probably use you as a perch if you sit out here too long." There were quite a few wasps out here, ones with nasty, short tempers. It was why she usually avoided the flats around the mountain. They came around the river to find water and prey--mostly other insects, but they'd sting a B'alam it thought the cat was going to hurt it.

There, she'd warned him. Job done. She turned toward the creek to lap at the water, then turned back towards the mountain. Hm...why had she come down here again? It had seemed so important at the time...

Caitlyn Hellstorm

 

[Caitlyn Hellstorm]

Poistros' tail curls up tightly against his hunches as he extends his normal sized claws, kneading into the soil while he continues to glare at her through slitted eyes, not liking the feeling that he constantly gets when he's around females in general. His pupils went from snake-like shape to full-blown hunter/fighter shape as he growls more, not liking this female and he knows that she's probably mentally making fun of him. How dare she judge him when SHE was the one that got all up in his personal space? He thoughts angrily to himself as he tries to breathe through the rising haze of red that is slowly taking over his vision.

"I am fully aware of those hornets. I made sure to kill any nests around here be-..." He trails off, letting the sentence hang in the air between them and he bares his fangs at her, snarling loudly. He doesn't owe her ANY explanations for ANYTHING and she can sod off for all he care. "What kind of work do you have around my territory away from yours?" The male says with a sneer as his dark eyes follows the female as she moved toward the river.

The curiosity overcame his aversion to the female because he wanted to know what is that horrible smelling thing that was under his body because perhaps he could gather some of them as a weapon against others or even against females. First.. he just need to learn all about it. Poistros twitches as he glares at the female's back before he slowly follows the female. "What is that thing you have inside your sachet? It doesn't smell pleasant." He grumpily orders the female to answer the question instead of politely asking her.

Guess with him, its vinegar that 'attracts' bees, not honey.

Geyser Eelborn

 

[Geyser Eelborn]

Well, may worms encyst in the brain of fate, but he wasn't leaving her alone. He had just gone from merely antisocial to outright enemy. For the first time in their entire encounter, Xopantla's body language went from calm to aggressive. Her claws slid out of their sheathes once more, her tail began making slow slashes behind her, her ears snapped back against her neck, and the hair along her spine shot up like one of her own fireworks. She'd been willing to leave him alone. She'd given him a warning. She'd not attacked him, or mocked him (verbally), or even called him names for being a stinkin' Earth triber. But now? Now, she wanted nothing more than for the aforementioned worms to eat his eyeballs from the nerve outwards.

Nasty, short-tempered, queens of the flats--Xopantla liked wasps. Not as much as she liked bats, but killing all of the nests?! This wasn't even his territory! This wasn't swamp, this was grassland! He had walked into her space, he had killed her wasps, and he dared to boast about it? There were...no words to describe this transgression. No words whatsoever. Those little yellow and black warriors, with their cute quivering abdomens, their buzzing battlecry, their daring and cunning? Gone?! Xopantla wasn't just angry--she was inarticulate with fury. When the male finally broke his silence--she'd never thought for an instant that he was mute, just incredibly stuck up--she didn't snap. She didn't snarl or hiss. She just turned around and fixed him with a gaze as cool as a gale off an icecap. "I was here for fish," she said quietly. "I will fish another day."

With that, she turned away from the stream and back towards the volcano. She didn't get very far before that hateful sound manifested itself once again over her shoulder. "No. It doesn't." Once again, her voice was quiet. Shouting would achieve nothing. No. She'd go up to the top of her mountain, to her cave, to her sanctum, and then she would show him what sulfur was for.

She had charcoal in her cave now, aye, and niter too. She'd mixed it all together last night. Add today's sulfur to the mix, and she had the perfect deterrent for worthless trespassers.

Caitlyn Hellstorm

 

[Caitlyn Hellstorm]

The tathill noted that the nantil's body language went from calm and aloof to aggressive and he felt this childish triumph that he finally provoked this female... now only if she will leave so he could sleep more and enjoy the remaining hours of sun. The only small sign he gave of his triumph feeling is a tiny smirk tugging up at corner of his muzzle before it disappears into a fierce scowl while he continues to glare at the irritating nantil fiercely, silently daring her to launch an attack on him because he have some pent up aggression he would love to use up on her.

The second he mentioned that he killed/destroyed all hornet nests in the vicinity, he could sense the temperature around them drop or rise few degrees as the nantil went really still with her pupils went wide, he stood there towering over her without moving a muscle. The fury radiates off the nantil's body like thick waves but her cold personality rivals the heat of her fury when she coolly replied with her answer to his (order) question. When the nantil turned away, he took advantage of that to lean over to whisper against her ear- "I am going to find more hornet nests and smash them up. Its a quite fun game for me." What is going through this male's head when he's intentionally goading this female? Nobody knows.

After he whispered about more destruction of hornet nests, he turns around and walked off with his ears perked up, his whiskers quivering and his tail whip-lashing behind him, that's signs that he's fully expecting the nantil to spin around and attack him which will give him an opportunity to beat the snot out of her. Come on, little fire girl... He quietly thinks to himself as he casually walks to the part that he haven't been to, his paws batting around for the nests while his eyes slants sideway to keep her in his view. "Here, hornets... hornets...time to die~" He sings out loudly to ensure that the nantil could hear him.

Geyser Eelborn

 

[Geyser Eelborn]

That's right, earth triber. Keep provoking me. I'll see you bleeding out your last in that stream today if I have my way. Xopantla did not rise to the bait, though her narrowed pupils narrowed even further. She'd never thought upon waking up in this world that she would come to hate someone for more than just the shape of their body, but here she was. Strange feeling, hate. She wasn't sure if she loved it or, well...you get the idea. Invading her territory, daring to make her feel like the injuring party, giving her orders, the way he intruded on her personal space...the leaning in, the towering...

She dearly wanted to turn around and slash him in the face. But she suppressed the desire, and her muscles tensed for only a flash of time. She paused while he spoke to her, tail lashing, then, without saying a word, walked resolutely towards her mountain. Not yet. Don't kill him yet. Make him pay. Pay for thinking that he's better than me, that he can be rude to me for no reason whatsoever. Make him pay for hurting the animals that live around my mountain. Make him pay for leaving his wretched swamp just to torment me. She thought other, fouler thoughts as she followed the steep, rocky trail up the side of the volcano. The day was getting steadily hotter and hotter. She was glad for it. With his darker, thicker fur, it was unlikely that the intruder could withstand the heat radiating off of the black lava rocks scattered down the slope. She was safe up here, but nonetheless, she kept an ear out for him. She had no doubt that he'd be following her. Killing hornets? He'd already said he'd killed them all. So, he was inconsistent as well as being an [amazingly unpleasant term].

She reached her cave about half an hour after leaving him, and set to work without delay. The satchel full of sulfur went on a hook behind the net that screened off her living quarters from the main cavern, and around here neck went a bag holding a bamboo cylinder full of her dark powder mixture, as well as flint and tinder. Someday I'll make sparks off of my horn. Today is not that day. Thus armed, she turned once more to the flats and made her way down the mountainside.

Caitlyn Hellstorm

 

[Caitlyn Hellstorm]

Poistros deliberately scouted out several hives and agitated the hornets while he destroys them within the nantil's earshot, his muscles rippled as his thick fur (probably suspiciously covered with some growing moss) was able to repel most of hornets' furious stings. When the nantil stalked off after momentarily stiffening up, he decided that he is going to make her life as miserable as he possibly could so he follows her at the safe distance with his tail swaying back and forth, flicking few surviving hornets away from his body.

As he enters the fire territory, the intense heat slams into him and causes him to stagger backward, he lifts his paw off the hot ground with his eyes narrowed because this nantil is smarter than he thought. His nose crinkles up in distaste at the horrid smelling that is coming from that territory that reminds him of shards that was under him when that clumsy foolish nantil tripped over him. Baring his fangs, Poistros was forced to retreat to the safe side of the land and slinks into the shadows to settle in and wait for that nantil to come out. The tathil is fully aware that the nantil will not resist another opportunity to come down to the creek like she originally wanted to so he is going to attack her when she comes into the range.

His tail twitches as he stares at the mountain the nantil went up and disappeared into, and he rests his head on the paws to settle in for seemingly long wait. A shift in the air and the nantil's familiar scent reaches his nose, Poistros lifts his head up just in time to see that horrible female making her way down the mountainside and he smirks little bit, moving back deeper into the shadows in a crouch and his hips starts to wiggle little bit in preparation while he fights back the urge to snarl at her.

Geyser Eelborn

 

[Geyser Eelborn]

When she reached the bottom of the mountain, she returned to the stream. The stench of swamp was still strong here--that wretched tahtll had not yet left. Good. She had plans for him. The bamboo cylinder was tucked into the satchel on her shoulder, sealed but for a single thread that extended from it. She'd spun it from animal fur. Earlier tests had proven that when coated with a bit of wax, it made an excellent wick. But while that had been thoroughly tested, the next step had not. She ducked behind a rock, scouting out the surrounding undergrowth to ensure that he was nowhere in sight. Safe and secure, she pulled the cylinder out of her pouch and affixed a lightweight woven shape to the tip of it. She was fairly certain that a cone would do it--that should deflect most of the air her device would be moving through. Satisfied that it was attached, she put the cylinder back into her bag and stepped out from behind the rock.

The tahtll took some looking to find. He'd hidden himself in the bushes, wriggling quite far beneath. In fact, it was only by the wriggling that she saw him--a tiny movement of green fur. She had to admit, he was pretty well camouflaged. She gritted her teeth. Admitting anything good about him hurt. What came next? Wouldn't. "Look, marsh-dweller," she said loudly. "I'm..." she sighed. "Sorry. I was very rude to you when I tripped over you. And when I ignored all of your questions. I imagine it gets pretty wet in your swamp. If I lived in a swamp, I'd want to come out to a nice, hot foothill to sunbathe, too. And then someone tripped on you. Sorry.

"And," she added, pulling the cylinder out of her bag and setting it on the ground, "I didn't answer your question. You asked me what I was carrying in my satchel." She sighed again. "If you come out...I could show you..." She kept her voice soft and sweet as she said those words. Forlorn. Asking him to give her a chance. Praying he wouldn't notice the way she held a flint and tinder in her paws, ready to strike a spark onto the wick.

Caitlyn Hellstorm